I've found that I've been able to feel a lot more comfortable around Nico since he has begun to let me sleep with him.

And that really didn't help for when he left me in the room alone.

If anything, it just made me feel more nervous.

It was like he had become my safe haven, at least, that's what it felt like.

And I'm pretty sure that he has come to notice it as well.

I looked up at him as he exited the closet from my place on his bed.

I could tell that his stress had grown in the past couple of days, yet I still didn't know why.

I'm guessing that it partially had to do with his work, but it felt like that wasn't the only reason.

Part of me just hoped that none of it was my fault.

Nico slowly made his way towards the bed, his eyes showing that he was deep in thought.

His eyes met mine for a brief moment before he laid himself stomach down on the bed.

He stretched his arms forward before relaxing them with a very long exhale.

I wondered why he opted to lay on his arms instead of the pillow.

My eyes quickly glanced out the window.

The sun had just barely set, yet he already looked exhausted.

But if I had to guess, he wasn't done with his work yet.

He probably just needed a break not that I could blame him.

I looked over his body, noticing that he wasn't full relaxing.

"You're so tense," I said softly, causing him to turn his head towards me.

"Yea." he began casually, "That tends to happen from time to time."

My eyes furrowed as I continued to look him over.

It didn't really suit him. Part of it even reminded me of myself when I was in the pet shop, so uptight and worried about what was going to happen.

"I could um... try to work some of it out if you'd like" I offered.

Nico rose a brow.

"You mean like a massage?"

I nodded.

He just continued to stare at me for a moment.

"You know how to do that?" He asked, seeming partially surprised through his still casual tone.

"Well yes, to a certain extent," I started, "My father would often come home from work stressed, so I found myself giving him a massage at least once a week. My mother and sister would ask for them sometimes too just because they said that it felt good."

I don't remember it being too difficult, so it should be easy to do again.

Nico's brows drew together.

"It sounds like they used you." He said.

I was slightly shocked by his words.

I never really thought about it like that, and it really didn't seem like that. I was just doing something nice for them.

Despite that, I just gave a small shrug.

"It made them feel better so I didn't really mind," I replied.

He looked at me for a minute longer, supposedly thinking over my proposition.

"Well, if you want to do it then I won't stop you," He said, pushing himself up a bit, "How should I lay?"

"How you are now is fine."

He still kept himself up, his eyes shifting to his shoulders.

"Should I take off my shirt?"

"Yes."

With that, Nico continued to push himself up until he was sitting on his knees.

I couldn't help but watch as he grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled it over his head, tossing it over towards the closet once it was off.

I bit down on the inside of my lip to stop myself from doing something stupid while Nico returned to how he was before.

He looked at me as if to say 'what now?' as he rested his head on his arms.

Right...

I took a silent deep breath before I crawled over to him, mentally preparing myself for what I was about to do.

I stopped once I got right beside him, noticing how he was just casually watching me.

"If I do something that you don't like, just tell me and I'll stop," I said.

I'm sure that he already knew that, but I just wanted to make sure.

He just gave me a partial nod in return.

I looked away from his face and too his back, suddenly feeling a bit nervous.

Still, I positioned myself so that I was on top of him, making sure that my knees were on the bed as I straddled his lower back.

Luckily, Nico didn't seem to mind that.

A blush crawled across the bridge of my nose and cheeks as I stared down at him, trying to pinpoint where I should start.

I decided that his shoulders would be the best place to start since they probably needed the most attention.

Nico's eyes widened as I began to work my thumbs into his left shoulder before they relaxed.

I could easily feel how tight his muscles were, which made it so that I had to push a little harder into his cool skin.

His face slowly began to relax, telling me that I was doing something right.

"If you don't mind me asking," I spoke up, separating my thumbs to get more of his shoulder, "Whats got you so stressed?"

He stretched out his neck as my thumb inched closer, like he was trying to give me better access.

A small smile tugged at my lips before he spoke.

"Mostly just work," he began, "It always gets hectic around the time that we go to collect blood."

I paused for a moment before resuming near his arm.

"You work with the blood collectors?" I asked.

I didn't think that that job really suited him.

"Yes and no. I'm not actually part of the 'blood collectors', But me and Xander are in charge of keeping track of the population, making sure that everyone's health condition is good enough for us to take blood from and calculating the amount of blood that well be receiving, which pretty much means that I do all of it myself. That and we have to oversee the whole thing-"

He cut himself off, hissing in pain as I reached a certain knot in his left shoulder.

I pulled back, mostly just because I was startled.

"S-sorry," I spoke quietly.

I knew that that would probably happen eventually.

"It's fine." He replied, his voice strained as I returned to that spot.

The room fell into silence as I continued working around that area.

Luckily I was very sure that Nico was enjoying this save for a couple spots. He needed this more than I initially thought.

He especially liked it when I took a break from his shoulders and began rubbing around the base of his neck, judging by the way that he ever so slightly arched towards me once I did.

"Is that all?" I asked, referring to our previous conversation.

He thought over my words for another moment.

"I guess that work is probably over half of it," He paused again letting out a satisfied breathe as I hit a certain spot," The rest of it is probably the fact that Xander is an idiot and that the blood moon is tomorrow. I guess the fact that we go to collect blood just a couple days after the blood moon makes it that much worse."

A line formed between my brows. The Xander thing I understood, but the blood moon thing seemed off.

"The blood moon stresses you out?" I questioned.

I knew that it had been stressing me out.

He nodded.

"The blood moon stresses out almost every vampire. The fact that we have very little control over what we do until our bloodlust is satisfied makes for a very shitty night that none of us really care to remember."

It was quiet for a long moment.

"I see," I replied almost silently.

Ever since he brought it up I could feel that my nervousness had returned. I had tried to just ignore it, but it was almost here.

I didn't ask or say anything else, just continued what I was doing in silence.