I'm a child, I'm a mother

As Nick found himself approach the Arcade Suite, he found himself in a bit of a complicated position. This definitely wasn’t how he expected to be spending his night, left to his own devices. Even with all the stuff that had already gone down today, he had been expecting to still be dragged along with the women in his harem to Gina’s slumber party, for some twisted game of “Spin the Bottle” or “Seven Minutes in Heaven” that Dakota would make sure was loaded with unnecessarily sexual “improvements” to the rules.

But no- he had the night to himself. And even though most of the women in his harem would be spending the night at Gina’s party, not all of them would be.

Which is what had led him here. While his harem was preparing for the night, he wanted to check in on Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin, to see if he could maybe convince her to go to the party after all.

He thought it would be good for her, to spend time with the other girls. She was a bit of a loner, save when she was getting clingy or possessive with him, or trying to show up the rest of the harem. But just hanging out with the others in a casual setting, getting along?

…Yeah, he wasn’t surprised that she would be giving this one a pass.

Nick knocked on the door, figuring there was a 50/50 chance of Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin answering. As he waited, he contemplated whether or not he was making a mistake. It had only been a couple of hours ago that the assassin had been emotionally overwhelmed, and actually cried in front of him. Maybe she didn’t have it in her to spend tonight around other people.

It wasn’t Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin who answered the door, though. It was Dawn, and she looked surprised to see him.

“Nick! What’s up?” She asked, her tail twitching behind her as her ears flicked with curiosity. “I was just about to get ready for Gina’s slumber party. I heard you’re not coming?”

“Yeah, no boys allowed, apparently,” Nick said, laughing it off. “Not a big deal. I’m actually looking for your roommate. I heard she’s not going.”

Dawn blinked, and her lips twitched slightly into a frown before shifting into a sly smirk. “Ah, I see. So while we’re doing girl talk and trying on nail polish or whatever it is girls do at slumber parties, you’re going to be playing with Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin, hmm?” She teased him. “I’m almost jealous. Maybe I should give the slumber party a pass too, then?”

“Dawn…” Nick protested weakly. “Come on, don’t be like that. We both know you’ve been looking forward to this for-”

“Relax,” the cat girl sighed, rolling her eyes. “I’m just kidding around. You’re so serious, Nick!” She laughed, socking him lightly in the arm. She shook her head and craned her neck back to glance over at her bed. “You can come in and talk with her if you want. Let me guess- you’re going to try and convince her to come?”

Nick was surprised by Dawn’s perceptiveness. He nodded.

Dawn laughed. “I figured. You’re so sweet! Looking out for her interests like that, trying to include her… aww, I could almost fall for you!” Her tail flicked cheerfully behind her as she stepped aside, and let Nick in. She stepped out of the room, giving the two of them some privacy.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin perked up when she saw Nick approach her. She hopped up off the bed and her ears twitched as a beaming smile stretched across her lips. She skipped over to Nick, who turned red at the sight of her approach.

“Hey, uh… could you… please put some clothes on?” Nick begged, holding up his hands frantically. Last time he’d seen her, she’d been wearing her usual leather. Now, she was stark naked, and didn’t seem to mind.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin stopped halfway into what would have been a giant hug, and frowned. Sighing silently, she rolled her eyes and trudged over to the closet, slipping on a skimpy tube top and pulling up some low-rider jeans. She turned back to Nick and held her arms out to the sides, mutely asking if this suited his tastes.

Nick just nodded in relief.

Clearing his throat, he changed the subject. “So, uh… I heard you weren’t going to the slumber party today,” he said, trying to sound casual. “You know, the one Gina’s holding?”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin deflated like a leaky balloon. Pressing her lips into a tight line, she nodded begrudgingly, and drilled two holes into Nick with her piercing blue eyes.

Nick shifted uncomfortably.

“Look, I mean… you don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” he said gently, taking a few steps closer to her. “But I think you’ll enjoy yourself. Getting to spend time with the other girls in my harem. Doesn’t that sound fun?”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin pointed a finger gun at Nick, jerking it up to mime taking a shot at his heart.

“…No, I’m not going to be there,” Nick confirmed her suspicions with a shake of his head. “I’m not invited. But you should still go! You’ll get the chance to hang out casually with the others, and make friends. After all, you’ve never been to a slumber party before, right?”

The assassin shook her head. It took a second for Nick to realize she wasn’t just saying no to having gone to a slumber party before, but turning down the notion of going altogether.

“Well… you don’t have to,” Nick said. “I just thought, well… you might want to.”

The mute assassin raised her eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. She looked at Nick like she couldn’t believe he actually believed that.

…Which was fair.

“…Maybe not,” Nick admitted, scratching his cheek. “But aren’t you going to get lonely?” Part of him knew he should just drop the subject and leave her alone. Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin had made her position very clear, and forcing the matter would just cause her to dig her heels in. But he couldn’t help himself.

He felt bad for her, that the other girls were doing something and she wasn’t. Even Ella was going, apparently, and if someone as antisocial as her could muster up the courage to go to something like this, then surely Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin could, right?

Unless… maybe I’m just thinking about this all wrong. Maybe she really just isn’t interested.

Nick sighed and gave the stubborn assassin a smile. “Okay… I’m not going to **** you,” he said gently. “If you don’t want to go, that’s your choice.”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s eyes widened in surprise, and a wave of relief washed over her body as she visibly relaxed. She nodded gently, and smiled. Nick was glad to see that she was accepting the situation.

Nick turned to leave- but he should have realized that Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin wouldn’t let it go that easily. Before he could take two steps, a strong hand wrapped around his collar and yanked him backwards.

“H-hey!” Nick gasped as he was thrown to the floor. Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin leapt atop him, staring down at her captured prey with a look of triumph burning in her sparkling blue eyes. Her lips curled up into a smirk and she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

Nick didn’t need to be a genius to figure out that she had other ideas for how the two of them could spend their time together, if they both weren’t going to the slumber party.

“Well, looks like I came back just in time.”

Nick stiffened and his eyes shot up to look at Dawn standing in the doorway with an amused smirk on her lips. The awkward angle he had almost let him stare up her skirt, but thankfully not.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin wore an amused smirk of her own as she looked up at the cat girl, not backing down for a second.

Dawn didn’t seem that upset on Nick’s behalf, though. She just shrugged.

“Could we not do this in our bedroom?” She asked calmly. “I believe you’ve made that mistake once today already, Nick.”

Nick’s face burned as he remembered the steamy encounter with Rose earlier that day. He tried to stand up, but Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin remained perched on his stomach, refusing to let him. In fact, she rubbed the crotch of her jeans against his belly, trying to arouse him a little.

“Hey.” Dawn was quickly becoming less amused. “Let him up.”

“Yeah, Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin, please,” Nick asked.

The assassin pouted, but she relented, and got up to let him stand. Nick scrambled to his feet and looked up at the assassin, who watched him carefully.

“Let me guess, she wanted the two of you to get up to your own fun, since you wouldn’t be going to the slumber party?” As usual, Dawn figured things out fast.

Nick nodded. “Yeah, we-”

“Frankly, I think that’s a good idea,” Dawn agreed, surprising Nick.

“Huh!?”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin perked up, looking at Dawn in a whole new light. Suddenly the cat girl wasn’t an annoying roommate who was fun to tease. The mute assassin nodded in agreement with Dawn’s proposal.

Dawn was happy to explain. “Well, you’re going to be all on your own tonight, right? Since the other girls and I are all going with Gina. If you ask me, I think that makes for the perfect opportunity to get to know Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin a little better! Since she’s not going to be coming anyway. …Oh, but maybe don’t tell Rose. You know how she can be.”

Nick didn’t like it, but Dawn was right. If he told Rose, she’d likely do exactly what Dawn joked about doing, and skip the slumber party just to get more alone time with him. And while he wasn’t opposed to that idea in principle, Rose had really seemed to be looking forward to tonight, and he didn’t want to take that away from her.

“Probably a good idea,” he agreed. He glanced over at Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin, who looked at him with eyes brimming with hope.

Smiling awkwardly, Nick shrugged. “So, uh… do you want to hang out together tonight, then?” He asked. Since he couldn’t convince her to attend the slumber party (especially now that Dawn put this idea in her head) it seemed like an acceptable alternative.

The assassin couldn’t nod fast enough. Immediately she entwined her arm around his, and practically dragged Nick towards the door.

“Good luck!” Dawn called after him cheerily.

As the door slammed behind them, Nick was just glad that Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin didn’t immediately throw him down to the ground and start mounting him again then and there. It was definitely her style. But as she sauntered into the lounge, it seemed she could at least behave modestly in public.

For now, anyway.

Nick noted that Nola and the faeries were busy in the lounge area, setting things up for the party. Chips and soda, pizzas, sleeping bags, they had it all!

“Ah! Please excuse the clutter!” Nola chirped, skipping over to Nick. “Sorry, I know the master is usually permitted access to everywhere in the hotel, but right now, you’ll have to go, I know that doesn’t seem fair, but it is no boys allowed, so-”

“No, it’s fine,” Nick assured her. “We were just leaving.”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin nodded sharply, digging her fingernails into Nick’s arm. She was getting possessive and territorial again, even though Nola wasn’t even in Nick’s harem. That was just the kind of woman she was.

“The Master Suite is free, though!” Nola said, winking at the assassin. “If you wanted to go spend time playing in there!”

The insinuation was about as subtle as every other word out of the leprechaun’s lips. Nick opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, someone else he didn’t expect to see approached the group.

“Good evening, you both,” Amelia said, adjusting her glasses. She turned and nodded to Nola as well. “And to you, of course.”

Nola blinked, and fought back a frown, forcing the cheery smile she always wore to stay plastered to her face. It wasn’t that she disliked Amelia personally or anything, but… she was irish.

Kind of.

“You didn’t change your mind about the slumber party, did you?” Nola chirped. “Gina could always fit you in…”

“I did not,” Amelia replied, shaking her head. “I wanted to talk to my stepson, in fact.”

“Oh?” Nick was surprised to hear that. “What about?”

“How you will be spending your time tonight,” Amelia said. “…And the company you will be spending it with.”

She looked over at Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin, and so did Nick. Normally, the assassin was incredibly expressive, and wore her heart on her sleeve, even if the exact nature of her feelings was a little harder to get a read on. But right now, it was hard to tell what she was thinking.

“Do you have any plans for the night?” Amelia clarified. “That is what I meant to ask. I do believe it would be a good bonding moment, for the two of you.”

Nick relaxed. So Amelia wasn’t expressing any disapproval of him and Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin spending the night together.

“Well, we were planning, uh…” Nick glanced at the assassin again. It was kind of awkward, explaining to his stepmother that his “date” for the evening was about to drag him to the Master’s Suite to have a ton of sex.

That was the kind of awkward conversation he wanted to avoid.

But to Nick’s surprise, Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin let him go. She lunged forward, and grabbed Amelia by the arm.

Amelia looked at her in alarm for a moment. Like Nick, she was completely perplexed by the sudden shift of behavior.

Then Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin yanked her forward, nearly pulling Amelia on top of Nick.

“Ex-excuse me?” Amelia stammered, pulling her wrist back. It wasn’t often that Amelia got flustered like this, which surprised Nick as well.

The assassin stared adamantly at her. She grabbed Nick’s wrist in one hand, while taking Amelia’s again with the other. And she squeezed both tightly.

Nick’s eyes widened. He figured out what she was after now, but it came completely by surprise.

“Wait, are you saying… you want the three of us to spend the day together?” He questioned.

Dakota had raised that as an idea earlier tonight. But he’d dismissed it, since he figured that, after the two of them spent the morning locked in a room together, there was no way they’d want to spend even more time around one another.

And, well… he was half-right. Amelia certainly didn’t look thrilled by Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s proposition. But she had enough composure to not express that directly to the assassin, keeping a stoic expression on her face the entire time as she considered the other girl’s proposition carefully.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin looked up at the both of them like an eager child, desiring to spend the night with her parents. Which was an unnerving thought all on its own.

Especially if she still wanted to have sex.

“That would be acceptable,” Amelia conceded, adjusting her glasses with her free hand. “Do you have any objections, Nicholas?”

Well, ball was in his court, now.

Nick shook his head. “I think… if that’s what you want, I’m fine with it, Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin. Who knows? It might even be fun!”

The assassin beamed at him, and nodded cheerfully.

As she led the two of them towards the elevator, with Nola waving them off, Nick considered the situation.

Weighing events, he actually saw it as a bit of a positive if he was being honest. Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin wasn’t the kind of girl who made friends easily. She liked him, and she was very attached to Kim as well, and as far as “friends” went, that was pretty much it.

So he was glad to see there was someone else she had cozied up to, even if that person was his stepmother. Nick had no idea what had happened that morning, when they had their lessons- but whatever it was, Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin had definitely bonded with Amelia over it, and that was a good thing.

He hoped.

“Wait,” Nick said, stopping the assassin before she could take the elevator to the Master’s Suite.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin looked impatiently up at him, clearly frustrated that he was slamming the brakes. But Nick had another idea in mind.

“Instead of going up to the Master’s Suite right now, why don’t we do something else?” He suggested. “I mean, there’s all sorts of things we can do to have fun, right?”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s ears twitched, and she looked curiously at him.

“What are you proposing?” Amelia asked curiously. Nick was glad she was being so tolerant of this- he would have expected her to not go along with the assassin’s whims.

“Well, remember, um, what that faerie mentioned yesterday?” Nick tried to jog the assassin’s memory. “She said our pottery would be ready for painting today. And since we have the opportunity, I thought maybe this was a good idea to go with.”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s eyes widened and her mouth twisted into a surprised “O” shape. She didn’t even consider that!

Nick scratched his cheek. “Well, uh… if-if you want, I mean-”

She nodded rapidly, and grabbed both of his hands.

Oh yeah, she definitely wanted.

A few seconds later, the elevator came to a stop in the Shopping District, and Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin skipped out, followed by Nick and Amelia.

“It seems you have made excellent progress with her,” Amelia noted. She looked at Nick, and he swore he could see pride gleaming in her deep green eyes.

He blushed.

“Well, I mean… I’m trying to get closer to her,” he said. “And you’re one to talk. I’m just glad… that she has someone else she can rely on now.”

Amelia nodded. She turned and looked over at the eager assassin, who was waving impatiently at them.

“In my eyes, she is like another child to me,” the older woman said gently. “So of course I will take care of her.”

Nick nodded. He was glad to hear that. And glad that Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin already looked like she was having a good time.