A.N.— Here's the next chapter. :D Enjoy!

Chapter 15: If You Love Something...

Adriana stays leaning into Pedro a couple more seconds before faking a disgusted face and shoving him away. "I don't cuddle coppers." She snorts and turns away and looks at the cliff. She knows that she actually hadn't minded the cuddling at all...In fact...That brief moment had been actually pretty nice she thinks, being so close to his warm and soft, feathery chest...Being able to hear the quick beating of his heart from the adrenaline and stress of the prior incident of the cliff. She had actually enjoyed it.

Pedro looks at Adriana and remembers what he had said while she was hanging over the cliff. He starts to blush and is extremely thankful for the darkness of the night. "Ehm...What I meant a few moments ago…" He says and tries to think of how he can redeem himself. "I had meant...Err...I wouldn't ever let you go because I would have fallen, too." He lies. "Or I would have had to cut my flipper off or something to let you fall…" Adriana glances at Pedro over her left shoulder. She knows that he is lying. "And I like having both of my flippers and being alive and…"

"Just stop." Adriana cuts in. "You're just digging your grave even deeper." She says, rolling her eyes with another small snort. She then turns and looks at him again with a not-obviously, faked, annoyed look. "How about we pretend this never happened and continue?"

"Euhm...Sure...Yeah, that's a plan bueno…" Pedro says, a bit quietly and nods. He silently scolds himself for saying anything at all during these whole few minutes.

Adriana nods and looks away again. She can't just forget about this, though. He had saved her. Her. She who has constantly been mean to him this entire trek. A murderess who, if given the chance, might kill him in a second without another thought. He said he would never let her fall...And had meant it. Adriana looks a bit at Pedro without turning her head to face him. 'He actually cares about me...But why?' She thinks silently. 'Why...How could someone care about me after how I treated him so badly? I just don't understand it...'

Pedro gives a silent sigh and starts waddling away from the cliff, tugging Adriana along behind him. "It's too dark to continue towards the base currently." He says rather quietly. "We can continue tomorrow morning after I try to find our positioning again…"

"Vale*." Adriana says and follows Pedro without a choice. She then is silent as she thinks hard upon many things. 'Should I pick the lock and escape and probably never see him again?' She wonders. 'Should I continue on with him as his prisoner to give up my freedom and live in a flipping cell for the rest of my life, and still never see him again, but get to be near him longer?' She breathes deeply and quietly and looks at Pedro's outline in the darkness of the night. 'Why am I even having this conversation with myself? I don't need him. He's irritating, obnoxious, molesto*...Cute…' Adriana shakes her head. 'No! Just aggravating! Not cute! Él no es lindo!*' She knows she doesn't agree with herself though. She can't fully deny that she does find him attractive.

"We'll stop here." Pedro announces to Adriana after some time of waddling. He sits down and gets out the bedroll and lays it out. "Noches*." He says and lays down quietly on his backpack-pillow.

Adriana looks at him for a moment before laying back on the pillow. "Goodnight." She says silently, almost inaudible. She silently lays there, staring up at the foliage of the understory above them. She frowns a bit as she cannot see any stars through the leaves. "How do locals live like this?" She murmurs. "No stars...No moon...Just branches and leaves…" She sighs and turns over and looks at Pedro. She thinks he looks asleep. 'Well, of course he looks asleep...He is asleep.' She thinks. Pedro turns over onto his side, away from her, snoring. "And he sure snores weird." She whispers to herself with a small yawn.

"I do not…" Pedro murmurs in his sleep.

Adriana goes silent and looks at him. "Are you asleep or not?" She asks.

"Yes…"

"But you're talking."

"So?" He yawns and pulls the covers up some more.

She just looks at him weirdly. "You can't have a conversation and be asleep, iditota!"

Pedro is silent for a moment and snores. "Can and am, Adriana...Can and am…" He mutters after a few minutes.

Adriana looks at Pedro's back for a moment in thought. 'How can such a weirdo have managed to keep himself alive this long by himself anyway?' She wonders. 'I mean, to be going so often through this area with predators and bees...' She looks again at the branches far above her head. 'And that little gun of his I doubt would keep him very safe...' She then frowns and shakes her head. 'Why am I even thinking this?! I don't care about him! I shouldn't care about him! He's a stupid cop for kipper's sake!' She then turns over again and faces away from Pedro with a small snort. She tries to go to sleep.

Pedro wakes up in the middle of the night. He silently sits up and looks at his prisoner for a moment and sighs silently. 'Why does she have to be so evil?' He thinks. 'If she wasn't that...She'd be perfecto...' He then shakes his head a little before carefully and silently getting the map out from his backpack and the flashlight. He thinks that he probably should try to sleep more, but he just cannot. He silently unrolls the map and turns on the flashlight.

Adriana mutters something incomprehensible in her sleep and turns over closer to Pedro. He stops what he is doing for a moment and sits completely still to make sure that she stays asleep. After about five minutes he looks over the map and traces it with his flipper, while his other, cuffed flipper holds the flashlight. 'So, last I knew where we were was here...' He thinks and marks a bit on the map with a red marker he had gotten out from behind himself. 'We ran in this direction...' He draws a line going North-West. 'The base should still be right there.' He marks a star on the base's location. He then looks around the dark forest around him and Adriana silently.

"Why does the night have to be so danged dark?" He mutters as he starts to shine the light around the area. He looks at the map again. "There's the cliff…" He mumbles as he finally finds it on the map. "So we're right here... About diez minutos* sliding distance from the base…" Pedro then looks once more at Adriana and then at their linking cuff. 'Can I really take her there and place her in a cell?' He wonders. 'I'd never see her again then...' He thinks silently.

Pedro then has a really stupid thought and his eyes widen a bit. 'Or...Or I could let her go...' He thinks and looks at Adriana. 'Sure...The commander will be mad as kipper at me, but what's new about that? And...And maybe I might get lucky and run into her again!' He thinks. He then stares into space for a moment as he thinks. "As they say...If you love something, set it free..." He whispers and makes up his mind with a small nod. He gets his backpack and starts looking for something, quietly, in it that he can pick the lock with.

Translations:

* Vale — okay (Spanish slang)

* Molesto — annoying

* Él no es lindo — he is not cute

* Noches — night

* Diez minutos — ten minutes