I put the envelope with the invitation away and spent the rest of the evening in front of the television together with Shima and a glass of ‘vintage red’, watching that show about forging weapons. Ria-chan had sent me a message earlier to tell me she got home safely which put me at ease, although I wasn’t that worried given her driver.

Around eleven o’clock, I got another message from her, this time wishing me a good night. I immediately replied in kind while I looked down at Shima.

“Maybe we should try to get some sleep too?”

Shima meowed at me, her eyes already half closed. She was one of those weird cats who were surprisingly inactive in the evening, but it did have its advantages. Like not having a cat sprint over your face while you’re trying to sleep for example.

“Although I got the feeling it’ll be mostly me trying and you succeeding.” I laughed softly and gave her a pet on the head.

I walked to the kitchen and gave her a little baggy of food before heading off to bed. It was still a bit messy because of our little manga session so I quickly tidied it up again, stopping at one of the cushions that was laying right in the middle of my bed. I picked it up to put it back at the head end but the first thing I noticed when I did, was the floral scent that came from it.

“Ria’s perfume… she must’ve been hugging this while we were reading manga together. I didn’t even notice…” I smiled gently to myself. Somehow it managed to completely relax me.

With that in mind I put it down next to my other pillow and went to my bathroom to take a shower and brush my teeth.

This was my first shower since I was turned, but luckily it didn’t feel any different than normal. I had always liked taking showers, feeling the hot water run over my body, and I was happy that hadn’t changed at all. What had changed however was my body itself.

“Huh…” I hadn’t noticed it while I was getting undressed with Emma for the physical tests, but now that I was looking more closely in the mirror I saw that my muscles had clearly toned up quite a bit. My body was looking incredibly fit. I had always been fairly athletic, but this was a completely new level. “Wow, Viktor did say I didn’t need to worry about gaining weight, but I didn’t know it would do this…”

The sight of my own well-toned body felt so different from my usual self that it even started to get me a bit flustered.

“No, brain, stop! This is our own body!”

When I continued looking down at my legs I saw that even the little scars I had gotten on my legs and knees had disappeared. I used to play quite roughly when I was younger and regularly paid the price for it too. Sadly the disappearance of my scars included the little heart shaped one on my calf Ria liked to tease me with quite often. “Awh, I liked that one…this sure is crazy...” I shrugged with a small sigh. “Guess there’s nothing I can do about that now…” and started to dry my hair before putting on my nightwear.

Having brushed my teeth I puffed up my cushion and laid down on my bed, staring blankly at the ceiling for a while before looking over to the cushion Ria had been hugging.

“This might be a bit weird but…” I grabbed the cushion and hugged it closely against me. The whiffs of perfume made my mind flash back to the afternoon. Calming memories of Ria flushed over me like a calming summer breeze. My breathing slowed down and my eyelids grew heavier by the second, as I finally managed to fall asleep for the first time since monday.

I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock, notifying me I should start preparing for school. Ria’s cushion was still firmly embraced in my arms. Apparently I had slept with my mouth slightly open because I drooled a little bit on the cushion. I slowly sat upright in bed, stretching my arms and my back muscles.

“Damn, that was a pretty good night’s rest. Although I have no clue what the heck I was dreaming about. I think there was… tomato soup and something else sweet...? I don’t know...” I talked to myself before looking over to my uniform. “Let’s get ready, don’t want to make Ria wait.”

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Preparing myself didn’t take very long, having brushed my teeth and gathered my old uniform to turn it back into the student administration I walked over to the living room to give Shima her food.

“Today I’m going to tell Ria everything.” I talked to Shima while she started eating from her bowl. “Might ask her to come over here to do so, though.”

Shima meowed appreciatively.

“I knew you wouldn’t mind.” I smiled and gave her a last headpat before getting my bags and moved to the front door.

I called her goodbye one last time before I closed the door behind me.

It didn’t take me long to arrive at Ria’s house since I had no stops to make. As diligently as ever she was already waiting for me.

“Good morning, Rora!” She gave me a hug, the scent of her perfume almost making me go into a daze again.

“Hey.” I smiled and hugged her back.

“Are you handing in your old uniform?”

“Yep, might as well, I’ll probably forget about it if I don’t do it today.”

We started walking in the direction of our school.

“Oh, I have that too! It’s like, ‘I’ll comb my hair later.’ and then I completely forget about it and then it looks like my hair has exploded!”

“Is that so? To me you always look perfect. Urr… your hair I mean.”

She started blushing. “T-thanks.”

We continued to walk in silence for about a minute or so before I spoke again.

“So… I would like to tell you something after school, would you like to come to my house for that?”

Ria-chan looked a bit flustered and stared at me. “Is it something serious?”

“Uhm… depends how you look at it, I guess? It’s definitely a lot to take in...”

“I see…” Ria looked down at her feet before looking back up to me. “And you can’t say it now?”

“No-not really. I’d really like to be in a private place I’m comfy in to tell you…”

“Hmmm, I’ll definitely come over if that’s what you want but you made me super curious now. I’m not going to be able to concentrate all day long!” She put on the cutest pout ever.

I giggled. “Sorry about that Ria-chan, I’ll make it up to you with even more ice cream.”

“You better!” She took my arm and leant against me, making my other hand move on its own to give her another pat on the head.

-It’s moments like this I’ll definitely miss if things go awry this evening. But… let’s not assume the worst and just continue on marching forward.-

We arrived at the school grounds a little bit ahead of schedule.

“IT was our first lesson, right?”

“Mhmm.” Ria nodded.

“Then I’ll quickly go and hand in my old uniform now so I don’t have to carry it with me all day long.”

“Sounds good.” She smiled and continued walking with me until we heard someone call out from behind us.

“Hey, Auro!” Emma ran towards us with her sister close in tow.

“Oh, hey Em. And hi Karin.” I waited for a second so they could catch up.

“Good morning.” Karin solemnly greeted us.

“Are you handing in your uniform?”

“Yeah, might as well do it now since I have some time left before class.”

“Smart.”

“Hey Rora, do you mind if me and Karin go to the classroom already?” Ria-chan pulled my sleeve.

Her question surprised me a little bit. “Of course not, go ahead. Just keep a seat free for me.”

“Yes! Will do!” She smiled and headed off with Karin towards our IT classroom.

Emma stayed behind with me and looked on as her sister and Ria vanished into the main building. “Can I join you to the administration office then?”

“Definitely, you know you don’t need my permission right?” I giggled. “Am I looking so authorative today that everyone needs to ask permission from me first?” I quickly looked my uniform up and down.

“I don’t know, you look a bit more serious than normal. Maybe that’s why?”

We started walking towards the administration building.

“How so?”

“It’s hard to tell, really… but somehow your smile has an air of sadness to it.”

“Ah…” I touched my mouth with my right hand. -I hadn’t even noticed.-

“So there is something going on?”

“You could say that.” I sighed, Emma could read me just a bit too well. “I was planning to tell Ria about a couple of things this evening.”

“That you are a vampire?”

I nodded. “Yeah…among others... it puts me on edge you know? What if she is afraid of me, or if she starts hating me? That’s why I was so hesitant to tell you at first, but otherwise I’d have lost you anyway...”

“Mhmm… I can definitely understand that feeling… After all, I also feel it pretty much all the time...” her demeanor began looking sadder and sadder by the second. Her happy-go-lucky energy from just a couple of moments ago had almost completely disappeared.

“How so?” I looked at her questioningly.

Emma stopped dead in her tracks.

“Em? Is something wrong?”

She looked at me for a second with a face of a person who was scared and on the brink of crying. Emma bit her lip and looked down to the ground, fists clenched close.

“Emma?” I approached her but she stretched out her arm to signal me to stop.

I could hear her sniffle before she took a big breath and started talking again.

“I’m sorry, Auro, I just can’t…” Her voice faltered, for a few seconds she stayed quiet before she restarted her sentence. “I’m a lesbian, Auro.”

“I mean… you don’t need to cry for that, Claire is too so why would…”

“Auro!” Emma cut me off again and looked me straight in the eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I love you!”

The only word that managed to come out of my mouth was “Oh…”