Terra Natus

X

"Where there is laughter, where there are tears..."

They'd been walking in silence for some time, the sun already peeking up over the tops of the trees and warming the forest floor. She was so close to him that the sleeves of their robes occasionally brushed, causing that side of him to be in a constant state of awareness, tingling into life every time it happened.

It was overwhelmingly distracting.

He'd tried to move away from her slightly as they walked, put enough space between them that he could actually think of other things, hear the wind around him, or even breathe regularly. But she had simply moved with him, as if without thought, and they'd just ended up veering off course until he'd eventually given up, setting his jaw and accepting his fate.

His kind did not get close to each other physically unless it was otherwise unavoidable, at which time it was handled very carefully, cautiously, and purposefully. Perhaps it had grown out of the protection of their own new bodies, not wanting to be in situations, or put others in situations, where there was a possibility that unexpected touch might barge in on them at any moment. Perhaps it was just their way.

Yet closeness just came naturally to her, like smiling openly and often, and...touching.

Immediately he was there again, his body and mind reliving the moment for what seemed like the millionth time: the firelight playing on her features, her dark eyes so full of...of what? Tender concern? For him?

And then without effort, without thought, she'd simply reached out and touched him; not on his arm, not on his shoulder - she'd touched him on his face! Quite possibly the first time anyone had ever done so.

Nor had it only been a 'touch', she'd grasped him, moved his face up towards hers and held him there.

The raw emotions tore through him and he clenched his fists in an effort to bear them. It wasn't the same as physical pain exactly, yet just as intense; pain being the only thing he could think to compare it to, strong and overwhelming as it was.

Her Power made his memory as potent as the actual moment, if not more so. For, at least before, his shock had numbed some of the sensation.

She had been shocked too, it having obviously been merely a reaction, a move she'd probably done a thousand times to one of her own. He knew this because of the look she'd given him when she'd suddenly realized...

He wasn't one of her own.

It had jolted him to the very core, like nothing he'd ever experienced. It was like being on fire and yet it was like freezing. It was like coming alive and yet it was like turning to stone. It was the most amazing thing he'd ever felt and yet it was one of the worst things he'd ever experienced.

Yet, for all that, it wasn't the touch itself that plagued him...but how much he wanted it to happen again.

All the time.

The desire almost consuming all his other thoughts.

He shouldn't want it, he knew it must be wrong, unnatural, to be desiring such torture; knew it...just couldn't make himself feel it.

Perhaps he could if he just had enough time to focus on it, but as it was, she left him no time, no space in between episodes of emotion, to process.

Such as now where, before the memory even had time to fade completely, he was assaulted again. This time by the sun that was warming her hair, making it produce the most subtle of fragrances, like dried leaves and...and that warm comforting smell that seemed to belong solely to her.