Just wanna play a new game

Carly still had her doubts about going to see Dani. But in spite of those doubts, she went anyway, because she really wanted to see her friend. Maybe Dani will know what to do… I tried to help, but I think I might have made things worse.

She sighed. Messes like these weren’t the sort of thing that she was well-equipped for dealing with. She tried to avoid interpersonal drama like the plague, she just wanted to make friends and have a good time, dealing with stuff like this annoyed her.

But she still wanted to see Dani. So she walked across the hall to the Blue Room of the Eastern Dragon and knocked on the door.

No response. Dani had probably gone down to breakfast while she was counseling Mary. She was probably just wasting her time, she could still go down and-

The door clicked open, and Dani appeared before Carly could think of what to say.

At a loss for words, she raised her hand above her waist in an awkward wave and managed to blurt out a “hey” that made her feel like a moron.

“…Hey,” Dani said back, looking a little uncomfortable. But Carly could see the pleasant gleam in her eyes, and knew that the other girl was happy to see her. And that made Carly happy in turn.

“Mind if I come in?” She asked, getting some more confidence. “I just wanted to chat, see how you’re doing, if that’s okay?”

Dani nodded, and continued to smile. “Yeah, sure,” she agreed. “That should be fine.”

She stepped back and allowed Carly inside. It took Carly a moment to process the room as she entered, overwhelmed by a wave of nostalgia.

It had only been a few days since she’d been living here with Dani, but what a few days it had been. In that time, Carly had come to accept the loss of her daughter, and Mimi, who she had started to bond with, had become her new sister. Those new memories made what happened in here with Dani feel like a dream, frankly.

But it was a nice dream.

“This place hasn’t changed, huh?” She mused, looking around at the eastern paintings on the walls, the samurai décor, and the mini-waterfall flowing down into the river below the glass tiles. “It’s still as peaceful as before.”

“Yeah,” Dani murmured, nodding. “Peaceful and lonely, sadly.”

“Things aren’t working out with you and Rose?” Carly asked, surprised. “I thought she’d be a great fit for you, honestly.”

“Really?” Dani winced. “Why would you think that?”

Carly smirked. “Because she’s so pretty, duh,” she replied with a giggle. “I figured you’d be tripping all over yourself to spend time with her.”

“Well, she is nice to look at, I won’t deny that,” Dani admitted. “But she’s… not really my type.”

The two shared a quiet moment, or at least, they sort of did. The tense stares and awkward silence kept the moment from being as poignant as it could have been, much to both girls’ frustration.

Carly averted her eyes first and turned to the balcony.

“Hey, um… other than Rose… how are things going?” She asked. “We spent a lot of time together, but… we didn’t really get to catch up that much, did we?”

“No, I guess not,” Dani said, shaking her head. She didn’t really know how to answer Carly’s question, unfortunately. And she had one of her own. “Hey, Carly… where’s your sister? Marley? Isn’t she supposed to stay within ten feet of you at all times?”

Seeing Carly alone was something Dani didn’t think would ever happen again, at least not while they stayed at this hotel.

Carly winced and shook her head. “No… it’s not that simple,” she replied. She turned back to Dani and sighed. “See… Rose came down, and apparently, her Method Acting transformation allows her to take my place as Marley’s sister.”

Dani’s jaw dropped. “Wait, how does that work? She just… became your sister? Is that even possible?” She asked.

Carly just shrugged. “I mean, it happened, so yeah, I guess it’s possible. What else do you want me to say?”

Not the most productive thing to contribute to the conversation, granted.

“Well… so she’s spending time with Marley, then? That should be interesting,” Dani said. She felt a little bad. She’d been considering Carly and Marley as a package deal so much that she kind of forgot that Marley was, in fact, her own person with her own wants and needs. “Hopefully your sister enjoys this taste of independence.”

“Hah!” Carly barked out a laugh. “I know, right? Knowing her, she’s probably thrilled that she doesn’t have to hang around me anymore!”

That was a little mean to say. Carly knew how much her sister loved her. But she really did need some independence of her own, no doubt about that.

“Well, I’m just glad that the two of you are doing so well. And hey, if Rose wanted to spend some time with Marley, then…” Dani’s voice trailed off as she remembered what Rose had told her this morning, and she finally put the pieces together. “…Wait a second, Carly, Rose didn’t put you up to this, did she?”

Carly blinked. “What do you mean?”

“Did you come here because she told you to?” Dani asked, sighing. “If that’s the case, then it’s fine. You can head back.”

“Oh! That. No, it’s not like that at all,” Carly assured her, shaking her head. “I’m here because I want to be here!”

Dani still was suspicious. “So she really didn’t ask you to come then?”

“She said that you were on your own,” Carly informed her. “That you wanted to spend some time with me, and I thought that if Rose was going to take on the role of sister, well… why not come hang out with my friend? It’s been too long since we had some time to ourselves, after all, not since…”

Her voice trailed off as the awkward silence filled in the rest of her sentence.

“…Yeah,” Dani mumbled, awkwardly putting an end to that topic. They’d put things behind them as best they could, but what had happened still happened.

“Enough about that!” Carly’s perky attitude was enough to reclaim the good mood they had going. “What do you want to do today? Rose said you wanted to go on a hike? I’m always down for that, but I’m not sure if today’s the best day…”

She gestured down to her high heels.

“I think if I went walking in these, even I’d break my ankles!” She joked, as if breaking ankles was something to laugh about.

Dani laughed regardless. She couldn’t help herself. Just being around Carly made her feel lighter than air!

But she had a point of clarification.

“Um… you said that Rose said I wanted to go on a hike today?” She asked.

Carly nodded. “Yup.”

“That woman…” Dani groaned, turning it into a growl by the end. “Carly, I didn’t say anything about that. She just said that she wanted us to hang out together. Believe me, I didn’t say anything about a hike.”

Not that Dani was opposed to a hike. But she didn’t want Carly to dance to the beat of Rose’s manipulations.

Carly just shrugged it off. “Yeah, but knowing you, you’d wanna go for a hike, right?” She giggled, and Dani’s face turned red.

“…Well…”

“So no harm, no foul,” Carly said, waving her hand dismissively. “But like I said, in these shoes? Come on, I might be adventurous, but even I’m not that crazy. Let’s think of something we can do inside that’s a little safer, sound good?”

Dani nodded. That sounded just perfect.

Only question was, what should they do?

“What were you thinking?” She asked.

“Well…”

That was the question, wasn’t it? What was something they could do inside, just the two of them?

Well, normally when Carly was alone with someone, things tended to go in a certain direction. But that wasn’t going to be the case this time.

“Whooo! Take that! Finishing Move! Cream Pie Clobbering!” Carly shouted. Her ninja character (wearing an outfit made of skimpy blue leather and fishnets that would likely draw more eyes than a ninja would generally prefer) leapt across the screen with her blade raised and slashed down on Dani’s character multiple times. Then she grabbed Dani’s character (another woman, in a karate gi that was open to reveal the mountainous cleavage of the tan woman) and threw her off the stage, right into a giant cream pie. What said cream pie was doing in the stands of a martial arts tournament was anyone’s guess, but the end result was that Dani’s character ended up covered in a sticky white substance.

Video games were weird.

“Argh, come on!” Dani groaned, dropping her controller and sighing in frustration. Carly figured that if they couldn’t go out to exercise, they could always stay inside and have some fun pounding on each other in a fighting game. And Dani was certainly having fun, even though she was losing.

“What can I say?” Carly replied with a triumphant smirk. “You’re just not on my level anymore, Dani. You’re too rusty!”

“Well, believe it or not, Rose doesn’t like playing fighting games,” Dani replied. Carly’s eyes widened in mock surprise.

“No! You don’t say! I’m shocked!”

Dani rolled her eyes and giggled. “It’s fine. She’s a great roommate. But what about you? I can’t imagine that Dawn plays very many fighting games.”

“Nah, not Dawn,” Carly said, shaking her head. “Marley though? She’s a killer. She might even be better than me!”

“Marley, huh? Well, she always did seem the type,” Dani nodded.

“Oh, hey! There’s an idea!” Carly grinned. “What about if all of us play, in four-player? You, me, Marley, and we can even bring Nick along! I’m sure he’d have a blast.”

“Yeah, maybe…” Dani said vaguely, not convinced. Sure, she’d played ‘Ninja Thots and Summer Hots’ with Nick a few times during their nights together, but inviting the two of them to play… it just felt strange.

Playing video games was supposed to be their thing; they were Team Gamer Girls, after all! So inviting someone new…

Dani sighed. No, that’s just you being selfish. Marley is a part of Carly’s life now, feeling upset about that is ridiculous. If Carly wants to invite her, then she should be able to! I don’t need to feel bad about something like that.

“…On second thought, maybe it would be better if just the two of us play,” Carly said, apparently changing her mind out of nowhere. She flashed Dani a smile. “After all, it’s our thing, right? Playing 1 v 1?”

Dani’s grin nearly cracked her face in half. She had never been more happy to spend time with Carly in her life!

“…Besides, it’s humiliating enough getting your ass kicked by me; if coming in second gets you frustrated, coming in fourth is just going to destroy you, and we don’t want that,” Carly added, flashing a teasing smile.

Dani’s eye twitched. “Carly… I can at least beat Nick!”

Carly nodded. “Yeah, sure you can… uh-huh…”

“Carly-!”

“Look, all I’m saying is that you’re a little more out of practice than I thought, that’s all!” Carly shrugged. Her cheeky smile showed that she was just teasing Dani; her win had actually been a very close one in fact.

Dani wasn’t having it. “Listen up, you might have kicked my ass in this game, but I know I’d wipe the floor with you if we had a real fight!”

Carly grinned, her eyes flashing dangerously. “Oh, is that a challenge?” She asked. “Because I’m excited to take you up on that one… how about some wrestling, Dani? I bet I can take you down!”

“Oh, I’d like to see you…” Dani’s voice trailed off as she realized what Carly was suggesting. Maybe Carly didn’t even realize it.

A wrestling match? With Carly? That… that was something she wanted very much. But she really shouldn’t want that.

“Um… I don’t… I don’t think so,” Dani said, backing down. That had the possibility of going very poorly. Carly didn’t even realize how much she was teasing Dani, either, that was the worst part! The cosplayer was just being herself!

Maybe it was a bad idea to be in this room alone with her… no, stop thinking that way! You’re finally friends again! Dani shook her head and pushed forward. She had a lot of fun in mind, and she didn’t want to give up on it just out of her own issues.

“Running away, huh?” Carly teased. “Can’t say I blame you. I guess I’m just too much woman for you to handle, Dani.”

Okay, now that HAD to be intentional.

“I’m not running away!” Dani sputtered, her cheeks turning red. “I’m going to take you down! Just… in the video game, that’s all!” She picked up her controller and stared at Carly in fierce defiance, doing her damnedest to not look at the other girl’s cleavage popping out of her red dress.

Carly just smiled, happy to accept the challenge. They started playing again, and Dani channeled her sexual frustration into the controller. That was actually helping her win, too; this match was a lot more even, and she finally started to get Carly on the ropes!

“Hey Dani, what are your thoughts about marriage?”

Dani coughed in shock and her finger hit the wrong button. Her character threw a punch when she should have tried for a grapple, and Carly grappled her first, throwing her to the floor.

“What the heck are you asking?! Stop distracting me!” Dani exclaimed. Her character hopped up on the screen and started fighting back, pushing Carly’s character away. Then she went for her grapple again, and grabbed. She was just supposed to be reaching around and grabbing the ninja girl’s back, but from this position it looked like she was grabbing her somewhere else. In two somewhere elses, actually.

“Yeaaar! Take this!” Dani roared, channeling all of her aggressing into this next blow. “Finishing Move! Top Tear-Off Tornado!”

Her character lifted Carly’s up into the air and spun her around her head for a few rotations. Then she grabbed her by the clothes and yanked her forward, flinging her down into the ground. Fragments of cloth flew off everywhere, while steam from the impact tastefully covered all the inappropriate parts.

“Nicely done,” Carly said, setting down her controller in defeat.

“Yeah, now THAT’S what I’m talking about!” Dani howled with glee. “Not even your distracting questions can get the better of me now, Carly!”

She turned and taunted her friend with a sneer, but when she saw Carly’s solemn expression she settled down and looked at her curiously.

“…Carly?”

“I wasn’t trying to distract you,” Carly said, shaking her head. “I was seriously asking you. What do you think about marriage?”

Dani’s jaw dropped.

Was Carly seriously asking that question?!

“I, uh… when it comes to marriage…” Dani felt her face heat up more and more as she considered Carly’s question. Why was she asking her about this?!

“Oh!” Carly realized how what she was asking might have sounded. “I’m not talking about myself,” she quickly clarified. “I have no intention of getting married any time soon or anything like that.”

“Oh. Um… I see, that’s something.” Dani wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say. She also didn’t know how she felt about that. Was she supposed to be happy that Carly didn’t want to get married? Because part of her definitely was; if Carly got married to Nick, that would hurt. Knowing she liked him and was sleeping with him regularly hurt enough, but marriage…

At the same time, though, she also felt a little sad that Carly had no intention of marrying her.

Not that I care about that. Why would I care about that? I mean, it’s not like my feelings for Carly… my feelings for Carly… it’s not like they… they…?

Did she want to get married to Carly? That was crazy, right? This was just a crush. Just a major crush! It wasn’t like she was in love with her or anything! She’d been starstruck at first, and those feelings had gradually transitioned into genuine feelings of affection and even love as she got to know the cosplayer as a teammate…

But was she in love? Enough to get married?

She was smarter than that. There was no sense in wanting to marry someone she wasn’t even in a relationship with.

“Dani? Dani, you there?” Carly stared at her friend. Dani’s brain seemed to not have been focusing on her.

“Huh? Oh, um, yeah,” Dani stammered, confused. “What was that? Sorry, I zoned out a little. What were you talking about?”

“Sorry, it’s just… let’s say I have this friend,” Carly said, her eyes jumping from side to side. “And she really wants to get married.”

Dani stared at her.

Even I’m not that dumb, she thought, shaking her head. “This friend of yours, is she a redhead who dresses like a farmgirl? With pigtails, perhaps?”

“Might be,” Carly replied, cracking a smile. The smile didn’t last long, though, and her face turned serious. “This is a real problem,” she sighed.

“What do you mean?” Dani asked. “Mary getting married is a problem? What are you talking about?” Her heart took a turn toward anxiety. Could it be? Did Mary’s desire for marriage end up causing her own feelings to develop?

She really hoped that wasn’t the case. Heck, Carly just said that she had no intention of getting married! But if Carly did love Nick and wanted to marry him… then she’d support her.

“Carly…” Dani placed her hand over Carly’s hand. “If this is really what you want, then I’ll support you. I’m on your side, Carly, no matter what!”

Carly stared at her. “What I want… huh?! Wait, you don’t think I… I just told you, Dani! I’m not talking about me, I told you, I have no intention of getting married! Not to Nick, or to anybody!”

Now it was Dani’s turn to not know what was going on.

“Then… why did you say that Mary getting married is a problem?”

Carly sighed. This was all just one big mess. She needed to clarify things with Dani first, though, and that might take a bit of time.

“Mary… she wants to get married to Nick… but she’s stuck on the polygamy stuff. The thought that Nick might marry multiple people… she’s having a hard time coming to grips with that.”

Dani winced. “Yeah, that… that’s a big problem, alright,” she agreed. “But… I can’t say I disagree with her.”

“What do you mean?” Carly asked, surprised.

“You asked me what I thought about marriage, and that’s what I think,” Dani said. She didn’t like disagreeing with Carly, but on this, she did. “You shouldn’t **** yourself to get married if you’re not ready. You understand me?”

Carly considered that, and sadly nodded. “Yeah, that’s true,” she agreed. “Like I said… this is just one big, messy problem.”