Earlier that m:

  Moriko critically examihe refle in the mirror, showing her and Kazue standing together. For today’s little date Kazue had decided to dress them up. The kitsune had also taken on her fully human form, in part because Mordecai suggested she might want to practice her shape-shifting. This was the first time Moriko had seen Kazue without her fox ears and tails.

  Kazue had dressed herself in a lightweight, white dress with shoulder cutouts and bishop sleeves. The dress fell to about mid-thigh and was matched with a set of thiher boots.

  For Moriko she had chosen a sleeveless bck dress with cy edges oop and bottom, then a bck fur jacket that arently meant to not be worn across the shoulders but hang low from her elbows, and finished off by a pair of shorter heavy-duty boots which trasted the thin thigh-high stogs. Then Kazue decided to make the whole look moth by giving her bck lipstick.

  Moriko sighed. “OK, I have to admit that it looks good, and I work with the boots despite the thick soles and heels, well, as long as I don’t have to fight, but this weird jacket thing has got to go. I ’t move my arms without them catg on it, and it always feels like I’m about to drop it, and it’s too warm to wear it properly. I mean, if you wao lounge around looking hot, it works, but I am not going to go running around a library maze like this. And I don’t think I have the skin tone for bck lipstio, don’t try it on yourself, at least not unless you pn on dyeing your hair bck.”

  Kazue pouted, then waved her hand to make the cloak disappear as well as removed the lipstick, though Moriko felt a little bit of weight added back to the outfit a moment ter. “What?” Moriko said, then half turned so she could look into the mirror. A panel had been added to the back of the skirt that made it look a bit like she was still wearing a cape. “OK, that works.”

  “Yes!” Kazue said, then hugged Moriko tightly. “I mean, you threateo be all dangerous and scary and stuff, I just thought I’d help us look the parts.” She added with a mischievous grin before hopping back. “Alright, let’s go to the library for our date!”

  Shaking her head with amusement Moriko followed behind the redhead. Even though Moriko was the one who decided to call it a date, it still felt a bit strao her. While she’d never been good with the whole dedicated retionship thing, to begin with, women especially were partners of the moment, and rarer than being with a guy. She was fairly certain that Kazue was of simir disposition with regards to preference, albeit with romand deep feelings being more important. But they’d made their decisions, and she really did adore the goofball, so she was happy to get some girl time to work on eg a little more.

  The first part of their outing was a bit of a mixed bag from Moriko’s point of view. Wandering around expl the three ses of the library/maze was fun enough, but figuring out the logic puzzles was just not very iing to her. The ‘word problem’ where she had to puzzle out a weirdly worded paragraph to then figure out what math to do articurly annoying. She could do it, she had helped at her parent’s shop a little bit when younger and the temple had included a basiderstanding of one’s budget to be part of general life skills and math art of that bundle, but that didn’t mean she liked it.

  She found Kazue to be the much more iing toy here. After all, they o sit close together in order to not talk too loudly, which was an excellent way to find out that Kazue's human ears were as sensitive as her kitsune ones, and the way the redhead shivered helped Moriko ualy why Mordecai liked teasihis way.

  It was also a good thing that the librarians couldn't actually use their silence magi their mistress, giveartled yelp Kazue gave when Moriko gave a little squeeze to the other woman's thigh. But they did give the two women judgemental gres, given how Kazue had been the oo teach them the importance of being quiet in a Library. Moriko nearly got 'shushed' herself when the sneaking kitsune poio part of the puzzle to get her to look away, then darted in to nip Moriko's neck!

  This did not stop Moriko from pying ames, such as seeing ho Kazue's thigh she could run her nails befetting her hand spped. Kazue's retaliation was more subtle, and it took a bit for Moriko to realize that her tration was beginning to slip even more because Kazue had sted her hair with something a touch more potent than just perfume. It made her wonder just what notes had bee in some of the books the vilge brought, because she was unfortunately aware that her parents liked to py alchemical games with each other. There was a reason she had so many siblings.

  While Moriko hadn't started doing this specifically to frustrate Kazue, eventually the games and flirtations got to the point that the kitsune decided that this just wasn't w and that they needed a break, ahem out to the little hidden tea shop.

  Kazue looked so disappoihat Moriko wasn’t a fan of the puzzles that it made her feel bad, and Moriko wracked her brain for ideas while they tried the tea and biscuits. “Look, Kazue, not everyone is going to like everything. That’s part of the reason you two are creating such different paths, right? Some of us just aren’t that great with the sit-down stuff. And holy, if the kids want to try your challenges again, a lot of them will find this part b as it is. Maybe you could include a more physical puzzle? Something like bcksmith puzzles, or sliding picture puzzles? I like being able to see what I’m w on and being able to move things.”

  “I guess.” Replied Kazue, who looked only a bit vinced. “Just, I love books and reading and stuff a lot, so I wao have a big library everyone could have fun expl too.” She was nibbling on a sweet biscuit, which did seem to at least make her feel a bit better.

  “I know love, and I do enjoy expl it as a maze, but we her games for people who aren’t as into books as you are.” Moriko scooped up Kazue’s free hand and gave it a squeeze and a kiss. “We think of stuff, I promise.” She also took the opportunity to hook Kazue's ah her boot, drawing her leg closer to then trap between Moriko's own.

  Kazue squeezed back before letting go, then ate in thoughtful silence for a little while. She made no attempt to free her leg from capture. “Hmm, so what sort of books do you read? Or, what else do you do around the temple? I mean, besides training all day aing up noble brats?” As Kazue teased Moriko about that particur venture, she used her free leg to tease Moriko's thigh with the tip of her boot, taking advantage of having longer boots, and Moriko's being to heavy and ky to try to do the same back, which would free Kazue's foot anyway.

  “Hey! That was only the oime." Moriko couldn't really think of any way to up the ante here, so ceded by letting Kazue's foot free. "OK, maybe a couple of others, but that was for training and stuff, so I didn’t really hurt them. Just humbled them a little.” Moriko smirked. “But to answer your question, well, I holy don’t read all that much. Most of what I do read is either for stuff like temple prayers, or manuals for teiques I’m trying to master.”

  Kazue frowned a bit at that. “You have books for teag you how to fight? I thought that was why you had to have teachers o out into the woods and fight bears and stuff.”

  Moriko snorted. “I’d rather go beat up those bandits than fa enraged bear. And there’s always some fool or another who has to try making hybrids with other animals like we uff worse than bears. But yes, we use training manuals. Masters ’t watch over everyone stantly, they have to take care of their lives and duties too. While it’s hard to learn from a manual alone, having it as a guide after having received instru is an excellent tool to remember the exact flow of forms aation guidance for how the flow of chi is supposed to feel. And it’s not just temple training, sword masters and knights have simir books.”

  “Hmm.” Kazue took another sip of her tea. “You said that the books show you what your form is supposed to be, so pictures, yes?” At Moriko’s nod, she tinued. “OK. Well, what if I made some puzzles out of having tiles showing a set of forms, only the tiles are scrambled and there’s not enough space for all of them, so you have to figure out whie doesn’t belong and put the rest in order?”

  “Oh, that could work. If yhe set immediately, it would be pretty easy. It’d be harder if, say, I had to figure out some knight’s maneuver involving a shield. But I guess your library system of being able to reference books would help. Mmm.” Moriko thought about it a little more. “I’m still not a big fan of having to figure out the right book and search through it, but it wouldn’t be too bad, and it’s supposed to be a challenge, not just games.”

  “I don’t suppose you remember any of the manuals exactly enough to faithfully reproduce them? No?” Kazue sidered her options for a moment. “Mmm, wouldn’t be fair to try that puzzle if my drawings might be wrong, so let's set that aside until you bring some copies or something. For the sliding tiles puzzles, I have a few ideas. The simplest ones would be four tiles and a simple picture. For harder ones, I make paintings where some of the tiles look simir, so it’d be harder to get them in the right order. I don’t think I should go beyond five by five though, that seems pretty hard. If I want to make it more of a challenge, I have people go on a hunt to find the tiles. That seems really useful froups, so everyone be involved more.”

  “Well, if you want group puzzles, there are the cut-out puzzles where you have to fit the tiles together.” Moriko suggested. "And you could adjust the possible pictures based on the age of the group." It only took a moment for Kazue to blush, but she fed oerminedly.

  “Ign that idea, those puzzles could be fun! They aren’t quite as library-themed as I was inally thinking, but I guess I don’t have a better setting for them.” They worked oails for a little while longer before finishing up their snack break and heading out to explore the library a little more.

  It didn’t take too long to find a spot to carry through on Moriko's earlier ‘threat’ and er the smaller yfully, pg her hands oher side of Kazue as she leaned in. “Looks like I have you all to myself now.” She murmured with a grin.

  “Oh no.” Kazue replied, biting her lip in faux distress. “Whatever am I to do? ht, I’m the mistress of the dungeon, and I don’t think you should fet that.” Moriko bli the sudden ge in torying to figure out what the other woman to. Then realized her hands were stuck to the bookshelf.

  “Hey!” Moriko shouted, then found herself being unceremoniously moved about as the bookshelves rearrahemselves, sliding her hands down and f her to the floor as Kazue stepped smoothly out of the way. “Oh, I’m going to make you pay for this.” She growled. The spots her hands were stuck to rotated, f Moriko to flip onto her back so that she could gre up at her wife.

  Kazue smirked and shook herself a little, fox ears and tails reappearing. “I may not be the most trie of kitsunes, but I am a kitsune. And this is my dungeon. I think I should remind you of that love.” Her tails were swishing as she sat down on Moriko's belly. "I know it's easy to get a rea out of me, but it's not just because I'm na?ve or all that i you know. See, there are lots of iing books out there, and I have a very active imagination." A small tool appeared in her hand, sisting simply of a stick with a freely spinning wheel on one end, edged with slightly dull spikes. "I get caught up in my own head sometimes, different thoughts colliding so hard that I 't think straight. But I find myself rather focused right now, so I don't think that's going to be an issue."

  The bookshelves around them had refigured to create a private little room, and Kazue tinued, green eyes glittering. "Now here's the rules for my game. You tell me to stop here," she tapped her head "But if you do, then I stop pletely, and we leave the library. For actual win ditions, hmm, oh, I know. I win if I get you to say 'please mistress'. You win if you hold out until I get tired or bored." Those weren't fair rules, and Moriko khey weren't meant to be. Then Kazue's gaze defocused for a moment.

  "Mordecai, I know we caught your attention. Feel free to watch, but this game is ours to py. You have to wait." With that out of the way, Kazue focused ba her wife. "Shall we begin? There's a lot of things I've only read about, and I want to really see how some of them work." Oh, Moriko was so going to get her revenge for this ter. This didn’t mean she wasn’t going to enjoy herself now, but that arate issue.

  Sometime ter Kazue happily led her wife back out of the maze, with a not-too-brief detour to the frozen dessert shop, and she felt rather smug about that st bit of pytime. Moriko was always fident and teo take charge, it had been fun to put her on the back foot for once. Kazue had wotle game that she'd created, though that certainly hadn't stopped her from tinuing to py, and now Kazue was rather looking forward to the ‘payback’ Moriko had promised. She wondered what creativity the more experienced woman was going t to the table. Or bed rather. Unfortunately, that bit of py time had taken its toll on her focus. She'd ridden the high of being that aggressive, and she'd been able to keep her thoughts on the game at hand, but now her head was beginning to feel fuzzy again. Kazue needed some downtime before she'd be good for much at all. Fortunately, her core didn't seem to have the same issue that Kazue had always had to deal with, and she could offload that way, but it made her avatar feel like piloting a zombie.

  Overall Kazue felt so much more fident after these past few weeks. It didn’t seem to be just ohing, but between being able to feel the emotional support of her spouses, her experiences successfully building her dungeon levels, the fun so many of the kids had running through her games, and all of her ganthro friends who were enjoying making pys and ing up with new ideas of their own, her life just seemed so much more fulfilling now. This didn’t mean that she didn’t miss some stuff, and more especially people, from her previous life, but still, she felt happier now in general. Maybe her Lady’s prophecy hadn’t been so very far off after all.

  Zagaroth