??? POV:
A single vial was set upon the table, sealed and opaque to keep its contents hidden. As soon as it left the stranger's hands, the man's eyes went wide.
“Ah, so you know what this is? Good, then surely you must know what I want.” The stranger’s deep haughty voice said as he slid over a sealed parchment. The other man picked up the paper, unfolded it, and started reading its contents. His face hardened as he looked through the document.
“...are you sure?” He finally asked, setting the paper down and glancing towards the vial.
“Yes, quite sure in fact. They’ve been a thorn in my side for far too long.” The stranger said as he pulled out a pouch of coins and dropped it on the table. “I’ll pay half in advance, and half when you make sure the deed is done.”
The man nodded while carefully folding up the document and sticking it in his pocket, before grabbing both the vial and the bag of coins.
“Then we have ourselves a deal.”
~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~
“...hey Kat?” I asked in a gentle but slightly confused tone.
“Mmmm?” A muffled voice replied.
“You know, you’re the first girlfriend I’ve ever had.”
“Mmm.”
“So uh, is this normal?” I asked as I stared at her as her entire face was buried inside my tail.
“Mm mmmm!” She exclaimed.
“God you two are so sickeningly cute,” Sam said as she looked over at us with a smile. “Seriously, get a room you two.”
Kat regretfully unburied herself from my tail, as she sat back up on the couch. We were in the study again, it was just a bit after lunch. Me and Kat were sat on the couch for “cuddle time” as she called it. Not that I’m complaining of course.
Victoria left after lunch ended, apparently, she wanted to go buy supplies for her witchcraft stuff. Once Kat had mentioned that the fae world would have far higher quality magic supplies Victoria got all excited to go shopping. Sam decided to stay with us for now, sipping on tea as she spent time with us.
“You know technically this is my house right?” Kat asked with a frown towards Sam, “So I can cuddle with my new girlfriend as much as she lets me.”
“Which one is your girlfriend? The tail or the fox?” Sam asked with a grin.
“...No comment.”
“Hey!” I exclaimed with a fake hurt expression. Kat didn’t seem to realize I was joking as she started to worry she actually hurt me. I bopped her face with the tip of my tail and that got us giggling.
“Hnng! My gay heart!” Sam exclaimed as she dramatically put a hand to her chest. “I might need to see a doctor at this rate!”
“Oh nooo… It sounds so serious.” I said with a joking tone.
“It is! The only cure for such a devastating illness is girls! A cute girlfriend of my own!” She exclaimed as Ana entered the room, who looked like they immediately wanted to leave again.
“Well, I think we found the first candidate,” Kat said with a grin before turning to look at Ana.
“I knew that was coming…” She sighed before sitting down in a nearby chair. It looks like she was in “rest mode”, she occasionally drops being a maid for a short while to just relax with Kat as friends and not as a maid. I’ve never seen any other staff do the same, so I guess being best friends with the princess herself has its perks.
“So Sam, what do you think of Ana? I think you two would look cute together,” Kat said, but Ana responded before Sam could.
“Kat, please don’t set me up on a date, especially with people I just met yesterday.” She said before turning towards Sam with a smile. “No offense of course, I’m sure we’ll be fast friends soon enough.”
“Y-yeah I agree,” She responded as I barely noticed the hint of a blush on her face. Was she actually thinking of Ana in that way now? Was this because of Kat pointing it out, or was Sam already thinking of her like that? I tried to recall last night to see if she did the same when they talked before, but I couldn’t remember at the moment.
“So, does anyone have plans for the day?” Kat said, seemingly not noticing Sam’s reaction or at least not mentioning it. After a moment where everybody said they were free, Kat spoke up again in an excited tone.
“Good! Then I say we go hit the town and enjoy ourselves!” She exclaimed as she pumped her hands into the air.
“Well, I’ll make sure that dinner is ready before you return home. I hope you three enjoy yoursel-” Ana tried to say as she stood back up before Kat interrupted her.
“Ana! You’re coming with us!”
“Lady Katherine I can’t, I have a job to do.” She said as she frowned towards Kat, as she started to slip back into her 'maid mode'.
“Nonsense. As the lady of the house I hereby declare that the rest of the day is your off day, go get dressed in some normal clothes and have fun tonight!”
She sighed and turned around grumbling as she left to go change. I noticed a hint of a smile on her face as she left, but I decided to not mention it.
“I wonder what kind of nonsense a fantasy world has compared to back home in terms of fun...” Sam muttered. I grinned, she had no idea what awaited her. The image of a classical fantasy world was shattered long ago for me after all.
~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~
“....an arcade?” Sam said with a confused expression as she looked over the building we finally arrived at. It was a surprise to me too, well somewhat. I knew wherever Kat took us would be far too similar to what my old world had, but I hadn’t expected an arcade.
“I know right!? It’s been ages since I last visited one, it’s going to be so fun!” A manly voice exclaimed from behind us, Sam snapped her head towards the voice in surprise before sighing once she saw who it was.
“Ken, right? I think you mentioned it yesterday.” She said as she looked at Ken for the first time.
“Yep!” He exclaimed. I hadn’t even noticed when he turned into Ken, it surprised me at how fast he could change back and forth.
“Are you three coming in, or are you just going to stand there all day?” Ana asked as she opened the door to the arcade.
We all went inside, and Ken gave everyone some allowance to use for the machines. I still didn’t really know their currency that well, but even I knew that he gave us more than we likely needed for a trip to the arcade. The bag had some weight to it, and it made me miss paper money.
We quickly ended up separating from each other, as the other three quickly found machines that took their interest. I saw Ken headed towards a machine that looked like those old school shooter machines, but instead of guns, it had wands instead. They had small little buttons on the side of the wands to ‘shoot’ at the monsters that appeared on screen.
I saw Sam heading for one of those sit-down racing games, and I turned to see Ana heading for… wow. That’s just straight-up pac-man. I didn’t expect to see a game like that in this world, how’d they even get it over here? Is that even legal? I had no idea…
In fact, when I looked around the arcade I noticed several machines from my old world. There were tons of new ones I had never seen, but it all looked out of place next to the ones I was used to.
I don’t know how long exactly I had spent away from the group, maybe ten or twenty minutes? I was just in the middle of a timing game where you had to press a button when the light was just in the right spot. Right as I was about to press the button, I felt a hand grab my arm and drag me away.
I noticed it was Ken who interrupted my fun as I spoke up.
“I hope you know I was definitely going to hit the jackpot,” I said, completely ignoring my several previous failures on said game. He said nothing as he dragged me to a quiet corner of the arcade. We slowed to a stop near a wall that was empty of machines, and I was starting to worry a little bit. What was-
Slam
He turned around and slammed his hand up against the wall above my shoulder. He towered over me, and it really dawned on me just how much taller he was than Kat. His face was really close…
“W-what’s wrong?” I asked nervously, as his other hand reached up and gently leaned my chin upwards. Before he moved down and planted a kiss on my lips. I was a little confused, but I didn’t back away as we shared a deep kiss.
As he broke away he grinned before throwing his hands up in the air in excitement.
“Yes! We did it!” He exclaimed in such a way that wiped away my worries from a moment ago.
“...did what?” I asked, even though I knew it was going to be something silly.
“We did the scene! You know the one in every high school romance novel! Where the guy puts his hand up against the locker!” He exclaimed, and I sighed at his antics.
“Technically this is a wall, not a locker. And you could have just asked to do that, you know? I was worried something was wrong.”
“Did you really not hear me? I asked several times and thought you were just ignoring me or something. Were you really that into the game?” He asked.
“...Sorry. Guess I got a little carried away,” I said as I felt a little guilty about being so engrossed into a single game. He shook his head as he responded.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’m just glad you’re having fun.” As he finished up his eyes lit up, and I knew he just had one of those ideas. They were always either a prank, a joke, or a silly idea.
I was correct when he displayed a brief show of magic, and a small white light appeared around him. The light quickly dimmed to reveal Kat standing there with a grin. Before I could even ask what she was doing, she instantly went for another kiss. With just as much passion as before.
When she ended it she spoke up before I could even get the chance to.
“So? Which is better?” She asked with a grin.
“...you’re unfair…”
You're avoiding the question Emma!
Thanks for the chapter