As the evening progressed Aileen and I had drank dry two full bottles of her special brew, one thing was sure, I wasn’t going to need blood any time soon.
“Look at me, telling you not to binge drink the bottles I gave and then helping you two basically binge-drink them.” Aileen laughed she almost sounded drunk.
“Haha, I know right.” I replied without even thinking about it. -Shit… I sounded drunk too…-
Aileen snorted. “Damn, I think we might be a bit blood-drunk.”
I had fallen into a giggle I couldn’t get out of myself. “How does that even work?”
“Endorphines, lass.” Aileen smiled ear to ear. “Let’s call it an evening. Could you show me to your bed… Uh… My bed… Sorry… Habits.” Aileen sounded really embarrassed by her lapsus linguae.
“Will do.” I got up and bent over to grab the glasses off the table but a little wobble in my legs prevented me from taking them. “Let’s do that tomorrow morning.”
“Yeah…” Aileen got up as well, though she seemed a bit more sure about her footing than me. “Keep your hands clear, less of a mess to clean up if ye fall from the stairs.”
I nodded. Probably not a bad idea. And then walked in front of Aileen to guide her to the staircase.
“Also, I will give ye two new bottles. That’d be only fair.”
“Thanks, it’s much appreciated.” I giggled.
I shut off the lights and ascended the stairs with Aileen close behind me, Shima wisely had opted to run out in front of us so we couldn’t fall on her if we did make a tumble. That said, my balance had quickly restored itself, although my mind was still a bit hazy.
“And this is your room for the night.” I flipped the light switch on and let Aileen walk past me. “Blankets and pillows good enough for you or do you want me to go get some more?” I had turned on the heating just a bit earlier today but the room was still rather cold.
Aileen sat down on the bed and tested it out. “It’s a good bed. I don’t think I’ll need more blankets than this either.”
“Okay, just wake me up if you need something throughout the night.”
“I will.” Aileen smiled. “Can I leave the door open just in case Shima wants to come in?”
“Of course.” I nodded. “But keep in mind that the hallway does get a bit colder than the room.”
Aileen shrugged “The cold never bothered me anyway.”
“...” I stared at Aileen for a second.
“What?”
“....”
“I just had to.”
“There was the option not to, you know.”
“That option really wasn’t an option, Aurora. I did what I had to do.”
I rolled my eyes and smiled at my friend. “Jokes aside, have a good night.”
“I will, for you as well. Is there any particular hour you want me gone at?”
I shrugged. “Sleep as long or short as you liked. Just don’t bother me when I’m still sleeping. Vampires might not get tired, but I still don’t like getting waken up when I’m sleeping unless your name is Ria or Emma.”
“Got it, don’t disturb the sleeping lesbian vampire.”
I chuckled. “Good night, Aileen.”
“Good night.”
As I left the room I left the door open on a crack so Shima could come and go as she pleased. Making my way to my own bedroom afterwards. It was already two hours after midnight by the time I had undressed and put myself in bed, but curiosity still made me look at the groupchat Em, Ria and I had established, just in case one of them was still awake. To my surprise however, both of them still had a green circle next to their name.
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“Still awake?” I texted.
Em almost immediately responded. “Yep. Ria was too but I think she has fallen asleep.”
“I’ve not.” Ria replied together with the triumph emote. “I was just removing my make-up in the bathroom. That’s why I didn’t reply.”
“Oh. My bad.” Em replied. “What about you, Auro?”
“I just got into bed.” I texted.
“Aileen and Viktor stayed that long?”
“Viktor already left quite a while ago to go to Alex. As for Aileen, she’s staying over for the night.”
“Ooooh.” Ria replied with the eyes emoji. “Now I’m triple sorry that I couldn’t come.”
“You didn’t miss too much, apart from me and Aileen getting a bit drunk.”
Ria didn’t type anything, she just texted the exploding head emote in return.
Em on the other hand was typing, for quite a while actually, before her typing stopped for a moment, recommencing shortly after. “Can we do a voice call?” She asked.
“Yesss!!!” Ria replied.
I on the other hand just replied with a thumbs up, even though I was rather enthusiastic about the prospect of hearing my girlfriend's voices as well.
Swiftly after, my phone started buzzing as Em had commenced a group call. I didn’t even wait a second to pick up.
“Hey there, Auro.”
“Hey babe.” I hummed contently.
A second later Ria joined as well.
“Hello girlfriends.” Ria sounded very giddy.
“Hi sweetie.” Em replied softly.
“Hey pancake.” I greeted.
“Pancake?” Ria chuckled.
“Babe, sweetie and girlfriend were already taken so I had to say something.” I chuckled back. Besides, my mind was still a bit too hazy to really think of something else.
“Hehe.” Ria continued to giggle.
“How were both of your evenings?”
“Pretty good.” Em replied. “Had dinner with mom, dad and Karin at dad’s favorite restaurant. The food was really good.”
“Oh, what did you eat?”
“Steak au poivre with fries and a fresh salad.” Ria replied.
“Ria?”
“We were messaging each other earlier. She asked as well.” Em replied with a giggle of her own as well.
“She also sent me a lot of pictures. It looked really good. I almost start drooling again thinking about them.” Ria said.
“It was really good.” Em admitted, presumably making Ria drool even more.
“And what did you do, Ria? Apart from dreaming about Em’s food, that is?”
“My parents and I had a workshop on how to make bento boxes.”
“What?! Really?” Em sounded terribly surprised, so was I to be honest, but Em beat me to the punch. “Your parents did a workshop about bento boxes of all things?” Clearly during the messages Ria and Em had sent between each other, this had not come up yet.
“It was my dad’s idea.” Really replied. “He wanted to have something to bond over as they do try to get a bit closer to me. And he thought that he should do it through learning a bit about the culture that I liked.”
“That sounds really nice of him.” I smiled. “And how did they like it?”
“At first they were a bit hesitant but after a couple of minutes they did seem to enjoy it a lot. My dad immediately bought one of the bento sets they were selling at the end anyway.”
“And what about you, Ria?” Em asked. “What did you think about the entire experience?”
“I thought it was awesome.” While we didn’t have our cameras on I could picture Ria smiling ear to ear on the other side of the line. “I’m definitely going to start bringing homemade bentos to school.”
“Maybe you should bring some to school for us too.” I launched a sneaky suggestion.
“Auro…”
“I will!” Ria replied. “Making more than one bento doesn’t take very long if you are already making one for yourself.”
“Hehe. Thanks, sweet cinnamon roll of ours.”
“No problem.” Ria giggled.
“I’m really happy the thing with your parents went well, Ria. Like really. They definitely turned around for the better.” Em continued.
“Yeah. They are definitely trying.” Ria replied. “Afterwards my dad even suggested we plan a holiday together to Japan, but I declined.”
“Oh? That’s quite the opportunity to decline, isn’t it?” I asked.
“Well, I told him that we could plan a holiday to a different place. But not Japan.”
“Hmm?” Em hummed. “And why not?”
“Because I would like to have my first trip there with you two…”
Her reply sent an electric shock through my heart. That was so terribly sweet. For her to decline a trip to a country she has been longing to go to, just because she wants to go together with Em and I.
“Auro…” Em spoke directly to me. “We can’t just deny this to her now, can we?”
“Yeah… That has become rather impossible I am afraid. So we will have to plan something in the future.”
“Exactly.”
“Yippeee!” Ria let out a yippee of joy only people from the internet would know how to replicate.
“Mind you, Ria, this is not going to be immediate.”
“I know, Rora.” Ria replied. “I just am really happy I will be able to experience a thing I am looking forward to a lot with the people I love the most in the whole wide world.”
Another pang shot through my heart as Ria said that. “Ria… you got to be careful. I know a bullet can’t kill me, but your bloody cuteness might just finish the job.”
“I think I am already on life support.” Em commented.
In the meantime, Ria was just giggling her ass off.