Sunday morning.

It’s not like it was a simple topic, so even though we left it at that and agreed that there was nothing else we could do about it since we wouldn’t be trying for kids anytime soon, it remained in our heads and I’m sure it would stay there for a while. It was still an idea we’d have to sit on for… well, probably until we actually wanted kids.

But it was Sunday and we didn’t want a serious topic putting a damper on our weekend. At least, the girls were being a lot cooler about it than I expected.

As I’ve said before, knowing that I didn’t have to go to work or to university was freeing in and of itself, but knowing that it was cleaning day did make it a bit of a drag. No matter. Six pairs of hands would make light work. Hopefully.

“Hey, I’ll help,” Fern said as we began to divide the work and didn’t count her in.

“Nope. You’re a guest. We’re not putting guests to work,” Alice said, to which I nodded in wholehearted agreement.

At that, Fern frowned and pouted. “I thought you wanted me to feel part of the group.”

Alice, Mila and I flinched while Grace and Sarah laughed.

“Not to mention,” Diana began. “I still haven’t officially moved in. The moving truck is bringing my stuff tomorrow. I’m technically also a guest yet you’re putting me to work.” She smirked. “Either she cleans up with us or I’m going back to bed.” Fern smiled, happy that Diana was backing her up. I opened my mouth, but then Diana shut me up before I could say anything. “You know what, don’t say anything. You’ll just tell me to go back to sleep. Fern, help me with laundry.”

“Yes!” Fern stood up and followed Diana, looking back at me and sticking her tongue out.

“Never seen someone excited to do some clean up,” Grace said. “Except when Alice is cleaning Oliver’s dick.”

“Hey!” Alice crossed her arms. “It’s true, but try to be more tasteful…”

Beside me, Noelle giggled. “She’s finally getting more comfortable around us.”

I sighed contently and nodded. “I hear you two were painting miniatures yesterday?”

“Yeah. It was more fun than I expected. Difficult, but fun. I… watched a video on stream that she recommended. You know, to pick my army.”

“And? What are you building?”

“Ugh, still not sure. A lot of them look cool.”

“Just don’t spend too much,” Grace told her.

“I… was thinking of asking my agent if I could get the company to pay for it. You know, to make videos out of it.” Her cheeks reddened.

“Oh. Oh wow.” Grace smirked. “Atta girl.”

“Ugh, don’t praise me for it. It makes me feel even guiltier.”

“I hear the minis are expensive,” I said. “So yeah, please have the company pay for them.”

“Please and thank you,” Alice added.

“Not you two as well…” Noelle sighed.

I picked the sex room as my first place to clean, considering we’d just left a bit of a mess there. It’d be good practice, too. In fact… I decided to use the cleaning spell everywhere I could. I should have energy to spare after last night, so it really would make for good practice.

I finished up in about 30 minutes thanks to that, then moved to the music room to sweep and then to clean my bedroom. After that, it was close to lunch time and I began to walk to the kitchen.

The house felt lively, active. People were moving, cleaning, talking… there was some music playing, Mila was singing, Grace joined her…

The place really was turning into ‘home’ instead of being just a ‘house,’ and likely because of that and all the talk about kids, I looked at the large, empty room in the middle of the house. The one that connected to the library, the kitchen and the backyard. If we built them modest enough…

“Here’s where the kid’s rooms could be…” I said, muttering to myself and thankful that no one was around to hear me.

For lunch, I’d be tackling something I’d been sort of afraid of until now. Lasagna. Something about having to layer it made me afraid of screwing it up, but making that quiche the other day made me more confident in general.

Both Cake and Red followed me to the kitchen. The well-behaved dog was content with laying on the floor close by, just hoping to get some scrap or other that fell by him. Cake, on the other hand, was still very adamant about jumping on the counter to watch me cook from a front-row seat for some reason. I hadn’t been able to stop her, but I didn’t want the cat to walk on the places I’d be cooking… so I left a makeshift bed for her on the counter. A wicker basket just big enough with a couple of old t-shirts of mine that no longer fit me. For what it’s worth, she stayed there and didn’t try to jump on the counter so long as I let her smell the ingredients at least once.

“You’ve clearly never heard that curiosity killed the cat, huh?” I told her, letting her smell a tomato. She didn’t lick it or touch it, only sniffed it. As I watched her, I couldn’t help but ask. “So… How’d you feel if there were kids running around here?”

Sometimes it really feels like Cake understands human speech and answers me when I talk to her, so I sort of expected her to do it again. She looked at me without the slightest change of expression, so I guess she didn’t understand this time.

The sound of a picture being taken startled me and I turned to look towards the door.

“Crap, I had it with sound…” Mila said, giggling as she aimed her phone camera at me.

“Come on, don’t take those sneaky pictures,” I said.

“It’s the only way I can take ANY pictures of you,” she argued with a pout. “Besides, that was just too cute.”

“What was?”

“You and Cake in the kitchen with Red laying on the floor… Look.” She proudly showed me the picture… and I had to admit it was pretty nice. I do look better in pictures when I don’t realize they’re being taken. “Can I post this one? Pleeeease?”

“...” A part of me wanted to say no because I don’t want to be on the internet, but too fucking late for that, huh? I’ve already shown my face on my own channel. Another part of me, though… remembered that Grace and Sarah had been having trouble with guys hitting on them. Call me possessive, but I guess I wanted Mila’s followers to know she was still happily with her boyfriend. “Fine,” I told her.

“Yes!” She cheered and immediately began to type on her phone.

“Mila, don’t run away from me! Let’s finish this before lunch!” Sarah yelled from across the house.

Mila flinched and ran back to where she came from. I doubt it was related to that, but Red chose to let out a sigh at that very moment and I just couldn’t help but laugh.

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