“Lain. Lain? Are you listening, Lain?” She asks.

I shake my head a bit and draw myself back into focus, reminding myself that I am in the middle of an important meeting.

“Ah, yes. Sorry about that Dr. Doe. I just wandered off a bit there…” I tell her.

She gives me a concerned but caring look and says, “It is alright Lain. I understand how scary it can be for you to have your own mind acting outside of your will. You aren’t the first patient that I have had that had their mind doing things they didn’t want it to. Thinking thoughts they didn’t want. I understand. Do you mind if I ask where it is you wandered off too?”

I give her a nod, “Back to Smith again… Having him in a new location seems to be making my desire to protect him flare up… I should be fine though. Hopefully it should settle after a while. I was like this after I first turned him, once my brain figures out that he is safe here, it should stop worrying so much…”

She gives me a small smile and nods. “Well, as much as we would like to keep you here and keep asking you for more details, I do believe that we got most of what we need from you for now. We’ll be going over the results from your MRI, the next time you come in for your check-up. We would also like to do a more in-depth examination of these… shadows, of yours.” She says, curiously poking at the black cube of shadows that I had given her, with the tip of her pen. “In regard to meeting with a therapist, we’ve scheduled you to meet with Dr. Rachel Kim on Saturday at eleven o’clock.”

“You scheduled my appointment for November 11th at eleven o'clock? What’s with all the ones?” I ask her with a raised eyebrow.

She simply shrugs. “It was open, so I scheduled you for it. Speaking of dates, tomorrow is your birthday, isn’t it? You are turning 21.” She says, looking down at the clip board in front of her. “Happy birthday by the way.”

“It is!? Wait today is… the sixth? Oh, ya, tomorrow is my birthday… I had completely forgotten.”

“Mhm, that's quite understandable. You’ve been through a lot of stress lately. Well, all the more reason to send you out. You need some time to relax. When it comes to the brain, that is honestly the best medicine. We won’t hold you here any longer. And don’t you worry about Private Smith, he is in good hands here and we will be sure to let you know when he is close to waking up.”

I stand up from my chair and say, “Oh, you don’t have to worry about that. He’ll be waking up in four days as long as you keep feeding him regularly.”

She simply blinks a couple of times as the others look at me curiously, “And how do you know that?”

“I just do.” I say with a shrug. Grabbing my stuff, I head for the door and wave goodbye to the doctors seated around the room. On the way out, I half-jokingly say, “And you vampires better not go and drain his blood or anything. I still have my doubts that you guys aren’t just drinking mine!” I stop at the door and turn back to them, “Actually, jokes aside. Seriously, don’t drink my blood. I’m pretty sure that it would kill half of you on the spot and mutilate the other half of you if you did…”

Dr. Doe stands from her chair and raises a hand for me to stop, “What makes you say that?”

“… I don’t know? Just a feeling. Try using my blood on rats or something, see what happens.”

“We have. All tests have been inconclusive.”

I look up at the ceiling and chew on my lips a bit, “I don’t know… I just feel that if you use the new blood, you just took from me, you’ll probably get different results. Try it again?”

With that, I go for the door and leave.

Walking down the hall, I head for the stairs and make my way out of the building before turning to go to Command. Regretfully, I still have paperwork to write and reports to give before I can go home. At the very least I am increasing my distance from Smith by a bit, so I should be able to focus a bit more clearly. As I walk to the next building over, waving to the occasional soldier that I recognize, I look longingly over to the apartment building. I can’t see our apartment from here, and my heart aches to just run over there and lock myself in our home.

“Hah… Just a little bit more work Lain. Then you get to go home. Just a little bit more…”

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Four horrible hours later, I am finally dragging my exhausted body out of Command. Paperwork! So much fucking paperwork!!!

I swear, if I see another piece of paperwork or even so much as a pen, I am going to have an aneurysm… Go into detail on this. Was this the exact events that transpired? Who was there, what were your orders at the time? Why did you do this, what was your thoughts on that? Questions, questions, questions! They wanted everything spelled out so precisely and detailed and if I made a single mistake, I had to start all over again!!!

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Uh… So tired…I really should have asked for a doctor’s note.” I moan.

Arms drooping at my side, I slowly drag my exhausted carcass down the road to home. Sweet dreams of girlfriend cuddles acting as the only fuel keeping me going, one foot stepping in front of the other.

Standing in front of our apartment building, I stop as something catches my eye and I look up. Reaching out a hand, I catch a snowflake as it gently falls from the sky. Letting out a long breath, I watch as it melts on my hand. “Great… and now it’s snowing. Gods I hope this winter won't be as bad as the last one…”

Wiping the water off my hand on the pants that the doctors gave me, I head into the building and trudge my way upstairs to the second floor. All of my stuff had been brought back in advance for me, so I am currently coming back empty handed. Up ahead, I spot Mr. Rodger on guard duty today. He notices me approaching and give a nod. I send him a lazy wave and say, “Hey, thanks for watching the place for me…”

He gives me a smile, “It's no trouble at all, Miss Lain. Miss Sky is eagerly awaiting you inside.” He says.

“She is?” I ask hopefully, a small ray of sunshine peeking through my dark clouds.

“She is. Now, if you will excuse me, I have some business to attend to down the hall.”

With that, he gives a short bow and walks away humming a happy little tune.

A blush and a smile are creeping onto my face as I turn to the door. The guards giving us some privacy means one thing…

With my heart pounding and excitement coursing through me, I open the door and say, “Sky! I’m home!”

As I walk in, I instantly smell something nice coming from the kitchen, after a second, I hear her happily reply, “Be there in a second. Wait right there!”

“Ok~” I call back with a smile.

After a short moment she comes walking around the corner and my world freezes as my brain almost goes into shock.

It is nothing dangerous or horrible, no, quite the opposite in fact. It is quite wonderful. Very wonderful. Sky comes walking out from the kitchen holding a cute little cake with happy birthday written on it. Which makes me very happy to see of course.

No, what has me frozen in my tracks is what she is wearing…

She is dressed in nothing but a white lace apron with cute little frills adorned with hearts. The thing is practically see-through in some dangerous areas and has ‘Kiss the Cook’ written on it in lovely flowing letters.

She walks up to me with a big smile, clearly satisfied and proud of herself for surprising me.

“I heard that you got back today, and I wanted to celebrate your birthday with you before the actual party tomorrow.”

Coming up to me, she takes a fork and scoops off a bite of cake for me, holding it up to me she says, “Happy Birthday.” With a sweet little smile on her face.

I take a bite and the sweetness fills my mouth. Swallowing, a tear goes down my face as I tell her, “It’s delicious, thank you Sky.”

I move forward and wrap her up in a big hug as she giggles and frets to protect the cake from getting crushed between us.

With the hand not holding the cake, she hugs me back and pets my hair. Softly she whispers, “Do you want to talk about it?”

I nod my head as I softly cry into her shoulder, “Yes.” Looking up from her shoulder I tell her, “But first, I want to enjoy my birthday with you. I can tell you all about it and cry later.”

I quickly pull myself together and give her a smile, “Right now, both you and that cake are looking really good… I just need to figure out which one I want to eat first.”

She looks down at me with a blush and a hungry little smile - Gods do I love that she’s taller than me now! - and says, “Why not have both?”

A bolt of excitement goes through me like an arrow to the brain and I kiss her on the lips. I take her on the kitchen counter. Both her and the cake were very satisfying and delicious.

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Cuddled up together on the couch with nothing but a blanket to cover us, we softly talk with each other through the night. I cry as I tell her about what I had done, about changing someone into a Demon. She continues to hold me and pet my hair as I tell her all about it. I tell her about how it made me feel to do it, about the different instincts going through me and how they scare me. How I don’t like how I have changed.

She never stops me, just letting me pour it all out and empty my heart on her chest as she holds me. By the time I am finished, I feel drained like a rain barrel that just got punctured.

Tired, I ask her. “Would you stop loving me if I changed too much? If I became a different person?”

I feel her hand moving as it finds my chin. Gently, she raises my head until I am looking her in the eyes. With a sleepy smile she tells me, “Lain, it doesn’t matter how much you change, I will always love you. Even if you decided to rule the world, I would happily join you and rule by your side. Even if you were to decide to fight against everyone, I would stick with you, even if you stopped loving me, I would always still love you.” She gives me a kiss on the forehead and finishes, “No matter how much you change, you will always be mine and I will always be yours.”

I sniff and more tears fall, “I won’t ever stop loving you. No matter what! A thousand years, two thousand, three, it doesn’t matter. I’ll always love you. You’re the only thing that has been keeping me sane these past couple months. I would go crazy without you.”

She pulls me in for a tight hug and wraps herself around me, “I love you too.” She says, her eyes heavy with sleep.

For a long while we simple snuggle together, basking in each other’s warmth. I can see as her head keeps nodding off and she slowly starts to get comfier under the blanket.

I give her a smile and a kiss, “Go to sleep Sky, you must be tired.”

“Mmmhhhh, but I don’t want to leave you alone…”

“It’s alright, I’m perfectly happy just getting to hold you and watch you sleep. Just this is all I need.”

“Mmmm, I wish I didn’t have to sleep. Then I could stay up with you…” She says, her voice slowly drifting off as she slips into her dreams.

“Go to sleep Sky. I’ll be here when you wake. Thank you for being here for me. Thank you for holding me as I cry…” I whisper.

“Love… you….” She mumbles.

She drifts off to sleep, her head laying against my arm. Gently, I take and move a strand of her hair, tucking it out of the way. Giving her a little kiss, I watch happily as she smiles in her sleep.

I might not be able to sleep with you, but at least I can help make sure that your dreams are happy. Thank you for being there for me Sky. I would destroy the world for you. You have no idea just how much you mean to me…