Once they reached the tent she grabbed for the bags but he held her back. "We're going to eat early today and we can look at our new things while we eat." After lighting the small stove he grabbed the brown paper bag that smelled so good it made his belly literally hurt in anticipation. "I know you used to work in a diner and this probably isn't as exciting for you as it is for me but-"

"Oh Sam!" He watched her face as she shrieked with delight at the contents. He'd asked for the various items to be packed separately so that they could be reheated and freshly assembled. There were hamburger patties with separate sliced onions, cheese slices, tomato relish sauce, shredded lettuce and burger buns.

Mercedes's eyes literally bugged out of her head and her stomach made a very unladylike noise. Grinning in agreement, Sam put one of the burgers to heat. "We're going to have to wait for the burgers to get hot because I want the cheese to melt and go all-"

Mercedes was making a sound like she was having an orgasm and he momentarily lost his train of thought. What kind of sound would she make if she was really having an orgasm? Would she be loud and scream out his name, would it be a long drawn out moan? Or maybe she would be one of those girls who goes completely silent… Obviously she was a virgin so the correct answer wasn't out there in the universe yet.

The food! Thoughts of Mercedes and orgasms were for private time only!

He fought to bring himself back to the conversation. "But don't worry. I've got us something to eat while we wait for it to heat up." Pulling out two smaller, slightly greasy bags, he handed one to her and watched her facial expression with delight as she opened hers and screamed. "Chicken wings! And fries!"

"I know they're cold but-" He couldn't finish his reply because her arms were flung around his neck and she was kissing his bearded cheeks, despite her constant claims of her not liking facial hair. "Sam I love- I love that you've done this! I would never have thought to. This is the best treat ever! Thankyouythankyou!"

He laughed and reveled in the kisses wishing they were far less platonic. He quickly cleared his throat and played off his resulting discomfort. "If I were you I'd eat those quick because once I finish mine I'm starting on yours!"

"No way!" She made a big deal of putting her back to him as she tucked in. Cold wings that had been left too long in a paper bag never tasted so good!

Sam was in a state of bliss. Mercedes was safe and he had meat. Right now nothing could make him happier. Within moments the bags were empty and their appetites whetted for the next course. There was only space to heat one burger at a time so they carefully assembled it while putting the next one to heat. Sam halved it and they both ate in ecstatic silence.

"We're supposed to be showing each other what we bought!"

She shook her head. "Let's concentrate on this first." She moaned with pleasure as she took another bite of her juicy burger while he groaned internally and used every ounce of his willpower to not use his tongue to clean up the bit of relish which had fallen just before it reached her mouth. It would be so simple to lean forward, lick the delicious sauce from her full bottom lip before capturing it between his teeth and not letting go until she moaned again. He looked away and bit down hard on his own instead. Finally the temptation grew too much. "You have a bit of..." he pointed to his own lip. After a moment she worked out what he was getting at and swept her long tongue along her bottom lip until she found it.

Dammit! That was even sexier!

Sam was relieved when the food was finally all gone, just for the sake of his own sanity. She showed him her purchases, starting with more of the porridge food. He could happily have never seen another one of those cubes again but understood their necessity and in their situation there really was nothing nutritionally better for when they had no access to any other food. But at least these cubes were different flavors. She'd also picked up sticks of dried meat and jerky to help with his cravings, concentrated liquid flavoring so that they didn't have to keep drinking plain water, dehydrated soup mixes for variety as well as extra salt and seasonings. There was also a heat diffusing flat plate which would make it easier for him to cook larger items or greater quantities on the tiny stove as well as a brand new power pack. There was also more medicine which was useful as he'd depleted their stock when he developed his fever, as well as a small sewing kit, extra thread, sunglasses, sunhats and burn cream. She'd bought new water bottles, a multi-tool because the knife on their one was already starting to get blunt, a replacement flashlight for the one which had taken an unfortunate tumble directly into the river as they'd made a shallow crossing, a roll of strong string and a plastic repair kit to mend the hole at the bottom of the tent which had been there for the last couple of weeks. There was also a smaller bag of personal supplies that he knew not to question her about although she did hand him a new block of body and hair wash and concentrated toothpaste and a toothbrush.

She grinned. "What I forgot to get was a razor so you can get rid of that stupid hair on your face!"

He pouted dramatically. "It's not stupid! It's sexy!"

"Yeah. You tell yourself that Sam!" Leaning forward she brushed his hair out of his eyes. "And I should have got something to cut your hair. It's got far too long."

He chuckled as he grabbed his bag. "Well I'm not going to let you come at me with anything from the multi-tool so you'll just have to live with the hermit look for now!"

Sam was excited about his purchases. First were the hiking shoes, arch support insoles and socks to replace the ones they'd worn out. Mercedes rolled her eyes at the fact he'd chosen matching ones but he thought it was cute. He'd also bought matching teeshirts but at least they were just a plain blue. It was only when he'd shown her the label which had described the color as 'sea blue' that she got excited with her all over again.

Sam rolled through the other useful items that they'd needed before pulling up the final bag. "I got done a really quick so I took a liberty and got a few bonus items. There was a small second hand store near the entrance of the alley and something made me want to take a look inside. The first thing that caught my eye was this!" He pulled out a small fishing net. "I know it's not big but I figured as I nearly managed to catch a fish once with my shirt, this would increase my chances. It can just slot into the straps on the outside of my backpack so it doesn't even take any room."

Mercedes looked incredibly impressed with the purchase and he felt like bursting with pride. "Anyway, once I started thinking outside the box, I tried to think of what else we could need to improve the quality of our lives and I found some stuff for our entertainment."

He pulled out a small box. It was a compendium of travel sized board games. "This is because I don't know about you but I'm starting to get really sick of playing cards. There's six different games in here so we can play something every single night."

Mercedes smiled as she took the box from him and examined it with appreciation. "This was a really good idea Sam. I hope you know that you're carrying this in your bag right?"

"Of course!" He pulled out a second item. A small flat plastic thing which seemed to have a speaker embedded in it.

"What's that?"

"It's a digital music player. I used to have one of these. It can hold up to a thousand songs and when it's fully charged will play for about a hundred hours. I know we have nowhere to plug it in, but it's 97% charged and whoever sold it to the shop didn't delete their music collection first so we might find some stuff we like on it before the power runs out."

Again she took the item from him and fingered it with fascination. It had been far too long since they'd heard music.

"Then I picked up a little something for me..." He pulled out a small sketch book and tin of pencils. "We've passed so many beautiful places and I hate that I haven't been able to capture them."

"So you can draw as well as sing?"

"Absolutely! I'm a man of many hidden talents!" He felt himself blush and quickly continued. "I also got us these." He pulled out two bags of candy.

She laughed and nudged him with her shoulder. "I can't believe I give you money to get us needed supplies and you get us burgers and candy! You're such a man!"

"I know. But you love it!"

"Yeah." Her smiled wavered a little and she snatched the candy away from him. "We can open these tonight right? Seeing as we're gorging on treats and everything!"

He shook his head. "Not tonight."

"Why not?"

He pulled out another box. It was flat and rectangular. "I know this was brought with your money and everything, but I just wanted you to have something more than wild flowers for your birthday Mercedes."

She took it from his hand and gasped with delight. It was a box of chocolates. It may have seemed cheesy but she was already ripping the cellophane off it. She was half way through when she remembered her manners and gave him another squeeze in thanks. "Flowers and now chocolates!" She opened the box and sniffed the contents. A strange action for most people, but it made total sense too Sam. They'd reached the stage where even the smell of something delicious was a pleasure. Before even looking at the card to see the contents she held the box out to him.

He shook his head. "You have to go first. They're for you!"

Clearly put out by his insistence she studied the card and selected a chocolate. She then bit half and held other half to his lips. "We share. I can't celebrate on my own."

It was impossible to refuse. The chocolate was amazing. Not the fake flavored stuff that they'd been eating and drinking, but the real deal with a truffle center. "And I got you something to wash down the chocolate." He pulled out the bottle of wine and she gasped.

Sam frowned, suddenly realizing that he hadn't even bothered to ask beforehand. "You do drink, don't you?"

She flushed. "I… I've never tried it."

"Well as a welcome to womanhood this is your perfect opportunity!"

She looked slightly apprehensive. "In my Sector we're not allowed alcohol until we're twenty-one."

"That's a shame, because in mine you're allowed it at eighteen. And seeing as we're Outside and not under the rules of any Sector we can make up our own. I vote for a compromise and a ruling of twenty being the age to be allowed to have alcohol which by default makes you legal."

She eyed the bottle warily. "The bible condemns drunkenness."

"We're not going to get drunk. We're going to have one cup each as a celebration and drink the rest tomorrow or the next day. Just think of all this food and stuff today as being your belated birthday party!"

Mercedes loved the idea and nervously sniffed at her wine before taking a sip. "Take it slowly!" he warned her. He'd gone for a sweet white wine with a relatively low alcohol percentage and it went well with the chocolate. She smiled, clearly enjoying the taste. "I don't know what I expected but this is really good!"

Sam smiled and had a little himself. He was more of a beer drinker than a wine one but he hadn't had any alcohol in forever and at this stage absolutely anything would do.

Mercedes giggled as she continued to sip her portion. "I definitely feel all grown up drinking this!"

He watched her action, knowing that she deserved to be drinking from a crystal glass in a beautiful restaurant rather than while sitting on a fallen log, drinking from a reinforced plastic collapsible tumbler.

The thoughts both fired him up and made him feel sad. Not only that, he was already regretting giving her alcohol and having some himself. He didn't want any inhibitions lowered! It had taken all of his willpower not to kiss her when she had sauce on her lips. With alcohol in his bloodstream there was no telling what he could do. And as it was her first experience with alcohol, there was no way that he was going to let her be irresponsible either! Regretfully he tightened the screw top on the bottle he put it away before there was any further temptation. He was already in too much trouble with this girl.

She was still sipping happily with shiny eyes of happiness as dusk fell, making her look particularly beautiful and it made him remember the one thing that had bothered him since the exited the Transit Sector. Their whole adventure seemed like so long ago now, but something was still stuck in his head. He knew it was irrational but he just couldn't let it go. "So you got chatted up while you were getting supplies?"

She nodded wildly, the alcohol had definitely made her excitable. "And he was really cute too! He said that I had a beautiful smile..." He watched as she smiled at the memory and his eyes narrowed, jealousy initially coursing through his body, only to be followed by waves of thankfulness passing over him when he reminded himself that she would never be seeing the guy again. She had a wistful expression as she continued to speak. "Nobody ever really spoke to me like that or showed me much attention in my Sector. For a start, flirting is frowned upon, plus there were so many girls that were far prettier than I am."

He shook his head. "You're exceptionally pretty Mercedes!"

She knocked back the last of her wine and grinned. "I know that! It's just that not everyone appreciates my brand of beauty."

He did. "Well that's their loss. The right people will always appreciate you for the amazing beautiful person that you are."

She nodded. "I know that too. Daddy taught me well."

"Good, because I mean it! As well as beauty, you have drive, passion and inner strength that makes you far more special than any girl I've ever met!"

Mercedes looked at him with a frown for a moment, clearly wondering what he was getting at before breaking into a smile and nudging him. "Damn right I am!"

It surprised him. Girls from his Sector were always so bashful. Half the time they were just putting it on, but it was also something that was expected of them. Getting a girl to take a compliment was like asking her to take a slap in the face with a dead fish. Sam liked the fact that Mercedes had her own self confidence. Especially as it wasn't misplaced. She was the brains and mastermind behind this whole journey after all! And she was sexy as hell in that understated 'not even trying to be sexy and achieving it all the same' kind of way.

"So I was thinking, as I'm the birthday girl, do I get to choose what we do this evening?"

"Yep. Tonight is definitely lady's choice."

"Well in that case, I want to listen to some of the music on the player that you bought."

"Sure. Let's put away this stuff seeing as it's starting to get dark, then we can listen from inside the tent 'til we fall asleep."

The music player was an inspired purchase. Whoever had previously owned it was well traveled. There was music on it that they had both heard of as well as music that was totally foreign to their ears. There were songs she had to explain to him and others that he had to explain to her, songs that made them laugh and songs in Ancient languages they couldn't understand. Although as far as they were aware, every Sector spoke the same language, albeit with their own individual accents, some Sectors had their own Ancient languages. The use of such languages was frowned on but it often lived through in music and history.

The plan of rationing music to one hour blocks was disregarded for their first night with it and they ended up staying awake far later than usual, telling themselves they would just play one more song which would inevitably lead to another until the yawns of Mercedes made him realize just how tired she must be, especially with the alcohol in her system.

As they snuggled up in the sleeping bag she, she rested her covered head against his chest. "Sam?"

"Yeah."

"I'm really glad you made it out of the Transit Sector alive with me."

"So am I. I don't know what I would have done without you."

"Same here." The dark and the silence made them recall how nervous they had been at the beginning of the day and they held onto each other that little bit tighter, just as they had when they first made it out of the Transit Sector.

"And Sam?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks for my birthday presents. This has been my best birthday ever. For the rest of my life I'm going to celebrate today in your honor."

"Really?"

"Really. I'll have burgers and chocolate and wine and I'll always remember what it felt like to eat those things after all the time spent travelling, and to listen to music for the first time in forever. And I'll never forget that feeling of getting out of the Transit Sector and the feeling of lying here right now, with you, knowing that we're safe and we're still together. When those Sector Patrols made me late I was so scared this would be over forever without me having the chance to say goodbye. My prayers were answered."

Sam didn't know what to say to that. There were no words he could say to that. "I'll celebrate it too." He could feel himself choking up and opted to lighten the mood. "But don't forget, before the burgers you have to have barbeque wings and fries and the night has to end with you jamming in a sleeping bag to some random music you've never heard before."

She giggled. "Sounds like a plan. We'll have to come up with a name for our day, but not now because I'm too tired." She stifled another yawn. "Goodnight Sam."

"Goodnight Mercedes."

Within moments her breathing was slow and even and he could enjoy his favorite pastime of feeling her settled in his arms undisturbed.