That night, I couldn't sleep. I was wide awake the entire night, watching Squid sleep. He never really snored, but he was breathing louder than normal. Suddenly he shot up in bed, sweat pouring off him, hands shaking. "Damn." Was all he said before laying back down, obviously not noticing that I was awake and watching him. He looked straight at me but didn't see me staring back at him. He reached out and took my hand. "I love you, Astrid," he whispered.

I propped myself up on my elbow. "I love you too."

He jumped about five feet in the air. "What the... were you awake?"

"Yeah. I never fell asleep." He just shook his head and rolled over, facing away from me. "Squid?" I sat at his feet. He sighed and looked at me. "What's with you? You're acting like...."

"A jackass?" he suggested.

"Well, yeah."

"Good, I didn't want you to miss me."

"What?" I asked in a whisper-scream. (you know, when you don't want anyone to hear you but you scream? Yeah, that.)

He sighed. "This is living hell... well, not compared to my home life, but... you know. So I was gonna leave tomorrow night, but you're gonna try and stop me now, right?" he said in one breath.

"No... not necessarily."

"So, what ARE you going to do?"

I grinned. "Want some company?"

"You're nuts."

"And you're not?" I challenged.

He blushed. "Well..."

(cut to the next night)

"Squid. Get your lazy butt out of bed," I whispered after I'd filled our extra canteens with water and evenly distributed the cans of beans in our backpacks, along with the two sheets we'd decided to bring. He stirred slightly. I kissed him, right on the lips, knowing it was the only thing that might wake him.

He opened his eyes. "What time is it?" he mumbled, sitting up.

"11:30. Come on, we really have to go. Everything's ready," I told him while I braided my hair and secured it with a rubber band. Then I put my hat on and picked up my backpack which also had a lot of... erm... feminine supplies.

He shook his head, then put on his own hat and backpack. "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be." We walked right out of camp. It took until dawn to get past the holes, and when we finally did, we fell asleep next to each other in the hot sun with our hats covering our faces.

"Astrid. Get up. We have to keep going," he said, leaning over me. It was midday. I rubbed my eyes and put my hat back on and we kept walking. "What's that?" he asked, pointing to a brown lump in the distance.

I squinted. "A brown lump."

He laughed. When we got closer, we saw it was a boat with Mary Lou written on the side. "Mary Lou, huh? This must've been her boyfriend's boat."

I smirked. "Or maybe it was named after a donkey," I joked. He snorted and looked at an opening between the ground and the boat for a minute, then went in.

"It's so nice and cool down here. C'mon, Astrid!" I slid in and sat next to Squid. It really was cool down there. "See?"

I shut my eyes. "No, I can't see."

"As-trid!" he almost whined. "I'm hot, I'm-"

"Darn right you are!" I laughed, poking his ribs.

He groaned. "Please... just cut it out!" He snapped. "Leave me alone."

As if I would listen. I simply hugged him and refused to let go, even when he tried to shake me off. "No way, muchacho loco. We're stuck together. You better get used to it."

He finally gave in and hugged me back. "You know, it's really hard to be mad at you."

I laughed out loud and grabbed a jar of... something or other. It didn't open easily at all. I cracked the lid off. "Cheers!" I drank it slowly, letting the sweetness slide down my throat. I handed it to Squid. "Try this. It tastes like peaches."

He drank it cautiously, then smiled. "Sweet."

I tried opening another jar. It opened easily. "Better not drink from the ones that open too easy. We'll get sick... you know, bacteria?" He nodded and I started looking for my sketchbook. I found it and my pencils and started to sketch him drinking the... the... sploosh, a smile on his face. "Wanna sleep now and walk more at night?" I asked when I was done, not looking up. When he didn't answer I looked and saw that he was sound asleep. I closed the book and rested my head on his chest.

We must have slept straight through to the next day, because when Squid woke me up, the sun was rising. "Come on, belle" (beautiful) "We have to keep going." I got up and we put a few empty jars in our backpacks. "What does that mountain look like to you?"

I looked where he was pointing and slowly raised my thumb from my fist. He nodded and we kept walking, this time towards the mountain. When we began to climb, I went first. Stupidly. "Who decided I had to go first?" I gasped when we got to the second ledge.

"You."

"Oh yeah. Why the heck are we climbing a mountain anyway?"

"So we can look and see if we can see any type of civilization from the top," he said patiently, as if explaining to a small child. I didn't care. We rested for a while, then started climbing again, forcing ourselves to go, even though we felt like dying right then and there. "Keep going, ma fille."(my girl) I smiled despite the fact that my hands felt ready to fall right off my wrists and pulled myself up on the ledge, then reached down for him. "No. just give me a second. I can do it myself, belle," he insisted.

"Cut it out, Alan." I grabbed his hand and with a little help from him, got him to the ledge where we both collapsed in a heap, sprawled together, breathing hard. Too tired to do much more, he kissed my hand, the closest part of me to his face. And there we slept, tired, sore, and together. The next time I woke, it was midnight, and I could feel him watching me. "What?" I asked sleepily.

"I love you," he said quietly, totally unlike himself.

My heart skipped a beat. "I... I love you too." He kissed me. This time, I didn't freak out. I kissed him back, not thinking about what was happening for once, letting my crazy emotions rule me. He pulled my hair out of the braid and shook it out, slipping the rubber band over his wrist. My hands were in his hair when we stood to dance in the spotlight of the full moon to a silent melody. No words were said, but we both knew. We were young and in love, and we didn't care that we were sharing our first dance on the side of a mountain in the moonlight. It just made everything that much more special and romantic.

The next morning, we continued climbing, but this time, nothing could touch us. We didn't feel the pain in our hands, arms, and legs. We'd found the love, and that was all that mattered. When we finally got to the top, we jumped in the water, laughing like two kids at Christmas who'd gotten exactly what they wanted. "Astrid?"

"Alan?" I mimicked, rolling over on my side to look at him.

"Are we actually going to go home, or..."

"Why?" I asked, sensing he was going to say something pretty important.

"Well, you're... what, 16?" I nodded. "Well, I'm almost 18... I think. I don't quite know the date, but..." I waited patiently for him to go on. "You do realize we're gonna be in major trouble."

I shook my head. "What she was doing was cruel and unusual punishment. We had to get out. Trust me, when they find us, I'll have it figured out. Let's just have fun while it lasts." He still looked slightly apprehensive. I splashed him with the water. "Come on. Let's stay here for a while, get some rest, then keep going. We're young, we can make it up as we go along."

He shook his head. "You're nuts. But," he took the toothpick from his mouth. "You're right, and you're beautiful, and that's all that matters." I blushed. He took my hands in his. "You know, we knew early that a girl was coming. We were all wondering what you'd be like, and hoping you'd be... I don't know. But what we imagined? It didn't even come close to you, belle fille." I looked away shyly, surprised I remembered how to be shy anymore.

"Oh, come on..."

He laughed. "Seriously! Come on, Astrid, give yourself some credit. You're the most beautiful girl I've ever met." I rolled my eyes. "I know for a fact that every guy in that camp was drooling over you, even when Naomi came. Sure, she's pretty, no one could deny that, but you're a different type of beautiful. You're not a show-off."

"Then what am I? Enlighten me, Alan."

"When you eat, people stop and stare because they're surprised that you're a mortal. That's what you are. You're a siren, Astrid." He sighed. "You know, you don't seem to trust my judgment. If I tell you you're beautiful and you don't believe me..." he looked away.

The look in his eyes killed me. I took my hand from his and traced a single finger down his jaw. "I love you. I trust you're judgment." I kissed him lightly on the lips. He kissed back hungrily. I followed his lead, losing myself in him. He rolled on top of me and started kissing my neck, probably leaving hickeys. I just buried my face in his hair... he was in dire need of a haircut, but I like that look. I drank in his scent, and even though I knew it was impossible for either of us to smell like anything but onions, I could have sworn I smelled some sort of cologne. (AN: I love the smell of guy's cologne. OMG, it smells soooo good.) When he finally stopped kissing me, he didn't roll off of me, but just rested his head on my chest. "How many hickeys did you leave?"

"Does it matter?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm just curious," I said lazily, kissing his fingertips one by one. He blushed slightly and held up three fingers. I smiled at him. "Okay. Where are they?" He touched just above my collar bone, just a little away from my left ear, and somewhere in the middle of those two places. I smiled. I mean, really, what else could I do? It's hard for me to get mad at him. Besides, they were just hickeys. No big thing.

"Are you mad at me?" he asked, finally rolling off of me. I shook my head, looking deep into his eyes. "Oh, okay. Just checking." I secretly wished he hadn't gotten off, but didn't say anything. I just moved closer to him and rested my head on his chest while we slept the day away in each other's arms.