Chapter 21: Get Ready

   By the time Brian finally stepped out of the bathroom, the girls were just finishing up. He actually managed to startle them, as he was now dressed from head-to-toe in an unfamiliar new costume. Most of the outfit was a simple black bodysuit upon which simple white skeleton bones were patterned on, while he wore a helmet resembling a stylized skull that hid his entire face—the eye sockets filled in with a black fabric mesh he could presumably still see out of. He wore a pair of stout white gloves with loose, open wrists, a matching pair of boots, and a white pair of wrestling briefs were worn beneath a utility belt filled with pouches. There was an ever-so-slight bulge in his briefs, but it wasn’t the tell-tale outline of genitalia. Fucker’s got a cup or something on. Clever.

   “Whoa, nice! Really, you look amazing,” Brian said, nodding his skull helmet in admiration at Kelly’s attire. The girls both still seemed speechless at his sudden new appearance. “The gothic lolita look was perfect for you, Kelly, definitely. You look great.”

   “Uh… thanks. What are you supposed to be?” Kelly asked, staring incredulously at his strange getup. “You’re not gonna be Lance again today?”

   “You recognized that I was Lance?” Brian remarked, tilting his skull helm. “You didn’t strike me as an old-school Fantasy Wars player.”

   “What?” Kelly quickly scowled and shook her head in denial. “Yeah right, no way. I think one of you must have mentioned the name. Right? Anyways, who’re you supposed to be now?”

   “Don’t recognize it?” Brian guessed, looking from Kelly to Stephanie and receiving only blank looks. “I’m a Darkmask, from Hero Hero Haruki. They’re the expendable-minion sorta guys for one of the super-villains. In a manga where most characters are jumping several stories and squashing tanks with bare-handed punches, the Darkmasks are pretty much just ordinary guys dressed up like evil henchmen, though.”

   “Okay, so… why cosplay as one of them?”

   “Well, they won’t seem cool ‘till you’ve read the comic,” Brian admitted, removing the helmet and running a hand through his hair. “It’s a comedy series, for the most part. Action comedy. In the beginning of the series you see Darkmasks everywhere throughout the city, kinda mixed in with the ordinary citizens.

   “Like, you’ll see a Darkmask dressed just like this, but also wearing a wig and pushing a stroller, with a little baby Darkmask in it. Or a Darkmask in a convenience store wearin’ a clerk’s uniform apron, and nobody bats an eye. Nobody except for the protagonist Haruki, who’s always kinda freaked out that no one else seems to notice them—but he assumes it’s just part of the whole weird hero craze.

   “I figured it’d be a great joke cosplay, like people would want to get shots of me, like, mixed in a background of normal people as if no one was noticing me. I’m gonna be the ‘casual shopper’ Darkmask, I’ll carry around this bag,” Brian explained, hefting up a plastic grocery bag. Several cup ramen packages were inside, along with a cabbage, and the slender stalk of a leek was sticking out the top. “I got this blank bag, and even stencilled on the logo of the fake convenience store brand from the manga… you guys stopped listening, didn’t you?”

   “N-no, it sounds really interesting!” Stephanie laughed, smiling at him. “It’s just a shame, that ah, that you have to cover your face for this cosplay, that’s all. It’s really good otherwise, though. You look really cool.”

   “It’s uh, cute seeing you geek out,” Kelly tried, giving him a strange look. “Let me get this straight, though, you’re an ordinary person, dressing up as a bad guy henchman character… who’s in turn poorly disguised as an ordinary person shopping? I feel like a lot of people aren’t going to get it.”

   “I’m sure the people who read Hero Hero Haruki will love it,” Stephanie defended. “I’m a little jealous. I, uh, only made one costume, the Flamituff dress. I don’t know if I should wear it again today, sin-since I wore it yesterday already.”

   “Cons’re always more fun when you’re in costume, for me, at least,” Brian said. “I’d say go ahead and wear it again, it looks really cute on you.”

   “Y-yeah?” Stephanie responded bashfully, bursting forth again with a beaming smile. “Thank you. I think I will, then.”

   Watching the lovestruck girl scamper to pull her bag into the bathroom to change, Kelly couldn’t help but grin as well. Just wait’ll you see how cute it’s gonna look comin’ off of her…

   “Totally don’t wanna… impose or anything,” Kelly coughed, “But what are your, like, convention plans for the day? Do you have a set plan, specific things you’re gonna go to, things like that? Wasn’t sure if you needed some space to go off and do your own thing, or if it was cool if we kinda tagged along, or…?”

   “Honestly, my ‘plan’ this weekend was to wander around, all alone, being miserable and feeling sorry for myself,” Brian said seriously, regarding her for a solemn moment before his lopsided grin surfaced. He spun the helmet in his hands between his fingers like a basketball before effortlessly slipping it back up onto his head in one smooth motion.

   “But that’s already totally fallen through, so I guess that means we’re on plan B now, then,” he laughed, slightly muffled from within his helmet.

   Sure seems like he’s in a much better mood since he came out of the shower, Kelly observed ruefully. What’d he do, spurt out gallons of semen in there?

   “Sounds good, what’s plan B, then?” Kelly asked, giving him a wide grin. …Besides the morning-after birth control Steph and I might need after tonight?

   “No idea,” Brian chuckled. “But… I’m excited again to be goin’ around the convention this time. You guys, you really saved me. So in return, I want to show you both a really good time today. I feel like we’re gonna have a blast today.”

   “Yeah?” Kelly murmured, and that rare genuine smile of hers appeared again, a refreshing red moonbeam breaking through a dark sky of difficult to discern cloud cover.

   There was substance to that undisguised good will in his voice, honest appreciation that made her heart skip a beat. There were dozens of raunchy comebacks she could’ve even used, but all of them ducked away and slipped out of her weakly grasping thoughts. She tried to collect herself, but found herself unable to erase that weird, alien feeling within her. Ah… fuck. Am I starting to get sentimental, now? Felt like he touched a… soft spot there, or somethin’.

   “Well, you do still owe me the rest of that massage,” Kelly reminded him, easing her expression back into a teasing mask and immediately feeling more grounded. “You said last night you’d… finish it, remember?”

   “Yeah, but I don’t know if you could handle that,” Brian countered, cocking his helmet at her daringly.

   “Wanna try me?” Kelly challenged, stepping closer—but all she was getting back from him was the blank stare of that stupid skull helmet. Damnit, he’s so much harder to bully now that I can’t read his face.

   “Maybe, but should I even bother?” Brian’s muffled voice answered. “I mean, that was gonna be in exchange for telling us why you were here at the con… and you didn’t really give us much of an answer, remember?”

   “I did so,” Kelly spat, playfully slapping at his chest, but let her hand linger there afterward. Fuck, no reaction there, either? What gives? Wasn’t he all flinching away from me right before his shower?

   “Eh, it was weak, though. Weak answers’ll only get weak massages,” Brian gave a helpless shrug.

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   “I even told you again this morning,” Kelly insisted, dropping her voice to a low purr. “I’m just here to… have a good time, you know? Although, if you really want, we can, ya know, get into it again… after you finish that massage.”

   “That’d be boring,” Brian chuckled, undaunted. “Why don’t we do both at once? I’ll coax all the answers right outta you, the dreaded Darkmask interrogation ten-fingers torture technique.”

   “Ooh, I like the sound of that,” Kelly brightened, smirking at him and bringing her other hand up to his chest. Ten fingers, huh? “Got anything to tie me up with?”

   “Can’t I just have Steph pin you down?”

   “Sounds perfect,” Kelly laughed, and she could feel her cheeks warming. “You really do know how to get a girl excited after all. Wanna just hold off on going over to the convention? I mean, it is still so early…” The thought of Stephanie earnestly and eagerly nibbling up her neck alone was enough to make her shiver. Imagining that girl’s slender fingers along with Brian’s domineering hands, each roaming rampant across her, every nubile contour of her body pulled and positioned and played with, until every inch of her flesh just aching for release… Yep, I’m wet already. Fuck me.

   “Well, there was a few things I still wanted to hit up today. There’s a Hero Hero Haruki cosplay meetup planned around noon… probably a couple Darkmask photoshoots, and then a bunch of random shenanigans. Then I’ll need to stop by and wish my buddy Mark luck before his Mana tournament, too. Everything else on the menu is, you know, shopping, and taking some pictures and everything… don’t you think a massage is better after a long day on your feet?”

   “Tch, yeah I guess,” Kelly pouted. “How long did you normally spend at the con, with your group or whatever?”

   “Normally it was kinda just me making sure Chloe got to all the panels she wanted to see, trying to keep Emily from molesting anyone or embarrassing herself, hitting the big events like the costume and AMV contests… you know, going with the flow. Today, I guess it’ll mostly be whatever you girls wanna do.”

   “Yeah? Well, what if we want to do you?”

   C’mon, that’s a pretty good one to think up on the spot. She wanted to get a rise out of him, some kind of decent reaction, but she couldn’t see his expression at all behind that damned goofy skull helmet. She found herself watching in disbelief as he comically pantomimed shock in slow motion by wordlessly tilting his helmet and placing his gloved hands on the skull cheeks.

   “….Pffft,” she finally laughed, unable to contain herself. “You’re such a… such a—”

   “I’m—I’m ready!” Stephanie announced, rabbit ears bobbing as she wobbled out of the bathroom enclosure. She was still tugging one of her thigh-high pink boots the rest of the way up, bouncing with energy and excited for the day at the convention.

   “I’m ready,” Brian confirmed, patting the row of pouches sewn onto his utility belt. “Have my room key, I’ve got my phone and wallet, got some snack bars. And my con badge, o’course. Does everyone have their badges?”

   “I do!” Stephanie affirmed.

   “Uh, shit,” Kelly muttered, crossing the room in a swish of extravagant black skirt to pull her badge lanyard off the dresser. “Should I leave my purse here? It doesn’t exactly look lolita.”

   “Sure, you can leave it,” Brian’s skull helm nodded. “If you have anything you need to bring along, I’ve still got empty pouches here on my belt.”

   “Cool, thanks,” Kelly said, a devious grin appearing. “Here.” Twirling, she began passing him items out of her purse, one by one. Her phone, and then a travel-sized tube of personal lubricant. Three condom packets, still connected—, Stephanie’s eyes widened at the sight of them, and the girl turned away to retrieve something from her own bag—and finally, a crumpled and heavily weathered twenty-dollar bill.

   “That should be everything we…uh, that is, everything I need,” Kelly reported sweetly.

   Again without saying a word, Brian shook his helmet in exaggerated exasperation and threw up his hands in resignation.

   “Wait, d’you not need your little accessory… thing, this time?” Kelly asked, picking up a small wooden token, a charm bound at the edges with white and red thread. Turning it over curiously in her fingers, she found that some Japanese symbols were carved into one side. Something about it seems…

   “Oh, right, can’t forget the charm,” Brian chuckled, accepting it from her. “Emily’d be asking why the hell I wasn’t wearing it.”

   “You wear a good luck charm?” Kelly snorted. “You don’t strike me as the superstitious type.”

   “It’s not a good luck charm, it’s—” Brian began.

   “—it’s a harem charm,” Stephanie finished for him, watching intently as he fastened it to his convention lanyard around his wrist and tucked it into his glove. “And it’s, um… it’s working?”

   “Hah, yeah, right,” Brian laughed. “Are we all ready to head across the street to the con?”

   The fuck’s a harem charm? Kelly wondered, but didn’t bother asking. Wasn’t that the little pin he had yesterday?

   “O-okay, let’s go!” Stephanie declared.

   Alright, this is actually pretty cool, Kelly decided, looking on in appreciation as the Darkmask minion led the rabbit-eared girl in the cute dress out the door of their hotel room. She followed a half-pace behind them like an angelic shadow, dressed to the nines in the overly elaborate Calamity Queen set. We have our own little crew, and we all look fuckin’ badass.

   “Oh, fuck,” Kelly hopped forward and pulled Stephanie back into the doorway to playfully whisper in her ear. “Our deal, I forgot to really ask you the details. You said that you want Brian to like, not be able to hold back his feelings for you, right? So how do you want them? When the time comes, do you want his feelings, like, deep inside of you, or is it okay if he just spurts them out all over your pretty li’l face?”

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