D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad-Chapter 1326 Mattress Matters

--- Kat ---

Green raised a confused eyebrow as she spotted Kat come downstairs carrying Lily on her back. Lily was rubbing her face into Kat's neck while purring and Kat just seemed bemused at the whole thing. Green waited until Kat noticed her before gesturing the demon over. Gareth was half napping nearby on one of the beanbags while Green hovered nearby, not confident she could lay next to him and stay awake.

To sit down Kat moved Lily around so that the Memphis was hanging on her front when the pair sat down, letting Lily snuggle in again. "So… what's with… that?" asked Green unsure of how else to explain it as she gestured at Lily.

"I… may or may not have been teasing Lily in her sleep and as such I was told I need to carry her around all day as punishment," explained Kat. "I'm quite certain she isn't actually mad at me and is just using this as an excuse… though I'm not sure why. I'd have carried her around like this whenever she wants if she'd just asked,"

Green gave a big thumbs up in Lily's direction, "Nice choice. I'd do something similar for sure," said Green. "To answer your unasked question Kat, it's all about the mood. Sure I sleep on Gareth practically all the time but it just feels special and extra cuddly when I'm doing it for punishment reasons. Perhaps it's a bit more intimate? Your accepting that you did a wrong and allowing your significant other to punish you in a benign way for your transgressions.

"It shows both that you are willing to accept punishment, and that the other person, in this case Lily, is able to dole out fair and acceptable punishment that you don't feel burdened experiencing. Plus, you might even be enjoying it. Though because it's a punishment it will still stick in your mind, and Lily might enjoy it MORE. Or I could just be talking out of my ass. I don't know,"

Kat returned a deadpan stare at Green. Green stared back unrepentant. "So was that all just to make it sound like you know what you're doing? Or did you actually mean it?" asked Kat.

"Why not a third option? I could be saying it so that Gareth can hear me, accept my reasoning, and then keep it in mind next time I fuck up. That way he'll offer me a lesser punishment when it's my turn for something like this," said Green seriously.

"Why would you say that aloud then? You know he can hear you. That's the whole point of saying the first part! So why would you undercut yourself like that?" asked Kat.

"Hey, I already said I could just be talking out of my ass. This could all mean nothing! In fact… what if this is all just a fever dream? What if nothing is real? We're all just one big dream!" said Green in 'horror'.

"Kat can enter dreams if she wants, and it doesn't feel like this," added Lily.

"Oh so you're talking to me again?" asked Kat.

"Oh right… that was your other punishment… err… nah I can't be bothered. It takes too much effort on my part to intentionally not speak. Which is weird because I've phased out of conversations just by being a cat for a bit… but hmm… is that because I can't actually talk? But then again I still comment mentally… hmm…" Lily's voice trailed off as she got lost in thought.

"I didn't realise she also wasn't talking to you," said Green. "That's much less interesting a punishment. I mean, sure I spend plenty of time not talking to Gareth… but that's mostly because I'm asleep and I can't,"

Kat shrugged and explained, "It's just something she tacked onto the end. My teasing, eventually, woke her up and she berated me for that while trying not to laugh while I sent her the memories of just how cute she was acting in her sleep. She was trying to hard to be angry at me… and failing. It was just as, if not more adorable then the faces she was making in her sleep. Honestly, messing with her like that was the best idea I've had in a while,"

"But… hmm… what if… no… but… yes? Why… lemons," muttered Lily.

"Um…" Kat looked down at her girlfriend with the corner of her eye, not wanting to move her head too much because Lily looked comfortable on her neck. "It seems we've lost Lily to whatever it is she's thinking about,"

Green waved Kat's concern off. "Eh it happens. I think. I tend to fall asleep if I get too lost in thought and dream up the answers. Which sounds great, in theory, but in practice it doesn't usually lead to correct or useful answers. Like that one time I fell asleep wondering what I was going to eat for dinner and dreamt I was chasing ice cream around. Fun dream, didn't help with my hunger at all… and my mouth tasted like whatever shit they put in pillows. It was nasty…" grumbled Green.

Kat gave Green a concerned look… just as Nixilei stumbled down the stairs, black bags under her eyes. She glanced over and saw the rest of the team in the lounge area and sighed before quickly jogging over to the cafeteria and grabbing the coffee pot, pouring herself a cup and then pausing.

Nixilei looked between the cup, and the mostly full pot a few times before putting the cup down and walking over to everyone else, coffee pot in hand. "Nix, you look like shit," said Green as her friend sat down. "What happened to you?"

"I… may have stayed up late last night talking with Asteodia. I didn't notice how late it had gotten so now I'm awake with perhaps two hours sleep, maybe a bit more. It was the sun peaking through the window that clued us in to the time, and Asteodia, the lucky bitch, gets the day off. So here I am… awake. Sort of," said Nixilei.

Green gave Nixilei's statement a few seconds to hang as she considered what to give her friend shit for. Staying up late talking to Asteodia was the obvious option, but the coffee was a close second. The internal debate continued for a while until Green sneezed. Which apparently decided the issue. "So… 'talking' was it? Quite the vigorous chat you must've gotten up to together,"

"Oh don't you start," snapped Nixilei. "Marigold already has the sex jokes covered we don't need two of her,"

"Actually," interrupted Kat before things could kick off. "How come your tired? I can stay awake for quite a while, and only getting a bit of sleep hasn't ever been an issue… yet you're clearly not ok,"

Nixilei went to answer… then looked at the coffee took a big swig and then gestured to Green before taking another swig. Green let out a groan but eventually she nodded while starting to explain. "Right, so fae tend to need more sleep then the other races for some reason. In the past we used to hibernate for a while to build up power… but we don't do that anymore. Or perhaps we can't? It hasn't come up in my education… which is weird now that I think about it.

"Anyway, fae are much more prone to sleep issues. Plus, we're only Rank 2. We can't push off that much sleep. So with that, combined with the fact Nixilei had a decent magical and physical workout yesterday driving that plane around… and then decided staying up all night was a good idea… look let's just say that I personally, am not surprised in?the slightest that she's tired.

"Not sure what to do about that. We could have you skip out on participating today… with myself, Kat and Kress we should be fine… or you could, you know, get some real sleep and participate in whatever event is on later today?"

Nixilei raised a hand as finger as she finished downing the coffee pot. "You make a good point… however I've just drunk an entire pot of coffee, so sleep is probably impossible for me right now, regardless of how good of an idea it sounds right now,"

"Well that's your own fault then isn't it?" pointed out Green.

"I don't like the fact that you speak the truth," grumbled Nixilei. "I wish I'd thought of that earlier, but I was too tired to think straight. Yes, that's what I'm blaming it on. I'm sure I would've thought of ways to sleep longer if I didn't need so much sleep,"

"Just admit that I, mistress Green, am the master of sleep, and I shall bestow upon you further wisdom of the… um… mattress?" Green's speech started off quite grand and haughty… and broke down massively by the end. Nixilei sent a smirk over. "Look, it was an unplanned joke and I ran out of steam. I could've just said 'sleep' instead of mattress but I used that earlier when I claimed mastery. I should've taken the time to flesh the joke out in my head first,"