Sophia Date: Part 2

Levi Summers

Levi rubbed his eyes in disbelief as Sophia placed the final token on the board, sealing her victory. “Seriously? I thought I had you with that last power plant…”

Sophia laughed, already packing up the pieces with a practiced efficiency. “You wish. You boxed yourself in by making all your houses adjacent. It was easy to expand once I took the northern grid."

"Adjacent houses are cheaper," Levi grumbled, slumping in his chair and staring at the Power Grid board in defeat.

"Short term, yes. But you have to consider the long-game profit of expansion," she explained, grinning as she set the game box aside. "You need to think beyond the current turn.” She stood up triumphant and snatched the last Easy-Mac. “Winner’s prize!”

She skipped over to the microwave, clad in her white socks, after giving up on, and ditching, her stilettos. Levi couldn’t help but shake his head with a smile. Sophia hadn't let the fact that they were on a date stop her from being absolutely brutal during the game, completely dominating him the whole way.

"You could have eased up a little," Levi playfully chuckled.

"Oh, I did," Sophia casually mentioned as she mixed the noodles with the cheese. "It's just you kept making really dumb moves, and I couldn't help myself."

"Fair enough," Levi shrugged.

Sophia glanced over her shoulder with a smirk. "No, I mean, like, really dumb moves. To the point that I wondered if you were trying to let me win. Which would have been impressive, as it takes a lot of skill to play so badly intentionally."

"Alright, I get it."

"Like, I absolutely demolished you," Sophia continued, snickering. "Like, it wasn't even fair. It was actually really sad. Like a chihuahua fighting Goku."

"Okay, you proved your point!" Levi shouted.

Sophia’s grin faltered, worrying that she had gone too far. But moments later, Levi began laughing, and she sighed in relief.

Gaming Fun: +1 VP

Sophia turned back to the microwave and started it. As the machine buzzed to life, she leaned back against the counter, the playful energy shifting. “So,” she said, her voice more casual, “what kind of girls do you like, anyway? Assuming it's just girls, of course.”

She hastily added, "Oh, and don't just say me because then I'd know you're only being nice."

Levi blinked, caught off guard by the question. His mind went blank. “Uh…”

Sophia raised an eyebrow, waiting.

Levi looked down at the table, shifting uncomfortably. “I… don’t really know,” he admitted, his voice quieter than usual.

Sophia frowned, tilting her head slightly. “You don’t know?” she asked, her voice flat but not unkind—more matter-of-fact.

Levi rubbed the back of his neck, feeling a bit awkward. “I never really thought about it. I guess… I just figured no one would be interested, so it didn’t seem worth thinking about.”

Sophia paused, her gaze softening as her expression became more thoughtful. “Yeah. I get the feeling.”

Levi blinked in surprise, glancing up at her. “You do?”

She nodded, stepping away from the counter and crossing her arms, her voice quieter. “I’ve never really thought anyone would be that interested in me, either.”

Levi stared at her, genuinely taken aback. “Wait, seriously? But... you're awesome. Everyone would like you.”

She nodded, but her movements were a little stilted as if trying to find the right way to say what she meant. “Yeah,” she replied, almost as if she was stating a fact. “Talking to people… connecting with them… it’s not easy for me. And not just because of overthinking. But there will always be some part of me that they'll never be able to get, and I'll never get them. Like we'll always be missing something.”

Levi leaned forward slightly, "That's not true. You're not missing anything."

Sophia shrugged and looked at the ceiling. "Well, 'missing' probably isn't the right word. I'm happy with myself and wouldn't want to change it. But my brain is objectively different from most people. That's just science."

She added, "Heck, I’m still from people with the same condition. It's a spectrum, after all."

"Everyone is different," Levi offered.

Sophia closed her eyes in irritation. She always hated that cop-out and was frustrated that Levi wasn't getting it, no matter how much she danced around the topic.

"Levi, do you even know what Aspbergers is?"

Levi scratched his head, trying to recall the term but coming up blank. "Is that a kind of food?"

Sophia's jaw dropped as she gaped at him in disbelief. Then, after a long moment, she burst into laughter.

"Okay, first of all, was the Dragon Ball reference intended?" she asked as soon as she could get the words out.

"Wait, what reference?"

"Oh, I forgot. You only watched Z," she reminded herself, still giggling. "Yes, Aspergers is a kind of food," she declared, finding his misunderstanding too precious to ruin.

"Oh, cool. Maybe I'll eat some Aspergers later then," Levi happily decided.

Sophia was barely able to keep herself from entering another giggle fit. "Yeah, that would be great for my points."

"Why? Are you going to give me some?"

Sophia lost it again. She fell to her knees and clutched her sides, hardly able to breathe from the hilarity.

Levi began to feel self-conscious at her laughter, though it was different from usual. He could tell he was doing something dumb, but Sophia didn't seem upset about it, so it didn't sting like normal.

"S-sure," Sophia said, wheezing. "I'll give you some," she promised, internally praying that she could keep this up for as long as possible. "I need to get out of the negatives anyway."

Levi's smile wavered as he remembered the near and actual eliminations due to negatives.

"Sorry again that you all have to work so hard for points just to survive," he said.

Sophia's laughter faded. "It's okay."

"No, it's not okay," Levi insisted. "It must be so hard for you all."

"No, it's not," she said softly. "Or at least, it wasn't."

Levi didn't expect this. "What do you mean?"

Sophia blushed, wishing she had stayed silent. "I probably shouldn't. You'll think less of me."

"Of course, I wouldn't," he assured her. However, seeing her discomfort, he offered, "I mean, if you don't want to, we can drop it."

Sophia was about to take him up on that, but something stopped her. "No, I probably should get it off my chest, or the guilt will drive me crazy."

Sophia took a long while to collect her courage while Levi silently waited. The microwave signaled the Easy Mac's completion, but both ignored it.

Finally, she began, keeping her eyes closed as she talked. "It's just... everything that's been happening... up until a certain point... I've enjoyed it." She snapped her eyes open and looked right into Levi's. "No, I loved it."

Levi stared at her, with no idea how to even respond. "What?"

Sophia's leaned her back against a shelf, her blush deepening. "I have particular interests—well, a lot of certain interests—that I can only explore in my fanfiction. I mean, I like vanilla stuff too, but there are also ones that would be... objectionable to most people. Things that made it so I could never share my writing with somebody I knew."

Sophia let herself slide down until she was sitting on the floor. "I always told myself that the darker interests were just fantasy, so it was okay to write about as long as I knew it would be horrifying in real life."

She wrapped her arms around herself, holding them tightly against her chest. "And yet, when I got here and saw Jezebel transform... I found it ... found it... really hot. The way her body grew and her gender changed while she was powerless to stop it. And then the way her mind got bimbofied? I've written fics like that."

Sophia hugged herself tighter, her claws extending and scratching into herself. She looked up desperately at Levi. "That's messed up of me, right? Feeling that way when it happened in real life?"

"That's... well," Levi stammered, uncertain about what to do in this situation. Interpreting his hesitation as disapproval, she hurriedly tried to explain herself.

"Granted, I didn't know Jezebel before. My only exposure to her was when she nearly killed you, which kind of lowered my pity, I guess." With a nervous smile, she hastily added, "Plus, it happened right at the start. When I still thought it was just a dream."

Sophia's attempt at a grin broke as her guilty conscience resurfaced. "But that's not an excuse. Because when Azure started messing with everyone else, and even though I felt bad for them, I also liked seeing it."

She gripped her head, shaking. "It made me... oh god... it made me aroused."

"That's... nothing to be..." Levi began, but Sophia loudly spoke over him. Having cracked open the floodgates on sex, after keeping her interests a secret for so long, she found that she couldn't stop as it all came pouring out.

"Lauren's butt inflating, Olivia wimpification, even the way my own transformation embarrassed and objectified me," she cried, rocking in place. "I even thought about Elena's transformed muscles when I went to bed and... had fun with myself last night."

She repeatedly ran her fingers through her hair, causing it to become increasingly disheveled. "Like, I didn't finish, but still! My roommate was sleeping a few feet away from me, terrified about what this game was doing to her sister, and here I was getting off on everything. I'm horrible!"

"You're not!" Levi reassured her. But Sophia wasn't listening to him. She barely acknowledged that he was there. At that moment, she felt more like she was confessing her sins to god rather than the boy in front of her.

"On top of that, I loved the contest. I lived in a world of gameplay mechanics. One where I could strategically play cards to bend reality. I was having fun."

Sophia shuddered as traumatic memories of the elimination came back to her. "But then the challenge happened. I almost lost everything. And then Lauren-Two did lose everything."

Sophia dropped her arms to the ground and leaned against the shelf, feeling utterly defeated. "I woke up. It wasn't a game anymore. It never was. It had always been a nightmare. God, how could I have been so selfish? How could I have ever thought all this struggling was sexy?"

Sadly, she gazed at him with a sense of shame. "What's wrong with me?"

Levi carefully considered his words, trying to express his empathy for her. "I understand what you mean. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I've gotten… aroused as well."

Sophia groaned, rolling her eyes. "Well, duh. You're the protagonist of a real-life hentai fantasy. That's totally understandable."

She leaned forward, holding her entire head in her hands. "I should be different. I should be horrified that I was kidnapped, became a cat mutant, can never wear pants again, and have to give my life to a stranger. That's how a sane person would react. What the heck is wrong with me?"

Levi looked down at her sympathetically. Slowly, he got up and sat on the floor next to her.

He hesitated. He felt utterly unqualified to offer the advice he wanted to give her. The boy had barely ever said a kind word to himself. How was he supposed to help another?

He couldn't help but think back to what Sophia had said earlier: 'Giving advice is easier than following it yourself.'

"You're being way too hard on yourself!" Levi finally said. "You act like you hurt someone, but you haven't."

"What evidence do you have?" she countered. "You don't know me. We've barely interacted until tonight."

"Elena told me how much she adores you as a person," Levi offered, recalling what his friend told him while helping him prep for the date. "How you're always kind, and the way you've been helping everyone solve the game."

"I'm haven’t helped people," Sophia countered. "I was totally oblivious to what my roommate wanted to do."

"That... what Katelyn did... none of us could have predicted that."

"I knew she purchased a card," she whispered. "I knew she was ****. I could have dug deeper. I could have looked at everything that costs that amount and considered the worst case scenarios. I could have... could have..."

"You… did everything you could. It's not your fault," he said kindly.

"But... but..." Sophia stammered, trying to find evidence to counter Levi's assurance. "But I still felt pleasure from watching everyone."

Levi shook his head. "So… uh… what if you enjoy things a bit more than the others? Heck, finding happiness in a bad situation is a good thing," he said, not knowing where this wisdom was coming from. "That doesn't make you a bad person."

For a complete minute, silence enveloped the room as Sophia gazed into the distance. Finally, she broke the quiet by uttering, "You're nice."

Without looking, she gently lifted her hand from the ground and reached out to hold Levi's hand. As she touched his palm, she consciously retracted her claws, ensuring her touch was gentle and comforting. Levi slowly wrapped his fingers around hers, and softly squeezed.

Sophia slowly turned her head towards him, her nervous green eyes gazing into his brown.

Feeling just as scared as she was, the boy masked his nervousness with a smile.

Sophia began to purr as she tightened her grip on Levi's hand. She slowly moved her face closer to his.

Both introverts' hearts pumped deafeningly into their ears. Levi nearly pulled himself away from her in anxiety but managed to maintain the willpower needed.

Sophia arched her back and brought her lips closer, but then halted, just a hair's breadth away. She could feel his breath teasing her lips.

Levi slowly reached his hand around her, moving towards her waist. He stopped midway, wondering if it was okay, but Sophia gently nodded. He fully wrapped his arm around her. Sophia's tail followed suit, coiling around the right side of his hips, hugging it.

"You know, if this were an anime, something contrived would interrupt us at the last moment," she softly observed. "It will probably happen any second now."

"Well... we'd better hurry then," Levi whispered.

Without further hesitation, they both pressed their lips into the other.

Bonus: First Girl +5

Kiss: +3 VP