After staring into the night for a few minutes longer, I closed the door and headed back to the living room, curling up on the sofa after filling up one more glass of ‘wine’. I turned on the TV but more for background noise than anything else as I just stared blankly at the ceiling, lost in my own mind. I don’t know exactly how long I spent doing that, the only thing I do remember is that I got pulled out of it by a thud coming from my bedroom.

“Ria?!” I rushed over and in the blink of an eye I was standing in the door opening of my bedroom. Ria was on her knees, leaning against my closet. “Ria, what are you doing out of bed?” I gently picked her off the floor and laid her down in my bed.

“R-Rora… I wanted to come and see you… But my legs didn’t agree with me.” She laughed weakly.

“You lost a lot of blood, you really should rest a bit, ok?” I looked over at my night table, the glass of water Emma brought her was empty. “I’ll get you a refill.” I took the glass and started walking to the bathroom.

“Rora…?” She stopped at the door. “Will you... stay with me for a bit afterwards?”

I looked back and smiled softly. “I will.”

I came back with the glass of water and helped her drink a bit before putting it back in its place and then sat down next to her on the edge of my bed.

“Did Emma leave?”

“Yeah… she needs to talk to her mom to take care of some things. And she has school tomorrow as well…”

“We’ll just... stay here?”

“Mhmm… at least until you feel better and we have new uniforms.”

“Ok…” Ria stayed quiet for a couple of seconds before continuing. “Rora, did… did I do something wrong?”

That bombshell of a question made me immediately turn towards her. “No, of course you didn’t, why would you think that?!”

“Because you’ve not been looking at me…”

“Oh…” Without even realizing it I had been staring at the door this entire time.

“And because... how you reacted earlier…”

I rubbed my hand over my cheek. “I’m sorry… it’s just that… I panicked… You were… are injured and I blamed myself for that...”

“But it’s… it’s not your fault!” She tried to sit upright in bed but I stopped her.

“I know, I know… I talked to Em about it too, and I know that logically I couldn’t have done anything about it… But somewhere inside of me I still feel like it’s still on me… I was just so scared to lose you...”

“Rora?” Ria put her hand on mine and squeezed.

“Mhmm?”

“Can I have... a hug?”

“Definitely.” I went in for the hug but I stopped myself right before doing so. “Tell me if it hurts though… ok?”

She nodded.

I gently lowered myself and tried to give her a hug, although with her under the blanket it was quite hard.

“Ugh, stupid blanket.”

Ria giggled at my clumsy attempt.

“Hmm, I see. Give me a second, I'll be right back.” I headed towards the living room and turned off all the lights, after which I shoved one of the cupboards against the front door. In only a minute I was standing back in my bedroom.

“What was all that noise?” Ria was peeking from behind the blanket.

“Just some security measures.” I smiled and walked over to the other side of my bed.

“Oh…” She kept her eyes on me while I was walking around.

“Do you mind if I come in with you?”

Without saying anything she shook her head.

“Alright.” I crawled into my bed and scooched up to her. So I could hug her close to me. “It’s a bit easier like this, isn’t it?”

“Mhmm.” Ria pressed herself against me although when she moved she winced in pain. But before I could say anything Ria immediately comforted me. “I’m fine. It just hurts when I move...”

“Don’t push yourself, okay?”

“I won’t.”

Once Ria was settled in and nestled against me we just layed there in silence for a while before Ria started talking to me again.

“Rora’s warm…”

“Want me to get out?”

She shook her head. “No… it’s cozy… makes me feel safe...” Another couple of minutes passed before she continued. “I think I’m going to fall asleep…”

“I’ll be right here.”

“Rora…?”

“Mhmm?”

“Can we have pancakes for breakfast?”

“With blueberry jam?”

She slowly nodded. “Yes…”

“Of course.”

“I love you.”

When she said that my cheeks blushed instantly. “I love you too, Ria.” She fell asleep soon after, leaving me spooning her. Because I had crept in bed with my clothes on, I was getting hotter by the second. But since I didn’t want to risk waking Ria up by getting undressed at this point it meant I was truly stuck in place until the morning. Mistakes had been made, but with Ria softly breathing in my arms it was definitely worth it.

Even though I was tempted to close my eyes a couple of times during the night, my mind simply wouldn’t let me. The anxiety I felt at the thought of letting harm befall Ria again was too great to let my guard slip even a second. I’d almost lost her and wasn’t about to risk that again, especially now that my door wasn’t really in working order.

As dawn broke and the clocktower in the distance rang its bell seven times, Shima came back to my bedroom and started asking for food.

“Shh, Shima, I’ll be right there. Don’t wake up, Ria.” I whispered to my cat.

However, despite my attempt at silence Ria started giggling. “You can go, Rora. I’m already awake.” She turned over and looked at me, making me blush a little with the smile she had on her face.

“G-good morning, Ria. How are you feeling?”

“A lot better.” She stretched her arms. “The pain is mostly gone now.”

“That’s great.” I smiled back at her and ran my hand through her bed hair. “I’ll go and get Shima some food and then I’ll make you pancakes.”

“Yay!”

“And grape juice to drink?”

She happily nodded.

“See you in a bit then.” I ruffled my hand through her hair one last time before heading towards the kitchen.

Shima was already meowing by her bowl and followed me to the cabinet in which I kept her baggies of food.

“Chicken okay with you?” I looked down at which she happily meowed. “Here you go.” I put the bowl with chicken food down on the floor, then started on Ria’s pancakes. Luckily I still had all the ingredients in the fridge, though I’d have to run by the shop later today to get some more groceries.

“Although.” I looked back at the cupboard I’d shoved in front of the door. “I’ll probably wait until the door is fixed before heading out…”

It didn’t take very long to make the pancakes as making pancakes is not the hardest thing on the planet. So I set the pile of fluffiness on the table together with a jar of blueberry jam and decided it was time to reward myself with a glass of youknowwhat. I probably started drinking it more than I strictly needed as I wasn’t thirsty at all, but the taste had started to become somewhat addictive. My initial restraint had almost completely disappeared.

“That smells so good!” Ria’s voice made me turn around and when I did I almost spit out my drink on the floor. She’d gone into my closet and was wearing one of my gray hoodies. Although ‘wearing’ was probably a bit of an exaggeration as she was practically drowning in it. She looked so darn cute in it that my heart almost stopped.

-So this is how people feel when their girlfriends wear their clothes... -

“Ria…”

She looked at me and started blushing. “Sorry for going into your closet, but I had nothing else to wear…”

“It’s fine, trust me, it’s fine. I just didn’t expect you to look so cute in it...”

Ria started blushing even more, and once I realized what I said, so did I. “T-thanks.” She sat down as I started pouring a glass of grape juice out for her.

“Didn’t have any issues walking?”

Ria shook her head and drank from the glass I put down in front of her. “I was a bit dizzy when I first got up but that only lasted a couple of seconds…” She then looked behind her at the cupboard I moved. “Is that the security measure you were talking about?”

“Yeah… I needed something heavy… but later today some people are going to come and fix the door and bring some new sofas. So it should only be a temporary thing.”

“Oh…” Ria took a bite from her pancakes. “These are so good!”

“Glad you like them.”

After taking another bite she looked at me again. “But Rora… are you like a superhero?”

-Right, I was expecting that question to come sooner rather than later.- I rubbed the back of my head. “Uhm… something like that I guess… uhh...”

She reached out for my hand that was still on the table and put hers on it, indicating to me to continue.

“You see, I was planning to tell you this yesterday… but then… things happened…” I gulped but a squeeze in my hand from Ria helped stumble through it. “As of a couple of days ago… I’m… I’m actually a vampire…”

“Oh…” She kept her hand on mine and looked over at the glass I'd been drinking from. “So that’s…”

I nodded. “Yeah… I understand it if you are scared bu-”

Ria cut me off. “I’m not scared. How could I? Rora is Rora. Vampire or not, Rora is the Rora I love.” The smile that followed that sentence blasted all the doubts and fears I had away.

-This girl… she just takes my breath away.-

I took Ria’s glass of grape juice and took a quick swig of it.

“My juice!” She pouted.

“Sorry, I needed to cleanse my palette.”

“What fo-”

I interrupted her with a quick kiss on her lips.

“Excuse me, I couldn’t hold myself back.”

Ria was putting on an even bigger pout now. “Hmph, unfair, I was not prepared. Again!” She couldn’t hold back her smile in the end.

“Whatever my princess commands.” I smiled and kissed her again, this time it was long, passionate and quite fruity.

-Maybe I truly am the luckiest woman alive…-

“Mhmm, my knight….”