"So, how about you and me take the day off? It's a beautiful day, and…" He stretched his arms for emphasis, exaggeratedly basking in the mild heat and cool breeze of the afternoon.

She tried her best to keep the bemused expression off her face, and cut him off. "Sir, if I may…?"

"Go ahead, First Lieutenant."

"I'll shoot you before I let you ignore your paperwork again. You know it's due today."

He frowned. For a minute there she actually thought she offended him. Not that she cared too much, now.

Then his bottomless eyes squinted and he threw his head back for a few rare instances of real, guttural laughter.

"But seriously, Hawkeye, you need to see things for what they are, and what they're not.

"It's not like they'll be here forever."

She didn't hear the last sentence, for she saw the glint of something metallic a couple of meters away, over the colonel's shoulder. Panic raked her mind and the next few seconds felt like a lifetime.

Her brain whirred into action, possible plans of action playing themselves in her head for fractions of a second.

It would take too long, maybe a second too long, to whip out her own gun and fire back. If she shouted out he would take a few seconds to react, and it might be too late. So the only solution would be…

She seized his arm and threw herself on him before she could even think about it.

"Hawkeye, what do you think you're…" He trailed off as a gunshot resounded, and blood spurted into red droplets on his cheek.

She didn't close her eyes then.

A bullet had imbedded itself in her shoulder, three seconds after she saw the gunman, and she landed on top of him with her blood staining his clothes. He got and up and laid her down flat on her back, then stood up. Her senses dulled at that moment.

She heard the colonel yelling, and three other gunshots as Havoc counter-attacked several times, not hitting the assassin as precisely as she would have.

Her eyes were still open as the colonel blurred himself into view, hovering over her and checking her statistics, warm body pressed to hers. There was a fuzzy ringing in her ears and she could barely stay conscious.

"Hawkeye, do you hear me? Listen: whatever you do, don't close your eyes. I know it's hard and…" It was hard; the sound of his voice alone could lull her to sleep.

But she couldn't help it, she was so tired, and her shoulder hurt a lot, more than it should have (the bullet must have hit bone, then), and someone was singing her a song, somewhere far away, and it went something like…

"Damn it, Hawkeye! I said don't close your eyes; that's an order!" He barked, with the slightest tinge of dread and anxiety to his voice. It made the lullaby so much more beautiful that it already was, because it made it clear that someone actually cared for her, that he cared for her…

"Hawkeye, hold on, please just hold on, just for a minute…" the melody was down to a whisper even as shouts of alarm erupted around it; somehow desperate, somehow pleading.

"I'm sorry, sir…" she groaned; he took it for one of pain. He must be so disappointed at her for disobeying…

But then again, she felt his chest rising and falling with hers, felt his ribs enclose his expanding lungs, and felt his heart still beating almost in sync with her own. He was still alive, still breathing, always breathing… as long as she's here, she wouldn't let him stop, not even if it meant that she would cease doing so instead.

At this, a smile graced her lips as her world vanished into oblivion.

-

I love Royai. I seriously do. It's not obvious, isn't it? Anyway, I decided I won't update until I get eight reviews. And there are two more chapters waiting, you know, so you better

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