When I awoke again, I was surprised to discover that I felt much better than I had in a while. My side no longer ached, I was warm and dry, and overall I just felt rested and energized. I wondered how long I'd been asleep for. It seemed like forever ago that Aloy had found me and-

Aloy.

I rolled over on my side to face where Aloy had been sitting when I fell asleep. Sure enough, she was there, still somewhat propped up against the backpacks, sleeping. Well, actually that's not entirely true. She was sleeping, yes, and also snoring – which was this ungodly sound that could have come from the lovechild of a tractor and a table saw.

Nice. I had to stifle a laugh. It was kind of cute though it probably wouldn't have been if I hadn't been awake and rested already.

I decided to poke her. I wanted to get up, go outside, eat, enjoy not being dead, eat some more…

"Aloy?" I said as gently as I could. I used one hand to give her leg a soft nudge. She grimaced before opening her eyes, blinking a few times at me before I think she realized I was awake.

"Becks...you-how are you feeling?" she asked, the sleep still present in her voice.

I smiled. "A lot better. But uh…I'm kind of hungry. Actually, really hungry."

Aloy nodded and stretched. "I'll get you something to eat. Oh, here." She motioned to a pile of folded clothes. "Your clothes are dry. If you want to dress I'll be right back." She made to leave the tent.

"Aloy, wait," I said. She needs to know about Ted. About APOLLO. About…everything. "Ted Faro, he-,"

But she put a hand up to stop me. "I know. We…watched it. HEPHAESTUS got the data from your broken Focus. We know you were being tracked and…I know about Ted Faro and APOLLO. And…" She sighed, clearly uncomfortable. "I know about Jenna. I'm…I'm sorry."

Well, at least I don't have to worry about breaking the news to her. "You have nothing to be sorry for," I said. "She-she's not…she's different, now. A lot of things are different, I guess." Lame.

She shook her head. "I shouldn't have rushed out to meet the Eclipse. Maybe then you wouldn't have been taken."

"No. If they hadn't taken me, we would have never found out about APOLLO. It's okay, Aloy." In truth, it was a little awkward talking to Aloy in my underwear, (albeit I was covered by a blanket) but I didn't want her to pity me or feel guilty. We needed to move on and get back to our mission. I was ready to move on. "Also, um…thank you for saving me. Again."

She smiled. It was good to see her smiling again. I still wanted to talk to her about how she had acted toward me back in Meridian, and also about the…kiss. Where we stood. The really obvious elephant in the room. "You don't have to thank me. But uh, Erend might need some talking to. I think he feels guilty for letting you get taken."

"He shouldn't. But I'll talk to him."

Another smile. Nice. "All right. I'll be um…I'll be back. I'm going to get you something to eat. Oh, HEPHAESTUS can put your Focus data on a new Focus once we find one. We can get one from All Mother Mountain on the way to GAIA Prime, if that's okay. If you're feeling up to it, I think we should start heading back toward Meridian. There's a river not far from here that we can get to by sun fall."

I frowned. "You're not going back to get APOLLO? What about Ted?"

"I can't get inside that bunker without clearance, Becks. And as much as I want to wring that man's neck, we still have to find the rest of the subcores. If he knows that's what we're doing then we have to get to them before he does," she said.

Ugh. As frustrated as I was with that answer, Aloy was right. Ted couldn't get his hands on the other subsystems. Without the physical subcores, Ted had no power over GAIA, even if he did manage to get override clearance.

"I get it. I'll um…I'll get changed then."

Aloy nodded. "Good. I'll be back," she said before disappearing through the tent flap.

"So, these 'dogs', what were they for?" Erend asked.

I absentmindedly kicked a rock, sending it bouncing into the river. I watched as it quickly sank to the bottom, easily seen through the clear water. There was no pollution here and every body of water I had seen so far had looked cleaner than most of the filtered stuff back home.

Aloy had been right – we had arrived at the river shore, far to the south of Maker's End, where FAS and Ted's bunker had been, just around sunset. I had felt well enough to walk the entire way, with Aloy and Erend closely observing me and Heph not saying much most of the journey, opting instead to waddle alongside us quietly.

"Uh, lots of things," I explained. "Some were used to do work but most were for companionship." I continued unpacking the camping supplies while Aloy worked on the fire and Erend set up the tent and beds. "You could play with them, too, and teach them tricks!"

"Tricks?"

"Yeah. Here, I'll show you. Heph, come here." I glanced around until I found what I was looking for. I grinned as I held the stick in my hand.

The Watcher trotted over to me. "STATE FUNCTION REQUEST."

"Here!" I threw the stick down the shoreline. It bounced a few times on the rocks before resting. "Now, go get it."

Heph turned to face the stick before turning back at me. Its light flashed. "SYSTEM DOES NOT SEE PRODUCTIVITY OUTPUT IN FETCHING DEAD FLORA."

I rolled my eyes. "Just get the damn stick, Heph."

Heph clicked at me and left to go retrieve the stick. I turned to Erend. "See, now with a real dog, the dog wouldn't ask stupid questions. It would just go get you the stick."

Erend raised an eyebrow. "Uh…okay. But why?"

HEPHAESTUS returned, without the stick. "SYSTEM DOES NOT DETECT APPARATUS ON UNIT TO RETRIEVE DEAD FLORA. SYSTEM CAN TRANSFER TO UNIT WITH APPROPRIATE APPARATUS IF DESIRED."

Oh. Watchers don't have hands. "Oops. Sorry, Heph. No, it's okay. Thanks for the effort, though." I turned back to Erend. "Because it's fun and the dog gets exercise and you get to interact with it."

"SYSTEM RECOMMENDS BECKS RETRIEVE DEAD FLORA. SYSTEM PREDICTS EXERCISE AND INTERACTION AS A RESULT."

I stuck my tongue out at the Watcher. "Don't tell me how to live my life, Heph."

"I don't know…that sounds weird," Erend said while adjusting one of the wood poles that held the tent. "There! Should be good, Aloy."

"Thanks, Erend." The redhead had just finished lighting the fire and had now walked over to where we were standing. The smoke floated away from the campsite and dissipated overhead, where the sky now boasted vibrant streaks of blue, orange, and purple. The dying light from the setting sun shot across the top of the water. I took a moment to breathe in the scents, take in the scene, and watch as the sun crept below the horizon. There were moments of beauty in this new world that I took advantage of, things that I'd never seen before, not even in my time. After ARTEMIS, after Jenna, after my harrowing trek through Maker's End, I made a promise to myself that I would take more moments like this.

Aloy and Erend must have noticed, because they simply stood by and let me have that moment.

"All right, well I'm gonna get an early sleep then if we're going back toward Meridian tomorrow," Erend finally announced before yawning. "Mind if I take the tent tonight?"

Aloy and I both voiced that we didn't mind in unison and watched as the Vanguard captain made his way to the tent. Aloy then turned to me. "Are you tired? Did you want to go to sleep, too?"

"Nah," I said, shaking my head. "I was actually just going to go sit by the fire if that's okay."

She looked at me with hopeful eyes. "Mind if I join you?"

Time to have the talk, I guess. "Not at all."

We walked over to the fire, which was several paces away from the tent where Erend slept. A few minutes later, we were sitting down, Aloy had made some tea, which was surprisingly good, and HEPHAESTUS had positioned itself to the side of where we sat.

We ended up talking about nothing in particular for a while. Aloy asked me some more questions about my world. I was almost too happy for the distraction.

"…and your parents weren't upset?"

"Oh, they were. But my dad kept trying not to laugh. Mom was way more serious about it," I said. "That girl never bothered me again, though."

Aloy was clearly amused. "You knocked out two of her teeth, Becks."

"And she threw my backpack in a fountain!" I countered and took a cautious sip of the hot tea. "You would have done the same thing."

She laughed. "Really, now? I'm beginning to wonder if this 'high school' of yours was just a fighting ground where people complained about learning."

I shrugged. "No, there were some cool things. I really liked my programming classes. I would hang out with my friends a lot, too. We'd go to games, dances, coding competitions-,"

"You had dancing?" Aloy leaned in closer, her interest obvious.

"Uh…yeah. I mean, I only went because Jenna wanted me to. They weren't horrible." When she seemed confused I realized what she had actually meant. "Oh, like dancing dancing. Yeah, we had lots of different kinds. You guys, well, I mean the Nora seem to have it, too. I saw it at the Proving festival."

Aloy didn't say anything.

I bit my lip, wondering if I had said something wrong. "Sorry, I don't mean that you and the Nora are-,"

"Do you know any?"

I blinked. "Huh?"

"Dances. From your time. Do you know any?"

Um… "Heh. I guess? I never had much need for them." I gestured around us. "Obviously, I don't need them here, either."

But Aloy wouldn't let it go. "Show me." She shot me a daring grin.

"I…but there isn't any music." Dance…with Aloy? My mind immediately jumped to the fact that we hadn't even talked about the kiss or…anything else. Now she wants to dance?

She saved your fucking life. The least you can do is show her some lame dance.

"THIS UNIT CAN PROVIDE AUDIO FOR THE PURPOSE OF RECREATIONAL MOVEMENT. AUDIO HAS BEEN UPLOADED FROM FOCUS." A few feet away, Heph's light blinked at us. I'm pretty sure it was fucking around with me and knew that I was hesitant to even attempt this.

"Uh…sure, okay." I stood up and Aloy did the same. She seemed unbothered by what a stuttering mess I was. Either that or she was entertained by it. Ugh…maybe this is payback or something. "We can um…go over here and-,"

"SYSTEM HAS SELECTED APPROPRIATE SONG. PLAYBACK INITIATING."

"Wait, what?" A slow, piano ballad from the early 21st century began. I knew it was in fact, a cover of the original song, which had come out many decades before. Something Dennis, of course, would have made fun of me for having in my music library.

"Wise men say…"

Fuck. Seriously?! "Uh…maybe another song?"

"Only fools rush in…"

But Aloy's face had already lit up. "This is nice! I like it."

I sighed internally. Well played, Heph. Fuck you. "But um, what about Erend?"

Aloy scoffed. "He sleeps like the dead. Please, Becks?"

Here we go. I only knew one way to dance to this song. I took Aloy's hand and put it on my waist. "So, um…you're taller so you put your hand here and then I'll put mine…here," I said, trying not to show how nervous I was as I put my hand on her arm and took her other hand in mine. "And now uh…just move like this." I tried to smile. "And try not to step on me."

Aloy looked at our arrangement and then down before chewing on her lip. "I…think I understand."

She immediately stepped on my foot.

"Ah! Sorry."

"Ouch…okay, so yeah…not that, okay?" I winced. Glad she's not actually listening to the lyrics. For fuck's sake, Heph.

We started again, this time slower as we both grew more comfortable with our positions. I found myself moving closer to her, the music becoming almost hypnotic as we moved in a slow semi-circle near the campfire. I took a moment to look at her face and nearly laughed at the sheer concentration that had taken over. This girl didn't half-ass anything.

"So, did you do this often?" she asked.

I laughed quietly. "Oh, no. I mean not like…not like this. Um…this kind of dance is usually for people that are uh…"

Aloy's eyes widened. She must have understood. She froze, the music continuing on without us. "Oh! I-I'm sorry, Becks! I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. Especially after-," She tried to pull away from me, but I didn't let go.

I didn't want to. "You're not. Song's not over yet, though." I gave her an encouraging smile, hoping she'd stay. Please stay.

"I-okay. If you're sure…" She stared into my eyes, as though searching for any signs of doubt or insecurity in them.

"I am." I moved a bit closer, until we were nearly embracing. We were both silent for a while, just listening to the music and moving along to it.

It was actually Aloy that broke the silence. "I'm glad you're feeling better."

I looked up at her. "Thanks. And thanks, you know, for coming to get me."

She squeezed my hand and tightened her hold on my waist. "You gave me-us quite the scare, Becks." Her voice lowered to a whisper. "I really thought you were going to die and then I…couldn't say what I needed to say to you." There was pain and sadness in her eyes and it tore me apart to see her like this.

I let go of her hand and placed it on her freckled cheek. Her skin felt warm against my palm. "But I didn't," I said. "So, you can say what you need to say."

I heard her breath hitch. "Um…well. I would, but I get the ah…feeling you already know what it's going to be." She leaned into my touch and placed her free hand on my other hip.

Oh, wow. Your move, Becks. "Maybe I don't." I smirked, trying to be a smartass.

Aloy cleared her throat. "That I…well, you're a smart woman, Becks. That is…I didn't mean to scare you with…when kissed. I shouldn't have done that. You've been through a lot and I don't want you to think I'm trying to take advantage of you and-,"

Never. "I won't lie. I was really nervous and had never done anything like before. I thought, no, I knew I had-have…feelings for you, Aloy. But I think I also felt guilty."

Aloy nodded. "Because you never got to tell Jenna how you felt?"

"I didn't even get to see if we had a chance." Would we have a thousand years ago? I would never know. "But I can't wonder for the rest of my life if something would have been different when I know…I know how I feel about you." There. It's out there.

The song ended, leaving us with only the quiet splashing of the river and the crackling of the campfire next to us. We did not let go of each other, however.

I sighed and met her gaze again. "I'm sorry for how I acted, Aloy. You are fucking amazing and brilliant and strong and a little bit crazy, you know, 'cause of the whole cliff jumping thing. That's fucking suicidal, by the way."

She laughed and shook her head. For a moment, I thought I wasn't doing too horribly.

I continued, my chest feeling wound up again as the butterflies in my stomach made me wonder if I was doing the right thing or just making a fool of myself. "You deserve someone just as good. And…I don't understand half the shit that goes on here. Part of the whole "spending a thousand years in a tube" thing. But I think that if I had to do it all over again – cryosleep and all, then I would have wanted you to find me again. Back in Meridian I would...I'd be pissed that people pretty much worshiped you. But now I realize that I actually had a chance with someone like you, and…and I just wish I hadn't fucked it up." I let go of her cheek and looked away. It was ridiculous for me to assume that she would just forgive and forget after I had hurt her like that.

"Becks?"

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Can I kiss you again?"

Oh… Well, that was unexpected. "I, uh…yeah!" I took a moment to take a deep breath so that I would stop stumbling. "Yes."

Aloy closed her eyes and leaned in slowly as I did the same. Our lips met – the temperature contrast just as shocking as it had been before. She moved against my mouth slowly while pulling me closer to her as I wrapped my arms around her neck. The kiss deepened – she began to gently probe my lips with her tongue. A chill swept through me and I gasped as it suddenly became a lot more difficult to breathe properly. I felt much weaker than I had earlier as my legs started to lose their strength. Apparently, it was obvious because Aloy noticed.

"You're still recovering. We should get you to bed," she said after pulling away.

Oh, fuck no. Not now. "I'm fine." I leaned in to kiss her again, my mind heavy with what was happening, what could happen next, and wondering what the hell I was supposed to do.

But Aloy wasn't so easily swayed. "Becks…"

"Here," I pulled away from her and grabbed a thick blanket before laying it out on the dirt. "Now you don't have to worry." I sat on the blanket and motioned for her to come over.

She hesitated. "I don't want to hurt you."

"You won't. I'll let you know if I start feeling unwell. I promise." Real classy, Becks.

Aloy replied with a shy smile, which was probably one of the most attractive, adorable things I'd ever seen her do, before getting down on her knees on the blanket. Before she could say or do anything else, I grabbed her arm and pulled her closer to me so that I was kissing her again. She immediately reciprocated and wrapped her arms around me as she made a quiet moan into my mouth, her vaguely smoky scent and warm breath intoxicating. The sounds she made lit my nerves on fire – she knew it, too; waited for my shallow breaths and shivers before she'd make another one.

I grabbed at her tangled braids, holding them in my fist and silently admired their complexity and volume. Aloy let out a small whimper before gently pushing me back onto the blanket, her weight falling down on me and her legs straddling mine.

Oh, wow…this is new.

The next few minutes were a blur. Aloy ran her hands up and down my arms while skillfully focusing her mouth on my lips, jaw, neck, and shoulders. As far as I knew, she'd had no prior experience like this before. But apparently that doesn't fucking matter. I felt a coiling in my lower stomach that reached down to my core, a sensation that for the most part, I was unfamiliar with. Aloy's leg pressed up against me and I let out a small cry. She suddenly stopped and looked down at me, her hazel eyes cloudy and far away.

"Becks…" She was panting. A light sheen of sweat covered her forehead and her face was flushed. "This…we-,"

I gave a half-smile as I too, floated back down to the earth. "Should…probably do this when there's not an occupied tent nearby," I finished for her, my own breathing uneven.

Aloy promptly rolled off of me and helped me sit up. She hesitated again before looking at me. "Thank you, Becks. For, um…showing me how to dance."

I actually fucking blushed. What a weird day. I kissed Aloy on her cheek.

"Anytime."