“Hey Rora?” Ria asked as she took a spoonful of strawberry ice cream. We were watching an anime together, her head nuzzled into my neck.

“What’s up?” I also took a spoonful of ice cream, right as one character in the show stole a strawberry from her friend’s shortcake.

Ria giggled at the scene and turned back to me. “Why do you like ice cream when you dislike milk so much?”

“Mmmm, well it doesn’t really taste like milk, does it?”

“So it’s purely the taste you don’t like?”

“Mhmm. I do have a certain degree of difficulty with vanilla, though.” I nodded.

“Huh? But you liked the one brand I brought with me two months ago didn’t you?”

“Ah ye, that one was nice. But I don’t like the normal store ones at all.”

“Rora just got expensive tastes.” Ria-chan laughed.

-Well… I do like you too after all….- I blushed and just gently smiled back at her. “Hehe… apparently so...”

-Now that I think about what Ria said, ice cream does have milk in it, so technically it should have helped against my thirst too, right?- I looked at my half-empty glass of red and shrugged. “I’ll test it later since I’m not really thirsty now…”

Partway through the episode Shima came along and fell asleep on Ria’s lap, revelling in getting petted by both of us.

“Cats are the best.” Ria was completely enamoured by the fuzzy ball that was sleeping on her.

“They are.” I answered, enamoured more by her than by Shima (though Shima was cute too).

“Can we watch another episode after this?” Ria asked, looking back at the television.

“Of course, we can watch as many as you like.”

“But you are having fun too, right?”

“Definitely. I do find it a bit funny that this is ostensibly about a band though, even though they really don’t play music that much.”

Ria laughed. “They should have named their club the after school cookie and tea club.”

“I know, right?”

“Maybe we should ask Pres to start a club like that.”

“And let the tea ceremony club and the baking club make tea and cookies for us?”

“Yess!” I bet Ria-chan was already imagining the cookies because she was drooling a little.

“We can try but I don’t think the school will allow something like that.”

“Awh…”

“Hey, is the ‘going to Rora’s house to read manga and watch anime with cat’-club not good enough for you?”

“It is! It is!” She softly shook my shoulder.

“Ah, alright then. I almost became super sad.”

“No! Don’t get sad, Rora!” She nuzzled her head into my neck more strongly, her hair tickling me a little bit.

“I won’t, don’t worry.” I had to keep myself from laughing in order to not wake up Shima.

The episode had ended and I had just started another one when the bell of the front door rang, waking up Shima anyway.

“Shima, no! Come back!” Ria-chan whined.

I paused the show and gently got up so Ria had the time to sit upright so she didn’t fall over. Walking to the door to see who was disturbing our cozy togetherness.

“Are you expecting someone, Rora?”

“Not that I know of.” I shrugged and entered the hallway.

When I opened the door I was immediately greeted by a familiar face.

“Viktor, what the hell are you doing here!?” I shrieked, looking back at the living room nervously.

“What do you mean?”

“I told you I had a friend coming over didn’t I? Why do you think I needed the bottles.”

“Ah, Ja, I do remember that. But don’t worry, I’m just here to hand you an invitation.” He handed me an envelope which was sealed with a very fancy looking wax seal in which a heraldic crest was imprinted.

“Invitation?”

“Yes, from the people who wanted to meet you.”

“You did say something about that, right…” I inspected the envelope closer but apart from the seal the envelope was completely blank.

“Anyway, I’ll be going now. Have fun with your date and auf wiedersehen.” He tipped his hat and just like that he was off again to do his own, probably shady, business.

I closed the door and walked back towards the living room, with the envelope in hand.

“Who was that?” Ria cutely peeked over the sofa.

“Uh… just the mailman…” I put the envelope on the living room table. -I probably shouldn’t open this as long as Ria is here.-

“Oh, aren’t you going to open your letter, if the mailman comes this late it is a pretty important letter isn’t it?”

“Eh, it can wait. If it was that important they would’ve called instead of sending a letter.”

“Makes sense I guess…” Ria was still peeking over the sofa at me.

“And besides, watching anime with you is way more important to me.” I smiled and quickly jumped over the sofa to sit back down next to her.

“Rora has the best priorities.” She smiled.

“I know right.” I gave her a quick head pat.

“Can I lay down on your lap to watch the rest of the show?”

“Sure, if you want to. But won’t you fall asleep like that?”

“No! I’ll definitely stay awake.” She pouted. “I know myself!”

“Alright then.” I laughed and allowed her to lay down on my lap, gently going through her hair while we continued watching.

But in the end it appeared Ria-chan didn’t know herself quite as well as I did, because to no one's surprise whatsoever, before the next episode started she was already fast asleep.

I looked at the time on my wall clock. “Hmm. Almost five o'clock, huh? Might as well let her sleep ‘till five-thirty before I make her some food…” My hands gently ran down her arms, lightly caressing her as a bold thought sprang up in my mind.

-You know what? I think I’ll tell her I’m gay tomorrow… And I might as well tell her about the vampire thing too, I just really don’t like keeping secrets from her. She’ll find out sooner or later anyway...-

With that my mind was set, tomorrow after school I’d tell her everything.

I looked down and smiled at my immensely cute best friend. -She might be shocked at first, hell, I’m still quite shocked about it myself, but in the end, I think it’ll be fine... For now though, I’ll let things just be as they are.- I still needed to mentally prepare for my double coming out and doing it right now just didn’t sit quite right with me yet. A distant thought in the back of my head was still holding me back. Just in case things went awry I could at least still have this memory of being together…

While Ria-chan was sleeping I put on a show on television I used to watch frequently when there was nothing else to watch, especially late at night. The show revolves around a competition of blacksmiths who need to make knives and historical swords. It's overall pretty entertaining, coincidentally this episode had a group of four very buff women competing, who I found rather captivating…. -How the fuck did I not realize I’m gay earlier? Holy shit...-

Shima also came back to watch with me. Slightly annoyed she couldn’t sleep on top of Ria, she decided to cuddle up in between Ria’s thighs and her belly. -The life of a cat is really luxurious, isn’t it?- I giggled softly and continued watching

“Those two women are very handsome…” A voice spoke out from my lap when they were in the final round. Ria had apparently just woken up as she rubbed her hands in her eyes.

“Mhmm, they are, aren’t they? They are also super good at their craft.”

“Rora is even more handsome though…” She looked up at me to gauge my reaction with a slight smirk on her lips.

“Am I?” I only barely succeeded in not flushing red.

“Yeah. I think you’d look great in a suit…”

“I think you’d look cute in a suit too though.” I went on the counter offensive.

“I’d look cute in everything.” She smirked back.

“Oh, ho, ho. Someone is being a little bit cheeky?” Although she was 100% objectively correct with that statement.

She smiled and stuck out her tongue.

“Are you hungry? I can put a pizza in the oven for you.” I looked back at the clock, I let her sleep a little bit longer than I planned but we were definitely not pressed for time yet. It was only 5 to 6 and she only had to be home by eight.

Ria lifted herself from my lap, while petting Shima. “Mhmm, I would like that. Which pizzas do you have?”

“The usual.” I got up and walked to the kitchen.

“Then a bolognese, please!”

“Hai hai.” I took two bolognese pizzas out of the freezer and pre-heated the oven.

We didn’t always eat frozen pizzas when she came over, but I'm just not in the mood to start preparing a meal from scratch right now. If we always ate pizzas Ria would get angry at me for my eating habits.

While the oven was doing its thing I started turning on the lights in the living room as it was already getting darker outside. Ria in the meantime had also gotten up from the sofa and started setting the table.

“Hey, Rora? How come this envelope only has a seal? It doesn’t even have your name on it? How did the postman even know how to give it to you?” Ria put the letter down on one of my cabinets.

“It… came with a receipt…?”

Ria looked at me for a second. “Oh, I guess that does make sense.” and she continued with setting the rest of the table.

-Thank the Goddess for Occam’s razor...-