Kyrie's nervousness about the whole thing faded a little after a few days of Vivian not saying anything about when she would draw the two of them. Occasionally Vivian would muse to Kyrie about what would be best for the whole thing, but other than that there wasn't any concrete day. She seemed to have a specific event in mind but it was evidently an event that didn't have a date set. The fact that Vivian kept casually bringing it up helped Kyrie feel less weird about what she was going to do, though.
Renard also helped her to feel less weird about it, but she suspected that he had ulterior motives for suggesting that she do this. Kyrie had tried questioning him on the matter, but he'd simply grinned and told her that she should look forward to it since she was finally going to get her curiosity sated. Vivian had evidently requested to be in charge of when the drawing session was going to happen though, and even though Kyrie could sense that Renard wasn't fully happy about this, he had relented on that point. Even though Kyrie didn't think that this was something he was suggesting to solely help her further her art, she couldn't really think of what else it could be. As a result she was left wondering and quietly anticipating what was to come. Vivian had told Kyrie to expect something real soon. But when Kyrie tried to clarify whether that meant tonight or within a couple days Vivian just smiled and refused to tell her any more.
So here she was, undressing in the slave's quarters four days after having that conversation with Vivian. Her mind was in a bit of a sad place today though: Isaac was at the castle once more, and when Kyrie thought about how excited Vivian was for her upcoming encounter with Renard, it made Kyrie miss Isaac all the more. Fighting with the pangs of loneliness, she looked back at her notebook which was on the bed. Tempted to open up the pages to those of her and Isaac spending quality time together, she wondered if maybe that would make her feel worse. Unable to resist the temptation though, she wandered over towards the bed and picked up the notebook before sitting down.
Or at least that's what she would've done if the door hadn't practically slammed open right as she grabbed the notebook. This action startled Kyrie, causing her to look up wide-eyed at the door. It was just Vivian bursting into the room looking excited, so the startled look on Kyrie's face soon turned to one of inquiry as Vivian loudly proclaimed to the room:
"It's done!"
Vivian didn't seem to notice Kyrie's reaction to her, she was much too excited about her own thing which she was holding up for Kyrie to see. All Kyrie could really seem to tell at the initial glance was that this was some lacy black thing and Kyrie wasn't entirely sure what it was. Scrunching up her features, Kyrie proceeded to pick up the candle at her bedside and bring it a bit closer as she responded.
"What's done?"
As Kyrie's eyes trailed along the lines of the outfit, a blush slowly began to rise up to her own features. Was... Was this the new nightclothes that Vivian was making herself?! This could hardly be called a nightgown at all! It was more like underwear with even less showing! It was all one piece, but the bottom could easily be a pair of panties if it was separated from the rest of it. The straps of the panty bit were little more than a couple black strings, and aside from that there was only one other string that would be encircling her torso. From what Kyrie could tell it would be a line underneath Vivian's breasts that looped around the back. Vivian's back would be almost completely open, but on the front there was a black lace V that came up from the panties to under her breasts. The fabric didn't completely cover the stomach, but the lines of the V were thick enough to hide quite a bit of it. What was barely covered at all were the breasts though! There were some strings that would tie behind Vivian's neck to hold the entire thing up, and there were some more strings that would effectively frame the fullness of her breasts when it was put on. For each thin breast frame 3 thin lines of cloth met up in the middle attached to a metal ring, presumably there to frame the nipple.
"V-Vivian! This is hardly any clothing at all!"
"Sure, but is that really so bad? Our lovers have seen us with far less clothing than this."
It was certainly true that they had, but still Kyrie was struggling with the appearance of the thing. If she was to wear something like that in front of Isaac... She would feel more embarrassed with it on than she would being naked! Just the fact that it was so revealing in areas that were usually covered... That seemed so much more embarrassing!
"I-is this what you mean when you say you're going to make something for me?"
Vivian couldn't help but laugh at the sheer horror that was on Kyrie's face.
"No no, Kyrie! Yours would look nothing like this. It'd be see through and lacy but it'd be cute and more like a little dress... You'll see, when I make it you'll love it, and I bet Isaac will love it too."
Kyrie was a blushing mess as she tried to imagine herself in a see through dress: the mere thought of that just got her all kinds of flustered. Isaac though... Just as Vivian said, Kyrie suspected that Isaac would love it if she ever wore something like that for him. Kyrie stared down at the bed as these thoughts raced through her head, but Vivian's glorified underwear soon came into view as she laid it down on the bed next to Kyrie. Lightly touching the material of the lingerie in Kyrie's view, there was excitement and almost a bit of hope for affirmation in Vivian's next statement.
"Feel the material, Kyrie! You may be a bit unsure about it now but once you get a closer look you'll appreciate it like I do. I sweat and bled over this thing and I think it's turned out wonderfully!"
Tentatively, almost as if the piece of clothing would bite her, Kyrie let her hand run along the soft lace of the bodice. The material definitely felt really nice, and upon closer inspection Kyrie could see that the stitches were neat and the construction quite solid. There was no real evidence that parts had to be redone, but that might just be because Vivian had started completely over again after screwing up. Plus with something like this... The measurements would have to be absolutely perfect. She couldn't even imagine trying to tackle something like this herself, and that's part of what made it so impressive.
To be honest though... While Kyrie had been initially repulsed by the design, she had to admit that there was almost a titillating fascination to it: it was something that Kyrie would never want to wear herself, but she could easily see it looking lovely on another person. There was also a kind of creative artistry to its construction that Kyrie appreciated. The material was beautiful, and Kyrie had no doubt that once it was put on it would do well at highlighting all of Vivian's curves. It was also something Kyrie had never seen before, and she couldn't help but wonder if Vivian had looked around for inspiration on what to do before delving in herself.
"It is much nicer than I thought now that I'm looking at it up close... You can barely see the stitches and I can't imagine this material is easy to get a straight line with."
Kyrie's voice was soft as she spoke, and Vivian practically basked in the praise that was being sent her way.
"You're right about that! I had to restart with it so many times, but damn did it pay off! Renard is just going to love this!"
Kyrie smiled to see Vivian's excitement over the fruits of her labor, and she leaned back from the lingerie while Vivian gathered it up, quite eager to go take it for a test run.
"Did you come up with the design all on your own?"
"Well... I guess it wouldn't be entirely truthful to say that I hadn't drawn inspiration from somewhere else: the last lady that I worked for before Lady Dandridge had a ton of really fancy underwear. What I made isn't an exact design based on anything that she had, but seeing all her stuff gave me plenty of ideas for things of my own."
"You still came up with your own idea though... That's amazing! I so rarely draw things purely from the imagination, I tend to draw pictures based on what's actually present and that I can see... You're coming up with something completely new though, and I think that's amazing!"
"Oh please, your drawings are so much better than my beginning forays into making clothes."
Even though Vivian harshly disputed Kyrie's words, Kyrie could see a slight darkening of Vivian's cheeks: her friend was incredibly flattered to be complimented by the artist Kyrie. Pleased to see her friend so happy, Kyrie just smiled, though that smile soon turned to a look of inquiry when Vivian started looking around the room.
"Where's Dessi? Is she not going to be here this evening?"
"I don't know. She hasn't come back since I left her in the kitchens."
Vivian's expression darkened a little at this news and as her features moved into a slight pout, Kyrie couldn't help but find this surprising. Sure, Vivian and Dessi's relationship had been much better lately but there was still enough lingering resentment towards Dessi that Vivian really didn't seek her out or even care where she was most days. To have her suddenly care about where Dessi was was rather unusual.
"Tch. I hope she hasn't already gone off to the guard house."
"Why...?"
For a moment Vivian gave Kyrie a look that seemed to say "you really don't know?" and that made Kyrie wrack her brain for why it would matter to Vivian whether Dessi was here. Slowly though, it began to dawn on her: did Vivian want Kyrie to draw her this evening? As the realization came to her face, Vivian nodded in confirmation.
"And there it is! Since Isaac isn't here and I just finished my new outfit I thought this would be a good time for you to draw us. I'm hoping my clothing will throw Renard off a bit so that we'll get those expressions captured on a page as well, and I think I have the perfect plan to keep you out of the spotlight! I love Renard, I really do, but he can be infuriatingly good at keeping his composure, especially if there's more than one person watching. If I'm getting a picture of him I want one of him caught off guard!"
Kyrie wasn't sure that she was mentally prepared for this, and she opened and closed her mouth a few times while she tried to figure out what to say. A part of her hoped that Dessi would stay absent from the slave quarters, but another part of her really did want to draw Renard and Vivian together. Especially so if Renard was going to be caught off guard!
Also... she had to admit that she was curious to see what the lingerie Vivian made actually looked like on. Not necessarily because she was looking forward to seeing Vivian in lingerie or anything but just because... Well because she really hadn't seen much lingerie in action.
The uncertainty of the situation was soon banished when the door opened and Dessi came in. She let out an exhausted sigh before just falling onto her bed but it didn't take her long at all to notice the two other women in the room.
"What's this? Both of you are in here instead of just one?"
Vivian pretty much ignored the playful question on Dessi's part, and instead moved straight into her own.
"Are you going to be staying here the entire night?"
"I was planning on it. Why? Was there something you needed the bedroom for?"
Dessi's eyes lingered on the black material that was in Vivian's arms, and Vivian bristled a little bit before holding the clothing tighter. She didn't really want to show Dessi what she'd made, mostly because a part of her felt like Dessi wouldn't really think much of it. She'd been sexually active for quite a long time, so she might find Vivian's first steps into lingerie more cute than something to respect.
"No, just the opposite: I wanted to take Kyrie out and I needed to make sure someone would still be here."
"Regardless of whether I'll be here Neri always sleeps here in the evenings."
"She's Lady Deveris's maid though! If our lady makes a call in the night I don't imagine she'd appreciate someone coming that wasn't one of us."
Dessi gave Vivian a hum of affirmation as if to agree to the younger girl's statement, and Dessi's eyes sparkled with curiosity as she looked between the two girls.
"What do you need Kyrie for, anyway?"
"That is none of your business."
Vivian looked almost haughty as she said this, and Kyrie shot Dessi a bit of an apologetic look. Not that Dessi was really offended, in fact, she ended up letting out a soft chuckle that made Vivian bristle even more.
"Alright. Well you ladies keep your secrets, I'll hold down the fort for you."
Dessi brought her hands behind her head then and laced her fingers together, quietly watching the two women as Vivian bade Kyrie to grab her notebook before the two headed out of the room.
"Ugh, why does she have to be so irritating?"
Vivian said this only after they'd gotten a fair ways away from the door to the slave's quarters, and Kyrie looked back behind them for a moment, almost wishing she was back in their room settling in for bed rather than following Vivian to the guest bedrooms. It was rather nerve-wracking to think that very soon she would be watching Vivian and Renard becoming lost in pleasure. The mere thought of that sent another pang through her, not of arousal though, just a bit of sadness: she missed Isaac on the nights that he wasn't around...
"She's not so bad, really... She's just curious to know what we're up to since we're doing something out of the ordinary."
"Well why does she have to be so nosy then?"
Here Kyrie could do nothing but shrug. On one hand, Kyrie shared Vivian's complaints in not liking how nosy Dessi was, but at the same time, without Dessi's nosiness she never would've felt better after she'd had sex with Renard out in the garden that first time.
"It's just who she is, I guess... Though I think without Dessi, we would've learned of Lady Dandridge's pregnancy only much later. Or about... Plenty of other things that have gone on around here too."
Vivian let out a sigh that seemed to say that she saw the merits of Dessi being the way that she was, but she wasn't going to admit it out loud. Instead of continuing that line of dialogue, she ushered Kyrie into one of the guest rooms, and Kyrie, expecting to see Renard inside, tensed up a bit in nervousness. She was surprised though when Vivian lit up one of the candles in the room to reveal that it was empty. Sending Vivian a questioning look, Vivian laughed a little before holding up her new nightclothes.
"Do you think I'm going to go in there in my regular underwear if I have this? Plus, I have to test to make sure my idea works."
"O-Oh."
Kyrie honestly wasn't really sure what to do, so she sat down in one of the chairs and simply stared off into the gloom not lit up by the candle on the other side of the room. She couldn't really see well enough this far away from the candle to be able to look through her notebook, so she simply waited patiently for Vivian to finish up with what she was doing.
Kyrie was so quiet and still though, that when Vivian turned to look at where she'd left Kyrie, she narrowed her eyes to try and peer into the gloom to find her.
"Kyrie?"
Startling out of her own silence, Kyrie was rather quick to respond, though she still didn't look in Vivian's direction. It just felt somehow inappropriate to watch her friend putting on lingerie.
"Yes?"
The response that she got from Vivian was a rather excited squeal, one that caused her to look back at her friend with a furrowed brow. Though now she could see that Vivian was still wearing the plain old nightgown that they always wore.
"Wha--?! You're not even wearing your new clothes!"
"Oh please, Kyrie. They're underneath this! I want him to be surprised when he sees them."
"I... Guess that makes sense. Why the noise though, what was that for?"
"Because I'm happy this works."
Vivian grinned at Kyrie for a moment in the light, but when she saw that Kyrie was only giving her a look of confusion, she beckoned Kyrie to stand up and take her place. Doing as she was bid, Vivian took Kyrie's place on the other side of the room and try as she might, Kyrie just couldn't make out where her friend was anymore.
"You see? This is the perfect solution! I'll have some candles lit around Renard and I while you'll sit in the darkness on the other side of the room! You'll be alright if you can't draw in the moment, right? You told me before that you used to draw whenever you could squeeze time in so I imagine you're used to such things."
"W-Well I... Yes... That should be fine."
Honestly, Kyrie wasn't sure how she felt about all this. As Vivian put more candles around Kyrie to see just how many she could get away with to light her up without lighting up herself, Kyrie couldn't help but think that this was quickly sinking back into the secretly watching Renard category. He didn't really care for Kyrie doing that the first time, and she didn't imagine he'd like it this time either. Still... She did technically already have his permission to do this, it wasn't like she was doing it entirely without his knowledge. Besides, he knew as well as she did that it was easier to get candid expressions this way. So... as a result, if this was going to help Vivian feel better about the whole thing then Kyrie felt inclined to oblige her.
Still... Kyrie couldn't help feeling like Renard would be disappointed that these drawings would be done without his knowledge. She couldn't really put her finger on why he'd be disappointed though, especially because she suspected that outwardly he'd be just fine. His reaction would probably be to laugh and express surprise that the two of them had engineered this completely without his knowledge, but still Kyrie couldn't seem to shake a vague sense of unease.
"Alright, Kyrie, can you see me?"
Once again drawn out of her own thoughts, Kyrie looked in the direction that Vivian's voice had come from, but all Kyrie could see was darkness. Narrowing her eyes to try and catch Vivian's silhouette at least, she found her efforts rather fruitless.
"No. I can't see you at all."
Vivian let out another sound of excitement as she bounded over into the light.
"Then this is perfect! With that many candles around you I can see you perfectly from that corner over there but you can't see me at all! I'll just light up that many for Renard and I and you'll stay in a far corner, completely silent. Sound good?"
"Sounds good..."
"Great!"
Clapping her hands together in delight, Vivian began putting out the candles as she returned them to their proper homes.
"The only real concern is entering into the room. Since the hallways are lit you'll have to come in right behind me so that he only sees one silhouette. Once I step in though you can branch off to one of the corners and I'll close the door and light up the candles. I'll try to stay awake to let you out afterwards, but if I don't you can let yourself out in the dark, I imagine."
Kyrie let out a soft hum of affirmation, though her hands were nervously picking at the edges of her notebook. If she wasn't going to be drawing while watching them having sex... Then what was she going to do? She found herself flushing as she thought about whether watching other people have sex would arouse her as well. Gripping her notebook tightly, she told herself that she would keep her hands firmly wrapped around her notebook. No way was she going to give into carnal desires while watching her best friend have sex! Especially not when she was supposed to be paying close attention to be able to draw her later! Oh this... This whole thing really did feel just so wrong.
The feeling of Vivian's hand grabbing on to one of Kyrie's caused Kyrie to jump a little bit, and Vivian almost soothingly pat Kyrie's hand.
"It's alright, Kyrie. Everything will be fine, you'll see."