Gabrielle felt the dull warmth of her bed, then the cold of the room touching the left side of her body. She opened her eyes, and immediately felt sore. She got onto her elbows and felt something she needed to deal with. She grabbed the sheets and tossed them off of herself, revealing small stains. She took a deep breath and sighed, then sat up. She felt disgusting, only because of the feeling it gave off. She quickly got up and ran over to the bathroom, the soreness sending pangs of pain through her body as she ran.

She cleaned herself up, and sighed again while sitting on the toilet. Skyler was probably out in the living room, had she slept in? It was another day off, so she didn’t feel the need to set the alarm. She felt a dull, pulsating ache in her hips, as if Skyler’s hands left an imprint on her sides.

She rose up and went over to her clothes drawer, then grabbed a pair of replacement underpants and slip. She went back to the bathroom and closed the door. She looked down at the ones she was wearing, and wondered if she wanted to throw them away or save them. She tossed them into the cupboard under the bathroom sink to deal with them later. After she put clean clothes on, she opened the door, and warily traced her eyes along the carpeted floor, hoping that she wouldn’t see anything on the carpet. Thankfully there was nothing, no trail for her to clean up meant she only had to change her sheets.

“I heard you running, you alright in there?” Skyler’s voice called out as she heard the door open to the left of her.

He was standing there with a very worried look on his face.

“I’m… I’m alright.” She reflexively looked down at her stained slip that was still in her hand.

“Are you sure?” He walked up to her and placed his hand on her upper arm.

“Yeah.” She didn’t look up from the balled up slip in her hand. She also wondered if she wanted to save it too.

“Be honest.” He lightly grabbed her chin, and with little force, pushed on her chin to get her to look at him.

She relented, and her eyes met his. There was something slightly different about the way he looked at her, though she couldn’t exactly place what it was.

“I still hurt a little, but other than that I’m alright.” She sighed and smiled.

“How bad is it?” He let go of her chin.

“It’s not too bad, it just feels like you’re still squeezing my hips.” She placed a hand on one of her hips, where she still felt his touch.

She watched his face flush gray, and he gulped.

“A-Ah, I see. Sorry about that.” He averted his gaze.

“It’s fine, I wanted it, remember? I was the one who propositioned you, silly.” She giggled and poked the tip of his nose.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you, I promised I’d be gentle. I guess I broke it.” He rubbed his upper arm.

“I only wanted you to be gentle initially.” She shrugged, she didn’t feel like he broke any promises.

“Really? You should have said so.” He looked back at her.

“Oh no no no no, I’m afraid of how rough you’d have been if I clarified.” She wagged her finger.

“I’m not a monster in that sense, you don’t have to be afraid of me like that.” He folded his arms.

“Only because I knew you were feeling my emotions.” She didn’t want him to take her emotions as consent to be rougher, is what she was trying to say.

“How was it, anyways?” He scratched his head and looked at her with sparkling eyes.

“It was amazing, you don’t have to worry about that” She smiled at him again.

“That’s good, I just wanted your first time to be special is all.” He breathed a sigh of relief.

“It was, like I said, you don’t have to worry about it.” She shook her head.

“Thank god you didn’t tell me to do any dirty talk, or I wouldn’t have known what to say. My mind was blank pretty much the whole time.” He let out an awkward laugh and rubbed his neck.

“You did fine.” She shook her open hand.

“Oh, hold on, let me get something real quick.” He quickly ran out of the room, his bare feet sounded mute on the carpeted floor.

She went up to the doorway and looked out, he had his clothes, so why was he dressed like he just woke up? She saw him pick up a thin box out of his duffle bag, it was pink, was it for her? He walked back up to her and held it out. As soon as she read the words ‘Morning After’ she knew what it was.

“Oh, right, because We… Didn’t have anything back there.” She felt her face get hot as she grabbed the box with her free hand.

She didn’t know why she was so embarrassed, it had already transpired. Of course he would have thought of something like that, he was always thinking of her.

“If you don’t want to, I can take responsibility for whatever the turnout is.” He looked at her with the softest expression she’d ever seen him make.

“I’m not ready for that yet, you don’t have to worry about that.” She shook her head. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to, it was the fact she didn’t think she was prepared enough. She also wanted to be married to him on human terms before even considering something like that.

“Hey, it’s your body, remember? I don’t think I have the say to override somebody’s autonomy.” He shrugged and smiled.

“I’d like to be human married to you first at the very least.” She let out a breathy sigh.

“Well, you should probably take it soon then.” He raised his hand and patted her on the head.

“Alright, I will.” She looked down at the box, and then to her stained slip.

“You should probably do something about your old clothes first though.” He pointed to the slip.

“I’ll toss it somewhere until I can figure out what to do with it.” She turned and went back to the bathroom. She quickly tossed the slip where she tossed her underpants and walked back to where she was.

“That was fast.” He looked at her, visibly confused.

“I’ll deal with it later.” She walked past him and started to open up the box.

She went over to the kitchen and took the pill. She was worried that she would feel guilt, but she didn’t. As soon as she had finished gulping down water, she let out a deep sigh. It wouldn’t have exactly been a crisis, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t have been relieved if nothing happened, the pill was only to make sure nothing did.

“You okay?” He walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Yeah, I’m alright.” She turned and gave him a closed eyed smile. She didn’t know why, but she felt the words ‘crisis averted’ pop up into her brain. She dismissed it as an intrusive thought.

“Sorry about the bedding, by the way.” He lowered his head.

“That wasn’t something you could control, I’ll just have to get new bedding.” She shrugged, she wasn’t that attached to her plain white bedding, and was thinking about replacing it anyways.

“Alright, didn’t know if you liked your bedding or not is all.” He let out another relieved sigh.

“How long was I out?” She opened her eyes again and looked at him.

“About two hours maybe? I wasn’t timing you.” He rubbed his chin.

“What time is it?” She looked to the oven’s clock, it was eleven in the morning, so he must have woken up at nine, tried to wait until she woke up, and eventually got up without her.

“It was a good while, long enough for me to get up.” He awkwardly played with his hands.

“So you did try to wait for me to wake up.” She was happy that he did, in fact, wait.

“You were out like a light though, and I didn’t want to shake you awake or anything, so I just let you sleep,” he said.

“That’s alright, at least you tried.” She gave a single nod.

“I should get dressed and go now. I have some work later on today” He turned to his duffle bag and grabbed it.

“Oh, yeah, where do you work?” She had always wondered where Skyler was working at.

“I’m a school security guard. The kids love me, even though it was kinda difficult to get a concealed carry license for, well, my hands.” He pointed to his hand and grinned awkwardly.

“Really? I never pegged you as a school security type.” She put a hand to her face, she was surprised that he would even go near a school after being treated like he did during his entire time there.

“I know, right? After all that shit that happened to me before? You’d be surprised, though. They enacted a lot of anti-bullying laws now though so things are one hell of a lot better.” He nodded.

“It’s already so late though.” She knew that schools started early, so he should have left by then.

“Oh, I’m only there for after school curriculum today.” He started to walk to the bathroom.

“Alright.” She watched him close the door behind himself.

She sat down on the couch and waited in silence for a bit. She never intended to act so prudish around him, but it just turned out that way. She silently admitted to herself that it was because she had such a hard time controlling her romantic emotions towards Skyler. He came back out and he kissed her goodbye. She waved as she saw him walk away. She sat back on the couch, alone. She suddenly felt an overwhelming wave of sadness wash over her, and she couldn’t keep herself from crying, she already missed him so much, after such a tender moment with him. She calmed herself down with the fact that she would see him tonight, and that he wouldn’t be away from her for much longer.