In Jordan’s dream she was warm. Soft yellow sunshine shone through floaty curtains, lighting up cool mint walls and beige carpets.

Jordan’s childhood bedroom hadn't changed. As per usual, her wooden desk was piled high with numerous laptops and towers of textbooks, her clothes spilled over the top of the clothing hamper, and her blankets enclosed her in a cozy cocoon.

Just downstairs, she could hear the song of pots and pans meeting the stovetop as well as the suction-cup sound of the refrigerator opening and closing. Her Mom and Dad were bickering, as per usual. She could hear the soft ring of stifled laughter behind her mother’s every retort. It was a normal morning, but somehow, she felt pain. Nothing debilitating, just a soft ache in her chest, a sense of longing.

“Go wake Jordan up, she's going to be late for school.” Jordan heard her Dad mutter, followed by her Mom’s affirmation. Quickly, she buried herself back into her blankets, feigning sleep. She didn't want to leave this quite yet.

“Jordan? It’s time to get up.” Her Mom called through the door. Jordan refused to budge, burrowing deeper into her blankets. The door opened, and Jordan heard her Mom chuckle. “It’s time to get up, Jordan. I know you’re awake.” Jordan couldn’t hide this time.

“Five more minutes, Mom.” She grumbled, the sounds muffled by the bedding. The mattress shifted as her Mom sat down on the edge of the bed.

“Come on, Jordan.” Her Mom patted her through the blankets. “You still have to drive. You’ve got things to do!”

“Fine, fine.” Jordan groaned, stubbornly kicking her feet. Begrudgingly, she pushed back the blankets.

Jordan woke up, chasing the remnants of a now-fleeting dream. There were traces of contentment in her mind, maybe a hint of nostalgia, but she couldn’t remember a thing. She hated it, how her nightmares remained clear as day, and one night of peace was gone the minute her eyelids opened.

Jordan blearily examined her surroundings. She was confused. Wasn’t it light out when she fell asleep? It was pitch black outside the windows. And also, wasn’t she in the driver’s seat when it happened? Why was there pressure on top of her head? She glanced upwards.

Well that explained it. She was on Chen. Jordan stiffened. That didn’t explain anything at all. Why was she on Chen?

The lack of explanation landed her in yet another predicament. How was she supposed to escape this? She needed to drive now that it was, she turned her head to look at the clock, 2 o'clock in the morning. Chen groaned at the movement. Jordan let out an exasperated sigh; opting to give up on trying not to wake Chen up, deciding to just move and rip the metaphorical bandaid off all at once.

Reaching over to open the door, Jordan awkwardly clambered out from Chen’s rather tight embrace. He blearily opened his eyes, shifting in his seat, before turning and falling asleep again.

Jordan was very glad. She didn’t feel like facing the awkward situation should he have stayed awake. Once outside, she shivered from the cold, and rushed around to the driver’s side of car and clambered in. She rubbed her hands along her arms, missing the immediate warmth of being close to Chen.

She hesitated when she realized where her train of thought was going, and decided to put the heat on full blast instead. It wasn’t the same, but it would have to suffice. After pointing all of the vents at herself, she set off.

Jordan was riddled with envy at the fact that Chen stayed asleep for the remainder of the drive. She wished her sleep could be that sweet. By the time she pulled into the garage of their house, she was  ready to drop from exhaustion. But looking at the werewolf passed out in the passenger seat, she knew that she had a couple of things to do before she crawled into bed.

First, she needed to clean Chen off. His skin was smudged with dirt and mud was caked in his hair. And second, she needed to clean herself off, considering she’d been sweating like a pig from hiking for three days, and hadn’t once taken a shower.

Jordan leaned over to nudge Chen awake. He did, albeit slowly, tumbling out of the car and shuffling over to the door leading into the house. Jordan followed behind, leaning around him to unlock the door, but that was made nearly impossible when Chen wrapped his arms around her torso and burrowed his face into her neck. Jordan involuntarily shivered as a tingle went down her spine. She tried to pry him off to get to the door but gave up when Chen refused to budge. She was too tired to deal with this right now. Struggling, Jordan unlocked the door and dragged them both through the door.

“Come one, you big baby.” She muttered as they shuffled into the hallway and up the stairs. Chen made no sound, leading her to believe that he had fallen asleep while walking, his head still buried in the crook of her neck. His grip on her hadn't loosened though, which was the only piece of evidence leading to the contrary.

Evidently a lethargic Chen was a clingy Chen.

Jordan was sweating bullets by the time she made it to the bathroom, partially due to the exertion, partially to Chen’s sweltering body heat. She hefted his head away from her neck, swiveling it until he caught sight of the bathtub.  He let go immediately, quickly shedding his shirt and pants. Jordan’s eyes widened and quickly turned away, relieved that he hadn’t stripped off his boxers. She didn't know what to do. What does a girl do when presented with a half man in front of a bathtub? A half man who, with his heightened hearing, could probably hear the slight spike in her heart rate, or could feel the slight rise in temperature from her blush. Not that she was blushing.

Jordan slowly turned back around, reaching over to turn on the tap, waiting for the temperature to heat up. Chen probably needed a bath, to let the layers of dirt soak off. After the water became warm enough and the tub was full, she beckoned for Chen to step in. He stepped into the tub and let the water rush over him with a happy sigh. Jordan turned away to let him do his business.

She never got that far. Halfway to the door, her back was suddenly soaked in water. Jordan turned, murder in her eyes, only to see Chen staring at her with a smug smile. Though his eyes were half lidded, they still oozed playfulness. He patted the water with one hand, creating small waves. Jordan raised an eyebrow. Was he inviting her to join him?

Jordan hesitated, for obvious reasons. Why was he even asking her to join? Being in the same bathtub with Chen seemed far too intimate considering the strained circumstances of their relationship. But when she considered the lack of a relationship that they had, taking a bath together shouldn't be weird, especially if they both had clothes on. She also wasn’t sure she could stay awake until Chen finished for her to bathe afterwards. A second splash shook her from her thoughts. With a sigh, Jordan nodded to him, holding out a hand to tell him to stay. She retreated back to her room to rifle through the drawers to change into a bikini. She wrinkled her nose at her exposed stomach. She hated seeing the scars. Once finished, she slunk back to the bathroom, not really looking forward to the impending awkwardness that she knew was going to happen.

Chen was half-asleep when she saw him again, his head leaning against the tiled wall with an arm dangling over the edge of the tub. He glanced up as she entered, eyes narrowing at the harsh patterns across her skin. Jordan ignored the weight of his gaze and stepped into the tub, automatically letting out a content sigh when the heat of the water soaked into her bones. She sat at the opposite end of the tub, facing him. She hesitated as their ankles brushed against one another, glancing at the person sitting across from her. He barely reacted, only settling deeper into the tub.

Jordan took a moment to try and relax. She closed her eyes and let the room fade away, head tilting back to rest against the cool tiled wall. She let herself lose herself in the soft sound of the water hitting the edges of the bathtub, the nearly silent breaths that whooshes from Chen’s lungs, and the ever so slight hum of the heating system.

They stayed like that, in their comfortable silence, until the water cooled. Jordan unwillingly opened her eyes and straightened up. Chen peeled his eyelids open at the sound of water splashing, following her motions. He moved over following Jordan’s pat on the side of his arm. Jordan pulled the plug, letting the water drain out before turning the water again. She grabbed the shower head; this time she needed to scrub.

After soaping up the shower pouf, Jordan vigorously scrubbed at her arms, legs, and stomach, ignoring Chen as he sat in the draining tub. She smiled at the feeling of being clean and the sight of dirt flowing down the drain. A finger trailing down a scar on her bicep raised goosebumps on her skin. But moments later, the touch disappeared, replaced by a slight tap on her shoulder. Chen took the pouf from her and beckoned for her to turn around. Hesitantly, she did, curiously checking over her shoulder to see what Chen would do. A little unnerved by the way he was staring at her scars across her shoulders and back, she flinched at the feeling of the pouf against her skin. Chen paused, letting out a soft questioning sound. Jordan relaxed her shoulders and let him proceed.

It was an odd feeling, being pampered. It was something she was utterly unused to, having been used to taking care of herself for such a long time. She let out a soft sigh as the pouf passed over her skin. The comfort turned into bliss when Chen’s hands replaced the pouf, thumbs pressing into her shoulders to gently work out the knots there. She could very willingly get used to it.

    After a few minutes, Jordan noticed that Chen’s ministrations had slowed. She turned, noticing that Chen’s eyes were once again starting to flutter in exhaustion.

Jordan let out a sigh. She wanted the massage continue, but she knew Chen was too tired to keep going for too long. She looked back at him, noting that there was still had dirt on his skin.

She should return the favor, right?

Jordan grabbed the pouf from next to Chen and lathered it up again. She motioned for him to turn around. It took a few seconds, but Chen eventually understood and did as he was told.

Jordan slumped for a second, utterly unsure about what she was going to do next. Chen seemed completely relaxed as he sat in the tub, his head resting on the arms that were wrapped around his knees. She decided to start with his arms, running the pouf along his biceps, and lifting his arms to get to the forearms. She scrubbed harder if there was a particularly stubborn patch of dirt, and was finally finished when his skin was clean, albeit a bit red from her rubbing.

She started on his back next, making him turn around, moving her hands along the planes of muscles there. She could feel them shift and relax with her every movement, could feel his ribcage expand and contract with every breath. Chen’s purring began again; the soft rumbles echoed off of the tiled walls. Jordan lost herself in the sound while cleaning him off. It was only when Chen’s head lolled forwards when she realized he was asleep. Quickly rinsing him off, Jordan shook him awake long enough to convince him to get out of the warm bath. He leaned on the edge of the bathtub while she roughly toweled off his hair, which seemed to wake him up a bit more. Chen looked indignantly at her through his eyelashes when she smacked his cheeks.

“You have to change.” She muttered. Leaving him next to the bathtub, she walked into his bedroom to rifle through his drawers. She returned with boxers, which she promptly tossed at Chen’s face once she reemerged into the bathroom. Once she determined that he was coherent enough to change his own clothes, she left to go to her own room, grabbing a towel along the way to dry herself off. Jordan couldn't help but grin when she heard a whiney grumble. She left him alone with his miseries and retreated to her room.

Once changed, she was confronted with the realization that she didn’t want to sleep. She didn’t want to sleep if all she would ever see was a sedan skidding into a guardrail. She didn’t want to sleep if all she could ever feel was the burning pain of steel cutting into her skin.

But if the past couple of days had taught her one thing, it was that sleeping was unavoidable, and that she was just going to have to it up and deal with it.

She could try to delude herself into thinking that the nightmares might leave her alone for one night. But it wouldn’t work, she was sure of that.

The soft creak of the door interrupted Jordan’s staredown with the bed. Surprised at the sound, she turned to look at the door.

Chen cautiously entered, hesitance prominent in his features as he stood under the weight of Jordan’s stare.

Well, there was her unconventional solution. Jordan tried to think of the last time she had shared a bed with someone. Life had been so ordinary back then. Back then she had normal things, like a boyfriend, a house owned by her parents, a typical education provided by a public high school.

Things were the very opposite of normal right now, and Jordan figured that she might as well keep going with that trend. With a sigh, she crawled under the covers and patted the comforter on the opposite side. She looked pointedly at Chen before diving under the covers, cheeks flushing.

She felt the mattress shift under Chen’s weight and promptly scooted to the very edge of the bed.

This was awkward. She already regretted her decision.

She shoved that into the back of her mind and closed her eyes. She’d been through so much worse. She could survive this really awkward weird thing with this werewolf.

She let her breaths even out, waiting for her mind to drift, dreading the nightmares that were sure to come.

They didn’t.

Jordan woke up the next afternoon to sunlight streaming in through her curtains and the light snoring of the person sharing the bed. No shadows lingered in the back of her mind, her dreams were a blank slate.

Jordan rolled over to look at the reason behind her lack of nightmares.

They weren’t curled up together like the last couple of times he’d been there to help her sleep. No, this time there was ample space between the two. But the simple presence on the other side of the mattress had a soothing effect, an effect that Jordan was quickly becoming terrified of.

Why was it him? Why did it have to be him that was her solution? Why was it that a werewolf, a supposed danger to human society, was the only one that was able to comfort her and support her from her self-built fortress?

She didn’t like it, the feeling of being dependent on him, even if only for this one thing. She’d dealt with the nightmares fine when she was in prison. She’d suffered through it, night after night. The nightmares seemed worse now, although she doubted they were actually. She knew why they seemed worse. It was because she could actually get a reprieve.

Now that she knew what it felt like to wake up actually feeling rested, she didn’t want what she was used to. Now she knew what it felt like to wake up in someone's arms, some who - for reasons unknown to her - cared. She’d had the privilege to feel the comfort, and now it seemed like she couldn’t live without it.

Disgruntled, Jordan rolled out of bed and shuffled to the bathroom. She didn’t want to think about any of this. She hadn’t wanted to be a part of any of this. But she was. So she was going to have to roll with the punches, because resisting was just going to get her bruised.

    By the time she got downstairs to the kitchen, the fuzziness of the morning had mostly faded, drowned out by the loud protests of her stomach. She opened the refrigerator door only to be hit by a wave of annoyance. She just remembered that the past three days in the mountains meant that the refrigerator was almost empty.

How the hell did Chen manage to get through an entire refrigerator of food so fast? She thought she had portioned things out correctly. Obviously not.

With a loud groan, Jordan closed the door and prepared herself to go shopping. It was the middle of the day on a Monday. There shouldn’t be that many people in the supermarkets, she’d be fine. Jordan trudged upstairs again to communicate to Chen that she was leaving. She managed it by pointing outside out the window and then herself, and then pointing to him and then to the house. Chen seemed to understand. Well, that was what Jordan was hoping when she pulled out of the driveway several minutes later. Granted, he was still half asleep and the small grunt of acknowledgement she had heard might have actually been a protest at being roughly shaken awake, but Jordan was going to take all of that as his understanding.

    Once she’d arrived at the nearest supermarket, Jordan prepared herself for being around people again. People that weren’t a part of some experiment, people that weren’t monitoring her every motion. They were just everyday citizens, going about their daily lives. So Jordan squared her shoulders, grabbed a cart and made her way inside.

Jordan was happy that mundane errands like grocery shopping hadn’t changed. Everyone was too busy caught up in their own routines to pay any attention to Jordan, and she was comforted by that fact. So, she mentally rifled through everything she remembered her mother making and bought the ingredients accordingly.

Jordan hesitantly approached the meat counter with her nearly-full cart, preparing to get one of the more judgemental looks she’d ever received. She tapped on the small bell on the counter, sending a nervous smile when a burly man emerged from the back.

“Hello, how can I help you?” He slipped on a pair of gloves.

“Um,” Jordan paused, “Is it possible to get 10 pounds of the pork shoulder, 10 pounds of the pork belly, 10 pounds of the sirloin, 20 pounds of chicken , and 10 pounds of ground beef?” She watched the butcher’s eyebrows rise higher on his forehead with every request. “I know that it’s a lot all at once, if you need time I can pick it up later.”

“No, that’s totally fine!” The butcher began shifting the glass doors of the display case and pulling out cuts of pork shoulder. “You having a party?”

“Uh,” Jordan awkwardly chuckled, “Sure. Let’s call it that.”

Jordan struggled to keep the conversation up after that, but the butcher didn't seem to notice, amicably chatting with her until he had all of her meat neatly wrapped in brown paper. By the time she’d loaded everything into the cart, it was close to overflowing. As she struggled to maneuver it through the aisles, Jordan contemplated getting a second cart, but she was basically done so she decided against it. She paused before going towards the check-out counter, glancing back at the frozen food section.

Begrudgingly, Jordan turned the cart around, shoving it towards the aisles, looking through the glass doors until she found what she was looking for. She returned to the checkout counter, now laden with another five bags of the dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets that Chen seemed to love so much.

Jordan left the store, leaving behind a stunned cashier. She was astounded by how much prices had risen since she’d gone into jail, and an amount of food that would have lasted her half a year. But with a werewolf to feed, she might be lucky if it lasted two weeks.

Chen was waiting for her when she got home, hovering nervously around the door. Jordan noticed the tension visibly fade from his face the moment he saw her. To placate him, she handed him several bags of groceries and pointed at the kitchen counter. He took them with a nod before she went to get the rest. It took five trips to get all of the groceries into the house. Chen helped carry everything into the kitchen, but on the last trip, Jordan was on her own. Chen had found the chicken nuggets, and was currently walking in circles around the kitchen with a bag of them raised above his head. Once he saw Jordan enter the room, he eagerly pointed at the bag in his hands, a bright grin on his face. Jordan let out an exasperated sigh; she knew what they were having for dinner. She probably should've fought for something healthier, but who could resist that smile?

Chen followed her around as she puttered about, putting all the groceries in their respective places. Jordan decided to seize the moment as a language-teaching opportunity, and told him the names of the items as she put them away.

“Tomato.” She enunciated, pointing at the fruit. He sniffed at it and repeated after her. His voice seemed to be getting stronger, it wasn’t as airy as it was before.

They went through the process with all of the items that she’d brought back. Jordan didn’t bother repeating every single one; they weren’t important in the grand scheme of things. Jordan contemplated how she was going to teach him grammar. They had been getting along fine without really having to verbally communicate with one another, but eventually it could get annoying.

Jordan decided that she might look up some beginner’s language books and see if Chen took an interest. If not, she might have to turn into a temporary teacher. Could he even read? Probably not, if he didn’t speak.

If Jordan had not been so lost in her thoughts, if she had paid more attention to the person she was teaching language to, she might have noticed.

She might have noticed that the werewolf standing next to her was sounding out the words she was saying to him only out of obligation and to hear more of her voice. She would have noticed that he never even glanced at the items she waved in his face. His attention was directed mostly at the bag of chicken nuggets cradled lovingly in his embrace. Once Jordan enunciated another word, he would snap to attention, unconsciously gazing adoringly at her profile, the corners of his mouth tugging upwards in a shy smile. But the minute she began shuffling items around, he’d shake the bag of nuggets in excitement.

The doorbell suddenly rang, startling Chen so badly he dropped the bag of chicken nuggets on the floor. He picked them back up with a small whimper. Jordan rolled her eyes at the overgrown baby before sauntering to the door to ask after the unexpected visitor.

***

Wassup. A big thank you to Shooka24 for beta-ing and forever supplying me with sugar.

Thank for all of the comments, guys! I really enjoy reading them, and some definetely helped spur me on for this chapter. Frankly, comments make my days, so keep 'em coming! I want to know what you guys think, it's really helpful for the overall planning process.

Until the next update!