The group continued their hair-styling afternoon in the couple’s mansion. Maya had found new a style and was currently playing around with Ari’s hair. At the same time, the tigers experimented with Sophia’s invention to straighten their unruly hair. Once they made some progress with it, the two tested it out on Anna’s hair, and it looked quite promising. It still took longer and more tries than the blonde had hoped to, but her straightening iron was able to handle the princess’ hair.

“Aaand we’re done~.” Roughly half an hour had passed since Sophia started straightening out Anna’s bang with her newest prototype, and she had just finished. “Let’s try your ponytail once I improve the iron some more, okay? I feel like it needs a lot more power before we should even think about giving that a try.” She pointed at the massive sea of fluff on her back.

“That’s more than fine!” The princess sounded extremely grateful and happy while looking at herself in the mirror. “I actually like the twintails I wear during fall and winter, but it’s such a pain because my bangs were always all over the place. Okay, the twintails itself were also way too fluffy, but it might help a little with that, too.”

“I promise nothing, but we’re definitely going to try!” The blonde raised her fist. “I do like unruly and fluffy hair, but what we have to go through is way too much! I’ll swear to perfect this hair straightening iron!”

“I like the sound of that!”

“You two are way too overdramatic.” Maya rolled her eyes listening to their complaints while she continued to play with Ari's hair.

“I think so, too.” The jaguar had a similar reaction.

“Shut up!” The tigers glared at the two with perfectly smooth and straight hair.

“Ahaha…” The duo only let out a dry laugh.

“Well, I am happy that it seems to be working for you.” The jaguar looked at her princess with a curious expression. “I was a fan of the fluffy twintails, too, so this is a good development.”

“Thank you- Ohh!” Anna looked at the black-haired girl and instantly noticed that something was different from before. Maya had finished playing with the jaguar’s hair, and, just as Sophia, she had ended up braiding a part of it. She was still wearing most of her hair open to not obscure or destroy the rosette pattern. However, on both sides of her head, at eye level below her ears, she had two thinner braids going to the back of her head. There, the cat-girl had braided both ends together and secured everything with an orange ribbon. “It’s adorable!”

"Let me finish first before you start praising her! She'll be even cuter once I'm done!" Maya raised her voice before she increased her pace. "Okay, that should do!"

“R-Really…?” With a bashful smile, Ari got next to the princess in front of the mirror to get a better look at her own hair. “Oh, it really does look good. Thank you so much for that, Maya. I really like it! It’s new, it keeps everything together somehow, but my pattern hasn’t turned into a spotty mess.”

“Maya’s the queen of braids~.” Sophia was happy with her own that the cat-girl had braided for her, after all.

“Ehehe.” The queen in question enjoyed the praise. “Braids are great!”

“Sure are!” The blonde agreed before looking at everyone. “Wait a moment…”

“What’s wrong?” The jaguar tilted her head.

“Maya now has twintails, while Anna wants to change to them soon because they fit her fluffier hair better. Both of them also bought white tights for a matching style in the upcoming academy uniforms… At the same time, while kinda different right now, Ari and I are now killing it with our new braids. On top of that, we’re also going to wear the same type of black tights soon…” She paused for a moment. “Did we swap partners, and someone forgot to tell me…?”

“Ah.” The other three had the same reaction once they noticed it.

“Well…” Maya paused for a moment while looking at the blonde. “While playing with your hair, I really got into braids, and so I just did what I love about your new hair to Ari, too, which ended up looking amazing. You’re the one who consciously decided to get the same tights as her.”

“It’s not like there are that many choices with tights… and black’s a safe bet for newbies like me. It looks great, too!” Sophia saw no faults in her choice, either. “Wait, Anna’s the one who wanted to get white tights after looking at my cat, now that I think about it.”

“Because it looks great!” The princess got loud. “Also, Maya decided on twintails even though I use them every year.”

“It’s not like I knew about that, though.”

“Isn’t it just because our tastes are similar? That’s also why I bonded more with Sophia, and Anna and Maya hit it off…?” As usual, Ari was the most levelheaded one. “Also, just for the records, I’m wearing black tights for many years already, and Maya’s the one who braided my hair. I have absolutely no relation to any of those weird match-ups.”

“Hey!” Everyone complained after hearing how she tried to blame everyone except herself.

“Hehe.” The jaguar let out a small chuckle before continuing. “It is pretty interesting how we ended up matching like this, but it’s not an issue, is it? It’s not like we actually swapped p-partners like Sophia said earlier…”

“True.” The blonde nodded. “It was just a joke, anyway. Also, I would definitely notice a partner swap. I would complain a lot about it, too. I might even destroy their country if someone would try to do that.”

“Ehehe.” Maya liked the sound of that.

“That’s some serious dedication. I like it.” Anna was impressed by it.

“Yes.” Ari agreed, and while saying so, the duo glanced at each other before immediately looking at the actual couple again.

“Hmm…” Ignoring those completely obvious glances, Sophia changed the topic. “Anna, do you think you can hide your hair from the queen when you get back home? I don’t want her to visit us here in the evening today, demanding to experiment on her, as well.”

“Ahh…” The princess awkwardly scratched her cheek. “I, too, would rather not run into mother with my bangs being like this right now…” She lifted a strand of her smooth hair while saying so.

“How about you wash your hair again? It’ll get fluffy again once it gets wet.”

“How about no?” Anna didn’t seem to like the idea. “I want to enjoy it as much as possible! What if it was a one-time thing, and it doesn’t work anymore the next time we try it?!”

“That’s not how hair works…”

“The girls at the care products store said the same about tigers many times before!”

“Fine…” Sophia didn’t feel like arguing. “Just try to avoid Kira.”

“Yes!”

The group kept chatting for a while longer, but Anna and Ari eventually went back to the castle because it was getting late. Once the couple was alone again, they, as usual, cuddled a little on the sofa.

----------------

“Anything you want to do in the next hour before the queen arrives here?”

“Ahaha…” Sophia let out a dry laugh after hearing Maya’s statement. “There’s no way she’s able to keep it a secret, huh?”

“Nope.”

“Should I talk with the people in the beauty and care store? I know how to take care of my hair and all that, but I’m no expert because my hair never needed that much work before.”

“True… You always looked like you have a bit of bed hair but in a nice way. It didn’t look unkempt, just a little wild and cute.”

“Yep, super easy to take care of. Until I became a tiger with winter fur… err, hair, that is…” Sophia let out a sigh towards the end. “I only used those straightening irons when I played around with my hair or when my sister got desperate. If I show my concept to the experts from the store, I’m sure they know what to do with it and find out about the perfect temperature and all that.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea. They have way more experience in handling hair, after all.” Maya agreed with her. “You can also send the queen right to them if she shows up.”

“Exactly!”

“That’s your main motivation, isn’t it?” She instantly saw through her.

“Can you blame me? Safe for Ellie, every tiger we met can be quite hard to deal with when they get excited.”

“True.” The cat-girl didn’t hesitate with her answer for even a fraction of a second.

“See? It would be much easier… Wait a moment…” Sophia stopped in the middle of her sentence. “Why did you agree so heartily just now? Are you trying to imply something?”

“Did I ever?” Maya innocently tilted her head. “I would never imply that absolutely every tiger I know is in a league of their own when it comes to being a pain to deal with.”

“Hey!”

“Am I wrong, though?”

“Yes!” The blonde got loud.

“Ah, right, as you’ve mentioned, the little bundle of joy called Ellie is an exception. I am deeps sorry that I implied that she, too, is a pain to deal with.”

“Thank you very much! I would be very upset with you if you include the small princess in that claim. She’s the only cat who’s 100% adorable with every single thing she does, after all.”

“I earned that one, didn’t I?”

“Yep~.”

The couple bickered for a bit longer before eventually returning to their usual cuddling again. Thankfully, Kira never appeared that evening. The two had a very relaxing evening with the wolves that had eventually returned from their maze. Once Sophia was awake on the following day, the tiger immediately went back to the beauty and care store to show off her idea before the queen had the chance to catch her in their mansion.