"Oh my god." I thought at first I was dreaming. What other explanation could their be? R was here, in my city, standing under my balcony. "R!" I exclaimed, surprised to find myself not waking up. "What are you doing here?!" I dug my fingers into the cement post. It chilled my fingers. Too much detail for a dream.

"Came to see you." R's big eyes gazed up at me, filled with contentment. I, on the other hand, was far more worried about somebody hearing our conversation and coming to investigate. "R, you can't just do that. It's dangerous!"

As if confirming my worries, Nora called sleepily from her room. "Grigio, shut up, I'm trying to sleep." R looked over his shoulder, finally picking up on my unease, though he didn't seem all that bothered.

"Uh - sorry!" I could barely glance away from him, standing down below with the same sort of smile when I'd first asked him if he wanted me to call him R.

"Jesus, R!" I had to get him to understand. I would be helpless to protect him if someone came along. Nearly everybody had at least a pistol they carried with them - he could he shot before I could blink. "The people here, they're not like me. If they see you, you will get killed, do you understand that?"

R dipped his head in a firm nod. "Yes."

He's here anyway. He came to see you even though he knows he's risking his own life to do it.

"Are you talking to yourself?" That was Nora's voice, and it wasn't coming from her room this time - she was in mine. "No!" I yelled back, panicking. R didn't have anywhere to hide! "Okay like seriously, what is going on out here, Julie?"

Tell R to run! Tell Nora to stay inside! Tell-

Too late.

Nora stepped out onto the balcony and immediately saw R, who wasn't exactly inconspicuous with his red hoody and the giveaway paleness of his skin. Nora, her jaw falling open, figured things out right away. "Ohmigod, is that him?"

"Yyy-eeah." I managed. What else was I going to say?

Zombie boyfriend, Zombie-

SHUTTUP!

R nervously fluttered a little wave at Nora. Her eyes were almost as large as his as she swallowed, then too-casually raised her hand. "Sup."

This was waaaay too weird. I groaned and put a hand to my forehead, steadied myself, and took a deep breath. Nora and R were staring at one another - R with an expression that suggested he was waiting to be fired upon, Nora with one as if she expected R to sprout fangs and jump to the top of the balcony in one leap.

"Okay, you two are really weirding me out. More than usual. Everyone, inside now, before a patrol comes by. You-" I pushed Nora back towards the bedroom. "This door. R, that door." I pointed to the front, pulling Nora with me. I glanced over my shoulder, reassuring myself that R was still there, and when I saw that he was, I smiled.

It was really good to see him.

An emotion that increased tenfold when I opened the front door, Nora safely left in my bedroom after promising I'd bring R up to meet her. The strength of my feeling at seeing him standing on my doorstep made my heartrate double. I wondered, if his had been beating, would it match mine?

He gazed steadily at me, looking me right in the eyes. There was his usual shyness apparent in his expression, but there was also a more unfamiliar resolution. "I'm sorry." He didn't stumble. I moved towards him, checking him anxiously, still amazed that he'd made it here without being harmed.

"I know. I'm sorry too." Seeing him now, I realized that I shouldn't have left him. I hadn't felt complete since doing so, but I did now.

R's gaze finally dropped, shyness stronger now. "Umm..." He trailed off, glancing quickly back at me, and with a smile I reached out for him and hugged him tightly. Connected to him, he was so much bigger than his bony figure suggested, but the surprise came when I tucked my head against his neck and shoulder. He was faintly warm to the touch. He'd always seemed cool to me before, but not this time. I could even feel warmth under my palms, resting lightly on his back, radiating through his shirt and jacket.

"I actually missed you." I murmured to him, unwilling to pull back and break the moment. His arms had come up, holding me securely, surely. He wasn't shy now - he was holding onto me with a grip like a bear. "Me too." My heart bumped happily in my chest. The longer we stayed like this the more aware I became of his heat. "It's funny, you feel warmer than I remember."

He lifted his head up slowly as a siren sounded, and I reluctantly loosened my grip on him. My body instantly missed his as he parted. "That's the patrol. C'mon." I drew him up the step. "Inside."

R stared in surprise once the door was safely closed, chin tilting up as he took in the wide expanse of our foyer. I'd never liked the massive house that came with Dad's position, drafty and empty with just the two of us. My entire class and their families could have lived here - Dad and I just wasted all this space. R seemed pretty overwhelmed though, and I took his arm, guiding him towards the stairs. "You're lucky my Dad got pulled into some emergency thing. You're safe here tonight, R, but after that... I don't know what we're going to do." Maybe I could hide him... he wasn't exactly noisy. No, that wasn't practical. How would I feed him? R wasn't a puppy I'd rescued from an alley. (I'd done that once. Dex was some sort of shepherd cross and once he reached a year in age, my father donated him to the wall guard.)

Upstairs, Nora couldn't stop staring, caught somewhere between nervousness and fascination. R shuffled nervously under her amazed gaze. "Nora, this is the guy I told you about, R. R, this is Nora. She usually stays with me when my Dad's away."

Nora held out a hand, looked panicked for a moment, then relieved when R took her hand and shook it once. I watched, a little amused. "Sit down, R." I checked the balcony doors were securely fastened. We had been lucky so far that nobody had cottoned on to R being here.

Nora, her worry having dulled as her curiosity grew, began to question R like he was on a game show lightning round. "How'd you die?"

"I don't... remember."

"How old are you?" R, looking very concerned, shrugged. Nora continued her analysis. "Because you could be twentysomething, but you could also be a teenager, you know, you have one of those faces."

I groaned and put my head in one hand. "Ohmigod." Nora... unstoppable.

"And I can't even smell- you don't smell rot- he doesn't smell rotten." She exclaimed, and I padded over to rescue R from my crazy best friend. "Amazing." She leaned forward to get a better look at him. "Nora, stop." I insisted. "He didn't come here for an interview."

Nora thankfully toned it down, sitting back even if she did keep staring. She was worse than R when he first met me. I looked over to her subject. "Why did you come here, R?"

"To - to show everyone."

"Show them what?"

"We can... change." So it wasn't just me - he was changing. "R, no one here is ever gonna buy that." I hated telling him that. "Not that we could get you even close enough to tell them. As soon as they saw you, they would blow your head to bits." Seeing R's hopeful expression fall was awful. "Wait... did you say 'we'?" R was one thing... but the others?

"Lots of us... changing. D-dreaming." He confirmed, with a little smile. Dreaming? Which meant they were sleeping. It hadn't seemed so weird when R did it. A whole room full of sleeping Corpses, though? Dreaming, sleeping Corpses?

"That's... kind of a big deal."

"We have to move, fast." He looked worried now. I wanted to hug him again. "Boneys... chasing me. Chasing us." He emphasized the last word in a way I didn't think he was able to do.

Us. Us... the last word repeated itself in my mind. There was an us. I shook the thought off, trying to focus on the Boneys coming after part of that sentence instead.

"Okay, we have to go to my dad."

Nora quickly grounded me. "No, that is a very bad idea."

"No, Nora, he was a reasonably guy once." I argued my cause. Nora just laughed.

"No no, I think you are confused. It was your Mom who was the reasonable one, it was your Dad who grounded you for a year for stealing peach schnapps, are you serious, it's your dad who likes to shoot corpses in the head!"

"What other choice do we have, Nora?" If she had any better ideas, now would be the time. Silence. I felt frustration rise up. How could we manage this? "Still, we'd have to get him through the city." I put my head on one side as I turned back to R, studying his pale complexion, so familiar to me now I could see him with my eyes closed. "Someone would definitely see you."

"Not much time." Yeah, he was worried. It was Nora who came up with a solution. "We could fix him up."

Both R and I turned to look at her. She was thoughtfully biting her lower lip. "What?"

"I have some makeup that I was saving for a special occasion that obviously isn't going to happen." She explained. R's face became less expressionless with every word she spoke. I'd never seen him look so horrified, not even when the Boney was chasing us. My mind had leaped forward, though. A disguise! It wouldn't take much. "Yeah... yeah we could! I mean... we could put on a little bit of... foundation... maybe a little blush..." I winced, then glanced at Nora. Let's be realistic here. "Probably a LOT of blush."

"No way." That was R's input, who looked at us both like we were talking about roasting him in a firepit. I had to laugh. "Yeah way!" He still looked terrified, and some of my humour faded. I reached out for him, let my fingertips rest against his cheekbone. "R, just trust me?"

The panic dulled immediately, and his eyes softened. Goosebumps raised over my arms, and I hoped he didn't notice.

How long are you going to keep denying this?

Denying what?

Your heart.

"We're going to have to do something about the clothes though. Do you have anything that could pass on a guy?" Perfect timing, Nora. She gave R's jacket sleeve a tweak, wrinkling her nose. R looked a little affronted but I sort of saw her point. "Plenty." My entire wardrobe consisted of shirts and jeans - I wasn't one for frills and ruffles and pretty dresses, even if those things had been practical. I pulled out a blank t-shirt and frowned, recalling how R hadn't seemed all that big until I hugged him. My mind replayed the scene at the door back to me like an instant replay and I blushed, holding up the shirt to screen myself. "Maybe not. R, can you take your hoody off?"

He got a little caught with one sleeve and I absently went to help him. Unfortunately that put me very close to R in just his patchy white t-shirt and I was starting to wonder why I'd ever thought he was skinny. No Corpse ought to have muscle structure like that. To distract myself I held up the shirt, which was big on me, and sighed when it became startlingly obvious that R was not going to fit into my clothes. I had to drag my gaze away from him.

"No way is R going to fit into anything I own, and I don't think dressing him in Dad's clothes is the best impression to make on him."

"Well, we could just wash the clothes he has on." Nora offered, and after considering, I nodded. "Yeah." I agreed. I looked back at R, all nervous and wide-eyed, and felt a rush of affection. He'd risked a lot, coming here. I reached out and ran my hand through his unruly hair. "And I think that hair of yours needs a bit more than a style while we're here. You can have a shower and give it a wash too." He still looked leery, so I reached for his hand to reassure him. "R, relax. I bet you haven't had a shower in ages, and even by today's water-conscious standards you're pushing it." I teased, getting up and pulling him with me. He was doubtless heavier than me, but he cooperated. Silently, as if he were struggling to form a protest, which only saw the light once I led him into the bathroom. "Do I - have to?" That raised a brow. I'd never heard R protest anything before (apart from his criticism of my repeated escape attempts) and it was very... human. However nice it was to see him standing on his own two feet, I wasn't about to let him off the hook.

"Yes." I insisted, letting go of the hand in mine and pointing him in the direction towards the bath. "We even have actual soap and shampoo and conditioner, since my Dad thinks salvaging things like that for me replace him never being around. I'll leave a towel here, and if you just... drop your clothes outside the door we'll get them cleaned. Well, cleaner, since we are on the clock." I bustled around the bathroom, passing him the small bottles and the towel as I spoke. He looked down at them blankly. "Umm.. Julie? I don't... remember... um, what to do."

I smiled at him, knowing the effort it had taken to get to this point - hearing the note that asked for help. "Oh right, sorry. This bottle is like liquid soap, you use that on your body - and that one is shampoo, which you rub into your hair and then rinse out, then you do the same thing with this one. Be careful not to get any of it in your eyes, it stings." I warned, then touched the nozzle in the shower. "The tap here, just pull the lever up to turn it on, then away from the wall to make it colder and towards the wall to make it warmer, but the hot water won't last very long, just to warn you." I waited a few beats until he nodded and put the bottles on the side of the bath. With a quick squeeze of his hand, still pleased at his temperature, I left him to it.

What did it mean? The change in R's temperature wasn't just something in my head. I had touched him, or he me, several times at the airport. Now he was different.

Add it up, Grigio. The sleeping. Dreaming. Warmth.

R's clothes appeared outside the door, and I glimpsed only a flash of his arm before he pulled it back. The water started, and I collected his clothes and detoured to the laundry to put them on the fastest cycle my machine had.

Back in my bedroom Nora was setting out small compartments and bottles with obvious glee. When I came in, she grinned wickedly at me. "Not tempted to stay in there and help him?" She gestured to the bathroom with an overly innocent eyebrow raise.

"NORA."

"What? I'm just saying."

"Well don't!"

"He's awfully cute, for a dead guy. And very smitten with you."

"Smitten isn't a word that anybody uses anymore. Besides, how could you tell?"
The grin became one of victory. She knew she had me. "The way he looks at you. Like you're light, or air, like he can't live without you."

"Very poetic. Weren't you the one telling me this was weird all of an hour ago?" Somebody has to remain the voice of reason here.

"That was before I met him. You're right, he isn't like the others. He really... I don't know, comfortable? You would think being in the same room as a Corpse would be terrifying but he's just... well..."

"R." I finished for her, with a small smile. I knew what she was getting at. I'd spent the last few days coming to the same conclusions. It didn't even surprise me really, that R had won Nora over so fast, and without evening trying. He had a sort of charm all of his own.

"I still can't believe you spent so long with him. Why do you think he's so different?" Nora had picked up one of my paintbrushes and idly played with the bristled end.

"Maybe the potential was always there - you should see his plane and all his stuff, I can't imagine many Corpses have a pad like his. So he just needed a push in the right direction."

"Does he really not remember his life? His Life life I mean?"

"Nothing that he remembers. Except for the 'R' part of his name." I took the paintbrush off her before she could ruin it. They were hard to come by.

"What are you going to do?" Nora was staring at me in her usual frank, openly curious way. My shoulders drooped. I wished I knew.

"I don't know, Nora. I haven't figured anything out, I don't know if this will work. Even if Dad listens to us tonight, what - he's going to give his blessing to me and a-" I cut off, feeling dishonest as the word Corpse sprung to mind, feeling dishonest to talk about R when he wasn't there. He might he Dead but I didn't have to treat him like he was. "Let just let him have his shower and see what we can do afterwards."

Good old Nora and her ability to leapfrog wildly between topics, even angst-filled, life-changing ones to downright indecent ones.

"Go on, admit it. You're wondering what he looks like naked." I sighed and put my head back in my hands. Unbelievable. "Don't you have some makeup to prepare?"

"Do you think his equipment even still works? I mean, you never see Corpses having kids, so it stands to reason that it might not

I gave a muffled groan. "No-ra! I am not planning on sleeping with him!"

"You mean, not right away, or not at all? Because if you're not..." Nora wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, a teasing grin on her face. I threw a pillow at her, and with the ease of long practice from being my best friend, she caught it and sailed it back onto the bed. "Don't tell me you haven't thought about it at least."

"No-oo, I haven't!"

Okay, maybe in passing as part of a completely fictional future senario?

Not information Nora needs to know. And no!

"He barely even looks like a Corpse, you realize? Apart from his skin tone." Nora compared two shades of blush, frowning thoughtfully.

"I realize, I thought the same myself. I noticed pretty quickly after I met him. I even thought his eyes looked kind of more blue than they did at first, but I told myself that was crazy. He..." I hesitated. "He couldn't really be... coming back to life, could he?" I hadn't allowed myself to think about this possibility.

"Why not? Is that really any harder to believe than an infection that turns people into Corpses?" Nora gave me an expectant look. I struggled to come up with a response, and her expression softened, reaching out to take my hand. "He's in love with you, Julie."

"What? No he's not!"

"We just went over this."

"You said he was smitten with me, not that he's in love!" I was having a hard time keeping my amazement down. Where did Nora come up with this stuff anyway? Nora laughed at my expression. "I didn't think you believed it." She patiently gave me a few minutes, then, when I still came up with nothing, she sighed. "Julie, I know you feel bad about Perry. It's who you are - you take everybody else's worries onto your own shoulders. It's why you struggled when Perry shut you out, refused to let you help." At the mention of Perry, my eyes teared up. Oh, just great. Now I was going to cry over him? Nora sat down next to me on the couch, putting an arm around me without making a fuss over my tears. She knew that only made me more emotional. "Jules, look. I agree the timing is screwed up. But R isn't like him, and he's here, now, and he needs you in a way that Perry never did."

"Perry did need me." I sniffled, wiping my cheeks with the back of my hand. "He needed my optimism to keep his, and I wasn't... enough."

"It's not your fault." Nora was very sure. "You know what Kevin told me about that salvage? He said Perry requested it. In fact, he said he was ready to take on a salvage that nobody else wanted to do because it was too far, too dangerous. You saw how Perry was, and that's why you wanted to go with him. You knew what he was doing. He had given up. He took you right up to R's doorstep, and while he didn't do that part on purpose... maybe it was meant to be, Julie. Your destiny, and R's, meant to meet right where you did."

I finally got a hold on my tears. "When did you get into all this new-age bullshit?" I tried for a teasing tone. Nora didn't laugh though. She was perfectly serious, her blue eyes calm and accepting on mine.

"When I saw the way R looked at you. Julie, no one in this entire city is as determined as you are. The two of you will figure it out. And I'll help you."

I was at a loss for words, but it was at that point the washing machine beeped, and I retreated to the laundry to escape any more life-altering revelations. Nora smiled after me and turned back to setting out the makeup.

R's patchy offwhite shirt and the boxer shorts were almost dry after the spin cycle, but the heavier jeans and hoody I pegged on the balcony for the wind to help along the process. When I came back inside the sound of the water had stopped. Nora didn't say anything else, just nodded lightly at me in a 'go on' gesture.

I knocked on the bathroom door. "You finished R? I've got your clothes here." Some of them at least.

"Um, Julie?" There was no small amount of stress in his voice.

"R? Are you okay?" My brow furrowed in worry.

"I dropped the towel." I choked slightly, this coming on the heels of all Nora's comments. It took me several seconds to figure out why R was having a problem with a dropped towel.

"Oh - right, you got it wet? I'll get you another one."

I knocked again once I returned, hesitation almost making me backtrack and go back the way I'd come. "R, it's me. Just... pick up the first towel and wrap it around your waist for a second? I'm coming in." I counted steadily to ten, then five just to give him plenty of time. I barely let my gaze register the image of R in towel only as I set his clothes on a chair, cursing Nora for making me feel so awkward around him. "I had to hang your hoody and jeans out on the balcony because they haven't dried off really well yet. Can you make do with these just while we fix you up?"

He nodded several times and I finally stepped closer, unconsciously searching for the blue in his eyes as I reached up to put the towel around R's neck. Water was running down his still-soaking hair and into his face and I lingered where I was for a moment, ruffling his hair with the towel to remove the worst of the water. "This is the last one we have, so don't drop this one in the bath or anything."

I had tried for a weak joke, but a scar on his chest got my attention and once my attention strayed I couldn't un-see the rest of his body, my eyes drawn automatically to sweep down his chest and stomach. It was not the sort of reaction Nora had been teasing me about. Instead, horror made my breath stop short and my hands freeze just over his chest.

He'd been shot. And stabbed, as the wound where the knife I had thrown at him gave away. There were bullet holes in his otherwise smooth skin - how many years worth? What had he gone through? The irrational panic center of my brain screamed out, he's hurt, he needs a doctor!

But these wounds weren't bleeding. R didn't need a doctor. Without meaning it, just to be sure, I gently placed my hand over his heart, where my knife had stuck. "R." I breathed, still shocked at what I was looking at. Slowly I explored in a line up his chest, checking on the closest of the bullet holes. It looked raw and red, surrounded by a network of spiderwebed blue-black veins. The water had gone cold and the droplets that clung to his skin felt icy.

Perry - Perry shot R.

So he has a scar from both of us.

A sigh from R's lips made me remember what I was doing. "You're so warm." He murmured. The words - raspy but otherwise smoothly flowing words - set off a pang of longing in me. R had goosebumps dotting the otherwise smooth planes of his arms. I had a crazy urge to rub my hands along them to warm him up.

O-kay. Time to get back to reality.

"You feel freezing, I told you that hot water wouldn't last. Dry yourself off and get dressed before you catch a cold or something, okay?" I pulled my hand away, hoping my reluctance to do so wasn't obvious, and smiled at R. "Nora's getting your makeup ready."

R looked pained at this reminder. I grinned and retreated outside, pausing for a moment once the door closed behind me to lean against the frame. Seeing R battered, his body painfully trying to repair itself from wounds inflicted by bullets and knives, had shaken me more than I hoped I'd shown. A wash of protectiveness flooded me, a longing to make sure that nobody ever shot him again. Was I right - could he recover? Was Nora right - did he love me?

Maybe that's why the Boneys are after you both.

How could they even know!?

The other Corpses knew. In the carpark, and the one who was tyring to kill you one minute and rescuing you the next.

R must be right... they might all be...

Yes - Whatever it is that you two have, it's infecting the others.

Realizing I was still leaning up against the door - I could even hear the faint sounds R made as he moved, presumably dressing - I hastily straightened up and went back to Nora. She studied me with her 'I want to know every detail' look but thankfully for me R came back into the bedroom, face filled with trepidation.

"Okay, R, just sit here." I had a comfortable chair in front of the vanity Nora had set up shop. R sat, but he still didn't look happy. I smiled to myself and quickly brushed his hair back from his face with my fingers, so Nora and I could see him a bit better. Nora, behind me, was setting her Ipod in its dock. There was a few moments' silence then I recognized a familiar song beat. I shot Nora my best 'you're being childish' look, but she just grinned.

"Would you change this song please?!"

"What? It's funny." Nora defended her choice of 'Pretty Woman' and I snorted. "No it's not." Nora consented at least to change the song, and we got to work. R was a terrible model - he couldn't hold himself still, forever trying to see what we were doing to him, but I couldn't get mad at him. He was just nervous. I left Nora concentrating on the makeup while I brushed his hair, properly this time. Either he hadn't used enough conditioner, or it didn't have that much effect on hair left unwashed for years, because he had seemingly hundreds of knots. I worked patiently through them, putting down the brush and just using my fingers half the time, noticing that R was finally sitting still and looking more relaxed. (Apart from when I accidentally yanked his hair) Finally he was untangled and I brushed his now-smooth hair idly while Nora put the finishing touches of his facial makeup on. When she was done I went to fetch R's hoody and jeans, and with a new tension filling the air, we got ready to set R on the city - or maybe set the city on him would be more appropriate.

The tension faded however when I came back from straightening up the bathroom and Nora and I found R fulled dressed, staring in surprise at his reflection. We both stared too, taking in the full impact - me in particular, since I hadn't really paid attention as Nora finished his makeup. She summed it up nicely.

"Hold up - you look hot!"

I went to say his name, but it didn't come out. Nora was right - he was hot. It was still recognizably him, but with colour accenting his lovely cheekbones, a tentative smile on his normal-coloured lips.

Looking at him made me believe we really had a shot at this. We were really going to do it, and somewhere along the line I had to figure out exactly what was happening to R and his kind, and what it meant for R and I.


A/N - First of all BIG thanks to all my reviewers! Traditionally my best proofreading does not happen at this time of night and I've probably missed several mistakes, but I was so eager to get this chapter up for you all - reward for so many and such wonderful reviews is the longest chapter yet. So many people reviewing is just all this fuel for me to write write write. I think you brought me luck, too, because for those up to date with my car saga, I finally brought one today :D

Next chapter will be two or three days away as my weekend begins on Fridays! Let me know what you thought of this one guys - I'll be writing!