We started filling up the bottles of ‘grape juice’ together, being very careful not to accidentally fill a bottle with the wrong liquid.

“How long does the blood keep in these bottles?” I asked Viktor while filling up the last bottle on my side.

“Quite long, as long as you keep it cooled.” He said while corking a bottle.

“Alright. I’ll keep that in mind.” And with that the last bottle was filled and corked as well. “Thanks for the help, Viktor.”

“Kein Problem.” He smiled and walked back to his jacket. “I should probably go home and get some rest.”

“Oh? Are you feeling tired? Because I’ve got to admit I don’t feel tired at all.”

Viktor shook his head. “Ah, no, we technically don’t need sleep.” He swung his coat over his shoulder. “I just sleep because I find it relaxing. It might be hard for you at first, because sleeping when you aren’t tired is something you aren’t used to, but after a while it should get easier.” Viktor cleared his throat and continued. “But I’d recommend learning how to do it anyway, if you ever want to sleep with a human partner, it’s pretty useful to already know how to.”

Again, images of Ria and Emma started floating through my mind. Taking turns hugging and sleeping on my shoulder. Cozily snuggling up to me. Nuzzling their noses into my neck...

My face immediately got tomato red. “Why did you have to remind me of that, now I definitely won’t be able to sleep.”

Viktor chuckled and walked towards the front door. “You’ll figure something out. Anyway, good night Aurora.”

“Good night to you too…”

He closed the door behind him which I then locked.

Again I was left alone with Shima who was still solidly sleeping. I decided to pour myself one last glass of blood before trying to sleep a bit.

It definitely surprised me how quickly I got used to drinking this peculiar new drink.

But it just tasted way too good to pass up on it. Plus, everything beats having that bloody thirst. Pun intended.

After having emptied my glass I hand washed it to get rid of every trace of blood and disposed of the emptied blood bags laying next to my sink.

“That should be it.” I took a last glance of the living room before heading to my bedroom. Everything looked in order, nothing weird to be seen. “Alright, nini Shima.” I petted her head and went to bed after brushing my teeth.

It was a little bit weird feeling my bigger canine teeth but the even weirder part was that they were pretty sensitive too. I had to be very careful with applying pressure to them with my toothbrush as they were sending jolts of electricity through my body when I applied a little bit too much.

-I guess that’s also why the happening with Emma felt so good…-

My body was getting a little bit steamy thinking back on it so I decided to quickly rinse my mouth, splash cold water on my face and jump into bed, ignoring my thoughts as much as I could.

I blankly stared at the ceiling while laying on my back trying to relax my body as much as I could, but to no avail, sleep wasn’t coming. I started tossing and turning myself on my bed but that didn’t help much either, together with the random flashes of Emma and Ria racing past.

“This is pretty damn frustrating.” I grumbled and sat up in my bed, putting my pillow against the wall so I could lean against it. That’s when I heard my phone start buzzing.

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“Huh, who could it be this late?” I looked at my digital clock before grabbing my phone from the night stand. It read 02:00.

I looked at my phone’s screen and saw a picture of me and Emma posing together with the classic V-sign after we'd just beaten Pres and Claire at some kind of challenge.

A bit concerned by her timing I picked up the phone instantly. “Em?! Is something wrong?”

“Ah… you are still awake… and, uh, yeah, I’m fine...” My body relaxed again as I was relieved to hear she sounded okay.

“Did you call me thinking I wouldn’t be?”

She was silent for a couple of seconds; “I guess, I just wanted to talk to someone, I can’t sleep at all…”

“Karin’s already sleeping?”

“Yeah… and you know her, once she’s asleep not even a nuclear war will wake her up…”

I giggled. “That’s true.”

“What about you, can’t sleep either?”

“Not really, apparently vampires don’t get tired.”

“Oh… yeah, that sounds like a problem if you want to sleep.”

“I know right. It’s incredibly annoying. And these daydreams on top of it...” My mind record scratched. -I shouldn’t have said that.-

“Daydreams?”

“Y-yeah…” My mind started racing, trying to come up with an excuse.

“W-what kind of daydreams?”

“Just, uhm…” -C’mon brain, think!- “Fruit!”

-Really brain, this is the best you can come up with?-

+Leave me alone, you put me under pressure, you know we can’t think well under pressure.+

While I was having an internal dialogue I heard Emma giggle. “Fruit? Why fruit?”

“Grapes!” I coughed, that sounded way too much like a eureka moment. “So yes, grapes…” I continued and explained Emma the situation with the wine bottles.

-Good job brain.-

+Thanks.+

“I don’t see how that plan could possibly go wrong.” Emma’s sarcastic tone was easily recognizable through the phone.

“It’s the best plan we had. So it’ll have to do.”

“I guess…” Em paused for a while. “By the way, that vampire is the one who turned you, right? Is it really okay to trust him? To allow him into your home and stuff...”

“That’s a fair point and I did mistrust him for a while, but he has also helped me quite a bit and he is nice to Shima…. Even though I threatened him with a baseball bat….”

“That sounds like a thing to do, yes.” Emma cutely laughed. “Would it be okay to meet up with him?”

I was a bit surprised by her question. “I could ask, why?”

“To make sure he’s a good person for you to be around.”

“Alright mom, I’ll ask.”

“Good girl.” That reply awakened something inside of me as my heart started beating quite a bit faster and I squeaked, trying to come up with a reply. “I-I-I d-didn’t… I-I should probably try to get some sleep now. G-good night Auro.”

Emma’s flustered continuation caught me off guard too.

“Good night, Emma.” I managed to say before she hung up the phone.

I put my phone back on my bedside table and stared in front of me, thinking about the conversation I just had. It was pretty undeniable that I had feelings for Emma. “Does she feel the same? Is she even gay to begin with?” A lot of the doubts and anxiety I had about Ria now resurfaced for Emma as well.

“Ugh.” I groaned once more and buried my face with my second pillow. “How do people even figure this stuff out.”

My thoughts suddenly flashed back to school, to the only lesbian couple I knew. “Claire…”

I put the pillow back down and looked at my phone. “I’ll ask her tomorrow, she’s probably sleeping right now…”

Having somewhat calmed down and with some kind of plan ready for tomorrow I decided to try sleeping once again. I closed my eyes and tried to clear my mind. After a while it actually appeared to work as I felt myself slowly but surely drift away. Only to get interrupted by the alarm of my clock going off.

“Really? Already?” Even though I wasn’t tired at all I was a bit grumpy that I didn’t truly get to rest my mind at all. -When Viktor said it was going to be hard I didn’t expect it to be this hard… Maybe next time I shouldn’t try to fight those images for so long...- The thought made me blush but filled me with some kind of resolve nonetheless.

I quickly got out of bed to perform my morning routine. Brushing my teeth, getting my school bag ready for the day and feeding Shima and cleaning out her litter box.

“You don’t have issues with sleeping, do you?” I talked to Shima while scooping her food out of one of the tins.

She meowed and curled around my legs.

“Cute.” I smiled and put her bowl down on the ground, petting her as she started eating. “Ria-chan will come visit today, so see you in a bit, okay?”

She mewled back contently.

Before heading out I quickly drank a glass of my new favourite drink and cleaned out the glass. “Ah right.” I said to myself with my hand already on the doorknob. “I should probably drop those books off I promised before I get to Ria-chan as well...” I ran over to my bookcase and stuffed some of my old study books into my bag.

“I’m off now, Shima.” I called from the doorway and locked the door behind me.

Suddenly coming to the realization that I also had to bring my old uniforms back to school.

I shrugged and looked back at my front door while walking away.

“I’ll just take my old clothes to school another time…”