Chapter Text
“Wait.. love potions are real?!” Graves said with shock. Her face contorted by confusion. Her face tucked into her chemistry textbook.
Apollo and her had been tucked into the back corner of the Blackmore chemistry lab. Working on their chemistry final, they had to make some sort of potion and show it off in class in a few days.
“Well.. there’s a lot of variations, but yes.” Apollo hummed, thinking to himself as he sat across from his lab partner. His tail swishing back and forth idly.
“There’s variants that are closer to a truth serum than a real love potion.. and some that are less so love potions than just inhibition removers.” He thought aloud. Graves grew a smirk and sat down the textbook.
“We’re gonna make one.” She says as she gives the now blushing Apollo an evil grin. He stutters.
“W-What?! You must be joking. There’s no way we’re gonna be able to do that without one of us embarrassing ourselves. Unless you’re fine with revealing your true love.” He sputtered out. Tail jagged.
“Though I doubt you love anyone with that stone cold heart of yours.” He mumbles as he rest his head on the lab table. She kicked him in the shin and he yelped and jumped out of his chair.
“Of course I love someone, I am still a person after all.. stupid golden boy.” She flushed a bit and looked away from him. He didn’t see her faint blush.
“Fine then. If you’re so adamant about it, we’ll make a love potion!” She slammed his hands on the table. She jolted a bit from the sudden seriousness. Though she could see the maroon color on his cheeks and his tail wagging as he stared her down.
~
“Are you sure we’re supposed to add that?” Apollo looked over her shoulder as she dropped a small sliver of bat wing into the concoction. They had been working on it for 10 minutes and graves had already decided to mess with the recipe.
The potion began to rumble and glow a bit before it settled. Giving off a faint mixture of red and purple smoke billowing from the top of the beaker. Graves gave a satisfied hum as she presented the potion to him.
“You sure this isn’t poison? I know how much you detest me but I’m not always a prick.. right?” He looked at it nervously. She giggled evily.
“Well.. I suppose that’s true.. but I don’t wanna test it! It’s just one of the ones that make you more honest about your feelings dude. It’ll be chill.. you’re not in the same room as your true love anyway so it’ll be fine!” She comforted with her face still in an evil smirk. The glint in her eye made him even more nervous. Though not because of the possibility of poison.
“I don’t know if that’s true..” He replies, she wasn’t sure which part he was talking about but she just shoved the potion into his hands.
He took a small sip and for a second all seemed fine. Then he began to choke and cough. Then a burst of pink smoke engulfed them both.
To graves, Apollo hadn’t changed in personality or look so she was thinking it was a dud. Then she felt a painful sensation on her head and rear.
Her nails sharpened slightly, the painful sensation grew sharper as small horns sprouted from her head. Her skin grew paler to an almost bone white-grey, her pupils grew to slits, and that sensation above her butt ended with a tail sprouting out and flopping down around her.
She looked at herself, frozen with shock. She looked up at Apollo who was also frozen but with his jaw on the floor. A not so small blush on his entire body made him look dark red in color as his eyes bored into her.
“D-Darcy..?” His voice cracked as he asked weakly. He looked her up and down. She blushed and wanted to smack him in the face for looking at her like that. She didn’t actually move but then suddenly her tail lashed out and slapped him in the gut since that’s as high as it could reach. He jolted but regained most of his senses.
“My gods.. you.. you’re an Ixian! Wait.. wasn’t this supposed to be a honesty potion?! I’m the one who drank it!?” Then they both paled and look down at the book.
“Your meddling.. I think it..” He trailed off as they flipped through a few pages and finally came across the last ‘love’ potion in the textbook.
Graves had accidentally made a potion that changes the form of your true love into the same as their true love’s form.
It was, in a roundabout way, almost a confession from them both. Especially since Graves knew no other Ixians.
~
“What’re we gonna do?! I can’t stay like this forever! I’m.. I’m not supposed to be this way!” She was having a panic attack. Her new biology was hard for her to get used to. Suddenly being so warm, having to consciously learn to control her tail, and her newly enhanced vision giving her a headache were only a few of the many new issues.
Apollo put his hands on her shoulders. When she stopped breathing heavily he cupped her face gently and looked into her eyes. She was tearing up and they both had a blush on their faces.
“You’ll be fine. I promise Darcy, we’ll get through this. Plus.. it’s not all bad.. now we.. now we can..” He didn’t have the courage to tell her that they could be together now. She already knew his dad didn’t want him to be around human girls. He had planned to set him up with an Ixian noblewoman once he graduated.
They felt their tails tangle together and wriggle as Apollo leaned in close to her face. Her shining emerald eyes looked like a galaxy after her transformation. He got lost in them as they kissed for the first time. She wasn’t yet used to her new fangs so she accidentally bit his lip making him bleed a little.
“Apollo- I’m so sorry! Are you okay?!” She said as she noticed the blood trickling down his face. He didn’t seem to notice as he was just staring at her and zoning out. His peaceful expression was something she had never seen on him before.
Usually it was a look of ego or like he had the weight of a world on his back. She had never seen him relax this much. He licked the wound on his lip clean and smiled at her.
“Darcy Graves.” He held her hands in his and she looked up from his lips with wide eyes.
“Y-Yes..?” She felt her tail want to wag but it still had been tangled with his. He pulled her close to him by holding her waist.
“Since there’s no going back..” He leaned in again and caressed her lower back. She stood on her toes to get closer. Their faces inches away once more.
“I love you-“ She said at the same time as him. Their eyes closed as they went in for another kiss. This time with more fever and energy behind it.
Right that moment their professor walked in to see them tangled on the floor kissing. He just turned and walked away refusing to acknowledge the situation due to the amount he was being paid.