A/N: Gah, I'm not extremely happy with how this turned out, hopefully it wasn't too awkward.

Enjoy...hopefully. :/

The sun was fairly low in the sky when Vechs awoke. He noticed a pain in his back almost immediately after, but couldn't remember the last time he awoke with back problems. And then he remembered. The snowflakes, the sunset, sleeping... and Aureylian. He looked over at the still-sleeping Aurey beside him. She brought a smile to his face. He gently reached over to move a strand of her red hair out of her face, and when his finger lightly brushed against her face, she was jolted awake, somehow startled by the light touch. She quickly sat up, scanned her surroundings, suddenly remembering yesterday's events.

"Good morning Relly, I hope you slept well." Vechs said. Aurey, slightly surprised at him calling her "Relly" looked over to the man sitting beside her. At first she said nothing, but then it dawned on her what happened the previous night. I-I slept with him? Or did he sleep with me? The thoughts raced chaotically around inside her head. From within her confusion, she was somehow able to form a response.

"Y-Yeah, I slept fine, I guess." Didn't I just meet this guy yesterday? I would never sleep with someone I just met, would I? Well, not knowingly, anyways.

"Good to hear. I, on the other hand, slept sitting up on a couch, and now my back is killing me."

"Oh, I'm sorry." So he slept with me, not the other way around. Her mind entered self-defense mode, and she knew she had to get out away from Vechs immediately.

Vechs stood up to grab his hat and goggles from the table, as well as the pink scarf. He turned and handed Aurey's scarf to her as the rose from the couch.

"Do you want me to walk you home?" Vechs asked as he put on his goggles and straightened his hat.

"Uh, no thanks, it's fine." Aurey answered hastily, putting on her scarf. At her quick response, Vechs heart sank slightly, although he didn't recognize it immediately. As she walked to the door, Vechs followed her.

"Okay. Have a good day, Aurey. And if you ever want to come over and hang out, just knock because I'll probably be sitting here alone." Aurey let out a somewhat-convincing fake laugh at his joke, and Vechs smiled, unaware of her ruse.

"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind." And with that Aurey walked out. Vechs watched her walk away, and that's when he noticed the tiny sinking feeling in his chest. He closed the door slowly, and right before he shut it, he heard a voice call his name.

"Vechs, wait!" Aurey shouted as she returned. She hoped she wouldn't regret going back to confirm something, as it was too late to turn around and back out. He reopened the door and waited for her.

"Yes Aurey?"

"I just have one question: did you sleep with me last night?" She stared intently at him as she waited for his response. It was an awkward question, and at first he wasn't sure how to answer. Yes, he did technically sleep with her, but it also wasn't like they made out the previous night.

"Well, I guess you could say that I did sleep with you, yes. But what happened is you sat down with me, then fell asleep next to me, and I didn't want to disturb you by getting up." His statement was true except for the last part, but he was unsure how she would take 'Oh, I thought you needed protecting so I slept with you.', so he changed the wording of it.

"Oh, okay. Well, bye, for real this time." she said. And this time, no matter how much he willed her to, she didn't come back. He closed the wooden door, then went to go sit on the couch and pondered his thoughts. Did that upset her that much? Did I upset her that much?

On the way back to her own house, Aurey decided to make a trip to spawn. The center of the Mindcrack kingdom, often referred to as spawn, was where most of the action happened. Many shops were located at spawn, as well as the plaza for meetings and even some people's houses. Despite there being no grand entrance, it was easy to tell when you had entered spawn, as it was much more crowded than the rest of the kingdom, both in people and in architecture. Aurey was in a daze as she walked the snow-covered cobbles, lost inside the events of the previous day. So when someone called her name, she didn't hear it at first. Lost in thought, she was wrenched back into reality by a hand on her shoulder. She turned, her expression showing her shock, but her face instantaneously relaxed when she saw the brown clothes and concerned face of the man standing next to her.

"Aurey! You looked like you were worrying about something, is everything alright?"

"Yes, Sev, everything's fine. Just thinking, was all." She replied. Sevadus's face relaxed and he dropped his hand from her shoulder.

"Okay, good. I checked by your house this morning, but you weren't there, and I got concerned." Aurey's eyebrows lifted quizzically at his statement.

"What were you doing at my house this morning?"

"Um, uh, well..." he stuttered, caught off guard by the question. He didn't think this one through very well, and kicked himself for bringing it up with her. As he fumbled for an answer, he saw Aurey's brow knit itself skeptically. She crossed her arms as she waited for the rest of his response. Finally Sev spat out the first thing that came to his mind. "T-That's beside the point isn't it?" It wasn't exactly an answer to the question, in fact it didn't answer her question in the slightest, but she seemed to accept it all the same.

"Okay, whatever." Sevadus was one of Aurey's first (and best) friends on the Mindcrack, so she trusted him well enough. She continued walking, Sev matching her pace as he walked alongside her.

"So what brings you to spawn?" Sev asked, fed up with the silence that had formed between them.

"To be honest, I let my legs wander, and they brought me here. I just needed a place to think, to get away from the world. And I guess spawn isn't exactly the right place for it." Aurey said with a slight shrug. "What with it never being completely empty."

"You're right about that." He answered with a small chuckle and a smile. The pair fell into a silent walk as they passed the many buildings in spawn. When they arrived at the statue construction site, they stopped to look at the rows of statues, which were modeled to look like the residents of Mindcrack. When Sev saw an angry zombie pig man pacing by one of the statues, specifically Etho's, realization struck his mind, and his face contorted, his eyes widened and his mouth twisted itself into a small, panicked frown.

"Oh shoot, Aurey, I have to go. I promised I would help Zisteau add finishing touches to the statues today, so I'll see you later." He sputtered out hurriedly. Before Aurey had a chance to react, Sevadus took off running towards Zisteau. She watched as Sev was briefly scolded by Zisteau before being put to work on Etho's statue. Happy to finally have some time to herself to think, Aurey began the journey home, pondering what had happened between her and Vechs.

That night, Aurey laid awake in bed, unable to fall asleep. She stared up at the wooden ceiling above her, thoughts racing around her brain. Positive that she wouldn't be able to fall asleep until her thoughts had been laid to rest, she sat up in her bed. Sure, she was mad—frustrated?-upset?—with Vechs for sleeping with her, and used that as an excuse to justify her rude way of leaving him that morning. But the more she thought about it, the less she thought it was truly justified. He did invite her to stay when she had nowhere else to go, and it wasn't like he planned for it to happen the way it did. If anything, the whole ordeal was her fault; she got distracted and lost track of time, and if anything, he saved her from what was likely to be certain death in the pitch-black night.

Once she had made this realization, a pang of guilt struck her. She felt bad for how she treated him, especially after he had shown her kindness. He seemed like a very nice person, and she decided to give him a second chance. She would go and apologize to him the next day. Content that she had finally soothed her thoughts, she fell backwards onto her pillow with a small smile. Sleep came much more easily, and she found herself drifting off within minutes.

Suddenly, she was jerked awake by a loud noise. It sounded almost like a man's voice, but in her half-asleep state, she couldn't be certain. She stood up, lighting a torch. She peeked out of her window, and other than a few pairs of bright red eyes lurking in the night, she saw nothing suspicious. She walked downstairs, looking out of her large window. Seeing nothing again, she opened her door and stepped out onto the wooden porch. After scanning the area for nearby creatures and deeming it secure, she was about to go back to bed when she heard a rustle in the bushes. She peered in, holding the torch out to shine light into the hedge the noise had come from. After finding nothing, she went back inside, extinguishing the torch once she had reached her bedroom. She climbed into bed and this time, she was able to fall asleep undisturbed.

Meanwhile, in the bushes down below, an unseen man let out a relieved sigh. Had Aurey checked the bush one further to the right, he was sure he would have been found out. Luckily for him, she didn't, and reasoning that he cut it too close for comfort, he fled off into the night, slaying monsters as he went, the tip of his diamond sword flashing in the moonlight.