We cuddle up in bed, really close to each other as my room is quite chilly. The days are getting colder again, which means I’ll probably not be able to go to uni tomorrow in a skirt. But comfy and cozy is fine enough for me as well.

“Ami, your tail is almost whacking me in the face.” Sam chuckles.

“Oh, oops, sorry. But that’s your fault for always wanting to be the big spoon.”

“Would you rather be the big spoon?” She whispers in my ear.

“No.”

“See, there you go. I am forced to be the big spoon by default.” Sam chuckles. “But I’ll just do this, so it’s fine.” She puts my tail to the side and puts it in between her chest and arm. “Never mind, that tickles too much.”

“I’ll just try not to hit you.”

“Thanks. I don’t know why your tail is this active today.”

“I don’t know either. Maybe I’m just really happy to be with you.”

“Awh… my heart.” She gives me a kiss on the back of my head. “You are just too cute.”

“No you.” I giggle.

Our conversation then falls quiet for a bit. Sam must be falling asleep again.

“Hey, Ami…” Or not.

“Mhmm?”

“This is a hypothetical, but would you want to marry me if I asked you right now?”

-Wow, that’s a big question.- “Uh, I think I would… but isn’t it a bit early for that… we’ve not really known each other for that long, right?”

“I know, I know.” She laughs softly. “I was just thinking the same thing… what I would do if you asked me.”

“And what would you answer?” I turn around to look at her, face to face.

“Of course I’d say yes.” She smiles.

“Oh, good.” I smile back.

“But if we both agree, why would we wait? Like, we would both say yes, if the other asked, right now. But at the same time, we also both agree that we should wait a bit longer.”

“Hmmm… that’s true…” I think about it for a couple of seconds. “You are the first person I’ve really loved this much… so I don’t really know what a good timing for all of this is…”

“Oh, I’ve definitely not been this head-over-heels in love with someone else before either.” Sam nods. “But yeah, it’s interesting to think about, isn’t it?”

“Mhmm.” I nod back. “But I’m really happy you think of me that way. Maybe we could get something to signify what we mean to each other.”

“Ah!” Sam calls out. “Can you give me my phone real fast?”

“Sure.” I roll over to reach for my phone and roll back to give it to her. “Had an idea?”

“I just remembered something like that. It’s called a promise ring.” She quickly types something into her phone and then shows the screen to me. “It’s a ring you give to each other to show your fidelity and commitment to one-another when you are in a romantic relationship. It’s different from an engagement because plans for marriage aren’t made yet, but it’s still symbolically pretty strong to show that you are bonded.”

“Ah, I’ve never heard of this before.” I scroll down the search results, but to me most of these rings all look the same as normal marriage rings.

“Should we get a couple?”

I give Sam’s phone back to her. “I don’t see why not.” I then lean in to kiss her. “But won’t they be expensive.”

“Hmm… That’s a good point.” Sam scratches her chin. “I suppose we can’t use Dwarger money for this.”

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“Yeah. Sadly we can’t… wait a minute… I think I just got an idea.”

“An idea concerning dwarger money?”

“Yeah!” I reply enthusiastically. “They are made of gold, aren’t they? The Golden Dwargon.”

“Hah, I think I see where you are going with this. But it’s not like we can go to a jewelry shop here to get rings made of some strange coins.”

“We don’t have to.” I smile. “We can let the rings be made in Turn of Destiny, then put them in the vault, and once they are in the vault I can summon them here!”

Sam’s smile grows even bigger. “I have such a smart and amazing girlfriend, don’t I?” She then leans in as well to kiss me.

“Hehe. So we’ll do that then?”

“Yep, sounds like a great idea.” Sam then looks at the clock of her cellphone. “Oh, another great idea would be to start sleeping right about now. Or we won’t be able to crawl out of bed tomorrow.” She shows her phone back to me. It’s already two in the morning.

“Ah… Yeah… Let me just roll over to be the little spoon again. Then we can start sleeping.”

“We can sleep while looking at each other too, you know?” Sam chuckles.

“If I look at you I will definitely not be able to fall asleep.”

“Did you just call me ugly?”

“Nonono!”

Sam is smiling, it was clear that she’s messing with me.

“Okay, maybe a little.”

“Oh, how rude.” Sam chuckles again and then gives me a final good night kiss before I turn around. “Night night, Ami.”

“Night night, Sam.”

This time we manage to sleep through the night without any interruptions, only to be woken up by the alarm I set on my cell phone. We both get dressed and head towards the living room where my sister and Nikki are already preparing some light breakfast.

“Hey there you two.” My sister greets us while reading the news on her tablet and drinking coffee.

“Good morning.” Nikki greets us too. “Did you two sleep well?”

“Yep.” I happily nod. “Sam proposed to me yesterday.”

Lise almost chokes on her coffee as she puts her mug down and starts coughing heavily. Nikki is looking at us with her eyes open wide.

“Isn’t that way too early?” Nikki asks while my sister is borderline still dying.

“Don’t worry, she means that we are getting promise rings for one another. It’s not an actual engagement.”

“Oh, okay.” Nikki brings her hand to her chest.

“Darn it, Ami.” Lise coughs. “Don’t drop that on me just like that, okay?”

“Hehe.” I laugh.

“But promise rings are really cute. Where do you want to get yours? Because they tend to get pretty expensive nowadays. We can support you monetarily if necessary though.”

“Well… we actually had a plan for that.” Sam starts explaining our plan with the Golden Dwargon while Nikki sits down as well to eat a croissant.

“That’s pretty unique, but don’t forget to ask if you can actually melt golden coins beforehand.” Nikki replies.

“How so?” Sam and I ask at the same time.

“Well… from what I know, destroying currency is forbidden in large parts of this world. So maybe you should inform yourself in Turn of Destiny before you accidentally commit a criminal offense.”

“Huh. I didn’t think about that.” Sam nods.

“Although, with our money, if it’s not possible to melt a Dwargon coin, you could just buy a bar of gold with it anyway so it won’t make much of a difference.”

“Mhmm.” My sister nods as she finishes off her coffee. “Better to be sure though.”

“Has the shock lessened a bit, Élise?” Sam pokes fun at my sister.

“Just a little, yes. It’s not that I’m opposed to you marrying, it’s just a bit early and I would like to marry Nikki before my little sister marries, that’s all.”

“She needs to keep some pride as an elder sister.” Nikki winks.

“Exactly.” My sister smiles and kisses her partner.

“Are there any plans for your marriage on the horizon?” Sam continues asking.

“I kinda want to know as well, now.” I ad, after which I stuff a croissant in my mouth too.

“Good question, actually.” Lise replies. “I was waiting a bit to resolve some issues with our parents first. But then that problem… disappeared.”

“So what are you waiting for, huh?” Nikki teases. “I’m patiently waiting for your proposal.”

“Hey, you could propose too, you know?” My sis sticks out her tongue.

“I know you, you would be miffed if you didn’t get the opportunity to do so first.”

My sister nods and starts chuckling. “Yeaaah… you got me there. But now I’ll need to wait a bit longer so it comes at an unexpected time.”

“But if she expects that it’ll be at an unexpecting time, wouldn’t it be better to give it at an expected time?” Sam asks.

“But then the unexpected time is the expected time, isn’t it? So there’s still an unexpected time.” Nikki continues Sam’s train of thoughts.

“My brain is not awake enough to have these kinds of conversations. Talk to me again in a couple of hours or so.” My sister rubs her temple and wants to take a sip from her empty coffee mug. “Fuck… I need some more coffee.” She then stands up and walks over to the coffee can.

“And we should probably leave for uni now.” Sam smiles and stands up too, waiting for me to follow her.

“But I still want to hear about what they did in Turn of Destiny!” I reply.

“We can do that too when we come back from uni, Ami.” Sam lifts me from the chair.

She now has a very pouty cat girl in her arms. But a quick kiss and a hug makes everything better