You can't really see the sun rise here, Wren realized tiredly as she sat on the stairs leading up to the apartment. Everything just becomes a lighter shade of grey and green, like a time-faded picture. The world was sodden with clammy mist off the ocean and not a soul moved in the dawn, only a lonely bird or two.

Rest never came that night for either of them. The pain in her face had dulled to a roaring ache that wouldn't subside. Sitting out in the cold air made the muscles feel cramped and made it worse but the mist felt amazing on her hot skin.

A sigh escaped her and she reached up to play with her nose ring. It was a bit tender, being on the side that was hit. What on earth was she going to do about all of this? What was she going to say when he awoke? For a few moments, she wondered whether or not she truly minded his embrace the night before. It did not feel wrong unlike the times before. It felt the exact opposite and that did worry her a bit.

The door opened behind her and she heard his light steps on the concrete, barefoot like her, as he sat down to join her. Wren didn't look at Erik as he settled on the step, his very being seeming tense and unsure. She knew why; they needed to talk and he knew it too.

A scent reached her nose and she looked to see him gingerly holding out a mug of coffee to her. He looked wary but kept a smile on his lips, as if trying not to make the situation awkward. With difficulty, she smiled and accepted it, loving the way it burned her fingertips.

"Thanks, you read my mind."

Erik gave her a small, fleeting smile, his mouth turning mischievously at the end.

"The mental link has been established. You're mine now," he stated in what would have been a deadly tone. Wren gave him an arch look over the rim of her mug. After swallowing a gulp of the scalding stuff, she turned to the misty forest line and the steel grey sky.

"Erik," she started abruptly, sensing him brace for her words. "I want to talk to you about last night."

She paused, knowing that he was growing sad and furious with himself again about her bruising.

"I'm talking about the…kissing," she elaborated, a bit embarrassed. Taking a breath she found herself now lost on how to begin expressing what it was she felt. Erik waited as patiently as he could for a few moments, watching her as her brow creased in soft wonderment.

"Do you regret it already?" he asked sullenly, vainly trying to hide it under an honest sounding inquiry. Slowly, she shook her head, a small frown now replacing her placid look.

"I don't and that's the weird part that I want to talk to you about. I have never kissed or done anything with a guy before without wanting them to go away right after. I always hated them once it was over but with you, I don't. I guess I'm just scared of it," she admitted slowly, forcing herself to expose what it was that bothered her right off the bat. "You know that I am no virgin but this is really new to me."

Erik didn't interrupt or say anything in response, feeling that there was something more she had to say. Wren took another gulp of coffee before forcing it out like a barbed piece of tin can.

"I do care about you a lot. But I want to know where we-where you stand."

"Where 'we' stand?"

"Well, you…you are very confusing to me, okay?" she smiled a bit wryly. "From the moment I brought you home like a little half-drowned puppy, you've been flirting."

Erik raised his eyebrow at her, a slightly sadistic and amused smirk on his lips. Reaching out, he stole her coffee and took a sip.

"Flirting? How so?" he played off as unaware and shocked.

"Don't be cute, Erik," she reprimanded half seriously. "You took every chance to fluster me with that annoyingly pretty little smile of yours. Why?"

At that, the humor went out of the man's face and he looked out across the wet parking lot and the sleepily stirring world. Wren wondered if she pushed it a little too far but then he sighed and laugh lowly as a small dry grin stole his features.

"Why? I suppose it was half due to that no one had ever treated me as a man. I wanted to see how far I could go with courting as a man with a woman. I was successful, non?"

Wren rolled her eyes but didn't deny it at all.

"And the other half?"

Erik turned to look at her fully, his eyes a blue-grey in the morning light as he studied her intently. Wren was glad to notice that her nervous shifty syndrome was gone to an extent under his gaze. He reached out and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, a silly smile growing on him at the sight of her trashed state.

"Attraction to you."

Wren gaped at him in a state of mild surprise before getting a hold on herself. She snorted a laugh before taking back her coffee from his warm grip.

"Attracted to me? You've got to be kidding me," she paused to think of something. "That or you've been lying to me the whole time and are blind."

"I am not 'kidding' you or blind. I found you to be and still find you to be very attractive in your way," he replied firmly, not appreciating how she talked about herself. It was infuriating how often she did it. Wren rolled her eyes again and yawned sleepily.

"'Special' is what you're trying to say, I think."

"Well, yes, you are very special."

"Erik," she paused to stifle a laugh at his innocent meaning statement. "Nowadays, 'special' isn't a good thing. It generally means that I'm challenged in some aspect."

He frowned at her for that one before contemplating a different terminology and strategy. Nonchalantly, he took her coffee away and set it by them. She was going to need a lesson, he could tell.

"You are a wonderful woman, Wren, different perhaps, but wonderful."

She snorted at that again. This time, Erik wasn't going to let her go so easily for the self-depreciating humor. Swiftly he stood up and went down a step to stand in front of her. Leaning down gruffly, he grasped her around the arms and stood her up, ignoring her startled statement of 'what the hell?'.

Stunned, Wren barely even fought as the man leaned down and hefted her up onto his shoulder and started up the stairs. Finally, it clicked in that she had just been manhandled.

"Erik! What the actual fuck? Put me down right now!" she hissed in indignant fury, remembering at the last second that it was five-forty in the morning. In reply, he merely reached up and smacked her smartly on the bottom. An outraged yelp escaped her and she straightened enough to turn about on his shoulder.

"I cannot believe you just- Ah!" she cried out as he hefted her further back, bent over on his broad shoulder. A wicked grin was on Erik's face although she couldn't see it. Smacking her rear had been more fun than he had anticipated.

Annoyed and embarrassed that she was being handled this way, she tried kicking as he paused on the landing to open the door. Again he thwarted her by grasping her legs a little tighter.

"Alright, hombre. I'm going to count to three and you'd better put me down," she growled as hotly and threateningly as she could. Erik seemed to just ignore her as he walked in. Whether or not he was smiling, she couldn't tell since her hair obliterated her sight as it hung about her face. "One, two, thr-Ah!"

Again he smacked her tartly, his fingers stinging her just enough. Closing the front door, he at least made sure not to catch her hair in the jamb. Taking up another tactic, Wren beat at his lower back with her fists but he just spanked her again as he headed to the bedroom, turning off lights as he went.

"I will let you down but first you have to do something for me," Erik finally said as he walked up to her bed, her upside down on his shoulder. Wren considered the possibility of getting down without doing what he wanted and found the chances rather slim. Her face was starting to feel hot and heavy.

"Okay, what? Make it quick; all the bloods going into my head."

"Tell me you are beautiful," he demanded seriously, no laugh in his tone this time despite the hilarity of the situation. Wren paused at the incredibly silly thing he wanted her to admit and sighed in defeat.

"Fine, you are beautiful. Can I come down now?" she whined.

SMACK!

"Holy fuck, Erik! Would you-" her angry, scathing words were cut off as he suddenly lugged her off his shoulder like so much luggage and onto the bed. Bouncing for a second amongst the blankets on her ass, Wren got up on her elbows to glare at him for the stinging indignity. With a strange coolness, Erik came up to the bed and rested a knee upon it.

The anger fizzed right out of her as he glared at her intently, no smile tainting his eyes or lips. Oh, boy, she made him real mad this time.

"You do not believe that you are beautiful?" he asked quietly, a low growl under his tone. Wren shivered at that but pressed her mouth in silence. She wasn't playing this game. When she didn't answer, a slightly frightening grin came over him and he crawled towards her. Resisting the sudden urge to scramble away, she watched with wide eyes as he approached.

"Then I will show you just how beautiful I think you are."

The nerves in her very flesh started right out of her skin as his fingers brushed her sock-clad foot. Sitting perfectly still, the woman watched as he crawled closer, a predatory smile on his tempting lips. His knees balanced him perfectly on either sides of her own, his arms supporting him as he leaned dangerously close to her.

Wren denied the longing in her skull to run away as his lips brushed hers, tantalizing and slow. Shuddering at the light sensation, she sighed shakily and locked her lips once he lifted away. The touches continued softly along her jaw, the lips kissing tenderly like a feather. The old nervousness suddenly crashed upon her but as it did it melded into something different. This wasn't merely seduction, she realized as his teeth teased her ear, this was worship.

Erik traveled the application of his careful teeth to the skin of her neck as a large hand gently laid against her belly. He felt her quiver under his touches and wondered if it was from his attentions or from fear. Perhaps both, he mused as he pressed her to lie down. Being mindful not to crush the woman with his weight and presence, Erik felt his own stomach clench in timid nervousness. He did not think that he had ever done any of this before. There were no memories. But it was so enjoyable, feeling this and tasting the slight sweat on her skin.

Brushing a long hand through the tangled mess of red hair, the man buried his nose next to her ear and sighed in unrestrained appreciation of her. He was almost glad that Wren was too petrified to move; she wasn't resisting and that was a major improvement. Perhaps she was growing past her fear of men; he prayed it was so.

A shivery convulsion fled fluently down Wren's form as a hot, wet tongue swirled over a tender spot on her neck. Unwittingly, her hips jerked up to him in pleasure and animal want, barely brushing him and her hands jumped to clasp his forearms. Erik cast a smirking glance at her reaction as he trailed the attention down to her collarbone, nudging just inside her t-shirt.

Wren reached up shakily to brush his sifting brown hair from his brow. Despite the fact that she knew she should be fighting him, she wanted to see his face as he treasured her so called beauty. She wanted to believe him in the deepest recesses of her denying soul but she needed to see it in his eyes.

Gently but quickly, Erik reached up and grasped her wrists, leaning on his elbows. With a glowing, heated look from his lowered eyes, the man firmly pushed her arms back against the blankets in a prison of soft down, fingers lacing with hers. As he did so, he lowered to insinuate tightly to her chest, belly to belly, lips to lips.

A ragged moan escaped Wren at the contact and she bit his lip, almost ashamed at how much she enjoyed the feeling. With that fluid moment he had shifted past the elusive cradle of her thighs and now rested against her in a way no man had in years.

The sound made Erik pause and shiver at the sheer eroticism of it. Was he truly able to make her cry out such a delicious thing? The very idea stirred him in a way he never felt before. No memories surfaced in him at this meeting of clothed flesh. It brought him relief; this was all Wren's. The angel never would have dared to be with him as she was.

"Erik…" the woman under him murmured in a tone he had never heard before. Almost afraid, he raised up a bit to look down at her. Before he would move away or react, her lips were hot and urgent against his, all desperation and despair breaking free in a flood of caresses. Startled into stillness, he let her hands slip free from his and race over his arms. Ardently, her cool palms pressed to his scarred cheek and to his neck, fingers trembling finely.

What a picture they made, Wren thought dazedly through her desire; a lonely disfigured man kissing a love bruised woman, hidden from the world.

At the gentle touch of her tongue to his lips, Erik timidly allowed her in. This wasn't going exactly as he had planned. In his mind's eye, he had seen himself kissing and testing her newly pressed boundaries and nothing more.

Never had he imagined that Wren would open so passionately, blooming like a wild red flower to his attentions. She chased his tongue and rubbed against him passionately as if her life depended upon it. Now it was he that was still and wary on the bed.

A heavy low moan whispered forth from him as her tongue stroked his fiercely, sliding and exploring as her hands did the same thing over his face and scalp. Giving into her attentions and letting go of his reservations, Erik let the sensations overwhelm him. This moment was too exquisite to cloud with thoughts.

After an awkward moment, he learned to match her rhythm and battled her for dominance. Taking a further press at her invisible walls, he slid his hands down her clothed sides. Fingers seeking, he slipped them under her shirt and clasped the curve of her waist, treasuring the feel of soft skin.

Whether or not his braveness won it, neither of them would ever know but her legs found themselves about his slim hips in supplication.

The moment their bodies shifted together in just the right and wrong way, they froze. Limbs entangled and breaths entwined, they parted just enough to look long and deep at each other in wonderment. What insanity was this? What possession had taken their reservations? And what reason suddenly slipped into their fired souls and stopped them?

Without a word, Erik felt what she thought and nestled against her neck, fingers reaching out and folding with hers, palm to palm in a kiss. Gently, Wren's legs lowered to rest tangled with his, her heart beating slow and easy.

Through the curtains, the world grew brighter and people stirred to life, unaware of the two lives in the dark. In the tumbled blankets, they clung together and drifted into a comforted sleep, praying for the day they could continue what had accidentally begun in the mist of early morning.

"I still do not understand how this is considered music," Erik grumbled as he dislodged another c.d. from the player. Sitting on the floor of the living room, he sat surrounded by an army of disks. For the past two hours he had been clicking through songs from different albums. There were quite a few that he liked but many that he simply crinkled his nose at.

Wren came in from the kitchen, a toaster strudel in hand. The bruising along her eye socket had faded to a light brown yellow and was almost gone. There were questions at work and school. She gave the excuse of getting in a fight with another woman over a near traffic accident. That seemed to inspire some unexpected respect and she felt somewhat guilty.

"Well, I'm sorry that modern music is not to your taste. Try the one labeled John Cale. He is a good one," she recommended through a bite of food. Dutifully, Erik picked it up and popped it in. He had learned how to use objects around the house fairly easily. In fact, he had learned how to drive her Jeep just by watching her, she discovered. It had explained how they had gotten home that one night.

A slow, soulful piano came on, mourning a tune before the voice followed. Erik tuned in to this one more, finding it more palatable than the others.

"Better?" Wren asked as she finished off her strudel and sat on the newly fixed couch. It took a while but Erik had managed to cut out the burned part and sow on a replacement patch. Wren had no idea that he was so crafty.

"Much better. I was going to weep for humanity if all music had died," he said quite seriously as he turned to face the woman. Her hair was a wild mess from sleep and her lips looked puffy. A small shiver raced through Erik from looking at them and remembering the night before where once again they had kissed passionately. It had been two weeks since that first time and it seemed so much better and so much worse at the same time. "What song is this?"

"Hallelujah. It's actually one of my favorites."

'I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah.'

As the music played on in a soft ballad, they sat in silence, considering one another. It had grown so much easier to sit in his scrutiny, Wren realized. The gleaming grey-blue of his eyes made her insides squirm still in a very different way than before. She had almost given in last night to her urges. Almost let his hand continue on past tenderly brushing the underside of her breast. Why she had not was almost beyond her.

'Your faith was strong, but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah.'

It took a while but she figured herself out. She was afraid that the afterwards will be just like the others. She was terrified that he would just lose interest and leave her behind. In all honesty, she knew it was irrational. Erik was not and had never been like the other men in the world. She truly believed that he would not do what she was afraid of but her gut fears were not as convinced.

'Maybe there's a God above, all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who out drew you
And it's not a cry you can hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah.'

And oh, did Wren want him. There was no denying the warmth she felt between her thighs when she looked upon him now. Even now with him sitting near her feet on the floor, gazing up at her with the grey morning light filtering in through the painted glass. It had been growing since that first kiss. With each day and each step in comfort with one another, she wanted him more and more. Having the opportunity to kiss and touch was too tempting and it all felt like a slow moving crescendo. Thank god it was the weekend; she could take all day with him if she wanted. Would he reject her? Was it too soon?

"Wren, ma cher?" his voice interrupted her humid thoughts. She jumped a little and smiled to cover her thoughts. "Are you alright?"

"Yes. I was just thinking," she admitted before holding her arms out to him. Immediately, he got up on his knees to shuffle forward into her grasp. Sitting up on the edge of the couch, Wren let her pajama clad legs fall open to allow him close to her, hips against hers. He rested his head in the crook of her neck, inhaling deeply the scent of her shampoo.

'Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah.'

"What were you thinking about?" Erik asked lowly, his lips moving against her sensitive skin before kissing there. A small sound caught in her throat and she sighed longingly. The song clicked over to a slow, sad tune as she ran her hands down his sides, over the white button up he wore. She felt him shiver and press closer to her. Encouraged, she trailed her fingers around the hem of his slacks, nails catching on his belt. That stilled him and she smiled a little. Perhaps a direct tactic was best for this. Butterflies threatened to break her from the inside though.

"This," she replied softly before gathering her courage. Reaching down, she clasped him through his pants, relieved to find him half hard already. So he was at least a bit interested. A violent shudder ran through him and his teeth nipped her neck warningly. "You. I was thinking of you and what I want to do to you."

Her low voice sent his mind reeling as she said such wanton things. It shook him for sure, especially with her fingers playing over his increasing hardness firmly. A bit overwhelmed, Erik leaned back from her hot embrace and blew a shaky sigh. Closing his eyes, he tried to gather his rampant emotions and the tightness he felt in his groin. Thankfully, she kept her distance and remained quiet as he sorted himself out.

"I'm sorry. I just…I wanted to-" Wren's voice finally came, faltering and unsure. Surely, she thought he was upset. Erik opened his eyes and locked her in his gaze with a smile. She looked a bit pale, despite the flush on her cheeks from touching him. The red in her hair stood out brilliantly next to those brown eyes and reddened lips.

Realizing her discomfort, Erik grasped her hands in his and lifted them up for a kiss. Cherishing each knuckle with his lips, he kept his eyes on hers. She wanted to brush his thick brown hair back from his brow. Wanted to twist her fingers in it as he buried inside her. She flushed a deeper shade of red and her throat constricted.

"I know what you want," Erik finally replied, his tone simmering. "I cannot deny that I want this as well. I have been waiting for you to want me since the night we first kissed."

The seed of desire in her belly seemed to have found new root, clasping her deeper in its clawed grip. She waited for the go ahead however. From what she had gathered, he had not done these sort of things before.

"I want to know…will you regret it? I do not want you to hate me," Erik asked slowly, his tone soft yet serious. Wren sat a bit shocked by his question, wondering how he picked that out of her mind. After a moment, she freed her hands from his to touch his scarred cheek, thumb brushing over the damaged flesh.

"I could never hate you. I want you, every bit of you," she replied in a shaking voice before leaning forward and planting a trembling kiss on his brow. Erik breathed a laugh through his nose before shifting to bring their eyes level, hands resting on her thighs now.

"Show me."