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KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
The sound of a knuckle rapping against the wooden door resonated throughout the laboratory.
“You up, lazy bones?” Alchemic Magician called out, eagerly awaiting any kind of answer from her friend.
Slacker Magician let out an exhausted, exasperated groan. She lay strewn across her couch, her limbs pointing every which way like a discarded doll. She lifted up her arm dangling off the side of the couch & weakly performed a gesture. Sparks & flashes of purple energy appeared around her hand, as identical ones appeared around her laboratory door as it pulled itself open.
“Whaddaya need, Al? Make it quick” the blue-haired girl mumbled, refusing to get up off the couch in order to greet her friend.
“I just wanted to check up on you” Alchemic Magician replied as she walked into the laboratory, closing its door behind her. “To check you weren’t… y’know, slacking.”
The sight of Slacker Magician laying across her couch was more than enough to provide an undesirable answer to Alchemic Magician’s question. The green-haired girl said nothing, simply letting out a frustrated sigh.
“Hey, who asked you?” Slacker Magician asked, sitting up to point an aggressive glare towards her friend. “Why should you care if I’m up or not?”
“Because I care about you, Slack. I know you’ve gotta make a living, & it’s way easier to do that by brewing & selling potions than by lazing about from dawn ‘til dusk.”
“I’m pretty on top of things financially right now, y’know. I can afford a few lazy days.”
“But-“
“Shush. Shut it. Zip it. Conversation over. You don’t have to bother me anymore” Slacker Magician said. “Though, while you’re here… there is something you could be useful for.”
“& that would be…?” Alchemic Magician asked, tilting her head like a confused puppy.
Slacker Magician laid back down on her couch & outstretched her arms towards her friend. “C’mere, I could use a cuddle buddy.”
Alchemic Magician froze, a blush slowly spreading across her face like water soaking into cloth. She slowly, wordlessly walked over to the couch, before stopping in front of it to pull off her boots.
“Good girl” Slacker Magician mumbled. She meant the remark as a playful bit of mockery, but based on how Alchemic Magician’s face somehow got even redder, she clearly didn’t interpret it in the same way. She nervously, almost reluctantly inched her way down, before an impatient Slacker Magician wrapped her arms around her & pulled her onto the couch next to her, eliciting a high-picthed yelp from Alchemic Magician.
“Much better…” Slacker Magician murmured. She wrapped both arms around Alchemic Magician’s torso, squished her face against hers & lifted up a leg to drape over her waist. “Don’t you agree, Al?” She lazily shut her eyelids as she asked the question.
Alchemic Magician couldn’t respond, she felt as if any words she tried to get out were jammed in her throat. She began to pull herself together, resting a gloved hand on Slacker Magician’s side. After a few moments of happily resting with her friend, Alchemic Magician spoke.
“Hey, Slack?”
“Mmmm?”
“Are we…” she took a deep breath before proceeding with her question. “Are we a couple? Like… girlfriends?”
The question promped Slacker Magician to open her eyes, pointing them straight towards the girl only centimetres away from her.
“Look, Al. I really don’t care for labels. I don’t care if we “are” a couple or not” Slacker Magician began. Alchemic Magician felt her heart sink, she tried to stop herself from visibly losing her composure. “That being said… I do value you a lot, even if you really tick me off sometimes. So if you wanna start going around telling people I’m your girlfriend, I’d be fine with that” Slacker Magician shrugged casually as she finished her sentence.
“I… uh…” Alchemic Magician stuttered. “Wait-is that a yes or a no?”
“I should be asking you that, I’m fine either way.”
“O-oh. Oh” was all Alchemic Magician was able to get out as she tensed up. She didn’t know what she was expecting Slacker Magician to say in response to her question, but this was not it.
“So, Al, are we a couple? Yes or no?”
“Well… I’d really like to be-“
“So that’s a yes. Neat. Coolio.”
Alchemic Magician’s brain practically exploded. She wiggled until Slacker Magician’s grasp on her was broken, pushed herself off the couch, collapsed to the ground, stood up & angrily stared down at Slacker Magician.
“What do you MEAN “coolio”!? I-you-we-why are you being so casual about this!?”
Slacker Magican rolled over & let out a loud, exasperated groan. “I thought I already got this through your thick skull, Al. I think labels are pointless. I don’t care if you’re my rival, my best friend, my girlfriend, or whatever. To me, you’re just Alchemic Magician, & I don’t think there’s a single word or title that can accurately sum up how I feel about you.”
Alchemic Magician felt completely disarmed. She had no idea if she should feel angry, or flattered, or upset, or something else entirely.
“Okay, let me put it this way” Slacker Magician sighed. “Do you want us to be seen as a couple? If someone walked up to you & went ‘hey, are you & that Slacker Magician girl a thing?’ Would you say yes?”
Alchemic Magician nodded, her blush finding its way back onto her face.
“Alright, & since we’re officially a couple now” Slacker Magician began, putting heavy air quotes on the word “officially”. “Do you wanna… change anything about our relationship? Like, the type of things we do together?”
Alchemic Magician nodded so hard her neck hurt, her face now as red as a Mystic Tomato.
A cheeky smile spread across Slacker Magician’s face. “& what sort of things do you want us to do together?”
Alchemic Magician froze. She stared down at Slacker Magician’s smug grin, waiting until her body would allow her to speak again. “I-well-you know… c-couple stuff…”
“I don’t know, Al. I feel that I’ve established that I don’t care what defines a couple. So, enlighten me, what do you wanna do with me now? C’mon, you’re a big girl, use your words…”
Alchemic Magician pouted angrily, Slacker Magician’s taunt having kicked her out of her flustered state. “D-don’t you sit there with that smug little look on your face while I’m… I… this is really hard for me! You know that! Us being a couple might not mean anything to you, b-but it does to me!”
“You’re right… I’m sorry, Al” Slacker Magician said, sitting upright on her couch while smacking the spot next to it to encourage Alchemic Magician to sit there. The green-haired girl cocked an eyebrow, she knew Slacker Magician well enough to know that this was probably part of some trick to embarrass her or make her feel stupid. That being said, Slacker Magician had a genuinely apologetic look on her face, & Alchemic Magician wanted to believe that she really meant it. She lowered herself & sat on the couch next to her new girlfriend.
“It’s alright Slack, this is jus-mmphh!!!”
Like a predator pouncing upon its prey, Slacker Magician lunged herself forward to press her lips against Alchemic Magician’s, abruptly cutting off her sentence. After a few moments, Slacker Magician pulled her lips away from her girlfriend, & hugged a pillow on the couch as she helpessly doubled over with laughter. Alchemic Magician’s face went red again, but this time due to embarassment as well as fluster. As Slacker Magician continued to laugh at her little prank, Alchemic Magician grabbed another pillow on the couch & pressed it against the blue-haired girl’s face.
“You think that’s funny, do you!? Wasting our first kiss like it’s nothing!? Well how about you kiss! This!” Alchemic Magician delivered two punches to the pillow she was using to smother Slacker Magician as she ended her sentence. Slacker Magician kicked her legs helplessly, until one of them made contact with Alchemic Magician’s body. She delivered a full-powered kick to the green-haired girl, knocking her off the couch as she pulled the pillow off her face.
“This is no way to be treating your girlfriend, Al!” She exclaimed, throwing the pillow Alchemic Magician had been smothering her with straight at her.
“Screw you! Why’d you have to make this so difficult for me!?” Alchemic Magician caught the pillow & it threw it straight back at Slacker Magician, before running over to tackle her.
“I didn’t ask to be your girlfrien-owwww!”
“Well you didn’t have to-hey!-be such a jerk about it!”
“Right, I should just-ouchie!-say exactly what you want me to &-owwwww ow ow ow ow!-have no free will of my own!?”
“That’s not what I’m saying! You’re just putting words in my-owwwwww! No hair pulling! Pulling hair is off limits!”
The two continued to squabble & fight like children for almost an hour, making a mess of Slacker Magician’s living quarters in the process. Once they were both finally tired out, they laid next to each other on the couch that everything had started on. Slacker Magician rubbed the pain-induced tears from her eyes & looked over at Alchemic Magician, a warm smile making its way across her face.
“Hey, Al?”
The green-haired girl turned her head. “Yeah?”
“You’re really annoying.”
Alchemic Magician frowned. “Gee, thanks Slack.”
“But despite that… I love you a lot, genuinely.”
Alchemic Magician’s frown slowly shifted into a smile, not dissimilar to Slacker Magician’s own. “I love you too, Slack.”
“Wait…” Alchemic Magician continued. “Are you just trying to guilt trip me into helping you clean up this place?”
Slacker Magician let out a laugh. “Don’t gimmie any ideas, Al.”
Now it was Alchemic Magician’s turn to laugh. “I… am gonna have to help you clean up though, aren’t I?”
“Yep.”
“Ugh…”
“But let’s not bother with worrying about that for now. After all, there’s something else that we didn’t get to do enough of…” Slacker Magician held out her arms, wiggling her fingers to beckon Alchemic Magician to come to her. Alchemic Magician giggled, & shimmied over until she was close enough to cuddle with her girlfriend. Slacker Magician wasted no time in wrapping multiple limbs around Alchemic Magician, snuggling in so close to her that it seemed like she was trying to initiate a contact fusion between the two of them. Alchemic Magician-who had removed her gloves amidst all the squabbling-placed a hand on Slacker Magician’s cheek. She lazily drew circles on it with her thumb as she gave Slacker Magician a kiss on the forehead. The blue-haired girl let out a happy little mumble, as Alchemic Magician shut her eyes.
“I know I said that I didn’t care whether or not we were girlfriends” Slacker Magician began. “But… if it means we get to do more of this, then I’m looking forward to it.”
“Do more of what? Lazing about instead of doing work?”
Slacker Magician laughed. “Read me like a book, Al.”