#meowdar

Firefights never got easier.

Oh, the aiming got easier, and the killing blurredtogether into a stomach-turning smear of corpses. But the fights themselves neverstopped making my heart try to beat up into my throat. I could never seem tobreathe right, as though the air had turned stale. My vision narrowed into ahazy tunnel. I never understood how I made it out alive.

It should have been easier with Meowdar fighting at myside, but his presence made things worse. Every part of me screamed to grab himand run. To keep myself from doing anything stupid, I settled into a rhythm oftaking quick shots over our cover, then crouching down for five quick gasps ofair.

Stand up. Shoot at any machine men I saw. Drop down.One, two, three, four, five.

Over and over. It wasn’t comfortable, but it wasbetter than nothing, and it would keep me alive.

That came to a screeching halt when Meowdar’s handappeared over mine. His grip was too tight to ignore, too real. I started overrecounting my breaths. One, two, three-

“Tetsuro, breathe,” he said in that warm yet coolvoice of his. “Your hands are shaking terribly. It’s not good for your aim.”

I sucked in more air. Onetwothreefour-

“Not like that,” he huffed. He tightened his grip onmy hand ‘til it almost hurt. “We’ll make it through this. I’ve got you.”

He couldn’t promise something like that. No one couldever promise something like that. One stray bullet with the right timing couldbreak that promise. He’d end up as just another limp form on the ground. Nomore light behind his eyes. No more soothing voice.

Just like so many others who’d had the bad luck tomeet me.

“Breathe,” Meowdar said again, this time close enoughfor me to feel his breath on my ear. He butted his forehead against my temple,soft as a nudge. “Come on. Let’s finish this.”

He was there, real and warm and breathing. Maybe hewouldn’t be in a moment, but he was there for now. Turning, I caught his lipsin a quick, heated kiss. A bit too messy to be romantic, but it reminded me howto breathe, and I raised my gun for another round as I broke away.

He seemed to forget how to breathe though. I heard himlet out a slow puff of air under the whiz of bullets flying by. I took one ofthe bots out before dropping back to my knees. Meowdar still hadn’t moved.

“Unfair,” he said. “I didn’t say you could steal mybreath.”

“Let’s finish this,” I said back to him with a smile. “ThenI’ll give it back.”