Well, gosh. This means that she wakes up in his arms. She decides to celebrate this by gazing fondly at him.

He wakes with a sleepy yawn, opens his eyes, and grins at her.

"Good morning!"

She yips a cheerful good morning, boops him in the nose, and then hops out of bed to gleefully scamper around the room. Whee!

He flops on the bed and giggles helplessly.

Scamper scamper scamper! She hops up onto the bed again, boops him on the cheek, then leaps over him and back onto the floor for more scampering. Whee!

"I don't know where you get the energy to be that adorable this early in the morning."

She yips happily, finishes her lap around the bed, then hops back up to prop her head on her paws and look at him with her hazel eyes. Her tail swishes behind her. Then she gives another little yip and leaps forward to boop his nose.

He disentangles a hand from the blankets to pet her.

Well, his hand may get an affectionate nuzzle, then! Nuzzle nuzzle.

He laughs and kisses the top of her head.

She yips happily and goes back to nuzzling his hand.

Then her ears perk up and she blinks as if remembering something. She gives his hand a little goodbye boop, then hops down to her letters to say something.

You can call me Astea, she says, a little shyly.

Oh gosh, a goodbye boop! That is incredibly precious!!

He watches her tapping the letters, then grins. "Astea. That's very pretty."

Happy yip.

Thanks. I like my full name too, but it's... long?

"It is that."

Amused tail swish.

Except it's weird if people use my nickname when I don't know them well, so. I make people run the name gauntlet. ... I'm babbling.

"Babbling under these conditions is honestly impressive!"

Kind of, yeah! Even if what I'm saying is silly I kind of want to say it. I promise I'm much better at babbling when I'm actually able to talk.

"I believe you completely."

Happy yip!

She considers, then, because she's already down here: ... Can I have a thing to nibble?

"A food sort of thing, or...?"

Like a chew toy. I've been suppressing the urge to nibble things.

"Well, let's see what I've got..."

He trails off, goes quiet for a few seconds, and then produces a length of braided rope. The rope is thick and soft and white, arranged into a complicated twisting pattern with a loop at each end.

"I apologize if you're too dignified to chew on last year's curtain stays. It was the first thing I thought of."

It will do nicely, thank you!

She gives a little cheerful yip, then hops back onto the bed to snuggle him and nibble upon the rope, tail swishing happily.

Awwwwwwww pet pet pet.

He may have an affectionate nose for his trouble, along with a matching gaze! Then it's back to nibbling upon her new toy. Nibble nibble.