Daybreak

As Shadow entered into the bathroom with Aryanne still in his arms, he placed her down on the toilet seat, thankful the lid was down, to turn the water on in his bath tub.

The warm water flowed from the faucet and hit the bottom of the linoleum tub, while the warm steam of the water filling up the room and relaxing both Aryanne and Shadow. With the tub being filled with the warm water, Shadow began working on Aryanne's attire, first removing her pink collar before moving on to her socks, wet and damp with Shadow's seed and her own juices. "Thank you..." She finally said, coming out of her daze and watching Shadow begin to slowly remove her pink socks. "What're you saying thank you for?" Shadow asked, a questioned look on his face as he completed his task of removing the sock, revealing her pearly white hoof. "For all of it..." She finally managed to say, shyly looking over her shoulder with half lidded eyes and dreamily looking down at the ground, "That was... Incredible..." She concluded, a smile coming across Shadow's face as he kissed the bottom of her now exposed hoof, drawing her attention up from the floor and into Shadow's ruby red eyes. "It was great for me too... You're great..." He smiled, now going to work on her other sock, taking less time to reveal her beautiful white hoof and placing her accessories in the bowl of his sink.

Eventually, the bathtub was filled with enough water for two. Turning off the faucet with a turn of the knob, Shadow placed his hoof against the surface of the water, judging it for a short while before coming to the conclusion that it was a nice and comfortable warm temperature. "Hey..." Shadow said, turning behind him to get the attention of Aryanne, her ear flicking up and her gaze turning to him, "Water's warm..."

"Alright..." Aryanne sighed, rising from her place on the toilet seat and stepping into the warm water, standing in the tub for a short while and slowly lowering herself down. As she finally hit the bottom, Aryanne smiled, closing her eyes and enjoying the warmth surrounding her. Making sure she was comfortable in the tub, Shadow entered in after her, finding a spot right next to her and grabbing a nearby cup, filling it up with water and pouring it over his head, enjoying the warm and refreshing feeling of the water as it washed away the stink and grime of the previous day. Looking over his shoulder, Shadow smiled as he saw Aryanne smiling back at him while laying on her side, ready to lose himself in those blue eyes of hers. Shame she was probably bought, must've cost quite a bit...

Debating with himself for a while, an idea sprang into Shadow's head.

"Hey..." He said, taking Aryanne's hoof and squeezing it to get her attention, "Move on top of me..." He said, Aryanne giving him a confused look yet still smiling. "Just trust me." He reassured her with a chuckle, Aryanne's response being a roll of her eyes as she slowly climbed on top of Shadow, wrapping her forearms around him and nuzzling his chest. Responding with a smile, Shadow wrapped his wings and arms around the mare, pulling her in closer with the water passing through his wings and across his body. "What is it?" Shadow asked when he noticed Aryanne biting her lower lip and her eyes trailing down his body.

"Nothing... just a funny thought..." she finally said, moving herself up to face Shadow eye to eye, giving him a small kiss on the nose and giggling as she felt the water begin to dampen her stomach. Wonder which one she works for... Shadow thought as he grabbed a bottle of shampoo, pressing down on the nozzle and letting a small amount of soap fall in the center of his hoof. Distributing the gel between both hooves, Shadow rubbed them together and placed them against Aryanne's mostly dampened mane. "Hope you don't mind..." Shadow smiled as Aryanne gave him a confused look before returning the gesture.

"Of course..." Aryanne said, taking a small pump of soap herself, running her soap covered hooves through Shadow's mane, scrubbing it in and causing a small chuckle to erupt from Shadow's chest. "Thanks..." He said as he continued his small circular motion in her mane, now fairly messy and full of the sweet smell of vanilla. "I never expected you to be the type to use vanilla..." Aryanne said, taking note of the smell, now also coming from Shadow's messy mane. "What can I say..." Shadow said with a shrug, "I like it. Makes me feel comfortable."

***************************************

By the time they finished, a good hour had already passed. Grabbing a towel as he exited the bathroom, Shadow shook his head as the phone on the counter began to ring. Damn... he thought as he heard Aryanne from the bathroom ask, "Do you happen to have a brush, Shadow?"

"Should be one in there..." Shadow responded, finally making it to the phone, "just keep looking under the sink and in the mirror..."

Taking it off of the receiver, Shadow simply said, "talk", before a stallion's voice came through the other end. "Hey, Rift. Glad you actually gave me the real number this time instead of some Pizza place or a sex hotline..." he spoke, clearly holding back annoyance. "Oh yeah... what can I say, I was bored and I was in need of a little fun." Shadow said, remembering the day as though it were just yesterday, a long and fairly thin stallion coming up to him and asking for his number to get into contact with him.

"Yeah... very funny..." the stallion said, clearly gritting his teeth as he spoke. "I'm sorry... besides, it looks like you used that last one for me..." Shadow said with a smile as he looked back down the hall. "What in Equestria are you talking about? I never ordered anything for you."

"Wait... what do you mean-?" Shadow began before being interrupted by the stallion. "Look, I don't know what you're talking about but that's not what I'm calling you for. I'm calling you to let you know that the owners of the stadium you plan on renting out for your show are gonna let you have it for the price we all agreed to. But..."

"Always gotta be a but, huh?" Shadow asked as he rolled his eyes. "There's good news and bad news. Which do you want first?"

"Bad." Shadow responded, reluctantly awaiting the response. "They're not allowing you to have the show on the date we requested because somepony already has it booked that day, some comedian or something like that." The stallion said, Shadow's hoof making contact with his forehead and a sigh escaping his lips. "So then what's the good?" Shadow asked. "The good is that you're still getting the show. Just two weeks from tomorrow..."

"Two weeks!?"

"What do you want me to do?" The stallion replied, now a little more frustrated than before, "that's the best that I can do for you. It was already a massive pain trying to get the place reserved in advance and if I had argued any more, then I may have lost us the whole reservation."

"I get that, and I thank you for it but..." Shadow said, brushing his mane back as stress soon followed. "Look, your last show was yesterday, anyways. Chances are you're still beat from it. Take the time off, get with friends or something, rest up. It's bad to go show after show like that immediately, anyways."

"Fine..." Shadow said, a period of silence coming soon after along with a few stressful thoughts came with it. He still had the money from his last show he could use for the next two weeks, which was just enough, but if this mare with him, and she was who she thought she was, then chances are that this morning wasn't going to be cheap. "Look, Rift, I'm sorry, but I gotta go now. There's about a million different other things I've gotta take care of right now. I'll call you back later." The stallion said without a second thought, the clicking sound of the other line hanging up being heard and eventually, a long buzzing sound following soon after before Shadow hung up the phone and placed it on the receiver.