Before I make the mistake, before I lead with the worst of me

Needless to say, Nick and Morgana did not go to the magic shop. After what just happened, they both agreed that there was absolutely zero chance of the date getting back to any sense of normalcy, and with no idea of how to get things back on track, they came to the mutual conclusion that they should probably call things right now.

That didn’t mean the date was going to end, of course. No, they still had an evening together. But the itinerary had pretty much gone out the window at this point, and the more time they spent alone with each other, the more their minds kept thinking back to their brief period of being inside each other’s bodies.

Needless to say, if Morgana had been looking to show Nick a new experience on their date together, something that would really leave an impression on him, she had succeeded. He wasn’t going to be forgetting about that little mishap any time soon.

And neither was she.

That feeling… that throbbing hardness… that uncomfortable feeling… was that… was that what a penis is like? Morgana’s mind was going to a very dangerous place. While sexually inexperienced before coming to the island, she’d been a teenager in the modern day with a very active imagination and a working internet connection, so she’d been exposed to many questionable things on the information superhighway. Like doujins where women suddenly grew a penis, or naturally had a penis, or switched into a man’s body and then found themselves with a penis…

…

Yeah. Dangerous waters to tread. That had never been a genre that interested Morgana, and after her brief brush with having male genitalia, frenzied though it was, she wanted nothing to do with it. But she would be lying if she said it didn’t stick with her. Having gotten some experience with touching Nick’s cock, the feeling of it suddenly being between her own legs (Nick’s legs, technically) throbbing painfully against the crotch of her pants…

Yeah, she could do without that.

Nick was finding himself in a similar position. Having been trapped in a woman’s body before due to the effect of the mirrors, it wasn’t at all something he’d been interested in revisiting. And what just occurred was more proof of that. But this wasn’t even his own body morphed into a woman, he’d been inside of Morgana’s body!

…And not in the way he was used to doing.

There were a lot of things that, with the benefit of hindsight, Nick probably could have been doing, and he was glad he didn’t do them. Touching Morgana’s boobs, just because he was temporarily occupying her body, would have been awful. On the other hand, judging by the insistent feeling in his pants, Morgana had certainly been enjoying herself in his body… uncomfortable as he felt now.

Their eyes met again, as they’d done dozens of times in the awkward, silent walk back to the elevator so they could return to the hotel and never speak of this again. And like those dozens of times, they immediately tore their gaze away from one another, and the “Awkward Meter” jumped a couple notches.

Yeah, this wasn’t working.

Oh gosh… this is all my fault! Morgana bemoaned. If only I hadn’t tried to experiment with that spell! …No, that’s… that’s wrong. It’s only natural that I would experiment… I can’t be blamed for that! I just wish things didn’t go down that way, that’s all.

Maybe it was a testament to her maturity or maybe she was just too exhausted for self-pity, but Morgana actually managed to calm herself down for once. A rather impressive feat!

That being said… there were other things she was feeling ashamed about.

From even just a sidelong glance, Morgana could see the embarrassment on Nick’s face. Like he was ashamed. And she was pretty sure it wasn’t just frustration at his erection, which was stubbornly refusing to go down.

He probably wished that I had my old body, so he could have had some fun with it, she thought, reaching up unconsciously to rub her meager breasts. It had seemed like such a good idea this morning to return to her old physique, but due to incident after incident and Serenity’s words of wisdom, she’d come to accept that there was no going back. She would just have to have faith that Nick truly liked her for who she was, sexy goth body or not.

And to his credit, he was doing a great job of showing her.

So now she felt like she’d disappointed him by not having a more appealing body to let him inhabit. That’s what boys did, right? In the doujins? They enjoyed fondling the female bodies they ended up stuck in, because they could?

…Yeah, Nick wasn’t that kind of guy, but Morgana couldn’t help but wonder…

Nick turned his head slightly and caught her staring at him again. Once more, their eyes met, and they hastily jerked their heads in different directions.

This was going to be a long trip back to the hotel.

Thankfully, by the time they made it back to the elevator, things seemed to be going a little better. They still had hardly said two words to one another (and that was rounding up…) but the atmosphere between the two of them had eased up slightly.

When they stepped into the entryway of the Master’s Suite, they were almost back to normal, emotionally speaking. Nick’s erection finally abandoning him certainly helped with that.

“Okay,” Nick said, stopping at the door. Morgana jumped, her head snapping up to look at him, and she clutched her spellbook in front of her chest like a shield.

Her eyes were spinning.

“Y-yes?” She squeaked out.

Nick blushed, finding her embarrassed face adorable. But now really wasn’t the time. He had to take this seriously.

“I don’t think we should tell anyone about what happened today,” Nick said. “What do you think?”

Morgana gulped. “O-oh, you mean… how I don’t like licorice saltwater taffy? You’re right, we-we shouldn’t… it would ruin my street cred… hehe…”

Well, she could joke about it. And it left Nick looking pretty disarmed, which helped her relax a little bit.

He still looked uneasy, though, even as he tried to laugh it off. “No, um, I meant-”

“I know.” Morgana clutched her book tighter. She really should have gotten rid of it, hidden it away again, if she didn’t want anyone to ask any questions.

But… it was a shield.

“I don’t want to use that spell again…” After such a long and intolerable silence Morgana found herself stunned by how easy it was to talk now. Like the past… well, it felt like an hour… didn’t happen.

Like they could just laugh about it. Ha ha.

…Yeah, right.

“It’s not a big deal,” Nick said quickly, concerned that Morgana might be worrying in her head right now. “It’s just awkward. Like if we walked in on each other changing or something. Not something to be ashamed about, just-”

“Just not something we need to bring up,” Morgana interrupted him, understanding what he meant completely. She’d seen this scenario happen in plenty of anime before, she was familiar. So she nodded in agreement. “You’re right, let’s just… play it cool.”

Clearing her throat, Morgana gave Nick a shaky smile, her best attempt at looking casual.

Seeing that smile, Nick really hoped that Mary’s detective instincts had dulled, because the girl in front of him looked like it belonged on the face of the suspect being interrogated in the last five minutes of a police procedural show.

Figuring it would have to do, Nick turned and knocked on the door to the Master’s Suite, even though he could just walk in. He didn’t really know why, but he attributed it to nerves of his own. Morgana wasn’t the only one going down for this crime, Detective Mary should be prepared to do a double-booking tonight.

It wasn’t Mary who answered the door, though. It wasn’t Holly, either. It was someone that Nick completely forgot about, which was frankly pretty insulting given that he’d just spent all of yesterday with her.

“You-you guys are back already?” Ella asked, surprised. As usual, her attention was on Nick first, and her face was all the redder for it.

Then her eyes slid onto the woman beside him and she did a double-take.

“Wait, Morgana!?” Her jaw dropped. “What happened!?”

Morgana let out a tiny “Yeep!” not expecting to run into her friend here. She started to sweat bullets, flailing her hands around in front of her face like she was fending off a swarm of bees.

“Eh, oh, uh, ih, ah…” The flustered goth went through every vowel in the alphabet in her frenzy to speak, her eyes spinning in her head. Finally she grunted out, “I just… it’s a long story!”

She raised her spellbook up in front of her face to hide her embarrassment. Between her book and the brim of her hat, there was only a narrow band of space for her eyes to peek out, just a crack. And Ella was staring into it with far more intention than Morgana was used to.

Wasn’t Ella supposed to be shy and easily embarrassed, like her?!

“Morgana was looking to switch things up today,” Nick said smoothly, trying to ease the awkward atmosphere. “So she negated a few of her transformations, the physical ones.”

It wasn’t really a lie, he just didn’t bring up all the personal stuff that she would probably prefer to keep quiet.

Confused, Ella raised a curious eyebrow, but accepted what Nick was saying on its face. She kept studying Morgana though, still a little surprised.

“So that’s… what you look like,” she mumbled. “Without your transformations…”

It had never occurred to Ella that Morgana could look so different. Maybe because she hadn’t received any physical transformations herself so far. But now that she was looking at the younger girl, she could see that they weren’t so different after all.

…Well, accept for the fact that one of them was dressed like a maid, anyway.

“There are a lot of physical transformations on this show.”

Mary to the rescue! Relief washed across Nick as his wife strolled up, green eyes bright and sparkly as she greeted Ella with a smile. “Transformations aren’t all about changing our clothes, you know,” she joked, tugging on the collar of her flannel shirt.

Nick spotted Holly in the corner. She gave him a surreptitious nod, letting him know that she’d informed Mary already of what was going on, so she could be prepared.

“…Huh.” Ella nodded thoughtfully, still mulling over this new bit of information. She wasn’t all that interested in a physical transformation herself, but the stark contrast between the Morgana she knew and the scrawny little girl standing in front of her was insane. (And if anybody had the right to call someone that, it was Ella.)

Mary’s mouth twitched as she fought off her frown, and tried to keep Ella’s mood up. “You should see what I looked like before I came onto this show,” she joked, her face reddening as she tried to pretend like it wasn’t a big deal. As much as Mary had gotten used to her curves in the weeks since her body had been completely transformed, it was still a sensitive subject for her. Unlike Morgana, she’d actually liked the way she used to look. (And as much as she liked how feminine her hair made her look now, she definitely missed the convenience of her old, choppy style.)

Nick, sensing that a lovely opportunity had just presented itself, took out his phone and showed it to Ella.

“Like this.”

Ella’s eyes widened behind her bangs and her mouth dropped open in surprise. She couldn’t believe how different Mary looked in that picture! The cowgirl’s hair was even shorter than Ella’s was now, and her boobs-!

“Ehhhhh?!” Mary exploded in a big puff of steam. Red-faced and burning with embarrassment, Mary thrashed frantically for Nick’s phone. “You still have that picture!? HOW?! WHY?!”

“Aww, I think it’s sweet!” Holly giggled. Morgana couldn’t help but laugh herself, remembering how tenderly Nick had looked at the photo of his future bride back on their date together. It really spoke to how much he treasured her.

Well, right now the bride in question wanted him to bury that treasure, and lose the map.

“Delete it! Delete it now!”

“What!? No way, you look amazing in this!” Nick guarded his phone like it was a precious relic from Mary’s swatting hands.

“But it’s so embarrassing!” Mary wailed, swinging her hands wildly. Her haphazard attempts to grab Nick’s phone would probably have been more successful if her eyes weren’t tightly shut, but that would mean actually confronting reality.

Flailing around in the dark was definitely better.

“My boobs were so small! And my hair was a mess!”

“I liked your small boobs. And your hair was the perfect length back then.” Nick gazed fondly at the old photo. Back when things first fell apart between them he knew he should have deleted it; Mary would have never wanted him to have it (and kind of still didn’t) but for once he didn’t feel any shame in committing a victimless crime like that. It was a precious thing. “I know it’s embarrassing, but I want to remember the way you used to look, Mary. That’s the you I fell in love with, after all. The rest doesn’t matter nearly as much to me.”

“Geh!” Mary was as weak to compliments as she ever was. Succumbing to Nick’s heartfelt confession, she could do nothing but lower her arms weakly and slump over in defeat, resigning herself to a disapproving, scolding glare rather than any further attempts at physically reclaiming the photo.

To her credit- Mary did a really good scolding glare. But Nick wasn’t going to back down on this, not even if Dakota herself demanded he hand over the photo.

And why would she ever do that? This was incredible entertainment for her.

Even more amusingly, Nick had no idea the collateral damage he’d just incurred.

Mary temporarily quelled, Nick turned to see Ella and Morgana were both quite flustered, having been given a couple of unwilling front row seats to a very sappy display of PDA. Morgana was trying very hard to pretend like she wasn’t staring, and Ella was contemplating if she should drag Cinder out here to take her place, before ultimately deciding otherwise.

“…You charmer, you,” Holly said with an amused little huff from the corner. Now it was Nick’s turn to round out the set and get nice and embarrassed.

“A-anyway,” Mary said, clearing her throat in loud desperation to move past the humiliating discussion of how cute she used to look. “Welcome back, you two. I hope the date went well?”

Her voice was a little strained. Mary’s hope was no small thing. She looked at the two of them, knowing how difficult things could have gone.

And when Nick and Morgana glanced at each other, the perceptive little detective could sense right away that there was a tension between the two of them. But the smile they shared smoothed over any possible concerns she might have had.

“It was… a really exciting date,” Morgana said truthfully.

Nick nodded in agreement.

Mary knew all about how people lied with the truth. And she knew, of course, that there was something she wasn’t being told. But she didn’t press the issue, because she respected their privacy.

She was maturing in her own way, bit by bit.

“Personally, I still think Morgana shouldn’t have negated her transformations,” Holly grumbled, rolling her eyes. “What’s wrong with having a sexy body like that? I swear, if I could switch bodies with you, Morgana, I’d do it in a heartbeat!”

A shudder churned through the goth girl as she flinched with all of her body.

Luckily, the other girls all chalked it up to nervous embarrassment, not one of them suspecting the real source of her momentary discomfort.

“W-well… that… that’s sweet of you to say…” Morgana mumbled. “Um… a-anyway, we’re not back early because things went wrong or anything, so don’t worry!”

Nick fought back an exasperated sigh. By volunteering that, Morgana was making it sound like the opposite was true!

But Mary didn’t pry.

“As long as you two had a good time,” she said with a sincere smile. “Don’t you agree, Ella? Isn’t that for the best?”

“Eh-eh?” Ella jumped, her eyes widening in surprise at being brought into the conversation. She’d been in the process of sneaking away to get back to work, when she suddenly felt Mary’s eyes piercing into her.

“Being honest and forthright about your dates,” Mary repeated herself with a bright smile. “That’s the best thing, right? To have fun together?”

“I… I guess so?” Ella stammered, not sure why Mary was asking her that, of all things.

This really wasn’t any of her business, unless…

Wait… is this that… girl talk thing?! Is she trying to be friends with me?! Ella’s sudden flash of realization made her heart skip a beat. Mary was actually trying to include her in the conversation like a normal person! That was so sweet of her!

“Dinner is almost ready,” Ella blurted out, puffing out her chest. “If you two want to go take your seats, I-I’ll go bring it out right away, it’s… it’s the least I can do!”

“Oh, really?” Morgana sighed, relieved. “That would be great! The saltwater taffy I had was delicious, but I’m ready for some real food.”

“You ate taffy this close to dinner?” Mary puffed out her cheeks and placed her hands on her hips. “You’ll spoil your appetite doing that, you know!” She chastised the younger girl.

Morgana quivered sheepishly in front of the disapproving woman, feeling like she was being scolded by her own mother. “B-but… it was licorice flavor, so I had to…”

Nick sighed at Morgana’s lie, but decided not to make the problem worse.

Besides, there was a more pressing issue that needed addressing.

He turned to Ella, who was once again trying to make a sneaky escape. But she must have wanted to get caught, because she hadn’t even tried to put on her mask or anything.

“Ella,” he called after her, and she jumped. Turning to face him, she stood still as a statue like she’d been caught with her finger in the cookie jar.

“Y-yee?” She squeaked out, not even making a full “Yes?”

She snapped her rubber-band with a “Thwap!”

Nick narrowed his eyes. “Just checking, but were you the one who made dinner tonight?” He asked suspiciously.