"You're okay, though, right?" Yang asked, placing her hands on Ruby's shoulders.

Ruby nodded, wiping even more tears from her cheek. "I don't know what to do," she whimpered. "I feel so pathetic."

Yang pulled her into a hug, stroking her hair with one hand and rubbing her back with the other. "You're not," Yang mumbled.

Ruby sobbed into Yang's shirt, clutching tightly at her clothes.

"I mean, there's really only one thing you can do," Yang said.

Ruby sniffled and pulled her face away from Yang's shoulder. "What?" she sniveled.

"You have to talk to him about boundaries. You said you're the first virgin he's ever been with, right?"

Drying her face with the hem of her shirt, Ruby nodded.

"Then you need to tell him that you're not ready. Like, those exact words. Make it absolutely clear," Yang instructed sternly.

"What about your first time?" Ruby asked.

"I didn't care all that much," Yang answered, "But you're different."

"I tried to just give myself a moment to consider it, but then I just started panicking and I pushed him away." Ruby felt tears well in her eyelids.

"You're gonna be okay," Yang coaxed, watching another tear roll down Ruby's raw cheeks.

"What do I do?" Ruby asked.

"Ask him to be patient." Yang reached out to squeeze Ruby's arm. "And if he refuses, you need to cut him loose."

Ruby glanced up with a fearful look in her eye. She was hoping it wouldn't come to that, but in the back of her mind, she knew that it would have to happen eventually.

"If he isn't willing to wait until you're ready, then you're going to get hurt. You need to think about yourself first."

Roman shuffled around, wondering how he could reach Ruby. He couldn't afford to text her-that would get her in trouble for being an accomplice, and if Cinder checked his phone…

Negating the possibility, Roman racked his brain for other methods of contact. Leaving was a risk. A huge one. In fact, considering it a possibility at all indicated a severe lack of proper judgement. A part of him wonders if he would be shot on sight if he were to be seen by a cop, but then again, does he really care?

Ironwood's men plague the city, and Roman is living undetected in the heart of it. If he opens up that door and for the first time in months steps outside, he creates a path for the police to be able to find him and put him down for good this time. Neo says she's worth it. And aside from eating all of the food Neo brought him this morning, all Roman has been able to do is think about ways to talk to her. He wonders if she will come to visit him, but in reality, she disappeared without a trance, and he'd be foolish to think she would come back to something she ran from in the first place.

But then again, Ruby just might be foolish enough to come back.

Optimistically, Roman threw off the stained shirt he put on to greet Neo and found something modest and appealing to wear on the chance that Ruby does decide to return. Settling on an accompanying set of clothes, he hastily puts them on and straightens the hem of a grey silk tee when he catches a glimpse of his appearance in the mirror.

Roman walks toward the mirror and wonders whether or not he is appropriately dressed for a casual meeting. The fitted black slacks he wears on the job gave him a slight pang of doubt. Would Ruby be able to recognize them and associate them with the days that he spent time conspiring against the people she cared about? Roman set aside the ridiculous notion, but he changed what he was wearing anyways to the dark beige counterpart.

With a second look in the mirror, he noticed that his roots were growing in beneath the toned-down, nearly washed out shade of brown. If he looked closely, he could see that there was approximately one month of growth. Maybe longer, given that he hadn't necessarily been eating properly since his detainment.

He realized that she might have left something behind, giving her a reason to come back. Roman scoured the sheets, scanned beneath the bed frame and even looked through the dresser and scrambled through the contents of his bathroom.

Roman paced across his apartment, unsettled and frustrated. He had nothing to do. The one book that Neo had brought over after he complained about the abundance of foreign text Roman had read in the span of one day. To occupy himself, Roman tried to think about what he would say to Ruby if she arrived. Maybe she would apologize. Maybe she wouldn't, and maybe she would expect one from Roman. Maybe he would give one, but chances are he wouldn't even be able to physically form the words.

Tousling his own hair, Roman walked out of his room and lay down on the couch. Giving the slightest glance to the door, he pondered the consequences of what crossing that threshold could bring. Remembering that even if the police were blind that Neo would personally decapitate him for leaving after all her hard work to keep him hidden in one of her apartments, Roman sighed and turned his head away. He looked up at the ceiling and waited for Ruby to arrive.

Earlier, I was looking at all the endnotes I had written for each of the chapters thanking all y'all for staying tuned, reading all of the chapters I put out and leaving reviews, and it all sounds fake as shit, so let me try to nail this down exactly how I feel about it.

I took a lot at the stats for this story thus far. I currently have just over 43,000 views on this entire thing. That is insane. On average, someone read each of these chapters 1000 times. That is fucking crazy. YOU guys are crazy. I can't believe so many people would want to read such sub-par writing. On a more specific note, today's stats blew my mind. I don't think I updated this story for maybe three months (I know, I'm sorry, it's just that I'm so busy) and within about four hours of chapter 36 being published, this story got 600 views worth of traffic. You guys are ridiculous in how fast you manage to find these things.

I'll say a lot of things about how I don't get validation from people's attention, but let's be real: your views, your being here, your favorites, your follows, and ESPECIALLY your reviews are the thing that makes this whole process so gratifying, and I would not be able to keep writing without it. I know that there's probably someone who hates my writing. that they just aren't interested, or maybe that they don't care enough to log in and favorite just to make me feel better about myself, but I don't care. Your contribution makes me the happiest girl alive. So my dearest reader, you are amazing, and your continued dedication is what keeps me going. I love you, and I hope you have as amazing and gratifying a life as this entire process has been. Thank you.

Okay, I'll stop being gay now.

On a serious note: if that stuff sounded like a lot of goodbye-ish stuff, don't worry. It's not goodbye, and this story isn't finished yet. If I one day decide never to finish this story, then I will mark it as finished on the website itself. There won't be a single question about it. Again, THANK YOU. Until next time