Awkward side-effects, but progress

Green Fury shivered. Emily hesitated for a moment, lingering on the balcony. She almost gratefully took a step forwards, trying to get out from view of the office.

The superheroine’s eyes were wide, urgent, and she shuddered again. Her teeth chattered.

“Are you okay?” Emily said.

“Yes!” Green Fury said, voice high-pitched. Then she swallowed. “Just… just side effects.”

“I heard some of the villains had those,” Emily said sympathetically. “What is it? Er, do you know?”

Green Fury didn’t seem to be carrying herself with her usual confidence. Well, maybe that wasn’t a surprise, but her nudity didn’t seem to be entirely to blame. She was trembling a little, arms carefully positioned, but that wasn’t the same as her shivering.

She opened her mouth to reply, then swallowed.

“If you tell anyone, I can still set things on fire,” Green Fury said.

“What? Of course, I’m just… Do you need something?”

“Er…” Green Fury said. She flushed. “Body heat.”

“What?!”

“I’m going to be cold, unless I get contact with someone to…” she said. She flushed, lifting a free hand and wreathing it in her distinctive green flame. “Damn it. Not enough.”

Emily stammered, staring at the superheroine for a moment. Green Fury just grimaced apologetically in response. Then she shivered.

It wasn’t easy to watch the heroine look so cold like that, especially not someone she was friends with. Though by the sound of it, the solution was, if not something new, something she didn’t really want to be doing on the balcony of her office.

And Green Fury wasn’t asking for her help, evidently content to keep crouched behind the plant.

“Emily!” she said, insistent. “Weren’t you going to check on the clothes that couldn’t be destroyed?”

“Right!” Emily said. She squeaked. “Right, er, but are you sure you’re okay?”

The superheroine flushed.

“It’s nothing you could help with, unless…” Green Fury said.

“Unless?”

“Look, I got zapped by a supervillain that likes seeing naked women and I need body heat, guess,” Green Fury snapped, more out of embarrassment than anger.

Emily blinked. Oh.

She looked nervously over her shoulder again to make sure no one in the office was coming too close to the balcony. She couldn’t just leave a friend out there like that, especially if she could help.

Another quick look back. No one was coming to investigate the balcony yet, it seemed, which meant…

Biting her lip, Emily hurried a little closer to the superheroine. Green Fury moved back for a moment, forgetting to adjust her arm.

“Wait!” she said. “Er, I still destroy any clothes that get close to me, which means…”

“Oh,” Emily said. Now she was the one flushing.

Yet another glance back. She really didn’t want anyone walking out on that. Quickly, she adjusted the bustier, then loosened it, letting it slip down her body, attached to the skirt. She had to step out of the clunky heels to leave it behind.

Embarrassingly, that was about all it took to get her naked. The bracelets and tiara only took a couple of seconds to remove. She looked up, a little self-consciously, to Green Fury.

“So, er, this okay?” Emily said, still awkward.

Green Fury nodded, and made sure to suddenly **** her gaze up higher so she was just looking at Emily’s face. She shivered again.

Emily hurried closer, then knelt, and wrapped her arms around the superheroine. As cold as she apparently felt, Green Fury’s body temperature was understandably rather warm. She did have fire-based powers after all.

Emily tried to just focus on that part of all this. She was just helping, and no one ever had to know.

Besides, she reasoned with herself, Green Fury had saved countless lives, anyone should be honoured to help her deal with the side effects of some super-villains powers. Even if that help meant she could suddenly feel a lot of warm skin pressed against her own.

She tried not to think about how their breasts felt pressed together, or the awkward angle their legs were at, both crouching and needing to part their legs slightly to get close, nor Green Fury’s fingertips digging into her back as she gratefully accepted the offered heat.

She could feel Green Fury starting to relax, too, as whatever was affecting her began to wear off at the contact. Then the superheroine froze.

Emily hesitated. She shifted a little; it was hard to even squirm when she was crouched like that, even harder to do so without causing some friction that just sent heat rushing to her cheeks, her head on Green fury’s shoulder and Green Fury’s on her, green hair in her peripheral vision.

Emily was about to ask what had happened, when she heard someone behind her clear their throat.

Emily yelped, extricating herself hastily, pulling back and turning around, moving until she was beside Green Fury and facing the same way as her, crossing her arms.

“It’s not what it looks like!” Emily squealed.

Ron was standing there. He, at least, seemed to be struggling to find the words.

“So, er…” he began.

Green Fury pulled back a little bit more, snapping her legs shut and crossing her arms tightly.

“She was just helping,” the heroine said, voice firm enough to allow no disagreement.

Emily nodded frantically.

“Right, er, I was just… Teddy wanted to let you know he’d made progress,” Ron said.

“Right!” Emily said. “Okay, I’ll be right there, er…”

She stood up, intent on focusing on professionality, before promptly remembering she’d undressed and squealing, crouching again and hiding behind her arms.

“In a minute!” she said.

The two rather flustered women watched as Ron awkward retreated back into the office. Emily breathed a sigh of relief, crawling over to her discarded outfit. She was more focused on keeping out of view of the glass door than she was hiding from Green Fury.

Breathless, she pulled the costume down over her head, metal-topped bustier and connected skirt, before standing up. The accessories took much less effort. It still wasn’t the most decent thing, but it still felt more comfortable than crouching naked at the office.

She turned back, smiling apologetically at Green Fury.

“Er, I hope that helped,” Emily said. What was the etiquette here?

“It did,” Green Fury said. She straightened a little, sidestepping back behind the potted plant. “I feel… not cold. Almost ready to get back out there, though I’d rather wait until I could wear something.”

Yeah, that she could understand. Emily adjusted her bracelets, still half-disbelieving at the fact she needed to wear something over the top like this if she wanted any hope at staying dressed.

She turned around, tugging the top up a little way as it slipped, and patting the skirt down again, as she took her first step.

“Hey,” Green Fury said.

“Yeah?” Emily said. She turned around, jumping a little to see the heroine suddenly standing closer, emerging from behind the plant.

“Really, thanks,” she said. “This is an awkward time for a lot of us, good to know someone has my back.”

“Any time,” Emily said, rather squeakily. “You’re a hero, who wouldn’t help?”

“You’d be surprised,” Green Fury said. She snorted, and took a step closer.

Emily hurried through the office, preferring to stay out of the more open areas while this season was going on. She was a little out of breath as she finally made it to the lab.

Teddy and Ron were at the desk again, another poncho laid out between them, and a computer displaying some overly complicated diagram next to them. Jackie was nearby, sat by the wall looking bored. They looked up.

“There you are! Finally, what took you so long?” Teddy said.

“Nothing,” Emily said. She coughed.

“Right,” Jackie said. “Your boob’s singed.”

Emily looked down and squealed, the material slightly scorched and peeling away from the metal bar that marked the top of the outfit. She slapped her hand to it, trying to shuffle it up a little higher.

Ron’s eyebrows shot up. Teddy just looked between them, confused, before shrugging.

“Anyway, we made this from the data we collected before,” Teddy said. “Want to get back to work? Should be much better.”