0.8 Seconds

It had to be somewhere. She remembers herself putting it specifically here, on this side table beside the sofa, so that when she was finished with her work she could sink back into this comfortable seat, and continue from where she had left off.

She had looked all around the living room, and then the kitchen, and even out to the garden, but it was still nowhere to be found. Things do not simply disappear into the thin air, nor do they suddenly grow legs and walk, so if it was not in all these places, where could it be? She stood and thought for a moment. Upstairs. Not that there should be any reason for the item to be found up there, but well, it does not hurt to try.

Up the stairs, and into the study. Nope. Guest bedroom. Nope. Guest bedroom number two. Nope. Guest bathroom? Oh well, could try. Still no. She reached the end of the corridor, and the only room left in front of her was the master bedroom. She opened the door, and saw her husband lying comfortably on their bed, reading the book in his hands. "Arnold, have you seen my book?"

He looked up, "What book?"

"The one I started last week. It's-" she stopped abruptly, realizing as she stared straight at the book in his hands, "-the one in your hands."

Arnold glanced at the cover, then back at her. "Oh," he replied with a slight surprise, but showed no intention in returning it as he directed his attention back to the pages.

"What do you mean by 'oh'?" Natarle scowled as she headed towards him, "I'm not done with it yet, could I please have it back?"

He held the book up to cover his grin as he looked at her from corner of his eye. "But I just got to where it's starting to get interesting," he said with fake enthusiasm in his words, then continued pretending to ignore the woman standing by his bedside.

She let out a tired sigh. For them two to have similar tastes in books, amongst other things, was something she usually appreciated. But now, certainly not. She had definitely not missed the fake tone in his voice, and she caught him eyeing at her, his eyebrows arched and with a teasing smirk on his face. 'Oh, so this is what it's about.' It was a hobby of his of some sort — to annoy her for a bit every now and then, and to amuse himself with whatever the consequence was. Even now she never really understood why he liked doing this so much, because for her, it was pure torment.

"I promise I'll be quick," she asks again.

He closes the book with a snap and holds it up, pauses for a moment as if he was thinking hard, and then decides, "No."

That was it. "You're not even reading it!" she cried in annoyance as she jumped right onto him, reaching to grab the book from his hands. She was quick, but him even quicker, catching her by her waist and pulling her down while managing to keep the book out of her reach at the same time. Every time she felt like she could almost touch the book with the tip of her fingers, he moves it a tiny bit away, making it just slightly more difficult for her.

'This is so childish!' she could hear her own voice screaming in her head, yet all the while still trying her best to get the book in Arnold's hand as he laughed in amusement at every effort she was making. The struggle between them seemed never ending, with her patience reaching an end she let out an exasperated cry as her ultimatum, "Arnold Neumann!"

Almost immediately Arnold dropped the book to the floor, and in her moment of distraction he flipped her over and pinned her to the bed with a victorious smile on his face. His mission had been accomplished with great success, because right from the start it was for him never about the book, but was simply for his own pleasure to see the stubborn look on her face when she does not get what she wants, an expression he found ever so adorable that made him unable to resist from teasing her whenever given the chance.

"I don't mind letting you finish it first, if you want it so badly. But-" he took a small pause, quietly admiring as her glare changed into an annoyed-yet-hopeful pout. Leaning closer — so close that he could feel her ruptured breathing — he whispers, "don't you think you need to show some gratitude when asking for a favour?"

"P-please," she said, or she thinks she did, because she could no longer hear herself clearly. The heavy sound of her fast pounding heart was monopolizing her hearing, each beat getting faster than the last, hitting harder the last, like it was completely out of rhythm, out of control. Did he have to be this close?

"And?"

"…Thank you."

He let out a slightly evil sounding chuckle. "You know I'm gonna need more than that."

If he had not already made it obvious enough what he wanted, he sure did spell it out for her when he closed in even more, their noses already touching, and lips only one kiss apart. All she had to do was take that one step. One simple step. Because he knew she would never take the initiation, and making it this easy for her was probably the closest shot he had to getting that kiss from her.

"N-no," her words came to him in a big disappointment, "I don't give in to extortionists."

He was just about to complain when she started wriggling her wrists out of his grasp, still refusing to admit defeat. "Let me go, Arnold Neumann!"

It kind of hurt for Arnold to know that she felt so strongly against having to kiss him. It was in a way already expected, given that she was the kind of person who would blush even at the sight of him in an unbuttoned shirt, but it still was a bit disheartening to know that he would probably never be at the receiving end of a kiss between them. He let out a long, heavy sigh as he sat back up and let go of her hands, then moved beside her and sluggishly picked up the book from the floor.

"There you go," he said as he handed Natarle the item she wanted so desperately. Yet she sat still in her place with a stunned look on her face, as if she had completely forgotten about the book already, now only interested in understanding his sudden change of attitude. He looked at her with a questioning frown, "Do you still want it?"

She reached out a tentative hand, taking the book from him without breaking any eye contact. "Th-thank you," she remembered to say. She was curious. Although she would hate to admit it, the truth was they both knew that when Arnold wanted something bad, he would always find a way to get it, and not matter how hard she tried, she would always unwittingly fall victim to his little schemes. So how come this time he let her off so easily? She quickly replayed the scene in her head, and then realized maybe she had been too harsh with her tone. She felt her heart sink a little.

"Arnold," she leaned just a little bit closer to him, her voice much softer than the one she was using before, and with a hint of worry in it. "I didn't mean to yell. I'm sorry… Are you mad at me?"

He raised his shoulders into a half-shrug, and his lips curved into a weary smile. "No, I'm not mad. I'm just a bit…upset. That's all."

And she immediately understood what he was upset about, because it was all too obvious in those dimmed emerald eyes of his. She saw disappointment in them; not the childish kind of disappointment, those with puckered brows and a huge pout to emphasis the point, but the restrained yet genuine, deep-hearted kind of disappointment.

And her heart sank a little more.

Without giving it much thought her hands reached up, clutching onto his shirt near the shoulders and lightly pulling him closer. His eyes widened in both surprise and anticipation, and he did not dare to move, as if he was afraid he would startle her and cause to her change her mind. She inched closer and closer, her hands slightly trembling, and suddenly, she noticed her heart was beating so furiously that she feared it might just collapse any given moment. She remembered the last time she felt like this, and strangely enough, it was only two minutes ago. Which afterwards her heart started sinking into a bottomless pit, or at least that was what it felt like. She swallowed hard; her poor heart was on a roller coaster ride.

Taking in a deep breath as her last self-encouragement, she pulled Arnold closer down, shut her eyes, and quickly landed his long awaited kiss…

…on his forehead.

His anticipation instantly turned into astonishment, then when he recovered from the initial shock, he laughed.

"What?" Natarle asked with the brightest blush on her face.

He had to suppress his laughs in order to not upset her, or make her feel more embarrassed than she already did. "Nothing," he said, pulling her into his embrace as they both fell flat onto the bed with Natarle landing on top of him. "Oh well, I guess I'll have to take it one step at a time."

She wanted a bit more explanation for his words, but seeing him lying there calmly with his eyes shut and a satisfied grin spread on his face, she decided against it. She rested her head comfortably on his chest, and slowly closed her own eyes as well, savouring this peaceful moment between them.

Everything was so quiet and still, so tranquil, all except for that soft rhythm against her ear that goes 'thump, thump'.

The one rhythm that she treasured so dearly; the very foundation of this life she now lived.

Arnold's fingers slipped into her dark, silky hair, fiddling about for a bit before moving down smoothly along her neckline and back up, his other hand holding onto hers, with her fingers locked tightly between his.

"You're rather quiet… What are you thinking about?" He asked after a rather long moment of silence.

She did not answer immediately, pondering if she should share with him these feelings that she did not even know how to explain to him. But then, he himself was at the core of these emotions she most cherished, and she did not want to hide any of it away from him. "Right here, I can hear your every heartbeat clearly."

"Heartbeat?" He asked.

"Mm-hmm," she gave a small hum as confirmation. Then came another short pause as she mentally sorted out how she was going to explain it all to him. Very slowly, she let her words come out to him, as if giving herself time to make sure she said the first part right before allowing the next to follow.

"Being able to hear your heartbeat is like…finding the proof of my existence. That day, back on the Dominion, I was so afraid that it was all going to end there, that I would die in that battlefield and I never see you again. Yet here I am now, with you, living this life which at one point I thought would only be a dream that could never come true." The scenes leading up to that fateful battle replayed themselves in her mind, and she returned his grasp of her hand with a stronger one of her own, fighting back the very intense fear she was so familiar with that was now creeping up at her again. But in spite of her fear she knew everything was going to be fine, because she was here, where he was. "Hearing your heartbeat reminds me that all of this is real; it's no longer a dream, it's happening. Your heartbeat is…the sound of what's most precious to me."

Arnold pulled his hand out of her hold, only to free both his arms so he could wrap them around her with all the strength he could manage, and landed a tender kiss on the crown of her head. She was not the kind who found the profession of love an easy thing to do, and sadly he could still count with just his two hands the number of times those three simple words came out from her lips. But this confession was — although unrehearsed, he figured — perfect poetry, the most heartwarming love song, and so, so, so much more than just 'I love you'. To hear such beautiful words coming from her, his heart had completely melted into a pile of mess, and he doubted he would ever recover.

"So if my heartbeat is the proof of your existence, then I swear, that my heart will continue to beat for you — and you only — till the very last second of my life. I won't let you to fade away."

She raised her chin to look at him. Her cheeks were still flushed, and instead saying it out loud, her timid but most grateful smile substituted as her reply.

'Thank you.'

Author's Note:

Pffft. This update is two years late. Yeah you read it right. Two. Whole. Friggin. Years. Dang, I'm lazy. But then that's not news anymore, is it?

This chapter was inspired by a few lines from the lyrics of the song from the last hit, but while in the last one Natarle was dying, this one's a what-if-she-didn't-die. Don't ask me to explain how, haven't got it figured yet. :P Cookies for anyone who could guess what the title means, by the way.

My 26th to 50th reviewers, which I thank immensely for their support and pray they'd forgive me for the lateness of this review hit which is dedicated to them! Sorry to those who I couldn't reply to your reviews because you weren't logged in, but still, thanks so much for your reviews! And crap, I'm already only 7 reviews away from my next hit. I need inspiration!

CrimsonHowls
the last redshirt
Knives91
haruna saki
HeavyarmsBuster-01
CommandoDude
Infinite sky
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who cares

Oh by the way, did I tell anyone I've got a twitter account now? Exclusively for my updates progress, including here and artworks on DA & pixiv! And I guess if you're fed up with waiting you could more easily kick my butt there to get me working, cuz I do check daily… Check my profile page for the link :D