Divided We Stand, United We Fall

Chapter 12*

OTP alert! May contain weird stuff that I haven't filtered out. Be warned! It's the first things that come into my mind may I remind you.

_____

Noah ran as fast as he could. He needed to find Lauren. It was a need and not a want. He needed to escape with her. The men who were going to kill him were asleep. He had put a tranquilliser in them using their own guns.

He looked in every room until he found the one with Lauren in it. They were placing a sponge on her head. He burst in when they were just about to electrocute her. He ripped the machine off of her. She looked at him. He could tell that she had been crying. He pecked her on the lips and then went to deal with the men who were going to electrocute her. There were two men in the operating room ahead. One of them was calling security and the other was staring at Noah, in awe. He hit the men as hard as he could with his fists. Blood spilled from the mens' noses and they fell to the floor.

After he had made sure that all of the men were knocked out, he went back to his love. He clumsily unbuckled her and pulled her to the door. Men started to pour in through the door. It was security.

"Stop right there!" Security ordered. Noah frantically looked around the room. He saw a way to escape and smiled.

"Lauren, do you trust me?" Noah asked. She nodded.

"Of course." He grasped her hand and then ran as fast as he could to the window it broke and they fell together. The fell into deep water.

Sploosh!

Lauren shrieked as she felt frozen water for the first time. Noah's body went rigid. Sirens had began to go off in the distance. Lauren's ears rang, slightly. Noah pulled himself out of the frozen water and looked at Lauren who was thrashing in the water, desperately trying to become warm in the icy waters.

"C'mon Lauren, we have to get out of here, they'll find us." Noah said whilst dragging we out of the lake.

The sun was blinded them as they ran. Lauren realised that they were running on a stone-slabbed path with pink cherry blossom either side of it. The scorching stone was burning her feet that only had socks for protection. She looked at Noah who was biting his lip in determination. The grip he had on her hand was almost vice like but it was okay. The whole of her body was aching.

All this was so new to her. It was all so overwhelming but she kept on running because her life literally depended on it. Ahead of them was a mountain covered in forest. Noah pointed to it with his free arm.

"We're going up there." He said, quickly and absolutely breathless. Lauren nodded and ran a little faster.

_____

After about an hour, they entered the forest. It was a little like a rainforest except it was all man made, not that Lauren and Noah knew. They soon slowed because running up a mountain is too hard for anyone to do, especially for people who have never been in the outside world before for more than a minute.

Noah had sweat dripping down his face. His hair tangled, his eyes slightly wet, he looked like he had been dragged though a hedge backwards (not that they knew what a hedge was at the time). He was exhausted. He felt a need to rest somewhere but looking at how dirty the ground was, he began to have second thoughts. He wished he could have shelter.

His prayers were answered when he found an abandoned shoin-zukuri. It was made from cherry wood and was quite large. There were pink paper windows and a large door embellished with the pattern:

龍の世帯

Noah looked at it and shrugged nonchalantly. He then smirked.

"Lauren, look it is a lone room. I wonder if there is a bed inside and if there is we could stay there for the night." He said, excitedly.

"Okay..." Lauren replied, with a little less enthusiasm then she wanted. She was tired too. It had been a long day and the sky was beginning to become dark. They entered the shoin-zukuri and gasped. It wasn't like the room they had expected. It was full if colour and beautifully decorated as if it were all a painting. There were polished wood surfaces that was a complete contrast to the boring shades of grey back in the place where they had been forced to grow up in. On the floor was a rug covered in exotic animals that they had never seen before. Tigers, pandas; snakes were all embellished on the rug.

Lauren walked to a wall that looked like it was made out of squares of thin paper. There was a handle there. She pulled and pushed it, to no avail. She accidentally pulled it and the door opened. She let out a small 'oh' and then wandered inside. Noah followed her.

They approached a sort of small dining room that had a low table similar to the one Noah used to have. There was a Japanese print of a wave (or curvy blue thing, according to Noah and Lauren) on the wall and many more prints, some of which were flowers that both Noah and Lauren had seen before in the greenhouses.

After venturing a couple of the strange rooms, the couple came across the bedroom. The beds had no legs! They were just mattress like things and rolled up cloth, resembling pillows on the floor, with a thin duvet on top that was too thick to be a blanket, yet too thin to be a comforter. There were two of these beds in the room. Above them were the same prints of waves and flowers with strange script underneath it.

Noah collapsed on the floor and on top of the bed. He closed his eyes and soon after, opened his left eye to look at Lauren.

"Aren't you going to join?" He asked, biting his lip.

"Noah, I have my own bed!" She whined, pointing to the bed next to him. He smirked and pulled the beds together so that they made a double bed.

"Not any more." He smiled, wildly. Lauren gave up and laid in bed with Noah. He closed his eyes, still smiling and wrapped an arm around Lauren's waist, pulling her towards him. "You know, I could get used to this position, y'know." He murmured into her hair.

"Mmm..." Lauren replied. She felt herself drift off to sleep in Noah's arms.

_____

A/N

It's not the end! It's not even the penultimate bit yet. I haven't been bothered to check this so if I used the 'Ron cind uv wen' please let me know.

Oh well, exams soon. :( yay! (Note the sarcasm.)

Hoot!

Toot!