Behind the Scenes

Ambur ran her hands through her hair as she looked back at herself through the mirror. She still didn't see what Olivier claimed to see but she wasn't about to give up now. She had spent the last several weeks feeling uglier than ever, trying as hard as she could to never get caught looking at herself in the mirror for fear of hating what she saw. But on this day, Liv had forced her to do so, so that her shorter counterpart could try some new styles on Ambur's face.

"Sit still," Liv said softly, her mouth hanging open as she concentrated on steadying her hand before drawing Ambur's wing's on her eyelids.

"Sorry I just...I hate this..." She admitted before Liv chuckled softly so as to not move too much.

"Stop worrying about your hair already, the black is almost out of it," she assured, better to let it fade naturally than bleach it back to white. You have remarkably healthy hair for how long you've been doing that awful skunk job," she laughed as she stepped back from Ambur, having finished her eye liner. She turned back toward the counter top and began rifling through her products once again, trying to decide what she wanted to use next.

"I liked it like that though...I haven't had plain white hair since I was like thirteen...it's a big change for me," Ambur whined.

"Yes it is and thankfully it looks way better than it did with those black lines running through it," Liv huffed again as she stood beside Ambur and held her shoulders, both of the girls looking in the mirror back at Ambur. "I know this has been hard for you but you've trusted me this far right? Don't ruin it when you are so close," she smiled. "You look great."

Liv meant it to, having watched Ambur's slow progress over the past two months, not just waiting for her hair to fade to her natural color, but also getting Ambur to change her wardrobe and even start to work out a little as well.

Getting Ambur to go to the gym with her had definitely been the hardest part to accomplish of her grand master plan. Sure Ambur didn't care for her natural hair color but she could understand that maybe it would catch Mydnight's attention better, same going for the change in clothing style. However, getting a body shy girl with insane strength to justify going to the gym, even with a friend, had been an incredible challenge.

Of course, they were fortunate to have a gym on campus, free for all students to use at their leisure, but even the matter of price hadn't swayed Ambur's opinion of going. In the end, it was Liv who had to beg Ambur every time she wanted to go for Ambur to come with her. But therein lay another problem for Ambur.

Not only did she not want other people to see her in work out clothing, but she also didn't see the point in going at all. Liv had often told her that her hourglass figure was already great and that once they started to show it off Mydnight would definitely notice. On top of that Ambur's semblance already made her stronger than she could ever possibly need to be. It wasn't as if her butt was all fat either, as it had only gotten so shapely from the years of volleyball she had played, making her curves almost all muscle.

In the end, however, Liv had finally been able to talk her into it by telling her that it would be the quickest and easiest way for Ambur to shed her body shyness. Eventually, she would find herself simply working out and completely unaware that anyone was looking at her. Ambur, of course, wasn't sure that she believed that, but nonetheless had agreed to it. She had recently begun to feel slightly better about her body, as Liv said she would but still she doubted the issue would ever go away completely.

The other reason that Liv had been dragging her down to the gym was to get Ambur to try and get a little color into her skin in the tanning booth. Ambur had rejected the idea completely for several weeks but only recently had been starting to consider it now that she could really see just how much her hair blended in with her skin tone. Liv was light skinned and her hair still managed to stand out much more than Ambur's now because of how truly pale she had become.

When she was still allowed to play, volleyball had actually kept her fairly tan, and back then, Ambur's hair was cut very short so as to keep it out of her face at all times without worrying about putting her hair in a ponytail. Back then she had never really cared what she looked like because it had never been an issue. However when she got to Signal Academy suddenly everyone started caring about how everyone looked and everyone began to find their own styles to stand out. She started growing her hair back out and hadn't really stopped, only cutting off the split ends once in a while, and it was now nearly halfway down her back.

Liv finally grabbed Ambur out of her thoughts as she brought up this very subject, "You know," she began, "We don't have to wait for the rest to fade out if we just get you a haircut," she suggested quietly, not sure how Ambur would react to the idea.

Ambur opened her mouth to speak but stopped herself short as the idea began to wash thoroughly through her brain. For once she wasn't immediately opposed to one of her friend's ideas since even Ambur could see that her hair really had no styling to it and really was quite a mess. Cutting all the black out however would mean taking off several inches at this point, bringing her hair back up to her shoulders. She took a long sigh as she thought about it, Liv surprised at her initial silence and lack of backlash to her idea.

Finally, she answered quietly, "Ya I...guess that's a good idea..."

Liv was shocked, placing her hand over her mouth before smiling back to her friend, "Did you really just say that?" She chuckled a little before Ambur looked back up to her.

"Don't make a thing out of it," she smirked playfully. "Know a good place?"

"Do I?!" Liv shouted excitedly before racing to pull her scroll out of her tight jean pockets as fast as she could before shooting a message to her hairdresser. "I'll get us an appointment as soon as possible!"

Ambur couldn't help but laugh at how excited her words had made her friend. She hadn't seen her this excited since she had met her. "Do you have a style in mind or anything? I am open to suggestions just...not too short okay?"

"Not a problem," Liv said as she set her scroll down on the counter top and began playing with Ambur's hair, trying to imagine what she would do to it if it were entirely up to her. "Well, first of all, we need to get it out of your face. I know you aren't gonna like it but you'll get used to it okay?"

"Ehhhh..." Ambur sighed, trying to keep her disagreement inside.

"I promise you'll learn to like it. You know full well that you have an eye-catching body but I'm telling you that your face is even better than all that and you need to let Mydnight see it if he is ever going to really see you."

"Huhhhh," she sighed again, "Fine...but...how short are you talking?"

"It doesn't have to be short to show your face off, you just need to pick a style, preferably with your bangs out of your face."

"Okay well...can you like...pull up some styles on your scroll or something? Maybe we can pick one?"

Olivier happily did as instructed and the girls spent several minutes scrolling through search engines to find a style that Ambur thought she might be able to live with before a message popped up blocking their view. As they read it together they found out that Liv's hairdresser wasn't too busy today and that she could squeeze Ambur in for an appointment whenever they decided to show up. "Well that's convenient," Liv smiled before putting her scroll back in her pocket. "Wanna go right now?"

"I mean...I guess," she smiled nervously, "Why not?" She threw her hands up in defeat before standing from her chair as the girls moved to the center of Liv's room.

"So, why don't you change into some of the new stuff we got you at the mall huh? Your makeup's already done so why not? You'll return to the school as a new woman," Liv smiled before looking through her own closet for garments to change into.

"...Do I have toooo?" Ambur groaned.

"I mean, if you're legitimately asking me that question then the answer is yes, you have to," Liv laughed.

"Ffffffine," Ambur sighed again before leaving OCHR's room and crossing the hall to her own. She pressed her ear to her door to check for any signs of her teammates before she opened it, finding Mydnight still asleep and her other two teammates gone. 'I guess it's still morning,' she rolled her eyes, 'but only just,' she saw as she looked to the digital clock on the end table near her bed, reading '11:37 AM'.

"Surprised your GIRLFRIEND," She began with a quiet mocking tone, "got out of bed without you this morning." As she reached the team's closet she began to quickly scan through the newer items that Olivier had helped her pick out. It hurt her eyes to look at, even in their dark room all the new white, yellow and peach clothing stood out against her old black garments. Liv had reasoned with her, telling her that if she kept up the tanning when springtime came and the sun was out that she would darken up a lot, and the white clothing would really contrast with her new skin tone.

Even now it contrasted quite a bit and Ambur couldn't help but grab a pair of white high waisted jeans, tossing them to her bed before looking back into the closet. Liv's favorite part of the trip by far had been when she had convinced Ambur to get new shoes, of course, but this was only because Liv was able to spend an hour in the store and bought several pairs home for herself.

Ambur still found herself incredibly jealous of Liv's form and her size, especially when it came to shoes. Liv could wear any pair of shoes she wanted and it looked great on her. Flats, skateboarding shoes and Liv's personal favorite, heels. Ambur was far too tall to ever wear heels, already being taller than most of the guys in school without them. Liv, of course, told her that that was silly and that she could wear whatever she wanted but Ambur didn't believe her. The girls had at the very least found a pair of white canvas lace-up shoes that went up about two inches past Ambur's ankles and would overlap the bottoms of her new pairs of skinny jeans.

She tossed those to her bed and turned back to begin looking for a shirt. 'God they are all so short,' she thought to herself as she looked at the myriad of different crop tops Liv had talked her into buying. She didn't hate the clothing to be fair, she actually thought it was all really cute. The problem came when she saw it on herself. She knew all too well though that deep down, Liv was right and she needed to use what she had.

As she pulled a golden cropped tank top from the closet she also grabbed one of her newer bras with thinner straps to go under it, still not entirely convinced that the thin straps would be able to support her without snapping but hey, she needed to try. She had come this far and she wasn't about to give up now. She looked over to the sleeping wolf, making sure he hadn't moved since her last time looking his way and began to quickly strip her clothes off, not wanting to bring her clothes back into Liv's room again by accident. She had gotten into the nasty habit of losing clothing in her friend's room, having changed in it so often.

As quickly as she could, she pulled on all of her new garments, praying that each one would fit properly, which of course they did. The girls had gone to great lengths to find items that would actually fit Ambur properly. It hadn't been easy, several long trips had been spent finding only one or two items at a time that would actually fit over and corral the Amazon's bust and fit over her hips properly to get her ready for her transformation.

Mydnight began to rustle in his bed however as Ambur was halfway done pulling up her jeans and she nearly jumped in place in surprise, barely able to control herself. It was only now that she thanked Liv for dragging her to the gym every other day. The weight lifting may not have yielded any trimmed fat or gained muscle, but what it had done was it allowed her to work on controlling her semblance. The old Ambur would have jerked up in surprise and torn the pants apart by accident, but now she was beginning to be able to use her own normal strength instead of having her semblance interfere all the time.

Liv had told her that this was a possibility and that this was something they should hope for in their trips to the gym and Ambur was very surprised to find that she hadn't done any damage to the jeans as she looked them all over for tears. She waited until Mydnight had settled back down and rolled over before pulling the pants up the rest of the way, doing a sort of little dance to pull the tight waist over her hips, her bust bobbing back and forth in time with her motion as she had not replaced her bra yet.

Ambur may not have always liked her body type but she was in some ways thankfully for the quality of her body at least. She knew she was still young but she was ever impressed at the way her bust didn't sag, given how large her breasts were. They were quite full and shapely in fact which did make bra shopping just a tiny bit easier since, while they did weigh their fair share, they weren't too cumbersome and didn't require a ton of support padding.

After getting her bra and top on she pulled her sneakers on, tied them up and headed back to Liv's room after grabbing her wallet on the way out. As she was about to open Liv's door, however, the door flew open and Liv stepped out into the hallway before her eyes lit up, looking Ambur up and down as her jaw dropped.

"...What?" Ambur said finally as she looked down to her friend as she folded her arms over the small slit of her stomach that was showing between her top and jeans.

"You look great that's what!" She spat out as she grabbed onto Ambur's wrists with her own, Ambur groaning audibly as Liv directed her arms back to her sides and looked her up and down. "You didn't even need help picking an outfit. I'm so proud," she smiled as she looked back up into Ambur's eyes.

"Do...do you really think so?" Ambur asked bashfully as she looked down to the floor. "I'm not so sure..."

"Yes, I am sure Ambur," Liv said softly as she smiled and took Ambur's hand in her own, leading her down the hallway. "You did very well, come on."

As Liv led her down and out of the building and into the large courtyards of the school, Ambur kept seeing other students glance at her before doing double takes. Several of them were in their grade and recognized the pair, some saying hello as they passed. Liv usually caught plenty of attention at the school, they were all teenagers after all, but it seemed as if on this walk around the campus the hellos and stares were directed at Ambur for once, rather than her runway counterpart.

"They are all looking at meeee," Ambur breathed out nervously, beginning to feel self-conscious.

"Yes dear, that's the point," Liv laughed. "Just because you want Mydnight to notice you doesn't mean everyone else can't too."

"...I guess..." she said as she gave another set of passerbys a shy smile and wave in response to them smiling at the girls.

As they reached the shuttle area and boarded the two got comfortable for the short trip down to Vale. Liv pulled her scroll out of her pocket and held it out in front of her. "Hey," she said, grabbing Ambur's attention. Ambur looked over to her before being blinded by a flash of light, blinking and putting her hands up over her face.

"Ugh, Liv what the hell," she groaned before she felt Liv's hands pulling her own away from her face.

"Hey hey don't rub your face you'll ruin your makeup," she giggled out. "Sorry I was just really excited," she apologized as Ambur obliged.

"God warn me if you're gonna do that," she sulked.

"Well I needed a before picture and I was afraid you wouldn't let me take one if I asked you," she chuckled.

"Well I'd rather you get a nice picture of me then one of my shocked and blinded face," Ambur retorted, Liv shrugging in agreement.

"Then smile okay?" She asked softly before lifting her scroll again. Ambur sat still for a moment before Liv looked at her again from behind her scroll. "Ambur?"

"What?"

"I said smile," Liv scowled.

"I am smiling," Ambur replied, though she knew deep down that she really wasn't. She hadn't been put on the spot for a picture in a very long time and it took some serious effort to get her to smile for a picture.

"Well could you smile in such a way that your face looks like you're actually happy," Liv laughed out before looking back into her scroll.

"Huhhh..." Ambur sighed before taking in a deep breath through her nose and plastered a fake smile across her face.

"Well hopefully," Liv began before taking the picture so Ambur could relax her face, "You won't need to fake it for the after picture."

"Ya well...we'll see I guess," she mumbled as she looked around the ship. The shuttle was a bit more crowded than usual today and she found several of their classmates looking her up and down. Some clearly lusting after her, some girls giving her jealous looks and other students squinting at her in confusion, trying to figure out who she was. They knew they had seen her before but they couldn't tell where. Her changes in skin tone and hair color had been quite gradual, but the change in clothing was so sudden that most of them couldn't remember where they had seen her before or who she was.

Ambur felt antsy like she needed to escape, but suddenly she felt Liv's hand on her thigh, her thumb rubbing against it to try and calm her as the Amazon looked down to her friend. She found Liv looking back up into her face before she put her arm around Ambur's and leaned her head into Ambur's shoulder. "It's okay, stop worrying," she soothed as she put her hand in Ambur's. Ambur let out a deep sigh, trying to calm her breathing before she began to rest her head on top of Liv's.

"Thank you for all of this by the way..."

"For what?" Liv asked genuinely, not quite realizing how much she had done for Ambur over the past few months of knowing her.

"For...everything...for helping me with all of this...I realize I never really thanked you for any of it I just...really appreciate your patience and how hard you try with me..."

"Hah," Liv laughed a bit, "It has been my pleasure, Ambur. I got to play build a best friend," she laughed out, garnering a laugh from Ambur as well. "Sorry if I ever like...forced you to do any of this."

"No, not at all...I knew all of this needed to happen I...just needed someone to motivate me to actually...do it you know?"

"Good...you know I didn't do any of this for me, right? That was just a joke," she chuckled. "I just want you to be happy and...while I know you think Mydnight is the key to your happiness I want you to understand that happiness comes from within. You can't be happy with someone else if you aren't happy with yourself first."

"...That's...really wise Liv," Ambur breathed out in surprise. "And I think I will be happy with myself I just...gotta get used to this."

"I know," she said as she felt Liv pat her hand on her thigh several times. "All things considered you actually changed pretty quick. It's only been what...like four months since we met? That's pretty fast if you ask me."

"Is it?"

"Well ya," Liv scoffed. "People don't just wake up one day and decide to change themselves completely you know? It takes time and a lot of encouragement."

"Well...I had a really good coach," Ambur said as it was now her turn to pat Liv's thigh as the two girls smiled together.

"Awhhh," Liv blushed, "you're too kind," she laughed.

As the girls finally reached the ground and began to walk to the center of town Ambur once again found the attention of the general public on her for once instead of Olivier. One of the reasons Ambur loved to walk around with her so much before was because Liv usually grabbed all the attention of every passerby. Now that Ambur was all dolled up she found more and more people looking at both of them or just herself for that matter.

The day began to fly by as Ambur quickly found them at Liv's hair salon and she was sat down in a chair with a cloth over her body. Liv stood beside her the entire time and chatted up her stylist, both women playing with Ambur's hair several times to try and demonstrate what Ambur had said.

Ambur herself stayed relatively quiet at first unless she was spoken too directly or asked a question, trying her best not to interfere too much and simply let the woman work, differing to Liv's suggestions for most of the encounter. In a matter of moments, all the black was cut from her hair and she could barely see the length on the floor at her feet out of the corner of her eye. She couldn't be sure but seeing the length of black hair being cut from her head she couldn't help but feel a bit lighter as the rest of her white hair seemed to glow in the mirror.

After the black was taken out she was taken to another chair and lay back into a stylist's sink as the woman began to wash her hair for her. With the way her fingertips scrubbed her scalp she nearly fell asleep in the chair before she felt Liv tapping her shoulder, looking up into her laughing friend's face as Liv beckoned her to get up. "Sorry," she breathed out with a small laugh. As they reached her original chair and the stylist went back to work Ambur actually opened a bit, beginning to chat with the other two and starting to lose focus on her hair. She was more captivated by looking back into the mirror, listening to Liv and the stylist steer the conversation where she knew it was inevitably going to end up.

She figured the subject would come up eventually of how her hair became so unkempt and what the sudden change was inspired by. "Well, I..." She stumbled before Liv answered for her.

"What do you think?" She said to her stylist as the older woman laughed and took the hint.

"In love, huh kid?" She chuckled as Ambur began to blush and agreed. As the three delved deeper into the story the time began to fly by until suddenly Ambur found herself turned back toward the mirror and the stylist spoke up one last time. "Alright hon you're all set," she said happily as Ambur finally looked back into the mirror and saw her face hair free for the first time years.

Her lips parted to speak but no words came. Her red eyes lit up with life and shock as she looked back at herself in awe. For the first time, she wasn't worried about what the rest of her looked like and was only focused on her face. Her hair had been cut back to being only around an inch past her shoulders and her bangs were parted over her left eye, both sections tucked behind her ears to keep them out of her face. The makeup that Olivier had put on her this morning stood out so much more than it ever had. Ambur slid forward in the chair as she leaned in to see herself closer in the mirror. Liv couldn't help but smile uncontrollably. She could tell that Ambur was impressed.

In the lighting of the salon Ambur shone for the first time in her life, all the women around unable to look away as the shy girl stood and looked at herself completely in the mirror, turning to see different angles of herself in shock. "Is that..." she breathed out, nearly inaudibly as she ran her finger down her cheek before running her hand through her hair, watching it fall right back into place due to all the blow drying and teasing the woman had done. "Is that really me?" She asked as she turned to her side and her eyes fell to her backside, admiring her own hips before her eyes climbed back up to her bust as she ran her hands from just below her bust down over her butt.

"You look awesome Ambur," Liv smiled out as she stepped closer to her friend and stood beside her in the mirror. She then smirked and whispered jokingly to the Amazon, "this is the part where you tell me I was right," she stuck her tongue out.

"Ahah," she laughed once before she began to laugh uncontrollably, before coming to rest and finding herself smiling back at herself in the mirror before she saw another flash of light as Olivier took a picture of them both in the mirror before showing it to Ambur.

"See...your smile is so much prettier when it's real."