Hey friends, shameless advertising here (cause I can): The Chelsea spin-off "Kind is the River" is now out if you want to check it out. Or don't, 'cause, you know, not everyone that plays ANB played IoH. I can dig that.

Might be a while before I can update anything again, Structural labs will be my downfall, I'm so bad and this spacial reasoning stuff

She was… bored. Very bored actually.

After re-fluffing them for the hundredth time, Rio leaned back into her pillows with a discontented sigh. Back when she was working the insane 6:00-11:00 hours she'd never have guessed there'd be a time she'd get sick of her bed but... here she was.

She had started off her morning all warm and cozy. Neil had peeked in after letting out her animals and she had even managed to coerce him into making her a hot chocolate despite his aversion to even looking at anything sweet. She smiled to herself at a private joke, he was hard on sweets but surprisingly weak to sweet talking.

So that was nice for a while… but sitting in bed all day does make you rather sluggish and uncomfortable. Her bed sheet was coming off in one corner from all her shuffling and her blanket had long since been kicked to the foot of her bed.

She needed to move.

Well she technically could, after all, she could at least get up now. It had been three weeks since the surgery. Klaus had already removed the staples and replaced her fabric cast with a fiber glass one. She could stand up on one foot and move on her crutches but it hurt to be upright for too long (because of blood flow she supposed) and her hands were too full keeping herself up to hold things so she didn't have many reasons to get up that often anyway. Basically her world was confined to bed, bathroom and kitchen table as long as she propped up her leg on an adjacent chair.

Even when she recovered more and did get more adept at her crutches she could see that she probably wouldn't be going out this season. The snow up in Echo Village was shockingly much worse than it was in her college or hometown. Already enough snow had built up outside that Neil often looked like an abominable snowman by the time he trekked through her farm to see her.

She glanced at the clock. Speaking of Neil, surely he had to be there soon. It was already getting dark and she was growing impatient, she'd been waiting to see him all day!

It was about the time he usually came, (generally with takeout) and talked with her for a couple minutes before rushing home. How sad it was that those couple minutes were usually the highlight of her day.

She had gotten a new issue of Nature that morning but no matter how sophisticated and detailed the magazine, when you have an entire day you will blitz through it. The only thing keeping her sane was the occasional cluck from a chicken or moo from a cow that'd she'd hear outside to remind her time wasn't standing still.

As if timed to that thought a loud moo pierced the silence. Then in strange succession she heard her chickens. Finally, there was some barking.

Her blood froze, she didn't have a dog.

Again she could hear what she recognized as Lait's moo but it sounded frightened. She jolted up, fumbling with her crutches before hopping to the window.

A large shaggy brown creature was leaping up at her cow who had stationed herself protectively in front of the other livestock. The dog had slipped between the wood fencing and had them trapped. All Rio saw was the threatening brown blur and the flashes of white of its snapping jaws as it continued to lash out at her cow. That was all she needed to see before tearing to the door.

It flung open with the wind as she turned the handle, exposing herself fully to the cold winter air.

"Hey!" She shouted but the dog continued its assault, "Hey!" She screamed louder.

When that didn't work she rushed out, not caring that her feet were still just in slipper socks or that she was in a rather thin pair of pajamas. Immediately the cold snow permeated the fabric to chill her standing foot but she hardly noticed as she struggled against the snow to move towards the shaggy, dishevelled dog.

"You! Stop!" She shrieked as Lait once again bellowed.

The dog turned to her just as she lost balance in a deeper drift and fell down. Not to give up she began to throw snowballs at him.

A stupid idea really, she'd later admit to in hindsight. To her horror, the creature actually did stop and slowly turned to her, baring his fangs. He began to move forwards, haunches raised threateningly he slipped like a snake back through the fence and now there was nothing between him and her. Oh boy, he was even bigger than she had thought.

He might not have been a wild dog at all so much as a coyote the way his pupils were little dots to his bright yellow eyes on his wolf-like face.

After a moment of gawking she did the only thing she could think of, she continued pelting him with snowballs, but now for a different reason. He continued towards her, not to be stalled at all by her attack. The snow harmlessly exploded on him, decomposing to powder.

Her hands, now red and stinging from the cold paused on something hard, a rock. Picking it up she threw with all her might and after a solid 'thunk', the dog recoiled with a whimper before running off.

For a moment she allowed herself to simply sigh in relief, then she dragged herself over to her animals.

The chickens and younger sheep and cows looked ruffled but unharmed. Lait limped over, sniffing her hair almost gratefully.

Rio's head however, was reeling. The cow's front legs were stained in red. "Nononono," she repeated frantically and grabbed at the cow's head comfortingly, "There, there girl. You'll be fine, let me just go get Neil. Neil will know how to fix you up."

Her crutches were a surprising distance away. She sighed and half-pulled, half-crawled back to them. Snow covered her and seemed to find its way down her shirt and up the loose bottoms of her pants. She forced herself back up and clumsily began hopping her long way out of the farm into town, fighting through knee deep snow.

The air was cold, nippy and crisp and her face stung at every breeze. The snow was powdery and flat, such that whisps of wind picked up entire sheets of icey particles that felt like needles on her skin and froze to her eyelashes and hair.

Her leg went from stinging to pulsing and her body was going numb from the cold. No one seemed to be out, all she could hear were her own sniffles and gasps through the wind's whistles.

A gust buffeted her and she ducked down into herself, using all her strength not to be knocked over.

The weather hadn't looked this bad from in her house. It wasn't even snowing! It was just the wind forcing the snow from the ground that seemed to obscure all vision. She couldn't see ahead to any of the village's landmarks nor could she see the paths buried under all the snow. The world was just grey following the setting of the sun.

Her thoughts were slowing as well and she was having difficulty reasoning out her location and destination. So many times the chorus of voices in her mind told her to just stop and sit. She didn't even feel as cold anymore, just tired. So tired she narrated a rather large and heart filled apology to her bed in her head. She hadn't appreciated it enough.

This snow was pretty soft, it would probably crunch right down if she sat on it, poofy like a pillow. Maybe she could stop just a minute to regain her strength. Fighting on one leg through knee-deep snow was simply impossible! She knew better though, she shook that nonsense out of her head and kept moving.

Finally she got her wish and she reached a pathway in town where the snow was compact and well-trodden. For a short distance it was easier. Then, just as Neil's house was in sight, she reached an expansive patch in the road where the ground froze as a smooth and bumpy sheet of ice.

She put one crutch on the surface experimentally and it slipped. The rubber stoppers were hard after all and so almost useless for traction. Indoors they would slide if the floor was even the least bit wet.

The house was so close, she tried to find jagged parts of the ice and patches of snow to place her crutches as she slowly moved along.
It was only natural though that this was unsuccessful. The crutches slid out in opposite directions and she fell forwards, not before accidentally stepping on her injured leg to catch herself. She rolled on the ground in pain. As it subsided, she reached for her crutches but was surprised to find she was having difficulty moving her fingers to wrap around the grip. Her hands were so cold she couldn't even feel them.

Her eyelids began to droop. And she leaned forward to shelter her hands between her legs and her stomach.

Up ahead she heard a door open and saw the flash of red of Neil's coat. As he began over, his expression quickly changed from bored and apathetic to shocked, "Rio?!"

He broke into a full out sprint as he barreled through the snow and slid onto his knees in front of her on the ice, throwing up some snow with his impact. He grabbed at her as if disbelieving she was real. He started at her shoulders and then clasped her cheeks, her arms, clumsily as if he was trying and failing to get the same info he'd immediately obtain when patting down a cow.

"Neil, there was, and I, then…" Wow, she felt dizzy. "I'm cold." Then added dumbly, "My leg hurts."

"It's okay Rio," He soothed nervously. He picked her up and trudged back to the house.

She sighed in relief, finally away from the wind as he rushed her to the couch and placed her down, propping her leg up with pillows. He said a rather large yet impressive string of curses while doing this and she took the moment to collect her jumbled thoughts.

She'd never seen Neil looked so panicked before. She was so transfixed she forgot her purpose for a moment.

She watched wordlessly as he raced to his bed tearing off the duvet and bringing it back to wrap around her. His franticism reminded her of herself a short while earlier…

It was in that moment that she suddenly remembered. She shook her head and tried to wrestle the blanket off, but he held it tight to her. "No, Neil I- There was a wild dog," she explained. "You have to go now! There was a dog!"

He met her eyes with a serious expression, "It still there?"

She shook her head slowly. "I chased it off," she explained, "But L-Lait's hurt. You have to go see her."

Conflicted he glanced at her, then the door then back to her.

He held her shoulder to ground himself. "But Rio you're.."

"F-f-fine," she said, an unfortunate time to start chattering.

He shook his head, "No you're not. You're freezing!"

"I'll be fine! Just go see Lait!"

Finally he sighed. "I'll be back," he promised and then began to throw on his coat, he paused to look back at her trembling form and rubbed his temple. "Just keep warm okay? Take off anything wet."

She nodded and he kicked on his boots and ran out the door.

She slumped in relief that her duty was over and only then did the cold truly overtake her. It was unbearable, her skin was numb and all her digits were pained and swollen.

She struggled to take off her soaked socks with the palms of hands that wouldn't close and tried to grip at her white and red toes. She wasn't sure what exactly she was warming by doing this, her hands or her feet? It was lucky her cast had a water resistant outside but the soft inner part was still a little wet and there was nothing she could do about that. Reluctantly she ditched the shirt and pants too.

She nestled further into the blanket and could only wait until Neil returned a time later, by then she was shivering uncontrollably.

He threw off his outer layers, face nipped red by the cold, "It's well below freezing out there," He said, rubbing his hands together. "Goddess Rio," He stood by awkwardly watching her shake.

"S-s-so cold," She admitted, an obvious understatement.

"Lait's fine," he told her and she nodded in relief. "It looked a lot worse than it was. I took the animals in and got her all cleaned and bandaged up, it'll probably be like this never happened by the next time you see her." He said.

"That's such a relief," She sighed.

"What happened?" He asked.

She explained as best she could how she saw the dog outside and scared it off. Neil's expression turned unusually dark and she mistakenly thought she had identified his anger, "I only threw the rock at it because I knew it wouldn't severely hurt it and that it was hurting my animals!"

Proving he had a couple more curses in his repertoire, he paced once and then turned on her. "Of course!" He snapped, "But don't you think that was a little dangerous? Are you an idiot?"

If there was one thing Rio hated it was when her intelligence was undermined. "What was I supposed to do?!" She snapped back.

"I don't know Rio, but it was definitely a stupid idea to go outside and put yourself in front of a wild dog!"

"He was hurting Lait!" She protested.

"She's a 1400 pound creature with a surprising kicking range, meanwhile, you're next to useless as you are!" He yelled.

"Stop yelling!" She shouted.

"Stop doing stupid things!" He exclaimed right back. "You always keep going off and doing things like this!"

"W-whatever." She said stubbornly and snuggled closer into the duvet, desperate for any extra warmth, no longer marveling at how it smelled just like him. She didn't care, at least for now, she was ticked with him.

He glanced at the wet clothes bundled on the floor and sighed, retrieving a large sweater from one of his drawers. "Put this on," he mumbled dropping it carelessly on her head and plopping down on the other end of the couch, head held restlessly in his hand.

"Better not peek," she said venomously.

"As if I'd want to," he spat back which only managed to infuriate her more. He listened to the rustling and concluded once it had stopped that she was done.

For a while all that could be heard was the chattering of her teeth, something she had tried desperately to silence with no success.

As always happened whenever he lost his temper he quickly cooled down and began to feel bad. Pride and stubbornness caused him to hold his tongue a little longer.

Finally he sighed, "Still cold?"

She just glared and he almost winced. Yes, he knew that look, he had been on the receiving side of that look quite a few times. It was the signature look she had specially for him most of last spring.

She watched him with indignation as he managed a begrudging smile, "Okay, yeah I get it, I'm a jerk," he agreed. "Sorry."

She looked away nestling her legs in tighter. "I can't just turn on and off my angry switch like you can," she protested. "Don't apologize, just let me be mad at you, geez!"

"Rio," he urged quietly. "I'm sorry."

Well when he gave her a face like that… So sad and deflated. That look always managed to take her heart and stomp on it.

Finally, after a moments silence he said again, so quiet it was practically just a breath, "You could have died Rio."

She froze. She hadn't even thought about it that way.

She shook her head, "I didn't really…." She sighed and hugged her knees, rewrapping herself after the blanket slackened in the attempts to finally feel warm.

"I know," he said. "That's why it's so scary. You don't think before you act, ever." In some respects, he seemed even more worn out than her as he sighed. "And you don't seem nearly as freaked out as I am. You could have died Rio." He repeated in a quiet voice. "You can't even walk, you were on the ground, and he was going to attack you. Who knows what would have happened if you didn't find that rock. Even if he just hurt you, you still might have been stuck there and froze before I found you."

He continued to stare at her. She could tell she looked pathetic and small, she couldn't stop quaking like a designer lap dog either. Neil finally sighed, crawling over, and pulling away the blanket. "What are you-!"

Ignoring her protest he tugged her over and rearranged them so he was the one leaning against the armrest as he scooped her between his legs. Then he wrapped the duvet again around them both. She was immediately a lot warmer and it probably wasn't just because of an extra body.

His face brushed against her cheek from behind. Against her frozen flesh, his usual cold body might as well have been a hot water bottle. "Better?" He whispered into her ear.

She sighed in defeat and cuddled into him. "Yeah..."

He held her close, lightly containing her trembles within his arms.

Seeing that their quarrel was definitely over he smiled a little, not that she'd be able to see. "Goddess, look at you! Weren't you supposed to be a plant person? I thought you didn't even want animals," he teased.

"I didn't!" She exclaimed bumping her back into his chest, "You forced them on me!"

"Sure," he said, not at all convinced. "You totally love them, admit it."

"Well yeah," she said. "How can you not love something you're raising by hand?"

He rested his chin on her shoulder, rubbing warming circular motions up and down her arms. "I could tell when I started taking care of them for you that they're used to being spoiled. You take good care of them. Lait could stand a good chance already in a higher level of competition. Register intermediate or even advanced next time."

"Would that be fair?" She wondered, "You're the judge and you'll have been taking care of her all season."

"I never show bias!" He scoffed, withdrawing a little.

"Well, I mean. Won't a lot of her progress be because you'll have taken such good care of her?"

He sighed, "Believe me, I make mistakes too. I was stuck at work a little later and couldn't get them in early enough. This accident is on me. I'm spread so thin my care isn't doing them any favours."

She found his hand casually wrapped around her waist and she stroked it soothingly. "No, it was unavoidable. I understand. It's hard when the days are getting so short."

He pulled her in tighter and she finally let herself close her eyes and enjoy this. Neil wasn't a touchy person nor was he generally so talkative. He was so careful in his treatment of her she sometimes felt like an 1800's girl being courted.

Like how he always sat at that chair at her bedside when anyone else that visited would often just hop onto her bed with her, even the well-mannered Iroha.

Honestly, that little space between them was usually so painful. If she was more mobile she'd have bridged it much sooner. In the first week, what made her situation the most difficult to bare was that whenever he did something for her all she ever wanted do was reach out and hold him, but knew she couldn't reach.

This was everything she thought it would be. Again that straw/musky smell engulfed her senses and she marveled at how her back curved perfectly into his chest. She felt safe, she felt secure and even a little bit loved.

"Hey Neil?"

"Yeah?"

"What was the last movie you cried at?" She asked.

It took him a moment to catch up. "Oh, is this your question thing?"

"Yes." Ever since she first brought it up she'd been asking him personal questions every day. He was getting pretty used to it now so she decided to stop playing it careful and start asking more invasive things.

He sighed, "I don't know Rio, I don't remember stuff like that."

She craned her neck to look at him critically, "I don't believe you."

He sighed, "I guess that one where the dog died."

"Which?" She pressed.

"Any of them? Who kills of a dog in a movie it's just wrong." His face was now scarlet. "Or cats. Or those really realistic medieval war movies- those horses did not deserve to be dragged into a human fight. You just see then flail in so much pain and it hurts… People are the worst."

"When was the last time you felt really sad Neil?" She asked.

He bit his lip, "Well, I really do feel guilty when I blow up at you. I guess more than sad though it's disappointment? In myself, I mean. Since I told you I'd be better."

"Well I guess it's a given though since we can both be such hotheads," she admitted. "Okay, but actually sad though- and not about something with me."

"I like your old questions better when you asked stuff like what's your favourite food?" He sighed. "This is embarrassing."

"Come on Neil," She coaxed. "You know so many embarrassing things about me. Make it fair! I mean, remember that time at the night of courage? I still repeatedly hit myself sometimes for being so lame."

"I take it pretty hard whenever an animal I raised passes," he admitted. "It weighs on me for the day."

"Well of course," she scoffed.

"You don't understand, I've raised hundreds," he explained. "They're all in different homes but I hear from their owners. Animals have such short life spans… I get that news a lot."

"I guess that's true," she agreed, then winced as he flicked her forehead.

"So stop doing reckless things! I'm relying on the fact that I'm slightly older than you coupled with the fact that women are supposed to live longer than men." He said jokingly.

"What?" She asked.

He flushed, "You are not going before I do…" then more softly he said, "I'm sick of being alone."

"Neil…" She said in awe.

At his threshold, he glanced at the clock. "So what's your plan for tonight?" He asked several shades gruffer. "We need food, though it's also pretty late if I'm going to get you home we'd have to go now."

She glanced ruefully out the window. She was only starting to feel like she was warming up. It was so cold out there and now it was also dark.

"Or…" He said tentatively.

"Or?" She asked, tilting her head.

The blush on his face was back and even more apparent. "You could stay here and I could take you back in the morning when I go see your animals."

Her mind fizzled. "O-oh." Staying overnight with Neil? Obviously nothing was going to happen because of her leg but still…

"The villagers would talk," she commented.

"The farm work starts earlier than anywhere else opens. Everyone will be asleep."

"Really?" she asked, "You think your next door neighbours Hana and Kosaburo don't wake up at 6?"

"Yeah, okay fine," he agreed and began to shuffle away.

She panicked, "Whoa, whoa, wait!"

He looked at her expectantly and she blushed, "Well, it should be fine."

"Now I'm just confused," he admitted.

"I- I want to stay…" she explained with at least enough humility to feel embarrassed.

He nodded, and didn't press further. "Okay, I'll make dinner."

After eating, they settled into bed awkwardly with a disappointing breadth between them.

"Good night," Rio tried to smile.

"Night," he nodded.

She watched his back and held in a sigh, after they had made so much progress earlier, they were back here. Neil was so hard to read.

That night Neil was woken by the gentle tapping of frozen ice pellets against the window. Freezing rain, great. He sighed and shuffled forgetting about his bedmate and accidentally kicked her.

Rio stirred, "Neil?"

Her voice was soft and disembodied. Closer to the only source of light than him, she was a black silhouette- or rather a black blob under the sheets. He squinted to try to make out any features on her, was she facing him or facing away?

"Shh, sorry. Go back to sleep." His muttered softly.

"The sky's red." she noted. "Is it already morning?" So, she was facing away then towards the window. His night vision was kicking in though and he was starting to figure that out for himself.

He turned over for a moment to check the electric clock. "No, it's just past two."

He knew what she meant though, a dim red glow illuminated the edges between the curtain and the window. "Ever since the snow started the night sky sometimes looks light red with that street light you installed outside."

She sighed, "Right, it's like that back home as well. It's pitch black at the farm of course."

A little spike pricked in his chest. "Rio," He said, glad his voice was still too slowed from sleep to betray emotion.

She turned over. "Yeah?"

She'd been living here almost a year and still didn't refer to it as home? He shook his head, "Nothing… just, do you like this town?"

She turned over to stare at him, eyes unreadable in the dark. "What's with that? Of course!"

"..Does it feel like home yet?" He asked.

She was quiet for a moment. "… I thought so. Now I don't know."

A deep ache cut right through him, what did that mean? She loved her work, her friends, her animals. What was making her uncomfortable? Not him right?

"That probably sounded confusing," she said. "I meant that, everything's so different here. I've been here a while so I thought I had settled in but it still feels so recent since I first came. Then at the hospital I was suddenly thrust into the real world and I realized…"

"Realized what?" He asked.

"This place feels so disconnected from everything else. Like for a moment suddenly surrounded by the noise and strangers of the city again I almost wondered if any of this was real. I couldn't picture seeing any of the villagers out in the real world. When I saw you, Hana, Allen and Iroha at the hospital it was so weird. It's hard to explain but it feels like I'm flitting between two different worlds and now it feels less real. Like when you go from camp and back."

He was silent and he felt her poke his cheek, "You know?"

"No," He said gruffly. He wasn't sure why her words were so painful but they were.

"Well, what I'm trying to say is, when I can walk again let's go places!"

"Hmm?" He said in interest.

"Let's get out of town now and again and do all sorts of things couples do. We can go to movies and aquariums, zoos and malls. I want to go to so many places with you that it'll soon be hard to not picture you anywhere but at my side no matter where I am."

Oh Goddess, now he just wanted to kiss her. Though he'd been sleeping before so there was no way to know if his breath was good, or if his lips were chapped. Would she take offense if he stole their first kiss in a way that was anything less than perfect? He didn't really know this aspect of girl's mentality that well.

He settled to just stare at her warmly. "Well, your time here might have flown for you but I can now scarcely imagine that old abandoned farm where the neighbouring town's teenagers used to break in for tests of courage anymore. Feels like a lifetime ago."

She was quiet and still. "Rio?" He asked, "You asleep?"

Her voice came back hard. "No. How. The. Hell. Could. I. Sleep. After. Hearing. THAT?" She sat up quickly and stared at him, now fully awake. "Test of courage? Is my house haunted?!"

He cringed. How could he have let that slip? After everything he did to make sure she'd never hear about that!

"Rio, we have to get up in the morning. Go to bed." He urged, pushing her down onto her pillow. "Sleep," he urged.

She wrestled him and bounced back up after winning, "I might never sleep again! So all those sounds I heard and I always told myself it was the house settling!"

"It was!" He gave in and sat up on his elbows now too, "There's no such thing as ghosts!"

"So what was the ghost story behind my farm?" She asked.

"Made up," he answered. "So it doesn't matter. You're a scientist, you're not supposed to believe in these things!"

"Well I don't know any more!" She exclaimed frantically. "If there can be a Harvest Goddess and things like that in this world why can't there be ghosts?"

He sighed heavily and lay back down. Religion, the one thing he hoped she wouldn't think to ask about in her questions. "I don't…" He trailed off, scared of what her reaction might be to this news. There's a lot of things people can forgive about their partners but more often than not religion was a deal breaker. What was Rio going to think? He'd never even admitted this to Hana or Dunhill but he needed to come clean here. "...I don't know if I quite believe in something like that either…" He said quietly.

She didn't move for a moment and he held his breath in regret. Then, she laughed. "Well of course she's real Neil! In fact, before I broke my ankle we were going to have a post-harvest tea party with the sprites to celebrate!"

So paused again. "Oh Goddess… did I stand up the... well, Goddess?" She began to fret, "Do you think she knows why I didn't come? I'm sure she does… she's the Goddess after all. Still I didn't even think of it, wow for my sake I really hope I didn't insult her…"

"Uh…" Was all he could say to that.

She shook her head, "Wait don't side-track me Neil! Tell me the story!"

He sighed in relief, she really didn't care. To think he'd been worrying about this since they first started going out. "It's made up so it'll do you no good to hear it!" He said, collecting his thoughts, "Believe me, don't even try to find out behind my back. Tina won't tell you either!"

"She knows?" Rio asked. "Why not?"

"She came to interview me as someone who grew up in town about it a month ago after she found out and I shut it down right away and made sure she'd never breathe a word of it to you," he sighed. "So annoying."

"So that's why she's suddenly so scared of you," Rio said in wonder.

"It's for the best," he explained.

She lay back down reluctantly and he started to fall back asleep. Then she jolted back up. "No actually Neil, I'm going back to that house tomorrow and I'm going to be all alone and unable to walk!" She shook him desperately, "Whatever the story is I'm sure it's not as bad as my imagination!"

"Rio," He moaned. "Forget it, this house is way more haunted than yours is anyway."

"What?" She asked robotically.

"Well I mean, no one's even died in your house before," he explained.

"And someone did here?" She exclaimed.

"Lotsa' someones, it's an old house. Great Grandpa Brown in this very spot." He said.

Rio quaked and he sighed before pulling her down into his arms forcefully. "Sleep," he murmured in her ear. "I'm here with you."

She was going to protest that it was a fat lot of good he could do against a ghost but was surprised that his arms were oddly comforting. His hand brushed the side of her face softy, cupping around the back of her ear. She closed her eyes and couldn't help the smile bubbling up. She wrinkled her nose at the warm sensation staring from her belly and rising to make her head feel dizzy.

She loved the way he touched her, the way his hand ghosted and hovered around her form, occasionally rising to trace another feature of her face. With a degree on concentration as if she were something delicate, something important. No one had ever touched her this way. Maybe it was a trick of the dim light but no one had ever looked at her with the softness his eyes now seemed to hold. She chuckled silently.

His hand halted "What?" He asked defensively.

If someone had told her last season that Neil could be like this, she'd have laughed. If some ethereal being with knowledge of the future popped up the day they were collecting sticks for Rebecca's house, or after one of the countless pointless arguments they used to have, how would she have reacted to know that someday, she'd cherish him, that she'd be filled with this delirious happiness just knowing he was in the same room as her?

"I'm just really really happy." She said honestly ducking her head into the pillow to hide her grin.

There was an outake of air, him probably amused at her response.

"You are not suited to living alone, so needy," he teased.

"Maybe I'm not," she agreed, "but I could definitely get used to this."

A moment later he was shocked to find she fell asleep. At the speed of clicking an on-and-off switch.

He just pulled her closer and sighed, waiting for sleep to come over him too. It was so late, it was going to be hard to get up tomorrow. She was so unfair… but he couldn't help but agree he could get used to this too.

Think of that last bit of pillow talk as bonus material as an apology for my having taken so dang long to write this chapter. Estimate: max 4 chapters left maybe less? We're in the final countdown!

JustKohaku- Honestly I re-read certain reveiws and I just feel bad 'cause here I am once again having made you wait forever XD Yeah, that might have been a little mean for poor Iroha, but I really doubted she wanted to talk relationships anyway. Still, she'll be getting some more love in the upcoming chapters, wink wink

Psycho Kay- Wow, the last time I updated I hadn't even posted the Chelsea story yet. (lol thanks for the reminder, I just went back to shamelessly advertise it on top XD) Agreed, poor Neil, like a sleeping cat that lets you pet its belly five more times than usual before biting you

Sky65- Haha, shamelessly fun to write too when I got into it. Thanks for reading

mythicallover906- But you had to wait anyway XD sorry (to disappoint but I apparently don't do that. Haha, omg I'm tired its so late that's it's early) I'm sure that this reponse that my tired self thought was funny is actually a mess bet whatever

Cyanote- lol, let's just say, maybe not this chapter, maybe not the next but this playfulness is going to come back. I just love reoccurring jokes after all.

Savitron5- Sorry for always making you wait but thanks for always reading anyway! :)

CrimsonCrush- I know right! Though Starry Night's coming up, who knows what'll happen ;) Wow, just giving out hints left right and center today

Ingvaros- Aw, thank you so much :) There's so many amazing HM fics so that's a pretty big honour. Still, if you haven't yet I would definitely recommend reading some of the older FoMT fanfics- maybe it's just nostalgia since I haven't read them in a long time but some of them border on professional quality. They're what first got me into reading and writing fanfiction