After showering, I did something I hadn't done in weeks: I looked at myself in the mirror. The brown eyes that gazed back at me seemed soulless, well, more soulless than usual.
I had neglected to brush my brown upper-back length hair for over a month, which made it tangled and matted. My habit of keeping it tied in a ponytail, even while sleeping, probably didn't help either. I don't know much about hair, though. It just always seemed to make it knot up more.
My already pale skin looked paler than usual. The longer I looked at myself, the more I hated what I saw. I could list the things I hated about myself for hours, but it wouldn't get me anywhere.
I had hated looking at myself for a long time. There was so much that felt wrong. It was a weird kind of wrong. It wasn't a conscious wrongness, it was more instinctual.
I quickly cast a hair removal spell on myself. Most men avoid it because it removes all body hair except eyelashes and eyebrows. They would say stuff about body hair being masculine, but I never really cared about that. Personally, I found body hair annoying, and if I thought about it too much, it would feed into the wrongness.
I wrapped a towel around myself and went to my room to get dressed. After looking through my clothes, I put on some of the only non-soot-stained clothes I have. a baggy gray shirt and black trousers. I slipped on my shoes and headed toward the living room, picking up a brush as I walked past the bathroom.
I sat in a large armchair and started brushing my hair. Vayla was sitting upside down in a chair while Lyra was busying herself cleaning the kitchen.
"are you going to tell me anything else about the plans for tonight? You told me I was going to dinner with Asra, but you never actually told me when, where, or anything else," I asked, looking at Lyra, who was now walking toward me.
" Asra will be here to pick you up in half an hour." she says. She stops walking and stands to my right, extending her arm with her palm open. "now, give me the brush, and I'll help you with your hair. "
I gave her the brush, and she began to use the superpowers being the eldest of 12 sisters gave her to untangle my hair masterfully. When we were younger, she used to brush my hair while we talked about things. As I got older, I distanced myself more and more from those kinds of interactions.
The aging process for a Living Blade is strange. They are functionally immortal. If the smith is not an adult of the species, the blade is 'born' at the age of the smith; if the smith is an adult, then the blade is 'born' at the age of adulthood for the species.
That being said, Sometimes, Lyra feels more like an older sister than a daughter. We practically grew up together. After Eliza left, it was just Lyra and I. Asra tried to help as much as she could, but she had her own family and had to work on her parent's farm, so it was just Lyra and me most of the time for the first two years.
Lyra's always had a big sister personality. I originally wanted to call her my sister, but she said it felt wrong. She had wanted to call me mom, which led to an awkward conversation where I explained that I couldn't be her mom because moms were girls and I was a boy, and she insisted that I was her mom. I eventually told her that a dad was a mom who was a boy, and she decided that dad was acceptable if she wasn't allowed to call me mom.
My brain stalled. I had completely forgotten about that, and now I only had one question on my mind. Why?
I open my mouth to ask Lyra a question but stop as someone knocks on the door.
"I'll get it. "Vayla jumps up, running to the front door and opening it.
"Alright, I think we're done here. Your hair looks much better now, and I bet that's Asra at the door." Lyra says, running the brush through my hair one last time." if you ever want to talk like we used to, just let me know. no matter how busy I am, I'll always have time for our talks." Lyra says, smiling at me gently.
Lyra goes to join Vayla at the door, where I can see her hugging Asra. I get up and follow Lyra.
A piece of hair falls in front of my face as I walk, so I reach into my pocket to fetch the string I use to tie my hair back into a ponytail.
As I reach up to pull my hair back, Asra yells. "STOP." my eyes jump to her only to see her smiling at me. "You should leave your hair down. It's a good look for you."
I stare at her for a moment. I had not been expecting that. I had stopped wearing my hair down for two reasons: some of the other smiths in the crafters guild decided it was funny to make fun of me for ' being so feminine,' and my guild representative told me it would make me look more respectable and boost my sales.
Not letting me get swallowed by my thoughts, Asra takes my arm in hers and leads me out of the house. "Sometimes I think about getting you a leash. It would make it so much easier to lead you around while you are lost in thought." Asra teases while smiling at me.
"You'd have to get a collar or something on me first." I say, rolling my eyes.
"Play your cards right, and it might just happen," she says playfully, winking at me.
We walk through the woods for a few minutes before reaching a door in the middle of a clearing. I placed my hand on the door, and it flashed gold. Then I opened it, revealing a storage room full of weapons and armor. We walked through.
When Eliza vanished, the only thing she left was the deed to her shop and the paperwork to transfer ownership, which was already filled out, except for the line for the new owner to sign. Since then, Lyra and I have been the co-owners of a small weapon shop we renamed September Swords.
The doorway we just walked through is enchanted, linking it to a door in my shop. We left the shop, and Asra started leading me through the streets.
"Where are we going?" I asked as we walked.
"I was thinking we'd try out the new pizza place that opened recently. I've been hearing good things." with that reply, I knew Asra wanted to talk about something after dinner. She only took me to get pizza when she wanted me in a good mood for a particularly intense talk. Otherwise, she insists I "try new food" when we have dinner together.
Eventually, we arrived at the restaurant. From the exterior, it looked like an ordinary bakery, but instead of bread and pastries, it offered delicious pizza. The interior walls were lined with wooden booths, all the tables had red and white checkered-patterned tablecloths, and on the left-hand wall, there was a massive stone oven. Next to the oven is a closed door with a sign saying 'kitchen' above it. An L-shaped stone counter cut the oven area off from the rest of the room.
A tall, thin man with a shaved head and stubble sits behind the counter. He's wearing a white shirt with no sleeves, dark pants, and a dirty apron around his waist.
" Hello, welcome to Edd's Pizza. What can I get you ladies today?" it takes me a moment to process what he said. Does he actually think I'm a woman, or is he trying to make fun of me? Do I tell him he's wrong?
Before I could decide whether or not to speak up, Asra ordered for us. "one pizza with pepperoni, salami, sausage, mushrooms, and olives, please." whether the man thought I was a woman or not was suddenly no longer a concern for me. Asra just ordered my favorite pizza. That can only mean one thing: it would be a long night.
"Alright, have a seat, and I'll have that right out to you when it's done." as soon as the pizza dealer says that, Asra pulls me over to a booth in the right-hand back corner. We sit across from each other.
Asra is the first to speak. "How did you feel about him thinking you're a woman?" she asked, giving me a reassuring smile.
Yep, right in with one of her classic tactics. She started the conversation while we were waiting for the food because she knew I would stay until we were done eating, at the least.
I sighed and then gave my answer. "I don't know. I was more focused on whether or not to correct him."
"Why wouldn't you correct him?" Asra asked, watching me closely.
I definitely wasn't going to tell her about it felt like my heart stopped for a moment at the thought of that word referring to me or how sir or mister or even my own name felt like a needle poking my brain every time I heard them.
So, instead, I told her something else that was equally true. "It would have been way too awkward of a conversation, and I didn't want to deal with it. So since it didn't really bother me, I could just ignore it and move on."
"So, you'd prefer to have him think you're a woman the whole time so you don't have to have an awkward conversation?" she asked, still smiling.
"Yes?" I say nervously as Asra's smile widens.
"Alright, your pizza is ready ladies." the pizza man says as he places our food on the table. He asks if we need anything else, and when we both shake our heads, he heads back to the counter.
" so, were you paying attention to how it felt this time?" Asra teased.
I let out an exasperated sigh. "can we eat before we continue this topic."
Asra just smiles at me and takes a slice of pizza.
gNatonthewall Hello everyone. I just wanted to make a quick announcement. From now on I'll be trying to stick to a schedule. The current plan is to post on Tuesdays and Fridays. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thank you for reading, and have a nice day.
After showering, I did something I hadn't done in weeks: I looked at myself in the mirror. The brown eyes that gazed back at me seemed soulless, well, more soulless than usual.
I had neglected to brush my brown upper-back length hair for over a month, which made it tangled and matted. My habit of keeping it tied in a ponytail, even while sleeping, probably didn't help either. I don't know much about hair, though. It just always seemed to make it knot up more.
My already pale skin looked paler than usual. The longer I looked at myself, the more I hated what I saw. I could list the things I hated about myself for hours, but it wouldn't get me anywhere.
I had hated looking at myself for a long time. There was so much that felt wrong. It was a weird kind of wrong. It wasn't a conscious wrongness, it was more instinctual.
I quickly cast a hair removal spell on myself. Most men avoid it because it removes all body hair except eyelashes and eyebrows. They would say stuff about body hair being masculine, but I never really cared about that. Personally, I found body hair annoying, and if I thought about it too much, it would feed into the wrongness.
I wrapped a towel around myself and went to my room to get dressed. After looking through my clothes, I put on some of the only non-soot-stained clothes I have. a baggy gray shirt and black trousers. I slipped on my shoes and headed toward the living room, picking up a brush as I walked past the bathroom.
I sat in a large armchair and started brushing my hair. Vayla was sitting upside down in a chair while Lyra was busying herself cleaning the kitchen.
"are you going to tell me anything else about the plans for tonight? You told me I was going to dinner with Asra, but you never actually told me when, where, or anything else," I asked, looking at Lyra, who was now walking toward me.
" Asra will be here to pick you up in half an hour." she says. She stops walking and stands to my right, extending her arm with her palm open. "now, give me the brush, and I'll help you with your hair. "
I gave her the brush, and she began to use the superpowers being the eldest of 12 sisters gave her to untangle my hair masterfully. When we were younger, she used to brush my hair while we talked about things. As I got older, I distanced myself more and more from those kinds of interactions.
The aging process for a Living Blade is strange. They are functionally immortal. If the smith is not an adult of the species, the blade is 'born' at the age of the smith; if the smith is an adult, then the blade is 'born' at the age of adulthood for the species.
That being said, Sometimes, Lyra feels more like an older sister than a daughter. We practically grew up together. After Eliza left, it was just Lyra and I. Asra tried to help as much as she could, but she had her own family and had to work on her parent's farm, so it was just Lyra and me most of the time for the first two years.
Lyra's always had a big sister personality. I originally wanted to call her my sister, but she said it felt wrong. She had wanted to call me mom, which led to an awkward conversation where I explained that I couldn't be her mom because moms were girls and I was a boy, and she insisted that I was her mom. I eventually told her that a dad was a mom who was a boy, and she decided that dad was acceptable if she wasn't allowed to call me mom.
My brain stalled. I had completely forgotten about that, and now I only had one question on my mind. Why?
I open my mouth to ask Lyra a question but stop as someone knocks on the door.
"I'll get it. "Vayla jumps up, running to the front door and opening it.
"Alright, I think we're done here. Your hair looks much better now, and I bet that's Asra at the door." Lyra says, running the brush through my hair one last time." if you ever want to talk like we used to, just let me know. no matter how busy I am, I'll always have time for our talks." Lyra says, smiling at me gently.
Lyra goes to join Vayla at the door, where I can see her hugging Asra. I get up and follow Lyra.
A piece of hair falls in front of my face as I walk, so I reach into my pocket to fetch the string I use to tie my hair back into a ponytail.
As I reach up to pull my hair back, Asra yells. "STOP." my eyes jump to her only to see her smiling at me. "You should leave your hair down. It's a good look for you."
I stare at her for a moment. I had not been expecting that. I had stopped wearing my hair down for two reasons: some of the other smiths in the crafters guild decided it was funny to make fun of me for ' being so feminine,' and my guild representative told me it would make me look more respectable and boost my sales.
Not letting me get swallowed by my thoughts, Asra takes my arm in hers and leads me out of the house. "Sometimes I think about getting you a leash. It would make it so much easier to lead you around while you are lost in thought." Asra teases while smiling at me.
"You'd have to get a collar or something on me first." I say, rolling my eyes.
"Play your cards right, and it might just happen," she says playfully, winking at me.
We walk through the woods for a few minutes before reaching a door in the middle of a clearing. I placed my hand on the door, and it flashed gold. Then I opened it, revealing a storage room full of weapons and armor. We walked through.
When Eliza vanished, the only thing she left was the deed to her shop and the paperwork to transfer ownership, which was already filled out, except for the line for the new owner to sign. Since then, Lyra and I have been the co-owners of a small weapon shop we renamed September Swords.
The doorway we just walked through is enchanted, linking it to a door in my shop. We left the shop, and Asra started leading me through the streets.
"Where are we going?" I asked as we walked.
"I was thinking we'd try out the new pizza place that opened recently. I've been hearing good things." with that reply, I knew Asra wanted to talk about something after dinner. She only took me to get pizza when she wanted me in a good mood for a particularly intense talk. Otherwise, she insists I "try new food" when we have dinner together.
Eventually, we arrived at the restaurant. From the exterior, it looked like an ordinary bakery, but instead of bread and pastries, it offered delicious pizza. The interior walls were lined with wooden booths, all the tables had red and white checkered-patterned tablecloths, and on the left-hand wall, there was a massive stone oven. Next to the oven is a closed door with a sign saying 'kitchen' above it. An L-shaped stone counter cut the oven area off from the rest of the room.
A tall, thin man with a shaved head and stubble sits behind the counter. He's wearing a white shirt with no sleeves, dark pants, and a dirty apron around his waist.
" Hello, welcome to Edd's Pizza. What can I get you ladies today?" it takes me a moment to process what he said. Does he actually think I'm a woman, or is he trying to make fun of me? Do I tell him he's wrong?
Before I could decide whether or not to speak up, Asra ordered for us. "one pizza with pepperoni, salami, sausage, mushrooms, and olives, please." whether the man thought I was a woman or not was suddenly no longer a concern for me. Asra just ordered my favorite pizza. That can only mean one thing: it would be a long night.
"Alright, have a seat, and I'll have that right out to you when it's done." as soon as the pizza dealer says that, Asra pulls me over to a booth in the right-hand back corner. We sit across from each other.
Asra is the first to speak. "How did you feel about him thinking you're a woman?" she asked, giving me a reassuring smile.
Yep, right in with one of her classic tactics. She started the conversation while we were waiting for the food because she knew I would stay until we were done eating, at the least.
I sighed and then gave my answer. "I don't know. I was more focused on whether or not to correct him."
"Why wouldn't you correct him?" Asra asked, watching me closely.
I definitely wasn't going to tell her about it felt like my heart stopped for a moment at the thought of that word referring to me or how sir or mister or even my own name felt like a needle poking my brain every time I heard them.
So, instead, I told her something else that was equally true. "It would have been way too awkward of a conversation, and I didn't want to deal with it. So since it didn't really bother me, I could just ignore it and move on."
"So, you'd prefer to have him think you're a woman the whole time so you don't have to have an awkward conversation?" she asked, still smiling.
"Yes?" I say nervously as Asra's smile widens.
"Alright, your pizza is ready ladies." the pizza man says as he places our food on the table. He asks if we need anything else, and when we both shake our heads, he heads back to the counter.
" so, were you paying attention to how it felt this time?" Asra teased.
I let out an exasperated sigh. "can we eat before we continue this topic."
Asra just smiles at me and takes a slice of pizza.
gNatonthewall Hello everyone. I just wanted to make a quick announcement. From now on I'll be trying to stick to a schedule. The current plan is to post on Tuesdays and Fridays. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thank you for reading, and have a nice day.
