I double-checked my phone, yep, this is Anna’s address. It was a little brick bungalow probably a bit older than our place. Well, no point putting it off, I walked up and pressed the doorbell.
A few moments later an Asian woman about my age opened the door and was startled a bit at seeing me.
“She wasn’t pulling my leg!” She blurted out, then collected herself. “Oh sorry, you’re here to see Anna, right?”
“Uh yeah.” I think I could guess some of the context behind this.
“I’m Reiko, Anna’s roommate as you might have guessed.” She said as I took my shoes off, I guess she’s of Japanese descent then.
“Sam, I have a feeling she’s probably talked about me already though.” I said with a grin.
“No, not a word.” She said with an eye-roll. “I won't scare you with the details. She’s probably in her dungeon entirely preoccupied if you’re wondering why she hasn’t appeared.”
“One second.” She walked back to open a door presumably leading to the basement.
“Hey Anna, are you decent? Your girlfriend is here!” She shouted down the stairs to an indistinguishable shouted response, Reiko then turned back to me and paused.
Oh, shit I’m steaming.
“Oooh?” She got a grin. “Well, I’m not going to dissuade you, but if you can manage it try to get her out of the house for something other than class or a convention.”
I could hear Anna start to ascend the stairs, and Reiko took that as her cue to head back into the house, chuckling on the way.
“Later!” She said with the grin just visible over her shoulder as she looked back with a raised hand.
“Hello, Sam!” Anna said after appearing in the doorway, I am pretty sure I got the steam under enough control that it wasn’t too obvious that I was embarrassed. “Ah, don’t mind her…”
“Your roommate is a bit of a character.” I said with a smile.
“Yeah, she’s nice though!” Anna said defensively.
“Sure, seems to be.”
“Ah anyway, do you want to come down and see…” She said while vaguely gesturing downstairs.
“Sure!”
It was honestly impressive as hell down here.
Running down the room roughly parallel with the stairs there was a row of clothes racks densely packed with dresses, coats, pants, skirts, and whatever else you could think of, mostly of elaborate design.
The wall just at the end of the stairs was covered in shelving units, each level packed full of bins of what I assumed were props or materials. There was also a barrel-like laundry hamper with various long prop weapons, staffs, and umbrellas sticking out the top in the corner where the shelves didn’t quite reach. I noted my brain didn’t interpret even the realistic-looking ones as genuine weapons, maybe it works off my understanding to some degree?
Along the wall opposite the stairs were a couple of desks, one long one with a sewing machine at one end and a massive cutting mat, which currently seemed to be currently occupied with what I thought was a foam scythe head. The other had a desktop on it that seemed to have a reference image for the scythe open on the screen. There was an office chair sitting in front of the table turned as if she had gotten up from it and a stool sitting nearby with what looked like another piece of the scythe on it.
Then a teeny tiny corner of the room had a bed and dresser across from what I assumed were a closet and bathroom behind the stairs.
Seems like she has her priorities figured out at least.
“This is rad.” I said still looking around, is that a dragon hanging from the ceiling?
“Um, thanks,” she said sheepishly. “Oh, let me clear this for you.”
She started pulling the pieces of scythe off the stool and carefully laying them with the other pieces on the cutting mat.
“I know I said I would help you plan something, but did you have any ideas already? I wouldn’t want to overrule them or anything.” She said, and I have a feeling she’s launching into this to hide embarrassment.
“I will be honest and say I have had a busy time, so I haven’t put that much thought in.” Her face fell a little, and I got a slightly cheeky grin as I thought of something. “But I can do you one better than something I thought of.”
She looked at me confused, and I sat down on the stool holding up a finger to delay a response. I then lifted the hair at the back of my head and pointed towards there with my other hand.
“Take a look! Hopefully, I won’t regret letting you know…”
She looked confused but walked around me to look anyway.
There was a long pause.
“You’re fucking with me, right?” She asked in a whisper.
“Nope.”
“You’re a Battle-Maid? That’s like, like the coolest thing ever!” She was literally bouncing around when I turned back to face her. “Like we can have you cosplay yourself!”
“Well, I am afraid I don’t really have any clue what a Battle-Maid should actually look like,” I admitted sheepishly. “I mean anime maids always have those dresses or whatever, but just doing that and nothing else seems lazy.”
“I’ve never worn anything like that either.” I admitted very quietly.
“That’s ok! As long as you are fine with trying it out!” She didn’t quite seem to know what to do with her hands and kept glancing between me and the computer. “Oh, there are so many things we could try to make it interesting!”
“Ok, let’s eliminate what won’t work for you, like stuff that makes you uncomfortable physically or mentally.” She said while grabbing a pad of paper and a pen off the sewing desk and settling into her chair.
“My joints are pretty sensitive to material being in them.” I started with probably the biggest restriction.
She started writing and then paused.
“What do you mean?” She asked curiously.
“Well you know how I am often in stuff like this-“ I gestured at the sleeveless shirt and leggings. “Or skirts, well it’s because anything like t-shirts or sweatpants get caught up.”
“It’s particularly annoying with my hips and sitting down,” I said distractedly pulling my waistband to the side to expose the gap with its various actuators and visible hip joint. “Stuff bunches up and then even just standing up to get it out of the way is uncomfortable.”
I saw her face redden while she focused very intently, and then my vision was obscured with steam and I released my waistband.
“Ah er, y-yeah, I uh, can i-imagine.” She stuttered out.
“Uh, a-anything without t-too much material, s-stretches taut or hangs over should work though.” I said while dragging myself back to a normal tone.
She furiously wrote for a few moments, then her face reddened again.
“What about er showing lots of skin or exposed um panties…” She asked trailing off.
“Uh um, I’m not used to it I guess, but uh I dunno whatever?” I responded brain completely derailing, I think audibly from her reaction, and I continued to babble. “I uh don’t have much to show if something err happens worst case.”
“What?” She squeaked out.
“Immma robot, they don’t have anything!” I admitted while burying my face in my hands, I hadn’t thought we would have this conversation, or at least not yet.
“Oh no, I’m so sorry.” She said eyes watering and covering her mouth with a hand.
“I-it’s ok, well not r-really, but n-not much I can d-do about that.” I said wiping away tears that were piling up.
“No, no, no I did it again, I just said how cool it is that you’re what you are b-but I didn’t think about anything AGAIN!” She shouted while looking like she was about to run away.
“It’s f-fine, I was glad to see you excited about it,” I said the tears not quite under control but gently putting a hand on her leg to dissuade her. “I told you for a reason!”
“Even with everything, I have done?” She said dropping her head.
“You haven’t done anything wrong; I hadn’t intended to tell you that because it is upsetting.” My burners were aflutter with the confusing mixture of emotions whirling audibly in my head, I gently moved my hand from her leg to her head to lift it.
“I’m much happier hearing you bursting with excitement than wallowing in the things I have to live with,” I said looking her in the eyes. “It’s not your fault, and I want to believe I can be happy regardless.”
She looked surprised for a second the tears still running down her face but then she moved forward to hug me, her head on my shoulders and crying, I returned the hug, and we were there for a while as we both quieted down.
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Eventually, the silence was broken.
“You don’t have distinct breaths.” She said quietly with a sniffle.
“Nope, my burners need a continuous flow of air, and I can’t hold my breath either.” I confirmed.
“Wait at all?” she asked curiosity returning to her voice.
“Not at all, all I can do to my breathing is take a deep breath, which is just pulling air through my entire face rather than just my nose.” I explained.
“Your entire face? How does that work?” She asked raising her face from my shoulder to look at me, I took a deep breath, and her eyes were glittering with curiosity while watching.
“It’s through the gaps! Oh, that feels so neat.” She said bringing her face close.
Suddenly she started turning red and pulled herself back out of the hug to sit up, shuffling a bit in her seat while looking like she was going to say something.
“Is it OK?” She asked after a long hesitation.
“Is what ok?”
“That I find you cool and everything, in spite of what it means for you.” She asked in a rush.
“Yes, of course it is,” I said with a smile. “Like I said earlier, I told you for a reason.”
“Ah, earlier.” She said with the red returning again, then I remembered some of what I said and done.
“Ah haha, I think we gotta change the subject or my face might melt while I die of embarrassment.” I felt steam drifting its way out of my face, but she got a troubled expression and hesitated for a moment.
“Sam, do you mind that I’m…” She trailed off and looked away.
“You’re what?”
“A lesbian who’s into robot girls.” She whispered still avoiding eye contact.
“Not at all given I am a robot girl who’s into you.” She looked back at me startled, I sighed. “I would have to be honest about some stuff before I want you to consider anything though. I did say everything changed for me and you’ve seen my roommates, well exclude River from that bit.”
Now it was my turn to look away.
“Wait, you were a dude before?” She asked in a tone I couldn’t place.
“Yeah.” I said a bit of a hitch to my voice as I wondered what would be next, presumably nothing great.
She started giggling, not the reaction I had been expecting if I will be honest, I turned back to look at her.
“Well doesn’t that make you be even more out of an anime then?” She said with a mischievous grin. “Don’t tell me I missed out on the clothing hijinks, because you seem awfully fond of skirts and leggings.”
“They’re comfortable… also I like how I look in them.” I admitted steaming up a bit.
“Well, I can’t disagree with that.” She said as her grin broadened, then she turned a bit more serious.
“I would be lying if I said I didn’t have any inkling of your previous situation though,” She admitted thoughtfully. “I was vaguely aware that there was a four-person group that was usually somewhere near me and that they were mostly guys. Plus, we’ve probably had a few shared classes at this point as the program isn’t that big.”
I am pretty sure I have seen her a few times in other classes too, but I was never that great at being proactive about meeting people historically.
“At the same time, I’m going to be a bit ah surface level and say that my excitement for someone um like you kinda uh overrode any other concern for me.” She said a bit awkwardly, then cleared her throat. “I’m glad it did because I like you as a person too, but I would understand if you judged me for how shallow my desires to know you were.”
Her tone had turned bitter at the end.
“If it let me meet you, I am happy to overlook that.” I said with a smile and offered a hand which she took after a moment of hesitation.
Then a smile arrived on her face.
She’s so cute.
----------------------------------------
“How are there that many different ways of doing a maid uniform.” I asked incredulously while scrolling through the patterns listed on the site we were on.
Anna continued resting her head on mine but started spouting out variations.
“There’s like long sorta realistic skirts to ones designed to highlight your panties, short sleeves, long sleeves, no sleeves, multipiece so you got midriff, etcetera, etcetera.” She listed, then following some random thought switched to a related topic. “Wait I’ve seen you lean over, so presumably there are gaps in your torso. Is that an issue with clothes?”
“Not really, they don’t open wide enough to really start yanking the cloth in at any rate. I do have to tug my shirt a bit sometimes though.” I answered with a shrug, then my brain caught up a bit and a mischievous grin formed on my face. “Ooh? You’ve watched me lean over, have you?”
There was a slight choking noise from above my head.
I laughed, then continued scrolling through the list as she continued to splutter.
“What about this one?” I asked pausing on one.
It was a relatively restrained design compared to the others, the example picture depicted something sort of like a dirndl but with the black fabric of the dress ending a little below the bosom and buttons instead of the drawstring ribbons. It has ruffles along the bottom of the skirt and outside edges of the thick black straps that held the skirt up. The blouse design included wasn’t that different from some I already had other than the cuffs that were a bit back from the elbow and a collar, both in the same black fabric of the skirt.
“That could work as a base!” She said, then reached over to add it to the cart. “Depending on time we might want to add more distinctive elements, I might doodle some stuff later. Now if it’s going to be a Battle-Maid then there’s gotta be weapons, any idea what you want?”
“Not sure, what do most people associate with maids?” I said while moving to a Google tab. “I think guns right?”
As the results loaded my guess was correct.
“Yep guns, the bigger the better it looks like.”
I scrolled a bit.
“Actually, yeah I am way stronger than human normal, so I could easily carry something like that.” I said pointing at one picture where the character had an impractically oversized sniper rifle.
“Like how strong?” Anna asked from above.
“I haven’t really tried but honestly I haven’t picked up anything that felt heavy, Jake said my suitcase was heavy last weekend, but it didn’t seem like it to me.” I answered with a shrug.
“That actually opens up a bunch of things, because weight is usually a concern.” She said excitedly. “Oooh, we could make our own design!”
She pulled her notepad over and started sketching with smooth practiced motions despite me being in the way. Starting with a chunky body that had a massive magazine sticking out the bottom and a thick long barrel with a big rectangular muzzle brake at the end combined with a chunky foregrip. She then went back to add a scope and tiny pistol grip to give it a scale.
“Something like that could be neat.” She paused thinking, and I could feel her turn to look at the scythe nearby. “Ooh, I know!”
She then added a couple of handles to the top of the gun and a glaive-like blade under the muzzle brake.
“That could definitely work!” I said impressed at the quality of the sketch.
“We would want to workshop it a bit and usually you should make some concessions to comfort with the thing you actually build.” She explained. “It’s no good to go to all that effort and then just leave it somewhere because it’s too much of a pain at the con.”
Her mentioning the con caused a thought to cross my mind.
“Hey, Anna? Did you get those pictures back from the one you just went to, it would be cool to see what you want in.” I asked.
“Uh yeah, yeah they did.” She said and then with a bit of hesitation went looking through some folders on her computer and opened a picture.
She was wearing a white dress that had a top sort of like a bunny girl one but as it went down it flared out with a large back fan and then two narrower, black-trimmed pieces on either side of exposed black leotard and tights. There was a set of boots that went to the mid-thigh in white leather with matching black trim to the dress, under one arm she had a white box with beveled corners with a glowing blue eye. Over the top of it all was a big white cloak that the long light blue locks of a wig spread over, she had matching blue eye contacts and a single green earring on her left ear that I could see to complete the get-up. I vaguely recognized the character from some anime or something, but I couldn’t pin it down. Mind you this was secondary to a key detail here.
She was hot as hell when cosplaying it turns out.
“Wow, you look incredible,” I said honestly. “How long did all that take?”
“Um, couple of months. Between classes and it mostly being from scratch on top of it being way more work than I was expecting, I kinda lost track of how much time I spent on it.”
“Who are you depicting? They’re familiar but I don’t know exactly. “ I asked hoping my ignorance wouldn’t disappoint her.
“Oh don’t worry, it’s Vivy from an anime of the same name. It’s from a while back and it kinda had a lame ending but the MC is a robot and I like her design…” She trailed off a bit.
“Well, it looks fantastic on you!” I chirped out, then got a mischievous grin even though she couldn’t see it. “I can see what you mean by skirts designed to emphasize your panties though.”
“Eeep.” She squeaked and swapped back to the web browser as I chuckled. Once she recovered from that, she rapidly switched to the topic of the other stuff we needed for my costume.
A lot of it was discussing materials, turns out there are a lot of different choices just in the dress alone. How did I want it to sit, the drape, the sheen, internal support so it does this or that, etc. I ended up mostly just going with what she suggested, and she started figuring out a rough list of what we would need. Some of which she thought she might have enough of already, but that she would need to do an inventory and get back to me.
She wanted to spend a bit more time playing around with the gun idea before committing to materials for it though. We ended up deciding to do a webbing over the dress to hold spare ‘magazines’ for the gun and she also found some leg pouches in a bin from some previous project she thought would fit in too.
We were winding down a bit when I noticed her sag suddenly.
“Is something wrong?” I asked worriedly.
“I just realized I don’t think I can get this and what I was going to do for me done for the next con, I could probably just go in something I already have though…” She said a bit forlornly.
“Wait, were you expecting to do all of it?” I asked with a frown.
She nodded.
“Well yeah, I was kinda dragging you into it.” She admitted.
“Uh well I was planning on doing as much of it as I could, and I was hoping you were going to teach me.” I said sheepishly.
“Wait, you wanted to do it?” She said perking up.
“Yep, if nothing else it’s a great excuse for me to hang out with you.” I said with a mischievous grin.
“But don’t you have other stuff to do?” She asked while turning red.
“Eh, schoolwork and I guess occasional work work related stuff now, but I was spending a lot of my spare time playing games and I mostly don’t do that now.“ I said to assuage her worries. “I was going to need to pick something up new regardless. “
“I would love to teach you! There’s a lot of boring bits, but it’s so satisfying when it’s done that it’s totally worth it!” She said excitedly then she latched onto why I had time. “Wait, you don’t play video games anymore?”
“Nah, my brain gets freaked out by weapons now and it makes it really hard to play most of what I was doing before,” I said with a shrug. “I’ve been doing fighting games with my roommates as there are a few stages that aren’t an issue though.”
“Huh.”
“I expect we don’t really have enough time to get into anything practical tonight, but when would you like to meet next?” I said trying to bring her back on topic, then I got a grin. “We can always do something besides just working on fancy dresses if you want.”
“Can we do both?” She asked shyly.
I laughed. “Of course!”
”The rest of my week is pretty busy, would you be ok with the weekend?” She asked still a bit tentative.
“I have something on Sunday, but any time Saturday would be wonderful.”
“Lunch? There’s a nice... oh no.” She started getting flustered. “I’m-“
“I can check with them if they are fine with me bringing in outside food given my diet, otherwise we could always visit that nice park nearby.” I interrupted her, not wanting her to worry about it.
“There’s a park nearby?” She asked.
“Yeah, it’s like ten or fifteen minutes that way, you haven’t been?” I asked a bit confused pointing vaguely behind her house.
“I uh don’t really know the area…” She said embarrassed.
“Well, it has an arboretum that’s loosely associated with the university, it won’t be the prettiest right now but it’s still nice!” then another option crossed my mind, and I let a mischievous grin form on my face before I leaned towards her. “Or we could always go to one of the malls, and I will happily play the role of a dress-up doll for you.”
She swallowed eyes wide.
“The park.” She squeaked out. “The m-mall next time.”
“Whatever makes you happy Anna!” I said with a chuckle.
Seeing her face up close like this is really making me want to…
I leaned up as far as I could go and placed the side of my head against her cheek, and my eyes closed in appreciation of how she felt against my cheek. There was something penetrating about how good it felt, like I was enjoying it right to my core.
I sighed in contentment.
“Sam?” She asked softly.
Her question made me suddenly realize what I was doing before I pulled back, burners fluttering in confusion at what I had been doing.
“S-sorry, I uh, I…” I floundered not meeting her eyes.
“I-its ok, I didn’t ask you to stop.” She said softly before pulling me back with her arms and leaning forward to rest her face against mine.
Ahhh, this is bliss…
“You really like that huh?” She asked a few moments later, and I realized that while I was still holding my weight, I had gone sort of loose and relaxed in a way I didn’t recognize.
“I love how it feels…” I murmured. “I don’t know if I could explain it.”
She giggled. “You feel pretty neat too, and I can hear your thoughts clearly from here. It’s cool that I can hear how relaxed you are feeling.”
Realizing it was probably getting pretty late, I reluctantly checked the time on my phone and sighed.
“I should get the next bus otherwise it will be another forty-five minutes after that.” I said with disappointment.
“Sure.” Anna said while pulling back reluctantly.