When Liona got home again, she was met with the silence of the house. Her dad's car was gone still, so that meant that her mom and dad had decided to stay late to catch up with their family. Her siblings must have gone to bed, since they weren't in the common areas of the house when she entered.
Heading for her room, Liona sighed when she was in her refuge. This was her nest, her safe space. No one entered without her permission, not even her mom. She still vividly remembered choosing this room as a little girl because even though the house had been thoroughly and professionally cleaned, she felt closer to her mom by picking this room as her own. She hadn't been more than five or six when they moved into her grandparent's former house.
Her baby sisters had been so little back then, and she supposed that the small house they had lived in before was deemed too small for their family when her grandparents had retired. Moving into this huge house where she had fond memories of spending time with her grandparents as a small child was fun. Although, when she realized that she wasn't going to see her grandpas all the time because they were moving out, she had bawled her little eyes out. She loved them dearly and all the fun and special times she had gotten them to herself.
With countless cousins, that meant that she had to split her time with them with everyone. But her grandpas always made sure that each of their grandchildren had one-on-one time with them, even if most of her family consisted of twins. Apparently, they thought that treating any twins as individuals rather than as a set was the best course of action to promote bonding and to not foster feelings of resentment as the children grew. Of course, they also did activities and spent time with their grandchildren as a set too, but individualism was recognized in each set as well. Even though all her siblings were an identical twin, they each had their interests and behaviors that set them apart from their twin. At a glance, she could tell each of her siblings apart, even when they had tried to fool people when they were younger.
Sighing once more, Liona got ready for bed. Despite her keyed up omega earlier, she had had a long day and was really exhausted. School was going to suck tomorrow, but she was determined to do her best. She had her fated mate now, and that meant that she needed to actually get her life in order and figure out what she could do in the future to support herself until she came into her inheritance. She was determined that she would support Erik and her once she was twenty-one, and then they would get married and discuss having children at that time. Maybe they would bond with him sooner, or maybe they would bond after marriage, she wasn't sure when she would be ready for that since it involved intercourse.
The idea excited her, but at the same time, she was a little afraid of that step. She had never felt like she had when she was with Erik, and her inner omega was pushing the limits of what she thought she was ready for. That was what scared her about the whole thing. Should she let her omega have its way? But if she did, what happens after they do it? There was so much to worry about if they were to let themselves get carried away. She understood vaguely that Erik was worried about that step too, and that was why he wasn't ready yet either.
After turning out her light, and crawling into bed, Liona decided that they could talk about it together and figure out when they were ready to take that step together. If there was anything she had learned from her mother's lectures and observing her parents and grandparents, it was that communication was key. Understanding your partner, and consent, were the two biggest things she had been taught in her life.
Soon she drifted off, and dreamed a little dream that left her feeling frustrated when she woke. Erik had been at the center of that dream, and that was the frustrating part. It was so vivid that she blushed. She had no idea that her imagination could supply such things to her when she didn't even know what they were!
Getting up for the day, Liona reluctantly put on her school uniform, looking forward to seeing the last of it. She then remembered that she would get to design the next generation of student's uniforms, so there was that to look forward too. Heading downstairs, she didn't sense her parents in the house, so she assumed that she would need to make breakfast for herself and her siblings.
Once breakfast was made, and her siblings still hadn't appeared for the morning meal, she headed upstairs to knock on their doors. After the sleepy reply from her brothers' room, she moved on to her sisters' room, which was downstairs. Taking the back stairs, she headed down the back hall where their room was. Before she could knock on the door, though, it opened an Ari with her comical bedhead opened the door, apparent that she had just woken up.
"Don't worry, Rora is up, she's just being lazy." Ari said with a yawn as she headed for the bathroom.
Liona accepted Ari's statement and made her way to the kitchen via the living room. On her way through the room, she spotted something out of place. A black backpack was sitting on the ground near their couch. It didn't look like any of her siblings' bags, so she went over to pick it up, since it had to be Erik's bag.
The first thing she noticed about it was that it was heavy. The next thing that she noticed was the faint smell of rotting food. Normally, she would have respected Erik's privacy, but the smell coming from the bag was not something she was willing to ignore. Especially since she remembered that Erik had shown her the lunch box she had made for him.
Opening the bag, she dug into the main pocket for the bento box to find the source of the smelly food gone bad. The downside to cooking with fresh ingredients that weren't chock-full of preservatives or genetically modified to resist decay, meant that food would go bad much more quickly than food with those qualities.
Since her mom was a doctor, she insisted that they don't stuff their bodies with too much of it because it could cause unforeseen harm. So GMO free and organically grown foods were typically the norm in their house.
Finding the lunch box, she pulled it out, but as she was taking out the bento, something else fell out. She stooped down to pick up the item and realized that it was Erik's wallet. It had fallen open, and it was displaying his school ID, his bus pass, and a couple of bank cards in the slots available. Picking it up, she put it back in his bag without further snooping than she could see as it had fallen.
After breakfast, her siblings were on their way to school, while she was taking a detour before heading there herself. Erik would be needing his bag and especially his wallet back, so she planned to drop by the coffee shop and drop it off for him, as well as a fresh bento for him to eat today.
Arriving at the coffee shop, Liona let her car park itself, and she got out with the backpack in hand as well as the fresh bento box. She walked up to the pedestrian window, hoping that Erik was already here and would be the one working this window instead of the drive-through or making drinks this morning.
She was lucky, Erik was working the pedestrian window this morning. It wasn't too busy right now, with only a handful of cars in the drive-through and a couple of people ahead of her in line for the pedestrian window. She smiled, anticipating seeing him before school. When she got to the window, her smile widened as she placed her order with him and then asked if he had a couple of minutes to see her.
"Hi, Er! Good Morning! Do you have a few minutes? You left something at my house yesterday, and I'm sure you'll be needing it."
"Yeah, just let me get your drink made, Lia." Erik smiled back at her after talking to one of his co-workers for a moment.
A couple of minutes later, Erik came out of the coffee shop with her drink in hand, as well as a plate of breakfast scones.
"Hi, did you sleep well last night?" Erik smiled at her and leaned over to give her a kiss on her cheek.
Liona blushed as she remembered her vivid dream last night and the feelings that it had stirred up in her. "Yeah, I slept well. You left your bag at my house last night, so I thought I'd bring it by for you."