A quick shower later, I joined Ria in the hot tub. She was enthusiastically waiting for me to come around the corner, although she was a bit disappointed I’d decided to wear a big towel around me.

“Wanted to see something lewd, Ria?” I laughed.

“N-no!” She protested, but her stutter betrayed her. “D-do you want to take a towel for me too? I forgot to take one.”

“You were a bit too enthusiastic?”

“M-maybe a little…” She lowered herself in the bath, so I could only just see her eyes.

“Alright, I’ll get you one.” I went around the corner and grabbed a towel. “Em! I’m out of the shower, by the way!”

“Okay!” She called back.

I went back to the hot bath and put Ria’s towel next to where she was sitting. “Here you go.”

“Thanks, Rora.”

“No problem.” I smiled and undid my towel, lowering myself in the water. “Oh, wow.”

“I know right!” She hugged me the moment I got in.

Obviously I blushed. “Ria, I think your nipple is poking my boob.”

“It is.” She giggled.

“Oh, you two are having fun?” Em came in, also with a towel around her.

“Wait, you’ve already showered?”

“Uh, yeah?” She pointed at her wet hair.

“How, I just called you a minute ago.”

“She’s just very fast, Rora. I heard her shower.”

“What?”

“See, Ria gets it.”

“Heh.”

“Maybe you were just too distracted by Ria’s body.”

Ria nodded profusely. “Yeah!”

“Oh no, I’m getting bullied again.”

“Lewd Rora.”

“Lewd Auro, indeed.” Em and Ria started laughing, as Emma also undid her towel and joined us in the bath.

Once we were all settled and the ultimately cute banes of my existence had stopped giggling, Ria explored the rest of the hot bath a bit more.

“What do you think these buttons are for?” She moved in between me and Emma.

“I didn’t even know there were any.” I look back and playfully traced a finger over her back.

“Rora that tickles.” She pouted.

“Hehe.”

“Why not just press them.” Em didn’t even bother looking at them. “It’s not the temperature control because that’s over by the other side, so it’s not like you can electrocute us. Plus, I don’t even think that’d matter anymore thanks to Auro.”

“Hmm.” Ria rubbed her chin.

“Just make sure it’s not a big red button to launch a nuke or something, that’d be bad.”

“No, no big red buttons here. Go ahead and press one, Ria.”

She pressed the top one, which made the light of the bathroom go out. Then she went on to the second one, which also turned off the light in the room we were in. She quickly flipped that back on again.

“Awh, now I can’t peep on you two.”

“Bad Rora.”

“Why couldn’t you have gifted us your dark vision too.”

“I’ll try next time I bite you.” I stuck out my tongue.

“And now the last button.” When Ria pressed that, it turned down a couple of other lights in and around the pool. “Ooh mood lighting!” When she pressed it again, she could even change some of the colours.

“And if you press the second button again…” I leaned over and pressed button two. The dimmed lighting created a very relaxing atmosphere, especially since we could now see the outside world a lot better.

“This place sure is beautiful…” Em went up to the edge and leaned over it with her arms. “I do think it would look even better in the snow, though.”

“Don’t places like this get snow pretty often? We can always come back.” Ria and I joined Em at her side.

“Oh! Then maybe we can even get some skiing in!”

“I didn’t know you could ski, Ria?” I asked.

“I can’t, but we can learn!”

“Hey, any opportunity to get Ria to do sports is an opportunity I think we should take.” Em joked.

“When you put it like that, I’m a lot less enthusiastic about it.” Ria pouted.

Em and I laughed.

After we quieted down, the three of us stared into the night. It definitely was incredibly calming. With only the sound of the bath’s running water and our rhythmic breathing.

“Hey, Em, can I ask you something? I was just wondering about some stuff.” I turned my head to look at her.

“Hmm?” She looked back at me, she’d probably been daydreaming. “What’s up?”

“Should we plan a visit to your parents soon, then? Since your mom knows about our relationship. It would be the politest thing to do, wouldn’t it?”

“I don’t think they would mind if you waited with it for a bit, though.”

“I guess that’s true, but still…. your mom has always treated me really well, so I kinda want to not make her wait that long, you know!”

“Yeah! Em’s mom has been really nice to me too when I went over with Karin!”

“Plus, I do owe your sis a couple of éclairs.”

Em smiled. “Alright then, I’ll ask her when you can come along then when I get back. Oh, and just a tip, my mom likes those éclairs a lot too.”

“I’ll bring a couple of extra ones.” I winked.

“Rora, don’t you own most of the class some kind of candy?”

“I think she does, yeah.” Em laughed.

“Maybe I should stop bribing people with food. It’s hard to keep up with everything.”

“I think you even owe me some.”

“Uh… yeah… probably. I do remember I wanted to give some tea to Pres for that time she covered our backs with Miss Edwards.”

“Maybe you should get into the habit of writing this all down so you can’t forget.”

“That's not a bad plan...”

The room then got quiet again, until Ria suddenly started looking at her hands. “Weird.”

“What’s weird, Ria?” Em looked at what our girlfriend was doing.

“Usually when I stay in the bath this long, my hands always get wrinkly, but now they don’t.”

“Now that you mention it…” Em looked at her hands too, and I decided to do the same.

“Do you think this has something to do with immortality?”

Em shrugged. “Why are you asking me? I don’t know.”

“Maybe the professor has done research about this!” Ria

“I somehow doubt that, but we can always ask.”

“Why don’t you call Alessia?”

“For this? That’s practically a prank call.”

“It would probably make her laugh, but that’s a good thing, right?”

“Oh my Goddess…” I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“Hihi.” Ria giggled and Em was just smirking a lot at my reaction.

“Fine… I’ll call her. I’ve been in the bath for long enough anyway.” I grabbed my towel and got out of the hot bath. I quickly moved indoors because it was quite cold being out of the water like that. When I got back into the main room, I opened my bag to get myself some other underwear. To my surprise, on top of the rest of my clothes lay a paper bag.

“What’s this?” I asked myself and opened it up, taking out a couple of identical sets of lingerie. It came together with a little note, which I promptly read aloud. “From Rosemary. Send my regards to your girlfriends…” A blush found its way to my cheeks. -Rosemary whyyyy. I guess I might as well wear it…-

After having put on my new underwear, I sat down on my bed, cell phone in hand, and started dialing the number Alessia had given me earlier this evening.

“Hello, Aurora?” Alessia almost immediately picked up. “Are you three lost?”

“Ah, no, that’s not why I’m calling. I’m sorry if I woke you up or something.”

“You didn’t, don’t worry. But why are you calling, exactly?”

“Uhm, this might be a bit stupid, but can we not get wrinkly skin when we stay in water for a long time.”

“Oh, so you have been testing out the hot bath. How was it?”

“Yeah… it’s quite nice.”

“Good. Now… about your question. It’s actually not that stupid as you might think.”

“Isn’t it?”

“Not at all, do you think you were the only one who’d seen a difference? Vampires aren’t hydrophobic, you know?” She laughed.

“That’s true, I guess.”

“But yes, a vampire’s toughness comes from musculature and a difference in skin, together with some other factors. Because of this difference with normal humans, your skin will not get wrinkly even after long-term exposure with water.”

“And that also transfers over to my girlfriends?”

“I think it is safe to assume that to a certain degree it does. Obviously they are not going to be as tough as you, but for things like water exposure they should be completely fine.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Also, Rosemary wanted to know if you found her little present.”

“I did, yes… is she there with you?”

“Yes, I’m having some drinks with the staff right now before they head to bed.”

“Tell her she’s a demoness in disguise.”

Alessia laughed. “I will.”

“I should probably leave you at it now. Have a nice evening, Alessia.”

“You too.”

I hung up the phone, right on time, as Em and Ria both entered the room.

“Rora put her lingerie back on!” Ria ran over to give me a hug.

“Yeah… they gave me a couple of pairs, so I might as well.”

“Wanted to pamper your girlfriends.” Em smirked.

“That too.”

“Well, it’s a bit sad, really.”

“Uh, what is?”

“Because I don’t think that bra will stay on for that long.” Her smirk grew even smirkier as she slowly approached me.

-Oh boi… I walked right into that one.-