Thanks everyone who followed this :) This was originally supposed to be a two-shot, but I think it needs one more chapter.
She comes to for a minute in the cab, her eyes unfocused, she stumbles into the cab and rests her head back against the seat. When he slides in to the other side, she's out cold again, but not alert long enough for him to ask her where she lives.
There's no point in lying; he's been staring at her non-stop since he carried her out of the park. It's something about her that draws him in, like a moth to a flame. His eyes are glued to her face, and his hand has been rubbing slow circles on the inside of her wrist since he sat her down.
"How long have you been together?" the cab driver supplies, glancing up at him from the rearview mirror, an admirable smile on his face.
"Um, I'm not sure." Shrugging, he turns his gaze back to the unconscious woman. "Feels like it's been forever."
"Well, you make a beautiful couple."
Placing an arm around her shoulders, he pulls her to lean her head on his shoulder, and begins delicately moving the stray strands of hair from her face. With cheekbones so prominent, he wonders if she's a model. Certainly she has the body for it.
When the cab pulls up at his place, he actually looks forward to carrying her up to his apartment, as weird as that sounds. But the longer he's with her, the better he feels. He can't even remember why he was out walking in the first place. Inside his mind is quiet for the first time in weeks; no more monsters dancing around, twirling and jumbling his thoughts all about.
A clear and straight path is beginning to form, no obstacles in his way.
She weighs almost nothing, her body is thin, practically just skin and bones. The elevator ride is quiet, too late, or too early in the morning for people to be awake and about the apartment building. His neighbor is an aspiring artist, she's always redecorating her place, setting old chairs and couches in the hall to toss them out. Before she got rid of them, she would let him have anything he wanted in exchange for an advanced copy of his first book.
There's a chair outside her door when he steps off the elevator, the woman still secured against his chest. Sitting her down on the chair, he fishes his keys from his pocket and opens his apartment door.
The woman groans when he lifts her up again and carries her into the apartment.
He lays her down on the couch when her cell phone falls from her pocket, the purple earbuds still attached. His first thought is to call someone from her phone, but he is distracted by the picture on her lock screen.
It's her. It's a picture of her laughing with another woman, with her hair down and arm locked around the other woman's neck. They look so much alike that he could almost convince himself that they were twins, were it not for the fact that the other woman is much older than the one passed out on his couch, but still just as beautiful.
He gets so caught up in staring at the picture that he almost forgets he has to call someone for her. Her parents, siblings. When he swipes right there's a for digit passcode requirement to access her contacts, but the light flickers just a fraction before the screen goes dark and the phone dies before he can try to call anyone. Shit.
She is so going to kick his ass when she wakes up.
Whenever she's read about dying or seen it in the movies, people are always talking about a white light at the end of the tunnel. They're close. There's still a tunnel, but it's a blue light at the end, with golden flying around inside, rising up until they disappear. The light is kind of like a cerulean, sapphire color that emits warmth and safety. She just knew that letting herself be absorbed by it would grant her the peace she's been yearning for since her mother was killed. But there was something else there too, something pulling her back to the land of the living. It hurts, feels like she's being ripped away from her family, kidnapped. She doesn't want to go back, her mother, her mother is here. They can finally be together again and this hole she feels inside can be full once again.
Tears rim her eyes as she wakes. They sting as they fall one by one, silently from each eye before she even opens them. She's never felt more at home, more at peace than that and now that's she's coming to, the world feels much colder; she feels so small in this giant, frail world..
The memory fades quickly as her eyes flicker open and the tears from being ripped away from death become tears of pain. The back of her skull feels like it's been cracked open, her wrist like it's been hacked from her body. What the hell happened?
The memory of heaven is gone completely when she sits up and checks her surroundings. Panic flares up in her chest, her heart constricting from fear.
"Don't freak out!" Someone yells to the side of her. "You had a nasty fall and said you didn't want to go to the emergency room so I brought you here because you couldn't stay awake enough to tell me your address. I know your head must be killing you so I left you an ice pack right there," he rambles, pointing to the white bag sitting on the coffee table. "I also have some aspirin and an ace bandage and I put your phone on the charger 'cause it died and here you can use mine." Holding his cell phone out for her in the palm of his hand, sweat begins to bead on his forehead. "Please, you're welcome to stay and shower or whatever. It's just us here and I'll even leave if that makes you more comfortable; please use anything, it's all at your disposal."
After he finishes blathering, he stands there staring directly at her, or rather, into her. 'Adorable' is the first thought that comes to her mind before she realizes she's sitting on the couch of a complete stranger with no recollection of how she got here. Of course she shouldn't be thinking about how cute he looks because he's nervous or maybe even scared. Even though she's in a stranger's home, he brought a stranger home.
"Relax, I'm not gonna kick your ass or anything."
Picking up the ice pack with her uninjured arm, she smooshes it against the back of her skull; the relief builds slowly, the ice is numbing the pain, making it just a dull thud at the back of her mind.
"But I would love that ace bandage."
"Got it."
He scurries away quickly and she takes a moment to herself to breathe. If he wanted to kill her, surely he would've done it by now? He doesn't look like he's even capable of hurting someone like that, with his rosy cheeks, and boyish face. Although, looks can be deceiving.
She's adjusting the way she's sitting on the couch when she notices she's half covered in dry mud: the back of her arms, her entire left side, and even in her hair. Standing up from the couch her head instantly gets fuzzy, her eyesight cloudy with disorientation.
Closing her eyes to try to regain her balance , she doesn't see when he returns to the room, just hears the concern in his voice when he says, "Hey, you shouldn't be standing." Warm hands curl around her arm and waist until she's sitting back on the couch. He squats down in front of her, their bodies almost level because is his height
"I'm getting mud all over your couch," she murmurs, grimacing from the pain still lingering in the back of her head.
"Couches can be cleaned." He lays a gentle palm upon her cheek, forcing her eyes to lock with his. "Can you see me?" His gaze is so serious that she loses her voice, afraid to break whatever spell has been cast between them. Nodding, she sucks her lip between her teeth, chills racing down her spine.
He raises a brow. "Clearly?"
It suddenly becomes hard to swallow and her mouth just sits there, slightly open, and without conscious agency her tongue darts out at that exact moment, pink and wet, to dampen her chapped lips.
She watches his eyes follow the slow movement of her tongue and then he's the one swallowing, his grip on her arm tightening just a fraction. Suddenly, all she can do is stare at his mouth and it barely registers when they get closer to her own, their faces mere inches apart, and mmm. His breath is warm, smells like freshly baked apples, and soon she's swaying, dizzy from the magnetism between them. The pain in her head is forgotten or maybe it's just gone, but she can't even focus on it, too absorbed in the warmth and peace she feels wrapped up in a stranger's arms.
Flicking her eyes up from his mouth she notices the beautiful color of his eyes for the first time and she can't look away.
Blue.