My girlfriends were both still giggling when I replied to the ongoing shenanigans. “You know, I really really really really really love you guys.”

“Awh, I love you too, Rora.” Ria swiftly responded.

“But I like guys really really really much.”

Em chuckled. “Auro, are you really drunk? Like, for real? That message you sent us wasn’t a joke?”

“I might be a little bit.” I admitted.

“Wait, you drank alcohol, Auro?” Ria asked. She sounded rather serious. “I didn’t know you drank.”

“Well… I didn’t. Not exactly.”

“Then how can you be drunk?” Em sounded confused.

“I suppose it’s more like a blood-high… Like I would get after sipping a little bit too much of your blood.”

“Hmmmm?” Ria hummed. “Did you cheat on us?” From the tone in her voice I could tell she wasn’t being very serious but I decided to reply seriously anyway.

“No, Aileen just brought something new as a secondary present for me. It’s a kind of a brew that mixes blood with other kinds of tastes. This time she mixed it with grapes and other stuff. It was really really tasty.”

“Are you sure there was no alcohol in that?” Em sounded a lot more serious than Ria was. “If it’s made with grapes…”

“Aileen guaranteed there wasn’t. We probably made too many happy chemicals go to our brains.”

"Endorphins?" Ria replied.

“Ah yeah, she did mention that term.”

“Right… I suppose that makes sense seeing how we react to getting our blood drunk by you…” Em reasoned. “Do you think it’s going to last long?”

“I don’t think so. I’m a lot less hazy than earlier and I wasn’t that hazy to begin with.” I replied. “But I still feel really really happy inside.”

“Which outs itself with the extensive use of the word ‘really’ apparently.”

“So it would seem.” I chuckled. “But in all seriousness, you can’t believe how good Aileen’s brew tastes.”

“I somehow doubt Ria and I would have the same reaction to it as you do.” Em snorted.

“Wouldn’t it taste really salty?” Ria asked. “There’s a lot of sodium in it, isn’t there?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Em agreed. “And that would somehow mix with the sweetness of the grapes… I don’t think it would be for us to enjoy.” Em stayed silent for a moment before she asked another question “Have we ever asked you what blood even tastes like for you, Auro?”

“Uh…” I tried to think about it for a second. “I don’t think you have, no. If you have, I am not remembering it.”

“So, what does it taste like?” Ria asked.

“Well, to me it tastes very sweet but also pretty different from person to person.”

“Like apple juice compared to pear juice?” Ria replied.

“Hmm, more like cherry and apple juice compared to strawberry and apple juice, that’d be a better comparison.”

“So generally the same flavor but with different accents?” Em summarized the comparison rather well.

“Exactly.”

Em then continued with another question, one that I should probably handle with care if the answer wasn’t as clear cut as it was now. “And what do you like most, drinking from us or from the new drink Aileen brought? No pressure of course.” She chuckled.

“There’s no competition, Em. Of course it tastes way better from the two of you… as weird as that sentence just sounded… attraction, both physical and romantic, enhances the flavor and pleasure both.”

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“Hmm, correct answer. Not that I particularly like being drunk from of course.”

“Don’t lie, Em, of course you like it.” Ria called out Emma on her blatant lie.

“Ria, we can’t make her feel smug about herself.” Em was quick to reply. “You always need to be careful around Auro or it’ll go straight to her head.”

“It’s already in her head, you are just being a bit of a tsundere.”

I snorted hearing that.

“Hey!”

“Haha.” I continued laughing. Trying not to be too loud so Aileen wouldn’t be kept awake on the floor below.

“She spoke about you too, you know!” Em continued.

“I know, but she told the truth. I am not going to deny it.”

“Hmmmmm…” Em grumbled. I could imagine her face right now, it was not helping me keep myself silent. I was slowly but surely getting a severe fit of the giggles.

In the end Em started laughing too of course, nothing could beat laughing together with your girlfriends after all, especially if the situation at hand was actually funny.

A couple of minutes of giggling later, Em spoke up again. “Well, is there anything else you’ve done together with Aileen this evening? Or did it stay at drinking?”

“No, we actually did a couple of things…” I started and then recounted what we did during the evening, starting with the other gifts I had received, as I had not yet told my girlfriends what I had gotten. Continuing on with telling them about the fencing practice we had and the story that Aileen had told me, albeit in more general lines.

“I really would like to listen to stories told by Aileen too.” Ria commented.

“She is pretty good at telling stories, that’s true. I was hanging onto every single word she was saying.”

“That’s not too hard, Auro, you are a history buff after all.”

“Even still. She is just very good at telling stories overall.”

“Do you think she would tell us stories if we asked?” Em asked. “About the time she went to a nice festival or something like that.”

“I don’t doubt she would.” I chuckled. “Living that long she must have gone to quite a few.”

“Maybe you can ask her tomorrow if you wake up. That way we don’t need to ask ourselves.”

“I will comment on it tomorrow, fine.” I smiled.

“There’s another thing you should do tomorrow, and I’m going to remind you of it continuously until you do!” Ria spoke up enthusiastically.

“Which is?”

“Show us the clothes you got from Aileen of course!”

“I’ll do a little fashion walk for you two when you come over tomorrow. How does that sound?” I conceded very quickly.

“Then we can test out your new camera too that Viktor got you.” Ria’s enthusiasm only increased.

“That’s not a bad plan actually. Better than my plan with the camera test at least.”

“Which was?” Em asked.

“Uh… Taking pictures of Shima… What else are cameras for, right? If not to take pictures of your favorite pets?”

Em chuckled. “That’s cute, but it’s definitely a good use of the camera.”

We continued to chat a bit longer about our meeting tomorrow. Em had a training tomorrow first before she would head over and Ria still had some things to do as well so the both of them would only be coming over in the evening. Although they did give me the assignment to get some food ready for when they arrived.

“Oh…” Em yawned. “I should probably go to bed before I get to be a brick tomorrow morning at training.”

“I’m getting really tired too.” Ria commented.

“Well, then I’m not going to keep you two. Have a good night and remember, I love the fuck out of you.”

Em giggled. “Much love to the two of you as well. Good night.”

“Night night my lovelies! Lots of hugs and kisses from me.” Ria made a kissing sound on the other side of the phone line after which the three of us exchanged a couple more good nights before we finally hung up.

It left me staring at my phone in an otherwise dark room. Shima had probably taken up Aileen’s silent offer to sleep in her room as I couldn’t see her anywhere right now, hammering home the sudden loneliness I felt. But I quickly shrugged that feeling away. They were both going to come over tomorrow and the sooner I fell asleep, the sooner I would have them here to cuddle and kiss as Ria had so professionally stated. So I turned off the sound on my phone, laid it on the bedside table and wrapped myself in my blanket, closing my eyes.

I managed to fall asleep rather easily with that in the back of my mind and I arose with the sun shining on my face. If I was a vampire out of the movies, I would have been royally fucked, but luckily that wasn’t the case. I did also smell something very sweet and it was coming from downstairs.

Without wasting too much time I jumped out of bed and pulled a sweater over my head, heading downstairs to the kitchen where I found Aileen tossing up some pancakes into the air.

“Good morning to you.” Aileen smiled at me, landing the pancake perfectly back in the pan without even looking at it.

“Did you go out to buy some flour?”

“I did, I hope you don’t mind me borrowing your keys for a moment.”

“Not at all.” I shook my head. “But you really didn’t need to make these for me.”

“Who says they are for you?” Aileen winked and slid the pancake on a plate that already held a couple.

“Rude.” I chuckled.

“I like to start my morning with a good breakfast, and I was just feeling pancakes. It’s only right to thank you for letting me stay over. Even though I know you don’t particularly mind.”

“Well… If you put it like that, I can’t say no, can I?”

Aileen smiled and also handed me a fork. “Bon appétit as they say.”

“Merci beaucoup.”