25nd December

This morning was very hectic, because they had to leave early for the plane. It was a few hours drive with the car and the place would leave around noon.

Maja packed the things she had and put the wedding ring into the trunk only wearing her wedding collar. She wanted to spend more time with her husband than half an hour after breakfast, snuggled up with him on the couch, but there was not enough time and she had to bid her farewells to everyone in the village.

She did not have to go around, because they came to the Lansters and soon the living room was full of people standing around and talking while Maia stood in the middle, not knowing who she should talk to next.

Maia got hugs and kisses on her cheek from everyone and promised them to write and to rush back to visit them as soon as possible.

They wished her all the best and the women gave her tons of tips for her pregnancy. Maia started to get a bit scared from some of the advises because it sounded as if she would feel ill a lot and might get pain, but the women calmed her down that this would not happen too often and that she would be fine.

The time flew by and before Maia knew, they had to depart already because Patrick wanted to plan with being two hours early to not get there too late in case there was a traffic jam.

Sophie and Derick joined them in the car and Maia sat on the back with Derick, finally having some more time to just lay in his arms, with her head on his shoulders and her muzzle against his neck and licking him lovingly while he caressed her belly and arm.

"You really are a cute pair." Sophie mentioned one hour into the drive. Maia had been so occupied with her feelings and snuggling with Derick without saying anything, that she winced from the sudden words of Sophie.

She smiled, and Derick looked at his fingers, seemingly embarrassed.

"Thank you." She replied with a low voice and caressed the hand of Derick.

"How did you and Patrick meet?" she wanted to know.

The next hour, Maia listened to the story of Sophie, how she met Patrick at a dance night in high school and they got friends afterwards.

It took a few more years before they decided to become a pair and then partners and husband and wife.

"And why were you here in high school?" Maia wanted to know, wondering why the brother of her mother would leave America while being in school.

"I was not." Replied Patrick and giggled. "I just came here, and it was my first job." He laughed, and Sophie giggled.

"Man, my co-workers pestered me about the crush I had for Sophie, a high school girl. Even though she was in the last year. I am not that much older." Sophie giggled again.

"I remember how my father was worried when he first heard about us dancing the whole evening and me seeing you afterwards. Back then he did not know, that you were not much older."

"But why did you not go to Collage or University?" Maia wanted to know.

"Oh, I did later." Replied Patrick. "I went here with a job because after high school I needed a break and I wanted to see the world." He had to stop, because there was some heavier traffic on the street and he needed to concentrate. A few minutes later he continued.

"But after meeting Sophie, your aunt, I decided to go to Collage and University. I went with her, one year later, and we were in the same class for the whole time."

"And this was when you got a pair?" Maia asked, giggling. She found the story very romantic. At least more romantic than her encounter with Derick and the boys during her heat.

"Well, yes. It happened in the last year of Collage. I allowed her to be with me."

Sophie gave him a slap on the shoulder and he chuckled.

"Don't believe him. Actually, he begged me for years to go out with him, but I left him hanging until the final prom in Collage. He asked me out for it and I agreed, and then we had a wonderful dance and a romantic night an..."

"... did you spend the night together?" Maia giggled. Derick tried to fake to not listen, even though his hands nervously massaged the hand of Maia that between them. He seemed to be not as interested or happy about hearing about his parents encounters.

"Well..." Sophie started to giggle as well. "Yes, we did. However, with a different outcome than you and Derick." She pointed at her belly. "I was not in heat back then and we used condoms to be sure."

Patrick cleared his throat, seemingly just as uncomfortable as Derick and when Maia looked into the mirror and saw his nervous look at her, she understood that he had to think about him taking her without contraception during her heat.

"And later, Derick was born?" she cut the story a bit short, nodded towards Patrick in the mirror who smiled a bit relieved.

"Well..." Sophie replied. "Not from this night. This was years later, when we finished university, and both got our first job.

Sophie told the story of them living closer to the city and how Patrick met Todd and Matthew at work and they formed a big friendship. They had been in this town already back then and after Sophie's father and mother died in an accident, they invited them into the village which they accepted.

There, Sophie found enough help and had company, when Patrick was not home. She did some work from home and then, Derick was born, and she spend the first year at home while Patrick worked. In the village they did not need as much money as in the city and therefore his salary was enough.

The drive in the car was over too fast for Maia, even though they got into a traffic jam and got to the airport just half an hour before the flight.

In secret, Maia wished they would have missed the flight.

She cried and hugged her aunt and her uncle, then Derick and she even kissed him in the middle of the airport, and then she was already past the luggage check in and sat in the lounge looking through the window over to Derick who also was fixed on her and her eyes were full of tears.

Derick was clearly sad, but he fought hard against crying. His father had put an arm around him and waved to Maia with a happy smile when she was called up to board the plane. Maia could not help to cry when she went into the gangway with a last wave and look back to Derick and entered the plane.

The flight back was not as fun and exciting as the first flight. She had no eyes for the clouds or the tiny landscape below her, but most of the time caressed her collar and looked at a picture of Derick on her mobile phone.

The older woman next to her tried to get into a conversation with her a few times, asking if the boy was her boyfriend, but she did not respond, being totally occupied in her sadness of moving further away from Derick with every second.

Her sadness only vanished when she landed, and her parents got her from the plane. Her mother hugged her as if she wanted to squeeze her dry and her father placed a kiss on her forehead and both seemed happy about her return.

Maia was exhausted and tired from the flight, but when they got home, her parents wanted to know everything of her journey.

Maia did not tell them all the details and made it sound as if the pregnancy, from which both knew by now, had been a random mistake of Derick and her somehow ending in the same bed during her heat. Her mother was tactful enough to not press her on the topic and asked for all the other activities.

Maia told them about the hot spring and the sauna.

"Can you believe, that they go into the sauna necked?" she asked and she told them everything about the events at the sauna and before she got out of stories without involving her naughty experiences, she skillfully got her parents to tell her about their visit at her grandfather's house.

The evening went on for a few more hours, until Maia got too tired and her mother brought her to bed. She put the ring of Derick into the drawer of her night table after kissing it, but she decided to sleep with the comfortable collar he uncle and aunt gave her.