Abby and Violet (Yuri Light Novel)

We had just returned to her place after running a nice sweat and Oliver was already all over us like we didn’t feed him before leaving for our run, or that we’ve been away for ages.

“Just a handful of his dry kibble should be ok, right?” I asked Violet as I helped her balance while she took off her shoes.

“Don’t you think he’s extra fluffy enough?”

“That’s just his winter coat!”

“Meow!”

“See? He agrees with me!”

“Haah… fine, you two.”

I picked up our furball so that we could walk without him tangling himself around our legs, carrying him to the living room while Violet headed to our bedroom. I gave him just a bit of dry food, about twelve pieces, and scratched the back of his tail as he threw himself to the food like he hadn’t eaten in days, the bowl ringing like a bell as he shook his head when the whiskers hit the rim, some of the food stuck to his mouth flying off and hitting the porcelain.

With him taken care off, I too went to the room. When I reached for the door, I heard the sound of his nails scratching the hard floor. He was licking his lips and whiskers with gluttonous glee as his eyes locked on mine, making me chuckle.

Inside the bedroom, I found my wifey sitting on the bed, leaning back on her arms and with her legs slightly apart, an invitation for me.

“Coming through!” I proclaimed as I hopped over to her. Once sat on my spot, I wiggle my butt as I inched myself closer to her until we were firmly pressed together. Violet then pressed her chest on my back and wrapped her arms around my waist, letting out a satisfied puff of air.

Now, it was Oliver’s turn to reclaim his spot, my lap.

He was in front of us, wiggling his rear as he readied a jump that wasn’t coming. He did that three times before I realised that he wasn’t going to jump at all if things carried on like this. Maybe he was just being considerate of me, as he accidently scratched my thighs the last time he had jumped into my lap. That time, I didn’t get mad at him or anything, I just let out a pained whimper. He was such a nice kitty.

“Come here, you murderous beast,” I chuckled as I grabbed him by the front and lifted him up. Once I placed him on my lap, he immediately went into fur ball mode, purring happily as he hid most of his face with a curled paw. I then gave his belly a bit of a scratch, my fingers burying into his fur and extra fluffiness. He even adjusted his position so I could better scratch his tummy.

“Humph, a murderous beast indeed,” Violet said, joining in the petting, her fingers scratching him behind the ears, making Oliver let out a purring sigh, completely relaxed and comfortable.

“You might not know, but he’s actually planning our murders in our sleep as we speak.”

“You say that joking, but last night, I woke up with him strangling me,” Violet chuckled. “Imagine waking up with difficulties breathing and then seeing him staring at your face, purring, standing on your chest with his tiny front paws sinking into your throat just above the collarbone.”

“Oh my God, Violet!” I laughed. “Did he also meow or something?”

“No, he just wanted to get under the blankets with me. That was his way of waking me up to ask permission for that. Crazy cat.”

Shame that was one of the rare nights we slept separate. Not that I’d likely wake up to see that, Oliver knew Violet was a light sleeper, so if he required something during the night, she was almost always his chosen victim, but still, there was a small chance of me waking up and seeing that interaction between the two.

“Shouldn’t we go take a shower?” I asked.

“We should, but… now that my legs cooled down a bit and I have you warming me up, I really don’t feel like going anywhere.”

“Huh. Ok, fair. I thought you were already used to running though?”

“I think I am, I just don’t have much energy to begin with, and running saps away what little energy I might have left at the end of the day.”

“Should we go running in the morning then?” I asked, giving her a wry smile.

“Hmm… If we don’t have school, chores, and I don’t want to stay in bed for longer, then maybe.”

In typical Violet fashion, I ask something jokingly and she answers me seriously. Not really a communication issue, she knew that I was joking, it was just that she felt the need to give a serious answer most of the times when asked something.

And speaking of communication…

“Babe? Could we talk about something?”

“About therapy, right?” she asked, guessing correctly what I was about to bring up. “Well, you kept your end of the bargain, so I think it’s fine if you stop going altogether if you want to.”

“You really think so?”

“Yeah. You haven’t had any nightmare episodes, and when you did have a nightmare, you were able to go right back to sleep.”

“You noticed that? Sorry…”

“I mean, we did watch a horror movie that day. You squirmed a bit, and after waking up, you buried your face into my neck, tickling me. You also blacked out right after, and so did I, so there’s no problem at all. Even if some of your future nightmares are about your mother, that’s just something that might happen every once in a while, I think, but we can deal with that when it happens. Right?”

“Right,” I agreed, returning the smile she was giving me. “Ok then, I’ll stop going to therapy. I’ll keep her number though, in case something does happen and I need a session or two.”

“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea, honey.”

We shared a kiss and rested our foreheads against one another, eyes closed, focused on the moment, only our breathings and Oliver’s purrs filling the silence in the room.

That lasted until Oliver’s head shot up, his ears perked up and eyes wide as he stared towards the general direction of the front door. Then, he scrambled off, hitting the floor just as someone knocked on the door.

“Looks like sis is coming over today too,” I said as I got up.

“And in good timing too,” Violet added. “I was just about to ask you two to get up so I could go to the bathroom.”

The corridor was quickly filled with people. Papa Stan was coming down the stairs, Oliver sat impatiently at the door with me heading over to pick him up so sis could walk around, and Violet was headed towards the bathroom.

Papa Stan opened the door and was met not only with Sophie, but also Claire.

“Special delivery!” Claire cheered as she saw him. “A cute tutor to teach you all about management!”

“C-Claire!” Sophie hissed, her face turning all shades of red.

“Oh my! Isn’t your sister looking cuter than ever?” Claire asked sis, completely ignoring my sister’s embarrassment, having shifted her focus towards me. “You’ve been using my Christmas gift, haven’t you?”

“Me and Violet, yes,” I answered. “Thank you for that, it made a world of difference.”

“Fufu! There’s nothing better than making cute girls look even cuter, is there?” Claire hummed, hugging my sister from behind. “Take Sophie here as an example. She’s been looking a lot cuter recently, hasn’t she?”

“Claire!” Sophie hissed again.

“Now that you mention it, she does look better than before.”

This last part was spoken—super casually, I might add, by Stan, letting me and Sophie a bit stunned.

“Right!” Claire practically shouted, now rubbing her face on Sophie’s. “Like, she’s more cheerful and her skin is now super sparkly and soft, and—”

“For heaven’s sake Claire, go harass your sister or something!” Sophie cried out as she tried to squirm free out of Claire’s hug.”

“Not until I—Ah-ha! There she is!”

Claire was now with an outstretched arm and pointing a finger at Violet who had just walked out of the bathroom. My girlfriend was clearly—at least to my eyes, exasperated from having Claire cooking up a storm at her front door, but she still came to us, politely greeting Claire as she wrapped her arms around my shoulders, looking for some warmth and shielding.

“Yup, yup! My girlies are all a twelve out of ten now! Maybe I should work on you Stanley next? Anyway, I’m off! A big ‘mwah!’  everybody!”

And just like that, Claire gave a huge smooch to my sister’s cheek and was off to go pester someone else. Maybe that someone was Mathilda? I was actually curious to see how the two of them interacted when it’s just the two of them. Was Claire still that force of nature like she was with Sophie, or was she a bit tamer around her precious little sister? From what I’ve heard from Mathilda, Claire likes to pamper her, and the two get along splendidly, but seeing that would be far more interesting than just hearing about it.

“Haah, sorry about this Stan,” Sophie began once inside and the door was closed, still rubbing the stop Claire had kissed, Stan taking the heavy bag with reference books from her. “Claire insisted on tagging along, and once she gets something into her head, it’s almost impossible to dissuade her.”

“Oh, it’s no problem at all. You two seem like you have a lot of fun and are getting along quite well.”

“Well…” Sophie began, her face going a bit redder. “I guess we do get along surprisingly well… and it is fun… although it can get a bit exhausting at times.”

Stan didn’t say a word, he just smiled and looked at his daughter in the same way I was doing right now. The sense of déjà vu was staggering.

“…What?” Violet asked dryly, an eyebrow raised. “Why are you two staring at me with those stupid smiles?”

Right now, it was hard to tell if she was playing dumb, or if she was actually oblivious to the similarities between her and Sophie. In either case, it was amusing to see, so Papa Stan and I chuckled and moved along.

He and Sophie went to the living room while Violet and I decided to go take that shower since we were already up and about. That meant that Oliver had to be put back down. As soon as his tiny pawns touched the floor, he went rushing towards my sister, her fawning baby voice being heard as she asked if he wanted her lap, Oliver meowing amorously and making my sister giggle.

“What a sell out,” Violet joked as we picked our clothes.

“Violet?” Sophie called, going back to using her normal voice. “Could you just come here for a second?”

Violet could and went, and I followed along, curious to see what my sister wanted out of my wifey.

When we got to the living room, we saw a very funny picture.

Sophie was holding Oliver like you would a baby, Oliver belly up, cradled against her chest and hugging the hand sis was using to scratch his chin and gently nibbling the tip of her index finger. As much as we pampered and loved our cat, both Violet and I weren’t someone who’d refer to Oliver as our “fur baby”, but the way he acted sometimes made it feel like it’d be justifiable in a literal sense.

Getting the hand she was using to pet him free for a second, she turned on the screen of her pad to pull up a web page she had saved.

“Since you worked as a waitress, I thought I’d ask your opinion about this offer,” Sophie explained while handing her the tablet.

“Oh, ok. I’ll see what I…”

Violet’s voice drifted and I leaned in, wanting to see what got her so quiet and her face turned into a frown.

‘The high-class Frech restaurant Le Perrot is looking for’ was all I read before my face too turned sour.

They were using that very nice, elaborate wording to make themselves look like they were hot stuff.

I mean, they are…

A hot pile of garbage, that is.

“Is it no good?” Sophie asked, sounding fearful

“They are still open, huh?” I hummed.

“Sorry Sophie, this place is the one I used to work at, and they are god awful,” Violet explained as she handed the pad back.

Apparently, according to Sophie’s words, there weren’t that many jobs around town to begin with, much less jobs that my sister felt like she could do. She’s been looking for a part-time one, making matters even more complicated, and disappointingly enough, now that one such job appeared, it had to be for that place out of all places.

“I’ll just keep my eyes open then,” she said, not sounding as down as I expected her to. “Thanks for giving me your feedback.”

Yeah, thank goodness for that. Just imagine Sophie getting that job and only then telling us about it! Although… our dad left quite the impression on them when Violet quit, so maybe it wouldn’t have been that bad. If she even got the job at all, supposing that they wouldn’t recognise her last name and make the connection. I don’t think there are a lot of Gardeners around our little town after all.

“You know, I wouldn’t mind paying you for the tutoring you’ve been giving me,” Stan said, lifting his eyes from his notebooks.

“Oh no! It wouldn’t feel right to charge you when you’re my dad’s best friend and right-hand man. And the father of my sister’s girlfriend.”

Stan leaned back on his chair, letting out a long hum.

Then…

“At least let me treat you to a meal or a coffee every once in a while. It also doesn’t sit right with me to be getting tutoring from you without giving you back something more directly than my support to your dad. Like you said, me and him are friends, family even, so it’s a given that I’d support him.”

Sophie grew silent as she thought about it. Violet and I decided to take our leave then and leave the grownups deciding on how they’d proceed with showing their gratitude towards one another, a hot shower being very appealing to Violet.

“Hmm… I think it’d be all right if she stayed over for dinner when their study sessions grow late,” Violet said while rubbing my back when I asked her opinion on it. “Or when you and I aren’t home and dad would be all alone too.”

“I think that what you have in mind is more of your dad getting a girlfriend babe,” I joked.

Violet’s hands stopped, and I looked back. Her lips were pouted and her eyes frowning, not because she was mad or anything, but because she was in deep thought.

“You know, jokes aside, you might be right about that,” she said in a slow voice as she put her arms around me in a gentle hug, her thoughts turning into words. “Maybe dad should start thinking about getting a girlfriend or something. He’s still young, and I’ll be here for the next two years, so… what happens after that?”

A very valid question, one that I asked myself in passing a couple of times, not only about Stan, but also about my own father. My father was a more difficult case as he still works a lot and is close to being sixty years old and whom, if I were to be completely frank, looked like he was already in his mid-sixties. But Stan? Stan works, yes, but he can also make up more free time for that sort of thing, and he’s a handsome thirty-seven-year-old man that looked like he was just barely over thirty.

“Would you be ok with that?” I asked, deciding not to joke about it and letting Violet think things through, my hands resting over Violet’s.

“…Dunno,” she admitted. “It’d feel weird, I guess. Especially if I saw them kissing and do those kinds of couple-ly stuff around the house.”

“You mean, like when he saw us doing that more than once before?” I said, the joke being too hard to resist.

“Pfft, fufufu! Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

She gave me a kiss to the forehead, and we resumed our shower, remembering that Sophie and Stan were still around and they might misunderstand if we took too long getting out.

I was sure that Violet would be thinking about this a lot in the future now that the thought has popped up in her mind this one time.

It’d be something that’d require some time and patience, and I’ll be here to help her navigate through it, just like she’s always there to help me.