Mahou Madness!

[Mahou-Shoujo]

"I... I guess... Umm... Though I'm not exactly a girl... And wait... Can't girls s..sleep together like men and women do?..."
Lucas seemed to realize the awkwardness of the question a little too late as he had only just started to falter as he finished up.
He himself had no idea what any kind of sleepover was... None of the boys wanted to hang out, and even the girls had decided against it after he insisted he was not gay!

"Umm... Yeah... I bought a pack in case I ever made any good friends..."
He replied, leading her upstairs to one of the bathrooms, there was a large mirror behind the sink, and he quickly retrieved a pack of colorful toothbrushes.
"Umm, pick a color?"

 

[twinkletide]

Namiko's blush deepened. She decided not to answer. Luckily Lucas himself swooped past it and instead led her to one of the bathrooms. The things I do for friendship, she thought. It was silly to be this averse to simply sleeping over; she knew it. But it was a matter of principle, of ideology. Of belief. If she didn't have belief, and didn't adhere to it fully, what was she? But there was something special about Lucas, something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

They walked into a rather spacious bathroom. A large mirror hung over the sink. She glanced at their faces; Lucas fresh and excited and bashful all at once, Namiko with the weariness of a mother acquiescing to her child's whims out of care. How different they were, how different their worlds. They'd converge eventually.

She picked up a brown toothbrush without even having to think twice. After applying a rather miniscule quantity of toothpaste she began to brush, cleanly, with a minimum of foamy mess and dripping saliva. Up, down, left, right. She carried it out in silence. Soon her teeth were glistening, big porcelain tiles. She smiled briefly and widely at Lucas, as if to show off. "Alright. What's next?"

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Lucas took a bit longer to brush his teeth, using more paste and stopping to pull faces at the mirror, he would also sometimes randomly seem to brush really hard against certain parts of his gums for some reason... And a little blood came out when he spat into the sink, though it seemed the magical healing took care of whatever wounds he had caused with his brushing.

He smiled right back, his clearly well maintained teeth practically glowing.
"Umm... Well I'm not sure... Oh! We need to get you something to wear... And Wash your uniform!"
He declared.
"And after that we could maybe play some games before bed!"

 

[twinkletide]

Namiko blinked and looked down at her uniform. Oh, right. It was so easy to forget when the wounds healed up. Really, it was a miracle nobody called the cops. Perhaps because they showed no visible signs of pain they could write it off as some kind of prank or cosplay.

"Sure..." she said tentatively. "But do you have anything in my size? I think I'm a bit bigger than you."

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

"Hmm... Well some of my clothes would probably fit... Uhh... My parents bought some thinking I was going to grow a bit more... And well, I didn't... At least not yet anyway..."
Lucas didn't seem particularly displeased at having not grown... Though there was an odd bit of concern in his voice as he mentioned the possibility it would happen... It seemed Lucas liked being small.
"And if they didn't... I have some stuff from the club that you might like..."
He lead her upstairs to show her some oversized pajamas and what looked a slightly stylized night dress.

 

[twinkletide]

Namiko perused the selection of pajamas. Usually she eschewed any sort of nightwear entirely, opting for panties and a bra (w/ or w/o one or the other), the sight of which would immediately destroy any impression one would have of Namiko. But here she was a senpai, and also she had to indulge her host's hospitality.

She picked up a lemon-colored pair of jammies, dotted with little half-moons of oranges. Her size, more or less. "This one is nice," she said, and looked briefly at Lucas. "Which ones do you normally wear?"

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Lucas was digging through his cupboard as she picked through the options, and answered her by pulling out a mouse one piece pajama set, complete with a tail and ears... Even he looked embarrassed by it.
"Uhh... This is super comfortable and I never usually have guests so I wear these..."
He told her, before running off to the bathroom to change out of his uniform... He had managed to stay clearly comfortable all day wearing the Orphan uniform with it's skirt...

 

[twinkletide]

As soon as Lucas ran to the bathroom Namiko felt the urge to squee. How adorable! She thought only children wore one pieces like that, and it struck her as a shame, considering how cute they were. And now she got to see Euler's Identity (as one is wont to call Lucas) wearing one.

She sat in the seiza position in his room, waiting eagerly for him to come back out. Maybe this would be a good sleepover.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Lucas took an odd amount of time to return... Maybe he was having some sort of trouble? Or he had gotten his head stuck in an armhole... Though the real reason was revealed when he finally did return... With two bowls of creamy looking ice cream!
"Umm... I thought you might like some dessert... I kinda got too distracted after dinner to serve you any".
He stated, offering her a bowl before sitting down next to Namiko.

"So... I picked the last game... So it's your turn to pick something fun to do!"
He declared excitedly.
"Sadly a lot of sleep over games need more people... Like spin the bottle..."

 

[twinkletide]

Gladly accepting the desert, she clamped down on a spoonful of vanilla and thought. What could they do...? She wasn't exactly the authority on girl games, and Lucas had a point; most of the normal sleepover activities were meant for multiple people, as in more than two. Do the math.

"Well..." Namiko said, going with one of the classics. "Do you...want to tell scary stories? We turn off the lights, grab a flashlight..."

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Lucas seemed conflicted about scary stories... For one thing he was terrible at telling them... And for another he was terrible at hearing them! Though he was sure after fighting chimera that nothing could be too scary... And forced a smile onto his face as he got up to grab a flashlight and turn off the light, surrounding them in darkness for a moment before the flashlight lit up the room, Lucas nearly blinding himself with it before handing it to Namiko.

"So umm... You wanna go first?... Or should I try and come up with one?"
He asked, sitting with his knees pulled up to his chest and head resting on them.

 

[twinkletide]

They each lay prone under the blanket, surrounded by a wooly darkness. The flashlight's pillar of light was the only thing holding it back. The ventilation whirred. Miscellaneous machinery spoke faintly in morse below.

They lay here.

"You go," Namiko said. She pointed the flashlight at Lucas. Her face was barely visible, a smudge in the dark.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Lucas could feel his breathing get just a little louder as he thought about the story, it was nothing most people would notice but a skilled, experienced fighter could easily tell, especially in the quiet darkness.
"Umm... Okay, but this might not be scary... It was a dream I had... And it scared me for some reason even if it was really weird and had nothing to do with me".

He warned before taking a deep breath and starting.
"Well... I had a dream that this cute woke up one day as a boy... And went to school... She told everyone she was a girl and did what she could to look pretty... But everyone still called her a guy... And then when she got home... Her parents started calling her a boy and kicked her out..."
Umm... well that's pretty much it... I know it's not actually scary at all..."
It certainly seemed to have had a very large negative affect on Lucas! He was breathing quicker and would be visibly freaked even in the dim light cast by the torch.

 

[twinkletide]

As Lucas told his story the air seemed to solidify, to become suddenly leaden. The whirrs faded. All that was left was Lucas's voice, and his breathing, the breath of a man on the verge of something. And his face. So young and full of fright. Namiko listened silently, with bated breath. Her face was still invisible.

It felt like his story was twice its actual length. There was a brief silence. Namiko's face was still invisible, and the light was still pointed at Lucas's face. He couldn't see her. But he felt her hand on his head, softly stroking it, a lulling gesture. "Lucas," she said. "It's okay to be scared of that. It's not silly at all. Really." A swallow emitted from her throat.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

If Lucas were some sort of cat he would likely have purred, the soft touch on his head actually did cause him to yawn, it was just so relaxing... And calming... Soon he had returned to normal, whatever bad feelings were brought up by recounting the dream had faded, or at least sunk away for the time being, though who knew when they might return?

He was confused by her words though, was she just comforting without caring about the cause?... No, that wasn't something someone like Namiko would ever do.
"I... But why WOULD I be scared of it? I can fight chimera with you but I can't talk about that weird dream without freaking out?"

 

[twinkletide]

Another swallow emitted in front of Lucas. And then silence, briefly. Finally the light swung around and aimed its glow at Namiko. Her face was blank, businesslike. It was forced. A farce. But she needed it now.

"Psychologists," she said, slowly, picking each word like one would pick ripe fruit, "have been using dreams for years to survey the mental states of patients. Their wants. Needs." The light dropped and pointed off to some random direction, leaving both faces in darkness. "Fears. You're afraid of something similar." She was growing bolder now, even as a voice in her head pleaded to slow down. She was making confident judgements now, stating them as facts - those most arrogant of statements. "Perhaps you know the answer yourself. Why do you think you're scared of that dream? Honestly?"

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Somehow Lucas could tell what was going, he didn't know what she was going to say... But could tell it was going to have a huge impact... Quite possibly life changing in fact... And he wasn't sure he wanted that! However... When he tried to talk, to plead with Namiko to stop and just go back to the status quo like he hadn't told her about the dream... He found his mouth dry and unresponsive.

"I... I don't... I think..."
He froze for a moment after choking out some words.
"I think I'm scared... Of being a boy... For some weird reason..."
The poor kid looked about ready to have a heart attack, he had just faced and admitted to something quite serious after all!

 

[twinkletide]

The flashlight may as well not have existed. There were no faces anymore. Only words, and the spaces between them. It was all they needed. Another period of silence passed. All noise seemed to fall away. If only due to placebo, if they listened they could almost hear their own respiratory systems pumping away.

A faint clatter broke the silence. The light swing back to Namiko. In contrast to the prior coolness of her words, her face now looked soft, comforting. An expression to fall back on. In her face there was worry, caring, love and observance. There was everything in moderation. "Well," she said, "does that mean you want to be a girl instead?" She almost wanted to stop, but she'd gone too far already. "You can tell me, Lucas. It's okay. I..." She swallowed again, and this time the light illuminated the lump falling down her throat. "I'll help you, no matter what. I'm your friend, now. You need to be honest with yourself."

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Lucas seemed like he might hold together after all, shaking his head as if to say no, he was normal, not a girl... But then the shaking became more frequent as he tried to hold back tears that formed in his eyes, the torchlight causing them to glint as he moved... Before he threw himself towards Namiko, he needing someone to hug and cry on right then as his doubts crumbled away...
"I... Why am I like this?... Why couldn't I be a normal boy?... Why do I want to be a girl?..."
He asked, barely audible as sobs started to wrack his body.

 

[twinkletide]

Namiko held him as tight as she could, a vice grip, as if he'd crumble if she let go. She put her head on his shoulder, feeling his tears dampen her pajamas. The light shone upwards on Lucas's chin, causing the falling tears to look like glints of rain in early sunlight, pure and sad. "It's okay," she said. Her eyes shut as she spoke. "It's okay. You know the facts now. The facts are important. But you need to figure out what to do with them, now. File them, sort them out. Look them over." She pulled Lucas off her by his shoulders. The light still lodged between her legs. And there was that warm face again. "But you..." Briefly Namiko faltered. She shut her eyes briefly again, sighed, and with a great and heaving difficulty, she said "You can be whatever you want, as long as you fight for it." Her grip grew tighter. "Whatever you want, whatever you want," she said, her voice raising in intensity now, as if to force through, to convince both of them; a thrashing fighting tone, she said "You need to be what you want to be, what you want to be. You need to." Nigh incomprehensible now; a religious mantra.

The light collapsed between her legs. It pointed now at Lucas's crotch. It was as if it were trying to tell them something.