The Show

This was definitely a new feeling for Velvet. Well, actually, it was a cascade of new feelings and experiences that Velvet was pretty sure would have long since entirely overwhelmed her, were it not for John’s… presence? She still couldn’t work out exactly what it was about him that relaxed her so much. He just had some kind of special ability in how he spoke, or moved, or what he did, or his intuition or- Yeah, she still had no idea.

Regardless, it was definitely a new feeling, to feel so very seen, and so desired. She loved Asta, and the enchantress was closer to her than anyone else, but she’d never had the kind of instant raw attraction she felt with John. The only other person who’d ever seen even a flash of her ankles was Eion and… no. That might, uh, interest other people, but any kind of sexual thought including her surrogate father was vaguely vomitous to her. She quickly shunted that out of her mind before it could ruin the mood.

She still couldn’t believe how confident and bold she’d been today. Something about knowing he could see the alabaster skin she kept so carefully hidden… after the nerve that Asta had struck with her little slutty display- that was mean, wasn’t it? Ugh. The way she’d been all over John just really made her upset. It wasn’t like she could argue it, they weren’t an item or anything, but it was so much worse when she could actually see their lust rising. And the worst part of it all was how unreasonably hot it had made her, thinking of what that would feel like.

In the midst of her internal fire-stoking, she’d completely missed him setting the outfits up. She had no idea what she was going to wear. Well, that wasn’t quite true. She could discern something with a knitted material, but nothing about colours or designs or anything like that.

…

Oh Gaia, that… that was… she could feel herself getting wet at the thought of John dressing her up like a porcelain doll to use. She shuddered slightly at that thought, breaking out of the haze a bit. That was perhaps a bit far for her usual fantasies, where had it come from? John’s presence was so powerful on her, it seemed. Still, being dressed by him purely so he could admire her? That was… damn it all, it was fucking arousing!

“U-uhm, Velvet, I-I think I need to put this one back. It’s a bit t-too inappropriate. I wouldn’t want to forc-”

“N-no!” Velvet bit her lip as she **** a gasp at her behaviour down. “I-I-I mean… It’s alright, just, um, just give it to me and…” She took the bundled fabric from him and muttered too quietly for him to hear properly, barely keeping another aroused shudder from running through her, “...please keep looking at me like that.”

God- Gaia, even. He didn’t know what caused her to make that expression, but John would give anything to be able to see it again. Eyes fluttering, pearly teeth flashing as she bit her lip slightly, an undeniably lewd heat in her cheeks. It was everything he could have ever hoped for. And then to have her snatch…that outfit from him to put on? If he’d not already had it confirmed, like five minutes ago, then this would have caused him to believe in an ultimate deity. He was just glad it wasn’t a fat sky daddy.

I can be your busty sky mommy instead, don’t worry.

…Putting aside the discomforting existential realisation that the Earth Mother just encouraged whatever roleplay he accidentally prompted there, John realised that Velvet had paused.

“Uhm… John, would you mind, uh, facing t-the other way? I want you to l-look, but… I’m not ready for that much yet.” She was still blushing up a storm, and was clearly worried.

“Oh!” God, he hadn’t even thought of that. She was so confident so far that he’d forgotten this was as much her first time doing something so sexual as it was his. “Of course! I-” John cut himself off and spun around with a strangled gasp as she turned her back to him, the image of her bra clasp coming undone refusing to leave his mind.

It was only at that point that he realised two things. First, there were full length mirrors scattered around the store, which was confusing in and of itself, considering this was a lingerie store. Did people casually try these things on in public or something? The second thing was that Velvet didn’t know there were mirrors, obviously, because she was blind, which meant that she didn’t know he could see her bending slightly to tug down the edges of her panties over her sexy wide hips-

John squeezed his eyelids shut as tightly as possible, savouring the image burnt into the inside of them. He’d seen that much now, so he’d enjoy it, but… John would die before betraying her trust by peeking after she’d specifically asked him not to, and trusted he’d do as she asked, despite having no way to know. Wait, did she have a way to know? She was blind, yeah, but she could clearly see in some capacity, or she wouldn’t have been able to fight, or take the outfit from him. Hell, she wouldn’t have been able to walk through the store, right?

“V-V-Velvet?” John stammered over his shoulder, eyes still clenched shut. “Uh, I wanted to ask something.”

“Goodness, this is so soft…” He barely heard her speaking under her breath, and almost wished he hadn’t. She raised her voice slightly, “W-what is it, John?”

“I, uh, I wanted to ask, uhm… Sorry, there’s no polite way to say this. A-are you not fully blind?” He cringed slightly at the bluntness of the question, entirely dissatisfied with his ability to frame what he was asking in a better fashion. Maybe more Charisma points would help with that?

“Ah, yes.” She sighed slightly, but… it didn’t seem unhappy? At least, John didn’t think so. “I was wondering when you’d ask.”

John almost turned to face her before catching himself. “Y-you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, Velvet. I, uh, I don’t mind.”

“No, no.” Her voice lightened slightly. “Though, heh, it’s sweet of you. No, I definitely understand why you’d be curious about my, uh, my sight. I am actually blind, I don’t see anything like you do using mundane eyes. Aside from the aura sight that I mentioned, which allows me to sense vague approximations of where people are, as well as creatures, I guess? If it can feel or think, and has some token of magic to it, then it tends to have an aura I can feel. But, whilst that’s a sense I’ve spent a long time honing, it’s still a remarkably vague one. It’s like…” She paused for a moment.

“...Like hearing a dish break?” John ventured an analogy.

She snapped her fingers, and John couldn’t stop his eyes darting to the mirror again in reflex, catching a glimpse of round buttock before he caught himself. “Yes! It’s like you’re in a different room, and someone just broke a glass. You can tell it’s happened, and you know the general area that it’s happened in, but you’ve got no way of knowing exactly what it looks like. That’s what I get through my aura sight. It’s a magi-visual impression of the emotional ‘sound’ around me.” John’s brain felt like it was running with half the usual processing power down, dedicated to saving all the mental nude pictures. “But… I’m guessing you were asking how I can get around, or fight?”

“Y-yeah? Like, you took that ma- uhm, uh, that outfit from me somehow, right?” John asked

“Well, I still can’t see, but… I can see magic? A-as in, literally see it. It’s not a perfect analogy, but the best thing I can compare it to is thread work? I can see the pure threads of magic, and how they’re woven,” Velvet continued.

“...Holy shit, that’s so cool,” John let slip his thoughts.

Velvet giggled. “I’m glad you think so. But, yeah, that’s why! This whole barrier is ever so lightly infused with raw mana, shaping the walls and everything. It’s not much, but it’s enough for me not to walk headfirst into a wall.”

John realised something. “Oh! So, that’s why Asta asked for your help? You can actually see what she’s doing to know if it’s going to work exactly?”

“Hmph.” He couldn’t see it, but he was pretty sure the blind brunette was pouting. “Yeah, that’s right. But nevermind her, what’s important is… y-you can turn around now, John.”

It was a strange feeling, to simultaneously feel anxious and aroused at the thought of what he would see. The outfit she’d snatched was one that he admitted he’d only picked up because he wanted to see it on her. The fact that it was also one of the more covering and functional outfits was just a bonus, more realistically an excuse. But…

He turned to look at her, opening his eyes properly and subsequently dropping his jaw. ‘Holy mother of maids!’ For the first time in the past few days, his lizard brain and human brain were unified in their thoughts, both cheering wildly at the display in front of him.

The first thing he noticed, aside from how adorable her fiercely blushing face was, was her tits. She was wearing some kind of corset that didn’t cover them, which gave them a push-up effect that strained against the valiant effort of the buttons on the white top portion of the outfit. For the first time, he was seeing her in clothes that didn’t conceal her chest, and it was, simply put, magnificent.

A translucent mesh covered her cleavage, whilst lacy and frilled fabric trailed down her arms, topped off with a cute white ribbon tied in a bow on either wrist. Around her neck was a choker that was barely toeing the line between choker and collar, even featuring a small loop at the front. The corset hugged her waist tightly, really highlighting the hourglass figure she’d hidden from him so far.

As her hips flared out, the corset ended, and that flare was extended and accentuated by a miniskirt that only just succeeded in being sufficient length to actually cover her crotch. Then, an expanse of pale thigh flesh, broken only by a black strap on either leg that stretched from beneath the miniskirt to the top of her tights. John was pretty sure that meant she was wearing a garter belt, and the simple knowledge of lingerie had never made him so excited.

Then there was the point that the milky skin ended and sheer black nylon began. At least, he thought it was nylon? It was magical, so it could really be anything. But the important thing was that, at that point where the two met, there was another legendary facet of anime, hentai, and simply good taste. A phenomenon that perpetually gripped men, women, and any other creature with an appreciation for the female form, in a state of endless admiration. The thigh squish. That small section of her thigh, where the pressure of the band that held her tights in place met her soft and giving flesh, creating a small piece of Gaia-given perfection.

After that, the tights continued all the way down, highlighting her calves on the way, and ending in… she was missing shoes. That was oddly adorable, considering the almost provocative nature of the rest of the outfit. It felt almost like a little reminder that, even if she dressed like this and showed off her bombshell body, or fought like a badass warrior girl, she was still the cute Velvet that he’d gotten to know so far.

“W-well…” Velvet spoke, her voice lower than usual, almost husky, “what do you think?” She struck a small pose, crossing one leg in front of the other and placing a hand on the opposite hip. It showed him a sliver of her ass, making everything pop in just the right way, and she seemed to take to it as naturally as a duck to water.

“Hububah? Ahem! I, uhm,” John rubbed the back of his neck as she giggled slightly, his eyes drawn to the way her chest bounced like a moth to a flame, “...I can’t believe you’d wear that… for me. I love y- how you look! In that outfit, I mean. Uhm, I really like your ti- taste! In clothes! Even though I chose the outfit, and oh god, I’m babbling now.”

The way her chest bounced as she laughed at his incompetence made the embarrassment worth it. It was straight up mesmerising in that outfit. He could die happy now. “The shirt is really soft, actually. I wish I could keep it.”

“Why can’t you?” John asked, confused as to why she wouldn’t, and unreasonably hopeful that she would, for the sake of his future fantasies.

“Oh! Of course, you wouldn’t know.” She lightly smacked her forehead in a distinctly un-ladylike fashion. Somehow, she still looked graceful and cute doing it, a phenomenon that continued to confuse John to no end. “All the things in Illusion Barriers, like this one? They’re not ‘real’. Like, we can hold them, touch them, etc, but as soon as we leave the barrier, or close it, those things vanish.”

“Huh…” John took a moment to file that information away, the analytical side of his mind running in the background even during as momentous an occasion as his first time seeing Velvet almost nude. Then he had a thought, “Wait, what about, uh, pocket spaces? Or whatever they’re called? Like Asta had in her hat? I assume that’s what my inventory is, right?”

John reached down and shuffled the bra of the next outfit into his inventory as Velvet spoke, “Same thing. Disappears as if it didn’t exist.”

“Uh… No?” John said, now confused. “I just picked one of the bras here up and stored it.”

“You what?!?” Velvet exclaimed, moving closer to him. Really close. Close enough that he could actually see the cleavage that was almost hidden by the mesh. “Show me!”

He took it out of his inventory again. Oh god, she was pressing her boobs against his arm now. He really hoped that the bulge in his pants looked less obvious than it felt. “Is- Is this a bad thing, or something?”

“It’s remarkable!” Her breath wooshed across his skin as she quietly exclaimed, giving him goosebumps all over, and doing nothing to calm the erection he’d been ignoring the past ten minutes. “I can see it! This-”

“Wait, you what?!” John half-shouted, then regretted it as she leant away from him in shock. She didn’t fully move from touching him though. When had she gotten close enough to wrap her hands around his arm? “Sorry… What do you mean you can see it?”

She frowned at him. “Were you not listening? I can see things that have enough magic in them. The more magic, the more details I can ‘see’. Stuff like your axe is enough to make out the shape, and the etchings on it glow like crazy. The walls of this place have a smidge of pure mana through everything. Yo-”

She stopped suddenly, the frown forgotten and a wide-eyed look of… panicked embarrassment? John would recognise that feeling anywhere, he’d been bullied enough to be familiar. “What? What about me? Is my magic weird? Should I worry? What can I do about it?”

“Ugh, stop!” She took a deep breath. “I… I can see you properly. Uhm, almost in full detail.” She tilted her head slightly. “It’s actually kind of weird. The only things I’ve ever been able to ‘see’ so clearly are summoned creatures. You know, familiars and elementals, those sorts of things. Creatures that are actually fully created from magic. It’s like what Asta was saying about your mana channels, right? How they’re really tightly woven together. I can see those running through you, and it’s- you’re like a bonfire next to candles and torches. Which makes it even weirder that you’ve got so few skills…”

Once again, John put that away to digest properly later. One thing did stand out to him, though, on account of the particular situation they were in, and the Gaia-damned fetish maid outfit Velvet was wearing. If she could see him properly, and she knew those mana-whatevers were running through his entire body… “... How much can you actually see? O-of me, I mean?”

“...Uhm! Not, uh, not much, you know? Just, you know, normal stuff. Normal sight stuff. Yeah.” …Okay, so she could absolutely see his dick. Oh jeez. “D-d-didn’t you have another outfit for me? I, ah, I like this one, but it’s not, um, particularly, uh, appropriate for combatoranything!” And he apparently wasn’t going to get anything else from that conversation right now.

“Uh… sure.” He turned and picked up the other parts of the outfit and handed them to her with the bra already in his hand.

Oh Gaia’s sake, Velvet! Why not just tell him you can almost see his dick? It… it wasn’t like she could tell any details, but…Gaia, she could tell it was big, and he was hard, and it was because of her, and she was so wet thinking about it that-

She huffed sharply to herself as he turned and she began undoing the various straps and laces that held the maid outfit together. She still couldn’t believe that she’d worn that at all, nevermind in front of John! It was so unlike her, but… he just really brought out the naughty side in her whenever he looked at her with that bright pink lustful aura.

Everyone assumed that love would be pink, but that was lust. A neon, pulsing pink that stretched out greedily over the other emotions and feelings more often than not. She’d heard the phrase ‘overwhelmed by desire’ more than once before, and wondered if an aura reader had come up with it in the past. Despite that, though, it wasn’t just the lustful pink that made her so smitten with John.

She was honest enough with herself to admit that she’d fallen for him, hard. But, when a boy literally risks life and limb to protect your purity, it’s hard not to feel something. And when you can see his emotions most of the time… well, it’s pretty hard to lie to an aura reader. You’ve got to be pretty powerful to be able to block your mind from sharing that ambient information. And John, whilst he clearly had the potential to be something truly remarkable, was not there yet by any stretch.

Not once had she seen anything from him that suggested malicious intent. Even the aforementioned overpowering lust didn’t worry her. It was actually very strange. He was very strange. The amount of arousal in his aura was stronger than a fair few of the grown men and women she’d been around at the Peacekeeper HQ, but where it would overwhelm their rationality and reason, almost showing through the walls of bedrooms and bathrooms they ‘hid’ in whilst they… entertained themselves? Velvet felt a blush rising in her cheeks and chest at the thought, and cleared her throat quietly.

Where they would sneak off to do that stuff because they couldn’t contain themselves, John was different and strange. He had so much arousal floating around him so often, and it was almost always directed straight at her which made her feel all hot and bothered. Yet, at no point did it discomfort her. At any given moment, there was a thick barrier of something holding it in. The only thing she could compare it to was what her father’s aura looked like when he was restraining his emotions. But, instead of just a colourless barrier, like that, it would shift colours. She’d seen it in other colours, but the two most prominent ones were a brilliant gold that seemed to shine into her mind, and a black so thick that it almost frightened her. It was the deepest darkness she’d ever seen, but the most confusing part of it was that she’d never once seen gold in someone’s aura. Yellow, yeah. But that kind of pure gold? Not once.

She finished settling the gauzy robe around her shoulders, marvelling slightly at how whisper-soft it was on her sensitive skin when she realised that she’d changed in absolute silence, and basically ignored John the whole time, despite doing nothing but thinking about him.