Chapter 17: Geständnisse. [Confessions.]

Damnit Anneke!! she mentally cursed herself. Now you've got yourself stuck in a situation you probably didn't want!!

...or maybe that you wanted more than you thought.

With a sigh she gave up whatever battle could've started by her resistance, and looked him square in the eyes.

"If... if I were to tell you everything that was in my heart... about you" she started, "I fear we'd be here all night and not be back at the hideout until dawn."

"But" he counteracted, "isn't that what you really wanted?"

She blinked. By damn, he was right.

"You know" she retorted, "if you had the capabilities of reading my mind and heart then you'd probably already know what I would say, and then I wouldn't be stuck in this situation, right?"

"Perhaps" he replied. "Except I'd rather hear it out of your own sweet lips."

His adorable smile was enough to unnerve her. But was it worth just to finally admit whatever her heart needed to say, to really confess what should've been said? Her eyes fixed to the stars above for a moment, then to his own eyes. And finally, she spoke.

"I... I'm in love... and it hurts sometimes" she started as he kissed her forehead, and looked back into her eyes with a smile. She took a deep breath, not sure what else to tell him, until an encouraging nod from him meant for her to keep talking. She glanced to the stars again, said a mental prayer for encouragement, and closed her eyes for a moment. Then she opened them, and continued with what she needed to tell him.

"I know... we're both very different, given the circumstances, but it seems we're not that different at all, and sometimes I wonder if... if I ever could be the one you'd wanted" she spoke, her eyes locked on his even as she could hear her own heart pound in her head. "And, perhaps, this has been the best thing to happen to us all since the days of old, before the Darkstrom took over. It just has to be. I cannot see Johannes as happy as she is now unlike then. Same for Elibeth and Rekah.

"And while I'm thinking on... those three have been, since my parents and grandparents and relatives, the only people I love dearly. They know this.

"But... you..."

She couldn't speak more, as Karl noticed the tears that welled up in her eyes and hugged her to him. "Shh, it's alright, angel" he whispered, "it's okay. I'm here. I'm not going anywhere no matter what you say. I'm going only wherever you're going.

"Wherever you go, angel, I follow."

He kissed her tears away, then straddled her for a moment to check his coatpocket for a handkerchief. With that he gently rested on top of her again, drying her eyes from the tears.

"Anya..." he whispered, and she looked at him again, perhaps unwillingly. She was known to be anything but vulnerable, but he was the only person who'd ever seen her this way. And not even her lifelong best friend Elizabeth had seen her this vulnerable, this human.

"Don't let your heart take over you as fear" he said. "Just say whatever you feel needs to be said."

Anneke thought this through for a moment. Perhaps... perhaps he was right. Yet what were the odds that his feelings for her were mutual? But even now she knew that there was something there between the two of them, and that in itself was something no one else could take away from them.

Wrists tied behind her head, face in his hands, she took a deep breath and finally got her nerve together.

"Karl, to death I dearly love Elibeth, Johannes, and Rekah. We've been together all our lives, through thick and thin, Birthday parties and funerals. We've suffered together, we've laughed together, we've cried together, we've fought together. Til death I will always love these girls, these sisters that they've become for me.

"But I swore I'd never fall in love and suffer the pain that Rekah felt. Her heart was broken simply because she took care of Johannes.

"You... you're the reason I changed in such a strange way. For the first time, I felt more... dare I say, vulnerable than I'd like to admit. I felt my heart be happy, at the same moment I felt that same heart break. And God forbid something ever dare happened to you, I wouldn't know what to do, how to act, what to think.

"And I think I'm beginning to realize that, this must be what love does to people. It makes people really see how much they're truly worth.

"It scares me to think this but... but I love you a bit much more than I love my sisters."

She stopped for a moment--oh my God!! she thought, I can't believe I just told him I love him!! Their eyes locked for a moment before she could think of whatever else to say. Then she realized, there wasn't anything more to say.

Karl looked at her and, eyes still warm with love, kissed her forehead, her cheeks, and along her scar again. While he adorned her scars with kisses, she untied her hands from the purple ribbon and, as he made his way back up the scar to her ear, clenched her fists upon his shirt. By damn, he truly was more than enough to unnerve her, and she was powerless to stop him--willingly powerless.

His hands caught hers and, as he brought them behind her head again, he kissed her cheeks again.

"Why'd you break free from that silly little prison?" he asked in a hushed whisper.

"Well, does it look like I want my hands to lose circulation?" she retorted.

"No" he answered.

"Well then there ya go" she replied, trying to find his eyes, but she could only clasp his hands as he kissed along her ear.

"I guess I owe you a confession myself" Karl whispered after he had kissed along the scar again. "Well then, where to begin, where to begin..." Anneke blinked watching his every move.

"For one" he said, straddling her again, "you look damn beautiful like that." With a smile he grabbed his camera and, as she giggled for a moment, turned the camera on. "This one is going in my own little photo album." With that he took a picture of the beautiful, bashful woman. Putting his camera to the side, he lied down beside her again and smiled.

"Two, that tie looks sooo much better on you than on me" he admitted as he ran a finger down her cheek, along her neck, which made her giggle.

"I love your smile, I love your laugh, I love how your eyes just glow when there's a case of moonlight about. I love the way you look, I love the way you think, I love all of that and more than I could count at the moment. I...

"I couldn't love anyone else that couldn't be you" he admitted. "And for me I don't want anyone else. For me, there is you, and that is all there is to it.

"So ja, what I'm trying to say is, I guess... that... I love you too."

Anneke smiled. That was the best bit of good news she had heard since... since so long ago... she couldn't remember. In any case she was happy, and there wasn't anything else in the world that couldn't change that. It was in this kind of strange happiness, the happiness that she had desperately dreamed about in her youth, dashed away as she grew older, now willing to drown in. But this was more than enough, this moment, to drown the smile as she held him tightly to her. Again, her heart pounded in her ear, her senses could've driven her dizzy. Still she held on to whatever was left of her common sanity... even if it wasn't enough to render it as common sense.

Again Karl trailed kisses along the scar that reminded her of all the pain she suffered through the years against the enemy. For the moment, the scar became a new memory, one that now belong to them and no one else. But when the sun would rise the next morning, and the morning birds sing and their souls were fresh and renewed, would the memory of this night still reverb in their memories? She hoped to God this would be the case, that they would constantly remember this moment, this night, for many a year to pass through. But for a moment not a word was spoken as she tried to figure out what went on, why circumstances worked out the way they did.

And finally, she could not stand the torture.

I think... it's time to turn the tables she thought to herself as he kissed her cheeks once again. But this time she stopped him from continuing, as she this time held him and planted a few kisses along the scar that ran along to his shoulder. The Roboter was a bit speechless--Anneke had surprisingly turned things around on the situation. Unable to move much, unwilling to move much, he kept her there until he himself could not bear it much longer. He grasped her hands and, placing them behind her head again, tried to find her eyes. But all that she had done was enough to unman him, and all he wanted to do was kiss her again. But she kept her composure and, without thinking twice, kissed him along the jaw. That was enough for him to find her eyes and drown his in them.

And finally, their lips collided. For a moment, time stopped. Or so it felt.

...midnight.

Had anyone sent out someone to find Karl and Anneke? No, didn't think it necessary.

But alone, at the park, surrounded only by grass, flowers, and dewdrops, the two lovers rested in each other's arms. Earlier that night they had made out until their fingertips sizzled and they felt dizzy enough to stop for air. Their eyes locked until their lips collided again. But for now, they slept in each other's arms, in each other's company. It was more than anything they had dreamed of.

The only matter now was, when dawn broke they would have to hurry back to the hideout to reunite with the rest of the gang. At this point however, it was the last of their worries. All that mattered now was each other.