Gijinka Capture

One week later

“Sooo glad we pre-ordered our convention passes,” a heavy-set girl in her twenties said, a pair of plush panda ears bobbing excitedly where they were affixed in her dirty-blonde hair. “That line is just nuts.”

“Oh, yes,” her companion said quietly, blue eyes fluttering behind her glasses. A similar pair of rabbit ears was poking up from her own light blonde hair. “It’s so crowded.. I can’t believe you talked me into this.”

Megan had become Stephanie’s boisterous big sister ever since they met in class, and she was always intent on including the reclusive, introverted Stephanie in on things, trying to get her to open up, and have fun. Convincing the girl to attend AnimeCon with her had been her greatest success so far.

The AnimeCon pavilion was spacious and bright, lit by an enormous array of skylights. The convention proper centered around a large vendors room, with hallways then branching into adjoining conference rooms where panels, workshops, anime screenings, and events were held. Crowds of attendees, intermittently sprinkled with cosplayers, had begun to fill the area with the indecipherable blur of many individual conversations, and directly before them, a staggered and untidy line for the ticket booths stretched, several hundred people long. Excitement tingled in the air.

“Talked you into a costume, you mean?” Megan laughed heartily and cuffed the slimmer girl on the shoulder, actually staggering her for a moment. Sometimes, the overly physical mannerisms of her big friend really bothered Stephanie. “Truuust me, as cosplay go, gijinka costumes are about as tame as they get. You’ ll see, Steph.”

Gijinka was a term associated with the trend of making outfits as a personification of something, such as Japanese battleships illustrated in the form of cute young girls, or the conflicts of nations presented in the allegory of handsome young men squabbling with one another. Today, this pair of girls wore costumes loosely representing monsters from the titular Monster Battlers, a game where trainers battled their pet monsters against one another for glory and prestige.

Megan had rather clumsily sewn a black and white Chinese traditional dress based on Pandape. Megan somewhat resembled the part ape, part panda monster, with her short legs and stocky, round figure. Stephanie’s outfit was patterned on Flamituff, a fast flame-element rabbit. She’d whipped up a pink and red scheme for a sleeveless sundress on her sewing machine, and glued rabbit-like ears onto a hidden headband. Matching pink elbow-length gloves and thigh-high costume boots completed her ensemble.

Shy to a fault, Stephanie fidgeted with her Flamituff dress and did her best to hide in the wide shadow her friend cast. And, as usual, Megan’s toothy grin had an indecent feeling to it. Though Stephanie was a thin college girl with an unremarkable A-cup bust—her hips flared out to a rather generous behind, which was to her shame, quite a bit more than a handful. The ‘freshman fifteen’ was her mother’s favorite phrase for the pounds of derriere that had crept up on her. Determined to shed the weight, Steph had spent the whole summer break bicycling up and down the back roads of her home town.

Her tummy had become trim, and her thighs were taut muscle, but to her dismay and frustration, her backside hadn’t reduced in size much at all. When she had returned to college, she hid her rear by wearing sweaters tied by their sleeves around her waist to class, long shirts, and a low-hanging backpack. She was oblivious to the fact that while her butt was the same size, the flab of last semester had become the tight curvature of a perfectly-shaped ass.

“C’mon, aren’t you excited?” Megan asked, leafing through the AnimeCon schedule.

“Oh, yes. Maybe this is all too much, in fact,” Steph replied with a timid smile, tugging her dress down in the back again and smoothing it against her legs.

“Those guys would probably come up and ask for your picture, if you weren’t pretending to be so shy, you know.”

“Yes. Pretending to be shy,” Stephanie echoed weakly, fidgeted with her outfit in embarrassment. Surely she’d made a mistake measuring the sizes of her dress. The swell of her bottom kept making her hemline ride up dangerously, and she imagined she was attracting stares. As usual, any attention felt humiliating.

“Lesse, here... I really wanna explore the vendors room, but the first voice acting panel starts soon, ughhh,” Megan grumbled, completely engrossed in the convention booklet.

“Which actor is the first panel for?”

“It doesn’t say, that’s how they getcha. They have like, three A-listers, and then a bunch of chumps in their voice acting guests. So, they don’t list who’s gonna be where or when, so that you havta attend them all. Tricky bastards.”

Stephanie nodded silently, only a little interested, and planted herself against a wall, clear of the constant traffic flow of anime fans and cosplayers. There were otaku and geeks of all shapes, sizes, genders, and ethnicities streaming by. Some dressed casually, others wore fedoras and trenchcoats. Several were pudgy-faced manchildren, while some others looked like they’d walked off the stage of a celebrity fashion show. There were small knots of friends who clung together and there were loners, lovers walking in pairs and stalkers trailing behind. Altogether, it was certainly interesting, so far.

Her eyes were drawn to a guy who had paused to fix his costume in the hallway across from them. He wore a tasteful dress uniform from a space fantasy military, one she vaguely recognized from one of those Fantasy Wars titles. The young man’s brown hair was styled in artful disarray, and overall... he was pretty cute. He had his own pre-registration badge dangling from his necklace. No, wait. Two badges dangled from his single cord, along with something smaller, she realized as he lifted them up over his head. Odd.

Tugging the right sleeve of his jacket back, he drew the lanyard around his wrist, doubled it around, and then slipped the badges through the loops and pulled the excess snug. Clever, Stephanie decided, watching the sleeve slide down to conceal the passes. It was a convenient trick cosplayers used to have an easily accessible badge to show the con staff, while not being obtrusive or noticeable for impromptu picture-taking.

She was just letting her attention wander away from him when she noticed it—the small trinket that had been attached with his pair of convention badges fell out of his sleeve and onto the carpeted floor. Not noticing what he’d lost, Brian stepped away and continued onward through the hall, straightening his collar.

“Uhm, hey,” Stephanie called quietly, glancing around to see if anyone else had noticed. The murmur of voices in the convention hall was too loud for him to hear her. She quickly ducked between a pair of passerby and snatched the item off the ground. It was a little carved and wrapped omamori charm, a Japanese amulet for luck or protection. She felt pleased with herself for recognizing what it was.

“Ah! Excuse me,” she said, stepping after him and doing her best to raise her voice.

“You dropped... your—Ahh!” A tiny, unseen bolt of energy arced from the charm into her palm, almost causing her to drop it. She examined it closely as the stinging sensation in her hand began to subside.

What... in the world? For a moment her head spun with dizziness, pink motes of light swimming through her vision. She felt a little giddy... or maybe light-headed? Whoa. I really shouldn’t have skipped breakfast.

“Steph! What’d ya run off for,” Megan huffed. “What’s that?”

“It’s a... he dropped it,” Steph replied, her head clearing. The cute guy was just ahead, he’d been stopped for a photo.

I need to catch up to him, she thought. And then, something’s going to happen? But, what? In the pit of her stomach, she was uneasy at the thought of showing Megan the omamori, almost as if... it wasn’t meant for her. Megan wasn’t shy, she’d return the charm to the boy without a second thought. While Stephanie stood helpless on the sidelines.

She couldn’t let that happen, this was her chance. This amulet sitting in her palm was her ticket to... well, something. Pink powder drifted throughout her thoughts, obscuring what that something might be. Something big.

“Well, ya gonna give it back to him?” Megan asked.

“Uhm, well... yeah,” she answered in a distracted tone, clutching the charm to her chest protectively as she looked at the guy up ahead of them. He struck a dynamic pose for the next photo, drawing a pistol from a holster inside his jacket and leveling it at some unseen target far in the distance in one smooth movement. His steely eyes narrowed, and he clenched his teeth, looking like he’d stepped out of action film.

Totally badass, Stephanie thought, selectively ignoring the fussy young mother ushering a pair of superhero-costumed toddlers around the guy’s pose. Wow. It was mildly warm in the convention center, but she felt a wave of goosebumps travel down her body.

Damn, he looks... delicious. She looked him up and down, and every detail she took in lit a new fire inside of her. What’s gotten into me? His shoulders were broad but not bulky, and though he wasn’t particularly muscled, she could see the tone in his arms. Bright pink traces of light deep inside of her were becoming sparks and a warm feeling spread through her. Already in a daze again, her attention wandered down his...

Stephanie’s face flushed and she studiously turned her head back towards Megan. A tingle trickled down from her chest to her stomach, almost like an electric current... A thrumming, excited energy that made her shift her legs uncomfortably.

“You know how I told you I wasn’t really all that interested in guys?”

“Yeah...?” Megan prompted, raising an eyebrow.

Stephanie squirmed, scuffing her costume boots against the carpet. “It just hit. It just hit all at once,” she breathed, hiding her face.

“Stephanie? You’re droolin’, hun,” her friend laughed.

Surprised and ashamed at herself, Stephanie wiped her chin with the back of her glove. She hadn’t actually been drooling... although her mouth had certainly watered at the sight. Neon pink sparks popped and fizzled in her head. So, that’s what this feels like.

“You gonna return that thing, or what?” Megan asked, staring pointedly.

“Yes, I am,” Stephanie confirmed, still vacantly nodding.

“Right... now...?” Megan wondered, prodding Stephanie’s bare shoulder with her finger.

“Right now.” Stephanie echoed, her feet firmly planted and not budging.

“Right now,” Megan cooed huskily, wrapping the girl in her meaty arms and smothering her in a motherly embrace. “Go on! Go on, you hussy. Give it to him.”

“Not funny!” Stephanie awkwardly squirmed and pawed her way free, blushing brightly in embarrassment and not daring to check and see if the boy had noticed the commotion.

“Ready? Steady... annnnnd go!” Megan shoved, pushing Stephanie forward suddenly. Flabbergasted and off-balance, Stephanie backpedaled and twisted, colliding into Brian spectacularly. For a moment pink bursts swam across her vision, and Stephanie toppled over in surprise, taking him with her to the ground.

“Ahh!” She exclaimed sharply as something pressed up against her privates. She arched her back in surprise, the inside of her head swimming with small gouts of fluttering pink flames. Looking down in growing horror, she realized she was sitting atop him, no, straddling him, right in the middle of the convention hallway. Her creamy thighs enveloped his head and his face was snugly buried into her panties. Oh no. Oh no no no. This isn’t happening.

“Whoaaa damn,” someone said. Everyone nearby had stopped what they were doing to look.

“Stephanie are you okay?” Megan exclaimed, trying to contain her laughter. “I really didn’t mean to, I’m sorry, Steph!“

“Oh, man, hot,” The nearest of a trio of teenage boys was already scrambling for his phone.

Glasses askew and blushing furiously, she planted her hands on the ground above his head and lifted her unexpectedly sensitive bundle of nerves off of his face, not daring to peek at his expression. Her mind was so awash with bright pink flashes of light that she nearly lost hold of the charm.

“Hey hold up, lemme get a shot of this first,” someone behind her said, snapping a shot of her compromising position. Stephanie’s dress had ridden up, and her gray striped panties strained to cover the curves of her plump bottom.

“Niiiice,” a passing girl in a schoolgirl uniform said, her digital camera playing its shutter sound effect repeatedly. “Happens in like, every single anime ever.”

“Classic,” her friend agreed. “Anime cliché number one, haha.”

“I’m—so sorry,” Stephanie stammered, “I’m so sorry, I just—” Completely red-faced in embarrassment, she shakily pushed off her knees and stood, trying to pretend everyone wasn’t staring at her. Her eyes locked on Brian, too terrified to register what was going on outside of the horrifically intimate situation she’d entangled herself in. “Are you... okay?” she squeaked.

Working his jaw tenderly, he looked at her with a bemused smile. “I’m alright, you okay?” His eyes flicked down for a split-second to glance at her panties.

“I’m fine,” she blurted, simultaneously mortified and strangely... flattered with the quick look he had stolen. She struggled to pull her dress back over her exposed thighs as Megan pulled her back out of the way of people passing through.

“Awesome man, wicked.” one of the teens interjected, offering Brian a hand and tugging him to his feet.

“That was staged, right...?” An overweight neckbeard asked dubiously.

“Uh, duh,” one of his peers retorted as traffic began to resume through the hallway.

Brian took a moment to clear his head, standing out of the way across from Megan and Stephanie and straightening his costume.

“Soooo, nice tackle, Flamituff! We’ll make it to the championship yet!” Megan yelled, pointing her rolled-up schedule into the air dramatically.

“It was an accident! You—you pushed me, I only meant to g—” she sputtered in exasperation.

“Okay, well at least he’s cute,” Megan said, giving Steph a playful shove. She wasn’t able to suppress a grin at seeing her friend flustered and blushing. “Next time, you do the pushing, and I’ll climb on top of him.”

Stephanie gaped at her large friend, trying not to imagine the result.

“C’mon, don’t look at me like that. Pssh, fine. Go give him back his whatever it was he dropped, so we can get going to the panel.”

Oh no. Oh no no no I can’t face him after that.

“I can’t. I really can’t, not now,” Stephanie said, hanging her head. “I’m too shy for this.”

Megan frowned, putting her hands on her hips. “I thought you really meant it when you said you’re interested in this guy? Were you being serious?”

“Yes? I think so,” Stephanie gulped. “I think I am.”

“Then, forget the panel. There’s like, another three voice acting panels later anyways. Go talk to this guy. Chat him up about anime, eat lunch with him, rub your ladybits on his face again, whatever. You’re adorable, he’s cute, life’s short, and you only live once. You gotta buck up and be my brave little shounen hero, this is the summertime of your youth!” Megan recited, racking her brain for more advice clichés but coming up dry. She loved pretending to be wise.

“Aren’t I more of a tragic shoujo heroine?” Stephanie asked with a grim smile.

“No way, that’s me. Hence my starry eyes and impossibly slender legs,” Megan said sarcastically, flicking her hands out dramatically enough to shake her panda ears. “Now, get moving before I throw you into him again.”

“I-I am kind of hungry. You want to just go get some lunch?” Stephanie found herself saying.

“Okay, then! But ask him, not me. I’m on my way to a panel.” Megan said, speaking loudly and winking. “Remember—summertime of your youth.”

“In Japan, I’d already be considered an old lady,” Stephanie said numbly.

“Better hurry then, go and eat him up,” Megan said lecherously as she walked away. “I’ll meet up with you in the vendors room after this voice acting panel’s over, mm-kay? For all the delicious details.”

I’m not ready for this, Stephanie thought as she watched her friend disappear into the throng of convention attendees filling the halls. I’ll never be ready for this. But, she composed herself as best she could and crossed the hall to him, fighting down her fear and embarrassment. Megan was right. She was in college now, it was ridiculous for her to still be afraid of talking to boys. Nearly jostled by people passing by because of how crowded it was getting, she ended up stopping rather closer to this boy than she’d planned on daring—well within arms reach of him.

He looked up at her.

And Stephanie’s mind went blank, proper line of thought swept away like driftwood in the surf and spray of a surging wave of attraction. His mottled green eyes seemed to smolder, and she felt a lifetime of her hasty preconceptions about the silliness of sappy romances melt away beneath the heat of his gaze. There was a deep, haunting beauty in his eyes, a hidden pain etched within that captivated her completely. Oh whoa. Oh no.

Distracting pink bursts of sparks seemed to be colliding in her head and traveling down her body in jittery, electrifying currents and pulses, and it felt like parts of her body she’d never known about were warming up and turning on in response.

“Hi,” she squeaked, terror and excitement grappling her senses. “You dropped you, uh, your omamori fell, and...” She held the charm out to him.

“My what...?” He yanked back his sleeve where his badges still dangled from the lanyard around his wrist, and was surprised to see that it was indeed missing.

“Thanks, coulda lost it for good.” He rewarded her with an endearing smile that sent a tingle of pink energy twitching down into her abdomen, and as she passed it to him, her hand lingered a moment longer than necessary.

She wanted him. Wanted to know him, possess him, to run her fingers through the downy softness of his hair, to hold him in her arms, and be embraced in turn by him. She’d always been socially self-conscious and tried not to stare at people before, but with lips parted wordlessly, she was only thinking that she could examine and adore him forever. The strong line of his chin, the lines of his neck, the breadth of his shoulders...

“Uhm, we got off on the wrong feet. Wrong foot, we got off on the wrong foot, so maybe we could... start over? Fresh start? I’m Stephanie.”

“Brian,” he offered, smiling. “Would you want to have lunch? The convention center has a little café down the hall. Little less crowded than the concessions stands in the main lobby...”

Did he read my mind?! Stephanie thought, eyes wide. She didn’t realize that Megan had been speaking loudly enough for everyone in the vicinity to hear, earlier. “That’d be great! I actually didn’t have breakfast, so I’m pretty famished,” she said with a nervous laugh.

“Uhm...!” she managed as a tall nerd in a camouflage jacket backed into her side as he vied for a better angle of a nearby ninja cosplayer with his phone. Stephanie rebounded off of him, and into the back of an enormous hairy girl who had a fox-tail accessory dangling from the back of her spats.

“Here,” Brian said, taking Stephanie’s hand and tugging her along as the hirsute girl wearing the fox-tail turned around. Stephanie was brimming with excitement, in more ways than one. Flickers and flashes of pink light became spurts of pink flame in her head and she realized in alarm that she was... wet.

For Stephanie, it was a new feeling. Sexuality had always frightened her. To her, fornicating was something that would probably feel uncomfortable, and most likely hurt. She’d thought getting wet would feel gross, make her want to excuse herself to wipe clean. Now, in the moment, nothing could be further from the truth.

Her sex was filled with liquid heat, and the sensual feeling of her lips sliding against one another with each step made her hips sway a little bit more. She wanted to touch herself. No wait, I want him to touch me. Without discretion, her eyes roamed freely across his butt as he walked. He was taller than her, and with his longer stride and slower steps his pace seemed more casual, like a saunter. Stephanie’s mouth was still watering, and she swallowed consciously, an erratic surge of pink energy thrumming up and down Stephanie’s core.

Okay, calm way down, Steph, she imagined Megan’s voice. Being excited like this for the first time ever is okay. But, don’t go acting like a pervert.

A group of sixteen-year-old girls dressed as a gang of anime-style juvenile delinquents was loitering in front of the café, squatting and pretending to smoke the sticks of pocki that dangled from their lips. For a moment she could hear their hushed whispers, but as they approached the entrance, the wannabe gang composed their young faces into exaggerated scowls and struck intimidating poses. Stephanie covered her mouth to hide her shy smile as they passed the spectacle.

Although the convention hall itself was getting pretty packed, she was surprised to see the attached café was mostly unoccupied. Or rather, she was surprised until she saw the prices on the menu-board, which made her pale. Did they put those decimals in the right place? The small café was fashionably appointed in dark wood paneling and the dimmer lighting lent it a cozier atmosphere, with several rows of secluded booths along the back wall in addition to a scattering of tables throughout.

Noticing her expression, Brian quirked an eyebrow. “On me?” he offered.

“Oh no, I can pay for my own. But thank you,” she blurted, horrified at the thought of him spending sixteen dollars on her lunch. In fact, the thought of buying herself one was still daunting. Maybe just a salad. They ordered their overpriced meals and slipped into a booth across from one another, beginning their to eat in a somewhat tense silence.

“Okay,” Brian said after a deep breath. “I wanted to talk to you, because I’m, well, curious. About you. You picking up my charm was just a coincidence, right?”

“I saw you drop it when you were putting your necklace on your wrist,” she said timidly, “And, you were walking away...”

“And you landing on me like that—that was an accident?”

“I’m really very sorry about that,” She said with a quiet nod, her cheeks burning.

“No, don’t be. And, if you’re having lunch with me out of some sense of guilt or obligation... then don’t worry about it, you don’t have to eat with me. To be honest, I’m not sorry about it,” he said finally. “It hurt, yeah. My head hit the ground pretty hard and everything, but it was... fun. Interesting. It’ll be a funny story, an anime cliche brought to life. The real reason I’m here at AnimeCon anyways is...”

“Is what?” she asked carefully, eyes wide.

“That’s... complicated,” he said slowly. “I thought I was going to come here and feel sorry for myself, dwell on some bad things that happened recently. But, a close friend of mine wanted me to come here to have fun, forget, move on from all of that. Thanks to you, I feel like I’m not letting my friend down now. So, thank you.”

“You’re welcome, then,” She smiled brightly at him.

She found herself intensely curious about him. Her whole body was filling up with frantic pink butterflies, anxious, interested, compelling feelings. As if there were a million things she wanted to ask him, but searching her mind for the words to pose to him, she couldn’t think of a single thing to say. Each passing second as she sat across from him, delicately eating her salad, felt like another wasted opportunity. It was vexing her terribly. Say something, say something!

“Ah! You know, I picked it up, but didn’t even look that closely at it. may I see your omamori?” she asked.

“My—what?” He asked, giving her a quizzical look.

“Your charm,” she said, pointing towards his sleeve.

He pushed back the sleeve of his costume and his AnimeCon badges and the charm clinked against the table, still affixed to his wrist.

“It’s neat,” she said, trying not to run out of conversation. “That isn’t the kanji for “luck,” but... I can’t tell what it says. Did you get it in the vendor’s room?”

“No, a friend gave it to me. It says...” He nearly blurted out “harem,” but immediately thought better of it.

“It says something dumb,” he admitted, flashing her a charming grin.

Stephanie giggled, looking at him curiously but not pressing for a better answer. His grin was uncomfortably disarming, and the pink flickering flames and fluttering butterflies were going to overflow soon. She carefully set down her fork and took a deep breath.

“There’s something I wanted to say. About when I fell for you. I mean! On you. When I fell on you,” she hastily corrected herself.

“I, uh... well, I was so embarrassed I thought I would die. I’ve never been that embarrassed in my whole life.” She said bluntly. “But, at the same time...” She squeezed her hands into her lap, staring down at the remains of her salad.

“But, at the same time...?” He prompted, looking puzzled.

“At the same time. It kind of,” her eyes darted to him, biting her lip, and she fidgeted in her seat. “What I mean to say is, uhm. I’m glad that I fell on you?”

“Oh,” He said, surprised. “Can I ask why?”

“It was exciting,” she admitted, looking away. She could feel the blood rushing to her face again. “I don’t do things like that. I mean, things like that don’t happen to me. It was exciting. In... you know, that way.” She found that an idiotic smile had become plastered across her face and she didn’t dare look back at him.

“I thought so, too,” he said, chuckled softly. “But, that kind of goes without saying.”

“...It does?”

“Yeah.”

“Uhm, ...why?” Her cute expression was almost painfully innocent.

He considered how best to respond for several long moments. “I could tell you how attractive I find you. How hot it was to suddenly have you trying to sit on my face in the middle of the convention floor, and how much I want to further... excite you.”

“R-really?!” Her whole body was lighting up, and she was intimately conscious of how wet she was and how close they were, just a small tabletop between them.

“But,” he said, sounding tired now, “Even if you felt the same way right now, that wouldn’t make it a good idea to tell you those things. We just met earlier today, I just got out of a long relationship... You seem like a nice girl, and I don’t want to make anything awkward.”

“Wait, wait,” She stammered. Her mind was a whirling pink kaleidoscope of spinning color. “Aren’t you already basically telling me all that? I don’t, uhm, I don’t mind hearing, I mean, it doesn’t bother me. You can say whatever you want.” Stop babbling!

“Well, okay then. I’d better get this off my chest now,” he said, taking a sip from his drink.

“To be honest, I never trained Flamituffs,” he continued, glancing at the rabbit-like ears perched atop her head. “The extra attacks they get make it seem like a great monster to pick, but their attacks don’t have any... you know, any oomph.”

Her cautious smile waxed into a brilliant one again at the sudden detour he’d steered the topic onto, equal parts disappointed and relieved. Simply talking to a boy she was crushing on was unexpectedly thrilling, but she’d better not get in over her head. Maybe he liked her, and that was really great. But if he also shared her interest in Monster Battlers, well, that was fine, too. For now.

“Hey, now,” she said in spite of herself. “When you train their speed the whole way up, they—uhm, they make so many attacks in one turn that it adds up to the same damage a Terrander could do, in a one-hit turn.”

“Yeah, guess you could. If you totally maxxed out its speed. But, say you’re up against defensive types, like Turtusk. Instead of Turtusk’s damage reduction saving against whatever fixed damage of one attack, it saves against that damage on every separate attack that turn. So, your damage just isn’t going to add up in those cases.”

“That’s, well. Yeah, that’s true,” she conceded. “But, since Flamituffs are so fast already, when you train them for speed, their chance to dodge attacks rises really high, too.” Her eyes were sparkling now. “So instead of focusing on attack and defense like most monsters, she’ll just attack more often and get hit less often,” she proclaimed proudly. “My Flamituff, against a Turtusk, would still be an even fight, since Turtusks don’t have really high accuracy.”

He gave her a warm, thoughtful smile, and parts of her quivered. Had she really been geeking out in front of this cute guy? She should feel embarrassed, but instead he was into it, so it was kinda nice. She’d never really shared her interests with the opposite sex. It felt rather... engaging.

“Kinda seems you’d have a flame element monster, that acts like an air element monster. Just, with the different set of weaknesses. I like it, it’d throw off most monster battlers.”

“That’s what I can’t get Megan to understand! She tries to fight my Flamituff like you’d fight a Fierhog,” she exclaimed, feeling more at ease. “What monster do you fight with?”

He finished his drink, tugging his sleeve back down over his wrist and giving her a cryptic smile. “You’d have to try me to find out.”

“I can take you on,” she said. “I mean, I’ve already, kinda, knocked you down once already, so...” Her butt wriggled in her seat. Inwardly she was delighted with herself. Am I... flirting with him?

“Yeah, that was... more effective than I thought it would be,” Brian admitted, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. He let his gaze travel down her pink lips to the smooth white lines of her neck. “But, can you really still be confident, when you don’t know what I might have up my sleeve?”

“Convention passes and a weird charm,” she answered smartly, pleased with herself, and leaned forward with growing confidence. “I’m ready for anything you can throw at me.”

Now that was a challenge if he’d ever heard one.

Before she could register what was happening, he leaned in and his lips were upon hers. A moist and sensual kiss swirled through the flotsam of arousal raging within her, and Stephanie grabbed his shoulders in surprise. The pink, fluid heat inside her boiled, bright sparks burst and streamers of light hissed and whizzed across her mind. Without thinking, she was kissing him back, licking his lips, tentatively slipping her tongue into his mouth, the sweet taste of—

They broke apart reluctantly, and a spasm rippled through Stephanie’s body. The forgotten café around them seemed to swim back into existence.

“That was, that, uuh,” Stephanie began, her unfocused, half-lidded eyes fluttering as she gasped for air.

“Stephanie... your hair,” he interrupted.

“My—what?” she asked in breathless confusion. “What about my hair?” A single streak of daring pink highlights had inexplicably appeared in her fluffy blond tresses.