Blade Over Magic

Sleepover

"... Hmph." Patrick just scoffed and walked away, but he didn’t get far when Xander called out.

"Thanks, by the way. I can tell you worked hard on this." Patrick paused for a few seconds, then he kept on walking.

Xander then turned to Xavier.

"Are all your legitimate children emotionally constipated?" The Archmage shrugged.

"Perchance."

"You can’t just say—" Xander forced himself to take a breath.

"Phew. Alright, we have a day to rest." He muttered, then he looked at the others, and they all looked at each other.

The air suddenly turned awkward.

"Huh... Does that mean we can sleep? Like... actually sleep?" Curtis scratched his ear.

"Yup, no more accelerating your rest, so you can actually enjoy your sleep." Hearing this, Curtis nodded, then walked away.

"Well, I know what I’m gonna do." Seeing him leave, Xander rubbed his chin.

"Proper sleep actually sounds great right now." He mumbled. They all thought Keir was being dramatic, but after having to endure having their ’sleep’ accelerated for half a year... yeah a proper rest sounded wonderful.

By the side, Keir basically passed out as soon as he learned that he could sleep freely.

"Sleep it is." Aubrey shrugged, and Falael nodded.

Xavier stared at them.

"... You know back in my day, sleep was seen as a luxury—" As soon as he started talking, the three of them literally bolted.

If there was another thing they had learned these past 6 months, it was that if Xavier started anything with ’back in my day’, he was going to monologue for a very long time.

"Tch, that’s no fun." He sighed and looked at Mia whose mind seemed to be in another place entirely, then he shook his head and vanished, going off to finish his own preparations.

***

After changing into sleep clothes and laying on his bed, Xander partially unsheathed Abscinde, looking at the blade for a few seconds before sighing, sheathing it, and placing it beside his bed.

There was a lot going through his mind, but he temporarily chose not to think about anything as he closed his eyes. But seconds after he did...

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Three knocks made Xander open his eyes, and he rolled out of the bed and went to the door.

"Yes?" He called out before he opened it, fully prepared to hear the voice of Theresa or any one of his half-siblings.

"It’s us." Thankfully, Falael’s voice was what came through, and Xander opened the door, only for him to freeze.

Similar to Xander, both of them were wearing sleepwear. Only that it sort of showed... a bit.

Both of them wore loose-fitting chemises which left their arms bare and stopped just above their knees, showing off their slender legs, and there was an obvious dip in the chest area, meaning both their cleavages were definitely visible.

"... Uh." Xander said intelligently, his face reddening slightly.

And somehow, the two girls took that as an invitation inside.

Falael pushed passed him, looked around, and sighed.

"Of course your room has only the default decorations it came with." She shook her head in disappointment.

"I mean, considering how we’ve barely even had a chance to use these rooms, decorating them is a bit pointless, no?" Aubrey hummed, her ginger hair accentuating her glasses-less face as she moved to sit on Xander’s bed, her thighs crossing.

"Well, yeah, but Xander actually lived here before coming to Avoma. Seriously, its so plain." Falael scoffed and folded her arms under her chest, causing her cleavage to become just that much more pronounced.

Xander looked at all of this before averting his gaze to force a cough, his face growing warm.

"So... why are you guys here?" He asked, halting their conversation.

Falael gave him an annoyed look.

"To sleep of course." At that, Xander showed a look of genuine confusion.

"Why? What’s wrong with your rooms?"

"..."

Once again, Xander reminded both of them that he was denser than a brick.

Before Falael could say something not-so-friendly, Aubrey spoke.

"Well, Xander, even though we are now in a relationship, in reality, most of our time was spent training. So other than the occasional kiss or embrace—both of which you asked for our permission every single time—we haven’t actually done much in the scope of intimacy or affection." Xander blinked slowly, nodded, frowned then had a look of realization, then frowned again.

"Just to be clear, when you say ’intimacy’ you don’t mean..." The girls blinked, then their faces reddened.

"Get your mind out of the gutter dammit!" Falael grabbed a hand mirror of the table and made made a threatening motion, while Aubrey cleared her throat.

"Not ’that’, just... something where we can be close to you." Aubrey twirled her fingers. "We actually want to spend prolonged time with you that isn’t sparring or some form of training. Just... us." Xander opened his mouth, and Falael cut him off.

"Standing next to each other when your father is lecturing us does not count."

Xander promptly closed his mouth, considered things for a moment, then asked.

"Okay... I get all of that, but then..." He looked at them again. While it wasn’t the first thing he noted about women, Aubrey and Falael were undeniably beautiful, and their bodies were a sight to behold. The physical training they had undergone only went to bring out these features more. Be it their curves or muscles. Xander was definitely affected. Hence.

"Did you guys... really have to dress so... revealingly?" He sounded both embarrassed and genuinely curious.

"It was her idea." Aubrey did not hesitate to throw Falael under the bus, making the half-elf stare at her with wide eyes.

"You...!" She gritted her teeth, sighed, and looked back at Xander. She half covered her red face with one hand and pretty much mumbled out.

"... Since I had no gender for most of my life, I’m still getting used to being a girl, even months later. One thing that always piqued my curiosity... was how some women spoke about how they liked it when guys looked at them. Especially their partners. I... wanted to see if I could make you look at me like that... and whether I’d like it." She glared at Aubrey who was snickering. "But I felt weird doing it alone... so I asked if she could dress like this with me, and she agreed." Hearing this, Xander had a look of enlightenment on his face, then he asked.

"... Did you look it?" Falael reddened further and she averted her gaze.

"... Yeah." There was a moment of silence, then Xander nodded to himself.

"In that case..." Without any warning, he took off his shirt, much to the surprise of both girls.

"H-Hey..."

"What are... you?" Both of them trailed off as Xander’s toned upper body was on display for both to see.

His skin was pulled tightly over every muscle, and while he wasn’t bulky, Xander was undeniably well-built. He looked like his body had been carved by a master sculptor. It made sense, considering just how much physical refinement he went through regularly.

"Honestly, now that you mentioned it, I’ve always heard similar things about how some guys like it when women check out their bodies. But it’s never something I thought I’d pay much heed to. But at the prospect of it being you guys..." He rubbed his head with a sheepish smile.

"I’d... like to see if I’d like it too." Aubrey and Falael went agape, and they looked at each other before looking back at Xander, their gazes turning heated.

They were so screwed.

Seeing their heated stares, Xander swallowed thickly and made his way to his bed.

"B-Be that as it may, we have a rare chance to sleep properly so... let’s do that." He lay down in the center of the bed. He didn’t worry about space as the bed was quite large, and Xander was pretty short already, so there was more than enough space for three people to stay at once.

The two girls once again shared a look, then they gingerly crawled into the bed with him. Falael by his right and Aubrey by his left.

There was a moment of awkwardness as the girls initially maintained a space of a few inches from Xander’s body, and Xander stared up at the ceiling for a few seconds before deciding to drop his inhibitions for a bit for once.

His arms moved, and the girls gasped as his arms wrapped around their waist before pulling them closer until their bodies were flush against his.

"... Is this fine?" Xander asked when he felt them stiffen, thinking he’d crossed some boundary as his grip started to loosen.

"N-No!"

"It’s fine!" Both of them said quickly before Xander could release them, and their bodies slowly relaxed in his embrace. All three of them were still very much red, but the tension started to ease, replaced by something approaching comfortable.

"... Huh, you really arm very warm... no wonder Mia and Keir liked sleeping on you." Aubrey mumbled, her hand coming to rest on his chest.

"I guess... I could get used to this." Falael exhaled softly and closed her eyes, her head tucking into the space under his chin.

"Yeah. This is... nicer than I imagined." Xander hummed.

They all fell silent after that, and slowly, gradually, their breathing evened out.