A/N: Perhaps I should slow down so that if I run dry of inspiration for some chapter, you all aren't expecting it to come out within 24 hours. :P A thought and concern for another day. :D A special thank you to FierceDeityMask for editing this chapter, and another huge thank you to everyone who reviewed last chapter! Enjoy! :3
The water slammed into Matt with more force than anything he could remember ever being hit by right after he wrapped one arm around Natalie's waist, pushing both of them under. The two tumbled through the water helplessly, twisting around so much that Matt had no way of knowing which way was up anymore. His chest soon burned for oxygen and he felt Natalie begin thrashing instinctively, trying to break out of his grasp to find air, and he tightened his one-armed grip on her waist. If he lost her here, he might never find her again. Sending a silent prayer out to whatever higher power might be listening and was feeling benevolent, Matt began blindly kicking for what he hoped was the surface. His pounding heart skipped a beat and his legs faltered before striking out with renewed and desperate strength as Natalie jerked once before becoming a dead-weight in his arms.
Oblivion was encroaching on the edges of the swordsman's mind when his head finally broke the surface of the raging river. Gulping in huge breaths of air Matt struggled to pull Natalie up as well, his heart clenching as the mage's head lolled lifelessly to rest against his shoulder. The two were still twisting helplessly in the current, but Matt was relieved that at least they had air now. A searing pain erupted in in his side as something in the river tore through his shirt to catch the skin underneath, tearing a jagged wound for the river water to sting. Pushing the pain out of his mind with a force of will born from desperation, Matt looked around as well as he was able for something to catch hold of so as to haul him and Natalie out of the rapids. Looking ahead while on the crest of a swell, the swordsman could see that the water was sweeping them towards a lake where it slowed to swirl around before continuing downstream. Deeming it to be the best opportunity they would have, Matt began swimming diagonally for the bank to avoid being rolled in the water, pushing off any stones his feet pressed against on the bottom of the river, and dragging the limp Natalie with him.
Thirty seconds that felt like an eternity of desperate swimming later, and Matt snagged his free hand on a tree root along the bank of the river. He prayed that it was strong enough to withstand the drag of the current against him and Natalie as he slowly and painfully pulled himself onto the muddy shore, heaving the mage up after him. Matt's muscles trembled in exhaustion and his shoulders heaved with each gulp of glorious air broken by sharp coughs to expel river water from his lungs as he lay on his back on the bank. Blood ran from the stinging cut on his side, dripping down to be absorbed by the ground. He turned his head sideways to look at Natalie and bolted upright, all feelings of tiredness and pain forgotten as she simply lay there, ominously still.
"Wake up, Natalie. Wake up," Matt chanted breathlessly, shaking the limp mage by her shoulders. Natalie's head flopped to the side, face pale, but her eyes stayed shut and she didn't respond. He shook her harder moaning, "No, no, no, Natz. Don't do this to me, please." Natalie remained still. Matt closed his eyes, taking deep breaths as panic threatened to overwhelm and drown him like the river had.
As his panic dissipated, Lance's voice echoed in his mind, "…I'm not interested in saving lives…" With a flash of clarity, Matt remembered when Natalie had been attempting to teach him and Lance basic medical skill. At the time, he and Lance had blown her off; he, himself, had commented that that was why Natalie was there. Still, Natalie had merely glowered at the two men until they quelled into submission and proceeded to tell them both about what to do in various crises anyway. And one of those crises had been after drowning!
Matt, holding his soaking hair out of the way, lowered his ear to Natalie's mouth. Not breathing. Shakily, he reached out and placed two fingers against the pulse-point on her neck. No heart-beat. Matt swallowed heavily before setting one palm flat on the center of her chest with the other hand on top of it and began rapidly pressing down on her chest. A shard of ice was slowly driving its way into Matt's heart and tears prickled in the corners of his eyes as nothing seemed to happen. Thirty seconds passed and the swordsman's shoulders were aching. "Come on, Natz. Come back," Matt pleaded. He was about to give up when Natalie's eyes flew open and she rolled sideways, coughing heavily as she retched lungsful of water onto the bank. What was normally a horrible sound became the most beautiful thing Matt had ever heard as he rubbed Natalie's trembling back soothingly. Tears ran un-noticed down his face as the words, "She's alive. Alive," kept spinning through his mind. Finally, Natalie stopped coughing and she sat hunched over in exhaustion, formerly-still chest heaving and eyes shut, focusing on breathing.
Natalie opened her eyes and a blur of black and yellow caught her by surprise and she stiffened as Matt threw his arms around her, burying his face where her neck joined her shoulder. The swordsman's entire body trembled, either from cold, emotion, or some mixture of the two, Natalie wasn't sure. "Matt…?" she hesitantly ventured. Matt simply tightened his hold on her and Natalie felt warm tears fall on her neck. The mage relaxed and forwent any further words, choosing instead to relax and wrap her arms around Matt, allowing him to take whatever comfort he needed from her. Finally, Matt's trembling stilled and he pulled back, wiping away some stray tears with the backs of his hands. He blushed from the intense look Natalie leveled at him, and he turned his stare down to his lap. Natalie caught his chin with one hand, lifting his head up to make eye-contact, "Are you okay?"
Matt swallowed heavily, "I'm sorry. I just- You were-" He broke off, eyes tightly shut. A few seconds passed in tense silence while Matt sorted his thoughts out. Releasing a shuddering sigh he spoke once more, "You just went limp when we were in the river and then when I pulled us out, you just lay there. You wouldn't wake up. You weren't breathing. Your heart wasn't beating. Even after I did that PCR-thingy for a while you still weren't breathing." His eyes opened again, raking over Natalie's face, taking in her wide-eyed expression, "I thought for sure you were dead, and I didn't know what I was going to do without you." He closed his eyes once more, "Don't do that to me ev-" his words were cut off by a pair of warm lips crashing against his own. Matt's eyes opened wide to see Natalie's own closed ones inches from his own. He sat there until his brain caught up with the fact that Natalie, Natalie, was in front of him, soft lips pressing against his own chapped ones, and his eyes slid shut again as he wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her closer, returning the affection.
Natalie was on cloud-nine and soaring higher as Matt's lips moved against her own. The kiss was awkward, inexperienced on both sides, they were dripping wet, she had just barely recovered from drowning, they were separated from their friends, and Natalie couldn't remember a more beautiful moment in her life. She wrapped her arms around Matt's neck, pulling him closer to her with a soft moan. Her head was spinning, but she didn't make any move to stop until Matt abruptly broke the kiss with a hiss of pain. Natalie blinked, recovering from the high induced by kissing Matt, before she looked down to see that her arms had fallen to his sides and she could feel sticky warmth under her right palm. Pulling her hand back, the mage was alarmed to see that it had been coated with blood and her eyes snapped to Matt's side to see a rip in his Captain's Shirt with a dark stain around it.
"Why didn't you tell me you were hurt?" Natalie scolded, pushing Matt to lie on his back. She reached for her staff only to realize she had lost her grip on it when the floodwaters had hit her. "Damnit, my staff is gone," grumbling about losing one of her favorite weapons, she reached for her Adventure Bag only to find nothing where it was usually tied at her waist.
"I forgot about it when I saw you weren't moving," Matt explained. He watched in concern from where he lay as Natalie twisted around, hoping to find her pouch lying on the bank, "Bag's gone too?"
Natalie sighed glumly, "Looks like it. We'll have to deal with this the old fashioned way, let me see your bag." Matt dug it out of the inner pocket of his jacket he had stashed it in and handed it over to her. Natalie reached inside, pulling out a strip of silk, an old towel, a ball of wool thread, and Matt's canteen. Peeling back the swordsman's shirt to reveal the wound, Natalie wet the towel with water from the canteen and began cleaning out the cut as best as she could. "This would be better if we had some kind of anti-bacterial wash, but I guess I've gotten too complacent: I haven't even thought about getting some in forever. Sorry," Natalie apologized as Matt winced as she passed over the cut a little too roughly. Having cleaned the wound, the mage folded up the silk and had Matt hold it against the cut as she took the wool thread and wrapped it around his torso several times to hold the makeshift bandage in place.
Matt carefully sat up and gave Natalie a thumbs-up. "Thanks, Natz," he smiled, standing up. Natalie smiled back brightly and handed his Adventure Bag back to him before standing up as well. "So, how well can you fight without a staff? I don't think I've ever seen you battle without one before."
Natalie shrugged, "My spells won't have as much focus, so attacks will be weaker and healing is a 'no' entirely. I'd probably sooner accidentally poison you than heal you, so try not to get hit. It takes more mana to get a spell to activate without a focus point as well so I'll get tired more easily." She tilted her head thoughtfully, "Fire shouldn't be too hard, I think. Though, it will probably come out in a stream rather than a ball."
Matt nodded, "Okay, so no charging in headfirst, got it." He pouted, "This means we need to avoid battle as much as possible, doesn't it? That's no fun."
"At least until we find Lance and Anna, or something I can use as a staff," Natalie said.
Frowning, Matt stared into the trees, "Right, we should get back to them as soon as possible." He picked a random direction and started walking.
Natalie jogged to catch up, "Do you even know where we are?"
"Of course I do!" Matt exclaimed.
"Oh, good, because I have no idea," Natalie sighed in relief.
DDDDDD
"Are you sure we're headed the right way?" Natalie asked for the fourth time. The sun was setting and the woods were getting dark. Matt shrugged and said nothing. Natalie turned her head to stare at him as they walked and saw how he had his jaw clenched. Stopping next to a large fallen log that had hollowed out over time, Natalie turned to him completely, "Let's stop here for the night."
Matt released a sigh, looking around, "Sure, we won't find them in the dark, anyway."
A few minutes later saw the clearing flickering with a small fire and Natalie set some of the wards Anna had taught her to do. The pair sat next to each other, shoulders brushing, as they munched on some of the rations Matt carried. Natalie shivered as a damp draft blew through the clearing, rustling leaves and causing their fire to dance. A second later and Matt had draped an arm around her shoulders and she tucked against his good side. There was a comfortable silence between them and Natalie drifted off, listening to Matt's steady heartbeat drum in his chest.
As the mage fell asleep against him, Matt let out a sigh of contentment. "Well, all things considered, this has turned out far better than I thought it would when I jumped in the river after Natz." He looked down on Natalie with a fond smile playing on his face. Leaning his cheek to rest on the crown of her head, Matt leaned them back against the log and fell asleep.
DDDDDD
Natalie woke first the next morning, but was reluctant to open her eyes and ruin the remnants of her wonderful dream where she and Matt had shared a kiss. She tucked her nose into her pillow and sighed feeling warm, safe, and happy. A heated pillow that was moving up and down. Natalie's eyes flew open to find Matt's arm loosely around her waist securing her against him. She turned her head slowly and blinked up at the swordsman's peacefully sleeping face. "Sweet heavens, it wasn't a dream," Natalie thought in astonishment before a wide smile split her face, cheeks dusted with a light blush. Matt's face scrunched up for a second before his blue eyes opened to see Natalie beaming up at him.
"'Morning," He murmured with a gentle smile.
"Good morning. Sleep okay?" Natalie asked.
Matt removed his arm from her waist to stretch both limbs over his head, "I slept fine." He gently prodded the cut on his torso and commented, "My side doesn't hurt as much today."
"That's good. Now, what do you say we find Lance and Anna; they've gotta be somewhere close by," Natalie said, standing up. She twisted her back to stretch it, "Where did you say we were again?"
"Lankyroot."
Natalie turned to stare at him, eye's narrowing as a sudden suspicion filled her mind, "And where in Lankyroot are we?"
Matt heard the slight undertone and nervously grinned, "Err, the Jungle part of it?"
"Figures," Natalie grumbled before sighing, "Great, we're stuck in the woods with no idea where we are."
Matt sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, "Anna can find us, right?"
Natalie eyed him, "I sure hope so. We should have stayed by the river to make it easier for her, though. I didn't even think of it yesterday." She looked around the clearing, "Let's try making our way back there." Matt nodded and began to walk out of the clearing when Natalie grabbed his arm. He turned back with a confused expression. The mage's arm dropped and she shuffled in embarrassment, staring at her feet. Gathering her nerve, she looked back up with a bright blush on her cheeks, "So, are we… More than 'Just teammates' now?"
Matt stared at her in confusion for a few seconds before his face cleared and he leaned forward to brush his lips across hers. He leaned back again and smiled at the expression on her face, "Does that answer your question?"
Natalie beamed and grabbed Matt's hand, "Definitely."
Side-by-side, they began walking through the trees once more.
DDDDDD
When after several hours of walking and slaying a few strangely colored bulb plants, they still hadn't reached the river, Matt and Natalie concluded that they must have chosen the wrong direction to return to the river. They exchanged a glance and Matt opened his mouth to suggest they stop for lunch when he cocked his head and froze.
"What is it?" Natalie asked, glancing around, searching for enemies.
Matt waved for her to be quiet and turned his looking through the trees. Turning to face Natalie he declared, "I can hear water!"
The mage's face lit up and she closed her eyes, listening. Her eyes popped open again and she pointed ahead and to the left, "That way!"
Matt grabbed Natalie's hand, tugged her forward, and raced through the trees. A few seconds later, they broke out of the undergrowth into a clearing that had a brook running to a pond with a large pumpkin growing on its bank, and their faces fell in disappointment.
"Well, at least it's freshwater," Matt sighed stepping forward and dipping his canteen in the brook and capping it again.
Natalie pouted, "I'm sick of this jungle. It's hot, there're giant bugs everywhere, and those stupid red flowers stink."
Matt's reply was cut off by a metallic grinding sound and the two whipped around to stare at the source. The large pumpkin had sprouted arms and a few spokes to serve as legs and a small head popped up. Turning around, the pumpkin revealed a painted, black, jack-o-lantern face and its face was dominated by one, large, mechanical eye.
Matt gaped at the creature, "Looks like someone had too much fun on Halloween."
"Now really isn't the time for jokes, Matt. I don't have a weapon, remember?" Natalie retorted.
Jack rolled forward, slamming its fist into the ground, but missing as the pair split off, "Giant fruit doesn't scare me! I'll put you in my belly!" Matt exclaimed. "Get back in the trees, Natz." He shook his head to counter her objection, "You don't have to go far, but you know you can't fight as effectively without a weapon. If this turns nasty, I'll follow you, okay?"
Natalie chewed on her lip before nodding hesitantly, "Okay, but be careful." She slipped back into the trees, but kept the clearing in sight.
Matt leapt forward and swung his sword down onto the robot's shell, denting the metal and sending a shock reverberating up his sword all the way to his shoulder. Jack swung his arm around, catching Matt on his wounded side and sending him flying sideways to land in the shallow pond with a splash. Sitting up with a groan, Matt waded as quickly as he could to the edge of the pond and hauled himself back onto the grass. He lunged for cover behind a boulder as small gun barrels poked out of the painted eyes of the jack-o-lantern face. Bullets pinged against his cover followed by heavy footsteps as Jack tromped closer, while maintaining suppressive fire. Matt could hear Natalie call his name but it was drowned out by a louder cry from behind the robot. The bullets cut off and Matt chanced a peek around the boulder to see Jack's attention had turned to the new arrivals.
There, to Matt and Natalie's immense relief, stood Lance and Anna.
A/N: On three, everyone! one, two, three: WHOOOO! MATT AND NATALIE ARE A COUPLE! SUCCESS! This was my first attempt at writing any dedicated romance scenes. Please let me know if there is someway I can improve for the next one! Next up is Lance and Anna's side of the separation. See ya!