NOVEL NEXT Chapter 371 – Room situation
The group had a good time chatting, as usual, and the topic slowly drifted toward the announced return of Feyanis, Chloe's mother. Naturally, the fox-girl was beyond thrilled about that and wanted to return to the village to meet her as soon as possible. As her girlfriend and lover of adventure, Steph immediately decided to go with her. Sophia then remembered the hot springs there and how she wanted to try them out and see if she could change the magical forest to an autumn setting for a better view while taking a bath there. Everyone liked that idea, and the group decided to do it the following day as it had already become evening while they were chatting.
"By the way," After having finished their plans to mess around with the hot springs and relax some more, Sophia looked at her sister again. “We still haven’t gotten around your room and all that, have we…?”
“Right!” Steph raised her voice. “I always ended up napping on the sofa here because it was so comfy, and during the day, we were busy!" She rubbed her back against Chloe's tail she was using as a pillow while mentioning the comfy part. “I’ve yet to even see it!”
“Yeah, we got sidetracked a lot…”
“Nothing new on that part, at least.” Maya had to comment on that.
“Ahaha…” She couldn’t say much there. “Do you want to see the guestrooms and choose one to stay in? Wait, do you even still need your own room now? After you started dating Chloe and all that.”
“I-It’s too early to share a room!” The dog-girl had mixed feelings about that.
“Wow, that was a cute reaction~.” The cat-girl saw a chance for a quick tease, and she used it.
“S-Shush!”
“…” Chloe was surprisingly quiet during that exchange.
“Understandable.” Sophia nodded a few times. “Sleeping in the same room on the same day you started dating would be way too soon. After all, it took you four whole days after meeting each other to start dating. No need to start rushing things now.”
“S-Shut up!” Steph didn’t like that.
“Woah, that was a good one! I’m soo proud of you!” Maya enjoyed it a lot, though.
“Well, I do get it, so it’s fine.” The tiger smiled at her sister. “Also, the guest rooms are a little too small to stay in together permanently, so it’s better that way. Though, once you are ready, it’ll be fine to tear down a wall for all I care~.”
“That’s, uhh… good to hear.” The dog-girl wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
“Should we go and take a look? You also wanted to bring your old room over, didn't you?"
“Right! I almost forgot about that again!”
After they had decided on that, the sisters decided to head upstairs to where the guest rooms were located. Having nothing better to do, Maya and Chloe naturally tagged along.
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“Alright, on the right side, the first room is the guest bathroom, followed by two offices. The latter ones I never entered and never plan to.” Sophia rolled her eyes while explaining the layout to her sister.
“Very understandable.” Steph nodded a few times. She didn’t seem like the type who would enjoy office work, either.
“Then again, the offices are a bit bigger than the guest rooms, so using one of them as a bedroom later on, rather than joining two guest rooms, might also be an option." The tiger now also glanced at Chloe.
“I-I see…” This time, the fox-girl got a little embarrassed.
“What room are you using?” The dog-girl also looked at her girlfriend.
“This one here.” She pointed at the first door on the left. “It’s the closest to the bath, after all.”
“Clever! Well, I was planning to get the room next to you, anyway, so that’s just an added bonus~.”
“Can’t say I’m surprised.” Sophia and Maya had the same reaction.
"Well, let's have a look!" Ignoring them, Steph opened the second door on the left that would be her room from now on. “The furniture is a little boring, but that’s to be expected for a place where guests stay. I can work with the room itself, though! It’s about the same size as my old one in our apartment, too. Could we really bring my furniture over? I would vastly prefer it over the default one here.”
“Sure thing!” Sophia gave her a thumbs up. “We need to go back to the old world to collect it, though.”
“Ah.” Her expression changed. “Hmm… Leaving paradise to get a comfier room…?” She didn’t seem to be a fan of the idea.
“It will take like five minutes, you know?” The blonde rolled her eyes at Steph being needlessly dramatic. Ignoring the part where she was the last to criticize anyone else in that regard.
“I guess that’s okay.”
“I’ll also come with you!” Maya immediately raised her voice. “I’m not letting you go to that world alone!”
“There’s no reason for me not to return anymore, though?” Sophia pointed at her sister while saying so.
“Not risking it!”
“Sure, I mean, I don’t really mind. Chloe, do you want to come with us, too? It should be quite interesting for you, as well, no? In a way, it also was your home, after all.”
“Hmm…” She seemed to have very mixed feelings as her whole expression crumbled up. “I don’t really see it as my home… That part of my life is only an old memory at this point. Literally, I want to add…”
“I see…” Sophia wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about her take on the matter. “It’s still a different world, though. One of which you have rather outdated memories of. If that doesn’t sound like an adventure, I don’t know what does. Well, we won’t go exploring, but still.”
“You really know how to get me interested in something I didn’t want to do…” The fox-girl changed her mind.
“…” Steph, hearing this exact wording from her girlfriend, needed a moment to ignore that again. “Let’s go?”
“Let’s go!”
Afterward, everyone entered Sophia’s extra dimension, where she removed the white walls around the portal to Earth she had made as a safety.
"Wouldn't it be something for a group of people waiting behind these walls after they somehow found the portal?”
“D-Don’t even joke about that!” The tiger started panicking, just thinking about that possibility. Then, she picked up a pillow lying on the ground next to the portal and poured a significant amount of her authority into it. Soon enough, another portal emerged from it. "Great, it's still working! Once we're done, and back, I'll remove the permanent portal, and we're using the portable one!”
"Wait, was the other half of the portal still active, or why did it connect…?" Chloe looked a little confused.
"No, but I found out that if I pour enough of my authority into it, I can brute force it to still open.”
“Seriously?!”
“Yeah, but that portal just now took way more than half of my authority all at once. Almost two-thirds, to be exact."
“Wow!” She seemed impressed. “For many reasons!”
Once this topic was over, the girls finally used the portal to visit Earth again. This time, it was a lot more of a conscious choice.
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"Woah, that's a cute apartment!" The group arrived in the living room, and Chloe's mood immediately changed as she looked around before facing the sisters. “Is that where you two lived before?”
“Kinda?” The blonde scratched her cheek. “Initially, it was my apartment, but Steph was here about as much as I did since day one.”
“It’s a great place, after all!” The little sister looked a little smug. “After our idiot found paradise without telling me, I moved in for good because I wanted her to have a place to return to and to make sure that we don't miss each other…"
“Aww…” The fox-girl liked the last part especially.
“Anyway!” Steph then grabbed her hand and guided Chloe towards the big window in the living room.
“…” She went silent, and her expression turned complicated again while watching all the other buildings she could see outside.
“Is something the matter?”
“No. Well, maybe?” Chloe wasn’t entirely sure herself. “I’m just feeling way more nostalgic than I had thought I would be…”
“I can’t say I’m surprised.” The dog-girl smiled at her. “Even though it’s just a memory for you at this point, there’s still a lot of them, right?”
“Yeah…” She reacted with a slight nod. “That being said, technology and stuff changed a LOT, but housing not so much, huh? Some buildings look a little sleeker than I remember, but it’s overall pretty much the same as I remember a city looking like.”
“I’m fairly sure most of those buildings were already there when you still lived on Earth. It’s not like you tear down a house and build a new one every ten years or so.” Sophia added her theory on that part. “Even 50 years and more isn’t rare for buildings.”
“Good point.”
“Going outside would be bad without changing, but Steph, how about you show her some more landmarks you can see from here? I’ll go and pack your room in the meanwhile.”
“Okay!” She liked the plan. “But don’t look inside the drawer next to my bed!”
“I wouldn’t have! Still, you just publicly announced that you’re hiding something in there…”
“A-Ah!”
“I smell something naughty in there!” Maya immediately jumped on the chance. “Next to the bed…”
“D-Don’t you finish that sentence!” Steph’s cheeks turned slightly red.
“The vibrating goodness!” The cat-girl had no plans of listening to her.
“…”
“Would you stop being so horny already?” Sophia lightly glared at her.
“Not until you finally let me test the ones we bought!” She got loud. “Let this stupid ban be over already!”
“Okay, fine…” The blonde caved in. “In the end, you were right, after all. Everything turned out nicely. More than that, even.
“ALRIGHT!” Maya got very excited very fast. “Let’s go home right now!”
“After we got Steph’s room over to our mansion.”
“You darn tease!” She didn’t like that plan.
“Haa… Let's collect her room." Sighing while rolling her eyes, the blonde grabbed her hand and dragged the cat toward Steph's room.
“Maya sure is a personality.” The dog-girl sounded honestly impressed while she watched them leave. "So happy for Sophia!"
“Ahaha…”
"A-Also, sorry about that drawer thing…” She suddenly looked a little awkward. “I mean, it’s nothing to be ashamed of, especially after we talked about it rather openly a few days ago when Maya was so obsessed with vibrating, but I didn’t plan to announce it like that…”
“Don’t worry about it!” Chloe smiled at her.
“Thanks…”
“While we’re on the topic already, though, don’t ever open the drawer next to my bed without my permission, either!”
“…” Steph had no idea how to react to that. A few moments later, she slapped her cheeks once before pointing out of the window. “See that big building over there, it’s…” To change the topic, the dog-girl then started explaining the scenery that could be seen.
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Roughly five minutes later, the tiger had finished teleporting the insides of Steph’s room into her storage, and the girls decided to return to paradise because they had no plans of further exploring for the time being.
Back home, Sophia got rid of the furniture inside the guest room next to Chloe’s before placing everything from the other world inside there. It was a bit all over the place because the rooms weren’t exactly the same size, but everything easily fit.
“Alright!” The cat-girl raised her voice. “Have fun reorganizing and all that, Steph! Chloe, you help her! Sophia! Vibrating goodness! Bedroom! Now!” Neither speaking in whole sentences nor wasting any more time, she grabbed the hand of her blonde and dragged her towards their room. “If anyone even thinks about interrupting us, they’ll die!”
This was the last time the couple had seen Maya and Sophia that evening. Afterward, the two decided to take their time while getting Steph’s room ready.
