“So Emma and Corelia are also immortal… That’s a pretty big revelation. I actually didn’t know non-vampires could inherit that feature.”

“Apparently it has only happened once before, so that happening twice with one vampire, me, is really crazy.”

“And how do they feel about it? I assume it’s not the easiest thing to get a hold off. I would need a while to process it, at least.”

“Well, as for Ria, it doesn’t seem like she cares much. I mean, I already was the closest thing to a loving family she had, even though now her home situation is better thanks to Alessia. As for Em… It’s quite a bit harder for her, as she does love her family a lot. That’s why we chose to involve her family as well… Even though they kind of found out before we were really ready to tell them.”

“Ah… But they took it well I take it? Otherwise, Emma wouldn’t be in such a good mood.”

“Luckily they did, yes.” I nodded. “Her family is just great. Ria and I love them dearly as well.”

As Anya nodded at my answer, I could hear the lock of the door downstairs turning.

“Oh, sounds like our girlfriends are home already. You are sure you don’t want me to say anything yet, right?” I asked.

Anya nodded once more. “Yeah… I’d prefer if you kept quiet about the vampire hunter part, but we can tell them that I know about you guys now… Just to save us from some awkward situation later on.”

“Sure thing.” I got up and went to the door that closed off the staircase to the floor below. Peeking my head through to look at who would come into view first.

“Rora, we are home!” It was Ria who appeared in front of me as she called upstairs. She had gotten rid of her jacket but was still wearing her pink winter cap with cat ears.

“I know, I heard.” I replied.

Ria hopped a little in surprise, as she hadn’t seen me peek down at her. She then quickly recovered yet a blush stayed on her face. “Hehe.”

“Did you do some good shopping?” I asked.

“Yeah, we also got a sled! Do you want to come and see?”

“A sled?” I stopped peaking for a second and turned back to look at Anya. “Do you want to come and look what they are on about?”

Anya laughed. “I’m on my way.”

As soon as she said that, I walked down the stairs to see what exactly they meant with a sled. I was surprised to see one sitting in the middle of my hallway that led outside, with Em and Claire standing next to it, already unloading some of the groceries that were piled on top of it.

“Uhhh…. What?”

“Apparently the government was handing out sleds outside of the grocery stores so people can get their groceries home a bit easier if they need to buy a lot.” Claire explained. “They just ask you to bring it back another day.”

“I honestly don’t know how they got hold of that many sleds, but I’m happy they had them. Very useful to have around if you are shopping for two households.” Em also replied.

“Oh, that’s pretty neat.” I walked up to the sled and took a couple of bags for myself too. “Speaking of households, how was your little visit at the neighbor’s?”

“Lady Blanchet and her live-in caretaker were terribly grateful that we went to get the groceries for them.” Claire replied “So we had to ultimately decline quite a lot of cookies or we would still be there for the next couple of hours. We did bring some for you two though.”

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“Needing groceries but still being stocked up full of cookies? That does sound like a grandma, alright.” I chuckled.

“You do have very nice neighbors, this is true.” Claire smiled.

“And did something happen while we were out?” Em asked after she had dropped off a bag of groceries in the small kitchen.

“Not really, we finished cleaning a while ago although luckily we decided not to do the entrance yet.” I replied, looking at the somewhat wet floor in front of me. It was to be expected and exactly the reason why we had decided to wait on cleaning this particular space.

“And Aurora told me about her being a vampire.” Anya replied, she was standing right next to her girlfriend as she did.

Everyone went very quiet all of a sudden. Myself included. While we had agreed to tell her about that fact, I hadn’t expected it to be now, right this second.

“Auro…” Em facepalmed.

“What?” I knew I had to take the blame so I tried to put on my best acting skills. “We had agreed to let me tell her one of these days, right? When I felt comfortable enough. The right situation presented itself so I went for it.”

“Couldn’t you have at least waited for us to be here too?”

“I’m sorry, Emma. I kind of pulled it out of her.” Anya came to back me up, after she had pushed me off the cliff of course. “I saw that she wanted to say something to me, but it looked like she was a bit hesitant. So I pestered her about it while we were cleaning.”

Ria looked at Anya and tilted her head just a little. “And are you… fine with it?”

Anya shrugged. “Once she told me Claire knew as well, any doubts quickly disappeared. Claire is a great judge of character.”

“Oh, thanks for the compliment, babe.” Claire smiled.

“Hmmm.” Ria hummed and looked back at me to which I just gave an affirmative nod. I saw her shoulders raise a bit before she backed down again.

“Well… Uh, welcome to the club of secrets I suppose.” Em laughed awkwardly. “Did she tell you the details?”

“She told me about you and Corelia too, yes. And also about the vampire club thingy.” Anya was actually really good at faking knowing a lot less than she actually does. If I was not in the know, I wouldn’t be able to tell at all.

“Vampire club thingy.” Em chuckled. “Auro, you should launch a petition to rename the Conclave to that.”

“I’ll put it on the agenda.” I went along with the joke?

“Anyway, we should probably put the final groceries away before we continue doing anything else.” Claire spurred on. “Not that the food will go bad that fast. But, you know, tidiness and all that.”

And as Claire said, it was done. The rest of the groceries were sorted and stored and the sled was put against the door, just to make it obvious for ourselves not to forget to bring it back later on.

With that taken care of we retreated back to the newly cleaned living room to talk a bit more about the chat Anya and I have had. Albeit that it was mostly half-truths we were telling them. I’m sure I’m going to get into trouble with Ria and Em later when Anya does tell them the truth, but it’s the least I can do for a friend and Ria and Em will forgive me in the end.

But that was pretty much the only real ‘heart throbbing’ interesting thing that happened that day. The rest of the time we spent just relaxing again. Now that Anya was ‘informed’ nothing really held me back to drink my now favorite drink, which I took full advantage of.

For our evening meal we decided upon making some hamburgers. Although it needs to be said that Anya and I didn’t really have much choice in the matter as our girlfriends had pretty much decided this already when they went to the store together.

It was rather fun as a group activity too. Claire took Anya under her wing to make the buns for our hamburgers by themselves while also making a couple of sauces too. I told her that she really shouldn’t put in that effort as we still had sauces left in the fridge, but Claire Insisted as she wanted to repay our kindness in this way. She was really adamant about the fact that we would no longer be friends if I didn’t at least try the sauces too. To which I replied that as long as it didn’t taste or feel like milk, we would be all fine and I wouldn’t have to let Alessia wipe her memory a la ‘People in Dark’-style. I saw Anya suspiciously squint at me for that joke, but Claire found it very, very funny.

The result of our burger creation was surprisingly nice. When most burgers you eat tend to come from fast-food restaurants. The sheer difference is enormous when someone who knows how to make buns by themselves makes the buns. And that’s only talking about the buns and not about any of the sauces that she made. Claire and Anya made three varying burger sauces which all tasted fantastic. I had to eat three different burgers to really give them a distinguished place to exist in their own right. One of the few times that I really felt grateful about the fact that I didn’t really feel full either after eating a lot of food. Ria and Em were a bit less lucky in that regard but they both ate plenty too.

It was a great dinner and I didn’t even mind pretty much the entire building smelled like hamburgers, not at all.