Ugh, I'm too old for zits! They said once you weren't a teenager, zits would go away. Well I'm 25 and they're still here. What the fwoop is going on?

Chapter 7

Since Naru continued to be reluctant to let go of me, I compromised with a piggy back ride. A thin, soaked yukata was not enough in autumn, especially since the clouds that had been threatening all day with rain blocked the sun. By the time we made it back to the inn a chilly wind had picked up, and I thought we'd never be warm again. The shivering had been so bad I had bitten my tongue several times, but at least I was still shivering, said Naru. Apparently hypothermia didn't get seriously dangerous until you stopped.

The fire had been put out at the inn. The weary firefighters insisted that we stay until they found out what had happened with the ambulance, but Naru didn't protest. Rather, he commanded that they move so we could get to our car. We were going home and nothing would stop him.

It was interesting for me to watch over Naru's shoulder as he glared down a man a foot taller and two feet wider aside from the passenger side door. The firefighter even opened it for him so he could settle me in like I had lost the use of my legs. With how hard I shook, I wouldn't be surprised if I had. A hotel employee ran out in time for Naru to accept one of their fluffy comforters and two dry yukatas.

"You got our contact information if you need to accuse us of crashing your ambulance," said Naru dryly as he stuffed the comforter around me.

"Of course not, sir, but your health-your wife's burns-"

Naru dropped into his seat and shut the door in his face. I watched with a frown as Naru had to try three times to get his shaking hands to put in the keys.

"M-m-mayb-be you s-s-shouldn't d-d-rive." Damn shivers! At this point I would have dived head first into the nearest hot spring if I wasn't more concerned about my husband's emotional wellbeing.

But he got the key in and the car backed out without crashing into the fire engine or anything else for that matter. As he got started down the road, he tried to turn the heater knobs higher, even though he had turned them on full blast before the car had even started. I thought I could hear his quick, erratic breathing above the chattering of my teeth. His lips had turned purpleish and his blue eyes had gone bright. His knuckles were white on the steering wheel.

"Naru?" I took a deep breath to calm my chattering. "Oliver...everything is going to be okay."

"Everything's not okay," he said. Sure, he didn't stutter when he was shivering like mad. Was there anything he couldn't do? Wait, weren't his teeth chattering? If they weren't, why was he shaking? I reached out to touch his arm and felt nothing but ice.

"You're worse than me!" I cried. "You could at least have changed out of that wet yukata before we left-"

"I have to get you home," he said, voice hard, but thin as glass.

"Okay, but doesn't hypothermia affect how you think and your reflexes? It's not safe to drive when you're this cold." When he didn't respond, I tried a different approach. "I can cuddle with you naked."

"Mai, this isn't the time."

I flinched at the danger in his voice. "Okay, okay. But if you don't pull over and dress into something dry right now, I'm going to do something drastic that you won't like."

He let out an angry puff of air. "Can you at least wait until we're away from here?"

"And when will we be far away enough for you, huh?"

"The freeway."

"Where on the freeway?"

"MAI!"

I squawked in surprise and bit my tongue again. Whimpering in pain, I ducked down, startled by his sudden roar. Tears sprung to my eyes before I could register why they were even there. I didn't dare to say anything, even as we passed the dark plume that marked where the ambulance lay. Firefighters and other volunteers had already congregated about it like buzzards.

The long, country road ended at the highway, which lead up to the water park. In the other direction it would take us home. Naru pulled over onto the side and jerked the car into park. The heater had warmed up by then and the car was starting to feel like a wonderful sauna. He pushed back his seat and started to strip. For some reason, watching him helped me to stop crying. His body was awfully beautiful...

"You too," he said roughly, throwing the second dry yukata onto my fluff-covered lap. I only glanced down at it before returning to the Naru show. He had to lift his hips up to yank the yukata out from underneath him, which I found myself appreciating. I could do pervy things like this now. He was mine. Weird.

As he bent his shoulders forward to get the dry yukata about him, he caught me staring.

"Do I have to dress you?" he said, meaning it as a threat.

"Maybe," I said faintly. The desire to throw myself on top of him had reach to the point of pain. I wanted the comfort of his body more than ever. I wanted to forget.

He sighed. "Please, Mai, this isn't..." his voice cracked and he abruptly curled forward, as though in pain. "We have to get home."

Guilt doused my lust. "I-I'm sorry, I...frick." I kicked my way out of the comforter and got to tearing off my wet yukata and replacing it with the new one. Just as I pulled the dry one around my shoulders, Naru reached out a shaking, cold hand to my far side, brushing the palm of his hand across the side of my breast. Next thing I knew he was across the center console and kissing me, all shakes and desperate breaths through sobs trying to work themselves into being. He had to pull away to fight for breath.

"Oh, sweetness..." I gasped in dismay, bringing his head to my bare chest. "Sweetheart, darling, I'm okay. Everything's alright. You're doing just fine, everything is just fine."

He grasped my arms to brace himself as he struggled to calm down. He was shaking worse than ever and his breathing became shorter and shorter till I feared he'd simply pass out.

"Naru, Oliver, breathe, it's okay. You need to breathe."

Suddenly he jerked back to his seat, threw open the car door, and threw up onto the side of the street.

He hung their retching long after I was sure there was nothing left to throw up. Finally, he pulled himself back in, shut the door, and dropped his head onto the steering wheel. His face had gone snowy pale and his cheeks shone with tears.

"I'm okay," he said softly.

"Do you need me to drive?" I said, before changing it to. "Screw it, I'm driving."

"Like hell," he growled weakly. "Forget that it's illegal, have you ever even driven before? I'm fine now, I just...it was just a panic attack."

"A panic attack? Forgive me if I don't sound like I believe you."

"You don't have to believe me." He pulled the gear stick besides the car wheel back into drive and sat up, wiping at his face with a sleeve. "You're not driving."

His shaking had seemed to calm down somewhat, I noted, as he pulled back onto the road and turned onto the highway that would eventually take us to the freeway to Tokyo.

A few, big fat rain drops splashed onto the windshield. The clouds had finally decided to do what they had been threatening all afternoon.

I pulled my fluffy comforter cocoon about me as I watched them blur the trees and the yellow lines in the road ahead with water. "You think they'll let us keep this? Fluffy blankets are the best."

"She said we could," he said. "Our phones and wallets should be in there. They'll be shipping the rest of our stuff to us."

I padded about the comforter to find said phone and wallets and ended up finding them in the foot well. I brought them up, set them into the cup holders, and brought up my phone to distract myself with pictures of furniture that I would like to see in Naru's bland apartment-or rather, our apartment, but my fingers wouldn't move. I felt drained and exhausted. I couldn't believe it was only just reaching five o'clock.

Naru switched on the headlights.

Yawning, numb, not wanting to think of all that had just happened, I wrapped an arm around his and nuzzled my head against his arm. I let the scent of him melt the last pillar holding up my awareness, using the fluffy comforter to turn the center console into a pillow.

I didn't need to know what that thing was. I didn't even really care to.

And yet, the very moment I crossed over into unconsciousness, I found myself standing on an open road, not unlike the one Naru and I drove on now, bare foot and staring up into the sky as the rain fell in curtains all about me. I dimly wondered if the story about turkeys drowning themselves whenever it rained because they'd look up and stay like that was true.

I knew it was there before I heard the footsteps.

Get out of the water...

It was my own voice that told me that, even as I clenched my eyes shut. I didn't want to drop my chin. I didn't want to see what came up to me through the rain. I was too tired of this. We just wanted to get home-I had to get Naru home. He couldn't take much more of this.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked. Rain filled my mouth. "What do you want?"

Get out of the water...

I couldn't close my eyes to it anymore, because they were open without my memory of opening them and staring straight forward at the tall being stretching up before me. Its long arms dragged along the ground, slim and lanky like the rest of its being. Its joints stood out, knobby and grotesque, and its shoulders slumped, allowing its head to loll before its chest. I couldn't make out if it had hair or if it was bald, because it didn't seem to really get to me that it was a head at all. Just a continuation of a face.

Which tilted up to me, long, long, long, a mouth gaping wider and wider.

Of course there was no head. It had just been a mouth all along, slim bright tongue dripping and broken teeth yellowing and sharp. It's eyes melted over its top lip like the nostrils of a snake's nose, staring at me with uncanny intensity.

Get out of the water!

It's top tipped down, bringing that mouth over me like an alien saucer readying to beam me up. Rancid saliva dripped down in place of the rain it's figure blocked.

The mouth came down.