Water

Dehydration: a significant loss of fluids that affects the bodily functions.  Our sweet red-haired erythrocyte was carrying oxygen to the lips. The place was a complete mess. Everyone was suffering from a heat wave, and the amount of water in the body had drastically reduced, to dangerous levels. She was almost dragging herself forward, exhausted. But as soon as she remembered that a water bottle was lying in her bag, she spotted the little platelet-leader crying from thirst and, thus, gave her the precious liquid with a smile on her lips. "And what about you, Miss?" "Ah, I drank a lot of water before going out on the delivery, don't worry about me," the red blood cell lied. Despite terribly suffering from the thirst herself, she didn't regret what she had done. Having finally delivered the oxygen, she had to go back with the CO². AE turned around, thinking about resting a bit, but the place was nearly a desert, almost completely dried up, and the heat suffocating. The smartest decision would be to go to a cooler place, but her feet couldn't carry her anymore. Finally, the thirst stopped her for good, and she fell to her knees. "Water... I need water..." Feeling her chapped lips, she got scared and looked around, searching for help, however, no there was no one nearby. Then she had the idea of returning to the cell she had delivered the oxygen to, maybe she would get some water there, but standing up resulted to be impossible, since she collapsed again after each try. Her vision was fading, the heat suffocating her, and her eyes were closing. The only thing she felt was someone lifting her carefully and dripping water onto her lips. Poor AE was feeling dizzy, her eyelids were so heavy she could barely keep her eyes open. The only thing she could see was the silhouette of another cell holding her. Struggling to not lose conscience, she wasn't even able to keep her own head up, let alone drink. She was feeling terrible. There she was finally getting the precious and refreshing liquid she had longed for so much, but didn't even have the strength to drink it. If she wasn't so dehydrated, she would surely have started to cry. "Come on, Miss Red Blood Cell, try to drink a bit, please!" That voice seemed oddly familiar to her, but it definitely wasn't Hakkekkyuu-san whose voice she would have recognized anytime and everywhere. This one was sweeter... gentler. "Please, Red-chan, keep fighting, just a little bit, you can't end up like this..." Now she knew whom this voice belonged to. Only one white blood cell was calling her with such a cute and funny nickname. AE's head was spinning. She really wanted to drink, but even breathing was hard. She perceived the cold liquid on her lips once again, and this time managed to drink a tiny amount. Young 4989 started feeling new hope. "Good girl, that's right, please try to drink some more..." His voice started to break. He wouldn't allow her to die, but the mere idea, the sole posibility of her dying right there, before his eyes, was making his chest hurt even more than from his unrequited love. Life could be so cruel. Being friends with someone you love is like getting bread when you are dying from thirst. And now he was holding the girl whose love he was longing for, and she was dying from thirst for real. "Come on, Red-chan, you're strong. You're a fighter, you can't just give up like that..." The gray-eyed neutrophil couldn't help but shed a few tears at the sight of life mercilessly leaving the face of the sweet red blood cell that was always so kind to him and everyone else. Others had always been reproaching him that he was over-emotional, that it was ridiculous to get so happy just because a girl was greeting him with a smile. That he wasn't anything special to her, because she was kind to everyone. "I don't care. The mere fact that she's smiling at me makes me feel like the most special guy in the world." "I won't let you die, AE-chan, you'll live, my Red-chan, you'll live!" He had an idea. It was a very risky one, but not bad at all. Since she wasn't able to keep the liquid in her mouth... he would do it for her. He took a huge sip from the bottle and let the water run into her mouth. Pressing his lips against hers, he was mentally praying for his unusual technique to work out. "Work, please work, please, please, please..." "It worked... she drank it." He repeated the process a couple of times until she started breathing normally again. AE was still in a bad, even terrible state, but at least she would hang on until reaching an emergency fountain. "Hold on, Red-chan, hold on..." the young soldier thought, running and carrying her in his arms. Leaving the lips, he reached the tongue where other red blood cells were refreshing themselves: the body had ingested water which had created some kind of lagoons where various cells were playing now. The neutrophil didn't think twice and stepped into the water together with AE, submerging her shoulder-deep into it, while carefully holding her. After a few minutes, the temperature of her body started sinking and she slowly opened her eyes. "I'm... I'm alive... Water!" Founding herself surrounded by the precious liquid, she submerged her head as well and drank to her heart's content. And a few seconds later, emerged again with a huge smile on her face. "Ah~ what relief... I thought I was going to die!" the red blood cell exclaimed, floating on her back, until she noticed 4989 who was smiling at her and at the same time, crying from happiness. "4989-kun! You saved me! I owe you my life!" AE swam towards the white soldier and hugged him, making him fall backwards into the water. They emerged once again, with her holding on to his shoulders now. "I'm so happy that you made it, AE... I thought, thought that... *snif*, sorry, I'm always crying..." She let out a soft laugh. Her friend was so cute! And even more when his beautiful gray eyes were shining like stars, topped by him crying. "Calm down, 4989-kun, but it's true, I do owe you my life. Thank you, thank you so much!" It was so strange to receive a kiss on the cheek from her, even more after the "kiss of life" he had given her, since this was exactly what it had been: a mouth-to-mouth-contact that had saved her life. However, her behavior towards him was as natural as always, so there was no need to fear that their friendship could face trouble. She was hugging him, she was alive and this was everything that mattered to him, for now, the only thing he wanted to do was to hug her back, resting his chin on her red-haired head, thanking heaven that his beloved red blood cell was still in that world, in his world. "AE-chan, please be more careful, you almost died! You have no clue how scared I was!" AE blinked a few times, feeling her face starting to burn. Was he really scolding her right now? Yes, he definitely was, but why didn't she mind? No, on the contrary: she found it "cute". "Thanks for worrying about me, 4989-kun. But you're risking your life as well every day, you're scaring me too and making me worry that you could die..." she murmured, without breaking off the hug that was going on for several minutes already, before everyone's eyes. "Well, that's my job, hehe. Just trust me, I'll be alright." "I do trust you, but you have to trust me as well." "AE-chan, aren't you uncomfortable?" "No, I just don't want to let go yet." "R-R-Really?" he asked with enthusiasm. "Yes, it's just... I remembered how you made me drink, and don't think that I can look you in the face right now without dying from embarrassment." Both started blushing as they felt the water evaporating on their foreheads, however, neither broke off the hug in the water. "I, uhm, didn't have any other ideas... I'd like to say that I'm sorry, but that would be a lie, because, well, I, uhm... it was to save you, so I'm not sorry, if I was, it would be like wanting to let you die, and I don't, so I'm sorry, but not sorry, do you understand? Well... I think I should better shut up, huh?" "I'm also 'sorry, but not sorry', 4989-kun." They kept hugging for another while, enjoying the water, each other's company, and their sweet, innocent and unconditional affection for one another.  "There's 1146 with the others... they're refreshing themselves, too, I'm glad," the white soldier commented, thinking that the erythrocyte would immediately rush off to greet her "Hakkekkyuu-san". "I'm glad as well that they're alright," was however the only thing she said, still floating in the water, next to the youngest neutrophil. "I thought you would run to him..." 4989 muttered, trying to hide his smile. "To be honest, I did think so, too... it's odd, but I want to stay here, with you."