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Stephi purposefully ignored the bulge in the front of Glenn’s pants. She couldn’t blame him. With her game-created 19.5 Appearance Score, it could hardly be otherwise.
The gnome healer was her closest friend—besides Kim, but that was different. If it had to be someone, she preferred Glenn see her unclothed, and rubbing hands across her naked body. Besides, he’d already caught a ton of glimpses while in the Dark Heart Swamp, helping her remove leeches.
Ron had as much, if not more, honor, and courage. The party leader’s hands would’ve been less shaky than the gnome healer’s. But allowing the gnome to help spread the magical potion—lotion—pissed Derek off way more than if she’d picked Ron. And the goober, junior high kid, Kirby? He would’ve lost it in his pants before ten seconds passed. That embarrassment might mess up their friendship, for who could guess how long. Besides, Kirby needed to be out there sneaking in the dark more than he needed to be rubbing blue fluid on her wings, hair, shoulders, back—and fairy-sized bum.
“How you doing, Jax?”
Stephi stood on a rickety crate in the middle of the abandon building’s creaky floor. Glenn knelt behind her. His everlast candle lit the backroom they’d selected for the operation.
“Uhhh, got your wings and...hh-hair.”
“Relax, Jax,” Stephi urged. “Don’t miss a spot or I’ll feel it, and you’ll have to heal it.”
“Right,” Glenn said, his voice quiet and meek. He ran a lotion-slick hand along the right side of her back. After a pause, a quick wipe up and down across her right butt cheek almost made her giggle. She managed to suppress it.
“Trade bottles,” she said, no longer able to reach her arm in the top and reach any of the blue liquid. She picked it up and turned around.
The gnome’s eyes widened, lingered several seconds on her bare, wet chest, before he looked at the floor. He focused on lifting the bottle in front of him. “L-let me get the funnel to fill that one from mine—I mean—the one I’m using.”
“We don’t have time to waste. First thing that’ll lose protection is the gem holding Kim. I—we don’t what to lose her, but I’ll need her with me.” They’d dipped the magical Alexandrite gemstone and delicate silver chain first to make sure it was completely covered. Ron assured them it would work, after coating the entire thing with some sort of resin he created from various leaves he’d gotten from a shifty herbalist.
She and Glenn briefly discussed using strategically placed leaves to cover her “naughty” parts. But the plant matter soaked up the magical lotion like a sponge. When it came down to it, Stephi preferred extra lotion on her body than risk burning up due to modesty.
Stephi huffed, beginning to lose patience. “Look, Jax, you’re gonna have to take a close look at me in a minute anyway. Make sure I’m completely covered, so I don’t burn up. Part of the plan, so be a man and help me out.”
Stephi was scared. But she’d felt that way so much since arriving in the stupid game world, that hiding it had become almost second nature. Scared trumped embarrassed every time, but she didn’t want to guilt Glenn into action...unless she had to.
Glenn bit his lip and blushed. Stephi could see it, even in the flickering light, beneath his tea-colored skin. Her hands went to her hips. “You weren’t this way in the swamp.”
“You weren’t like you are now,” Glenn said, defensively.
“Just look at me and tell me what the problem is, so we can get this done and I can go out there and risk my life.”
“Forget it,” Glenn said, placing the tin funnel in the mouth of his tiny bottle.
“Jax, just spit it out so we can get on with this, and you can make sure it’s right.”
Glenn met her angry gaze, then concentrated on pouring. “When you were an elf, it was different. Now...” He paused while he finished pouring. He wiped the inside of the funnel with a finger to get at the viscus liquid remaining on its surface. “Getting, aahhmm, sexually aroused...”
Stephi leaned forward, still looking up. The movement caused her breasts to protrude even further. “Time’s a wasting, mister.”
Glenn threw up his hands in exasperation. “It’s like you’re a little kid and me near bursting with an erection—it’s like I’m a sicko pedophile.”
Stephi lifted her hands from her hips and clasped them in front of her chest. She’d never considered that. It didn’t make sense to her—but it did to him. She saw it in his eyes.
“Jax,” she said, reaching a hand out to her friend. “When I was a freakishly tall elf, like twice your size, even with that difference I always thought of you as a man. Not a boy.”
The way Glenn leaned back from her before extending his hand and taking hers told Stephi that she’d caught her friend off guard. “You need to think of me the same way, now that you’re twice as big as me. As a woman. Just a midgety one. ”
Glenn took in a deep breath. “Okay.”
“I picked you to help me with this stupid lotion because you’re my friend, and I trust you.”
Glenn snorted a laugh. “I thought you chose me to tick off Kalgore.”
“That too,” Stephi said, showing an impish smile.
They both laughed.
Stephi dipped her hand into the newly filled bottle. “Now let’s get this over with, so I can survive in that glass oven.”
“Furnace,” Glenn corrected, poorly mimicking Ron’s voice. He wiped his wet finger across Stephi’s neck, where she’d missed a spot, and smiled. “So we can get that coin back and you can be freakishly huge, again.”
“Tall,” Stephi said, pointing up at Glenn, waving a finger. “Huge makes it sound like I was fat.”