Lorelei's Note: This story features an afab girl POV. Real-life con-noncon requires a lot of trust, safewords, and other things a fantasy can fudge a little. Enjoy the kink responsibly, and enjoy the story!
This story is set some time after the events of Shifty Characters and Wicked Amusement, but the events of those stories carry minimal weight on what happens here. This story does mark the beginning of what I will tentatively call the Necromancer Arc, however, in case I decide to continue this thread.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Listen, all I am saying is, there is no reason to assume they don't know anything. I mean, they are
right
over the hill from the cemetery."
"Oh, I'm sure." Mier folded her arms and arched an eyebrow, shifting her form to make that eyebrow comically bushy and dramatic. Swish couldn't help but giggle. Mier ignored this. "You a hundred percent wanna talk to the fleece sprites because they might be witnesses to a graverobbing, and not 'cause the busty one bounced her darn breasts at you yesterday."
"I do not see what that has to do with it." Swish was uncomfortably aware of her three tails wagging behind her. The kitsune covered this with bravado, leaning over the table and staring the shorter woman down. "I also have no idea what 'darn breasts' are. Do you mean her 'damn tits'? Her 'fucking boobs'?"
This drew some stares from the pub's other patrons. Swish coughed and ducked her head, ears flicking low.
Mier sniffed. "If you wanna be vulgar about it, as usual."
This just made Suisshu snort. She tossed back her drink and concentrated on its pleasant, mild burn, the musky flavor of smoked pears. Mier never, ever swore. Swish had never thought of herself as being very foulmouthed--back home, she'd been seen by some as downright prudish--but her doppelganger girlfriend always had a way of making her feel like a sheltered princess coming down from her tower.
A feeling which, if she were perfectly honest, she kind of enjoyed. In past lives, she'd been a vicious warrior, a veteran of the endless fey conflicts raging across her homeland. Mier didn't see her that way at all. Mier didn't see her as dangerous, or awful, or worthy of punishment for her sins.
Swish almost couldn't stand it.
"All I'm saying is," Mier said slowly, "that it sure is funny how your burning need for answers from those sheepgirls neatly coincides with us not having... had time 'alone' for some while."
Suisshu felt her cheeks heating up, and hoped it wasn't obvious. But there it was, that little half-smile hidden just beneath Mier's carefully taut expression. Of course Mier noticed. She always noticed. "Th-That has nothing to do with this," she stammered.
"I understand you're probably feeling pent-up, but really, Swish, sheep sprites?" Mier sniffed. "If you're going to... to look past me for attention..."
This put Swish's embarrassment quite out of mind. She blinked at Mier, the doppelganger's perfect, immaculate face--currently that of a pretty lady with long dark braids and deep brown eyes--and felt her own face breaking into a smile. "Oh, gods, Mier, are you... wait, are you
jealous?
"
Mier's eyes sparked with immediate indignation. "Wh--jealous? How could I be jealous? We're in an open relationship. Ridiculous. Complete nonsense."
"It is okay to be jealous, Mier."
"I'm not freaking jealous! I just think you could do better, is all, if you're going to..."
"To 'cheat' on you?" Swish giggled.
Mier actually pouted, an expression that was impossibly, dangerously cute worn by those carefully-sculpted lips.
"Mier, I promise you, I really am just looking for answers here." Swish reached out and took the doppelganger's hand. "And I know you aren't bringing it up, but I will repeat: I do
not
mind at all waiting for you to be able to make love again."
"You can say the f-word," Mier mumbled, and a moment later flushed as she registered how that sounded.
Mier had only recently recovered from a deadly poison. This, combined with her recovery from giving birth, had sort of put her out of the mood the past couple of weeks.
"Do
you
want to talk to the sprites instead?" Swish asked gently.
"That'd be stupid." Mier groaned. "Oh my word, I'm being inane. I'm sorry, Swish. I'm just... not used to not being able to give people what they want, I guess."
You are what I want,
Swish wanted to say, but couldn't bring herself to risk Mier giving her that look--that,
you are such a sap, I love you, I hope you drop dead
look. So she just fixed Mier with a gaze that meant it. "Again, I do not mind at all. And if you want us to be more, um, exclusive..." She felt her cheeks heating up again. Exclusivity didn't come easy to her, or to many fey, but...
Mier laughed. "Swish, go fool around with the sheepgirls." She waved her off.
"I am
not
going to fool around with them," Swish huffed. "I told you, we need
answers
. There is no way I am letting them distract me with--"
~ ~ ~ ~
Swish stared at the pen and felt butterflies fluttering through her ribcage. "Um. I am so sorry--could you repeat that?"
The one that had spoken, the one with the extra-fluffy coat, smiled broadly. "I said, what's your name, cutie?"
"Oh." Swish laughed shyly and tried not to glance down at the sprite's chest. "Um, Suisshu."
The speaker beamed. "What a pretty name! My name's Lacy." She gestured behind her toward the sprite with the rose-tinted fleece and the sprite with the pretty necklace of silver bells. They gave little sleepy princess-waves. "That one's Belli, and that one's Fenna." She turned her smile back on Suisshu. "And we're
so
happy to meet you, Suisshu."
Swish smiled, trying to ignore the excitement bubbling inside her. She knew how it looked--going to chat up three basically naked fleece sprites just as the sun was setting. This plan had made sense back in the pub. She'd thought it would be easy to stay nice and casual, to just ask a couple questions and be on her way. She hadn't been looking into those pretty hazel eyes of Lacy then.
"Yes," she said, feeling her three flicking tails betraying quite a lot more excitement than she'd wanted to show right now. "It's... nice to meet you too. But you must listen, I need to ask you..." She hesitated as Fenna let out a cutely dramatic yawn.
A very satisfying-looking yawn.
Don't yawn back,"
Swish told herself firmly.
Don't
yawn back.
Lacy's head tilted innocently to the side. "Need to ask us what, cutie?"
The sprites behind her giggled.
Swish's face was getting hot. "I n-need to ask you..."
"Why don't you come closer?" Lacy asked with a voice strung with sweet silver bells of reason. "It feels silly to talk to you all the way over there."
Suisshu swallowed. She couldn't stand being impolite. It had always been a weakness of hers--if someone was actively being nice to her, she couldn't bring herself to upset that peace.
She took one step closer, biting her lip. "Is this better?"
"Hm. Closer~" Lacy giggled and gave another big yawn. "What's... the matter?" She batted her eyelashes. "Sweetie, you're not scared of us, are you?"
Swish drew nearer, though she kept Lacy carefully at arm's length. "I know what you're doing," she said slowly, "um, and I don't mean any offense. But only I am a little busy tonight, and I have to get back soon, and I promised my girlfriend I would not..."
"Girlfriend?" Lacy's head tilted to the side. Her plump, dark lips curved upwards slightly as she batted thick lashes up at Swish.
"Um. Yes." Swish resisted the naughty urge to add,
And we're in an open relationship.
Sprites didn't really understand the idea of a closed relationship, anyways. "You see, we're looking for a necromancer who--"
"You have really pretty hair," Lacy remarked.
Swish stopped short, losing her train of thought again. "What?"
"Your hair." Lacy smiled, gesturing with an elegant sweep of her hand. "It's
beautiful
."
The other two sprites nodded, smiling dreamily.
Swish shifted from foot to foot, trying to direct her flustered energy away from where it would be noticed--such as in her so-eager-to-wag tails. "Th-Thank you? I... it takes a long time to brush."
Kitsune hair was inherently problematic. It was prone to a spikiness that Swish didn't like, a wildness she couldn't stand. She had a very extensive hair care regimen, though she didn't like people to know that.
"Oh, but
sooo
worth it," Lacy cooed. "It looks so,
so
soft. Maybe even softer than ours!" She giggled, her laugh chiming in tandem with the half-awake tittering of the other two.
Swish forced her tails to be still. "I doubt it," she said modestly, and honestly. Fleece sprite wool was... kind of famous. Infamous.
Even though she'd never gotten to touch it before to be sure.
"Oh, but I'm
positive
of it!" Lacy yawned and ran her fingers through her own gorgeous shining curls, a dim, blissful smile on her face as if she hadn't fully yet woken up from a very pleasant dream. "It looks so silky, Suisshu. It shimmers like liquid fire."
"It's called lava," Swish said, stupidly, trying to at least say something to hold back a desperately-needed sympathy yawn. "Um, I mean... thank you."
Lacy beamed. "Can I touch?"
Swish almost took a step forward, but hesitated. "I really need... to ask you that question." She bit her lip and shook herself a little. She was getting too flustered, and being flustered was almost as bad as being hypnotized.
Gods, she would
never
live it down if she ended up getting lured in by
social pressure
.
But looking at the fleece sprites' disappointed pouts, Swish couldn't help but feel a pang of regret anyways.
"How about a trade?" piped up Belli from the cuddle pile.
Swish swallowed. "What?"
Lacy's eyes lit up. "Ooh, good idea!" she exclaimed, tapping her fingertips together in a silent, delicate clap. "We can do a trade!"
"I-I'm not touching your fur," Swish squeaked. She flushed at how rude that sounded. "I mean--I only mean, I don't think it would be a good idea. Um. Or. I think I should. I am sorry, I didn't mean to sound so rude, I just--"
The fleece sprites were giggling at her. Swish could melt with embarrassment. She wanted to curl up and roll away, to shift to fox form and run into the bushes and silently scream into her tails. Instead she just stood there, frozen to the spot like an idiot, trying not to squirm as the fleece sprites eyed her up.
"I wasn't gonna say