Sleepover at Penelope's (Patreon)

Author's Note: This one's a bit different tonally from the usual fare. The commissioner wanted a very comedic and off-beat tone to the story, which I hope I've represented well! It's still got that usual HikerAngel flair snuck in there, so enjoy! (Also, the story uses the commissioner's OCs so that's why the names might be a bit unusual!)

Written by HikerAngel

Commissioned by IvoryKeys.

It was another slow day at the Ship, Shop, n' Buy store. 

It wasn’t just any slow day, it was the worst kind of slow day. It wasn’t so busy as to where there was no time to talk and the employees were kept thoroughly distracted by a constant influx of customers, but it also wasn’t slow enough where the employees could exchange intimate banter among themselves.

This was the kind of slow where as soon as a customer left, another one entered the store within five seconds, and there was never a point in time where there wasn’t at least one motherfucker in the store. Never overwhelmed enough to be exciting, and never slow enough to get deep into a conversation—this was hell on earth for Virtuo.

Penelope, the only other person at the register station with him, was clearly trying to tell him something she thought was important. Too bad she’d get about two and a half words in every time before being interrupted by a nagging customer. Virtuo would then watch on repeat as she’d put on a faux cheery demeanor for the customer, answer their obvious question or ring them up for something, and then send them on their way; over and over again.

Virtuo didn’t want to be the one to try and reestablish the conversation either. Penelope was this super cute blonde with thick glasses and an even thicker bowtie she chose as an add-on for her work outfit. And what an outfit! Sure, it was intentionally stuffy, as to not draw too much attention, but regardless, her feminine curves and perky breasts were hard to hide. 

His stupid male brain could barely form a proper sentence in front of such perfection, much less hold an in-depth conversation about whatever was on her mind. Luckily for Virtuo, after an eternity of the dreaded “slow day,” things actually began to die down and it looked as if Penelope could finally tell him what she had been itching to say.

Once the last customer left the store, a sort-of dorky, mischievous grin appeared on Penelope’s face as she turned to face he coworker. Her demeanor loosened once she began to talk, showing that the goofy expression from earlier was more to be humorous than anything.

“Finally! I can tell you what I’ve been thinking about for the past six hours!” Penelope said, slightly adjusting the glasses on her face now that she had time to breathe.

“Well, alright, let’s hear it then!” Virtuo responded in a jovial tone, hiding his nervousness behind some quick-witted humor. “The next guy ready to ask you a million questions about cigarettes could phase through the damn ceiling any second now!”

She smiled at his remark, before finally revealing what she wanted to say. “I’ll make this quick!” She reached into the book bag she left stashed under the counter. Employees at Ship, Shop, n' Buy were supposed to leave their personal belongings at their lockers, but Penelope knew that to make the reveal that much greater, she’d have to show it to Virtuo’s face.

“Ta-da! A working VHS copy of Golf Rumors™!” (Penelope verbally added the ™ at the end to be extra silly.)

Virtuo looked a little confused. “Golf Rumors? What’s that?” He scratched his head. VHS collection was more of Penelope’s hobby that Virtuo entertained whenever he could. “I mean, the name does sound familiar…” He added, lying through his teeth.

“Well, you know what Fruity Fables is, right?” She said, trying to jog his memory. Luckily for him, Fruity Fables was the shit when he was a kid, and he’d frequently quote it in situations where no one would get the reference.

“Well, of course I know what that show is, it was basically my childhood wrapped in thinly-veiled Judeo-Christian propaganda!”

She smiled at that response, a perfect segway into her next sentence. “Well, Golf Rumors is basically a Fruity Fables ripoff. And it makes the not-so-subtle themes of Fruity Fables look like Shakespeare’s social commentary in comparison.”

It was as if Penelope had explicitly picked Golf Rumors because she knew it would be something that would intrigue Virtuo—which intrigue him it did. “Lemme guess, the show features old guys golfing and talking about scientology?” He said, half joking.

“Well, it’s more like poorly CGI’d golf balls arguing over which golf course hole is best for them.” Penelope said, taking a useless glance at the box so her eyes had something to do. “It’s basically telling children to put blind faith into a greater power, like the golfers.”

“Jesus, that does sound terrible, and a lot of fun.” Virtuo felt like he was getting too excited, so he then did what he always does when a situation like this happened, he’d try to end it. “Too bad I don’t have any way to watch it, huh.” He then attempted to completely shut down the conversation by checking for items that may need to be put back on the shelf.

Little did he know, Virtuo had just fallen right into Penelope’s trap.

“Well lucky for both of us, I’ve got a pristine-condition VHS player back at my place! W-we could have a sleepover!” She felt like she was pushing her luck with that second sentence, hence the stutter. But luckily, she was holding all the metaphorical cards in her hand (as well as a copy of Golf Rumors™). She had her nervous coworker cornered at the register, and her smile was gradually becoming more smug as the silence grew between them.

Meanwhile, a ferocious battle was brewing within Virtuo. He felt like saying no would be a really bad idea, but he also didn’t want to screw up this chance with Penelope. He wasn’t stupid, he could tell she clearly liked him, but the real fear came from this nagging feeling in his head that he wasn’t good enough for her. There she was: the cutest girl he’d ever seen; with a sexy bod, interesting hobbies and a personality that never got annoying to him. What could he offer? His love of YouTube poops?

But an optimistic reminder popped into his head: You both like so-bad-it’s-good movies and at least ironically like Fruity Fables, just rely on that for the rest of the night!

And so, Virtuo braved the negative intrusive thoughts and simple nodded his head nervously. He was now off the deep end, and like all nervous fools who can’t accept their fate, he was still trying to claw his was back up to the top.

“Well, I’d probably end up showing a little late, Penelope… After all, I’ve never really slept over at someone else’s house and I’d probably overpack.” That second part was a lie, and yet it seemed as though Penelope was prepared for such a response.

“That’s fine, I got an extra toothbrush at my house, and my brother’s clothes will definitely fit you if need be.”

Virtuo was running out of excuses, she was shooting them down left and right. He had to cave in now. “Wow… you really thought of everything, huh?”

The way he worded it caused Penelope to look shocked for a brief second, as if she thought in that brief moment that Virtuo was on to her plan. He was on to her, but he would never admit it right now, just hint at it.

“What? You thought I planned for a scenario where you said that?” Penelope said, hiding her intentions well. “I’m just a quick thinker and rather resourceful is all!”

If Virtuo wasn’t already afraid of pushing it, he would have pursued her about that farther. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly and faced forward at the register. What followed was the most uncomfortable and awkward hour of silence either of them had ever experienced. Very few customers entered, and neither of them knew how to continue their conversation after that. Forget the slow day, the empty day had now become Virtuo’s least favorite type of day for this entire hour. He was sure he blew it.

After what felt like an eternity, Virtuo checked his phone. 8:00 on the dot, and time to leave. He turned to face Penelope and silently waved goodbye with a smile that he felt was rather awkward. Penelope at least silently returned his gesture.

After retrieving his stuff from the employee break room, he attempted to avoid eye contact with Penelope without it seeming obvious to her. She still spoke up as he walked by.

“You’re still coming over, right?”

He then stopped in his tracks and turned to face her. He was more than a little nervous and managed to blurt out an “Uh… yes?” Afterward, he just sort of stared at Penelope, awaiting her response.

“Um, g-good!” she said, also a little nervous and awkward from Virtuo’s lack-of-confidence response. “I’ll text you the address once I’m off! See you at 9:30!” That left Virtuo 30 minutes to get home, 30 minutes to do nothing at home, and 30 minutes to scramble over to her house.

As he walked home, he debated whether or not he should actually show up. He didn’t want to upset her, but he felt that he could potentially upset her more if he bothered to make it over there. He feared it would just be more of that dreaded awkward silence between them.

As soon as he made it home, he dropped on to his bed and breathed a long, heavy sigh whilst emptily gazing at the ceiling. It wasn’t even a particularly interesting ceiling.

“Oh good, you’re here, give me a dollar.” It was unmistakably Forté’s voice, Virtuo’s older brother’s girlfriend. Virtuo lifted his heavy head up to view her standing in the doorway. He just blinked twice in confusion, wondering why she didn’t just ask his brother.

“Look, your brother’s not here and I need a dollar so I can go get a slushy.” She said, somehow reading his mind. She then continued to ask rudely, so Virtuo just put his head back down on the bed.

“What, are you depressed or something?” Forté said, walking up to the bed and peering over Virtuo’s prone body. He closed his eyes and let out a muffled moan of agony.

“Look, a girl at my work asked me to go over to her house for a sleepover, and I’m not sure if I should. I feel… inadequate compared to her.”

Forté blinked slowly, then simply said. “Well, she invited you, not the other way around. Any feeling of inadequacy you have will be felt by her ten times over if you don’t show up.” She then left Virtuo’s room without saying another word.

Forté was right. At least, Virtuo thought that. The last thing he wanted was to make Penelope feel what he was feeling right now. And what if Penelope saw him the same way as he saw her? He pushed the thought to the back of his mind as soon as he thought it, but he never let it leave his head.

He noticed he had received a text message from Penelope. Before this, they had mostly exchanged memes back and forth between each other as friends (and Virtuo’s were funnier), but now, he almost felt as if they were on the next stage of friendship. And maybe even beyond that…

He changed into some more casual clothes consisting of shorts and a lightweight athletic shirt. He didn’t look dressed for a date, but his brain sure was stressed like he was. Without a word, he left his house and set upon the path towards Penelope’s house.

The walk was long, each second stretching longer than the last as the tension increased with every step. It didn’t help that Virtuo got himself lost on the way there, nearly making him late. Fortunately, he arrived exactly on time. He seemed to really have some strange not-exactly-luck today.

He stood at the doorstep. This was his last chance to turn back. Something he didn’t really want to do, but he felt that he still had the option at this time. Just then, the door swung open before he could even contemplate knocking at it. At the other side was Penelope, adorned in cute, long-sleeve blue pajamas that were rather baggy on her. Her hair was no longer tied up into the large ponytail she normally had, instead letting it naturally fall down her back near her lower waist. Despite once again donning rather unconventional clothing, Vitruo’s eyes drank up Penelope’s perfect body. Even without putting in any effort she was mind-bogglingly stunning.

He hadn’t even noticed the devilishly wide smile on her face as Penelope zoomed forward, bringing Virtuo into a spine-straighteningly strong hug. He was caught off-guard by how tight this embrace was; it was far from the first hug either of them has shared with one another, but this one felt different… more personal. Penelope had buried her face in-between Virtuo’s neck and chest, lightly rubbing her cheek against his shirt. He caught a scent of the bubbly shampoo she must have put in her hair, it smelled lovely, immediately putting him at a sense of ease.

“Part of my brain thought you wouldn’t come, Tuo,” she said, still hugging him. Her voice was partially muffled by half of her mouth being still buried in his chest. “I’m so glad that part of my brain was wrong.”


Virtuo wasn’t sure how to respond, he tried to change the subject slightly. “Well, it’s good to see you too, but I-I didn’t even knock… Were you—were you waiting for me on the other side of the door?”

Penelope broke the extra long hug and looked up at Virtuo with a sly smile. “Maaaaybe…” She replied in an adorable tone, putting a perfect finger up to her cheek and twisting into it. “Come on inside! I’ll get the movie started for us!”

Penelope was the one making things happen, pushing things forward. At this point Virtuo was just along for the ride. Part of him didn’t mind one bit, but another part of him felt like things were going well—too well…

She opened the door wide and gestured for Virtuo to enter. “Well, I guess no 'ladies first’ then, huh?” Virtuo quipped nervously, which prompted a playful punch from Penelope as he entered into her humble abode.

The house was quiet and most of the lights were dim. It seemed as though there was no one else in the house other than the two of them. Virtuo briefly entertained the idea of him being led to his murder, but that was a bit too absurd for him to really buy into. Penelope then grabbed him by the hand and he was forced to follow her downstairs into the basement. The air down there was cold and musty, but it had a rather comfy and almost nostalgic atmosphere to it. The area itself was wide, but empty. The only things of note were a couch and an old CRT TV setup in the middle of the place, with several steel support beams dotted around it.

“And here it is! My, uh, man cave? I guess?” Penelope said, walking into the middle of the space with her hands stretched out wide in the air, like she was showing off her secret lab or something. She then turned her head to face Virtuo with a rather sultry grin. “A perfect place for two people to do whatever they want, unbothered.”

Virtuo chose to ignore the greater implications of that last part.

They both walked around the small couch on opposite sides and sat down at the exact same time, Penelope having her legs fly up exaggeratedly as she placed her rear in the cushions. She then reached into the crack of the couch and retrieved the remote from its hiding spot. “Alright, Tuo, you ready for one hell of a ride?” She said, over-hyping the film on purpose as she aimed the remote at the TV.

“I don’t really have a choice, do I?” Virtuo responded, a more casual tone in his voice to hide the fact that he meant every word.

She pushed the red button on the tip of the remote and the TV sparked on, lighting up the entire basement with its cozy glow. Then, loud static erupted from the box, causing Virtuo to wince in surprise from the noise.

“Oh dang it all!” Penelope said rather softly to herself as she frantically searched around for something. “I forgot to actually put the darn tape in the VCR!”

The disgruntled blonde then got up and walked over to the far end of the basement where she had discarded her backpack in a corner. She bent over, giving Virtuo a good look at her butt while she did it. He averted his eyes to be polite, but he could have sworn that as he did, Penelope turned her head to check if he was staring at her. And he could have also sworn he saw her frown a little when she saw his head turn.

“Aha! Here it is!” She then produced the VHS tape from her bag and held it up high for the wide world to see like she had just obtained an item in a video game. She then briskly walked over to the old TV still blaring static. Making haste as her bare feet were no doubt freezing from the cold, concrete ground of the basement. She hurriedly shoved the black box into the bigger black box before lunging backwards butt-first without looking so she wouldn’t have to spend another second on the floor.

Intentionally or not, she miscalculated her Backwards Long Jump and ended up falling squarely into Virtuo’s lap. A shocked “oof” escaped his mouth as her surprisingly heavy body was thrust onto him. Upon realizing what just happened, Penelope quickly scurried off of Virtuo’s lap and scooted over to the other side of the couch, clearly a little embarrassed which was evident by the redness forming in her cheeks. Virtuo’s face reflected Penelope’s in expression as they both just stared at each other wide-eyed for an uncomfortably long amount of time. Neither of them were sure of what to say as they sat silently, unblinking.

Luckily for them, Golf Rumors™ would be the one to save the day as its intro blasted on the TV and their gazes were both instantly drawn to it. Without saying a word, both of them subconsciously agreed to move past what had just happened and focus on the “real” reason they decided to have a sleepover.

Penelope wasn’t kidding, this movie was crappy. Even though it was made in 2003, the CGI looked like it was from a decade prior. And even to Virtuo’s untrained eyes, he could notice rendering errors cropping up everywhere. They both began to enjoy themselves as they went about riffing on the movie to no end, Virtuo even being the one to break the silence and take the first stab at it.

It was here that Virtuo really began to appreciate how cute Penelope’s honest laugh was. Girls would often have two laughs, a polite one, and an ugly one. The polite one they’d use in front of coworkers or their boss or even some loser hitting on them at the bar. But the ugly laugh was honest, real and dirty; it could even include one or two snorts. Such a laugh was usually reserved for family, or loved ones; and Virtuo was sure he wasn’t family. Penelope’s true laugh had her slapping the arm of the couch while thrusting her head back and releasing three or four heavy cackles complemented by her shoulders bouncing in sync. She’d then follow up with a happy sigh, followed by her brushing her hair out of her face and readjusting her glasses. This happened about four or five times during the movie, and Virtuo found each one more adorable than the last.

About halfway through the film, Penelope paused the tape in a hurry, saying she had to use the bathroom and running upstairs with speed, breathing heavily in tandem with each step as a way to remark how cold the floor still was.

And so, Virtuo was left alone for a moment with his thoughts. He almost wanted to chastise his past self for saying that this wasn’t going to end well. They were only halfway through the movie any he could already tell this was going to be a moment he’d reminisce on for the rest of his life.

Already feeling a bit bored, he walked over to view some of Penelope’s other tapes that she had on a small shelf underneath the TV. He was shocked to see that she had the complete fruity fables volume 1-7 boxset, even a copy of his favorite film in the world: Scott Wozniak vs the Universe. But there was one tape that intrigued him more than any other. Located at the very bottom right of the shelf, its cover was a default one, meaning she must have burned the footage onto the tape herself. He pulled the black brick out of the sleeve to reveal the title of the video, which were also the only words on the whole tape.

“XXX_MAN_ON_BOTTOM.”

Virtuo’s eyes widened. He never would have pegged Penelope as a girl who’d be into femdom. It was always a secret fetish of his, to be topped by a girl, but he was more concerned with just finding a girl for himself to begin with, and he really didn’t want to blow it with Penelope by snooping around in her stuff. He longingly looked at the tape, his brain racking to think of another possible meaning for the title other than the blatantly obvious one. She came from a Christian household, there was no way her parents would let her have something like this, right?

“I can’t believe it,” he snickered to himself. “Penelope is a bit freeeeakaaay!” He said that last part in a strange accent even he didn’t recognize. But before he could think about it more, he heard the toilet flush upstairs.

Virtuo panicked. He quickly put the tape back into its sleeve and returned it to its spot on the shelf in such a way that it wouldn’t look tampered with. He then sporadically ran back to the small couch where he tried his best to imitate the previous posture he had been sitting in when Penelope left. Realizing how unconvincing he’d look if he was just sitting there doing nothing, he reached into his pocket and whipped out his phone. He hastily unlocked his phone and tapped on an app without looking as he heard Penelope stomping down the basement stairs. Once she reached the bottom of the stairwell, he turned to look at her with his best casual face.

“Sorry about the wait!” She said, clasping her hands together as she walked on her tiptoes back to the couch. “What were you up to when I was gone?” She said that with such a tone of voice like she already knew what it was. Regardless, Virtuo kept calm in the face of danger.

“Oh, y’know. I was just sitting here playing some apps on my phone.”

Penelope then peered over his device as he continued to look at her. “Calculator?” she said with a singular raised brow. Virtuo then looked at his phone in embarrassment as her statement was true; he did in fact have the calculator app open.

She rolled her eyes with a smile. “It’s okay, Virtuo. I wouldn’t care if you were looking at porn on your phone anyway!”

He then put the phone away and attempted to defend himself. “I-I wasn’t looking at porn, I swear!” Technically, he was telling the truth. He had looked at something that might have contained porn, but he wasn’t actually sure.

She looked him up and down, observing his nervous posture, before rolling her eyes slowly “Suuuure you weren’t. Tell me, how big were her boobs?”

“I w-I wasn’t looking at porn, Penelope!” He scooted away defensively to the end of the couch. Penelope then got on her hands and knees, ready to follow him.

“Okay, so you weren’t looking at porn, Tuo…” She said, making bedroom eyes at him as she slowly crawled towards him on the sofa like a cat eying her prey. “But tell me, if you, hypothetically, were looking at porn, what genre would it be?”

Virtuo was frozen in place, breathing heavily. He wasn’t sure how to exactly respond to a question like that. Penelope knew this, and probed him further, enticing his next move.

“Could it perhaps have been something you’d be embarrassed to show me?” Her face was closing in on his, Virtuo had nowhere else to run. “Something that’d really ruin your male ego if I found out? Or perhaps it’s something you secretly want me to know, is that it?”

Her finger then lifted up and pointed in a direction, guiding his eyes to the North-east corner of the basement. There, a security camera for burglars was parked, swerving left and right periodically. When he turned his gaze back to Penelope, she had her phone in her hand and a smug look on her face. The phone was showing direct video feed from the camera.

Virtuo was practically hyperventilating at this point. He was a stuttering mess. After being caught red-handed, all he thought he could do was apologize frantically. “I-I’m s-sorry, Penelope. I don’t think I’m cut out for this kind of—“

Before he could finish, Penelope put a single finger up to his mouth, silencing him with just three simple taps to his lips.

“It’s okay, Tuo. I didn’t think I’d be cut out for this either… then I found you” She then gently placed a soft kiss on his cheek. His breathing began to taper as the kiss made him feel more comfortable. Regardless, he was still red as a beet, and Penelope giggled at the sight of how much of a nervous wreck he had become.

“Aww… Tuo! Look at you! You’re already so hot and bothered and we haven’t even gotten to the fun part yet!”

This was all happening so fast. Virtuo could barely process his thoughts. One thing he knew for sure was that this was certainly the turning point in their friendship. Then, she broke away from him, curling up in a ball with a large smile on her face as she watched him intently. They stared at each other once again, but this time the experience was different. Tears almost welled in Virtuo’s eyes as he gazed upon Penelope’s adorable form.

There was no Golf Rumors™ to break this silence. Instead, Penelope decided to be the one to do that. “I take it the movie experience is kinda ruined now, huh?”

Virtuo simply nodded, adjusting the glasses on his own face after they had since gone neglected from Penelope’s kiss occupying his mind.

Upon seeing his nod, she got up from the couch and slowly walked over to the television. Ignoring the cold floor to give him a good view of her backside as she bent down to eject the video from the VHS player. After retrieving the tape, she then stopped moving, still facing away from Virtuo so he couldn’t see what she was planning.

“Hey Virtuo.”

“Yeah?”

Without warning, Penelope then lunged herself backwards at Virtuo, this time intentionally landing in his lap and wrapping her legs and arms around his in reverse. He was unusually pinned yet completely at her mercy. Out of instinct, he attempted to struggle, but she wouldn’t budge. Her body was like a stone golem to him. But he didn’t mind one bit, he was ready to let the girl of his dreams take him on a journey.

She began to grind against his crotch with her ass, letting out a soft moan as she felt his erection rubbing up against her. Virtuo was ready to lose it. It was as if everything he ever wanted was literally thrust at him within a second. She had him completely under her control. Penelope could ask him to go kill a man right now and he’d do it without question. Though, given her sudden superior strength, he questioned if he’d really be the best candidate for the job.

But there was one thing he was struggling to do: keep himself from climaxing early. He was already edging, and this wasn’t exactly a scenario where it would be easy to think about potential turn-offs. Then, all of the sudden she stopped grinding. Penelope could tell he was begging for release, his strained breathing made that quite clear to a smart girl like her.

“Don’t cum for me yet, boy.” Penelope said in an angelic tone. “I want to be able to enjoy this as much as you do, but evolution had to give you a refractory period.”

She then loosened herself from Virtuo and stood up tall with her hands on her hips, leering down over him. Penelope was blocking the light from the TV, her shadow casting a superior silhouette over Virtuo’s scrunched body. She then grabbed him by the legs and effortlessly rearranged him so that he was laying flat on the couch, his erection ready to burst through his pants.

“Aww, what’s wrong? You want release?” She said with condescension, looking at his crotch as he nodded slightly. “Well, I don’t know, I might want to keep you like this, all weak and desperate…”

“Please… finish me off… I beg of you…” Virtuo said in-between heavy breaths. He needed the euphoric relief he was being deprived of.

She tapped her cheek with a finger in mock thought as she postulated sarcastically. “I dunno… I wasn’t really feeling that one.” She then bent down to face him with a wicked grin. “But you’re on the right track, I do like it when they beg.”

“Please… PLEASE!” Virtuo felt the ambrosia leaving his body. “Please, I’ll do anything! Just let me have release!”

“Anything?”

“YES!”

“Well, then I want you to lay there and be a good little boy while I finish you off, ok?”

He didn’t even properly respond, but Penelope was committed. She put her leg up and over him, laying on top of him and squeezing his erection through his pants with her painfully thick thighs. She nuzzled his chest as her legs continued to stimulate him to completion, leaving a large stain visible from his pants.

She pulled herself up to his ear and whispered “good boy.”

Just then, Penelope felt something wet hit her pajama bottoms. Virtuo had came a second time, and some of it exited his pants and fell on hers.

“Oh golly, I really did a number on you, didn’t I, Tuo?” She said, breaking character for a brief second. “…But at least I know you and I both share something we both enjoy, huh?”

“Yeah…” Virtuo responded, still regaining his breath. “I guess we do.”

Penelope then put her hands on either side of his head and held her face a few inches above his. They spent a few moments breathing into each other before Penelope took one of her hands and began to rub it through his hair.

“I’ve always wanted to do this.” She said, grabbing a black clump of it and feeling its texture in her tiny palm. “But there was never a good opportunity to do something like this until now…”

Wordlessly, Virtuo imitated Penelope’s action, rubbing his hand through her blonde hair. Feeling it’s length and its softness in his fingertips. They took the next minute or so to just feel each other over. Virtuo rubbed one of Penelope’s breasts while she reached into his pants and aimlessly groped at his thigh. 

Penelope bent her head down and kissed Virtuo, then broke it. She then patted him on the head twice afterwards.

“Goodness, has anyone ever told you how cute you are, Tuo?” Penelope said, rubbing her fingers along his rough, unshaven chin. “I really struck gold with you, didn’t I?”

“You struck gold?” Virtuo responded in semi-surprise. “I was saying that in my head ever since we became friends all those years ago!”

Penelope blinked twice in mock surprise. “You’ve liked me all this time?” She said in a sarcastic, valley-girl-inspired accent. “I never would have guessed!”

She got up off of Virtuo, shooting him a wink. “If there’s one thing I figured out pretty early on about you, Tuo. It’s that you’re not the best at hiding your true feelings.” She then put her hand out to help him up off of the couch. He accepted her hand. “That—that’s not a bad thing by the way…” Penelope stated, feeling she had to clarify. “I’m proud of you for eventually mustering up the courage to do something like this, even if I’ve been planning it out for longer than I care to admit…”

“Well, you’re welcome.” Virtuo responded cheekily. They then shared a hug with each other, the tightest and longest hug they could muster, before they both silently agreed to walk upstairs to Penelope’s room and get some sleep.

“Shouldn’t we be walking more quietly? We don’t want to wake your brother, right?” Virtuo said nervously in response to him and Penelope running up the cold stairs loudly.

“Oh, uh, I don’t actually have a brother, Virtuo…” Penelope said, tensing herself for the verbal backlash she might receive from Virtuo. But he was more confused than anything.

“Wait, if you don’t have a brother, then why do you have clothes that fit m—“ Then, it all clicked inside his head. “Oh my goodness, you really went out of your way to buy clothes that fit me, didn’t you?”

Penelope then ‘booped’ Virtuo on the nose with her finger. “A good owner buys things for her pet in advance, why should I be any different?”

Virtuo just shook his head and chuckled to himself. “Hoo boy, this ought to be a fun relationship!”

“Well, I promise we’ll have a lot to talk about. After all, did you really think that the particular VHS tape you picked up was the only one?” She continued to lead an intrigued Virtuo to her room on the second floor. “After all, some of these tapes are rather... magical, I'd say."

"M-magical? Like, atmospheric?" he responded, hypothetical sweat pouring down his face at the use of the word.

"Magical like... magical." She clarified with a heady voice. "Let's just say that one tape you found isn't just an instructional video."

"W-what do you mean?" Virtuo could feel his face getting hotter.

Her face grew closer to his with every passing moment.

"It let my fantasy of being a dominatrix come to pass. How else do you think I get so freakishly strong when we're both aroused?"

In an instant, everything clicked. And yet, Virtuo was left with more questions than he initially suspected. "Wait, so magic is real? You're just gonna drop that bombshell on me like that?"

"Yes I am," Penelope responded, that husky, domineering voice of hers returning. "And you're going to be a good boy and comprehend it all for me right now, understand?"

He nodded his head the millisecond after she said that. Even if the stuff in store was something he didn’t quite care for, he’d still do it just to make her happy. Anything for her.

“Good boy. Now, come on then, we’re almost to my room…”

The second set of stairs was cleared in a breeze as the couple made their way to the end of the hallway where her bedroom sat.

“Spare toothbrush, spare clothes… It’s too bad I’ve only got a bed big enough for one person…” Penelope said with a coy smile, turning her head slightly to face Virtuo as they entered her room.

“Shouldn’t be a problem, if today has shown me anything, I make a pretty good mattress.”