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Author's Chapter Notes:
Hope I can keep it going!

Red did not respond at first. He just stared at her, in a mixture of happiness, relief, and confusion. This was not the one, he knew that. Who the hell was it?

"Why don't you talk?" She asked, bringing her index finger up to her palm where Red lay calmly. She began to stroke his body, gently and kindly, almost soothingly. Though he did not know her well, she had something he could not easily admit. I... I trust her, he thought, I trust her not to hurt me, trust her not to drop me, trust her to take care of me. He shuddered. It was always cold now, outside of his body, and deep inside, where the warmth of love had once been, the cold frozen in its place.

Both feelings were out of his control.

"Are you cold? I forget that the smaller you are, the easier it is to get cold," she said, her hazel eyes soft, her matching hair swaying softly in the late evening wind. Red slowly nodded, softening his gaze. Remember the enemy, he thought. Remember, for this is not the foe.

"Poor guy," she said, wrapping her long, slender fingers around his body. As she accomadated his body in her palm, he glimpsed her name tag. It read ART, KATE On her breastpiece, it read 200th Squadron. So, she's not part of those monsters, he mused. Slowly, he began to break into a smile of relief and gratefulness. He'd not felt so warm in years...

(Flashback sequence)

"Cmon, little guy, get in!" Said the towering, terrifying, giantess. She was lying down on the once AT&T Stadium field. With 3 years gone by, and with no maintenance being done on it, it was slowly falling apart. Metal beams were stringing down like streamers after a long party; except that this had been no party. This was The Incursion. Red shook his head. His life could've been so much more, but now... Now it was life as a toy.

He spoke.

"Why, Janet, why? I didn't ask for this..." He felt her piercing glare, and immediately he flipped into reverse. "This magnificent body! Soooo godly," he said, hoping he could convince her of his lies. He knew it worked because she seemed pleased with his response.

"Oooh, yeah baby. Now... Get in," she said, voice raspy. He saw what was to happen, and he knew he'd come out scarred.

(End)

Kate stared at the placid young man in between her fingers. He looked as though he were catatonic, with blank eyes and jaw slipping into a slack.

"Hey! Little guy! Wake- no, that's not right.... Umm, snap out of it!"

Immediately, his eyes seemed to regain life, his body going from limp to stiff, then back to normalcy. He shook his head, not knowing he'd experienced the turning point in his life in a few short moments. He glanced at her, and seeing her cautious and worried face, he smiled, then gave her a thumbs up. She smiled, and sighed in relief.

"Don't scare me like that again, okay? I thought you were leaving me there," she said, adding a worried tone to her voice.

The response was immediate from Red. He looked quizzical, not knowing what se meant. What the heck does she mean? What did I do? he wondered. Then, he remembered his flashback. He remembered something from his Human Studies class and pulled a shaky memory of "when one is experiencing a flashback or mental event of special importance, the physical world is irrelevant to the mind, and nervous receptors are shut down in order to concentrate on the...." That was all he could remember.

But it didn't matter. He must've looked dead, and now he had to fix it. Silently, he leaned over in her palm and kissed her index finger. It was the first time in a very long time he was not forced to kiss something. He wanted her to know that he cared and appreciated what she was doing for him. What that was, who knew. No one, especially one from the Incursion, had treated him this way. Such kindness was all but extinct. But now, he was happy, and judging from her expression, she was too.
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