Chapter 081 – Maya’s dilemma
Sophia had put a lot of work into her convincing skill and managed to talk Eve and Theo into meeting her parents even though they were quite reluctant about it after learning that they were humans. Thankfully, they had nothing in common with the humans in the new world, and the blonde made them agree, which brought her one step closer to getting her family to her new home, which was a much better place, in her opinion.
“Well, that was something.” Sophia and Maya were back in the cottage, and the tiger let out a tired sigh as she got comfortable on one of the sofas in the living room. “I think it went well, though.” She smiled at the cat-girl next to her on the sofa.
“Yeah.” She nodded. “I hadn’t expected for them to buy your background so fast.”
“I didn’t give them much of a choice, after all.” She scratched her cheek. “I’m just happy they love me so much and also accepted my past.”
“You have to try much harder for them to dislike you.” She smiled back at the blonde. “You have completely won them over.”
“Ehehe~.” Sophia liked that. "I look forward to seeing how you fare with my parents!"
"A-Ah!” Maya’s expression changed. “Somehow, I hadn’t thought about that part yet!”
“You better start coming up with ideas, then~.”
“I need to have an emergency meeting with Chloe as soon as possible!”
“Why…?” The tiger looked confused.
“She’s in the same situation as I am!”
“Hmm?”
“She’s dating Steph!”
“Right!” It took a while before Sophia understood. “True! She’d also have to meet them if I get them to visit us. I need to make sure to have popcorn ready that day! Steph and I are going to have an amazing time when that happens~.”
“Not helping!” Maya got loud.
“I wasn’t intending to be helpful.” She just smiled at her.
“Ahh.” The cat-girl rolled her eyes. “Well, I guess I earned that after doing the same during the conversation with my parents earlier.”
“Absolutely.” Sophia just looked at her. “In all seriousness, though, you should be fine. Once you make my mother believe you’re actually real, everything will be alright.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“My mother still isn’t entirely convinced that I have a partner. I mean, she hasn’t seen much of the new me yet, and past Sophia indeed was too much of a wreck to be in a relationship.”
“Ahh, I see.” Maya could follow her logic. “Well, that shouldn’t be too hard. I mean, it’s kinda obvious that I exist.”
“Slightly obvious, yeah.” The tiger couldn’t argue with that. “Parents do be parents, though.”
“A good counter.” She nodded. “I’m so envious that you met my parents without knowing who they were and managed to bond with them before being able to get nervous over the fact they’re the parents of your partner!”
“Ehehe~.” Sophia’s voice turned smug. “Every once and then, even I get lucky!”
“You’ve been nothing but lucky since coming to this world!” The cat-girl raised her voice. “And don’t you dare to say anything against that! You’ve claimed to be unlucky many times in the past, but it’s SOOO not the case!”
“I’m not lucky all the time.” She still had to complain.
“Tell me one event where you weren’t stupidly lucky!”
“I can tell you at least three!”
“Sure.” Maya didn’t believe her.
“The first time I met this world’s humans! The second time! The third time when I went to war against them!”
“…” She went silent.
“I love it when I make you speechless.” Sophia gave her a cheeky grin.
“I like it more when you make me scream.” Maya wasn’t going to lose a contest of being cheeky.
“…” The tiger also went silent for a second. “Yeah, that’s indeed better.”
“Alright, with our evening activity being decided on, can we focus for a little longer?” She winked at her before looking slightly more serious again.
“Who’s the one that went off-topic?!”
“Both of us.”
“Fair enough.” Sophia couldn’t argue with that.
“So you really plan to bring the rest of your family over, huh?”
“I want them to consider it at the very least!” The blonde nodded. “Some quality-of-life issues aside, the world we live in now is much better, after all! Healthcare alone is leagues ahead! Sure, earth has developed some amazing medicine for many illnesses, a lot of which humanity has created themselves, but let’s not go there… Anyway, medicine may be great, but here, you can just magic away everything that could cause harm! There are basically no dangers to your health!”
“To be fair,” Maya scratched her cheek. “Even here, we normally rely on medicine, too. Usually, healing magic is only practiced by a select few and only used when nothing else works.”
“We constantly use healing magic on next to everything, though.” The tiger tilted her head.
“Because our group is far from the norm in this world.”
“That’s true.” She saw her point. “My family would have 24/7 full and free Sophia healthcare, though. Steph healthcare as a backup, too.”
“What a good daughter.” Maya was proud of her. “Well, you also turned the back of my father into that of a 20-year-old again, so I guess that’s to be expected.”
"Your parents are also family, so of course, it's to be expected!"
“I can see why they love you so much.”
“Ehehe~.”
“It will still be hard work to convince your parents to come to this world, though. After all, I assume that they have a lot more to give up than you and Steph had.”
“Yeah.” Sophia nodded. "Not to mention the big issue of them being humans. That far from makes it easier, too.”
“That’s putting it lightly. Still, the cheap excuse of them being hidden if they play along with it might just work.”
“I’ll suggest that to them once we talk about the situation.” The blonde also thought that it was a viable option. “For starters, I’ll just show them my domain and bring your parents there, too. That way, they can get to know each other in a safe and undisturbed place. My parents also get a first feel of a different world without having the need to pretend to be something or someone else.”
“That sounds like a good base for a plan to me.”
“I think so, too.” Sophia agreed. “It’s a good thing that our plans always work the way we intended them to be, as well.”
“Ahaha…” The cat-girl awkwardly scratched her cheek.
The couple talked about it for a little bit longer until the other girls returned from their little trip to the crystalized forest and joined them in the living room.
----------------
“We’re back!” Steph energetically announced their arrival. “That forest looked so amazing! My next project is definitely going to be something fantasy-like, too!”
“Important news, Chloe!” Ignoring the dog, Maya immediately addressed the pink fox.
“Oh?” She tilted her head. “What’s up?”
“Sophia wants to talk her parents into visiting this place!”
“Let’s go!” Steph reacted first. “Great idea, sis!” She smiled at the blonde. “Whatever the plan is, I’m in! I’ll help in any way possible!” She also wanted them to be here.
“I knew I could count on you~.” Sophia just gave her a thumbs up.
“That surely is going to be interesting.” Chloe nodded a few times before looking at the cat-girl again. “Why did you address me, though?” She didn’t understand that part.
“If their parents will visit, it means that we’re going to meet them, too!” She raised her voice a little.
“I’m looking forward to it~.” The fox still didn’t see the issue.
“That means we’re going to meet the parents of our girlfriends!” Maya got even louder while she repeated herself.
“Ohh!” She finally understood her intention but then tilted her head again. "So?"
“Aren’t you nervous about that?!” The cat-girl couldn’t believe her reaction. “That’s a big deal, isn’t it?”
“Is it?” Chloe only got more confused. “I mean, okay, it's been a little while since I've last seen them, but they like me, and I'm a big fan of them, too!"
“E-Eh…?” She hadn’t expected that reply. “You’ve already met them?”
“Yes.” The fox nodded. “Steph dragged me to the old world roughly two weeks after we started dating. We’ve met two or three more times since then, too.”
“Seriously?!” Maya stared at the dog-girl. “Why are you so fast with everything you do?!”
“If you know, you know!” She smiled back at her. “No need to waste time!”
“To be fair,” Sophia joined the conversation. “She and Chloe started dating not even a week after meeting. Waiting two more after that to meet the family seems reasonable to me.”
“Thank you very much, sis.”
“Nothing about that is reasonable!” The cat-girl thought otherwise.
“It’s good that we didn’t have to do any of this, huh?” Anna, who had been just listening until now, smiled at Ari next to her.
“Yes!” The jaguar thought so, too. “We've grown up knowing each other's parents, after all~." She seemed very glad about that fact.
“So I'm seriously the only one here who hasn't met my partner's parents?!"
“Yup.” All five nodded.
“No way!” Maya didn’t like that revelation.
“You really need to step up your game there.” Steph smirked at her.
“Urgh!” She wasn’t a fan of her smug sass. “Sophia, go get your parents right now!” The cat-girl had enough.
"Good job on riling her up." The blonde sounded impressed as she looked at the girls. “You took away all her nervousness, too. Thank you very much for that~.”
“There’s no way that was their intention!”
“It sure was~.” All four of them simply smiled at the loud cat-girl.
“Anyway, I’ll go and visit them soon.” Sophia faced her. “Ellie’s birthday comes first, though. It’s right around the corner, after all.”
“Fine.”
The group chatted about the topic around their family for a little while longer, including the part where the couple asked Maya's parents for help before they eventually changed to the crystallized cherry blossom forest because Steph still had many questions about that after having seen it for the first time before coming back home.