NOVEL NEXT Chapter 46: Onsen
After a bit more flirting, well, quite a lot more flirting, we are both done with cleaning ourselves and head towards the hot, steamy water of the onsen.
“Oh my Goddess,” Sam moans after lowering herself in the water, making me blush quite a bit. “Come in babe - this is just divine.” She smiles and offers her hand to me.
I nod and gladly take it and she starts gently reeling me in.
“Oh, mother Veanya, you were right, this is just heavenly.” I almost immediately melt when I start floating around in this holy H2O.
Sam guides me to a nearby sitting area at the edge of the bath, sitting down first, placing me on top of her lap and holds me close to her with her strong arms around my waist.
“I love you, Sam.” I nuzzle my face against hers.
“I love you too, Kitten.” She gives my cheek a quick kiss and hugs me tighter.
“Looks like it’ll be a beautiful night.” I look up at the sky, which is slowly getting darker.
“Every night is beautiful as long as you grace me with your presence, m’lady.” She kisses my neck.
“Hahahaha, that tickles!” I rub my face against hers once more. “But I’m serious, Sam, just look.”
She smiles and looks up together with me. “Maybe we will get a star-lit heaven, unlike any we’ve ever seen before.”
“Mhmmm.” I nod. “Turn of Destiny has them as well, would you want to join us there too?”
“I wouldn’t want to miss an opportunity to stargaze every night with my beautiful girlfriend, would I?”
“That’s great.” I look her straight in the eyes and give her a kiss, before returning to watching the heavens with my gorgeous captain.
We sit there for a while longer, just cuddling up to each other before we hear Hilda’s voice behind us.
“Girls, make sure you don’t get a heat stroke by staying in the bath too long, okay?”
“Are you getting out already, Hilda?” I turn my head around, almost getting some of my hair in Sam’s mouth. “Oh, sorry Sam.”
“Itf ffine.” she blows a bit of my hair away.
Hilda laughs.”Yeah, I’m not good with heat for a long time. Think I’m gonna start making preparations for dinner.”
“Oh! See you a bit later then!”
“See ya, Hilda.” Sam waves almost making me fall off her lap.
“Waaaah!”
Hilda laughs again and waves us goodbye. “See you later.”
“Hey Ami.” Sam whispers in my ear, her arms locking around my waist once more.
“Mhmm?” I blush slightly and look her into the eyes.
“I think I saw a big futon earlier, would you like to sleep in it together with me?”
“Do you even need to ask?”
She starts smiling. “I just wanted to make sure.”
“Of course I’d want to. Also if I’m honest, I’m a bit curious about how they feel to sleep in.”
“Me too, me too.” Sam giggles. “If it’s uncomfortable I can always rest my head on your chest.”
“Hey! And what about me then!”
I pout, when I slept at my sister’s house on the sofa it did feel a lot more comfortable than it probably should’ve. “Maybe.”
“Just kidding, I will make sure you’ll be nice and comfy as well.” She kisses my head. “Pftftf.”
“Got my hair in your mouth again?”
“Yeah, I think I’ll need to start brushing you.”
“I’d very much like that.” I purr.
A little while later my sister, Nikki and Charlie also leave the bath.
“Charlie, how are you feeling?” Sam looks over to the three women leaving the room.
“A lot better, the bath really worked some wonders.”
“Good to hear that. So you can manage your clothes on your own now?”
“Should be fine, and if I need help Élise and Nikki can help me.”
My sister gives us a thumbs up.
“I hope they didn’t tease you too much?” I also turn my attention to Charlie.
“Only a little.” Nikki gives us a wink.
“Yeah, they were fine, Hilda was there to stop them if they went too far.”
“Alright.” I smile and give her a little wave.
“We should probably leave soon as well.” Sam squeezes me.
“Yeah, make sure we don’t shrivel up in this hot water.”
“I hate it when my skin gets all wrinkly by sitting in water for too long.”
“Me too!”
“Although, I got to say that my skin in this body is really holding up pretty well.” She inspects her hands.
“Maybe you are a descendant from a water dragon?”
“Or there is something special about this water.”
“Could be, but I’m already getting a little wrinkly.” I inspect my hands too.
Sam stops embracing me and places her hands behind me back and under my knees, scooping me up from the water.
“Waaah!” I quickly wrap my arms around her neck. “You could’ve warned me!”
“Sorry, speed was of the essence.” She smiles and carries me towards the dressing room.
“You can put me down now, Sam.” I look at her face.
“I don’t want to.” She smirks. “I’ve already gotten too accustomed to having you against my body.”
I blush a little. “I-I think I know what you mean.”
Reluctantly and with a deep sigh Sam does gently put me down on the floor when we get to the dressing room, which, of course, is already empty because people are just too darn fast.
“We can cuddle up later, Sam. No need to despair.” I give her a last hug.
“Already looking forward to it.” She kisses me as we both start dressing ourselves.
This time Sam doesn’t have to wait terribly long for me to be ready and we head towards the main room of the ryokan together, where Hilda is already done with most of the dinner set-up and is chatting a bit with my sister.
“Where are we going to sleep?” I ask the group.
“There’s plenty of rooms if you want to have privacy. Charlie can sleep in my room.” Hilda states.
“Don’t worry, she doesn’t snore.” Élise nods at Charlie, who just smiles in response.
“So, what’s for dinner?” Sam sits down next to the quickly set up mini cookers.
Hilda ruffles through her bag and hands me and Sam two bags or MRE’s and a whole pack of crackers.
“Oh wow.” Sam stares at the packaging. “Look Ami, we can make mini pizzas!”
“Really?” I shuffle over and push myself against Sam.
“Amicia, heads up.” Hilda calls out to me and lobs me a small tin. “You can have this as well.”
I easily catch the tin and look at the packaging. A tin of sardines. “Haha, very funny.” I fake a laugh.
“If you don’t like it you can always give it back.” Hilda reaches out to me with her hand.
I defensively take the tin next to my chest. “Hmmm, on second thought I think I’ll keep it.”
Hilda smiles and sits herself down again, taking out her own MRE’s and starts to heat them up.
The mini-pizzas, mine adorned with some sardines, were definitely not the worst thing I’ve ever eaten in my life. Even Sam was pretty content with hers, although she didn’t have delicious fishies on them. The rest of the group also looked like they enjoyed their dinner, even though my sister was complaining a bit about the lack of spice in her pasta. Charlie even fell asleep on Hilda’s lap after dinner, it was a pretty hectic day for her after all.
“So, Sam, you want to join us in Turn of Destiny?” My sister asks Sam once it’s clear Charlie is probably not going to wake up any time soon.
“If I’m welcome.” She pats the back of her head.
“Of course you are.” My sister smiles and looks over to Hilda. “How hard would it be to rendezvous with her?”
“I can pinpoint where we are on the map with coordinates so she can spawn close to us, that won’t be much of an issue. She will be a bit underleveled though. But she can probably catch up to Amicia pretty fast.”
“Wait, you can do that?” I interrupt Hilda.
“Enter coordinates? Yeah.”
I angrily look over to my sister. “So why didn’t you give me coordinates back when I started?”
My sister whistles softly and avoids my gaze. “Because I forgot?”
Nikki tries to calm me down a little. “Well, look at it positively, if you didn’t spawn where you did, you wouldn’t have met your Goddess, or Hilda.”
“See, I all planned it in advance.” My sister giggles.
“Anyway.” Hilda continues. “It should be easy for you to join us, Sam.”
“And what kind of class would be best to play?”
“Up to you. Élise is the tank, Amicia the healer, me and Nikki are a rogue and a mage respectively. Just pick what you like.”
“Allright, I’ll see what my options are, then.” Sam smiles and leans back to give me a kiss.
“Should we go to bed?” I kiss her back.
“Hmm ye, I’m getting pretty tired.” Sam gets up and heads towards the pile of futons. “Can I grab this one?” She points at the biggest one.
“Sure, go ahead.” Both Hilda and Élise nod.
“Good night.” I yawn and wave the group goodbye.
“See you in the morning, kitten.” Hilda replies with a wave.
Élise and Nikki also say goodnight as me and Sam disappear into one of the siderooms.
“So, about the cuddles I was promised…” Sam closes the door behind her.
“Coming right up.” I jump onto her the moment she puts down the futon.
Cuddle cuddle purr cuddle cuddle