Oh, won't you come with me and take my hand?

“Why are you following me?!”

Cinder stopped her storming surge down the hall and turned towards Vivian, sending a piercing glare at the heiress, who just smiled back at her and shrugged her shoulders. She’d followed the other woman from the Banquet Hall, and refused to leave her alone.

And that wasn’t something that Cinder went in for.

“I just want to be your friend!” Vivian said. “You looked like you could really use a friend. And I got along okay with Ella, so-”

“Ella-!” Cinder’s mouth fell open. Her cheeks flushed. “She and I… Ella is… rrgh! Forget it!” She turned away from Vivian, her face getting hot. She didn’t know how to reply to what the heiress was saying, but she didn’t like the direction this conversation was going.

It made her feel all strange and uncertain. And those weren’t feelings she enjoyed at all. They made her feel all burned up inside.

Cinder took a deep breath and balled her hands up into fists.

She hated the way Ella’s gratitude towards Vivian was overpowering her own feelings. The smug heiress was just like those women… the horrible ones who had abused her. Ella shouldn’t be feeling gratitude towards her! She should be… should be-!

“Cinder… are you angry at me?” Vivian asked honestly.

The latina froze in place.

Stunned, she turned and looked back at Vivian, eyes wide behind her bangs.

“That-!” Her mouth fell open. “Of course I-!”

“Why?”

“Be-because… because I… because I am!” Cinder sputtered. “Because you won’t leave alone!”

“So if I leave you alone, can we be friends?” Vivian chirped.

“No!” Cinder stubbornly replied.

“Oh, darn…” Vivian pouted and crossed her arms over her chest. “But I really want to be friends with you, Cinder.”

Cinder just didn’t understand. “…Why?” She whispered, staring in confusion at the other girl. “Why do you want to be my friend?”

“I told you before.” Vivian approached her cautiously, not wanting to startle the emotionally-damaged woman. “You look like you could use a friend. And I… I want to help you.”

“I have friends!” Cinder exclaimed, her face flushed with fury.

Vivian blinked. Then her face lit up. “Oh! You do?”

“Y-yes! No!” Cinder was all tangled up in knots. Her thoughts were a mess of confused feelings about herself and the other women in Nick’s harem. Particularly Dawn and Morgana, who Ella felt strongly towards.

As for Vivian herself…

Cinder could feel her heart being tugged in two separate directions right now. More than anything, she wanted to get away from here, so she wouldn’t have to fight the conflicting feelings that being in Vivian’s presence were making her have.

But she couldn’t run away. Running away in this instance meant turning her body over to Ella, and she couldn’t do that. She couldn’t put Ella in danger, leaving her **** to… **** to…

…

**** to Vivian’s charming smile and affable personality?

Is that what I’m so afraid of? Cinder couldn’t understand the complicated emotions welling up in her chest right now. Her shaking fingers trailed towards her wrist, practically mimicking her alter’s habits without even realizing it. But she caught herself before she did.

I don’t need to deal with this.

And just like that, she was gone.

Vivian watched a strange change come over the woman in front of her. Cinder’s eyes glazed over and she seemed to stare vacantly off into the distance, like she was in a trance. And then, as if waking up from a dream, the light returned to her eyes, only it was different. Her gaze was softer now, gentler, and she looked at the woman in front of her with a strange glimmer of recognition.

“…Vivian?” Ella looked around and saw nobody but the heiress. “What am I doing here?” She questioned.

Vivian’s face lit up. “Oh, Ella! Are you back?”

“I… back?” Ella stammered, confused. “Cinder, she… was she-?”

Had she been controlling Ella’s body all morning? The last thing Ella remembered was drifting off to a very poor sleep.

Vivian shrugged. “I’ve been talking to her all morning. We’re the best of friends now!”

Ella stared at her.

“…I… it doesn’t feel like that,” she said quietly, shaking her head.

“Well, it’s a work in progress.” Vivian waved her hand and approached Ella with a friendly smile on her face. “So Ella, are you feeling okay?”

“Why… why would I not be?” Ella looked suspiciously at the heiress. Her feelings were all in a tizzy- what had gone on between the two of them, and why had Cinder **** herself into the back of her mind for Ella?

Vivian gave her a soft, sympathetic smile. “I was worried about Cinder,” she said gently. “She was all alone at breakfast this morning. I wanted to be her friend. After what happened in the last challenge, I wanted to make sure she knew there were no hard feelings.”

“Oh-h…” Ella gulped and nodded. She hadn’t been present for Cinder’s slaughtering spree in the last challenge, but she knew it must have gone fairly poorly. But now here Vivian was, smiling like nothing had happened.

…Yay?

“Don’t worry, like I told Cinder, it was all part of the game!” Vivian assured the other girl. “It’s not the kind of thing I’d hold a grudge over. But I really was sore when it happened!” Her face twisted into a look of frustration. “Hey. But you win some you lose some, right?”

“I guess so?” Ella had been on a pretty significant losing streak for most of her life, so she didn’t know how to respond to that.

“Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that if you wanted to be friends, I’m up for it,” Vivian said, slapping her chest. “Whether it’s you or Cinder, it makes no difference to me. As far as I’m concerned, you both could use someone in your corner.”

“Thank you… that… that’s really nice of you,” Ella murmured, remembering back to her date with Nick, and how Vivian had helped her prepare for it. She hadn’t asked for anything in return, she’d just seemed happy to help her out of principle.

That had been very sweet of her.

At the same time, Ella wasn’t so sure about the friendship thing. They didn’t exactly have a lot in common.

“So, anything you want to do today?” Vivian clapped her hands together. “We can go relax in the hot spring, or maybe buy some clothes… oh, wait, you’re in the Fashion Suite now, right? So you don’t have to buy clothes you’ve got a whole new wardrobe!”

“Oh, that’s right…” Ella finally remembered to look down at her current outfit, and her heart stopped in her chest when she saw what Cinder had dressed her in. She looked like something out of a cringe punk fashion disaster! And why was her shirt so tight!?

It made her feel a little queasy, if she was being honest.

“I’ve gotta say, Cinder’s got great fashion sense,” Vivian said, circling around Ella like a shark as she took in the girl’s outfit. “She can really make the whole punk vibe feel natural. You, though… it just feels weird on you.”

Ella looked hurt. “I…”

“Oh, that wasn’t meant to be rude, I’m sorry,” Vivian said, holding up her hands. “I just mean that you have similar color schemes, but the way you carry yourself, I think you’re suited to a different style. Sort of like the clothes were tried on last time, you know? A little mature, a little feminine… I’m thinking a light blue might go nice. That dress you wore to Gina’s party was brilliant.”

Ella’s eyes widened and her heart skipped a beat. “It… it was? You really thought so?” She didn’t expect to sound so happy to receive the compliment, but she couldn’t contain her excitement. “Well… I did, um, spend a lot of time thinking about it…”

“Time well-spent, I’d say!” Vivian nodded in approval. “But no need to waste any more time on something like that now! You’ve got me in your corner, Ella, and I’ll be happy to help you with whatever clothes you want to try out!”

Ella appreciated the offer, she really did. But…

“I’ll… I’ll pass,” she replied, shaking her head. As weird as it was to wear Cinder’s clothing, she didn’t feel the need to change right now. Wearing this outfit… it made her feel closer to her other self somehow, even if this wasn’t the type of thing she would choose to wear for herself.

Vivian looked at Ella, surprised. But she didn’t say anything, she just shrugged and nodded. “Well, alright then!” She chirped. “If that’s what you want, works for me! So no fashion show- what would you like to do instead?”

That was really the question, wasn’t it? For most of the previous round, Ella had confined herself to her room, trying to keep away from the other girls, and Nick, because she didn’t want to deal with emotions that made her uncomfortable.

But as a result of that, she’d barely gotten any VP, and she hadn’t gotten that popular, either. And while she didn’t feel like those were things she should be caring about… the fact remained that she didn’t want to lose.

Cinder hadn’t just developed that fierce competitive streak out of nowhere, after all. Ella wanted Nick to look at her and appreciate her, too.

She just wasn’t sure how she should go about doing that.

“I… I don’t know what I want to do,” Ella admitted, looking down. She’d never really had time to think about it before coming here.

Vivian looked quietly at the other girl, shutting up for once. She could see the turmoil playing out across the latina’s face, and considered that maybe it wasn’t the time for being bombastic. She could play the sensitive, understanding figure pretty nicely, and extended a friendly hand to Ella without any expectation of the feelings being reciprocated.

“Tell you what,” she said gently, giving Ella a sincere smile. “Maybe we just take it slow today, huh? Do something you’ve had fun doing.”

“Well…” Ella still wasn’t sure about spending her day with Vivian. But she also didn’t want to say that to the heiress and end up upsetting her.

It was a weird position she found herself in, to say the least. With a sigh, she found herself backed into a corner unfortunately.

She reached to her wrist and snapped her rubber-band.

“Thwap!”

Doing that had been completely unnecessary, she knew that. After all, Cinder wasn’t pushing on the back of her mind, she was locked away, not wanting to interact with Vivian in the slightest. But even if her emotions weren’t out of control and threatening to let her alter free, snapping her rubber-band helped her focus and calm down regardless.

“So… want to go have some fun?” Vivian asked. “I can show you all sorts of ways we could enjoy- Oooh, do you like horses?”

Ella’s eyes widened like saucers. “H-horse-?!” She gulped and looked at Vivian in amazement. “Horses are… um… I’ve never… never really been around any… No thank you!”

She shook her head frantically. Ella didn’t know Vivian well, but she knew the heiress loved horses, and she’d taken Nick on a horseback riding date.

Of all the possible things Ella could do to pass the time in this place, getting on the back of an animal that might shake her off and break her neck and give her brain damage was pretty much on the bottom of the list.

The fact that none of that could actually happen here didn’t matter much.

“So what do you want to do then?” Vivian asked, not letting Ella’s rejection of horses stand in the way of getting to know the other girl.

Ella had absolutely no idea, frankly. She-

“Ella?”

The latina blinked, and her head raised to look past Vivian to see who was coming towards them.

Vivian turned around, surprised, and her eyes widened. “…Oh.”

Her response was less positive.

Morgana and Amelia approached the two of them, and both girls had very different responses to the women. While Ella was pleased to see Morgana, Vivian was somewhat apprehensive about the approach of Amelia.

“Good morning,” Amelia said, pushing her glasses up her nose slightly.

“I haven’t seen you two together much,” Morgana said with a smile as she walked over to Ella. “How are you doing? I just got breakfast.”

“I, uh… Vivian and I were just… you know,” she said, looking over at the heiress. “Talking about what we wanted to do today.”

She’d already accepted hanging out with Vivian today as a matter of course, apparently. Maybe because part of her didn’t want to push away someone who was trying to be her friend. She was too lonely for that- even if it was someone that she didn’t really know how she felt about, like the heiress.

As for Morgana, though, she was very happy to be around the goth girl! She was such a great friend, very supportive.

Maybe all three of them could do something together? And then there was Amelia here, would she… well…

Ella wasn’t sure what to do about any of this.

She looked over at Vivian, then at Morgana, and waited for someone to say something. Anything.

The silence was actually kind of agonizing.

“We were looking for a library,” Amelia said curtly. “Morgana, shall we continue?”

Morgana’s eyes widened. “Oh! Wait a minute, that… Ella, would you like to come along!?”

“Come… along?” Ella asked, confused. She did want to go with Morgana, but at the same time, she was a little confused. Libraries weren’t her most favorite place in the world. She wasn’t very good at reading, for obvious reasons.

“Oh, I think I get it!” Vivian placed her hands together in realization. “It’s because of your transformation, right?”

Morgana looked to her and nodded. “Yeah. That… yeah.” Her eyes were shining with excitement. “If I find the magic library, then I’ll be able to learn all sorts of fun, sexy spells! That would be so amazing…” She swooned, looking off into the distance.

Ella gulped. “…Sexy?” She squeaked, her eyes shifting around uneasily. Suddenly, the library sounded even more uncomfortable.

She wasn’t very good with stuff like that.

“I think… I…”

“We’d love to do it!” Vivian draped her arm over Ella and hugged her close, earning a stunned look from Ella. “…Only we have plans.”

“Oh… you do?” Morgana looked sad. She wanted to share this moment with one of her friends.

“That’s right,” Vivian nodded. “Plans. Fashion things. You know.”

Amelia stared sharply at the heiress and her lips twitched in a frown. “Is that right?” She asked coldly.

“Aww, come off it, Teach,” Vivian scoffed, rolling her eyes. “You know me. Always off doing my own thing. Not the best at listening to directions, you know?”

“Is that right?” Amelia mused.

“…No.”

Vivian looked at Ella in surprise as the young woman slid her way out from under Vivian’s arm, shaking her head.

“I don’t want to lie to my friend,” she said, looking down. “Morgana, I don’t want to go.”

“You… you don’t?” Morgana looked crestfallen. “But…”

“I’m not good with… the book stuff.” Ella winced. “And when it comes to… s-sex… that…”

She shook her head.

“Could we do something else?” Ella asked hopefully. Going to a sexy library full of spells, for Morgana to practice with her magic, that sounded like it would result in some weird hijinks. The kind that would result in very uncomfortable stuff for her.

Morgana looked disappointed in turn. But she could understand where Ella was coming from.

She could put it off for a day, right?

“Okay!” She nodded. “What do you think we should do?”

Ella was stunned. She hadn’t expected Morgana to actually go for it. “Are you sure?” She asked. “You… you really wanted to go to the library, I wouldn’t want to stand in your way…”

“It would be better if your learned the spells as early as possible,” Amelia pointed out. She honestly didn’t know what Morgana should do in this instance- but that was something for her to figure out for herself.

Morgana was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Hang out with her friend? Or begin learning magic?

Where should her priority lie?

“…You really don’t want to come?” Morgana asked.

Ella could see the look of disappointment in her eyes. It tore her up inside.

Maybe… maybe…

“…Okay,” she relented. “I’ll go. But don’t put any hexes on me or anything! I-I don’t want to be… sexy magic!”

Her grammar may not have been exceptional. Amelia could attest to that. But she kept her mouth quiet and allowed the girls to come to their own decisions.

“What about you?” She asked, looking sharply over to Vivian. “Are you going to be coming along?”

Vivian smirked. “A library full of magical spells for Morgana to learn?” She cooed. “Who could turn that down?”

Amelia gave her a frustrated look that quickly hardened into an icy stare. “Miss Carrington, I would advise you to be careful with how you treat this situation. It is not something that should be handled so flippantly. There is a reason I chose to accompany her this morning.”

“Right, because you’re no fun,” Vivian teased. “And because you don’t want to let her have any fun. That’s your whole thing,” she giggled, “not letting sweet young ladies with ambition have any fun.”

Amelia gave her a frosty look. It made the heiress feel all giggly.

Even if she wasn’t trying to make friends with Ella right now, she would come along just because this had the promise of being amusing.

Amelia, potentially being subjected to the sexual magic of the clumsy witch Morgana? That was a show Vivian would want front row seats to!

Her own chance of being caught in the crossfire, well…

As a skilled businesswoman, Vivian knew all about the risks involved in getting what she wanted. And sometimes you had to put up high stakes if you wanted to get ahead.

And Vivian was really hoping that her investment would pay off for her.

“Let’s get a move-on, then!” She declared. “This should be fun! Let’s find that library of yours!”

This would be quite a fun way to spend their day.