Sophia, together with Anna and their partners, had brought Kai, the mayor of Gativa, to the royal castle in the capital to have Menzor explain the situation and the portal plans to her. Once they were done with that, they left them behind and reunited with the others, who had decided to go and have fun without them in the water city.
“Oh, it looks like Chloe and Steph split up with the wolves.” The group had just exited the mayor’s mansion when Sophia took a peek at the current situation with her detection magic.
“Maybe they changed from exploring to going on a date instead?” Ari took a wild guess.
“Ohh!” Anna seemed to like the sound of that. “Let's do that, too!” She stared at her jaguar with sparkling eyes.
“I support this suggestion!” Nodding a few times, Maya then smiled at the blonde.
“Sure!” Sophia smiled back at her. “How about we regroup in the cottage once we’re done before doing some group explorations, including the fishing trip Steph suggested?” She tilted her head while looking at the royal couple.
“Okay!” Anna nodded.
“Sounds like a plan.” Ari did so, too. “I have one of your portal stones, so we’re good on that part.
"Let's go!" Highly motivated, the princess grabbed Ari's hand, and the two quickly disappeared into one of the city's streets.
“What she said!” The cat-girl was just as motivated about it.
“Okay!”
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“So, where do you want to go, princess?" It had been around five minutes, and Maya and Sophia were walking hand in hand on a street alongside a roughly four-meter-wide canal.
“Wrong tiger.” The blonde lightly rolled her eyes while smiling at her cat-girl.
“Anna’s everyone’s princess, but you are mine~.”
“Someone’s trying to be smooth today, huh?”
“I’m always smooth!” Maya showed her a cheeky grin.
“Sure! That’s definitely what you are!” Somehow, Sophia's voice was highly playful while she said those words.
“There's no need to sound the way you did!" The cat-girl started pouting.
“What would you have done in my place?”
“Fair enough.” Maya couldn’t really defend herself there.
“Hehe.” Sophia let out a small chuckle. “Anyway, the princess would like some food.”
“How do you know Anna’s hungry?” The cat-girl tilted her head.
“Good one.”
“Is there anything you particularly fancy?”
“Food would be nice.” The blonde shrugged. “For the type of food, I’m open to whatever we find first.”
“You’re almost too uncomplicated.”
“I don’t think anyone ever used those words to describe me.” If anything, Sophia had gotten used to being called the exact opposite.
“Ha.” She froze for a moment. “In relation to food, you overcomplicated dork!”
“That truly sounds more like me~.” The blonde smiled at her cat. “I do have some few things I dislike, but overall, it would be a miracle to find a place where there isn’t anything I’d eat~.”
“It makes it harder to decide on a place to eat, though.”
“Well, if you want me to choose a place, you are certainly correct, but I’ll be happy with like the first café we run into. I just decided that I want something sweet, by the way.”
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“That’s why a café, huh? Also, so much for everything is fine.” The cat-girl lightly rolled her eyes.
“We can also look for a steakhouse if that tickles your fancy.” Sophia shrugged. “That’s how much I really care~.”
“I’m in favor of the sweets suggestion!” Maya shook her head a couple of times.
“I’m not surprised.” She smiled at her. “You’re one of our biggest sweet tooths, after all~.”
“Wait, did you decide on a café because of me?”
“There’s no way I would’ve thought that far ahead~.” Sophia reacted with a slight smirk.
“Smooth.” She didn’t believe her.
“How can I be smooth when you’re supposed to be the smooth one here?”
“Shut up.”
“Ehehe~.” The blonde liked her reaction.
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The couple followed the street they were on for a little while longer before they eventually found a lovely café. It even had an outdoor area with seating right next to the canal, which divided the two sides of the street, so you could watch the water and boats while enjoying your food and drinks.
“I wonder if I could put a whole city into my domain.” The couple got seated on a table right next to the canal, and Sophia was excitedly looking around. “It’s such a beautiful space!”.
“I’m not sure if the people here would enjoy being inside a white void.” Maya scratched her cheek. “Especially if you just go and borrow the city without prior notice.”
“That’s true.” The blonde looked around for a little longer. “I’m not sure if I’m ready to have an extended amount of people inside it, either.”
“Do you even want to?”
“Good point!” She shook her head a few times. “Sounds like a massive pain!”
“I would assume so, yes.” Maya smiled at her. “It also wouldn’t be a good idea to rob the homes of all those people.”
“Borrow the homes.” The blonde corrected her. “You are right, though. Let’s try and find an abandoned city during our travels!”
“Sure!” She nodded. “Though, it might be best to check in with Menzor first before liberating it from its confinement in whatever location it is."
“How nice and considerate of you! That would probably be good, yeah. We might accidentally borrow a place that was reserved for something or whatever.”
“Okay, with that decided, let’s order already!” Getting a little impatient, Maya tapped the menu they were holding a couple of times. “I want some chocolate cake, by the way!”
“I’m feeling fruity today, so it’ll be cake decorated with lots of fruit for me~.”
Picking something that matched their fancy together with some drinks, the couple called over a waitress and ordered just that.
“Oh, it looks good!” Just a few minutes later, their order had arrived, and the cat-girl was staring at her rich chocolate cake with sparkling eyes.
"It really does!" While not as excited, Sophia was also quite happy about her sponge cake, which was lavishly decorated with cream and various fruits, including strawberries, blueberries, and sliced kiwi.
"Oh!" Maya suddenly clapped her hands. "Doesn't that kinda remind you of our first date?"
“Hmm?” The blonde, who had just tried her first bite, tilted her head with the fork still in her mouth. "Do you mean the time when you dragged me into a café shortly after we met and called it a date out of nowhere?"
“Exactly that!” She nodded.
“Not a lot of that day stuck because you fried my brain with your extrovertedness, but didn’t you have the fruit cake while I had chocolate?”
“You’re right!” Maya stared at their cakes again. "Wanna share?" She then held out her fork, which had a bite of her chocolate cake on it.
“Sure!” The blonde leaned lightly over the table and took it.
“Yep, back then, you had a complete meltdown over that.” She smiled at her striped girlfriend, who had come a long way since then.
“Ahaha…” She had mixed feelings about that. “Current me is a massive improvement over Sophia from back then.”
“Old Sophia did have her cute moments, though.” Maya didn’t think everything about the blonde from the past was a mess.
“Just because I was easier to tease.”
“That is not completely unrelated~.” She just gave her a cheeky smirk in return. “It’s not like you aren't still easy to tease, either.”
“I tease back now, though!”
“You’ve gotten quite good at it, too.”
“Thank you very much~.” Sophia smiled at her again. “Anyway, want some fruits?” She then held up her fork with some of her cake.
“Absolutely!” Taking up the offer, Maya leaned over to take a bit of her cake. “Oho, this one’s good, too!”
Afterward, the duo continued their café date while chatting some more and finishing up their cakes. That being said, most of their cake was fed to the other, so they basically ended up swapping their order, though neither of them seemed to have cared about that.
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“I wonder where we can get one of those boats.” The couple had left the café area and were walking hand in hand alongside one of the many water canals where the blonde was looking at one of the many boats in there.
“That’s a good question.” Maya also watched the activity on the water for a little bit. “If I had to guess, maybe somewhere near one of the entrances of the city? Or maybe where the lakes go into the city.”
“That sounds logical.” The blonde nodded. “Well, I’m sure Steph already sniffed out the place we need to go.”
“Judging by how excited she was about it, there’s a high chance of that being the case, yes.”
“Speaking of that sister of mine, it seems like she and Chloe just returned to the cottage as I felt them using a portal.”
“Well, after visiting the mayor, the trip to the capital, and our date, quite some time has passed, so they’re probably taking a break.” The cat-girl could see why they returned.
“Should we go, too?” Sophia looked at her while tilting her head. “We can ask them if they found the boating place and maybe tell us about other interesting places they found in the city.”
“Sounds good to me!” She agreed with the plan. “They might’ve found more dating spots, too! We definitely have to check them out!”
“Yes!”
Having decided on that, the couple headed back to Sophia's domain to check in with her sister and Chloe to see what they'd been up to during the day and maybe get a tip or two for another date to have while they were in the water city.