Chapter Text
“H-Hey, Tilty? This… this stopped being funny like, three days ago. Please just… undo this stupid curse…”
“Hmm? I thought you wanted to help me with my research? Isn’t this the least you can do, Anis?”
That was a lie. It wasn’t ‘research’. It was a punishment, and they both knew it. When Tilty engraved the dragon magicite onto Anis’ body, the princess had the most normal reaction possible. Who WOULDN’T react like this!? Tilty spent several hours dragging a brush across her back! She occasionally even dragged her fingers across Anis’ spine! L-Like, with how heretical the both of them are, there’s nothing wrong with Anis reacting so normally!
“Seriously, Tilty. It’s starting to hurt…”
Anis stood in front of a reading Tilty. Her hands crumpling the fabric of her skirt. Trying desperately to NOT once again act on the instinctual behavior that she had tried to undo the awful curse bestowed upon her. Because nothing had helped, she had to once again come begging to Tilty, who had so thoughtlessly inflicted this upon her!
“Well, you asked me to help. So I helped.”
“That was a joke! You were STARING at it! You’re the one that asked me to turn around and lay on my back!”
“You can hardly call it a joke, after waving your little wand at me!”
“I-I didn’t! It just, kinda, you know… throbbed. ‘cuz you were staring! That’s NOT a reason to curse it…”
Anis and Tilty bickered quite often, but honestly, the blonde could barely muster the strength to fall into their usual routine. She hadn’t even been able to get her research done! She had a lot of work to do— Euphie had helped her create some blueprints for a flying machine that should help impress the corrupt nobles trying to delegitimize her efforts into magicology research, but her totally normal bodily needs kept crushing her ability to focus. She was probably going to have to do an entire lecture with this curse still active— and Tilty had already promised to come along. Even though she hated the very thought of being around people, she said she wanted to enjoy every moment of Anis suffering and trying to retain her composure.
Even though Anis sometimes had trouble reading the environment, she could read Tilty like a book. Usually. Now, though? Well. All she could really think of was how badly she needed this curse lifted. And also, how badly Tilty’s skirt needed to get lifted. No, wait. Not that. Not that one.
Tilty just responded with a sigh. Shaking her head. Once again, she was surely insisting she hadn’t been staring.
“P-Please, Tilty, seriously…”
“No.”
“I-I can’t get any work done. If I don’t get that project done soon, we’ll all be in trouble…”
“No. Now could you please be quiet? Unlike you, I’m actually doing research. I’m trying to read..”
“...y-you aren’t even reading… you haven’t flipped a page in hours…”
Tilty was enjoying this way too much. It was odd, and extremely uncharacteristic of her! She wasn’t a sadist— well, she WAS a sadist. But her sadism was restrained by how much she simply despised the company of people. Yet here she was. Making Anis miserable in a way that made her work take so, so, so, SO much longer. That, well, gave Anis no choice but to lounge around Tilty more.
…it also meant she hadn’t been able to get any help from her actual assistant. This was, well, not something she wanted to have to explain to Euphelia. Neither the curse, nor why she had something like this in the first place! Hell, Iria only knew about the curse because there’s absolutely no way hiding this from her!
“I’m sure you can use your newfound…” Tilty paused to giggle, extremely sarcastically an rather exaggeratedly. She was enjoying this. “...dragon powers, to take care of your human urges. I’m absolutely sure your greatest invention yet can overpower a meager curse put on you by a mere human in seconds…”
“I trieeed that! I just can’t do it! Tilty’s juuust too overpowered!” Anis had tried basically everything south of taking her ‘performance-enhancing drugs’. And the only reason she hadn’t taken those is because her, well, amplified lust probably made that an absolutely terrible idea. Being unable to suppress her urges around Tilty is one thing; they’d fooled around many, many times before. Like, a heck of a lot of many times before. But if Iria, Lainie or especially Euphie happened to fall within her intoxicated sights, well…
It could turn out to be incredibly dangerous.
She already couldn’t stop herself clinging to Euphie whenever they shared a bed, just reveling in her feminine scent. Anis wouldn’t be able to stop herself from doing a whole lot worse, if she had taken that medication. It intoxicated her on her desires in a way that a human simply couldn’t resist.
On the other hand, Anis WAS at the end of her rope. She’d tried pleading, begging, negotiating… hell, she’d even tried kissing up to Tilty. And absolutely nothing worked.
That left only one thing.
“Mmm… could it be? That Tilty just… misses me that much?”
Wildly saying stupid stuff in hopes of aggravating Tilty enough to lift the curse. Anis sat herself down, on the armrest of Tilty’s seat. Sheepishly lifting up her skirt with one hand.
“Even the heartless Tilty has someone she likes, doesn’t she? Could it be that it’s me? That you’ve just wanted to…. relive our childhood together, a little more?”
Tilty remained silent. She had no response. Tilty reached one hand forward, and grabbed her tea. After bringing it to her lips, she took one, slow sip. Tilting the cup further and further as she downed the entire cup in one gulp. Then, she’d slowly put it back, before turning her head towards Anis.
“That brain of yours doesn’t appear to be getting enough oxygen. I guess that means your little ‘magic tool’ is finally good for something.”
There wasn’t even a hint of affection in her voice. In her expression. In her anything. She was just the same Tilty, as always. Defeated, and a little flustered that she had gotten her hopes up, maybe just a little— Anis lowered her skirt, and slid down on the couch. Dropping her ass right on not only Tilty’s lap, but their notebook, too.
“I guess you win, Tilty. i’m sorry. I’ll just let the curse wear off on i’s own, or whatever.” as Anis said that, she stood up just a bit, to grab onto their notebook. Casually tossing it aside, only for—
Well, to basically explode, as all the loose pages inside scattered around the room.
Tilty growled, showing actual anger instead of meager annoyance. “Look at what you did. Get off me, already! Go home. Go mess up your own research, not mine!” the goth hissed. Shoving Anis off her lap, and onto the floor. Only barely missing a few pages of Tilty’s important research. After whimpering from her butt thumping full force onto the ground, Anis pulled herself up, and started collecting the scattered paper.
As a fellow researcher, she couldn’t bare to actually harm Tilty’s research! She carefully gathered whatever she could, neatly sorting the pages and putting them in an equally-neat pile. But that wasn’t enough for Tilty, apparently. “I told you to GET OUT. You’re just making it worse. Get out of here!”
“I-I’ll go, just let me… hmm…?” among the tens of pages written scribbled in Tilty’s unique regal handwriting, was one that seemed to be ripped from somewhere else. She did write some notes on it, though.
…and as Anis drew her eyes over the page, she figured out exactly why Tilty wanted her out.
“Oooh, Tiiiiltyyy~”
“...if you get any weird ideas, I will kill you.”
But it was hard NOT to get any weird ideas, given that the curse was titled ‘A Wife’s Punishment for her Cheating Husband.’