Come on now, baby, give me just one look

“Run, Nick!” Gina cupped her hands over her mouth and shouted to him from her perch behind the concession stand. “They’re gaining on you!”

“I know they are!” Nick grumbled as he was chased by three animatronic bears wielding various cutting implements. The one in the lead swung a chainsaw around wildly while the two flanking him brandished a massive machete and a pair of axes, respectively.

Sure, maybe he couldn’t get hurt in Dream Alley, but it definitely did a good job of putting him on the defensive.

Gina was trying not to laugh. Seeing Nick running like that was amusing, now that she knew there was no danger to be had.

She was in complete control of her environment again. Which meant that she could do as she liked with Nick at her side!

Andy knew me better than I thought, I guess, Gina considered as she grinned in delight. She grabbed a rolled-up loaf of bread (why that was here, only her mind could tell her) and hucked it across the plaza, hitting one of the bears in the head.

Without the danger, this is actually a lot of fun!

“Over here!” She shouted at the animatronics. “I’m a lot more fun to chase!”

Gina hopped over the counter and turned her back on the robots, and wiggled her bountiful booty at them.

The trio of bears turned their heads, not at all seduced by the gesture but definitely enraged, and switched targets.

Gina grinned from ear to ear. She wasn’t much of a runner, but hey- this was Dream Alley. She could be the fastest woman in the world if she wanted to be! Instead of going that far, though, she just settled for regulating her stamina levels so that she wouldn’t get tired out from running away from the angry animatronics.

This was a dream! You didn’t get tired in a dream! …Well, except the dreams where you were tired. But Gina wasn’t thinking about that stuff right now. She was just focused on the running part, and the part where she was enjoying herself!

Yes, that was much better.

Nick knew what Gina was after, and he could endorse her playful actions a little bit. But at the same time, he knew that Gina was also playing with fire.

“We should probably split up,” he urged her as they regrouped. “We don’t want to deal with these guys outnumbered, do we?”

“Don’t we?” Gina looked at him with a curious gleam in her eyes. “I’m not so sure, to be honest,” she said with a teasing lilt in her voice.

Nick wasn’t sure what she was playing at, but he could guess. “If we split up, one of them will probably chase one of us, and we can even the odds,” he pointed out. “Don’t you think that’s the best course of action here?”

Gina could appreciate the logic of his conclusion. But that was all it was.

Logic.

Gina didn’t want to be logical right now! She wanted to have fun!

“No way!” She grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight, and shook her head adamantly. “I don’t want to split up! That would miss the point entirely!”

Nick was still looking at this as a game he was trying to win. Well, that wouldn’t do! This wasn’t a game to Gina, not at all! No, this whole thing was about the two of them spending time together and having fun! Like Andy said, a heart-pounding date event where the two of them got closer to each other and had a blast!”

“I’m not leaving you alone!” Gina vowed, her heart pounding in her chest. “You and I, we’re going to make it through this, together! …That way!”

Nick snapped his head to the side to follow where Gina was pointing. A thin line of black obsidian wove through two wide pools of glowing sand, one blue and one red. In the dim light of the darkened amusement park, it was hard to make out the path, but he was able to see it would be tricky to make it across.

“Are you sure we can run across that?” He asked. It was just narrow enough. No way could they walk side by side, and Gina wasn’t letting go of his hand, either.

Until she did.

“We can,” Gina confidently assured him with a twinkle in her eye. “But the thing is? Those guys? No way will they be able to!”

She smirked smugly over her shoulder at the advancing animatronics, and took a step onto the black stone.

With a sense of balance that would have impressed even Dawn, Gina made her way across the narrow spite of obsidian. Nick followed right behind her, neither of them confident enough to be able to run with all the twists and turns on the smooth surface, but they didn’t have to. Because there was no way that the bulky animatronic bears would be able to follow them onto such a thin strip of stone.

They were completely safe!

Nick looked back, expecting to see three bears standing at the edge of the platform.

That was not what he saw.

“Uh, Gina?” Nick poked her in the shoulder.

“What?” Gina asked, looking back, confused.

Then she saw what Nick was seeing, and she figured out what the issue was.

“…Oh. Uh, yeah, didn’t think about that,” she sheepishly admitted, cracking a smile.

Nick stared at her, stunned. “How did you not think about it!?”

Honestly, though, Nick was just projecting his frustrations, because the idea hadn’t occurred to him, either.

The stone bridge was split between two pits of sand. Not lava or water or anything.

So, of course, the trio of bears decided to forgo the path, and were trekking hardily through the red sand, and at their pace, they were gaining on the two of them.

“Whelp! So much for that plan!” Gina laughed. She started running down the trail now. “Let’s get a move on, then- WAaaaaaaahhh!”

“Gina!” For a brief second, Nick felt a stab of fear when he saw Gina tumble off the narrow stone bridge. But that only lasted a moment before he remembered that this was Dream Alley, and she wasn’t actually in any danger. Needless to say, Gina landed on her butt hard in the sand, but she poked her head up a second later with a sheepish smile on her face.

“Whelp!” She chuckled, scratching the back of her head to get the sand out of her hair. “I guess I’m not much of a mountain goat, eh?”

“It’s fine,” Nick said. He made it to the end of the pathway and onto another stone platform, and extended his hand to help Gina up with him. “As long as you’re having fun, it doesn’t really matter, does it?”

Gina’s eyes twinkled. “NOW you’re getting it,” she replied with a nod, and turned her attention to the advancing band. “And luckily, we’ve found ourselves in the perfect place!”

Nick wasn’t sure what Gina was talking about at first, but then he saw her walk over to one of the stands and pick up…

“…Is that a gun!?” He sputtered in disbelief. “Why do you have guns here!?”

Gina shrugged. “Shooting gallery,” she replied, as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. “And they aren’t fake guns, either. At least, not in my dream.”

Nick shook his head. “Gina, if you ever make this place in the real world, I’m going to recommend a few changes.”

“Hmm? You mean like less homicidal animatronic animal musicians?” She asked.

“…Among other things.” Nick stepped aside and let Gina get to work.

Obviously, Gina had no idea how machine guns worked. The only guns she’d ever held had been in challenges on this show. But, this was a dream. She didn’t have to make things any more complicated than point and click.

So, that was what she did. Point, then click. And she ignored the recoil as well, for good measure. No sense in spoiling the fun with realism or anything!

It also wasn’t loud, either, which Nick was grateful for. He stood back and watched as Gina mowed down all the animatronics while laughing giddily like this was all one big game. Which, to be fair, it was, but Nick still felt a little weirded out by the whole thing.

Like, maybe she was enjoying herself a little too much.

Soon enough, though, his fears were mollified, because Gina stopped firing and lowered the machine gun. She wasn’t being sadistic, she was just being thorough, and she had definitely done her job. The animatronics were all wrecked and lying broken and useless in the sand below, and Gina’s face was practically glowing.

She looked at Nick with an almost expectant gleam in her eyes, like she wanted him to praise her. And Nick was at a bit of a loss as to whether or not he should, at this point. Smiling awkwardly, he scratched his cheek, and said “Good girl” to her, knowing what that would do.

Gina’s eyes went wide and the gun slipped from her fingers and clattered useless on the stone floor as she trembled like a leaf. She tried to suppress her moans in vain as she twitched and howled with delight, and nearly collapsed to the ground.

Nick couldn’t help but smile. She’d really gone a little crazy, hadn’t she?

“That… that was… w-wow…” Gina staggered back up straight, her face a little hazy and her vision was a little blurry, but she was grinning from ear to ear. “I don’t think I’ve had fun like that in… wow… a really long time,” she murmured, pressing her lips tightly together.

Nick shrugged. “Glad I could help out,” he replied. “You look… refreshed.”

That was one word for it.

“What’s that term again?” Gina stretched her arms above her head, forcing Nick to avert his eyes or risk seeing the tattoos stretching from her wrist to her sleeve. “When you and someone else experience something dangerous, and you mistake it for romantic excitement…?”

“The suspension bridge effect?” Nick asked.

Gina snapped her fingers. “Yeah! That’s what I was thinking of!” She flashed him a smile. “Had a bit of fun with the suspension bridge effect, didn’t we?”

So, that was the impetus behind this whole “crazy park of animatronics” thing. Nick couldn’t blame Gina for wanting to have a good time like that. Honestly, he’d kind of enjoyed himself.

Still…

“So, what now?” He asked, looking down at the wrecked assortment of robot parts and artificial fur littering the ground below. “Do we just… leave?”

Gina huffed and shook her head. “No need to stop having fun now!” She snapped her fingers and the robots that she’d wrecked quickly reassembled themselves. “Remember, this is Dream Alley!” She reminded him.

“We can have as much fun with these guys as we want!”

Nick tried to seem enthusiastic about the idea. He really did. But the smile he forced onto his face must have been more obvious than he’d thought, because when Gina looked at him, the light in her eyes dimmed slightly.

“I mean… if you’re not enjoying yourself, we don’t have to,” she said quietly, looking down. “I just wanted to do some fun stuff, you know…”

“It’s not that I didn’t find it fun,” Nick said quickly, not wanting to spoil her mood. “It just… felt a little excessive to me, that’s all.”

Gina blinked. “…Excessive?” She asked, tilting her head to the side. “Why do you think it was excessive? Because of the gun?”

Yes.

“…Maybe I went a little overboard,” she conceded with a sheepish smile. The covering over the dome receded, and the natural sunlight of the park returned. “Still… it was pretty fun, don’t you think, Nick? Like one of those survival horror video games!”

“Yeah… it definitely was exciting!” Nick didn’t have to pretend when it came to that. Gina’s idea- or rather, Andy’s idea- may have been terrifying in a lot of ways, but in the end? He’d actually enjoyed himself a lot.

Although, Gina herself seemed a little dissatisfied. Nick hoped it wasn’t his fault.

“Did you really want to keep getting chased around by those guys?” He asked. “If that’s what you want, then-”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Gina said quickly, shaking her head. “It’s not like… well…”

It was hard for her to express her feelings to him, after everything that happened. She bit her lip and looked at Nick’s face for a moment, and then exhaled.

“…I really did have a lot of fun,” she conceded. “But this date is supposed to be about the both of us! And maybe…”

“Gina, I just told you, I enjoyed myself,” Nick said, walking over and placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. He gave it a squeeze. “You don’t have to be so worried, okay? I’m not going to lose it and get upset with you just because we had a bit of a wild time together, and it ended up being a little more stimulating than I expected.”

This date was about more than what Nick wanted. It was about making sure that Gina had fun. And that was Nick’s number one priority here.

Gina seemed to be able to tell that, which was a good sign. The small smile that crossed her lips and the look of relief in her eyes was reassurance enough for him.

Now, they just had to figure out what to do next.

Gina dismissed the animatronics and left the gun where it was. “There are a lot of fun things we can do here,” she said, rebounding immediately as an excited smile appeared on her lips. “How about we go to the rock-climbing wall? Don’t you want to try some rock-climbing?”

Nick shrugged. “I mean, sure, I’m up for that,” he agreed. “…Wait, have you ever even done rock-climbing before, though?” He asked.

Gina blinked, and gave him an innocent look.

“Well… not that I can remember,” she said, shaking her head. “But, there’s a first time for everything, right?”

He almost burst out laughing.

“I think it’ll be a lot of fun,” he said, glad that Gina would be willing to experiment with something like that.

As long as she was trying out new things and expanding her perspective, Nick would be happy.

Plus- this seemed like something that she might actually enjoy. And, even better, they could do it without risking her falling and hurting herself!

That was almost as important.

“I don’t know why I thought this would be fun,” Gina said, groaning. “My arms are getting sore, what’s with that!? I’m just climbing!”

Nick didn’t know what to say to the girl beside him. “Gina, this is a dream,” he reminded her. “YOUR dream. If you don’t want your arms to be sore, well… don’t make them sore.”

“No, you’re not getting the point,” Gina groaned. She rolled her eyes. “There’s no reason to practice with something like this if I’m just going to wimp out on it anyway, right?” She pointed out.

For Gina, this was an experiment to see if she would like rock-climbing or not. But, having never gone rock-climbing before, she wanted to know what she was in for. So, yes, like with the gun, when she’d eliminated the complicated aspects of aiming and shooting and the recoil, she could have removed all the inconvenient parts of exercising and had a good time.

But that wouldn’t actually address her concerns, would it?

Nick had to admit- he was impressed that Gina was approaching this with such a mature, nuanced perspective.

He was actually pretty proud of her.

“Okay, Gina,” he said encouragingly, “just stick with it a bit, okay? The reason you’re feeling so sore is probably because your body isn’t used to moving like this, right?”

“Talk about an understatement,” Gina mumbled. From where she was standing on the side of the cliff wall, holding onto the colored artificial rocks, it felt like she was tied up in a torture dungeon, and not the fun kind.

Her shoulders felt like they were going to rip out of her sockets!

“Do I have to put up with this!?” She groaned. “This is torture!”

“We can always stop,” Nick said, sensing that Gina might need a break.

But, Gina was stubborn. “No, no way!” She pouted. “I’m going to get good at this! I just need… stamina, that’s all!”

If there was one thing that Nick could say about Gina’s progress as a person, it was that she’d found a new sense of determination. Honestly, he was impressed. The Gina he remembered had always been a little quick to give up when things were inconvenient or didn’t go her way.

But not this Gina.

No, this Gina wanted to make it to the top of the cliff, even though she didn’t need to. Even though she could take the easy way out, that wasn’t her intention.

She wanted to accomplish something on her own.

Gina had told him in a bout of depression that she couldn’t see any future for herself other than wasting away on someone’s couch (his) and accomplishing nothing of importance with her life.

Nick had considered that a possibility at the time, but now?

Now, she seemed to determined to prove herself wrong, and the best part was that she didn’t even seem cognizant of the fact that she was doing so. She’d devoted herself completely to working hard and pushing herself to the limit, and Nick was impressed by her resolve.

I think you’ve changed more than you think you have, Gina, Nick thought, a small smile touching his lips. I’m proud of you.

Nick had every confidence that this Gina wouldn’t end up being worthless. Even if she couldn’t make it to the top of the cliff, or never wanted to do rock-climbing again, that didn’t matter.

Gina was setting her mind to something and not giving up, and that was the important thing. She was taking this seriously.

And if she could do that in circumstances like this, when it didn’t matter, then he knew she could do it when it came to her own life. He believed in her completely!