She'd be more comfortable if Lydins didn't appear to be a man

"I feel as if I'd be less antsy if you weren't dressed as a man, Lydins. Do you know how I and the other women feel when a sneering, swarthy man of mystery asks to paint us in various states of undress?" Palas imagined the answer was "aroused," but she felt like teasing her friend anyway.

"S-Swarthy?" The woman looked genuinely affected, before correcting her face to a neutral smile. "I liked to imagine they felt flattered. Is that not the case?"

"Perhaps, but they also feel very antsy. If I'm moving around this much during the portrait, I can only imagine how those poor girls are feeling. Right now, I feel like a piece of meat being sized up by the butcher. Ironically, I'm the only subject you likely didn't treat as a meal, but it still feels that way."

The vampire crossed her arms and tilted her head thoughtfully, causing her curling black hair to sway at her shoulders. "Ah, they say the most worthwhile art is the also the most challenging. What would you have me do, Palas?"

"Strip."

"... Excuse me?"

"You should be nude as well. The most worthwhile art is the most challenging, like you said. So why shouldn't you also be naked? In that state, I couldn't mistake you for a man, certainly..."

"... You might be surprised." The other girl muttered that under her breath, before beginning to unbutton her shirt. "You're the one challenging me, Palas. You can't stand to feel like the submissive one, can you? I hear even during your sex show, you were squeezing that poor man's balls the whole time, ha ha..."

"I think it's you who can't stand to be stripped of the dominating position. Let me help you out, friend."

The vampire's eyes widened as several portals opened around her body, through which emerged copies of Palas' hands, grabbing at Lydin's clothes and removing them with rough jerks. "Wait, Palas! Those are very expensive!" Being a dandy, Lydins probably had a point, but Palas couldn't resist. Soon enough, the dark-skinned vampire was reduced to wearing nothing but a set of white, silken underwear, circled with strings of black, onyx adornments and laced with black ribbons up the front of the breast. Her body was indeed quite slender... even for a girl, she was pretty thin. That, combined with her tallness and lack of breast meat, made her seem a bit lanky. She stood in her own garden, her white undergarments standing out in the darkness almost as much as the other woman's ivory flesh. Her smile twitched slightly as she held her thin hands, still adorned with golden rings, to her chest. "Surely...?"

"Surely not. Let's keep nothing from one another, Lydins."

The portal-bound hands reached out again to nip away the few remaining garments, pantsing the vampire suddenly and then pulling free the laces of her bra as she knelt to catch them. Now the vampire was really stark naked... It seemed she was fully shaven. It also seemed as if she'd stuffed her bra a bit in preparation for the night's festivities with Palas... Without them, she was as flat as a board. Still, she did look a bit more womanly like this... if not nearly as noble. "Palas... What have I done to deserve this teasing?" Lydins questioned, pressing one hand to her face in an over-dramatic look of forlorn despair, while really trying to hide the new red color in her cheeks. "What shall my neighbors think, if they see me prancing naked in the garden at night?" The protrusion of her dark nipples showed clearly that she was aroused by the situation, if not strictly for exhibitionist reasons like her friend was. Or maybe she was just cold. They were both outside at night without any clothing on.

"Perhaps they'll think you a perverse vampire? And I should say they'd be quite correct in that assumption."

"You wound me, Palas. Just because I am standing naked outdoors, painting my naked friend, you think I am some pervert? If that is what you think, then I will simply have to provide a piece of art so awe-inspiring you will be **** to acknowledge my romance and sophistication." The vampire finally managed to get her charismatic smile back, as she took her seat again, crossed her legs, and spread her arms. "Game on, Palas. You are still the subject and I the painter. Let us try it again."

Palas thought she'd feel more at ease with Lydins no longer appearing masculine... but instead, her heart beat faster, observing the vampire's nakedness. Their slender bodies were similar heights, similar everywhere but the bust and hips... with one perfectly white and the other so dark they faded into the night, they looked almost like two puzzle pieces designed to fit onto one another. She felt restless... As though she didn't want to pose for a picture to distract Lydins for an hour. It felt like she wanted to distract Lydins some other way...

Still, she tried. Dammit, she tried! But no matter how she adjusted her reclining position, she simply felt too antsy. "It's still no good, Lydins," she sighed.

"No, no... My dear, it is very good! You will be the highlight of my collection if you can only relax. I can hardly paint a moving target..."

"I feel restless, though."

"Perhaps we can make another adjustment. Let me ask you, Palas: when I mentioned the nude portrait, what did you imagine? Did you imagine yourself in a graceful recline? Or...?"

Palas closed her eyes and tried to hide her tortured expression. The truth was... She had been imagining the painting just a bit different. A classy, refined portrait by Lydins De Geomorte, depicting a nude woman reclined on a garden's bench, as pure and white as her own flesh, would evoke to the mind some graceful, mythological goddess. While the thought of all of those eyes on her was exciting...

That wasn't exactly what Palas wanted to show to all of them, was it?