White Knight's Burden Ch. 01

"Aww c'mon, babe!" Claire pouted. "You laughed too, didn't you? You always go on and on about how you can't stand artists who suck-up to one-percenters, and holy hell was that 'pick-me girl' ready and eager to suck some trust-funded cock!"

"Oh, that's going too far, Claire! You're so goddamn crude sometimes and--" Kimiko's further protest was cut short by my best friend leaning in, and sealing the other girl's angry lips quiet with a kiss.

I gazed at Claire's face while the two of them remained lost in her kiss. Claire's closed eyelids fluttered slightly and her nose was just a little scrunched, just up as usual. I always wondered why she did that thing with her nose when she kissed. Whatever the reason was, she looked cute! In comparison, Kimiko looked like some sort of hungry ogre, slobbering all over my best friend. Not appealing in the least.

Eventually, I tore my spying eyes away from the beauty and beast and instead devoted my attention to the trash fire disaster that was Claire's 3D-model.

"What the heck, Clairebear?!" I spluttered out, while the duo were still busy sucking face.

"W-what did I do?! I'm innocent, I swear! It's someone else's fault!!" The girl-on-girl kiss abruptly came to an end.

"S-sorry..." I mumbled, embarrassment mounting over how extremely rude I had just acted.

Kimiko's foul mood was no longer bridled by a fair maiden's kiss, and the troll gave a heavy sigh and turned away from the two of us. I may have had overreacted, but the shock of what I had glimpsed on Claire's computer screen was just too much to handle for me without at least a modest freak-out; Claire's weird "could-almost-be-modern-art" from yesterday no longer looked like a mishmash of shapes and colors, but was now instead a fully realized, expertly crafted rendition of the odd pear-and-cow bearing tree she had envisioned yesterday.

"It's just, you... did you make that?"

"Uh-huh." She appeared puzzled.

"H-how? And when?!"

"Like, this morning. I clicked and dragged and typed some while I snacked on some pizza. Turned out pretty good, right?" Claire's grin was still a little insecure, as if my best friend still needed validation of the masterwork she had laid before me.

It was more than good! Claire had just made something over breakfast that looked like it came from a professional studio!

"Totally! It's... great!!" A small part of me felt defeated. Struck down by my best friend so easily surpassing me in one of the few things where I had actually been her superior. "How did you learn to do this?"

"Guess the videos you sent me helped?"

"I didn't send you any videos yet! Besides, you spent all of yesterday evening on that art thing, right? When and how did you have time to study?!"

"I dunno. It's just easy to do today!" She shrugged. "It's like I mastered this 3D animation deal in a day."

My best friend was so talented! Even more than talented--a honest-to-god genius like she had stepped right out of fiction!

Our trio continued our work in silence. Kimiko grumbled from irritation sometimes, like a foul-tempered bear, while I struggled to perfect my dark elf model (the one I was proud of, the one who represented my values as a male feminist and ally). Claire had started a new project, and worked with extreme precision and intense focus. Seeing a new masterpiece take form in record-time next to me was disheartening.

How could Claire be so great at everything? I had finally found at least one thing where I could be the one to help and guide her, but she had so easily surpassed me. No wonder this superstar would "master this in one day" like she had said. Just like I had told her yesterday. My forehead throbbed intensely at that thought. The forehead a demon from hell had pelted with something. "True dominion over your beloved." That's what he had said. Could it...

"Claire?" I said, my voice a little unsteady. My throat felt parched and my heart had begun to beat like a drum in my chest all of a sudden. I felt like the air was thinning around me. There was just no way..!

"Hrmmm..?" Her intense focus barely broke, but she shifted a sliver of her attention to me.

"Nothing, I just like, uhhh--"

Sneeze, I thought, focusing on Claire.

My best friend immediately gave a loud sneeze. "Sorry." She sniveled. "Guess it's all that gluten I've been eating or something. Pizza's the bane of good health. What's up?" She turned to me.

Sneeze.

Another loud sneeze immediately followed. "Frick! I might've caught something yesterday. So weird, like my nose just got so itchy all of a sudden."

A wide grin I could not rein in spread on my face.

Permanently delete what you're working on right now.

Claire stopped rubbing her nose and turned her attention back to her computer.

"Oh nooo..!" She whined after a few seconds, blinking a few times as though she had just woken up from a daydream. "I must've clicked something weird! My project's all gone!!" She turned to me, pouting like she usually did when she needed my help with computer stuff. "Greg! You're like, great at computers! Could you help me fix it?"

I grabbed the computer mouse that my frustrated best friend waved around in the air. "Yeah, I should be able to help you recreate at least some of it by digging through tempfiles. Probably."

"Don't worry, Clairebear. Ol' reliable Greg's looking out for you."

***

The herd of students around us gradually thinned out as it got later and darker. Kimiko was more than a little perplexed when Claire stubbornly insisted that she'd stay late whenever her girlfriend wanted to head home together. Kimiko eventually gave a frustrated sigh and stormed out, finally leaving me and Claire alone in the empty auditorium.

"Man, I'm so weird today. Why did I even tell Kim to head home without me? I'm kinda hungover and staaaarving, Greg." Claire whined, rubbing her belly. The question had been rhetorical, not asked to me even though I had the answer.

"Claire, I uhhh... need to tell you something that'll sound weird as hell. Like, so weird that you'll want me thrown in the dungeon of some asylum."

"Ohh no..!" The starving girl gasped. "Don't tell me you've gone and decided to start looking for a job or something? Gonna stop living on your grandparents' generosity?"

"C'mon, like I'd ever do something that insane." I scoffed. She knew I was staunchly anti-work. "This is serious, Clairebear! I'm... I've got... magic powers." It would be liberating if she had just pulled a gun and shot me right there at the spot. Speaking such a cringey line out loud probably felt worse than a gunshot wound.

"Pfft..! You wanna start playing wizards and warriors again? Sure that'd be fun, but Kim is joining our party this time."

"No like, it's true! See I can make you uhh... twirl around in a circle."

Twirl in a circle.

"Wheeee..!" My best friend laughed as she immediately spun around 360 degrees. After she had done as I had willed her to do, she stopped and burst out in laughter, her hands gripping her empty belly. "Cool display of magic, Greg! I would gladly twirl and dance in circles for hours to entertain my weirdo friend's new wild delusions! This is the most fun thing you've said in years!" She almost keeled over in fits of laughing. After a few seconds of unrestrained mirth, she got out a strained: "Oh mighty grand wizard Greg!"

"No! It's..! I made you spin like that!" I protested, which I realized would only goad Claire to tease me more. "Like ummm..." The demon's words echoed in my head. True dominion over my beloved. Nigh-unlimited powers, only hindered by that which could threaten the stability of the cosmos. Whatever that meant, it sounded powerful! Time to put that his claim to the test. Something stupid. Something obviously magical. Something spectacular. Something like...

You can fly.

"Try f-flying, Claire." My cheeks flushed scarlet with embarrassment at saying something like that aloud.

"What?!" The girl had barely recovered from her latest fit of laughter, and now I hurled this impossibility at her. Claire did not seem to know if she should laugh even harder in response, or run away in panic.

"J-just... try to, just... f-fly." I whimpered out. I felt so embarrassed that I could melt through the floor. Life as a molten puddle would probably be a mercy.

But my mounting stress-induced panic attack was cut short, and I witnessed how Claire's feet alighted from the floor!

"Nooo way!!" The girl cried as she hovered higher and higher. "What the hell is this, Greg?!"

"Magic, Claire." I grinned back at my best friend now floating in mid-air. "Magic."

Claire stopped in the air, trying to find her bearing in a completely new element. She tried swimming some, careful breast strokes, pushing air behind her as if it were water to go forward. Soon she seemed to grasp her new form of movement and barely needed more than a thought to turn and spin before my still astonished eyes, the girl laughing and cheering all the while.

My best friend finally sank down towards me, still staying a few feet above the auditorium floor. For the first time since we were kids, I had to look up at her when we were speaking.

"You're... fantastic, Greg!" Followed by a giggle like she was high on drugs, floating weightless before me. "What the hell happened? You found a freaking book of spells in your basement or something?!"

"Something like that." I said, thinking back to the demonic creature from yesterday. Granted ownership over my beloved's soul from a demon. It sure made it sound like I was some sort of bad guy, but I would use this power for good.

"Holy heck! My Greg's a flippin' wizard! So like, will you change the world for the better with magic now or what?" She flew up towards the ceiling again, absentmindedly running her fingers over the ceiling lamp. It was a fantastic sight, my beautiful friend hovering above me like a fairy.

"Well, I'm... It seems like, uhh... seems like I can only use these powers to influence and alter you." Feelings of awkwardness came flooding back. Because you're apparently my 'beloved' according to some rude hellspawn. I couldn't admit that!

"Huh? Why?! That's soooo weird!" The girl gave me one of her trademark pouts as she slowly rotated in the air above me, around the lamp, testing some more advanced maneuver. "Flying's actually... a bit trickier than it looks..! Awwww, snap! I can't stop spinning! W-wait, close your eyes, Greg!" My best friend cried out as she continued to travel along some invisible axle, slowly turning her body upside-down.

I did as she asked, but despite myself I managed to catch a quick glimpse of the panties that the flying wonder woman unwittingly flashed me as her skirt gave way to gravity. Claire's simple cotton undergarment was complemented by a cute little red bow tie.

"S-sorry!! Didn't peek or see anything, Claire! I swear!" I put my hands over my already closed eyes to cover them further. "I... I don't know why, or how this ability works yet, but it seems like I can only use magic on you."

Soft lips on my forehead made me open my eyes and I saw my best friend, her weightless body bobbing up and down, grinning like a kid on Christmas.

"Greg the Wizard! This is like... fantastic! You could--we could!--do all kinds of things to make this town--heck, this whole freaking world--better! I mean, just being able to fly like this and I'm a superhero already. We could save a lot of people, help cats down from trees, and like save gas money and--"

"Oh! You could probably make us rich or something, right? Why bother saving money?!" She gave an excited yelp. "If you can really do more magic, we could help tons of poor people too! Or like, make bread and wine! Multiply fish! We could do all that, couldn't we?"

"I think we should keep all of this a secret from others for now, Claire."

"Huh? Why?!"

"Because like, I don't want you kidnapped by some government agency and experimented on. Bet there are lots of bad people who'd be really curious about a flying superwoman."

"Ohh..! Yeah, that's smart thinking, Wizard!" She nodded. "But we're telling some people, right? Like my mom, Kim and--"

"No, let's keep this a secret between us."

"Aww... that's so lame, Gregory!" She stomped her feet in frustration, her soles accosting the empty air beneath them. "C'mon, Kim is cool we should--"

"No, Claire! It's too dangerous!" I raised my voice.

She tensed, surprised by my intensity, and then snapped back in mounting anger. "Yeah?! Well if you're gonna be such a--"

Agree that we're keeping all of this magic stuff a secret between just the two of us.

My best friend abruptly shut-up in the middle of her protest. "Sorry. I'm... you're correct, Greg. It's too dangerous to blabber about this to anyone else." Her anger petered out and she simply smiled at me. "Thanks for insisting on it. Sometimes 'airheaded Claire' needs some stern words from 'practical Greg'. I'm so grateful for you always looking out for me. You're so sweet."

It felt strange to use my new powers over her like that, to force Claire to go along with what I knew was best. I did it for her sake, though. To tell somebody about whatever this was before we knew more could risk being disastrous. Like she had said herself, sometimes she simply needed a little nudge in the right direction.

I knew I had acted correctly, but seeing Claire's grateful smile at me taking charge of her, wresting away her free will, still made me feel a little guilty. I flashed back to last night's manic masturbation session and the dirty model I had created and toyed around with, making the dark elf bitch dance and shake until I couldn't contain myself longer. Controlling the slut on my computer screen like a doll.

Claire was not a doll, though. She was my best friend.

I met her bright grin with a somber smile of my own. "Of course, Claire. That's what I do. I'm always looking out for you."