Drip...drip...drip...drip...

"You're a really creative fighter, you know that?" murmured Leo as she watched the blue-eyed girl sleep on a hospital bed. A concussion, the doctor said, she won't be conscious for a day or two. The German looked her over. Elias' hand was wrapped tightly in several layers of gauze and supported by a splint; nothing broke, but after she tried scratching herself in her sleep several times with it the nurses tied it to a piece of cardboard. A small patch adorned her forehead where Bryan Fury cut her. It wasn't too deep to raise much of an alarm, but it did need a stitch or two.

Leo sat back in the chair. She was alone, save for the patient.

She left for the hospital immediately after her fight with Anna Williams-she won obviously, Nina grinning evilly from her post next to Lars. Steve tried to go with her, but since he was the third match, she persuaded him to stay. Marshall promised to visit with Paul and Forrest, as did Asuka and Xiao. Leo wondered absently if Jin would make an appearance. If the rumors were true, then he wasn't really dead.

Elias' bolo sat in the corner, unsheathed. It glinted, but not in the menacing way most swords did. It glinted the way the diamond in the rough would have. Yoshimitsu once told her before a match that swords had personalities, attitudes, and most swords, through time and patience, came to bond with their masters. Leo closed her eyes. That sword was a heap of trouble to keep; when the guards saw Elias clinging on to it, they tried to confiscate it. It didn't work very well, since Elias magically got up from the gurney and, in a spectacular show of martial arts, beat them soundly and muttered, "Don't touch my baby," before flopping back down. Security got it all on videotape.

The doctors said she was a different case altogether.

A small groan brought the caver back to reality. She looked over at her. Elias had only turned her face towards her in her sleep.

"Jeez." At least, she thought, now she could stop worrying about her.

"You know, the doctor said you might be out cold for a day or two." she told her. Elias breathed softly in response. "He said to talk to you every now and then," Leo went on. Nothing. "I'm going to rant a little, is that okay?" she asked again. No answer. She sighed.

"Do you want to hear my rant about mom first-" The sleeper didn't react. "-or Steve?" Her good hand twitched and Leo slid hers into it. "Steve first, huh?" The hand twitched again. Leo sighed again.

"You drive a hard bargain even in your sleep, E-li."
~

That night, Steve drove me back to his place. It had started to rain by then, and we had to stay outside in the rain while Steve fumbled with his keys, but neither of us seemed to care. Minutes later, we were trudging wetly down the hallway to his room.

Which, contrary to popular belief about boys' rooms, was clean and neat. Steve rummaged through his drawers. "I don't really have girls over for anything," he said, throwing socks around in his search. "All I have are boxers-"

"Well, naturally, you ARE a boxer." I said. Steve laughed before digging up some boxer shorts from the bottom of the pile. "You don't say." He put some of the socks he threw around back in the drawer. "It's not against the law to sit on the bed, Leo." he remarked.

"I'm wet, ya crazy Brit." I laughed. A small part of my mind chided me for being a bit suggestive. I told it to kiss my ass.

"I'm wet too."

"It's YOUR bed."

"Just sit ya crazy German." I smiled and complied. He got up and opened the doors to his closet. "How do you feel about this one?" Steve held out a blue polo shirt for my inspection. "You know I hate formal wear, Steven." I said, reaching out for the shirt anyway. "I know you do." he replied, handing it over to me.

Silence.

"Oh, right, sorry, I'll just-" In his haste to get out, he knocked his forehead against the door, making me snicker. One hand over his forehead, Steve left the room and closed the door behind him.

"That was terrible," I heard him mutter to himself through the door.

"Well, I can't just stay there and watch," he continued his debate with himself. He groaned.

"I'm going to go make hot chocolate,", I heard him say in defeat. He stomped off to the kitchen, completely forgetting that he still had his wet clothes on.
~

The airconditioning whirred softly in the room. Elias was still knocked out, her hand twitching around Leo's whenever she stopped talking. "Excuse me," a nurse said as she came into the room with a needle. "Just some extra medication."

Once the nurse was gone, the blonde continued.
~

"ACHOO!" Steve made us some very good hot chocolate, but forgot to change into something warmer, hence the sneezing. I offered to get him one of his hoodies, but he refused and said some boxers and blanket were good enough. I had turned around to let him change.

'Do you know what color the fire is?', my subconscious whispered to me. 'I think you should turn around and look.'

'It's orange and yellow.', I replied, not rising to the bait. "You can turn around now." said Steve, patting the couch next to him. He was shirtless-'Again.', muttered my subconscious.-under a blanket I pulled from his bed. The electricity died during the storm, and it was getting cold, so why not light a fire right? I sat next to him with my knees to my chest and sipped my hot chocolate.

"Sorry." I looked over at him.

"What for?"

"We stayed out-'tchoo!-too late." he sniffed. I waved my hand to dismiss the problem. "It's alright. I don't have any cocoa at my place anyway." We laughed over that. It was really quiet in the living room for a while before Steve broke the silence.

"I've never had a girl over here before."

"What an honor, whoopee." I said flatly. He smiled into his mug and traced the edge with his finger. "Not even Christie?" I asked, not because I was jealous, nein, nothing like that. Steve shook his head. "No." He took another sip. "We never came here. I usually just hung out at her place after dates and stuff." I looked him over.

Nope, didn't look bitter, not even a little bit. More like... Nonchalant.

"Listen," I began. 'You're going to ask now of all times?!', my subconscious asked incredulously. I ignored it and went on. "Did you do it with her?"

"Christie?"

"Yeah. She was," I waited for a better word. "...bragging about it, you know, stuff like how good you were-" He burst out laughing, then sneezed once. I offered him a tissue which he took gratefully and flicked into the garbage.

"Nope. Definitely not true." he chuckled. "I've never even had my first time."

"A guy like you?" I raised an eyebrow. 'Oooh, dat iiiis.' said my subconscious.

'One more out of you and I'm hurling you down an airshaft.' I snarled at it.

"Seriously, Leo, no." he said before sipping some more cocoa. I felt kind of... relieved.
~

Leo paused for breath. "Then what?" asked a voice, making her jump.

"You're alive?"

"No I'm not. Call the undertaker." Elias grinned. "But before you do, let's hear the rest of that." Leo raised an eyebrow at the teen. "It's just you and me, sister." said Elias.

"Fine. They won't be here for another hour or so anyway."
~

An hour of chatting and a mug of hot chocolate later, I found myself under a blanket next to a shirtless Steve Fox on a couch in front of a fire in his apartment. He had asked if I was cold, and in my obvious naivete, I said yes thinking he was going to make more hot chocolate. I was going to tell him not to before he raised the corner of the blanket.

"Wanna share?"

And that was that.

I have to admit, the close proximity made me a leetle a bit nervous. I glanced up and saw him peeking down at me. A hand crept around a waist and pulled someone closer. It would have been strange with anyone else, but with him it seemed natural. He was warmer now, and had stopped sneezing. I swung my legs around a bit and made myself comfortable in his lap.

'Not bad.' conceded my girlier subconscious.
~

"Leo," Elias interrupted her a moment. "Do you know what the 'kilig' factor is?"

"I think I have an idea."

"Good. And good on you for being girlier at that point." Leo smiled shyly and went on.
~

It got colder and the fire went out. "Are you too lazy to go light the fire again?" he asked me. He sounded kind of like he was hoping I was.

"Yeah. I'm warm enough anyway." Seriously, I was just fine, uh, with him, yeah, I was just fine with him. "Good." I heard him say, and felt him cross his legs on the sofa. I leaned on him, and no, shame was obviously not part of my vocabulary at that point.

Being there with him, not moving, or talking, or anything, just being there with him... It was actually really nice.

"Leo?"

"Mm?"

"You're a girl." It was a statement, not a question. I nodded. "Good."

It was a nice kiss. It was really sweet because he didn't just shove his tongue down my throat or smear it over my face like you see in the movies sometimes. I'm talking about the kind of kiss you'd expect seven-year-olds give to each other. And it just went on from there. Arms around his neck, moving a little bit to get kissed better... It happened naturally. I could feel my stomach winding up and it felt strangely good.

Then the tongue.

Oh God that tongue.
~

"Don't look at me like that. You would have liked it too." Leo told Elias who was grinning madly at her.

"It wasn't me there, remember?"

"Do you want to hear the rest of it or not?" The teen quieted down and dangled her bandaged hand over the bed.

"Anyway..."
~

His hands were really warm on my back when we kissed. Tongues touched, and well, I admit, it was a bit of a turn-on. It was still raining really hard, but neither of us really cared.

And then... I felt his rod against me. Seriously. It was a turn-on too, but kind of scary. I had a friend in highschool who told me that you don't lose your virginity all at once; it happens gradually. You hear your first dirty joke and understand it, say goodbye to a piece of your virginity. First kiss, lose a little more virginity. Second base, sayonara, fragment-of-virginity-san.

So, since my farthest is first base, according to my calculations I am... 50% virgin. I mean, after all, you ARE going to hear a dirty joke and be able to relate at least once right?

Moving on.

It was getting pretty bad. I couldn't just stop, every time I stopped it felt like I needed a teeny bit more. If he had just gone through with that a little longer, if he had been the type to have sex on the first date, I'd be among the ranks of non-virgins now. But...

"Leo, I think we have to stop." You get mixed feelings when someone tells you that, believe me. You feel relieved, unsatisfied, hurt, the whole gamut of feelings from A to Z in a matter of seconds. Honestly, right then it was more on nervousness and hurt. "I'm doing it wrong, aren't I?" See? Obviously still 50% virgin.

"No, it's not that. It's just..."

"You can tell me you know." I nearly said I was his best friend. Dammit, I am definitely sure I don't want to be just his best friend.

"It's the first date."

"Clue me in, I have no idea what I'm doing."

"Unlike other men on the planet, I don't believe in sex on the first date." he said quietly, motioning at his hard-on.

Thank God. I was seriously getting scared. Poor little 50% virgin me.

"It's okay. Really."

"And..."

"And?"

"You were getting kinda scared." he pointed out. I started to defend my honor. He kissed me again. "Shut it. I know you were getting scared." He glanced over at the wall clock. 11 PM.

"Sleepy, ya crazy German?"

"Kinda."

"Go on then. I'm staying-"

"In there with me so the monsters don't get me? Wonderful. How brave of you, sir knight." And I dragged him with me to his room.
~

Elias sat up with some difficulty. "I'm guessing nothing happened?" Leo shook her head. "Nope. We did sleep together, but not that way." Elias raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, two, three more kisses, but that was all. No second base or third base." The teen nodded and ruffled her hair. "It's alright, you were probably wonderful." said Elias after seeing the caver look a little dejected.

"Maybe. I guess he's not like other men on the planet."

"He's not a man at all." Leo scowled and started to defend the absent Brit.

"He's a gentleman, that's what he is."
~

Hey there. :)) so, here's my first attempt at a kiss scene. It's kinda obvious that I have no idea what I'm doing. XD I felt kinda romantic today, after all Christmas is about love too you know, all kinds of love. And I'm obviously old-school too, with the no-sex-on-first-date policy, hardiharhar. I hope I kept Leo true to form, though.

You know the drill. Read if you like, review if you want to... okay, I read it over again and I guess you can flame it if you want to. But not until the 26th please. It's still legally Christmas here in the Philippines. Spread the love, Merry Christmas~

P.S. Kilig - (n) that feeling you get when you're near your crush, lover, significant other, boyfriend, girlfriend, vice versa. Can't find that on Google Translate, can ya? Okay maybe you can, but you get the picture.