This isn't as long as the past couple of chapters (only three pages on word) but it's one of my favorite! Let's see if we can get up to 15 reviews this time!

Chapter Nine: Flying in the Rain

Either pillows could shape shift or I had been kidnapped in my sleep. My mother would be crazy enough to put me on a hard bed. Yet, this bed was so much more comfortable than the other one so that ruled out that possibility. I don't think pillows moved either. Of course, nothing made sense considering I was slowly easing out of unconsciousness. After a minute or two, I realized something was stroking my hair. I opened my eyes and blinked a couple of times, staring at the wall for no real reason. I looked up to find Zhayrald smiling at me, stroking my hair.

"Well, hi," I murmured, blinking a couple more times.

"Morning," Zhayrald replied. He said it like he didn't see anything weird about me using him as a pillow, I assumed, for a majority of the night.

"Shouldn't you be in your room?" I asked him. It wasn't like I didn't want him here. What I didn't want was to get caught like this. I mean, we had met yesterday, yet we acted like we had known each other for our entire lives.

"I should be," he replied, "but I couldn't sleep." Oh, I get it. He missed me. If I was awake all night, I probably would have missed him too. It was like the life bonds of the people of Czem. Once they found the one they were supposed to be with forever, there was no hope in separating them.

"Won't Ziaghra get pissed if she catches us like this?" Zhayrald chuckled and kissed my forehead.

"My mother wouldn't care if you had another head and a tail," he told me. "I grew up kind of alone, the guards were really my only friends. I never hung out with people my age. She hid the prophecy from me until I was sixteen, and it was then I realized why I never really connected with any of the girls my age." I nodded, understanding. Considering I had grown up with people a foot shorter than me a majority of the time, I never questioned my nonexistent connection with any of the guys.

"Well in that case," I said, resting my head on his chest again and trying to go back to sleep.

"Nice try," Zhayrald said, sitting up, forcing me to fall back down on the bed. He looked over his shoulder, smiling as I sat there, dazed for a moment.

"Now I won't be able to go back to sleep," I grumbled as I sat up. "What time is it? Three in the morning?"

"It's almost noon. It's been raining all day," Zhayrald told me. No wonder it was so dark. The rain gave me an idea. I stood up and walked over to the window, forcing it open. There was barely any wind, if any at all, and the rain was warm and gentle against my outstretched hand, perfect flying conditions. "What are you doing?"

"Come on," I told him. "We're going flying."

"But it's raining," Zhayrald said. No duh, Captain Obvious. I flicked the water droplets off my hand at him, trying not to laugh at his startled expression but failed miserably.

"That's the point," I pointed out, still laughing. Zhayrald was silent. I stopped laughing, shocked. "Don't tell me you have never flown in the rain before."

"I've never flown in the rain before," he replied plainly.

"Then you haven't lived," I said, grabbing his hand. I pulled him off the bed, dragging him to the window. "It's just water. You're not going to die." I sat on the windowsill, one leg in the room and the other out.

"And if it does kill me?" Zhayrald asked, smirking. I rolled my eyes and pulled him onto the windowsill with me. His head pressed against the top of the window, flattening his hair.

"What am I going to do with you if you don't know how to live?" I asked. Zhayrald chuckled softly and ran his fingers through my hair.

"Teach me," he whispered his face less than an inch from mine. I tore myself from his grip, jumping from the window in the same moment. I dove straight down against the side of the castle, letting my wings open and carry me upward about fifty feet from the ground. I turned around to face the castle just in time to see Zhayrald jump from the window and into the rain. I laughed and took off into the forest; the expression on his face was priceless. If he wanted me to kiss him, he was gonna have to catch me.

"Isn't this kinda dangerous?" Zhayrald called up to me, dodging trees and branches as he tried to catch up with me. I weaved through the trees with no trouble at all, while he hit a branch every couple of minutes.

"Yes," I answered, "but it's not life threatening."

"Are you sure? Ow, damned branch," Zhayrald murmured as he hit a branch again.

"To you, it could be life threatening, considering that's the fifth tree you've hit," I joked. I didn't hear him say anything else, but flew onward just in case. I kept my eyes pealed in case he decided to try and come at me from the side. As I slowed to a stop, I couldn't see him. My hair was plastered to my face and back from the rain, which didn't come down as hard under the trees.

Of course, Zhayrald came up from under me, the only place I didn't look. He scooped me up in his arms, forcing my wings against my back.

"Well, hi," he whispered, smiling down at me. I smiled back, my hazel eyes meeting his crystal blue ones. They stood out against his tan skin and his brown hair that was plastered to his face, like mine.

"Hi," I answered. He landed in a near by tree, setting me down on a branch and sitting next to me. "Was I right or was I right?"

"About what?"

"That you haven't lived until you have flown in the rain," I reminded him. Zhayrald nodded.

"You were right about that," he agreed. "But why'd you fly out the window?" Let me translate that: Why didn't you let me kiss you?

"'Cause it was the only way to get you out here," I answered, grabbing a branch above my head and standing up, holding onto the branch so I wouldn't fall. "It was either that or I could have pushed you."

"You could have just pushed me then," Zhayrald said, pulling himself up so that he stood before me.

"Then I wouldn't have seen the priceless expression on your face," I commented, smiling. Thunder rumbled in the distance as the rain come down a bit harder, still warm and gentle against my skin. This feeling, the feeling that you would sacrifice yourself for a person just so that they could live and not care if you didn't live, was so foreign to me. I had never felt this way about anyone before, but now I felt that way about Zhayrald. Was this love? I honestly had no idea.

"What am I going to do with you, Kalte?" Zhayrald asked, looking down at me and placing a hand on the tree behind me. Somehow, I had backed myself into the tree trunk, or maybe I had just been there the entire time.

"Love me and let us save the world however we are supposed to," I said. Hold crap. Did I actually just say that? I felt my face grow warm against the cool rain falling on my face. Zhayrald chuckled and leaned closer so that my face was about an inch from his.

"I'll do the first part," he whispered. "I'll leave fate to figure out the rest." When he kissed me this time, I wasn't afraid. I wrapped my arms around his neck and twisted my fingers in his hair. He held one hand on the small of my back, his fingers playing with the ends of my hair as he kept his other hand against the tree. Gently and carefully, he began to move his lips against mine. I did the same, my breath coming out in ragged gasps. My body fit perfectly against his, as though it was molded for him and him alone. When he peeled his lips from mine, I thought I heard a soft moan escape from my lips. Zhayrald heard it and smiled, pressing his forehead against mine. His lips were so close to mine, yet so far away. I wanted to feel the spark that jumped between us every time he kissed me. He was my life now.

"This is all so weird to me," I murmured.

"How?" Zhayrald asked me, running his fingers through my hair, resting his hand on the side of my face.

"I grew up not loving anyone. I thought there was no one like me in the world. I thought that I was alone," I explained. "I thought I would never love anyone the way I love you." I let my fingers play with his hair again. As if they had a mind of their own, they moved from his hair to his face, tracing his jaw and stopping against the side of his face. My hand only stayed there for a moment before brushing his cheek and returning to his hair.

"You'll never be alone anymore, Kaltezira," Zhayrald whispered. "I'll always be with you. Never forget that." He pressed his lips against mine, letting the spark jump between us as he pulled me closer.

If you guys liked that chapter, wait until the next one! Much more romance where that came from guys! Review!