Out of the large quantity of food that had been ordered, and the fact that the place that I had ordered from already had some pretty generous portion sizes to begin with, we were still somehow left with a little less than half of what was there when we started our meal. My increase in appetite was extremely apparent, coming from where I used to get full off of a small bowl of chicken and rice for dinner to going back for seconds and thirds and so on.
Liz had eaten a similar amount, and I came to think that it might have something to do with being a Were. Though neither Delilah nor Damian had eaten in such quantities. Maybe it had something to do with Liz and I having shifted form in some way last night? I still didn’t have any idea how that actually worked. For all I knew, it could have been something completely unrelated.
Now that we had eaten our fill, the silence that had stretched while we enjoyed the food was all the more obvious. I figured it would be best to keep it simple for now until we have a moment to sit back down and get serious. I wanted to talk more about our plans for the next few days before bed.
I stood up and reached for Liz’s plate that had been picked clean. “I’ll go ahead and clean up the dishes real quick. Do you mind packing up the leftovers to stow away in the fridge?”
Nodding in affirmation Liz stood up as well. “Sure, I can do that.”
Aiming a smile at her, I gathered the cups that we had gotten -though we had already started eating before we realized that the both of us had forgotten to get anything to drink and just got some water- and stacked them on the plates. The plastic cutlery was thrown away on my way to the sink.
As I started washing the plates and cups, I could hear the shuffling of containers as Liz went about closing up the boxes and bringing the first batch towards the fridge. In rather quick order, the four items I washed were clean and in the drying rack that suspended them over the sink. Liz was also making her second trip to put the rest of the containers in the fridge.
Taking a moment to appreciate not having to worry about my hands getting dry from washing dishes, I started walking over to the living room. Liz followed along, having finished putting all the remaining food away.
Maybe I would be a bit more talkative if the three servings -or was it four?- of Chinese wasn’t starting to make my eyes feel heavy and fatigue to slam into me like a brick. Perhaps Liz was feeling similarly, though she hasn’t been very talkative to begin with so it was hard to tell.
When we got to the living room, the both of us flopped down on the couch with Liz just a moment after me. I sighed in relaxation, and partook in the battle of will necessary to not just fall asleep right here on the couch. Liz’s scent that pervaded my senses, adding a sense of safety and comfort to my already tired self, made that battle extremely hard-fought.
“So, is there anything else pressing that we need to go over tonight?” I mumbled groggily.
Glancing over at Liz, who looked like she was trying to fight away the tiredness and did a much better job than I was doing, I saw her shake her head. “No, nothing that should cause impending issues. We can go over more of the important things tomorrow.” Liz muttered before letting out a yawn.
“Nice.” I remarked. “So for tomorrow we have lessons about magic and stuff, we will need to go to the store so I can get us some groceries and other things that I’ll have to buy, and then otherwise prepare for the coming week. Did I miss anything? I think that should be it.”
Liz nodded resolutely. “No, that sounds about right. We shouldn’t plan for much else, since that will take a lot of time out of the day just by itself. The less time we have, the more you will have to cram into your day when you have to go back to work. When is that going to be, by the way?”
“I work Monday through Friday, starting at eight in the morning. When I am done with work can vary, because if I have everything caught up I can just leave so long as I don’t have any appointments to make. But just the same, if it is really busy I could end up staying rather late or even just bring whatever I need home to finish in my office.” I recited. It felt like a fairly mundane spiel that I had told people a dozen times before when asked about my work day.
“Okay,” Liz began. “That doesn’t sound too bad. The evenings we can spend some time on meditation or something else easy after you are done with work, and we can save the more intricate or time and energy consuming stuff for the weekend. It isn’t the best, but it should function well enough. Do you think that would work?”
Tilting my head in thought, I mulled it over. It didn’t seem that bad. Since Liz had specified that this wouldn’t be some kind of boot camp or grueling work, I didn’t mind the thought of meditating with Liz after work. It sounded really peaceful actually. Like, maybe that was just inherently good to do after a day of work?
Either way, I had no complaints. I voiced my opinion, “I don’t see anything wrong with that.”
“Awesome, then that’s what we’ll do.” Liz said with some enthusiasm and a subdued smile.
With that out of the way, I finally let my brain fall out of gear and relaxed further into the couch. The both of us had clearly had a long day. Emotions all over the place, a long drive that should probably have made me more stiff than it did, a long walk that should have made my feet sore, and a night of sleep that may not have been entirely restful that we shared this morning after some pretty intense stuff. It had been a hell of a day, and some part of me wondered how all of this had been packed into the past less than twenty-four hours.
Yawning in response I then insisted, “In that case, it is time for bed.” I got up and reached my arms high while rising to stand on my toes, not restraining a very satisfied noise at the feeling of my muscles getting a good stretch.
Lowering myself down to be standing normally again and turning to face Liz, I was somewhat surprised to see her looking away with a hint of red dusting her cheeks. She seemed to regain her composure quickly enough and asked, “Where will I be sleeping?”
I froze with my arms only part way down from where they were raised. That was a very good question. “Um… right.” I blurted, not really sure how to answer her.
I did, in fact, have a guest room in my house. However, due to the nature of my income stream only covering so much beyond paying my bills and putting some back into savings… I never really furnished the guest room.
Really, I had been quite fortunate on that front. I came across a house that was being sold at a foreclosure auction that was in a really sorry state. That by itself never would have worked for me, but because I worked at a place that remodeled houses as its primary purpose I had a lot of resources that many people otherwise wouldn’t. The main one being the generous payment plan that James, the owner of the place I work as well as the boss of myself and all of my friends, had given me. Very low interest and no money down signed as a contract. The money didn’t get filtered through any financial institution, it was paid via check every month with the agreed upon amount.
James really put a lot of faith in me, and I have since made great strides in paying him back. It had only been a little over a year since then, but I was already stable enough to have a reasonable household budget. The mortgage for the house itself was pretty small, being only right above the minimum that the bank would even issue a loan for, but the bill for paying off the renovations was notably more. It was worth it though. I got to design my own home to an extent, and it was better than I could have ever dreamed of. Nothing overly fancy, but a nice open concept space that was good for me with two bedrooms and an office as well as a guest bathroom and a bathroom that was attached to the master bedroom.
Now of course, this entire mental tangent was only a distraction. A distraction from myself, who when asked where Liz was going to sleep, secretly hoped that Liz was going to be joining me in going to bed.
My better judgment won, or at least I hope this was the better part of my judgment, and I sputtered, “So uh, I do have a spare bedroom. I never really put a bed in it though, so it would probably be more comfortable for you on the couch or in the recliner?”
Silence hung in the air for just a little bit longer than would otherwise be comfortable, but Liz did eventually say, “The couch should be fine. Do you have a blanket I could borrow?”
“Oh, yeah, just one sec.” I said hastily, hoping that my mental tangent didn’t spill out into the world.
A quick walk over to the closet later, I was pulling out my couch blanket and pillows. For some reason when I was cleaning up to prepare for the weekend trip, I decided to put all the stuff I usually kept on the couch away. It was silly really. I was going to get it right back out of the closet and have a fluffy blanket and big, soft pillows to snuggle up with once I got home anyway.
“Here you go. Will this be alright?” I asked, holding out the aforementioned items.
Liz’s nose twitched, and her eyes were glued to the bundle in my arms. “Yeah, that should work,” she stated neutrally.
I nodded. “Okay. Also, the bathroom is up the stairs first door on the right.” I paused, trying to think if there was anything else that she might need. I couldn’t think of anything so I just asked, “Is there anything else that you need?”
She shook her head as she accepted the bundle of blanket and pillows. “No, I should have everything that I need. I just need to get my stuff from the trunk of the car.”
“Alright. Would you like an extra hand to bring things inside?” I inquired.
Once again, she shook her head while standing up. The bundle had been set on the couch beside her. “It’ll only take me one trip. You can go ahead and get ready for bed.” She replied with a smile.
Red dusted my cheeks as I tried to speak. “Gotcha. Well um… Goodnight then Liz. I’ll see you in the morning?” I spouted, feeling rather awkward about the whole exchange.
“Goodnight Sam. Get some rest. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.” Liz cooed. Or maybe she just said so normally? Honestly, it was getting harder to keep my head on straight around her.
Either way, my heart skipped a beat. It felt so intimate, just exchanging goodnights in the middle of the living room. Even as she turned and walked towards the front door, I couldn’t help but let my gaze linger on her until she was outside and out of sight.
Taking a deep breath to steady myself, I parted from the spot I stood where some traces of Liz’s scent still hung in the air. Grabbing my phone on the way, I went upstairs and made a quick trip down the short hallway to my room.
My hand stopped as I reached towards the handle. I was hesitating, letting the feeling of unrealness seep into me. After all that I had been through today, I was about to go to my room and just go to bed as if nothing phenomenal had happened.
I shook that line of thought from my head. It wasn’t going to do me any good, and I was too tired to ponder the secrets of the universe. My hand gripped the doorknob and twisted it open. On the other side of the door… was my room. I flicked the light on and was greeted by the familiar sight of the room I had spent almost every night in for around a year. It wasn’t a huge room, but it was plenty enough space for me.
My dresser with a group of small stuffed animals and anime figures intermingling on it, my rather plain white walls with little in the way of wall decor besides a tall mirror on the wall near the door that led to my bathroom. A couple shelves littered with knick knacks along the wall. My nightstand next to the bed with a simple lamp and a phone charger sitting on it. My comfy, queen-size bed with a thick, pink duvet. Light blue silk pillows sat at the top of the bed, and on them were two other soft things. One was a stuffed bunny that was great for snuggling, and the other was an anime body pillow of a typical blonde and busty elf that was also great for snuggling. The room was fairly plain, but as always the contrast between cute stuffed animals and cute anime girls in the same space was kind of funny to me. It really felt like home.
I let out a content sigh and closed the door behind me. Padding across the soft carpet, I flopped bonelessly onto the end of the mattress and groaned freely into the covers. It really had been a hell of a day. After all of that, lying face down on my own bed was heavenly. Something about being in my own bed just sat right with me right now.
Pushing myself up, I fought valiantly against the incursion of sleep that rapped upon my chamber door. I wanted to at least prepare for bed in at least some small way before falling unconscious in a position that would make me feel terrible in the morning.
Making quick and sleepy work of my clothes, I stripped down to nothing but my panties. The clothes went into the hamper just inside the bathroom door. Being reminded of a few very key changes that weren’t as evident for the last little while, I couldn’t help myself and gave my left boob an experimental squeeze.
“Hehe, squishy~” I bubbled groggily. I was hit by another wave of gentle happiness at how cute I sounded, while also enjoying how soft and supple my newly enlarged chest was.
Playfulness aside, I wasn’t feeling like doing anything more… exciting. I was tired, and there was a limit to how much I could distract myself from sleep. Any further exploration could be saved for later.
I yawned unrestrainedly and reached my arms up high again. It was time for sleep. The light was turned off, my phone was set to silent and placed on the wireless charging dock on the nightstand, and I crawled under the covers.
My stuffed rabbit found itself forced into an embrace with my chin resting on its forehead. I also scooted myself back until I was pressed into the body pillow. The cool fabric was usually pretty nice, but something about it felt rather lacking tonight. I had found myself in a similar position to go to sleep many times, and the familiarity was really nice, but it wasn’t quite as nice as usual.
An idle thought of today reminded me why it might be that way. This morning, waking up with Liz’s warmth and her arms wrapped around me might have spoiled my standards. That was just… too good.
The way that she held me so close, and pulled me in even closer at times, it was better than I could have imagined. I’m sure that my senses were a little skewed from the whole magical scent thing, but that really didn’t help to quantify how much better that was than anything else I had ever felt. It was a little frustrating, really. I had always yearned dreamily as I was lying in bed at night for someone to cuddle with. And now? It was so, so much more intense.
I pressed my face into my pillow sideways and grumbled my frustrations away, or tried to anyway. They were kind of persistent.
Thankfully, I was tired enough that I couldn’t focus on anything for much longer. A few images of Liz conjured up by my exhausted brain caused me to finally fall asleep. Maybe when I woke up, she would have snuck in and replaced the body pillow with herself? A few other similar things drifted in and out, then settled to nothing.
Once I had completely left the land of the waking, I was greeted by a view of the night sky. Endless stars in all directions. It was peaceful, if not a little boring.
I let myself fall into a trance, just looking out at those stars. Something small and weak prodded at the back of my mind, but it was entirely ignored. All that existed for the rest of the night were me and countless specks of stellar light twinkling overhead.
Something small and weak prodded at the back of my mind, but it was entirely ignored.
yeah, I’m sure It’s nothing.
Nope. Absolutely nothing. Why would I even write something so void of meaning? Shame, really.
I have two possible answers for what it was: Her bond to Liz and her magic. Although the second is more likely...
@Philipp__3 I shall decline confirming nor denying either option. I enjoy the theorizing though. I’m curious as to how folks are guessing at things
@Philipp__3 see, I thought more along the lines of
her normal self prodding at whoever's in control now