Melina heard the crunch of tires on the gravel driveway. She wasn't expecting visitors, not even Enji. Yesterday he had informed her he had important matters to attend to today and would be gone all day.

Putting the book face down on the bed to hold her place, she left her comfy spot to go investigate who had arrived. She was spending a quiet morning reading about what to expect in the upcoming months of her pregnancy.

Pulling on a white button down shirt to preserve her modesty, she held it together over her body skimpily clad in a red cropped tank top and short denim shorts.

"Hana? Hana?" she called as she walked down the hall toward the front door.

Hana must be in the kitchen. She was going to ask if the Master of the house had warned her about guests today and to make preparations. Since the kitchen was at the back of the house, the woman could not hear her or the visitors so she continued toward the door.

She heard the doors of the vehicle opening and closing, then two male voices speaking to each other. One belonged to the driver employed by the Todoroki family, Hibiki, and other belonged to -

"Shoto," she breathed, her heart fluttering.

Melina threw open the door, rushing across the porch, and running down the steps. She ran toward him at full speed, launching herself at him.

"Whoa!" he yelled, dropping the suitcases he had just lifted out of the trunk to catch her.

"I've missed you!" she cried out, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"I can tell," he murmured, hugging her back. "I've missed you too."

Melina unhinged herself from him to grab one of the suitcases.

"Put that down," he said, trying to take the piece of luggage from her.

"I'm pregnant, Shoto, not helpless. I can do this," she assured him.

She carried the suitcase inside while Shoto and Hibiki took care of the others, following her to the room that would be Shoto's.

"Where's Dad?" he asked her when they were alone in his room.

"He went to the hospital," she replied, watching him carefully for his reaction. "He wants to visit your mother."

His eyes widened in shock, staring blankly at her.

"What?" he inquired as if he had not heard her correctly.

"He actually went to consult with her doctors first. He figured it would be best to speak to them before seeing her, to have a consultation on how to go about reconciling with her. He wants to do things the right way without hindering her healing," she explained.

Shoto dropped heavily onto the bed, still suffering from the shock of the revelation.

"It sounds so poetic when you say it that way. I don't know what seeing him might do to her. I was worried," he admitted.

"I know, but your father is smart enough to understand that just randomly walking into her room one day after all this time of not seeing him might destroy the progress she has made."

For a split second, anger registered on his previously passive face. His eyes caught hers after he masked the flash of fury.

"You sound as if you admire my Father."

"I prefer to call it a tentative respect fostered by a mutual understanding. We've gotten to know each other quite well in the past few weeks."

Melina stopped short of continuing on to say she has many things in common with Enji Todoroki and that common ground enabled them to form a bond of sorts.

"Should I be jealous?" he asked, only half joking.

"No," she scoffed, placing her hand on his chest over his heart. "It's definitely a father/daughter relationship. Nothing romantic at all."

"In that case..."

Shoto stood back up taking her face between his hands and placing a delicate kiss on her lips. A kiss so tender it was like a butterfly's wings brushing across her lips. The sweet kiss made her heart pound in her chest with the sound and power of a hundred horses.

Melina pressed her cheek into his red t-shirt, savoring his embrace when his arms enclosed her and pulled her close. She sighed contentedly while he stroked her head down to the nape of her neck where she had pulled her hair back into a low ponytail.

"Did my Father talk to you about the arranged marriage?" he questioned her.

"Yes, he did. I told him absolutely not. I couldn't believe he would bring up such an archaic, misogynistic idea."

Melina felt Shoto's body stiffen against hers. She leaned her head back to look up at his face. His cheeks were red, his eyes glassy and downcast. He appeared hurt, profoundly wounded as if she had stabbed him in the heart.

"How did you know about that?" she asked him.

"Because," he began, his voice so thick with emotion he had to clear his throat before continuing. "It was my idea."

"What? What are you saying?"

She pressed her fingertips under his chin, lifting it up from his chest so he would look at her. His dual colored irises reluctantly met hers.

"I'm saying that I want to marry you. I asked him to discuss it with you."

"Shoto? You didn't...I mean you can't...I don't believe this," she scoffed, wanting to believe that he was lying.

If he was poking fun at her, the joke was being made at his own expense. She did not find this funny for any reason. When his eyes moved away from hers, avoiding looking back at her, her heart grew heavy in her chest.

"Are you being serious? Why didn't you just discuss marriage with me yourself."

"Come on, Melina," he muttered, dropping his arms from around her body. "You would have laughed in my face. You would have patted my head and been mildly amused by the lovesick little boy asking you to marry him."

Unfortunately, he wasn't wrong. Her face grew warm with embarrassment. He knew her too well. She did not want to admit to herself she would react in such a way and say such demeaning things to him. There was no reason to hurt him further by vehemently denying she would do such a thing. She was glad he turned his back to her instead of placing his piercing gaze on her.

"But why an arranged marriage?" she asked.

"I suggested an arranged marriage because I knew you would never agree to marry me otherwise," Shoto answered truthfully.

Damn. Correct again.

"But your Father acted as if it was his idea. I thought...I believed he was going to force me into marrying you against your will. But you're too - "

"Yeah. I know. I'm too young. I don't know what I'm doing. You don't want me to ruin my life by loving you. You've told me all of this before," he growled.

Melina went to him, pressing her face against his back between his shoulder blades. Despite his body growing rigid as he stood up tall and ramrod straight, resisting her touch and her affection, she enclosed his waist with her arms anyway.

"I wasn't going to say that. Not now. What I was going to say is you're too precious for me to lose you. Everyone I've ever really loved has been lost to me for one reason or another," she murmured, tightening her arms around him as if to hang on to him so he would not disappear before her eyes. "I lost my grandmother to a natural death which I know is an inescapable part of life. My parents were taken away by fire...by no fault of their own or mine. And then Dabi..."

She paused when she felt him flinch in her arms as if she had physically punched him in the gut instead of just metaphorically. Mentioning Dabi was not to hurt him, only to make her point that everyone she loved disappeared from her life for one reason or another.

"Dabi and I can't be together for reasons obvious to you so I don't need to explain them. Time...accidents...circumstances...Something always happens to the ones I love. I can't lose you," she whispered, loosening her hold on him so he could turn in her arms to face her.

Shoto once again took her face in his hands. His palms were soft and gentle on her on her cheeks, his brief kiss even more so on her lips. He gazed down at her, his eyes examining her earnest face with sincere love and heartbreaking sadness.

"Keep this up, and you will lose me, Melina," he warned her. "You can only shove me away so many times before I give up. You know how that feels, right?"

Melina grew nervous, her belly turning somersaults. She hoped he wasn't about to go where she believed he was, saying something that would cut her to the core. Her eyes shifted apprehensively from his blue eye to his smokey gray iris then back again repeatedly.

Please, don't, she begged silently, but she already knew where this was going.

"Just like Dabi rejected you one too many times despite his real feelings, you finally acted in self-defense and gave up on the relationship. You said it yourself, love can get you only so far. Keep saying I shouldn't care, that you don't want me, I'll begin to believe you. Then I'll have no choice but to walk away," Shoto said. "Exactly like you did from Dabi."

Although his words weren't intended as a threat, only as an extremely stern warning, the forceful statements were like punching her in the gut repeatedly. Her emotions were bruised and sore. Due to his tactics being a bit brutal, she got the point. She understood without the slightest bit of misunderstanding of either his intention or his meaning.

"I'm scared, Shoto," she confessed, wrapping her arms around his torso. "I am absolutely terrified."

"Silly woman," he chuckled, tugging on her ponytail playfully. "Haven't you realized I don't want to go anywhere? I want to be with you and only you."

"I know, but - "

"Shut up...just shut up," he commanded her, placing his mouth over hers for a more passionate kiss.

"Mmmm," she mumbled, pulling away from him before he could push her down onto the bed.

"Dammit," Shoto grumbled irritably as she turned away.

"Come 'ere!" Melina exclaimed, pulling him behind her with an iron hard grip on his wrist. "I want to show you something."

"I like where this is going," he said as she tugged him into her bedroom across the hall.

Melina opened the top drawer of her dresser pulling out a tube of something and a box. She lay down on the bed on her back, placing a pillow under her head to get comfortable. Opening the white over-shirt to bare her belly, she waved him over to sit down.

"I REALLY like where this is going."

Opening the box, she pulled out a rectangular electronic device with cords attached to it. His excitement waned when she handed him what looked like the part of a stethoscope that goes in the ears. He studied it questioningly then stared at her.

"What the hell is this?" he asked as she was fitting another set of earpieces hooked to the listening device into her ears.

"It's called a fetal doppler. I want you to hear the baby's heartbeat," she explained, patting the bed beside her.

"Oh," he gasped, his face turning as red as his hair.

"What did you think it is?" She blinked innocently as she gazed at him waiting for an answer.

His blushed deepened until he was nearly purple. He shrugged nonchalantly.

"I had no idea what it is."

Melina was too excited about him hearing the baby's heartbeat to hazard a guess at what dirty thoughts he might have been having. She squirted a little bit of the gel from the tube onto her belly. The gel would allow the device to slide easily over skin and also amplify the sound.

Pressing the round device that resembled a microphone to her presently flat belly, she moved it around as the nurse had to find the heartbeat. Her waist had thickened a little over the last week, tightening the waistband of her shorts.

Anxiety started to take hold of her when she did not hear anything. Her heart beat faster, and her breathing quickened. Her search for the baby's heartbeat grew a little desperate. She pressed the wand more firmly to her belly, keeping her movements slow. The baby was still quite tiny and elusive, hiding deep in her womb.

Unbuttoning her shorts and pushing them down a little below her hips, she finally found the electronic sounding pulse close to her right hip bone. She breathed a sigh of relief as the unusual but consoling sound filled her ears.

"Oh, my god," Shoto exhaled, unable to speak above a whisper.

Melina opened her eyes to look at him. His eyes were big and round, staring straight ahead as he concentrated on the steady and fast thrum in his ears.

"That's our baby," he murmured.

Every nerve in her body stood on edge after hearing his emotional proclamation. Our baby. Had he really said that? He already claimed the child as his own? How far had he gone with this marriage thing in his mind?

"Shoto - "

"Shhhh!" he hissed at her a little more intensely than he meant to. "I'm sorry. I just want to listen."

Closing her eyes, Melina forced herself to keep calm. Recently her emotions had begun to run rampant as a byproduct of the influx of hormones glutting her system to maintain the pregnancy. Perhaps he simply meant 'our baby' in the sense of family.

That's how his Father always referred to the child. The baby didn't belong to just her or Dabi. The child would be another Todoroki, an addition to the family and all of their lives. They not only had they accepted the baby, they accepted her. She was on the verge of having a real family again.

Something warm and wet trickled from her eye and soaked the hair at her temples. Her nose began to run, making her sniff which in turn made her aware of the fact she was crying.

"Oh, dammit," she sniffled, wiping the tears away with the corner of her white over-shirt.

"What's wrong?" Shoto asked.

"I'm just so happy," she sobbed bursting into a fit of tears.

"Oh, my god, I don't understand women," he muttered, pulling the earpieces out of his ears.

"Here," she snapped, flinging the book at him after picking it up from where she had laid it down on the bed. "Read this. It might help answer a few questions."

"What to expect...well, okay," he replied gamely.

Shoto moved to lean against the headboard of the bed. He snatched the pillow from under her head.

"Hey!" she cried out despite the fact she was getting up anyway.

"Come sit beside me. We'll both read," he said.

After putting the device away in the dresser drawer, Melina went to the bathroom to wipe the goo from her belly and button up her shorts. She returned to the bed, scooting over to be close to him. Placing the second pillow beside him to support her back, she leaned her head over on his shoulder.

"Everything became so much more real when I heard the baby's heartbeat." She pressed her hands to her belly. "There's a real baby growing in there. My baby."

"Our baby," he corrected her, placing his cool palm against her warm abdomen.

"Our baby," she repeated, her eyes connecting with his. "Shoto, will you be my birth and labor coach?"

"What?"

"You'll be the one who will be there to support me during labor and while the baby is being born. You can handle that right? If you don't think you can stomach it, I can ask your dad. It would be a little weird having him there but - "

"No!" he yelled fervently which made her pull away from him and stare at him in surprise. He repeated at a much lower volume, "No. I'll be happy to do it."

"Thank you," she said, returning to her previous position to laying her head on his shoulder and snuggling up to him.

"I think the only thing I'll struggle with is seeing you in that much pain," he admitted, placing his hand on the thigh of her leg that was thrown across his.

"You'll do fine. And so will I. I'm frightened out of my mind but with you close to me, I can do this," she murmured, stifling a yawn.

"Tired?" He patted her leg affectionately as his eyes skimmed over the words on the page.

"A little. I get tired easily these days."

"It says here that fatigue is normal in the first trimester. It should get better during the fourth month at the beginning of your second trimester. You should be starting your fourth month soon, right?"

"Next week."

"Oh...but the excessive tiredness could return in the last three months of your pregnancy. Or last the entire pregnancy. I hope not."

"Look at you...you'll be an expert in no time at all," she joked with him, laughing lightly.

"I just want to do everything I can to help you...to be as understanding as possible of what you're going through," he said, patting her leg absentmindedly while reading.

"Oh, my god," she gasped, raising her head to look at his face.

"What?" He stared at her in confusion.

"You are a good man, Shoto Todoroki."

"I know," he returned with a cocky sideways grin and mock egotism.

Melina leaned forward, pressing a tender kiss to his lips. She placed her lips close to his ear.

"That's why I love you," she confessed.

Shoto put the book down on her abandoned pillow. He slid his arms around her shoulders, holding her against his chest. His cheek lay alongside hers, his lips close to her ear so he could whisper to her.

"Will you wait for me?" he asked, squeezing her in his strong embrace. "Wait for me to get older and marry me."

"Of course I will. Great things are worth waiting for."

"Yes, they are," he agreed wholeheartedly.

Melina lay her head on his chest. Content and happy, feeling safe and loved, she fell asleep in his arms.

~\..'../~

"Goddammit," Dabi snarled through his clenched teeth, spittle flying all directions as if he was a mad dog.

He punched his fist through the wall of the dilapidated hotel. He didn't give a damn about putting another hole in the wall to add to the many he had already put there.

"Awwww," Himiko cooed with mocking sympathy. "Experiencing regret and jealousy again I presume."

Dabi ignored her taunting, his shoulders rising and falling with each panting breath. He simmered in his own anger and misery. Seeing them together, Shoto and Melina, made him regret everything.

But he had seen her many times since she moved onto the Todoroki property. Having lived there for fifteen years, he knew the property and all of its private entrances and hiding places quite well.

Shoto would be living there with her temporarily until the end of summer break from school. In a little over a month, a lot could happen. Melina and Shoto had already gotten awfully close romantically.

Dabi was the one who had insisted to both of them that they be together. After actually seeing them together, asleep in the same bed, wrapped in each others arms, he had no clue what the fuck he was thinking.

"I would have followed you through hell." Her words haunted him. He regretted his decision to give up, to let her go, believing he was doing what was best for her. At the time his choice made sense.

"You have no one to blame but yourself," Himiko needled him, plopping down on his bed.

"Is there something you want?" he growled at her, finally turning to face her.

"You know what I want."

What he saw took his breath away. Himiko had once again transformed herself into Melina. She lay there on his bed dressed in nothing but a black lace bra and panties.

Every time she morphed into Melina, she went through the trouble of recreating the facade down to the scars across Melina's breasts and hips that were presently visible through the lace of the underwear set. The woman was positively relentless in her quest to seduce him.

"Stay out of the fucking lab. Damn you, Himiko," he grumbled. "Get out."

"Just give in," she said, gracefully removing her body from the bed like a cat awakening from a nap.

She ran her fingers through her long silky black hair as she approached him. Her hands glided along her body, drawing his attention to her curves - Melina's curves. She slid her hands over her breasts, down her abdomen, and between her thighs. Wherever her hands went, his eyes followed.

"Just pretend," she tempted him, putting her arms around his waist. "Just lose yourself in the fantasy that I'm her. It's so easy."

Standing on her tiptoes, the fake Melina kissed his neck. He closed his eyes and groaned, hating her and hating himself more. Her mouth dropped kisses along the full length of his neck. Her hands explored his chest under his t-shirt.

At this moment, furious and reliving painful memories, he lacked the willpower, or desire, to stop her as she pressed her hand to throbbing bulge below his waist.

"Call me by her name," Himiko said in Melina's voice. "I don't care. Give me what I want, and I'll give you what you want."

"And just what is that, Himiko?" he demanded, burying his hands in the soft hair that was just like Melina's. For all basic intents and purposes, it was hers - an exact copy.

"You want her, I want you. We both get what we want. We're both happy. What's the problem?"

"There's no problem."

Dabi grabbed her by the arms, pulling her into him in a crushing embrace while placing a savage kiss on her mouth. His fingers curled around the front of the bra between her breasts. With a forceful jerk, he snatched the bra from her body.

Picking her up, keeping his mouth on hers, he took her to the bed. Throwing her, tossing her like a sack of potatoes, he recalled the moment he had done the same thing to Melina. The woman had fought him like a madwoman, defending her life. She had kicked and punched him with all of the hate and anger inside of her.

He had taken her strikes willingly because he wanted the pain, he felt like he deserved it. Once again he had stirred her wrath on purpose by attacking her. The only difference from then until now was that he had gone for her heart, tearing it apart. She still gave him pain, and he still deserved it.

Himiko as Melina did not fight back which disappointed him. She blushed and panted like a horny animal, clawing at his t-shirt to tear it from his body. He seized the pair of underwear she was wearing, ripping them off which made her cry out as if she had orgasmed at that very second.

Before she could sink her claws into him again, Dabi unbuttoned and unzipped his pants. He did not bother taking them all the way off before he dropped to his knees between her legs. With a single barbaric thrust, he buried himself inside of her making her scream in sheer bliss.

Closing his eyes tightly, he thrust into her wet and willing body with abandon. He was going to fuck the brains out of the wolf in sheep's clothing because she had asked for it. He would find solace in the fake, the woman hiding behind Melina's face, then maybe she would stop torturing him by appearing as her.

"Melina, Melina, Melina," he chanted to convince himself of the elaborate sham.

"Ooooh, Dabi!" Himiko cried out in return, thankfully using Melina's voice instead of her own.

If only you were actually Melina, he thought, driving himself into the woman under him over and over. But she wasn't. So this doppelganger would have to do, giving him some modicum of solace.

Finally he reached his end not caring if she experienced an orgasm or not. She got what she wanted. He had fucked her. Himiko never asked for an orgasm, and he never promised her one.

Dabi quickly moved from the bed and away from her when it was over.

"Leave," he commanded her.

"Sure thing, sweetheart. You were fucking fantastic," she complimented him as she stood up from the bed.

Pleased as she could be with herself, she hummed an upbeat little tune on her merry way to the door. Himiko did not bother retrieving the torn undergarments, leaving them on his bedroom floor where he had haphazardly discarded them. Proudly continuing to wear Melina's appearance, she exited his room stark naked slamming the door behind herself and rattling the faded pictures on the wall.

Dabi turned on only the hot water, wanting to boil his body to rid himself of the filth of guilt and shame. He could not wash it off. The remorse and self-loathing clung to him like a disease.

Melina had begged him not to go - not to leave her behind. How could that idiot not understand his intentions? But maybe she did. He had not given her a choice. In the end, she had acquiesced to his wishes and given up on him.

"Dammit, dammit all to hell," he muttered, holding his head in his hands. "How can I ever tell you how sorry I am? I am so sorry I ever loved you to begin with. You were the worst thing that ever happened to me."

~\..'../~

Melina lay awake in her bed, staring at the bare beams criss crossing the ceiling above her. Once again she was struck with the irrational urge to cry. Alone, not having anyone to witness her tears, she allowed them to flow unchecked.

Since she was crying anyway, she permitted herself to think of Dabi. She might as well give herself a real reason to cry.

As much as they had wanted to be together, some things could never be. The idea of the three of them, Dabi, herself and the baby, being a happy family living in a little house surrounded with a white picket fence was just not realistic. It was ludicrous at best.

Dabi was a member of the League of Villains. Although not a hero, she had aligned herself with them, immediately making herself his enemy. Although before leaving she had already successfully made enemies on her own out of many other villains just by virtue of being who she is. There was no way, in Heaven or Hell and certainly not on Earth, they could be together.

Rolling onto her side, she covered her mouth with her hand to stifle the wail forcing its way up her throat, transforming it into a gasping sob when it reached her lips. She whimpered and mewled, doing her best to pour out her pain but to do it quietly without disturbing the overprotective man across the hall.

Melina got out of the bed, escaping the house through the door leading outside from her sitting room. The cool night breeze gave her relief from the oppressive heat that had engulfed her.

She walked around to the stairs at the back of the house, following the path that weaved through a garden. The path led to a small red arched bridge built over a large koi pond. When the path restarted on the other side, it went through another garden to the swimming pool that was like a tropical getaway in the back yard.

Surrounded by shrubbery and hibiscus plants, there was a fake rock formation resembling a small mountain with a waterfall which fed into the hot tub and overflowed into the lagoon like pool heating it year round.

I should go swimming soon. Swimming is great exercise that would be good for me and the baby, she thought, sitting on the edge of the round blue tiled hot tub.

Spinning on her behind, she lifted her legs over the side and sunk them up to her knees into the warm water. She was wearing a t-shirt and pajama shorts, her typical bedtime attire. If only she had put her swimsuit on before coming out. But other things had her mind occupied making her flee from her room.

"Oh, what the hell," she mumbled, dropping her entire body into the soothing water.

In a few short weeks she would no longer be able to enjoy the hot tub because it would raise her body temperature too much for the baby. Besides, her pajamas could be washed and be good as new. It was only a little bit of chlorine water. Not much different than taking a bath with her clothes on.

Melina sighed, laying back in the water until it covered her ears and blocked out all sound. She raised her legs, floating in the tiny warm pool, relishing the soothing heat of the water surrounding her. So comforting, so relaxing.

Was it like this for babies in the womb?, she contemplated.

No wonder some babies were stubborn about being born. It was safe and warm inside. There was no pain. Why would they want to be born into a cold, hateful world teeming with noise and fear and pain?

"Oh, my god," she gasped, thinking about the child inside of her. "What have I done? I'm about to bring an innocent child into this horrible mess called my life."

Melina stood up, quickly exiting the hot tub to return to the house. When she entered her sitting room, she saw Shoto on the couch wearing nothing but his red and white plaid sleep pants. He glared at her standing there dripping on the Tatami mats.

"What are you doing?" he asked her.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that? I don't recall inviting you in here," she noted waiting for his excuse to explain his presence.

"I heard you crying. By the time I came in here, you were gone. I assumed you went for a walk to clear your head. I've noticed you have a habit of doing that when you're upset. What were you doing?"

"I got into the hot tub. Just for a few minutes," she added quickly before he could admonish her.

Perhaps she had made a mistake by giving him that book to read. He was like a mother hen running around behind her all day and half the night monitoring her food, her mood, and every little thing she did or didn't do. While she appreciated the fact he wanted to keep her and the baby healthy, she didn't appreciate being smothered and talked to like a child.

How many times have I spoken to him or treated him as if he were a child? But he really is...oh fuck never mind, she thought, giving up on trying to rationalize her actions to herself.

"I didn't mean to make you worry. I won't do it again," she promised, crossing the room to the enter her bedroom and go to the shower.

Shoto followed her - straight into the bathroom.

"Are you kidding me right now? Leave!" she ordered him, pointing to the door.

When he stood there staring at her, she growled and stepped into the shower to take off her wet clothes. Throwing them over the curtain, she hoped at least one of the sopping wet garments smacked him in the face.

"Are you angry with me?" he inquired after she turned on the water.

"No. I'm angry about a lot of things but none of them have anything to do with you," she answered truthfully.

"You still love him...don't you?"

Fuck...he always asks the most difficult and painful questions, Melina thought as she buried her head under the stream of hot water and took a minute to think before answering. Tell him the truth and hurt him or tell him a lie and hurt him? There was no way around it. No matter what she said, she would hurt him.

Turning off the shower, she stuck her arm out from behind the curtain, requesting a towel. She pulled the towel inside after he pressed it into her hand to dry off as best as she could before wrapping it around her body.

When she drew back the shower curtain, he was right there, standing almost nose to nose with her. She inhaled a deep breath to gather her courage and spoke. Everything about their relationship was going to be difficult and painful, but it was worth fighting for. So here goes...

"Yes. I still love Dabi. Down deep, I always will. He is the father of this child whether either of us like or not. That is a fact that will not change. Have you asked yourself can you truly love me..." She took his hand pressing it to her belly over the towel. "Can you love this child that belongs to him? If you don't think you can, we will end this now. I can take care of myself. I can move back to the U.S. and find my own place. Sure I'll be alone, but loneliness hasn't killed me yet. I'm a survivor of many things."

"I know. That's one of the many reasons I admire you. You really don't get it do you? I admire you. I respect you. I love you. I have so many feelings for you I don't think I can express them all. Can my brother say that? Did he even respect you?" he challenged her.

Melina stepped out of the shower, refraining from answering as she carefully considered his words. Now was not the time for off the cuff answers shouted during an outburst of fury.

After grabbing pajamas out of a drawer, she disappeared behind the privacy screen to get dressed. Shoto patiently waited for his answer sitting on her bed.

"Maybe a better question is, can you live with his memory?" Shoto questioned her when she appeared in front of him.

At that question, the true crux of the matter, she sat down on the bed beside him. Sighing wearily, the weight of her world fully pressing down on her shoulders, she forced herself to search her heart for her truth no matter how much it hurt.

"I guess we'll both have to learn to live with his memory," she said, not knowing what else to say. "I guess I finally understand why it's so easy for your Father to consider Toya as truly being dead. I'm tired, Shoto. We can talk about this later. I'm sure this subject will come back up."

"I'm afraid it will," he agreed, putting his arm around her. "Excess baggage galore for the both of us. I don't think this relationship could have gotten off to a worse start."

"Considering the circumstances, all of them, I don't think we're doing too badly."

"I suppose not."

"So if we make it - "

"When we make it," Shoto cut her off to correct her choice of words.

Melina turned toward him, returning his calm, genuine smile that warmed her heart.

"I like your positive attitude," she said without being sarcastic. "Things are going to be okay, aren't they?"

"Yeah. Eventually." He stood up to leave. "Well, good night, Melina."

"Shoto."

She spoke his name softly, reaching out to seize his wrist. He glanced back at her when she did not speak.

"You don't have to go," she said, pulling back the covers on the bed.

"Are you sure?" he asked without moving.

"We're only sleeping," she reminded him, sliding her body between the sheets and covering up.

Shoto lay down beside her on his back. She rolled over to turn off the lamp, then resumed the position of being on her back. Their hands touched on top of the covers. Her fingers threaded themselves between his to hold his hand.

"Good night, Shoto."

"Sweet dreams, Melina."

God, she hoped there would be sweet dreams.