Sophia and Maya told the others about the blonde’s plan of making the sister’s parents visit the domain and/or the new world to show them how amazing their new place is. Naturally, Steph was a big fan of the plan and immediately decided to help in whichever way possible. Maya also found out that she was the only one in their group who hadn't met their partner's parents and got teased a lot about it.
“Alright, it’s finally time!” A few days had passed since Sophia announced her plan to make her parents visit her place, but something else had priority right now. The girls were back in the capital, and the blonde energetically raised her arm with a big smile. "Ellie's birthday is finally here!”
“I wonder how upset she’s going to be that you haven’t visited her once since we left.” Anna just smiled at her fellow tiger.
“Don't do that to me!” She didn’t like that. “Thankfully, I have some emergency backup plans ready for that!”
“Shall we go?” Maya also wanted to see the little princess.
“The time should be right now.” The tall princess nodded. “The official part of her birthday, being congratulated by all kinds of people she doesn’t know or care about yet, should be over by now, and we probably have her all to ourselves.”
“Perfect!” With the blonde in the lead, they took the portal that was still in the closet of Anna’s room in the royal castle to get there as soon as possible.
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“So…phia!” The group went to the castle’s entrance hall and were immediately greeted by the little tiger. Seeing the blonde, she immediately ran up to her and launched herself towards the girl. Sophia caught her midair, gently grabbed her by the arms, and started spinning on the spot, letting Ellie fly through the air for a few rounds. Afterward, she pulled the princess close and tightly hugged her while the little tiger also wrapped her arms around the blonde’s neck. “Ellie missed you so much!”
image [https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d/1OtPB09eWGATg6wNvgtmnppgMzWqL53DP=w15000]
“I missed you, too!” Saying so, the two continued to hug each other for a good minute.
“So much for being angry, huh?” Ari watched the two tigers hugging with a warm expression. She was especially impressed at how tightly the small, roughly 1-meter-tall princess with the wavy and light-orange hair in the little red riding hood-like dress was clinging to the blonde.
“Yeah.” Anna scratched her cheek. “It was a 50-50 chance of either happening."
“Oh, Ellie is very upset, but hug was more important first.” The princess then moved her upper body back a little to look the blonde, who was still holding her, right in the eyes. “Why did So…phia never visit…?” She sounded extremely sad. “Y-You promised!”
“-” Sophia died.
“O-Ouch.” The other girls all had the same reaction.
“Maya!” After Sophia fell lifelessly on her knees, Ellie let go of her and ran over to the cat-girl to hug her, too.
“Hey!” She also got on her knees, but only to be in her line of sight, and happily hugged her back. “I am so sorry that we haven’t come to play sooner. Things were a little complicated and eventful lately.”
“Mhmm.” The little tiger seemed a little pouty as she let go of her. Afterward, she walked over to the other girls and also hugged them all before stopping in front of her older sister and staring up at her.
“What?” Anna tilted her head as she looked down. “Did I come back home too early?” She knew about the rebellious side of her little sister and thought that this was the issue here for sure.
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“…” Ellie just kept staring at her for a moment. A moment later, she wrapped her arms around the tall tiger’s leg and tightly hugged it. The enormous size difference between the striped sisters made anything else impossible, as the short princess was only barely as tall as Anna's legs.
“Aww!” Maya, Ari, Steph, and Chloe had the same reaction. As Sophia had died earlier and was lying face down on the floor by now, she was unable to react in any way possible.
“…” Anna also stayed silent for a moment. She did eventually start to gently pet the head of her little sister, who was still clinging to her leg, though.
“Aww!” Everyone except the dead girl had the same reaction again.
“She was a little lonely the past two months.” The queen, Kira, joined the group. Technically, she had always been in the corner of the entrance hall, but she decided to stay out of their reunion for a little while. “Enough that she even started missing her sister."
“Is that so?” Anna stared at Ellie.
“Nu-uh!” She strongly shook her head from left to right. At the same time, the little princess only clung stronger to her leg, though. “Not true!”
“Since when have you gotten cute?!” The tall tiger couldn’t believe the change in her little sister, who used to treat her so coldly. Afterward, she pulled the small tiger off her leg and grabbed her. Then, Anna lifted her up to actually hug Ellie and then let her cling to her side as the tall girl kept holding the short one.
“Not lonely!” Elli’s pouting just got stronger as she clung to Anna’s waist now.
“Aww!” Once again, everyone, including the queen, had the same reaction. Sophia was still dead, though.
"Okay, for that alone, it was worth it." Kira’s expression turned warm as she watched her daughters being so close to each other. “Steph, could you please use your little magic box that makes small paintings?”
“This?” The dog-girl pulled out her smartphone. “You know that I took like a thousand pictures of Ellie already?”
“And I want three thousand more!” The queen wasn’t content with the current amount. “Especially when it’s about my two babies hugging! That hasn’t happened in a long time! I would ask Sophia, but she’s busy being dead, so I can’t do that.”
“Fine~.” Steph opened the camera app on her phone and took a couple of pictures of the sisters. “I’ll give you the painting tomorrow.” She lightly rolled her eyes. “I need to print it first…”
“Thank you sooo much!” The queen looked incredibly happy. “By the way, now that I mentioned it, why is Sophia lying dead in the entrance hall of the castle?”
“Ellie was sad that Sophia never visited and told her that in a very deadly way.” Maya, the girlfriend of the dead girl, answered her.
“Ahhh, yes, she’s good at that.” Kira just nodded a few times while glancing at her youngest daughter. “Such a shame. She was so young, too.”
“Yeah,” The cat-girl agreed. “Her sudden death threw quite a wrench in my future life plans, as well.”
“I can imagine!” She saw the issue. “Anyway, thank you very much for coming to my daughter’s birthday!”
“Thank you!” Ellie, still clinging to Anna, also thanked them.
“Of course!” They, except the corpse, all nodded. “Happy birthday, Ellie!” The girls perfectly synced up with each other.
“Ehehe~.” The little princess liked that.
“Should we get to a more comfortable place?” The queen looked around in the entrance hall they were in at the moment. “The official part of her birthday is over, so she’s all yours now.”
“Ellie met a lot of people she didn’t know yet!” The little tiger raised her voice. “Ellie didn’t like that!”
“Ahaha.” Anna let out a chuckle while smiling at her pouting sister. “Unfortunately, that’s part of being a princess. You’ll have to get used to that. It’ll only become more the older you get.”
“Ellie doesn’t want to get used to something like that!”
“Why do you think I ran away? Traveling is way easier than being a princess.”
“Ellie wants to run away, too!” The little tiger showed the tall one a determined expression as she looked up at her. “Ellie will travel with you and the others!”
“Why would you say something like that?!” Kira glared at her oldest daughter.
“She doesn’t dislike me right now, so I have to score points!” She regretted nothing.
“That’s not how that works!” The queen only got louder.
“Ellie thinks it works.” The little princess nodded a few times while giving her sister, whom she was still clinging to, a little squeeze. “Ellie is very happy about the idea.”
“Of course you are…” Kira rolled her eyes. “Okay, let’s go to one of the lounge rooms for the time being.” She gave up. “I already asked the maids to prepare some tea, pastries, and snacks the moment you all arrive, so everything should be ready by now.”
“Okay!” The girls liked the plan.
“Maya, if you’d be so nice?” The queen pointed at the dead body of her girlfriend.
“Sure!” Understanding what she meant, the cat-girl walked over to Sophia and scooped her up. Then, she threw the limp corpse over her shoulder and secured it with her arm. “We’re ready to go~.”
Once that was dealt with, the group left the entrance hall of the castle and moved over to a lounge room to continue the event and chat some more.