Anna and Ari's first night as a couple had gotten a bit further than either of them had expected. Thanks to that, the morning after was a little awkward. The awkwardness didn't last for too long, though, and they eventually went to take a bath together because they wanted and needed to freshen up a little. While things once more had gotten a little out of hand during that time, the two were eventually done and clean again. Afterward, the jaguar wanted to go to Anna’s room to get some fresh clothes for the tiger as the ones she had on the night before weren’t exactly wearable at the moment.

Things had taken a turn for the worse then, though. Ari had found a letter from her parents in front of her room. In it, they had congratulated them for finally becoming a couple but also mentioned that half of the castle had heard them during the night as the echoes of sound were apparently able to travel really far through the long corridors.

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“…”

“…”

“…” A little while had passed since Ari had found the letter from her parents in front of her room where she had spent the night with Anna. Immediately afterward, she ran away and was currently standing at the entrance of Sophia's and Maya's mansion without saying a single word to them while holding two bags.

“Err…” Not sure what to do about this situation, the blonde eventually tried to address the silent girl standing before them while looking down at her feet.

“Uuh…” Hearing her voice, Ari finally lifted her head and stared at the tiger with tears in the corners of her eyes. “C-Can… Can I move in and live here… I-I don't want to go back to the castle…”

“Eh?!” Sophia got loud. “What happened?!”

“…” The jaguar needed a moment. “S-Stuff… happened, and now it's… I can't face anyone there ever again… It will be too awkward for me to handle…”

“Maya!” The tiger looked at her cat. “Go and get Anna right now! If she isn't here in the next 15 minutes, I’ll go and get her myself! I might also kill her, though!” She sounded a little upset.

“You will not kill her.” She only stared back at her.

“Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that.”

“No, I mean that she's already long dead by the time you show up.” Maya started cracking her knuckles while giving her reply.

“Oh, okay then.” The blonde was happy with that answer.

“S-Stop!” Hearing the couple’s conversation, Ari started panicking and tried to stop them. “I-It’s not because of A-Anna that I can't live there anymore…”

“Oh?” The two seemingly calmed down a little and tilted their heads in return.

“A-Actually, Anna wants to live here, too… S-She’s just not here yet because she's buying a big cake for the two of you as a bribe… It’s, uhh… It’s too embarrassing for b-both of us to live there anymore…”

"I take everything back! I like the sound of that!" Sophia started smiling broadly.

"Just what happened...?" Maya was still confused, though.

“W-Well…” Ari looked down again while fidgeting for a while. Eventually, she looked at the tiger and stared at her with upturned eyes. “…” It seemed like she only wanted to tell her for the time being.

“Fine…” Understanding that, the cat-girl gave up. “I’ll wait for the princess, then. Sophia, take her somewhere and find out what’s going on…”

"Gladly!" She sounded highly motivated. After all, she loved everything about it. “Has Chloe mentioned when she’s planning to come back?”

“No, I don’t think so.” She shook her head. “Still, as she took both wolves with her for the shopping trip, I'm sure they won't be returning anytime soon. We have plenty of time."

“Chloe…?” Ari was unable to follow them.

“Perfect!” Clapping once in delight, the blonde then grabbed Ari’s hand and quickly dragged her upstairs while ignoring the question she had.

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The duo went to the couple’s bedroom and got comfortable on the little sofa they had there. The moment they had sat down, Sophia had immediately turned to face the jaguar and was staring at her with sparkling and expectant-looking eyes.

“I-I don’t like how excited you are…”

“I don’t care!”

“Uuh…” Ari hung her head again.

“I want to know everything! Why do you two want to move in here?! What happened?!”

"A-Anna and I, uhh… we… we… S-Something embarrassing happened…”

“My favorite!” Sophia got even giddier. “Did you kiss her?!”

“…” The jaguar turned her head away from her and paused for a moment. A little while later, she finally reacted with a weak nod. “Y-Yes…”

“Finally!” The blonde liked the reaction a lot. “How did you do it?”

“…” The blush on her cheeks continued to increase with each passing moment. “W-We just came back from having a bath and relaxed a little on my bed while l-lying next to each other… S-Somehow, Anna was feeling really p-playful… even more so than usual. She kept p-poking and tickling me… At one point, I finally had enough and c-climbed on top of her while p-pushing her down and restraining her arms to make her stop…”

“And then you just went for it?”

“Y-Yes…” She gave her a weak nod. "W-When Anna was lying below me… she was blushing just as much as I did… Her pajamas… they had become quite undone, as well and… and I saw a lot… She was beautiful in that embarrassed and disheveled state…" The jaguar made another slight pause while audible gulping. "I stopped being a dense idiot… gently lifted her chin and… and I just kissed her…"

“Way to go!” The blonde looked incredibly happy for her. "Did you also confess?"

“Yes…” She nodded again. “R-Right after we parted again…”

“Amazing! Did she return it, as well?”

“S-She did… Right after I k-kissed her the second time…”

“Wow.” Sophia looked impressed. “You really stopped being dense there, huh?”

“I did, yes…”

“How was it? How did it feel.”

“Amazing.” Her reply came in an instant. “Anna’s lips are incredibly soft… So is her t-tongue… warm and s-slippery, too.”

“Oho?” Sophia grinned at her. “You went for the extra mile, huh? Directly going for a deep kiss so soon sure is something. Good job!” She gave her a thumb up.

“Uhhh… y-yes…” The jaguar looked incredibly awkward all of a sudden. After all, compared to what happened afterward, a deep kiss was a relatively innocent activity.

“Hmm?” She got a little confused by her reaction but then simply continued to question the jaguar. "What a great start to your relationship! How often did you two do it afterward?"

“E-Eh?” Any fleeting remains of Ari’s calmness had finally left her as her entire face had burst into flames.

“Come on, tell me~.”

“Uuh…” She fidgeted for a while longer before eventually admitting it. “Between that and coming here… A-About four t-times…”

“You are impressive!” The tiger sounded even prouder than before. “You also sure took a liking to kissing her fast, huh?”

“E-Eh?” The jaguar managed to look even more embarrassed now. “N-No, we kissed way more than that…”

“Eh…?” Sophia needed a moment. “Wait…”

“Uuh…” Ari immediately covered her face with her hands to hide her blush.

“Wait, what…?” She stared at the black-haired girl with widely open eyes. “You… You had sex with her…? Four times even?!”

"…" Ari didn't answer at first. "D-Depending on how you define… s-sex… we might've actually have d-done it five times…"

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” The blonde sounded excited for a moment. "Wait, what?!" There were more pressing matters going on, so she had to suppress her curiosity for the time being. “Seriously?!”

“…” She had to take another pause. “I-I first made Anna d-do me… Then, I had my turn… On the next morning… each of us… had another turn in the bath…. The third t-time in the bath, that one was a little, uhh… d-don’t ask.”

“Huh...?” Sophia was still trying to wrap her head around it. “Are you messing with me right now…?”

“N-No…”

“You drove me insane for weeks because you were too dense to see the obvious with your princess, and I had to keep pushing you to even cling to her, and then… once you finally kissed her, you immediately jumped to have sex with her?! Like rabbits in heat, I want to add?!"

“…” Ari reacted with yet another slight nod. “I-It just h-happened…”

“It just happened?!” The blonde got loud. “Four or five times in one day?!”

"T-Technically, it was two days..."

"It took Maya and me weeks, if not months, to finally do it!" She suddenly sounded envious.

“I-I’m sorry…”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” She raised her voice once more. “We also only did it once that night because everyone’s first time is a clumsy mess, and it gets so awkward that you need a while to recover from it!”

“…” Ari just looked at her. “Eh?”

“WHAT’S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!” She managed to get even louder.

“I-It’s true that I needed to recover for a little bit… but… but that was only because Anna… S-She managed to, uhh... l-let's just say she knows what she's d-doing after I made her... err... start on me...” Ari was covering her face again while explaining the situation. “Afterward, I had lost all of my strength, so I needed like ten minutes… before I, uhh… w-went for Anna… Once she was… both of us were so e-exhausted that we immediately fell asleep in each other’s arms minutes later…”

“…” The blonde was speechless.

“T-The same happened the morning after… A-After each of us had their t-turn in the bath, w-we got so into it that we w-went at it a third t-time where we e-experimented on an idea we had…”

"Why is that so different from my first time with Maya?!" The tiger was holding her face while looking slightly depressed. “W-Why was ours so awkward and kinda weird when yours was basically overflowing with lust and whatnot?!”

“I’m… I’m sorry…?” Ari wasn’t sure what to say in this situation.

“I-I don’t want to talk to you anymore…” Sophia suddenly looked extremely embarrassed and turned her head away from the jaguar with a pouting and slightly upset expression. Afterward, the two had to take a break because the tiger needed to nurse her shattered ego.