“Auro, Ria, do you mind if Karin sleeps in my bed with me today?” Em asked as she sat down on the edge of her bed, she looked terribly tired. We had left the reading room and had made our way over to Em’s bedroom. Karin was not here at the moment as she had to go to the bathroom first. “Just to put her at ease a bit more.”

“I definitely don’t mind.” I smiled and shook up the blankets we were about to use ourselves.

“Me neither.” Ria agreed and laid down on the mattress on the floor so I could cover her with the blanket.

Em smiled back and silence filled the room as we waited for Karin to come back.

We didn’t have to wait very long, though. As Karin walked back into the room, she stopped next to me.

“Go on, Ria and I will be sleeping here.” I nodded down at Ria who waved at her friend while laying down with a funny grin on her face.

Em patted the spot next to her on the bed.

Karin slowly nodded and then looks up at me. “I’m sorry for getting so angry at you earlier.”

“I understand.” I reached out my hand towards her. “Still friends?”

Karin gently took my hand and shook it. “Yeah… Please take good care of my sister and my best friend for me.”

“I will, whenever they aren’t taking good care of me for a change.” I gave her a cheeky wink.

Karin nodded once more and walked over to Em, crawling into bed next to her. The two siblings quickly got to hugging each other.

“Rora, can you turn off the light?” Ria asked.

“Are y’all ready?”

Em agreed for both of them, after which I turned off the light in the room and got into bed with Ria. Ria made sure to push herself into me and I put my arms around her.

“Goodnight.” Em called out.

We both replied with a good night to her as well. I didn’t really doubt that both Em and Karin would fall asleep really soon. As for me however… I was pretty sure that wasn’t going to be so easy.

The room was completely quiet for ten minutes or so. But while I was trying as hard as I could, I could not really calm myself down enough to get myself to sleep. My brain had decided to bring pictures of the fight from earlier back to the front of my mind in vivid detail. I felt my breathing get more erratic and more heavy by the minute. Even though, or perhaps because it had been my second time in such a violent situation, it just hit me like a truck. And the dark silence in the room wasn’t helping. I started to feel physically ill. Shivers started to periodically go from my spine into my arms…

This continued, but luckily not for too long, as I felt Ria’s arms cross over mine. She gently pried my hands away to make me let go for a second.

“Ria?” I whispered.

She didn’t really say anything, but with my arms loosened around her, she got enough space to get turned around to face me. When she did, she put her arms around my waist and pulled herself into me. With her face in my neck, she finally whispered back. “It’s okay, Rora. You can lean onto me too.” She moved her right hand up and down to caress my back.

I locked her into my embrace once more. “I really hate what I had to do today… I… I…” I confessed silently, a couple of tears had started rolling down my cheek.

“I know.” Ria replied. “That’s because you are a good person.” Ria tightened her hug. “You are Rora after all.” she then kept rubbing my back. “It’s okay, you can let go now.”

Being comforted by Ria like this… it just made my dams burst and I started crying. And Ria didn’t let go. Soothing my pain with her warm and gentle touch.

I cried for quite a while and during this entire time, Ria didn’t stop rubbing my back for a second. It worked incredibly cathartic, letting go of my emotions like this. I was used to keeping things locked up, appearing strong to the people around me so they could count on me to be their support. But now, in the soft embrace of my girlfriend, I just could not hold back anymore. What I had said earlier to Karin had quickly been proven reality. Em and, at the moment especially, Ria, were just as much taking of me as I had been taking care of them.

While my body couldn’t get exhausted, the same couldn’t really be said about my mind. It was emotionally completely drained. Without me even realizing, and while still crying softly in my girlfriends’ arms. My mind drifted into nothingness.

When I opened my eyes next, the sun was already well and truly up. I immediately saw Ria wasn’t in the bed anymore. “Ria?” I called out as I sat up straight on the mattress.

“She went to the bathroom to clean her teeth.” Em spoke up from behind me. “Good morning, by the way.” She then walked up to me, put her hand on my back and sat down on the mattress beside me, giving me a quick good morning kiss on my cheek. Em had already gotten dressed in a warm looking hoodie.

“What time is it?” I asked.

“Almost eleven. You needed the rest so we let you sleep.”

“Did Ria tell you what happened?”

Em nodded. “I’m sorry I wasn’t awake anymore, otherwise I’d have come to hug you as well.”

“At least I’m glad I didn’t wake you up with my crying.” I tried to smile.

“Auro, you…. you know you are allowed to show a bit of weakness around us, right? It’s normal to cry after what you’ve gone through.” She put a hand on my lap. “You don’t need to act all tough.”

“...Yeah…” I nodded back. “It’s not that easy, though. Especially when it concerns purely myself. I don’t want to bother people with my emotions.”

Em bumped against me with her shoulder. “Don’t say that. You can ‘bother’ Ria and myself with your emotions all you want.”

“Even the negative ones?”

“Especially the negative ones.” She bumped me again. “Your body might be vampiric, but your heart isn’t.”

“I’m pretty sure my heart belongs to my body, though. At least, I hope so.”

Em rolled her eyes at my weak attempt of a joke and pushed me at my shoulder. “You know what I meant.”

“I do.” I chuckled lightly. “Thanks.” I then leaned in and gave her a kiss.

Ria walked into the bedroom a minute or two later, when she saw I was awake and smiling, she ran up to me and gave me a big hug. “I hope I didn’t keep you up for too long.”

She shook her head while she held me in her embrace. “I didn’t mind. You needed it.” Her breath smelled minty fresh. “Are you feeling better now?”

“A lot better.” I returned her hug. “Where did Karin go by the way?”

“She went downstairs to help mom with some soup.” Em replied. “We might as well go straight to brunch.”

“Maybe we should head downstairs too, then?” I proposed. “You two must be hungry, right?”

“Well… about that…” Em wobbled her head from side to side.

“You aren’t?”

“We are, but it’s about you. We had thought this might happen because you haven’t been able to drink since yesterday.”

“Your eyes are bright red, Rora.” Ria continued.

“Oh…” It’s true that my thirst had gotten worse… But I didn’t know it would already be this bad. The crying perhaps hadn’t really worked in my favor. “Is that why you two stayed behind?”

“I wouldn’t say mostly because of that, but it’s one of the reasons.” Em blushed a little. “It’s not like you can go home real fast at the moment, since Helen’s not here.”

“I guess so.”

Em stood up from the edge of her bed and walked over to the door, she turned the key to lock it. After that, she turned around and zipped open her hoodie just enough to expose her neck to me. Ria, almost as if they had practiced the timing together, brushed her hair away from her neck as well. It’s weird to say, but seeing their necks made my mouth water. While I had gotten the urge to bite before, it was never as bad as this.

“Can I… bite both of you?” I had to hold my hand in front of my mouth because it almost felt like I was about to drip.

“That’s definitely an option.” Em said softly as she walked back up to me. Ria made a bit of space so they could both sit right in front of me on the mattress. “I’m just going to ask one thing of you.”

“Which is?”

“To please be done by the time mom calls us to eat soup… Otherwise, it might get a bit… awkward.”

“I… I’ll try.” I gulped.