Katia was sitting in the garden of her home in Azuria, drinking some tea. She didn’t like the taste of this one too much but it was the only one available that would help her calm down.

For the last few weeks she has been on the edge most of her free time now that Mia came back to classes. Studying was extremely important to her so during the actual lessons she could just forget about everything but the moment she wasn’t doing something all the panic came at once. It wasn’t affecting her publicly but it wouldn’t be much longer when she would die of stress.

Her family being in Azuria didn’t help much either. She sent a letter explaining everything and just a few days ago a formal agreement for a full alliance between Azuria and Suriana, her home country, was signed. It should have been one less problem in her head but she wasn’t expecting her parents to come seal the deal.

Her country wasn’t a monarchy but a republic, most people in power were voted into power, but that didn’t mean a single family couldn’t hold a position for long periods of time. It wasn’t unusual for someone of her family to be the Head of the country, the King or Queen if it was a monarchy. Her mother had a good chance of being the Head so it was very beneath her to get any kind of diplomatic job. Those didn’t have as much power as one was led to believe. Her father was even worse. He refused to go up in rank in the military because he loves to go out and fight anything. He was one of the best paid foot soldiers in the army, receiving more than most people above him.

Being her parents, they quickly noticed Katia’s state and made her spill the beans on everything on her mind. Now they were actively trying to resolve it, without her consent. At this moment they were at Mia’s house and she didn’t know what to expect.

“We are back.” Her father announced as she was absentmindedly drinking from an empty cup.

“Greetings father.” Katia said.

“No hugs? No welcome back, daddy? My little girl is abandoning me.” Her dad said as he picked her up and hugged her. The man was very unlike her. He was more animal than man. He was extremely bulky, over 3 meters tall, gray as one could be, His horns were also extremely big, more than normal for other members of her race.

“You will always be smaller than him, no reason to not take advantage of it.” Her mother said playfully. She was perfect in the middle of beast and man. Her body was mostly human in shape with just enough animal parts so you couldn’t say she wasn’t a member of our race. She was 165 cm tall. Katia knew that she wouldn’t get much bigger than her.

“Wait, so you only married me because I would get bigger?” Her father asked.

“Of course not, but it was a pleasant surprise.” Her mother said as she hugged one of his arms. Katia knew that his father wasn’t always the behemoth he was now. As a matter of fact, he wasn’t much taller than his mother when they got together. His cultivation technique had a rare side-effect that would make the user grow in size from time to time and her father was extremely lucky, or unlucky depending on how you looked at it.

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“Alright father, mother. I love you too. Now, what did the two of you do?” Katia said as she was put down.

“We extend an invitation for Mia to stay the rest of today and tomorrow with you here.” Her mother said.

“You loved sleepovers, didn’t you?” Her father happily said.

“Yes. I loved to have my friends over.” Katia said with a smile on her face. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! She screamed internally.

Katia just turned off and for about 2 hours she did things without really noticing. When she finally got back to herself Mia was in front of her front door, alone and with a bag on her back.

“Hello? Katia? You look pale, I think? Are you ok?” Mia innocently asked.

“She was just a little too excited before you came.” Katia’s mom said.

“...Ok Miss Kretia.” Mia answered.

“Katia, my dear, can you show Mia your room? The maids will bring you two something to eat later.” Kretia said.

“Y-Yes mother.” Katia said and quickly began to guide Mia around the mansion. It wasn’t the biggest place around but taking into account that only 10 people were living here, including servants, it was a place way too big for normal use.

“Katia, did someone steal your things?” Mia asked as soon as Katia opened the doors to her room. It was a sad room. If the walls weren’t painted light blue Mia would think this was a really big prison room.

“Not that I know.” Katia answered automatically with the fear still controlling her.

“I only see your bed, wardrobe and mirror here.”

“I sleep and change clothes here, I think everything is in place.”

“Don’t you have toys? Books? A plant? This place looks depressing.” Mia said, without any filter. She was strangely angry at what she was seeing.

“I don’t need toys, we have a library on the first floor and there is a garden outside.” Katia continued to answer automatically, without thinking or looking around.

“...Katia, what do you do for fun? Do you go out with anyone?”

“I usually read. I also am not one to go out much.” Mia suddenly looked very intensely at Katia and gave her a hug. No! She is touching me! I am going to be killed! She thought to herself but her fear wasn’t allowing any of it to come out as words.

“Why didn’t you say nobody was friends with you? You always leave alone so we always thought that you had made friends with people outside the class.” Mia said.

“I have more than enough friends back home.”

“So I am not your friend?” Mia asked.

“...” Katia stood in silence. She didn’t know how to answer that.

“Can you be my friend? I always thought we were friends and you were just shy.”

“...” Katia stood in silence.

“Katia? Hello?”

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! You will never catch me!” Katia suddenly screamed and began to run away.

“Katia!?” Mia asked as she saw Katia suddenly run away.

“I will not be taken by you!” Katia shouted as she began to go down the stairs. All the bottled fear she had finally made her snap.