[CAM] Chapter 10 - Sleepover

For the next two days Arthom also did not see a hair of Laila, because either he had his clubs, or Laila had a meeting with friends or went shopping with her mother. He felt a bit lonely, even though he asked himself why it suddenly became so hard for him to live a day without the mouse.

A Thursday finally they met after school and Arthom agreed to help her with her homework, mainly to spend some time together with his loved one.

When Karen left the room, after she brought Arthom to the room of her daughter, he looked outside to make sure Laila's mother went back to the kitchen and then gave Laila a big hug and a deep kiss as a greeting.

"I really missed you my love." He whispered. "Me too." The girl admitted and for a few minutes they just kissed each other and stayed in the embrace, while he caressed over her arms, her back, her hind, and her tail with his hand.

"How were the first days in school?" he asked. "Boring without you." - "Same here." Both laughed. Laila opened her school bag and pulled a few books and writing blocks out.

"Do you have a lot of homework?" he asked, looking at the books she put on the table.

"None!" and when Arthom looked up, he saw her smirking at him.

"I just wanted to see you, and this was the only excuse that came to mind." She told him and he had to chuckle.

"You know that you don't need excuses to invite me here, do you?" he responded, but she shook her head.

"Not for you to come over, but for my mother to not bother us for a few hours, I need a reason." She whispered in a conspiring tone. Arthom grinned and took her hand. They just sat there, she on the chair, he on her bed, and held hands, before Arthom pulled her in and made her fly from the chair to the bed.

She landed on his chest and he pulled her into a hug and let himself fall backwards, so that he was now laying on the bed with his upper body and she was on top of him.

"I love you my little squeak-machine!" he whispered and began to place small kisses over her eyes, ears, and nose, until he reached her lips and placed a few small kisses on her mouth.

"I love you more." The mouse giggled and returned the kiss on her muzzle. Arthom parted from her lips for a short time to reply: "I love you most!"

After this, they lay there, the mouse on top of the panther, and shared a deep kiss while both closed their eyes and just enjoyed the connection of their bodies.

After a few minutes, they parted and Arthom shuffled around until he lay on her bed in full length and Laila still lay atop of his chest, with her legs being right and left of his.

They lay there with closed eyes, the mouse with her head on his chest and the top of her head snuggled against his chin, enjoying the warm feeling of the other. Arthom began to purr in a deep rustling tone and the vibrations put both into sleep.

When he woke up, it was two hours later. They still were alone in the room and Arthom slowly stretched, waking up Laila, who yawned and rubbed her eyes.

"Your purr is so relaxing, that I could not help to fall asleep." She explained and Arthom smiled while he lifted her with both arms and got up into a sitting position, placing her next to him, with one arm over her shoulder to press her against his side.

"I also fell asleep, so it was not only you." She explained, also letting out a big yawn. "But It felt good. So familiar." He nudged her sides and she began to laugh.

"Say, do you have any plans this weekend? Want to go to the cinema, or somewhere else?" he asked and tried to sound casually.

Laila first was all smiles, but then her smile suddenly frowned.

"I can't this weekend." She moaned and looked like she regretted it.

"A friend from the ballet class will come here for a sleepover." She explained.

"You are not happy to have a sleepover with your friend?" Arthom asked and looked at her in surprise.

"Sure, I like Chaya and I wanted her to come over, but now that you invited me, I wish she would not come." Laila complained.

"Don't stress it." The panther purred. "We will have many other weekends afterwards. We will just postpone it for a week, what do you say?" - "Okay!" the mouse smile went bright again instantly.

"Chaya?" Arthom asked, trying to remember the girl. "Isn't that the cute lynx girl, that we met at the pool?" Even though Arthom had always been close to Laila, he knew only a few of her friends by name, because usually he was not with them, when they came over to play, but Laila only had come to him when she had no one to play or her parents needed him to babysit her.

"Do you think she is cuter than me?" Laila looked a bit pouting and Arthom suppressed a chuckle. "No! Never!" he said overdramatic. "You are the cutest girl on the whole world!" - "Really?" her eyes looked hopeful but also doubting. "Naturally. Who would not find their girlfriend to be the cutest girl of them all?" he ensured her.

"Am I really that cute?" she asked, and he placed a kiss on her lips. "No..." he whispered. "... you are even cuter." And with this she finally giggled.

"So, Chaya is this, compared to you, absolute un-cute girl?" he asked again and Laila giggled even more. "Yes, but you are right. I think she is cute as well. But you have to promise me that I am cuter."

"Sure, you are the cutest!" he replied and ruffled her head.

They laughed and for a moment it felt for Arthom like before the vacation. For a few minutes the girl just turned back into the girl that was like a little sister for him. Just until she threw her arms around his neck and pulled herself up to place a kiss on his muzzle, that he returned. She turned from the little sister to his girlfriend again.

They snuggled up with each other for a while until they heard the steps of Laila's mother come up the stairs. Quickly they got off the bed and Laila sat down at her desk, whole Arthom stood behind her and looked at a book together with the girl, that she hastily opened.

When her mother cam in, she closed the book with a loud bang and threw her arms in the air to shout: "Finally done!" She hit Arthoms nose and he groaned a bit and rubbed his nose, when he turned to the door, where Mrs. Oldfield stood with a tablet, some juice, and cookies.

"Oh, and here I wanted to bring you something, but I guess you can come down instead and eat it downstairs." She went down the stairs again with the tablet, leaving the door open.

"I am sorry." Apologizes Laila. "I didn't mean to hit you." She smiled up to him and he only groaned one last time and gave her a nudge in the arm.

After a short chat with juice and cookies, Arthom left with a wink towards Laila and went home, to do his own homework. He had not been as lucky as Laila and already had quite some homework, which he spent the next hour to complete.

The phone rang and his mother picked up the phone. IT was Friday and Arthom still had not decided what to do over the weekend. All his friends at school did not want to go to the cinema, a few had a football match, but he was not so much into watching the game, so he excused himself.

His original plans to spend some time with Laila had been busted by her own plans and so he had nothing to do. He lay on his bed and had his eyes closed.

"I am just at his door and will ask him, wait a minute." Arthom's eyes twitched and he heard his door open.

"Arthom?" the voice of his mother had the tone where she wanted something from him. He already groaned inside because he was sure she wanted him to do some work for one of her friends or so.

"Don't play sleeping beauty. I can see your ears twitching." She scolded him. He sighed and finally opened his eyes to look at her mother. "What is it?" he replied tiredly and without much enthusiasm.

"If I understood you right, you said you have no plans this weekend, right?" she asked. There it was. His instinct had been correct.

"I do have plans..." he started, but he could not think of something to say, because he still didn't think of something to do. "... I wanted to go to the cinema, remember?"

"Yes, you asked your dad and he told you, that we are invited to my school friend Audrey and will leave tomorrow and stay until Sunday evening. You told me that you did not want to come with us, remember?" - "I think there was something like that, yes. But I planned to maybe go there alone and..." he could not think of anything else.

"I am sure you can do that next week as well, right?" she asked and when Arthom looked at him she had a stern face.

"You see, this was Karen and she is in a bind. She just got a call from her sister, that she got ill, and they decided to drive there to visit her. But she already promised Laila that she could have a sleepover and her friend is there already."

Arthom's ears perked up a bit. The name of Laila made him become awake instantly.

"She tried to reach the parents of Laila's friend, but apparently they already left for a small weekend trip with their other daughter and now she wanted to know if you could maybe babysit the two girls from today until Sunday, so that they can check on her sister."

Arthom pondered a bit. If it would be just Laila, he would directly be all for it, but he was not sure if he wanted to watch over some strange kid as well. After a minute he finally said: "Okay, you won." And got up from his bed to collect his pajamas, go to the bath for his toothbrush and put all of it in a sport bag. After all, if he needed anything else, he could just go over, as they were just next door.

"He is okay with it." His mother replied on the phone and left to walk back into her room to pack the last things. They wanted to leave very early in the next morning after all.

Arthom went to the bathroom to wash his face and brushed his facial fur and the fur on top of his head to make sure he looked nice. He changed his shirt, which was sweaty from school and put some pants over his boxers. He would shower at the Oldfields' place.

"Tell her, that I am on my way." He shouted to his parents room, where he still heard his mother speak with Karen. They always spoke for hours on the phone. He was not sure why Karen used the phone at all instead of just walking the few steps.

When he arrived next door, Karen was just saying goodbye to his mother. John already waited in the car and Karen pushed the phone into his hands, after hanging up.

"Please be so kind and put this back. I can't thank you enough for this. There should be enough food in the fridge, but I also left money for pizza, if you don't want to cook. You know where!" she placed a short kiss on his cheek. "I hope the two are well behaved. The number of their parents is next to the phone, in case anything happens." He just waved with one hand to signal that he understood.

He already heard the car being started the moment he closed the door and shortly after, they left. He was sure, that the illness of Karen's sister must be quite dire, if they were off that fast. With a sigh, he looked for the two girls to make sure where they were.

He found them in Laila's room, drawing together.

"Hello you two!" he greeted them. "I am Arthom." He introduced himself to the lynx girl, which seemed very shy towards him. "You are Chaya, right?" she nodded.

"Did Karen... erm Mrs. Oldfield already tell you that I will be your sitter?" he asked and both girls nodded, the lynx still shy, Laila with a big smile on her face.

"Good, don't let yourself be disturbed. I will be downstairs in the living room and..." he looked at the clock next to the bed of Laila. "... I will prepare something to eat in 2 hours, that okay with you?" again both nodded and he closed the door.

Arthom wanted to go in and give Laila a deep kiss and snuggle up with her, but he could not do this with her friend next to her. The lynx girl was much older than Laila. Arthom guessed her to be 12 or even older. Laila did tell him, that she was a friend from ballet, but it still surprised him a bit.

He sat down in front of the television and turned it on. After zapping through the channels, a bit, he finally found a movie he was interested in: Rambo 1.

It was old, but he always liked it and in addition it seemed to just have had started.

He got himself a coke from the kitchen and then lay down on the couch to watch the movie.

After the movie, he went to the kitchen and prepared the dinner. He decided to make a goulash a bit of beef he found in the fridge and some veggies as a side dish. He knew, that at least Laila always loved his goulash, one of the few dishes he knew how to cook and something he did a lot on the past, when he had to look over the girl.

The meal was relatively silent. The girls came, when he called for them, but the lynx girl was still very shy and Arthom also did not know what he should talk about with Laila, because he was afraid that he would slip his tongue and talk about topics that would make Chaya suspicious.

After the dinner, he allowed them to play a bit in Laila's room, because Chaya only shook her head when he asked if they should play something together, and then he went back to the television.

It was still Rambo, but it was the middle of the third movie now. A look into the program showed, that they had a Rambo day and the other parts would also be shown, so at least Arthom would have enough entertainment.

He went to the kitchen, to get some chips and the bottle of coke and a glass, to be sated for the long movie night, and continued to watch the movie.

He did not notice how he got more and more tired, laying there on the couch and looking at the screen, and soon he fell asleep, while Rambo continued to kill his enemies.