Chapter 147 - Pajamas

Once he was done eating, Ethan knew there was another very important problem he didn't think about.

'Sleeping..'

He thought Lefiya would never agree to sleep with him in the same bed, and he had no intention of embarrassing her in this way, but sending her to her room now, with the new bond they had seemed... wrong.

Stuck in these thoughts, Ethan didn't know what to do while Ais realized that Ethan was again thinking about something he didn't know how to affront and without hesitation, she decided to ask for explanations.

"Is everything alright?"

This question also attracted Lefiya's attention before Ethan sighed as he had managed to reach the best solution for the time being..

"Yes, I was thinking about how to set us up to sleep.. and I've come to a conclusion. For now, It's better if I sleep alone, you two can sleep in my bed.."

He didn't really feel like sleeping alone with Ais. Although he knew he would surely enjoy sleeping with her much more than alone, Ethan had decided to avoid doing so for the time being as he didn't want Lefiya to think she had to push herself..

His words made Lefiya blush for a moment as she appreciated Ethan's gesture in her heart, but on her own behalf, she didn't want to be a burden to Ais

"No need to..w-worry so much. I can sleep alone.."

These words led Ethan's gaze to cross with Lefiya's

"No, I'll sleep alone"

At his words, Lefiya raised her eyebrows as a sign of disappointment before repeating her previous statement

"I can..sleep alone"

Hearing this, Ethan spared no time and immediately countered

"I said I will sleep alone"

Being able to see the two angry at each other as Lefiya started pouting while Ethan looked away, Ais felt she didn't understand something.

This is because, she thought it was strange that they were fighting over something so secondary, so Ais looked for a second at Ethan's bed to see if all three had enough space on the bed and after a few seconds, she came to the conclusion there was room for three people if they squeezed a little, and should not have any problems since they were all in a relationship..

"There's enough room for everyone..Why not...sleeping together...?"

Saying this while pointing to the bed, Ais added nothing more while Lefiya, already knowing it was true, could only look down as her blush almost reached the tip of her ears. She wanted to sleep with them too, but her heart told her it was too much, too soon and that she wasn't ready at all for such an emotional stress..

Being able to see Lefiya's embarrassment, Ethan sighed as he knew Ais was right, and he too would have no problem trying to sleep all together, even if it meant having less space in the bed. But the problem was that sleeping together to him was useful to relax the mind, to feel the proximity to your own partner, not to be so embarrassed to not being able to sleep or to be tormented by thoughts he knew would arise in Lefiya's mind that could only make things worse..

"The problem is different Ais.. more than space, we lack something else..."

These words led Ais to tilt her head in confusion. In the time she spent with Ethan in fact, she had learned what love really meant, and she also felt she had understood more important things than that, but the reality was she hadn't yet understood all the aspects of the latter, but only the part that made her happy, and the feeling of sheer empty when the person you love is unreachable or is sick. Her situations had sculpted her knowledge on this subject, taking it to a considerable level, yet not complete.

She had never experienced the embarrassment for small things in first person, but had only been able to glimpse this phenomenon in Lefiya, and that's why Ais had come to the conclusion she and Lefiya lived with this feeling in two different ways, and even though the question as to which of the two was the most 'successful' love had never been asked, Ais had understood a little her feelings.

"If you don't feel like sleeping next to him.. I can stay in the middle of the bed.."

Ethan looked at her with a surprised expression, but seeing that she was determined to help Lefiya, he realized Ais really understood the problem. Though he felt a fool now for trying to deflect the conversation, Ethan nodded to make her understand it was fine for him before turning back to Lefiya, as if to ask for a confirmation as she flinched.

Imagining for a moment the situation, Lefiya understood she would have the chance to sleep with Ais, while Ethan would be a few inches away from her, which she didn't know whether to consider it a good or bad thing now, but what was certain in her head, was that it was definitely preferable to sleeping next to him with Ethan in the middle, and therefore Lefiya could only nod weakly in confirmation...

As all of this conversation continued to slowly progress after the main problem was solved, Ethan had decided to avoid thinking about 'problems' for a while. He thought this was a perfect opportunity to know each other better and strengthen a little the relationship there was in the group, and he wouldn't back out, also because being able to talk about things, even the 'smaller' ones, was something fundamental for the communication of the group itself.

While these thoughts filled Ethan's mind, Maple was finally finishing up the delicious dinner the latter had bought her, since in addition to things she had already the chance to eat, there were things she had never eaten before and that she would add to her list of favourite food...

---

About half an hour after those events, the trio decided it was time to go to sleep, but before that, there was something Ethan hadn't considered.

'We don't have enough pajamas..'

Of course Ethan had some of his pajamas in his room, but right now, he didn't want to embarrass her unless it was absolutely necessary, so he knew that the only option was to buy new, comfortable pajamas from the shop.

What he didn't know was that the system had interpreted his thoughts word by word, not being a sentient entity as it bought the first pajamas with the keywords "comfortable" "new"

Avoiding the description, Ethan made the pajamas appear in his hand while, stopping the conversation, he said

".. I remembered that Lefiya doesn't have her pajamas here, you can use these..."

At his words, Lefiya opened her eyes wide before remembering it was indeed as he said before looking at the pajamas that Ethan had in his hands, but although she was curious to know where he had taken them, she knew there were many for sale in the Market Area...

Seeing that there was more than one, Ais took another pajamas that seemed interesting to her while Ethan added

"I'll wait outside so you can change without worrying"

Although he knew Ais wouldn't have paid much attention to his presence even if he remained there, Ethan decided to refer to both so as not to make Lefiya think she was the problem while he left the room quickly...

---

Waiting outside, Ethan made some order in his mind knowing that tomorrow he would have another very long day... but before he knew it, he heard Lefiya's voice faintly say "Y-You can come in" while Ais said nothing.

Entering without hesitation, Ethan saw in front of him something that shocked him for a second. Having not checked the pajamas in fact, he expected to buy something very similar to the pajamas he used to see, but the pajamas he had given to Lefiya and Ais, were anything but normal in his mind.

In fact, Lefiya wore a pajama that was mostly white, with the only exceptions being the arms, legs and ears, as the latter sprang from the pajamas themselves and in addition, the face of a panda was clearly visible on what was the hood of it.

But on top of that, what really made it cute was the way Lefiya was super embarrassed, as her blushing face while she had her hands on her h.i.p.s while trying to calm down seemed to make her pajamas look even better, which made him think he would soon be flooded in the cuteness, but this could only be confirmed when he saw what Ais was wearing

Ais was in fact wearing a pajama for most of a gray color, but white in some parts with the addition of some black lines towards the h.i.p.s, and arms, but what struck him more than the ears and the cat face on the hood, was the tail of the pajamas, also of a color towards the gray with interruptions of black color.

This made Ais so cute that Ethan could only sigh while in his mind, he felt partly stupid for not having checked the pajamas, but also lucky to be able to see such beauty in front of him.

As he got lost in his thoughts, Lefiya could only say in an embarrassed tone

"I-It's embrassing if you stare so much.."

Looking in another direction out of embarrassment, Lefiya didn't add anything more while Ethan could only nod as Ais stood still with her impassive expression as she asked

"Does it look good..on me?"

She was curious about Ethan's opinion, which soon arrived.

"You look great in it, Ais. Trust me."

His words made Ais smile before Ethan decided it was time to focus on Maple now...

While all this was happening around her, Maple, having already finished her meal, didn't know what to do until Ethan used his last use of the [Hon'yaku-sha] to tell her

"We go to sleep now; Do you sleep at this hour? If yes nod one time, if no shake your head – You need another bed? You prefer that? Repeat"

Not having enough space to ask for more, Ethan had found himself having to use "repeat" to try to make her understand using the same format to answer questions, but it wasn't easy to guess from a simple word as he pointed to his bed to make her understand what he meant by 'bed' as he didn't know if she knew what a bed was..

Reading the words, Maple nodded to make it clear she slept at this time, before approaching the bed, but before he could think she hadn't grasped the meaning of his words, the trio saw how Maple jumped up on the bed before weakly beating her paw on it to make it clear that Ethan's bed was fine..

With this confirmation, the group set off towards the bed, with the first of them going towards the extreme left of it being Lefiya, later Ais in the centre, and Ethan on the right. And although this brought their freedom to move to be very limited, it didn't matter to him as, once he laid his head on the pillow, he saw Ais intently looking towards the ceiling while Lefiya, who was trying her best to create distance between herself and Ais, had to be careful as at the first distraction she would fall from the bed.

This vision led Ethan to sigh a little while he could see that, at the end of the right part of the bed, Maple had 'created' a small space for herself at the height of his feet, trying to create as little disturbance as possible.

He wanted to tell her she didn't have to be so secretive, and that if she wanted, she could stay between him and Ais, but he decided not to say anything while he could feel the blanket wrapping them was still a bit cold. They were in fact in a period of the season where it was still cold, but no longer as in winter..

Using his technique to slightly increase the temperature, Ethan touched the blanket and in relatively little time, the heat began to be shared with the entire blanket rather than just with the area where Ethan was touching.

Being able to feel the blanket go from cold to hot so suddenly, Lefiya had understood immediately this could only be something Ethan would be able to do as she instinctively looked at him, just to see it was indeed as she thought while Ais muttered a 'thanks' to which Ethan replied with a smile..

Staring at his smile, Lefiya could only blush again before Ais turned to face her before wrapping her hands around her back.

Ais, she only did what she planned to do in the first place. She was rather tired of the way Lefiya wanted to remain to the end of the bed risking to fall just to give her space, so instead of words, she decided to move on to actions while Lefiya tried to analyse the situation from a rational point of view.

She felt happy that Ais was 'embracing' her even though unbeknownst to her she was only bringing her closer so that she won't be at the end of the bed anymore, but what was most strange to her was that she didn't feel the same anxiety, the irregular heartbeat was much more contained and the feeling of protection was always there, but was significantly lower, although Ais was much stronger than Ethan...

All this had led her once again to realize something new. The difference between Ais and Ethan. Although previously Lefiya was convinced she had some sort of romantic feeling for Ais, the love she felt for Ethan made her feel completely different and filled her so much, leading her to feel overwhelmed by feelings themselves..

---

(I have a discord server. discord.gg/cpVr5X8. You may ask me: "Why should I enter the server?". Well, I'm replying to every interesting question you readers are asking in my chapters, so, you should absolutely enter if you want to read my answers. Ah, and you can find some image reference of items in the story such as Light..! (Soon even Qienta).. so it's recommended to join, I frequently post polls as well, regarding things that(most likely) will be present in the story. One last thing, I post chapter updates in my discord right after I posted on , so I guess you can join to be able to know when I post chapters faster.)

(Poll going on in the discord: Who do you prefer? Qienta or Light? | Cat-girl or Renard(Fox) | Are you liking the interactions between Maple and Ethan?)

(Do you enjoy reading my novel? If the answer is yes, then thanks. I'll leave my ******* here. w ww.pat reon.com/watashiwavdesu)

(Alternate Titles: "Lefiya's realization...this time a major development occurred!", "Author-san, casually making a poll 20 minutes before releasing the chapter because he was undecided on the style of the pajamas", "Maple deserves a reward for her patience", "Ethan is a man of culture")