Getting up was hard. They were tired, sore and cold. Thankfully the camping stove was quick to heat the water for them to make a hot breakfast and have a warming drink. It wasn't quite light yet but even without consultation they'd agreed the need to get something inside them was greater than wasting time failing to sleep. Cold fingers made packing up difficult and progress was much slower until the day warmed up.

By mid-morning the temperature was bearable and just after midday it was positively warm. With the warming of the temperature came a warming of their mood and they talked about funny things they remembered from when they were small until Sam had a funny memory of his sister that made him sad and Mercedes had to change the subject. As they covered the ground the landscape began to change even more. Trees were almost non-existent now and hills rolled as far as the eye could see. It was hard not to appreciate the beauty of the nature they were in. Sam had grown up being used to city life. Travel had been through Transit Sectors and the Transit Highway. There wasn't much opportunity to step back and admire the vastness that surrounded him. Small parts of the Transit Highway were open and exposed but never in any area that a person would actually have the desire to leave it and explore. Mercedes would occasionally stop to look at a flower or other item of nature. Sam didn't have the heart to hurry her along and in truth he was enjoying it as much as she was. He just saw a pretty flower but she would often know the name and if it had any additional uses.

By evening there was no tree for them to set up their tent under. As the darkness fell the cold returned quickly. Sam tried bringing the stove inside the tent but it quickly became cold once it was off. Plus the compact fuel pack that ran it was only good for one hundred hours and there was no telling how long this journey was going to take. They'd limited themselves to a maximum of one hour usage per day, less if at all possible, just in case things took longer than they had planned, and Mercedes had assured him that as they got further south the temperature would get warmer and they would need it less. There was no vegetation around that could be used to fuel a fire so for a second night they froze in the tent. This time they were too cold even to speak to each other, and yet again they got little if any sleep.

Travel was even harder going the next day and the lack of sleep was definitely takin its toll. He felt grouchy, Mercedes was definitely grouchy and homesick, and their initial enthusiasm had completely waned. On more than one occasion he saw that she was silently crying. She hid her tears well but sometimes she wasn't quite fast enough. But he had no idea what to do. Was he supposed to comfort her? She was trying hard not to even know that she was upset. And what was he supposed to do to make her feel better? He couldn't take her back to her home and family. Unlike him, she'd chosen and planned this so she needed to suck it up. He was her travel companion not her father or some girlfriend she could cry to. It was actually a relief that she wasn't revealing her tears to him because there wasn't anything he could do about it.

By the time the icy darkness fell on the third night it was clear their arrangement for attempting sleep was not going to work. Sam had a good idea of what would work, but he didn't know how to suggest it without making himself sound like a total creep. They both sat with their post meal hot drinks, silently sipping slowly to make the moment last as long as possible to put off the inevitable. It was an uncomfortable silence. In the end he was so cold he decided to just bite the bullet and speak, but she clearly also chose exactly that moment to do the same.

"So I was thinking maybe-"
"There's a scripture that says-"

They both laughed nervously at having spoken over each other after such an extended silence and he smiled at her.

"You first."

"No, it's okay-"

"Seriously. I'll do mine after. What was it that you were trying to say?"

She shifted her hands nervously. "There's this verse in the bible… and it says… well, you know how it's so cold at night, it sort of says that… In Ecclesiastes… Look I'll just show you and you can read it for yourself..."

Sam shook his head. He wasn't going to be reading anything if he could help it. He doubted she knew just how bad his education was and he didn't want her to know either. Plus he really couldn't understand why, with her limited space, she had insisted on carrying a small bible in her bag. "It's okay. You don't need to move. Just quote it or paraphrase it to me."

She shot him a look and then closed her eyes, seeming to find it easier to do this if she wasn't looking at him. "You might think this is weird but there's a passage that says… that if two lie down together, they can keep warm because how can a person keep warm if they're just on their own?"

The words brought a smile to his lips. He'd never had any interest in anything religious but those words were music to his ears. "Are you trying to say what I think you're saying Mercedes?"

She refused to meet his eyes. "What I'm saying is that our sleeping bags are part of a set. They can be zipped together to make one big bag and we can sleep together… for warmth." Her words came out quickly and nervously. "But it doesn't matter – I shouldn't have said it... So what were you going to say?"

"The same."

Her head spun with whiplash speed as she quickly looked up at him. If her skin hadn't been so dark he would have sworn that she paled. "The same?"

"Yeah. Only without the bible quote obviously." He ignored her shocked expression to continue talking. "Look, think about this rationally. We're cold at night and it's stopping us from sleeping. This makes us tired during the day, slows down our pace and puts us at increased risk of sickness and injury. Plus sleep deprivation will ultimately affect out thinking abilities and make us more likely to make stupid mistakes, not to mention the fact that we're both getting grouchy. We need our sleep, it's essential. And if being close together in one bag is what it takes to get it, then I'm more than prepared to do that if you are."

She looked at him uncertainly. "I guess I am. I just don't want you to think that I'm inviting…"

For goodness sake! "Look, we're just two people travelling together. You happen to be a girl and I happen to be a guy. There's nothing more to it than that. If I was going to be a threat to you while you slept I'd have taken one of the countless opportunities I already had since we met. But I'm not. This is all above board Mercedes. You're cold, I'm cold. You're tired, I'm tired. Let's just do this already!"

She looked as if she were about to argue but thankfully didn't.

Initially it was awkward. They tidied their things away did performed their nighttime rituals. The bags were zipped together but neither wanted to be the first to lie down. Eventually they decided to do it at the same time. It was rapidly getting too cold to be stupid and the tent itself was only tall enough for sitting up. Once inside the bag with their hats on, Sam zipped it up. If it was physically possible, Mercedes still seemed to have managed to leave a gap between them. But they weren't going to get warm unless they were completely pressed together."

Mercedes, are you still scared of me?"

It was dark so he couldn't read her facial expression. "Why?"

"Because you need to move closer. And to do that you need to trust me. And you can't fully trust me if you're scared of me."

There was a long pause. "I'm not scared of you."

Her voice didn't sound convinced.

"Then come closer. I promise I won't harm you. Listen, I promised your father I'd take care of his baby girl and I'm a man of my word. I won't let anything bad happen and I won't cause anything bad."

He could tell that she was resisting. But he could also tell that she was still cold so he persisted one last time. "You're an intelligent girl. This is science. You know how this has to work if it's going to work at all." Finally he felt her reluctantly press her chest against his and instantly felt transference of warmth.

"There. That wasn't so hard was it!" He enjoyed a few moments of finally feeling comfortable. Her hat covered head was nestled under his chin and he slipped one arm around her in what he hoped was a non-creepy way. "Goodnight Mercedes."

Judging by her breathing, the exhausted girl was already asleep.

Sam woke up first. He was warm. Warm and comfortable. Somehow his arms were completely wrapped around Mercedes and he didn't dare move them in case the sudden coldness it would cause to her back accidentally woke her up. Instead, he took the opportunity to savor the feeling of waking up in somebody's arms. It had never happened before. All the women he had been with had all been long gone before the morning reality came knocking. And now here he was, with this girl pressed against his chest, having had the best night sleep he'd had in what felt like forever. As far as he could recall he didn't even have a nightmare.

Mercedes murmured and nestled her head against his chest. He held his breath for a second, seeing if she was going to wake up and break the moment, but thankfully she didn't. It was good because he was only just starting to admit to himself that he was enjoying these few minutes. For all the times he'd stared at her soft body when she wasn't looking, trying to work out how good it would feel, nothing was close to the reality. Until now, all he had in his brain's archives were the brief seconds he had rolled her along the ground on the night they had met. But now he had the luxury of taking time to make a more detailed appreciation of her. The hat on her head tickled his nose and her face was turned away from his. But the absolute best part was her breasts. They were like soft warm cushions and they were pressed right up against him, chest to chest, the best way to get warmth from each other. But he was sure they hadn't been pressed up this close to each other when they'd first fallen asleep.

Those breasts though. They felt amazing. Women in his Sector just didn't have breasts like this. Too much emphasis was placed on a slender frame for something like that to happen naturally and it only really happened to married women after childbirth who had more important priorities than being thin. There was currently a trend back home for women to have surgically enhanced breasts. They definitely looked good but they felt like crap. They were as hard as the frames of the women who bore them. He should know, he'd felt enough of them in his time. And now he had the softest, warmest pair of breasts pressed against him and he was already feeling sad for the moment that she'd waken and pull away from him.

He felt the precise moment she finally woke up. First she snuggled, unaware of her surroundings. Then, as soon as she remembered where she was, she stiffened.

It brought a smile to his lips. "Morning Mercedes. Sleep well?"

She nodded without looking at him and he knew that she was blushing. But this was the way it was going to be from now on if they wanted to get any sleep at night.

They soon got into a routine. Days were spent walking while nights were spent cuddling and talking. It was strictly platonic, she was just a kid after all.

It's just that most mornings when he awoke, his brain had to forcibly remind other parts of his body about that minor detail.