When Rose woke up, she expected to reach out her arm to find Casmir laying beside her.
However when she noticed that Casmir wasn't there, she sleepily sat up to look around the room for Casmir, but he was nowhere to be found.
For a moment Rose felt very cold and lost, as if her hopes had been dashed and the change she had secretly yearned for, had disappeared. She didn't understand why she suddenly felt such a change, perhaps it was a consequence of her pregnancy or perhaps Rose was more fragile than she believed she was.
A tear formed in the corner of her eye as her emotions fell out of her control, yet before it could fall, the bedroom door opened.
Casmir almost stumbled inside, nearly falling over because he was holding a large tray full of various food items as he attempted to open the door.
He had woken up earlier and decided to fetch them both some breakfast before Rose woke up.
However as he tried to lightly close the door, still under the impression that Rose was still asleep, he noticed that Rose was sitting up on the bed.
"Ah, you're awake. I've brought us some... Hey, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" Casmir said as he quickly put the tray down and sat on the bed next to Rose.
Rose was shocked for a moment as her feelings of sadness suddenly disappeared, replaced by a feeling of warmth and hunger as she looked at the food Casmir had brought her.
She wiped her eyes as she attempted to hide her irrational feelings over such simple things.
"It.. It's nothing, I just had something in my eye.." Rose explained.
Casmir was still suspicious of her, he grabbed her hand and tried to reassure her.
"It's ok you can tell me, did you hurt yourself? Or is it to do with our... activities last night..?"
Rose was still reluctant to open up about it, she brushed it aside as she tried to occupy herself by taking a pastry off of the tray and eating it.
"I'm fine." She said as she looked away from Casmir and ate.
Casmir didn't pressure her to talk about it, instead he changed the subject.
"Ok, well I'm going to go out to do some shopping in a little while, do you want to come with me?" Casmir asked.
Rose declined, she was still slightly confused about her earlier feelings. She wanted to ask Elena about it, as she still felt a barrier between Casmir and her, one formed by her years working at the Golden Flower House.
The relationship Elena and Casmir shared took time to nurture and flower, Rose simply couldn't replicate such a connection in a short time, especially with a man.
It wasn't long before Casmir kissed Rose goodbye as he left the house.
Rose meanwhile, quickly made her way over to Elena's room to talk to her.
=========
Elena was woken up to loud knocking on her door, she reluctantly got up to answer it.
However she was surprised to find Rose was standing outside of her door looking worse for wear with dishevelled hair and wearing a creased black dress.
Upon finding out why she was here, Elena felt both confused and slightly warm.
Elena didn't understand why Rose was emotional but she felt happy that Rose trusted her enough to come and talk to her about this.
As they talked, the pair somehow made their way back to Casmir's room, in order to use his bath and hot water.
Rose was sorely in need of it after last night and she wanted Elena to stay in the room with her so that they could continue to talk.
Rose was very open about her body, freely getting into the bath naked in full view of Elena. Elena however was too shy to look at her, she certainly didn't have any plans to join her at the same time.
And so the pair found themselves, Rose cleaning and bathing herself, while Elena sat nearby with her back towards Rose as she occupied herself by cultivating as they talked.
Rose often found herself questioning Elena as to whether her feelings were strange or unusual, only to have Elena have no idea how to reply and simply provide obscure answers.
"What about pregnancy..? Does that make you feel weird this early? I know that it can give you mood swings but this is way too early for that isn't it?" Rose asked.
Elena agreed with her saying "Yeah, normally those kinds of symptoms don't happen until the first trimester, which is around 6 to 10 weeks in but maybe..."
It was at this point that Elena spoke about something she felt might be the reason.
"Rose.. Are you sure it's not just because of how you feel about Casmir, after all you've never been in an actual relationship from what you've told me... Maybe you just like him?"
Rose had thought of this but to her it didn't make sense. Casmir was great, she was even willing to live with him because of her child and his character, but it's only been a few weeks since they met each other.
'Am I really such a softy?' Rose thought.
"I don't know.. I'll think about it. Oh and I'm done with the bath now, could you hand me that towel?" Rose said.
Elena stopped her cultivation as she walked over to hand the towel to Rose.
Unexpectedly, Rose stood up in front of her, revealing her entire naked body to Elena.
Elena was gobsmacked by Rose's bountiful chest as she unwittingly compared it to her owns.
Rose Casually accepted the towel, stepping out of the bath and wrapping herself in it however when she saw Elena's face and her attention to her breast's, she laughed.
"Hehe, are you jealous Elena? You know, there are ways you can.. 'fortify' your equipment if you're willing." Rose teased.
Elena blushed and looked away as she declined "No way... I don't want any of those implants.."
"I'm not talking about implants, those are terrible, I agree. There are certain medicines you can take that naturally enhance them, they're perfectly safe but can be expensive." Rose explained.
Elena couldn't deny that she was interested in those medicine's however she discovered a problem as she looked at Rose who was only covered by a modest towel.
"Umm maybe we can talk about that another time.. If you want to talk again, you know where to find me but for now I need to go, Casmir will be back soon and I'm going to meet him." Elena said as she quickly exited the bathroom with a flushed face.
Rose didn't take notice of Elena's shyness, she simply smiled as she watched her leave, thankful for their short talk.
After Elena left, she quickly returned to her room with a bright red face. When she saw Rose's naked body, she realised something inside of her, her stomached fluttered in the same way as when she was with Casmir.
This was a familiar and yet new feeling to Elena, she didn't feel bad about it, she simply felt confused.
When Casmir visited her later, she didn't mention this to him because she was unsure of herself for the moment, she wanted to hold back for a time until she confirmed her feelings.
Elena spent most of the rest of the day with Casmir, mostly relaxing but they also cultivated together and shared their experiences, Elena was mostly the teacher but Casmir had a knack for thinking outside the box.
Casmir also brought Rose a few gifts from the market, some supplementary foods, medicines for pregnant women and even some music Qi chips.
The rest of the day passed by quite quickly, Elena elected to sleep with Casmir tonight, there were no carnal activities, just the warm comfort of each others bodies to help them through the night.
=========
Soon enough it was Monday morning.
Casmir was making his way to the Heldan Academy training fields for his second week of Qi studies.
He was quite excited because Instructor Redfire had told him and his fellow students, that they would see something special today, a live ferocious best.
Casmir didn't know exactly what to expect, everyone had heard about how dangerous and ferocious they were but Casmir had never seen how a ferocious beast actually acted...