Catherine

"We're going to get through this." I whispered. I've only done this once and I ended up hurting myself.

"Just" push "one" push "more" push

***
Damon

She's groaning.

Moaning.

How the hell would I know? Her door's closed. I leaned in closer, half of my face pressed on her door. The bed was creaking. She made this strangled sound that made me take a step back, eyeing her door in surprise. What the hell was she doing?

I mean I know I'm hot but she could've called me to help her relieve the tension. By you know, uh-taking her to a spa or something. It's been awkward since she saw me in all my naked glory. And you know what's more annoying than a person who pretends they can't see you?

A person who you cook for but pretends they can't see you.

It's been Hi. Hello. Good morning. Goodbye. And it's beginning to piss me off.

I went back to my previous position. Judging from the way I can hear footsteps, she's continuing whatever it is that she's doing on the floor.

Wow. Catherine Wright. Who knew?

Then there came thumping sounds. I'm well educated when it comes to doing acrobatics since the women I've been with seem to have a knack for doing some gymnastics and all that sht but while jumping? What could she possibly do while jumping?

Maybe she's exercising.

Convincing myself that maybe she is, I turned to leave. I was just three steps away when I heard something somewhat large drop on the floor.

Without even thinking, I ran and kicked her door open. To hell with whatever it was that she's doing.

I looked around, alarmed that she wasn't anywhere to be found.

"Bonbon!" no answer.

That was when a hand came up from the other side of her bed. Her head slowly emerged, her glasses not placed quite right on her nose and her hair a mess.

"I-I'm fine. Nothing to see here. Just tripped 'is all. Close the door when you leave-ooor not. You better fix that. LATER! Yeah, fix it later. Not now though..." she spoke so quickly, she barely had time to breathe. But I'm not leaving her until I made sure that she's okay.

"Can you get up bonbon?" I started walking towards her but she quickly waved her hands, wanting me to stay where I was. She got on her knees and moved her hair away from her face.

''I'm fine Damon. Good. Great. Awesome. Wonderful. I'm running out of adjectives. Please leave." she rested her elbows on the bed and I don't know, it just felt like she's not telling me something.

"Can you get up? Are you hurt?" I continued making my way towards her and she hastily got up, pulling her shirt downwards.

"I'm fine. It's just- I can't." I smiled at her as my eyes moved lower.

"Let me help..."

She raised an eyebrow even though it was obvious that she felt uncomfortable with me seeing her in such a state.

"Can you...you only get to try once." I slowly went down on my knees and looked up at her, nodding.

She nodded and raised her shirt a bit.

"Why are you even wearing this?" she snorted when she heard me. "Fine. Take a deep breathe. Don't exhale until I tell you to." She did what I told her and quickly but forcefully buttoned up her jeans.

She let out an oof . I got up and smiled at her.

"How'd you put it in that fast?"

What I'd give for her to ask me that on an entirely different situation.

"My manly strength."

She looked past me and winced when she saw her broken door. "You better fix that." I saluted and nudged my head towards the direction of the kitchen.

"You're making me fat. "She groaned as she followed me.

"Then stop eating too much." I got us two plates as she opened one of the casseroles.

"Then stop cooking food that would make me eat too much." I turned to see her glaring at me. I glared back and we stayed like that for a full minute before bursting into laughter. It eventually died down and she sighed.

"I'm sorry for being rude these past few days."

I started pouring water on our glasses and grinned.

"I'm sorry you saw me naked before you even asked me out." She threw me her table napkin.

We were almost done with lunch when she suddenly dropped her utensils.

"I need to stop."

I forked a juicy chunk of beef and mocked her by groaning as I chewed it slowly.

"You know, you can eat what I cook and not gain too much weight." She eyed me suspiciously.

"How..."

***
Catherine

"Five minutes. Please." I was gasping for air. We just started and I can already feel my muscles burning.

"We just started, bonbon. Come on."

I gave him a nasty look before jogging next to him. Well I'm sorry for not being as fit as this guy over here. I'm supposed to be lying on my soft bed right now. It is, after all, six-thirty in the frick fracking morning.

I'm supposed to be dreaming about Ryan Reynolds. Not jogging my way to the park. But noooo. He just had to enter my room without knocking (I think he didn't fix my door on purpose) and told me all the calories I had to burn just from what we ate for dinner alone.

"I talked to Gina."

He turned his head towards me.

"Gina?" I almost forgot.

"Benjie. Since you closed my eye, I can only see his hot version, and I'm calling him Gina." I heard him chuckle.

As we reached the park, I saw a couple of people jogging already. If only I found out that hot guys roam among these lands at the wee hours of the morning sooner, I would've started jogging a long time ago. But knowing my history with flirting, (which was not much) I'd probably wear a jacket and just stare at them from behind a tree with my binoculars. He probably saw me observing the men nearby and nudged me with his shoulder.

"What." I didn't even bother looking at him.

"You can sit down for a minute." I turned to see this serious expression on his face. A little scared that he's going to go "Imma-suck-yow-soul" on me again, I returned my attention to the pieces of meat just a couple of jogs away from us.

"Fifty seconds bonbon." pouting, I slumped down on a hard bench. He sat down beside me, blocking my view from all that man meat with his large frame.

"What did you and uh, Gina talk about?"

I looked down at our shoes. "You know, stuff. What happens inside the garage. You were with them since you were twelve." It wasn't a question. I wanted him to talk to me. He knows me well enough and I there's this voice telling me to really see Damon for who he is. Whatever that means

"Yup. They found me. They got no place to stay but they let me tag along. Paid for my college. I worked my ass off and bought the building where the Garage stood, with their backing of course. It's their home. Aside from our sideline, money's pretty good and the business gives the guys something else to do other than finding lost souls." He got up and offered me his hand.

"We're trying a different route." Wait what. Why? The man meatsssss. It was a smart move to just shut up and follow him as we started our trek away from my new found haven.

The place we were jogging now felt like there were eyes following us. I had to keep up with him or some evil creature would come and get me. It just dawned to me that almost everybody in my-our neighborhood has this silent rule that life and everything else starts at nine in the morning.

I can't take it anymore. My legs hurt and I was sweating like a man. I gripped his arms so he had no choice but to stop.

"Bonbon?"

"Don't you bonbon me."

He wiped the sweat off my brow with his thumb. "We're almost home bonbon. You're looking better already. Your jeans are going to fit for sure." He grinned and I had to slap his hand away from my face. Yeah sure. Go ahead. Make fun of someone who likes food but isn't a fan of exercising. But then it hit me. He called our apartment home. Well. We and home sounded...nice I guess. What. Don't you dare read between the lines. Stop right there.

He took pity on me and agreed that we can walk back...home.

Sure it was fun. Looking at the architectures and seeing people walk their dogs. But there was this one dachshund that started following us for the last three blocks. I started walking faster and Damon just went along thinking that maybe I just badly wanted a shower. It wasn't really a big deal. But I think it can smell fear. I turned my head to look at it just in time to see it show its teeth and ran towards my leg. I guess Damon saw it too since he grabbed my hand and started running, dragging my sweaty body with him.

I've watched a show about humans having this fight or flight instinct. Yup. Definitely a flight kind of person.

I almost tripped as we ran our way inside our building, Damon not caring if the evil creature that came to take my leg was still following us. We ran up the stairs, quickly opening the door. I was too high with adrenaline that I didn't even dare stop running as he opened the door.

Maybe I was too heavy for him because he turned to me and the moment my body slammed into his, I felt like we were falling...

No really. We're falling!

He groaned as his body hit the floor. I'm cool though. Hot I mean. I'm safe okay. I quickly inspected his head, running my hands through it to feel if there was any tender spot. I was too focused on finding out if he has a broken skull that I didn't notice how close we were until I saw him staring at my face.

Can anybody supply me with cricket sounds please?

"You didn't talk to the dog. I thought you had powers." I murmured.

"I'm a reaper bonbon. Not a dog whisperer." I got up and it was my turn to offer him my hand. He took it and pulled himself up. Or he just tried to rip my arm off. The man was heavy.

We stared at each other. Strangely, there was no tugging sensation like someone wanted me out of my own body. This was just like in the books that I've read. He's going to close the distance between us and we're going to...to...

Oh my glob he's doing it.

"Well..." he whispered as his face inched closer to mine.

Think of some sassy comeback Cat. Something that would make him smile.

"We got chased by an evil hotdog dog."

And the award for best on ruining a moment goes to....you, you idiot.

Well it was sassy I guess. And it made him smile.

But he laughed afterwards and pushed me gently towards my bedroom telling me to take a shower because I stink.

Not sure if he meant that I actually smell bad or that I have this uncanny ability to turn what could've been a romantic cliché moment into a farce.

I'm guessing both.