The group had a great time together in the hot springs while enjoying each other's company and chatting about various topics. The girls also told Anna and Ari about Fey's return, which only raised more questions. None of which Sophia decided to answer. It was for their own good, too. After all, Mira told them about her coming back, which was too much information to share. In the evening, once the couple wasn’t with them anymore, the four decided to visit the village’s bar while also reuniting with the wolves there.

Once it had gotten late, the girls returned to the treehouse again because everyone was getting tired. Sophia and Maya stayed in the tiger’s, but Chloe and Steph ended up heading over to the fox-girl’s in the end because it was fully furnished.

“Do you have a spare blanket and pillow?” Steph looked at her fox-girl before glancing at the sofa in the living room there. “I’m good without, but it would be a little bit comfier.”

“…” Chloe’s expression changed a couple of times while she seemingly was thinking about something. “D-Do you, uhh… want to sleep in the bed with me…?”

“E-EH?!” She hadn’t expected that.

“I-I’m not implying anything, okay…? I-It’s not that unusual for friends to do that during a sleepover, so… it, err… would almost be weird if we don’t, right…?”

“Absolutely!” Steph wasn’t going to talk her out of it.

“Y-You could at least hesitate a little…”

“No.”

“Ahaha.” Chloe couldn’t really blame her. It even was her suggestion, after all.

“Let’s go!”

Doing just that, the couple went to the bedroom, changed into something more comfortable, and entered the bed together.

"A-Ah.” In the bed, Chloe quickly noticed that it had gotten much more intimate than she had previously anticipated. Before she knew it, after turning around and looking at the dog-girl, she was basically face to face with her, and only a few inches apart from each other.

“It’s, err… not the biggest bed, huh…?” Steph also looked a little awkward when she locked eyes with the fox right in front of her. “It’s very comfy, though!”

“T-That is true.”

“I can still take the sofa, you know?” The dog-girl smiled at her. “That’s totally okay with me because I don’t plan to make you uncomfortable anymore ever, if I can prevent it! Admittedly, even I think it's way more intimate than I had thought."

“T-That’s not it! Not at all!” Chloe raised her voice a little. “I, uhh… just aren’t sure what to do now… Do we chat some more? Cuddle? Kiss? Just go to sleep and look forward to tomorrow?”

“G-Girl…” Steph needed a moment. “There was at least one thing in there that definitely goes against your claim of not wanting to imply anything you mentioned earlier.”

“Really?” She closed her eyes to think about it.

“I-Is she…? Does that mean it’s okay to…?” While starting to mumble, Steph took a better look at the girl in front of her while her cheeks were turning red before she closed her eyes, as well. A few moments passed, and the blush on her face only increased. Eventually, she moved her head closer to Chloe, though. Taking a quick breath, Steph then closed the last bit of distance between them. A little clumsy, she first lightly touched Chloe's nose with her own before their lips slightly brushed against each other. Once she found the target of her desire, the dog-girl used her lips to brush against Chloe’s another one or two times before she pressed their lips a little firmer together to get a better sensation of the girl in front of her. Doing that a few times, with each repeat being a little more confident, Steph was eventually satisfied enough and put a little bit of distance between them again.

“…” It took Chloe a few moments before she opened her eyes to look at the other girl with a bright red face. Not that her expression was the slightest bit different after what just happened. “D-Did you… did we just…?”

“Y-Yes…” She weakly nodded in response.

“...” The fox-girl was still trying to process it.

“W-Well, I, uhh... I guess we’re even now...” Steph was still rather embarrassed over what she did. “You kissed me first, after all...”

“T-There’s just no way you can compare my little kiss on your cheek with that!”

“You think so? Then... How about you do whatever you think to make it even...?” After saying that, the dog-girl paused for a moment and then closed her eyes again.

“T-That was your plan from the beginning, wasn’t it?!”

“...” She remained silent.

“Uuh...” Her embarrassment was rising again. It wasn’t like Chloe was against it, though. Far from it, actually. Needing a short moment to gather some courage, she also eventually closed her eyes and moved closer to Steph. Afterward, she copied the actions of the dog-girl before and also first booped her nose before brushing her lips against the other’s a few times before getting more confident about it. Exchanging a couple of light but actual kisses afterward, the fox-girl finally put some distance between them.

“W-Was the nose boop really necessary...? That, err... was an accident earlier...” Steph had mixed feelings about that part. “Y-You didn’t have to copy that, too.”

“Ehh...? But that was soo cute! I liked that part a lot!”

"A-Ah...” Steph’s confident side was having a rough time. “If you say so... I guess I don’t really mind...”

“Yay!” She genuinely was a fan of it. "A-Anyway, I guess we’re really even now...”

“How are we even?!” The dog-girl seemed to disagree. “Y-You easily kissed me twice as often! You were better at it, too!”

"W-Well, if you think so..."

...

..

.

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

On the following day, which started somewhat late, the couple returned to Sophia’s treehouse to group up with the other two there.

“…” The tiger was circling around them while making all sorts of expressions for a while.

“…” Chloe and Steph just awkwardly looked back at her with a rather deep blush on their faces.

“You two had sex, didn’t you?” Maya was watching them from the sideline and showed no mercy after she took a sip from the cup of coffee she was holding. “So much for taking it easy… Well, not that I’m surprised.”

“W-We had not!” With an even redder face, the couple immediately got loud.

“Really?” She didn’t believe them.

“R-Really!”

"Sophia, what's your verdict?" The cat-girl looked at her girlfriend, who was still circling around the couple.

“Big doubt from me, but I don’t care about that right now!” She seemed to be bothered by something else. “Why do you two have the same amount of magic authority?!”

“…”

“Oh, you’re right!” Maya seemed to have noticed it as well. “Steph has a lot less, but Chloe has so much more now!”

“Uhh…” The two got even more awkward.

“I, err… might’ve shared some of mine with her…” The dog-girl eventually looked back at her sister.

“Some, huh?” Sophia raised an eyebrow. “Wait, didn’t you tell me that, thanks to Mira, you have to get quite physical when you want to share your magic?”

“So you two did have sex, after all!” The cat-girl took it as a confirmation.

“W-We did not!” Steph got even louder. “Just making out with each other was enough!”

“Oh?” Maya and Sophia started grinning.

"A-Ah.” The couple was unable to face them anymore.

“Hehe.” The tiger liked their reaction. “That aside, are you okay with having given up so much of your magic?” She focused her stare on her sister.

“Yes!” Her reply was instantaneous.

“I love the dedication!” She gave her a thumbs up. “Well, you still have like 80% of my authority, so it will have basically no effect on your ability to use magic however you want to. Because of that, having Chloe on that level, as well, is the best possible thing! We will have so much fun playing with magic together!”

"Yay…" Somehow, Maya's wording and her expression didn't match at all.

“Yay!” Chloe’s did, though.

“Are you two okay, though?” The blonde tilted her head. “I shared much less magic with Ari and Anna, but it totally powered us out… I can’t imagine how taxing your exchange was!”

“It was totally fine!”

“I barely felt my power increasing.” The two felt otherwise. “In fact, I only noticed what Steph was doing when she was halfway done already.”

“Ehh…?” Sophia looked confused. “Why?”

“No idea.” Steph had no answers for her.

“Might it be because of the different origins of the magic?” Chloe tried to come up with an explanation. “Canir’s magic isn’t native to this world, but Mira’s magic, which Steph has been gifted, is the magic of this world. It might be more compatible and doesn’t need to be converted or anything? Other than Anna, I also didn’t have to empty my magic first or anything like that. It just kept growing like it was the most natural thing.”

“Sounds like it makes sense.” The tiger had no better explanation, either. “Canir’s really losing more and more in comparison here. Well, it seems like he’s a lot more whimsical and easygoing with consequences, which is a bit of a double-sided thing, but it’s also fun, so I guess it’s an okay trade-off. Not to mention the part where he literally saved my life. That scored a lot of points in my book.”

“In mine, too!” Maya and Steph immediately agreed.

“He’s a good one.” Sophia did like him, after all. “He needs a good punch or two every now and then, though. He gets carried away too easily.”

“And that’s why you are so compatible with his magic…” The cat-girl just had to do it.

“Ahaha…” She only awkwardly scratched her cheek in return.

Afterward, the girls kept chatting about the magic topic a little more before the topic eventually drifted towards Chloe and Steph again because the other two still had a lot of questions regarding their last night.