I was still giddy from Sam’s kiss as she took my hand again afterwards. “Weren’t you going to take any photos?” She smiled. 

I pulled her hand softly and wiggled it around. “I’m super duper in love with you.” 

Her smile grew even brighter as she slowly leant in for another kiss, this time on my lips. “Glad that it’s mutual then.” And then she kissed me again. 

“Hehe.” I couldn’t help but giggle. My heart was skipping beats left right front and center. The sunshine on her face, the gentle wind and the sound of flowing water from the river near us… Maybe I did die in Haurchefaud, because this dang near looks like heaven to me.

“Are you sure you don’t want to chill out here for a little bit? Would be a shame to leave this place behind so fast, wouldn’t it?” Sam really tried to keep me here for a while and I suppose her kissing me did help with making her case. 

“Alright then.” I gave in. “But only for half an hour. And only if I can get a couple more kisses.” 

“I’ll have to discuss that with the branch manager but I’m sure kisses are definitely still in stock.” She smiled.

After she had bought me over with some more kisses, we sat down on a bench that was hit by some direct sunlight, giving us a clear view over the river and its embankment. At the opposite side of the river a young mom was playing around with her toddler. It was a fun thing to watch if I had to be honest. 

I rested my head on Sam’s shoulder and just beheld the scene in front of me while Sam softly hummed a song. “It’s such a beautiful day today.” Just as I said that, the toddler in the distance comically fell over while her mom started laughing out loud. It gave me a chuckle as well. 

“What are you laughing at?” Sam asked with a giggle in her voice too. 

“Just the kid over there.” I quickly pointed but made sure to not do it for too long, I didn’t want the mom to notice. “She just face-planted into the grass. It was pretty funny.” 

“Kids… aren’t the brightest beings on earth, this is true.” Sam looked at the little display in front of us. At that moment tried to pick the toddler up, but just as she did so, the toddler stood up, so they both bonked their heads against one-another. 

That pretty much sent me on a chuckle I felt I wouldn’t be recovering from within the minute. 

“Oh my Goddess…” Sam put her face in the palm of her hand. 

“You saw that too, didn’t you?” I laughed. “I know I really shouldn’t be laughing too hard about this.” 

“No, it was pretty funny. I saw it too.” Sam was trying hard to repress her laughter though it looked like she was succeeding in it as opposed to me. “As I said before, kids… Not very smart.” 

“Yeah…” I was trying to control my breathing but this exhilarating feeling of laughing with someone’s bad luck was not dying down. A bit to my surprise. 

“You okay?” Sam put her hand on my back. 

I closed my eyes and really forced my breathing to go back to normal before I replied positively to my girlfriend, the laugh having finally subsided. “Sorry, I don’t know what came over me.” 

“That just is how the giggles sometimes are I guess. Can’t help it.” 

From the looks of it, the mom and the toddler in the distance had luckily recovered from their little collision and they were both acting a lot calmer now, mirroring how I was feeling myself now. 

We stayed on our bench for another twenty minutes or so before I took the remaining ten minutes in the rather arbitrary time slot I set for ourselves to take some reference pictures for my drawing. Of course I took some pictures of Sam too. Not capturing such a beautiful person on camera in such an amazing setting is classified as a crime in multiple countries. And if it’s not, then it definitely should be. 

“Took all the pictures you wanted to take?” Sam asked as she handed me my bike helmet back. 

I nodded. “Yes, me happy.” 

“Then me happy too.” She laughed. “Plus, I got some cute Ami pics out of it as well. So that’s even better.” 

“When did you take those?” 

“When you weren’t looking. Like the pictures you took of me while you thought I wasn’t paying attention.” She smirked. 

I blushed at being caught. “Oh well… I guess you had a legal obligation too…” 

Sam squinted at me, forgetting she hadn't been part of my internal monologue from moments earlier but shrugged my comment away with a smile. “Silly kitten.”

I stuck out my tongue. “I know.” 

Subsequently we jumped back on our bikes and Sam guided me away from the lovely park we should revisit in the near future. 

“Where are we going now, Sam?” I drove up next to my girlfriend. 

Sam shrugged. “I was thinking of just following our bike infrastructure into the suburbs and seeing if we can find some nice views there. Sounds good to you?” 

“Sure thing.” I nodded and followed her lead as we found our way onto a bicycle highway that ran through the city. Running through neighbourhoods I had never been to but which were nonetheless rather beautiful places to live. With lots of green and streams of water to break up the urban development. 

About fifteen minutes later we really got into the more thinly populated part of town which was indicated by the fact that the houses got a lot bigger here too. It somewhat reminded me of where Hilda lived.

Sam had seen on her map that there was a big park not far away from our current location so we decided to follow the bicycle highway there. But before we could reach our destination we ran into two young cyclists who looked to be in a bit of a pickle. It were a boy and a girl around the age of 15 if I had to guess. One had parked his bike against a fence while they were both looking at the second bike which appeared to have a flat. 

Sam stopped right next to them. “Are you having some problems?” I stopped right behind them. 

“Yes, Miss.” The girl nodded, she looked a bit stressed. “I got a flat tire.” 

Her friend who appeared to be a lot calmer was working on the bike. “We’ve been trying to get the spare tire on it but it’s not really working out too well.” 

Sam nodded and then looked at me. I didn’t need her to say anything to know that she wanted to help them. I nodded as it was the right thing to do. 

“Let us help. I know how to do simple repairs on bikes. My dad taught me when I was a bit younger.” Sam got off her bike and also parked it against the fence, I did the same. 

“You don’t need to.” The boy replied. “We will get it eventually.” 

“Not the way you are doing so now at the very least.” Sam chuckled. “It’s really not a big problem. We have nothing to do anyway.” 

“Thank you.” The girl replied. “Thanks a lot.” 

“No problem.” I smiled. “My girlfriend will solve it in a jiffy.” 

The girl brightened up as we both watched how Sam started to help the boy with the spare tire. 

“Don’t the two of you have school today?” I asked. As far as I know there weren’t any school holidays today. Not that I could really comment on anything as we were kinda skipping class as well. 

“We are on a school trip.” The girl replied. “We had a day free to explore the city on our own.” 

“These don’t look like rental bikes though.” Sam looked at the other bike that was resting on the fence. 

“They are our own bikes.” The boy replied. “It’s a biking trip.” 

“Oh, that’s cool.” I smiled. “Good that you took a spare tire with you as well then.” 

The girl nodded at my comment. “My dad told me to bring one, just in case.” 

“Good advice there.” Sam replied as she fiddled with the tubing a bit. “Just give me a sec, it’s almost done.” 

The boy next to Sam just let her do the work as she seemed to be doing real well by herself. Although I could see that Sam was deliberately moving a bit slower so she could show the boy how to do it himself the next time. 

“And there you go.” Her smile grew even wider. “Only thing that’s left is to inflate the tire and then you are all set and done.” 

The girl next to me was initially happy at the progress but after a moment then started to hum nervously. 

“Don’t tell me…” I started. 

“I’m not sure if I have a pump…” 

“Oh no…”