5.07 – Plant Magic I

After a long debate, Natalie settled on what to say. "I don't know what you're talking about." Like usual, with Camille, it seemed the safest option.

Camille narrowed her eyes. "You don't know what I'm talking about," she repeated flatly. "Really. When you were the one to suggest it."

"I definitely didn't." Camille had invented that whole misunderstanding herself. Natalie had certainly never told the woman to go use her plant magic to fuck herself.

That whole idea was still flustering Natalie. Had she, actually?

Again, Camille scrutinized her. Coming to some conclusion, she crossed her arms, seeming displeased.

"Okay, that's it. I'm tired of this."

"This?" Natalie repeated dumbly.

"You're, like, a womanizer to everyone else on campus, but I've been throwing myself at you for two weeks, and I just get ignored. Do you know what that does to a girl's self-esteem?"

Natalie paused. Despite the words, she doubted Camille was facing any insecurities over her deflections—how she had been shying away from her constant teasing. Camille knew why Natalie was playing it carefully. Or did she? That was the whole problem. Camille was the only one of them to know for sure.

"What?" Natalie repeated.

At the continued deflection, Camille growled. She took a step forward and jabbed a finger into her chest. "Okay, fine. I'll say it. I saw you in the bathroom, jerking off to an illusion of Tess, that third-year magic tutor of yours."

Natalie's stomach sank. She frantically looked around, but thankfully, nobody was paying attention to her and Camille. She grabbed the girl by the arm and pulled her away to a more private part of the courtyard. As they walked, Natalie hissed, "Keep it down, won't you? Seriously? And, so, that was you?"

"Oh, come on. I made it extremely obvious. You can't be that dense."

She wasn't being dense; she was just playing it carefully. But, yeah, whatever—Natalie hadn't ever been that convinced otherwise. Especially with how often Camille had been teasing her about it.

"Okay, so, why are you spying on people in the restroom?" Natalie accused. "What's up with that?"

Camille paused, then grimaced. She pushed an errant strand of her hair out of her face, looking regretful. "Yeah. Uh, sorry about that. That was kind of fucked up. I mean, you did run in there all red-faced and flustered, and then I came in and heard you grunting and making a bunch of ridiculous noises—and saw another pair of feet in the stall, which didn't make sense, since you went in alone. So I was curious, but—" she shook her head. "But yeah, not cool, either way. That said, you're the one making illusions of your magic tutor and masturbating to them. I'm assuming you didn't get her permission for that. That's pretty messed up in its own right."

Which was a fair point; maybe they were both perverts. Natalie could concede that. Though Camille's invasion had definitely been worse. Tess had just been an illusion. Masturbation with extra steps. Though probably still a bit of a violation, considering how realistic it had been.

Either way, relief was oddly starting to wash through Natalie. Embarrassing as this was, she was glad she knew for certain. Seeing how Camille had kept that event on the down-low—or at least, never said so outright—it relieved Natalie that it hadn't been some other spy who had seen that horrifying lapse of judgment. Natalie didn't think Camille was going to go around and tell anyone, by this point. So she was safe. Sort of.

"So, what do you want?" Natalie asked.

Camille paused, then stared at her, her expression shifting slowly from her previous regretfulness, into incredulity, then nearly to anger. Natalie took an instinctive step back.

"What do I want? What do I want?" Camille growled, stalking forward—making Natalie retreat several more steps. She poked Natalie's chest, harder than the first time. "I've made that exceedingly clear, haven't I? What I want is to get my hands on that stupid fat cock of yours. What part of me flirting constantly left that up in the air?"

Uh.

Yeah, fair enough.

Camille took a breath in, visibly reining herself in. "And, admittedly, I also want to see what your illusions can do," she said. "It's super interesting from an academic standpoint. So, we can practice together. I'm sure you want to find out what my vines can do, too."

She … did?

"Why would you think that?"

"Because you're a huge pervert," Camille answered. "And you blush every time I bring it up. You're not hard to read." She leaned forward, getting her face close to Natalie's. "They're really a lot of fun. Like I said—you're full of great ideas. So, what do you say?"

Natalie might have been obstinately refusing to engage with Camille out of a sense of mortification, but with the air cleared, her reservations were obviously vanishing. She looked around the courtyard. There was one problem—class was still in session. And not academics, but sparring. Not the most ideal time for this to be happening.

"Won't Instructor Robin will notice?"

"Maybe," Camille said. "But, what, we're not allowed a restroom break?" Her lips curled up. "Even if it's longer than usual. Besides, we will still be practicing. Just, through unconventional methods."

Natalie snorted. She looked around one more time, and her eyes, by coincidence, met Jordan's. The woman raised an eyebrow at her, and oddly, Natalie blushed. Jordan clearly didn't care about her misadventures, but being caught—not that Jordan should even suspect anything yet, but it seemed like she did—was still embarrassing, for some reason. Jordan rolled her eyes, then gave a sarcastic thumbs up.

Natalie grabbed Camille's wrist and started to walk. "Sounds like a plan to me."

A short trip later, they wandered through the sprawling training complex and arrived at a less-frequented part of the facility. Privacy was obviously preferable, considering what they had planned. Inside, Natalie cleared the various stalls, verifying they were alone, then used her uniform jacket to firmly tie the two door handles closed, so that no one could interrupt them—or at least barge in. She rested her hammer in front of the door, too, just to be safe.

Camille looked at the set-up, then quirked an eyebrow, as if asking, 'so, why didn't you do that the first time?'

"I learned my lesson, okay?" Natalie said dryly.

Camille laughed, then hopped onto the sink and started to kick her feet back and forth. The excitement in her eyes was clear as day. Natalie's own heart was starting to gallop. Not just because it was Camille—but because it sounded like she had some unconventional plans for how she wanted to have fun.

Plant magic? And apparently, she wanted Natalie to show off some of her illusions. Seeing how both [Illusion] and [Empower] had gotten upgrades since her last experiments, the magical constructs ought to be even more realistic than before. And while using [Empower] would waste some carnal energy, if she did choose to use it, she might be able to create some pretty spectacular effects. A truly life-like experience, possibly.

How much so? She guessed she'd be finding out with Camille.

"So," Camille said casually, her feet still kicking back and forth as she looked at Natalie with a grin. "We've got like, forty-five minutes before Instructor Robin starts to get suspicious. What can we get away with, do you think?"

With forty-five minutes?

Probably a lot.