Adam was having trouble sleeping, his rest disturbed by unsettling dreams he couldn't remember. It had been quite the day so it wasn't exactly unexpected, but it was still unwelcome to be unable to rid his body of the fatigue that afflicted him. From what Ce Calli had been able to explain through their pidgin, everyone had essentially been forced to do a speed run of the smallpox infection with the damage shared somewhat equally. Or at least that was what he had put together given how his inoculation wound had scarred and everyone who hadn't been so close to death that the shock of the magic killed them had their own scarring.
While he was intensely glad that he wasn't going to have to gamble on his crude variolation process working, he was also slightly annoyed that this was going to make spreading the technique a bit harder in some ways. Thankfully Ce Calli had figured it out enough that she could explain it with some authority, but the more mundane elements would be trickier to get across, and they no longer had a good source of infection to work with.
At least most of his injuries from the fight with the conquistadors had also been cleared up by the spell, so the extent of the damage was mostly just in feeling tired.
Also, he supposed that he also finally got to appreciate the stars above him. The nights had all been spent in motion, so even during break periods he hadn't really been able to look up at the sky and enjoy the stars with absolutely no light pollution. He noted that his appreciation for the stars and moon set him a bit apart from the people around him. Everyone appreciated the beauty of the night sky, but a culture that held that the moon and stars were trying to kill everything added a different flavour to that appreciation than someone who came from a culture where the stars were other suns and fundamentally places that one could theoretically go and explore.
...
Also, Adam was from a culture where going out and exploring places had romantic ideals of discovery for the sake of pure knowledge, which wasn't really a concept for an agrarian society in the process of being fucked over by a culture where exploration was for the acquisition of vast wealth obtained by fucking over whatever locals you found.
He really wished he could communicate with these new people better, because he still had yet to try to explain what he did in any great depth due to the fact that the idea of a university student in academics was hard enough to convey, let alone the fields of archaeology and anthropology. Especially since they were really hard to explain without sounding like a grave robber, necromancer, or some sort of weirdo slaver. To be fair that was because archaeology and anthropology unfortunately had their roots in grave robbing and slavery justifying "scientific racism", but that was an explanation for after a solid foundation in philosophy, humanism, and the liberal arts had been established.
For his own selfish reasons Adam also wished he could communicate better so he could satisfy all of his questions about how these people lived. They were clearly a bit weirded out by how interested he was in how they accomplished everyday tasks, but Ce Calli had managed to impress upon them that he was Just Like That and his interests were both practical and harmless. The whole 'saving them from having their skin fall off' thing alongside the fact that he was clearly trying to learn where their social boundaries were and was apologetic for all of his transgressions on etiquette went a long way towards smoothing over any missteps.
For example, he had managed to figure out that even though these people gave him Nahuatl names they were actually all Mixtec speakers, and he was actually encountering a particular social fashion that either had never occurred in his world or had been lost forever when the Spanish took over. Essentially these people had a 'public' name that was their tonalpohualli name in Nahuatl, and then a 'private' nickname in Mixtec. Adam suspected the practice had arisen sometime after the Mexica vassalized the Mixtec. He had tried to find out if Ce Calli wanted him to use a different name, but apparently his pronunciation was sufficiently bad that she seemed to have decided that it was now his nickname for her, which was both funny, embarrassing, and sweet.
His musing was interrupted by Ce Calli herself wandering over, looking a bit worse for wear. Plopping down next to him, she just sighed theatrically, prompting Adam to ask, "Bad dreams?"
Ce Calli proclaimed matter-of-factly, "Bad dreams." After a moment of thought she said, "Tlaloc... maybe?"
Adam nodded at that, which made sense. Ce Calli had spent much of the afternoon discussing what to do next, and finding items of power associated with Tlaloc to revitalize the magic of the cenote had been a recurring point. It sounded like they were probably still headed for Tututepec, but they might also detour to the north to check out a spring first. Maybe. That discussion had got into theological weeds that were entirely in Mixtec and way over Adam's vocabulary level.
Then she leaned over into Adam's side and let out another sigh, "Just... hurt," Ce Calli added on after a moment. "Hurt nowhere, hurt everywhere."
They hadn't exactly talked about deeper personal things since the cave, but the past week or so had got them past a number of barriers, and as such Adam felt confident in draping his arm over Ce Calli's shoulders and bringing her in closer. She shifted to get closer to him, leaning her head more against his chest than his arm and shoulder.
The adrenaline and confusion fuelled frenzy of that first night was absent, but in its place was a deeper longing from both of them, as well as a better understanding of each other. Adam started rubbing soothing circles on Ce Calli's arm, and soon enough she was sitting in his lap so he could massage her neck and shoulders. Then her tunic was pulled off for better access to her back. As hands made strong hurling shovelfuls of dirt propelled fingers delicate enough to handle centuries old relics worked at the knots in her back, she made her enjoyment at the relief known through soft moans and by grinding her butt into his crotch.
She reached around behind her to place a hand on the bulge in his pants her actions had generated, and even by the starlight Adam could see the playful expression on her face, which he returned with his own broad grin. Cheekily, he slipped his hands around to her front, grabbing onto her breasts from behind and pulling her in tight to him with a delighted squeak on her part. So close now, her ears were in prime nibbling distance. Her squeals, giggles, and moans only drove him onward as he cupped her breasts and rolled her nipples between thumb and forefinger while gently attacking her earlobe with tongue and delicate bites.
He shifted his grip on her, his left arm now supported both her breasts while the right hand began to wander lower down her torso, stopping to give a teasing preview of future intentions by running his middle finger around the circumference of her belly-button. Before he could torment her for too long though her hand took his by the wrist and guided it lower. The cotton of her loincloth did little to insulate the heat coming from between her legs, and from Ce Calli's actions with her hands it was clear that she had intended Adam to join her in removing the fabric from consideration entirely. Instead he slid his hand beneath her underwear, fingers running across the curly hair hidden beneath as they sought the top of her pussy.
The sudden tension of her body when the pad of his middle finger made contact with her clit made him immediately pause, but after a second of hesitation Ce Calli switched from trying to get him to pull off her loincloth to gesturing for him to continue with a little kettle-wail sigh. Making careful little circles over the slippery nub and hood, he soon resumed his play with her nipples and earlobes. Her ears in particular received careful attention from his tongue to let her know what else he could do.
When he gently took her clit between his thumb and index finger and began to apply pressure through the hood to the base while slowly moving his fingers up and down, that was clearly too much as Ce Calli began to shudder and shake, incoherent sounds escaping from her lips while Adam just held her and let her ride it out. As she calmed down, he whispered in her ear even though she wouldn't understand, "Damn girl, you must have been pent up."
By the light of the stars Adam could just make out that she had gone slightly cross-eyed. She mumbled something that was probably nothing at all before she closed her eyes and just leaned into him. Within a few seconds she was snoring and Adam had to struggle to keep from bursting out laughing at the role reversal. Eventually he managed to get it under control as he held her close while she slept.
He hoped that she would wake up enough that he could reposition without fully waking her up and he could go relieve himself elsewhere, but he knew in his heart that he was just going to have to ride out the blue balls, probably until morning going by his recent string of luck.
He hoped her dreams would be more pleasant rather than whatever woke her up.
