Liana feels a little more confident, Kelli comes home late.

As her alarm blared to life, Liana barely stopped herself from throwing it. The rending noise of the most annoying music she could find rang out, using the one emotion that could overpower all the rest to get her moving: frustration.

"Buncha artless bullshit..." she mumbled to herself as she moved through her morning routine robotically.

Grabbing whatever clothes were the easiest, Liana shambled to the bathroom. With a motion smoothed over years of habit, she closed the door and slapped her phone onto the one empty spot in the whole room. The rest was covered in an overgrowth of care products, machines, and small decorations to make an otherwise cold room feel lively. Liana managed through bleary eyes to get her morning playlist going, a soft voice taking her through mindfulness exercises and the affirmations that Kelli **** her to repeat. After applying an overgenerous amount of toothpaste, she stuck the brush in her mouth and began to mumble out whatever she was asked to repeat like a faithless prayer as she went. Her free hand grabbed a misting bottle, carefully applying the right amount of water to their secret third roommate: Little Bit the Fern.

After a gargle and spit, Liana turned to the bright green plant with a kind expression. "Hey Lil' Bit. Looking healthy today, huh?"

The plant, of course, didn't respond. Liana was still glad for it's company, however.

"Ugh," she grunted, "must've slept in my hoodie last night. I'm all gross and sweaty." With a slight squelch, her jacket and shirt landed on the tile. Her jeans joined them a moment later, leaving Liana in her practical and comfy underwear. Awakened by the slight effort to remove her wet clothes, she caught something off in the corner of her eye.

"Huh?"

Catching herself in the mirror, for a moment she wasn't sure what it was... but something was tickling the back of her mind. Her eyes were their usual dark pits, no eye bags or the like. She didn't see any acne, or weird lines on her face from cloth, or anything of the sort. It was only when she looked up at her hair that she did a double take.

"Wasn't it... longer?" This was the first difference her mind supplied. In her post-sleep drowsiness, she could've sworn she had shoulder-length straight hair. Now her dark hair was a little shorter, around mid-neck length, and it seemed distinctly more spiky than she remembered it. It had a light fluffiness to it, though her eyes could see the imperfections where bedhead had messed with the controlled chaos. A shaky hand pressed into one of the locks, and it felt silky soft and pleasant to the touch rather than the oily mess that she was accustomed to before her shower. Something else was off, but this time it was the sink. Or, more accurately, the container of contacts that laid on it. She knew it wasn't Kelli's, and she felt some vague sense of ownership over them. That didn't make sense though- Liana has always had above average vision.

Before she could sink more into her thoughts, the bathroom door opened. Her head darted towards the door as her, shock locking her in place as Kelli walked into the cramped room.

"Oh!" Kelli let out in mild surprise, eyes instinctively darting up and down Liana's body before locking on her friend's own with a blush. Liana felt her own flush of embarrassment, mortified to be so undressed near her friend. Yet, both were locked by the sheer awkwardness of the situation, unable to make any move to end the stalemate.

Liana noted that Kelli was wearing the same clothes she left in, a loose fitting blouse that left her bra strap visible, a necklace that took advantage of a slightly darling neckline, and a pair of black yoga pants that hugged her curves. It wasn't the first time the sight of Kelli caused a bitter stab of jealousy and the self-loathing that followed that, but Liana was becoming an expert in bottling that resentment in herself before it could hurt anyone else. This time, though, there was a faint glimmer of... something else. Something that drew her eyes to her friend's hands-

Liana shook her head and slapped her cheeks.

"Sorry for being weird, Kelli- I'm still getting up. Do you have to go, or can I take a shower first?"

That seemed to break Kelli out of her trance, her eyes finally freeing themselves as a blush overtook her face.

"Er, yeah. That's... yeah. Good. I- I am go." Kelli stuttered. Liana frowned at her friends odd behavior, watching her quickly spin around to march to their room.

She felt instinct take over, and before she knew why she placed a hand on her best friend's shoulder.

"Kelli? Are you okay?" Liana asked, patently ignoring the burning embarrassment of talking to her friend in her plain white bra and panties. It shouldn't be too weird, since they're both girls, but Liana never had the best body image. Still, figuring out what if anything is going on with Kelli is more important.

"Oh, I'm fine Li..." Kelli managed to spit out quickly.

A creased brow marred Liana's face as she boldly turned the other woman around. She took her friend's hands into her own, admiring their softness and... her mind couldn't help but think of them as graceful, too. Ignoring that, she used them to pull her friend in a little closer, and locked her sharp gaze into Kelli's own.

"Come on, Kelli. I've known you for three years now. I can tell when you're being weird- and you've never been like this around me before. This is hardly the first time this has happened, but it's the first time you've been this flustered about it. What happened?"

Kelli blushed a bit more before letting out a breath Liana didn't know she was holding.

"Okay, you got me. You know how I went to go have a girls night at Shivani and Mary Anne's place?" At Liana's nod, Kelli continued, "Well, it was a lot of fun. We all got kinda tipsy, watched trash T.V, and generally did Girl Stuff™ for a while. It got later and later, and you were totally wiped from that awesome day you had yesterday, so when Shivani offered to turn girl's night into a sleepover I said yes."

Liana giggled at her friend, "You were too lazy to walk back to our room, weren't you?"

Kelli smirked at her friend and huffed, "You're mean to me!"

Liana smiled right back, "You know I'm right."

"Anyways-" Kelli continued, ignoring the accusations hurled by her bestie, "it was all really normal until after the lights went out. I managed to get the couch, Mary Anne and Shivani shared a bed so Sarah didn't have to share a bed. I went out like a light but, well, you know me. I'm a light sleeper." Kelli finally broke eye contact, darting down and to the side, fingers drumming against her hip, "So... well, when I heard muffled moans I woke up pretty much instantly."

"No! There's no way someone did that while the rest of you were in the room."

"You're half right... It wasn't someone, it was Mary Anne. I was pretty weirded out when I heard her moans, then downright shocked when I looked over and saw a shape bobbing right where her pussy would be. Can you guess who it might've been?"

Dark eyes widen, "No way. It couldn't be Shivani- I thought she was straight?"

Kelli gave her friend a weird look, "What're you talking about, it's not exactly a state secret that she plays for both teams. I'm more shocked that the two of them fucked while me and Sarah were still in the room. That's a pretty big party foul."

That ticklish sensation in the back of Liana's mind came back, but she ignored it. Instead, she squeezed her friends delicate hands in her own. She felt a reassured squeeze back.

"That really sucks, Kel. I guess that's why you got weird when you saw me in my undies, yeah?"

She nodded, "Yeah. It weirdly reminded me of it, that's all. Sorry if I made you feel like a freak or something."

Liana shook her head swiftly, "No no! I was just worried about you. Should we go report them to someone?"

Kelli rejected the idea before Liana had even finished, "Nah, it's... well, it's not fine. But, I want to talk to them about it before we get anyone official involved. Still... thanks for looking out for me, Liana."

Liana relaxed, nodding back. "I don't mind. You've been really nice to me. Why shouldn't I return the favor?"

"You got me there..."

The two stood in comfortable silence for a while. Smiling, looking into each other's eyes, squeezing the others' hands. A pleasant sort of tension began to build up between them, though neither of them could put a finger onto what it was.

Eventually, the moment had to end.

"Am I ever going to get custody of my hands back, Li?"

"Oh! I'm uh, sorry." Liana stuttered.

"It's fine, you're trying to be a good friend. I get it."

The awkward girl knew she should just leave it there as she let go of her friend. However, as Kelli turned to leave, Liana couldn't help but leave a parting word.

"I uh... like what you've done with your hands, by the way."

A cocked eyebrow met Liana, Kelli's hands firmly on her hips. Black nails capped off digits that were slimmer than they were the day before.

"Oh? Well... I don't think I've done anything different."

Liana dug into her brain, trying to understand why she said that. What did Kelli do different?

"Oh, uh... I just like that you didn't have any nail polish on. Black nails like that are kinda rare, and you take good care of them. I'm just glad that you're showing them off."

Kelli's smug expression softened at that. "... thanks, Li. They were overdue a buffing anyways, so I just... took care of them..."

Another awkward slience fell over the two. After an eternity, Kelli spoke up once more.

"Since we are just randomly passing out compliments, I've always loved your eyes. Some lucky person is going to fall into those, if they're not careful."

Liana blushed, tucking a bit of hair behind her ear.

"Thanks, Kelli."

"Anyways," she turned around for the third and final time, "I am going to leave this bathroom before the day gets any weirder."

"'Kay. Take care!"

Liana let out a crestfallen breath. Once again, she had snatched social defeat from the jaws of victory. Disastrous social situations aside, she still had to get clean- day off or no.

That feeling in the back of her consciousness remained as she finished her morning shower. It wasn't a bad feeling, per say. Just a sort of odd awareness of things, the tone of which Liana couldn't quite place. It buzzed louder as she dried herself in front of the mirror, pulling her eyes to a blank spot on the sink. It felt like something that was just there went missing. Yet, she couldn't place what could possibly be gone.

Her eyes darted around, trying to solve the mystery. She finally settled on a tube of matte black lipstick. Maybe that's what she was missing? She picked it up and with a surprisingly practiced motion she painted her lips. It was one of those stainless brands, so it shouldn't get in the way of her eating or anything. She looked at herself, a small black smile and that short and spiky hair... it did feel really right.

It didn't satisfy the buzzing awareness in her, though. It didn't seem panicked, or anxiety inducing, or the like. It a voiceless sensation, trying to get her to pay attention to something... either worrying or exciting? She couldn't tell, irrational mind things rarely explained themselves well. Liana decided her best bet was just to ignore it for the day.

Clothed, bathed, and ready to take on another day of soul-crushingly boring homework. Liana could've left her room, and maybe she would've notice the change more profoundly if she had... but she was a homebody by nature. Instead, she wished Kelli well as she went off to her afternoon classes and tackled her homework.

When she went to bed that night, she made sure to not repeat her mistake from last night. Instead, clad in just panties and an oversized t-shirt, she dreamed of flying in the sky with a chromatic being. The dreams were hazy, but she smiled the whole night through.