Chapter 46 – Out of character

During their slightly more intimate than usual bath, Sophia, on the brink of a mental breakdown, confessed one of her secrets to Maya. She told her about her boosts and how they affected or altered her personality. Once she finished opening up to the cat-girl, they finally left the bath because she still wasn't any good with staying in the water for too long.

"Welcome back." Fen spotted the two girls arriving in the camp and lightly greeted them.

"Fenny~." Sophia was still in a high-tension mode after her talk with the cat-girl and everything else that was going on. She jumped at the wolf and made herself comfortable while leaning against his side, enjoying the fluffiness of his fur.

"What happened this time?" He knew that something was up.

"Well-" Maya sat down next to the girl and wasn't sure what to answer. "Some stuff happened." While she said so, she let her upper body fall to the side, and her head landed in Sophia's lap, where she made herself comfortable.

"Sure, go ahead. No problem..." Her voice carried a slight hint of sarcasm, but that was all. She showed no intention of stopping her.

"Thanks, I will." She happily wiggled her head around in the girl's lap to find the best position, accidentally tickling Sophia's thighs with her cat ear.

"Haha." She tried not to laugh. "P-Pick a place already!" Though the feeling of her fluffy ear brushing against the girl's legs was far from bad, she would still prefer for her to settle down.

"Sorry." Giving it a last wiggle, Maya finally found the perfect spot in Sophia's lap. "I'm good now."

"Great." The bath, and much more, their conversation, had changed something between them.

"Uhh? Fen was very confused. "What is going on here?" The Sophia he knew would never act even remotely like that.

"Ahh, it seems that I've accidentally broken Sophia," Maya admitted so while awkwardly scratching her cheek.

"Yep, I'm done for~." The girl in question gave a very lighthearted response.

"Okay?" The wolf was missing a lot of information. "Just what happened in that hour you two were gone?"

"Some of my boosts went completely berserk, I guess? You've told me to go on the attack myself, right? That, uhh, did something to me. Together with Maya's stupid idea in the bath, a boost of mine, well, broke its limiter. That caused my brain to shut down, leaving me with almost no control of what I did..."

"Really? That sounds concerning."

"Yeah-" She nodded. "But then I told Maya about my boosts. That helped quite a bit."

"So you've finally told her, huh? That's good. But, aren't you still acting, let's say, out of character? As far as acting in character works for you, of course."

"Yup, totally." One usually wouldn't admit to something like that so readily. "I think the boost's still running berserk. I reverted a bit after becoming aware of it, but it ramped up again shortly after. Not to mention, what even is my character?" If she couldn't answer such a question, no one would be able to.

"Personally, I'm super okay with that." The cat-girl, who was still relaxing on her lap, enjoyed the more calm Sophia.

"Don't get used to it." She shook her head. "Knowing my boosts, it could collapse any moment now. In the first place-" She stopped for a moment and pointed at Maya. "This is still really embarrassing regardless."

"Aww." She sounded disappointed. "Ah, but embarrassed Sophia is cute as well, so I'll allow it."

"How nice of you." She rolled her eyes.

For some reason, Fen really didn't feel like wanting to deal with them right now. He actually tried hard not to get irritated at this overly sweet and unfiltered display of affection he was subjected to.

"Ehehe~." The cat-girl happily wiggled around in her lap again.

"C-Cut it out already!" Getting a little shy from the ticklish feeling, despite the boosts, Sophia lightly karate chopped her head but then left her hand there. "Hmm..."

"Ouch! What's wrong?" She noticed that Sophia's hand was still on her head and slowly moving towards her ears. "O-Oh, do you, uhh, want... to t-touch them?" Her voice suddenly changed.

"A-Ah-!" Being caught in the act, her hand froze in position. Earlier, when the cat-girl accidentally brushed with her ear against her thighs, she got a quick taste of its soft fluffiness and had a strong urge to touch them ever since. "C-Can I?" The curiosity got the better of her.

Maya went silent and closed her eyes, seemingly thinking about something. "Y-Yes, because it's you, it is, it's o-okay..." She suddenly sounded embarrassed for some reason and also seemed very fidgety.

"T-Then-." Sophia gingerly moved her right hand towards the cat-girl's right ear and gently poked it first to gauge her reaction.

"Mrr~." Her entire body flinched while her ear twitched to the touch, but she said nothing more after the purr-like sound escaped her lips and stayed laid down in Sophia's lap.

"Hmm?" She tried to see the expression on Maya's face because of the weird sound she heard. Still, as she was facing away from her body and looking slightly downwards, it was impossible to get a good look. Sophia could've sworn that the cat-girl's cheeks were completely red, though. Afterward, she focused on the outer side of her ear first, gently stroking over the short fur-like hair for a while. Working her way up on her snow-white ears, she then played around with the slightly longer hair on its pointy tip.

"S-Sophia~, mrmn~ that t-tickles!" She had a strong reaction to being touched.

"A-Ah-" Sophia stopped moving. "I'm sorry." She was in a complete trance and didn't even know what she was doing with her hands. "C-Can I continue?" She had no intention to stop, though.

"Y-Yes, go, uuh, g-go on..." Maya was trying to keep her voice down, but her tail, which was going wild, violently swishing all over the place, was a dead giveaway that she was far from calm.

Not saying anything, she continued to focus her attention on the cat-girl's ear. Having had her fill with the soft hair on the tip, Sophia became interested in the spotless and even whiter-than-snow-white ball of fluff inside her ear. While gently reaching for it, Maya flinched even stronger. "S-Sorry, did I, uhh, hurt you somewhere?" She bent over, trying to get a look at her face again, but all she could see was a tightly shut eye and half of an entirely red cheek due to her position and the angle.

"Mrrmm~. N-No-" She tried to hold back her voice. "I'm just-, just not used to having my, you know, e-ears touched... p-please go on~." The sweetness and the purr in her voice made her answer hard to understand.

"W-Wow-" She needed a moment to collect her thoughts. "O-Okay." She almost choked after hearing Maya's voice. Continuing where she left up, Sophia gingerly touched the fluffy fur inside Maya's ear, and her eyes began to sparkle. "S-So soft." Her expression was one of pure bliss. "It feels really nice. V-Very addicting~."

"Hmmn~." The cat-girl still seemed nervous as her tail continued to work overtime, flapping and swishing in every direction and all over the place. Even so, it seemed like she was starting to calm down because she stopped twitching at every touch of the girl.

Continuing in silence, Sophia further explored every corner of Maya's ear while taking the greatest care in not accidentally hurting her. Using two of her fingers, she gently traced the insides of Maya's ear before sinking her fingers into the fluff again. She quickly became addicted to the soft touch of it. The girl went on like that for a good while. At some point, she noticed that the cat-girl's tail had stopped moving and how her body finally lost all of its tension.

"Haa~" Maya's breathing became slow and rhythmical. She eventually had even fallen asleep at some point after becoming fully comfortable about Sophia touching her ears.

"C-Cute..." Being even more careful now, not wanting to wake up the sleeping girl, Sophia continued to play around with her ear for a while longer. Eventually, though, she simply placed her hand on Maya's head and gently patted her. "W-Wow, that was nice." She had a broad smile. "So soft, and fluffy, and so cute!" She stopped for a moment. "But-" Sophia remembered the twitchiness and rugged yet sweet voice of the cat-girl in the beginning. "W-Why do I feel so guilty?"

"Well, I'm embarrassed just having been here." Fen suddenly turned his head around to look at the two again. "Of course, you would feel guilty after that."

"F-Fen?!" Sophia shouted before blocking her mouth with her free hand after noticing how loud she just was. "Y-You were awake?" While she was busy, she had completely forgotten about the wolf behind her.

"Unfortunately." He didn't want to be a witness, either.

"S-So embarrassing." Her face turned red. "Well, though I feel guilty, I regret nothing. Such fluffy goodness~."

"Good for you, I guess?" He obviously didn't share her enthusiasm. "Still, for a beast-girl, especially one of the cat-tribe, to let you touch her ears."

"E-Eh, did I do something? Something I wasn't supposed to do?" She looked at the head of the cat-girl with a shocked expression.

"No, I wouldn't say that. She gave you permission, after all, but that would mean-" Fen stopped talking midsentence. "Anyway, how are you feeling now, Sophia?"

"I-I have the impression we ditched something extremely important just now, though?!"

"Ask Maya yourself if you dare."

"Aaand now I think I really shouldn't!" Sophia felt like she didn't want to know the reason all of a sudden. "W-What do you mean? How I feel?"

"You were a bit out of it ever since your bath, weren't you? When your boost ran amok, I mean. You're still affected by it, aren't you?"

"Ahh-" She finally understood what he meant. "Yeah, I can still feel it, but I think it began to normalize ever since I began, uhh, petting Maya." She was playing around with the cat-girl's hair while saying so. "That calmed me down, and I'm feeling really, no, extremely embarrassed right now." The girl paused for a moment.  "I don't want to wake her up, but my entire body just wants to scream. I feel like my brain is about to explode."

"I can see why." He recalled just how different she was acting. "Does that mean you're turning back to normal?"

"Whatever you can call normal in my situation." Sophia scratched her cheek. "I think most of what took me over will be gone tomorrow."

"I see, that's good. Or is it?"

"It is, no, it's not." She corrected herself. " It's not good at all. That's why, please do me a favor and don't wake me up..."

"What do you mean?"

"When I wake up tomorrow, after having turned back to normal and remember what I did today-" She closed her eyes. "I'm positive that I'm going to kill myself because I'm unable to bear the embarrassment."

"That's-" He understood her implications. "Good luck with that. I'm sure she won't ever let you." He gestured at the sleeping cat-girl in her lap. "Well, not that I would, either."

"Thanks." She was glad that the wolf was looking out for her. "Wait, what's that supposed to mean?"

"You'll find out eventually."

"Ehh?" Sophia looked at Maya and then back at Fen. "Somehow, err, it feels like I'm missing some context here. You know, something of great importance. For me, that is."

"Don't worry about it."

"Is that really okay? It seems like I really should, though?!"

"It'll be fine. Not to mention more fun, for me, that is." With that said, the wolf turned his head around and stopped talking to her.

"FE-! Ah-" She was about to shout his name again before she stopped herself. The girl noticed that she would definitely wake up the sleeping Maya in her lap if she were to continue. "Grr~!" She had lost against the wolf.

She grumbled over it a little more but soon gave up on it because she had no idea what she had missed and what was going on. On the following day, when she woke up and saw the peacefully sleeping cat-girl on her lap and noticed that her boost had indeed not stayed so high, Sophia became far from peaceful, though.