I do not own the cover image. Maybe if I'm not lazy, I'll try to make one for it. But I'm lazy.

Pio was busy mixing and putting more ingredients into the cauldron, hoping there wouldn't be any failure. When she heard the doorbell ring, she knew it was time to stop mixing. "And this should be the last one," she said with her sweet voice. She handed the red potion to the customer, who gave the payment in return. "Thank you for buying!" She heard the doorbell again as the customer exited the shop. She sighed happily as another successful potion was made and sold. "Today's just going great, isn't that right Fluffy?" The gray-coated cat simply purred in response, which Pio interpreted as a 'yes'.

Tia was currently out for some errand; probably just to check the kingdom's large fridge that contained the best looking potions ever. Her shift was yesterday, so today, the whole potion making business was up to Pio. She really had to thank Tia. Ever since she arrived, her workload has been reduced as it was split, with the other half being done by her. Not only that, things have been less boring, as she now had someone else to talk to without leaving the shop.

"Hmm what to do now…?" Pio wondered. She could just make another potion then since there really was nothing else to do. And that's exactly what she did. She dropped one of the blue ingredients first, a high quality one, creating a high-class Mana potion. Now all she had to do was add more ingredients of any color, somehow increasing its value.

She called out some certain animals. "Pushcats, it's potion making time!" She giggled as the five cats appeared in front of the cauldron, dropping the ingredients in it with their cute little paws. Pio went to a table nearby and set five Nyan tickets on it; the payment for the Pushcats' work. "Here are your tickets! You can get them after." She smiled sweetly at them. But she didn't just watch them do all the hard work, she helped them too. Besides, she owned the shop and she just couldn't laze around, not that she wanted to. Yet there were times where she fell asleep in front of the cauldron, and the Pushcats did all the work. She blushed lightly at the thought. Only now did she realize how many times she must've slept while working on the potions.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang again, this time however, it was a very familiar face. "Hi Tirami!"

"Hello… Pio." Tirami considered Pio as her rival when it came to potion making, and probably everything else too. She walked towards the counter, and placed her hands on top of it. "So what are you making today huh? Some kind of level one potion?" She smirked.

Pio was always oblivious to Tirami's ways of teasing her. She thought she was just asking, and so she replied, "Oh I'm trying to make a Mana potion with the blue devil's horn. So far things have been going good." She smiled.

The Pushcats went away from the cauldron as their time was up. They got their Nyan Tickets, and Pio thanked them for the big help.

Tirami said, "Oh really? Why don't you add more, see if it gets better?" She still had that confident smirk on her face.

"Why that's a good idea Tirami! The more we add, the more valuable the potion gets."

Tirami just watched Pio add more ingredients to the cauldron. She still can't believe just how this girl is so happy and positive all the time. Her rival was already in front of her, mocking her! Yet somehow she always remained unaware of that. As if you can even do it… A part of her wanted to see her fail just so she could call herself the better one, but she also felt a small hint of concern. This caught her breath. What?! Why would I be concerned for her?

As if on cue, there was an explosion from the cauldron. "Oh no…!" Pio took some steps back but tripped because of the spilled contents from the cauldron. She hit her head, knocking her out. The contents from the cauldron were still hot, and it was slowly spreading across the floor, towards Pio.

Smoke was filling up the shop.

Tirami was directly unaffected by the explosion as she took some steps back from the counter, instead it was the dark smoke that was affecting her. Visibility was starting to get worse. "Pio… where are you?" She coughed because of the suffocating smoke. The girl was just in front of her awhile ago, it's like she just disappeared. When she took some steps forward to the counter, she leaned over a little and there she saw Pio, unconscious. What made her gasp and her eyes widen were the liquefied ingredients spreading across the floor, and Pio was just nearby.

Tirami tried to go over the countertop, but it was too difficult as the smoke was weakening her. Instead she found the countertop door, but the problem was, it was locked. She tried opening it by force, but it just wouldn't budge. "Come on!" She kept on coughing. Despite the smoke limiting visibility, she saw the hot ingredients getting dangerously close to Pio's unconscious body already. Unexpectedly, her eyes were starting to tear up. "PIO! PIO! WAKE UP!" She applied more force to the lock, and soon it finally gave way. She rushed to Pio's side and tried to carry her, but her energy has been drained by the smoke. She noticed to her left a broom just by the wall. She quickly grabbed it and was able to sweep most of the molten ingredients away, until the broom's bristles caught on fire. She dropped the broom, but was careful not to put it near any other object to avoid the fire from spreading any further.

There was one more problem remaining, which was the fire still burning strong from the cauldron itself. She couldn't go near it and she couldn't find any source of water nearby. She can't just leave Pio there alone. Thick smoke was pretty much everywhere around the room. All hope was lost, until Tirami saw a bottle. Its shape was really familiar. She's been seeing it in many potion shops even outside the kingdom. That's when her mind clicked. That's it! Good job Pio. She took a glance at the unconscious girl and smiled weakly. She grabbed the bottle and opened it, making a popping sound, and poured its contents, which was a cyan-colored liquid, all over the cauldron. As soon as the liquid came in contact with the fire, it turned instantly into white foam. This dissipated the fire, and soon the room finally started to clear out from the smoke.

Tirami breathed heavily as soon as fresh air filled the room instead of the suffocating smoke. She remained beside her sweet friend –er- shook her head. She frowned while she looked down at the now messy floor of Pio's shop. This is all my fault…

A few minutes have passed. Pio slowly opened her eyes. She noticed she was in her bedroom. The last thing she remembered earlier was that she was making a potion, then suddenly everything just went black. She also remembered Tirami being there. Speaking of Tirami, where was she? Pio got up from her bed and got out of her room. As she was halfway downstairs, she heard some laughs from outside, and inside the shop, just by the door, was Tirami, who was blushing as she talked to the person outside who she thought the laughs were coming from.

"N-no I don't! Now go away before I spray you with Pepper potion!" She closed the shop's door, and went back to cleaning the shop.

Pio was startled by this. Why was she cleaning her shop? She continued walking downstairs. "Tirami?"

As soon as she heard Pio's voice, Tirami had an apologetic expression on her face, and ran towards her. "Pio!" She hugged Pio, much to her surprise. "I'm so sorry about what happened!"

Pio was confused. "W-what exactly happened?"

"There was an explosion from your cauldron." Tirami realized what she was doing, and took a step back from Pio. She crossed her arms. "It's all your fault! I was just testing you! You shouldn't have added too much ingredients! So it seems you still don't know that potions have limits."

Pio frowned, knowing that she failed. "I'm sorry Tirami. How can I make it up to you?"

Tirami was about to answer, but Pio came up with an idea ahead of her.

"Oh I know! Just wait here!"

Tirami saw Pio holding a basket that looked very well-designed with ribbons. She saw a lot of delicious-looking cookies and muffins.

"I baked this yesterday for you as my way of saying thanks for visiting often, but you didn't go here. Well, now that you're here, please, take it." She extended her arms to give it to Tirami, which she accepted. "It's also a way of saying sorry for my mistake," she smiled sheepishly.

Tirami noticed among the contents of the basket a lone potion bottle. She didn't know what kind of potion it was, but it seems Pio read her mind when she said, "Oh that one isn't really a potion. It's a sweet syrup I made. Well I tried it, and it's pretty close to 'sweet'. I didn't have any actual syrup bottles here so I just put it in a potion bottle," she chuckled nervously.

Tirami just didn't quite understand this girl. All she ever did to her was belittle her potions and everything. Yet there she was, not even a slight hint of anger or sadness showing on her face after all those times.

Only now did she realize what Pio said earlier. Has she been really visiting that often? She had her own business of potion making to handle, yet she would somehow always have the time to visit her rival's potion store almost every day of the week. She didn't want to lose, but the fact that she always leaves her own store is making that quite the opposite. But, it was true. She's always been losing, always been second place, and she knew that. But she didn't mind anymore, as long as the one she was losing to was her.

Her vision started to blur as her eyes formed some tears. Pio noticed this, and felt sympathy for her. "T-Tirami? What's wrong?"

Tirami hugged Pio out of nowhere and closed her eyes to bask in the warmth of the embrace. Those tears from her eyes finally flowed down. "W-what did I do to deserve this? To be treated so nicely?"

Pio was confused. "W-what? What are you-"

"All I did to you was make fun of you, and thought of you as the inferior one, yet here you are, being so kind to me, and even giving me a basket full of treats."

Pio smiled and patted her back. "Because you're my friend, Tirami."

Tirami opened her eyes in surprise. Friend? She let go of the hug. "R-Really?"

Pio grinned "Of course! You always go to my store. Isn't that what a friend does?"

Tirami chuckled. She found the girl's cluelessness to be amusing. "I guess it is." She noticed that it was already late in the afternoon. She had to go back soon. "Well, I better get going." She smirked. "I still have to make a potion to make your cookies taste even better."

Pio gasped. "You can do that?!"

"Of course! You don't know how?" Pio shook her head. "You still have a lot to learn."

Pio shuffled nervously. "I-if it's okay with you, can I visit your store some time? I really wanna learn more." She looked at her shyly.

Tirami blushed lightly. "O-oh, sure. That's alright. But not today though, I still have to do some cleaning there," she said.

"Oh. Well since you come here often, maybe you can tell me if it's okay and invite me?"

Tirami smiled. "I guess that'll work." She turned around and walked towards the door. "See you Pio. And thanks again for this!" She lightly shook the basket full of treats she was holding.

"Sure thing Tirami!" Both of them waved good bye to each other, and soon, Tirami went out of the door, making the bell ring yet again.

Tirami looked down as she walked, holding the basket full of treats with both of her hands. So I was the one who was wrong all this time… She shook her head slightly, and a smile formed on her face. I am such a dummy…

Back at the shop, Pio sighed happily. "I guess today was a good day wasn't it Fluffy?"

The gray cat just stared at her disapprovingly, thinking as if she has forgotten all about what happened to the store earlier.

The light purple-haired girl chuckled nervously, remembering what happened. That look from her pet certainly reminded her. "Okay, maybe not that good, but still, this was the longest time Tirami and I ever talked!" She smiled and sighed happily, resting her chin on her hands. "She's just so cool, knowing a lot about potions and all! I hope we'll become best friends…"

The doorbell suddenly rang, abruptly ending Pio's running thoughts. It was a very familiar face. "Oh Tia, you're back!"

Tia smiled. "Hey Pio-" She noticed something off about the shop. "…Did something happen here?" She saw the broom, the only one they had, completely removed of its bristles. She ran immediately to the counter, concerned about her friend. "There was a fire?! A-Are you okay?!"

Pio nodded. "Don't worry about it Tia, Tirami was able to put it out."

The blonde girl's eyes filled with confusion. "T-Tirami? She came here again?"

Pio smiled. "Yeah, and she's so cool Tia! She knows a lot of techniques for potion making! Maybe we can ask her next time."

She didn't notice the frown forming on the younger girl's face. "But I'm an elite… you can always ask me instead…" She mumbled.

"Huh? What was that Tia?"

Tia's eyes widened and waved her hands in embarrassment. "N-nothing! Nothing!"

"Well, I guess I'll be preparing dinner then," Pio said, and went to the kitchen.

Tia went close to the door of the shop and flipped the hanging wooden sign to 'closed' as it was finally nighttime; the time for relaxation and matters other than potions. But Tia was having a little difficulty relaxing as her mind was still very much active. Is Tirami actually becoming friendlier? Does that mean that her 'rivalry' with Pio is ending? I really do hope so, but… She had this strange feeling, that if Tirami comes in to the picture, what happens to her close friendship with Pio? Will they become distant? Will she talk less to her? She shook her head, trying to get these negative and sudden questions out of her mind.

And so, she decided to just shrug it off for now. She just wanted to eat dinner with Pio and rest.

Maybe some other time…