Azimuth Academy: Study Brea

This is the first in a set of tales set at Azimuth Academy -- a school for magic and the like inspired by (among other things) Hogwarts, the Unseen University, and I.O.U. These stories can be read in any order, really, but they do follow on from each other, so the order they're published in would probably work best.

Given some aspects of the setting, I want to make very clear that anyone engaged in adult behaviour is at least eighteen years of age... if not massively more.

-[::]-

Late afternoon sun shone, as it had done for much of the three centuries Azimuth Academy had existed, through the window's clear glass panes, spilling through to flow across a carpet that actually looked rather more ornate and expensive than it actually was. More than that would have been out of place in what was, after all, a student's dormitory. Equally serviceable furniture took up a lot of the room's space, including a pair of beds that lay against opposite walls. One of them, the more messy of the two, was empty, whilst the other...

With her back against the headboard, the young woman sat atop the sheets let out a sigh as she brushed a stray lock of long blonde hair away from her face. The glare she was aiming at the heavy book in her lap was a long way from friendly, pale blue eyes almost glowing with annoyance at the words that stubbornly refused to gel into something coherent inside her head.

"Gah! I

hate

this crap!"

It took a certain amount of effort to not simply hurl the offending tome across the room, but she managed it. Barely. Instead, she simply slammed it shut and rubbed a hand over her face, muttering darkly before heaving another sigh.

"Does that mean you're finally changing courses to something less brain bending?"

The bathroom door, slightly ajar just it like usually got left, let the laughing question through easily. A moment or two later, it opened fully to let the voice's owner pass, and the young woman on the bed shot an amused glare at her towel-clad room-mate.

"This from someone who's studying no less than three extinct languages, Kel?"

Not that anything more strenuous would be suited to the other woman - at least at first glance. Slim and frail in appearance, Kel's pale skin was almost as white as her short hair, her whole physical form looking like one that a stiff breeze would blow away. That was an even more deceptive impression than it might have appeared, however.

"Tori," Kel shot back with a twinkle of amusement in her large, pale grey eyes, "Nobody re-writes ancient languages whilst I'm trying to study the damned things."

"True." Huffing a short laugh, Tori set the book aside and swung her legs off of the side of the bed, shuffling herself over a bit so she was sat on the mattress' edge. Running hand over the flowing skirt of the pale grey student uniform she'd not changed out of yet, she kicked her bare feet a bit before nodding toward the bathroom.

"So I'm assuming you're done in there?"

"For now, sure," Kel nodded, ambling over to her wardrobe and pulling it open. Looking thoughtful, she shoved half the contents aside and began considering the rest with a critical eye. "You'll probably want to wait for the hot water to recharge, though."

Tori rolled her eyes and smiled. It was hardly unusual for her room-mate to use all the water the bathroom's cistern stored, and it was going to be at least half an hour before the mana coursing through the plumbing system brought a fresh load up to a decent temperature.

"Thanks for that, you greedy little tramp. So what am I meant to do whilst I wait, hmm? Studying is out of the question, given how fried my brain is, and I already have my dress for the party picked out."

Kel gave a little humming noise that gave at least the impression she was listening, then pulled one of the dresses out of her wardrobe. Turning toward where Tori was sitting, she held it up in front of herself, and raised an eyebrow in a silent question.

The deep blue of the fabric really did not go well with her utterly colourless complexion, but that was hardly a problem for her. An distant look came into her eyes for a moment, and her whole body seemed to flesh out, gaining mass and curves that a flat-chested, almost androgynous figure into something a lot more feminine. The change wasn't limited to her shape, either, with colour leeching into her complexion as well, until raven dark hair framed a perfectly tanned face. Eyes a far more vibrant shade of blue than Tori's focussed back on her, and Kel waited patiently for some sort of response.

For her part, only massively frequent exposure to that sort of change let Tori take it in her stride, though even after three years of knowing the other woman, it was still a bit startling sometimes. It also helped to focus on the fact that Kel hadn't answered her question.

"You wore that one last time," she observed dryly, taking a certain pleasure in the look of frustration that flashed across Kel's face for an instant.

"Dammit... Okay, how about this one?"

The blue dress was shoved ruthlessly back into the wardrobe, replaced by one in a very fetching forest green. Kel's looks changed again as she turned back, shifting to a redhead who's eyes perfectly matched the dress.

"Vellethe is wearing green tonight."

The mention of possibly the most finely-honed bitch in the Academy had Kel muttering a curse and tossing the dress away.

At least

, Tori thought with a faint smile,

she aimed for the bed instead of the floor

.

"And just so you know," she said in a cheerfully evil tone, "I am going to find something wrong with every single dress you pull out. I will make it up if need be, but there

will

be something."

Kel planted her fists on her hips, and glared at her - or at least started to. The fact she had to hold the towel in place as her form slipped back to normal spoiled the effect somewhat. After taking a moment to secure it more firmly in place, however, she went right back to showing how much she thought of Tori's announcement.

"Why? Why, exactly, are you going to be such an unmitigated pain in the ass?"

"You mean apart from the fact you used all the hot water, 'borrowed' my hairbrush, and I'm reasonably sure hid all my clean underwear?"

Okay, so that last one was more made up than the others. Tori was pretty sure her failure to find any was due more to the fact she'd forgotten to drop her laundry off this week. That didn't stop her from putting on the sort of exaggeratedly patient air that she'd seen lecturers use more times than she could count.

"Oh, don't start

that

crap. Care to explain where half my make-up has disappeared to?"

"No," Tori answered primly, refusing to acknowledge the very fair point that had just been made. "I don't believe I do."

With a rather unladylike snort, Kel stuck her tongue out at her room-mate. An act that, as could be expected, ruined every possibility that either of them were going to be able to keep a straight face. This was, after all, an argument they'd had many,

many

times over the years they'd shared accommodations - and it was a a near enough even split as to who'd been sparking any given one.

Luckily, they'd learned almost straight away that there were many ways to get along smoothly, and by far the simplest one was that neither of them took these little bumps even remotely seriously.

Not, of course, that Tori meant to let Kel the pesky changeling get away with using all the damned hot water. As both of them shared a chuckle, Kel turned back to her wardrobe and Tori got to her feet with every indication that she was coming over to join her.

What

actually

happened, however, was that Tori grabbed a handful of Kel's towel and gave it a hard yank, pulling her a little off-balance... and also stripping the thing completely off of her. With a delighted cackle, Tori danced back out of reach as Kel span, a look of pure indignant shock in her eyes, and the human smirked in triumph.

She also made very certain that she looked nowhere at all below Kel's face. The other woman's body may not have had much in the way of womanly curves, but she

was

now standing there in all her bare-ass pale-skinned naked glory.

"Seriously?" she demanded. "This is the level you're going to sink to? Stealing my towel and hoping I might get embarrassed?"

"Well, I did consider tickling you, but that just seemed childish."

Tori's tone was thoughtful and serious, but she couldn't hide the twinkling amusement in her eyes as she tossed the towel back. Kel snagged it out of the air without bothering to really look at it, and the smile she gave Tori was more than a little evil. Enough so, in fact, that she began to seriously wonder if she'd maybe gone a bit too far.

"Childish? I'll show you childish, you brat."

Tori was definitely not sure she was going to totally enjoy whatever kel had in mind, but she also knew that she was going to have little choice but to find out what it was. Running away would, after all, only delay it... as well as give the changeling more time to refine whatever nefarious idea she had in her head. Which did not really strike her as a great plan.

"Actually," Kel continued, "No, I won't. I'll leave juvenile pranks to you. I think I'll just demonstrate just how much trouble your poor impulse control can get you into."

There was something about the way she'd said the word 'trouble' that had Tori swallowing hard. Normally, Kel was actually fairly passive, more inclined to watch and listen, maybe tossing in the occasional little nudge to steer things the way she wanted them to go. She was also, however, possessed of a far more assertive personality than most of her kind, and the results of that had already proven to be... interesting.

In fact, she'd seen that look on the other young woman's face before. Only once or twice, true, but they had been very

memorable

occasions, and the realisation was just enough warning for her to avoid being surprised when Kel's appearance began to change again. In fact, when she saw the direction the changes were taking, she swallowed hard again as she felt a sinking sensation in her belly... and a tingle of excitement down her spine.

Within moments, the pale waif in front of her was gone, replaced by the sleek, athletic form Kel had chosen to assume. It was one that she rarely came close to, and not just because of the way most people would react when they saw a woman of almost unearthly beauty - who just so happened to have rather sharp teeth, neat little horns, and a tail.

No, she knew about some things that had happened in Tori's life, and was considerate enough to steer clear of anything that might come to close to them, but she was a changeling, and they were experts at applying leverage when they wanted to.

With a sharp curse, Tori span around, turning her back on Kel's exceptionally good impersonation of a naked succubus and making for the door. She'd ended up getting very close to a rogue example of that demonic breed, and the effects of their seductively carnal aura never truly left anyone exposed to it. Even the simple sight of something that looked the part was enough to drag that influence back to the surface, and whether she wanted it to or not, she could feel her body beginning to respond to it.

And if she stayed here, it was going to

keep

responding that way. The only way she was going to stop it was to leave... or for Kel to change herself to look like something,

anything

, else. Tori realised that she was standing at the door, one hand on the handle, a mere breath away from making her escape.

Except...

This is stupid,

she thought wryly.

I can summon and control energies that could flatten a small town. I'm a graduate student of exothaumaturgy, more than capable of comprehending mystic formulae that would twist the mind of a normal mortal being.

It's pretty damned pathetic that I can loose it just because of how someone looks.

If she asked, she knew Kel would back off. All she had to do was say the word. Just like all she had to do for the other option was open the door and walk through it.

Except...

Fuck it.

If she was going to have to put up with this sort of involuntary reaction, she might as well get some bloody use out of it.

Taking her hand off of the door handle, she turned back to Kel, part of her noting that, since she'd made her point, the changeling was shifting back to normal again. Tori shook her head, and Kel frowned slightly, pausing in her change.

"Fun as getting you all riled up is, especially if we have time to do it properly, I really have no desire to take advantage of-"

She cut off rather abruptly as Tori caught her mouth with her own, not hard, but enough to make it abundantly clear that it had

not

been an accident.

"Put it back," she said softly, hands fisting in the fabric of her skirt so she could keep them under control. "Please."

"Seriously, I'm not trying to push anything here." Kel was shaking her own head, plainly determined to make sure there was no doubt about her sincerity. Tori believed her, but that didn't change anything. She just took a quick step toward the nearest of the beds, clearing a path between her room-mate and the door.

"If you don't want to, then say so. If you do..."

The way she licked her lips, running her gaze over Kel's body with no attempt at subtlety, finished her sentence off quite clearly. The changeling blinked as she made a rather rapid mental adjustment, throwing out any notions of how she'd expected things to proceed in favour of what was

actually

happening.

She may not have any interest at all in manipulating her way into her room-mate's underwear, but if she was

invited

... Well, that was a whole other story. With a slow smile, she put the succubus look back on again, watching as Tori's eyes seemed to glaze for a moment, lips parting as she took in what Kel was showing her. Putting her hands on her hips, Kel's expression turned cheekier, and a clear note of playful challenge came into her voice.

"Okay, I've put it back on. Now what?"

As if she didn't have a pretty solid idea... and she wasn't disappointed.

With no sign of hesitation at all, Tori stepped close, her hands slipping around Kel's waist and pulling her gently, but very insistently, to her. Their mouths met again, but this time it was no surprise, and bare heartbeats passed before Kel let out a soft moan. She lifted her own hands to stroke Tori's blonde mane and let her lips part to admit the human's softly probing tongue.

This time it was Tori who moaned, a soft sound of pleasure that sent a shiver through Kel's body... and that wasn't the

only

thing having an effect on her. The other woman's clothing wasn't enough to keep her from feeling the heat of the skin it covered against her own, and she was suddenly getting very frustrated with the fact the clothes were there.

She wasn't the only one, and after slipping around the changeling's body enough to give her bare behind a caressing squeeze, Tori took a step back. They looked at each other in silence across that newly-made gap, a little breathless from the kiss, and Kel's sudden crooked grin was met with a low chuckle from Tori herself.

"This never gets any smarter, does it?"

The question was a laughing one, and Kel answered it with a shrug - which just so happened to get Tori's gaze dropping eagerly to the perky breasts the move had emphasised.

"Not really," Kel replied. "But since when has that ever stopped us?"

"True enough," Tori answered, forcing her eyes back up to Kel's. Almost without her being aware of it, her fingers started work on the buttons of her blouse, and as they started to come undone, the cool air hitting her skin made her shiver.

Or maybe it was the heat that flared in Kel's gaze as she watched.

Not that the changeling stood idle for more than a second or two. As Tori worked on her blouse, Kel dropped smoothly to one knee in front of her, shooting her a quick grin as she reached for the fastenings holding the skirt in place. Moments later, Tori let out a shaky breath as she felt the material sliding down her legs, pooling at her feet and leaving only a rather plain and serviceable pair of panties in place to preserve any hope of modesty.

Not that modesty was high on her list of things to care about, and it dropped even lower when Kel leant forward and started trailing a line of feathery kisses up her leg.

"T-that's really distracting..." she breathed, and earned herself another chuckle from closer to ground level. Distracting or not, however, she'd still gotten as far as the last button, and her blouse gaped open to reveal the bra underneath. Which, in her opinion, was becoming an increasingly confining irritant.

"Good," Kel said back. "I'll bet this is even more so."

Tori nearly asked what, but instead bit her lip to hold back a gasp as she felt Kel's mouth on her body again. This time, she was working her way up the inside of her leg, and every slow inch brought her that much closer to the slick heat that Tori could feel building up inside her.

She quickly shrugged her way free of her blouse and started attacking the fastenings of her bra with clumsy haste. She'd almost, almost got it when any hope of concentration shattered, a gasp tearing out of her at the deliciously torturous sensation of Kel nuzzling at the very top of her thighs.

"I can smell how wet you're getting..." Kel said softly, her words coming out almost as a purr, and both the words and their tone had their effect. It took a lot of effort to keep from grabbing Kel's hair and simply pulling her face closer, but Tori managed it. Barely. Instead, she wrestled her way free of her bra and tossed it aside, just as Kel began exploring with her mouth again.

This time, she skipped right over anything covered by any form of clothing, her lips and tongue tracing a tingling line slowly up across Tori's belly, wending their way ever upward. She didn't keep her hands to herself, either, stroking up Tori's flanks with the same leisurely pace she was taking with her mouth, until she reached what she was aiming for.

"That tickles," Tori muttered, more for form than out of any real complaint, and Kel just snorted a laugh and carried right on with what she was doing. Which, it turned out, was palming one of Tori's sensitive breasts in each hand, gently teasing and caressing each tight, erect nipple... until she ducked her head forward to take one of them into her mouth.

With a sigh of pleasure at the sensations Kel's attentions were provoking, Tori nestled her hands in the changeling's currently-dark hair, stroking it as her eyes drifted closed and she used gentle pressure to guide the other woman to precisely where she wanted her to be.

After what seemed like nowhere near long enough, Kel lifted her head again, coming all the way up to start kissing her lover with perhaps surprising thoroughness. It was almost as if she was trying to keep Tori focussed on that instead of anything-

With a startled squeak, Tori nearly jumped when she felt a playful touch working it's way up the inside of her thigh again. For a moment, she was utterly confused, since Kel's hands were still paying their tender attention to her breasts... then she realised what it was.

That damned

tail

.

"Sneaky little bitch," she whispered, breaking the kiss just long enough to get the words out. Kel's response was a totally unrepentant hum of agreement - and a deliberate rub of the tip of the tail she currently owned across the very centre of Tori's panty-covered sex.

"Oh

shit

, that feels good", Tori sighed, to Kel's obvious approval. Quickly dropping her hands to where they needed to be, she pushed the panties over her hips, shoving them downward. The changeling decided to help out as well, but gave no sign she was going to, so it came as a bit of a surprise when that same underwear was abruptly yanked downward.