"Ah!" Stef gasped as their breath hitched.

A moment later their back arched and they gasped again, "Yes! That's the spot, right there!"

I grinned as I slowly ran the brush along my enbyfriend's long furry tail. At the same time I reached up with my free hand and started giving them pets and scritches, right behind their fuzzy feline ears. That's when the purring started, and from there it was only another half minute before they'd melted into a happy catkin puddle next to me on our bed.

"Please don't stop," Stef mumbled as their head came to rest against my shoulder.

"Of course not cutie," I replied. "Not until you say."

I had to adjust my position slightly to account for their slump but I kept at it, with my left hand at the top of their head while my right hand ran the brush over and over along the fuzzy feline tail across my lap. I only paused for a second or two, when I leaned in and planted a kiss on their cheek.

"Mmm," my enbyfriend smiled without opening their eyes. "Thank you my little star."

"You're welcome love," I responded softly.

After that the only sound in our room was the catkin's loud purring, at least for the next few minutes. I actually wondered if they'd drifted to sleep, until they eventually stirred again.

Their purring continued non-stop though, even as Stef commented in a half-whisper "It's nice having friends around. But it's also nice having the place to ourselves once in a while."

"Agreed," I nodded. "I'm glad we decided to stay home today. I'll also be glad when our friends are back and we know they're safe. Until then I'm happy we have some private time together. We've definitely earned it."

"Mhmm," the catkin purred happily as they snuggled a little closer against my side.

I found myself smiling as I continued slowly running the brush along their tail. They'd originally offered to do my tails, they said it was time for me to take a break from the home renovations. I turned it around and suggested I do theirs first, since they'd helped with the first part of the project.

Our plans included adding two more bedrooms, one on either side of the existing space. Stef and I both wanted to take the outer-most room on our side of the house though. So after I added the new rooms and re-did the hallway that connected them the two of us spent twenty or thirty minutes moving all our stuff out of our old room and into the new 'master bedroom' at the far end.

None of that was very taxing though, so to be honest I didn't even need the break yet. Barely two hours had passed since the others set out, and I really hadn't been pushing myself at all. Even so, I figured an extra break or two wouldn't hurt. I was confident I'd get everything done long before our friends got back.

"You're so cute," I whispered as I slowly ran the brush along their tail again.

Instead of responding Stef just smiled, while they continued serenading me with their loud purring. I'd have been content to spend the rest of the day lavishing attention on my beautiful enbyfriend, but it was only another couple minutes before we were interrupted by our phones buzzing with some new text messages.

"Aww," my enbyfriend pouted, while their ears folded back. "I guess we'd better check that, incase it's important."

"Yeah," I sighed.

I gave them one last stroke with the brush and another scritch of their ears before finally letting them go. It took us another few seconds to find our phones, then I frowned at the message.

It was from Flora, "Good news: we just got to the nearest winery without running into any trouble. Bad news: it's already been picked over pretty good. There's probably a lot of happy conscripts at the Bundesheer camp in Retz."

"Charlotte is now a very grumpy little mink," the deer girl added, "But she has a plan B. Apparently there's two wineries nearby, in Hnanice? That's less than 1.5km up the road from here, and it's about the same distance from there back to you as it is from here. We're heading there now, should take us less than 30 mins to get there."

Stef and I exchanged a look after we'd both read the texts. Then the catkin commented, "That's across the border. I know it's all part of the land Gaia gave us, but it still feels risky to me."

"Same," I nodded slowly. "Still, humans can't hurt them. And Theo's with them, he'll keep them safe."

"I guess," they sighed. Then they tapped out a reply to the others, which appeared on my phone a moment after they'd sent it. "Please be careful! Listen to Theo, he'll make sure you avoid trouble and stay safe."

A half minute later we both received one more message. This one was from Charlotte, and I could almost picture her eye-roll as I read it. "Ok mom! We'll be good!"

"Let us know how it goes," I texted back. "Or text us when you're heading back, so we know you're ok."

Fiona responded, "Will do."

That was the last of the messaging, at least for a while. And it felt like our break was over too, so I got back to work on the next part of our reno project. That involved expanding the washroom facilities. Rather than just make the existing one bigger I decided to add a second one, so there'd be one on each side of our home. That way we'd have one washroom for each pair of bedrooms.

Adding all the 'plumbing' to support the new washroom took some time, being precision work carving the small conduits through solid rock. And when it was finally finished I decided I ought to increase the size of our reservoir as well, so we wouldn't have to worry about the water running low. Although that probably wouldn't be a problem, now that we could turn to Charlotte's water magic instead of relying on the pump our friends lugged all the way here on their bicycle.

Speaking of precision work and conduits, there were a few finishing touches I still needed to add to the new bedrooms. The living-room and all four bedrooms each had their own little fireplace, while the kitchen had the oven and stove arrangement. So I had to ensure all six rooms had adequate ventilation coming in, along with proper chimneys and flues to draw out the smoke from any fires. Stef helped with that part, thanks to their air magic they could easily get a feel for how it would all work. And as the finishing touches came together I had to admit I was pretty pleased with the results, and a little proud of my work.

Despite all the changes our home was basically symmetrical. There were six main rooms across the front, and going from east to west they were Stef's and my bedroom, then a second bedroom, followed by the living-room and front door. Next came our kitchen, then Charlotte and Flora's bedroom, and finally at the west end was the fourth bedroom. All four bedrooms plus the living-room and kitchen had windows facing north, looking out over the woods and down towards the lake.

At the back there was a long stone hallway that ran the length of the house, connecting those six rooms together. Plus there was another doorway linking the living-room directly to the kitchen for ease of access.

The two bathrooms were on the other side of the hall from the bedrooms, set even deeper into the cliff. And in between them was a small utility room, where the pump and the magical generator went. And there was enough extra space in there we could use that room for general storage too. For food storage we had a cold cellar beneath the kitchen. And finally the water reservoir was several meters above the level of our home, and set even further back into the cliff.

About the only thing our home was missing was proper doors in all the doorways, but Flora already offered to provide those once her magic was stronger. And none of the windows had glass in them, which was going to become an issue as it got colder out. We could seal them with stone or wood shutters, but that would block out the light and might make the place feel a little more like a cave again rather than a house.

"Ok," I sighed as I finished the last of the small fiddly changes to the water and air conduits. "I think that's everything? Or even if it isn't, I'm definitely ready for a break now."

Stef wrapped an arm around me and guided me down the hallway into our bedroom as they said, "Then come and make yourself comfortable my little star."

The two of us ended up laying together on our bed, Stef was sat up with pillows between their back and the wall while I lay cross-wise at an angle. That let me rest my head on their lap, while my tails remained in easy reach. They picked up the brush, and just a few moments later I was in heaven.

Stef started off carefully brushing my tails one at a time. They were using both hands for that at first, as they focused on trying to get all my fluffy floof under control. Eventually they were able to shift to doing the brushing one-handed, freeing up their other hand for equally important tasks. Like ear rubs.

"Oh gosh," I sighed happily as I all but melted under their careful ministrations. A second or two later some soothing rumbles began emanating from deep in my chest.

Stef sounded like they were smiling as they commented, "You're already fox-purring? You must really be enjoying this, my little star."

My head barely moved as I nodded once and whispered, "Uh-huh. Very happy."

"I'm glad," they replied with a little smirk.

At that point they shifted their hand slightly to rub against the backs of my tall fuzzy ears, while the slow rhythmic brushing continued. And that was the end of any rational conversation from me for a while. Instead the best I could manage was just a lot of very happy fox noises, while I dissolved into a puddle on my enbyfriend's lap. I might have even drifted into a light sleep for a bit, while I basked in the wonderful sensations of tail brushies and ear rubs.

Eventually though I mumbled something about Stef putting the brush aside and cuddling with me instead. So they did just that, and the two of us probably spent a good hour or two in each other's arms. That was just as heavenly, but sadly all good things must come to an end.

And in our case the cuddles finally stopped when Stef commented, "Sorry love, but I think it's time we got up. Our friends should be back soon."

"Yeah," I sighed as the two of us slowly sat up. Then my ears drooped as I frowned, "I guess I missed it when the others texted they were on their way?"

Stef's eyes widened and their ears folded back, "I haven't heard anything from them since they set off for Hnanice."

Both of us moved at the same time to grab our phones, then we tapped out some anxious messages to our friends.

"Is everything ok?" I wrote. "We've been waiting to hear back from you!"

Stef added, "Where are you? We figured you'd be on your way back here by now."

Fortunately we only had to wait a minute or so before a reply came back from Flora, "Sorry! We got totally distracted and forgot to text! Don't worry, everything's ok."

"We had an adventure!" Charlotte texted a moment later. "And we hit the jackpot!!"

My enbyfriend and I both exchanged an uncertain glance. Then I tapped out, "What sort of adventure? And by jackpot I assume you mean you found some wine?"

"Loads of wine!" the mink girl quickly responded.

Flora added, "Not just wine. We need to come back here tomorrow, and maybe the day after. We'll need to make a few trips to bring all the goodies back to the house."

Stef sent them another message, "What about the adventure? You're all ok right?"

"We met someone just over the border crossing," our deer girl friend replied.

At the same time another message appeared from Charlotte, "Don't worry we're all fine!"

Meanwhile Flora continued texting, "Made a new friend, she gave us something amazing. You'll see it soon, we're coming back via the hiking trails."

"Probably have to do the last half km on foot though," she added somewhat enigmatically. "Why don't you come out and meet us? We could use a hand carrying everything the last leg through the woods."

Stef and I exchanged another look, then I sent one more message. "Ok, we'll meet you on the trail. Can't wait to hear the rest of this story though, because it sounds like you had an interesting day!"

With that the two of us finally got up then set out to go meet our friends. As we started making our way south-east through the forest I tried to focus on my stone-sense, to get a feel for where they were. And my enbyfriend seemed to be doing the same thing, their head was cocked slightly to the side while their ears twitched as they tuned into the distant vibrations in the air.

"Wheels?" I frowned as soon as I picked up the strange new sensation. "That's no bicycle though. It feels way too heavy."

The catkin had a puzzled expression on their face as they nodded slowly, "It sounds like a vehicle, but nothing I've heard before. I don't hear engine noises, but there are some squeaky axle sounds."

Whatever they'd found it wasn't approaching too fast, probably less than ten kilometers per hour I figured. It kept a very consistent pace though, so it didn't take much longer before Stef and I got to see the big surprise our friends were bringing home.

Two pairs of eyes widened, while our ears perked up and tails flicked back and forth as a big old farm tractor trundled into view. It looked well-used, with plenty of dings and dents and rust spots on the bright orange paint. The engine area was brand-new though, and we both recognized the large egg-shaped magic crystal powering the thing.

Silvia was at the wheel, the ponygirl had a wide grin on her face as she waved to us from the driver's seat. And a moment later we spotted the rest of our friends, riding behind her in a large wagon the tractor was towing.

"Look what we got!" Silvia called out. "Tractor!"

Charlotte stood up in the back of the wagon and added, "And wine! Lots and lots of wine!"

"Oh wow," Stef mumbled as they stared.

I nodded slowly, "That's definitely going to come in handy."

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