A/N: Welcome back, dear readers and lurkers. This was about to be another "Chapter That Never Ends" until I figured out what I was trying to say. Then I realized I'd written five pages of chapter 37! My mistake lasted until last night when I did a major cut & came in and reinforced some ongoing ideas. There is an erotic scene right away. If that type of writing makes you uncomfortable, please feel free to scroll to about the halfway point. Please enjoy.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Sai Hides Ino Away

He had experienced tense stand-offs before, more than he cared to count, where he stood a handful of meters from his target, their eyes locked together as their fighting spirits grappled in the atmosphere around them. More times he cared to count, he'd won those stand-offs. Lord Danzo, among other techniques, had required speed and ruthlessness from Root assassins. But Lord Danzo had not equipped Sai to handle the promise of sex from another, the reaction he had to Ino's energetic allure, the rise of a powerful sun above his shadowed horizons.

Don't fight her. Fuck her, Lizard Brain whispered. Sai's penis responded to the hot coil in his guts. Remember the last time? Remember her bare breasts, her ripe hips, how she made you feel, the flight you took with her?

Yes, he remembered. The coil smoldered, tightening; he hardened. Don't let her go.

Ino, across from him, had not stirred a hair. She monitored him, a suspicious creature in the shrub as the predator searched her out, and her thoughts peered into him from a distance, out of reach and cautious. Not too long ago, he had flown along a silvery pathway to her where she'd slept side-by-side with Takahino. During their exchange, she'd attempted to flush him away, but he'd gotten a grip on her, he hadn't let her go, and had forced her to possess his body. Then he'd kept her inside him until she'd suppressed his body's chakra.

The same memory must've crossed her mind. Ino's astral presence retreated even further from him. Too late. He had one foot in the secret cave they shared- -the spread of tasseled grass, which rippled like water into the night time distance, the cool breeze a refreshing change from the smokiness of the temple- -and one foot in the shine of radiant light as it beamed from within him. Whatever new emotion the radiant light was, he liked its power, its purity.

Within the vibrant, sunny aureole, he had a novel idea. Perhaps he shouldn't resist her. Perhaps his resistance, his protective feelings for her, pushed her away, turned her against him. Protectiveness galled Ino. Hadn't Kiba faced the same conflict? Kiba's overprotectiveness for her drove a wedge between them. However, he might end the dispute without force if he used Takahino's actions as a counterargument. Sasuke had relented when reminded of Sakura's attachment to Ino; Ino might relent given Takahino's feelings for her.

"I'm sorry Takahino went without you." Sai eased the stance he'd taken, the most obvious nonverbal cue he could think of to show his peaceful intentions. "He did it because he loves you and feels you are too important to put into danger. It wouldn't be right for you to ignore his feelings in favor of your own."

His shift in mood had disturbed hers. Ino hesitated. Confusion broke her intensity. "That's...not fair. I can't let him sacrifice for me. I can't…I won't let him throw himself away while I run and hide."

"I understand. I'll go assist him after I've put you into a secure location. He's on foot. I'll be flying. I can intercept him before he gets to Sorutotaun."

She considered the idea for a minute. "Do you promise to bring him back, safe and sound?" Her soft voice beseeched him.

"I promise no harm will come to him. My word is my bond," he added, Naruto's influence too hard to shake. He thought a promise was the best thing to offer her in return for her acquiescence.

"And don't you forget it," she told him. She shifted, losing the defensive posture she'd assumed at the start of their argument. "We'd better leave for the safehouse. Where will you take me?"

"Not too far. To Kiri, actually."

When she surrendered, Sai sensed a great danger had passed over him. When they'd engaged in a real, physical fight, he'd bested her, but an emotional, mental fight would prove his undoing. While he could exert his spiritual strength over her (and had), she had eventually struggled free and escaped with a chakra suppression technique or an evasive response to his questions. But he didn't know or comprehend the extent of her jutsu. He'd seen bits and pieces throughout their cat-and-mouse games, never her full array of techniques, and he'd never been pitted against the pure embodiment of her Will of Fire. For her to give into him was the best outcome.

Ino gave a tiny step forward, but she shrank back, indecisive, a blush on her cheeks. Her hand stroked the blonde ponytail, a nervous gesture he hadn't seen from her in awhile. Having been ignored while the dispute resolved itself, Lizard Brain now raged forward, very aware of her. The tips of his fingers sparked, his lips felt pricked. Respiration increased. Sweat filmed his back. Peel away the cloak and her clothes, said Lizard Brain. Get your hands on her thighs, your mouth on her neck.

She addressed the floor. "Are you...angry with me for arguing?"

"No. I understand why you argue."

And still a vast emptiness craved to be filled. Let her fill you. He offered the emptiness to her, extended a hand between them, and welcomed her closer to him. Their embrace cemented the mood. Sai soaked in her aura; he was ready for her to open her emotional floodgates, an infinite ocean he skimmed above in the sky as the moon, a constant-filling well of liquid sustenance. When she unlatched the gates and let the weight of her love for Takahino and the clan and her fear for their future gush into him, his acceptance was total.

"We...shouldn't," she whispered, but her anxiety over his safety and his feelings was distant as she allowed him to be with her.

"Yes, we can."

Ino tilted her face to him; the shape of her mouth and eyes was the same as when she stepped into sunshine, as though she'd been in a dark place for a long time and had missed the sun. Their mouths collided. What had brewed inside him, buried beneath awkwardness and suppression, burst forth. Colors. Light. Scenes. It was the first time he experienced art via another person since Shin. Shin, his brother, sacrificed so Sai could continue on and live for him and whenever Sai painted for pleasure, Shin was at his side. Sai could compartmentalize his art-brain when on missions; he didn't think in terms of art while he fought and survived, or when he was with his friends or teammates, so the sudden merge of his art-brain with Ino's existence was a new experience.

Paint, memory, and creativity took him over. The night field between them exploded into magenta and royal purple and fiery orange. A sunset which had since the beginning of time had beautified chalk-white cliffs and sugary beach. The warm salt water skirted around their ankles. Natural glory spread out unchecked- -a genjutsu produced by Ino's innate abilities, but they didn't care- -and the temple, their physical setting, disappeared into memory.

The slip of Ino's tongue along his emboldened him. Her fingers kneaded his shoulders, her hips were flush to his and when he gently set his teeth to her lip, she moaned. He couldn't bear to move his mouth from hers; he was glued in place, communicating the omnipotent, internal sunshine to her, unable to initiate the next stage for fear of frightening her. Ino was braver. She loosed the black cloak from her shoulders, pushing her pelvis against his, and his erection throbbed. Lizard Brain panted and strained and licked its lips. When she craned her neck to the side, he kissed the creamy skin, one of his hands palpitating a lush breast.

"Take off your clothes," she whispered. Her fingers were already at the waistband of his pants.

The removal of their clothes was efficient. Time could not be wasted. She'd arranged the black cloak as a barrier to protect them from the harsh white sand. Waves rolled and spoke in steady, hushed pulls. Above him, the sky was magnificent in color, heart-aching reds and delicious yellows and oranges streaked the blue canvas. Sai took his cue from Ino, who guided him to his back. Even through the densely woven cloth, the sand had been baked to a painful heat.

Ino did not straddle him as expected. Rather, she sat beside him. They had freed her hair from the hair tie, and it tumbled over her bare shoulders and arms, the pale color saturated with the vibrancy of the sunset. The sun was behind her. Light gilded her curves, a heavenly outer layer of armor. She leaned forward, her thumbs rubbing circles into his nipples, her eyes hooded and pure blue. He clung to sanity by a thread. She kissed him senseless so when she drew away, he felt a painful ache. Heat and blood pounded inside, deep, very deep. He trembled with want.

Fresh pleasure zipped up his spine- -Ino had him in her careful grip. She stroked him with her fist, firm and steady, and Sai was no longer capable of speech or thought. Squirming, he felt tension build, so fast it stole his breath, and he searched out the white cataclysm his first sexual experience taught him to reach for. Nearer and nearer he climbed, so when the leap occurred, he gave everything over to it. Too quick, too quick, thought Lizard Brain. Moments later, when the climax finished, he lowered down to himself and relaxed all his constricted muscles. Ino had produced the soapy rag from wherever it lay forgotten and wiped Sai clean of his ejaculate.

An abrupt spout of inarticulate emotion erupted in him as she performed this additional small service for him. The emotion was painful, but a growing kind of pain, a good pain if such a thing existed. Tears welled in his eyes, stung them. He didn't have control, didn't understand…

"Oh Sai, my darling," said Ino. She shifted so she could cradle his head and shoulders. "It's all right. It's all right, darling."

Painful internal growth continued, a new root system thriving despite the strangle of the old one. He wept with silent shudders into her neck for a different kind of release. The tears dripped off his chin and onto the swell of her breasts, where they disappeared into her cleavage. Her hair smelled like campfire smoke. The woody-fire scent comforted him as did her fingers in his hair and the motherly rocking motion; she murmured to him, the words meaningless but the tone meaningful. He didn't have to explain a thing to her; she understood what he didn't or couldn't. The emotional growth spurt, whatever it was, lessened and he calmed.

As time had passed, dusk had blanketed the sky with dark blue. The illusion included the moon ascended like a shiny god on the opposite horizon, just above the treeline.

He ached again for her in the physical sense because in part, he wanted her to feel the same pleasure she'd given him, and he ached for her in the emotional sense. Their bond proliferated a delicate web-like filament to bridge their souls and the idea he was strongly bonded with her moved him. High from his own emotional deluge, he trailed sensual kisses along the top of Ino's smooth shoulder to her neck.

She let him kiss her and guided his hands to her breasts, an invitation to caress. Small animal noises came from low in her throat when he applied his lessons to her. Exploring, he traveled a hand over her bumpy ribs and flat belly. She did not push him away. When he dipped a couple fingers between her thighs, her heat and wetness solidified his new erection. With her head tossed back, she moaned her desperation, and he helped to lay her out, arranging her hair to one side.

Her knees spread. He knelt, in a ready position, the tendons prominent in her thighs, and smiled at her. He had his engorged flesh in his hand. "Slow or fast?"

"Fast. And come closer."

Remembering how everything fit together the last time, he was confident when he guided his tip into the pink fold; she took all of him easily, a sinking glide into hot, squeezing muscles. The pleasure seared where he was united with her but also in his back and in the base of his skull, a curled and mighty creature. Down he leaned until he was chest to chest with her, one hand cupped under her head and the other twined with her fingers, as much skin contact as they could manage. Snug inside her, he hadn't begun a rhythm, but Ino was already lost in deep ecstasy. Lizard Brain reminded him of the paintbrush imagery; wide loops and tight loops. As he kissed her, he used the imagery of tight, continuous loops to move his hips.

During their first time, Ino had repeated his name. She wasn't able to for the second time. No words, only panting mews each time he pumped into her. The body beneath him writhed, a sheen of sweat gleamed on her skin, her fingers pinned his between them, her other hand clutched at his hair. Inside her, her emotion was heightened, lapping against his perimeters, seeking entry and release. He did not reject; he submitted to her emotion, to her astral self expanding outwards beyond her own limits, the need for space an absolute necessity. The more space he allowed her, the higher she soared. She wasn't a woman. She had transformed into a celestial being, no shape or size, no predetermined colors or shades. She was everything at once.

Higher they climbed. Higher and higher; they were in the stars, together, twined and united, creating a world of their own, a universe.

The white cataclysm yawned opened; together they let it take them. With a hard clench, arms hugging him so ribs whined, she finished. Her orgasm ruled supreme and wrought another one from him. They were together, sun and moon, ink and water, beautiful and breathtaking. He'd been filled; she'd been emptied.

He kissed her. He couldn't stop, not as the night beach illusion evaporated to become the darkened stone temple. Not as their sweat dried on their flesh. Not as he softened and fell out of her. But their secret world couldn't rewrite their reality. Ino sighed as they separated; their skin had stuck together and to peel away hurt them and left red patches on their stomachs and thighs. When they were dressed, they tidied the campsite. Nighttime had descended as they dallied, but it had been thirty or forty minutes since their argument. Not much time at all.

Takahino was in both their thoughts. Ino had, again, shared the strength of her bonds, her outpouring of Takahino-centric emotion and memories including real moments of brotherhood with him, birthdays and other celebratory events, private conversations, spars, boring days at the flower shop, the grief endured after the war's cost became real and the family built up from the foundations. Throughout all the experiences, she had maintained her constant belief that Takahino was worthy to wield the Yamanaka clan techniques. Takahino was now worthy of Sai's considerations, as well. While he had told Takahino what mattered to Ino also mattered to himself, he had believed his original plan of using Takahino as a distraction while he spirited Ino into safety had been the best option. Currently, after Ino had expressed the pronounced bond between them, Sai no longer thought a separation with Takahino viable. He'd have to rework the plan so they could remain together.

As they sat astride the giant ink hawk, Sai expected her to ask a million questions, but she didn't. She was content to snuggle him from behind and let him navigate the night airways. Any tension, any fight or dissent had drained out of her. Note to self, an orgasm affords quiet and space. One of her arms she had hooked around his waist, her hand resting at his stomach. He kept his hand cupped to hers. Was the contact necessary? No, but he wasn't ready to be separate from her yet.

Sorutotaun was three hours' flight from Sunda Umi. On foot, it'd be triple the time- -nine hours of constant travel, plus time to find a boat to take Takahino to the correct island. Giving him a generous two hour head start, it meant Sai had seven hours to secure Ino at a safehouse in Kiri and intercept Takahino. Kiri was equi-distant between Sunda Umi and Sorutotaun, but in the wrong direction. The three villages formed a triangle of points on a map. Three hours to Kiri; three hours from Kiri to Sorutotaun, leaving him one hour of wiggle room, if that. Well, he'd had worse timelines to meet.

Relations between Kiri and the rest of the Five Nations had become peaceful under Lady Mei's reign, but the suspicious nature of Mist shinobi was hard to palliate. Foreign shinobi couldn't enter the village as a visitor without authentic documentation, but he had no time to go through the proper channels. Had he had the time, he still wouldn't make his visit official. The proper channels may be monitored and Ino's whereabouts and movements should remain as invisible as possible. Therefore, their current circumstances required him to sneak Ino into the village.

Sai swooped the hawk westward when the protective Snowy Mountains reared into view, jagged and white-capped in the horizon, and skimmed south along the gray stone coast of the main island, so the village's vulnerabilities would be to their left. They landed a moderate distance northwest of Kiri's outer walls as any closer would draw attention. Like Konoha, Kiri used a protective sensory barrier and shifts of patrols, including eagle-eyed Anbu, to protect their village and citizens. They could not use a lantern to light their way, but the overcast skies reflected the lights of the village enough they could manage to see where they placed their feet.

A tangled mass of dense vegetation encroached the narrow shoreline; various calls and growls and noises sporadically broke the otherwise heavy silence. He dared not to go near the forest- -the forest to the south, the All-Seeing Forest, which would also signal their approach- -and though they were to the north, he didn't know whether Kiri had grown additional sentient forest on other sides of their border. From the patches of dense forest creeped tendrils of mist; humidity dampened his hair, his clothes. To breathe was to suck air through a wet blanket.

"We're sneaking into Kiri?" asked Ino. Sweat poured off her, same as him. "Is...are you positive this is the best idea?"

"The end will justify the means."

"I hope you're right."

After many minutes of a hard sprint, Sai slowed with Ino at his shoulder. A few taller cylindrical buildings peered above the menacing stone wall and the prevalent mounds and hills. Village lights glowed warm from the dark. Ducking into a shelter of boulders, he tucked Ino into his side to whisper to her. "The secret entrance is in the cemetery ahead of us. I haven't used it since before the war, so it may not exist anymore. Let me share the way with you in case we get separated or spotted."

She understood his implication. Her hands framed his head; a shift in the breathability of air...a whoosh of a cool breeze. Her spirit glided along his and he felt he was a handspan from an ancient, mythological creature awakened from centuries' long slumber. They were together on the white sandy beach with the white cliffs painted with sunset colors. The scene shifted to a shaded space beneath mossy trees of indiscriminate varieties. Headstones, miniature obelisks, and miniature Kiri-style houses crowded at the feet of those mossy trees. The color palette was dark gray- -smoothed from years of water damage- -and emerald green. When Sai showed her the way, they didn't walk but seemed to float over the pathway, until they came to a particular headstone with a particular name. Three stone men sat in a row before the headstone. Sai tapped the middle one.

Twist the head to open the doorway. Go through the underground tunnel. It leads to the basement of The Nagging Fishwife. Go up the ladder and across the basement to the secret panel. He shared how the wooden panel operated and what lay behind it. The safehouse is in the attic up the stairs and behind a second panel.

She nodded and released the jutsu. Both suppressed their chakra as they neared Kiri's perimeters, taking no chances. As two silent, cloaked figures they entered through a steel gate on a main walkway. The cemetery was as he remembered it; their feet crunched on the forest debris littered on the trails. Silence was a weight on them.

Further and further from the open shore they wound, the graves of the dead shaded with ferns, engraved kanji worn smooth in the face of the stone slabs. No light from the village penetrated the canopy of trees. Sai navigated the pathways from rote memory. Around them, seashell and fish bone wind chimes clattered from the branches of low-hanging trees. Carved wooden tokens, barely visible in the dark, also dangled from tree branches to protect and watch over the graves. The forest absorbed sound.

He heard the twig snap. His cloak, Takahino's white Konoha one transformed into an appropriate olive green Kiri-style cloak, was enough to wrap Ino and himself in. She made no noise with his abrupt maneuver; he launched them into a close row of grave markers. Ino huddled into his armpit, her pale hair hidden under the cloak. Flat on the ground, the corner of stone digging into his back, he listened again for movement. Fronds hung over them. Mist swirled and thickened over the cemetery.

Kiri shinobi.

His view was blocked, but he heard the faint impact of feet as several shinobi landed on the walkway he and Ino had vacated. Movement- -the rustle of cloth. A squad of three, Sai thought, perhaps four, on patrol. Mist shinobi weren't a joke; they were serious threats. He shifted, slowly, to free his right hand which had gotten sandwiched between Ino's body and stone, and inch by slow inch, brought it to his thigh holster. His hand brushed her left hand as she slid out a kunai without a single noise. When she was armed, he armed himself.

Slight movement. The footfalls on the debris spread out. Still, Sai waited. Bird calls- -the calls were native to Water, but Sai knew they were Kiri signals to indicate all-clears or warnings or their positions relative to one another. Minute after minute crawled by. Bubbles of soft light glowed throughout the cemetery- -a jutsu, Sai guessed, to shed some light on the situation. He and Ino were protected enough where they were. The Kiri shinobi continued to investigate the cemetery, their tittle-tittles and tick-tick-ticks and whooo-whos sporadic and at varied distances and directions. Fat drops of condensed mist plopped on Sai's face from leaves. A slimy insect slugged up his wrist and under his shirt sleeve. His left hip and shoulder had borne weight on hard stone long enough; numbness tingled where the nerves had fallen asleep.

Finally, a murmured conversation occurred nearby.

"Anything?"

"No. Nothing. False alarm."

A third one entered the conversation. "I swore I saw a couple of figures come in through the back gate."

"We've looked everywhere. No one's here."

"We'll mention it anyway. Better to be cautious than to be caught unawares."

The voices chimed together, "Yes, Captain."

"Damn," said the third. "I hoped a nice bonus was headed my way. I can't believe the word from the Office of the Hokage. A whole clan of missing Konoha shinobi, can you imagine? Had they come from our village, we'd have killed them for defection. We wouldn't have let them leave the country and roam free to do as they pleased."

Ino trembled. A grimace of pain contorted her beautiful features. He thought she'd cry, but she set her teeth into her exposed wrist to keep from crying out. The kunai blade gleamed sharp in the low light.

"Those times are over," the first one said. "Besides, it was a Yamanaka girl who'd shared battle plans to defeat the Ten-Tails with all of us. The Yamanaka are a valuable asset to any village. Who knows? Maybe they'll integrate into Kiri. Enough talk. We've got a wall to patrol."

At last, the Kiri squad left. When sufficient time had elapsed, Sai extricated himself from Ino and both hypersensitive to their surroundings, they peered around before they returned to the path. They arrived without issue to the correct headstone, and when Sai twisted the stone statue's head, a hidden stone door grated aside at their feet. Steps led into dank blackness, but to chase away the pitch black, Sai held aloft a shinobi's lantern. The tunnel was decrepit. Puddles had gathered stale water. Slimy mold coated the walls of the narrow corridor. Ino clung to him, their breathing harsh in the close air. After a very long walk, they arrived at the end unobstructed.

Sai climbed the ladder and lifted the trapdoor, switching off the lantern before it could be noticed. Casks of wine and beer, storage bins of root vegetables, and sacks of grain and other products were stored along the floor and shelves of the wooden room. Herbs and dried plants hung in splays from the ceiling. Din from the kitchen filtered through cracks between the wooden planks above them and the door at the far end. Shafts of light flecked the floorboards. Ino accepted his hand as she straightened and lowered the trapdoor noiselessly.

WHAM!

Sai's reaction was instant; he flattened himself and Ino into the smallest of crevices. She'd tossed a genjutsu around them- -they were a shadowed corner, nothing more, Ino squished against a shelf, her lips compressed, her eyes anxious.

A kitchen boy had slammed the door, spilling out a ruckus of noise and smells and light. He stomped down wooden stairs, selected a dozen or so potatoes, collecting them in his apron, and returned to the noise and light overhead without a second glance. The door clicked closed.

They both released the breath they'd held; they shared the same thought: Too close for comfort. Sai wound among the barrels and sacks to another corner of the basement where he pushed the edge of a wood panel to the side. Without so much as a protest, it revealed an entrance to another staircase, the steps steep and dusty. He led her up the stairs, the shinobi lantern again in hand, and at the top of these stairs, he slid a second secret panel aside. The attic space was circular, the roof flat and low and very unlike the angled roofs of Konoha. She had a bed and a tiny bathroom, a desk with a chair. One single light was plugged into the wall. A few dusty novels sat in cobwebby retirement on a single shelf above the desk.

"This is for meals," he said. The dumbwaiter was behind a small door in the wall. "You use the crank to lower the dumbwaiter into the kitchen. As you lower the platform, the dial here shows where it is. When the food is sent up, the dial will change."

"Are there any rules?"

"Don't leave," he told her.

Rolling her eyes, she gestured at her soiled shirt, shorts, and cloak. "I mean can I get clean clothes? Other amenities?"

"When I return with Takahino, we'll discuss getting you clean clothes."

"What about a food schedule, showers, emergencies…? Any specific protocol I should follow?"

"The entire inn uses the dumbwaiter system. They don't keep track of which room uses the dumbwaiters. They only see a request for food and they fill it. Same policy with running water. Whatever you do, be discreet. No one should be curious about who's over their heads. In the event of an emergency, report to the Office of the Mizukage and surrender yourself. Convince them you were a victim of a crime and found yourself stranded in their village." He studied her skeptical face. "Everything will be fine."

"You say that now," she answered. "You won't have to convince an entire village you didn't sneak in to spy on them."

He turned to leave the way they came, but stopped at the panel because he had a feeling, a foreboding presentiment about Ino's attitude toward danger and safety. Over his shoulder, he said, "Remember, don't leave."

She looked aghast. "I wouldn't dare."

"I mean it, Beautiful. Don't leave."

"I told you I won't."

He knew Ino to say one thing and mean another, so he turned fully to her. "Promise me you'll stay out of sight and quiet. Promise me you won't leave until I return."

"I'm hurt you don't think I'd stay put without a promise." She huffed and crossed her arms. "It's rude to make assumptions."

"Please promise me. I've promised to protect Takahino."

At first, he didn't think she would, but she relented and stepped over to him. Her switch from annoyed to compliant was too quick to track. After she bounced on her tiptoes to kiss him, she whispered into his mouth, "You did promise, so I promise to stay put."

She pressed a second kiss to his lips and the kissing pressed an ache into his chest. As she used her wicked tongue to toy with his, he wasn't sure he could part ways with her even to rescue her kinsmen. From within, his sunshine was so pure and clarifying, he had to upturn to it like a cold blooded creature on a rock after a cool night. He could drink in the warm, lovely light forever. But she had no such qualms, and pulling away from him, she cocked her hand on her hip and shook a finger at him in mock-anger.

"By the way, when you leave your lover, you should kiss them goodbye. Another something you should remember."

Without further adieu, she flounced into the bathroom and clicked shut the door.

When I leave my lover, I should kiss them goodbye. The statement seemed poignant somehow. Did she refer to a time when they separated and he hadn't kissed her? He'd remember it in the future, but their relationship was so...transient, malleable, that he felt they were never on the same footing from one encounter to the next. At least the promise she gave would bind her to the safehouse. He exited the hidden room, descended the secret stairs, and slipped into the dark tunnel beneath the trapdoor.

Time had to be recouped. Hopefully, Takahino had experienced some delays in his travel plans.

A/N: In the interest of getting out the chapter on time, there may be some slight typographical errors. I will be obsessing over the chapter and may make slight edits and revisions in descriptions or reorder conversation beats. The overall plot points will remain the same. I hope every single one of you is well. I got my first go-around of the Covid vaccine, and I'm feeling it in my arm! Ouch! I do encourage you to get your vaccine if you have access to it. Please stay safe & I'll see you again next Saturday.