DREW
I woke up to the sun shining through the blinds over my bedroom window. I moved to sit up, but immediately regretted the decision; I was sore everywhere, but mostly in my lower back and hips. Then I remembered why I was sore and sat up fast regardless of my soreness. 'Oh my God,' I thought. I looked to my side and saw Vee laying there, still sleeping. He was facing me, his eyes closed; the only thing was, he looked the most peaceful I had ever seen him. His lips were slightly discolored and bruised-looking. Then I remembered what Vee had said a while back about Choronuses 'marking' their mates. I got up, making sure that I didn't wake up Vee, and went over to the closet-sized bathroom attached to my room, looking in the mirror above the sink. 'Oh. My. God.'
   And to think that I thought Vee's lips were bruised. I had shallow grooves carved into my lower lip, around the grooves purple and bruised. There were also red bite marks scattered all over my chest and shoulders, but I was less worried about those, seeing as they could be covered by a shirt. Sadly though, the ones behind my ear wouldn't.
   I went back to my bed and eased myself back down on it, seeking the warmth of the blanket. I lay down facing my nightstand and the door, waiting for the warmth. In a couple seconds though I felt the blanket shift and rolled over again to be met with my boyfriend's open yellow eyes. His pupils were still wider than usual, but they weren't as big as they were last night. We just stared at each other for a minute.
   "My God," Vee whispered. Then he looked at my lip and the hickeys visible on my shoulders.
    "I'm sorry!" He said quickly, about the biting. "I didn't mean to mark you! Oh God, I marked you! I marked a human!"
   "Hey calm down it's alright," I said, laying my hand on his bare shoulder.
   He sat up, the blanket falling down to his lap. "But I marked a human Drew!" He looked genuinely scared. "They're gonna know that I mated with you! And that's so illegal that it's punishable by death!"
   I sat up with him. "Did you like it Vee?"
   He looked at me, slightly calmer. "What do you mean?"
   "Do you regret having sex with me last night?" I rephrased my question.
   "I— No, but—"
   "Then it's okay," I interrupted him mid-stutter. "I don't care that you marked me. We both enjoyed it, so there's no reason to be freaking out."
   Vee nodded slowly. "Okay." Then he leaned back against the headboard and sighed. "Is it just me or do my legs feel like they're on fire?"
   I looked down at the outline of his legs under the blanket, then blushed and looked at his face again. "Uh no your legs aren't on fire. Why? Do they hurt like they are?"
   "More of a soreness than pain," Vee sat up again.
   "Then yeah, I feel it too. Just not my legs," I said.
   "You probably feel actual soreness," Vee said. "My legs aren't supposed to be able to do the kneel-and-thrust thing, because of the muscular disease. That's the pain I'm feeling, just the aftermath of having done that."
   "Oh."
   There were a couple of seconds before Vee said, "Why didn't you cum?"
   "Uhm. . ." I debated how to word what I was going to say. "I can't. . . I'm infertile. . ."
   "Oh," Vee looked almost sympathetic.
   "Sorry, I forgot to tell you," I added.
   "Oh no it's fine," He replied. "I was just wondering since I felt you orgasm."
   I smiled to tell him that it's fine and he smiled back. I think that was the most genuine smile I had ever seen from him.
   "I really did enjoy it," he said quieter. "That was the closest to happy that I've ever been."
   "I'm glad," I smiled. "I liked it too."
   "I could tell," Vee muttered and I playfully punched his shoulder.
   "Shut up!"
   Vee laughed. "You can't deny that you were being a bit loud."
   "Oh, did you hear yourself when you got towards your climax? I'm surprised Mom didn't ask us what was going on."
   Vee laughed again and put his arms around my shoulders. I wrapped my arms around him in return. "It's a good thing that I didn't have my lip rings in then, isn't it?" He said.
   "Yeah, it really is."
   We sat like that for a little bit, our arms around each other, eventually laying down so that I could continue warming up under the blanket while we cuddled.
   "I love you Drew," Vee kissed my forehead.
   "Love you too," I lay my head on his chest and put my arms around his waist while he put his arm around my shoulder. We lay there like that for a while, just listening to each other breathe and pressing our bare bodies together in a not-sexual way.   
   Occasionally Vee would try to make small talk, asking about how my Mom would react, how I thought Summer and Micah would react. He never brought it up, but I knew he was wondering how Seth would react too. He'd told me that when he and Seth were dating (which was about a month, cuz that never would have worked out) Seth had really wanted to sleep with him, but Vee never let him. And I'm glad Vee didn't let him, too. Well, I should say, Vee never let him give him more than a handjob.
   After about two hours of me and Vee cuddling like that I heard people start moving around the house. Vee had dozed off again, which was a rare occasion. He usually never sleeps but a few hours at night. I gently squirmed out of Vee's grasp without waking him and went to see if the bruising on my lip had gone down. Thankfully it had, now only the outline of what will be Vee's mark scars purple.
   I lay back down with Vee and wormed myself under his arm to lay my head on his chest again. He woke up when I put my head on his chest and I looked up at him. He smiled.
   "The bruising went down," he commented, and I nodded.
   "So did yours," I said. His lips were now back to their normal shade of pale. He lightly touched his lip.
   "That's good."
   I nodded and rested my head on his chest again, tightening my arms around his waist. He moved his hand to the small of my back and started massaging there with his thumb. After about another hour Vee gently lifted me off of his chest and swung his legs over the side of the bed.
   "I'm gonna go get food," he said.
   "Wait," I said when he stood up. "Let me go tell Mom about last night first. She's gonna ask me about my lip anyway. . . And why you're limping more than usual."
   "Yeah, okay," he nodded. He crouched down and dragged his suitcase from under the bed, opening it to get clothes. It took all my self control not to stare at him. He looked even better in the daylight. I began to wonder whether he was actually descended from an angel.
   I was fully clothed by the time Vee had found a sufficient pair of pants.
   "I'm gonna go explain this to Mom," I told him.
   "Okay," he sat down to put his underwear and pants on. "I'll be out there in a sec."
   As soon as I got into the kitchen to confess to my mother about last night she said, "Don't say a word, I already know."
   "What? How?" I asked, confused as to how she knew already if neither Vee nor myself had told her.
   "I could hear you two." She said. "I sleep in the room right across from yours Drew. I could hear you two lock the door and then start—"
   "Ok ok ok ok," I cut her off and she chuckled.
   "My only worry is how Vee's parents are going to react." Mom said, which made me think the same thing.
   "I don't think they will need to know," I said slowly.
   "Drew, they're parents. Parents know everything about their kid, especially at this age."
   "But they can't find out!" I said. "If they do they'll literally disown Vee!"
   "I know," Mom said. "But he can stay here when they do find out and disown him, and we will make sure he's alright. Okay?"
   I sighed. "Yeah. . . I just don't want him to go through that."
   "I know you don't," Mom pulled me into a hug. "I don't either. But it's inevitable when he has parents like that." I nodded. "His brother basically takes care of him now, right?"
   "In a sense, yeah," I said. "His actual parents neglect him, so Jessie acts as his parental figure."
   "Then maybe it wouldn't be so bad," Mom said. "If they neglect him anyways then it wouldn't make a difference. And he's also said that he can't wait until he can move out of their house."
   "True," I said.
   I heard Vee limp into the kitchen, now clothed in grey sweatpants and a T-shirt for some band called 'Rammstein'.
   "You told her?" He asked.
   "She heard us," I said.
   "Oh," Vee trailed off, his face going slightly pink for a second. "Anyway, I'm gonna eat." I rolled my eyes at him. 'Well, at least he's eating,' I thought.
Mom grabbed her wallet and phone. "Well, I have to work a couple hours today. Your father is working as well, he won't be back until late. Watch Kilie."
I nodded. "Okay." Mom hugged me good-bye before walking out the door.
   As soon as she left, Vee gave me a suggestive smirk. He walked over and hugged me from behind, humming. "She heard us?" He hummed, speaking in my ear. "She won't hear us if she isn't home."
   I blushed hard. "V-Vee," I whined.
   Vee chuckled and let go of me. "Fine," he said. "You want pasta?"
   "For breakfast?"
   "Don't judge me," Vee said. "If it's food, it's food!"
   I chuckled and shook my head. "Alright, alright! Make your pasta."
   Vee smirked at me, but continued to get the things for his pasta.