After we all had a nice warm shower, we had to make sure the fireplace was completely extinguished before heading to bed. Fire safety is very important, after all. We spread out the remaining fuel and growing embers into a flattened mound using the good old trusty poker, after which we used the shovel to bury the fuel and embers with cooled down ash and lastly we used a bit of baking soda to make sure that all the fuel and embers definitely stopped burning. According to Em baking soda has a chemical compound in it that’s commonly used in fire extinguishers too, the more you know.

“And now we just need to monitor it for a few more minutes.” Em said as she closed the little doors to the fireplace.

“I just thought you could leave it to burn out by itself.” I said as I watched the now dark interior of the fireplace.

“If you are going to stay nearby, that should be okay.” Em nodded. “But when we go to sleep… I’d rather not leave it burning by itself. We do have smoke detectors but I’d rather avoid stuff happening.”

“True, avoiding is better than curing.”

In the meantime, Karin and Ria were sitting on the sofa behind us, discussing the latest book they both read. From what I could hear, it was a book about traveling. It sounded somewhat interesting but probably not interesting enough for me to read it unless I was totally bored. What can I say, books and I have a difficult relationship at times. But then again… thanks to my vampiric condition, having nothing to do is a lot more common nowadays than it used to.

“So, we have to wait a minute or five?” I asked my girlfriend.

“I think that should be fine.” She nodded once more. “Want to talk about books as well?”

“Nah, I’m fine.” I chuckled. “Would rather talk about these cute pictures of you and Karin on the mantle. Where was this one taken?” I pointed at a picture of smol Karin and Emma sitting in front of a waterfall.

“That’s a good question…” Em looked behind her at her sister. “Sis, do you remember where this was taken?” She pointed at the picture as well.

Karin looked away from Ria for a second and tilted her head. “In Ireland.” She said and then quickly continued on with her conversation.

“Thanks.” Em smiled. “There you have it, Ireland.” She giggled. “I don’t really remember that trip, which is a shame because it looks like a beautiful place.”

“We can always visit it again.” I replied. “I’ve never really been away from home apart from… well, you know. And maybe once we are there, it might refresh your memories.”

“Awh, that sounds wonderful.” Em smiled. “I think I’ll take you up on that.”

“It would be my pleasure.” I smiled back and then I looked over my shoulder back at my other girlfriend who was talking about something while being so animated she almost fell off the sofa but Karin managed to stop her just in time.

“Geez, Ria, please.” Em chuckled.

“Sorry, I got a bit too excited.” She giggled back at us. I’m really happy that Ria can’t get physically hurt anymore, especially when she is in a clumsy mood.

We listened in on their conversation for a bit longer until the embers were truly and surely extinguished.

“Come, Ria, let’s get you to bed before you faceplant out of the sofa and onto the floor.” I scooped Ria up into my arms with ease. She eeped a little but didn’t protest at all.

I let Em and Karin walk out in front of me while I carried Ria up the stairs and to Em’s bedroom. We did stop for a second in the hallway to say goodnight to Karin. When we then walked into Em’s room. I gently put down my girlfriend on one of the comfortable field beds that Em’s mom had prepared for us.

“There you go.” I gave Ria a head pat afterwards.

“Couldn’t you give me a kiss instead?” She gave me a coy smile.

“Coming right up, two for the price of one.” I bent down again and kissed her once, shortly after which I kissed her again for a bit longer.

“Hehe.” She giggled.

Em in the meantime was braiding her hair before bed. So I decided I would take a sip from my special flask as I was a little bit thirsty. At least… I would have if I could find it.

“Uhm, Em…”

“Yes?” Em looked at me through the mirror. “What’s up?”

“Where’s my flask?”

“Your flask? Isn’t it still there?” She finished braiding her hair and then walked over to me to look through my bag as well.

“No… and now that I think about it… it wasn’t here when I got some reserve clothes from it earlier either.”

“Did you put it in the side pockets?”

“No, I’m pretty sure I put it on to… Oh no…”

“Rora, what’s wrong?” Ria joined in now as well.

“I’m pretty sure I put it on top of my clothes… and if my bag was open while your mom was preparing the beds…”

“Oh shit.” Em cursed quite silently.

“Yeah…”

Em took a breather. “Okay, let’s not panic, yet… Mom probably just saw the bottle and put it in the fridge. It was that thermos flask you got from Viktor, right?”

“Mhmm.” I nodded.

“Right, let’s just go to the upstairs fridge. She might have put it in there, if not, it’s probably downstairs in the kitchen.” Em walked to the door, I decided to follow her and Ria went along too. We then walked down the hallway to a little closet space which was mainly used for storing blankets and the likes. It had a little fridge in the bottom compartment. They had installed it so Em’s mom wouldn’t need to go all the way down to the kitchen to go and get something cold to drink.

We didn’t waste any time, and Em opened the fridge.

“Oh, thank the Goddess…” when I got a clear view inside, I could immediately see the gray stainless steel flask Viktor had bought for me. I bent down and took it out, it was nice and cold now.

“That’s good news.” Ria smiled.

“Mhmm.” Em nodded but didn’t seem entirely convinced.

When we got back to the room with my flask now in hand, Em still wasn’t looking very happy. “Em?” I looked at her. “What’s up?”

“Do you think she opened it?” She whispered back.

“Uh…” I tested the cap of the thermos flask. It seemed about as tight as I closed it, but you really didn’t need much strength to close this. Even Em’s mom would be able to do so while she was tired. I then opened the flask and peeked inside, the inside of the flask had a neat feature of showing you how many centimeters were in it. “The liquid levels are still the same. So it’s not like she’d drank from it.”

“Of course she wouldn’t drink from it… but she might’ve checked, you know… to see if it’s something that needs refrigeration…”

“Ah…” I looked at the flask in my hand. “Well, she didn’t say anything about it. So it’s probably fine.”

“Hmm… I suppose I’m worrying a bit too much…”

“Don’t worry, Emma.” Ria gave Em a big hug.

“And if she did… well… we wanted to involve your family one day anyway, right?” I replied and walked closer to my girlfriends after having closed my flask back up again.

“That’s true… but I want to be more prepared for that.”

I nodded. “Well, let’s not think about it too much and just have a nice sleepover.” I hugged both of them, making it into one big group hug.

“Alright.” Em smiled. “I’ll try to worry less.

“Yay!” Ria smiled as well and tightened her hug on Em a bit more.

“That being said, I would like to continue breathing if that’s okay.”

“Hehe.” Ria giggled and let her embrace loosen a bit.

After our group hug, I could finally take a long-deserved sip from my now cooled flask of ‘totally grape juice’. Although I did limit my intake a little because a certain someone in this room had promised a certain something for me tomorrow and it was a bit nicer to drink when I was actually a little thirsty as well. I then put away my flask in my bag, this time in one of the side pockets so it wasn’t in the immediate view anymore, and then laid down on the surprisingly comfortable field bed.

“Is it okay if I turn off the light?” Em asked.

“Yes.” Ria nodded. She was already hiding most of her face underneath her blanket. Only everything above her eyes was peeking out.

“Ria.” I said.

“Mhmm?” She turned to look at me, her turning around while hidden away like that looked pretty comical.

“You’re cute.” I gave her a wink.

“Hehe. Thanks.”

Em shook her head with a smile and turned off the lights.

“Hey, I didn’t tell you I was ready yet.” I said.

“Shush, you can see in the dark.” Em laid down.

“I know, but still. How rude.” I stuck out my tongue playfully, until I remembered that she couldn’t actually see what I was doing. “I was sticking out my tongue by the way.”

Em didn’t reply.

“Eeeeemmmm… don’t ignore meeeee.”

Em started chuckling, but still didn’t reply. This made Ria chuckle as well. -It’s a gosh darn conspiracy against me, I swear.-