New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

The rest of their day was pretty relaxed. Alexander pulled out a dusty box from his storage, which contained all the old board games he used to play with his parents.

Kary was happy to play board games, as she came from a family that liked to play them too. Violette was completely new to the concept, though.

They picked a simple game for her to learn, an old classic, Monopoly. They played three games and gave up.

Even if the young girl insisted she had never played, she completely and thoroughly annihilated them. In all three games, she came out on top, bankrupting the two adults.

They both looked at her with mild horror.

'The business genes are strong with this one,' they both thought.

After putting away the games, they played a few old video games on a console that was stored in the same box until it was time to make dinner.

On the menu, this time, was a good old lasagna. Kary insisted she wanted to help this time, and Alex gave up resisting her when she threatened to knock him out if he didn't say yes.

He let her chop up the vegetables that would go in the sauce, while he started boiling the tomatoes. He could have gone for a market-bought sauce, but since he was trying to learn new things, he made a homemade one.

Bonus points to the fact he was also trying to impress his new girlfriend. Even if making a tomato sauce wasn't that big an achievement, making a good lasagna sauce was still quite impressive.

Everything went according to plan for his dinner, and the results impressed him even more than Kary. They ate their fill and even ordered some dessert from a nearby Gelato place.

While they were eating dessert, Kary got a text message from her mother. She looked at it and her face showed traces of disappointment.

"Something wrong?" Alex asked her.

Violette also perked her ears to listen.

"Nothing wrong, per se. But my mother needs me for something tomorrow, so I'm going to have to return home. Tonight will be my last night sleeping here with the both of you."

"Already?" Violette asked with a pout.

"Sadly, yes. But don't worry, darling. I will come back soon if you are still here. I promise."

Violette nodded, but was still downtrodden.

"That's quite unfortunate," Alex said, looking disappointed too.

"You told me the door was always open for me, did you not? I'll take you up on this offer."

Kary smiled at him, putting her hand on his and squeezing it gently. He returned her smile.

They cleaned up the kitchen, with Kary and Alex exchanging soft words, trying to make the seconds count. The three decided to not go play New Eden that night, and enjoy a good movie together, since Kary would be leaving early in the morning.

Violette was the one to pick the movie, and she wanted to watch an old princess movie. So they ended up watching a movie called 'The Swan Princess'.

Kary was familiar with this title, since she had watched this many times as a little girl herself. Alexander didn't go against her wishes, and bought the movie online.

When they started the movie, Kary immediately cuddled up to Alex, and Violette looked at them with a tinge of sadness. Alex was the one to notice.

"Are you alright, Violette?"

"I'm okay… It's just… I used to watch this movie with my mom, and she would snuggle me tight…"

Alexander looked at her, his heart almost breaking. How long had it been since her mother smothered her with love?

He lightly pushed Kary away, who understood his intentions, and walked to Violette. He grabbed her in his arms while she yelped in surprise and brought her back to the other end of the sofa.

He sat back down, squeezing Violette between himself and Kary, before throwing a blanket over her. Violette looked at him with surprise, but she said nothing, tucking her head into Kary's chest.

Alex threw his arm over both of them, as he started the movie.

Kary gently stroked the girl's hair with her fingers as they watched the movie. The girl had a single tear rolling off her cheek, but she was smiling.

Around the middle point of the movie, Violette had already dozed away from the heat of the two adults and her hair being stroked. Alex noticed, but let the movie run its course.

Once it was done, he gently picked up the little girl and brought her up to her room. He slowly lowered her into her bed before turning to Kary.

"Can you change her into some pyjamas? It would be highly inappropriate if I did it," he whispered.

Kary nodded, and Alex left the room. Shortly after, Kary was done changing Violette, and she tucked her into bed.

Kary stroked her hair gently a last time before getting up. Violette then squirmed a bit and muttered something, half asleep.

"Goodnight, mom. I love you."

Kary smiled and responded, "I love you too, sweetheart."

She then left the room, closing the door behind her.

'Poor girl…'

After walking over to her room's door, she noticed Alex's door was slightly open. She smiled and went inside her room to change.

Then she walked over to the slightly open door and walked inside the room, closing the door behind her. Kary slipped into bed, quickly sliding next to Alexander.

Alex turned to face her when he felt her come into bed. He kissed her on the lips passionately.

"I know I said I wasn't ready, but I don't want to send you away without at least proving to you that I am serious."

He then kissed her again, and again, slowly getting more passionate and changing spots, kissing her on the neck, nibbling her earlobe, going down lower, and kissing her stomach.

That night, Alex and Kary made love tenderly and fell asleep in each other's arms, whispering soft promises to each other, as they imbibed in each other's scent.