The atmosphere turned strange in an instant and it was hard for Brian not to feel self-conscious at all the expectation in the air. Chloe had rarely allowed displays of affection in front of others—looking back, the few times she did were calculated to send a message. Inspire jealousy in Becky, maybe, or, knowing what he knew now perhaps just to rip all of Emily’s guts out and completely demoralize her. Now, as he rose up onto his knees in the space between coffee table and sofa to kiss Kelly, the other two girls here seemed to be watching with stars in their eyes—almost as if they were watching a romance movie.
I think I’ll just have to get used to having an audience? Brian thought, navigating through his own butterflies of excitement. If we’re all TOGETHER, and inevitably at some point we’ll be living with one another…? I don’t know. Is this the new normal?
It was hard to think. All three of these girls weren’t just interested in him, they were with him, and with each other. The together aspect of it was something he knew conceptually, but was still struggling to grasp here in the moment of things. He felt like his mind was still locked into that more guarded I have a girlfriend dynamic, where when sitting with others he deliberately processed everything through that lens. Others flirting or teasing or expressing interest with him—joking or not—were to be handled with immediate distance or boundaries, so as not to upset his girlfriend. Except; these others here, this whole entire group currently in his living room, everyone was his girlfriend.
Maybe it makes less and less sense the more I understand it.
For now, he silenced his concerns by turning away from them and simply focused on Kelly. She was gorgeous, he was attracted to her, incredibly attracted to her, and she was waiting there with her small smile for him to kiss her. He did want to kiss her, and so long as he focused on that and took things one step at a time, there was less to be anxious about. Having multiple girlfriends should have been a tricky mess full of headaches, but each time he seemed to mentally brace himself for disaster, or for the girls to tear into each other or be devastated that he was giving his love to someone else—nothing.
There was an insanity to that which kept getting to him, especially after Chloe. Brian did not want to hurt anyone here, but every time he tried to carefully mind his proverbial footing and watch his step through what should have been treacherous landscape—nothing but level ground. It was really—
“We don’t mind!” Stephanie let out an exasperated giggle. “Brian—kiss her!”
“Kiss her, come onnn!” Emily groaned.
Kelly’s beautiful honey-brown eyes fluttered open at their words and she stole a quick, bemused glance back and forth between Brian and their peanut gallery of spectators, and then Brian kissed her. It was nice. Her lips were soft, so soft, but there was so much more to it beneath that—she wanted him, and little notes of need were buried within that want that she seemed shy to express.
His own eyes closed now, his hands found her shoulders and the mere touch jolted her slightly, made her rise up a few inches out of her sitting position in sheer eagerness for him. She wanted him, so badly. But, even the want was a skin-deep disguise she wore over her need, which rather than little notes as it first seemed was a haunting melody of longing and fear and a love that terrified Kelly. Brian understood that more than he wanted to, and from one wounded soul to another he needed to embrace her. Needed to connect himself to her on every deepest level, to let her know her secret song was heard, that he loved it—that he loved her.
As their kiss grew less chaste and slowly but surely tongues began to intertwine, Brian pulled her the rest of the way up and unsteadily off her knees and against his body. Red was happening, now, slivers of either awareness or awakening were apparent, and that synesthesia with Kelly he’d experienced in their time back in the vendor’s hall of the convention had returned. He didn’t understand it—it defied understanding—but it wasn’t imagined. He could feel her, he knew her, knew her to be more than what she appeared to be or how she presented herself or even what he thought her to be.
The core of her being was magnificent luminous red but it wasn’t just color and light, there was a heaviness to Kelly’s inner self, and more even than simple weight of presence a magnetism that resonated between him and her, a mutual pull they had upon one another that was more than—Brian didn’t know how to describe the sensation of it besides that it was more. Maybe more than he was capable of ever completely comprehending.
“Brian…” Kelly’s eyes were filled with wonder as they looked up at him in mutual understanding.
He wasn’t even sure he registered when they’d stopped kissing, and without a thought he moved back in to join their lips again.
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“That’s, this is the thing, right, this is—you know—a for-real magic kiss?” Emily asked in a low whisper. “Can you—uh—is it like—on your, um, your magic spectrometer?!”
“Mmh,” Stephanie made a small noise in response, but she wasn’t even sure herself what her answer was.
Emily’s shoulder bumped up against hers, but Stephanie was too distracted trying to perceive everything that was happening across the short table from them. There was no such thing as simple feelings, she was realizing, and when she watched Brian kiss Kelly, the emotions she thought she understood seemed to transform from two dimensions to three, a depth to what was going on was revealed. Intimacy and adoration interlinked with one another right before the fervid, feverish gaze of a sixth sense Stephanie could not control, and maybe looking deeper into that brilliant red would blind her.
They’d talked a lot before about their innate representations within the context of the charm having themes, and Stephanie knew that Kelly was a falling star. Or, a fallen star, now? It was difficult to wrap her mind around, and observing the relationships between concepts made her feel like she was missing quite a bit. There was power appearing there between Kelly and Brian when they connected like this, but it maybe wasn’t exactly something Stephanie could ever understand.
It’s love—it’s as, as if I KNOW it’s love, but it’s not MY understanding of LOVE, Stephanie thought as she concentrated upon the intensity with complete fascination. As if my personal interpretation of love is through heat, and hers is through—I’m not sure—gravity? It’s just—it’s WOW, it’s, there’s, there’s so much POWER there, the unseen forces that I can only partially feel here, the different principle behind it, it’s—amazing. Amazing.
“I love them both so much,” Stephanie murmured to Emily with a sigh, tugging at her arm.
She was so glad to be back with them where she belonged, but Stephanie also knew that having had time away from them to explore her own feelings had been invaluable. It was so easy to get swept up in everyone else’s sensations! Understanding herself, sorting out and defining her own Stephanie reasons and motivations and assigning them into goals had been incredibly fulfilling.
Despite wanting more than anything to be completely involved in the conversation before as talk led from one thing to another, Stephanie had found herself more often than not lapsing into silence and watching as the others spoke. She loved being back with them, but here in the moment it was just as easy for her to sink into the subtle quagmire of different frustrations Brian, Kelly, and Emily each felt. Beneath the more lighthearted banter, there were topics too difficult for them to meaningfully tangle with—problems without real solutions, disagreements and fears and the simple incomprehensible expanse of the unknown that they weren’t able to engage with right now.
Worse yet, Stephanie had her own huge troubling issue to grapple with.
Magic, Masters, all the different timeline stuff. Chloe, and what to do about her, Stephanie thought to herself with a weak smile. And here I am, I can’t even get my mind past everyone’s parent situation! Hah…
Kelly’s parents were separated. Emily’s parents had been separated. Chloe’s parents were separated. Brian’s parents apparently separated multiple times each. Rebecca’s parents were together… but separated from Rebecca! It was difficult for Stephanie to come to terms with everyone but her in this relationship seeming to have parents who were either separated or divorced.
Because— Stephanie’s mind couldn’t help but wander again in aimless vexation. Now, I don’t really know for sure. Now, I can’t guess what they think. Does Brian plan to get married, or, uh, DID he, previously? Kelly, I think would be against it on principle. The more I consider them and their circumstances, maybe it isn’t something they think about much at all? N-not that that is BAD, it’s, it’s, because of how things are for them I can almost understand it, but—just—
Stephanie wanted to get married.
Stephanie really wanted to get married, and in the past few weeks the concept had crept deep into her fantasies and began to occupy much of her thoughts.
I, I want to ask Brian to marry me, Stephanie nibbled on her lip and snuck another glance across at the profile of his handsome features. I want to, to go down on one knee, and propose to him, in just the right place and at just the right moment. To ask him to be my husband. I’ve LOOKED AT RINGS, and I doubt that’s something he even ever worries about!
Now very aware that everyone but her had come from difficult or single parent households, Stephanie wasn’t sure how to bring it up with anyone. Would they think she was being silly? Or impetuous? She just felt so very sure that she loved Brian and wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, so to her, marriage was the obvious and straightforward progression of her thoughts. Realizing the others might not see it that way was… a little dismaying.
I don’t think I could expect Brian to propose to me in the first place, that wouldn’t make sense, Stephanie’s lingering gaze drew from Brian to Kelly and then finally Emily. Because, who would he choose? HOW could he even choose? He can’t pick one of us, and not the others. It’s not legal to take multiple wives in the United States, not even in Mormon communities, anymore. I’ve CHECKED.
S-so, so no matter what, we all can’t be, um. ‘Official.’ And, he wouldn’t want to propose to me because there’s no way he can leave Kelly and Emily out. I get that. And, ugh, yeah, he won’t even feel ready yet to begin with, because to him it’s like the entire last month or so didn’t even happen—he was unconscious for all of it!
On the one hand, she was sure obsessing over marriage probably didn’t make sense for her to be doing. But, then on the other hand…
I really, really, REALLY just want to ask him to marry me, Stephanie heart constricted again as she admired Brian. So much. I, I want rings, I want to make vows, I want to wear white and have a wedding with all of our friends and everyone we love, I—I want to be his wife, I want to have his babies—!
Whoops! She again struggled to clamp down on the manic swell of desire that seemed to course through her like mesmerizing inferno flame. They were still so young, after all! Probably too young to have babies. Not ready. Maybe. Although, if babies happened on accident… that would also be okay. Very okay. Perfectly okay.
I think it’s making me a little crazy! Stephanie admitted her fixation to herself as she wet her lips. And—I don’t know what to do about it. About, um, about them not understanding this craziness I feel, or, or me not understanding how to really convey it to them! I know we’ve made love, and even though it happened so fast, there’s not a single thing about it I regret. Just, for me it’s like—like making love is just a little taste, and I want more. MORE. So much more. I want to get married. I want to get married. I want to get married.
Only being able to marry one person was a problem, though, and her idle fantasies seemed to dwell more on what she wanted and less on how in the world they were going to actually figure it all out.
Would Kelly feel slighted if Stephanie asked Brian for his hand in marriage first? Because—Stephanie also wanted to marry Kelly. She was sure she would feel the same for Emily, once she got to know her better. But, then again, if as she suspected Kelly wasn’t all that interested in marriage, maybe it would be okay if Stephanie just married Brian first, and Stephanie’s marriage to Kelly was unofficial?
H-how do I even bring that up?!
Stephanie feared she might be getting ahead of herself. The engagement rings Stephanie had her eyes on were very thin bands, because Stephanie was of the mind they might need to stack multiple rings on a finger.
“Why did you get Brian such a thin engagement ring?” Imaginary Emily would ask in Stephanie’s idle daydreams.
Stolen novel; please report.
“I wanted to make sure he still has lots of room for more rings,” Stephanie fantasized replying, feeling her heart swell up until it could just burst. “One from each of you…”
“I didn’t even think I wanted to get married,” Kelly might concede, biting her lip as she stared at the ring. “But, fuck, when I see you propose like that…”
Except—Stephanie wasn’t an idiot, and she knew all of this marriage nonsense was probably in her head alone, and not even something the others had on their minds. Would they think she was… fetishizing commitment? Aggrandizing or romanticizing the concept of marriage and matrimony and the idea of being Brian’s wife? She thought that maybe she was.
But! I just can’t help it! Stephanie broke into an embarrassed smile as she regarded her lovers with motes of pink in her eyes. I’m in love—and I want us to get married! SO MUCH!
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Emily could not have been any more oblivious to what might be going on in Stephanie’s head, because she was likewise lost deep in her own thoughts.
Kelly can do magic, Emily couldn’t get the image out of her head. She just performed magic, RIGHT IN FRONT OF US. Like, a spell almost. A cantrip? Made a little speck of light. And then, like—more importantly—her specific words. She said ONLY PEOPLE WITH MAGIC can see it. SO. Grand Magus Emily! Me having magic; STATUS FUCKING CONFIRMED. Let’s goooo!!!
Throughout the past month, she’d grown a little concerned. Stephanie had seemed to fall into her powers right away, and Kelly already had her Send stuff which was amazeballs. Rebecca could just about spirit walk or whatever in the dreamscape from the get go, which was incredibly intimidating. Because, Emily had… nothing. Despite trying everything. She’d focused inward and soul-searched, and then meditated, and then made a slapdash attempt at a do-it-yourself saltwater sensory deprivation chamber using Brian’s bathtub, she’d pushed out her senses and strained herself, Emily had felt for hidden meridians or chakras to circulate qi through, and even tried forcing things to happen, but still had no fucking clue what her innate powers might be, or if she even actually had any.
Everyone else is getting magic superpowers. WELL, I WANT POWERS TOO!
Because, what if the others were special, and she just… wasn’t? What if the charm stuff had to do with fate or destiny or whatever, and Emily just didn’t have any? She knew she loved Brian more than anything, so it was supremely vexing that the innate power stuff she was frantic to understand had to do with feelings for him somehow, and she was still somehow coming up short. How was that fair?
The big zilch for progress was just driving her insane. It was just so fucking frustrating. She wanted them way more than anyone else, so, naturally—all the cool supernatural shit continued to elude her. Wasn’t that just typical? The idea that she might somehow wind up randomly being a dud, or a mundle-born inert to magic mundane person, like they said in popular fiction terms—that idea filled her with dread.
But, now I for-sure have magic. I saw the little speck of light she made. ‘Yer a wizard, Emily! I’m gonna learn how to do magic, don’t care how hard it is, or how long it takes. Gonna be completely, totally, balls-to-the-wall HAX with weaving spells and shit, I don’t care what she says about me struggling at it. I’m gonna learn fireball.
I’M GONNA LEARN FIREBALL. I’m gonna make GIANT-ASS EXPLOSIONS and stuff, and learn how to fly. Gonna be that super OP end-game badass magic chica, rewrite reality and all that. Wait. WAIT. We could start up like, a magic academy, right? That’d be baller. What would we name it? We could call it, like—ummm—
Attention to this train of thought was jarred by startling sprays of water, because while distracted thinking about magic potential, Emily had also been watching Brian and Kelly make out. Growing puddles of blue had begun to creep upwards to flood her mind. The two across from her had been frenching for upwards of a whole damn minute now already while Stephanie and Emily watched in a daze, but now Brian was reaching to put a hand on Kelly’s exposed midsection. Seeing his fingers make contact, observing in fascination as his thumb traced a gentle line across her bare stomach had Emily’s brain squirting out horny hormones all of the sudden, and she had to self-consciously adjust the way she was sitting.
Fuckin’ A, Emily thought to herself in exasperation. Definitely was a good call on havin’ her go with the crop top thing. Kelly, she’s in no way fat, but that perfect little bit of tummy she DOES have, that you can kinda see? Really activates my almonds. And like, watching her go from sassy tough girl to uhh, to slutty submissive when he puts moves on her? When he moves in for that sorta mind-melting makeout thing? Sooo fucking hot—god damn, Brian.
Emily just really enjoyed watching Brian make out with Kelly, and she wasn’t even sure why. On paper, it didn’t make sense—harem or not, the girls were still competing for Brian’s limited time and attention. Weren’t they? She should feel jealous, or threatened, or heartbroken seeing the object of her affection being so intimate with someone else.
But, I just… DON’T, Emily thought as she hid her hands deep in her lap, all but covering the skimpy shorts she was wearing. Magic compulsion? That’s so… I dunno, interesting? It doesn’t FEEL like a magic compulsion. It’s kinda like there’s just no real disassociation between some of the individual relationships between us, where normally there would be. SOMETHING or other just automagically makes the first impression I have towards all of this think of it as a team effort sort of thing. As in, like—why would I be jealous of Kelly? We HAVE Kelly, she’s ours, she’s in our group. Those sweet tiddies are working for us, instead of against us. US. So—is the charm just mentally rewiring my psychology to default to an US sorta mindset, instead of a ME ME ME sorta thing?
That should have been a scary prospect, but all Emily was able to muster up was relief. Each of them was kind of individually a mess, and magically associating her relationship as a team effort meant that between them, just about all of their shortcomings were well covered for. The fact of the matter was that Emily knew she had a lot of personal shortcomings, and she was terrible at dealing with them.
She couldn’t help but take a big deep breath, filling her chest with as much air as she could hold, and then slowly blow it all back out in an enormous sigh. To her it was mostly a sigh of contentment, because, all things considered—she felt pretty good. Happy with everything. Their tomorrow troubles were still a little ways off, future prospects seemed pretty good for them, dinner had hit the spot, and yeah—she was more than a little turned on.
“Steph,” Emily whispered in a low voice as something occurred to her. “Hey—can you breathe on me?”
“—Wh-what?” Stephanie blinked at her. “Breathe?”
“Like, phheeuwhhh. Breathe on me,” Emily asked. “Just real quick? You had garlic bread, right?”
Rather than complying, Stephanie blushed, clamping a hand over her own mouth and leaning back away from Emily.
“No, no, I mean that’s the thing,” Emily insisted in a whisper. “You should have garlic breath. Right? We should. But, we don’t.”
Her mouth felt clean and refreshed, as if she’d just brushed her teeth. Just like the stubble on her legs never reappeared, even after a month of not shaving. She still showered and brushed and probably would continue to, simply because those rituals were so deeply ingrained, and yeah okay showers themselves were also just deeply relaxing, but the question now was—did they still NEED to do these things? It wasn’t even just hygiene, either. Emily had more energy, her mind had been clear and alert and it was easier than ever to focus.
There’s absolutely some tangible physical effects going on, Emily watched as Stephanie carefully cupped her hand in an attempt to check her own breath. But, we don’t know how much, or to what extent, and it’s already getting late to try to establish a baseline.
Would they still gain weight if they weren’t careful with their diet? Emily wasn’t sure—because when she discreetly checked herself out in the mirror this past month, all that came to mind was that this was the best she’d ever looked. As if she was active—hah, as if she was maybe magically pulling moderate exercise or physical activity from the space between dimensions somehow. Was there less flab? It was hard to tell, because she couldn’t find any. She wasn’t exactly toned or anything, she just thought she looked… good. Attractive. Cute and sexy. It made her feel more confident than she ever remembered being.
Anyways…
“AHEM, a-hrmm-hrmm-hrrmh,” Emily loudly pretended to clear her throat so that she could snap the two lovers out of it for a second. “Guys—c’mon.”
Her panties already felt too warm, the two had been kissing like forever, and as fun as it was to watch, Emily found herself real close to just breaking decorum and starting to finger herself or something as she watched. She was getting way too horny for all this pussyfooting around! Emily felt flushed all over, brimming with intense blue energy but also weak-kneed, like just the right touch would relax her all over.
“Damn, uh, sorry,” Brian broke off the kiss with one last rather wet-sounding smack of his lips upon Kelly’s. “How long were we…?”
Stephanie let out a nervous giggle, because when he drew back from Kelly and they could see her again, she looked—stupid. Insensate from whatever lurid pull of starry pleasure the long exchange of tongue and saliva had done to her. Her gorgeous eyes were half-open but didn’t seem to register her surroundings, merely taking in the room in dreamy daze. This was big tiddy bimbo-liner again, this was the oh we’re so fucked Kelly that Emily remembered. The redhead was sprawled back against the sofa behind her in a boneless manner, her knees drawn up and apart in a way that splayed herself open in lewd invitation, and Emily could smell wet pussy even though she was the whole way across the coffee table.
“Kelly? Kell?” Brian seemed to only now realize what he’d done to her. “Kell?”
“She’s fine!” Emily huffed, clapping both palms against her knees as she rose to her feet. “Get her up, both of you get the whole way up onto the sofa. Steph, can you—”
“I, I can grab the dish and the plates!” Stephanie hurried to offer, sounding embarrassed.
“No, no, weirdo,” Emily slapped Stephanie’s reaching hand away. “We’re not—we’re not worrying about all that.”
Instead, Emily hunched down to grab beneath the lip of the coffee table itself, and then shuffled backwards, dragging the whole damn thing back and away from where Brian was helping Kelly up onto the sofa. The free space created by rearranging furniture slightly would give more than enough room for both Stephanie and Emily to crouch there on the floor at Brian’s knees while he sat.
“Sit. You sit,” Emily insisted, putting her hands on Brian to push him back onto the cushions in a seated position.
Her scattered thoughts beaded and then joined into a growing flood of total fucking arousal, and the liquid blue seemed poised to drown out everything else if she didn’t act fast. She didn’t even have to shove Brian back against the sofa, and maybe the gesture was kind of rude—but just the simple act of doing it, expressing an urgency felt like a rather delicious outlet for yet another trickle of color that was streaming through her being.
“Are—um, are we—?!” Stephanie stuttered from somewhere behind her.
“Steph, come onnn,” Emily called, already dropping down onto her knees in front of Brian and pushing his legs apart so she could press in as close as possible.
His stupid pants were so freaking dumb! Because they were in the way, and grabbing across his lap she discovered a super distracting hardon just beneath the fabric that she was now desperate to free. Which turned out to be real difficult to do, because once she found that beautiful bulge there, she didn’t want to let go of it even for a second, simply clutching at the warm cloth outline of Brian’s prominent erection. What a damned weapon! One of Brian’s free hands combed through her pixie-cut hair and Emily all but preened, closing her eyes and pressing her head up against his grasp like the naughty kitten she was.
Her back arched, and she stuck her butt out and wiggled it back and forth in a little happy dance no one would probably even see. Emily groped across for the annoying button of his pants, and then fought the stubborn teeth of his zipper, managing to yank it open tug by frustrated tug. Loose enough now that Emily could pull his pants down further, her frantic fingers reached to his sides to find the hem, and she yanked the offending garment down just as she felt Stephanie dropping into place beside her.
Then blue bled across her sight and with a cute inaudible plewp Emily felt as if her thinky brain was a tiny pebble cast carelessly into a deep, deep pool of lust water—and that little stone was sinking down real fucking fast. Brian’s dick was just so massive to her, and the naked schlong springing free right into her face seemed like it rose up and up and up to unfathomable proportions.
H-how many inches is this? Emily wanted to measure it against something for comparison, but it was too difficult with the way she was nuzzling her nose and cheek against it. Is this uh, is this regulation? This, it has to exceed… uh… there’s no way this is regulation dick. This is so much!
Conscious thought was quickly receding, but something like the phrase what the actual fuck lingered on within her. Had this enormous pillar of dickmeat taken her virginity, back then? Taking it into her hand, it was just so incredibly thick, planting a sordid kiss right at its root felt so right, and blue washed over Emily in bewildering crashes as she fumbled with her free hand in an attempt to wrestle his stupid fucking pants down further so that she had more room here.
Brian was saying something, but parsing out all the words and sentences and that… uhhh… speechy talk stuff? All that was distant, indistinct sound from way up above the surface, and Emily was way too far under water to bother making out what was being said. His hand was moving through her hair again, that felt good, and Emily tried to peer upwards at him past the prow of sheer cock that was obscuring her vision. Opening her lips wide, she was able to slurp about half of the base of his dick in, and with a noise of need that hummed deep from her throat she worked her mouth against him.
When she turned her head and pulled his penis to the side a bit she could lick and lap at where the base met his balls below, and that whole area was just incredibly interesting to her—she’d always wondered what it would be like playing with his balls, because they were something she’d never seen in everyday life. Discovery at this level of intimate attention was just amazing, and within seconds she’d slathered him down there with spit.
It was messy and her face was smeared with her own saliva, her butt wriggled again this time of its own accord, and her hand fondling its way up the big shaft towards the delectable shape of the head, she discovered it slippery with precum. Entranced, she tickled her fingertips across the slick and felt Brian thrust up out of his seat, and the humping motion was so fucking hot that Emily couldn’t help but attack his dick and nutsack with another sloppy onslaught of kisses, slurps, and nibbles.
Playing with the tip of his dick was incredible, it elicited immediate physical reactions from him, and the action of sussing out the shape with her hand, cradling it, tweaking it, and rolling her thumb across the very top was shooting streams of brilliant blue through her head like pressurized jets. His stupid oversized dick was probably too large to properly take the whole way into her mouth, but suckling across its length, exploring his balls, and showering him with attention was already so much fun that she was afraid she’d never ever want to stop.
Oh fuck oh fuck what the fuck have I started?! Emily mouthed an eager noise directly into the heat of Brian’s skin. I’m—I—it’s over—I’m over, I’m totally pervin’ out here, I’m completely fucking perving out here, there’s—there’s no going back to normal ever again! It’s over for me!