Lyra-
When I woke up, I had to think hard about what happened yesterday and the day before that. Let's see, I had the biggest fight ever with Nathan. He almost left me.. I was attacked by a grizzly bear. Nathan came to my rescue and fought a bear for me. ME! I marveled at the thought of him risking his life for me.
Oh yeah, back to my list. Uhmm, he fought the bear and killed it but not before getting severely hurt. I drug him home like the first time he was mortally wounded and fixed him up.
I waited for hours for him to wake up and when he did, I was ecstatic. And what else? Oh yes, he kissed me.
Was that part real?? I was having trouble distinguishing reality from my mental thoughts. Tell me it was real. It felt too much like a dream. I hoped that it wasn't a dream. I rubbed my cheek against Nathan's warm, bare chest and sighed, calmed by his regular breathing.
"Morning Jay."
I sleepily looked up at Nathan's face and giggled at his bed head, "Good morning."
"What time do you think it is?" He asked with a yawn.
"Only way to know is to get up and see," I smiled up at him.
"Well we can figure that out later then," Nathan chuckled.
I gently ran my hand over his bandages, "How are you feeling?"
"Sore as hell," he groaned truthfully.
I sat up and pulled up the edge of his bandages. The claw marks were a little red but they looked fine, as fine as deep gashes can look, and I didn't think I needed to change them yet. Bruising was all over Nathan's chest and ribs.
"So um...did- did we.." I started but Nathan beat me to it.
He cupped my face and brought my lips to his. Sparks exploded in my mind and my first thought was fuck, do I have morning breath??
When he pulled away, I grinned, "So it wasn't a dream."
"No, no it wasn't. You have no clue how long I've waited to do that," Nathan muttered with a smile, a dazed look on his face.
"If it's half as long as I've wanted to, then yes, I have a clue," I smirked.
He took my way of open acceptance and his smile broadened. I grudgingly got up and looked down at Nathan.
His smiled faltered, "Where're you going?"
"Well, there's no way I'm letting you do anything. But I'm...a little afraid to go to go out without you now...so I'm going to get some meat from the cache," I admitted with a smile.
Nathan nodded, "Okay then."
I turned and opened the door, letting in the sunlight and surprisingly, the warmth from outside. It really looked like a spring day today.
"Hey Jay?" Nathan called.
"Yes?" I turned to look over my shoulder.
"Are you going to put pants on? I mean- I'm not complaining at all but.." He sat up slowly and grinned.
I looked down at my bare legs and blushed, "You know what, nah, today is a no pants day."
"You should have those more often," I heard him say while I walked out the door.
I grinned and quickly climbed up the ladder of the cache. What to eat, what to eat...I grabbed the last of the last of the elk meat. Snatching up some berries to go with it, I climbed back down, avoiding my bad arm.
Going back inside, I saw Nathan had his bandages off and was observing his stitches with great interest.
"Nathan," I said flatly.
He looked up at me, "What?"
"You weren't supposed to take those off," I chuckled and pulled out the frying pan.
"Well it itches," he whined, struggling to not scratch.
I huffed and threw the elk meat in the pan. Sifting through the medical supplies, I grabbed the pain relieving ointment.
"Itching means it's healing Nate," I smiled and straddled his lap.
He put his hands on my hips as I dabbed on the medicine, "Yeah but the stuff makes it worse."
"No, it keeps it protected. You are not getting an infection," I insisted, gently rubbing in the oily ointment.
"I don't want it though," he grumbled childishly.
"Fine, I'll keep it minimal. But you can't take off the gauze," I met his gaze and waited for an answer.
He sighed but smile at me, "Okay fine."
I smiled at our compromise and bandaged him up with minimal supplies. Something wet poked my arm and I turned to see Baine nudging me with his nose quietly, looking at me with big golden eyes.
"Oh Baine I'm sorry...Nathan I have to feed him," I bit my lip.
He shifted under me and thought about it, "Can't he just eat some leftovers?"
"We don't have enough leftovers for a full grown wolf. I need to go to the warren for him. I'll be right back okay?" I said and started to get up.
Nathan caught my wrist and pulled me back down quickly. I was about to say something but he pressed his lips to mine and kissed me passionately. I smiled against his lips before pulling away and staggering to the door, "I'll be fine."
Throwing on some leggings, with a small complaint from Nathan, I tossed the bow over my shoulder and gathered my stuff to go. Nathan insisted I take my pistol and to make him happy, I stuck it in the back of my leggings with a smirk.
I've never been to the traps and back so fast. I didn't even skin the rabbits as I tossed them to Baine. As quick as I put them on, the pants came off and Nathan was yet again happy.
We sat around for the day and just rested. I happened to learn it got warmer in the afternoon, warm enough to take a shower. I was beyond happy as I stripped down and jumped into the water.
It washed away the grime of winter and I finally felt fully clean. Nathan was totally fine with me hopping into the river for a quick dip but he never got to see past my bra and underwear.
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Nathan was healing surprisingly well and fast. It had only been about a week or....maybe more, I'm not sure, and already I think his stitches are nearly ready to come out.
"Ready?" I asked, scissors and pliers in hand.
"I guess," Nathan said warily and pulled his shirt off carefully.
I took a good look of what he had because I definitely can now. *wink wink* He moved his legs to where I could sit in between them. Carefully snipping the lengths of the stitches and pulling them out with pliers, I pulled at least fifty (ten or so per claw mark.)
His hands settled on my thighs and he closed his eyes while I did this. (He thought it was going to hurt.)
When I was done, I leaned back. He cracked an eye open, "Done already?"
"Yes, now that wasn't so bad was it?" I chuckled.
"No but it helps to have an EMT trained woman around," he grinned.
I laughed and cleaned up the stitches. I sat beside Nathan and traced the white scars that obscured his tanned skin, "Sorry I did such a shit patch job. I was scared you were going to bleed out if I didn't get it done fast."
"Are you kidding? I've never looked manlier," he laughed.
"That's true," I agreed and looked up at him.
"So I was thinking..." He muttered, taking my hand and studying my fingers.
"So you were thinking..." I raised an eyebrow, waiting for a response.
"I think we should leave soon. Real soon. I'm all healed up and I think we should start getting ready to find my cabin," he let it all out in one breath.
I was quiet as I thought about it. I did say we would leave as soon as he was ready. I sighed, "Are you sure you're okay?"
Nathan pulled me onto him and wrapped an arm around my waist, "I am fit as a fiddle."
I took a deep breath, "Okay, we will get ready to leave."
He smiled at me, "We're going to get home Jay, I promise."
I grinned at him and pecked his lips. For days we prepared to go. And with each day, I became more anxious while Nathan became more excited. He thought about the positives while I thought about all the negatives.
Today, we hunted for back up. I was in charge of smoking all the meat to make it all preservable. There was a variety because we knew how sucky it was to eat the same thing for days on end. We didn't know how long it'd take to get to the cabin, other than my guessing.
We had rabbit, turkey, fish, and squirrel. Baine picked up on Nathan's happiness and bounced around excitedly, always wanting to play.
I sat beside the smoker, reading over my map and making some small modifications. Lifting the rock to check on the meat, I put it back down once I saw it was nearly done. Nathan was at the river, doing laundry for me since he was trying to 'make up' for the week or so that he sat around. I told him that was like injury count but he wouldn't take it.
"So, when do you want to leave?" I asked him.
"Tomorrow if it's possible," he laughed happily.
It was very possible.. It wouldn't take us long to pack up things and move out. I had everything organized out of nerves and was basically ready to go at a moments notice.
"How about the day after tomorrow..." I offered and picked at the edge of my map.
Nathan looked over his shoulder at me and bit the inside of his cheek. I watched him wring out a shirt and throw it over the clothes line.
He wandered over to me with a small smile. Nathan held out his hand and I took it. He pulled me up and wrapped an arm around my waist to press me to his chest.
"I'm not sure why, but I know you're afraid to leave. We're going to get home and to do that, we need to leave as soon as possible," he said quietly.
I played with the collar of his shirt, "I know...its just. This place is almost home, I'm afraid to leave because I don't know if we'll get stuck out here again and have something lesser than this...."
It was a dumb excuse, I know, but it was true. This was one of the best places you could ever find in the middle of the mountains.
"I know, but you have to trust me. My cabin is way better than this," Nathan chuckled and I cracked a smile.
"Do you really want to leave tomorrow?" I asked quietly.
"Yes, the sooner the better," he said softly.
I took a deep breath and nodded, "Okay, I think I can do that."
Nathan leaned down and tilted my chin up. My eyes flickered to his lips and back to his eyes. He took it as an invitation and leaned farther down to kiss me. I met him in the middle and relished the feeling it gave me. Euphoria. Nathan deepened the kiss and licked my bottom lip for permission.
He didn't even have to ask...I opened my mouth and let him in. We barely took little breaths in between as Nathan held me tightly and had dominance over me.
I hooked my fingers through his belt loops and pulled him closer. He slipped a hand under my hoodie, his hoodie, and let it rest against the small of my back. The small touch sent shivers up my spine and I smiled against his lips.
He pulled away and grinned at me, "I could get used to this."
I smiled back at him, "So could I."
Baine became jealous and pushed his way in between us. He stood on his hind feet to put his paws on my shoulders. I laughed and kissed his snout, "I didn't forget about you bud."
He dropped back to the ground and his tail beat the air happily. Nathan crossed him arms and scowled at Baine. I rolled my eyes but grinned at him, "You can't both be jealous."
"Sure we can," he grumbled, moving in front of Baine to wrap an arm around my waist.
He stuck his tongue out at Baine childishly and I laughed, "Very mature Nate."
"Can I ask you something?" Nathan turned to me.
"Sure," I shrugged.
"How long do you think it's going to take to get to the cabin?"
"Well, you said it was about thirty miles away and I was thinking we could cover about ten miles a day, so hopefully three days or a little more," I said thoughtfully.
He nodded and grinned real big. I raised an eyebrow, "What?"
"We're going to be at my cabin in less than a week!" He exclaimed and grabbed my hips.
I squealed in surprise as he picked me up and spun me around. I started laughing and giggling with him. We were going to get there and we were going to be just fine.
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