She climbed trees.

When they first met he found this exasperating. It took far more energy to climb out of a tree than to climb in a tree after all. She was so weakened that he had to catch her as she fell. She would push him away immediately and lean against the tree as she caught her breath, glaring daggers at him for catching her.

"You're too weak!" He would admonish her every time this happened. "I won't always be there to catch you!" She would turn and walk away, every inch of her body reading fury.

Later he found it intriguing. He would watch her. She would climb a tree, as high as she could go, and turn her face into the wind, laughing a bit if it was blowing strong that day. She still fell when she tried to get out, and he still caught her. She stopped pushing him away and glaring, but instead always gave him a curious glance as he set her down. They never asked the questions running through their minds.

What he told her changed. "I wish you would be more careful." He would murmur as they walked away. She just shrugged.

And then he found it entrancing. It was the way her hair moved in the wind, almost as if it were an extension of the breeze. It was the way she would relax, her face full of happiness, framed in green leaves. It was the way she would sometimes see him watching her and blush. It was the way, when she fell and he would catch her, her face, for just a moment, was so very temptingly, teasingly close to his. It was the way she felt in his arms, warm and soft. Sometimes she would sling an arm around his neck for a moment, a silent 'thank you'. He would set her down and see conflict in her face.

"You always catch me." She said finally one day, after they had been traveling together for nearly a year. He had just set her down, and he could read the uncertainty in her face as she said it.

"You always fall." He replied. They were only inches apart, sweet torture. He could smell the sun on her hair.

"You could let me fall." She told him quietly.

He shook his head. "No. No."

She set her jaw stubbornly. "I could take it, I'm stronger than I look. Stronger than I was."

"No. I could not let you be hurt." When she said nothing, he took a deep breath and released it slowly before looking her in the eyes. "Why do you climb trees?" He asked at long last.

She shrugged helplessly. "Why do birds fly?"

"But you always fall. You have to know you will fall." He persisted.

She looked away, and did not answer for a long moment. When she did answer, her voice was quiet. "Before you found me... there was no freedom. Every choice I had was taken from me. What I did, what I ate, when I slept, even..." She shuddered, but did not speak of it, how he had found her, what he had saved her from. "When I'm up in a tree, and all that is gone. There's just the feel of the bark beneath my hands, and wind and the sun on my face, and..." She hesitated, and looked up at him, her cheeks stained red. "And I know that you're there to catch me when I fall, and I never want that to change."

He had been holding his breath during this short speech, and suddenly he could not release it. For a moment time froze as if everything, the whole world, depended upon what he said, what he did next. He was frozen. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to run as far away from her as possible. He wanted to touch her, hold her, never let her go. He didn't know what to do.

And then time started again. She touched his cheek gently, and smiled a small, quiet smile. She had taken the weight of the world off his shoulders in that small gesture. He smiled back at her, his hands moving to her waist. They fit together naturally, neither one moving any faster than the other as their lips met. When they pulled apart he rested his forehead on hers.

"I'll always catch you." He whispered.