Chapter Five

Anna was asleep, Riddick next to her who was also asleep. A flush crept up her neck and cheeks as the image in her mind intensified. It wasn't a dream it was a memory. Of the night when she was fifteen, and she and fifteen-year-old Riddick...devirginized each other. To put it mildly. But the image changed, as they both became older, as old as they are now.

She woke up gasping in her bed and took her hand from Riddick's leaving the room and going to the training area to work off some...stress.

Riddick had woken up when she had gotten off the bed, he tried to ask her what was wrong but by the time his half-awake mind had formed the words she was gone. He got off the bed and stretched before following her, he followed her footsteps to the training area and watched as she worked off some apparent frustration by beating the stuffing out of the canvas punching bag. She punched it and kicked it, grunting slightly with contact. She winced as sweat got into the cut on her cheek but continued to beat the bag, after a while she stopped and he walked towards her. She looked at him, then back down. He took her shaking hands in his own, running his thumb along the scraped and bruised knuckles. She pulled her hands away and he looked at her.

"They hurt." She said and he took her hands again, raising them. He blew a cool breath across the knuckles with his eyes closed. "Richard, do you remember when we were fifteen and we..." he nodded blowing another breath across her knuckles, his eyes still closed.

"When we introduced each other to adulthood."

"That's one way of saying it." Anna said. "Did you ever think that there could've been something between us than just that?"

"Everyday afterwards. Why? Did you?"

"Yes, I was just thinking that if there was, then maybe you would've come to me after you found out what Derek was going to do and we could've come up with a different solution." She said and he laid a gentle kiss on her knuckles allowing her hands to slip from his.

"Woulda shoulda coulda." Riddick said looking at her and she shrugged.

"Well unless you have a time machine in your pocket, there's nothing either of us can do about it now." Anna said and he drew her into a hug, he couldn't seem to get enough of holding her now that they were together again. She froze but relaxed and hugged him back. He pulled away slightly and looked at her, he ran his fingers through her really short hair.

"Why did you cut your hair? It looked beautiful long." He asked.

"It flew all over the place in free-falls, and after a while that got annoying." She said and he nodded.

"Good enough for me. So what's the plan of action today?" he asked taking his arms from around her.

"What do you mean?"

"Well I know that mercs have to check in every once in while just to let HQ know that they're still alive, especially when they're after me." Riddick said and she shrugged.

"I guess I could contact them."

"And tell them what, exactly?" he asked going on the offensive.

"That I'm still alive..."

"And when they ask you if you found me yet, you'll tell them...?"

"That I haven't." Anna said and he smirked ruffling her hair.

"Good girl." He said and she knocked his hand away with a scowl.

"I didn't like when you did that when we were kids, and I still don't." she said poking him in the chest with her finger. In a move too quick for her to see, he grabbed her wrist and swung her around so her back was against his chest and his arms were pinning hers.

"What exactly were you thinking when you did that? You never touch someone in an argument, even if it's just the start of one, unless you want it to get physical." Riddick growled in her ear and she squirmed against him.

"I forgot your history for a second, give me some slack Richard."

"I don't give anyone slack Anna, you've known that since we met all those years ago." He said, taking advantage of their situation he smelled her neck and hair, she smelled different, more like a woman.

It's been a while, since I've seen the way the candles light your face. And it's been a while, but I can still remember just the way you taste. A line from a Staind song popped into his head suddenly almost making him draw back. He moved his head to the other side of her face and smelled her neck and hair again. His lips brushed against her neck and he heard her gasp, all tension leaving her muscles letting her almost melt into his arms. She laid the back of her head on his shoulder and he looked at her. He loosened his arms so he was only holding her instead of restraining her. They locked eyes and were moving towards each other for a kiss when alarms went off. He took his arms from around her and she ran for the cockpit. Riddick sat down on a crate with his head in his hands. For so long he's thought of her as a sister, now bit by bit those thoughts are being eaten away by her presence, her scent, they way she feels in his arms. He waited for her to come back but she didn't, so he went up to the cockpit to find her strapped in the pilots chair harness, it was the only chair, a concentrated scowl on her face.

"What's up?" he asked and she looked at him then back at the controls.

"It was just some space junk that got too close to the hull, set off the sensors. I contacted HQ, so that's over with." Anna said and he nodded. He leaned against the back of her chair and watched as she ran a diagnostics scan. "I'm not comfortable with you looking over my shoulder Richard." She said simply and he walked away, going into the bathroom and taking a shower.

When he was gone she hung in the harness and sighed.

Not good, not good at all. She thought and looked at the controls when the diagnostics scan was complete, everything was A-OK, the engines were running at 200% power, the hull was sound and life support was good, everything was absolutely fine. Snorting humorlessly she wished she could run a diagnostics scan on her own mind, just so she could see what was damaged and fix it. It would make her life so much easier. But life ain't that fair, life's bitch and then you die.

Anna heard the shower shut off and checked the hot water heater to see if he left her any, he left her plenty so she got up setting the controls on automatic and went into the bathroom, hearing him in what was now their bedroom. She took a shower and scrubbed her body with her sea salt exfoliating stuff, she just kept grabbing some until her whole body was covered in a layer of salt, except her face of course. She rinsed and scrubbed her hair with her herbal shampoo. Made with all natural ingredients grown in the rainforests of New Earth! Or at least that's what the label said. She rinsed her hair, shaved her legs and pits and turned off the shower getting out and wrapping herself in a towel. She couldn't get dressed back in her clothes, they were all sweaty. So she tossed them down the laundry chute that fed right into the washer and checked it on the small view screen. It was full so she sealed off the chute on that end and started the washer by touching a button on the screen, when it was done it would automatically blow the clothes into the dryer using a vacuum type thing and that would start all by itself. The dry clothes then went into an automatic folder which folded and rolled all the clothes and sent them up to her room in a series of powerful vacuum chutes all ready to be put away.

(A/N: sigh if only that was real.)

Still wrapped in the towel, she went into her room to see Riddick in just black sweatpants looking at her books. She blushed seeing his bare chest, a lot different from what she remembered it looking; it's way more muscular now.

"Have a nice shower?" he asked taking a book down and reading the back cover.

"Yes actually, um...I need to get dressed." She said and he looked at her, she could swear that there was a mischievous glint in his eyes, but she couldn't be sure with the shine.

"I don't mind." He said grinning.

"I do." she said and walked over to her dresser, grabbing a flight jumpsuit out of a drawer and a pair of panties. She could feel him looking at her. "If you're not going to leave, could you at least turn around?" she asked and looked over her shoulder to see him turning his back on her. The towel dropped and she quickly slipped into the panties and jumpsuit zipping it up, the plush lining warming her in the cold of the ship, she had been told that she'd get used to it but she never did. "You can turn around." he did and she turned to face him towel drying her hair. She finally noticed that goosebumps had raised along his skin because of the cold. "Why don't you have a shirt on? It's cold in here." Anna asked and he shrugged, she watched, as hard muscle moved under his caramel colored skin. He went over to a duffel bag by the bed and pulled out a dark gray sweater slipping it on, the neck was stretched out and it hung off of one shoulder.

"I brought my things when I carried you here yesterday." Riddick said when she looked at him in question.

"Why?" Anna asked.

"Before I knew that you were you, my plan was to find out who hired you, kill you then take your ship, digging out the locator first and jettison that and your body out the air lock. But that plan kinda died when I realized who you were." he said and she perked an eyebrow.

"Appreciate it." She said and he smiled, suddenly looking like the 15-year-old boy she once knew, damn she had missed him. Going over to him she wrapped her arms around his slim waist and hugged him tightly. "I know I told you this before, but I missed you Richard." She said and he hugged her back, lying a gently kiss on the side of her head.

"I missed you too Anna." He said and they pulled away after a little while.

"I'm hungry." Anna said and he snorted.

"You always were abrupt. And I could use some food too." Riddick said and they went down to the kitchen area to get something to eat.