The Differents | ✓

T W E N T Y - N I N E

When I woke up, I forgot where I was. Instead of my bed, I was lying on a hard, uncomfortable surface. Instead of my blankets, some other material was covering my body and was too small to cover all of it. There was an unfamiliar weight on my side. For a second I was overwhelmed with a sense of fear, and my instincts were split between the urge to fight, take flight, or freeze.

The weight on my side shifted. "Morning," I heard a voice behind me say. I realized it was Sniper, and the weight was his arm wrapped over the side of my chest. My memories came back and I remembered that we were sleeping on the ground of a shelter we had made from rocks.

I rolled over to face him, realizing I had been sleeping on one side of my body all night, which now ached terribly. He looked like he had woken up not long before me, and was looking at me through half-closed eyes.

"Did you sleep well?" I asked.

"My shoulder aches but having you there made it bearable." He smiled and moved his hand to my arm, where his fingers drew small, rhythmic circles on my skin.

"How long have you been awake?"

"Not long. I woke up maybe five or ten minutes ago. I have no idea what time it is but the sun's risen quite a lot."

I looked behind me at the entrance to the shelter, where I could see sunlight creeping its way in. "Maybe mid-day?"

"Maybe." He shivered slightly as a breeze ran through the shelter and pulled his jacket over his shoulders. "Are you warm enough?"

"Yeah, I'm good." I replied.

"Well I'm not so I'll be stealing some of your body heat now." He smirked and pulled me closer to him. Smiling to myself, I remembered the events of last night. I didn't know much about romance or being attracted to someone but it made me feel happy.

When we had decided it was getting too cold and too early into the morning, we had gone back to the shelter to get some rest before planning our next move once daylight came. I had drifted asleep, happily replaying the kisses we had shared over and over in my head. It was funny though, because I didn't know the slightest thing about how to express attraction to someone. When it had happened, I wasn't really thinking about what I was doing, which was something I had started doing a lot of lately.

"What are we going to do now?" I asked.

"I don't know," he said. When he spoke, I could feel the vibrations of his voice going through his chest. "What were we trying to do before everything went to hell and then back?"

I racked my memory. "We were going toward that place on the map. Old Victoria, I think it said."

"Oh that's right. So I guess we'll either pick a random direction or try to retrace our steps until we go in the general direction of the spot on the map."

"Yeah, something like that," I mumbled. "Can we stay here for a little longer though?"

"Of course." He wrapped his arm around my side again and kissed my forehead gently. "Let me know when you're ready to leave."

Closing my eyes again, I tried to clear my mind and focus on only sounds. The first thing I heard was Sniper's steady breathing, making my head rise and fall on top of his chest. Next, I heard sounds from outside the shelter. The never-ending splashing of the waterfall and the gurgling of the small stream. And if I really concentrated, I could hear other sounds, like the occasional gust of wind or a creature screeching at something. I listened for the birds and when I heard them, I tried to listen to their chirps. Even though I heard nothing special about them, I knew that to people like Sniper, they were a lot more than just some creature screeching at another.