"No! Michael, how could you even think that?" She cried, eyes wide with shock. " I would never let another guy touch me…ever." She couldn’t believe what he had just said. No one would ever replace Michael, she would never let them.

Michael loved hearing those words leave Maria’s mouth and would have it no other way under normal circumstances but these were not normal circumstances. The thought of another man even looking at Maria drove him crazy and whoever dared to touch her while he was still on this earth would not live to see another day. But the fact was that he would soon no longer be on this earth. He wouldn’t be here to watch out for her, take care of her or love her like she deserved. He knew she would find someone else when the loneliness got too much, even if she couldn’t admit it to herself now.

"I don’t want to hear you say that Maria." He said the seriousness returning to his voice. "I won’t have you wasting your life away just waiting for me." What he was about to say next was going to be harsh but it had to be said. It was the only way to make her see. "When I’m gone Maria..you should….you should think of me as dead to you and…

"No Michael stop!" She cried as she pushed him onto his back and covered his mouth with her own to stop the flow of his hurtful words. When she released his mouth she lay her head on his chest and wrapped her arm around his waist the tears still flowing silently.

"Maria...listen to m…" Maria wouldn’t let him finish. When he started to speak again she covered his mouth with her hand and pleaded with him. "Please Michael, don’t say it. I promise I’ll stop crying, just hold me now and sleep with me…please." She said placing kisses on his chest.

He sighed resignedly and gently kissed her hand covering his mouth before reaching up to take it in his own. Maria looked up in fear expecting him to start telling her what she didn’t want to hear again. He couldn’t argue with her, he didn’t want to.

"It’s okay. I’m not going to say anything accept that I love you." He saw the relief wash over her face as he pushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear. If she wanted to avoid the truth a little longer he would let her.

She kissed him lingeringly on the lips before bringing her face back to rest on his chest. "I love you too."

******

Michael woke a few hours after they had fallen asleep. The bright rays of sunshine streaming through the window wouldn’t let him or his body clock forget that it was still daylight. He had enough trouble trying to sleep when it was dark let alone during the day, although Maria had remedied that somewhat. Having her by his side of a night seemed to pacify him and enabled him to get the much-needed sleep he craved. If during the course of the night they had separated in sleep somehow he would always know, waking instantly at the loss of her warm body against his. The separation wouldn’t be allowed to last long though because Michael would immediately reach out and pull her too him. Maria didn’t even wake most of the times when he did this and he envied her for that. She would just mumble softly in her sleep and snuggle into his embrace as if it had always been there.

Despite the peace Maria brought to Michael’s life there were nights when sleep still insisted on evading him. When staring at the ceiling all night got too much he would leave their bed quietly so as not to disturb Maria and pace the apartment in the dark. Other times he would try to watch T.V or just gaze out the window at the night sky trying to guess which star was his home planet. Those nights were few and far between these days but that hadn’ t always been the case. Once upon a time his insomnia had been exceptionally bad.

**Flashback.....

Michael hadn’t slept properly for 3 nights straight and on the fourth night the ceiling just wasn’t cutting it anymore. Slowly extricating himself from Maria’s arms he got out of bed and walked over to the window. As he placed his hands at the top of the window frame and leant forward he heard her stir in the bed behind him. Looking over his shoulder he saw she had turned to face the window but was still asleep. Her legs were tangled in the mess of sheets from the frenzy of their earlier lovemaking and one of her creamy white calves was exposed to him. The slivers of moonlight hitting her face made her skin look like porcelain, so soft. He wanted to touch her but she looked so peaceful. God, how he both loved and hated her for that at the same time. He couldn’t disturb her so he brought his gaze back to the window and the wide open night sky.

His eyes stung from being open too long as he tried to focus them on the stars. His mind started to wonder in its fatigue and he found himself asking the stars why the wold felt the need to deprive him of sleep. The stars only winked back at him in their sparkly brilliance oblivious to his inner turmoil. Why would they care? He couldn’t help but wonder why people did that, look skywards for answers unknown to them. Consulting the stars for the secrets to their life problems. He was sure that if the stars could talk they would all complain about being constantly looked upon as oracles by the people of the planets surrounding them. "Why do you keep disturbing us with these silly questions?" They would ask in weary annoyance, because that’s what they were and always would be to them – silly questions. "Is it not enough that we forever burn for you, keeping you alive?" Which they were. If there was no stars there was no life, there was no heat, and there was no light. He wouldn’t be there, Maria wouldn’t be there. He continued to senselessly ponder this, anything to make him forget about his failure to sleep.

He was so lost in thought he didn’t even hear Maria approach him from behind until she laced her arms around his naked waist and pressed her cheek into his back.

Maria had been awake the minute he left her in the bed but she had feigned sleep wanting to watch him for a while. She knew how frustrating not being able to sleep was for him and had bared the brunt of his grumpiness over the last couple of days because of the lack of it. She would do anything to settle his mind and help him sleep if he would only let her. With that thought in mind she rose slowly and quietly from the bed before picking up Michael’s discarded shirt and putting it on to cover her nakedness. Not bothering to do the buttons up down the front she made her way over to Michael and wrapped her arms around his waist. He acknowledged her presence by removing one of his arms from the window frame to gently run his hand along her arm. Maria could feel the tenseness in his back. "What’s the matter baby?" She asked hesitantly placing a kiss on his back.

"You know what’s the matter Maria." His voice had an edge to it and he removed his hand from her arm and returned it to the top of the window frame.

He wasn’t going to make this easy on either one of them. Michael was ready to tear someone’s head off if it would help him sleep any better and Maria knew she was heading into dangerous territory. She wouldn’t give up on him like he expected her to though. "Come back to bed with me Michael, please. Sleep won’t come any faster standing up."

Michael snapped. He reached down and broke her hold on his waist before turning on her. "And you’re an expert on the god damn subject now are you?" He yelled. "You must be. Right? You have the luxury of sleep so you must know all about it huh?"

Maria winced as she felt Michael tear her arms from him before turning to loom over her. She took a few steps back and braced herself for his sleep deprived onslaught. "Michael..I just.. I want to help you. Why won’t you let me….

"HELP ME! You’ve got to be joking right?" He let out a crazed laugh before going on. "How the hell do you think your gonna do that. By letting me watch you sleep so easily. Letting me lay there listening to your deep even breathing while I pray that I could do the same. I haven’t slept for 3 fucking days straight Maria, 3 FUCKING DAYS, so don’t even begin to think that you can help me honey! No one can help me. I’m fucking cursed for Christ’s sake. No sleep for the wicked baby, you should know that!" His eyes were wild.

"Michael stop it! You’re scaring me." In his ranting Michael had managed to back Maria up to the edge of the bed and it was all she could do to stop herself from tumbling back. She had seen Michael mad before, even in a violent rage but this was different. He was almost delirious and it terrified her. Maria watched as her words seemed to jolt him out of his stupor and the crazed anger in his eyes was replaced by a look of shock and disbelief at what he had just done.

Michael saw the tears glistening in Maria’s eyes and his heart bled openly. "Oh my God Maria, I’m so sorry. Please forgive me, please." He fell to his knees and started weeping softly. "I lost control. I could have hurt you Maria. I could have…."

Maria immediately fell to her knees in front of him and pulled his head to her chest before he could finish the sentence. "Shush Michael. Don’t say it. Don’t even think it. I know you would never deliberately hurt me…ever. Your just tired baby, that’s all." The tears ran down her cheeks as she spoke. Maria rubbed his back comfortingly with her hand, mothering him, soothing him.

Michael wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and buried his face in her stomach where her shirt parted. He could smell the strong scent of their lovemaking on her and his groin instantly tightened. "I don’t deserve you Maria. I’m just so tired, so tired but I can’t sleep baby. I want you to help me. Please Maria…help me."

The anguish in his voice almost killed her. He sounded like a lost little boy and she wanted nothing more than to kiss the hurt better and make it go away but it wouldn’t be that easy. He wasn’t a little boy, he was a man and something that simple would not take away his pain. Maria reached down and cupped his chin in her hand forcing him to look at her. "I’m here for you Michael when ever you need me. I want to help you if you would just let me. Just tell me what you want, what you need and I’ll do it. I’ll never leave you."

Michael stared back into the eyes of the woman offering herself and her life to him. She looked like a goddess. Her beautiful golden blonde hair slightly mussed from sleep framed her face and spilled onto her shoulders. He remembered once telling her how he loved long hair and she hadn’t cut it since. Her cheeks were wet with tears and her big green eyes pleaded with him to believe she would never desert him. He never felt worth dirt until she looked at him. Dropping his gaze he noticed her shirt or rather his shirt had come apart further and one breast was completely exposed while the other remained hidden, inviting him to seek it out.

Maria held her breath as she watched Michael take her in and felt the fiery heat in her stomach spread to her core. She shivered when she felt his hands graze her breasts and then trace her collarbone from the middle of her throat outwards as he pushed her shirt off her shoulders.

He brought his eyes back up to meet hers. "I want you Maria. Right now, I want you."

She cupped one side of his face as he watched her expression for approval. "Then take me Michael. I’m yours….always and forever."

With that Michael crushed his lips to hers in a brutal kiss and brought her down on top of him with no intention of ever letting her go.

**Back to present.

She was the reason he now slept more peacefully than he ever had in the past. Maria would let him make love to her all night if need be until they both reached exhaustion and could do nothing else but surrender up their bodies and minds to sleep. While that tended to be the favored method of overcoming his insomnia it wasn’t the only method. Sometimes they would lay awake talking while she held him in her arms and whispered him into dreamland. Other times she would sing to him and he couldn’t help but be lulled into the sweet depths of oblivion as her beautiful yet sometimes haunting melody flowed over and through him. He started to wonder how he was going to sleep when he returned to his home planet.…without Maria, but fortunately wasn’t left to ponder this too long as Maria began to stir into wakefulness.

Maria had her head resting in the crook of Michael’s shoulder and she didn’t have to look up into his face to see if he was awake. She already knew he was, she could sense it. His sleeping patterns had long ago become her own and she knew all too well he wouldn’t be able to sleep through the day for very long. Just enjoying the comfortable silence she began tracing fairy light patterns on his chest with her nails.

"You awake?" He asked sliding his hand up and down her back.

"mm Hmm." She mumbled. "How long have you been awake?"

"Too long."

"You know, if you invested in some curtains or blinds Michael you might be able to sleep a little longer without being blinded by the sun every day." She'd had this conversation with him in the past and now knew his answer by heart. He would tell her he couldn’t have any barriers to the sky, to his home, his real home. He had to be able to see it all the time, It was his connection he said, and if he once tried to block it out, that connection would be severed. He had blushed and ducked his head with embarrassment when he told her, saying he knew it was silly but in Maria’s eyes that could never happen. He looked adorable. It only made her love for him deepen.

"You know the reason for that Maria."

"I know, I was just teasing." She continued to trace a line down the middle of his stomach and kept going once she got passed his belly button.

"That’s not the only thing you’re teasing," He groaned grabbing her hand before she went any further.

"I can see that." She giggled, looking down at the now very tented sheet above his groin.

He rolled over onto his side to face her and hide his obvious arousal before pulling her close for a passionate kiss. "I don’t want to start anything I can’t finish here." He said pulling away from her mouth.

"Why..can’t you finish?" She breathed feeling his erection pressing firmly into her stomach.

"Because I’ve gotta go get us some food for dinner, I’ve got nothing in the apartment. You haven’t eaten all day Maria and I don’t want you passing out on me again from malnutrition. What would your mother think of me then huh? I’m already having nightmares about rolled up newspapers coming at me. I don ’t think I could take a repeat episode?"

They both couldn’t help but burst into laughter at the image that conjured up of a newspaper wielding Amy chasing Michael down the street. The laughter seemed to lighten the mood a little and vanquished some of the tension from the air.

What was that about laughter being the best medicine? Michael thought to himself. It was so good to see a full-blown smile light up Maria’s face again. He lived for that smile. He made sure to memorize everything about it right there and then because he knew she wouldn’t let it grace her face too often in the week to follow.

When their laughter had subsided Maria kissed Michael’s still smiling mouth and connected with mostly teeth. "I definitely don’t want you being knocked out by a newspaper baby, but I don’t want to eat right now Michael, I want you." She pleaded playfully in her most sultry voice before nipping on his lower lip with her teeth.

She isn’t going to make this easy on me, he thought. "Don’t argue with me Maria. If I say you need to eat then your going to eat."

She started to protest again before he cut her off. "Besides your going to need as much strength as you can get for what I’ve got in store for you." A mischievous grin spread across his face.

"Is that a promise?" She asked, her face so close to his their noses touched.

"You know it is. Now let me go get this food before I change my mind."

She reluctantly released him from her hold and watched him dress. Once he was fully clothed he leaned over on the bed and kissed her pouting lips. "I’ ll be back soon."

She watched him leave before burying her face in the pillows seeking nothing but sleep until his return.