Hello, my readers. Language warning for this chapter. Well, not too much but still.

~o~

Nina's Point of View

Walking in and seeing him made the floodgate burst. Maybe I shouldn't have allowed myself to think. I should have never come back. I got angry. Fast. I threw him against a wall before I could think about what I was doing and gave him one punch to the face and one short angry kiss before grabbing him by the collar and holding him to the wall. The tears burst out. I grasped tightly at his collar and kept him shoved up against the wall.

"How could you do this to me? After everything you've said, after everything we've done, how could you afford to play with me like this? All I ever wanted was for you to be honest with me, Rex. If you wanted to break up with me, you should have just fucking said so!" I held him there to the wall and my own curse had slapped me back to sanity. I let go slowly and took two steps back and took two breaths, not daring to meet his face. "If you wanted to hurt me, fine, mission accomplished. I'm losing it. I can't do this anymore, Rex. I'm leaving." I wiped one eye and forced myself to look up at him. His face was contorted in agony. The tears came faster. What did he mean by looking like that?

"Could you at least tell me why, Rex? What's so wrong with me that finally pushed you away. Tell me. I need to know," I said. My mouth needed to shut up. Why wouldn't my mouth just shut up?

"You're bleeding," he said, reaching towards the bandage on my arm.

"Don't touch me! Just tell me what went wrong." My eyes would not stop shedding rivulets and my mouth would not stop talking. I was going to kill myself with shame at this rate. Why couldn't I keep it inside any longer? Sure, the pain in my body felt worse than a million simultaneous bee stings spreading their venom through my body. Why still couldn't I hold onto that pain and keep it locked up? Was I really that weak?

I had to leave now. I couldn't take it. I could say anything else or hit him again or anything if I stayed. I turned and started walking back from where I came. I had to hide until I could get my stuff and run away again.

"I didn't want to hurt you, Nina. I had to make you hate me," he answered, tone strained. I stopped and turned.

"You failed on both accounts, Rex. You made the girl who doesn't cry cry. And I still don't hate you. I want to beat the hell out of you for almost killing me but I still don't hate you. Why would you want me to hate you anyway?"

"I wanted to make you leave me on your own. It would have made it easier for you to move on that way." I narrowed my eyes.

"You're not making any fu—not making any sense. Why? Give me the whole story here."

He exhaled and began to take a step closer but I put a hand up to stop him. My eyes shifted to Six, Holiday and Circe who were there and I felt a headache coming on. I pinched my nose bridge with my fingers. I was making an idiot of myself in front of everybody. Well everybody except Zane, Noah and Bobo, but surely they'd hear of it.

"Maybe they should leave before this gets any messier," I said to him.

"They can stay. It will save me the trouble of having to explain later. They've heard the violent half already." I dropped my hand and looked up at him. I was going to get violent with words again if he didn't hurry up and give me some answers. "You said you needed me. I didn't want to make you suffer if I had another blackout. You deserved to be spared that pain. I decided that I had to live alone in that case. I had to make you let go of me before you had to endure that. I love you too much to make you go through—"

"Wait, so you decimated my ability to exist because you were trying to protect me?" I took four steps closer to him as I asked, "Are you stupid?" I stood in front of him, my tears finally having stopped. "Providence goes out there every day to fight EVOs, even if they know they could die. You don't see them avoiding danger because the risk outweighs the safety of people." His eyes narrowed. "It's the same principle, Rex. You can't live your life unhappy just because you think you'll make other people unhappy. It's not fair to you or to them.

"You once told me to stop making your decisions for you. Now, the shoe is on the other foot. Stop trying to protect me, Rex. You keep getting hurt that way. And, another thing, my love for you isn't weak enough to be discouraged by something as stupid as a memory blackout. You annihilated my heart and I still loved you, for crying out loud. If I had to remind you who I was and what we had a million times, I would. More than willingly. All I need is to stay with you, Rex, even if you don't love me."

"But I do love you."

"Then stop trying to push me away. It hurts me a hell of a lot more than it hurts you. You're the sun of my universe, remember? Without you, everything is out of balance and nothing can go on. You know I don't say things that I don't mean. And I love you."

He seemed to ponder and assimilate what I had just said and his face contorted a tiny bit more in unhappiness.

"Nina, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to cause you so much pain. It was hurting me, too, but I thought it was the right thing. I just...don't want to forget and cause you problems."

"Rex, there are only three things that we can do that are the right things." I raised one finger for each thing. "Wait for after the wedding for the honeymoon, talk things out without making assumptions and trust each other to be perfectly honest while promising to be completely honest." I dropped my hand. "Just promise me you won't ever think like this again. I swear if you try to break up with me without a good reason again, I'm going to beat you so badly that Doctor Holiday will have to keep you in bed for days and you'll see my point."

"Maybe your New Year's resolution should be to be less violent to those you care about."

"It is. Unless they deserve it."

"I'm sorry."

"I forgive you. But you ruined my Christmas."

"I'll make it better. I promise."

He took a box from his pocket and clasped a chain behind my neck. When I looked down, it was a tag identical to the one I had given him with my name on it.

"Rex, it's beautiful," I said.

"It's steel, white gold and silver. Flip it over," Six said. On the other side the words 'Core to Rex's World' were engraved.

"I thought we agreed to only engrave one side," Rex said to him.

"I knew it was only a matter of time before you made up. You two are too perfect for each other," he answered. "In any case, this could have helped the reunion along." I cracked a smile.

"Wow, Six. Those are the most sentimental words I've ever heard you say. Never thought I'd live to see the day."

"You didn't." I laughed.

"Of course. Thank you all." I looked back at Rex. "Now we match."

"Nina, we always matched," he replied. He took me into a hug but then I remembered him saying something about blood.

"Wait, I'm bleeding, aren't I?"

"Don't care. I won't let go." He held me tightly for a long moment, his lips on my hair. The tears came back long enough for two more to escape. But I was happy this time.

Applause sounded behind us and I turned to see Zane, smiling and clapping.

"How long have you been here?" I asked.

"Since Circe was yelling about helping you two get back together. Once I saw you slam him into a wall, I hid and watched the whole thing. I wasn't going to miss the show. Why else do you think those three stayed? They love dramas as much as I do. I'm shocked you actually swore at Rex," he said.

"Technically, I did not swear at him. It wasn't directed at him. It wasn't an adjective." I turned to Rex. "Sorry about that and for hitting you." He shrugged.

"You were still talking to him, though. Anyway, this is the part where you wait till everyone leaves and say 'F you' to me and I say 'how hard' and all that."

"I haven't said that to you in months."

"True, but you also haven't used that word in a few weeks till today. And to answer your next question, I'm here to hang out until Mass in an hour."

"In an hour? Shoot, I forgot. I've got to go get ready."

"In a minute," Rex said, still holding onto me. "Where'd you get the injury?" I stepped back and removed the bandage, revealing the three inch cut on my arm that was dripping blood through a hole in the bandage's adhesive. I probably strained it when I had Rex by his collar.

"Knife fight. I accidentally got caught in the middle. It's just a scratch, don't worry."

"Oh, that's right, where've you been?"

"I went to Avis Bay for a while but then I went to the next town to earn back some money. That BMW was not cheap."

"Duh, it's a BMW." His eyes went soft and he took the bandage from me and placed it carefully back over it. "I missed you. So much."

"I missed you, too. I was using something as dangerous as gambling as a distraction and look what happened." I looked at his hands. "You have my blood all over your hands."

"I don't care." His arms were around me after that and his lips were on mine and I lost it. My tongue went straight for his the moment our lips were close around each other's. There were no soft touches or light strokes. I went at him with all the tension and desire in my body, tangling and rubbing forcefully. Zane was going to have my head for that. I'd deal with him later. My body was alive again with the feeling of him against me and his taste in my mouth. He was sweet as ecstasy.

He withdrew first and I carefully removed my tongue from his before our lips parted so no one would notice.

"Nina. Hello. Church," Zane said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, right." I ran towards the hall, stopping in front of Six and Holiday, the latter of which was smiling. "Sorry you had to see and hear all that. I lost it."

"It's fine. I'm just glad everything is okay again," Holiday said.

"I'd have loved to see you beat him up though," Circe said. I laughed and ran down the hall to get to the bathroom.

In a half hour, I was ready and re-emerging. I found them all in the cafeteria playing cards, except Rex. A hand came over my shoulder and I turned to see Rex. His hair was still wet and he was dressed semi-formal. He gave me a small kiss to the lips.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Church."

"Since when?"

"Oh, come on, I just want to try it."

"I can't imagine you trying to pay attention to that for two hours. You can't even pay attention to mission briefings."

"Well, I can't imagine you sitting quietly for two hours but apparently you can do it." I laughed. Zane looked up from his cards then looked back at them.

"Look who," he said. "You are one brave son-of-a to stick your tongue in Rex's mouth like that in front of Six and Holiday. Aren't they like your parents?"

"You have no proof."

"Interesting first time, though," Zane said, eyes still on his cards.

"That wasn't the first time," Rex muttered. Holiday and Six looked from their cards to him and I chuckled.

"It wasn't? You never told me!" Zane said, looking hurt.

"Remember that time we all went to the beach?" His face turned shocked.

"That was the first time? I didn't even notice!"

"Hey, mom and dad don't want to hear this. Shh. Get up. We've got to go to church."

"Yeah, you need church."

"Nice one to be talking. I know worse things about you—"

"Beheheh. We do not speak of it." He stood. "Bo-meister, take my place, okay?"

"You got it," the monkey said from behind us, going to take his cards.

"Al iglesia, vamanos," he said.

"Let's take my car," I suggested. He scoffed.

"You didn't have a choice. We were taking it anyway."

"Can I drive?" Rex asked.

"Sure. But if you so much as scratch it, I'm going to make you walk." He saluted and we were on our way.