No one likes a girl who wears a silly frown

Nick didn’t know why he expected Dawn to be sleeping next to him when he woke up that morning. Maybe because he was used to the excitement of the night before wearing off by the time morning came, like when Morgana was affected by Mary’s milk, or when he returned to the Master’s Suite after his date with Kim.

…Then again, Kim’s breasts hadn’t reduced in size after returning to the Master’s Suite, because Dakota hadn’t reset her Sick Day transformation yet. So why would he expect the transformations Dawn had received to wear off?

No, if Nick had been thinking clearly immediately upon waking up, he would have realized that Dawn had purchased the transformations after the Master’s Suite opened up at six in the morning, which meant that the 24 hours it lasted had not elapsed yet. And since Dakota was always strict about deadlines (unless it was funny or sexy not to be) he really shouldn’t have been surprised to wake up to two cat girls each clinging to one of his arms while rubbing their pussies against a thigh each.

A sigh escaped Nick’s lips and he tried to sit up, but the Dawn on his left had a firm grip, practically digging her nails into his arm.

The Dawn on his right, on the other hand, let him go a little easier, which was a surprise. They were both supposed to be symmetrical, so if he could get out from one of them, then that meant-

“Aww… are you leaving? Already…?”

Nick turned to the Dawn on his right, who was rubbing her eyes and looking up at him with a pout on her face. She couldn’t make him out clearly without her glasses, but she let him go regardless.

“I should probably take a shower, and I need to get some clean clothes on,” Nick said, indicating his state of undress beneath the sheets.

Drowsy Dawn blinked and stared at him, still clearly in the throes of slumber more than she wasn’t. Although not as much as her counterpart on his left, who still had him locked up tight in a vice and refusing to set him free.

“…I should probably shower too,” the tired girl admitted, reaching over and prying her other self’s hands off of Nick’s arm. The other girl let out a whine and thrashed about for a second before settling down with a whimper and sinking back into bed, turning over and feeling for a Nick that wasn’t there anymore.

As Nick evaded the snoozing girl’s searching hands lest he be stuck in bed all morning, he glanced at the Dawn who had let him go. Judging by the mature decision she made, he figured that she was the responsible one of the two.

“Auburn, I’m guessing?” He took a stab in the dark.

The cat girl’s tired face took a somber turn and she nodded slightly. “Is it that obvious?” She mumbled in disappointment.

Nick winced. “It’s not like there’s anything wrong with you,” he said gently. “I just took a guess. Just a stab in the dark.”

“…Right,” Auburn nodded. She glanced over at Bianca, who was still snoring away with a delightfully indulgent grin on her face. “Because she’s here snoozing, while I have to wake up on time and be the responsible one, getting ready for the day.”

A child could have picked up on the resentment and regret in the woman’s voice. Nick sighed sympathetically and reached out to pat her on the head.

Auburn responded first with surprise, then with delight, rubbing up against his hand. She indulged quite a bit herself before realizing what was going on, and her face turned red in embarrassment. She yanked herself away from him, cheeks flushed.

“Hey-!” She pouted, crossing her arms over her exposed chest. “What’s the big deal, huh?!”

Nick shook his head. “No big deal,” he replied, charmed and amused by Auburn’s response. “But I think you’re taking this too seriously.”

Auburn gave him a frosty look. “That’s kind of my thing, or haven’t you forgotten?” She reminded him. “I’m the-”

“The responsible one, yes, you and Bianca made that quite clear,” Nick cut her off. “But you don’t have to do that right now. You’re going to be turning back into Dawn sooner or later,” he reminded her. “Both of you are. Do you really want to spend that time doing the boring, mundane stuff that Dawn would have to do? Because if I were you, I might feel like taking a page out of Bianca’s book and just relaxing all morning. After the performance you two put on last night, I think you deserve it,” he poined out.

Auburn looked over at her sleeping counterpart, who was the picture of serene contentment. Even without her glasses Auburn could see that.

“…If I did that, Dawn would get a late start to her day,” Auburn pointed out. “Which is an unfortunate recurring theme.”

“Yeah, but is it really on you to make sure she doesn’t?” Nick asked. He felt a little guilty, knowingly sabotaging Dawn like this, but he couldn’t help himself.

Auburn stifled a laugh. “I am Dawn, you know,” she reminded him, earning her another shrug from her guy. “…But yeah. She can adapt. You’re right… Bianca’s got the right idea.”

She’d always been doing the right and mature thing, and beating herself up when she let Bianca take control and guide her into something Dawn- that is to say, she- wouldn’t approve of.

Was it so bad to take it easy for just a little while more, and sleep in?

Nick was right.

“Okay then…” Auburn murmured, flopping back down onto her pillow and curling up into a ball, purring her way back into a deep sleep.

Nick smiled, glad to see the two cat girls sleeping together like this. Dawn worked so hard all the time, and seeing her finally relaxing, even if it was the both of them, it was nice.

He got out of bed and went to start his morning. As the shower ran, the smell of delicious food from the kitchen alerted him to the fact that Mary had woken up herself. Or maybe she had been awake the whole time, and simply kept a low profile for his sake.

After coming out of the bathroom in a fresh change of clothes, Nick was surprised to see that what he’d expected to be a late morning in bed for the two Dawns had turned out to be little more than a cat nap. A nice bit of irony. They were both back in their clothes, and getting ready to dig in to a nice morning feast prepared by his wife.

And as an even better surprise, they weren’t being snippy. They ate her food with gracious smiles and even levied compliments on her, as if all the competitiveness they’d engaged in last night had just been a dream.

Nick wondered if they had finally been satisfied.

“So what are your plans for today?” Auburn asked as she dug into her breakfast. As the more mature offset of Dawn, she was focused on thinking forward. “Your partner tonight is Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin, right?”

“She could be fun,” Bianca noted, talking with food in her mouth. “Got anything special planned for the two of you?”

Nick shook his head. “I promised her I’d spend time with her today, but we never really ironed out what that meant,” he said. “Honestly my schedule has been so packed since Gina’s party I haven’t really had the opportunity to catch up with anybody.”

Vivian had taken him on a date out of the hotel all day, and the Dawns had worked hard to avoid running into anyone. He had no idea what the state of his harem was like right now. But he couldn’t really worry about that, either.

“Things were fine while you and Vivian were gone,” Auburn volunteered. “I think everybody took a bit of a personal day for themselves, after that party.”

“I had a cooking class yesterday,” Mary added. “Nothing too serious. I think the week’s been winding down pretty nicely, honestly.”

“No new bounties?” Bianca asked, her ears twitching curiously.

“I was curious about that, too,” Auburn said. “I know we got one, but what about the other girls? Nothing?”

Bianca scoffed. “Talk about a waste!” She said, crossing her arms over her chest and puffing out her cheeks. “With the boon everybody got, you’d think there would be all kinds of new bounties to really pump up the amount of BP earned, since we’re all getting double!”

“It could be Dakota doesn’t want to flood the market so she’s keeping things under control,” Auburn guessed. “We did kind of sneak around her by arranging it so everybody won the event at Gina’s party, you know?”

“Yeah, but it felt like Dakota was kind of leading things in that direction,” Nick recalled. “Mary, what do you think?”

He looked to his wife for confirmation, but she shook her head.

“I wouldn’t know,” she admitted. “I don’t go to the lounge much. But from what I can tell, nobody’s been talking about any bounties. …Oh, but yesterday, Vivian came up with this scheme involving Kim’s transformation upgrade, you know, the one where she can get the full cost of BP if she sells out of the shop? Apparently she had this financial scheme-”

“Wait, let me guess.” Auburn pinched the bridge of her nose as she felt the beginnings of a migraine coming on. “Kim sells items and makes double the BP. Then she gives half back to the person who bought the item, thus allowing, in theory, a method to circumvent all clothing purchases in the short-term and generate unlimited wealth for everyone. Is that about right?”

Mary’s eyes widened and she nodded. “Yeah, something like that! Gosh, you’re really smart! You and Vivian! I never would have thought of something like that!”

“Yeah, because it’s basically fraud,” Bianca sniggered. “Nice work, Vivian!”

“No way would Dakota let something like that slide,” Nick said, shaking his head. Auburn and Bianca sadly had to agree.

Mary nodded. “Nope. Apparently Nola came in and shut the whole thing down. Said something about calling in the SEC?”

Dakota popped into the room and cleared her throat to make her presence known. “Yes, an investigative group looking into the Sexual Exploitation of Currency,” she explained. “No gaming of the system, thank you very much.”

Auburn and Bianca bristled, and both shot worried looks to the other. Nick tensed as well. If Dakota was here, then that meant the two cat girls would soon become one.

Dakota scrunched up her nose. “What’s the matter? You all look so terrified! A bad night?”

“No, it was great!” Bianca said, shaking her head.

Auburn frowned. “We’re just a little… concerned, that’s all.”

Dakota raised her eyebrow. “Concerned?”

“Dakota, they’re still people,” Nick pointed out. “I know they’re just parts of Dawn, but they can be a little worried about the loss of their originality. Their individuality. It’s a deep, existential question, you know! If Auburn and Bianca are separate individuals now, then if you combine them back into Dawn, wouldn’t that be the same as them both ceasing to exist? I know that’s how the transformation works, and it’s not really ****, but can you blame them for being a little hesitant?”

Dakota looked at him with an expression that Nick could best describe as a computer loading screen stuck in a buffer loop as it tried to process a corrupted input.

Then she turned to Auburn and Bianca.

“…Is he serious right now?” She asked incredulously.

Bianca laughed. “He’s so silly!”

Auburn shrugged. “Don’t look at me. He came up with that all on his own.”

Nick blinked, taken aback by their reactions. “Wait, what?”

The two cat girls giggled.

“Nick, we’re not worried about stuff like that!” Bianca snorted. “You watch too many movies.”

Auburn shook her head. “We’ve never once thought about our situation that way, don’t worry. We’re both well aware that we’re individual parts of Dawn that will be combining together.”

Bianca nodded in agreement. “Yup, definitely. There’s no existential crisis here or ‘what if I disappear?!’ because we don’t see it that way.”

“We’re two parts of Dawn becoming one,” Auburn said plainly. “That’s as far as this goes.”

Nick blushed, feeling a little sheepish. But it wasn’t his fault! Even though the girls were right and they were both Dawn in his eyes, the little minute differences had led him to consider Auburn and Bianca more like twins sometimes.

But after they put it in perspective, he was able to calm down and think about it rationally, and saw that they were right.

“Consider it like this,” Dakota unhelpfully chimed in even though the issue had already been resolved. “Your right hand and your left hand are both a part of you, and these two are the same! Just extensions of the original! …Although, unlike with your hands it would be poor form to pick a favorite, I suppose…”

Nick shot her a dirty look. That didn’t make things better.

Both Dawns giggling at the overt masturbation joke made it worse, actually.

Instead of calling her out, though, he said something else instead. “…Thanks for yesterday.”

Dakota blinked, clearly not expecting that. “Oh?”

“The date, at the Amusement Park,” he clarified. “You really helped us out a lot there, moving things around to make it convenient for us.”

“Yeah, thanks for that!” Bianca nodded. “After throwing up, getting a short walk to the carnival games really helped!”

“Don’t forget shifting things to bring the food stands to us in the first place, too,” Auburn added. “And the Ferris Wheel at the end there.”

Dakota scoffed. “It’s what any host would have done,” she replied, flexing her fingers possessively around her cane.

“True,” Nick could acknowledge that, but at the same time… “But you also could have arranged it so we’d run into someone. Instead, the park was completely deserted.”

While Nick didn’t think it would have been that big of a deal for the girls to encounter other members of his harem, he could respect the fact that they didn’t want to put themselves through that. And Dakota had apparently respected that herself.

Dakota scoffed. “Keep in mind my duty is to make engaging content,” she reminded them. “And it would have certainly been amusing to have you two- or you three, rather- run into someone else. Vivian would have been a delight, possibly Rose as well, and Carly and Marley would have opened some amusing avenues too. …But that could lead to other problems, and might not have resulted in such a steamy night like the one you three shared. I was simply doing my job, putting your pleasures first, Nick.”

Nick frowned. She certainly did have an answer for everything, didn’t she?

“Um, about that,” Auburn cut in, scowling. “You just referred to us as three people. But we didn’t get any VP for a threesome,” she pointed out, holding up her hand. They’d gained some VP during the date, but not a big pot.

Dakota smirked, looking brazenly above Auburn’s petty complaints. “I was being colorful with my descriptive language just now,” she said calmly. “The fact remains, you two are really just you one. That’s how you finally got to ride that roller-coaster, after all, isn’t it?”

Auburn frowned. But Dakota’s logic was pretty faultless.

“Again, I was being generous,” Dakota said, seizing the opening in the conversation to assert her position. “You went to the Amusement Park, which is a bit of a favorite attraction of mine, given all the fun events one can take part in. I always seek to reward people who are willing to engage with the fun elements of the show in small ways, and this was part of it. I hope you enjoyed your date.”

She winked at the two cat girls.

“It was a lot of fun,” Bianca nodded. “Though, we could have had even more fun if Auburn didn’t have such a stick up her bum!”

“Hey!” Auburn snapped. “If not for you and your deep-fried twinkie, we would have been able to go on the roller-coaster dozens of more times!”

“We still coulda!” Bianca protested. “The Tilt-a-Girl was just as intense, and I didn’t throw up!”

Auburn baulked. Bianca raised a valid point, and one she’d ignored back at the park. “Well… still, we wanted to do that one anyway!”

Bianca just laughed. “So it’s thanks to me throwing up we added some more variety into the rides, then! See? And not only that, we got all those great prizes at the carnival games!”

“I won half of those!” Auburn protested. But everyone could see she was losing ground in the argument at an alarming pace.

Nick sighed and shook his head, smiling in spite of himself. He’d gotten used to the two of them bickering at this point… and on some level, he might even miss it when the two Dawns were reunited as one.

…Unless this ended up giving her schizophrenia or something. He really hoped that wasn’t the case.

Dakota cleared her throat. “Well now,” she said, clapping her hands together, “this sure has been a lovely time. But time is almost up, I’m afraid. And you know what that means, right?”

Nick nodded. And the girls nodded as well.

It was time for them to become one again.

“Oh! One more thing,” Bianca said, looking quickly over at Auburn.

Auburn nodded. “Right, you’re right,” she agreed, hopping out of her seat.

The two cat girls rushed around the table and leaned in, planting a pair of sloppy kisses on Nick’s cheeks.

“See ya in a bit when we’re one again!” Bianca chirped.

“It’s probably gone freak Dawn out,” Auburn laughed.

“No, no problem,” Nick said, shaking his head. “It was great to get this… peek, I guess, into Dawn’s inner dilemma.”

The two girls laughed together.

“Well, one message from this side of Dawn to take to heart,” Bianca said, placing her hand over her chest. “Sometimes, Dawn just wants to have fun and take it easy, and now you know for sure!”

“Same here,” Auburn said, nodding. “Even when she’s trying to be serious, it’s not because she isn’t enjoying herself. It’s because she cares about everyone having a good time and being safe.”

Nick smiled. Neither girl had told him anything that he didn’t already know. “That’s good to hear,” he nodded.

Dakota tapped her cane. There was a popping sound, and the two Dawns were suddenly pulled against each other. In a bizarre sight that made Nick regret having already eaten breakfast, the cat girls smooshed together and merged into a single amorphous blob, before straightening out into one person again, looking frazzled, dizzy, and just about ready to collapse.

Dawn, complete once again, looked up at Nick with a dazed expression. Her eyes were glassy but he could see flickers of both Auburn and Bianca in her gaze, reaffirming once again that the two parts of her weren’t gone- they were just one again.

The Dawn coughed, and he thought for a moment that she was gonna hack up a hairball.

“Well,” she choked out, ears fluttering and tail flicking, “that was… a date.”

Dawn: 1000 BP + 9000 BP = 10000 BP