Color - Belle (Patreon)

(Thanks to MyLifeIsAnRPG for her writing and Sophie93 for helping me organize my thoughts).

It was the day Belle was supposed to come over to my small campus apartment. I had just tidied up and it looked cleaner than it had all school year… almost unnaturally so.

“What am I doing…?” I said to myself, looking at the now spotless carpet that used to remain un-vacuumed almost out of spite. “We are just friends and she’s coming over to study! I don’t know what I’m imagining but I don’t clean this much when my own family comes to visit.”

She was a few minutes late, as all college students were. She was dressed in a large black skirt, wide coat, and large brimmed hat, an almost comical look that Belle frequently wore to hide her mutation from others. It didn’t do a great job.

“Hi! Sorry for the delay. I couldn’t find a taxi so I had to wait for an Uber, and you know it’s hard to get a card that I can, you know, fit in.” She turned away, her voice getting low at the back end of her sentence. Belle was a peculiar girl, confident about a lot of things but when it came to her mutation, she was a shy and skittish as a mouse.

“It was only ten minutes, don’t worry about it. Come on in” I said, stepping back from the door to let her into my living room. She took off her coat and sat on the sofa, her lower body splayed out on the cushion, taking out a notebook. As I went to the bookshelf to get my own notes I couldn’t help but steal a glance at her chest, at her four breasts. I always knew she was hiding something beneath her coat but it was strange to not have to speculate anymore.

She noticed the sudden streak of embarrassment on my face when I caught myself staring too long. “Excuse me, are you ok?” she asked. She probably already knew what was going on.

“Oh uh, yeah! Yeah I’m fine. I just got a little, uh, lost in thought, you know!”

“What an idiot!” I thought to myself. “Don’t make her uncomfortable! This must be difficult enough for her as it is!”

Thankfully I was able to control myself for the next few hours. The pressure of an upcoming exam will do a lot to kill any notions of romance going through your mind. We studied late into the night. I only noticed she was shivering once we took a much needed break. The chill outside combined with my apartments busted heater wasn’t doing us any good. 

“Uh, just wait here” I said getting up and putting on my coat. “I have a spare space heater outside.”

“Oh, thank you. It is a bit chilly. But don’t go too much out of your way, ok?” She replied giving me a small smile that ineffectively hid how uncomfortable she was.

I walked outside to my landlord’s shed, digging around in his junk in an attempt to find the old heater. I didn’t want to keep Belle waiting long. Things were awkward enough as it is.

… and they were about to get much more awkward than that.

As I walked back into my apartment I saw a vision from my dreams. There she stood, half-naked, only in purple panties and heels, adjusting a pair of silky stockings. I finally understood why she wore such huge skirts. They hid her almost impossibly long and sensual legs and her similarly long tail, a shimmering golden main softly falling from her backside. Her short purple tee barely covered her lower breasts, which seemed to almost defy gravity as she moved. Then there were her horse-like ears which swiveled my way as soon as I walked in, accompanied by a sudden flush of red to her cheeks.

We both stood there awkwardly for a few seconds, paralyzed and unable to speak, until the inevitable passage of time forced one of us to blurt out something stupid.

“Sorry sorry sorry!” I said turning away and dropping the space heater to the floor. “I know I should have knocked. I’m just not used to it since I live alone.”

“No! No I’m sorry” she said as she scrambled to put her skirt and blouse back on. “My legs were getting cold so I was just putting on a few more layers. You were taking so long I just… I thought you were going to be out for a while so I undressed in your living room.” She looked down and folded her hands “You must think I’m some sort of pervert, but the bathroom was a little small and hard to turn around in. Y… you know because of my-“

“No! Of course not!” I said cutting her off. I could tell she felt awkward to talk about her mutation. “Its uh, it’s just strange that a girl would, you know, pack extra layers with them! Yeah!”

She giggled to herself “That’s what’s weird about all this? Well it’s not so unusual when you are cold all the time.” She could tell I was making something up to make her feel better, but she appreciated it.

“Do the stockings even help?” I asked honestly. “And the mesh shirt… that can’t honestly be keeping you warm.”

“I have a lot of different clothes in my bag” she said giving another soft smile.” I have some pajama pants and a sweater too, but I didn’t want to look too frumpy.”

I guess we both wanted to look our best tonight.

I turned on the heater and it helped a lot to warm us up. Belle didn’t shiver much anymore, though to be honest I wasn’t sure if it was because she wasn’t as cold, or if it was because she wasn’t as nervous.

“Well, at least now the cold won’t distract s from studying” I said, laughing to myself nervously. 

We both went back to our notes, but Bell couldn’t seem to concentrate. She turned to me, putting a hand on my shoulder to get my attention. “I have something to ask you… before we get started again…”

“O… k?” I said genuinely confused at the sudden serious tone of her voice.

“Do you… do you think I’m pretty.” The familiar red blush came to her cheeks again and, wanting to cover up the awkwardness with noise, she just kept on talking. “Look I just, I’m very ashamed of my body OK! It’s a lot I know. Like some mutant girls have like, weird hair color or maybe an extra finger or something but I’m just this huge freaky horse thing! And I know it’s weird. I know! Everyone in my hometown told me so. They didn’t really like mutants there and I stood out like a sore thumb. I just became used to covering up my body. I try to put on sexy clothes and heels underneath everything to feel pretty. I look in the mirror and tell myself ‘YOU ARE PRETTY’ but I’m not sure I believe it. So, please, just tell me, am I pretty? Or am I just some freakish weirdo.”

She looked into my eyes with a face that pleaded for an answer. “Belle I…”  I paused collecting my thoughts as I gave a little sigh. “Belle, you are an amazing girl, and you’d be just as amazing no matter what you looked like. But if you want the honest truth, I think you are one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen.” I said it wish such confidence but my heart was beating a mile a minute. “Everything, mutant or no, is pretty, no matter what anyone else says.”

She stared at me with an air of tenderness and gratitude, gently wiping away the starts of a few tears from her eyes. “Thank you” she said. “Seriously, thank you. I uh… never had someone say something so nice to me before.” She reached back for her notebook and once again opened it before looking back to me. “Maybe, you know, we can hang out sometime when we are not studying? You know, just you and I?”

“I’d like that” I said. It felt like all the tension of the room broke.

“But that heater” she said, wiping some sweat from her brow. “It doesn’t screw around. I’m sweating through my shirt.

“Do you want me to turn it off?” I asked.

“No, no I’ll just get cold again. I’m just going to take off a layer or two.” She said grabbing at the bottom rim of her shirt.

“Oh ok, I’ll go into the bedroom to give you some privacy.” I got up to leave, but she grabbed my hand, stopping me in my tracks. She looked up to me with a small blush but a bigger smile.

“No, it’s OK. I’m not ashamed so, it really doesn’t bother me if you look.”