Sophia and Ari made up with each other by clearing up the misunderstanding the jaguar-girl had, and the two seed to be becoming good friends. The duo had a great ti chatting with each other while loosely watching over Anna and Maya training.
"S-Say..." After fidgeting and stealing so glances at the tiger for a while, Ari finally addressed her once the two took a break from watching the other girls.
"Hmm?" She only tilted her head in response.
"Your blonde hair... There are so different shades, yes, but I never saw anyone in the tiger family with hair or fur that wasn't a deep orange..."
"Yeah, the king also told that I'm the only one like this. "
"Really? T-Then..."
"It's great, isn't it?"
"Eh?!" Ari looked shocked as she stared at her.
"I really like my hair color, and Maya loves it, too." She chose to have it, after all. "I couldn't be happier about it."
"E-Even though you're the only different one?"
"W-Well..." Sophia really didn't like the sound of that. "No, I don't mind having different hair. I don't think being unique is anything bad."
"I-Is that so?" The jaguar didn't know how to react. "Y-You see, I really dislike my black hair..."
"But why?!" She had heard about it before, but it still made no sense.
"I'm the only jaguar with black hair... and people keep looking at because of that... I don't like getting so much attention."
"That's..." The tiger understood her pretty well. "I am sure they pay attention to you because they're jealous about it, though." According to Maya, the blonde has the sa problem, but Sophia refuses to accept that, too, but that's apparently a different story.
"You don't have to flatter . I know they stare at simply because I'm an odd irregular..."
"..." The amount she could relate to her almost hurt. "E-Even though Anna loves your hair, too?"
"She only says that to make feel better..." Ari sounded pretty sad at the sa ti.
"Wow, the princess was right. You actually don't listen to her at all when she ntions your hair."
"S-She talked about with you?"
"Do you want to know what happened when I first saw you?" Sophia recalled the events from roughly two weeks ago. "I had no idea who you were, and the first thing I asked the princess was who the girl with the amazing hair was after seeing you. Afterward, Anna kept boasting about you and your aweso hair for around ten minutes. Actually, the two of us gushed so much about it that Maya got super jealous about being this interested in another girl. Or the hair of her, you."
"W-What...?"
"I admit that I don't know her that well yet, but I don't think Anna can lie to make others feel better. She strikes as stupidly honest."
"T-That's true."
"I think she was a lot more excited while talking about you compared to the stupid period when she wanted to marry ."
"R-Really...?" A slight blush appeared on Ari's face.
"I also agree with her. Well, I'll ignore our first impression..."
"T-Thank you."
"You seem really nice, and I'm happy I got to know you better. And I repeat myself, your hair is absolutely amazing. It's the second most stunning hair I've ever seen. Also, just so you know, I'm heavily biased towards the first place because it's the snow-white of Maya."
"..."
"From one girl with a unique trait to another, be proud of it." Sophia ant every word. "I know the curious gazes can be a bit intimidating, but everyone who thinks your hair looks bad is an idiot. If you ever feel uncomfortable, stick to the princess. I'm sure she has so nice words for those idiots. Maya looks out for in the sa way because I get intimidated by all those stares often enough, myself… Sure, our relationships might be different, but it's obvious how much she cares about you. Anyway, your hair is seriously amazing. Be proud of it, dammit!" Sophia ran out of motivational words.
"Urgh... I wanted to be mad at Anna for wanting to marry you for a while, but now I can't anymore."
"Huh?!" The tiger didn't expect this turn of events.
"I kinda doubted myself about sothing for a mont just now."
"W-Wait a mont." She didn't want to deal with that again.
"I hope Maya knows what she has."
"Haha, ask the princess how aggressive my cat got and how much she bullied her when Anna went after ."
"That stupid princess." Ari stifled a laugh.
"Ha, good..." Sophia seed relieved. "I know it sounds terribly conceited, but I thought for a mont you tried to go after just now."
"Ah, no, it was just a figure of speech. I don't plan to go after you."
"Phew, that's great. I didn't want it to beco complicated again. I just want a friend without any extras..."
"That idea, I would like. I want to be your friend, too."
"Yay!" The blonde looked genuinely happy.
"Hehe. Again, thank you very much for all the kind words about my hair. Hearing that from you, soone who is in the sa position, really gave a lot to think about. I can't guarantee anything yet, but I'll try to be more confident."
"Good. I ant every word. By the way, if you didn't like it, why is it so long? People will see it even better that way, don't they?"
"Because I love long hair?" She only tilted her head. "I didn't want to suffer twice by the wrong color and wrong length."
"Fair enough. I'm a big fan of long hair, too. Maya does a lot for in that regard. I grew mine out a little, but I currently can't be bothered with having it even longer because it becos even more of a pain to deal with. My cat needs days to get hers in order, even with helping her after a bath."
"That's the only downside." The jaguar nodded in understanding.
"Still… Your hair really does make a little jealous. The glossy black together with the shimring yellow and orange highlights…. Also, the pattern on top of it, how could anyone not love it?" While saying so, the tiger got closer to her to get a better look at the black hair.
"And I'm jealous of yours!" Ari played along and touched the tips of Sophia's blonde hair in return.
"Let's just agree to disagree!"
"I disagree!" She had a pretty playful side to her.
"That's good... Wait!" She got confused over the jaguar's answer.
"Ahaha…"
"Oh, you..." Sophia started to chuckle as well. She also went ahead to touch Ari's hair because she really liked it. While the two had a good laugh while enjoying each other's company and admiring the hair of the girl beside them, a minor incident happened.
----------------
"Ahem." A certain cat-girl and princess suddenly stood next to the duo.
"A-Ah." Because Ari and Sophia were quite busy, they totally missed that the two finished their training and walked up to them. That the blonde and the black-haired girl seed like they were heavily flirting to outsiders while playing with their hair wasn't overly helpful, either.
"My, don't you two have a good mood going on?" There were many emotions in Maya's voice. Friendliness wasn't one of them, though.
"Might I know what is going on here?" Anna, too, didn't overly like it and her eyes looked quite scary.
"Uhh..." The duo imdiately let go of the other's hair and put so distance between them. "I-It isn't what it looks like!" The two tried to defuse the situation.
"Tell us, what does it look like?" Unfortunately, neither Maya nor the princess planned to let them out easily. Them being in perfect sync only made it much scarier.
"W-Well, we just, uhh..." Sophia stopped mid-sentence. She made up with the jaguar and held a motivational speech. Still, the extre complinting and playing around with the other's hair really was hard to explain. Especially with the tiger's communication skills, there's a high chance to only make it worse because they really did look quite flirty.
"Seems like being hated was just a pretense, huh?" Anna stood right next to the cat and looked just as disapproving.
"I-I really did think that she hates !"
"It's true, A-Anna..." Ari tried to help. "I actually disliked her a lot, b-but it was all a misunderstanding, and we made up."
"You sure did." The two were still in sync.
"Urgh." So was the questioned duo.
"P-Princess, do you rember when we talked about Ari's hair when we went to look at our new mansion?" The blonde hoped she would understand this way.
"Of course, I do."
"I just wanted her to understand that her hair's great..."
"You were very thorough with that."
"Mh-hmm." The cat-girl was on the sa wavelength.
"You, too, Ari... You never played with my hair like that!" There was a hint of jealousy in the voice of the princess.
"T-That!" Ari's cheeks turned a bit red, and she didn't know how to react. "I-I just wanted to get a better look at Sophia's hair because she's the sa as , soone who's unique! We just got a little playful and ssed around a bit with our hair! I-I have absolutely no feelings for this tiger!"
"E-Exactly!" Sophia confird her claim. "I just want to be friends with her! Nothing else!"
"Really?"
"Yes!" The accused duo was getting desperate.
"W-We even talked about that after Sophia told what happened between the two of you! I have no intention to marry her!"
"A-Ah." The princess didn't like the sudden reversal. "I kinda hoped this wouldn't co up here..." She got a little awkward. "D-Did Sophia change your mind about your hair... I really love it, too, but you never wanted to listen to when it cos to that..."
"I'm sorry about that... She made think about it. Sophia has unique hair, too, but she loves it. I'll try to be more confident…"
"Yes! Yes, yes, yes!" Anna was really happy about this, and her mood improved considerably.
"M-Maya...?" While the duo was making up, the other tiger faced her cat with a complicated expression.
"Yes?" She only smiled at her, or it at least looked like she was smiling. The look in her eyes didn't match at all, though.
"Nothing whatsoever happened, okay?"
"Is that so?"
"A-Ari!"
"Yes?" She was currently busy keeping the princess away from her hair when she looked over to the couple.
"How did I rank your hair earlier?!"
"It's the second most s-stunning you ever saw, but it can't beat the snow-white of Maya."
"I heavily disagree!"
"Shut up, princess!" Sophia couldn't deal with that right now. "See?! I have my priorities straight!"
"Have you?" Maya raised an eyebrow.
"Of course, I ha- Ahh..." She stopped for a mont. "Not exactly straight, but you know what I an! Ari's great, and I'm super happy to have cleared up the misunderstanding and befriended her, but... But! That's all! I'm more than at full capacity when it cos to having more than friends. You're more than I need, want, and deserve!"
"Alright, fine..." The cat-girl didn't hate her reply. "For soone who has no previous experience, you sure know how to be flirty. Not a fan."
"It wasn't on purpose! D-Does it help when I say Ari started it?"
"It doesn't!" The jaguar was the one who retorted. "W-Well, it's true that I'm the one who started playing with your hair, but..."
"Ari?" Anna's expression changed again.
"A-Ah…"
In the end, it took the duo another 30 minutes to get on the good side of their girls again. Ari was especially confused about why she had to defend herself so much in this situation, as the princess seed to be almost as angry as Maya. Still, she was in no position to ask questions right now.
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