The next morning, Nick awoke feeling pretty rested and refreshed. After he freshened up in the bathroom, he stepped into his room to slip on his slippers. Judging the silence in the kitchen, he decided to check on Aurora and was surprised that she hadn't woken up yet.

Probably conked out from their late night shenanigans shooting a ghostly video. As he saw her barely move, he decided to take initiative since she did so much already.

What the hell? I'll make breakfast, how hard can it be?

He thought to himself before slowly closing her door once more, heading to the kitchen. Rummaging through her cabinets, he gathered the pans he needed then the ingredients. This actually wasn't new to him since he's cooked breakfast before for his kids, so this would be a refresher course.

Mixing the batter and pouring it on the hot pan, the beige paste emitted the sweet fragrance of buttery goodness into the air. While the round disks bubbled, he slipped out some strips of bacon on another hot pan. The sizzling meaty ribbons sink and crumbled up as they were fried to a crisp.

Awoken by a sudden aroma of food, Aurora leaned up from bed and placed on her eyeglasses. Sniffing the air, making sure that her nose wasn't playing tricks on her. Confirming that she really was sensing food, she looked over to see Nick's room empty. Intrigued, she wrapped herself in a house robe and walked down the hall.

Nick heard her footsteps coming down the hall, saw her turn the corner rubbing an eye under her spectacles.

"Morning."

"Ooh. Morning." Aurora replied with a long yawn, sitting down beside the dining table.

"You making breakfast?" She asked, looking at him over the counter.

"Yeah, it's the least I can do in return."

As he slipped scrambled eggs on their plates, he served her first placing a plate on the table.

"Thank you."

As she waited for Nick to join her, she spoke up.

"I'm gonna work on the video today, would you like to help?" She asked,

"Hell yeah, sure."

As they both fed on the breakfast, Aurora couldn't help but feel something in the air...something she thought would cross her way. Tension, but this was foreign since they worked together professionally. What could cause this slight tension between them just having breakfast, talking editing a video?

Regardless of this, she shrugged it off, as it was possible that she about to show Nick what she could pull in post-production. So after finishing their meal, they both did their morning routines and were excited to watch their little creation come to life.

After drying her hair and getting clothed for the day, she sat down at her desktop opening her editing suite. The various camera clips on screen showed different scenes, she then opened her effects suite knowing she could create some spectacular special effects.

As Nick knocked on her door, she turned to wave him in.

"Come on in."

Funnily, that's something she thought would never do. Invite Nick into her room, but this time to be professional, not a gitty fangirl. He pulled a seat next to her, seeing the same screens as her, making him nostalgic for the old days when he started out as a documentarian filmmaker.

"Okay, let's see what we got."

Nick gazed over the base shots before she added the effects, still impressed by her being able to think on her feet to make some great visuals. He gazed at her as she worked, the focus and concentration was clearly visible. She apparently knew what she wanted to do to take the story from a smorgasbord of meaningless shots into a creepy, suspenseful short film.

As they gave each other critiques on how to assemble the storyline, time seemed to fly away like the old times, almost as though, nothing had really changed between them. Except now, Nick has grown in maturity to become the man he is now and he could see now...Aurora was no more the frail young girl following him on lockdowns, she had now matured into a young woman who survived much and held her head in the face of the unknown.

As she saved her place in the post-production, she shut down her computer and turned to Nick with enthusiasm.

"So what you do think so far?"

"Looks awesome. They better give you an A for it or else I know a lot of people on the other side." Nick joked with a light laugh.

Aurora blushed, smiling at the compliment.

She stood from her chair, Nick also stood to let her pass. Her foot kicked her bed frame causing her to fall towards the carpeted floor, but arms quickly caught her in time.

"Whoa, careful." Nick said softly, as she looked at him with slight embarrassment. She stayed in place, almost hypnotized by his warm, inviting brown eyes. They both froze in place, barely breathing as the tension returned as a connection being made.

Blinking back to her senses, she stammered with her words as Nick's hands finally slipped off her arms.

"I-I-Well, you think I'd be more careful after working in the dark for so many years." She tried to hide her burning crimson face as her speech became a bit flustered.

Nick rubbed his hand behind his head in slight embarrassment, hoping she too wouldn't see the sweltering reddish hue under his eyes.

"No, no. It's alright, as long as you're okay." He radiated a beaming smile.

"Yeah, I'm good." She walked away, trying to cover her awkwardness by acting normal.

As she strided down to the living room, pressing her back against a wall. Her racing heart rate was vibrating through her spine into the surface, breathing as calmly as possible.

That was too close...wouldn't want to give off the wrong idea.

Aurora placed a hand over her chest, sensing the roaring pulse of her throbbing gush of blood. As she tried to relax and calm her breathing, Nick was still back in the hall and was searching for his companion. He began step down the hall, she could hear his footfall coming closer and pushed off the wall.

"Hey, you okay?" Nick asked, showing slight concern on why she hid.

"Yeah, just making sure I didn't stub a toe or something." She slightly lied, knowing that wasn't possible with her sneakers on.

Nick nodded, glancing downwards.

"Okay, so you're good."

"Yep."

The rest of the day was uneventful compared to earlier, so Nick took the liberty of preparing dinner as a treat. Aurora went back to her computer to edit the video some more, she was just in the middle of fabricating a special effect when sudden shatter echoed through the hall followed by a swear word from Nick caused her to wheel around.

"You okay?" She called out as she hurried to the kitchen.

"Yeah," Nick replied, trying to clean up the mess. " A jar of marinara slipped from my hand and broke on the floor."

Aurora looked to see spatters of red-orange paste all over the tiles with occasional spots on the cabinets. The jagged glass was mixed into the soupy paste, making it difficult to fix the damage.

"Sorry, I ruined your kitchen." He said as he tried to wipe the spots from the floor.

"Careful, watch the glass." He warned her as she stepped into the kitchen.

Grabbing some gloves, she went to grab the broom when she felt a foot squeak under her. Landing with a thud, she grunted in slight pain as Nick shot his head straight at her.

"Whoa, you alright?"

She slowly got up on her knees, careful to avoid the hazardous pile.

"Are you hurt?" Nick asked, very concerned.

Watching her as she removed her gloves, thankful to see that she wasn't jabbed by any glass. She rolled her jacket arm back, wincing in pain as it revealed a nasty pinkish red scrap along her forearm.

"Ooh, that looks rough." Nick said as he carefully held and inspected her arm.

"Come on, let's clean this up first. Don't want another accident." She suggested.

"Been having trouble with that today?" He joked with a smile, trying to lighten the mood. She shot him an annoyed look as he laughed,

"Sorry, bad joke."

He assisted her with sweeping up the glass and pasta sauce. Once finished, he held her damaged arm as they walked to his bathroom where she kept a first-aid kit. As she sat on the toilet lid, Nick rummaged under the sink to grab the small, transparent blue with a red cross glossed on it.

Snapping it open, he grabbed a cotton ball and opened the bottle of rubbing alcohol. Placing the ball on the neck and quickly inverting the bottle, the pungent smell of the alcohol pierced Nick's nostrils as carefully held Aurora's arm.

"Okay, this might sting a bit."

He gingerly patted her wound with the cotton ball; she winced lightly though she didn't flinch.

"I'm impressed. You can cook, can fix up wounds, what else can you do?"

Nick laughed a bit as he trailed the ball down the scrap.

"Well, when you have kids, you take on many duties that you never had to before." He replied, Aurora laughed a bit, feeling lucky that he was a man of many talents.

As he patted it down with gauze, he smeared some bacitracin on her arm to prevent any infections.

"Okay, there. Good as new." He smiled, packing up the kit.

While slipping it back under the sink, she watched him as he took her hand. Standing up with his gentle aid, he stared once again into her eyes. Her heart slowly raced, time seemed to slow, as they were silent. Then the timer in the kitchen blared a piercing beep, snapping them both back to reality.

"Oh yeah. Still gotta finish dinner."

He vibrated in light laughter as he slipped past her; she followed close behind to help him wrap it up. Thankfully, she had a spare jar of sauce and the rest of dinner went off without a hitch.

As the night wore on, they were comfortably situated in their favorite sleepwear on the couch while enjoying a TV special for a comedian with ventriloquist puppets. Both were vibrating the couch with laughter at the jokes and raw talent at the comedian's actions to bring the puppets to life.

As one puppet on-screen yelled out to stagehand to help "him" fix a hand stuck in his pelvis, Aurora rolled on the couch as Nick smacked the cushions as they lost it in laughter. Catching her breath after a few minutes, Aurora began to speak again.

"Oh, man. You can see why I watch this show."

"Yeah, he's freaking hilarious." Smiling in agreement, lines creasing on his face.

They continued to watch the special and once it was over, they switched it to a Lifetime TV movie.

As the movie coursed on, Nick's head hung a bit before he was jolted awake by Aurora's slumber body slipped onto his lap. But instead of waking her, he placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. Smiling at her calm, soft being nuzzling on him, clearly at peace. Feeling the warmth emit from her body heat, he too slowly laid his head down moving as gently as possible let her sleep. With both of them in a comfortable position, Nick shut off the TV and slipped into a quiet shut-eye.

As her soft hair filled his senses with a calming aroma, his mind could only think one thing.

Please...let me never forget this...