A Little Kiss
Fuu asks Olette to help her study, but is there more going on than meets the eye? Absolutely.
The first of a set of vignettes that have been floating around in my head for a few years. These are intended to be low-tension fluff with transformation and altered states of being as a framing device. As full disclosure, there is some kink involved, but my aim is to keep these stories rated PG-13 at worst.
"Study night?" Fuu asked, materializing beside Olette before she'd gotten up from her desk. Olette was speechless. It wasn't that Fuu was stupid, or that she, Rai, and Seifer hadn't started warming up to Olette and her friends before they left on their sabbatical, but focusing on normal things like school felt harder after helping Kairi, Sora, and their friends save several dozen worlds. She hadn't even thought about what kind of adventures Fuu and the others had gone on.
Also, for the Twilight Town's Peacekeepers' only girl member's usual aloof attitude, this was really direct.
Olette looked around. The class was emptying out quickly, and Fuu didn't seem to notice anyone else. "You want to study... with me? Uh, sure. I could ask everyone when a good day would be and-"
Fuu shook her head, making the little curtain of hair that covered her left eye sway. "No. Girl's night."
"R-right!" Olette said, perking up. It had been a while since she'd had one of those. "I'll let Xion know, then she could tell Kairi and Namine and-"
Fuu shook her head again and flicked her finger back and forth between them. "Girl's night," she said again.
Olette felt the blood rush to her cheeks. "Oh. Uh-er- That kind of studying! Right."
The only answer she got in return was a mischievous smile. "Tell nobody."
They met at Fun's house. It was a Friday, and Olette had the wherewithal to at least bring her backpack on the off chance she'd catastrophically misunderstood. She'd told nobody: Kairi, Xion, and the others she'd met the year before took it well enough, and Pence - ever the consummate gentleman - was curious but took it in stride, too. Hayner was harder to shake: since the three of them became friends in the first grade, this would be the first time one of them had kept a serious secret from the others. He begrudgingly accepted her stuttered explanation that she had a big school project and needed to focus, with the implication that he'd check to hear how her project went later.
She hoped the secrecy was worth it, and wondered if it was necessary. Perhaps Fuu simply didn't want to admit that having half a year's worth of assignments to complete was embarrassing.
Perhaps.
Fuu's apartment was tucked into a narrow street near the station. Though the high walls cast the neighborhood in perpetual shadow, the effect was somehow soothing. Someone had clearly been taking care of a knee-high shrubbery along the front walk, but it was one of the only distinguishing features of the place. The neighborhood was a little bit like Fuu, Olette supposed: standoffish in its neutrality, the only way to understand it better was to go further in.
Fuu answered the door mid-knock. Though it may have been Olette's imagination, her visible eye seemed to light up. She welcomed Olette in with a nod and gestured for her to follow. The home, like the street, was narrow. Two staircases led up and down from the main hallway, which led further into the house. Olette spotted the checkered linoleum and two large sinks through a cracked door ahead, and a cramped living room to her right. The house had a lonely atmosphere, as though caught in a perpetual sigh.
Perhaps Fuu noticed it. Perhaps she was accustomed to it. Olette wondered if Fuu's parents spoke in one to two word sentences and if she'd start, too, if she hung around long enough. Fuu's posture was hard to read. On the one hand, her direct gaze and hands on her hips seemed businesslike - as though the bit about a two-girl study night really had been about studying. On the other hand, the way she gently grasped Olette's fingers and led her to the stairs descending to the basement said otherwise.
"What's down there?" Olette asked as they rounded a sharp corner.
"My room." The ghost of a laugh haunted her words.
To Fuu's credit, they did actually study some. Fuu's bedroom was a Spartan dwelling with a plain bed covered by a dense futon, a half empty bookshelf, a dresser and a lamp. They laid out the study materials on the floor, in five neat piles organized from most to least urgent for Fuu to catch up with. History was not a problem: she effortlessly aced several practice quizzes on key points in Twilight Town's history before moving on to math. Trigonometry was clearly not her strong suit: partway into Olette's third attempt to explain the concept of a sinusoidal graph, Fuu locked eyes with her.
"New lesson." Her tone was smooth and forceful and Olette instantly knew Fuu had something else in mind.
Her heart leaped into her throat as she felt a flustered smile spread across her face. She's going to kiss me!
Fuu did not kiss her. Instead, fishing her arm under her bed, she pulled out a small stack of worn pages and offered them to Olette, who accepted them with grace and confusion.
They were immaculately handwritten in tight cursive and crisp figures. Though the corners and edges were frayed, the pages seemed to be made from sturdy stock and were in good condition despite their apparent age. "Did you write this? Looks interesting."
Fuu shook her head, her expression stoic. If the small compliment made her heart flutter, she didn't show it. Olette squinted as her brain tried to parse whether the thing she held in her hand was a scientific document, a recipe, or a strange form of poetry.
...because the wielder's heart must be adequately strong in all aspects, active involvement in one's community is strongly encouraged... read one page.
...the active phase of any spell requires equal parts memory (akin to kindling), imagination (akin to larger fuels), and focus (akin to oxygen), ignited by will (fire)... read another.
...that in my foe's diminishment I should become vast - that the world might tower impossibly and pull loftily away... read a third.
Olette's eyes widened as she flipped back through the pages twice more. "Fuu - is this magic? Did you learn how to use magic?!" Her goofy smile was now open and excited. She'd seen Sora and the others use magic before when they visited, but not even Kairi or Sora had an explanation for how they learned it. Donald started to a couple of times, but one distraction or another inevitably derailed him into belligerent incoherence. Once, Xion patiently explained that the moment after you learned magic was like waking up from a dream where you couldn't even conceive of something vital, like breathing, only to remember that this was a natural part of your being. Magic wasn't something she thought of a lot, but the papers in her hands were references, and she loved references.
Fuu's smile was small and closed-lipped and made her eyes crinkle a little. She was downright ecstatic. Standing up, she walked over and patted the bed. "Demo?" she asked.
"Uh. Sure? What spell is it? Float?" She reasoned that Fuu's comforter and mattress would make a good enough landing pad.
Fuu shook her head, gathered up their study materials, and offered them to Olette before taking the spell. "Mini."
Olette paused. She wondered if she was getting close to a side of Fuu's personality she would rather not know about, but she seemed more like she wanted to show off than to do anything nefarious. It was kind of endearing to see Fuu so vulnerable. She decided to press on. "Okay. What happens after I shrink?"
Fuu raised her eyebrows and seemed to pause. Gesturing to Olette and herself, she shrugged - a little lamely, Olette thought.
"Study?" she said with a sheepish grin.
She seemed genuine enough, thought Olette. She also recalled that most types of magic wore off on their own. "Okay. I'll try it. But only if you're small enough to take notes with me."
Fuu rolled her eyes as if that should have been obvious. Then, once Olette was seated cross-legged on the bed, she stepped back and focused. Reaching out her one hand, a small orb of light appeared in front of her before she whipped her arm towards the ceiling. Olette gasped as the light pulsed outward in a sudden flash and Fuu's comforter seemed to billow around her like rolling snow-covered hills. Fuu's furniture and decorations, sparse as they were, had become landmarks like distant mountains and canyons. Fuu herself towered at the center, a lithe and powerful colossus.
Olette was awestruck. "It- it worked?" she said in a high-pitched squeak. She coughed to clear her throat without success. Meanwhile, Fuu stepped one foot back with a focused expression.
"Don't move."
"Huh?!"
Fuu charged. Though she was slim and petite, the vibrations of her footsteps reminded Olette of a small earthquake as she scrambled backwards. Then her study partner leaped, blocking out the overhead light as she spread her arms and came in for a landing. Efficient as always, Olette could tell Fuu'd positioned herself so she wouldn't land on her. It was still terrifying, though.
She wailed as Fuu's touchdown launched her into the air, hugging the papers and textbooks tightly to her chest. A pair of hands as long as her legs caught her deftly and gently. She looked down to see Fuu looking back with a smug smile. They locked eyes for a moment before Fuu brought her down to rub her cheek against Olette's head.
"H-hey!" Olette protested. "Quit playing around!" As serious as she was, the sound of her voice made her blush furiously.
Fuu responded with a theatrically "suppressed" snicker before lifting Olette into the air again. Her expression was neutral, like there was nothing weird about any of this. Olette pounded her fist on Fuu's index finger, which they both knew wouldn't do anything. "Very funny! Now it's your turn!"
Sighing, Fuu closed her right hand around Olette's waist and held up her free hand. Just as before, an orb of light gleamed above her palm, flashing like a lighthouse. In an instant, Fuu's body seemed to withdraw into itself. Her legs dragged themselves up over the edge of the bed even as her hands became too small to hold Olette. She fell to the bed again, twisting in midair to try not to land on her new girlfriend. She bounced once, completely unharmed, and landed next to Fuu. They were so light Olette couldn't tell if they'd managed to hit the mattress. The comforter poofed and ruffled luxuriously beneath them. Even at this size, Fuu's hands were as quick as ever - which she proved by dragging Olette into a tight hug.
"So?" she asked.
This time Olette couldn't help but laugh at Fuu's voice. Helium-speech seemed to be cost of this miniaturized adventure. "Okay. This is pretty cool. But does this count as a first date?"
Fuu chuckled cryptically, then more genuinely - her facade breaking a little at her voice. "Your choice," she said, regaining her composure, and Olette could just hear the hope behind her cool apathy.
"That's fine," she said, giving Fuu room to be cool, though she'd already made her decision. It was only then she noticed that Fuu was still holding her. "But, uh, should we get back to studying? I'd hate for you to fail Trigonometry because of a first date." She paused and sighed exasperatedly. "I can't take myself seriously sounding like this. How long is the spell supposed to last?"
"One hour," Fuu stated in a matter-of-fact tone. She took her textbooks and pencils and nestled in next to Olette.
"One hour..." Olette repeated, slightly stunned. "Not to be greedy, but you wouldn't have any hidden tea or crackers under the bed, too, do you?"
Fuu tilted her head coyly and kicked her feet. Perhaps she did. At the moment, Olette could have believed anything. Fuu raised her eyebrows and, smooth as a fresh breeze, pushed herself up to give Olette a kiss on the cheek.
"Next time," she said.