1.21 – Uniform

Uniform fitting went smoother than Natalie had feared they would, to her relief. A young woman went about taking Natalie’s measurements, and while some of the adjustments involved tugging and inspecting that invaded her personal space, Natalie never needed to be overly paranoid about her secret revealing itself. She was given a room to change, when necessary.

Tenet’s colors—and the uniform’s—were blue and gold. Uniforms were expected to be worn throughout the academic day, from eight in the morning to five in the evening, but beyond those hours, students were permitted to wear what they wanted.

The fabrics themselves were quality, a consistent theme when it came to Tenet and its supplies, buildings, and materials. The clothing was breathable, designed for comfort and flexibility. They were, after all, intended to be used during combat training as well as the rest of their daily schedule.

Equipment, like armor and other gear—specifically, the magical sort collected from the dungeon, or made by artificers, that enhanced stats—were supposed to be worn on delves only, not on campus. Tenet discouraged relying on equipment, at least during training, which was another fortunate aspect to student life that evened the playing field, same as the token system.

Because obviously Natalie had no powerful heirlooms to inherit, as some students here would. However disadvantaged Natalie, Sofia, and Jordan were when it came to connections, they at least wouldn’t lag in the more mundane ways. The playing grounds were even in many regards … though admittedly not all.

Weapons, on the other hand, were allowed—the exception to the equipment policy, because of how critical they were to general combat styles. However, following the theme of Tenet wanting students to prove themselves, only weapons collected from the dungeon, or purchased through the token system, could be used.

Natalie was sure some people cheated to get around that rule; obviously, it could be hard or impossible to prove a student hadn’t received a particular item from a dungeon run. So in some regards, the well-connected and wealthy could find ways to excel using their money. But Natalie knew faculty were watching for that, and perhaps had ways of sussing out those sorts of infractions. In the end, it didn’t matter. It was what it was.

The Tenet uniform was layered: the first was the combat uniform, a tighter-fitting, more utilitarian layer, and the stuffier, showier jacket, and glossy black shoes, were required to be worn while attending classes—the regular academic sort—as well as when out and about during school hours. Even the more complex outer layer wasn’t horrible, though. A comfortable uniform all around, if a bit flashier than Natalie liked.

But she’d admit she looked impressive in them, from the glances she’d stolen in mirrors at the uniform-fitting building. Well-made uniforms tended to have that effect, and Natalie’d never much cared for fashion, so it was even more noticeable in her case. She looked sharp. Professional.

Natalie chose the skirt bottoms rather than the pants. The roomier, pleated article of clothing would make her secret easier to hide … though Sofia was sure to give her odd looks, because Natalie otherwise would have chosen the pants, and Sofia knew it—Natalie wasn’t a skirt girl. Just, the pants were too tight fitting. Natalie hadn’t had a choice.

The day wrapped up quickly; it was a shorter schedule than most would be. Around 3:30, Natalie’s uniform fitting completed, and, with nothing else planned for the day, she was free to roam campus. Tomorrow would be the first real day of classes, starting at a strict 8:00 a.m.

Finally released, Natalie dropped off her uniforms, hanging them in her locker, then sought out Jordan.

Jordan’s barracks—barracks two—was identical to Natalie’s. Students were trickling back, bit by bit, having finished their fittings and likewise lugging back their sets of uniforms on thick coat hangers. Jordan had, in a similar manner to she and Sofia, gotten a bed in one of the worse positions in the hall: directly in the middle. That probably grated at Jordan more than it had Natalie. She would have preferred to tuck herself in the corner, where she could have some minor form of privacy.

Natalie plopped down on Jordan’s bed. Jordan was sitting cross-legged, reading. She’d been waiting for Natalie to arrive; if Natalie had finished first, she’d have waited at her barracks for Jordan. They’d agreed on that during lunch.

“So,” Natalie said. “Where do you wanna go?”

Jordan ignored her for a few moments, finishing the last paragraph or two of whatever she’d been reading. Finally, she placed a bookmark between the pages and looked up.

“Somewhere private,” she said. “I’m not sure. Where do you think?”

‘Somewhere private’. Because they had … business to handle.

They’d discovered the cooldown to Natalie’s strangest skill. Or, her second strangest skill, since ‘heavy weaponry’ took the title of most bizarre. But her other, ‘harvest’, which gave her a secondary advancement resource for performing certain less-than-appropriate acts on other girls was a close second.

The cooldown was around a day, in truth a bit shorter, to allow for flexibility. Twenty-one hours, maybe. She and Jordan had been making good use of it. Natalie needed the energy. And it was time for their next session—it couldn’t stop now that they’d arrived at Tenet. But it had become trickier to arrange the event, lacking privacy.

Natalie had been trying not to think about how much she looked forward … and was scared of … each of their kissing sessions. They didn’t mean anything—beyond Jordan demonstrating how good of a friend she was—but they were severely compromising, regardless that they shouldn’t be. But Natalie didn’t have much choice; she needed to energy to advance her skills. Having received a terribly unfitting class—at least in some aspects—Natalie needed to make good use of everything she had at her disposal.

So, frequent meet-ups with Jordan. And they couldn’t half-ass it, either. The skill gave different amounts of energy based on the passion behind the kisses. So they had to put effort in … had to really go at it. Couldn’t keep things chaste and quick, which would’ve been way too easy. No, Natalie needed give her best friend a good tongue fucking, assuming she wanted to make maximal use of the skill.

Totally not something devastating to Natalie’s resolve.

Her fallback was simple: not thinking too hard about what the kisses did to her. Denial was an age-old tried and true tactic, and it was working great for Natalie.

“I guess … the bathrooms?” Natalie wasn’t sure where else they could take care of things, where they wouldn’t be caught. They had no room, obviously, and maybe they could tuck themselves in the corner of a library, or secluded in the park, but those weren’t guaranteed to be private. Anyone could wander by.

“The bathroom. Romantic,” Jordan said, rolling her eyes. But she didn’t fault the reasoning. She set her book aside and stood. “Well, let’s go, then.”

Natalie’s heart hammered as she followed behind, even though, again, it shouldn’t have.

Just friends, she firmly reminded herself.