“Agh! Fuck!”

            Miriam awoke to the shrill sound of Lanz screaming. She was lying naked in the grass, not far from the spring the pair bathed in. Consumed last night by the afterglow, the two didn’t have the will or stamina to make it back to camp, and so fell asleep together where they had made love. Miriam stood up and scanned the area for her tiny partner. Lanz was sitting cross-legged a few feet away from her, gripping onto a narrow rock a little bigger than his torso.

            The rock had a pointed edge, similar to an arrowhead, and Lanz had it jammed into his mouth. “Gah! Motherfucker!”

            “What the hell are you doing?” Miriam asked. Lanz stopped biting for a sec, blood dripping from the roof of his mouth.

            “I’ve got a rotten tooth, and I’m trying to get it out.” He lodged the point back inside, positioning it right at the gumline above the molar.

            “What? You just woke up with a rotten tooth?”

            “I’ve had it for a while, it just now started acting up.” He bit down on the rock. “Agh! Shit! I thought it’d be easier than this!” Miriam crouched over the tiny.

            “Let me help.” She placed her thumb along the side of his face, pinching his jaw between it and the rock point. “On the count of three, I’m going to press down. Got it?” Lanz held the rock steady in his arms, wrapping his legs around the base. “One… Two…” Miriam pushed down, forcing Lanz’s upper jaw into the pointed edge. The rock wedged under the molar’s root and tore it free, slicing the corner of Lanz’s mouth in the process.

            “Gahhhh!” Lanz lurched onto the ground, spitting up blood. The tooth flew out of his mouth and landed on a blade of grass. It was no larger than a grain of sand, and Miriam struggled to pick it up with her cumbersome fingers, resorting to scooping it up in her chewed-up thumbnail. The pebble of a tooth was covered in blood, but it appeared healthy, save for the damage caused by its removal. There was a strange filling in the cap, but no signs of rot anywhere on the tooth. Though, given how small it was, Miriam couldn’t put too much stock in her naked eye’s examination. She tossed the tooth aside and gently rubbed Lanz’s back with her forefinger.

            “You good, soldier?”

            “Fuck me, I’m never doing that again.” Lanz rubbed his jaw, blood spurting from his mouth, and sat up. The pain sucked, but the soothing backrub from Miriam kept it off his mind. “Thanks.” He turned his head and met her gaze, a goofy, blood drenched grin stretching across his face. “For that and last night.” Miriam blushed and looked away.

            “Don’t mention it,” she grumbled. “Seriously, it’s better if we just forget about that.” She withdrew her finger and stood up, walking over to grab her clothes. Lanz’s smile warped into a confused frown.

            “I’m sorry.” Lanz followed after her, catching his clothing as the woman tossed the miniature bundle to him. “Was I not good enough?”

            “No! You were great!” Miriam bit her tongue, upset by how enthusiastic her response was. “I mean, you did fine for your first time. That’s not the issue.” The tiny watched her slip her tank top on, wondering if he’d get to see her naked again tonight. “Look, I enjoyed last night as much as you did, and I’m not opposed to letting off steam again in the future, but that’s all this is, okay?” After they both finished clothing themselves, Miriam bent over and held her hand out for Lanz. The tiny stepped onto her palm and rode it like an elevator to Miriam’s chest level. “I don’t want you getting any funny ideas in your head.”

            It was clear from Lanz’s expression that his head had already been ravaged by “funny ideas.” The normally stoic soldier looked sadder than an abandoned puppy, his head tilted downward as he stared into the creases of her palm. “Got it,” he mumbled. “Let me know when you want to ‘let off steam’ or whatever.”

            “Come on, don’t make this difficult.” Miriam started making for their camp, carrying Lanz as they talked. “You know we can’t be,” Miriam struggled to find the right word, “together.”

            “Why not?”

            “Let’s see: because we’re at war with each other, because we come from very different cultures, because we’re not even the same species. You’ve got to think ahead. Once we’re rescued, we’ll have to leave this all behind. We’ll be enemies again.”

            “And what if we’re never rescued?” Lanz asked. Miriam froze, humoring the thought for the first time. Rescue had always been an inevitability, not a possibility. “Or, what if the war ends before we’re found? We could be together then.”

            “It’s not that simple.” Miriam continued walking, trudging through the forest while her focus remained on the man she held. “No matter what the future holds, we’re still killers at the end of the day. We can’t ignore that. Really, we should hate each other, not, not fall in love.” The tiny sulked in her hand, her words echoing in his ear. He stared into his own hands, judging them for every crime they’ve committed.

            “You’re right. I’m sorry.” Lanz turned his back to her, gazing forward as she continued carrying him to camp. He rubbed his cheek, pushing the skin into the divot left by his missing tooth. Miriam tried to move on, to hold back the bubbling emotions that had been stewing for weeks, brought to a fever pitch since last night, but she couldn’t shift her focus from him. She didn’t understand. She didn’t understand any of it. Why didn’t he hate her? Even after bloodying him in the plane, after pinning him beneath her boot, after taking away his autonomy and treating him like an object, he still saved her life on that first day. And why did she not hate him? When she saw him in the eagle’s clutches, when she saw him falling from so high up, why did her heart strain at the thought of losing him? Why now did it pain her to see him sulk in her hands?

            “I need you to be honest with me,” Miriam said. “What am I to you?” Lanz glanced back at her, pondering the question while he pivoted to face her.

            “It’s hard to put into words.” Lanz scratched at his cheek and rubbed at the divot again. “When I’m with you, I feel whole. Like, I’ve finally found a piece of myself I never knew was missing.” He looked back at his hand. His trigger finger twitched, and his eyes went hollow. “I can’t hate you. It wouldn’t be fair. Whatever you’ve done could never compare to the sins I’ve wrought on the world.” Lanz’s pupils quivered, sparks of emotion flickering in the soulless windows. He wanted to reflect the question onto her, but he didn’t have the gall to hear the answer.

            “You and I have lived very different lives, but that guilt is something we both share.” Miriam sighed as she trotted around trees and over their exposed roots. “I never questioned why I fought. I just did. I followed my orders. I killed the enemies in my path, and I suppressed whatever feelings got in the way of that. But now…” Miriam pushed a thick branch away with her arm, nearly snapping the thing in her grip. “…If we do get rescued, I’m not sure I could return to duty.”

            “Be glad you have that choice.” The woman paused, looking down at her partner. “Honestly, I’d rather stay stranded here than go back home. Hell, I’d take becoming your prisoner again over that.”

            “Excuse me, you still are my prisoner,” Miriam quipped. The two smirked at each other, cracking the feeble barrier formed between them.

            At long last, Miriam cleared the forest and stood on the familiar sands. Clear of the trees, the sun shown bright across the endless cerulean. The waves of low tide washed up in the distance, the drapes of an eternally empty horizon. “I’m sorry if what I said earlier offended you. Fuck, I can’t believe I just said that to a tiny.” She scratched at the back of her head, hoping she could formulate the right words before the pause grew awkward. “I figured you’d be hesitant about all this, or at least as confused as I am.” She lifted Lanz until he was at eye level with her. “But, I’m willing to give this a shot if you are.”

            “I’d really like that. Thank you.” The two stared at each other for a while, neither knowing what to say. Lanz couldn’t go anywhere, stuck high up in her palm, and Miriam wasn’t ready to let him go, though she also wasn’t sure what to do with him. “Should we, like, kiss now or something?”

            “P-probably.” Miriam’s eyes darted around. Compared to all the debauchery they got up to the night prior, a simple kiss seemed oddly daunting without the carnal lust to propel them. Miriam lowered Lanz to her mouth and puckered her lips. Lanz leaned in and met them to his, though his peck only covered a fraction of her upper lip. He held his arms behind his back, not entirely sure what to do with them. His still bloodied mouth stained hers, leaving a small red dot at the point of contact. After what felt like an hour, the two pulled back, shaky but satisfied.

            “That’ll get easier with time. I hope.”

            “For sure,” Lanz remarked. “We’ve got plenty of time to figure it out.”