Chapter 447: The next Day

As soon as Kat's body relaxed after handing over the extra blanket she collapsed. What she didn't realise, was that her demonic energy was actually helping offset her exhaustion while she was relaxing. It was only because she was had all her energy that her mind was able to function so well, and drastically dropping that removed the safety net around her mind causing a wave of tiredness to knock her out completely.

Kamiko, seeing her friend collapse after handing her a blanket was in two minds. One wanted to make sure she was alright. The other, wanted to accept the kindness in the spirit it was given and sleep peacefully. Kamiko somehow decided on a third option. Pushing herself shakily to her feet, blanket stretched over her shoulders, Kamiko pushed the two chairs together before wrapping Kat's arms around her and pulling the blanket over both of them.

Kamiko was surprised to note that as soon as her body came into contact with Kat's it reacted, lowering her core temperature to a much more comfortable level for Kamiko. The smaller demon made a note to tell Kat about that ability. It hadn't been noticed prior to this, and she had no idea exactly what it meant. Still, Kamiko was safe, she was cool and she was very tired. Wrapping her own tail around Kat and allowing herself to snuggle into her friend, Kamiko drifted off to sleep as well.

Some time later, Kamiko's father appeared, looking for his daughter and her friend only to find them asleep outside. A much fiercer version of Kamiko's debate raged in his mind. He was split between leaving them to sleep peacefully or trying to move them to Kamiko's bed for a better rest.

He stood in the doorway, just in case as he was still not truly certain he'd gotten rid of the stench, watching them. He could see the softly glowing blanket which was just now starting to run out of flame on it about an hour later, powered by Kat's leftover energy and the energy Kamiko unconsciously was leaking as well. This prevented the ice from freezing as well as driving it to even lower temperatures.

Kamiko's father, Trigrath was his name, and seeing his daughter smiling in the arms of someone other than her sisters gave him a warm feeling. He knew that she'd struggled to make friends, and he was glad she'd finally found someone that she could get along with.

Of course, another part of him wanted to know where his wife kept the shovel, the SHARP one for cutting back the plants that started to gain a little sapience and needed to be culled instead. However, he had quite a few means to detect the intentions of 'foes' and for a second, Kat counted more than enough for the skill to trigger.

His was almost disappointed to find that Kat had no untoward intentions towards Kamiko at all. Even using his x-ray vision to check the positions of Kat's arms didn't yield any results as Kamiko had pulled them around her neck like a scarf.

Still, these things were enough that Trigrath and he decided to leave them in peace. He knew Kamiko wouldn't stir, having carried her to bed many a time before, but he had no idea about Kat's tolerance for being moved in her sleep so decided to er on the side of caution and back away with a smile.

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The next morning, Kamiko was the first to awake when her stomach protested the fact that it hadn't been fed after her workout yesterday. As Kamiko groggily came to and she heard her stomach sound off again she groaned, not really wanting to go inside and certainly not wanting to make a large breakfast for everyone. She could do it of course, but what she really wanted was to walk inside, find the food cupboard and just down whatever she could grab and call it good.

But no, she had a guest and as her mother had said to the triplets once 'very rude to eat garbage in front of guests, and ruder not to offer them any' so Kamiko got up. Well, she tried. At some point in the night Kat had locked her arms and legs around Kamiko rather expertly. Kat's arms where held by each other and just lose enough around Kamiko's neck to cause no problems but not lose enough for her head to escape. Kat's legs were in a similar position, with one going over the other under and her ankles locked around each other.

Kamiko pushed on Kat's hold lightly and found it didn't budge at all. She realised, this might be a bit more of a problem then she'd thought. Kamiko pushed some energy into her arms and tried to pry Kat's off her only to be rather annoyed to find a purple glow around Kat's own arms in response.

Kamiko huffed at that and muttered under her breath. "That'd be right. Of course, Kat can use demonic energy in her sleep. I mean, it's pretty common, Mum, Dad, all the triplets, Elmony, and… me… sometimes. Like half the time. Dammit, I should have known"

Now, Kat couldn't use her powers at full capacity, she was limited to increasing her strength. More serious responses would require she woke up, and would likely do so. Her tail might be able to make a few defensive manoeuvres but it would quickly wake her up if it got to that point.

Kamiko's solution was to use her tail to tickle Kat's side. It failed. Next step was to try and tickle the bottom of Kat's feet. Failure number two. Kamiko then repeated this action all over. Kat's cheek, her neck, the side of her legs, even a final attempt on Kat's stomach but nothing worked. Kamiko was cursing the redheads inability to be tickle and decided to go with her surefire technique, pinching Kat's nose and placing a hand over Kat's mouth.

From Kat's end of things, she woke up feeling very strange. She could feel a tightening in her chest and a slow drain on her reserves. Her eyes fluttered open and found a pouting Kamiko looking at her between arms that were on Kat's face for some reason. As soon as Kat's eyes opened, Kamiko removed the appendages and Kat drew in a deep breath realising what had happened.

"Woops, sorry, were you trying to wake me?" asked Kat

Kamiko nodded. "Yes. You've trapped me here. I put your arms around me so we could sleep comfortably, but now I need to get up and prepare breakfast but you won't let me go."

"Ehehehe sorry about that" said Kat pulling her arms away, this was enough for Kamiko to wiggle out of Kat's leg lock as well which was no longer quite as tight as it was before.

"It's fine Kat" said Kamiko as she got up. "I'm just glad you didn't attack me or anything. That's a pretty standard thing among demons. Some sort of ingrained response to being forced awake maybe? It's very common."

Kat winced at the idea, but thought of all the nights she'd spent on the road with Xian and realised that while she didn't necessarily want to pick up the habit it was very easy to see where it would come from.

"Anyway, let's deal with breakfast you can tell me what you want" said Kamiko, leading the way inside. Only to be stopped at the doorframe. Kat, using her extra height glanced over Kamiko's head to find what she was looking at.

She found the table had a few dishes on it. Nothing was as spectacular as the feast that Elmony prepared but there were a few dishes. A nice big bowl of jelly in the centre of course and two plates full of chopped fruit. It seemed to be slight pineapple, but blue in colour instead of yellow on the first, and the second had what looked like tiny apples that were a bit bigger then strawberries all peeled and chopped in half.

"Huh…" mumbled Kamiko as she stepped inside and noticed something on the bench. A note. Picking it up, Kamiko decided to read it allowed for Kat's benefit. "Good morning Dear,

"When you're reading this I will have already headed out. I'm heading to the early markets to try and stock up on some food and cleaning products. I don't think the enchantments in the bathroom quite managed to deal with the mess on their own so I'll need to put in some work. Because of this, I've also sealed up the passageway to the lower floors for now. Hopefully I'll be done before the triplets make it back home.

"I would have messaged you but I know the punishment prevents that. To make up for kicking you guys out of the bath and also the house I've prepared breakfast. I imagine you didn't eat yesterday so I hope this will tie you over for the day. Good luck with the punishment.

Love Trigrath"