But life is like a Rubik's cube, and I'm stuck and I don't know which way to move

When Cinder stepped into the Gym, Nick’s heart stopped in his chest.

She was a sight to see. Her tank top, which was drenched in sweat, clung so tightly to her skin that it was practically see-through. On top of that, the rest of her looked quite alluring as well, with her bronze skin glistening in the low light, and her hair having a glossy sheen to it as it tangled about her head. Her cheeks had a slight flush to them that on Ella had looked adorable on her looked enticing in a different way… if Nick was willing to take her bait.

He knew better than to say anything, however. The look in Cinder’s eyes… the smoldering heat in them… it was a signal that anyone who knew Cinder knew to take seriously. She was telling him with a simple glance that it was better to keep away, and that if anyone said the wrong thing, then there would be hell to pay.

For Nick, there was a simple, correct answer. And that was to pretend that he had been suddenly struck blind.

As of right this second, Cinder was the invisible woman. No one could see her, and definitely not him! He was meant to just sit right there and do nothing, so that was what he was going to do.

Or, at least, that’s what he should have done, if he wanted to remain on Cinder’s good side. But he also had a strange feeling when he saw her. He felt like… he wanted to reach out to her, to check up on her and see if she was okay.

It took him two seconds to fight off that urge, and turn his head away. Two full seconds where he had just been leering at her like any other creep in a gym making eyes at a girl who was just trying to get her workout done without being harassed.

And those two seconds were a lifetime as far as Cinder was concerned.

Her face darkened and her lips twisted into a scowl. She walked right past where Ella had been working out, and headed straight for Nick. Dani rushed out of the bathroom after her, but Cinder was already heading towards a confrontation and wouldn’t be stopped.

She came to a halt standing over Nick, looking down at him with smoldering eyes. Meanwhile, Nick was staring at the mat, pretending like he was very interested in figuring out exactly what sort of material it was made from.

“HEY.”

Cinder’s growl shook him to the core. He knew better than to raise his head. He knew! And… and yet… he couldn’t just…

“…Nick.”

And then, suddenly, her voice turned soft. So soft it didn’t even sound like Cinder anymore. That change was enough to draw his attention, and he raised his head incredulously to look up and see Cinder’s pained face staring down at him. Her eyes were smoldering and her lip was quivering, and for a second, he didn’t know if he was looking at Cinder, or if Ella had taken control once again.

“What’s going on?” Cinder clenched her fist. Her face hardened again, and Nick saw the rage flicker through her eyes. It sparked back up like a campfire and in a moment she had fanned it back into a furious bonfire that ironically sent a chill down his spine.

“I-I don’t, uh…” Nick stammered out, knowing that any answer he had to give the angry girl was probably the wrong one.

“Why am I here, dressed like this!?” Cinder demanded. All of her anger poured out of her at once and she grabbed Nick by the collar, trying to lift him to his feet. Except he was bigger than her, a little stronger than her, and her body’s muscles were still sore from all the stretching Ella had done. Which meant she accomplished little more than just tugging on his shirt here and there, much to her chagrin.

Nick looked weakly up at her, not sure what to say. “I… I don’t know,” he honestly admitted. “You just came into the Gym this way…”

“Bullshit I did!” Cinder roared, even though she knew in her heart that was the case. It didn’t help her to acknowledge that, however. It only made her more irate. “Why!?”

“You said you wanted to go to the Gym today!” Dawn said, coming to Nick’s defense. “I-I don’t know why you did it, but… it seemed like you were really passionate about it…”

“But why!?” That was what Cinder didn’t understand. Her face burned as the only realistic answer began to form in her mind, making her feel sick to her stomach. “Are… are you telling me… are you telling me that, that I… that I WANTED to… to pose in front of him!?”

Nick stared up at her in silence.

Cinder gasped and let him go. She staggered back, her eyes wide with shock at her statement. “I didn’t mean ‘I’! Ella! I was talking about Ella! ELLA wanted to pose in front of you!? How… how could she do that?!”

Her Freudian slip aside, Cinder knew that her proclamations of “Why?!” were baseless. The answer was obvious, she just didn’t want to accept it.

Ella wanted to pose in front of Nick because she was a girl who had a crush on a boy, and wanted that boy to check her out. That was why the sleeveless tank top, the tight bike shorts, all of that stuff. That was why she had ignored the fact that she wasn’t at all athletic, and had asked Dani to help her do some stretches.

But Cinder didn’t want to acknowledge that obvious reality. Because she didn’t enjoy thinking about her other self’s relationship with Nick.

And she especially didn’t want to think about what had happened the last time she and Nick were together, when he had kissed her.

Repeatedly.

“…I don’t want this,” Cinder hissed, taking a step back. She hoped that her fatigue and exertion was masking the embarrassment on her sweaty face. “I’m not going to fucking work out in front of you, you bastard!”

Nick thought that was a little harsh, especially after how close he and Cinder had become recently (if you could call it that, anyway) but he didn’t say anything.

He knew that Cinder was sensitive to stuff like this. She needed to be given the space to thrive on her own, without his interference.

That was just the right decision to make, after all! Not putting unnecessary pressure on the poor girl but just letting her handle things as they came.

Nick wasn’t sure if it would really work out that way or not. But he didn’t want Cinder to feel like she couldn’t manifest in front of him without becoming humiliated.

So, he just nodded. “I’m sorry that Ella put you through that,” he said sincerely. “I can tell, you aren’t pleased by what happened, but-”

“Don’t blame Ella!” Cinder exclaimed. “It’s not her fault! It’s… it’s-!”

She wanted to say it was Nick’s fault, and accuse him of being a jerk and an asshole. But the words wouldn’t form on her lips.

Because it wasn’t Nick’s fault. Not in any way that she could substantially pin the blame on him for, at any rate.

And it wasn’t Ella’s fault, either. She had just been doing what came naturally to her. That was all. To blame her for that, to look down on her or chastise her for trying to make progress with the boy she had feelings for…

Could Cinder really hold that against her? Really?

…

Well, yes, she could, but she was trying really, really hard not to.

“Cinder…”

Startled, Cinder whipped her head around to see Dawn approaching her. The cat girl’s face was loaded with concern.

“What… what do you want?!” Cinder demanded, glaring and pointing an accusatory finger at the other girl. She eyed Dawn suspiciously, doubting that any good could come from interacting with the bespectacled brunette.

Just because Ella trusted her, that didn’t mean Cinder had to! …Even if their transformation was compelling her to give Dawn some grace.

Dawn took a deep breath, then exhaled. She raised her head and looked her friend in the eyes with a calmness in her gaze.

“…I just wanted to say that I feel for you,” she informed Cinder. “It must not have been fun to wake up suddenly and be here-”

“It wasn’t ‘suddenly’!” Cinder exclaimed, refusing to let anyone else, even Dawn, comfort her in her moment of crisis right now. “I’M the one who forced myself to the surface! Because someone needs to be looking out for Ella, if she’s not going to be looking out for herself!”

That put Dawn in a difficult position. She wanted to assuage Cinder’s concerns, but in her present state, she wasn’t sure if that was possible or not.

Which was where Kim stepped in.

With words that had a very good chance of making everything worse.

“So, what, you just came here to yell at everyone, then?” Kim asked sharply, stepping to face Cinder directly. “You wanted to come out, to protect Ella, I get that, but when you did, what, you were so scandalized because you couldn’t even handle a bit of exposure?”

“Kim…” Dawn winced, not sure how what Kim was doing was helping the situation.

Dani bit her lip. She knew that Kim had a bit of an earnest side to her, but like Dawn, she couldn’t see how this was making the situation better.

Cinder just glared at Kim, her mouth flopping open and closed.

“…Fuck you!” She exclaimed, stomping her foot. Unlike with Dawn, she felt no compulsion to be considerate towards the tomboy. “Like it’s my fault!?”

“You can just go away, right?” Kim put her hands on her hips. “Give Ella back her body? I mean, SHE clearly doesn’t have any qualms with looking like that, so if YOU’RE the one who has such a hard time dealing with it maybe YOU should leave, and let her have her body back. Huh?”

Cinder just stared incredulously at her.

Nick winced. He could see what Kim was trying to say, but she’d really picked the absolute worst time to have a confrontation like this.

Cinder wasn’t going to respond to such aggressive posturing.

“I…” Cinder was actually struggling to come up with a rebuttal. Which wasn’t good, because if she couldn’t talk her way out of a situation, the next step wasn’t admitting fault, it was just getting irrationally angry.

“Wait, hold on!” Dani planted herself between the two girls before the situation could escalate. She turned to Cinder, and gave her a compassionate look. “Don’t listen to Kim. This was my fault, Cinder, not yours.”

“Huh!? How?!” Kim exclaimed.

Cinder also wanted to know the answer to that question. She had no problem holding Dani accountable, but she wanted the full story. That way, she would know just how angry she had to be at the other woman.

“…I was a little too aggressive when it came to getting Ella into working out,” Dani admitted. “I could have just let her do a couple of easy stretches, but she seemed so enthusiastic that I got swept up in the moment and kept pushing her to do stuff that maybe she wasn’t ready for. So… if you’re upset that your body is feeling sore, it’s probably… because of me.”

Nick was surprised. He expected Dani to come up with some bullshit for why Cinder should blame her, but what his friend was admitting to wasn’t actually that far off from the truth. He had his qualms about whether or not Dani should actually be blamed for essentially doing what Ella asked her to do, but she wasn’t lying when she said that she may have been a bit more forceful than necessary.

Cinder stared at Dani with a sulky look in her eyes.

“…Is that really all you’ve got for me?” She muttered, shaking her head. “You really think I’m going to believe something like that?”

“…As opposed to what?” Dani asked her. “It’s the truth.”

Cinder bit the inside of her cheek. “…Then… it’s not your fault either?”

“Huh?!” Dani didn’t know how to respond to that. Everyone was at a loss for words. Instead of taking Dani’s bait and turning her aggression onto the tomboy, Cinder was actually backing down slightly. At least physically, anyway.

It looked like her body was deflating as she took a step back and lowered her head.

“…I understand what’s going on,” the angry girl muttered. “…So… Ella came here wanting to work out… and you coaxed her into stretching more than she was ready for… is that right?”

Dani nodded slowly. “So, like I said, it was my-”

“But, Ella didn’t let me take over until she went to the bathroom,” Cinder interrupted the tomboy. “I had tried… a few times before that… but… but she didn’t… she just… …Ugh! That stupid-!”

Cinder stopped herself before she cursed out her other half. That wasn’t how she was supposed to treat Ella, it wasn’t! Cinder, she… she just…

“…Why did she have to be so stubborn!?” Cinder groaned, completely ignorant as to the irony of her statement. “My whole purpose is to keep her from doing stuff like this! Aagh, fuck! FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!”

Kim winced. That was quite a lot of cursing.

No one really knew what to say in response to Cinder’s little temper tantrum. Nick wasn’t sure if there was even a proper statement to be made about it. He could tell that Cinder wasn’t in a very good mood, but…

Somehow, she’d managed to talk herself down. Almost.

At least she wasn’t turning her rage onto him.

“…Fuck,” Cinder finished, raising her head. “…I’m… so fucking stupid, aargh!” She started pacing back and forth, pulling at her greasy, sweat-drenched hair. “Ella, take over! Ella!”

She didn’t want to be here anymore, not after the mess she’d made of everything.

But of course, Ella wasn’t responding to her.

Cinder was on her own.

Dawn took a hesitant step towards the other girl. “Hey, Cinder-”

“Back off!” Cinder snapped, whirling around and shooting a cold glare at the cat girl. “Just… just back off, damn it, I don’t care!”

Dawn took her advice and backed off. It was probably for the best, anyway.

Kim was less willing to put up with that abuse.

“Hey, you’re the one who should back off!” She snapped, stepping forward and crossing her arms. “Dawn was just trying to help you! That’s no reason to bite her head off!”

“Guys, just calm down!” Nick desperately tried to maintain order, but he knew how stubborn Kim and Cinder could both be. He had a better chance of getting Rose and Mary to go in together on a baking project than he did of getting those two to back down.

Cinder’s eyes smoldered furiously, and Kim glared right back at her.

This was getting so much worse than Nick could have ever imagined…

He couldn’t just sit back and let two people he cared about tear each other to shreds.

This was his harem, after all. Could he really call himself a harem master if he didn’t put himself out there to help settle their differences?

…Not that that was a title he coveted.

“Listen, you two,” Nick said, stepping forward. “I think we all need to take a breath and calm down, alright?”

“I am calm,” Kim not-at-all calmly replied.

“Stay outta this!” Cinder snapped at him. “It has nothing to fucking do with you, Nick!”

Nick didn’t believe that for a second. He could see the fury in Cinder’s eyes and knew that she was just talking bullshit.

Half of her anger, if not the majority of it, was because HE had been here!

“Cinder, I get that you’re upset,” he said, ignoring the fire in the angry girl’s eyes, and the fury in her voice. “It was probably pretty embarrassing to regain control over your body and find yourself here, looking like that.”

Cinder narrowed her eyes. “I’m not embarrassed,” she snapped, even as her face burned with embarrassment. The clumsy words coming out of her mouth were so obvious that everyone in the room could see.

No one commented.

They all knew that it was up to Nick to defuse the bomb of a girl in front of them.

“Well, I would be,” Nick said bluntly. “If I woke up to find myself drenched in sweat in front of someone else.”

Cinder stared at him incredulously. “…Really?” Did he honestly expect her to buy that line of garbage from him?

Nick shrugged and gave her an awkward smile. “Well… no,” he admitted. “I have a bit more experience with stuff like that. But it would still be pretty embarrassing all the same.”

Cinder nodded slowly. “I just wanted to keep her from exerting herself,” she muttered, tugging on her tank top and smoothing it out, trying to keep it from clinging to her skin. “That’s all… I didn’t want to deal with this… this stupid shit,” she conceded.

She raised her head, and for the first time today, Nick saw a flicker of contrition and guilt flash through her eyes.

“…What should I do now?” She muttered. She knew the answer to that question. But her pride wouldn’t let her do what she knew was the right thing to do- admit her mistake.

Say she was sorry.

She just couldn’t.

“…Maybe we can think of this as all one big misunderstanding,” Nick suggested. “We were all just trying to do our best, and we had a pretty exhausting morning, and things just blew up without anyone meaning to!”

It was an olive branch. An excuse he extended to Cinder, to keep her from having to blame herself for everything that had happened.

Cinder didn’t take it.

“No, fuck that!” She spat at him, shaking her head furiously. “I overreacted, because you all pissed me off! And even if I AM sorry, the only reason I would even HAVE to apologize in the first place is because I wasn’t prepared to handle shit, and that was all your guys’ fault!”

That was about as close to an apology as anyone expected to get from her.

Until she actually DID apologize.

“…Sorry.”

The whole Gym was stunned into silence.