I just barely got through the dessert without my stomach exploding. Martha’s dessert making was on an entirely different level, and that meant I literally had to stop myself from overeating too much. I was definitely going to have to work out a little tomorrow, otherwise I’d start feeling a bit bad about myself.

Both Martha and Roland escorted us back to their front door.

“I hope you’ve had a nice meal.” Martha smiled.

“It was wonderful.” Luna replied with an even bigger smile. “I wish I could eat this well every single day.”

“If you want, we can give you the recipes, is it allowed to cook on board of the ship?”

“It’s a bit harder since we don’t have as much space as we do here on Earth, but we can manage.” I replied with a nod.

“Then I will gladly write down the recipes for you to use, and maybe a couple on top of that.”

“And I’ll help, of course.” Roland nodded.

“Thanks a lot, both for the recipes and for inviting us.” I mentioned. “Made me feel right back at home.”

Roland put his hand on my shoulder, he was almost a bit too short to do it, but he just about managed. “Lauren, you know our door is always open for you and your partners.”

“I know, but next time you should definitely come to visit us instead.”

Martha and Roland looked at each other a bit suspiciously.

“I will be there for quality control, so don’t worry!” Luna added.

“Wow, I can cook, you know? I have survived many years already.”

“Surviving is not exactly like thriving.” Luna was trying very hard to keep herself from laughing. I knew she was taking the piss.

Martha and Roland both started laughing. “We would be pleased to come over. But don’t wait too long with it, okay? We wouldn’t want to wait years for the invite.”

“Haha.” I laughed. “Don’t worry, I’ll definitely invite you over before we leave again.”

“Good.” Roland nodded contently. “Then the only thing that rests us is to wish you two a very nice evening.”

“Same goes for you.” I replied, finishing the little goodbye ritual so we could make our short way home.

When Roland and Martha closed the door behind us, Luna grabbed my hand. A sudden gust of wind making her squeeze my hand even harder.

“I take it you are not in the mood for a nice evening walk?”

“Are you crazy?” She shivered at the thought alone.

“Awwh, why not?” I teased. “It’s great weather outside for a nice, cozy, relaxing evening walk. Apart from the blizzard, of course, but those are just mere details.”

“Brrrr.” Luna shivered again.

“Alright, relaxing cozily on the sofa in front of the fireplace o’clock?”

Luna nodded multiple times in quick succession.

“Alrighty.” I chuckled.

When we got home, literally just one minute later, Luna quickly undressed and went full blanket burrito modus on the sofa. I just neatly folded up her clothes and put them on the little table nearby.

“Ready for a cuddly evening?”

“Yeees.” My burrito girlfriend replied.

“Give me a second and I’ll come over too.”

“Don’t forget Ellie’s parts, if they arrived alright.”

“Oh, whoops, ye, I should probably get those. I got a message about that while I was engrossed in Martha’s cake.” I looked at my girlfriend, who was looking at me from within her blanket. “I could also just collect the parts tomorrow. They should be fine in their container.”

“Lauren…”

“Ye, ye.” I chuckled. “I’ll go and get them now, I haven’t taken my jacket off anyway. I’ll be right back, okay?”

“Yesh!” Luna rolled herself around and stared at the smoldering fireplace.

I made my way back to the drop-off spot for the package and quickly found it in the center of my yard. The big box was already covered by a layer of snow, easily dusted off though. When I was just about to clear the snow off the top, my holo stick started vibrating, but only for a moment.

The curiosity got the better of me and I opened it up, only to be surprised by what I encountered. It was a message from Eva with a picture attached.

“Hey LauLau, just hanging out with my good old friend Ellie <3<3<3” The picture attached was a selfie of her with her holostick showing Ellie’s avatar and in between them a bottle of very expensive looking whiskey. She must’ve gotten a separate camera too to take the picture with. That’s definitely some conviction.

I just chuckled, cleared the box of snow, and then made my way back inside.

“Luna, guess what.”

“What?” Luna was up-to-date on how to reply to that sentence.

“I’m pretty sure Eva just drunk-texted me.”

“She did what?” Luna almost rolled out of the sofa, but luckily for her, she could stop herself before doing so. “Drunk-texting, Eva? Really?”

“Mhhm.” I put the box on the table and then walked over to my girlfriend with my holostick out. “Here you go.”

Luna almost immediately started giggling after she read the message. “That’s really funny. I suppose Ellie went over to pay Doctor Winter a visit?”

“Yeah, I think so, might as well. Ellie and Eva get along really well, too.”

Luna kept studying the picture. “And is that Ellie with a glass of whiskey in her hand too?”

“What? I didn’t even notice that.” I turned the holostick around and looked at the picture again. Ellie’s avatar was indeed holding on to a glass as well. “Okay, wow, that’s great. Eva definitely made her go along with that.”

“She is quite convincing, that’s true.”

“Definitely. And it looks like she’s at her parent’s cabin as well.”

“Not at her house?”

“Nah, I’ve never been to the place, but I know she goes there occasionally when things get a bit much. It’s apparently in a big forest.”

“Ooooh!”

“Sadly the laws up there don’t allow fireplaces though, so there’s that. Otherwise, it’d be a lot cooler in my opinion… or should I say… hotter?”

Luna chuckled at my poor attempt at a joke. “I do like the fireplaces. They have won me over. Speaking of which…”

“Want me to put on another log?” I asked while putting my holostick away again.

“If you please.” Luna nodded with a cheeky smile.

“Coming right up.” Before I went off to finally take off my jacket, I gave my girlfriend a kiss on the forehead. “The picture did make me want to drink a glass too, though.”

“Alcohol?”

“Mhmm.” I nodded. I didn’t really need my girlfriend’s approval if I really wanted to, but since I still try to distance myself from it most of the time, it seemed wise to at least ask.

“Well, one can’t hurt.” Luna smiled at me. “As long as it isn’t one of those massive beer glasses I’ve seen in the cartoons.”

“Nah, I’ll just take a little one. Maybe I should invest in those high grade non-alcoholic ones.”

“Have you never tried those before?”

“No, not really, I always heard from others that they were not as good as ‘the real stuff’. But that might just be because those people can’t get drunk off it. I actually do like whiskey for its taste.”

“Hmm, it’s not like you lose anything from trying it, apart from money.”

“Yeah, that’s true.” I chuckled. Well, luckily, money really wasn’t an issue for me.

And that’s how our evening ended, with my burrito girlfriend on my lap and a small glass of whiskey in my hand, resting in front of our cozy fireplace and musing about the potential misadventures Eva and Ellie were having at the moment.

The day after was very much spent again by not doing too much. I did manage to get some workout in though, as I had been neglecting it somewhat. But it was clear that the little downtime hadn’t hurt my muscles at all, it might even have been a good thing. We also decided that we would be going to visit my parent’s graves the day after. Which gave me plenty of time to let our uniforms get steamed at the local washing center. Luna was a bit skeptical about going in our dress uniforms, but I had assured her that it would be plenty warm enough to walk around in them when we got to the big cemetery.

And thus, the day for our visit had come, and we were currently on the train to the Antarctic Region’s capital. It was less busy than it was last time we’d taken the train, presumably because it was Sunday now and people generally still used Sunday as a day off.

That said, today was the perfect day for a trip as it was actually predicted to be quite warm for this time of year and there was going to be barely any wind.

When we finally disembarked into the hover train station, Luna grabbed my hand. “Are you ready?”

I gave her a nod and squeezed her hand a little. “I am. Thank you for coming with me.”

She smiled brightly. “I promised, didn’t I?”

I smiled back and took a deep breath. -Okay, let’s go.-