Sophia had decided to show Chloe the portals she uses to travel fast between places, and the fox-girl was very interested in them. Once she finished being excited over them, the group, with her included, used them to go back to the capital. Having returned to the mansion, they got comfortable in the living room while leisurely chatting some more.

“You two sure are something else.” Chloe was looking at the couple who had just told her what happened when they arrived at the capital and how it led to them having a mansion here. Naturally, they left out Sophia's origin, but they still told her a lot about the meeting with the royal family and how the king wanted Sophia to marry her daughter.

The blonde then had a great time recalling just how much Maya liked the idea and how she made Anna suffer a lot in the beginning before they became besties. The tiger also briefly mentioned the war that had happened, and while the fox-girl was very impressed by it, the blonde and she only ended up bonding even more after the topic changed to the nearby city, Talaga, which serves one of the favorite dishes of both, pizza.

“Ehehe~.” The two decided to take it as a compliment.

“Yeah, the last weeks and months were kinda wild, for many reasons.” Sophia decided to not go into details here. “The war thingy aside, it was a ton of fun! I look forward to more interesting things in the future!”

“That’s the spirit!” Chloe liked her reply a lot.

“More importantly, though… Now that pizza got mentioned again… Maya, how’s the snack situation in the kitchen?”

“Hmm… I honestly doubt I could make you a pizza now, but I’ll have a look at some alternatives. I actually could eat a little, too. I'll get something ready for everyone." Saying so, the cat-girl got up from the sofa and walked towards the kitchen.

“Thank you!” The tiger waved after her before looking at Chloe again. “Should I show you where the bath is in the meantime?”

“That would be lovely!” She immediately sprang up from the sofa. “I want to freshen up and change into something lighter to survive this sauna here!”

“Ahaha, sure~.” Sophia gestured towards the door out of the living room, and the two went upstairs to one of the guest baths on the hallway away from their bedroom.

“Oh, the tub is nice and big! That’s great!”

“You should see the main bath downstairs, that's half a public bath but way too overkill most of the time. Right, with your tail, you basically need the place for two people, huh?” The blonde glanced at the mountain of fluff behind the fox-girl.

“When getting in at least, yes… Once it gets soaked, it turns sad and small quite fast.”

“Can I stay and wa-.”

“No.” Chloe didn’t even let her finish the sentence.

“You can wear a swimsuit if you want to. My main interest lies in your wet tail, after all.” Sophia tried to negotiate.

"I would rather show you my naked body instead of my wet tail!" It really was a sensitive topic for the girl.

“…” Sophia paused for a moment and scanned her from head to toe. “Thanks, but Maya would probably kill me. Rightfully so. I’ll wait with that for when we visit the hot springs~.”

“Does that really make a difference…?”

“Yep.”

“Why?”

“No idea.” The tiger just shrugged her shoulders. “The weird rules of society that say it's okay to be naked together in a public bath or something like that…”

“Is that so…?” Chloe didn’t sound convinced. “Well, if that’s how it is, don’t complain if I steal a glance or seven myself once we do that.”

“S-Sure…” Sophia got a little bit bashful. “Though, I would probably recommend Maya or Anna and Ari if they’re with us over me for that.”

“No need to sell yourself short!” The fox-girl raised her voice. “I think you have a great figure!”

“T-Thanks!”

“Also, who said that I want to look at just you?”

“You’re quite the pervert, aren’t you?” She only looked at Chloe again.

"A-A little backed-up, maybe…” Her cheeks turned pink. “I mean, I do have an interest in those kinds of things, but I’ve preferred traveling over it… I’ve also been with Feyfey the entire time until lately, so no… alone time. Combine that with being single my entire life…”

“Well…” Sophia scratched her cheek. “You're pretty open, too, huh? Can't say I dislike it!"

"As a fellow pervert, I thought I don't have to hold back even though we only met just a little while ago."

"..." She had mixed feelings about that claim but decided to ignore it. "Other than trying to find a girl, I don't think I can help you with those things, though…"

“I wasn’t asking!” Chloe’s face got even redder.

“Also, I’m older than you and only met Maya this year, so I had to wait for longer! Then again, I did have a lot of alone time…”

“Again, I wasn’t asking!”

“You’re the one who started it, didn’t you?” The tiger just looked at her.

"A-Ah.” She had nothing to say in her defense.

“By the way, there’s a really interesting shop here that makes alone time even more fun. If you’re that backed-up, it might be worth checking it out~.”

"And once again, I wasn't as-, r-really?” It took Chloe a second to understand the implication. “I-I didn’t know such things existed here…”

“Yeah, as it turns out, the people in the capital are quite cultured. The shop’s amazing~.”

“Is that so…?” The fox-girl looked pretty embarrassed, but she seemed to be just as interested at the same time.

“Should I write down the address for you~?” Sophia naturally didn’t fail to notice her reaction.

“…” She didn’t answer.

“I see~.” The blonde showed her a big smile. “Well, I’ll just put it on a note and put it on the table next to the door in the entrance hall. I’m sure you’re planning to go shopping tomorrow, right? You might be able to catch a glance of the address when leaving.”

“T-Thanks…”

“Anyway,” She finally changed the topic again. “Should I get the bath ready for you, or do you want to do it yourself?"

“…” The fox-girl needed a moment to recover. “I’ll do it myself… Judging by the overall temperature in the entire house, I don’t trust you when it comes to heating up the water… I actually like lukewarm baths.”

“You really are a pervert…” Sophia couldn't believe her. This time, it was a different kind of perverted, though. The type that she didn't like.

“H-Hey!”

“Well, have fun!” As she didn’t plan to have a discussion over how hot bathwater should be, she simply turned around and let Chloe have her bath in peace.

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

“Did everything go well?” Back in the living room, Maya immediately greeted the tiger once she arrived there.

“Hmm…” She tilted her head. “Chloe’s quite the pervert.”

“Eh?!” She didn’t like this sort of reply.

“She likes to bathe in lukewarm water, can you believe that?!”

“Ahh…” The cat-girl looked relieved again.

“I also found out that she is a bit pent-up and sexually frustrated."

“Eh?!” The calm expression didn’t last long. “What happened?!”

“Nothing much, don’t worry. Being single for her entire life and not being able to have any alone time because she was with Fey the entire time apparently led to some neglect in certain areas.”

"Just about what were you two chatting in the bathroom?!"

“I don’t know how it led to that, either…” Sophia was just as confused. "I just wanted to see her wet tail, but she'd rather show me her naked body instead. Then, we kinda got to the hot spring topic again because stealing glances is allowed there and, uhh… one thing led to another, I guess…?”

“I don’t think I like the two of you being alone together anymore.”

“Come on… I just really want to see what water does to her tail! Okay, I admit that I am not not interested in seeing all of her, but I don’t actively need to see it! I also know that it's the same for you, so stop complaining.” She just looked at her. “I’m not going to help her with being pent-up, don’t worry. Well, I told her about the shop that makes alone time more exciting, so I kinda did help her in the end, but that much should be okay!”

“Fine…” She gave up. “You are right. You told her about the story, huh…?” Afterward, she paused for a moment while closing her eyes.

“You were just imagining something, weren’t you?!” Sophia got loud. “Why are you allowed to do that, but I can not?!”

“Sorry…” She only looked down at her feet. “Want a sandwich I made?” Maya then pointed at a plate on the table in front of the sofas.

“You’ve been better at changing the topic in the past.” The tiger rolled her eyes. "A sandwich does sound delicious, though."

“I said it before, but I’ll try to be less jealous…”

“Ehehe~.” She had to let out a chuckle. “Well, you’ve gotten a lot better in that regard, so it’s fine.”

“Urgh…” Maya got a bit embarrassed. “Okay, yes… looking at others or imagining things is more or less fine, let’s agree on that. Still, having such a conversation as you had with her while the two of you were alone with each other, I have a hard time with that…”

“That’s more than fair.” The blonde responded with a nod.

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

The couple kept chatting a little longer while eating a sandwich or two, and the fox-girl had eventually finished her bath and came back to the living room.

“Thanks for the bath! It felt really nice and was super refreshing!” She smiled at the two while sitting down on the free sofa again. Much to Sophia's lament, her tail was completely dry and fluffy as ever. She apparently had made extra sure that not a drop of water remained in it. Some other things had changed, though. Her wardrobe was completely different from before. The color choices were still somewhat similar, but Chloe had decided that she wanted to go barefoot on the heated floors and also got rid of her thigh-highs. Furthermore, she had changed into short black shorts and a light-pink camisole that was rather revealing. It showed a lot of cleavage and a good part of her stomach as it cut off way above her navel.

“Wow.” The duo had the same reaction. One area of the fox-girl was of particular interest for the two. “So, you are around as big as Anna…”

“H-Hey!” In response, Chloe immediately covered her chest with her arms.

Afterward, the couple felt the need to calm down a little and decided to have a bath on their own while leaving Chloe behind in the living room.