It was finally the day of Maya’s birthday, and it being on October 32 confused Sophia more than a little. As it turned out, the months in her new world are actually a little longer, and a whole year has 380 days instead of the 365 she was used to. It also meant, that in actual days being alive, the tiger still was 22 instead of 23 years old. As a result of that, she’s also younger than the cat-girl when calculating her age with the measures of the new world.
None of that was of any real importance right now, though. After all, it was still her girlfriend’s birthday, so the blonde was busy with other things. First and foremost, the surprise dinner she had been training for the past two weeks.
“Err…” Maya was still shocked after Sophia’s announcement of her going to cook for them. “T-The care products are already more enough, y-you know?” Still in the living room, she yelled towards the kitchen next door.
“It’s fine~.” Sophia’s voice echoed back from there.
“Is it…?” She had a very different opinion on the topic.
“Yep~.” The tiger sounded really cheerful. “Give me half an ho-… 40 minutes!”
“O-Okay…” The cat-girl didn’t sound convinced in the slightest, though.
“Also, no peeking!”
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Precisely 55 minutes later, Sophia was done preparing the dinner and had also decorated their dining table a little bit. She put a white tablecloth and a few candles on it to make it seem a bit more romantic, and she also had prepared a fancy-looking bottle of wine.
“Someone’s going for the extra mile, huh?” Maya looked impressed.
“Ehehe, I’m trying my best.” The tiger looked a bit bashful. “No promises about the wine, though… I never was that much into it, and so I let the store guy decide on a bottle that fits my dish.”
“I see…” The cat-girl paused for a moment and sniffed the air. “What is your dish? I smell garlic and some type of seafood. It smells delicious, and that confuses me greatly. It’s you we’re talking about, after all.”
“Hey!” She raised her voice. “Well, you are 100% correct.” She couldn’t blame her, either. “Alright, sit down! I’ll serve now!”
“O-Okay…” Maya was still confused over the events but sat down regardless and waited for whatever dish her girlfriend had cooked.
“Here you go~.” A few moments later, Sophia placed a plate with the seafood dish she had prepared in front of the cat-girl. It was the same shrimps cooked in a garlic butter sauce served over pasta dish that Ari had taught her the other day before getting her own. It also was more or less the same shrimp scampi recipe the blonde vaguely remembered from her old world.
“Eh…?” Maya needed a moment and only stared at the two plates. “You made this…?”
“I did!” She looked pretty proud of herself.
“How…?” The cat-girl tilted her head. “You tried to help me out before… before I banned you… Everything other than pasta was a total catastrophe…”
“Lots of training over the past two weeks. I had Ari teach me the recipe, and I tried to get better at it whenever I could. I even stopped time one or two times to make it perfect! It could’ve been 17 times as well, though.” She mumbled the last part only.
“Wow.” She seemed impressed. “Can I try?” Maya picked up her fork and gestured at the plate.
“Of course!” Sophia nodded. “Be as harsh as you want with your critique.”
“I always am~.” She flashed her a cheeky smile before she tried a single shrimp with a small amount of pasta and sauce. Chewing on it for a moment, her smile eventually turned much gentler. “It’s good!”
“Really?!”
“Absolutely! It’s a little spicier than I remember this dish, but that’s a plus!”
“Ahaha, I kinda like spicy food, so I never could it get out of my system to use a bit less of the chili flakes… I’m glad you like that part, too.”
“It’s impressive! The pasta’s been cooked perfectly, too, and the shrimps aren’t the slightest bit chewy. The sauce’s delicious, as well. I couldn’t have done it any better, myself!”
“Ehehe~.” The tiger got a little bashful. “The training was totally worth it!”
“It absolutely was. It seems like you aren’t so hopeless, after all, huh?”
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“Y-Yes… Ari also meant that my biggest problem is the missing experience.”
“The evidence speaks for itself.” Maya gestured at the plates. “I’ll take over the teaching now, though. Your surprise was amazingly sweet, and I love it, but I want to cook together with you, too!” There was a tiny hint of jealousy in her voice.
“Of course! I’ve wanted to do that since forever already, after all!” Sophia liked the idea. “Now that I know that I won’t purely be nothing but a nuisance to you, I want to help out more!”
“I look forward to it!”
“Me, too!” The two smiled at each other. “Alright, let’s continue to eat! I don’t want it to get cold.”
“That’s true.” The cat-girl nodded. “You put way much effort into it for that to happen!”
“Hehe.”
The couple continued to eat and had a glass or two of wine while they enjoyed each other’s company for a while.
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“Ha~, that was soo good!” Maya looked very satisfied after she finished her plate. “Thank you so much, Sophia, this was an amazing surprise! That you tried so hard to learn to cook just for me is incredibly sweet!”
“That alone was worth it already!” She was glad that her surprise was a total success.
“You sure made it hard for me to top that on your birthday, though.”
“There’s no need to turn that into a competition, is there?”
“And here I thought you know me…” For Maya, everything can be turned into a competition.
“Ahaha…” She had to laugh at her reaction. “Well, if it’s like that, I better start preparing for next year already, huh?” The tiger, too, enjoyed being competitive, after all.
“That’s the spirit!” The cat-girl liked her answer.
“Hehe.” Letting out another chuckle, Sophia eventually changed the topic. “Should we have some of the cake Ari and Anna brought over for dessert? It looked very chocolatey and delicious.”
“How can I say no to that~?” The cat-girl had quite the sweet tooth.
“Alrighty, stay put! I’ll prepare it for us.” Saying so, Sophia stood up and left for the kitchen again.
“I could get used to being cared for like this~.” Maya liked today’s treatment.
“I don’t mind spoiling you every now and then, either~.” The tiger’s voice echoed from the kitchen again.
“Great!”
“I think those two emptied the chocolate from the whole castle for this thing.” After a few minutes, Sophia was back holding two plates with a generous slice of cake on each while also carrying a little pink bag. “Here’s also the gift the duo got for you.”
“Thank you!” The cat-girl focused on the cake first, though. “Wow, you’re right!” It essentially was a triple chocolate cake. The actual cake part was chocolate, together with a portion of chocolate fudge, and the outside was covered in a thick layer of chocolate ganache. “Looks delicious!”
“Sure does!” She agreed. “I wonder how much the princess helped here, though. I’m not sure why, but I have the feeling she’s even worse at cooking than I am…”
“Taste-testing is also helping, right?”
“True.”
“Alright, let’s eat!” Unable to wait any longer, Maya grabbed her fork and dug into the cake. “Delicious! I need to get the recipe from Ari.”
“Hehe- Oh!” Sophia stopped talking for a moment after she also tried it. “Yeah, let’s do that!” She liked it, as well.
“Okay, what’s this about…” Once they finished eating the cake, the cat-girl finally focused on the pink bag that contained the present from Ari and Anna for her. “Let’s have a look… Oh, how cute.”
“Lemme see!” Curious about it, the blonde got up from her seat and walked behind Maya to look over her shoulders. “You are right. They look adorable!” Inside the bag was a little box filled with a few hair clips and many colorful ribbons. Some even were patterned with flowers and other forms. “That’s perfect for when you start changing to twintails, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “I could wear a different set of ribbons each day of the week now.”
“I like that idea~.”
“Yep. The two really found something very nice without making me feel guilty. Who knows what else the first princess of a nation could’ve come up with as a gift…?”
“Ahaha… That’s true. Ari might’ve stopped Anna from getting something ridiculous.”
“Bless that jaguar.” Maya was relieved that she was able to keep her princess in check.
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Chatting about the present for a little longer, the couple eventually headed out to have their almost ritual-like bath in the evening. Once they were done with that, the two went to their bedroom to relax and cuddle in their bed together. That, more or less, was Sophia’s plan, at least. Stopping at cuddling was optional, but that was a different topic.
“Oh, the bag from earlier makes another appearance.” Relaxing on their bed, Sophia noticed that Maya was holding the white bag she had back when she came home while standing in the doorframe of their bedroom.
“Hmm… Let’s call it a birthday present from me for me, or something like that?”
“Mhh?” This had piqued her interest, and the tiger rose from the bed and sat down upright.
“Want to have a look? It kinda involves you, too.” Saying so, Maya walked over to their bed and handed over the bag.
“Sure~. Let’s see-” Sophia opened the bag, looked inside, and promptly froze up. “Is… Is that what I think it is…?”
“It looks like it, doesn’t it?”
“It does…” She needed another moment. “W-Where did you get it…?”
“There’s a shop.”
“Seriously…?”
“Yep.” Maya only nodded.
“I’ll say it again… This world is waaay too advanced in the weirdest areas!” While saying so, Sophia stared into the bag again.
“You don’t want to…?” Maya glanced at her. “I’m definitely not going to force anything here.”
“N-No, that’s not it… I’m just surprised that it already exists in this world…”
“Already?”
“Yeah… T-This actually crossed my mind, too, during my invention spree lately. Turns out that someone was faster. What a horny world we live in here.”
“Does that mean…”
“I’m definitely i-intrigued.” She took yet another glance inside the bag. “Who’s going to use it, though?”
“Take another look at it. It should answer this question. Also, there are more, slightly different things below it, too.”
“Hmm…?” Seemingly confused, the tiger decided to put her hand into the bag to get a feel of what was inside. “Ohhh… I-I see, it’s double-… Really, this world is way too advanced in the weirdest areas!” She had to repeat herself. “And the other stuff is… W-Wow! You sure are something else, Maya!”
“In a good or bad way.”
“Yes.”
“Ehehe.” The answer was of little help, but the cat-girl liked the slightly bashful but bright smile on the blonde’s face.
Afterward, Maya grabbed the bag and placed the contents on the bed so that the couple could get a better look at them. Though somewhat embarrassed, Sophia looked rather interested, and it seemed like the birthday of her girlfriend would end up being even more of an event than she had previously anticipated.