Monday, January 1st (New Year's Day)

Ethan

I woke up at the crack of dawn, about 7:30 or so, halfway-sitting up on my couch, more or less freezing my ass off. I tended to keep my whole apartment cold, but that was just because I lived for the feeling of wrapping myself up like a burrito in a nice warm blanket, doubly so in a nice, comfy bed, and you can't really do that in the heat. However, I was neither in my bed nor under a blanket on this frigid morning. No, the only thing even remotely keeping me warm was… well, what had rapidly become my favorite thing in the world. Monika had apparently fallen asleep on top of me, sitting in my lap, and was currently peacefully dozing with her head comfortably nestled over my shoulder.

I kinda had to get up and hit the bathroom, but. Y'know how most people can't get themselves to get up when they've got a sleeping cat on them? Same deal here, but much, much worse. Monika looked so serene and beautiful with the sunlight drifting in, filtering through the curtains and making her – admittedly very messy – hair glow like 24-karat gold thread. I dared not even move a muscle. Only the most heartless of people could have brought themselves to rouse her from that. Of course… I loved her, don't get me wrong, but I was still a little annoyed when she didn't wake up for another solid hour. At least I got plenty of time to think.

And think I did; there was a lot to cover. Reality was setting in a bit today. I may not have had to go into work today, but I'd have to soon. Work meant getting paid, and getting paid meant bills and taxes, and how the hell was I going to account for having another person in my household for either? It occurred to me that I was going to have to find a way to make Monika an official member of my household – especially if I wanted to get her on my health insurance or, God forbid, I ever wanted to get engaged in the future – and given that she'd literally popped into existence out of nowhere, I hadn't the slightest idea how that was going to work. Oh, yes, Mr. IRS person, I've got a person living with me with no evidence she ever existed, and yes, I'd like to claim her on my taxes and have her receive my benefits and maybe get some help getting student loans for college, but trust me, it's all above-board!

More immediately, I was worried about her personally. Straight-up, no getting around it, Monika was a blatant PTSD case. While I may have had a diagnosis or two of my own, I was no psychologist, and I was starting to think she might need one. I could do my best, as a loyal and devoted significant other, to try and support her, but I was beginning to come under the impression that professional help was in the cards. I had a good idea of what was likely behind a lot of it, of course. Part of it was almost certainly just a general sense of being overwhelmed, which would pass in time, but beyond that? My dear Monika was unquestionably traumatized by her experiences in the game, in ways I could speculate about but not even begin to imagine. But how would I get her help for that? She'd be under threat of getting herself involuntarily committed if she tried telling a doctor what she'd been through, even if I vouched for it.

That was the reality, as of right now, but I'd be damned if I let it go like that. I loved her, dammit. With a sense of grim determination, the gears in my brain began grinding off all the rust and corrosion and cobwebs that'd built up over years of disuse, and it began working at breakneck speed coming up with ideas and thinking through it all from every angle imaginable.

I was broken from my reverie, however, by the gentle pressing of a mouth against my neck, followed by a beaming smile from a still-sleepy-looking girlfriend. I couldn't help it, I was a total sap for this kind of thing. "Heya, angel," I mumbled, looking down at her, before leaning down and kissing her lips. I heard and felt the breath catch in Monika's throat as she held the kiss and wrapped herself tightly around me for a minute before almost grudgingly sliding off of me, slowly half-whispering/half-groaning "I love you," then tiredly and entirely predictably plodding over to the kitchen and fetching herself some of that new coffee from yesterday's shopping spree.

Well, with her off of me finally, I realized with relief that I could at least go answer the call of nature. A man's gotta have his priorities in line.

I came out a couple minutes later to see my girlfriend, half asleep, barely looking like a real person, heavily hunched over a giant mug of coffee at the table, with no sign of sugar or creamer in sight. She was still wearing the clothes she'd put on for lounging last night: a set of comfy knee-length black yoga shorts and a muted pink tee. Monika's hair wasn't so much messy as a long, tangled, Chewbacca-like mop attached to her head, and she was squinting narrowly at the sunlight coming in softly through the curtains; I wondered why she didn't just get up and go to the other side of the table, and then I remembered a story I once read on Reddit about a naval officer who once ordered his entire ship to turn to get the sun out of his eyes in the morning rather than scoot over, and then I understood. She looked to be about as dead inside as I imagined that man did. And I thought I wasn't a morning person.

As I stood there in the doorway from the bedroom, leaning against the wall, taking in the sight, I came to a sudden and very warm-and-fuzzy realization.

"God, you're beautiful."

It took about ten seconds for the words to register, by my estimation, before she slowly, languidly turned towards me and gave a wan smile. "Thanks, babe," Zombie!Monika muttered, before returning to the apparently urgent task of staring straight ahead.

Welp. Somebody's gotta take charge of the situation, and she's clearly out of commission. I walked past her, rubbing her shoulder with one hand as I went, before cracking the fridge open and pulling out some eggs, butter, and cheese. Monika didn't even look up as I started cooking, though by the time I slid a plate of nice, hot, cheesy scrambled eggs to her, she was at least alive enough to recognize their presence and start eating.

"Not a morning person, huh?"
"Nnnnnnnope."

"Well," I chuckled, "better get used to it, because I wake up at half past seven every weekday for work starting tomorrow."
"Mrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…." she groaned.

##################################################

"So, what are we gonna do today?" a much more human Monika asked me a half-hour later.

"Well, the community center's open today, surprisingly enough, I know, and I hit the pool Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in the afternoon to work out and do therapy exercises. 'Cause my back's a little fucked. Other than that, the day's wide open! Whatever you want! Got any ideas?"

"Hmm. Ahh… oh! What about those Star Wars movies you were talking about? And then maybe, that Rock Band stuff, what's that all about? And then we can get a nice dinner after your therapy..." She paused for a second and put her arms around me, a look of concern clearly painted on her features. "Speaking of which, what's wrong, Ethan?"

"Oh, that," I said. "I was in a bad car accident when I was a kid and it messed up my back pretty bad, so I avoid heavy lifting when I can and I do some special exercises in the pool to keep the muscles strong. It doesn't really hurt unless I'm doing something to set it off, I promise. Don't worry about it, okay?"

Monika thankfully looked a little relieved at that. And then started moving her arms around and smirked a little bit. "You know, if you'd like something a little more hands-on than just exercises, I like to think I'm pretty good..."

"My God, don't tempt me, woman! It's only nine in the morning!" I felt myself blushing.

"Ahahaha, I can't help it! You're just so cute when you're flustered!~" She gave me a deliberately cutesy little peck.

"Don't push me too hard or I'll start fighting back, babe..."

"Why, Ethan, that's just what I'm hoping for!"

I just sighed, and then reached for my rack of DVD and Blu-Rays, popping one into my laptop, turning on the big-screen TV and connecting it to the laptop in the process.

"This, Monika, is cinematic history!" I announced, just in time for John Williams' classic score to blare out accompanying the opening crawl as I plopped back down on the couch and put an arm around her.

Episode IV, A NEW HOPE

It is a period of civil war...

"Wait a second," she whispered to me. "Episode 4? Why don't we start with 1?"

"It's better this way, trust me. This one came out first. We'll do two a day, today's 4 and 5, tomorrow's 2 and 3, and Wednesday we'll do 6. It'll make sense when you see it. Trust me, this is the way to watch these."

"What about 1?"

"Uh, I'll explain later. Shh. Watch the movie, babe."

##################################################

Watching Monika react to Star Wars was almost as magical as seeing it for the first time myself. She unconsciously pulled a little tighter into me when the imposing Lord Vader showed up for the first time, and visibly stiffened when Uncle Ben wistfully told of Luke's father and gaped in awe at the lightsaber and, later, the Force in action on the Millennium Falcon. Monika also sheepishly admitted that Han was pretty cute, a point which readily I conceded, "...but you're cuter~," which… I wasn't so sure about, but I was flattered anyway. She laughed her ass off especially at Han's attempts at bluffing the stormtroopers in the detention block - "I think he rolled a 1 on his Bluff check there, Ethan!" - and at Leia's "Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?" and even noticed the infamous incident where one of the troopers banged their head on a door… and she screamed with Luke when Vader killed Ben.

"Enjoying the movie, hon?" I asked her during the lull immediately afterward.

"Goodness, yes. That was so sad, but… this is great! Now shush, you, I'm trying to pay attention..."

I ruffled her hair a little bit and went back to watching.

During the trench run sequence, Monika nearly fell off the couch sliding so far forward with rapt attention. It was adorable. And so were the cheers when Han came back and saved Luke's ass, which only grew louder when she heard Uncle Ben's voice talking to him. And when Luke managed to blow up the Death Star… she just straight-up hugged me when that happened.

"Sooooooo, can we watch the next one?" she asked me, practically bouncing in her seat.

"Yeah, of course! Uh, lemme get some popcorn though, I forgot about that." I poured us a couple glasses of the previous night's champagne while I was at it.

A few minutes later and Empire Strikes Back started playing. Her reactions were more or less the same, and just as precious, the whole way through, but of course easily the best part of it – and the one I'm sure all of you want to know about – was when she turned to me, just stared for a couple seconds, and demanded, "Holy crap, is that for real? Seriously? No way!" at The Big Reveal. Tears were shed at Han's carbonite bath and the confession between him and Leia. And of course much popcorn was consumed.

"Alright, that's enough Star Wars for one day. We'll get burned out," I said, as the credits rolled.

"Oh no no no no no, you can't leave me at a cliffhanger like that!"

"Technically, I'm not. Luke let go of the cliff there, remember?" I flashed my patented shit-eating grin at her.

Next thing I knew, I was on the floor from a playful but surprisingly strong and unexpected shove from a huffing girlfriend. I couldn't help it, I busted out laughing uncontrollably, literally rolling around. I grabbed onto her legs to stabilize myself, and then found myself in a somehow both much more and much less comfortable position when she came tumbling down right on top of me, with her chest landing directly on my face.

Between giggling fits, I managed to choke out, muffled by her shirt, "Oh my gosh, babe, are you okay?"

Monika laughed with me, and just slid her body down mine to get my head out of her chest. And then the laughing stopped when my head came into view as she gave me a bit of an odd look. Fortunately, after a couple seconds I was able to stop roaring myself… because Monika aggressively went straight for my lips, leaving me unable to say much of anything.

Oh. Oh, this is nice. This is really nice.

Her hands started roaming all over me, hungrily, exploring every inch she could reach.

Oh. Double nice.

What else could I really do? I retaliated fully. Neither of us could get enough of the other right then. It was like all the sexual tension that had been slowly, imperceptibly building up the past few days exploded out of both of us to the forefront at once, drenching the room with it. It was magical. Aaaaaaand the moment was completely destroyed when one of us, I still don't know who, knocked into the coffee table and dumped the glasses of champagne all over both of us – and by "all over both of us" I mean localized entirely in her hair.

"Shit!" Monika swore – was that the first time I'd heard her do that? - and stomped off to the bathroom to get the champagne out, while I just lay there catching my breath before getting up and doing my best to clean up. Me too, Monika, me too.

While she was in the shower, I figured now was as good a time as any to get started on lunch. I'd never done vegetarian cooking before, but with the aid of a cookbook I'd nabbed the day before at Target, I figured it couldn't be that bad. And, as it turned out, I was right! By the time Monika finally emerged from my – our, I thought with a goofy grin – bedroom, there were vegetarian Philly cheesesteaks (made with big portobellos instead of beef) waiting for her. That definitely perked her up some. Good.

"They good, hon?" I asked, as she dug in.

"Oh my God yes! Mmf. Thanks, Ethan!" Monika managed to get out between ravenous bites.

I was a bit skeptical myself, because I am absolutely not a vegetarian and I love me a good Philly, but, to tell the truth, it really wasn't bad. Not the same as if you made them with actual beef or even minute steaks, but one could definitely get used to it.

##################################################

After we put lunch away, I broke out by far my favorite part of yesterday's shopping expedition. Well, other than the Victoria's Secret trip, anyway, but I wasn't technically there for that.

"So, what exactly is that stuff?" Monika asked, leaning into the room from the kitchen.

"This? This is Rock Band. It's basically a game where you play music using plastic instruments and you're playing for accuracy and high score. And for the fun of playing aaaaaallllll your favorite songs! With other people! You're gonna love it."

"Ahh, how does that work?"

"You'll see! Lucky us, I should still have all my old song DLCs for the first few Rock Bands from back when my mom and I used to play this stuff together, so there's gonna be a lot. Here," I said, firing the game up on the console and hooking in the guitar. "Watch me play for a little bit and you'll get it, and then I'll get you set up."

Monika plopped down beside me on the couch and leaned into me. I'm not sure whether that's gonna make me play better or worse, but okay, I'm not complaining. The warmth was certainly welcome, and I had a bit of a struggle with the warm-and-fuzzies because man having her close was nice.

After some time spent finagling with the song exporting process for my older games, I queued up some nice Bon Jovi on Expert and… didn't do as well as I hoped I would. New guitar. Not what I was used to. I missed my old Guitar Hero 2 X-Plorer, dammit!

But Monika was staring at the TV with rapt attention.

"That's… amazing! And tons of people play this?"

"Yep!"

"I love this so much! You know how much I love getting people into poetry? Well, you could use this to get so many people into music…."

In response, I just motioned over to my old Martin acoustic guitar on its stand in the corner. "Why do you think I got into playing a real instrument? Granted, I'm still a lot better at this than I am at playing the real thing, but… still."

"I want to try!" Monika was genuinely and visibly excited. I'm pretty sure if it weren't for gravity she'd have been bouncing into the ceiling.

Just nodding, I handed the guitar over to her and reached for a controller and a microphone to get myself hooked up.

"Wait. You can sing too?" The look on her face was just straight-up awe.

"Yeah, it's really good too. Even I can do it," I chuckled. "Honestly, I'd be giving you the mic if I thought you knew any of the words… I mean, I know you can sing."

"Hey, don't put yourself down. I think I fell in love with your singing voice last night."

I grinned wickedly at her. "Oh, so you just love me for my voice, is that it?"

"I..." she sputtered. "No! Of course not! I love everything!" Monika paused for a second, thoughtfully. "But it definitely helps!~"

"I'm kidding, babe. 'Sides, we're even! I fell in love with yours too when you played me that song. Remember that? Voice of an angel, I'm tellin' ya. Full honesty? Singlehandedly ruined my life from then 'til the other night, in a good way. Couldn't look at another girl the same way again."

Monika's eyes glistened for a moment as she visibly fought to hold it together, though she was definitely doing better today. "Ethan, I don't know what the hell I did to deserve this, but thank you. So much. You're the sweetest thing ever." She leaned in to kiss me.

And failed tremendously, because she'd forgotten the huge guitar strapped to her. All she succeeded in doing was whacking me in the face with the thing's head.

I just stood there and took it, before reaching out and rubbing her shoulder for a second while trying not to bust out laughing again. "Wow, they weren't kidding, love does hurt."

"You just keep up those jokes, mister. You just keep it right up."

"Hush, you love it," I snarked back.

"Ahaha, maaaaaaaybe….~"
"Anyway, let's get this started… hmm. Bob Dylan maybe? Tangled Up in Blue is one of my favorite songs…."

##################################################

Several hours later, I'd come to the conclusion that Monika wasn't super great at the guitar. I made a mental note to order a Rock Band 3 keyboard for her to use with my old copy, plus some more instruments for compatibility's sake, figuring she'd probably be a lot better at that. She did manage to start off on medium, though, which was better than I had, way back when.

Nonetheless, she was definitely enjoying herself. Monika seemed very much at home with music. Not a big surprise, really – poetry and music certainly aren't very far removed from each other, after all. And she also seemed to be drawing a lot of enjoyment from how much fun I was having with it. Once I got the hang of the new guitar, I started showing off. Hard. I set the mic up on something and sang into it while running through a song on guitar, and she ate that up like it was nobody's business.

Lucky for me, because I was just having too damn much fun with her, Monika remembered our plans for the afternoon. "Hey, you probably oughta pack this stuff up if we want to make it to the pool."

"Shit, you're right. Okay. You don't just have to sit there, by the way. You can totally hop in with me if you want. You bought a swimsuit yesterday, right?"

"Ahaha, yes! Yes, I did. I wasn't going to bring it, but since you seem to want to see me in it so badly..."

"...Monika, you're gonna kill me. You are actually going to kill me."

She put her hands up to her cheeks in a mock pose of surprise. "Whaaaat? What did I do? All I did was suggest that my perfect boyfriend might want to go swimming with me and see the cute suit I picked out!~"

I just sighed. "...Get out of here and grab your suit and do me a favor and get some towels too, would you?"

"Sure thiiiing!" she sang as she bounced out of the room.

God, she's adorable.

##################################################

About a half-hour later, we pulled into the community center. I was definitely surprised that the place was open on New Year's Day, but I sure wasn't complaining. I hated missing my exercises just on principle; if I started to fall off the wagon, I tended to stay off, and that was bad news for my preferred state of pain-free living. I upgraded my membership to a couples' pass – Monika beamed at me; she seemed very happy about anything that reminded her that we were officially a couple – and walked us back to the locker rooms.

I was not prepared for the sight that greeted me when she stepped out into the indoor pool space – which was thankfully very warm compared to the outside and fairly empty. Monika's bikini was a pastel yellow two-piece affair, with white trim, adorned with white ribbons at her hips and between the cups. It looked absolutely perfect on her. And she… my God, her body was perfect. Not that I hadn't gotten a decent look from the whole Victoria's Secret affair, but this was the first time I'd seen her in person, and I just stopped functioning while my brain tried to process what was in front of me. She was definitely pretty athletic but still soft, her very slightly tanned skin perfectly complimented by her perfect emerald green eyes, and her curves were… she was just beautiful. All those memes about her thighs definitely did not do her justice, and that's all I'll say about that. Monika was one-hundred percent gorgeous perfection. I'm not gonna lie, I felt a little self-conscious right then, especially considering I was just standing there in the same old plain swim trunks I'd had for the past four years. Thankfully for my self-esteem, I realized that I definitely saw her eyeing me up too, although I think I just about had a heart attack at the prospect.

Monika broke me out of my stupor by walking over to me and throwing her arms around me before dragging me off into the pool by the hand. I'm pretty sure I caught her winking at me, too, which just amplified the burning sensation in my cheeks. The water was nice and warm as I clambered down into the therapy pool.

"Now come on, Ethan, you need to do your exercises. I wanna see what all you do."

With a surprising amount of self-consciousness, I started my routine. Squats, leg extensions, nerve glides, core exercises, the works. My physical therapists had been very thorough with all the exercises I needed to do, and by this point I was doing them without thinking. Monika assessed me as I carried on, taking everything in, at a few points reaching over and making sure my core was straight. Recognizing some of them, she even started doing a few with me, and didn't have any tolerance for me not doing them properly. Monika was counting my reps for me and was very strict about not counting ones that were even slightly off.

"Hey, I take your health seriously, you know!" she lectured. "You can't cheat on your exercises! What kind of girlfriend would I be if I let you lapse and hurt yourself? Do it right the first time."

I just smiled at her through the exertion and kept at it. Feels nice being cared about like that. Feels really nice.

Eventually, although it took almost twice as long with Monika's merciless coaching, we powered through the therapy. But mercy was clearly not her strong suit. Out of nowhere, she splashed me with a giant wave of water, cheekily sing-songed out a "I'll race you in the lap pool!," and then took off before I could recover. Much to my chagrin, Monika turned out to be a very strong swimmer; no way I was catching her, but I certainly tried.

An hour and a half after we walked in, we were totally bummed out. A little reluctantly, Monika and I dragged ourselves out of the warm water and back into the showers, and then from there back out to the car.

"So," I started. "Dinner. Any preferences? Wait, it's a holiday, we don't really have much in the way of choices. Chinese?"
"I guess. Curious as to what that's like. Let's go."

The idea of a Chinese buffet blew Monika's mind.

"Wait. I can have as much as I want?"

"Yyyyyep!"

I had a very happy girlfriend for the next hour or so. It also helped that, technically, she was a pescatarian, i.e. fish was still on the menu, so all the sushi out on the bar was fair game. And by "fair game," I mean I had to actively stop her from devouring all of it. Which was absolutely adorable in its own right. Turns out that the idea of "leaving some for everyone else at the buffet" does not come naturally.

##################################################

Very well-fed, Monika and I pulled into the parking lot of the apartments about eight. I had to be up at a fairly early hour the next morning, so I'd made up my mind to go to bed at a reasonable hour tonight. We plopped down on the couch for a little bit and talked about the plan for the next few weeks as real life caught up with us. There was no small amount of stuff to hash out, but in the end we ended up with a decent understanding.

"So, summing up, I'll be coming home probably about five to five thirty in the afternoons most weekdays, since we get out at four thirty and traffic in the city can be a bitch. We'll try to go out as much as we can so you're not stuck in the house all the time. During the day, I've got a couple ideas for stuff you can do, but if you can't think of anything else, the laptop and the games are always there, and so's all the food we got. Remember, this is your home now too, Monika. What's mine is yours, you feel?"

"I… really appreciate that, Ethan. It's still pretty unreal, but..."

"I know what you're thinking. We'll figure all the official stuff as we go. Trust me, alright?"

"...Okay. Go get ready for bed." She smiled warmly at me. "Holidays are over, my man's got to go earn his paycheck for this place tomorrow."

Not long after, I finished changing for bed and stepped out of the bathroom to find… not what I was expecting.

In the short time – it couldn't have been more than ten minutes – that I'd been in there, Monika had found and lit a couple of candles in the bedroom and changed into an absolutely breathtaking black lace corset, with matching stockings and a matching bottom. If I'd thought she looked irresistible at the pool, this was something else entirely. Taken as a whole, Monika splayed out on the deep purple of the bedspread, with the shadowy lighting in the room, and her downright ensorcelling eyes and perfect features, I straight-up lost the ability to process conscious thought.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh wowwwwwwwwww," I said, dumbly.

"Don't say anything, Ethan. I've been waiting for this for ages. Just c'mere….~"

##################################################

It's a small miracle that I didn't pass out once at work the next day, although Monika was very proud of me when I told her, shortly before I collapsed on the couch.

It's a somewhat bigger miracle that nobody filed any noise complaints, because holy shit.