As luck would have it for me, Luna decided to try on all the clothes that had come in the box. Which led to a lot of undressing right in front of me. As you’d guess, I didn’t mind that one single bit, in the matter of fact, I was actually rather encouraging of that decision.

I could tell, however, by the rather shy look on her face in the beginning of this little fashion show, that she was definitely doing this to pleasure me too. 

It took her around half an hour to show off everything to me, and I literally do mean everything, as we ended up with the last pieces of clothing, being the cute looking hoodies with the shark mouth motif. 

“You look very huggable, that’s for damn sure.” I grinned. “Sharky will definitely agree too.” 

“You think so?” Luna checked herself out. “Don’t you feel like it shows off my curves too well?” 

“There’s no such thing as showing off curves too well.” I replied. “And that’s a scientific fact.” 

“Hmmm…” 

“Don’t you like the hoodie yourself?” 

“I do, and it’s very comfortable too. Maybe I’m just a little bit too self-conscious still.” 

“I can assure you, there’s nothing you should be self-conscious about, not in this house.” I embraced my girlfriend and gave her a quick kiss on her cheek. “We love sea creatures in this household.” 

Luna quickly pushed me away and chuckled. “You derp.” 

“I know.” I gave her a wink. 

At that moment, my doorbell rang. My holostick simultaneously giving me a buzz so I could look who it was. When I opened it up, I could see the familiar red bobble hats of Martha and Roland in the camera. 

“Oh, look who we have here.” I smiled. 

“Who is it?” 

“It’s the couple from next door, I’m going to ask what’s up. Give me a sec.” I put the holostick on the table and quickly walked over to the front door. When I opened up, Martha immediately smiled while Roland looked just a tad more… tired?  

“I’m sorry, Lauren, I really tried to hold her back.” He said before his wife could even begin with what she had to say. 

I laughed. “Ah, is this about the cake?” 

“We would like to invite you two to lunch and dessert at our home, yes!” Martha said enthusiastically. 

“Please don’t feel obliged.” Roland continued. “You two have a life of your own too, of course.” 

“Hmm, we weren’t really planning on doing much today.” I looked back in the direction of the living room. “Luna, would you like to come over to the neighbor’s house for lunch?” 

I heard a bonk coming from the living room, after which I heard a hasty scramble. In the matter of seconds, Luna was standing in view of the neighbors, but instead of just wearing her hoodie, she’d pulled a jacket over it as well. It made me have to hold back my laughter, but it seemed like our two friendly neighborhood neighbors didn’t really notice. 

“Y-yes, I would love to come over.” She moved her hand as if she was about to salute but then suddenly brought it back down next to her body, giving the neighbors an awkward smile instead. 

“Lovely! Just outright lovely!” Martha enthusiastically clapped in her mittened hands and made a little hop of joy. 

Roland rolled his eyes and smiled, looking at me. “You can come over whenever, we will be eating in an hour or so.” 

“We will get ready and come over.” I replied. I needed to give Luna some time to fix her little fashion conundrum after all. 

“Come on, Martha, let the ladies get ready.” 

Martha smiled and waved enthusiastically. “See you in a bit!” She kept waving at us until I closed the door. I really liked Martha. 

 

“Oh gosh, Lauren, what should I wear?!” Luna almost immediately started panicking from the moment we were alone again. 

“Well, definitely not that, you are gonna get a heatstroke if you do that.” I pointed at her jacket over hoodie combination. “Why not just go in the hoodie?” 

“W-what? Are you serious?” 

I shrugged. “I don’t see why not. It’s cute as fuck.” 

“Lauren…”

“Yes?” 

“You are such a dolt.” Luna pouted, huffed and turned around. 

I chuckled and walked towards my girlfriend. “Okay, then what about that black turtleneck you just got? That one should work, right?” 

“Hmmm.” Luna lowered her arms from their crossed position and walked over to the clothes spread out on the table. “I guess that could do.” She held the turtleneck out in front of her body and looked down. 

“Decided?” 

“Give me a minute.” 

As asked, I gave Luna a minute, a couple of minutes actually, while she went over some other of her new clothes. She looked a bit indecisive, but at last, after ten minutes, she’d finally picked the turtleneck I had suggested. 

When she looked back at me, the look on her face showed some slight confusion. “What are you going with?” 

“Me?” I tilted my head. “I’m just going with this.” I pointed at the military hoodie I was wearing. 

“Isn’t that a bit too casual?” 

“It’s Martha and Roland, they are the definition of casual.” I replied. “They really don’t mind what you wear.” 

That’s when Luna’s pouty face came back in full force. “But then I’ll be too overdressed compared to you.” 

“Okay, I got the memo, let me just get my jeans jacket or something like that, buttoned long-sleeve shirt underneath, done.” 

Luna didn’t seem terribly convinced by that, but she gave me a golden nod of approval. “I guess that’ll do.” 

“Alright, let me go grab it and then we can leave.” 

What I said was done, after quickly running upstairs, changing my hoodie for the aforementioned clothing and a little bit of perfume, I got back downstairs to Luna who was getting her new outdoors jacket on. The entire situation did make me laugh a bit as I put on my own jacket. 

“Is something funny?” 

“Well, I was just thinking that discussion kind of reminds me of being a married couple. Like those sitcoms sometimes tend to portray.” Or like the example of our very own neighbors.

Luna blushed slightly. “I think I know which ones you mean…” 

I grinned and gave her a wink. That made the blushing worse, as intended. 

 

When she had recovered a bit, Luna and I made our way out into the cold for the small distance over to the neighbor’s house. We had only just rung their doorbell when Martha opened it, just as enthusiastically as she was earlier. 

“Welcome! Welcome! Please do come inside!” 

“Thank you.” I smiled as she guided us indoors. It had been quite a while ago since I last visited, but I immediately got hit by the familiar scent of delicious baked goods. Martha had made somewhat of a hobby of it, and she would often also just give cakes and other things to the neighbors, not even asking for any money in return. She did often receive gifts in return though out of thanks from the neighbors, but she really didn’t need that to keep her hobby rolling. 

What also struck me was just how many little things they had gathered around on the cabinets since my last visit. It really started to look a lot like your typical grandparents’ house. A lot of stuff, but somehow still not cluttered. 

“Thank you for having us.” Luna talked to Martha, who in turn was just admiring Luna. 

“It’s no problem at all!” Martha wobbled happily. “I hope you two are hungry, we are going to have a lot of food ready for the two of you.” 

“We are definitely looking forward to it.” I smiled.

We took off our boots and our jackets and then followed Martha to their living room. I could hear Roland being hard at work in the kitchen. 

“Roland! Our guests are here!” Martha called out. 

“I know, I heard the doorbell.” 

“Come on, come say hi.” 

“We just saw them earlier, Martha, if I come over now, the food is going to burn.” 

“It already smells delicious.” Luna commented. 

“It does.” I added. “Is it your famed cinnamon, apple and ricotta cake?” 

“Yes! I’m surprised you can tell.” Martha laughed. 

“I’ve just got a nose for food.” I smiled. “But most of all, I just remember the comforting, sweet scent that it gives off.” 

“It is one of my favorites to bake.” Martha nodded happily. “Is there anything you two would like to drink?” 

“Just some soda or something, if you have anything like that.” I replied. 

“For me too.” 

Martha nodded and gestured towards two of the seats at the dinner table. I’ll bring it to you in an instant!” 

“Please don’t rush yourself.” 

“You know just as much as I do, Lauren, that saying that won’t help at all.” Roland’s voice arose from the kitchen. The man still had very good hearing for his age, and as far as I knew he didn’t have any augments. 

“It’s called hospitality, Roland!” Martha called back. 

-Gosh, these two are so adorable.-