Chapter 48: Mixing Colors

    “I’ve... never showered with another girl before,” Megan said uneasily.

    “Scrub scrub scrub!” Rebecca instructed cheerfully, taking the girl by the shoulder and turning her to face the other direction again. She needed to finish working this sopping mass of suds into Megan’s hair.

   “Okay, yeah,” Megan agreed, self-consciously squashing her breasts against herself with her hands.

    At first, the smell had been overpowering. Standing together in the shower enclosure, however, the spray of water eventually sluiced away enough of Megan’s sweat that Rebecca dared to breath again. She’d pressed one of those slim bars of hotel soap into the girl’s hands, and hopefully some encouragement and gentle prodding would be enough to spare her from having to actually thoroughly wash the girl’s intimate regions for her.

    The whole experience wasn’t bad. But, it was weird, and in ways that had Rebecca turning introspective. She didn’t really mind getting naked and stepping into this tub with a stranger. As Mara, she bathed with the other Daegonhir ladies in Mill Creek during campouts, and even danced naked beneath the moonlight during the last Solstice event, so she felt unfazed even with all of the awkward peeks Megan kept sneaking at her body.

    Sporting a wry smile, Rebecca couldn’t help but think she didn’t have anything much for Megan to be too impressed by. She’d always felt average rather than attractive, the last girl in a group to be noticed and the first to be overlooked. Tall, for a girl, and somewhat athletic. A fair amount of muscle tone replaced more feminine curves, and her small breasts didn’t really seem to stand out much on her frame. She had bland, tawny hair that fell in wild tangles when freed from the braid she wore to work, and always thought of her facial features as somewhere halfway between pretty and forgettable. They’d honestly never really felt like they set her apart from anyone else, that they were the unique way people identified her; her face never even felt much like it was her own.

    “Do you, um, want me to help wash you, too?” Megan asked in a nervous voice, glancing back again.

    “If you want to!” Rebecca gave her a sleepy smile. “If you could help get my hair when I’m done with yours, that’d be really cool, yeah.”

    As Rebecca, she wasn’t in any way squeamish actually washing another person, because she was regularly on call to assist elderly residents during their scheduled bathtimes. So, while Megan was wide and well overweight, there wasn’t anything off-putting or gross about her figure to Rebecca. Being a nurse’s aide at an assisted living center meant helping the less-able-bodied take baths, so she was well acclimated to seeing folds of flesh, sagging arms, swollen legs, and the drooping, deflating bellies of large older women. By comparison, Megan was practically pleasant to the eyes—fat like a lovely rounded, ripened tomato—rather than one long since expired.

    Despite Megan’s misunderstanding about being invited to shower together with another girl, Rebecca was maintaining a careful distance from the girl and minding their safety. Most falls happen in the bathroom, after all! She tried to be respectful, give Megan some private space and some illusion of normalcy by not overtly staring. The Mara in her was ready to just get this over with in a no-nonsense way, to roughly lift Megan’s arms up one after the other like a child and gouge her pits out with that bar of soap in an ungentle way.

    Well. It may be weird, I may be weird, but at the very least I’m… uniquely suited? To situations like this, where—

    Then, she heard the scream.

    She was completely Mara again in an instant, sliding the shower curtain out of the way with a sweep of her hand and deftly jumping out of the tub and onto the tile, practically hearing her Rebecca voice—don’t you slip, you silly goof! There was still lathered shampoo on her hands, and she flicked them harshly in annoyance in the general direction of the bathroom sink.

    The scream, more of a shriek, really, sounded close. Too close. The door of their hotel room had been left open to air out the place, and it was like someone had screamed right outside in the hall. Not a happy squeal of laughter or one of excitement, but the other kind of scream, the kind she heard when someone was in genuine pain and fear. This wasn’t an SCE or Daeghir battlefield, though, where injuries happened amidst the meat grinder of a melee press though, this was a hotel.

    Mara snatched at a folded towel and wrenched it off the bar of the drying rack—don’t forget to cover up, dearie!—when the white towel was haphazardly wrapped around her body and tucked into place, she yanked open the bathroom door and padded out of their room and into the hall, still barefoot and soaking wet.

    You’ve GOT to be kidding me…

    Emily was straddled atop Chloe, raining fists down upon the shrieking girl’s face as Chloe flailed, trying to scratch and claw Emily off of her in turn. Crouched down several feet behind them, Stephanie had one hand on the wall of the corridor for balance, the other clutching at the side of her face. The first flash of adrenaline spiking through Mara’s veins turned to immediate anger as she realized no one was in real danger.

    Her friends were fighting each other, which was even worse.

    “Stop. Both of you, stop,” Mara demanded in a growl, stepping forward to catch Emily’s wrist and forcibly pull her up off of her other friend. “Stop.”

    “Let go!” Emily seemed to hiss and spit like an angry cat, trying to thrash her way out of Mara’s iron grip and lashing out one last kick at Chloe, who was trying to scramble up to her feet. “Lemme—let me go!”

    “Everyone, stop,” Mara hissed, standing firm against Chloe and swinging Emily away to send her sprawling across the carpet.

    Down the long stretch of hallway, Mara could see several different doors open as people peeked out of their rooms to see what all the commotion was about. Inwardly fuming at the predicament her friends were embroiled in, Mara imposed herself firmly between the catfighting girls. Chloe lunged forwards, regardless of the stoic obstacle in her path, grappling wildly in vain across Mara in attempt to lash out at Emily one last time.

    “You. Fucking. Bitch!” Unable to push past, Chloe’s unbridled fury exploded out, slapping and scratching angrily at Mara to get through. Her fingernails raked down across the towel, pulling it loose, and clawed along the outside of Mara’s shoulder and down her arm.

    Gritting her teeth and grabbing Chloe’s hand, Mara squeezed, squashing it into an immobile press of fingers that elicited a pained yelp from the irate girl. She then pushed Chloe down, pinning her to the floor with her one arm twisted uncomfortably across her chest. When the crazed Chloe tried to buck and twist out of Mara’s grasp, it was all too easy to subdue her by pressing her right back down to the carpet with a knee planted firmly between Chloe’s shoulder blades.

    “She—she hit Stephanie!” Emily accused, stumbling back up onto her feet. “Out of nowhere! Fucking bitch, she just started like, attacking her, and—”

    “Get. Off of me!” Chloe screeched. “I swear to—”

    “You can’t be fighting in here,” Mara cut them both off, annoyed. “You guys should never be fighting in the first place!”

    “Tell that to her—” Emily began.

    “She’s the—she’s the one who started it!” Chloe sobbed angrily, stabbing a finger towards Stephanie from where she struggled beneath Mara. “An-and then, then Emily just jumped on me—”

    “Shut the fuck up, you stupid fucking—”

    “Both of them were attacking me, and—”

    “Enough, enough!” Mara silenced their protests with a furious glare. Both the Mara and Rebecca parts of her were reconciled in the anger and disappointment she felt with her friends. They were acting like out-of-control children, and she hated the cold, dispassionate way they were making her feel right now. “Not out here in the hallway. Both of you, get in the—”

    Mara flinched back as she felt a new pair of hands at her side, only to realize that Stephanie was now beside her, fitting that towel that had slipped down her back up around her in proper place.

    “—Thank you, Steph,” Mara said stiffly. “Everyone, get into the room. We can’t be making a scene out here.”

    “They attacked me!” Chloe yelled. “Get off of me! Get the fuck off of me! You’re… you’re wet!”

    “It was my fault. I think,” Stephanie admitted, giving Mara an apologetic look. “But, she did start hitting first—”

    “I did not—” Chloe retorted. “She just even said it was her fault—”

    “I don’t care,” Mara snapped angrily. “I don’t care whose fault it is. All of you, stop fighting and get in the room.”

    “No. I… just, no,” Emily huffed. “I’m not going anywhere with her, and I’m never gonna stop fighting her or get along. Ever. She’s not my friend—she was never my friend. She was never your friend!”

    How can you SAY that? Mara stared hard at the Emily who was still all keyed up, arms shaking as the petite girl practically vibrated with rage. What is this all even about? Weren’t we all getting along alright just a few minutes ago?

    “Is… everything okay?” Megan was standing in the doorway of their room now, wearing a towel and watching the scene in wide-eyed bewilderment.

    “Emily, let’s just go,” Stephanie insisted, taking her livid friend gently by the arm. “I’m sorry about all of this, Rebecca. Sorry, Megan.”

    “Cunt, you think you can just—” Chloe started again, but Mara cut her off by hauling the girl up to her feet and then shoving her past Megan into room 502.

    “Fuck off,” Chloe violently shrugged off Mara’s hands the moment she was inside. “Just—fuck off, all of you.” Then, the teary-eyed girl stormed into the bathroom, slamming the door closed and locking out the still-dripping towel-clad Mara and Megan.

    “...What’s going on?!” Megan whispered to Mara. They watched as Stephanie pulled Emily down the hallway away from them, Emily giving them a parting glance that was equal parts angry glare and hurt look.

    “Sorry about them,” Mara said, a little more brusquely than she intended, and with a stony face, she closed the door on them.

    It stung, deep inside. This sudden rift between friends had torn wide like a jagged wound, and she didn’t know how to cope with it. She needed to put herself back in Rebecca mindset for dealing with Megan, but it felt like tears lurking just behind her eyes, and she didn’t dare compound the messy situation by pouring more emotion on the fire right now. Sudden exhaustion and a biting, bitter sadness washed over her all at once, and she crossed the room to sit down heavily on the edge of one of the beds.

    “You’re—oh my God, you’re bleeding!” Megan pointed out, hurrying over to grab for travel-bag tissues from the cluttered swath of belongings scattered across the room.

    “It’s fine,” Mara dispassionately ran a finger across the dotted-line scrape on the outside of her thigh, already beading with blood.

    It was nothing, not worth noticing. Something Rebecca would surely fuss over someone for and—oh my goodness, are you okay?!—but, she wasn’t feeling up to being very Rebecca right now, wasn’t up to being a sweetie who channelled all of her grandmother’s worries and wisdom. It wasn’t that bad anyways, a scratch like this wasn’t even deep enough to scold Prince Charming for.

    “It’s not fine, you’re bleeding!” Megan insisted, batting away Mara’s hands and dabbing at the stinging scrape with a wad of tissues. “What is—what’s going on?!”

    “It’s whatever. Complicated,” Mara reported bluntly, before wincing inwardly and feeling conflicted. Ugh. This... isn’t going to work. Need to put more Rebecca into this.

    Wandering the gap separating her Mara and Rebecca attitudes felt like she was uselessly floundering, right now. Caught in an uncertain back-and-forth between the social security blanket and the problem-solving hammer, when neither seemed to be the right tool for this job. Her identity issues weren’t anything as extreme as a personality disorder, both personas were the real her, but also affectated in certain ways, acting the role best suited for the situation she faced.

    So, how do I fix THIS? Rebecca squeezed her eyes shut and cradled her face in her hands. Hah, how does everyone else manage to turn out so much more… normal?

    “You… alright?” Megan asked, looking concerned.

    “I think,” Rebecca began with a slow, deep sigh. “That was the big falling out between them. Chloe and Emily. The one that I was praying would never actually happen, for all this time. They’d—yeah, they’d always fight, they were always fighting, but it was never this bad. I don’t think… that they can come back from this, that we can come back from this, and I don’t know if they’ll still be my friend like before, if I don’t take sides. And, I don’t want to ever take sides. Not over stupid, silly relationship drama that shouldn’t even…”

    “Shouldn’t even what?” Megan asked.

    “It’s nothing,” Rebecca gave her a wistful smile and shook her head, slowly blinking her drowsy-looking eyes. “Sorry! You don’t even know them. Us. I shouldn’t be complaining to you, of all people. We’ve only just met! I don’t mean to put all my worries on you.”

    “No, go on—I’m totally interested,” Megan said helpfully. “This was all like, crazy! I’ve never seen people fighting all up close, and you just... waded right there into the thick of it and made them all stop. I could never do that! I just, I don’t understand what even happened in the first place.”

    “Chloe is the ex-girlfriend of Brian, who I think both Stephanie and Emily are… interested in, maybe involved with, now?” Rebecca weakly tried to explain, grimacing at the ridiculousness of it all. “Somehow?”

    “That guy! The guy Steph went off with yesterday?” Megan’s eyes lit up with excitement. “Sorry, this is all just… really cool, kind of? I never would have imagined Steph, of all people, would get caught up in that kinda stuff.”

    “Really… cool?” Rebecca blinked in confusion.

    “Oh no no, I don’t mean it that way!” Megan blurted out. “Sorry, I just. Yeah, I can see why them fighting would be awful and upsetting and all for you. You were amazing though, you did what you should have done, the only thing you could’ve done. Do you... want a hug?”

    “...Yes,” Rebecca nodded, trying not to let herself start to cry. “Please.”

---

    “Are you okay?” Steph asked, looking at Emily with concern.

    “Yeah, yeah,” Emily nodded, impatiently jabbing the elevator call button repeatedly. “I mean, I think. I don’t know? Are you okay?”

    “Um,” Stephanie gingerly traced a hand along the side of her head, cupping her ear. “It hurts. She was really scratching you, though, are your arms okay?”

    “Yeah, they’re— uh, oh wow,” Emily held her arms up, really taking a look at them. “She got me a little bit, hah ha. Fuck, my cheek’s still swelling from earlier, even.”

    “Emily—you’re shaking,” Stephanie took hold of the other girl’s hands and turned them around so she could inspect her forearms.

    “I just, yeah, never been in a real fight before,” Emily admitted. “I guess. I’ve got this bad temper, but I never really let myself go like that. Or, no one else let me. Fuck, wish I’d gotten more hits in. Want to really beat the total living shit out of her. God damn.”

    “Are you okay?” Stephanie asked again.

    “Yeah, I mean—look, they’re not even that bad,” Emily let out a nervous laugh. A series of angry red lines was apparent on one of her arms, especially where she was missing the one Akane Kurokawa bracer, but none of them were deep enough to draw blood.

    “I... don’t mean the scratches,” Stephanie said pointedly, feeling tremors still travelling down Emily’s arms.

    “I’m fine,” Emily laughed off her concerns, pulling her hands back. “Just, want to get the fuck out of here, though. Even just still being in the same building as her makes me feel trapped or something. Damn, get me the fuck out of here, c’mon.”

    “Yeah…” Stephanie pressed her lips into a thin line.

    Emily hit the elevator button again and again in quick succession, and then impatiently pressed it and held it down.

    “Fuck it, we’re only a few floors up,” Emily growled. “Stairs?”

    “Sure,” Stephanie nodded agreeably.

    Emily led the way, both girls heading through the nearby door for the stairwell, which was a brightly lit shaft of cinderblock walls and concrete-faced stairs painted all in white. They began their descent, listening to the loud echoes of their footfalls as they tromped their way down flight after flight of steps. Something felt wrong to Stephanie, though.

    “Can we... stop and sit for a moment?” She asked, putting a hand on Emily’s shoulder.

    “Yeah? Sure.”

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    Emily stopped in place, adjusting her costume yukata for a moment before taking a seat on one of the steps, arms crossed in front of her. Steadying herself with the handrail, Stephanie eased down to sit beside her. Without saying another word, their shoulders touched as they leaned towards each other, huddled together just like they had earlier sitting out on the curb.

    It feels like we’re even closer, Stephanie thought to herself, wetting her lips nervously as she prepared to speak. So... I can’t just let this go.

    She’d been completely unprepared when Chloe started smacking her, uselessly caught flat-footed and unable to do anything but dumbly accept each of those angry blows. It had been horrifying, the kind of personal violence she’d always been scared of but suddenly here and in her face. Cowering in fear of the blows, Stephanie had felt like she was retracting into herself, shutting down and going numb to the experience when Emily tackled Chloe to the floor. For the second time today, she’d been saved from peril, and it was an incredibly moving experience.

    “Are you okay?” Stephanie asked, turning in place so that she could look into Emily’s eyes.

    “...No,” Emily admitted, letting out a snort that was somewhere between a laugh and a sob. “I’m just—it just makes me so mad that Rebecca can’t see it, see how motherfucking evil Chloe is. Rebecca’s… I don’t know, she just tries to be everyone’s mom and always give everyone new chances all the time, and I love her for that, but it just. It’s so upsetting.

    “I just keep wondering what Chloe would have to do,” Emily sniffed in aggravation. “How bad she would have to be, before—I don’t know, before Rebecca wises the fuck up and takes our side. It’s so fucking frustrating. Fuck.”

    “I’m glad she came out and stopped things when she did,” Stephanie said quietly. “I was terrified. Things got so out of control, so fast…”

    “Chloe’s fucking crazy,” Emily spat. “Can’t believe she just started hitting you. It wasn’t even like you really even did anything!”

    “I… did do something,” Stephanie admitted in a quiet voice. “Or, I tried to.”

    “What?” Emily blinked in confusion. “What’d you do?”

    “May I?” Stephanie asked nervously, bringing her hands up to the sides of Emily’s head.

    “Uhh,” Emily stared. “...Okay?”

    Stephanie gently took Emily and guided her closer, leaning in herself until their foreheads were touching. She had no idea exactly what she was doing, and she’d already embarrassed herself in the hallway earlier when she’d had her hands stretched out in the air towards Chloe.

    She didn’t know exactly how to stretch out her senses, or anything like that. Focusing on the wiggly flame burning inside her was something she could do though, that pink sensation, the distracting something deep inside herself she couldn’t explain. She couldn’t control or direct it, exactly, but it seemed to respond when she opened up her feelings, burn brighter, hotter.

    When she carefully unraveled those wound-tight emotions buried in her chest and focused on what she felt for Emily, it was like she could almost make something out there in the darkness. Something almost illuminated by Stephanie’s little pink inner light. A minute rolled by as she let herself slip into a bit of trance, mesmerizing herself as she tried to see through the flames, past them to what they illuminated…

    There was Emily.

    Although she could easily visualize the fire within down to each tongue of vibrant flame, Emily was hard to peer into, like a troubled pool of water. At first, all she was able to discern were distorted reflections on the surface. Past those, within, was the real Emily, and the depths went on well deeper than anything Stephanie could make out. Shapes moving, agitated currents, things happening deep in the sunken rifts. The feelings down there were heavy, but so difficult to make out that Stephanie couldn’t help but burn closer—

    “Whoa—what the fuck?” Emily jerked back from her, reflexively bringing her arms up and around herself as if to shield herself from exposure. “The fucking fuck was that?”

    “Sorry!” Stephanie squeaked out in apology. “Sorry, I didn’t know what it’d be like! It’s like you’re hiding way down inside yourself. Didn’t mean to… suddenly intrude like that.”

    “It—yeah, it was… how’d you do that?” Emily said, looking uncomfortable. “You like, a psychic? Telepath? Is that what you did to Chloe? Wait, can you read minds?!”

    “I tried, but…” Stephanie frowned. “I don’t think it’s telepathy. I don’t understand any thoughts. I can feel things from you though, so I think it might be some sort of… empathy? What did it feel like for you?”

    “Exposed,” Emily said. “I dunno, like… there was suddenly a light shining on... all of these things I don’t wanna think about right now. Some things I probably should think about. I dunno. It was definitely pink, though. Pink like your hair?”

    “You’re definitely blue, like these strands you just got,” Stephanie pointed out, carefully running fingers through the new highlights adorning Emily’s pixie-cut. “D-do you want to try again?”

    “I don’t know,” Emily laughed. “Yes, immediately? Also, no. Never again. It’s… you know, it feels weird. But, at the same time, it’s like, it’s too cool not to. You tried to do that to Chloe?”

    “I tried,” Stephanie nodded. “It’s… yeah, weird. I thought at first this was just me… associating things with my own... mental impressions? Of Kelly, and you. But Chloe, she felt wrong.”

    “Yeah, that fucking fits my impression of her, too,” Emily spat.

    “Chloe’s sharp pieces, she’s… messy. Broken glass? Like broken mirror pieces, if broken mirror pieces also cut up your eyes when you look at them hard enough? I guess I wasn’t really using my eyes, though…”

    “What about me?” Emily asked, overcome with curiosity. “What am I, then?”

    “Really deep water,” Stephanie decided. “Deep, heavy. Um. The surface doesn’t match up, though. I know you’re really not okay right now, I can tell. Kelly’s distant. Unreachable distant, like faraway stars, so far away. But I don’t think she wants to be. Red stars, like her hair color that changed.”

    “And you’re pink light,” Emily said, interested.

    “Fire, I think. Pink fire?” Stephanie guessed. “Brian, he… it’s like he ignited something, and I can almost always just feel it burning there, in the back of my mind. Sometimes, it’s really strong.”

    “Wait, does it hurt?” Emily gaped at her. “Or ah, burn?”

    “No, no!” Stephanie assured her. “It’s like—I wasn’t like this, yesterday. Wasn’t like this before, I was… cowering in the dark, before. Too afraid to move, too afraid to breath. I couldn’t talk to people properly, couldn’t deal with things. I need this fire. I can’t go back to the way I was, I won’t.”

    “This is fucking insane. We got this from kissing Brian?” Emily wondered, looking excited. “Each of us?”

    “That’s part of it, I think,” Stephanie said. “You were the one who gave Brian the harem charm, right?”

    “The harem charm?” Emily blinked. “Yeah, I did. Wanted to help him somehow, I don’t know.”

    “Did it sting you?” Stephanie asked. “Zap you, anything like, um…”

    “Yeah…” Emily’s eyes widened. “Kinda like, I thought it was static electricity or something. Gave me tingles. I’ve still got tingles. Ripples?”

    “I thought the charm was on a pin at first, that it was open and the pin got me,” Stephanie revealed. “That’s when I started feeling it. I think it was the same for Kelly.”

    “So—what, this is like, real magic? Like, for real real magic stuff?” Emily said, her voice rising. “Magic?”

    “I want to say maybe, or that it’s a possibility,” Stephanie looked thoughtful. “But, no, I feel it. I think it’s magic, yes.”

    “A for real magic charm,” Emily rocked back, looking stunned. “A harem charm. A harem charm, but it actually works. Fuck, what do we do with it? What did it do to us?!”

    “Chloe had it for a second, when she was grabbing at things from the room,” Stephanie said. “She says she snapped it, but… I don’t believe her. I think she threw it, I was going to check the pool when we got back at the other hotel.”

    “Okay, yeah,” Emily nodded, lost in thought. “Fuck, Chloe had it. That’s not good. Right?”

    “I think… we need to be careful,” Stephanie said slowly. “Talking about it. I’m worried that Kelly won’t like the idea. That Brian won’t.”

    “You mean like, if it’s controlling us or something?” Emily laughed, and then caught herself, as if realizing that that might be exactly the case. “Yeah, fuck. Mind control slaves, making us fall for Brian?”

    “It’s… possible,” Stephanie admitted. “The attraction I’ve been feeling is… strong. When he kisses me, it’s like…”

    “Yeah, oh my God,” Emily muttered. “Is that fake? All in our heads?”

    “If it is, if it’s just making us feel that way…” Stephanie said. “Then, I don’t care. It’s worth it. I need this, I can’t go back to the way I was living before.”

    “Which is... just what harem magic would brainwash you to think,” Emily pointed out.

    “That’s… yeah,” Stephanie said uneasily. “Maybe.”

    “So, we find the charm and smash it to make sure?”

    “B-but, what if that loses this feeling for good?” Stephanie asked. “I don’t want to lose this.”

    “Which is... just what it’d make you think,” Emily countered.

    “I-I don’t care,” Stephanie said in a fluster. “I don’t care if having a night-light on doesn’t actually keep me any safer. So long as it helps me sleep. Is that—is that stupid? I don’t want to risk losing any of these feelings. I won’t.”

    “I had a big crush on Brian all through high school,” Emily said. “But, I… kinda fucked up my chances, and just kept burying it all deeper and deeper. Then, it’s like… lately, I keep thinking that I have to take another shot, like. That I have to risk it, or I’ll always regret it, deep down. Does that sound like I’ve been… I dunno, manipulated?”

    “Maybe?” Stephanie shrugged. “But, not in a bad way, I don’t think?”

    “Which is... what it’d want you to think,” Emily repeated dryly. “Sorry if I’m super paranoid about this kinda thing. Maybe not paranoid enough. Did you want to try doing your magic thing on me again?”

    “Will it make you uncomfortable?” Stephanie asked.

    “Probably?” Emily shrugged and held up her hands. “Fuck it, do it anyways. Am I gonna get cool anime powers from all this, too? Meme magic?”

    “Um,” Stephanie paused, hands hesitating just beside Emily’s head. “If you kiss Brian more, you should get more blue in your hair. That’s the… first stages? Some kind of barometer for magic… connection? Transformation?”

    “Doesn’t sound bad so far,” Emily grinned. “Wait, is this turning us into anime girls? With all the different unrealistic hair colors? Are we turning into an anime harem? The whole magic by kiss thing is totally an anime harem trope—there’s like, dozens of different series where that happens.”

    “Well, uh. You saw what happened with Kelly, what she was doing when her hair, um. Yeah. Mine was all pink after last night, when he…”

    “Wait, did you blow Brian?” Emily blurted out. “Oh my God!”

    “N-no, he ah, he…” Stephanie could feel the blood rush to her face, and her voice dropped down until it was barely audible, “...went down on me. It-it was, uh, we were playing truth or dare, and um—”

    “Whoa, fuck,” Emily stared. “Seriously? Was it, like… y’know, crazy colors and stuff like when we kiss him?”

    Stephanie bit her lip and nodded quickly, not trusting herself to say anything. Crazy colors. As Kelly said, he made me go BIG COLORS. Orgasmed, on his face. Made me cum. It was so amazing I can’t even…

    “Alright, do your thing and try diving back in,” Emily invited her, taking Steph’s hands and clapping them back onto the sides of her own head. “Probably stupid, right? But, it’s like, how the fuck am I gonna discover real fucking magic shit and not want to fuck around with it?”

    “O-okay…” Stephanie gave her a shy smile, and she closed her eyes in concentration.

    Sputtering fire hissed and sizzled explosive gouts of steam, blasting turbid water into the air, churning waves of it into colored foam. Pink and blue swirled into cotton-candy clouds of mixed emotion as heat and humidity rolled across Emily’s stormy surface and rose to obscure the unstoppable pink flame. Brilliant, dazzling watercolor fog expanded into every corner of their minds, and—

    “St-stop, stop, ow,” Emily panted, pulling her lips away from Stephanie’s. “Time out. Whoa, fuck.”

    “Uhhm,” Stephanie struggled to reorient herself, disentangling her limbs from Emily’s. They weren’t sitting on the steps anymore—they’d tumbled together down to the next landing below somehow without even noticing. Her bottom lip felt bruised from the intensity of Emily’s kiss.

    “Th-that totally wasn’t fair,” Emily complained, righting her yukata in embarrassment. “You were like… you just plunged into the, uh. Y-you know what you did!”

    Crazy colors, BIG COLORS. She’d been nervous to disturb the waters, to break the surface tension when all at once it had seemed like there was a shared something between them, a medium, a stream of oh-so-familiar feelings that was neither fire nor water. Now, she realized with no small amount of horror that she’d for a moment touched their emotions together in an incredibly… private place of thought.

    “S-sorry,” Stephanie pushed herself upright. Shifting her thighs against one another, she realized she was absolutely soaked with arousal. “I, um, I didn’t do that on purpose!”

    “I feel like I need a cigarette, Christ,” Emily laughed, running a hand through her hair and awkwardly looking away. “Don’t even smoke. Fuck, my head’s still spinning. Let’s not do that again. For a little while.”

    “I-I think we need to get back,” Stephanie said, using the railing to pull herself back up unsteadily to her feet. “We need to figure out—um. We have to find the charm.”

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