Magical Ethics 6: Potions Exam

Jabir nearly broke down his door in excitement to read his results from his class's first alchemy exam. The envelope lay at a slight angle just inside his dorm room. The enchanted seal shone oily-pearlescent against the blackstone floor: only he would be able to open it.

He half-shredded the envelope, hurled its bits aside, and absorbed the words within.

*Jabir: your sense-sharing potion fulfilled every requirement flawlessly. Work on the feedback issue for a perfect score. 9/10*

Nine out of ten? He almost failed to register that the professor insisted on calling his elixir a "potion". He lingered on the words "feedback issue" and the conspicuous absence, the infuriating white space, where the gold mark for highest score in class should be.

Feedback issue? Jabir hadn't tested the elixir before submitting it, but he was certain he'd improved on the basic recipe in the textbook, had done so plenty of times with other elixirs.

The grade sheet slipped through limp fingers. There was only one person who could have beaten him: Fidelis Winters. That witch.

They'd got off to a rocky start - admittedly kind of Jabir's fault - but they'd already tried to outdo each other once and... well... it didn't go as planned. She must have gone out of her way to show him up.

But how?

He'd done better than instructed. They'd used the same school-provided ingredients. He'd even added lemon pie flavour. How could Fidelis have improved on his improvements?

He had to know.

Jabir waited in the common room. The others were out celebrating their first exam. He was the only one who'd come back early to see his results. He sat on the couch, tapping one foot, then the other, two fingers, four fingers, readjusting. Waiting. Stewing.

There was no reason he shouldn't have placed first. He'd been working alchemy since he was a child. One didn't get to skip the waiting list for adult resident classes at one of the best magic schools on the continent without some special achievement, excellence, or drive. Even before he left home he knew more than anyone there could teach him.

So how did a country witch -

Jabir grimaced as it occurred to him that he could have been using this time to search Fidelis's room for clues. Maybe if he hurried -

Down the hall, the floor opened up for the enchanted staircase, spiraling with a graceful metallic groan. With it came two voices: Kye, the brash special effects and pyrotechnics girl, and with her, Park: the quietly rigid full-shaved guy who'd taught himself a particular advanced spell.

"What I don't get," Kye ranted to Park, gesturing wide and frustrated, "Is that ever since, he gets all grump when I do the exact same thing."

They both wore all black, though Kye's was fashionable and Park's utilitarian. The blacks created a deep contrast with Kye's purple makeup and Park's flushed, uncertain, embarrassed face. Jabir hid a smirk. He could guess what they were talking about. Kye had been going on about it for days.

"I need to get back at him," Kye declared, tugging on her beanie in frustration. "Remind him what he's missing out on. He was really into it when I -"

"Oh, hey," Jabir interrupted. He wasn't sure he wanted to hear what Swallow was really into, and Park looked like he could use a rescue. Jabir stood and smiled as if he didn't know what was going on. "Park, can I talk to you for a minute, please?"

"Yes," Park blurted.

Kye frowned. "I wasn't done."

"Sorry, you can have him back in a few minutes."

Kye huffed and flopped onto the couch where Jabir had been sitting. She flung her legs over the arm, kicking her black-on-black striped stockings.

Jabir led Park down the hall, not quite touching his elbow. He'd noticed Park seemed unsure of how to interact with people and tended to fade into the background, so Jabir would try not to push him too hard.

"Hey, I'm hoping you can do me a quick favour," he said without direct eye contact and what he hoped was a gentle smile. "I heard you can cast an invisibility spell. If you can do that for me now, I'll be happy to help you with alchemy for the rest of the year."

Park didn't reply. Jabir waited, and by the time he glanced up to repeat himself, Park was ready to respond. "I don't know if that's a good idea," he said. "Can't you do it as a potion?"

"I wish I could do it as an elixir," Jabir replied with as gentle a correction as he could manage. "The key ingredient to make an invisibility potion last longer than a minute or two is restricted for first-year students."

Another long pause. "What do you need it for?"

Jabir hesitated a moment, then decided it was better to be honest. "I need to find out why I didn't get the top grade on the alchemy exam."

"Oh. That's all? Not some kind of prank?"

"No, it's not for a prank." Jabir had the sense that Park would have believed him regardless, which might be something for the kid to address later.

Park shuffled from foot to foot, thinking, and finally declared "All right, I'll do it. One warning, though."

"Yes?"

"The spell only affects you."

"Uh, yeah?"

"As in, not your clothes."

"Oh."

It would only be a problem if he got caught. He only needed a quick look around Fidelis's room to check her equipment, notes, any special ingredients she might be hiding. Jabir nodded. "Okay. That's fine."

Park nodded back and closed his eyes. His fingers danced, stringing, caressing an ovoid shape Jabir couldn't see. Park's lips moved just slightly, subtle enough that Jabir wondered if Park knew he was doing it. No incantation, no wand or staff or other implement. Interesting.

"It's done," Park said.

Jabir looked down and didn't see any difference until he noticed there was nothing coming out of the ends of his long sleeves. Once he realized his hands were invisible, it hit him that he couldn't see his nose.

He held out his arms, turned his hands, saw nothing at all. Just his clothes, filled out, but nothing up his sleeves. "Wow. That's flawless. Amazing!"

Park looked down and away, flushed a bit. "Thanks. It won't last long, though. Ten to fifteen minutes. I can do longer, but today -"

"No, this is great, thank you. Exactly what I needed." He reached for his collar to undo the first button, but paused. Park wouldn't see him, that was the whole point, but it still somehow felt wrong to undress in front of him. "Kye is waiting for you, but maybe you should get back to your room instead."

Park half-laughed. His eyes darted back toward the common room. "Right. Thanks." He turned and stepped quietly away, snuck into his room and shut the door behind him.

All right. Finally. Jabir stripped his clothes off, feeling like someone would appear and spot him at any moment. He froze up a couple of times, had to force himself to keep going, remind himself he was invisible.

He tossed his clothes into his room. Fidelis's was down the other hall on the opposite side of the common room, so Jabir closed his eyes, took a few deep breaths to steady himself, and stepped into the open space where Kye waited for Park.

It was easier to be quiet than he imagined. Bare feet on warm blackstone floor didn't click or clomp like shoes. Kye still lay there on the couch, staring at the ceiling and humming as she kicked her feet. She hummed a theme song Jabir found familiar but couldn't quite place. Probably from a show she'd worked on.

Jabir snuck past her, covering his naked crotch regardless of whether she could see. She couldn't, of course, but... well, he crossed the room safely.

Fidelis's door would be locked, but there were no special enchantments on the doors - students were encouraged to come up with their own security attacks and defences. Part of the Magical Ethics program of messing with each other to learn the reason for magical laws and boundaries. Fidelis did mostly potions and minor charms, and it was too early in the school year for her to have learned any serious defences, so all Jabir had to do was pick -

Wait.

He was naked. He didn't have anything on him he could use to pick the lock. But this was just another problem to solve. He frowned and thought. Fidelis was a country girl. Maybe...

He tried the door. It was unlocked. Of course.

After a quick check over both shoulders to be sure no one would see the door open, Jabir stepped into Fidelis's room. Even more than the first time he'd been here, the live potted plants, herbs, and vines covered every surface. Many-shaped crystal vials and jars of preserved, dried, or pickled leaves, sprigs, seeds, flowers, and roots nestled between the leaves. It was overwhelming - unlike his own meticulously organized and labeled alchemy supplies, Fidelis's room grew wild. Though, still, he had the vague sense that there was a methodology here, some kind of...

Irrelevant. Not why he was here.

Jabir looked down. He didn't see his body, legs, and feet, but between where his toes should be, he found Fidelis's envelope: her exam grade and comments, delivered under her door. He knelt, picked up the envelope, and examined the seal. Old-fashioned wax, shimmering with that oily-pearlescent telltale of the security enchantment. Of course - she hadn't been back to open it yet. Damn.

Jabir stood and scanned the plant nursery that was Fidelis's room. Surely he could find some clues, some hints as to how she'd earned a higher score.

Her desk was a mess of cauldrons of many sizes, old wood-carved measuring tools, a marble mortar and pestle, burners, filters, and half-empty vials. Careful not to touch in case of residue, Jabir peered at the workspace from every angle. He wafted scents toward his invisible nose, tried to determine what she'd mixed. Some orange and cardamom, perhaps, to cover up that foul earthy tone clinging to the cauldron? Vanilla, pickling fluid of a recipe he didn't recognize, and a mix of powders too finely ground to identify safely on short notice.

He found a bookshelf under a creeping potted vine. He thumbed the spines of the books, but the titles were all folk whimsy. Granny Ellmire's Family Recipes, Wulfe Arneson's Collected Concoctions, and the like. Jabir flicked through a few that caught his attention. Well-worn and soft-edged, many hand-copied.

He shook his head and replaced the books exactly where he'd found them. Once again he was drawn to the desk. Maybe if he took some of the residues back to his room, he could analyze with his own equipment and -

The door swung open.

Jabir managed not to gasp.

Fidelis leaned around the door, searching the room with narrowed eyes. "Hello?" she called.

She suspected someone was here. How? Some kind of charm on the door, perhaps, alerting her to intrusion? Or on one or more of the books he'd touched, if they were precious to her? Maybe Fidelis wasn't quite as naive as Jabir thought.

He was still invisible. Jabir held his breath a moment as Fidelis looked into every corner. She stepped in and closed the door, locked it with a loud squeal and click of disused metal. Jabir grimaced - it would be hard to escape unheard.

"Hello?" Fidelis called again. "Is someone here?" She stepped over the envelope on the floor toward the bathroom, the one place she couldn't see by the door. Her floral sky-blue dress flared and swirled at her knees, and the lightningbird tattoo on her collarbone shimmered the same colour as her lipstick. She was pretty today, Jabir thought, dressed up for the night out. But he banished the thought. She was still his rival. Just because they'd stubborned each other into sex one time didn't mean anything.

He waited in the corner, as Fidelis searched. Eventually she shrugged, grabbed a towel and shower cap and the envelope, and sat down on the bed.

Fidelis carefully pried open the envelope without damaging the wax seal. She pulled out the square card within, read it, and smiled.

Jabir eased toward her, hoping to read the grade and comments. Before he could, Fidelis placed the note card back in the envelope and closed it. Then she reached down, shimmied on the bed, and began to pull off her dress.

There was a brief moment where Jabir wanted to watch - he'd seen her naked before, and certainly wouldn't mind it again.

But she might.

"Wait!" Jabir blurted. "Keep your clothes on. It's Jabir. I'm here, I'm invisible."

Fidelis gasped and threw the towel in the general direction of Jabir's voice. Her aim wasn't great, but one end of the towel hit his face and hung on his shoulder. "What are you doing!" Fidelis shouted, not a question but an accusation.

"I didn't get the top grade on the exam and I needed to know what you did!" he shouted back. He wanted to slap himself for the confession - didn't have time to think of anything better.

She stomped on the floor and clenched her hands into fists. "You could have just asked!"

He... hadn't thought of that. He knew - no, he assumed Fidelis wouldn't share her recipes with her rival. "Okay. Could you please tell me how you got your grade?"

"No!" she yelled. "I would have told you, but -" She stopped mid-sentence and suppressed a giggle.

He waited for her to finish, then realized he could see his nose. And Jabir was still naked. He gasped and fumbled to wrap the towel around his waist. "The spell doesn't work on clothes, I couldn't -"

"Get out," Fidelis said, and with a suppressed smirk she added: "And leave my towel."

"But -"

"Leave it and go, now, and I won't bother getting back at you for this."

Any more than you already are, Jabir nearly grumbled, but kept it to himself and didn't bother to argue. At least it was a good reminder he'd made the right choice to stop her - he knew she could do worse than send him away naked. If he was lucky, the others weren't back yet, and if he was very lucky, Kye got tired of waiting for Park and left. Jabir turned the squeaky lock and let himself out, refusing to give Fidelis the satisfaction of begging or looking back.

He stepped into the hall and found Kye standing right next to him, grinning.

"What the shit!" Jabir shrieked. He didn't like to swear but he couldn't help it - one shock too many. He tried to cover himself with his hands, hoped she hadn't seen... everything.

Kye leaned against the wall with one teasing eyebrow raised and her arms crossed. "I've been wondering what went on between the two of you the other night."

"It's not - this isn't - I was only trying to read her test score card," Jabir said. His voice weakened and trailed off. It sounded like a weak excuse, and he could hear Fidelis giggle through her door.

"Hm." Kye tapped one finger on her arm. Her nails were a bright, shiny purple contrast against black elbow-length fingerless gloves. She pointed a finger at another door, stepped back, and motioned for Jabir to follow.

Kye wasn't teasing him or trying to turn his situation into some kind of prank? He didn't know her well yet, but most of his interactions with her so far felt... transactional. Like she needed to get something out of every exchange.

He followed Kye into her room. She tossed him a soft black robe. Jabir shrugged it on, sighed, and slumped to the floor. Relief trickled down his body, but boiled against a mounting anxiety for what Kye might want from him.

She stood in the middle of her room, small like all of them. It looked like it would be hers, like Jabir could have guessed it on the first try. Unlike most of the students, Kye hadn't bothered trying to spruce up the blackstone. Rather, she'd leaned into it: black bedspread, colourful grungy band and show posters, string lights on the ceiling almost resembling constellations.

"I have two questions," she declared. Kye kicked off her shoes, took three steps toward Jabir, and loomed over him with two fingers extended. "One. Why is your dick a different colour from the rest of your body?"

He dropped his head to his hands. No point in denying, but at least she wasn't laughing. "Alchemical accident when I was younger. I don't want to talk about it."

"Does it do anything weird?"

"No," he replied. It did do something, but it wasn't weird.

She was silent for a moment - perhaps deciding whether to press him. "Okay. Second question: can you help me with something?"

"Maybe," he replied, on guard now. He helped everyone who asked, including Kye with alchemy tips before the exam, but...

"I'll get a look at Fidelis's result card for you if you help me get back at Swallow," she elaborated through half a smirk.

Swallow: the hellborn student, son of a fishing family, skilled at sea charms and wards. So that was who Kye had been talking about earlier.

She'd stepped closer to him, stood over his legs. Her black-on-black striped stockings ended just within her skirt, showing enough skin to make Jabir certain she'd given him this perspective quite deliberately. "Get back at Swallow?" he repeated.

"Swallow and I discovered that he likes being dominated and I like dominating. But since then, he's been cold with me, gets mad when I act dominant." Kye squatted down to Jabir's level. He tried to meet her eyes rather than look up her skirt. "I want to make him remember what he's been missing."

If he didn't know better, Jabir would think she was trying to seduce him. "How do you plan to do that?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Am I not making it obvious?" Kye reached up her skirt, shimmied her hips, and pulled her underwear off. "You got the second highest exam score, yeah?" She tossed the underwear over her shoulder and winked. "Go get your potion and I'll let you to show me how well it works."

Well.

Jabir liked the offer but was not a fan of the command in Kye's tone, the expectation he'd simply do what she told him, her offer to allow him to try his own elixir.

But... Kye was confident, fit, fashionable, and she was going overboard on it right now, those striped long socks emphasizing her legs and intentionally letting Jabir see up her skirt where she kept herself trim and tidy. And the way she was looking at him through her dark hair, that little smirk on her lips...

Why not?

"Sure, I'll help," Jabir said. He leaned forward to match her gaze.

Kye matched the lean, her nose nearly touching his. "While you grab your potion, I'll get ready." She turned around and got to her feet, legs straight so Jabir could see up her skirt again, above the tops of her striped socks. If he wasn't already convinced, that would have done it.

He clenched his jaw and still didn't correct her on elixir versus potion. He'd overlook it this last time, more forgiving of the inaccuracy thanks to Kye's easy confidence in teasing him.

No one in the halls as Jabir rushed back to his room. The elixir was in its proper place, labeled and stored in his secure cabinet with the rest of the draughts he'd been working on. A much better system than whatever cottage mess Fidelis had going on.

He paused, vial in hand. Fidelis. He'd been wondering what exactly Kye meant about getting ready, what he'd see when he got back - and Fidelis intruded.

Why should he worry that Fidelis would find out about this, might hear him with Kye? They were merely classmates. Rivals. They'd clashed on their first interaction, then independently tried to prank each other with arousal elixirs which worked a little too well. Turned out to be a great night, but it didn't mean anything. In fact - helping Kye would prove he wasn't getting hung up on his rival.

Jabir gripped his vial tight, marched himself back to Kye's room, and definitely did not look at Fidelis's door. Except to make sure she didn't see him.

"I have one condition," Jabir announced as he closed Kye's door. "I don't want... Swallow to know it was me." The pause didn't mean anything. He hadn't almost said another name.

"Sure," Kye said easily. "I know a simple audio amp and alteration spell, I can make you sound like someone else."

Jabir turned around to thank Kye and found she was already naked, leaning over a book on her desk. No, naked was the wrong word. She'd kept her thigh-high black-on-black striped socks, elbow-length black fingerless gloves, and black beanie. Other than those she was naked.

Kye wasn't tall, but her long proportions, socks, and gloves made her look tall. Jabir could see her ribs and hip definition at her sides not because she was skinny but because she worked at it.

Kye flexed her butt and looked over her shoulder with one eyebrow up. "Pass me that microphone if you're not too busy staring."

He wasn't staring, only surprised and taking in new information. Jabir held back a comment and found the microphone on a nearby shelf. It was beat up, its wire cut and frayed.

Kye must have known what he was thinking. "I use it as a focus for spells that amplify or modulate sounds," she explained. Kye held the microphone like a wand, fiddled with the dials of the complicated stereo set on the shelf above her desk, and whispered an incantation.

She held the mic to his lips. "Say something."

"Something."

Jabir didn't feel or notice much difference save for a sort of mimic effect, as though someone else spoke his word just out of sync. He supposed that was due to the spell altering the sound after it left his mouth, not affecting his body.

Kye nodded satisfaction and crossed her arms over her bare breasts. "Good. Now strip."

The back of his neck prickled. He knew how sex worked. She didn't have to order him around, not when she'd asked a favour and Jabir was helping out. He reached for the tie of the robe she'd given him and told himself he would not let her boss him around again.

Kye at least looked interested - more than enough to ease his hackles. She loosely imitated his movements as he undressed: let her purple-tipped fingers rest on her bare collarbone, down the middle of her chest between small breasts and dark turned-up nipples, down her belly to where her neatly-trimmed hair began.

"Earlier you asked why my penis was a different colour," he said. She'd be impressed, he knew.

She nodded, eyes drawn to it. With her fingertips she brushed her pubic hair and the ridges of her hip bones. "Tell me."

He suppressed a sigh. He'd just told himself he wouldn't let her order him around again, but given the context, that was a normal response. "When I was younger," he said, proceeding to lshed the robe, "I wanted to create an elixir that would make me the perfect size for whoever I'm with. There was a minor side effect, but it worked."

Kye squatted down with elbows on sock knees. She leaned close to inspect him, enough that he could feel a whisper of her breath on his shaft and head. "It'll change size for me?" she asked, eyes wide.

"To the best size for you," he nodded. "Automatically adjusting for each position and act."

"How does it know?" she laughed to it, so close he imagined he felt her lips.

"Magic."

Jabir was quite proud of that custom elixir (besides the colour complication, of course) and Kye's interest and eagerness were incredibly validating, almost more exciting than the toned lines of her body contained between her long socks and gloves. Jabir felt himself rising to her.

"Show me," Kye said. She reached for the vial of elixir and wrenched off the cork.

Jabir snatched the vial back. "Okay. Look. First, be careful with that, you only need two drops. Second, ever since your thing with Swallow, bossy is your whole personality. I already had the feeling you needed control when we did that group assignment for Defensive Magic, but recently you've gone overboard."

Kye was silent. She sat down on the bed, looked at nothing in particular.

He'd reacted too strongly. He sighed and sat down next to Kye, not quite touching, tried not to focus on her bare thighs above her socks, the shape and tone of her hips, the breasts and upturned nipples. "What I meant to say is that you're coming on strong, and not everyone reacts the same way. Sounds to me like Swallow enjoyed it in a specific private context, but not outside of that. I think if you ease back and show him you understand, he'll come around."

She nodded slowly, considered what he'd said. "Okay," she said finally, "But I'd still like to see how your things work."

"My things?"

"Your potion -"

"Elixir."

"- and your dick."

He laughed. "If you insist."

Jabir popped the cork on the vial of elixir. He dabbed the tip of his little finger into the swirling, almost-clear liquid and held it up, not quite enough to form a drop. "This should be enough," he said.

Kye leaned against his shoulder, turned her dark eyes up to his from beneath the curled edge of her beanie, and slipped her lips around his finger. Jabir felt her tongue circling his fingertip, sucking off the thick liquid, and one of her nipples growing firm against his upper arm. It wasn't what he'd planned, but in hindsight, he'd set it up perfectly.

She released him, but maintained her lean. She watched as he dipped the other finger into the vial and took his own dose.

"How do I know when it starts?" Kye asked.

"You'll know."

"Tell me -"

"It's a sense-sharing elixir," he reminded her. "You'll feel and see when it starts. It's disorienting; you'll have to focus to sort out the double vision."

"Is it hard?"

"Yes," Jabir winked and tilted his chin toward his lower body. "Let me make sure you're ready before the elixir takes effect."

Kye slid her butt back onto the bed, turned, and spread her legs. "Okay, but just so you know, I'm only letting you take the lead because once the p - elixir - hits, I'll feel what you feel."

Of course. Jabir tried not to roll his eyes. Even when Kye surrendered control she made sure she was still in charge. But with Kye's invitation, Jabir's annoyance faded, replaced by the urge to dive in.

He climbed into bed, gripped her ankles, and pulled himself between her legs toward her, the stripes of her socks rushing through his peripherals with a brief but almost vertiginous sense of speed. He grazed his cheek along the prominent muscle line of her inner thigh and arrived at her short, neatly trimmed bush, perfectly-edged with not a single hair long or short or out of place, from her belly button to her little red clit and running down her thick outer labia.

He closed his eyes and breathed in her unique blend of earthy-briny scent with the slightest hint of... almost gunpowder? A little odd, but fitting for what he knew of Kye's special effects work. Gently Jabir took her protruding inner labia between his lips, eased his tongue between them and up toward her clit. Her taste matched her scent.

"Mmm," he heard from somewhere beyond the thighs covering his ears.

Jabir paused. "Warn me if you're close," he murmured into her lips, "I'm trying to get you ready, not off."

She didn't respond, but after a few more swirls and flicks of his tongue, her thighs squeezed his head tight. And - if he wasn't mistaken - there was the beginning of a pleasant tingle between his legs in an unfamiliar place. Jabir grinned and stopped. Kye tried to pull him in with her legs, but he refused to indulge her until she eased up and let go.

He straightened up and checked on Kye. Her chest rose and fell, erect nipples pointing straight up. Her belly rippled with just-visible ab movements. Her purple lips were parted. She blinked and frowned and looked down her body.

"You're feeling it too?" Jabir asked.

"I guess so."

"Before it kicks in fully, let me just..." Jabir adjusted his hips and let his erection rest on Kye's neat patch of hair. It tickled and not-quite-scratched the underside of his shaft, which helped pull his focus from the mildly odd tightening sensation of his size adjusting to Kye's needs.

He reached down and rubbed Kye's thick lips, confirming she was ready. She was swollen and slick; her socks slid against his legs. "Going in?" he asked. "If the potion hits before we do, it might be too -"

"Do it," she said. Despite the words, there was a bit of dreaminess to her tone, the force of command lacking now. Fine.

He moved into her as a hazy silhouette appeared before his eyes: himself, through hers. He felt a vaguely pleasant pressure behind his testicles, the slightest sense of something entering where his body knew nothing could. The feeling wasn't powerful yet, more of a quiet buzz in the background.

"Weird," Kye said.

Jabir looked down. The blur of double vision was gone - Kye's eyes were closed. He felt a growing pressure on his back, as though he were lying down, and on his thighs, as if someone were between them. The elixir was nearing full effect.

She was watching herself through him, he assumed. Jabir closed his eyes, too, and focused on the physical sensations. He tried to move as little as possible. He felt his erection inside Kye, perfectly enveloped by her warmth and inner muscularity. He also felt himself inside her - him - whatever - without motion, a pleasant deep fullness, almost but not quite too much.

He had a sudden and powerful sense of doubling, of being in two places at once. He was holding himself up above Kye but also he was Kye with him above her. He was between her thighs and he was between his thighs. "Keep your eyes closed and don't move," he whispered, hearing himself from within and from above, his altered voice unfamiliar through her ears. "Give yourself some time to get used to it."

Jabir focused on the familiar first: his sense of self, a sense he didn't know he had until he'd tried a weaker apprentice-level version of this potion years back. He centered himself partly in his confidence - Kye had it too, but a different flavour - and in his physicality. He could separate the sensation of being into distinct parts, and while he briefly could not separate her from him, he focused on the familiar: his head wasn't squeezed by a beanie, his shoulders wider. The external feeling below his waist rather than the absence he knew she'd never considered until she had the point of comparison. He pushed away the sensation of warm covered legs and arms, and the satisfying-yet-longing inner fullness.

Just when Jabir had almost centered himself, s/he moved. Only a slight adjustment of his/her hips, but it made him/her slide within him/her.

He felt his cock shift and her vagina squeeze him, the hot almost-too-tight slick embrace from both without and within, and he felt her feeling him, he felt himself feeling her and herself feeling him feeling her, each motion doubled quadrupled octupled and now he understood the feedback note and s/he was moaning uncontrolled as they both penetrated and were penetrated and burst and gushed and shook and

He was slapping a shoulder, or being slapped on the shoulder. His muscles were limp and quivering, and he lay on something warm and something warm was on him, soft in parts and firm in others. The weight above was pushing him down, he couldn't breathe but he could. There was a sound at his ear and in his mouth, something -

"Breathe," Kye gasped.

He couldn't move, couldn't tell whether he was on top or underneath, could breathe or couldn't. The disoriented panic was enough for him to push aside with weak, shaking arms and roll over. He was still inside her, even somehow still hard. Kye turned with him, grunting and gasping with effort, keeping him inside as they tried to hold each other but couldn't manage.

Jabir squeezed his eyes shut and focused. He still felt it all - as though he was both himself and Kye, penetrating himself, holding himself, a tangle of thighs and hair and breath. But he focused, found it easier this time, was able to push her sensations back enough to center on himself. The feedback was there, but weaker.

"Was that supposed to happen?" Kye asked. "That was..." He felt her lips and jaw moving, but not her throat, and no sound emerged.

"It wasn't," he admitted. "My score card said something about a feedback issue. When I improved the textbook recipe, I must have over-enhanced the effect given that I didn't compen -"

"I felt you feeling me feeling you feeling me feeling -" Kye said. "I think. It's confusing."

He nodded, eyes closed. "Yeah. But other than that, the elixir was perfect."

Kye snorted. Jabir felt it in his throat. "Oh, right. Other than the part where we were both totally overwhelmed and came so hard we blacked out and can barely move, it worked great."

He let that go and lay with her, eyes closed. Jabir still felt what Kye felt, to the point he wasn't quite sure whose thigh was wrapped around whose ass, whether his nipples were excited by the tickle of her chest or vice versa. But as he shifted his hip experimentally, angled himself up to reach deeper inside her, Kye's hissed breath on his own lips as s/he grew to fit tighter - the feedback effect had either faded or they'd acclimated to it.

"I didn't know it felt so good to get fucked," Jabir said. He'd been keeping her senses at a distance to keep himself centered, but now he embraced the sense of being full, pleasantly unfamiliar, like a hunger he'd been ignoring was halfway to being sated, still threatening to overwhelm with the doubling of sensation. In a way he was inside himself, but he'd imagined it would feel like masturbating, and it certainly didn't.

Kye pulled him close so their nipples kissed. She whispered into his ear: "I didn't know how good it felt to fuck me."

He opened his eyes to frown at her, but she'd anticipated his reaction and laughed. "Hey," she said, pulling back to adjust her beanie, "I don't think we were out for long, so the others might not be back yet. But there are other people who can hear us, and I want to be sure this gets back to Swallow."

"So you're saying we're not done?" Jabir asked. Not that he'd mind.

"Right. So here's what I want you to -" She cut herself off, sighed, and tugged on her long black gloves. "I would like you to please fuck me. Hard. Dominate me. So I can feel what you feel."

It wasn't exactly what Jabir was into, but more sex before the potion wore off? Absolutely. "You should choose a safe word."

He could almost feel Kye's bafflement. "What's that?"

She didn't know? Well, she'd only recently discovered this dominant preference. "It's a word you say if you're uncomfortable or feel I've gone too far, and when you do, I'll stop. You know, a word for safety?"

Kye shrugged. "Okay. Pineapple I guess. I don't think we'll need it though. If you go too far, you'll feel it."

True, he supposed, but he couldn't read her mind so it was better to have the option just in case. "Okay," he said, and lifted himself off the bed. Or tried to. His arms shook, he grunted, and he let himself back down. "One more minute."

At least Kye didn't laugh - she felt the fatigue too. After a minute's rest, Jabir rolled away, pulled himself out of Kye. Such a pleasantly strange sensation, to feel he was pulling his own cock out of himself, with double the thrill of the physical movement and double the regret of withdrawal.

Double vision, too, as Jabir slowly and carefully eased himself up to kneel between Kye's legs. Disorienting, dizzying. He put a hand on the blackstone wall to steady himself, and one of the perspectives vanished. Jabir looked down to find Kye had closed her eyes. He almost thanked her, but she'd said she wanted to see what it was like to fuck her from his perspective, which was now the only perspective.

He wasn't sure if Kye would appreciate her own body the way he did, but he took his time anyway. She'd put him in charge. He placed his fingertips on her ankles, her long black-on-black socks still mostly where they should be, though the right had slid halfway down her thigh and bunched up a bit. Jabir leaned in and tugged the sock back up, halfway to her hip, so that it matched the left, slightly pinching in the thigh.

Jabir let his hands drift up her legs, partly to appreciate them and her socks, but also because he was still recovering. He felt his fingertips on his own thighs, as though he were seducing himself, but it worked. If Kye could focus on his perspective, he was curious to experience hers.

He grabbed Kye's hips, lifted and squeezed her ass from beneath. He felt her breath draw in, felt her bite her lip. Jabir only shared her senses, not her thoughts, so he couldn't tell whether she was into what she was feeling, or herself, or women, or just this particular experience. Not that it mattered, really.

He pressed his lips to her belly button and circled it with his tongue. She tried to shift up, to get him between her legs, but Jabir pressed down firm on her hips. "No," he said, "Not yet." He felt the shiver down her spine, felt his body mirror her response.

Holding her steady, he slowly eased his lips down the narrow patch of short hairs beginning just below her belly button, following it like a trail to the wider, neatly-trimmed thicket on her mound. Her hair was firm yet soft, and still smelled faintly of gunpowder.

He slipped his tongue down the patch, turning aside to avoid her clit. He could feel it throbbing as though it were his own, firming up in a manner that was not unfamiliar. But he denied Kye (and himself) the immediate pleasure, explored her labia, the muscle lines of her inner thighs, all the places he could use her senses to feel she enjoyed but did not crave.

She swelled and nearly dripped with anticipation, but he would not grant her what he could feel she needed. It took restraint, for he craved it too: her body's demand to be filled was his, and he could sate it only by filling her.

"Fuck me," Kye pleaded.

"No."

His lips whispered across hers, grazing the trimmed hairs. With her senses as guide, Jabir adjusted his movements to maximize his teasing of her slick-wet skin. He sent his hands up her sides: firm hip bones, tight waist, smooth ribs, reaching up to her small breasts. As he licked her lips, the mildly warm salt-sweat taste on his tongue and hers, Jabir finally lapped at her clit at the same time as he pinched her nipples, both touches firm enough to make her writhe (and taking all he had not to let his own legs mirror hers and collapse him).

He'd expected going down on her to feel similar to a blowjob, and in a sense it did, but only in a sense. It was as though only the tip of his penis received attention, but smaller and more focused. Not at all like pleasuring himself, either, since he felt what Kye felt.

"Fuck me, please," Kye moaned.

"Better, but still no."

How could he move on when he felt his tongue on Kye's clit just as intensely as she did? Selfish, perhaps, but he kept going so he could feel it himself. With the doubled senses he felt it as though it were under his balls, as though he was stimulating something of his he could never otherwise reach. Excitingly unfamiliar.

Jabir finally realized that if he felt what Kye felt, the same would apply to her. As he licked her clit slowly, knowing exactly when to stop to keep her from finishing, he let one hand drift down to his erection.

He kept his touch light, stroked his shaft and head gently. Jabir knew what to expect, but Kye kicked and writhed with each stroke, her long black socks rubbing against his ears with a nearly-unpleasant friction. She squeezed her breasts and tweaked her nipples, sending to Jabir a more intense feeling than he could accomplish himself.

He felt s/he was close. Jabir wondered if he could hold out long enough to make Kye come without finishing himself. He clenched up and did his best, but after three seconds, he gave up and pulled back. The combined sensory input of both of their bodies was too much.

S/he was breathing hard. He felt Kye's lips and jaw loosen, but before she could speak, he told her "If you ask me to fuck you again, I won't do it. You're going to wait a minute so we don't black out again and we can enjoy this properly."

She wrapped her socked legs around his thighs, but didn't pull him closer. Jabir waited for the intensity of sensation to calm somewhat, to back down from the edge. After a minute, he reached down to hold Kye's body at the sides. "Turn over."

More obedient than he expected, Kye did. He could feel the little thrills shivering through her back and between her legs as though they were his. Jabir may not have particularly enjoyed being dominant, but he loved sharing Kye's electricity at being dominant through him.

He grabbed her ass and massaged, pressing on and around the muscles, her hips, down her thighs, the creases, teasing just above her asshole and lips. He pressed firm, not allowing her to pivot up to invite him in, nor to turn over and hurry him. He wanted to plunge into her, but he could feel that both of them would finish too soon, so he massaged until he felt they were safe.

Jabir leaned forward, rested his erection between her cheeks, eased it back and forth. Kye tried to clench up and grip him, but he kept her spread, wouldn't let her. He teased down, circled her, stood firm against her lips without sliding in, until he could barely hold her ass down with his body trying to mirror her movements. He could feel himself between his own legs, feel the parting, craving space where he was used to none.

Finally he dove into her, and in a way, into himself.

The feedback was still there, but in the background now, so they could focus on the pure duality of sensation: the feeling of their cock slickly filling, throbbing deep in their vagina. The sensation was unreal, elating, fucking themselves without the familiarity of masturbation.

With each thrust, Jabir felt him plunge into himself, holding on to his own hips, pulling himself deeper into himself. The synchronicity was indescribable. He half-fell forward, leaning on Kye's back, one hand by her neck supporting him. He felt his own pressure, her difficulty breathing, but it only excited her further, and thus him, too.

She grunted into the pillow, and it took a moment for Jabir to realize it wasn't just her, it was both of them, breath-for-breath matching rhythms, moaning and gasping and almost screaming in sync. The sensory connection made it effortless to act as one, to anticipate and respond to each other, to bring each other to the edge.

Jabir felt pressure building inside both of them, deep in their cores, as if in a bent hose backing up, ready to burst. He closed his eyes and focused on both sides of sensation. She was so wet he began to lose the feeling of soft friction, but it no longer mattered. They were holding each other, inside each other, fucking each other, and the pressure built until it was overwhelming, dizzying, gushing out of both of them, bursting and slipping and overflowing until Jabir collapsed onto Kye.

Not quite as overwhelming as the first time, but still, Jabir felt blank, spent, dazed, hardly able to think. He couldn't move if he wanted to, barely supporting himself with his elbows so he didn't squish Kye. He kept his eyes closed and focused on the filling/full between their legs, the unfamiliar slow leak of heat from within him/her. The sweat on their backs was cool from Jabir's end and hot from Kye's, sticking between their bodies.

From below, Kye tapped his hip. He still couldn't tell what she was thinking, but their shared senses told him she was growing uncomfortable with his weight, so he slid over, slipped out of her. She turned to her side and pulled his arms around her, his legs up, so Jabir was fully wrapped around her and s/he could feel what it was like to be both little and big spoon at once.

They held each other until the elixir finally began to fade and found that Jabir was holding Kye.

"I think -" Jabir paused, grimaced at the rawness of his throat. "I think we were loud enough for your plan to work."

Kye nodded, which rubbed her beanie against Jabir's chin. "Someone definitely heard us."

"So how would you grade my elixir?" he asked her, also listening for the faint almost-echo of her auditory disguise. Still there.

"Ten out of ten." She reached around to hold his penis; he twitched, and so did she, but less. "Maybe even eleven. I liked fucking me with my own cock."

Jabir refrained from commenting on how narcissistic that sounded. He waited what he felt was the appropriate amount of time to ask "How are you going to get Fidelis to tell you about her grade and method?"

Kye gave his balls a squeeze, hard enough to make Jabir grimace, not quite painful. "Thinking of another girl after all that? Rude."

He peeled himself away from her back, out of her grip. "I told you I don't like that."

After a moment, a forced "sorry" slipped from her lips.

He considered, then let himself roll back to her. "It was the deal."

"Yeah. Well, I'm just going to ask her."

Jabir sighed through gritted teeth. "Oh. Of course. That makes sense. Why wouldn't you?"

---

"Hey," said Kye. She dropped onto the couch beside Jabir, too close, nearly knocking his book from his hands.

Perhaps he was being paranoid, but a day later, Jabir felt Kye acted a little too familiar with him. He didn't want Fi - Swallow to know he was the one who was so loud with Kye in her room. It had probably worked: he'd noticed Swallow hovering around Kye more often, glowering at her with something on his mind he wasn't quite ready to say yet.

Jabir shook his head and closed his book. "Did you get it?"

"Funny story," Kye said, green lips turned up in a smirk. "It wasn't actually Fidelis who scored higher than you. She got eight out of ten. You beat her."

"What?!" Jabir nearly jumped to his feet. He flung his book aside, leaned against Kye's shoulder, and hissed "Who? How?"

Kye looked around, exaggeratedly, conspiratorially, and leaned to whisper in Jabir's ear. "It was Kranxix."

"The dragonborn? The white dragonborn?"

"Wow, racist."

He grimaced and squeezed his knees with a white-knuckled grip. She was teasing, but Kye was right. White dragonborn had the intellectual reputation of white dragons, but weren't the same thing. Terribly rude of him to think that.

Well, damn. Now he'd have to ask Kranxix how she beat his score.

And he'd definitely think it through a little better this time.