He woke as the sun set, and was immediately conscious of warmth again, but this wasn't the warmth of sunlight, this was something else, something much more pleasant. He opened his eyes, and found that Megan was cuddled up to him, her head pillowed on his shoulder. He held quite still, not sure what to do. What kind of crazy person cuddles a vampire? he thought. It's not as though I'm warm! She made a sleepy little sound and shifted, putting one arm across him. Bemused, but not really wanting to wake her, and finding her warm human presence and obvious trust in him strangely comforting, he lay still as the last hint of sunlight faded from the sky. And then nearly an hour longer, finding it easy enough to simply relax and do nothing, as the girl slept on his shoulder. He was considering waking her when she finally stirred and sat up. Then she looked down at David and blushed.

"Er, sorry. The floor was just hard, and I'm not used to sleeping without a pillow..." she trailed off.

He smiled. "It's okay. I didn't mind. But we should get going if we're to make the rest of the trip tonight."

They crawled out of the bolt hole, David pausing to seal it up again, and then he picked up Megan and ran on towards the foothills in the distance. Megan had fallen asleep again, and he was feeling a little tired and hungry himself, when at last they reached the cabin. He set her down and looked ruefully at his home, much less tidy than when he'd first seen it. The front door was still off its hinges. The front windows were still empty, though at least the glass shards had been cleaned out of them, and inside books were piled in untidy heaps, the shattered bookshelf lying in one corner. The moose head was still on the floor as well.

"It's... kind of a mess in the first room. Sorry. We got attacked here once, and were never really able to do anything to fix the damage."

Megan yawned and stretched. "That's okay. If there's something to eat and drink, that's all I want." She blinked drowsily, and added, "You said 'we'. Is there somebody else here then?"

David shook his head sadly. "No, not anymore. There was... another vampire, a friend, who lived here with me for a while. But he's gone now."

Megan looked curious, but she apparently decided to leave questions for later.

David walked into the cabin, with Megan following behind. He flipped a switch, and a warm glow filled the front room. The battle had not, thankfully, managed to break the lamp attached to the ceiling.

Megan gasped at the sight, and David smiled. "There's no need for barrier lights here, so there's plenty of electricity for other things." He looked into the bedroom off the main room, which held only a dresser, as he'd removed his bed from it. "I'll need to set up the bed here, but first you should probably have some food and something to drink."

He led her back to the kitchen, where he flipped on a second light and dug another can of stew out of the storage room behind. Aidan had eventually showed him how to work the stove, so soon he had a pot of stew heating. While it warmed he got a mug down from a cabinet, and filled it with water at the tap. "There's a spring, and a water tank, so we have all the water we can use," he said. She nodded and drank thirstily, draining several mugs before she was done. He pulled the pot off the stove shortly after. "Careful, it's hot," he said, and handed over the pot and spoon.

Megan ate like she was starving,and David was reminded of his first night here, of his first taste of stew. While she ate, he went back to his own room. The bed he'd been using came apart into several pieces, which was how he'd gotten it back there in the first place. He had no idea how Aidan's bed had been moved into the room, it seemed to be solid, a heavy thing of dark wood and wrought iron accents. He dismantled his bed and started carrying the pieces, large but not at all heavy to him, to the front room. "I need to put the bed together," he explained as he passed through the kitchen, "I figured you'd probably rather sleep in the front room where there's sunlight than in the dark in the back."

She made a wordless sound of agreement, but didn't actually look up from her food.

It didn't take too long to assemble the frame and get the mattress in place on it. He hadn't really kept up the laundry, but there was, luckily, one set of clean sheets left, she he didn't have to leave the used ones on.

He smiled a bit at himself to be so occupied with mundane tasks. He remembered suddenly how his mother would fuss over clean sheets and the best dishes and other such things whenever she had had visitors over. He sighed softly. He had long since reached the point where he didn't need to lean on his mother, but he still missed her terribly.

He heard Megan's footsteps approaching behind him as he finished making up the bed. He looked up at her and tried to smile, but he still felt rather melancholy.

"You okay?" she asked.

He shrugged. "Just... missing home. My mother always made a big deal about putting on clean sheets for guests. And here I am, doing the same thing... but I'll never see her again. I hope she's doing all right."

Megan cocked her head to the side, and looked thoughtful. "Well... maybe I could go talk to her for you? I mean... you can't go back into the cities, but I can, right? You could guard me to somewhere nearby, maybe."

David blinked. "I never thought of that. I guess you could. I... would you?"

"Of course!" She yawned then. "But not tonight."

David smiled. "Of course not! Probably not for a day or two, at least. You're tired, and honestly so am I. I haven't taken a break in quite a while. So go ahead and sleep. Dawn isn't far off, so I think I'm off to bed as well."