Bulletproof

1b. Elsie

She wakes up to the scent of him covering her skin like a protective layer. His fingertips tingle against a sliver of the exposed flesh of her sensitive hips and she smiles through the lifting veil of sleep.

As her eyes flutter open to take in his face, he closes his own quickly, feigning slumber.

"Mm, caught you," she giggles groggily.

He breaks his act and opens his eyes to wink at her. He runs his fingers up the dip of her waist and across her shoulder--raising goosebumps through the fabric of her top along the way--to tap her nose lightly.

"How long have you been staring?" she teases.

His low, gravelly morning voice rattles in her chest. "Not long enough."

She readjusts and slips her arms under his so her palms can spread across his bare, sturdy shoulder blades.

"Did you sleep okay?" He brushes a strand of hair from her face. She nods.

"What time is it?"

"A little past noon."

She pulls away. "Noon?" she asks in disbelief. "Yoongi, why didn't you wake me up?"

He smiles his gummy smile. "You're clearly tired. You should sleep if you're tired."

"But noon? I didn't even know I could sleep that late." Yoongi laughs at the surprise in her expression. "Well, I guess we should get up now."

He rolls himself partially on top of her trapping her in bed. "Nope."

"Yoongi, we have things to do," she insists, trying to push him back to his side of the bed. He doesn't budge. She laughs at her own futile efforts. "Fine," she relents. "We can stay in bed." She cocks an eyebrow. "But we have to be doing something productive while we're in here."

Yoongi's laugh comes from somewhere deep in his throat as he begins kissing her neck gently.

"No, not that kind of productive." His lips travel up her jawline to meet hers. "Yoongi," she breathes between kisses. "Please...I just woke up." He pauses and looks into her eyes, trying to read her sincerity. He flops back onto his half of the bed, pouting.

"I know, baby," she mumbles. "But later, okay?"

"I'm holding you to that," he replies with a smirk.

She lays for a second with his hand in hers. "You know what we could do?"

He shakes his head. "I'm all out of ideas."

She flicks his arm playfully and rolls her eyes. "Go get the mail. We can read it together in here."

"The mail?"

"Yes, the mail. Go get it."

"It's probably nothing important," he grumbles with fake annoyance as he throws the covers off himself and pulls his flannel pants from the end of the bed. "Probably just bills and wedding RSVPs."

"Both of which are important," she reminds him.

He pauses at the door. "Then why don't you go get them?"

"I love you!" she chimes.

He runs a hand through his mahogany locks. "I know."

He disappears into the hallway. She drums her fingers absently against the mattress. A minute passes. She twists a piece of hair into a thin braid. Another minute passes.

"Yoongi?" she calls, wondering what is taking him so long. She pulls the textured white sheets up around her chest and snuggles further into the bed, ready to embrace her lover once more so the cold space beside her can turn warm with his company.

Finally, Yoongi rounds the corner to stand in the doorframe.

But she knows right away that something is wrong.

His tightly clenched hands shake around a newly uncreased piece of paper. The color of his skin is oddly pale and sickly. His eyes hold a strange terror, a deep dread, a glimmer reminiscent of death as his gaze travels across her face.

She sits up in bed, heart skipping a beat. "Yoongi?" she whispers. "Yoongi, baby, what's wrong?"

He doesn't respond. She throws the covers back with wobbly arms and slides off the edge of the bed.

"Yoongi? You're scaring me. What's wrong?" She places her hands on his, trying to get a better look at the paper. "What is this?"

His grip remains strong, but his hands and his breaths still shake. Now he won't meet her eyes.

"Yoongi," she begs. "Please, baby, please--tell me what's wrong."

He slowly relinquishes his hold on the document and lets his hands fall limply to his sides.

An official government letterhead greets her with a foreboding overtness. Her shocked eyes can only skim-read, scanning sections of sentences at a time, but she gets the gist all too well.

Min Yoongi has been drafted.

The paper flutters to the floor as she stares at him, eyes wide.

"No," she says firmly. He puts a hand to her cheek with resignation etched in his features. She shakes her head. "No."

Yoongi tries to pull her closer. The tension drains from his body but only intensifies in hers.

"Shh. Don't...don't say anything," he says softly, voice cracking. "I-It's...it's okay, Elsie."

"No. You're not going. You're going to stay right here."

She doesn't realize that she's shaking until Yoongi is running his hands up and down her arms.

"Baby, I gotta go. I don't have a choice. I gotta go."

"Yoongi, no." Her voice is rising in pitch and volume. "You're not going to go. I won't let you." She pauses before desperation colors her tone. "We can run. We can leave the country and never come back. I will run anywhere with you."

"No. I won't build our lives running."

"Yoongi!"

She struggles against him, thrashing hopelessly, but he won't let her go.

"I gotta go, honey." She is yelling in refusal, but Yoongi's tone does not change as he mumbles his stream of words. "I don't have a choice. I gotta go, love. I gotta go."

Finally, she collapses against his chest, her tears an oasis in the desert storm of her emotions. He feels exhausted against her skin, but her empathy doesn't prevent her selfish weeping.

"Yoongi!" she sobs. "No! I won't let you go! No, Yoongi!"

Her weak knees threaten to give out, but Yoongi holds her steady against himself, trying not to let his own anguish show.

"It'll be okay, Elsie," he whispers into her hair. "But I've gotta go."