Quatre was sleeping on the bed that was positioned in her room. She really didn\'t care how slutty it seemed that she had a shirtless, rather weak and defenseless blonde Arabian hottie lying on her bed. He had more of less gone to Hell and back while protecting her. She owed him big time.\r\n It hurt her horribly to see her beloved lying in such pain. Dorothy had been assumed to be dead, Flame had Duo, and she finally had Quatre (who at last was a Paladin). The world was right again.\r\n He was breathing regularly now, but the marks on his body hadn\'t healed any. His chest, back and arms were crusted with blood and dirty. Cuts, burnt skin and whip marks dotted his upper torso. Even the boy\'s face was streaked with blood. There were rips in his pants, which were also stained with blood.\r\n Erin set the tray with her healing equipment on the table. She did this with as quietly as she could, as not to wake him up. As she opened the bottle of peroxide and poured it in a bowl, she glanced over at Quatre.\r\n When he was awake he was like an Earth born angel. In his sleep, he looked even more radiant and beautiful. She gazed upon him with admirable eyes for a moment.\r\n Erin suddenly snapped herself back into reality. Ever since Dorothy had killed him and sent his soul to her almost limbo-like dimension, she had gone through numerous fit of depression. Now that she had him back, she would have given anything to keep him with her.\r\n Quatre shifted ever so slightly in his sleep. Reluctantly, he opened his eyes. He seemed confused. He looked around the room, and noticed the girl next to him.\r\n \"Erin? Erin! Where am I? Where\'s Dorothy?\"\r\n \"Quatre, calm down. You have to save your strength. You\'re in the Cinq Kingdom. Dorothy killed you and stole your soul. I don\'t know what happened during that. Well … we think we killed Dorothy. I necromanced you and … um … here we are,\" she gestured around the room.\r\n\"Thank you, Erin.\"\r\n \"Why are you thanking me? As far as I\'m concerned, I\'m the one that got you killed.\" Quatre cocked an eyebrow in question. \"Well to be quite frank, I was an ass to you. And, I\'m not saying this out of arrogance, but I think you went after Dorothy and Epyon by yourself to prove your strength and durability to either yourself or me. Or possibly both. Am I right?\" Erin said with a coy smile.\r\n \"Actually, I went off to protect the group. Especially you,\" Quatre admitted.\r\n Erin bowed her head, smiled and blushed a bit. With a love struck sigh, she dipped a small cloth into a bowl of water. She wrung it out, and began cleaning the dried blood off Quatre\'s face. He seemed to warm up to the touch of the cool water on his brow. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. A smile crossed his lips. \r\n More than anything she just wanted to touch his lips. To brush her fingertips over the soft, delicate skin would have been paradise. His eyelids, lips, face and neck. She had never been as happy as she was now. A desire had never been so strong.\r\n A few wet strands of hair plotted about his face. Hesitantly, she reached up to brush them away. As she did so, Quatre grabbed her hand. He started to stroke the back of her hand with his fingers. She closed her eyes, completely embellishing the touch. He began to draw her hand to his face. There, he lovingly kissed the back of the knuckles of her hand.\r\n Erin slowly withdrew her hand and \"petted\" the side of his face. An almost silent moan escaped his lips, along with a pleasured smile. \r\n Afraid of taking advantage of Quatre, she delicately pulled away from him to prevent further intimacy.\r\n She continued to clean him up. By the time she had cleaned up his face, neck and arms, she was amazed he hadn\'t died. She couldn\'t have imagined the amount of pain he had suffered. And all because of her. She couldn\'t stand it anymore. She just had to ask. \"Quatre, if I may, how in the hell did you endure all of this?\"\r\n \"You want the truth?\"\r\n She nodded solemnly. \r\n \"Thinking of you.\"\r\n Once again, her head fell as she smiled and blushed. He raised her head by placing his hand under Erin\'s chin. His eyes caught hers in a passionate embrace.\r\n \"Before I met you, Erin, I had no hope. I knew I had failed the Gundams numerous times. I had failed my father. I had failed myself. I was near the point were I wanted my life to end. But I had heard it was a cowardly way to die. That and I didn\'t have the courage to kill myself. So I lived, wishing everyday to pass quickly so I could approach my death.\r\n \"When I met you my whole look on life changed. I finally had something to live for. I went to battle Dorothy because … I didn\'t want to fail you too.\"\r\n A solitary tear fell from her eye and onto his hand. She kissed his hand and held it to her face. \"I love you, Quatre,\" she whispered. \r\n Erin sat there at the bedside on the floor, absorbing everything that had just been said. She still held his hand. She had the distinct urge to crawl up on that bed with him and kiss every inch of his pale, soft skin. But she didn\'t want to violate him. He had been timid since the day they met. She had made sure to go at his pace.\r\n After sitting there for what seemed like an eternity, Erin edged to the table with the water and peroxide. When she dipped another cloth into the peroxide, she looked warily over at Quatre. \"This is probably gonna hurt.\"\r\n Other than the occasional grimace of pain, the bubbling peroxide didn\'t seem to be hurting him at all. That was good. She had caused him enough pain already.\r\n Erin was nearly done. She had spied a rather nasty cut stretching from his right collarbone, down his stomach, and around his left side. It caused her to shudder ever so slightly. The thought that he had had this done to him because of her was depressing. She asked herself for the bazillionth time. It\'s my fault this happened to him. Why doesn\'t he hate me?\r\n She took a deep breath, readied the cloth and looked over at Quatre. For about the fifth time she noticed him staring at her, longingly. She turned away from his beautiful, blue eyes, wanting nothing more than to kiss her blonde hair angel.\r\n \"This is gonna hurt a lot worse.\" \r\n \"Okay,\" Quatre said softly.\r\n Erin sighed deeply (more for him than for herself) and began dabbing the cloth on the gash. Quatre clenched his teeth in agony, and balled his fists. She had to continually convince herself that the wound must be cleansed. But once again, her sense of guilt overwhelmed her.\r\n She returned to clean his chest, stopping every now and again so the pain could subside. As she worked her way to his chest, her hand brushed against his nipple. A slight gasp and shudder was admitted from his body. She wouldn\'t have noticed if her attention hadn\'t been set so completely on her love.\r\n Quatre seemed embarrassed by his show of ecstasy he had for the girl. He looked into her calm, loving green eyes as if for forgiveness. But there was none to be given. That one mere shudder had reassured their love for one another (not to mention flatter her). \r\n Erin set the cloth down on the table. She lifted herself onto the bed and sat on the edge. She picked up his hand and held it to her chest. She then brushed the wisps of hair out of his face and kissed his forehead. When their eyes met, Quatre\'s hands worked their way through her soft, golden brown hair. \r\nBy now she had straddled him, her hands on his chest. She leaned down to kiss his forehead, when his lips suddenly met hers.\r\nTheir first kiss was nothing like either of them could have imagined. It was fiery with passion, but cool with sensual lust that made it unforgettable. For one reason or another, Erin felt it was her duty to lead. Quatre had no argument whatsoever.\r\nShe let her lips dwell on his for a few minutes, drawing in his breath. She proceeded to move to the bottom lip where she nibbled and sucked the delicate skin. A blissful moan escaped his rose colored lips. He pulled away.\r\nQuatre set his lips on her left cheekbone. He then kissed down her face and neck. His lips found the middle of the base of her neck and worked his way up to meet Erin\'s lips once more.\r\nHe had a hold of the back of her neck. Erin had a hold of the sides of his face. The more time passed the more they wanted of each other. Erin dragged her hands down his neck and further down his chest. She was about to make her way to his back when he suddenly gasped in pain. She had accidentally touched the tail end of his major gash.\r\n\"Oh my goddess! Quatre, I\'m so sorry.\"\r\n\"Don\'t be sorry. I\'ve never been this happy.\"\r\nShe looked at the cuts and scrapes. She immediately got a flash of mischievous brilliance. \"Would you like me to kiss it and make it all better?\"\r\n\"Mmm … hmm,\" he said with a seductive smile.\r\nShe started on his face and neck kissing Quatre lightly and teasingly. As she got to his arms, her movements became more and more intense. This included the licking and sucking of his fingertips. By the time she reached his chest, Quatre\'s skin tingled with a sensation he had never experienced before. Everywhere she touched him became molten fire. Her warm breath against his skin seduced his senses.\r\nQuatre\'s moans started out as incoherent sighs. Now they were … well … very coherent moans of indulgence. Every now and then, Erin would blow on some of the deeper cuts to cause the Arabian pilot some rather pleasurable pain.\r\nAfter she was done kissing every inch of his upper body\'s tender skin, she resumed her position at his chest. She let her eyes wander over his face and back down again. Erin began to cat stretch up his arms and hands. Carefully, she pinned his arms down by the wrists.\r\nHer hair fell in sensuous strands over her face as she innocently batted her eyes and smiled. \"What are you doing?\" Quatre asked suspiciously.\r\n\"I\'m going to make you scream.\"\r\nWith that her tongue was introducing itself to the thing that had caused this incident - his nipple. Erin continued to give him a very thorough tongue bath. Quatre all the while was struggling (for many reasons, including the obvious, and mostly to kiss her back). Part of him wanted her to continue. The other half wanted to return the favor.\r\nOnce she loosened her grip, he had her face in his hands. When he kissed her, it was almost as marvelous as their first, but as I said, nothing could have been as marvelous as that. Nothing.\r\nWith her tongue she traced the boundaries of his lips, slowly. Then her tongue gently found its way into Quatre\'s mouth. Erin stealthily made her way across his upper lip. Quatre boldly made his move by moving the tip of his tongue along the bottom of hers.\r\n Although only about five minutes passed during Erin and Quatre\'s oral cavity search, it seemed like an amazing forever. Both of their heads were buzzing. They were filled with emotion of happiness, pleasure and lust. Above all love. Love for each other that could never be destroyed or met by another love.\r\n For a rather small bed, they were still able to cram their bodies together. Erin had curled up next to Quatre\'s side. Her hand rested on his chest, as did her head. Quatre protectively draped his arm around her shoulders. His other hand was holding hers. One of Erin\'s legs was intertwined with his. \r\n She closed her eyes and smiled while she listened to his heart beating. Quatre looked over to the side table and spied a white rose. He picked it up. He began tickling her bare arm with the rose petals. She quietly purred.\r\n After he stopped tickling her, he placed the rose the rose in her hair. They laid there in a glorious silence. Finally, Erin spoke up. \"Quatre, promise me you\'ll never leave again.\"\r\n \"I promise.\"\r\n \"I love you Quatre,\" she added with a happy sigh.\r\n \"As I do you.\" \r\n\r\n