"Really? That's what you're most proud of?"

It wasn't often that Minoriko Aki had visitors over to her home. It was a rather ramshackle place built on a field fairly recently, basically just had the basics for herself and her sister Shizuha, plus maybe one guest if they didn't mind the small size. But, well, this wasn't any other visitor. This was a rather cute maneki-neko that she'd recently hired to help with her sales, but… well, something just clicked. Maybe it was her savvy, their shared taste in warm colors, or maybe she was just pretty. But after a few days of working together, the pair couldn't bear to keep their partnership strictly professional.

Of course, that didn't mean they had to agree on everything.

"Yep. Once you see how much money I've been making from that card trade, you'd get it too."

"Really, money of all things." Minoriko rolled her eyes as she worked on baking something. "No wonder you call yourself a cat-pitalist. It's always money with you."

"Hey, I started from nothing, lived my life and eventually got to become something. It just so happens that money's involved in it! And besides, don't act like you weren't also getting in on that card trade."

"H-hey, I just… wanted to use it as an excuse to sell more sweet potatoes, okay?"

"Right, right." Mike smiled as she moved to sit down. "But anyway, what are you proudest of?"

"Me? I can think of a few things." Minoriko got to thinking as she placed the results of her work in a wood oven. "I'm proud of the work I do for the autumn season. As a deity of the harvest, I'm proud to be able to work with the few villagers who do worship me, to be able to grant them bountiful crops every year. Though…"

"Though… what?"

Minoriko stepped away from the oven and smiled. She moved to sit next to Mike and scratched behind the cat girl's ears, prompting a murring noise from the latter.

"What I think I'm most proud of is my cooking. You've had my sweet potatoes and such, but I'd like to think I'm talented enough to be able to handle even non-autumn dishes perfectly."

"Your cooking, huh?" Mike glanced over at the oven. "Well, we're about to see how justified that pride of yours is, huh?"

"Don't give me that competitive tone, we both know how you feel about my cooking. You know what they say," Minoriko said as she held up a finger. "The best way to a woman's heart is through her stomach."

"Hah… haha… right."

Mike blushed and went silent. Now it was just time to wait for this thing to finish baking. Using this silence as an opportunity, Minoriko stood back up and walked over to a small box on the floor. Inside the box was ice, and a lot of it, but more interestingly was a small container sitting on top of it. Reaching down, the goddess picked it up and set it atop a table, before opening it. Inside was something akin to cream, though it was lighter, almost airy.

"What's that you got there?" Mike asked with visible intrigue.

"I just took some heavy cream and very quickly mixed it. It's something that Western maid taught me about when I visited last autumn. Same with this dessert I'm about to give you. I sweetened it too to make it a bit more flavorful, I'm sure it'll go great with it."

"We'll see about that."

There Mike was with the teasing. That was the one annoying thing about her, she just kind of always insisted on being right. Maybe that card market was starting to give her a swelled head after all, but now probably wasn't the time for that conversation. Now was the time to wait for food. So back and forth Minoriko would go, switching from checking on the oven to scratching Mike's ears, on and off until…

"Aha, it looks done to me."

Minoriko put on some mitts and slid the finished dessert out of the oven. The result was something resembling a bowl of an orange-ish custard, except between the custard and the bowl was a layer of browned pastry. Mike clearly didn't recognize it.

"What's that?"

"The person who told me about this called it 'pumpkin pie'. Apparently it's a popular dessert in the Outside World during the autumn months. The filling's based on a type of squash you'd see out there too, I've started growing them as of last year as a matter of fact. Never hurts to expand your culinary tastes."

"I guess so."

Minoriko nodded and moved to cut out a slice from the pie. As she did so, she glanced down at Mike.

"So, just to be totally clear. Are you proud of the money you've earned, or, uh, or the work you put in to get there? Because if it's the latter, you sure fixated on the former a lot."

"Well, I'm… I'm… huh." That seemed to catch Mike off guard. The maneki-neko leaned forward, hands on her face, and paused. "You know, when you put it like that, I'm… actually not sure?" I feel like… huh. Are my words and my thoughts just completely mismatched? I feel like…"

"Go ahead, think it over. I'll give you time."

The next minute or so was mostly quiet outside of a few grunts from Mike, as if they were the sound of the wheels turning in her head. Eventually, there was a nod.

"I think I was thinking of the latter. I'm proud of the work and the results of said work, not just the money itself."

"Alright, alright. Thank you for the clarification, that's a lot more understandable. Now, please try this."

Minoriko finished slicing up the pie and placed one onto a plate. She dabbed some of the whipped cream on top and passed it off to Mike with some silverware; she was gifted some and found it was helpful for some of the more out-there foods she tried making, this being an example. She cut some for herself as well and moved to sit back down with her partner.

"Don't have to wait for me to start," Mike commented, "you can go ahead and eat."

"Well gee, thanks."

The pair both dug in at the same time, each taking a fairly small bite at first. The room fell silent with their chewing, neither knowing how the other would react. It wasn't until Minoriko caught a small, rumbling noise coming from next to her that she had an idea of what her partner felt.

"Hey, are you… are you purring?"

"W-what? What? It's good!" Mike leaned back and gave Minoriko the absolute most sheepish look the god could imagine; it even made said god chuckle. "It's sweet, but it's not super, uh, sugary. It's one of the best desserts I ever had. I think the only thing that may beat it is your sweet potato stuff."

"Oh, it's that good? Thank you, I'm glad it's up to par." Minoriko finished her first bite and smiled, before taking another. "I wondered if I had the spices messed up, but no, it's exactly how I wanted it."

The couple would work on finishing their pie slices, not even bothering to take it slow given that they had another several slices for later. No time to savor the flavor when the flavor was that savor-able as it stood. Eventually they finished, leaving empty plates in front of them and their stomachs full. The pair sighed and leaned back, before Mike eventually spoke up.

"...y'know what, Minoriko?"

"Hmm?"

"...you know, I'd be way prouder of this if it were my talent."

"Ah, don't let yourself down. You're a hard worker, Mike, you deserve credit there."

"...yeah, you're right."

Minoriko got up to cover the pie and put it in the ice box, before moving back to sit near Mike and return to petting her. That conversation certainly ended better than expected, and they both felt remarkably cozy afterward. Sheesh, the deity thought, if only every conversation ended like that.