Pretty comfortable - if it wasn't a gilded cage

You follow you well toned green new friend as she leads you through a long corridor and into what appears to be a small changing area, the sort you’d get in a gym.

“Here’s where they set aside any equipment and change into the clothes set aside for you in the games, there another room identical to this on the other side to keep competitors separated,” Gab says, her strong arms doing a long sweep of the room.

“I’m guessing these are mine then?” You reply pointing to a small neat pile of clothes set aside on a bench. You turn your eyes back to Gab to see her nodding, and you wander over to the pile.

A quick glance reveals a tight plain white top in your size, the fabric feels like its one of the artificial synthetics, but you’d be damned if you could tell which one. It seemed comfortable enough to the touch and was a damn sight better than the small white robe you’d been auctioned in.

The bottoms seemed to be very tight fitting shorts, to the point where the word hot pants feel more appropriate. They had the same feel as the top did. Beneath the shorts, you found some nice lace-like underwear, which felt like a softer material than the top and bottoms. Finally, you find a small colour mod for altering the patterns on the plain top and bottoms.

You contemplate getting changed right now, just to get out of the white robe, but you want to have a good clean first, as you had no clue how long it had been since you had been captured.

“Is there a place I can clean up?” You ask, scooping up the clothes left for you. Looking back over to Gab, who it seems had been checking you out while you looked through the clothes.

“There are showers over there, for both pre and post game use, but I tend to prefer the ones in our rooms, a bit more private,” Gab says with a small smile.

“All right, let's go see the rooms then,” You reply, returning Gabs smile.

You are led out of the changing rooms, taking a quick look at the shower wall, which despite the lack of partitions, seemed clean and looked like they shouldn’t be too bad. The hallway beyond was warm and snaked around back on itself, where you saw the two women who you defeated walking from the other direction. For a moment you begin to feel nervous that the girls might hold some sort of grudge against you for winning, especially the one who's ass you had spanked. You meet the gaze of the women, and one gives you and Gab a small wave and a nod, which Gab returns and you quickly follow suit. The other woman, which you recognise as the one you spanked does likewise, but where her eyes meet yours she smiles, not in a menacing way, it was almost flirtatious.

You and Gab round the corner into a large common area with softly padded flooring, which felt nice under your bare feet. The rest of the area had a few tables and chairs spaced out alongside one side of the room, where the other side had long tables with various tablets which if you had to guess would contain various novels and articles. You doubted you'd be left any devices that could be connected to a network to try and get a message to the outside world, but you make a mental note of them anyway. There was also a holoscreen, that at the time was streaming what you guessed were reruns of the latest local dramas, something mindless and escapist to help pass the time.

The more you saw how pleasant the room was, the quicker you began to realise that having such comforts provided was likely to try and get people to accept their capture, with the prospect of freedom dangled like the proverbial carrot to make you compete in the games. Gab pointed to the kitchen area, where you could order up quite a surprisingly wide variety of foods and delicacies. You even saw a few other people eating at the time and you had to admit the food did look appealing, and smelt amazing. A reminder of how long it had been since your last decent meal came, as you felt your stomach grumble, causing Gab to give you a sympathetic look.

"You can grab food whenever you want, and have as much as you want, although I'd maybe avoid eating before a few hours before you scheduled for a game," Gab says showing you quickly how the dispensers worked. You decided to order up a protein bar and fruit-based smoothie, quickly devouring the bar and then slowly sipping your smoothie. You had been tempted to order up a more substantial meal, but you didn't want to make Gab wait, and you still felt slightly unclean.

"Taste's pretty good," You say sounding surprised as you follow Gab out of the kitchen and out of the common room into another hallway which forked off into two paths.

"Yeah?, I guess I'm pretty much used to it" Gab replies pausing to think for a moment on it, "Honestly I wasn't very with food, and I tend to just get the same stuff," Gab admits.

"I'll have to show you a few of the things I've had from the planets I've visited sometime," You offer, which gets a smile from Gab.

"Ok so on the right-hand path we have a pretty well-stocked gym, which I can show you later, although I'm guessing you'll probably be more interested in the pool than the other machines," Gab offered walking down the lefthand fork. She wasn't entirely incorrect, you tended to favour a slighter frame as you couldn't always rely on the nutrition and work out to maintain muscles. That and being agile and quick definitely did you more favours for what you did to get by, and while circumstances have definitely changed, in your mind this was only going to be temporary and you would get out of this.

At the end of the corridor, you come out into a tall room, with various doors either side of it, and a staircase in the centre giving access to a second floor by your estimate there was at least 4 doors per floor, which didn't seem like a large number of rooms. You turn to look at Gab as she stops by the nearest door on the left.

"So it's two people per room, but there's a couple of empties on the upper floor," Gab begins "Each one has two double beds and a pretty spacious bathroom," Gab continues.

"How many blocks are there in this place?" You ask

"Not sure, From what I hear the place is huge, at least 10 blocks for guys and girls but probably a lot more, the games more or less run a day and night shift and they'd need a lot of us to keep that up," Gab says, taking a moment to think about it. You look around and notice a large set of double doors, with the letter F stencilled next to it. It reminded you of a huge hotel complex you once stayed in for a few months, a section of rooms with a big room in the centre with multiple elevators for getting between the various floors. If your hunch was correct this place could be the size of a small city for all you knew, which might make getting out problematic.

"So I can either go for an empty and hope I get a good roommate, or try and pair off now?" You can ask looking back over at Gab

"Yeah, Thankfully the girls on our block are cool, but you never know what the newcomers might be like," Gab replies with a half smile.

"Do you have a roommate?" You ask, deciding that there was no reason not to stay close to Gab, having already built up a bit of trust by helping her in the arena. Also, you always had a soft spot for green women, so if you were here for a while, may as well enjoy the company.

"Nah, just me," Gab says, suddenly avoiding your eyes for a moment.

You suppressed the urge to laugh at the strong green woman suddenly acting coy around you, and instead smile at her. "Can I stay with you then?" You ask with a not so innocent smile on your face.

"Uhhh, sure, Yeah that works for me," Gab says after a slight hesitation. You smile at her reaction, she must be nervous having you so close and not realize that you had already picked up on it. You could tease her a little bit with this, but that might be a bit too cruel.

"Great let's have a look at my new room then," You say with a warming smile

Gab nods and puts her hand on a silver plate next to the door, which blinks green and you hear a loud click shortly before the door slides open. The room beyond was pretty impressive, albeit much like a hotel room lacking any real personal details. There was a small space beyond the door which leads into the main room, and what you assumed was the bathroom to your right. The main room was almost symmetrical in its design, with two large and comfortable looking double beds against each wall, with a small lamp resting on a side table, and a storage unit for clothes to hang or be folded into draws. You notice that there doesn't seem to be anything that partitions the rooms, so there wouldn't be a huge amount of privacy if both occupants are in. So it looks like Gab will be getting to see a lot more of you.

There was one feature that left you stunned, partially out of its beauty, and partially because of what it meant. On the far wall was a huge viewing screen displaying a wonderous dark vista of space, a few specs of light spots of far distant stars and huge fields of gas clouds and unfathomable distance away. This would make escape a hell of a lot more complicated, as now you'd need a ship, the means to fly it, to know where the hell you were, and where you could even head to. The easiest way to do that would be to stow away, but even then that required a lot of planning and luck.

You stepped towards the viewing screen to see if anything looked familiar, in the vain hope you hadn't been taken that far, but after looking around it seemed hopeless, you had no clue where in space you were. Hell even if you were only out for 12 hours, that'd be enough time to be the other side of the sector you were in. You do notice that you could make out one of the other parts of the station you were on, and it very much looked like one of the huge hotel station complexes they put in orbit in picturesque but uninhabitable star systems.

Gab walks over to you and after a moment's hesitation puts a hand on your shoulder to try and comfort you, picking up on what you had realised. "Sometimes I forget I'm trapped here," Gab says softly, "The games and this view are the only reminders," She continues softly.

"I think I could go for a shower," You reply softly, taking a moment to feel overwhelmed and afraid, before taking a deep breath and calming yourself. You would get out of this, you will find a way to overcome this, you just had to find out more information first.

"Sure I'll show you how it all works," Gab replies walking over towards the door you had correctly assumed was the bathroom.

You strip off the horrible white robe discarding it to the floor, and then take the clothes that had been left in the changing room for you, carrying them as you follow your green roommate into the bathroom. The bathroom itself was a large impressive room in its own right, a toilet and sink contained within a separated alcove, and a huge flat shower cubicle, which Gab was currently in adjusting some of the settings. Next to that was what looked like a very luxurious bath, that was almost like a small swimming pool, complete with controls which implied it could double up as a hot tub as well.

"Alright, that should be set for a more reasonable temperature, used it for a very cold shower last," Gab says with a small laugh.

"Thanks, Gab," You say, placing your clothes on a nearby shelf, and making a note of where the towels were.

"You're welcome......Val," Gab says her voice trailing off, as she turns and see's you standing there in all your naked glory, her mouth practically hanging open.

You smile as you walk past Gab and into the shower cubicle, waving a hand in front of the sensor which causes hot water to rain on down from above. You let out a contented sigh as you walked small circles under the falling water, your skin finally beginning to feel clean again for the first time in months. It had been far too long since your last proper bath or shower, with the facilities in your last squat being somewhat lacking. You fumble around with your hands until you find the soap dispenser and fille your hands with the soft and fragrant gel, and slowly rub it into the front of your body. Your fine Elvin skin beginning to gain it's silky smooth feeling as you glide your hands over it. You also lather some of the gel into your long red hair and feel your arms ache where you impacted off that woman in the arena earlier.

You wince as you finish your hair with the uninjured arm, and slowly check the skin on your shoulder and found that it had already started to bruise, but other than that seemed to be fine. With this discovery you realize that cleaning your back properly would be both difficult or painful, thankfully you have a nice green roomie who surely couldn't resist a chance to put her hands over your body.

"Hey Gab, are you there still?" You call out.

"Yeah I'm here, need something?" Came Gab's reply, far too quickly for her to have left the bathroom, hell if you had to guess she hadn't left the spot she was standing in when she first saw you naked. Not that you minded, of course, the fact she enjoyed watching you, should help when it came to asking for big favours later on.

"Yeah my shoulders sore from the arena, I don't suppose you'd get my back for me? I'll do yours afterwards," You ask