When Daphne found him, he was fairly certain he was freezing to death.
After the initial screaming – that he tried to assure her through chattering teeth was really not necessary and an unpleasant sound to die to – she tugged off her backpack. She threw a blanket at him that he caught gratefully, wrapping around his shoulders.
"What are you doing out here?" She asked, hovering nervously several feet away, finger pressed above thesend that would call 911.
"I don't know." he answered truthfully.
She frowned. "What do you mean you don't know? What's the last thing you remember?"
He frowned, and despite herself, Daphne smiled a little. It was adorable in the best sort of way, making her want to poke him in the middle of the forehead just to see those incredibly blue eyes go wide.
"I don't – I was drowning, I think." He gestured toward the river.
Daphne sighed, clearing the 911 and shoving the cell back in her pocket. She'd met some bad people in her life, and he didn't look like one of them. "I'm Daphne. What's your name?"
He just shook his head.
"Okay. Okay. I've got camp set up in a clearing back that way-" she jerked a thumb over her shoulder to indicate the direction. "-you can go by the fire, warm yourself up."
"Thank you." He said, doing his best to stay covered with the blanket as he stumbled off towards warmth.
"What am I doing?" Daphne muttered to herself, squeezing her eyes shut and pinching the bridge of her nose. She took a deep breath, let it out through her nose in a whoosh. "I'm so fucked."
When she came back to the camp three or so minutes later, the man was wearing a pair of her oversized sweatpants and hoodies. She'd laid them out close enough to the fire to warm but not close enough that when she came back from rinsing off in the river they'd be destroyed. The pants were a little short on him, but otherwise it all fit surprisingly well.
Daphne sat down, keeping a good few feet between them.
"So." she said, attempting to breach the awkward silence. The man just stared at her, and she was reminded suddenly, ridiculously, of the entire reason she'd gone camping by herself.
"I just saved your life, so it's fair if I just.. unload on you, right?"
"Unload what?" The man asked, tilting his head a bit, genuinely curious.
She huffed a little bit of a laugh, looking down at her hands where they twisted nervously in her lap. "It's just a saying. Basically, can I talk to you about what's bothering me?"
"Of course." the man said, and when she glanced up to scan his features she found nothing but sincerety.
"Right. Well. I'm, I don't want to have sex." She bit her lip nervously. "It's not like anyone is pressuring me to – it's just that my family and friends are always trying to set me up with guys, even a few girls. But I don't want a relationship like that. I just want a friend, someone to cuddle with and have stupid inside jokes and … sex is just gross, you know?"
After a few moments of confused silence, the man spoke. "You feel no natural sexual drive to copulate with other human beings, but want the emotional fulfillment of a mated couple."
Daphne laughed, and the man found himself drawn to the way it made the green in her eyes brighter. "Fancy way of putting it, but yeah. I just needed a break. I don't know what I'm going to do when I get back. This – it really isn't normal. I'm just…"
She shrugged, out of words, and turned her attention from the man to stare into the flames.
"I think I understand what you mean. I don't remember much, but… I think that I feel similarily. Only…"
Daphne looked at him as he trailed off. "Only?" she prompted.
It was his turn to stare into the fire, swallowing a little before he spoke again. "I think there was someone who made me feel differently, once."
"Yeah." Daphne said quietly. "Yeah, I get that."
The man turned to look at her again. "Get what?"
Daphne just laughed.
They were married on a Thursday. Emmanuel had insisted on it being that day of the week, though when pressed he found himself only able to say that it was an important time for him.
After the camping trip, Daphne had taken the strange man home. She told her friends and family of a whirlwind romance that she had wanted to keep quiet in case it didn't work out, and they were all so happy for her they didn't think too much of it.
Daphne got a best friend, someone to pray with her, hold her when she cried, wrap around her at night and lend their warmth. Emmanuel got someone who taught him about the intricacies of humanity, who filled his life with laughter and loud opinions and dancing. Sometimes he caught himself looking at her eyes, thinking they were the wrong shade of green, running his fingers through her hair when he brushed it and thinking it was the wrong color and far too long. He picked out clothes she declared 'an affront to humanity' just to see the affectionate irritation on her face.
They loved each other, yes. But when a green eyed man appeared on her doorstep one day, she would have to have been blind to think that they didn't know each other. There was something in the way they mimicked each other, in the pain haunting Dean's eyes when he saw them together that said he was the one Emmanuel had been waiting for. Daphne was only the littlest bit bitter over Dean taking away her crutch, maybe the only person who would ever live with her like this. She saw them go, and knew it would be the last time she'd see the man she called Emmanuel.
Daphne was surprisingly okay with that, even if the next week she ate Ben&Jerry's out of the carton and her bed felt too cold and empty and big for the longest time.
One day, months from when Emmanuel had left, she found herself browsing the library. It was there, in an out of the way corner in the Fantasy/Sci-Fi section, she found a series of books. Supernatural, they were called, and when she picked one by random she couldn't help but laugh at the cover.
A dark haired man with stunning blue eyes and a trenchcoat hovering protectively behind a man with green eyes and full lips named Dean. She checked out the first ten, and a year later was attending her very first convention.
She went as Dean, thinking that for a very short while, she sort of had been.