Early Morning Bonding

[A/N: Sorry for the wait. I really think I'm cursed when it comes to writing. Every single time I start a new story something pops up that prevents me from writing for a bit. Suddenly have a bunch of doctors appointments lined up for the next week plus going out of town for thanksgiving the next. If this isn't a curse I don't know what is. Thankfully I had a few chapters ready in advanced this time. I'd like to try putting out 2-3 chapters a week for now and see how that works. pat reon chapters are still available with another chapter hopefully coming out sometime later tonight. Well that's enough ranting. Hopefully I can keep up a solid schedule soon.

Thanks as always for reading, Enjoy.]

-_-_-_-

Room of Louise de la Vallière, Tristan Academy for Magic

Louise was not a morning person.

That was something anyone in her family could attest to since it was unfortunately something of a hereditary trait. It always took them a few minutes to properly wake up in the morning, and by that she means becoming fully aware of the world around them and that it was no longer a dream.

It affected her and her second eldest sister the most, to the point that they might spend several minutes in the morning acting completely on autopilot and spouting off nonsense of all sorts if someone didn't stop them. Fortunately it was only on the level of a little quirk of theirs and not really something debilitating.

Unless they woke up next to someone else that is…

"Muuu…" Louise grumbled as the light from the window beamed down on her disturbing her rest. She tried to toss and turn in the comfort of her bed but found herself too restrained to do so.

Annoyed by the situation she cracked her eyes open to figure out what the problem was only to be met with a pair of wide amethyst eyes staring back at her. Now normally she might have screamed seeing someone's unfamiliar eyes the first thing in the morning. But that was the thing, she was familiar with those eyes. Vaguely at best, but she had been gazing into them all night as she toyed with their owner.

The silver haired girl from her dreams had her arms wrapped around her torso. She idly noticed they both were nude now which wasn't strange since the girl hadn't been clothed from the start, but she doesn't remember when her own clothes were removed.

Chalking it up to dream nonsense, Louise decided to better spend her time continuing where they had left off. The girl seemed more than willing so she didn't bother asking again. Not wanting to go back into dealing with her playing coy.

Louise rolled over on top of the girl looking at her like a deer caught in headlights. One of many unusual phrases that occasionally jump to her mind, but one that she felt strangely appropriate.

She began trailing kissing on the girl starting from just above her cute little bunnies, all the way to her neck causing soft squeaks to echo in her ears.

Her arms weren't restrained by the girl's tight embrace thankfully, so she slowly ran her hands through the silken silver hair and lightly brushed across her reddened cheeks stopping at her chin which she cupped between her fingers.

After that she wasted no time in claiming her pouty lips, leaving an explosive sensation to pass through her mind and slowly warming body. Louise couldn't help herself, the girl checked boxes for preferences she didn't even know she had!

She had always assumed she would be the one being claimed by someone. Her fantasies usually drifted to her fiancé, Viscount Wardes or someone like Kirche as much as she hated to admit it, and on the sinful occasion, even the Princess. Never had she imagined she would be the one to be on the offensive. The one looking to mark her prey and make them hers. And yet, it felt completely natural. As if her previous submissiveness was but a false reality implanted by another.

Louise savored the taste of her familiar's lips while allowing her other hand to begin roaming across her body. Allowing it to massage the girl's budding chest while playing with her cute little pink nubs.

Curiously enough she noticed the glow of the pentagram that was carved on the back of her hand and she idly wondered where exactly it came from. Louise wasn't a familiar after all. The girl under her was…her…familiar?

Familiar…Zero?...Zero!?

Her previous hazed eyes suddenly shot open as she pushed herself up and fully processed the world around her for the first time that morning. She was in her bed even though she distinctly remembered falling asleep at her desk. She didn't have any clothes on even though she remembered putting on her night clothes just before sitting down to compose her letters to her family.

Louise felt a sense of dread in the pit of her stomach as she forced herself to look down and confront the actions she had taken in her half sleep state.

Her breath hitched as she took in the sight of Zero, her familiar, with her silver hair messily splayed across the bed. The quick rise and fall of her chest as she tried to catch her breath. The small red dots that littered said chest to her neck, barely visible through her already flushed skin. The small trail of saliva connecting them paired with the tiny collection of tears in the corner of her gem like half laden eyes only added to the thrill she felt at the moment.

Louise felt her core heating up dangerously and slickening with a substance she desperately wanted to assume was sweat. She wanted to, but she couldn't lie to herself and say the sight she woke up to first thing this morning was the sexiest thing she'd ever seen.

Louise may be small but she was still a teenager damnit! She had just as much trouble controlling her libido as anyone else her age! But she had always thought her self control was better than theirs. She was unfortunately proven wrong when her eyes caught Zero's own and saw no disgust or anger present in the amethyst orbs. Simply thinly veiled curiosity and something else Louise was hesitant to identify.

Louise found herself torn between jumping away and apologizing and continuing her seemingly consensual assault.

For a moment, they simply continued to stare into each other's eyes, unaware of the passage of time around them. No words were spoken but it felt like a conversation played between them. It was finally settled when Zero herself gently placed a hand on Louise's cheek, her eyes holding a needy hunger that Louise was more than willing to fulfill.

"Miss Vallière, I've bought the uniform you…requested?" A charmingly sweet voice interrupted with a pause after her door was unceremoniously opened and closed behind the intruder.

Louise's head snapped towards the door and found, if she recalled correctly, Siesta. The cute black haired maid responsible for this section of the girl's dormitory, standing completely frozen on the spot with a maid uniform in her arms.

She couldn't even get upset at the girl since she had given her explicit permission to enter her room in the mornings if it didn't seem as though she would wake up on time. Siesta had often woke her up and helped her dress in the mornings this past year.

She was incredibly helpful, so it was a shame she would need to cease to exist or at least have the last few moments wiped from her memory.

"Ah…am I…interrupting?" Siesta asked, slowly backing to the door as she suddenly felt like her life was in danger. Or her chastity. She knew nobles had a thing for maid uniforms but she didn't expect to get dragged into this kind of play so suddenly. Her heart wasn't ready yet! Of course both girls on the bed were very attractive and she knew her status and duty would prevent her from leaving once Louise said the word but maybe if she escaped fast enough the lustful noble would change her mind.

Just before Louise could contemplate on all the places to hide a body, a loud grumbling sound echoed through the quiet space. Both Siesta and Louise looked to see a pouty Zero holding her stomach with furrowed brows.

"I'm Hungry." Was her clever and well thought out response.

Louise and Siesta both just sighed as the tension bled from the atmosphere. Louise on her part inwardly scolded herself for getting in this situation in the first place. Not that she knew how it happened anyway. As for the maid, she had plenty of ways to keep her quiet so she didn't need to resort to anything drastic.

Siesta on the other hand suddenly felt like she had just been roped into something extremely troublesome and that her future would be filled with endless worries. But she was just a peasant maid, surely it was just her imagination.

As for Zero? Well she was just hungry. Anything else could wait until she wasn't anymore.

-_-_-_-

"So let me get this straight. I looked cold last night so you brought me to bed. Then in an effort to warm me up, you stripped me of my clothes and embraced me to conserve heat?" Louise asked in pure disbelief as she glanced at her familiar out of the corner of her eye.

Having already been dressed herself, she sat at her desk going over the letters she wrote last night looking for anything that needed to be changed, while Siesta struggled to get Zero in the maid uniform.

"Mn" Zero nodded in confirmation of the story she told. The concept of lying wasn't something she was familiar with so she simply told the truth of what happened. She did neglect to mention she mostly did it because she wanted to embrace again but that was only because Louise didn't ask.

Louise sighed and decided to put the whole thing behind her for now. She couldn't blame Zero for trying to look out for her, even if it did seem like she had a few screws loose in the head. She actually thought it was kind of sweet in a way and decided to think of some kind of reward later.

"Now that I think about it, I don't think I asked for a uniform last night? I was sure I fell asleep before I put any request in." Louise wondered aloud while pointedly trying not to ogle Zero getting changed. She had planned to have one given to her today while just letting Zero use her own clothes for now.

"Oh, Mister Colbert made the request yesterday. He informed the head maid that you might require one until something permanent could be arranged." Siesta helpfully informed her while trying to adjust the maid uniform to fit Zero just a bit better. Unfortunately they didn't have anything smaller on such short notice so she just had to work with what they did have. Thankfully there were more than a few maids with smaller than average chests in the school's employ so that wasn't really the issue. It was mostly the girl's height and uncooperativeness wearing clothes that gave her trouble.

"I'll have to give him my thanks another time. For now, Zero, we need to get the basics down for your responsibilities as my Familiar." Louise said. She jumped up and crossed her arms. She had to establish some ground rules. She had to make sure Zero wouldn't embarrass her in public. No matter how much she liked and sympathized with the girl, she still had a noble's image to uphold. What they did in private would be something to discuss later.

Both Zero and Siesta, who felt like she had been dragged into a lecture, had to admit that Louise was actually quite cute. Slender and well-proportioned legs, thin ankles. Not very tall, at around 155 cm. Her eyes were like a curious kitten, and her eyebrows traced a subtle line over them. With her silky strawberry blonde hair fluttering in the wind coming from the open window, she cut quite the elegant and heroic figure.

"This is most important of all... A familiar exists to protect its master! The task of protecting them from any and all enemies is a duty of the highest priority!" Louise started strong before deflating at the thought. "But that might be a little bit problematic for you..."

Louise lamented as Siesta giggled a little and Zero looked confused.

"...A powerful magical beast would almost always defeat its enemies, but I don't think you could even beat a raven." She lamented to herself before taking a peek at the now mostly dressed girl. What she lacked in power at least she made up for by being cute.

"That's why I'm only making you do things I'm fairly sure you can or could learn how to do: laundry, cleaning, and other miscellaneous tasks." Zero nodded her head though inwardly she wondered why she wasn't allowed to protect Louise as well. She knew plenty of ways to do that but if Louise didn't want her to she wouldn't. Siesta on the other hand realized she wasn't out of the hot water just yet and had the sinking suspicion she would be the one that needed to teach the silver haired girl how to perform such tasks.

"Second, a familiar will retrieve items that its master desires. For instance, reagents." Louise commented before giving it a second thought and deflating again. "But you won't ever find me stuff like that, will you? Considering you don't even know what kind of reagents there are."

Louise was really starting to feel like she summoned a useless familiar. At best she was a glorified servant, which is still better than nothing at all, but not very useful for a mage.

Zero on her part was still confused. She knew a lot of reagents for spells and rituals considering there were a bunch of them in the garden with her. She had even cataloged each and every single one of them. She had thought to offer them all to Louise if it was her duty as a familiar, but if Louise didn't want those either…

"Next, a familiar is able to grant its master an enhancement in vision and hearing. I'll give it a try now," She said, going down the list of things she recalled from her textbooks.

Trying it out, at first she didn't seem able to view or hear anything from Zero but a moment later she felt the connection open up accompanied by the glow of the pentagram on her hand. She had overlooked it before since professor Colbert hadn't been able to identify what it was nor why it appeared on her since no other student had such a thing happen. Ultimately they just chalked it up to summoning a human as a familiar and a different set of rules applying.

Focusing on it a bit, she was able to feel her connection with Zero strengthen as a pleasant feeling overflowed through her body. From what she could tell the connection was a two way road. Zero would have to allow the connection to be established if she wanted to get through and vice versa.

Instantly she was able to see the top of Siesta's head as she was kneeling after having been working around Zero's uniform. She could also feel the general position of Zero in relation to her and she suspected the reverse was also true. Which was nice since she felt like the girl was the type to get lost easily.

Pushing further on instinct, she was able to get vague feelings as well, which is something she hadn't heard about in any of the books she read. She could tell Zero was currently feeling a bit uncomfortable, likely because of the uniform. Curious over the connection opening up. Confused over something she had said previously. And most predominantly…she was hungry. Somehow she got the feeling it was something she would have to get used to feeling from her familiar from now on.

Pushing a bit further she was able to even get a message through the connection at the cost of a bit of willpower. There seemed to be a problem on Zero's side though. Like the connection was weak or incomplete. She tried to message the girl to try improving things on her end but all she got was a head tilt and Zero looking around the room in confusion.

Trying to push any further was met with the feeling of a wall. Something was preventing her from going any further in their connection even though she felt like it was possible. What was on the other side she had no idea but even tapping on the wall forced a quick frown onto Zero's face so she stopped going further until they could learn more about it, not wanting to hurt the girl by accident. She would likely need to bring this up with the professor or even the headmaster anyway if it really was something completely unheard of before.

"That was strange. Well at least the basics work. Were you able to see things on your end as well?" Louise asked just for confirmation of what she felt.

"Mn. It felt strange, but nice" Zero nodded in contemplation. At least they were in agreement.

"We'll try to work on the connection later, for now we'll move on to the other duties of a familiar." Louise said before going over some of the smaller details Zero needed to know before they ate breakfast, like how she should address her as Master while in public. Or how she should stay nearby just in case she's required something.

As Siesta expected, Louise requested she take Zero under her wing and show her the ropes. In truth she didn't mind that much. Zero seemed really sweet so far and she was really pretty. Hopefully she caught on to things quickly since she did still have a job to do outside of this.

Putting on the finishing touches, this time it was both Siesta and Louise that had to admit Zero was quite cute. The academy maid uniform was a bit long for her arms so they covered her hands just a bit, but not enough to cause problems for her, probably. It was temporary anyway so it should be fine. Her silver hair and amethyst eyes really accentuated the black from the uniform, and Louise vowed to get one properly fitted for the girl, if for no other reason than it was nice to look at.

Just as she was preparing to depart to the cafeteria, she decided it might be best to get a head start on discovering Zero's background. There was a small chance she or one of the other students might recognize something the girl said so she figured she would get something now so she could ask around at breakfast.

"Before we go, I need to know what I'm working with here. Zero, how much do you remember about yourself? Were you a noble or not? Do you have any relatives you remember you want to contact?" Louise fired off a bunch of questions in an effort to get the basics out of the way for now. They had the whole day to bond but these were the essential questions she needed to know first.

Zero furrowed her brows in contemplation, looking quite strained before ultimately shaking her head a few seconds later.

"Hmm? Sorry, Master. I don't remember anything about myself. What is a noble? And I have a brother." Zero had wracked her brain trying to remember any details about herself she could give to Louise. Unfortunately everything was still very fuzzy like always, though she had been feeling much more clear headed than usual this morning. Like a fog over her mind was slowly being lifted.

"You don't even know what a noble is, huh? Haah, we can get back to that later. You said you had a brother? Do you remember his name?" Louise asked, shaking her head and cracking open the door to leave with Zero and Siesta behind her.

"Mn. His name is Brimir." Zero answered in her same monotonous voice, which caused Louise to promptly slam and lock the door. Startling both Zero and Siesta even if the maid had already been reeling from Zero's response. Suddenly her bad premonition from earlier kicked in at full force as she turned away from Zero to the short tempered pinkett looking their way with wide eyes while blocking the door.

Somehow Siesta knew she had just heard something she wouldn't be allowed to continue living knowing. She hadn't expected she would get to see her grandfather again so soon. She suddenly felt like she had a lot of things to tell him.

'Ah, grandpa, I got to meet the founder's sister before I died!' Well it was only one thing, but she was sure he'd be surprised.