“That was actually pretty darn fun, Em. Thanks for the proposal.” I gathered up all the drawing materials again and put them in a cabinet that was a little bit more reachable than their last storage space. Just in case, we’d want to do this again in the near future.

“Oh, my proposal still needs to come, though. But I’ve not bought the ring yet.” Em replied. Obviously deliberately misunderstanding what I meant.

“Is that so? You better go down on your knee for that.”

“I’ll go on my knees for you earlier than that.”

I didn’t see that comment coming. As the blush on my face proved to my girlfriend. But then again… by the look on her face, it also looked like her tease backfired profusely. The only one who wasn’t red-faced in the room apparently had little to no clue what was going on, as she had been petting Shima at the time.

“What are you two doing?” Ria asked.

“No-nothing.” I replied and quickly put away the drawing mats.

“Nothing?”

“Just a joke.” Em replied quickly.

“Ooh? What joke? I want to hear it too!” Ria hopped closer to the two of us.

-Now you’ve done it, Em.-

“Uh… w-want me to tell it to you?”

“Yeah!”

“W-well.” Em coughed in her fist. “I… uh… invented a new word. Want to hear it?”

Ria nodded, paying close attention to what Em was saying.

“Plagiarism!”

“Hah.” I chuckled. That actually was a pretty decent joke for having been thought of on the spot.

Ria smiled. “That was funny! Want to hear my joke?”

“Sure.” Em smiled. She looked relieved that Ria had bought it.

“Want to know about my hearing?”

“Yeah, sure.” Em smiled again.

“It’s actually pretty good.”

“...” Em stayed silent for a sec and scratched her cheek. “I don’t think I get it.”

Ria giggled. “That’s because it wasn’t really a joke.”

“Oh.” I vocalized. “So you mean…”

“That I heard everything you said? Yes!”

Em and I blushed once more. We’d been got. We’d underestimated Ria and we’d been definitely got.

Ria just smiled at us as she sat back down on the sofa. And as an evil genius as she was, Shima walked up to her and jumped on her lap so she could pet her.

Em and I were left completely speechless.

When we’d mentally recovered from this, we joined Ria on the sofa, without saying much. I’d put some paprika chips in a bowl so she could nom on them for a bit, and hopefully, also forget what just happened. But luckily, she wasn’t rubbing it in.

“Is it okay if we watch a movie together?” Ria asked.

“Yeah, definitely.” I immediately replied. “But in that case, I’ll get some more snacks. Is it okay for you too, Em?”

“Yeah, sure.” Em gave a nod, the sign for me to go and get some more snacks ready. “What movie would you like to see?”

“Hmmm… what about Federal Fortunes 4?”

“Wait!? That’s out already?” I called back from the other side of the living room. I loved those movies.

“Yes!” Ria replied. “It was released on CageMovies at the same time as in theatres.”

“What!? Wow!” But then I realized something. “Wait… I don’t think I have a sub for that anymore, though.”

“You can use mine.” Em replied and opened the app on my TV. “I think we even have an extra spot for our subscription.”

“Well, it’s not like I can’t pay for it myself…” I took a couple of bags of chips out of the closet. Not sure which one to pick, I just picked three different kinds.

“Well, you can get that sorted tomorrow, then.” Em smiled.

I took two bottles of soda with me as well, and then rejoined my girlfriends on the sofa. Em had already managed to log into her own account and was already dialing in the search words to find it. “Do you think I’ll need to have seen the other ones to get what’s happening in this one?” She then pressed on the fourth installment.

Ria and I looked at each other, slightly shocked about what Em had just said.

“You’ve never seen Federal Fortunes, Emma?” Ria asked.

“Uh… no? Is that bad?” She shook her head.

“But even I have seen them!” Ria called out, still in disbelief.

“I mean… it’s not like it’s that well known…” Em scratched the back of her neck.

“I guess it’s not a giant blockbuster, but still.” I replied. “Could you go back to the previous screen, Em?”

“Uh, sure.” Em went back to look at the general search overview and then handed the tv controller back to me.

“Oh, thank the Goddess. They have all four of them. Em, be prepared to get your mind blown.”

“Wait, we are going to watch the first one then? But you’ve already seen those.” Em looked confused.

“One can never have watched Federal Fortunes enough.”

“Well-said, Ria, well-said indeed.” I pressed the button, which started to make the first movie play.

“Are you sure about this? You really wanted to see the fourth one, didn’t you?” Em kept protesting.

“Of course! We want to share the experience with you, Em!” Ria spoke the truth once more.

“We can watch two today and watch the other two tomorrow.” I nodded. “Unless you don’t want to.” I paused the movie just as I said that.

“No, no! I definitely want to see it with you… I just wanted to make sure you didn’t mind…”

“You don’t even need to ask.” I gave her a wink. “In an hour, you’ll see that these movies are the best thing ever since sliced bread.”

And so, the first movie began. It actually had been quite a while since both Ria and I had seen it, so having a bit of a movie marathon of movies we loved definitely didn’t hurt. And on top of that, it was incredibly fun to watch the reaction to something you loved. When I glanced over fifteen minutes in, I could already tell that Em was already incredibly invested in the film. That continued on for the entire duration of the movie.

“Wow!” Em dropped back into the sofa as the credits started rolling.

“Did you like it, Em?” Ria asked.

“Yeah! It was really good. And there’s four of these movies.”

“Yep, and the next two are as good as this one, if not better.” I smiled.

Em looked genuinely excited. “So, we are going to watch movie two, as well, right?”

“Sure thing. I’m not tired.” I gave her a wink.

“Rora, you never get tired. That’s cheating. ” Ria pouted.

“It is.” Em chuckled too. “But are you up for it too, Ria?”

Ria nodded. “We still have plenty of snacks! So definitely!”

“I take it I can start the second movie then?”

“Almost.” Em replied and got off the sofa. “Let’s do a little change in scenery.” Em then continued to push me to the middle so I could sit in between Em and Ria. “There, now we are all set.”

Ria smiled and leaned in to me so she could lean against my shoulder. Em did exactly the same on my other side so I just became an Aurora sandwich. I chuckled at the actions of my girlfriends and swiftly started the second movie.

The credits of the second movie started rolling and Em got off my shoulder and stretched a little. “That one was great too.”

“Mhmm, it was.” I slowly nodded.

Em then looked over to the other side of the sofa and saw that Ria had fallen asleep against me. “Wait, how long has she been sleeping?”

“Uh… around halfway.” I softly spoke, not to wake Ria up. “I didn’t bother waking her, as she’d already seen it anyway.”

“We should probably get her in bed then.”

“Hmmm, maybe… we could also give her a blanket and let her sleep in the sofa.”

“Won’t she get a bit angry if she notices we’ve gone to bed without her, though?”

“...... That’s a good point…” I softly prodded her cheek. “Ria, come, let’s go to bed.”

“Mhmmmm.” She tried to slap away my hand in her sleep, but she didn’t even manage to reach her hand halfway up.

“Ria… wake up, princess.” Em had walked around me so she was standing next to Ria and gave her a soft kiss on her cheek.

“Mhmm…. Emma…?” Ria slowly woke up from her slumber. “Is the movie already over?” She rubbed the sand out of her eyes and slowly sat herself upright.

“Yeah, it just ended. Come, let’s get you to bed, okay?”

Ria nodded groggily and Em then got her up, supporting her with her arms.

“How did you do that?”

“Don’t you know, Auro? You have to wake up princesses with a kiss.” She gave me a wink.

“That’s a fair point.” I smiled and got up from the sofa as well. I folded the blanket that we’d used to cover us up and cleaned up the rest of the snacks and glasses while Em took Ria to my bedroom to get changed. I then turned off the tv and followed my girlfriends along.

-Something tells me I’ll sleep pretty well as well.-