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Chapter 34: Eve

Broken ribs and nerve damage certainly sucks.

Fortunately, having someone to cuddle with made it all much more bearable.

The hospital beds weren't exactly sized for more than one even slightly large person, which made any sort of cuddling tricky, the issue partially alleviated by Riley being the size of an overly jumpy garden gnome.

And Maddy being naturally flexible.

The end result of this game of condensed, crippled twister was Riley's head snuggled into Maddy's shoulder, the broken arm resting on her side, both girls forced to partially lay on their sides just to not slip off of it.

Neither particularly minded that much.

Especially Riley, snuggled up to Maddy from the front, her scritching and massaging paws combined with the soft tail holding her close from the back, both resting and unwinding from their combined anxieties, pets and shared warmth doing wonders at getting rid of tension.

The occasional smooches and light teasing may have helped as well.

In their shared bliss neither really noticed or cared about the passage of time, Riley close to dozing off with a goofy smile on her face before both snugglers were suddenly startled out of their relaxation with a loud knock on the door. The human girl almost fell off the bed in surprise before Maddy held her tighter, gently pulling her to the middle of the bed as she herself got up from it, stretching all over with a quiet yawn, her feather duster of a tail making her girlfriend smile before she spoke up-

"Uh, come on in!"

Riley was busy trying to appear inconspicuous, patting down her hair and pulling the covers over herself before she saw Rick peek into the room, his wide smile at the cuddlers' crime scene immediately reflected on both girls' faces, with added blushes.

"Don't worry, it's just me for now, kids are still at the arcade. How are you girls doing?"

Lovestruck.

Same.

"We're alright, d-did something happen?" Riley sat up on the bed as Rick walked in, his usual jacket missing to fully reveal the comfy sweater underneath, the deliberately terrible Christmas patterns somehow managing to look endearing.

"Well, not really, just that the kids were really starting to ask to, well, see if you're finally awake, heh. And... there's something I need to talk to you about in private." Rick responded softly, any teasing that might have been there gentle and well meaning. The follow-up definitely didn't fill Riley in with any more confidence, thought process thankfully interrupted by the other lovebird as she spoke up in return-

"Has it really been that long?" Maddy asked, genuinely confused as she dug into her pocket, soon realizing that yes, it's been just a bit over two and a half hours since her visit.

"Time sure does fly, haha. Maddy, if you ever wanna visit just text me and I'll give you a lift, it's no problem." Dad chuckled out loud at seeing Maddy's reaction, his smile as wide as ever as she looked back at him in appreciation.

"Thank you Mr. Asher!" She responded gleefully, quickly glancing back at Riley in excitement, both almost giddy at the, uh...

...possibilities?

"Well, hope you two had fun! Sorry I had to barge in like that, but I assumed better just me than the whole family." There was a hint of genuine apology in his voice, Riley's response cut short as Maddy dismissed it nonchalantly-

"Oh it's no biggie. You said you were being discharged tomorrow, right?" She turned towards Riley, a sly glint in her eyes as she thought up of things they could do together, as opposed to other things they couldn't do.