Zaria held Gu Cheng like that until her stomach loudly protested against his ear. He pulled back abruptly, obviously flustered as he shot questions at her about how recently she had eaten. She couldn't help but chuckle. "It's alright. I have been nauseous the last few days from this headache. It is better to not eat something that I might just throw up, I don't want to waste food here."

He did not look convinced. "Nobody will say anything if you get sick, it is better to get something in even if it doesn't stay down. Some nutrients are better than none and-"

Zaria didn't want to snap at him so she covered his lips with her hand. "Sorry. I don't want any lectures right now. You can lecture me some other time. Are you alright with...things?" She bit her lip, thinking about how close he had become to the pretty nurse downstairs. "Do you want me to stay?"

Gu Cheng's face was a blank slate as he looked up at her, his thin lips slightly parted. "Yes," he whispered, then repeated it more firmly. Zaria nodded her understanding and sat down awkwardly next to him. Her doubts were swimming back up since the emotional episode was over.

"So...what do we do now?" There was no response and she realized she was being too vague. "I get that you were worried and that was why you kissed me, but if it was just in the heat of the moment then I can pretend that it didn't happen if you want. I just want to be clear, and not be guessing and make things bad."

"I said it before, that I want you to be my wife. Nothing has changed, except that now I know how easily I could lose you."

Zaria wrinkled her nose, but bit back the arguments that were trying to come out. He was right, the knowledge that something could happen to either one of them at any moment did put a new spin on things. But he was wrong that nothing had changed. Zaria didn't want to give him space to find someone else anymore. She wanted to be selfish, and stay by his side. If it didn't work out in the future then they would deal with that when the time came, but she no longer wanted to encourage him to find happiness elsewhere. Laughter burbled up inside, and she tried to hold it in even as her shoulders shook, but soon it came spilling out.

Gu Cheng pulled away a little, confusion written in big letters across his formally blank expression.

"I'm sorry," she gasped out between laughs. "It's just...we are surrounded by death...and zombies...and dinosaurs...and we are having a teen romance novel moment. I just..."

It took a few minutes for her laughter to die off. She became aware that a muscular arm was wrapped around her shoulders, and a strong hand was rubbing her arm on the opposite side. "It is okay if you are not ready, or even if you don't want to be with me. Please stop pushing me at other women, though. There is nobody else."

Zaria settled her head against him, sighing as her head pounded her a reminder of her situation. "It hurt to do it. I wanted you to be able find happiness somewhere, and I thought if I could get you to look elsewhere you wouldn't have to suffer being by me. I was so jealous when you two would duck your heads together and whisper to each other..."

"I would suffer more being away from you. Does this mean that you are agreeing? Mrs. Gu?"

The name spoken so intimately drove her body upwards, moving away from the bed. "Gu Cheng... I need to talk to you about some things. I don't want you getting angry, but I need you to understand that things won't be easy even if we escape this world. Not just that the next world might be worse, but things between us won't be easy. Can you try and listen, without making everything cold or getting angry?"

"I can try."

Zaria paced back and forth from one end of the room to the next. "I need you to understand that things are different for me now than they were in City C. I didn't want you to get too close there because I knew that I could be leaving at any moment. But now, I..."

She took a deep breath, not sure how to continue. Somethings about the previous world, he already knew, but a lot she didn't go into because she didn't want to deal with it herself. As a result she was having flashbacks, and was terrified of sleeping on soft surfaces that would make her think of being on a bed.

Finally, she started explaining things to him as they were floating around in her head. All the things she had tried to forget but that were making their way back into her head via her subconscious mind. She even told him about being scared of his reactions because she didn't want him to treat her like she was broken or no longer worthy. When she was done, she leaned her butt against the window ledge looking out at the wall and the neighboring building.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Gu Cheng didn't speak, looking down at his hands that were clenched together on his knees. Zaria waited, but when he didn't say anything she cleared her throat. "So, it won't be easy, I am saying. I guess. I may not be ready to...to do some things for a while, maybe longer than you would be willing to wait."

She stopped explaining herself when he dropped his head into his hands with a heavy sigh. Her heart dropped and she looked down at the floor, waiting for him to agree that it was too much to deal with at the moment.

"Joseph Zaria, I would never force you to do anything you weren't ready for." His voice was slightly muffled coming out against his hands. His voice grew clearer when he spoke again. "But you have to tell me when something is wrong, or when I am doing something wrong. I will try but I will need you to talk to me and tell me things."

Zaria traced her toes of her right foot in an arc in front of her. "So...we could try?"

Soft footsteps came closer. "Are you sure?"

She nodded and took steady breaths to calm her racing heart as he stopped directly in front of her. For the second time that afternoon, his hands cupped her face and he tilted her up for a kiss. Zaria closed her eyes and stayed as still as she could. There was no desperation, no sadness in his touch this time. His touch was gentle, lips moving slowly against hers. There was no pressure to deepen it, and when he left her lips not long after starting, he wandered around her face leaving feather light touches across her eyes and cheeks, finishing with her forehead as he pulled her into his arms. "I'm not going to let you leave me again, Zaria," he whispered into her hair. "We are going to make it home. Everyone is waiting for us."

Zaria relaxed into his arms until her head was too heavy and she had to be helped back to the bed. Gu Cheng tried to insist that she lay down and he would go to get her some painkillers, and she had to share her last secret, that she had been unable to lay on the couch since they arrived and why. He did not get angry as she thought he would. Instead he helped prop the pillow against the headboard and sat her back against it before leaving, coming back with the little packet and an unopened bottle of water a minute later. Gu Cheng prepared the bottle for her and then hesitated before sitting down again.

"What side did he make you lay on?" The words sounded as though they were being drug out of his throat against his will. Zaria blinked up at him before pointing at the side she was currently sitting on. Gu Cheng scooped her up and moved her to the other side of the full size bed, then settled down on her left side. When she looked at him confused, he nodded his head and kissed her on the forehead again. "I am on this side. You wake up and feel someone near you, it is me, over here. He is gone and there is nobody on that side."

Zaria looked down into the water bottle in her hand and took another drink. She was pretty sure it was not that simple. If it helped, though, she was happy to try and-

"Wait, what are you talking about, why would I sleep here?"

"You said you wanted to try. Husband and wife don't sleep in different rooms." He leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes.

"Well, but won't that be hard for you? I mean, don't guys have a hard time not...doing things...when they are with the one they like?"

Gu Cheng sighed and moved his hand toward her head, slowly and deliberately, until he was smoothing the curls on top. "Any man that can't control himself just because he is next to a beautiful woman can't really call himself a man. I will not make you do anything." His eyes opened and latched on to hers. "Are you scared that I will force myself on you?"

Zaria shook her head hard, then squeezed her eyes shut with a grimace. Not enough time had passed for the medicine to take hold.

"Then, unless you really do object, I think you should move in here starting today. You can always go into that other room when you need to be alone."

For a moment she was ready to argue that they were moving too fast, but she trusted him when he said he would wait. Zaria didn't actually want to leave and go back to that little room alone anymore.

They sat together, propped against the head of the bed, and when Zaria felt like her head was not ready to split open anymore she asked him about what happened on their gathering trip. He did not go into detail, but just knowing that the large creature had been laying in wait for them was terrifying. "Do you have to go back out right now? Can you go to another area when you do go?"

"I will tell them we have to wait when I talk to everyone again before dinner. Those boys are in no condition to go back out for now. There is nothing that we need so badly at the moment that the risk would be worth it. I don't like how it knew our route. Either it has been tracking our movements, or it is tracking us by our smell. Whichever, I don't want to lead it back here."

"I agree. It could find a lot of food with the dead that still roam the area,but that wall would be very little deterrent for it. Do you think they will argue?"

"I don't know. I didn't check on them after we were safe, not after..." Gu Cheng trailed off and Zaria reached across to place her hand on his forearm. "How did it happen? I thought you would be safe here."

Zaria kept her voice as calm and matter of fact as she could and told him what she knew. She thought of leaving out the part where she told Yamashita-kun and Saito-san to stay in their rooms, and how she dealt with it all herself, but she knew it would come out and she didn't want him to think she was lying about anything. It was what it was, she did what she did, and it was over. If he couldn't handle that she was the best one to handle the situation, then they needed to work through that issue earlier rather than later. He did not raise a fuss, the tightening of the forearm under her hand the only indication that he was not as calm as he seemed.

"You know," she said,after finishing with the part where she was tackled while carrying the body of the original victim out, "I don't think I like this world very much. In theory seeing a dinosaur up close is great, in practice it is horrible. But what do we do when it is time to leave? We can't just leave the rest of these people here, but I don't know if we can take them all."