Warmth (Warm Bodies)

[thegreatpretender]

This has been eating away at me since I saw Warm Bodies and I’ve been far too nervous to write it. But it won’t leave me alone and so here is Part 1 This is set about two or three months after the wall went down, lets say about 6 or 7 months after the movie ended? Please don’t hate… I’m not very good at this…

Warmth

The sun streamed through the curtains of R’s room, little flecks of dust and other particles slowly dancing in the air. The beams of morning light landed across the four post bed and on his still sleeping figure. R shifted in his sleep, rolling into the light and flinched. He slowly opened his eyes, blinking away the lingering sleep, and groaned. He threw his arm over his eyes and sighed.

Ugh. I’d never thought I would see a day that I’d hate seeing the sun. He moved his arm over barely an inch and turned to look at the clock. 9:52 AM. Come to think of it, I don’t remember a day where I wasn’t already up.

R pulled his arm completely away from his face and threw back his blanket. He sat up and knew right away something wasn’t right. I don’t remember feeling this… odd. He then chuckled at his last thought. Odd was more of a relative term considering he was a man who became a zombie who then became a man once again. However that was besides the point. This was different.

R rubbed his hands over his face and stretched. His back cracked down his spin and he groaned. Then he frowned.

You’re not dead anymore. Stop groaning. He stretched again and ran a hand threw his messy hair. He cleared his throat only to wince at how raw it felt. He tried again with the same results.

At this point, he was wide awake and every muscle, every bone and every nerve seemed to protest at the same exact time. His throat was not only raw but on fire as well. There was a throbbing pain directly behind his eyes that stretched to his temple. He rubbed at his eyes with the heel of his hand to little effect. And though sleeping without a shirt on was second nature to him, he couldn’t help but notice that today he felt just a bit colder.

R shook his head and stood. He didn’t have time to worry about what was going on with his body. There is far too much to do today an he’d already slept in more then he needed to. Julie is on her way home tomorrow with the Colonel and he needed to make sure everything went smoothly at their dinner. He would then ask the Colonel if they could move into their own place together.

Julie had asked if he could stay in one of the many rooms when he was still healing from his bullet wound. The Colonel, aka her very protective father, had outright said no. To which Julie replied “Dad, if you don’t let him stay here, I’m leaving with him to live in the spare housing with all the other reforming zombies.” Which changed his mind almost as fast as the refusal had come out of his mouth.

R chuckled. He took a step towards his bathroom and swayed. He grabbed one of the posts and stayed still for a moment, allowing the dizziness to pass. For a few moments he, just breathed. He let go of the post, making sure that he could stand without it, and then began heading to the dresser for his clothes.

R pulled open the drawer, he noted the thin layer of dust on the top that he definitely needed to wipe off. R rummaged through his disorganized clothes for something not as wrinkled as the next. Pulling out a gray t-shirt (having barely noticeable creases) and a pair of faded blue jeans (twice as messy but who really cares about the wrinkles in jean?) he sorted through his list of things to do for the day.

Ok, so I need to head down to head down to the clinic right away and meet up with Nora. She said she would give me pointers on dinner and things I shouldn’t talk about at dinner. Then I need to head over to meet up with Marcus and talk to him about the living arrangements. But before that I need to…

R sniffed, feeling a prickle behind his nose. Like a slow irritating touch, very light but there. He sniffed again, which seemed to only make it worse.

“Heh…” R rubbed at the bridge of his nose, slowly pushing back the tickle. He shook his head and gathering his clothes into a bundle in his left hand he slammed his drawers shut, causing some of the dust to flutter up around his face. The tickle which had nearly all but disappeared was back and this time took over his entire nose.

“Huh.. Ehh….hihh-” He quickly pinched at base of his nose and willed the sensation to disappear. Which did not work. He slowly let go of his nose feeling his nostrils flare against his fingers and his breathing quickened once more.

“Ehh…huhh!” It seemed to stop for only a moment and then he once again pinched his nose shut, with two stifled sneezes. “Hiext! HIST!”

R let go of his nose when he was sure nothing else would follow. The tickle was less of a bother now but still there. He sniffed feeling his nose begin to drip and cringed. Yea, that’s attractive, he though bitterly. The hell was that?

R shifted his clothes, sniffing once more and entered the bathroom. He placed his clothes on the side of the sink and looked up at his reflection. Nothing too bad. He did seem a bit more pale then usual and his eyes had heavy bags under them, very lightly touched with pink around the edges. He swallowed, then regretted it for the pain and tried to think of a time he felt this bad. ( His zombie life not truly counting in that.)

While he didn’t have many of his own memories, did still have some of Perry’s. A moment from when Perry was young…

He was laying in bed and his father sat next to him, running his fingers through his little boys hair. Perry held onto a baseball mitt two sizes too big for his little hands and stared up at his father in hope. As Perry coughed and shivered under his sports covered quilt, a beep sounded and his father took a thermometer from under his arm. He looked down at it and sighed.

“Sorry buddy. No ballgame today. You’re sick.” Perry looked up pleadingly at his father and he chuckled.

“Don’t worry Perry. There’ll be other games. We can still watch it on TV here.” As Perry began to argue with his father about feeling just fine to go to the game, R came back into reality and started at himself in disbelief.

I’m sick… Great.

So there's part one. Not alot of sneezing but the next ones will have more and be a little longer. I'll try and do more later this week. If you think I got something wrong or anything please tell me. It'll help me in the future. Thank you

[SpookyScarySkeleton]

Oh I like it do continue this is interesting.

[marina<3]

This is absolutely amazing!!! I loved the movie and was really hoping for some fics about it!!! I love your writing style and the storyline!! Sooo great! please continue!

[ali_cat]

I love it! You're a great writer.

[VividBubbles!]

Mmmmm, so far this fic is freaking amazing. Ahh, I love Warm Bodies and R so much and I, well, I can't really eloquently express how much I love you for writing this.

Please update soon!

bye.

P.S. Sorry, umm, I commented on the other post of this but I think it was the wrong one. Oops.

[thegreatpretender]

@ VividBubbles!

Yea my computer was acting up while I was posting this. So it posted twice and :/

[Amberlight24]

I just have to ask if you could continue this! Please! I love it!

[ID2006]

Yay R fics

[thegreatpretender]

Thank you for everyone that read and commented. It helps me write more. SOOOOOOOO sorry it took so long to update. This is what happened: my account was locked because of too many fail login attempts and then when it was unlocked I went on a cruise for almost two weeks. The day after I came home from that, school started. And I’ve been swamped with homework ever since. So be patient with me please, not too much sneezing in this chapter but some snottiness at some parts. Oh and lots of explaining for certain things so I don’t have to do it in other chapters. Please enjoy and I’ll get the next one up the moment I have the time.

Part Two:

R groaned again. Sick? Really? Why does crap like this happen when it’s most inconvenient?

He sniffed, rubbing the back of his hand against his nose. He looked again at himself in the mirror before turning to the shower and turning the faucets on. Sniffing periodically, he fixed the temperature to his liking and stripped what remained of his clothes. R stepping into the shower and under the spray, wondering what he should do. He scrubbed at his body and made extra effort to lather his hair. Being a zombie personal hygiene didn’t’ even faze him. It didn’t faze anyone for that matter. But after having his make over with Nora and Julie, being clean and feeling clean began to hold new meaning. Especially since smelling clean had Julie more inclined to hold onto him for longer, if only just to smell him.

R shook his head, smiling, and finished with his body. He turned off the water and reached around the curtain for the towel. He pulled it in and toweled down a little before securing the towel around his waist. He knew he was alone but it had become a habit to make sure his towel was covering him before he opened the shower curtain.

Julie had the tendency to wait in the bathroom for him after he had gotten shot. Just to see if he needed any help getting out or with his clothes. As sweet a notion as it was, if you weren’t expecting it, it was an issue.

Two months after he was shot by her father, something he never really seemed too apologetic about, he was still having some trouble with basic needs. Putting on clothes for instance was near impossible and took nearly an hour, morning and night. The Colonel had even made a remark that he took as long as a woman, which Julie had taken a slight offence to.

R had just gotten done his shower and was checking on his stitches as he opened the curtain, so he didn’t notice Julie sitting on the toilet holding his towel and his clothes on her lap until it was already too late. Julie’s eyes widened and she quickly turned her head away. R scrambled to pull the curtain shut again and managed two things; tearing his stitches open and slipping in the tub.

Julie jumped into action, covering him with the towel and trying to be as gentle as possible as she helped him out of the tub and onto the toilet seat.

“I’m so sorry R. I… I thought I could help you. I didn’t think-” Julie looked at his now bleeding shoulder.

“Oh my God… R…” she snatched the hand towel from the side of the sink and pressed it over the wound. R winced. Julie looked at him with sympathetic eyes and then lessened the pressure.

“I’m sorry R.”

“Julie, it’s ok. Its just a little pull. It’ll heal.” R smiled at her, “Thank you for coming to help me.”

Julie smiled back and moved forward and kissed his head. R smiled and closed his eyes as her hand ran through his hair. Her hand moved down to the back of his neck and her lips moved down to the bridge of his nose.

“You smell nice at least,” she whispered, ghosting a kiss over the tip of his nose. R smile widened.

“I try,” he whispered back. R leaned forward and pulled her closer for the slightest of kisses…

R sniffed again as his runny nose brought him out of his musing. There wasn’t much left to the memory anyway. The Colonel had burst through the door in that instant asking how long they were going to take. R had gone stiff bringing his arms down to his sides and looking down, like a child that knew they were in trouble. Julie glared at her father, demanding that he knock before entering a room, especially when it was a bathroom. The Colonel replied with a blunt, “This is my house. I don’t knock.”

R sniffed again but it didn’t stop the trail of snot that began to run from his nose. He grabbed a bit of toilet paper and merely swiped at his nose. He pulled on his boxers, jeans and shirt. Droplets of water fell down from his still wet hair and down onto his shirt. He looked at his reflection again and sniffed again. Not good but not bad either. The shower had accomplished three things; he was clean, the need to sneeze was gone with the unfortunate effect of making his nose run profusely. His eyes still looked a little pink as did his nose but other then that, he could pass off ok.

Sniffing again, he brushed his teeth and ran a hand through his still wet hair. He walked out of the bathroom, snatching more toilet paper and pressing it against his nose. He put on his shoes, his hoodie and grabbed his wallet and keys, stuffing them into his back pocket. He sniffed again and rubbed the toilet paper at his nose again as the slightest of tickles teased the back of his nose.

“Heh… eh.. HXST!” Thankfully it stopped after one stifled sneeze. R groaned as his nose dripped more and decided that a washrag was going to do better then the thin toilet paper. He went back into the bath room. As he pulled a plain washrag from under the sink, he could hear knocking at the door. Most likely the guard for today.

“R?” The timid voice came through the door.

R smiled and called back, “I’ll be out in a sec Jarred.” Patting himself down once more, making sure he had what he needed, he sniffed again and rubbed his nose again for good measure before stuffing the rag in his pocket and leaving. Jarred was frowning when he came out of the room.

“You ok? You were in there a while.”

“Yea, just overslept. It’s one of those days.” Jarred nodded.

“So what’s on the agenda? The clinic or class?”

R smiled. “Both.” Jarred gave him a worried look as they started walking down the hallway.

“You need to be careful R. You push yourself too much.” R faked a hurt look, which didn’t hold much emphasis because he coughed. Jarred gave him a sharp look.

“I’m fine Jarred. I swear.”

“If you say so.” Jarred opened the door, let R out and then locked it, holding his rifle in his arm. They didn’t need it anymore. Attacks from zombies were few and far between now that they were getting help. But the Colonel insisted for security reasons and so the solders still were checked by the eye examiner, forced into uniform and forced to have a weapon.

R had a guard placed around his room at all times. Another security precaution set by the Colonel. Jarred was the only one who didn’t treat it like a job. He was actually very kind and only went through with the routine because the Colonel checked on them. Jarred joked with R and only walked him to his first event of the day and then left him alone, meeting up later when they needed to walk in together at the end of the night. The others were either still wary of him or feared the Colonel’s wrath because they stayed with him almost the entire day.

R’s nose started to drip again, a long trail of mucus at that, and he wiped it against his hoodie sleeve. Jared made face.

“Ew,” Jarred looked at the protruding rag from his pocket and said, “why aren’t you using that?

R shrugged, “I’ll use it later.” Jarred rolled his eyes.

“Seriously? What’s the point of taking it if your not gonna use it when you need it?”

“Cause I don’t need it now. What are you my mother?” Jarred looked as if he considered it for a moment before both of them laughed.

“I think I’d remember giving birth to you.” They laughed and walked together in silence for a bit, watching normal children teaching reformed children the essence of hop-scotch. “Are you sure you’re ok, R? Do you need me to stay with you today?”

R shook his head. “I’ll be fine. I kind of wanna get through today as fast a possible though.” Jarred nodded in agreement.

Getting closer to the Clinic, R felt a bit more cold then usual. A hoodie was a normal thing for him to walk around with but for some reason the slight chill in the air made him shiver, if only for a moment. It also made his nose tickle. Damn cold. R sniffed, feeling more mucus gathering in his nose. He continued to sniff until there was no way he could breathe through his nostrils. He wiped his nose against the sleeve of his hoodie again.

“Again… Ew.” Jarred rolled his eyes. R would have made a comment but he was concentrating on the slow tickle teasing the back of his nose. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, willing the urge to sneeze away with very little results.

“Eh…Heechioo! Heh-Hepchio! HETCHIOO!” R sneezed rather forcefully into the sleeve of his hoodie, knowing full well that it was now covered in snot. He groaned loudly and sniffed most of the snot away, refusing to move his arm.

Jarred got the hint after R wouldn't pull his arm down and pulled the rag from R’s back pocket and pushed it to his hand. R gave him a grateful look and rubbed his nose with the rag.

“Bless you,” Jarred said gently, “you’re sure you don’t want me to stay with you today?”

R nodded pressing the rag under his nose. “ I got this.” The Clinic came into view and Jarred parted from him, going off to do what ever he did during the day when he wasn’t with R.

Being alone now, he was a bit more uneasy about his choice to do so much today. It had to be done though. With a sigh he decided that today was going to suck. Well at least Nora could give him a look over.

Hopefully it won’t take me forever to get the next chapter up.

[VividBubbles!]

Awww, I'd forgotten how absolutely adorable R was. You've made me remember my absolute obsession with him.

This was super cute and I can't wait to read more!

BYE!

[marina<3]

Aww! I forgot how much I loved this story! So glad you continued! Can't wait for the next part!!

[SpookyScarySkeleton]

Amazing <3. It's so coote:3 R's so hot ! .

[Amberlight24]

Oh I'm sooo glad you continued! thank you so much!!!! Can't wait for more!

[SpookyBoi]

I love warm bodies this is adorable. You should keep going with this.

[Rook]

I'm so happy