Allison bit her lip hesitantly, counted to three, and then knocked softly on the door to Bender's apartment.

Normally, she would have just walked in. But normally there wasn't a chance that there would be someone else in the apartment. She and Bender hadn't ever decided they were exclusive, it just ended up being that, for the moment, they were enough for each other, and since she was at his apartment almost every night, there was a sort of unspoken rule that she could just come in whenever she liked. He left it unlocked while he was home.

When there was no answer, she pulled the door handle. Locked, as she suspected. He wasn't home yet. And it was getting late.

The Breakfast Club, sans Bender, had gone bowling. And it had been fun, despite the nagging feeling Allison couldn't put out of her mind about Bender and the women in the car. Things had been all right with Andy. They hadn't really talked much, but they managed not to be awkward, which was good. Brian helped ease any tension hugely. Allison had forgotten how calming the little nerd could be to have around, cracking silly jokes every time things got too quiet or weird.

They'd stayed at the bowling alley a while, until 9 p.m. hit, and they got kicked out by league bowlers. Allison had dropped each of the gang at their respective homes, and then gone home herself. She'd made herself dinner, eaten quickly, and then headed over to Bender's.

I guess it's not that late…

It was just coming up on ten thirty. It really wasn't that late. Bender might be out with friends or something.

It wouldn't be that unusual if she didn't have that nagging feeling still. She just wanted to know that things were okay.

She considered her options. One, she could go back home. Yeah, right. Two, she could stay here and wait for Bender. But she had no idea when he'd be back. Still, though… it was better than going home.

She wasn't too fond of the idea of sitting in the hallway, so she went back downstairs and climbed into the back of Frankie. She pulled some crackers and pens out of her bed, lay back against the pillows, and started to doodle randomly.

She had no idea what time it was when she woke up. She hadn't even realised she'd been falling asleep. A few strands of hair were stuck to the side of her cheek where she'd drooled a little, and her neck felt stiff.

After brushing the hair and drool off her cheek, she straightened her back, and laced her fingers together, stretching her arms toward the ceiling of the van, her fingers almost brushing the bird there.

She jumped as she heard a rapid tapping on the window.

Bender was outside, knocking impatiently. His knocking must have been what woke her up in the first place. Her eyebrows wrinkled as she climbed over the seat to unlock the door. Before she could get out, he slid in.

'At least you locked the door,' he said, pulling it shut behind him.

'I didn't want to wait in the hallway,' she mumbled. She could smell his breath; he'd definitely been drinking, even if he wasn't wasted.

'Sorry.'

He didn't sound exactly sincere, but he sounded like he wanted to sound sincere. Or maybe Allison was just being wishful.

He reached out to grasp the back of her neck, and pull her lips onto his. His touch was insistent, more so than usual. Allison felt it, and it worried her a bit. But she didn't want to ask. He'd tell her something was wrong, if he wanted to. She responded with her own subtle insistence, wrapping her arms around his neck and moving to straddle him on the seat.

His hand slid down and around her back, pulling her closer to him. His lips were moving down her neck, waging a little war with the neckline of her shirt. One of his hands had already found it's way underneath, and was wrestling with the clasp to her bra. His nails were scratching her back in their struggles.

'Bender,' she muttered, pulling his hand away gently before starting to work on the clasp herself. She slipped the straps off her shoulders, and started to pull it out of the neckline of her shirt, but Bender, impatient, jerked it away himself.

She gasped as his hands slid under her shirt and went straight for her nipples. His mouth was at her neck, that same insistence showing itself in the way his teeth were pulling at the skin just above her shoulder. She moaned, pulling him into her.

It all would have been very nice if the leg wedged between them and the door wasn't starting to get sore.

She tried to pull the leg up, and readjust on Bender's lap, but all that was really accomplished with the movement was her bum landing squarely on the steering wheel and setting off the horn. Loudly.

She collapsed onto Bender's shoulder, giggling into his coat. After a moment, he let his head fall back and joined her, his hands sliding out from under her shirt.

'Fuck,' he muttered, bringing his head back up and tugging absently on her sweater. 'Hope we didn't wake anybody up.'

He didn't sound like he even remotely cared if they actually had.

'Let's go upstairs,' she said, her gigglings melting into a grin.

They left Frankie behind, and hightailed it up to Bender's apartment.

She stayed awake late that night, listening to Bender's breathing. He was out like a light. She was tracing patterns on his bare back and he didn't even notice.

She liked it when their sex got rough, but there had been something different about tonight. He hadn't been pushing her for anything, or hurting her. She would have stopped him if he had been. But every touch had felt demanding, somehow. Desperate. He'd yanked her clothes off more forcefully than normal. His hands had moved a little faster, a little more urgently, over her body. She'd thought about asking him if he was okay, but then he'd bit down on her nipple a little harder than usual, and she'd let out a noise that was half gasp, half surprised yelp, and he'd laughed. She just laughed with him, wrapping her legs around him and tangling a hand in his hair. Something was different, but she could let it go for now.

Or she thought she could. Yet she wasn't sleeping.

She knew it was about the woman in the car. But she didn't want to pry into his business. In a couple of days, it would be finals week, they'd be doing their best to scrape through all their classes, and then, hopefully, they'd be graduating. She didn't know what would happen to them after that. If she only had a little more than a week left with things being the way they were, she didn't want to take any chances at ruining it.

Suddenly the whole idea became overwhelming. She had become so comfortable. Things had been getting so good. The future had been something she hadn't thought about at all. She had been too scared of it. And suddenly here it was, so close, practically slapping her in the face.

Her whole body was tense, and her chest felt tight. There was this pressure in her head, and it made the back of her eyes burn. Funny how familiar this feeling was, even if it had been such a long time.

She pressed her forehead to Bender's back, and curled against him. His skin was cooler than she expected. She wrapped an arm around his waist, and didn't realise how tightly she was holding on to him until he rolled over with a grunt, and she saw she'd woken him up.

'Are you trying to suffocate me?' he grumbled.

'Sorry,' she said, but couldn't hold back a sniff as she tried to get herself back together.

He brought his face closer to hers, squinting in the dark. One of his hands reached up to her face, feeling that it was wet. She moved away and scrubbed her cheeks with the back of her hand.

'What's wrong?'

'Nothing,' she said, rolling over so she was facing away from him. 'Sorry, go back to sleep.'

He didn't push her, but he did wrap his arm around her, so it was resting over her breasts, and pulled her into him. He adjusted the blanket so it covered them more, and she slowly started to relax in the warm of the covers and his body around her.

'Bender?' she murmured after a moment.

He grunted in response, half-asleep again.

'I don't know what I'm going to do when we graduate.'

'Aren't you gonna… travel… hook or gas or some shit?' He was fading fast.

'That's the plan,' she replied, quietly. She hadn't ever taken that plan really, truly seriously. But it was something. It was an idea, at the very least.

'Then do it,' Bender mumbled, with an air of finality, before his arm relaxed as he passed fully out again.

Allison thought of her Frankie. She thought of the drawing of the bird. She thought of all the times she'd been with Bender in the van, but also all the times she'd been alone. The times she'd been freaking out, before anything with Bender, and she'd had curled up in the van and soothed herself to sleep in it's comfort.

Finally, thinking of her van, and all the places she wanted to take it, she drifted off to sleep.

A/N: So I'm gonna be real honest with y'all, I have no idea when I'm actually going to finish this damn story. It's getting close to the end. I'm predicting three-ish more chapters. Maybe two. When I'll actually get around to writing them, who fucking knows. To everyone who actually stuck around and is still reading this, you're awesome, and you're the reason I'm still writing this story.

To the person who reviewed and wanted more actual sex scenes, sorry; that's not what this particular story is about. There's a reason I posted it here and not AO3. I wanted to explore other things with this piece. I'm sure there's lots of smut out there for these two, if you care to look for it.

I hope everyone's having an awesome spring! Thanks again! xoxo