Chapter 79: Scales

FieryKathy

We walk through the town, trying to find some sleeping accommodation. But to most of the party’s dismay we get turned away at almost every inn we find. Not because they don’t want our patronage, but because the beds provided are way too small for all of us except me.

“Ugh, I think it might be better to try our luck outside of the city, find a place to camp or something like that.” Hilda sighs. 

That’s probably the way to go.” Nikki agrees. 

“If the console didn’t force us to log off today I’d just keep on going…” I say while looking at the rest of the group. 

“Well that’s because you went for a pretty long nap earlier, sis.” Élise laughs and ruffles my hair.

“Mhmm.” I nod before my nose picks up something in the air. “Oh…” 

“You smelt it too, Ami?” Sam perks up and looks around. 

“Yeah.” 

“What did you smell?” Hilda looks a bit funny at our reaction. 

“Greatness.” I comment. “It’s coming from around that corner.” Me and Sam take the lead with the rest on our heels. 

When Sam rounds the corner her mouth immediately starts watering, and so does mine. “Oh my Goddess, this is heaven.” 

We arrive in a little street with tons of stalls lined on the side. The smell of fried food filling the air.

“Damn.” Hilda says while we walk along all the stalls. “This all looks so great.” 

“Can we make a stop at a couple of them? We can go out of the city later.” Élise is staring intently at one of the stalls that is selling fried chicken, slightly intimidating the shop owner with her size and equipment. 

“C-c-can I help you?” The Dwarger lady asks with a stutter.

Élise smiles. “Yes, two of those drumsticks please.”

“T-that’s three dwomon.”

“Dwomon?” Élise takes her personal coin purse and looks at the rest of the party.

“No clue.” Hilda shrugs, and so do the rest of us.

The Dwarger woman thinks for a second before taking a small scale from under her table, placing what looks like 3 small silver coins on one side. 

“Ah, I see.” Lise picks out a silver coin of her own and puts it on the scale, making it almost perfectly balanced.

The Dwarger woman accepts the trade and hands her her fried chicken in return for her coin.

“Yesh, I got me muh chicken.” Élise happily takes a bite from one of her drumsticks. 

Hilda laughs. “And that’s the basics of exchange rates. Luckily this world still works with coins made out of precious metals, otherwise it would be pretty darn hard to figure things out.”

We walk around the small food market for a little while longer while everyone gets the food they want. Me and my lovely girlfriend both get a skewer of fried shrimp and fish while Nikki goes for some kind of fried noodles and Hilda comes back with something that I had not yet seen in real life.

“Oh! Is that takoyaki!?”

“Mhm mhm mhm.” Hilda gloats. “Something very similar at least.” She pops one of the dough balls in her mouth. “It tastes so good.”

“Why does fried food always taste so delicious… If only it wasn’t so unhealthy.” Sam laments. “I always get cramps during training if I eat fatty stuff.” 

“Awh.” I give my girlfriend the biggest hug ever while trying to not let my food fall on the ground.

“Speaking of which, when is your next game, Sam?” Lise asks.

“We should have a friendly game on Sunday against the Uni of the neighbouring city.” 

“Can we come and watch?” Nikki asks. 

“Sure, our games are always free for the public.”

“Oh and maybe we can meet your parents afterwards!” Élise proposes.

“I could also just invite them to the game too...”

“Can I join too?” Hilda asks as well. 

“Of course!”

And in the space of a minute we all had planned a small family outing on Sunday.

We eat our food while we walk towards the edge of the city. While it was encased by mountains there was still a fairly big stretch of forest in between where we were and where the mountains began.

“We should be able to find a suitable spot to set up camp.” Hilda starts diverting from the road into the forest. And as expected of her, it doesn’t take long before we reach a nice and semi-open spot near a small creek to set up our tents.

It took even less time for me and Sam to be cuddled up in the tent together after having said good night to the rest of the party.

“Cuddling up with you will never get old.” Sam giggles as she pulls me close to her.

“Likewise.” I purr.

“Mhm mhm.” She rubs her cheeks against the back of my head. 

“Saaaam. Don’t scent-mark meeeee.”

“Can’t help doing it. I’m sorry.”

“No you’re not.” 

“That’s true. Hehe.” She squeezes me even tighter. “Good night Ami.” 

“Good night, Sam.” I look behind me and see that she’s closed her eyes already.

She must’ve logged off already. 

I smirk and give her a cheeky kiss on the lips to which she immediately opens her eyes. Scaring the frick out of me. 

“I knew you were up to something.” She laughs with an evil smirk on her face. “That kind of behaviour needs to be punished, don’t you agree?” 

“Ohno.” 

“Ohyes.” She starts mercilessly tickling me before I finally surrender.

“Alright, alright! I’ll log off too!”

“Good girl.” She gives me another kiss. “Although, to make sure I’ll wait until you’ve logged off first.” 

“Buuu.” I pout. But given the situation, she was in complete control. I’m not strong enough to resist her tickly onslaught. So I decide it’s in my best interest to do as she asked and log off. Maybe I could get a bit of revenge before she wakes up in our world.

I wake up to find Sam still unresponsive. “Hihi, now is my chance.” I giggle. 

“Your chance to do what?” 

“Ohno.”

“I get a distinct feeling of deja vu.” Sam smirks, taking off the headset and giving it to me so I can put it on the night cabinet after which she immediately pounces on me and starts kissing. “Now that I can’t purr anymore I guess you’ll have to purr enough for the two of us.” 

“Nuuuu.” I giggle while getting kissed constantly and under Sam’s influence it doesn’t take long before the purring machine starts.

Ten minutes later the two of us are already tired again and decide to cuddle a bit longer in bed. Sam’s got her arms around me and pulls me close so I can rest my head on her shoulder.

“Those were a couple of interesting days.” Sam idly comments while brushing her hand through my hair. 

“Mhmm.” 

“I still find it hard to grasp just how long we can be in-game while only being asleep for only eight hours each session.”

“Yeah. But at least it is extra time we can spend together.”

“That’s true.” Sam smiles and gives me a kiss on my head. “Although taking a break might not be the worst idea.”

“From seeing each other?!” 

“Nono, from the game, silly.” Sam laughs.

“Phew.”

“Hey, why don’t you come and sleep over at my place today? That way we can take a break and my parents get to see you again.”

“Hmm, maybe…” 

“They’d love to see you again though, so staying over shouldn’t be an issue.”

“It’s not that…” 

“Hmm?”

I twitch my ears to make my point. “What if they found out?” 

“Oh, crap. I totally forgot about that.” 

“You forgot your girlfriend is a catgirl?”

“I’ve gotten so used to it I just wasn’t thinking about it anymore.” Sam laughs. “But yeah, I get where you are coming from.” 

“It’s just that I really don’t like hiding it much outside of school, you know?” 

“Mhmm. I can understand that.” Sam squeezes me. “And it’s not like I can go to my parents and ask them, ‘hey mom, dad, what’s your opinion on cat girls?’”

“Yeah…” 

“Although, in their defence, I don’t think they would have any issues with it. But yeah, coming out is always a pain so we definitely shouldn’t rush it.”

“Thanks Sam.” I rub my head against her cheek.

We stay cuddled in silence for a couple more minutes before I continue the conversation. “Talking about coming out… When did your parents find out you were into girls?” 

“Hmm… let me think… I came out to them when I was fourteen, if I remember correctly. But when I did my parents said they’d always known.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, it was pretty funny actually, when I think back on it. They said it was pretty obvious by the way I interacted with girls at basketball training. I’d sometimes just stare in awe at the girls I liked and blush quite heavily if they spoke with me.”

“So not much has changed since then?” I tease her a little. 

“You could say that.” Sam laughs. “Although, with you it affected me at least twenty times harder. I’d never seen a cuter girl in my entire life, you know?” 

“You flirt.” I blush. 

“It’s just who I am.” She sits herself upright and gives me a long kiss which I gladly answer. 

FieryKathy