We were beyond needing words now.  Maybe it was telepathy or empathy or the surly bonds of love.  Whatever it was, it connected us deeper than the sounds of our own voices and tighter than a bond of blood.  All I could think at this moment, was that he was the most beautiful person I'd ever seen.  Not just physically perfect though.  He had suffered so much, much more than even I had and it had left him without a mark of drowning on his face.  A damaged soul in a faultless body; the image in the mirror was flawless because the shattered glass was hidden on the inside.  I could sympathize, and because of it I could make him whole again.

He carried me through a short passage and down a flight of stone stairs.  We ended up in a tiny, barren bed chamber in a closed off wing of the compound.  Carrying me over the threshold he set me gently on my feet.  I ran my hands over his chest and tsked as I saw the blood on my fingers.  "You've reopened your cuts showing off silly."  Laughing softly he pulled me into his arms.

We were so close that we bled inside each others wounds.  His breath ruffled my hair, his presence made my skin tingle.  "Look."  He nods his head towards my tiny hands, looking like a little girl's held in his larger ones, the delicate scroll work of runes spread out across their surface.  A small smile touches his lips and he tilts my chin back, brushing small kisses along the edges of my lips.

"All of the runes have to be visible for the cure to work.  I think we need to be closer."  I slide my hands up the bottom of his shirt to explore the taut surface of his abdomen.  Leaning into him I press kisses against neck and arms.  Standing on tiptoe I finally reach his lips.  He is being beyond gentle with me, as though I were the most delicate glass that he feared to shatter.  It's driving me insane.  Every fluttering touch sent shivers of fire through my veins, killing me a thousand times and breathing new life into my blood so that I lived again.  But the animal needed its share.  My tongue tentatively brushed the sculpted surface of his lips, which parted in response.  I needed no other invitation, before plunging my tongue hungrily towards his.

He devoured me with his kisses, our tongues wrestling with mindless need.  To break contact would be the death of me, so I ripped his shirt from his body rather than pulling it over his head.  My own shirt followed in a matching maneuver, it had been a bad color on me anyway.

Shudders of fever racked my body only to shoot with electricity through him.  Growing bolder, my hands roam free over his body claiming it as my territory.  Now that I had him I knew that I would never want another in his place, he was meant to be my mate and match.  

With growing need I tug him backward towards the bed.  Laughing huskily he gathers me in his arms, hands cupping my thighs and carries me towards my destination.  Smiling wickedly I suddenly apply a sharp pressure to the back of his knees and send us both tumbling onto the small institutional bed.

Our bodies, now completely naked, twine together in all their perfection on the coarse woolen sheets.  He covers me with his body, surrounding me, protecting me.  My fingers stroke slow circles against the barcode hidden on the back of his neck and his hands come to stroke mine in turn.  Now that we lie together so very close the fever pitch slows becoming less frenzied and more sensual.  We have so little time together, and yet the night could last forever.  If tomorrow brought my death then I would at least have the comfort of dying with him first on this night.

Every image would imprint itself indelibly in my mind.   His eyes lock on mine, hazel to dark brown as his hands stroke the length of my body.  They hold so much wonder as he watches me and I am reminded at just how new this world must be to someone who has spent their lives as a caged animal.

The palms of his hands are warm and unexpectedly calloused adding a sense of texture to his wandering touch.  "Closer."  My whisper ruffles his dark blond hair with like a light breeze.  I close my eyes as we move together in one rhythm older than time.  I've never drowned in anyone before, the experience is heady and new.  We scream each others names in climax as the shuddering reaches its peak. I think if it lasts another moment I might shake apart, and that it would be okay if I did  crack, because he would know instinctually how to put me together again. That if we did put each other back together again the pieces of us might be mixed together inextricably, and that that would be okay too. 

 I'd never been with one of my own kind before, but I think that even another x-5 could not have fit me so well.  Sandeman's perfect creations made for each other in every way.

As I lay gasping in the circle of his arms, the sweat evaporated from my skin.  As if it were magic ink it lifted to reveal a perfect set of runes. 

When the two become one, they shall bless the people of the world with life.