Cosplayed: A Sweet Lesbian Romance Read online

  Contents

  Copyright

  A Taste:

  1: New Costume

  2: Suspicions

  3: At the Con

  4: Meet Cute

  5: Temptations

  6: Snoop

  7: Rendezvous

  8: Caught

  9: Apologize?

  10: Morning After

  11: Apology

  12: Accepted

  13: Masquerade

  14: All F*@!ed Up

  15: More Apologies

  16: Late Night

  17: Confession

  18: Do It Right

  19: Date Night

  20: Friendly Wager

  21: Build Day

  22: Get It Right

  23: One More Chance

  24: Decisions

  25: Realizations

  26: Charity

  27: Throwdown

  28: Six Months Later

  Wait! There's More!

  More from Mia Archer

  1: Mysterious Stranger

  2: A More Mysterious Stranger

  3: Digital Sleuthing

  4: Creative Writing

  5: Comfort

  6: Waiting Game

  7: Digital Date Night

  Want More?

  More from Mia

  Cosplayed

  A Lesbian Romance

  By Mia Archer

  Copyright 2016 Mia Archer

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Individuals pictured on the cover are models and used for illustrative purposes only.

  First digital edition electronically published by Mia Archer, August 2016

  Let your fantasies come true with Mia Archer…

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  A Taste:

  I moved up to the arcade machine and shivered as I put my hands down on the familiar old controls.

  Those controls were the same, but my hands had gotten a hell of a lot bigger since the last time I played. Still, it was like unexpectedly running into an old friend from when I was a little kid. I smiled as I watched the demo screen running.

  “Do you and the arcade cabinet need a moment alone?”

  I turned to see Hailey smiling as she carried two beers over and placed them on trays installed on the side of the arcade cabinet. Huh. I didn’t remember anything like that from the old days playing this game. Then again I hadn’t been old enough to drink.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “You were looking at this arcade cabinet the way I’m hoping you’ll be looking at me by the end of the night,” Hailey said.

  I winked. “Who’s to say I’m not looking at you like that right now?”

  “Trust me, I’ll know when I get a look like that. That was pretty fucking intense,” she said.

  “I have a lot of good memories playing this game,” I said. “I used to be pretty good when I was a kid. I could beat anyone who challenged me.”

  Hailey arched an eyebrow. “Really now? That sounds like a challenge to me.”

  “Maybe it is,” I said.

  “Want to make it interesting?” Hailey asked.

  “What did you have in mind?”

  The question was hardly necessary. I knew exactly what she had in mind. It was the same thing I had in mind.

  “How about loser has to kiss the winner?”

  I grinned at the almost-echo of what that guy had said. The big difference was that I wasn’t interested in that guy and boy was I interested in what Hailey was offering. I grinned and stuck my hand out. Hailey took it and we shook on the bet.

  “It’s a deal,” I said.

  There’s an ancient and wise piece of advice that floats around in geek culture: let the Wookiee win. I was also aware that there was a lesser known corollary to that rule when it came to dating. It was a good idea to let the hot girl you were interested in win every once in awhile if you were really good at a game.

  I briefly dated a girl at the beginning of college who thought she was really good at Smash Bros. She only learned otherwise when things started going south between us and I stopped pulling my punches.

  Something told me Hailey wouldn’t be interested in being treated with kid gloves in a game though, and the rules were that the loser had to kiss the winner so I figured it was sort of a heads I win tails you lose situation. Which is to say I didn’t pull any punches. After a couple of rounds Hailey finally threw her hands up and took a long drink.

  “Okay, I get it,” she said. “You’re like some weird Jedi master when it comes to this game. Uncle.”

  “So where do I go to collect my winnings?” I asked.

  “They have some booths in the back of the bar for people who want a little quiet time. At least more quiet than it is out here with all the arcade machines,” Hailey said. She held out her arm. “Care to join me?”

  “Do I!”

  1: New Costume

  Hailey:

  “Come on Hailey, you can do this,” Jake said.

  I turned and gave him an irritated look. He put his hands up and took a step back.

  “Hey! I’m just trying to offer some moral support here. I know you’ve been having trouble with this piece,” he said.

  “The reason I’m having trouble is because certain people keep bothering me while I’m trying to put this last bit of paint on,” I snapped back at him.

  “Fine,” he said, crossing his arms under his chest and sticking his lip out in a pout that didn’t look good on him at all. “If you’re going to be like that then I’ll just stand over here where I won’t bother you.”

  I rolled my eyes. Jake could be such a drama queen sometimes. Still, he was pretty cool aside from that. He was like the straight BFF all my girlfriends had warned me about. As though the fact that he was straight meant he was going to jump out of the shadows someday and try to have a relationship with me.

  If they knew anything about Jake they’d know how ridiculous that was. I gave him a smile to let him know I wasn’t too annoyed with him and went back to the important work in front of me. I took a deep breath as I looked at the costume piece that had become my Everest.

  “Come on Hailey,” I muttered to myself. “You can do this.”

  “You can do it,” Jake said.

  I shot him another sharp glance and he made a motion as though he was zipping his lips shut. Good. He knew when to be quiet. I looked back at the bikini bottoms made out of foam that was made to look like metal armor. Even up close it looked pretty damn good, if I said so myself. Just as good as all the plastic and fiberglass stuff I read about online that were way out of my price range.

  I stuck my tongue out of the corner of my mouth as I reached in with the fine brush to put on the finishing touches. If I screwed this up then it was going to mean hours of work taking me into the middle of the night. Hours that I didn’t have considering I had to be up bright and early in the morning if I was going to be there to get my convention badge before the rest of the crowds.

  I suppose that’s what I got for waiting until the very last minute to put my costume together. Stupid procrastination. Of course I was procrastinating by studying for exams that I was behind on because I’d been spending so much time learning how to heat foam and form it into fake costume armor.

  I was getting distracted. The last thing I needed was distractions at a moment like this. I glanced over to Jake. He’d been the chief distraction. If I didn’t need someon
e to see the finished result and provide a second pair of eyes then he probably wouldn’t be over here at all, best friend or not.

  I leaned in close and squinted. This detail work was the most important part of a Warrior Angel costume and I was not going to screw it up. I was not going to have another sleepless night.

  I drew the line and sighed in relief. Perfect. It better be perfect considering this was the seventh time I’d worked on this particular piece. There was always something wrong, but this time it worked.

  I leaned back in my chair and took a look at the full costume. The whole thing was on a mannequin torso with a very heavily weighted metal base so I could work on the costume without worrying about smudging stuff on my table. It was a real pain in the ass trying to put a costume like this together in my tiny apartment, but it was worth the effort.

  The bikini bottoms looked exactly like metal armor. A testament to the wonderful paint job I’d done. The bikini top was the same. And the wings. I’d spent so much time gluing fake feathers together so they looked absolutely perfect, but now it felt wonderful as I looked at the results of my handiwork and thought of all the fun I was going to have when I go to the convention center.

  “That looks amazing,” Jake said.

  “Thanks,” I said. “I think I did do a pretty darn good job.”

  “Do the wings do the thing?” Jake asked. “I know you talked about doing it, but it was so much work.”

  “Just you wait and see,” I said.

  “Come on Hailey. You’re going to make me wait until tomorrow to see everything?”

  I shook my head and giggled. “Silly. Why do you think I invited you over here?”

  “To provide moral support?”

  “No! I need someone to see me in the full thing and tell me if there’s anything I’m missing. I’ve spent so many hours putting this costume together that I can’t look at it with fresh eyes. You’re fresh eyes.”

  “How fresh do you want me to get with you?” he said with a cheesy wiggle of his eyebrows.

  I rolled my eyes and smacked him. The smack turned to a push as I moved him out of my bedroom that had become an impromptu costuming studio in addition to being the place where I slept. Alone.

  I frowned. Best not to think about that. I was too busy with school and this costume to think about dating right now. Ms. Right might be out there, but I didn’t have the time to look let alone date.

  “Come on,” he said. “You’re really kicking me out of the room?”

  I paused at my door and arched an eyebrow. Fixed him with my best “are you fucking kidding me?” look which was pretty good. I’d had a lot of practice using it on him since we met at freshman orientation four years ago.

  “Fine,” he sighed. “Try not to take too long. I’ve got a lot of other hot dates lined up tonight, you know.”

  “I’m sure you do,” I said. “Now get your butt out there and wait.”

  I closed the door and locked it for good measure. I didn’t think he’d try to get in here without my permission, but you could never be too careful. Jake could be a little weird for a guy who knew for sure I was into girls and he didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell.

  I stared at the costume on the mannequin an then looked at some of the reference photos I had up on my laptop. I’d pored over these photos constantly since I decided to put together this project and I knew everything was perfect, but that didn’t stop me from looking one final time to be absolutely sure.

  When I was done with that annoying habit I turned to the costume and gave it a once over to see if there was any paint running anywhere. The stuff was supposed to dry quick to avoid that problem, but you could never be too sure.

  Finally I checked to make sure there weren’t any obvious cracks or warped spots. One of the problems with using heated foam rather than a mold was it was a heck of a lot easier for imperfections to make their way into the costume. I found a couple but decided they were small enough that I wasn’t going to worry about them.

  I might’ve worried about them if the convention wasn’t tomorrow morning. Right now it was way too late to care.

  It was time for the moment of truth. Time to try this thing on. Time to see if all the time I’d spent in the gym this year making sure I could fit into this damn costume when the time came was going to work out. That gym time had been a hell of a lot more annoying than actually putting the costume together.

  I quickly slipped out of my clothes and pulled the bottoms and top on. I paused to give myself a look in the mirror. It looked pretty damn good if I did say so myself. Just like something from the Battle Gear Angel Squad manga, anime, and movies. I knew they used materials that were pretty close to what I was using to make my own costume, though fans had taken it to extremes and put together costumes that were way nicer than anything that featured on the show. Some of the gear work and steampunk stuff was particularly hard. It was completely ridiculous to think that wings that allowed for flight could be powered by a portable steam power generator, but I guess that’s why it was firmly in the realm of fantasy.

  Besides, it looked fucking awesome.

  “You’re going to kill it tomorrow,” I said.

  I did a quick twirl. Yeah, all that time in the gym really had pulled off. I looked and felt better now than I had in ages. Not to mention I was stronger than ever thanks to all that exercise. And it was good that I was stronger than ever.

  I turned to look at the wings. They were attached to a halter that I’d put together myself. I really hoped they wouldn’t fall apart the moment I strapped them on for the first time. That would mean the second most difficult part of the costume was falling apart around me, and I wasn’t in the mood for that kind of disappointment.

  “Let’s do this,” I muttered.

  The wings were the most awkward part. I unstrapped and had to do a little dance and wiggle around the room to get them on. I even knocked a lamp off of my dresser and it went crashing to the floor.

  A knock on the door. “Hailey? You okay in there? Do you need my help?”

  It occurred to me a little too late that maybe I shouldn’t have locked the door after all. What would happen if I’d cut myself on that lamp or something and I was bleeding out on the floor with no way for Jake to get in here and help?

  That didn’t happen though.

  “No, I’m fine,” I shouted. “I’ll be just a minute!”

  “If you say so,” he muttered through the door.

  I finally managed to get the wings on with a little bit more wiggling around. I made sure to avoid the lamp that had shattered on the floor. The last thing I wanted was to open the door and have Jake looking in on me bleeding out of my feet like I’d just tried to save Nakatomi Tower or something.

  I brushed the glass aside and went over to the door. Unlocked it and then went to stand next to my bed where I thought I’d have the most impact when Jake stepped inside. I even struck a little pose that was exactly like my character in Battle Gear Angel Squad. One of the gears almost popped off and I frowned. I was going to have to get out some hot glue to fix that and pray that the fix stayed.

  The door squeaked open. Jake stuck his head in. His eyes went wide.

  “So what do you think?” I asked.

  “Holy shit,” he said. “That’s incredible Hailey!”

  I giggled. “Glad to hear you like it. But seriously, you don’t see anything wrong with it?”

  “I mean I don’t watch that show unless you force me to, but it looks fine from where I’m standing,” he said.

  I decided to ignore just how “fine” it must look from where he was standing. He was looking me up and down with an intensity that definitely didn’t feel very friendly, but he didn’t make a move either so I didn’t say anything.

  I did a quick twirl. “You’re sure there’s nothing wrong?”

  “Absolutely sure,” Jake said. He licked his lips and I decided it was high time I distracted him with something other than me standing in my bedroom
with a fake costume bikini.

  “How about the wings?”

  I reached behind me and pulled a lever attached to a metal frame I’d put together for the wings. Damn this thing was heavy. I was starting to wonder if I’d be able to make it through a full day at a convention with all this stuff on. I wondered how the people I saw online managed it.

  Obviously I hadn’t done enough working out if I was having this much trouble. I needed to do more squats.

  As I pulled on the lever I felt the wings moving out. I’d tested this a couple of times while the halter was on the mannequin, but this was the first time I’d tried it out while I was wearing it. I hated that I was doing a test run this close to the convention, but it couldn’t be helped.

  From the way Jake’s eyes went even wider it seemed he appreciated the work I’d put into this almost as much as he was appreciating the work I’d put into my figure prepping for this outfit.

  “Damn. Those really open up just like that?”

  I looked to either side and smiled at what I saw there. Yeah, this was damn impressive. The wings were spread out with a span that went out eight feet. Not exactly practical for walking down the hall at a convention, but it would look really nice if I found a nice out of the way spot for people who wanted to take pictures.

  “I thought you’d like it,” I said.

  “I really like it,” he said. Again his eyes moved up and down my body and this time it was getting to the point that I really felt uncomfortable. So I made a shooing motion to get him out of the room.

  “Okay. First test run is good. Now get out of here so I can change back into some more comfortable clothes,” I said.

  “Are you sure you don’t need any help getting out of that thing?” he asked.

  I fixed him with a dirty look and he shook his head. “Not like that, Hailey. I was just thinking about all the noise in here. It sounded like you were having a lot of trouble getting into that thing. I figured you might need some help getting out.”

  “I’m fine,” I said. “I’ll have to learn how to get it on and off on my own anyways. Now go.”