Monday, 11th of September

Currently, I was lying in my bed in the hospital, spooning Alma, while she was reading the last chapter of "Sidekick" on my tablet. It was very silent in the room, as we both were absorbed in our tasks of choice; she was intrigued by the book, and I was fascinated by her light blue hair, which wasn't tied up in twin tails for a change. My left hand was playing around with the soft strands and her ears, while my right hand was stroking her waist gently. When stroking her, Alma sometimes started purring unintentionally, which made her adorably embarrassed.

As she was wearing only a loose tank top and panties, it was easy for me to slide my hand under her shirt and caress her warm skin. From time to time, I tickled her a bit or moved my hand slightly upwards, touching her breast lightly. I simply couldn't resist going for that spot, especially when she was braless.

Sometimes when I slid my fingers over her chest, I could feel her shiver and get goosebumps. Knowing I could make Alma's body react in such a way by mere touches pleased me very much, and I knew that it also felt good for her. When Alma was the one caressing my skin, it also made me shiver, and I felt a slightly weird but exhilarating feeling of intimacy, the same sensation Alma was probably getting right now.

One week had passed since my surgery, a week filled with a lot of cuddle time and many kisses, so understanding what Alma felt wasn't a hard thing to do by now. Even though there was a big amount of touching involved, we never even once entirely stripped. It seemed like Alma had something she wasn't ready to show me; even when making out, she would make sure that my hand wouldn't touch her left boob at all times. It seemed weird to me, as I was allowed to touch the other one just fine, but she would keep the left one covered by her own hand whenever I came close. The only plausible reason I could come up with was a trauma of some sort, Alma sadly had enough of those. I gave up on thinking about it, I would give her all the time she needed anyway.

Regarding time needed, the time required for my back to heal to the point where I didn't need to be checked daily was over, so today I would be finally going home. We were just waiting for my parents to show up, they were picking us up once they got off work.

Except for the couple time Alma and I had, nothing special happened in the last few days, only my parents showed up on some days on their way home from work, and Amanda came once to introduce Spencer. It was pretty sad to think that my best friends didn't visit me at all since I woke up, but it's not like I didn't understand it.

Although Quinn and Ida had been sticking together like peanut butter and jelly since grade school, it's obvious that becoming a couple is a big change. They get to know each other on a very different level than before, there was a lot to explore; my relationship with Alma taught me that very well.

Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by the sound of my tablet closing, and I saw Alma as she was putting it away. She started turning around, so I let go of her soft hair and lifted my hand off her waist. She turned her whole body to her other side, now looking at me, and tangled her legs with mine, which I sadly couldn't feel. I placed my hand on her waist again and pulled her closer, closing the small gap between us. Our bodies were once again pressed tightly together, and I could feel my warmth flowing to her slightly cool front. Alma's ears were moving slowly, and she had a smile on her face. She looked genuinely satisfied with this situation and started talking, "The book was really good, thank you for showing it to me."

"You're welcome," I replied smiling, "I'm happy that you like it, it's my favorite book after all."

"I really liked the main characters, Cora and Laura... will there be a sequel book about them?" asked Alma.

"I don't know, we will see... but I can show you other books like this when we get home if you want," I replied. Alma nodded and made an approving sound before closing her eyes and cuddling her face into my chest. I looked at the clock and noticed that it was the eleventh of September already; that meant that in two weeks school would start again.

Alma didn't answer me when I asked where she would be going to school. She was eighteen, just like me, so that meant that she probably already finished high school. I wanted to ask her once more, but she was resting in my embrace peacefully, seemingly asleep, so I didn't want to interrupt that.

Some time passed, and we were still lying there, with my hand lightly stroking Alma's beautiful hair. Finally, there was the long-awaited knock on the door, and my parents entered the room. My mom stepped closer to the bed and smiled at the sight before her. She lightly stroked Alma's arm and then whispered something I would have never expected but definitely wanted to hear, "Honey, please make sure that you make this girl happy. She deserves to be loved and to be part of a family that cares about her. We are more than willing to play the role of the loving parents in Alma's life and accept her as our daughter-in-law. And when the time comes, we will support you two with building your own family."

This meant more to me than I would have ever thought. Not only did my parents accept me being gay like it was the most normal thing, but they also were more than happy with the girl I chose to be the one. I knew that this wasn't the case for many people, so I was really grateful for that. To be honest, I always had a feeling that my parents magically knew that I didn't have an interest in guys, and I always expected them to be entirely okay with me swinging in a different direction.

"I will, no matter what," I answered determinedly. Dad took the wheelchair from beside the bed, and I disconnected my body from Alma's without waking her up. I crawled off the bed and Dad picked up Alma in a princess style carry. He placed her in my lap carefully in a way that wouldn't wake her up, which was kind of hard because we had to pay attention to where her tail was so that we wouldn't accidentally hurt her.

Luckily, the strength in my arms was built enough to hold the light Alma in place while most of her weight was on my lap. Just steadying her was quite exhausting for my arms, but I could handle it for the time being. Mom took the bag which had mine and Alma's clothes and followed us down the hall. As we were close to the exit of the hospital, Alma's ears started moving, and she opened her eyes.

"We are going home, Alma," I said smiling. Alma also smiled in return and snuggled closer to my chest before closing her eyes again. We got out of the building, and I saw Mom going in the direction of a car I hadn't seen before.

"We rented this car for the next few months, you can get in without leaving your wheelchair," explained Mom. I didn't even know that things like this existed, but now that I thought about it, it made total sense, some people had this condition for life after all. I got a bit nervous at the thought that it was very much possible for me, too. There was no guarantee that my legs would heal properly, after all.

Dad pushed the wheelchair very closely to the open door. He stepped in front of us and stroked my head lightly before saying, "I'm so happy that you are coming home with us."

He moved Alma from my lap to the seat of the car, being careful not to wake her up as she might not like it to be carried by a man. Then Mom pushed my wheelchair into the car and locked it in so that I wouldn't move through the car randomly. After getting in and starting the engine, Mom asked, "So how are things going to be now? Did anything change from what we were told?"

I answered while looking at the parked cars we were passing, "According to the doctors, it's not possible to estimate when the healing of my nerves will begin, but once that happens, I will be in unbearable pain so I will have to take pills against that. A few weeks after that, I will start to feel the skin on my legs again. Once the pain is gone completely a few months later, I will have to undergo rehabilitation."

"I see... nothing new then..." replied Mom, then continued after looking into the rearview mirror, "so are you two ready for school?"

I turned to my left and saw that Alma was awake and listening to our conversation. Then I answered questioningly, "Alma will be attending college from now on, right?"

Then Alma started talking, "No, I... I didn't finish high school yet... I need to redo my senior year because I couldn't attend school last year."

"So... where are you going to school then?" I asked curiously. As I had never seen Alma at my school before, I was sure she wouldn't be going to Storm Coast High.

"I had to take exams to be accepted into high school again, but I could choose which school I wanted to attend. And I was accepted into the senior year of Storm Coast High," answered Alma smiling happily.

Then my mom suddenly started talking, "I know this was unexpected, but I have another surprise for the both of you. Alma doesn't know this yet, but she officially moved. She is now living with us."

Alma looked shocked and let out a confused "Huh?"

"We knew that you wouldn't accept our support if we asked, so we did all the paperwork without your knowledge, you just need to sign a single paper which empowers us to hand in the documents for you. Luckily you are eighteen already, so you have the right to move on your own. When that is done, you for sure won't have to return wherever you lived until now," revealed Mom, which I also didn't expect at all. Of course, I was delighted because that meant that I would be able to see Alma every day from now on and we would even go to school together, but I just didn't know how to react to all of that.

"I-I'm so happy... I don't know what to say," said Alma with watery eyes. I leaned over to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek before embracing her. We were hugging each other tightly while we were driving down the road. The thought of me finally being at home again sounded too good to be true. I really missed not being trapped in the hospital all the time.

After a few minutes, we reached our house and drove into the garage. Once I got out of the car, Mom opened the door to the staircase, and I saw that there was a wheelchair lift attached to the wall beside the stairs. It looked like a small platform which was moving on two steel rails, the kind you usually see in public buildings like schools.

"We set up this lift, so you could still use the second floor as usual, meaning there is no need for you to change rooms. When the time comes where you don't need it anymore, we can simply remove it and use the steel bars as handrails," explained Dad before pushing me on the platform. He pressed a button on the wall, and the lift started moving up the stairs. It didn't move very fast, so it took some time to arrive on the first floor, from which I would have to take the next lift to the second floor.

But once I reached the first floor, I was surprised by Lucy who ran towards me and jumped on my lap. She had grown bigger while I was gone; the small kitten had turned into a real cat. I looked in the direction where she came from and saw a small cat bed lying beside the sofa in the living room. Then Alma came out of the staircase, which made Lucy understandably lose all interest in me and sprint towards her, who also seemed very happy to see her kitten.

I pushed myself into the living room and noticed that some things had changed. The furniture was moved slightly so that there was more space between the single items, probably to make it easier for me to move the wheelchair. I kept looking around and noticing small changes here and there until Mom entered the room and asked, "Is pizza okay for dinner?"

"Of course it is! Is tuna okay, Alma?" I answered over-excitedly. I didn't have pizza in six weeks, of course, I would be hyped. Alma didn't take long to think about it and replied, "Yes, I really like fish."

After Mom left the room to order pizza, Alma and I were playing around with Lucy until the food arrived. We shared a tuna pizza with cheese in the crust followed by some ice cream. After eating our delicious meal, we went up into my, or rather, into our room to go to sleep. Of course, I had to take the lift again, while Alma followed me carrying the bag with our stuff. When we reached the room, I was indescribably happy to be back in there, but also extremely shocked.

The whole room was cleaned and sorted; it was nothing like the mess it was the last time I had seen it. It looked so nice and spacious...

"I cleaned the room and watered your plant for you while you were gone... I needed to occupy my head..." said Alma when she saw my shocked expression.

"Thank you, it looks a lot nicer than before," I answered with a genuine smile on my lips.

As it was getting late, I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth, Alma followed me in to do the same. Luckily my bathroom was big, so it was no problem for us to use it simultaneously, even though I was using a wheelchair. Only reaching the high sink was a bit problematic, so I used the bathtub instead.

After we were done, we left the bathroom and went in the direction of the bed. I missed my own mattress, I was getting sick of sleeping in the hospital all the time. Alma helped me to lift myself out of the wheelchair onto the bed and get ready to go to sleep. She took off my pants and socks so that I was wearing only the loose shirt and panties, my usual sleeping attire. Alma also changed into her sleeping clothes, which were just like mine, a loose tank top, and panties.

She seemed a bit nervous before taking off her socks, so I asked her, "What's wrong?"

"Um, I... I... look," Alma mumbled before finally getting rid of the socks. She had red nail polish on her toenails, which made her feet look cute. I was not sure why I found her feet adorable, I didn't have a thing for feet... at least that's what I thought. Or did I? Either way, Alma was standing there and said, "I never put it on my toenails before, doesn't it look weird?"

"No, it makes your feet look cute, promise," I answered and got a relieved smile as a response. Then Alma crawled on the big bed and cuddled herself to my side, which made me also turn to my side, spooning Alma to keep us warm.

I gave her a goodnight kiss on the cheek and started stroking her lightly, which always made her calm down and rest peacefully. She once again started purring from time to time, which still seemed to make her feel embarrassed. After a few minutes of stroking and purring, she stopped moving, and her breathing became calm. Knowing that she fell asleep in my embrace made me feel at peace, and I drifted off to sleep myself.