AN: WARNING: THIS IS NOT A FULL CHAPTER

My wrist did not take to the prior treatments, and tomorrow, I am having surgery to fix the ligament causing problems, meaning I will not be typing for several weeks. I'm upset with myself because I was so close to getting the chapter done and out before the bell, but as of right now, I still have two sections to write, and 3 sections in the second half to edit. To be fair, it is the longest chapter I've written, practically a novel unto itself, coming in at well over 30,000 words and almost 60 single-spaced pages. But for the sake of the flow of the story, I could not split it up. But, since I will be healing, and not writing, you will have to wait for that full chapter until next year likely. I've been told the surgery recovery can take anywhere from 4-12 weeks depending on when they can remove the cast and stitches. But I can tell you it will be well worth the wait. To satisfy ya'll until then, I'm giving ya'll the first 1.5 sections of the next chapter, detailing the morning after.

Please keep sending reviews and positive thoughts!

Chapter Seventeen: While You Were Sleeping Part II

August 8th, 2009

When Ronnie woke the next morning, she'd fallen asleep on Kiba's bare chest, who rested upright against her headboard and wall. She felt his muscled arms wrapped around her waist and shoulders. She could feel they were both naked as his morning wood prodded at her side. Their actions last night came to her in a rush of memories as she felt the soreness between her legs from being ridden so hard. She recalled the bruising touches and bites, and knew she'd have to assess herself in a mirror before stepping out in public.

But that wasn't what had bothered her when she woke. It was the guilt gnawing at her for pushing Kiba to fuck her over and over again when he'd come to reconcile. And she didn't want to reconcile.

She felt Kiba tilt his head to look at her, and knew he'd been awake for a while, likely staring out the window at the dancing leaves of the tree outside. "Good morning, Love," he murmured, kissing her head. As his lips lingered where her hair met her forehead, she stewed in her own guilt and self-loathing. You're a real piece of work, Veronica Buchanan. That's what her mother had said when she'd found out Ronnie had been screwing her almost graduated senior boyfriend towards the end of her freshman year. And it was mornings like this that she had to agree.

She felt his finger under her chin, turning her towards him so he could lavish her lips with kisses, and she pushed herself away. The pucker on Kiba's lips lingered for a second only to be replaced with confusion as she threw herself off the bed and walked over to her dresser, grabbing a clean pair of underwear. "Ronnie?"

"You should go," she said unfeelingly, sliding her underwear on, not even deigning to look at him.

"What?" he scoffed in disbelief. As she threw on a bra, making sure her breasts were laying correctly in the cups. "I – I thought … aren't we good?"

She licked her lips before sneering at him. "No, you and I are not good." She shook her head as she shook out a pair of jeans to straighten out any wrinkles before ramming her leg in. "You and I are anything but good."

He was sitting up, still only barely covering his junk with her blankets as he looked around the room, his confusion evident. "Wh-what about last night?"

"What about last night?" she challenged, buttoning her pants

He blinked at her. "Do you not remember? We … had sex. A lot of sex."

She crossed her arms, looking at him darkly, stating, "No, we fucked last night. I asked you to fuck me, and you did. And now we're done."

The shock in his expression was evident, and in his silence, Ronnie decided to check herself in the mirror, striding into the bathroom to assess his bruising damage. "Wait, what?" he barked, jumping out of the bed. Akamaru grumbled at their noise, getting up and walking toward the dorm door.

She checked out the bite mark he'd left on her shoulder which was turning purple around the two puncture marks from his sharper than average canines. "It's not difficult to understand. I needed a distraction, so I asked you to put your dick in me." She could feel him staring at her from the bathroom door, his mouth hanging open in slight horror.

"Distraction?" he coughed. "Is that all you think I am?"

"You were a good one, but now I need to return to the real world," she stated, finishing assessing herself in the mirror, deciding to wear her turtleneck crop top, and a sweater to cover the bruises on her arms.

"Real world," Kiba scoffed. She moved to walk out of the bathroom, but Kiba blocked her in.

"Move," she demanded.

"No, I want to talk!" Kiba snapped.

Ronnie frowned. "I don't want to talk."

"Too bad!" Kiba huffed. "You said you didn't want to talk last night. You asked me to fuck you instead, and I did. But now I get to talk."

She glared at him. "Fine. Talk."

Akamaru barked, and Kiba threw up a silencing hand not even looking at his dog. Akamaru grumbled, sliding back down to the floor. "Last night, I came here to say that whatever I did to make you upset, I'm sorry. I love you, and I don't want us to fight."

She nodded, then asked, "You done?"

He balked at her tone, and as she shouldered past him. "Didn't you hear me? I said that I love you. That I'm in love with you!" She kept getting dressed, without acknowledging he'd said something more important than the weather forecast. He blinked his disbelief as he rasped, "Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"Does it mean something to you?" she rounded on him. "Because I've heard you say that to anyone woman you've fucked within the last two months."

His bravado fell. She could see in his eyes a flicker of fear and realization. "What're you –?"

"Tamaki," Ronnie stated. He was quiet for a while. She scoffed, grabbing her sweater, grumbling as she swung it around to slip her arms in the sleeves, "I guess that's the difference between you and I. I'm careful when I drop the L-word. When I say it, I mean it."

"You don't know…" Kiba started, trailing off.

"What?" she demanded. "'I don't know' what? That you fucked her the night before the festival. Three times, matter of fact. The same day you kissed me, and I was fired? And then you avoided me for a few days, acting like I did something wrong."

"It's over with her," Kiba tried.

"Is it?" Ronnie hissed. "Because when Lynne downloaded her memories, she found that you never actually broke up with her!"

"Downloaded her memories?" he repeated, sounding horrified.

"One of Lynne's handy tricks," Ronnie clarified. "You aren't the first guy to think he can pull a fast one on Veronica Buchanan. You're just the only one I mistakenly thought would be loyal." She walked over to her dorm door, unlocking it swiftly and opening it wide. "And like all the others, you can grab your shit and see yourself out."

His eyes wavered a second, unsure of how to rectify the situation between them. Then he finally said, "I don't want leave you."

She closed her eyes, tilting her head upward.

He stepped forward, trying to grab her hand as he said, "Look, we can get through this." But as soon as he said it, he heard the groaning of the pipes, then they burst to life, flooding the dorm room in seconds. His eyes went wide as she gathered him and his clothes in a torrential whirlpool, which then carried him outside in an aerial river, depositing him on the cobblestone road of Konoha. She allowed Akamaru the dignity of running out on his own after his master, only after nudging her hand for a pat, which she gave. "Teach him to make better choices, Akamaru," she instructed, before turning the water off and shutting the door.

"Dammit, Ronnie! WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO!?" he howled up to her closed door as Akamaru made his way down the stairs. "I'm not leaving!"

"MY WORD!" an older woman shrieked from the street. He looked over, seeing an elderly lady pointing at him, shrieking, "PERVERT! PERVERT!" He looked down, realizing she'd literally thrown him out naked. As the woman shrieked, garnering more attention, he tried to cover up quick, diving to grab his now drenched clothes off the pavement.

A few muscular guys came striding towards him, growling, "Hey, Perv! You like to flash old ladies?"

Kiba threw up his hands, holding his clothes, barely getting out, "It's just a misundersta-" before getting a punch directly to the nose again, rebreaking it and knocking him out. By the time he came to, he was in a jail-cell for public indecency.

Gaara woke first the next morning, holding Cordi tightly to him, skin against skin. He couldn't see passed their shoulders due to the sheets, but he could feel her all the way down. Her curves comfortably fitting against his body. His hips against her bare ass with his member against her cheeks. Her warm back pressed against his chest and abdomen as their legs rested in a comfortable tangle. His nose was nestled in her hair, the smell of her mint shampoo from last night's shower before her nightmare permeated his senses. The fingers of his right hand rested comfortably on her chest, his wrist between her breasts as his hand caressed her left breast. His left arm stretched out under the pillow under her head. He lifted his head to look at her, snoozing so easily in his embrace, and the memories of last night rushed back to him.

He'd lost his virginity to her last night. He had difficulty believing it, since he felt no different than before. He knew a lot of people viewed such an action as the last step into manhood, but he felt just as he did yesterday morning, although a bit more rested. He looked at the clock, and saw it read nine thirty-two. He sat up quickly, realizing he was late for work, only to stop when he saw the rectangular windows popular in Konoha, and remembered where he was.

Cordi grumbled at his sudden absence, rolling to face him, snuggling back into her pillow as she curled up into a ball next to his thigh. He felt a smile pull on his lips as he heard her snoring lightly against him, more deep breathy sighs than the standard loud snores he knew she was capable of. He was thankful he'd been able to chase away the nightmare she'd been complaining about when she came into his bed.

As he looked around the room, taking in the mess they made of clothes littering the floor as they'd slept unabashedly naked in the warm morning sunlight, he sighed as he realized he was awake now, so he might as well get ready for the day. He pulled himself out of bed, padding naked into the ensuite bathroom as he ruffled his hair until it was comfortable, shutting the door behind him before relieving and cleaning himself, then washing his hands and brushing his teeth. Looking at himself in the mirror, he noted he didn't even look different, except for an odd bruising at the base of his neck, where he remembered her kissing and biting him as they'd gotten each other undressed. He fingered the bruise, noting it didn't really hurt, it was just bright red. He mused she probably had a similar one by her left jugular, where he'd bitten and kissed her similarly. It would heal in a day or two. It was odd to think such a big moment in someone's life like losing one's virginity didn't leave a lasting mark. Not on men, at least, a thought sounded in the back of his mind. Women on the other hand …

His hand froze mid-brush on his lower right molars as he remembered exactly how the act went down. Releasing his seed in her after a pathetically short minute or so of pounding into her. The sound of their skin slapping together mixed with her moans and pleading for him to keep going even though he was spent echoing in his head. He'd told her he hadn't blown his load to save face, but lying to her wouldn't stop his sperm from combining with her egg. It had been hours since he'd gone in her. Was that enough time for them to do their job? He knew people made silphium tea as emergency prevention, but he had to imagine it was immediately after, not hours after the fact, right?

Or was it better late than never? Surely there was a window of effectiveness.

He'd promised to get her the tea if he messed up, and he had. He brushed his left molars quickly, and with enough fervor to make his gums bleed before he spat out his toothpaste, washing it down with the water as he rinsed his brush. He rinsed his mouth quickly, then stepped out of the bathroom, immediately running to his bag, grabbing his underwear and clothes, pulling them on faster than he'd ever done before. Including when he had to get ready for battle. He didn't pay attention to how loud he was, especially when he was grumbling at his buttons for not fastening under his shaking fingers. He was thankful the high collar of his shirt easily hid the bite mark.

"Gaara?" Cordi rasped tiredly. He turned to see her wincing awake, rubbing one of her eyes as she sat up, the sheets falling from her breasts as she sat up. He hadn't seen them that well last night, due to the dim lighting, but seeing her plump breasts in the morning sun, her pink nipples stiffening from the cold air. The vision gave him pause as he stared at just how wonderful they were. They heaved as she arched her back, stretching as she kept rubbing her eyes, and he felt his breath leave him. As the oxygen finally reached her brain, she relaxed, only to look down, blush and gasp "Ohmygod," then snatch up the sheet to cover herself.

He blushed as well from residual embarrassment, going back to buttoning up his last few buttons as he heard her knees rise as a secondary cover under the bedding.

Trying to blow over her exposure, she winced and asked, "Uhm, wha-what are you doing?" scratching the back of her head with her free hand.

He took a deep breath, trying to formulate his answer. "Uhm, I uh… I have to … grab something," he stumbled out, fixing his shoes awkwardly. He scratched his lip adding, "I'll be right back."

She looked at him with an innocently blank look as she said, "O-ok."

He nodded emptily, turning to leave, only to pause at the door. Matsuri had always expected goodbye kisses as his girlfriend, even if they were only parting for a few minutes. The only times they didn't was when they had a disagreement. He didn't want Cordi to think she'd done something wrong or that he wanted to fight. So he spun on his heel, his lips pursed as he marched back to the bed, grabbing her head and pulling her into a quick kiss, remembering with tongue as he licked at her lips.

Cordi squeaked her surprise as she opened mouth, letting him invade her for a second as he licked at her. He was surprised he didn't hate the taste of her morning mouth. It wasn't good, but it wasn't bad either. Maybe the stark mint of his toothpaste fought it back enough. He pulled away with a pursed smile, then left.

*Full Chapter coming soon*