Some rustling in my room wakes me up some time later. It’s Sam who had just changed into her loungewear.

“Oh, hey sweetie, did I wake you up?”

“Not really. I’m happy you are home.”

“Me too.” She smiles and walks over to me. “How are you feeling?”

I try to sit upright and to my surprise I’ve regained a lot of my strength already. “Quite a bit better it seems.”

“Good to hear.” She embraces me. “Hey, I got something for you.”

Sam walks to one of her bags while in the meantime I can see Veanya and my sister peeking in through the door.

“Don’t mind us, we just want to see your reaction.” My sister comments.

“Yes, pretend like we are not here at all.” Veanya nods along.

“That’s a bit hard to do…”

Sam is completely ignoring the two doofuses in the door and heads back to me with a wrapped up box, it’s actually quite big. “Here you go.” She hands it over to me.

“Can I just open it?”

“Of course, that’s why I gave it to you.” She smiles.

I untie the ribbon and lift up the top off the box. But before I can get to the main contents there is a big piece of paper in the way that reads “For the best girlfriend, ever. So you feel less lonely when we can’t be together.”

“Awh… you are the best girlfriend too.”

“Look what’s inside.” Sam appears to be really enthusiastic so I do as she asks and lift the paper. Inside the box there’s two plushie cats, one pink and the other beige.

“It’s us!” I exclaim.

“Yes.” Sam’s smile grows even wider. “And now Mister Snuggles also has some playmates when we are out. What do you think?”

“I love them so much.” I take them out of the box and hug them against me. “They are super soft too. Thank you, Sam, I love you.”

“Love you too, babe.” She hugs me, squishing the plushies against me.

My sister and our resident Goddess both let out a ‘Awh, so cute’ at the same time.

“What are you going to name them?” Sam asks, letting me go for a moment.

“Hmm, I don’t know yet… What about Pinky and Basket?”

“Definitely cute names if you ask me.” Sam hugs me again. “Just as cute as you.”

“Saaaam, you’re making me blushy.” I say while blushy blushing.

“I know, but it’s the truth.”

“Buuu.” I pout.

“Are you feeling strong enough to get up, Ami?” My sister asks, while she and Veanya are still staring into my room.

“Should she not stay in bed longer?” Sam protests.

“She could but she might not be able to sleep tonight then.”

“Is that even a factor with the headset on?”

“Hmm, you do have a point there. Sam is so smart.”

“You should be happy with such a smart sister in law.” Veanya adds.

“I know right.” Élise agrees.

The unexpected compliments have started to make Sam blushy as well.

“It’s fine Sam, I feel a lot better now and I would feel a bit annoyed if I spent the entire day in bed anyway.”

“Alright, but if you feel like it’s getting worse again, I’m going to tuck you back in myself, ok?”

“Mhmm. I’d be crazy to protest against my very strong, super smart, extremely beautiful girlfriend tucking me in.”

Sam blushes even more.

-Hehe, mission completed successfully.-

“A-alright then…”

Veanya and Élise start giggling and walk back to the living room to give me some privacy.

Sam walks over to the closet and hands me some comfy pants and a nice and snug oversized sweater. Which I promptly put on with a bit of help. While trying our best not to disturb Mochi and Pocky who are still sleeping on my bed, together with my plushies.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Now I do need to buy Sam a plushie too.”

“Awh, but you really don’t need to, Ami.”

“But I wannaaaa.”

“Alright then.” Sam smiles.

“What kind of animals do you like?”

“Hmmm.... I don’t know.”

“Wha… but I want to know your favourite animal so I can buy a plushie of it.”

“My favourite animal is definitely the Amicia kitten.” She nods with a smirk.

“Mow, that doesn’t count.”

“I know. Why don’t you surprise me?” She boops my nose.

“But what if you don’t like it?”

“As long as it isn’t a spider I will definitely like every single plushie my girlfriend gives me, no doubt about that.”

“Even snakes?”

“Danger noodles are super cute!”

“Danger noodles?”

“Yes! Don’t you know it?” Sam immediately takes her phone and types something. “Look at this.” She shows me a ton of cute snake pictures including some very funny ones where snakes wear little hats.

“See? They are super cute aren’t they?”

“Hmm, yeah, if you put it like that they really are.”

“Maybe we should get a pet snake when we go live together.”

“Eh? Aren’t they hard to keep?”

“Not if you know what you are doing.”

“But only one of those tiny cute ones, not the dangerous ones, ok?”

“I’m fine with that.” Sam smiles. “A small little spagurder is nice too.”

I imagine myself and Sam living together with a couple of kitties and our small pet snake, a simple but beautiful ring around my ring finger. The entire scene is making me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

“Ami? Want to go to the living room?” Sam gently squeezes my shoulder.

I blush. “Oh, yeah, sorry, I was just daydreaming…”

“Oh?”

“Yeah… it was very nice…”

“Did it include me?”

“Of course! All my nice dreams involve Sam!”

Sam smiles brightly and hugs me tight. “Likewise, cutiepie.”

“Mhmm.” I lean into Sam’s warmth and just it wash all over me until after a minute she lets me go.

“Let’s go now before the nosy people come back to spy on us.”

I nod. “Let’s.” I follow Sam and take the now cold hot chocolate with me towards the living room. Luckily chocolate milk tastes good cold too so it isn’t that much of a loss.

“Oh, Ami, do you want me to warm that back up again for you?” My sister is sitting next to Veanya in the sofa, apparently they had been playing games together.

“You don’t have to… It's fine cold as well…” I take a sip from the mug.

“Alright, but if you need another cup, just tell me, okay?”

“Mhmm.” I nod and head over to the sofa with Sam.

When I sit down Sam immediately coils me up in one of the thicker blankets we have.

“Just to make sure you are nice and toasty.” Her gentle smile already makes me feel warmer inside.

“Thanks.”

She then swings another blanket over herself and puts her arm around me to get even cozier. The warmth of the blankets together with Sam’s body heat is really making me melt a little.

“Mhmm… This feels nice...” I start softly purring and rest my head on her shoulder.

Sam just smiles and starts running her hand through my hair and starts softly scritching behind my ear.

“Purrfect….”

My sister and Veanya can only barely suppress their ‘aws’ even though they were in the middle of a race together.

“So you two have just been playing games all day?” My girlfriend asks.

“Well… not all day….” My sister comments.

“We put Amicia to bed and talked a bit about what happened in Haurchefaud too. We didn’t use this entertainment system constantly, you know.”

“And for what it’s worth, this racing game is one I had to test for work anyway, so we’re actually doing something productive too!”

“Oh? Is that so?”

“Yep, we’ve already found several bugs.”

“Weirdly enough most of them happened when I won though.” Veanya teases Élise.

“Those were jokes, you useless Goddess, jokes!” Lise sticks out her tongue.

“Hmm, well I can’t help it that a certain puny human can’t stand her loss.”

“They get strangely competitive.” Sam laughs softly into my ear.

“Mhmm. But it’d rather have this than have them start fighting.”

“I wonder who’d win.”

“I think it would be a pretty even fight, even though Veanya is literally a goddess.” I giggle into my blanket.

“Yeah, I think so too.”

“What are the two of you giggling about?” Both Veanya and my sister are staring at us with a pout on their faces.

“Oh, nothing.” Sam laughs.

“Yes, pretend like we are not here at all.”

“Touché sis, touché.”

The two of them continue their game and play a couple of games after. They did offer us the controller a couple of times but me and Sam were having plenty of fun just watching them play and make fun of eachother.

Some time later the door unlocks and a happy looking Nikki walks in.

“Hey, Ami. Are you feeling better?” She walks over to the sofa and pats my head.

“Yes! Lot’s.” I smile up at her. “You look very happy too.”

“Yeah.” She hangs her coat on the coat hanger and sits next to me as well. “Hilda let us test a new game that’s coming up that I was looking forward to test.”

“Oh, the life-sim one? What was it called again?” My sister pauses the game for a second so she can sip from her drink.

“The Simulators: Reborn.”

“Right, right! I wanted to test that one too!”

“It couldn’t be helped because you needed to watch over Ami, after all.” She pets me again.

“At least I’ll get my hands on it tomorrow if Ami doesn’t get a strange cat girl sickness again.”

“Hey, I didn’t do it on purpose!” I protest.

“I know, I know. I don’t mind taking care of my little sister at all. I’m happy I can be the responsible big sister for you.”

“Uhh… responsible… that might be up for debate.” Sam jokes.

“Élise is the best big sister!” I say.

“See, Ami agrees.”

“Mostly because I only have one, but still.”

“OH! Je suis blessé! Je ne peux pas bouger!” My sister dramatically grabs her arm and falls to her side, spreading herself out on the sofa.

The entire group starts laughing.

-Even though I didn’t get that reference.-