Published: 05/26/21

Noelle had been doing a lot of thinking, and in the aftermath of that thinking spree, she called her closest friend and pleaded for her to come over. Amber of course had immediately rushed over, expecting to find her pinned under a mountain pile of training dummies, again, or worse. However, her fears were quickly put to rest as she saw she was perfectly fine, and Noelle made her sit down on the bed because she had something to discuss.

With the outrider settled on the bed, Noelle cleared her throat somewhat nervously. "A-Amber? If I tell you something, will you promise not to tell anyone?"

Amber's eyebrow arched slightly, her full attention on the timid maid in front of her. "Yeah, Noelle, of course."

"I've been...thinking of ways to make a lot of Mora, because, you know, if I had a lot of Mora then I could expand my training opportunities."

"Yeah..?" Amber was unclear on where this was going.

"S-so I've been searching and reading, and looking at all the different ones that pays a lot, and well, I've decided-"

Amber raised both eyebrows in confusion as her friend seemed to struggle slightly with forming the words. "Go on. You decided what?"

"I-I have decided to be...a porn star!"

Had you touched Amber with a feather at that moment, she would have fallen over onto the floor and stayed there in a daze for a month's worth of Saturdays. These were not the words that she, nor anyone really, would have expected to hear from Noelle. Noelle, of all people! Did she even know what a-

"Amber?" Noelle looked extremely concerned. "Um, are you alright? You look a little- well, pale."

Amber took multiple deep breaths to steady herself, her face reddening slightly, as she stared into the concerned teal eyes gazing back at her in worry. "Noelle. Just so I know I heard you right, uh, c-could you repeat that last thing?"

"Are you alright?"

"No no, before that."

"Oh. Um, I've decided to-to be a porn star?"

Amber inhaled, and started mumbling incoherently under her breath, pinching the bridge of her nose and attempting to remain collected for Noelle's sake. Ok. Alright. So she hadn't misheard her friend after all. "Noelle. Just...how much thought have you given this, exactly?"

"Oh! Quite a bit! It's a really good paying job, Amber! And that means I can spare Mora without worries for spending on helping people!"

"Heh. Uhm, Noelle, just a quick question. Do you...even know what job that is? Like, what you would be doing? For that matter, do you even know what porn is?!"

Noelle blushed and rubbed her right hand absently along her left arm, looking down and shifting from one foot to the other in a nervous and shy manner. "W-well I know it's, um, kind of, um, lewd? But I don't really know all about it, no."

Amber blinked rapidly. "Wait. You mean you're gonna get a job that you have no idea how...really inappropriate it is, just because it pays a lot?! Noelle, there are other things that pay a good deal that don't involve...this."

"Since you know so much about it, Amber, maybe you could tell me? So I know exactly what to expect?" Noelle looked at her hopefully.

"But-"

"I really want to try this, it seems to pay the most."

"Yeah, well, there are good reasons for that." Amber muttered, looking down as she rubbed the back of her neck.

"Please?"

Amber groaned. Maybe it was better to just let Noelle find out that this...job, wasn't exactly all she thought it was. Besides, it might be amusing to see her attempt to act like a porn star. Amber suddenly decided what to do. "Ok ok, fine. But uh, you're gonna need some...certain outfits that I'm pretty sure Lisa can set you up with, so can I call her?"

"Oh, um...yeah, ok. But just her, Amber, please? I don't want the others finding out. At least, um, not yet." Noelle couldn't imagine the faces of her fellow knights. Oh, Barbatos! The scandalized look on the grandmaster's face! Never mind the quiet and uncharacteristically contemplative look on Captain Kaeya.

"Yeah, I don't blame you." Amber went and left Noelle's dorm room in a hurry, her outrider skills come in handy at reaching the library's door so quickly. "Lisa? Can you meet me at Noelle's room? It's uhm, quite an emergency right now."

The librarian herself was busy- well, as busy as drinking tea on her lonesome and enjoying a good book in Amber's opinion. "Oh of course, dearie. Is there an emergency? Have the others been called?"

"Uh, no, she really just wants me and you only, so please don't call the others." Amber doesn't want to beg, but seeing that desperate look on the outrider's face was enough of an indication for Lisa.

"Very well," Lisa sighed, putting her book down. "On my way right now."

Amber returned to the maid's room as fast as she did before and looked at Noelle, who gazed back worriedly.

"H-how do you think she'll take it?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

Lisa sat on the bed, body completely rigid, her eyes wide and partially glazed over, and her mouth hanging open.

"Oh dear." Noelle murmured anxiously. "She's been that way for ten minutes, s-should we do something?"

Amber leaned over and tapped Lisa on the head. "Hey! Hey, Lisa! Snap out of it!"

Lisa snapped out of it with a massive gasp of air, and stared at the two girls in shock. "Oh my heavens!" She exclaimed, putting a firm hand on her worried face. "For one moment I thought Noelle said she wished to be a... ahem, a porn star. My hearing must be acting strangely today."

"Actually you heard just fine." Amber said. Lisa blinked, and gaze swinging back and forth between them, struggling to speak past her shock and horror.

"Wha-! You mean she actually-? She really-? I- Noelle, you can't be serious!"

"She is."

Lisa looked utterly aghast for several long seconds, her overwhelmed brain scrambling to pull together its few still functional cells in order to formulate some kind of response. "N-Noelle, darling. I... however did you even come to this idea?! Much less the conclusion to do it!"

Noelle inhaled, looking from Lisa to Amber and back again, then walked over to her closet and pulled down a box, which she placed on the floor and rummaged through. After a moment, she found was she was looking for and returned to then, holding the item out with an embarrassed blush. "This."

The other two gaped at it in shocked silence for several seconds. Amber recovered first, and her voice raised to near squeak pitch as she struggled to speak. "I-you-it- Noelle. WHY DO YOU HAVE A BEAUTY ROYALE MAGAZINE?!"

Noelle eeped at Amber's raised voice, and then shrugged slightly. "I kinda... I mean... it got delivered here by mistake so I, um, I hung onto it."

"Darling." Lisa kneaded one side of her head with her knuckles in an effort to calm herself. "This magazine is...well. I suppose you know what's in it."

"Not all. Just a few pages. But it got me thinking, do people get paid for this, and how much? So I looked and they do, and it's a lot."

Amber and Lisa exchanged glances. Both of them knew all about Fontaine's Beauty Royale magazines as well as the job Noelle wanted to try, and though they knew they should probably talk her out of it, it was a given that she likely would only listen if they SHOWED her. So, with an unspoken agreement between them, they turned back to Noelle.

"Well then Darling, I suppose if you are set on this." Lisa inhaled and became fully professional. "If you are going to do this, you are going to need to learn how to- how shall I say it? Flaunt what you have. So! Walk across the room like this." And Lisa walked across the floor gracefully but with a highly enticing swaying of her hips as well as a seductive smile that she glanced over her shoulder to bestow on them. Amber had to try not to laugh as Noelle reddened impossibly.

"Oh... oh my. I-I'm not sure I can do that."

"Psh, nonsense Darling! It's quite simple! You try. Walk to me, just like I just did."

Noelle took a breath and bravely moved towards Lisa, pasting what she hoped was a suggestive smile on her lips while giving a very awkwardly over exaggerated sway of her hips. "L-like that?"

Amber was dying. Her face was red from the exertion it was taking to hold in her laughter as she watched Noelle struggling to be seductive and sexy. Lisa managed to maintain a professional outward appearance while inwardly breaking apart into mirth. "Yes, like that, darling. Simply fabulous. Now, try again, like this."

Lisa walked back towards Amber in the same manner as before, but this time puffing her chest out as much as possible...which of course showed off all the right curves. Noelle eeped, but followed her lead as best she could, which meant she barely puffed out her chest at all. Amber sat down on the corner of the bed, holding her breath in hopes she could quell the rising laughter.

"Fabulous!" Lisa praised. "Now then, Noelle, if you really want to do this, you are going to need to show some skin that you wouldn't normally show. You understand what I'm saying?"

"Oh. Oh my. I think so. Um..." Noelle inhaled and rolled the bottom of her skirt up, leaving her tights-covered thighs fully exposed. She blushed intensely, awkwardly trying to cover it partially with her hands. "Um..i-is this right?"

Amber lost the fell off the corner of the bed into the floor, her entire body convulsed with laughter, tears running from her eyes and she rolled around. It was taking all of Lisa's effort to remain serious, but her voice cracked a couple of times as she nodded. "Yes yes, darling. That's a start."

"A-a start? Gosh Lisa, I, um, it feels like too much. What do you mean, a 'start'?"

"Noelle, just...what exactly did you see in the magazine so far?"

Noelle picked it up and flipped to the first page. It showed a few girls in basically the equivalent of sports bras and sport shorts. Huh, Amber was curious on why the Spindrift Knight, Eula, was there too.

"This is all I saw. But gosh...so much is uncovered." She was red faced just looking at a specific page. Amber leaned up to look, then hit the floor again and went back into vicious laughter. Lisa was feeling her self control slipping as she looked at the picture, then at Noelle, and then back once more.

"Ah, dearie, um, this is simply an advertisements for these sports bras. That's not...part of the magazine." She flipped a couple pages. "Ah, here. This is part of the magazine."

Noelle stared at it, her pupils shrinking to pinpricks as her mouth hung open and her face flamed horribly. A few wordless squeaks left her throat before she hastily began ripping up the magazine. "Oh! Nononono! No! Oh dear Oh dear! NO!"

"Noelle, are you-"

"No, Lisa! Amber. I appreciate you girls helping me but no! No no! I have changed my mind! T-that will be all, I don't need any more help. Eep!" She ducked into her closet and slammed the door, mortified. Lisa was still struggling to contain her mirth as she helped Amber up and guided her out of Noelle's room to the rest of the Knights' dorm hallway.

Once they were out of hearing range, Amber finally got enough breath to speak. "So what was the image that you showed her?"

Lisa's lips twitched and her voice was incredibly strained. "It simply was an image of the Astrologer Mona girl licking an ice cream cone. Seductively. While in her bikini on the beach at Falcon Coast."

The hallway was silent for a full second before it was filled with the hysterical laughter of the two girls as Lisa and Amber went their separate ways. This traumatic day was never spoken of in Noelle's presence again.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Surprise! I'm not dead. Again.

Apologies for the late update on OCF's final chapter for ACT I. School was extended for another month, as the complications seems to get even higher. I probably won't be able to upload the next update for a while. So, uh, take this small snippet of a one-shot as a short of small break from me. Too many things I was occupied with, but having to flex my creative muscles, even if only for a short while, then I might be able to rest my mind and concentrate on the good stuff in my education.

Also, poor Noelle. She just wanted some extra cash. It was funny for Lisa and Amber, though. Of course, at the embarrassing expense for Noelle's last shred of dignity.

This was merely a break for me, as I need something to write on without expending too much effort on OCF's story. This is my first one-shot and I do not know how this goes.

This is also a small gift for my fellowship friends! May is the month of their birthday and I wanted to write something small for them.

Tell me your thoughts. Did you guys find this funny? Are the characters' interaction making you guys laugh? Leave a review, please!

Also, sexy Mona is still poor Mona.