Vesper let out a sigh as he lounged back into his coils, letting his lower body act like a large cushion. Freed dropped down into his chair on the opposite side of their dorm room.
"If I have to repeat that healing potion mixture one more time I'm going to scream," said Freed as he gazed up at the ceiling.
"I can still hear the sounds of us grinding ingredients," whined Vesper.
Over the months since the first meeting with Gabriel Barrister, the man had been putting them through a crash course of lessons, trying to cram them as much information as possible. From wards, to summoning, to alchemy, they did it all. They had just finished their first test on healing potion preparation. The twist was they had to perform the mixing in their, as Gabriel put it, "true forms". Sounds simple with some like Vesper or Celine or Eva. And for Eva and Celine it was a simple task. Vesper was told he had to use his tail to grab ingredients and aid in the mixture, Mai struggled with handling the delicate equipment due to her much larger hands,and Freed.... Gabriel seemed to push him much harder than the others, having Freed use both sets of arms do different tasks. Today it was preparing 2 potions at once, 2 weeks ago it was casting offensive spells with one set and defensive with the other. If it wasn't for the support of the others, Freed probably would have had a mental breakdown by now. However, he did kind of see where Gabriel Barrister was going with this. As the lessons continued he had become more adept with his body, not graceful in any sense of the word, but he had reached a point where he could control himself with some confidence. Still, Freed much preferred to stay in his "disguised form" even when in his room alone. Holding the spell was getting easier for him almost to where he could be sleeping and still maintain it. Gabriel had made it clear to them all however that the disguise spell would severely limit their own magical powers.
"I've been meaning to ask you," piped up Vesper.
"Yes," asked Freed as he reached for a nearby tome.
"What's it feel like?"
"Excuse me?"
"Using that disguise spell. Like how does it feel with your body?"
Freed thought for a moment, trying to find the right way to say how it felt. "It feels....like when you put both arms inside a sweater and not through the sleeves. You can still feel them there, they just can't be used and feel confined. Does that help?"
"I guess," Vesper shrugged, "I've never had an issue with getting my arms stuck in a sweater."
Freed cut his eyes over to his roommate, "that's because you almost never wear a shirt or really any clothes most if the time."
Vesper held out his arms as if to show himself off to the world, "as a merman, I barely wore any clothes and it's an issue now?"
"You are a lot more visible to everyone else now. On the way back I saw 4 different women fawn after you."
"Only 4? I'm losing my touch," Vesper laughed.
"Why don't you ever go out with any of them?"
Vesper sighed, his mood growing sullen. "I still don't feel ready to get into another relationship."
"Aurora?"
"Yeah. Right now I'm just looking for a fling. A one night stand or 5. But the other is just looking for the same, you know?"
"A free fuck with no strings."
"Exactly. I don't wanna lie to someone to get it though."
"Sorry, wish I could help. But I'm not really as sociable as you."
Vesper began to smile as an idea came to mind. "I think you can help."
Freed heard Vesper's coils shifting and looked up to find him a few inches away from his face. "Gah! What the hell?"
"Remember that night a little over a month ago?"
Freed buried his head into his book, "we agreed never to bring that up again." He felt his face turning red. The 2 were sitting in their dorm room peacefully studying when around midnight, the 2 lost all control and well, it's a good thing there was a lube spell.
"I know, but look me in the eyes and tell me you aren't the least bit curious about how it might feel under your own power," as if to solidify his point, Vesper began to trace the line on one of Freed's binding tattoos.
Freed could only stare open mouthed as his mind raced for solutions. Under his robes he felt his twins beginning to rise up. Ever since that night, Freed's libido had skyrocketed and this was not helping. He had never even considered it once in his life. He knew he was attracted to women, but....he couldn't help but get lost in Vesper's deep green eyes. His heart was racing. After a while he spoke. "Promise you won't tell anyone."
"I would never speak to anyone what has happened between us. I will take this to the grave if you wish."
Freed nodded slowly, "Alright, lead on."
Vesper slowly closed the gap between them, letting his long tail encircle them both. As he neared, Freed leaned in and began to kiss him.