Welcome home, Momoe!
Blehhhhhhhhhhh. Not the greatest exploration party? I mean, Afon and I can kill things, and kill them pretty hard, but when Quixote and his curses are the only thing stopping elephants from stomping you to paste it stops being fun pretty quick. ...Ouch. Yeah, it... It wasn't great. Well... You're back now. Mm. ... ... ...Did that make you feel better? Big yep. Still super tired, though. Do you just want to cuddle for a while? Gods yeah. Siggy? H-Hm? You're shivering. O-Oh. Don't worry about me, I-I'll be fine! I-It's just a bit cold tonight, and I know you don't really enjoy sleeping under blankets-- Nah, I'll bring some. How many do you like, again? Two, yeah? M-Momoe, it's fine, really! I can s-sleep like this if it means you're comfortable. But I can't sleep if you're so cold, honey. If we stack blankets, the worst that happens is I have sub-optimal sleeping conditions. If we don't, you could catch a cold, or even worse. T-That's the worst-case scenario though! It's not going to-- Achoo! See? We can't have you catching a cold, dummy! ...T-Two blankets, please. And...thank you, dear. Oh, don't mention it, sugarbun. I'm just making sure you're comfortable. Hey, Momoe? Mm? Um... While you were gone, I started thinking about pets... Pets, huh? Getting lonely without me, huh, honey? Well...yes. Not necessarily right now--I don't think Rosa would be particularly happy about having to take care of a pet while we're both gone, and lord knows I wouldn't want them around whatever Austin gets up to--but... You know, maybe for the future. Future's worth considering, yeah. Gods know I'm gonna want to snuggle with you for years to come. ...T-That aside... Gods, I love it when you blush like that. Y-You-- You're doing this on purpose! Hee, guilty as charged. I-In all seriousness, what kind of pet would you want? Rabbit. That was quick. A rabbit? Really? Yeah. They're adorable, and bouncy, and fluffy. Something wrong with that? No, I just didn't have you pegged as a rabbit kind of person. And I didn't have you pegged as a snake kind of person, but then you spent an entire evening gushing about that travelling reptiles exhibit. I mean, I wouldn't mind having a pet rabbit. But pythons are so cute... Do you even know how to take care of a snake? Of course I do! Wh-- Hold on. I'm an aspiring pet owner, why would I not have researched-- Hold on. If you know how to take care of a snake, that means you learned. From someone. Yes? And that person probably learned from someone. Who probably learned from someone. ...I'm afraid to ask where this is going. Somewhere out there, probably lost to the annels of time, is somebody who just knew how to take care of a snake. Either through primal instinct, or trial-and-error. I just don't know how to feel about either of those. Could we just have both? Nope. Even if the snake didn't want to eat the rabbit, the rabbit would die of fourteen simultaneous heart attacks. I imagine there's very few pets a rabbit wouldn't bug out around. It'd bug out about a caged beetle. And a snake would make almost any animal nervous, too... I'm still getting over The Original Snake Owner. Hrmmm... Ugh. I'm upset we have such mutually-exclusive pet tastes... If we're gonna disagree on something, might as well be a pretty minor thing like this. True... Ooh, a ferret, maybe? They're sort of like a fluffy snake. A ferret's a cat-snake, honeybun. ...Damn. Well, I'm sure we'll figure this out at some point. Definitely. Right now, though, I'm super sleepy. Good night, then, my love. Night, Siggy. ...M-Momoe? Are...are you still up...? Zzzzmmm? Siggy? 'S still dark out... S-Sorry, you can go back-- I'm fine, I'm fine, but you sound worried. What's up? I-- I tried to go to sleep, b-but... But talking about pets earlier...what we'd do once we're living together...m-made me think about the future... ...Is it scary? No! Absolutely not. B-But... But... Sigrid. I'm your girlfriend. You can tell me whatever's scaring you. It'll be fine. What's bothering you? Momoe... M-Momoe... Mm? Momoe Tsukuda when we're done exploring the Labyrinth will you marry me?! ... ... ... ...I-I'm sorry... I couldn't-- I couldn't get it out of my head... We've... We're probably near the end of the Labyrinth, if I had to guess, and-- And spending so much time with you, exploring with you, trusting you with my life, being trusted with your life, and-- I... I... I want to spend my life with you, until the very end. ... ... ... ...You...you can say "no," of course, we are...still pretty early into our relationship, honestly... ...One sec, Siggy. There's... It's somewhere in my nightstand... H-Huh? ...A-- Th-- A-Ah... Y-You...? You beat me to the punch, ehehe... See, I was... Well, when Judith went down to the Bismarck to get reservations for Thierry and Emmett, I sorta...piggybacked on her trip. I made reservations for us too. The Bismarck...? Yeah, um... I was sorta...gonna treat you to a dinner there, nicest dinner of our lives so far, probably, and then... Well, pull this out and ask the same question as you. ...M-Momoe... A-Ah... So, uh, well... Sigrid Vanderbilt, when we're done with this exploration, will you marry me? ...Do you... Should we both give our answers at the same time? Sounds good to me. Ready? One, two, three. Yes. ...I'll be right back, I need to get something out of my dresser. Go right ahead. ... ... ... ... ... ...You can't be serious. I'm as serious as I can be. You're telling me we got the exact same ring for each other. It...would appear so. I wasn't expecting to show it anywhere near as soon as this, though... If people weren't sleeping near us, I'd be laughing really hard. Same. Oh well. C'mere, my adorable-- Hm? ...Something just hit me. You're...basically my wife now, huh? E-Effectively, yes. And...you're basically my wife, too... Well then! C'mere, my adorable wife. I wanna hold you for a while. ...I'd love that. I love you, Sigrid Vanderbilt... And I love you too, Momoe Tsukuda...Back to the Update
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