Taking a deep breath and trying to clear his head, Matthew slowly opened the door and walked in to Rebecca’s room. Trying to make his voice sound unconcerned and indifferent, he asked, “You nearly finished in here?”

“I am,” Rebecca reassured him, lightly laughing as she slammed the door to the wardrobe shut. Pirouetting around suddenly, she twirled and laughed as the hem of her skirt flapped up and spun around her. Thin, yellow, and almost transparent, the skirt she’d found to wrap around her waist resembled lingerie much more than anything else. No longer than a cheerleader’s mini-skirt, Matthew had to admit that it did almost nothing to hide Rebecca’s womanly attributes.

Feeling a slight smile rise to the corner of his lips in spite of his foul mood, Matthew whistled slightly and let his gaze wander down and then back up Rebecca’s body. Yellow knee-high hose highlighted her legs, going under the silver leglets which worked as her armor, leaving her feet bare and free. Rebecca’s chest was still uncovered, her round breasts freely exposed with the nipples slightly perked from the chill which permeated the castle. Only a thin shawl of pure yellow lace draped across her shoulders covering them.

Whistling once more, Matthew asked laughingly, “So where’s the top? Out of all those I passed you, you couldn’t find any to wear?”

“I could,” Rebecca giggled merrily before sticking her tongue out at him, “but I thought you preferred me wearing something like this. Should I get a top of some sort and put it on,” she teased, turning to skip back over towards the wardrobe.

“You’re fine,” Matthew assured her, quickly stepping forward and wrapping his arms around her, pulling her back tight up against his chest. “It’s not like those little clothes which you seem restricted to wearing is actually offering any sort of protection for you. The bracers and leg pieces are what actually protects you.”

“I know,” Rebecca laughed slightly, snuggling back in his arms. “It’s why I didn’t bother with one – they don’t really do anything to help keep me safe.”

Leaning forward, Matthew nibbled on the corner of her ears slightly, while teasingly asking, “Aren’t you going to be cold like this though? Or at least embarrassed?”

“It’s not really cold back at the school,” Rebecca reminded him as she reached back to stroke his head gently with her hand while he continued to blow lightly onto her neck and earlobe. “As for being embarrassed, I’m trying not to think about it. The world’s changed. We’ve changed. Everything has changed. If I let embarrassment determine my actions from now on, I’m just living in the past and asking to get myself or someone else hurt.”

“Like it or not,” Rebecca stated stubbornly, “I’m a dancer class now and dancers are figures of public attention. If I’m doing my job right, people are going to be looking at me and watching me; otherwise what’s the point? Who cares if a dancer is giving the performance of a lifetime, if no one sees it. I realize,” Rebecca admitted softly, “that I have to get used to being seen and stared at by people. This is my way of trying to adjust.”

Trembling slightly, Rebecca asked quietly -- almost so quiet it was hard to understand her -- “Do you think I’m being foolish?”

“Not at all,” Matthew reassured her, reaching around and cupping each breast gently in his hands. “I think you’re trying the best you can. Adjusting the best you know how. I just wish Jennifer would have been strong enough to do the same.”

“So how is she?” Rebecca asked. “I take it that’s where you went when you left here a little while ago, or am I wrong?” Bringing her hands back down, she gently wrapped them around Matthew’s as he playfully kneaded and squeezed her breasts.

“She’s still screwed,” Matthew replied, sighing and tightening his grip around Rebecca’s chest. “I made certain to inform her about what happened; I forbid her from trying to hurt herself or us; and then I basically just left her to herself. I really didn’t want to hang around in there if she was going to cry, scream, or try to blame me for what happened. I didn’t do it and I can’t do anything about it,” Matthew admitted, sighing and hiding his face into the nape of Rebecca’s neck.

“So…”, pausing for a moment, Rebecca squeezed his hands in hers once again and tried to organize her concerns. After a moment, she shrugged slightly and sighed to herself. Sounding defeated, she asked, “Is she going to be of any help at all to us? Can we rely on her for anything at all? Her talent was useful back in the cafeteria earlier,” she admitted, before sadly admitting, “I’d hate to lose what she brings to the group for us.”

Breathing deeply into the nape of her neck for several moments, Matthew took his time considering before answering. “Honestly,” he admitted reluctantly, “I don’t think we can rely on her at the moment. She might have to do anything I tell her to,” Matthew fretted, “but that doesn’t mean she’s going to react in a beneficial manner to us if something comes up.”

Leaning up and whispering gently into Rebecca’s ear, Matthew asked, “Do you honestly think you could depend on her to grab you before you fell off a cliff, if you had to? I really don’t,” he admitted.

“I don’t either,” Rebecca agreed, shaking her head slightly from side to side. “At least, not right now. She’s too unpredictable. Too unstable. I don’t think I’d really feel comfortable putting my life in her hands at all,” she admitted sadly. “The problem is,” Rebecca slowly chewed on her bottom lip as she worried over the issue, “is what are we going to do with her, for now? Just leave her here?”

“I don’t think so,” Matthew answered, shaking his head back and forth as he slowly pulled away from Rebecca and turned back towards the door. “There’s not much she could actually do here which would be useful for either us or her – all we’d end up doing is isolating her and leaving her to brood.

“The best thing I think we can do for Jennifer at this moment is to take her back to the school with us,” Matthew decided. “At least there she can use her talents, helping build up and protect that damnable crystal, while getting some valuable skill levels in her magic.”

Turning, Rebecca bounced over and wrapped her arm around Matthew’s. “And what about the boys trying to breed with her? You know what that crystal does to people at night,” she warned, and then snorted slightly. “Though, to be honest, I don’t really care if they do have their way with her. It was her own prudish selfishness that got her into this mess to begin with.”

“Well I’m not sharing,” Matthew snorted derisively. “Whether she brought it onto herself or not, she’s mine now and I’m not one to share my toys. I won’t share you and I’m not going to share her either,” he declared decisively. “We’ll just have to make certain to get her out of that cavern before nightfall,” Matthew insisted, “and if one of those bastards wants her while she’s working, she can just practice turning them into shish kabobs.”

“I’m not going to share any of my toys,” Matthew repeated incisively, wrinkling his nose up to the point where it caused the skin on his forehead to crinkle up and Rebecca to laugh lightly. Leaning up on her tiptoes, she gently kissed him on the forehead.

“Then don’t share your toys, you greedy little boy,” she teased him lightly. “Keep them all for yourself and have everyone hating you for your selfishness, if you want.”

“I will,” Matthew snorted. “Unless you’re wanting me to share you with those boys?” Raising an eyebrow inquisitively, Matthew stared down at Rebecca without blinking.

“Silly boy,” Rebecca giggled, then leaned up and kissed him lightly on the nose again, “you can’t share me. You’ve already promised.”

Snorting over her teasing, Matthew suddenly reached down, gripped both hands tight around Rebecca’s hips, and pulled her tightly up to him. Leaning down, Matthew forced his lips tight against hers and roughly forced his tongue inside Rebecca’s mouth as he kissed her.

When he finally released his kiss, Rebecca shocked Matthew by laughing happily instead of seeming shocked or upset. Gripping both arms tightly around his neck, she half leaped forward and wrapped her legs around Matthew’s waist, before leaning up and kissing him just as roughly and passionately as he’d kissed her moments before.

She was still laughing slightly when she finally unlocked her lips from his and laid her head forward to rest against his chest. “So,” she asked breathlessly, “what are the two of us going to be doing while your toy is working in the cavern? Are we going to be trying to beef up defenses as well?” Slowly, she unwrapped her legs from around Matthew’s waist, choosing to lean up tight against him and rest her head on his shoulder instead while he was still holding on so firmly to her hips with his hands.

“I don’t have much talent for defense building,” Matthew admitted, leaning back to rest against the wall while Rebecca snuggled tight against him. “My talents lie more in scouting and fighting – that’s all I needed to do in the beta to survive,” he explained, reaching up and rubbing Rebecca’s hair gently with one hand, while the other slid under her thin skirt and caressed back and forth across her bare butt. If she minded at all, Rebecca showed no sign of it as she leaned tight against him and slowly rubbed her hands up and down his sides as well.

“What we’re going to be doing is scouting, exploration, and elimination,” Matthew asserted gently. “First we’ll search the school and see if there’s any more survivors hiding out in the cafeteria, some other classroom, or one of the other buildings. Places like the weight lifting room or PE storage shed might be where people could pull up and lock the door behind themselves and hide out the trouble for a few days.”

“We might find a few more survivors to lead down to the cavern,” Matthew said hopefully. “After all, every person we round up and put in that cave is another person to help defend it and keep it safe, until we can find some way to deal with that crystal permanently. It also reduces the number of people out on the surface who might somehow lead trouble back to us,” Matthew reasoned. “All we need is for some idiot to go out, run into a swarm of orcs or some such thing, and then lead them back to the school to stumble upon that damn crystal.”

“So we’re going to find those idiots first,” Rebecca summarized. “Round them up and keep them out of trouble.”

“That’s the plan,” Matthew admitted. “Such as it is.”

“Then we never should’ve let Jason leave,” Rebecca worried. “He sounds just like the type of idiot you’re describing. If he gets himself into a jam, he’d lead anyone who wanted him to, back to the school just to save himself. You should’ve just killed him when you had the chance,” Rebecca muttered worriedly.

“If I’d known then what I know now, I would’ve,” Matthew admitted. “Thing is, we didn’t realize about the trouble of that damn crystal until after Jason and his merry crew of idiots left. They’re really why we need to hurry up and get on back as soon as possible.”

Taking a deep breath, Rebecca leaned up and hugged Matthew tight one last time before pushing herself back away from him. “So when are we leaving?”

“Right now,” Matthew assured her. “I honestly can’t see any reason to put it off any longer. Get anything you need and prepare yourself. I’ll take you back to where we were first and then follow right along behind with Jennifer.”

“So you’re going to abandon me in some creepy empty room first,” Rebecca pouted.

“Better you than her, I think,” Matthew insisted. “At least I know you’ll think for yourself for the minute or so I’m going and fetching her. Who knows what the hell she’d do at the moment. I just don’t have an ounce of faith in her thinking for herself and trying to keep herself out of trouble currently.”

“You’re probably right,” Rebecca admitted, biting her lip lightly. Skipping over, she grabbed up a sword which she’d scavenged from somewhere in the castle when Matthew wasn’t paying attention and then bounced back over. “I’m ready. At least,” she corrected, “as ready as I suppose I’ll ever be.”

Wrapping his arms tight around her, Matthew called out “Return Two!” A moment later, the room was empty and silent, as if they’d never been there at all.