Hidden Beauty

TITLE: Hidden Beauty
AUTHOR: WotanAnubis
DISCLAIMER: I don't own these characters, I'm not making profit.
RATING: NC-17
PAIRING: Nephenee/Calill
NOTE: Although Jill/Lethe will forever be my Path of Radiance pet pairing, Nephenee/Calill is pretty nice as well. So in honour of that pairing, I present you with this little fic.


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"No, no, no, this simply will not do."

Nephenee looked up from her meal to see Calill standing next to her, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Something wrong?" the young soldier asked.

"Well, yes, now that you mention it," the sage said, draping herself all over the seat next to Nephenee's. "Did I not try to help you become the beautiful young woman I know you are?"

"Kinda I guess," Nephenee mumbled.

"And here we are at the grand celebration of Crimea's freedom and what do I see? You in full armour. You're still wearing your helmet even!"

"Well, I didn't have nothing to wear."

"Nothing to..." Calill stood up, grabbed Nephenee's arm and dragged her to her feet. "Come on, let's go."

"What? But I'm eating."

"You can eat later," Calill snapped, dragging Nephenee away from the table. "We are going to my room and you will wear one of my most fabulous dresses."

"But I don't like wearing dresses," Nephenee tried.

"Then we'll find something else!" Calill snapped. "But by Ashera, you will shock the young men and women in our army with your magnificent beauty if it's the last thing I do!"

"Alright, alright, but let go of me please."

Calill did so and Nephenee took the opportunity to brush herself off. They'd left the castle's courtyard where people were talking and dancing and eating and drinking and celebrating they were still alive and were now standing in one of the castle's many stone corridors. It was dark here and the silence was deafening. But even in this gloom, even trembling with outraged annoyance, Calill possessed a kind of sophisticated, elegant grace. It wasn't a grace Nephenee envied or anything, but... there was something about it that made her... uneasy. Kind of.

"Shall we then?" Calill asked, her voice calmer now that she had regained some of her composure.

"Yeah, I guess," Nephenee said.

-----

Calill's room, much like Nephenee's room, was comfortable but sparsely furnished. It was just another one of the many guest rooms in the royal castle. Much to the general's dismay, Elincia had insisted that Ike and everyone in his core army each got a room of their own for the time being and wouldn't have to sleep in the barracks.

Calill strode to the stark oaken closet and flung open the doors, revealing a whole range of colours.

"You carry all these around with you all the time?" Nephenee asked.

"Of course I do," Calill said, browsing through the dresses. "One has to prepared for every occasion." She looked up and smiled faintly at Nephenee. "Even if that occasion happens to be the dressing up of a young soldier who really should be more confident about herself."

Nephenee looked away, hoping the blushing wasn't obvious. "Right."

"Ah, I think this one will look simply superb on you," Calill said, pulling a blue dress out of the closet. "So if you'd just take off that armour of yours you can try it on."

"T-t-take off my..." Nephenee sputtered.

"Well, yes. You can't very well wear this dress with all that metal underneath."

"I guess, but, you know, the, uhm, undergarments you wear with armour? I don't think they'd fit with that dress either. Or any other dress."

"Hmm, yes, good point," Calill said, putting the blue dress carefully on the bed and then returning to her closet. "As a sage, I don't have think about such things, but I suppose you do. Hmm. I suppose you'd like to wear something functional underneath. I don't think you're quite ready for the frilly lace just yet. Let's see, I think these will do quite nicely."

Calill turned around, items in hand, only to see Nephenee stand frozen next to the bed, looking at the dress. There was an intensity in her look, but one that Calill, in spite of her excellent knowledge of people, couldn't place.

"Nephenee?" Calill asked.

Nephenee shook herself out of her reverie and looked at the blonde sage. "What?"

"Something troubling you?"

"N-no," said Nephenee, looking back at the dress again. "I just thought about how it'd look on me."

"Spectacular, trust me on this."

Nephenee nodded and that strangely intense look came over her again. Calill carefully placed the selected garments next to the dress and regarded the young soldier carefully.

"Someone on your mind?" Calill asked.

"What'd'ya mean?" Nephenee asked, her eyes growing as large as a deer's.

"Perhaps there's someone you wish to impress? Someone who would certainly notice you if you wore this?"

"Kinda," Nephenee admitted. "Hey, you know, you're going through an awful lotta trouble just to help a fellow country bumpkin, you know? Can I ask you why?"

Calill smiled. She recognised a desperate attempt at a change in the conversation when she heard it, but she was magnanimous enough to let it slide in this case. "Well, I did tell you that I think a beauty such as yours should be seen by all the world. And as a sophisticated urbanite I am quite selfish. I want to see you in all your splendid glory."

Nephenee blushed as hotly as a fireplace. "Really?"

Calill stepped closer to Nephenee with definite intent. "As I've told you countless times before, yes. One glance from your eyes enchanted me forever and I won't be content before the world sees that what I have seen in you all along."

"Bet you say that to all the gals," Nephenee mumbled.

"No," said Calill. "I truly think you are unique."

Nephenee shivered even though she wasn't cold. "Well, I that case, I don't think we need to bother with the dresses and things, because, you know, I guess I kinda already impressed the one I... well... you know..."

"Perhaps I do," Calill whispered.

The blonde sage leaned forward and her lips brushed Nephenee's. They were rather rough and coarse and the young soldier was not a good kisser, but Calill didn't mind those trifling little details. As she kissed her, Calill could feel the tension draining from Nephenee's body and knew that any heat the girl might still be feeling certainly wasn't from embarrassment. She placed her hands on Nephenee's waist and began searching for the straps keeping her armour in place. Once Nephenee realised what she was doing, she broke the kiss with a look of surprise on her face.

"I'm sorry," Calill said. "Clearly I desire too much from you right now."

Nephenee blinked a few times. "It's... It's OK."

"Truly?"

Nephenee nodded with a steel certainty. Calill smiled and slowly started undoing Nephenee's attire. It wasn't a particularly easy task. For one thing Calill simply wasn't used to undressing a soldier and for another the beauty of Nephenee's body distracted her greatly. Not surprisingly, Nephenee was quite muscular for a girl. Farm work and soldiering will do that to anyone, after all. But she was also smooth and slender, possessed of an awkward grace she wasn't aware of that was even more appealing because of it. Calill simply couldn't resist kissing or caressing every bit of Nephenee's body she so slowly exposed and judging by the change in the girl's breathing, the soldier didn't mind one bit.

Nephenee blushed when Calill revealed her breasts. Presumably the girl was embarrassed about their smallish size, but if only she knew how much Calill appreciated their natural beauty. The latest in city fashion favoured corsets or low-cut dresses; anything that would squash a woman's breasts together or push them up in an ugly, unnatural attempt to make them seem bigger. Nephenee's breasts were a breath of fresh air by comparison in all their pristine elegance. Calill wasted little time in showing Nephenee how much she enjoyed the girl's breasts, showering them with kisses and caresses. The girl's nipples were already hard when her lips touched them first, possibly because it was a bit cool in the room, probably because the girl felt deliciously aroused. Nephenee's breathing became audible as Calill's tongue left a trail of saliva on her soft flesh. It was a sound that made Calill feel all warm inside.

Regretfully leaving Nephenee's breasts unattended, Calill eventually resumed undressing the girl. When she was completely naked, Calill stood in frozen worship of her. She could hardly breathe, she was so beautiful. But before Nephenee could somehow misinterpret her awe, she guided the girl onto the bed, being careful that she wouldn't lie down on the garments still laid out.

"Uhm..." Nephenee began, "I don't... really know how this, you know, works."

Lying down next to her, the still dressed Calill raised herself so that she could look at the soldier face and answered, "You don't have to."

With that Calill leaned down and kissed her. It was, she had to admit, a much better kiss than their first one. Clearly Nephenee was a quick student, although perhaps that shouldn't have come as much of a surprise to her. Placing her left hand on Nephenee's breast, she began gently squeezing it, eliciting wonderful little gasps from the soldier. Then she slowly moved her hand down, her fingertips leaving trailing down her skin, across her firm stomach until they reached the destination Calill had in mind. Even though Nephenee had no experience in this, she nevertheless spread her legs just right for Calill's fingers to explore her. Moans began to escape Nephenee's lips as Calill's hand danced amongst her folds. Kissing her lips now becoming almost impossible, Calill reached down and resumed kissing her breasts. The activity added a whole new layer of arousing desire in Nephenee's moans.

Calill could feel the girl's body writhing beneath her, reaction to every touch of her fingers and brush of her lips. She vaguely wondered if Nephenee did it on purpose or on lustful instinct. But whatever it was, Calill felt certain that Nephenee was filled with pleasure, experiencing a rapture a girl of her beauty ought to. Feeling that the timing was about right, Calill slipped two fingers into Nephenee and at the same time stimulated the girl's clit with her thumb. Nephenee shuddered when the new feelings flooded through her, a single sharp cry of lust coming from her lips. Calill had to focus to correctly orchestrate the movements of the hand between Nephenee's legs and that regretfully meant paying less attention to the soldier's breasts than she would've liked, but Nephenee probably didn't notice. Lost in an ecstasy Calill could only imagine, Nephenee's body ground against her hand, moaning and panting, her lust-darkened eyes barely kept open.

Then, for a brief moment, Nephenee's eyes shut tight and she held her breath. Soon after she shuddered uncontrollably as orgasm took her, Calill carefully making sure the girl could ride it for as long as possible. Nephenee put a hand on Calill's shoulder and held on tight, almost as if afraid of letting go.

Breathing deeply, but regularly, Nephenee opened her eyes and looked at Calill's smiling face.

"That was..."

"You don't have to say anything," Calill said. "Truly, you don't."

"Still, I... I wanna do something in return. Please?"

"Alright then, if you insist," Calill whispered. "I suggest we clean up and you put on that dress and then we rejoin the celebration in the courtyard where you'll dance with me until the night has gone. How does that sound?"

Nephenee smiled. "Pretty good."