The girls went shopping together, and everyone got a few pairs of lined tights for toasty legs to make them survive fall and winter. Anna initially wanted to go with overknees because she has no talent in putting on tights, or keeping them in one piece. Still, she felt left out because the other three, safe for the color, got the same thing. In the end, Maya and the princess went with lined white tights while the blonde and Ari went with the traditional black ones. The fours ended up matching in their usual odd duos for some reason.

“Are the two of you still free after this?” Sophia looked at the jaguar and her princess.

“I don’t have much planned today.” Ari shook her head.

“Yep, nothing at all.” So did Anna. “Is there anything else you want to get? Besides clothes, that is? That’s planned for another day, isn’t it?”

“Yeah… Somewhere after the whole academy thing gets going.” The blonde nodded. “No, I want to visit the beauty and care products store.”

“I see.” The princess then looked at her jaguar. “Do we need anything?”

“It’s never wrong to stock up on shampoo or hand creme if we’re there already.”

“That’s true. What do you need, Sophia?”

“Stuff to experiment with for my invention.”

“Oh?!” Anna’s ears and tail perked up. “Why didn’t you say that earlier! Let’s get going already!” She sounded very motivated, got behind the blonde, and started pushing her back. “Hurry!”

“The princess really doesn’t like her fluffy hair, huh?” Maya was walking behind the duo as she addressed Ari next to her.

“You have no idea… Her current hair isn’t even her final form, either…”

“Seriously…?” The cat-girl glanced at Anna. “Her ponytail alone already has so much volume that it looks like a second head already…”

“In a week or two, she’ll be changing to twintails and they'll have that much hair on each side.”

“Wow.” Maya had no better words.

“It looks adorable, though.” The jaguar didn’t mind the fluffiness. “It feels great to touch, too.”

“Is that so…?” She stared at her in response.

“A-Ah… I-I mean, I have to help her tie up her hair because it’s impossible to handle alone, and so I have to mess around with it a lot…” Ari sounded slightly flustered all of a sudden.

“Hmm…” The cat-girl looked slightly suspicious for a moment before agreeing. “Yeah, I was playing around with Sophia’s hair for a while for her new braid, and it feels incredibly good. So soft and springy! Though, I can see why it’s a pain for them. Even that braid took me a while because I had no idea what to do with all that hair.”

“And Sophia’s just starting to get fluffy.”

“That’s true…” While walking behind their tigers for a bit while the two continued to chat about their hair, the group eventually arrived at the beauty store.

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“Welco-, Oh.” The girls entered the store, and a female clerk with dark-brown hair and dog-like ears wearing a black shirt with a red skirt that looked a little like a store uniform greeted the group. While the body of the dog-girl, safe for the tail and ears, looked and had the same proportion as a human, compared to the other girls, she had a thin layer of fur seemingly covering her entire body. It was a two-tone color with a light brown as the base and together with white-colored fur on the inside of her arms and legs. She stopped her greeting in the middle and her eyes became sympathetic once she spotted the two tigers, with one looking fluffier than the other. It also was a different clerk that felt sorry for Sophia the last time she was here.

“…” Sophia, and even more so Anna, awkwardly looked at the clerk. “We know…”

“We are deeply apologetic that we are still unable to help you with the yearly unruliness of the tiger hair.”

“It’s alright. I know that you’re trying to invent some products to help us, after all.” Anna still hung her head while replying to her.

“Are there any shampoos, or conditioners, or anything else that you tried to, err… mix together for us tigers?”

“Yes.” The clerk with the dog-ears answered her. “We managed to adapt our smoothening and moisturizing shampoos and conditioners for you and your fellow tigers, but it unfortunately still had no effect…”

“But it’s compatible with our hair…? I bought some normal products with these qualities, but it made my hair all slimy and disgusting…” Sophia shuddered, just thinking about it again.

“Yes, just as all the other products from the royal package, those shampoos and conditioners are custom-made for the specific properties of your hair. It’s just that the smoothing additives won’t work once you start getting your winter fur… err, hair.”

“I see… That’s a start.” The blonde mumbled to herself. “Even if it doesn’t work, could you produce some of these conditioners and shampoos for me?”

“We still have some left of those. Queen Kira herself visited us a couple of days ago to try our newest samples, but it had no effect on her. You can have them, but I can, unfortunately, assure you that they won’t work any differently than our normal royal products.”

“That’s fine. I need them for some experiments.”

“Experiments…?” The dog-girl tilted her head. “Please take care not to ruin your hair by using too many products at once, okay?”

“Of course.”

“Also, in the off-chance you figure something out, we’ll gladly buy the recipe from you if it’s usable for everyday use.”

“I like the sound of that.” Sophia was already expanding her business. “Do you have any products that protect hair from rough conditions by chance? Let’s say… I don’t know, heat, for example?”

“Heat, you say…?” The clerk tilted her head. “That’d depend on which kind of heat, but you might find something in our explorer line. We’ve created some helpful gadgets for explorers. The one you could find interesting is the one for desert areas. It’s a spray-on that keeps the hair from drying out or getting damaged under the strong sun and heat in deserts. It also gives the hair a somewhat slick coating that makes it harder for dust and sand to cling to it.”

“Ohhh!” The blonde got excited. “I need a bottle of that, too!”

“Of course.”

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Once Sophia got everything she needed, the other girls also stocked up on some stuff while they were at it already, and the group eventually left the store again.

“What are you up to…?” The group was walking on the streets of the capital, and Anna looked at the bag her fellow tiger was carrying. “A spray that protects your hair from desert heat…?”

“Ahh… It’s a bit complicated to explain.” She scratched her cheek while trying to come up with an explanation. “Oh, do the two of you want to come over to our place?” The blonde looked at the princess and her jaguar.

“Yes!” The two answered immediately.

“The heated floors, huh?”

“Yes!” They responded with a big nod

“Haha. Sure, let’s go. You might also have an idea or two for my invention.” Saying so, Sophia led the group towards the couple’s mansion. On the way, she also made a quick stop to buy some new pairs of tongs. One extra fancy pair for Maya after the blonde destroyed some in her experiment, and another one for herself. It was a model that was slightly more shaped like the hair iron from her old world, as it was completely flat instead of being slightly curved.

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“Haa~… It’s sooo comfy here.” The girls sat down on the sofas in the living room, the couple on one, and Anna together with Ari on the other one opposite of them.

“Yes.” The jaguar agreed with the princess.

“You two…” Maya rolled her eyes while lightly massaging her calves after having taken off her shoes and socks to warm her feet on the floor.

“Really…?” Sophia only started at her.

“Ahaha…” The cat-girl let out a dry laugh before urging the three to do the same. Naturally, everyone happily complied.

“I sooo want to have those heated floors in my room!” Anna got loud.

“I’ve shared my invention with the manufacturers, so the queen should soon give them the order to retrofit the castle.”

“Mother already did. Ari and I also long petitioned to have our rooms be renovated as soon as possible. Ellie was faster, though…”

“Why am I not surprised about that.” The blonde stifled a laugh while smiling at the image of the little one, instantly demanding to have her room changed once she knew what was going on.

“Though, the company said that they first need to do some more testing. Also, renovating our rooms will take a while. They said something about one to two months. MONTHS!” Because it was important to her, Anna had to say the last part twice.

“That’s rough…” Sophia scratched her cheek. “Judging by what I’ve heard from everyone so far, won’t it be already really cold by then?”

“Freezing!” The duo got loud.

“I hope that offer about the room here still stands, my dear friend.” Anna looked at her fellow tiger. “I will move in if it gets too unbearable, after all.”

“Sure, sure~.”

“Can I, too…?” The jaguar also wanted to profit from the mansion’s heated floors.

“Of course~.” For Sophia, it was the more, the merrier. “Ah, but we might run out of rooms at this rate. Do the two of you mind sharing one?”

“T-That’s okay…” The cheeks of the duo turned slightly pink.

“There’s only one bed, though. It might be a bit cozy for two. Is that okay?” They had a plethora of rooms available, but the blonde had no reason to let them live there for free, so she wanted to get some enjoyment out of the situation as payment.

“Y-Yes…” Averting their faces from each other with an even deeper blush, the duo nodded.

“…” The actual couple wasn’t sure how to react other than shaking their heads while thinking that they should confess already. Unfortunately, the two only watched their respective bestie while ignoring the other girl and also their partner, which would’ve ended this slightly stupid situation in an instant.

“Still…” Sophia eventually changed the topic. “Two months to renovate your rooms, huh?”

“Yeah, it’s the worst…” The duo was happy that the bed topic wasn’t continued.

“Those guys sure are lazy… It took us like two or three hours to retrofit this whole mansion… And we did every single room, even the storage ones.”

“Sophia…” Ari looked right at her with a disapproving expression. “I have no idea what you did, but do you think they can do what you did?”

“That… I told you what I did, right? I teleported everything in the rooms, including the floor itself, into my storage thingy. Once we were done, I brought it back, and everything looked like nothing happened.”

“Seriously?” Anna couldn’t believe it. “Have you thought about becoming a carpenter? You’d be the most successful one in this country.”

“Ahaha…” Sophia couldn’t help but laugh at this all too familiar suggestion.

“Really?” The jaguar’s stare got only more piercing. “How would any normal person ever be able to do that?”

“True…”

“On an unrelated note,” Ari quickly let her go for some reason. “I don’t have that many things in my room. “I bet it wouldn’t take long at all with your technique. Are you free for roughly 15 minutes and want to see my room tomorrow, Sophia?”

“Ari?!” Anna couldn’t believe that her proper childhood friend said something so cheeky.

“What? It’s a good idea, isn’t it? Do you want to wait for two months?”

“My room is a bit bigger… Are you free for 45 minutes in total tomorrow, Sophia?!” She quickly was on board.

“You two…”

“I can easily arrange that you get paid at least the same amount as the heating company would’ve been. Probably a lot more because of the swift execution!”

“Sure, why not…” The blonde gave up. There was actually nothing speaking against it, after all. She liked both of them, and she also enjoys helping out others. “Maybe not this week, though… I’m a little busy with my newest invention, and I have some other plans. How about sometime after Maya’s birthday or once we visited your school?”

“…” The duo paused for a moment.

“It’s still much faster than those two months, you know?”

“Thank you very much for helping us out!” They were quick to get over their disappointment.

Once the topic was over, Anna remembered what they actually came over for and wanted to see the invention Sophia was working on that might be able to tame their unruly hair.

 

 

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