While Sophia and Ari were busy in the couple’s mansion, the other two had finished their magic training with Eluna and went back to the princess’ room, where the duo decided to have a little chat for the time being.

“Haa…” Maya let out a little sigh as she got comfortable on the sofa there.

“Yeah…” Anna had the same reaction. “Teaching is kinda tiring, but it seems like it’ll be over soon.”

“I think so, too. There’s little we can teach her anymore. Polishing her skill is something Eluna has to do on her own.”

“Father also mentioned that it would be great if you could visit my school somewhere starting the end of the next week to introduce what we’re working on.”

“Sorry, not going to happen next week.” The cat-girl quickly shot her down.

“Eh, have you changed your mind about coming to the academy?”

“No, that’s not it. It’s just that the end of the next weeks is kinda bad timing-wise.”

“Is something happening there?”

“Kind of, I guess?” Maya tilted her head. “Well, I mostly just don’t want to start going to school on my birthday, that’s all.”

“Huh? Your birthday?” Anna looked confused.

“Yep. It’s on Friday next week. I’ll be turning-, a year older.” She changed her wording a little.

“I know what a birthday is… Why didn’t you say anything?!”

“It’s not really something you bring up yourself if there’s no reason, is there?”

“True… Still!” She got loud.

“I don’t like how you’re starting to sound so excited. Don’t get any weird ideas for a party or anything like that now.”

“Fine…” Anna actually sounded disappointed. “Well, I bet you already have planned something with Sophia, anyway, right?”

“Well, she also got all excited about my birthday being soon and said she wants to do something, but I have no idea what.”

“I bet she wants to surprise you with something!”

“I’m not so sure about that…” Maya sounded dubious. “Sophia’s physically incapable of keeping a secret like that. I doubt she’d even try to surprise me.”

“Ahaha… I also was never able to surprise Ari on her birthday… Tigers are very honest, after all.”

“Isn’t it just the two of you who can’t keep anything to yourself?”

“…” Anna decided to keep the answer to that to herself. She looked pretty awkward, though. “L-Let me at least get a gift for you! It will be as thanks for helping me out with Ari, too!”

“You don’t have to do that, either, but it’s also not something I’m going to stop you with…”

“Great!”

“Speaking of Ari~.” Maya found a more exciting topic to chat about.

“A-Ah…” The princess turned her head away as her face turned red.

“I like that reaction! How did it go? Did you manage to sleep in her room?”

“Y-Yes…” Her blush intensified even more. “Before that, I got embarrassed a ton of times already because Ari got really t-touchy-feely with me…”

“Oh?” Maya’s ears perked up. “I’m listening~.”

“I think it was an accident, but she was standing right in front of me and got even closer to me for some reason… T-Then, she tripped and dived with her face right into my c-chest… We also stayed like that for a while afterward because neither of us knew what to do…”

“Are there magnets in your chest and her face, or why are they drawn to each other so much?” The cat-girl had also noticed the pattern here.

“S-Shut up!”

“Okay.”

“Don’t!”

“You…” Maya rolled her eyes. “Well, sounds like fun, though~. Anything else that happened?”

“I-I gave her a lap-pillow…” Anna’s face was completely red by now.

“Ohh!”

“I have no idea how it happened, though… We just came out of the bath and relaxed a little on the sofa… The next thing I knew was that Ari was lying on my lap while taking a nap. I-I think I blanked out for a moment…”

“How was it?”

“AMAZING!” The princess was an honest girl, after all.

“I told you so~.”

“Y-Yes…” She gave her a nod. “It felt really nice!” Anna was smiling broadly. “It also was pretty e-embarrassing, though… While Ari was asleep, she had placed her tail on my shoulder, and it kept b-brushing against my cheek… Even more, she had also grabbed my tail and was hugging it the entire time during her nap…”

“Sounds like you had a great time~.”

“…” Anna decided to not address that. “W-Well, thanks to her sleeping, I was able to play with her hair a bit… M-Maybe, I also petted her a little bit…”

“My, what a pervert.”

“H-Hey!” She raised her voice, but she added nothing to rebut the cat’s claim. “A-Ari’s really soft…”

“Just where did you touch her?!”

“Only safe places!”

“Really?”

“YES!”

“Well, I guess I just have to believe you on that~.” With a teasing smile, Maya eventually let go of the topic, though. “So, back to you sleeping in her room~.”

“A-Ah…” She looked awkward again. “Yes, I went to her room yesterday, and we s-slept together in her bed…”

“And?”

“I had about three heart attacks…” Anna still couldn’t look at her.

“What?”

“We laid down, and I showed her my back as you told me, b-but…”

“But?”

“There was a… slight i-incident…”

“What happened?” Maya raised an eyebrow in interest.

“We laid on different sides in Ari’s bed, and… and my stupid body acted on its own because it didn’t want to lie on the wrong side…”

“Idiot…” The cat-girl let out a sigh.

“I’m just getting to the heart-attack part!”

“Ah, sorry, I called you an idiot too early. Please go on.”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Anna got loud.

“We’ll see about that.”

“Don’t doubt a princess so much!”

“Are you going to tell me, or…?”

“Uuh…” She gave up on complaining. “A-Ari actually hugged me…”

“Ohh, that’s good, isn’t it?” Maya didn’t see the issue.

“She w-went for it while I started turning around…” Her face actually was able to get redder. “She probably t-tried it before I started but couldn’t stop anymore… I-In the end, she tightly clung to my side while my arm was smooched between her b-breasts…”

“How did it feel?”

“Amaz- Ah.” Anna put her hands on her mouth.

“He.” The cat-girl was unable to hold back the grin that had formed on her face. “What exactly did feel amazing~?”

“Uuh…”

“It’s great, right? To be hugged by the girl you like. Especially when you’re sleeping together.”

“Y-Yes…” The princess eventually nodded. “I was super n-nervous, but I was never more c-comfortable in a bed before, either… I-I think I like it even better than h-hugging her myself…”

“Good for you~.”

“S-So embarrassing…”

“So, what exactly was the cause for those heart attacks?”

“I-It was the first time I touched Ari’s chest in such a way since I can remember, and… and t-the feeling was… It was…” She couldn’t finish her sentence.

“Even though you regularly shove your boobs into her face and literally almost suffocated her with them a couple of times already…?” Maya couldn’t help but stare at the two culprits while saying so.

“T-That’s something else!” Anna covered her chest in response. “I-I always cling to Ari a lot, but… but it’s mostly me touching her… Also, I mostly cling to her a-arms, for example… It’s just not comparable!”

“Okay, fair enough…”

“A-Also, when I turned around, our faces came super closer, and… and…”

“Wait, that sounds like… You actually kissed her? Wow, I’m impressed! Good job!”

“Eh?! No way!” The princess frantically waved her arms around while her face looked like it was set on fire. “T-There’s no way I could do t-that!”

“My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined.” Maya cited a line she randomly picked up from Sophia, and she couldn’t even look at Anna.

“H-Hey! I told you that I don’t want to risk my f-friendship with Ari! A k-kiss is impossible!”

“Why?” The cat-girl only tilted her head. “She was inching closer to you, and you were turning around. There’s no better template for an accident kiss other than that.”

“A-Ah.” Anna froze up after hearing this. “I-I could’ve done that… S-Still, my heart was beating so crazy, and my brain turned to mush… It would’ve been i-impossible, anyway…”

“Oh, so you aren’t against the idea itself?”

“W-Well, if I can g-get away with it… I-I mean, ki… kissing Ari sounds lovely, a-and if there’s a way without ruining my f-friendship with her, then…” Her voice started to trail off.

“My, what a pervert we have here.”

“W-Why?!” She got loud.

“Sorry, just messing around a bit while I’m trying to find a way to use this to our advantage.”

“H-How…?”

“What did your jaguar do when all that happened?”

“Ari… Ari was petrified… I mean, I bet it’s surprising that you suddenly have a f-face right in front of you, so close that even your noses t-touched while you were trying to get comfortable…”

“Your noses touched…?”

“Y-Yes… I lightly brushed a-against hers with m-mine…”

“You really should’ve kissed her…”

“I-I’m sorry, okay?! The feeling of her n-nose was the last thing I noticed before my brain shut down afterward… I only noticed what was going on five minutes later again!”

“Wow, you’re almost half as useless as the past Sophia when it comes to that…” Maya’s current girlfriend’s quite capable most of the time, but the early Sophia caused her a lot of trouble.

“Urgh…”

“Did Ari let go of you afterward? Did you do anything once your brain was working again?”

“I-I eventually turned my face away from her because it felt so hot that I thought it would melt any second, b-but we stayed in that p-position for quite a while…”

“Good for you~.”

“Y-Yes… Ari probably didn’t know what to d-do, either…” Anna paused for a moment. “I bet she was c-confused and didn’t know what to do… That’s why we s-stayed like that for a bit…”

“Hmm…” The cat-girl tilted her head once more. “She also the one who initiated the hug, though. Sure, it turned out to be different that she’d planned, but she still started it.”

“W-Well… I always hug her, too… Maybe she thinks it’s normal when you have a sleepover…”

“You mean you unconsciously shove your boobs into her face, don’t you? You always hug her when you’re already sleeping, right?”

“D-Don’t word it like that!”

“Am I wrong…?”

“T-That doesn’t matter!” Anna got louder again. “S-Still, yes… I unconsciously c-cling to her after I fall asleep.”

“And yet, she did it while both of you were fully awake. That means it was a conscious decision by her. Also, she didn’t even stop after the situation became far more intimate than both of you could’ve imagined. That’s a big difference in my mind, and I think that has to mean something.”

“T-There’s still the possibility that she got used to my clinging and… Ari also gets cold suuuper easily… I bet she thought it’s normal to hug each other while sleeping because of me and tried to get closer to be warmer! I’m sure of that…” She looked like she took some damage from her own words.

“Wow…” Maya needed a moment. “The next time the two of you share a bed again, forget about letting her take the lead… Hug her the moment the two of you lie down. Do the same as the jaguar did and study her reaction. After that, we can talk again. You’re too dense for me to deal with right now…” Maya needed a break.

“E-Ehh…?”

“Just do it. That’s my homework for you. The submission of it is due tomorrow.”

“B-But…”

“No buts!”

“F-Fine…” The princess knew that she had no chance of winning against the cat-girl. “I’ll try my b-best!”

“Good. Okay, how about we go to my place now?” Maya changed the topic. “I want to see what our girls are doing.”

“Gladly!” Her face lit up. “I wanna see Ari!”

“Just confess already…” While mumbling those words, she got up from the sofa, and the two left Anna’s room to go over to the couple’s mansion.