And a real good friend

Nick staggered away from Amelia’s door, heart pounding and blood pumping. He couldn’t believe what had just transpired. That was the most sexual things had ever gotten between him and his stepmother!

…Which was not a sentence that should be occurring to most people, now that he thought about it…

He shook his head, trying to clear his mind after how stimulated he’d gotten from being around her and touching her like that. And all from a single transformation! She’d tried to get herself under control, but had failed miserably- and Nick would be lying if he said a part of him wasn’t intrigued by what a second failure might result in.

But just as those thoughts occurred to him, Amelia’s strained face flashed through his mind. She’d been utterly mortified by what just transpired, and couldn’t get away from him fast enough. That’s right, that was the appropriate reaction to have, wasn’t it? Disgust and dismay. Not… not what Nick was feeling right now…

Closing his eyes, he tried to banish those thoughts from his mind again as he turned the corner down the hall leading to the Arcade Suite, and crashed right into someone!

…Well, “crashed” wasn’t the appropriate word. Nick didn’t actually collide with another person. In fact, the girl coming the other way down the hall reacted to his sudden appearance in her path almost immediately thanks to her hypertuned assassin reflexes and seized him by the arm, pulling him in close while offsetting his momentum.

What resulted was a sudden shift in Nick’s balance. He found himself swept up in the wake of his captor, and as he was spun through the air, he felt her body press in close against his and a hand wrapped around his back as the soft, supple feeling of her breasts pushed into his chest.

His eyes snapped open and he met the sparkling gaze of Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin, registering her presence just long enough to be confused before he found himself on his back with the slender woman atop him, a look of wild desire in her eyes.

…Were her lips a little bigger?

Nick had plenty of time to contemplate that realization because the next thing he saw was Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s tongue dart out of her mouth, running across her lips as they spread into a juicy grin. He realized her eyes were trailing down, as she broke her gaze with him and drifted her sights towards his crotch, and suddenly he became all too aware of what she was contemplating doing right now.

His blood ran cold.

“W-w-wait!” He tried to stop her, he really did. But his cock was still up and ready from his heated exchange with Amelia not two minutes earlier, and the assassin sitting astride him was only making it harder. There was no way to hide it from her penetrating gaze. If Dakota came down and informed Nick that her creators had augmented her with x-ray vision, he would believe it!

Somewhere, Dakota made a note to consider that as a potential transformation in the future for the lustful little mute. But more important things first!

Nick had learned by now that it was next to impossible to defuse Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin when she got worked up like this. Once her switch was flipped, that boundless energy of hers had to go somewhere. So he wasn’t all that surprised when his halfhearted mumblings went ignored as she reached down to start undoing his pants, gazing at his erection with a hunger that seemed as though she hadn’t eaten in days.

“Wait! Stop!” He finally managed to cry out loud enough for her to hear, and, to his surprise and relief, she actually did stop- even if the impatient look in her eye as she raised her head confirmed that his reprieve was a temporary one at best.

Burning with frustration, she nevertheless let him plead his case for why she shouldn’t start sucking him off right here in the hallway. And in her present state he doubted “I don’t want to” or “I have a date I need to get to” would be all that persuasive.

Yeah, he really needed to discuss the finer trappings of consent with her at some point, even if it would be a one-sided discussion. Maybe have Amelia add it to her curriculum or something. For now, though, since her energy wouldn’t be quelled, he had to redirect it.

So without hesitation he threw Kim under the bus.

“Kim’s back!” He said quickly, remembering what Gina had said this morning about Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin being like a frustrated little puppy yesterday looking for her owner. “She really wanted to see you before she goes off to work!”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s eyes widened like saucers and relief washed over Nick’s body as he knew that he’d gotten through. There wasn’t much Nick could think of that could serve as a proper diversion for the assassin’s focus. In his experience, her priority of interests tended to fluctuate between 1. Him, 2. Kim, and 3. Ice crim- err, ice cream.

Luckily her worry about Kim from yesterday took precedence, and before he knew it she was up and off of him, and stalking down the hall.

Sighing in relief, Nick brushed himself off, and called after her, “Kim’s in her room right now! I’m sure she’ll be happy to see you!” Not at all a lie, the asian cutie had expressed as much to him directly this morning!

Still, it didn’t stop him from feeling a little guilty as Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin turned around and waved at him. He awkwardly waved back, adjusting his pants, and then paused when he saw her stop in front of a different door.

It wasn’t the door to the Candy Suite… it was the door Nick had just come away from.

He froze, realizing that Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin hadn’t just been leaving her room to start her day or go get breakfast. No, he’d run into her on the way to her scheduled lesson for the day with Amelia, of course!

Knowing he needed to go see Morgana but feeling a bit responsible for the chaos that had just transpired, and particularly responsible for Amelia right now, Nick doubled back and clarified things with the assassin who was stuck deliberating what she wanted to do.

“Wait, hold up a second,” he called to her, and she turned to meet his gaze, raising an intrigued eyebrow. She cocked her head to the side, wondering what he was after now. And as her eyes dropped to his pants, Nick realized that she might reshuffle her priorities again soon unless he said something, so…

“Amelia’s… not feeling well right now,” he fibbed slightly, glancing at the door. It wasn’t exactly a lie, judging from the state he’d left her in. The way she looked when she closed the door on him, it was definitely… not too far from the truth.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin gave him a cool look and raised her eyebrow skeptically. Her scrutinizing stare made him wonder for a moment if she had some kind of special lie detector sense or something, reading his body language and tells and monitoring his heartrate or something.

Or maybe he was just behaving really shadily, that was also pretty likely.

Regardless, he had to push forward. “I don’t think she’ll be up for a lesson today,” he said, recalling Amelia’s decision to stay sequestered in her room to avoid another encounter with him later. “So why not go hang with Kim?”

Again, he was throwing Kim under the bus to smooth things over with Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin, and that definitely wasn’t cool. He’d have to make it up to her later. But at least Kim and Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin got along okay, so it wasn’t such a bad thing he did, right?

That’s what he tried to tell himself when he saw the cheery smile on the assassin’s face and the skip in her step as she headed for the Candy Suite to go chat with her friend.

If not for the tension he was feeling, he might have been relieved at having defused that bomb. As it stood, though, he had other things he had to do right now. Like get back to Morgana, and finally start their date for real!

…Assuming Morgana was even in Dawn’s room. He still hadn’t gotten a chance to confirm that.

Nick turned and headed back to the Arcade Suite, intent not to let anyone else distract him from what he had vowed to do. He’d already wasted so much of today on obligations to other girls, it was really making his conversation with Kim the other day sink in for him.

He had to do better. He had to BE better about his interactions with the others. He couldn’t keep messing up.

As Nick finally reached the door, he was greeted by yet another girl coming out of the suite… only not the girl he was expecting.

“H-Holly, uh, hey,” Nick said, waving awkwardly at his friend/lover/sex ****. He knew that she’d been spending the night helping Morgana plan for her date, so the fact that she was leaving Dawn’s room was a good sign.

…Minus the exasperated look on her face and the bags under her eyes. She looked like she hadn’t gotten any sleep at all last night- and the disappointment he saw in her eyes gave him the impression that she’d lost a very vicious battle.

But that didn’t make sense.

“Oh, Nick… hey… you here for your date?” Holly grumbled, lacking the usual perkiness he’d come to associate with her. It gave him a bad feeling. The last time he’d seen her in a mood like this… their relationship had been far more combative.

His apprehension must have been showing on his face because she quickly slapped her cheeks a couple of times and perked herself up, forcing a smile to her lips.

“Sorry about that!” She chirped. “I didn’t mean to be all dull and gloomy. Just… hard day, you know how it is.”

“Uh… yeah, I get you,” Nick said slowly, pretending like he understood where Holly was coming from. “Everything go okay?”

She sighed. Her smile faded slightly, but she didn’t return to her gloomy state. She shrugged and shook her head. “Well… it could be worse,” she mumbled. “I TRIED to talk her out of it, but she insisted… …And yeah, maybe it’s for the best, but… come on!”

Nick had no translation for the gibberish that just came out of her mouth, so he stared blankly at her. Sometimes Amelia was easier to interpret than what he’d just heard.

“…Okay?” He said awkwardly, not sure if Holly even wanted him to reply or not.

She let out another exasperated sigh. “You just wouldn’t get it,” she muttered, shaking her head. She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Okay, let’s pose it like this. Suppose there was something you really, really had to do. It was, like, objectively something you needed to do. But to do it you needed to do something really bad and lame and dumb.”

Nick shook his head dumbly. “No, I still have no idea what you’re talking about,” he admitted. “Holly, is Morgana alright? …You guys weren’t practicing magic all night and a spell backfired or something, right?”

He remembered back when Morgana had experimented with the mirrors in the Hall of Mirrors and ended up accidentally twisting herself into a wicked villainess who had used her witchy powers on the other contestants. That was a headache that didn’t need to be repeated.

“No, Morgana is fine!” Holly said with a huff. “She’s just fine! Go see for yourself!”

And with that cryptic response she turned and stomped down the hallway, leaving a very confused and worried Nick in her wake.

“…Okay?” He mumbled again, turning and looking at the door to the Arcade Suite. He raised his hand and knocked on the door hesitantly at first, worried about what might happen.

He heard some rustling behind the door and some hushed whispers uttered faintly, just above the beeps and whirs from the games.

“That’s gotta be him! I’m not ready!” He could barely make out a voice that he was pretty sure was Morgana’s.

“Shh, you look great! He’ll love it!” A sterner voice that he was pretty sure belonged to Dawn followed up.

“It’sa me, Mario!” Came a third voice that he was almost certain must have come from one of the arcade machines, unless things had really gone off the rails last night.

A few seconds passed and the rustling stopped, and the door slowly cracked open. Dawn poked her head out a moment later, looking almost as tired as Holly had. But her eyes were shining a lot brighter. Whatever battle had been fought, Dawn had not lost as Holly evidently had.

…Why was he thinking in terms of a battle?

“Hey, uh… good morning?” Nick said, awkwardly waving at the cat girl. “Is… Morgana here? I stopped by the Luxury Suite to talk to her, but she wasn’t around. Amelia said she might have spent the night over at your place? Rose said you and Holly were helping her plan out her date…”

Dawn pushed her glasses slowly up her nose, while nodding even slower. “…Yes, that we did,” she said cryptically, obviously keeping something from him. “We helped her plan out her date with you today. Yes.”

“…Great. So, is she here?” Nick asked.

Dawn nodded slowly again. “Yes, she is, she’s right-” Dawn glanced over her shoulder and paused. “…Oh, come on! Morgana!”

The door clicked shut and the sound of Dawn’s tiny gymnast footsteps plodded away. Nick could imagine her hurrying off to go drag Morgana back.

The tiny wails of “No, I’m not ready!” mewling in the distance only confirmed his suspicions.

Dawn popped her head back out a minute later, her face strained with sweat. She looked agitated now.

“…We’re working on it,” she grumbled, and shut the door in his face again.

Nick knew he probably shouldn’t be eavesdropping, especially when he had no idea what was going on right now. But Dawn wasn’t exactly using her indoor voice.

“I’m telling you, you have nothing to worry about! Come on, what happened to Confident Morgana!? We spent all night planning this!”

“B-but now it’s daytime… he… don’t… I might… he’ll… you don’t get-!” In contrast, Morgana’s voice was so low and squeaky he could only make out a few words at a time.

Nick let out a heavy sigh, anticipating a lot of headaches to come. But he quickly corrected himself, knowing that wasn’t fair. She was nervous, and she had every reason to be. She deserved more patience and understanding from him, and that was what he was going to give her.

Finally, Dawn opened the door again, for what he really hoped was the last time. By this point, she looked as exhausted as Holly had been before.

“…She’s ready for you now,” Dawn said. The look in her eyes was pleading with him. He couldn’t read minds, but if he could, he was pretty sure he would be getting the message “Please be gentle with her, she’s really self-conscious right now!”

…It was Morgana, so that was to be expected.

Dawn opened the door all the way and stepped aside, and Nick entered the Arcade Suite. Every time he came here he was a little surprised by the beeps and whirs of the machines, and the flashing lights. How could anybody get any sleep in a place like this?

But all that faded out into noise as he saw the girl he was going out with today.

Of all the things Nick had expected, this was not one of them.

Morgana looked… different. That was the only thing Nick could think of to describe her. He hardly recognized her right now; only her witch hat gave her away, otherwise he might think an entirely different woman had snuck onto the show.

For starters, her breasts were no longer the massively-inflated mammaries that she’d gotten used to. Her black dress instead clung to the slender figure of a modestly-proportioned young lady, with a physique more in keeping for an 18-year-old girl, one still developing.

Then there was her face. It was as red as a ruby and an awkward, crooked smile stretched across it, her crimson eyes filled with worry and apprehension. None of that was new; he’d seen that from Morgana a thousand times before.

But her skin was no longer the same soft, white alabaster that would have glowed in the light of the arcade machines. She was still pale, but with a blotchy complexion, and while she was wearing a lot of makeup it didn’t completely hide her acne.

She looked… like an ordinary teenager.

She looked like herself.

“H-how… what… huh?!” Nick was too confused to properly express his confusion. “Morgana, what happened?”

Her eyes widened and her smile shattered in an instant. Panic broke out across her sloppy face and she started to shake. “Y-yoou… you dd-d-don’t like it?” She stammered out. Her hands shot up to cover her face and she stumbled back.

Nick’s body moved before he even knew what he was doing. “I-I didn’t say that!” He shouted quickly, closing the distance between the two of them. He pulled her hands away from her face so he could look into her eyes, which were already starting to water. “I just meant… I was just surprised, that’s all. I haven’t seen you look like that since…”

“Since I first came here…” Morgana mumbled, looking shamefully down at the floor. “Since we were at my house…”

Nick felt a hand smack him in the back.

“Morgana was already feeling self-conscious.” Dawn’s harsh tone slapped him even harder as she glared daggers at him. “Couldn’t you have just said she looked cute?”

“I-” Nick was still confused. “I didn’t mean-”

“Dawn, it’s alright!” Morgana wailed, covering her face again. “I-I know how I look, okay?”

She peeked up at Nick through a crack in her fingers and stared glumly at him. “I… I wanted… I wanted to go on a date with you,” she mumbled out. “But… as ME.”

Dawn shook her head and sighed. “Somehow she got it into her head that the only thing you liked her for was being a sexy and hot goth witch who was sexually adventurous,” she muttered. “And THEN she got a crazy idea stuck in her head that you wouldn’t be interested in a date with her if she still looked the way she used to before. Before she got all of her transformations.”

Dawn waved her hand in frustration at the whimpering goth.

Morgana slowly lowered her hands, her pockmarked face reddening even more.

“I-I bought… three transformation suppressors from the store,” she managed to say. “For 3000 BP each. I suppressed my three physical transformations… Big Titty Goth Girlfriend, Moonlit Alabaster, and Gothicc… so I could go back to the way I was before… for just one day…”

Nick’s eyes bulged in shock. How much had that cost!? He’d never heard of something so reckless!

“I pitched in a little,” Dawn clarified. “I won some games in the arcade… earned about 1200 Bonus Points in total from prizes. So I gave her the extra 3000 BP she needed after that.”

Dawn: 11400 BP + 1200 BP = 12600 BP

Dawn: 12600 BP – 3000 BP = 9600 BP

Morgana: 6000 BP + 3000 BP = 9000 BP

Morgana: 9000 BP – 9000 BP = 0 BP

Nick couldn’t believe it. 9000 BP in a single swing, that may have been one of the biggest shop purchases he’d ever seen! Certainly from the main store, anyway.

All to nullify three transformations just for a single day…

“Holly tried to talk me out of it… said it was a waste of money and that I shouldn’t bother…” Morgana mumbled, and Nick wondered if she regretted making such a big purchase. “But… I just… I wanted to know… I had to know.”

She looked up at Nick, and for the first time since he saw her today, there was a spark of confidence in her eyes, burning along with her worry and embarrassment.

“Nick… can you like me even when I’m not pretty? Or sexy?” She asked, knowing that he would definitely say yes regardless. That wasn’t the point. The point was seeing it for herself. “Can we have fun together… if it’s the real me?”

Nick didn’t know how to answer that question to Morgana’s satisfaction. Hearing her fears that she thought he only liked her for being sexy and physically attractive had rattled him, because that definitely wasn’t the case. But he understood how she could feel like it was. He hadn’t done right by Morgana this round. He’d neglected her without meaning to. And she’d done something this reckless to try and confirm his feelings once and for all.

What kind of answer could you give for something like that?

Uncertain and certain at the same time, Nick stepped forward and took her hand into his again, making her squeak.

“I already decided that we’d be spending the whole day together,” he assured her. “I don’t see why it would matter which you I went with, don’t you think?”

Morgana’s red eyes widened and a smile broke out across her shaky face. She looked like she was about to burst into tears.

“Yeah… yeah!” She agreed, and Nick felt relieved to see her happy again.

He didn’t even care that she’d put such a huge burden on him. He had to give her a date worth 9000 Bonus Points. Talk about hefty. But he would give it everything he had.