Sophia and Eve were still in the kitchen together while chatting up a storm. The tiger learned some interesting bits about Maya, and Eve learned a lot more about her new ties to royalty, which made her a little anxious. She also decided to have the blonde take responsibility for being the center and the reason for the entire thing. After all, her future daughter-in-law had made their life a lot more complicated.

“So, back to my earlier question, how far have you gone with my sweet and innocent daughter?” Eve was in a good mood again.

"…" Sophia's cheeks turned red again before her expression soon changed. “I’m sorry, this is going to sound terribly rude, but while I unconditionally agree with the sweet part, your daughter is anything but innocent.” She couldn’t let that stand.

"Too much, huh? So… How far has my daughter gone with you?" She changed her wording.

“Urgh…” She hadn't thought about such an easy reversal. "W-We're dating for around half a year already, and we share a bed here. That’s all I’m going to say.” She had no issue talking about that topic with her friends, aside from being a little embarrassed at times. Still, Maya's mother is something else entirely.

“I see~.” It seemed to be enough for her.

“I shouldn’t have suggested for you treating me like Maya…”

“We got a lot closer because of that, though.” Eve showed her a genuine smile.

“Okay, maybe it was worth it.” The blonde reconsidered her statement.

“Good answer!”

“Do I get some more weaknesses of Maya for that?”

“My, aren’t you a crafty one?”

“I have heard being addressed like that on occasion.”

“Ahaha, let’s see…” The cat-woman tilted her head. “Do you have any food you dislike?”

“I have a few things that aren’t exactly my favorite, but I’m not really picky. Ahh… Okay, I wouldn’t be sad if bell-peppers would go extinct, though… Please, no teasing such a childish dislike, okay? Maya did that enough already.”

“That smug little idiot…”

“Hmm?” The blonde looked a little confused.

“How often has she made something that involves spinach when she cooked for you or your group?"

“Now that I think about it…” Sophia paused for a moment. “I don’t think I have eaten any spinach since I met her. Why?”

“Ask her to make a spinach dish for your next meal, and you'll find out what disliking a type of food really means.”

“Seriously?!”

“Yup.”

“But spinach’s delicious…?”

“So are bell-peppers.”

"A-Ah... You win this round." The tiger had nothing to say here. “Still, her disliking spinach is very valuable information. Thank you very much.”

“Are you going to use it against her the next time you don’t want to eat something?”

“Nope.” She just shook her head. “Maya’s teaching me how to cook because I really want to get better at it. During our next cooking lesson, I’ll be super motivated about wanting something with spinach all the way to the point where she would feel horrible to turn me down. And while we’re cooking, I’ll make her taste-test my creations three times more than normal. I'll look super proud about my creation in a way that makes it seem I'd be heartbroken if I would get any sort of negative response."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“You’re the worst.”

“I know.”

“I lowkey love you already.”

“I-I’m starting to like you a lot, too…” Sophia got a little bashful again.

“You’re the cutest, too.” Eve was having a great time with her. "I'd say that earned you another one of Maya’s many weaknesses~.”

“I might even start to love you.” She was bonding with her quite fast. “Do you have anything that is easy to exploit in an everyday situation when she gets a tad too sassy?”

“You probably already know that she’s quite ticklish in some rather obvious areas?”

“She’s also very ticklish in some not-so-obvious areas~."

“I guess that’s a yes.”

"A-Ah… It is, yeah…” Sophia got a little flustered again. It might’ve not been something you talk about with the mother of said girl.

“Ahaha, that’s great~.” Eve just showed her an even bigger smile. "Hmm, those are a bit hard to come up with. Also, it's probably more fun to find out about them yourself, no?"

“That is very true.”

“Oh, but I have one left that is really amusing. You should really try that one~.”

“Oh?” The blonde naturally got interested in it.

“Have you ever praised her a lot?”

“Of course! All the time!”

“What a nice answer!” She was pretty happy with her reply. “No, but I meant actually overpraising her. You just keep going and shower her with praise to an unreasonable amount. She loves to be praised, she's a smug idiot, after all. Still, when you overdo it, her whole personality falls apart. She gets so shy and bashful over it… It’s the most amusing thing I’ve ever seen!”

“I take that back from earlier.” Sophia sounded very serious all of a sudden. “I actually do love you already.” She liked the intel she got a lot.

"Maya gets super angry afterward, though, so you might use it with caution. But, it is amazing, and you definitely have to try it out."

“Her getting angry is just a nice bonus~. This is totally going to happen the next time I get the chance. Thank you so much for that!”

“You are very welcome.”

“Alright, should we finally try out my cookie recipe or…? The blonde noticed that all they had done in the kitchen so far, was having a lively chat about everything except that.

“Well, it was mostly an excuse to be alone with and learn a thing or two, but…" Eve gave her a thumbs up. “You definitely passed my questioning or however you want to call it. I do like cookies a lot, though, so we might as well? It also sounds much more like traditional mother-daughter bonding, doesn't it? Not that bonding over Maya's many weaknesses wasn’t any fun~.”

“…” Hearing that, Sophia suddenly got a lot more silent.

“What’s wro- Oh.” Eve's expression became very awkward when she understood the tiger's reaction. “T-That’s not exactly what I wanted to imply here, okay? I have no intention to replace anyone dear to you, or you’ve lost…”

“No, that’s not it…” The blonde smiled at her. “Kira, the queen, also did something similar, and I felt a little troubled because I lost my actual mother, but…”

“But?” Eve tilted her head.

“You are Maya’s mother, and she is my partner…” She paused for a moment. “People in relationships usually do have an extra mother, right? Whether it’s an a-actual in-law or just the pre-pre-pre-precursor to that…”

“Too many pre’s in that, if you ask me.”

"L-Let's ignore that detail for the time being…" Sophia got more flustered again. “Anyway, because of that, it didn’t seem like you’re trying to replace my actual mother in the first place. Rather, it felt like I was getting another one, which made me pretty happy. I do miss this kind of bond, after all.”

“…” Eve just looked at the tiger for a little while. A few moments later, she got closer to her and almost crushed the blonde in a strong hug. “You are by far the sweetest girl I ever met.” Eve had no intention of letting go of her afterward, either.

“T-Thank you…” Sophia felt a little awkward for a moment, but she soon returned the hug. “This does feel pretty nice.” She only wrapped her hand tighter around her.

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

The two had stayed like that for a bit longer, but they eventually let go of each other again. Afterward, they decided to finally try out the cookies Sophia had suggested in the very beginning.

"Alright, what do we need for this famous recipe of yours?" Once the mood had lightened up again, Eve smiled at the tiger.

“I wouldn’t call them famous… Oh, then again, even the King and the Queen, together with the princesses, loved them… Hmm…" Sophia got a little confused over the meaning of something being famous.

"Seriously?! Now I'm actually curious!”

“Well, it sounds fancy, but those are just the people that are normally close to me…”

“If you are trying to make it sound less amazing, you are failing quite hard right now.” Eve just stared at her while slowly shaking her head.

“S-Sorry…” She got a little awkward. “Anyway, in the end, my cookies really aren’t anything special. I just managed to come up with a twist that everyone seems to love.”

“Oho, that sounds fun! So, what do we need?”

“The basis is just a normal cookie dough, only with a little less sugar.”

“You don’t like them sweet?” Eve tilted her head. “That’s quite surprising as Maya loves everything sugary."

“Don’t worry, I do, too.” Sophia just waved her hand. “My twist involves a ton of chocolate, so too much sugar in the dough would make it too sweet.”

“Ohh.” She nodded a few times. “That makes sense.”

“Okay, let’s get started!” Sophia raised her arm in motivation.

Afterward, once Eve got over the blonde’s storage magic, the two baked Sophia’s famous chocolate chip cookies together while chatting and bonding with each other even more. Once they were done baking them, the two decided to return to the living room while the cookies were cooling down.