The kiss only lasted a moment, but it felt like an eternity had passed. The breeze sweeping past us swept her short blonde hair to the sides, her hat unusually absent. The light swaying of the ship shook both of us gently, but we held tight to each other. Despite the efforts of the day, she smelled amazing, a vaguely floral scent flooded my senses.
Allie broke the kiss, pulling away gently but still gripping my arms. Her blue eyes opened, staring into mine. A small, mischievous grin spread across her lips as her eyes searched my own. For a moment, we stood there in silence, thankful for each other and even more thankful that we had made it off that island.
I spoke first.
"What are we going to do now?"
She considered the question, her eyes momentarily flicking away from mine while she thought about the answer.
"Well, we still aren't out of the dome yet. We won't be able to find our way home until we do that, and after that we don't even know where we will be. We might be at sea for a while."
She hesitated a moment
"And… your wounds haven't healed yet, not at all." She whispered, lowering her vision to the outlines of the packed bandages on my abdomen, faintly visible through my light shirt.
"Hey, hey, I'm okay. Don't worry about me yet "I reassured. In truth, the moment had taken much of the pain away, and as I thought about it more the pain began to make itself known once more.
"I know, I know. But to be honest… I was scared. We all were"
She swallowed nervously, tears forming in her eyes
"When I found you in that maze… it didn't look good. I wasn't sure you would make it. There was so much blood and -"
I pulled her to my chest, hugging her tightly and cutting off the words. She wrapped her arms around me, pulling me even closer to her. This time, I wasn't so fortunate as a sharp sensation pierced my stomach. I pushed through the pain for as long as I could, savoring the moment but eventually it became too great for me. I stepped away from Allie, who noticed my wincing.
"Oh my god, you're bleeding!" She exclaimed, rushing back towards me. As if on cue, i stumbled, and gripped the railing of the ship. Allie quickly came to my side, putting an arm around my waist and taking one of my arms over her shoulder.
"We need to get you back downstairs, right now!"
"Allie… wait a moment" I urged gently. As she looked up at me quizzically, I continued. "Please let me stand for a little bit"
As Allie stepped away, I lifted my eyes to meet hers, and began to speak once more.
"Allie, I have spent a lot of time being with you and thinking about you. Every moment with you has been exhilarating, You have made me see the world in brighter colors by being with you. You show me just how worth living life is, how beautiful every moment can be. I love you, Allie. I will love you forever. I don't want to be away from your side."
"Allie… Will you marry me?"
For a moment nothing moved. Allie was stunned to silence, her gorgeous blue eyes widening in shock. Then she was a blur of motion, jumping up and down, grabbing my shoulders.
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Oh my god yes! I love you too!" She screamed, the biggest smile I had ever seen plastered across her face. I saw tears flowing from her eyes, but this time I knew that they were tears of joy.
As she began to calm down, she pulled me back into a tight hug, then kissed me on the lips once more. We both melted into each other, until we remembered what we had to do.
As she took her position under my arm again, this time neither of us could stop smiling, sharing quick glances at each other as she supported me back towards the room we were using as a makeshift hospital.
Bad luck struck halfway down the hall, as the bleeding seemed to reach a critical point and I collapsed onto the ground. As my vision faded away, all I could see was allies face, looking at me while frantically yelling for help. My thoughts were with her as I slipped into unconsciousness.
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I woke up slowly, pain slowly ebbing back into my aching body. As I opened my eyes, I realized that the room was dark now, lit only by a small light in the center of the room. As I looked at my situation, I noticed that I was shirtless, and 3 bandages were placed across my torso, two in my stomach and one near my ribs. The bandages were stained a dark red towards the center, but the blood didn't seem to be spreading at present, so I decided to let it go. As I looked around the room some more,I quickly noticed something.
To my right, only about 2 feet away, was Allie. She was sitting, asleep, on a small armchair, curled up tightly with her arms tucked towards her chest. She had a troubled look on her face, and her hands were tight in fists. Despite my concerns for her, she looked… stunningly beautiful. But my thoughts of her were quickly interrupted by my concern once more. Why was she sleeping there, and why did she look so troubled?
"Allie?" I managed to rasp, my voice barely above a whisper. The sound got to her, however, and she bolted upright, eyes frantically searching the room for the source of the noise before coming to rest against mine. Seeing me awake, a relieved look washed over her face.
"James!" She exclaimed, jumping to her feet. "You're awake!"
"Yeah, I just woke up. What's going on?"
Allie hesitated a moment.
"You started to bleed out again, and then you collapsed. You have been unconscious for about 5 hours. I know scarlet is smart, but I was scared you weren't going to wake up…" she whispered, clenching her fists.
With effort, I reached my hand out to here, gently grabbing it. I looked into her blue eyes, seeing the faint sparkle of tears.
"Allie, I'm okay, I promise. This isn't the first time I've been shot, remember?"
I paused for a moment, looking at her as she wiped the tears away.
"Have you been here all that time?"
"Yeah, after you got here I didn't want to be away from you, in case you woke up or something happened."
She smiled at me, then yawned. Seeing how dark it was in the room, it must have been night, and she had been watching all this time? Another yawn cements my suspicions that she must be exhausted.
"Allie, would you like to lay down with me?" I say, patting the empty space on the Queen sized bed.
"Yep!" She says, her eyes lighting up in joy. She makes her way around the side and jumps into the bed. She pulls the covers over herself, and hugs my arm. I gaze into her eyes, both of us enjoying the moment.
"Hey, Allie" I say, breaking the silence "what's next for us?"
She stays quiet for a moment, thinking about the answer.
"I think that I need to report back to the resistance. It's been a long time but I think I want to make sure Lucas is okay. I know you still don't remember anything about your past, but is that okay with you?"
"Of course Allie. I know how important this is to you, and I want to go anywhere you go. I just worry, with my injuries, that I won't be of much use to them."
"Hmmm… I know there are things you could help out with even in your state. But how would you feel about taking a vacation first?" She says with a grin
"That sounds perfect Allie. Do you have any ideas where?"
"I want to go to the beach!" She exclaims!
I smile in response. "Sounds perfect to me."
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A few days have passed in the ship now, and we have finally found our way towards a friendly area of the ocean, although we have not yet gotten in contact with the resistance. My wounds are healing nicely now, and I'm able to be active again, although I do have to see scarlet regularly to make sure I'm still healing okay, and Allie has been helping me change my bandages.
Today, my wounds are finally healed enough to be able to spend some real time with Allie. She had taken to sleeping in my room, but as I was waking up I noticed that she wasn't in the room. Getting up groggily, I stumbled my way to the bathroom to brush my teeth. Still no sign of Allie.
After some thought, I came to the conclusion that she would find me when she was ready. In the meantime, my stomach was growling fiercely, so I made my way to the makeshift kitchen. The ship we are on is immense, and the walk took several minutes, traversing multiple relatively bare hallways, finally depositing me in the kitchen, where Violet was hard at work cooking.
"Ahh! Good morning!" She called out, noticing me walk in. "I'm just preparing a bit of food for us right now! Help yourself!"
A bit of food was an understatement. There were at least a dozen serving plates out, covered with all manners of food. Eggs, bacon, cinnamon rolls, fruits and more practically glowed with the love that Violet had put into making them. Selecting a few foods, I filled my plate and took a seat.
"So what's been going on around here, violet?" I ask between bites
"Well, this trip has been a lot of fun so far, and I'm glad to be off that island, of course. However, I would be lying if I said I haven't been having my troubles."
"Is everything okay violet? Is there anything that you'd like to talk about?"
"Well, it's no secret that we all love you, of course. It's also no secret that you chose Allie. Of course, none of us are mad at you or her, but all of us are definitely sad that it wasn't us chosen" she says, smiling sadly. "Of course, I'm happy for you, for both of you. And truly, it's not the only thing that has been troubling me."
"Then what's really on your mind?"
"With my family… getting rid of me, I don't know where to go. What do I do" she chokes a little bit. "I don't have a home, or a family anymore. I'm just not sure what to do."
"Well, you do have a family. We are all family now, Violet. After all we went through together we have that right." I say with a smile. "And, as for what to do, why not travel with us. Allie wants to rejoin the resistance and I'm sure they could use someone with your talents!"
She seems to think about that possibility, then without warning she leaps forward, catching me in a hug.
"I think I might do that. Being with everyone sounds nice. And thank you, so much." She says, smiling. "Now, I think Allie was waiting for you on the deck, you should go see her"
"Thank you Violet! And remember, we are all here for you."
I turn to leave, this time going to look for Allie. As I wander through the hallways of the ship, I can't help but smile as I imagine the excitement she is going to put us through today.
As I opened the door to the upper deck of the ship, there Allie was, waiting for me. She looked amazing, wearing a yellow sports bra and black colored athletic shorts. Her signature black hat was perched on her head, and she had on a pair of black sunglasses. As she noticed me, her face lit up.
"James!" She called out, jumping to her fear and running towards me. When she gets close, she jumps towards me and wraps me in a tight hug. "Good morning! I've been waiting for you!
"Oh, sorry Allie, I hope you haven't been waiting for too long. What are you doing?"
She pulls away, so that she can look at me. "We are going to go swimming!"
"What? I'm still healing, that can't be a good idea!"
"Eh, I cleared it with Scarlet. She said it was probably okay for you to swim as of today. So let's go!" She says, pulling on my arm.
"Okay, I guess if scarlet said it's fine, it's fine. Let me change real qui-" I'm cut off as she starts to drag me towards the edge of the yacht. I start running to try to keep up with her, as we approach the edge.
"Jump!" She calls out at the last moment, and I oblige. We both jump right off of the deck of the ship, and fall past 2 levels of the ship, before finally crashing into the water.
As we plummet what must have been ten feet below the water, I realize that I don't feel allies hand anymore. I open my eyes, seeing the streams of bubbles passing both of us, and I see her looking at me. As we both rise towards the surface, she reaches her arms towards my face, grabbing me and pulling me into a deep kiss