Chapter 10

Joan got her bed rest, but the next day when she woke she had been returned to the overzealously feminine room. She knew that if she did not do everything Cinder had instructed, she would likely end up back in the infirmary the next morning. Still unsure if the doctor had been killed or not, Joan decided to stumble her way over to the makeup in her heels.

Rather intentionally, Joan went further with the makeup than she wanted. She feared too little could get her in as much trouble as not at all. Plus, honestly, it was easier to go a little over the top. It wasn't too bad when all was said and done. Brushing her hair out and testing it all against the new shape of her face made it almost feel about right for her. It was leaning more Weiss amounts of makeup than Pyrrha or Nora, but it wasn't so far that she didn't feel herself.

Gently, Joan touched around her face. Her aura had done phenomenally well to heal the small scars from the procedure. Her face was only sore when she tried to smile- for some reason, Joan didn't think it would be hurting much. Even if it did, she knew it would be fully healed soon. She was lucky that she hadn't lost her in the changes. If anything, she found more than she lost.

She even found a dress that was pretty and almost reasonably stated without being too revealing. Cutting off just below her knees, Joan only wished she had a jacket or a shawl to stay warm and to cover her developing chest. The buds below her nipples had been growing. It was slow to Joan, though she knew fully well that it was almost inhumanly fast; all accelerated by whatever dust Cinder mixed in with the drugged food.

Joan touched them gently. They still felt far better than she ever thought was possible. It was easy for her to look down the area where the dress expected a bust to be. Her nipples again looked larger than before. Was that a thing? Did women have bigger nipples? They must, Joan figured. Over curious and antsy, Joan touched them again. She moaned gently and curled in on herself, her hot head resting against the cool make up desk. "F- fuck." Joan complained to no one but herself. With a soft whine, she caressed them. She struggled to focus on anything but how it made her heart race and her lower body pulse with her arousal.

With more focus than it should have ever required, Joan tried to imagine Pyrrha's lips kissing up the back of her neck as tender hands wrapped around her and teased her breasts. "Pyrrha… p- please." Joan whispered to herself. The theater of her mind began to play itself out after that; like all she needed was to get started and her mind took over. She reveled in her own touch as her mind played out lips on her neck, teeth at her pulse point. She cried out pleasurably as she imagined her fictitious lover growing rougher.

Joan's fingers intensified to match. She pinched and pulled at herself, her body bucking against the underside of the desk. A sensation of incongruity washed over her; a dysphoria. Her body shouldn't be like that.

'Don't worry, I will fix it.' Joan's fantasy spoke to her and a hand drifted under her dress to caress her need. 'You will be you, all you have to do is give in; tell me where she is.'

Joan's head shot up just as she noticed her fantasy involved a grimm arm pinching her left nipple. "What the fu-"

"What the fuck indeed." Cinder scoffed. "Really? Are you that much of a slut that you can't keep your hands off yourself?" She tapped her glass heel on the ground behind Joan. "What will we do with you when your breasts have truly come in? Will you even be able to go even a moment without touching yourself."

"I! I! C- Cinder! I- I wasn't-" Joan spun around and stood up, nearly toppling over on the heels.

"Oh please, shut up you… disgusting bimbo." Cinder huffed and made a show of looking away. "I can see your… your… thing through your dress."

"I! Oh my!" Joan covered herself and turned away. "Fuck- I- I'm so sorry, I just! Whatever you gave me… it just, it is effecting my chest and it's-"

"I don't need to know you disgusting whore!" Cinder snarled an almost inhuman sound.

"I- I- I-" Joan whimpered.

"It does not matter! I- I only came in here to deliver you your meal and check that you had done what you had been told!" Cinder stammered.

"I- I'm wearing the makeup and heels." Joan answered.

"I could see that." Cinder half barked back. "Now… Now-" Her voice wavered as if struggling with something. "Are you ready to put the both of us out of this misery and tell me where the thief is."

"No! I've told you no a hundred times. Did you really think it could change that easily?" Joan reinforced as she tried to calm her body.

"Fine then! I- I will find something new to torture you with."

"You- you're giving up on this girl Joan thing?" Joan jumped to ask and tried to hide how much the idea scared her.

"No! You won't be getting off anywhere near that easily! I will just be… finding something extra to make you crack sooner."

"What? Are you under some horrible rush?"

"Shut up." Cinder demanded almost too quickly."

"Wait…" Joan turned around to see Cinder already scurrying off. "You are in a rush." She accused knowingly. "You need me to give in before… before something." Joan stepped closer.

"If you have any idea what is good for you, you will shut your moronic trap right now."

"If I can stall you out long enough, will Pyrrha be safe? And the others!"

Cinder spun around and flames flickered around her face. "If you stall any longer, I'll make you watch as I flay the flesh from her bones!" The flames at her eyes burned around the makeshift eyepatch the covered the left. It revealed the glowing red eye of a demon- of a grimm. As if that all wasn't enough to strike terror into Joan, the other woman's voice turned monstrous enough as her new visage. "I- I- I'll gnaw her from tit to tail and devour your sorrow!" She snarled the familiar noise of a hungry grimm. She was left panting, her eyes staring her captive down.

"You're losing to-" Joan gaped as the grimm's slow progression up Cinder's arm suddenly began to make sense. All she needed to do was outlast Cinder. If she could resist Cinder longer than she could resist whatever grimm parasite was beginning to take her over, Pyrrha and everyone else would be safe.

Cinder covered her darkening face with one hand before running off. She said nothing more, she just ran. She ran before any more damage could be done. But the damage had already come. Joan spotted the cracks, she could see the thread of light on the other side. For the first time, she had a plan.

End of Chapter 10