Consequences (Warm Bodies fan fiction)

Chapter 23

The first thing Julie Grigio felt the next morning, was the warmth of a strong body next to hers.

Her eyes fluttered open and she was met with tanned skin. Studying it, she noticed the bruises she had seen just last night were already starting to fade. Working her arm free of being trapped between them, she traced the slightly discolored skin of his chest. "Look what he did to you..." She murmured to herself, feeling him shudder slightly under her fingertips. She looked up but saw that he was still asleep, or at least still had his eyes closed. She smiled, reaching up to run her fingers through his shaggy hair. Even in his sleep, R leaned into her touch.

"Mmh?" R's own eyes slowly opened. "Julie" he smiled sleepily down at her and his arms tightened around her bare shoulders. "Not a dream..?"

"Not a dream," Julie felt herself grin. She drew closer to his warmth and let herself just feel him, feel the love radiating from him. R noticed Julie studying him and took the opportunity to look at her as well. Lifting his hand to her face, he very carefully caressed her cheek, avoiding her bruises and cuts. He knew she had more bruising in her stomach as well, but if he were to look at it now, he'd probably go crazy with anger. No, he needed to think about it first, cool off. "R, you're getting that serious look in your eye again..."

"Huh? What look?" R blinked.

"The look that tells me you're either planning to ravage me or go on a different type of rampage... personally, I prefer the first, but that's me," Julie shrugged.

"So do I," R let a tiny smirk out, amused by the little blush that adorned her cheeks when he did it. His smile faded a bit when her blush just made her bruising stand out more. He went back to caressing her cheek and studying her.

Julie rolled her eyes and pulled away a bit, leaning in to snuggle into him. "You know, I kinda wish I healed as quickly as you do..."

"It... does have it's perks," R muttered, rubbing her arms affectionately. "I'm pretty sure you have to get the virus first though..." he added. "It's not worth it," he shook his head.

"If I ever did get it, you'd just be my anti-virus," she smiled up at him.

"Julie..." he looked down at her, cupping her cheek once more. "If you ever... if something ever happened to you... I'd stop living again... I'd become a..." R shook his head again, averting his gaze. He'd lose the will to live and become a Boney. He didn't need to say it, they both knew.

"I know," Julie agreed softly, craning herself a little to reach him, laying a gentle kiss on his lips.

"I told you last night," he began in a whisper. "I thought they... when Kevin told me they kidnapped you..." he trailed off and shuddered.

"Shh," Julie shushed him.

They spent that early morning just like that, holding each other in the quiet early morning. It wasn't until Julie decided a nice hot shower would be nice that they finally got out of bed. Unfortunately, they were both too sore and too tired that morning from their ordeal to join each other, so R let her go first and in the mean time, dug through his records. "Haven't listened to Frank in a while," R muttered to himself and put his favorite Frank Sinatra record in. It was an obscure compilation of his songs from various albums. If there was one thing he wished the record players had was the ability to 'shuffle and repeat' like Julie's 'silly' iPod did. Still, you just couldn't beat the sound quality... most of the time, at least that was R's opinion.

R left the record running when it was his turn to shower, but when he got out of it, Julie must have restarted it. As he ruffled his hair with the towel, trying to dry it quicker, he found her just sitting on his bed, her head lulled back so the soft curves of her neck were exposed and her eyes were turned toward the ceiling. "...Julie?" he questioned, tossing the towel in the hamper carelessly and walking over. He sat down and waited for her to look at him.