Desert Wake ✔

Ch. 6, pt. 2: The Life of the Dead and Dying

The dead and dyin' walnut grove just got itself a new citizen. Ro does a good job disposin' of Orin's remains, buried deep and wrapped in that gaudy flag of his. Ro thought the grove would work out real good on account of the fact that there's still roots there to hold the soil together. Cuz all we need is to do the work of buryin' a body, just to have the next strong wind come along and undo that work, exposin' our sins to the world once more. No, this way, our sins is bound to stay buried.

I set my head against the scratchy bark of a particularly tall tree—the only headstone Orin Longbow is ever gonna git. I'm tryin' to feel bad fer his fate and our hand in it. But I cain't. Orin made his choice to attack me, and the only reason he got shot to pieces is cuz he couldn't stand to lose what he thought was his. I ain't sorry to see him gone, but I do feel bad that Ro had to be involved. He killed a man. He did it to defend me, and the world's a lighter shade of grey cuz Orin ain't here no more, but still. It ain't the act of killin' so much as acceptin' fully that you done what you had to do.

"Rordan, you all right with this? I mean, with what happened. I'm awful sorry it came down to his demise, and you bein' the one to do the job. You know that don't you?"

Ro leans against the shovel that done just finished buryin' Orin and he sighs real deep. "Am I a bad person for not feeling worse about this, May?" He walks over, stands near me in sich a way that my heart takes to flutterin'. He sets his head against the tree just as I have mine, so that our faces are right next to each other.

"Every day, I think about my friends who died in the press fire. I think about Stuart, who suffered dearly for his betrayal. I picture each one in my head and I go over everything, wondering what I could have done to prevent all of that from happening." He pauses fer a moment, then nods his head slightly, like he's finally decided on something.

"When I think about Orin, though, what I picture in my head is you. You, with Orin bashing in your head and coming nearer to killing you then I can..." He cain't quite finish that thought. Instead he breathes in and out real slow. "I think about what he was about to do to you, May, and more than anything, the expression on your face when he pointed the gun at your head, like you knew without a doubt that you were going to die. So no, I'm not all right with any of this, the deaths, the injustice, the lies, a world that would create men like Orin. I'm not all right with it, but I'm glad I did what I did. And I would do it again, ten times over if it meant keeping you alive, May. Believe me when I say that."

Oh, I believe him all right, and it terrifies and thrills me all at once. Never did I imagine I'd meet a man who would kill fer me. This alone don't seem so odd, cuz I was willin' to do some pretty nasty things when I thought it would keep Ro safe. If he was in harm's way and I had the means to remove that harm, of course I'd do it. But what truly scares me is, where's this goin'? He cain't stay here, I know he don't wanna stay, but these sort of proclamations he's makin', that he'd keep me alive no matter what—it's like he already thought this out, thoughts about him and me that he ain't shared yet.

"I cain't be dependent upon you fer my survival. You know that, don't you? Yer gonna have to leave, and I honestly don't know what I'll do then, but I'll have to think of something."

"May." He turns his head so his lips are right next to my ear. "Do you want me to go?"

"I cain't bear the thought of you leavin', Ro." That declaration earns me a smile, cuz I gave him the answer he was hopin' fer and finally said his name the way he likes, all in one sentence. "But you're a lawbreaker and the law's got wind that yer here. You cain't stay."

"Neither can you." He kisses my cheek, then runs his lips up to my ear, tugging on it with his teeth. I gasp at the sensation it stirs in me. His next words are a whisper of warm air across my skin. "Come with me May."

His lips trace a hot line across my jaw, and then they find my own. "Come with me." He kisses me long and deep, and finally, I taste him, the city life, the courage of his pursuits, the pain of betrayal, the miles of wilderness, of runnin', the desert alive and ravenous under his feet, the constant hunger and thirst and the will to keep goin', the lonely farm house with the curly-haired girl standin' on the porch. I taste it all in him. And I know, this ain't no roll in the hay fer him, not fer neither of us.

This is the moment when the facts and truths of our lives converge, when our stories become a tale we tell together. It's a certainty that he feels this too. He breaks away from me long enough to say, "If you won't come with me, I won't go without you. I'd rather stay and face the law then leave you behind. I need you, May. You're my only source of water in all the desert."

What he means is, he cain't live without me. I don't know how it's possible. We've only known each other fer what – goin' on two weeks or so -- and if he'd said it ten minutes ago, I'd have argued with him about how it cain't be that way 'tween us. Sich thinkin' cain only end in heartache, cain't it? But I don't argue with him now. How cain I dispute something I feel is true deep within my own heart as well? Maybe Ro was right all along about the dust. It has the power to stir itself and those it choses till we are truly and fully awake. I cain't never return to the state of unknowing I had been in, 'fore Ro crossed my path.

#

We move up to the house then, cuz it ain't appropriate to do what we was doin' right next to Orin's freshly dug grave. Orin. Dead Orin. And now we're about to... what kind of people are we anyhow? But I suppose that's it, we're just people, two people who've been on their own fer far too long.

I don't got much time to dwell on Orin, or if I'm good or bad or something in between 'fore Ro takes all them thoughts from me. Then there's only him, him leadin' me upstairs to the loft, cuz I cain't do this in my parent's room, I just cain't. He kisses me and then holds me to him, sayin' "May, May, May," and he lets me go enough so that he cain tug at my coveralls, droppin' one strap and then the other over my shoulders so that they fall away from me all together. I raise my shirt up over my head and then I'm there, stark-naked and not one bit shy, cuz however I am, I am me. And I'd rather be exactly who I am, standin' here right now with Ro, then anyone else anywhere in this world or any other.

Maybe, I got some luck in me after all.

"I've never met anyone like you." He runs his fingers along my sides. I don't stop them fingers, wherever they wanna travel. He grabs my backside and presses me to him. "You're perfect."

"Ain't no sich thing." I tug on his belt, undoin' his fly. "But I think I will accept yer flattery none-the-less."

Ro breathes in and lets out a low moan as I relieve him of his drawers. "But you are, May. You're incredible."

I smile and with one hand at work where his drawers used to be, I use the other to bring his head back down to mine. "Incredible, huh? Well, yer about to find out just how right you are."

Ro's eyes, blue, blue, blue, loose their control at this point. He moans again and two seconds later, I'm lying on the bed, his ruby medallion danglin' over me, sending a spectrum of fiery light 'round the room. "I dreamed of this ever since the first night I came here." Every word is a tremblin'. He cups my breast and brings his tongue down to it, licking circles over the tender flesh. Oh gods, if I wasn't ready fer him by now, this is all it takes to get me there.

"Ro," I struggle to keep an iota of composure so my words come out logical. "I'll go with you, I'll go."

He brings his head up long enough fer his eyes to show me everything — happiness, lust, love, relief.

There ain't nothin' that cain stop us, not the lawfolk, nor the desert, not the cough. Nothin'. Ro knows what to do now, the dominion of the dust awake inside me, inside us. And ain't nothin' cain stop that power from spreadin' over every part of who we are.

A/N: So... that happened. It's a desert; things were bound to get hot at some point, right? But can their newfound love survive everything they're facing? Better yet... can they survive?

It seemed only appropriate to dedicate this chapter to an awesome romance writer @MorrighansMuse.