I awoke to the sound of whimpering.

Specifically, Khloe's whimpering.

This wasn't really an uncommon occurrence, in fact, it almost happened every night.

Usually, I could just ignore it and fall back asleep, but she was laying the other side of my bed this time, so it was kind of harder to ignore.

I turned over so I was facing her.

Maybe I should just wake her up this time.

It would probably be easier than listening to her all night.

I could see that she was scared, the way she had herself curled up. Not to mention the look she had on her face.

"Xan... der," she spoke quietly in her sleep, "Please... don't..."

Her body became tenser.

Dammit of course she would be having a nightmare about that.

A small whine came from her as she gripped the sheets, tears beginning to show between her eyelids.

I let out a small groan, pushing my self up to make my way over to her.

I kind of found it odd that she was just now crying about this whole thing. She didn't once shed a tear about it until now.

I gently crawled over top of her, trapping her underneath me so she wouldn't scare herself so bad that she fell off of the bed.

Knowing her, that was completely possible.

I slowly knelt down, trying the calmest approach first.

"Khloe," I spoke quietly.

She seemed to react to my voice, but she didn't wake up.

"Master..." She sniffled in her still-asleep state.

My eyes furrowed a bit at that title.

"Help..." she finished.

Oh great, now I was starting to feel bad.

I lightly touched her arm with my fingers.

"I'm right here Khloe, just wake up."

My eyes widened when she quickly grabbed onto my shirt, pulling herself closer to me.

I didn't even think before my hand made its way to her back, holding her there.

She relaxed a bit in my grasp.

Well... this was... unexpected.

I could feel her heart thundering against my chest, but her whimpering had calmed down.

I... I guess this works too.

Her body was warm against mine, so I guess I was getting something out of this.

I slowly laid myself back onto the pillows as gently as I could, keeping her body close to mine.

Apparently, I didn't do it gently enough, because her eyes shot wide open right after I did.

Her breaths were heavy as she tried to figure out what was happening through her groggy mind.

Her body tensed up as soon as her eyes met with mine, finally noticing what she was doing.

She quickly pushed herself back, distancing herself from me the best she could without falling off of the bed, her fear reappearing.

"I'm so sorry!" She began, quickly wiping her eyes, " I didn't mean to do that I just-"

I tuned out her meaningless apologies, instead focusing on the fact that she was holding back her tears.

It wasn't hard to tell that she was doing it, but why was she even doing it?

It's not like I was going to punish her for it.

Oh yea...

My jaw clenched as I remembered.

Of course she would be, that asshole Pet Master whipped her God knows how many times the last time she cried.

I cut off her rambling, hooking my hand behind her back and pulling her against me once again.

If this calmed her down earlier, than it should work now too.

She was just still for a moment, like she was trying to figure out if there were bad intentions in what I was doing.

"It's fine, Khloe. You didn't do anything wrong."

Again, she sniffled as I felt her body slowly relax, her hands tentatively found themselves against my shirt again.

Yet, she still refused to let her tears fall.

She just looked so helpless, trying to hold everything together despite what she went through today.

"I know I should have asked you this earlier, but, are you okay?" I asked.

I kind of felt like a jerk for not asking, I just patched up her side and went on with it.

I guess I was too mad at Xander to even care.

She just gave a slight nod.

That was a lie, but ill let it slide.

"I'm not just talking about just physically."

Her grip tightened ever so slightly on my shirt as she bit down on her bottom lip.

I'll take that as a no then.

Still, despite all that, she still wasn't crying.

The amount of willpower she had was impressive, really.

But holding it in wasn't going to make her situation any better.

"Damn it Khloe I'm not going to punish you for crying." I finally said.

I guess that's all she needed to hear because the next thing I knew, she was burying her face in my chest, finally letting her feelings show.

I just laid there, holding her there as she cried.

Most Vampires don't understand the mentality of humans. They don't allow their pets to show emotions and then get bored of their pets because they act like emotionless zombies.

They don't understand that forcing a human to suppress how their feeling is just setting them up for failure.

Pets living in fear are nothing more than just blood bags.

"I was just s-so scared." she sobbed.

I was partially surprised that she openly shared how she felt.

Perhaps she was beginning to be more comfortable around me.

"I know," I said, bringing my hand up to her upper back, "I'm sorry."

The room fell into silence, save for her quiet sobs.

I took the opportunity to set the sheets and blankets that fell off of her during that whole thing over Khloe.

Being right next to a vampire wasn't exactly the warmest place a human could be, and I didn't really want her to get uncomfortable.

She didn't even flinch when I placed my hand back onto her.

No other words were spoken that night.

She didn't apologize for anything or beg me not to do something.

She just laid there, shamelessly letting her emotions out until she eventually fell asleep.