Alex groaned, rolled over, and draped an arm over her eyes. "Em," she whined, "It's the middle of the day and I'm exhausted. Can you please just turn off your phone and get some rest?"

"I can't," she grumbled, scrubbing a hand through her dishevelled hair. "I'm not tired."

Heaving a sigh, Alex said, "You sound like a petulant child right now. I know it's hard to transition to nocturnal, but you know that blue light from your phone makes it harder to fall asleep. So, if you could shut it off, that would be great." When Emily did nothing further to comply, she sat up in bed and glanced at Emily's phone screen. "You're kidding, right?"

"What?"

"You know that just because you ready something online doesn't make it true?"

She nodded, a sheepish look crossing her face. "I know," she said, "But I'm lost and scared and I need help figuring this shit out..."

Guilt struck Alex then for being so gruff. "Why didn't you just ask me?" she said gently.

She shrugged. "You didn't sign up to be a baby vamp tutor – you never wanted to date a vampire in the first place – I can't ask you to do that."

"Em, just because this wasn't what I had planned for my life doesn't mean I'm going to abandon one of the best things to ever happen to me just because things are a little complicated right now..."

"Complicated?" Emily repeated, a little hysterically. "Complicated!?" She laughed nervously. "Complicated is dating someone you work with – you'd have to invent a whole new word to describe this situation!"

Alex held up her hands in surrender. "You're right," she agreed.

Emily wasn't done yet, though... "I'm immortal now! Do you know how ridiculous it is to be almost invincible in the middle of a completely normal life?" A beat. "Well, I guess you do know, but..." She trailed off, shaking her head.

"I know," she murmured soothingly, reaching up to cup Emily's cheek, thumb tracing a tender path along her cheekbone. "But neither of us has a choice now, regardless of how unfair it is. I'm here to help you, though."

Emily attempted a smile then, though it looked quite hollow.

"Maybe it would help if you got some sleep?" Alex suggested. And though it was phrased as a question, she proceeded to slide Emily's phone out of her hands and place it on the nightstand.

"You get very cranky when you don't get enough sleep," Emily observed, a little playful in spite of her previous emotional disturbance. She then stole a kiss, making Alex giggle against her lips.

The kiss turned heated and Emily moved to straddle Alex's lap with a soft moan into the kiss. Alex's lips broke away and she husked, "That's not very restful..."

Emily grinned wickedly, then leaned in to affix her lips to Alex's throat. "I know what I'm doing," she rasped.

Alex hummed a little note. "I know what you're doing too. But you really do need to get some reset because otherwise you'll never get onto a nighttime schedule.

Emily pouted rather childishly, but relented, "Fine. But I hope you know what you're sacrificing here."

Emily yawned widely, attempted to cover it up with her hand, but Alex was far too perceptive. "See? I told you that staying awake on your phone was a bad idea."

"Well, I could've slept in," she retorted, "But someone insisted on waking me up early to go to the fucking DMV."

"Yes, well, you'll be thanking me when you don't starve to death because you have access to the blood bank," Alex said. A beat. "Speaking of which, there's a pack in the glove box; you might want to drink it. We could be in there quite awhile."

A brow arched up her forehead. "How long is this thing going to take?"

Alex shrugged. "Well, there's a fingerprinting, a retinal scan, a whole lot of paperwork..." she listed. "There's actually quite a lot of red tape to cut through for something so simplistic as access to basic sustenance."

"Jesus," Emily muttered, "Do they do a medical exam too or is that too inhumane for even the government?" It was a rhetorical question, of course, but there was a part of her that couldn't help wondering if she was in over her head.

"I know it's kind of invasive, but it's sort of a necessary evil. Like the blood drinking. Which you need to do." She nodded to the glove box again.

Emily opened the glove box and pulled out the blood pack, holding it in her hand as if it were a bomb and eyeing it with the same distaste. "I'm really not hungry," she said, "I'm still fine from the one I had last night."

Alex raised a brow. "You know you aren't fooling me, right? I know you didn't drink the blood pack last night." At Emily's quizzical look, she explained, "I can smell when someone drinks blood."

She heaved a sigh. "Fine. It's just..." She wrinkled her nose in distaste. "I can't stomach the thought of drinking someone – anyone's – blood." She shook her head, tongue flicking out over her lip. "I literally don't think I can stomach it."

"If it helps, most of the blood is cow or goat or sheep. And even then it's harvested without killing the animals. Almost no one drinks human blood anymore," Alex explained.

"Still..." She paused, seeming to debate how best to phrase her thoughts. "I can't quite think of it as good and not, you know, bodily fluids." She winced. "Sorry, that came off more disgusting than I thought it would."

Alex nodded. "Em, I'm afraid you don't have much of a choice. When you go too long without drinking blood, you go into a bit of a fugue state and you risk fanging out and feasting on anyone who happens to get close enough. You became a danger to everyone around you. The blood packs really are the least objectionable alternative." She offered a faint smile. "I promise you, Emily, it will get easier, but you need to do this. Do you trust me?"

"I trust you."