Alex suddenly wakes, missing the state in between dreaming and waking for a moment lost in disorientation. Thoughts, or rather sensations of memories, slowly flood his mind, and he's aware of the body next to him. Relief is ebbing through him. He rubs sleep from his eyes before he turns around, strangely emotional the moment he lays eyes on Ashly's relaxed expression. For only a few moments before she starts to stir, her eyes opening sluggishly. A rise of guilt tightens his chest, a notion of shame and failure. "I'm sorry I was like that yesterday and that you had to do that. Take care of me, I mean." He feels his throat closing, making swallowing hard. Ashly reacts fast and unexpectedly, her fingers covering Alex's mouth and her eyes fully aware, piercing his. "I'm not. You've been taking care of me even when I didn't want you to or didn't realize what you were doing. If you want a one-sided relationship, you have to find it somewhere else, Alex. Either we're there for each other w
Alex sprawled on their bed, wearing shorts and a T-shirt, as the day got warm and quite humid. He's catching up with messages on his phone as he becomes aware of movement by the door, his head turning, blinking in pleasant surprise, and his heartbeat quickening as he takes in the sight of his beautiful mate. She's wearing a thin, short, white bathrobe, her hair up and fastened in the back, revealing all of her gorgeous face. Alex was rather spellbound, at first not noticing the object Ashly was holding in her hand and now waving in front of him. "I need to cut my hair short; will you do it for me, Alex?" Her smile is charming and much too tempting for Alex, knowing that might be her sole interpretation, but he lets go of his phone instantly, mid-message, and gets out of bed as if bewitched, his hand taken by Ashly, who smiles happily at her request being granted and leads him to the bathroom. She puts the instrument in Alex's hand and sits down on a stool in front of the tall mirror.
Ashly's mind is drifting in and out of thoughts and memories, and all of a sudden their conversation from before triggers something again in Ashly's alertness, and for a few minutes she's just silently thinking, lots of memories and discoveries she made during their time apart about herself and Alex coming back to the surface. Once she's ready to share, she turns the music off and speaks up, eyes trained on Alex. "You know, when you were gone, I thought about everything a lot, and I realized all the things I was blind to before. Like, your brother made comments about us when we were at the school, and even when you told me you liked me at the ghost other event, even though you took it back, I should have known the truth long before I did, right? But, honestly, I think I wasn't ready to even consider it. I wouldn't have believed you could like me like that, especially since we'd been rivals for so long." Alex has been watching her quietly, his phone forgotten next to him, his hands h
"How did you know it would work, though? Or did you just do all that for the minute possibility that it could?" Ashly looks expectantly at him, but Alex still has no idea what she's talking about, having a bit of a hard time thinking clearly anyway, having her so close, every part of her touching, and touched by Ashly, sending delicious sensations through him. "Can you please elaborate?" He takes a breath to get a grip, gently and slowly running his fingers along Ashly's back, pleased to feel her skin and body and reacting to her touch as well. "You know, getting me into the heat and then taking advantage of it..." Ashly raises an eyebrow, watching him closely. A hand comes around Alex's neck, her fingers splaying over his throat. "Oh, that." Alex remembers, of course, swallowing a tiny lump down where he's intently aware of Ashly's touch. He knows he would deserve some punishment for fooling her like that. "I told you my feelings made me do some unorthodox things." He swallows h
About the Monika and Sam relationship before their breakup: Monika knows her mate is shy and reserved by nature; she knows this. Even Sam expresses his feelings in an equally quiet way, preferring to show his love through his actions and touches rather than words. He loves Monika so much and for so long that he guards his love so jealously, so closely to his heart. He has loved Monika from afar, through his loneliness and tears, and from the quietest corners of his desolated heart; so, in a sense, this love is sometimes his even more than it is Monika. Of course , he's not going to be able to just say it casually. He also doesn't know how to put it into words most of the time. No words in this world can describe the magnitude of his love, his adoration, his fondness, and his devotion to his monika. It's impossible for him to say it all, so he shows it instead. Besides, he likes taking care of Monika, making sure that Monika eats well and sleeps well, leaning against Monika, holding
The next time someone reacts so strongly to Monika'mate' is Monika's overprotective uncle. It's one of the weekends of their summer break, and Sam is staying the night. It's not the first time he's met Monika's uncle, and it's definitely not the first time he's been to Monika's house either, but it's the first time he stays over. It's actually the first time ever that they're spending the night together, and Monika's uncle just happens to be home for the weekend. He's in the USA most of the time; why would he just fly back to her home country for a weekend, unannounced? Sam thinks that it's probably purposeful, but he just greets him respectfully. Meanwhile, Monika stares at her uncle balefully before she says something to him and then tugs Sam up to her room. Monika Uncle is not ice cold with Sam anymore, but he's not exactly warm and friendly either. Sam is the boy who dares to steal his precious Monika heart, and he's pretty sure he'll get castrated if he breaks Monika's heart.
Eventually, Monika falls back onto the bed, pulling Sam down with her because she has her arms looped around Sam's neck. Her hair fans prettily around her face, and Sam leans down to kiss the corner of her lips. "Your brother is home today, you know?" Monika reminds him; her voice is barely above a whisper. The words are spoken like a secret into the small space between their lips: "And your wall is really thin." "Monika," Sam snorts fondly, "you are very mean." Monika giggles again. She pulls Sam down and gives her another long, hard kiss. "You're the one who went and got excited all by yourself." "Your enthusiasm says otherwise." "You were the one who attacked me first." "You were the one who suggested it." Monika is silent for a while, a sign that she has nothing witty to refute, so she just sighs, "You're lucky. I like you so much." He really is. Sam bites his lips and collapses onto Monika's chest, nosing along the column of Monika's neck. One of Monika's arms moves down
[PHYSICAL TOUCHES] For all her bold declarations in public, her private affection, and her over-the-top gifts, Monika is quite reserved around other people when it comes to physical intimacy. She's not physically intimate with Sam when people are around, but that isn't to say she's not physically affectionate. She is; she's just subtle about it. She sneaks in a kiss when they turn down a corner, holds Sam's hand as she tugs Sam everywhere she wants to go, and hugs Sam when she pleases. But Monika doesn't cling to him in public; she doesn't do PDA; she's her own person, and she likes her space. Sam understands that. When they're in public, she sits next to Sam , but only close enough for their elbows to touch and their knees to knock against one another. Sometimes she sits in front of Sam. They share food or play footsie under the table, but they don't always hold hands on top. Usually, when they sit across from each other in the library, Monika likes to reach over and write somethin