'Cause what if everyone saw? What if everyone knew?

To ensure that Ella’s punishment for trying to “prank” (or poison) Nick was actually carried out, Mary insisted that they eat dinner early tonight. Dinner was spaghetti that she had worked very hard on, and pasta sauce that she had worked even harder on.

With a portion that Ella had surreptitiously tainted with tabasco sauce.

Now, Mary understood the effect of moderate spice on a dish, she wasn’t that overbearing. Tabasco sauce certainly had its culinary uses.

Ella had emptied a bottle in there, though, and that was an entirely different matter.

“Uwegh!” Ella fanned her tongue with tears in her eyes. “It’s so spicyyyyy!”

“Good,” Mary huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. She focused on her irritation to keep from letting her more merciful side take over. Seeing Ella’s pained expression was considerably weakening her resolve. “Next time, maybe you’ll think twice before you try something like that.”

“I’m sorry…” Ella whimpered through the tears. “I was just… trying to have some fun…”

Morgana winced. She could hear the note of despair in the latina’s voice. She glanced swiftly over to Nick, and saw the grim expression on his face as well. Their eyes met in mutual understanding.

Ella was just finally starting to come out of her shell. If Mary was too hard on her, all the progress the unstable girl had made might be undone, or worse.

“If it’s too much for you,” Nick said suddenly, leaning over the table and reaching for Ella’s plate, “then maybe you can have some of mine. I don’t mind sharing with you.”

Ella’s eyes widened in shock and her mouth dropped open. Mary stared at him, also surprised.

“Eh?” The redhead frowned. “But… this is supposed to be her punishment…”

“I know, Mary,” Nick said, rescuing Ella from the horrors of the spicy spaghetti. “But you don’t need to go that hard on her. She’s learned her lesson I think.”

He glanced at Ella, seeing the wondrous expression on her face.

“Right?” He asked hopefully. “No more secret spices in my food?”

Ella blinked.

Then, after far too long of a pause for anyone to be comforted, she nodded slowly. “…Right, uh, yeah, no, no way…”

Nick was starting to have second thoughts, considering her refusal to look him in the eye.

Well, I’ll have to handle that later, he decided. This wasn’t the time to fight that battle with her.

Mary sighed in exasperation at her husband once again trying to save someone from their own actions. “You’re too nice,” she murmured, shaking her head. “But that’s what I love about you, I guess.”

“You only guess?” Holly chirped. For once, she’d accepted the offer of a seat at the table, to get a front row view of events.

Mary leered at her.

Nick winced as he felt the spicy sauce spread over his tongue. But he managed to **** it down, and looked to Ella, giving her a shaky smile.

“I don’t really mind it so much,” he assured her. “But in the future, please try to avoid any harmful pranks like this, okay?”

“And don’t mess with people’s food!” Mary snapped. “Making spicy dishes is fine, but you have to be upfront about it! That’s my only concern!”

“I-I will!” Ella promised, nodding quickly. “I swear, I… I won’t… I won’t do… that… that stuff again, I swear…”

She fidgeted awkwardly in her seat, her face burning with shame and humiliation. This was all so wrong, it wasn’t at all how things were supposed to go. She’d had so much fun yesterday, and she’d wanted more of that. But she’d made things worse with her little “prank” and now… everyone was upset with her.

Ella couldn’t even blame this on Cinder. It was all her fault.

She felt her heart sinking, and found she couldn’t even enjoy Nick’s pained expressions as he finished the plate of pasta he’d saved her from. How awful was that? He was doing something so nice for her after she’d tried to trick him, and she couldn’t even be grateful for it.

“Thank you…” Ella whispered. “For… for finishing that for me. And… I’m sorry.”

Fighting back her urge to cry she shakily rose to her feet, tracing her finger along the rubber-band on her wrist. She clenched her teeth together and looked at Nick, meeting his eyes.

“Thwap!”

The snap of her rubber-band jerked her upright completely and she scanned the table, taking an unsteady step back.

“I… I really need to go,” she said, raising her trembling hands in front of her face. The last thing anyone wanted was for her to be trapped in here for the night. “I’m… I’m so sorry again… Nick…”

Nick wanted to tell her that it was okay, that he wasn’t upset. He wanted to reassure her that her little prank didn’t bother him and that he didn’t hold it against her.

Unfortunately, his mouth wasn’t in any condition to actually make words, so what came out was more of a painful groaning mumble.

It made Ella wince. She hovered in the doorway, **** to get away but also afraid to leave under these circumstances. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from him as her heart beat rapidly in her chest. This feeling running through her…

This excitement…

“I’m sorry!” She blurted out again, stunning the table with her volume. Nick nearly gagged on his pasta. He looked at the frantic expression on her face, paralyzed by the manic gleam in her bright amber-colored eyes.

“El-Ella?” He choked out, swallowing as best he could.

Hearing her name should have set Ella at ease, but it really didn’t. She just winced, biting her lip nervously.

“I… I think…” She fidgeted uncomfortably in front of him, reaching for her rubber-band again. “I think I… shouldn’t be cooking anymore…” Ella finally admitted.

“No one’s saying that,” Mary said quickly. Her anger was all but extinguished at this point, and now she was just a worried friend. “Ella, nobody is upset with you!”

“Liar,” Holly sniffed.

Mary silenced her with a glare and turned back to the unsteady maid. “What I mean is… I’m disappointed in you, Ella, not angry.”

Holly and Nick exchanged glances. Yep, definitely in “Mom” mode right now.

“I understand you were just trying to have fun,” Mary continued, “but having fun by hurting someone is not okay, do you understand?”

Ella made a sour face. “I wasn’t trying to hurt him,” she mumbled. But she didn’t elaborate on what she was trying to do, either.

She didn’t really know herself, honestly.

In spite of her earlier admission to Morgana, in the moment Ella hadn’t been motivated by some possessive jealousy or call for attention. That had all been a later justification she’d been **** to come up with to rationalize her actions.

The truth was? Ella had no fucking idea why she’d done it. She’d been happily helping Mary prepare the pasta sauce, and when Mary had finished portioning them out and turned to start putting away the rest of the ingredients, Ella had about seven seconds alone with the food while the redhead’s back was turned.

Two seconds in and the tabasco sauce was in her hand, three seconds and she’d started pouring.

Even now, Ella had no idea why.

To have fun? To prank him? To get attention? All of that made perfect sense to her (sort of) but it had really just been a spur-of-the-moment thing.

Which was why she felt so jumpy even now. Because Ella could swear up and down to all four of them that she’d never do it again, but put her right back in that kitchen and she just couldn’t say for certain that she wouldn’t.

“…Why is she smiling like that?” Holly loudly asked the question everyone had been uncomfortably trying to avoid.

Ella jumped as she snapped back to reality and realized that she must have had quite a twisted grin on her face. She swallowed nervously. “I… it’s… I’m so sorry!” All she could do was apologize, and apologizing wasn’t really helpful right now. Mary wasn’t even sure she wanted to hear it at this point, given everything.

Nick looked sympathetically at her. As the victim, he really should be saying something, but he felt like he was trapped between a rock and a hard place. It had been so tough getting Ella to this point, and hearing that she’d actually been helping Mary cook- something that had seemed unthinkable just a day ago- had actually made him glad.

But he couldn’t exactly endorse her poisoning him, could he?

If he spoke up in Ella’s defense, it would be like letting her off the hook. And while he’d let worse things slide in the past, he knew he needed to start being a little more proactive about keeping a good relationship between all the girls in his harem, and couldn’t keep letting people do whatever they wanted without speaking up.

Just… did it have to be Ella? It really pissed him off that she had to be the one he brought the hammer down on first. Because if he was too hard on her, then he was afraid that she’d just retreat into her shell again.

He found himself in a horrible position, and had no fucking idea what to do about it.

Well… he did know. He just didn’t like it.

“Ella.”

The maid jumped, and when he saw the frightened look in her eyes, it almost made him back off entirely. But he couldn’t.

“…I’m not upset with you,” he said, ignoring the pain in his mouth. “So don’t worry, okay?”

She didn’t relax even a hair. “I, uh…”

“It wasn’t okay what you did,” he said, trying to be firm but also sympathetic. He didn’t want her to feel defensive. “But I’m not upset. It was a prank that went wrong. In the future, just… don’t mess with our food? Okay? I would like to try spicy dishes you make in the future, but I want to know about it beforehand, alright?”

Ella nodded slowly. She dug her fingernails into the doorframe, her grip strength being pretty much the only thing keeping her upright at this point.

“I’m so sorry,” she mumbled out again, feeling her skull pounding as Cinder struggled to come back out. She was trying to save Ella from the consequences of her own actions, but Ella couldn’t have that.

“Can… can I go?” Ella found herself asking as her eyes drifted towards the clock. She was cutting things pretty close now. “Please?”

“Of course you can go,” Nick assured her with a nod. “See you tomorrow?”

He hoped that the expectant tone of his voice would reassure Ella that there were no hard feelings, and that he was looking forward to her coming to clean his room again tomorrow, too. It was the best thing he could think to do. It was a hard line to walk with the unstable girl, and he found himself stuck between wanting to encourage her good behavior while also being wary of punishing her bad behavior.

Mary had a point. Maybe he was being a little too indulgent. But at the same time, it was just a harmless prank, did she really need the book thrown at her? It wasn’t like she’d crossed a major line or anything, after all.

“Right, um, tomorrow then,” Ella mumbled, looking uneasily around the Master’s Suite one last time before scurrying off, escaping to the elevator just in time.

As the clock chimed six, everyone returned to their meal.

Morgana chewed on her pasta, which she knew must taste delicious but right now it was hard to appreciate that fact.

This was supposed to be her night, right? But Ella and her shenanigans had kind of hijacked the whole thing.

Ella’s heart was still pounding in her chest as the elevator descended. She could still taste the tabasco on her tongue, but that wasn’t why she felt so awful.

“They were really upset,” she mumbled. Right now she wanted nothing more than to return to her room and bury her face in her pillow and never come out again.

…Or Cinder. Maybe Cinder could take the burden off of her for a little while. But that would just be running away again, wouldn’t it?

She glanced at her reflection in the elevator mirror and saw just how tired she looked. I was bad… I wanted to see Nick look all flustered and embarrassed again, so I pranked him, and that was a bad thing. Can I really just run away from my problems, and pretend I didn’t do anything wrong?

The answer to that question was obviously no, even Ella knew that much.

Cinder stepped off the elevator in a foul mood. That was usually the case when she was dressed up as a maid, but she was in a particularly foul mood today.

“That stupid… what the hell even happened, anyway?” She muttered to herself, crumpling the empty shopping bag in her hand.

The linked memories Cinder and Ella shared was a very complicated process. Neither alter really had a “presence” while the other was active, that wasn’t really how it worked. As her Passenger Seat transformation indicated, they weren’t sharing a body or anything like that. It wasn’t how media tended to portray the condition (Not that Cinder or Ella had much experience with that sort of media) things were much more nebulous.

“Cinder” could sense when something was too much for Ella to handle, but it wasn’t really Cinder. It was still Ella’s mind, fighting off her triggers that would make Cinder come out, or yielding to them and letting her stronger personality take hold. It was all really fucking confusing and a pain in the ass, and as someone who’d barely done any schooling Cinder (and Ella) definitely lacked the brainpower to figure any of it out.

The point was, Cinder had no fucking idea why she was out this time. Clearly, something bad had happened in the Master’s Suite, or Ella wouldn’t have switched with her. But it wasn’t SO bad that Cinder would manifest in the moment, either.

And, given how Passenger Seat worked, Cinder knew that it hadn’t been anything too tawdry.

Scowling, Cinder brought her fingers up to her lips.

Feeling their heat, she fumed. “What the fuck is this?” She muttered to herself. Her mouth felt like it was on fucking fire! Had Ella gorged herself on a bunch of chili peppers or something?! Well, no, definitely not, because Cinder was still fucking starving. But even opening her mouth to breathe felt like someone was rubbing hot coals over her tongue, it was fucking awful!

She trembled in frustration and chucked the empty shopping bag across the room. “What’s going on!?” Cinder shouted at the universe, not caring if anybody else heard her.

The pain wasn’t the only reason she was in a bad mood.

Cinder hadn’t been “present” since her date with Nick yesterday. This was the first time she’d taken over since then.

Since the fucking kiss.

That fucking kiss.

“Greedy little…” Cinder muttered under her breath, feeling her face heat up. She stormed over to the kitchen attachment in the lounge and nearly tore the refrigerator door off of its handles, digging around for something.

Milk, just what the doctor ordered!

Twisting the cap off she tilted her head back and began to guzzle it straight from the jug, swishing it around hastily to try and wash away the taste that was polluting her mouth.

Now, milk was a go-to remedy for spicy food, but that wasn’t the flavor Cinder was trying to suppress right now.

It was the taste of Nick’s tongue that she was trying to wipe away, and if the milk didn’t work she would consider some fucking bleach next.

“Aaaagh!” She screamed at the top of her lungs. “I can’t believe you kissed her, you fucking piece of shit! Who said you could do that!?”

Who? Ella, of course. Cinder knew that because, while she normally had no notion of anything Ella was actually doing when she was in control of their body, there was one exception to that rule.

• Passenger Seat: Contrary to popular depictions of DID, Cinder and Ella are not present in their mind at the same time, and do not associate things that happened to the other persona as happening to them. For the purposes of sexual activity, that is no longer the case. Now, whenever Cinder or Ella experience sexual pleasure, the other persona will feel as though they were given the same pleasure, and knowledge of that will carry over the next time they take over. [NOTE: The persona will still not be present in the moment, this will only affect what they remember of the events.] (Switch)

Ella had made Nick promise that anything he did with her, he would do with Cinder as well, just to be fair.

…A fucking unnecessary promise, because Cinder remembered every fucking minute of that fucking kiss!

“Aagh, just kill me now! FUCK!” Cinder covered her burning face with her hands, tossed the empty milk jug, and rushed to go scream into a pillow.

It kept playing over in her mind, like a fucking tape recording, only instead of seeing it she was living it! The feel of his lips against hers, the feeling of his tongue curling around hers, the taste of his fucking saliva, his embrace, all of it was being broadcast to her body in real-time and she fucking hated it, even the parts that felt good!

That was the most humiliating thing.

The pleasure Cinder- or rather, Ella- had felt when she and Nick made out so passionately was all over Cinder, flooding through her body like a virus. It may have been just a lingering memory but it wasn’t a pleasant one for her. Not even the pleasant parts were pleasant! And if that didn’t make sense, well, fuck you, you didn’t have Cinder’s brain, did you!? NO YOU FUCKING DIDN’T!

“Uweeegh!” She slobbered into the throw pillow while pounding her fists on the couch and kicking her legs on the carpet like a tantruming child, trying to wipe the taste of Nick out of her mouth. If only this had been a rough, textured pillow or something instead of being soft and silky! Who would have thought Cinder would ever miss the scratchy pillow from her old bed, the one that always gave her a rash?

Right now she’d give anything for it, because at least then a rash would be a distraction from this FUCKING FEELING in her mouth.

Cinder’s muffled screams echoed through the lounge as she clutched the pillow to her face, clenching her legs tightly together as she told herself over and over again that she wasn’t happy AT ALL to be feeling so good from that kiss. Ella had completely messed up! Having forgotten about her transformation, she’d made Nick agree to something he didn’t even NEED to agree to! Nick didn’t need to repeat any actions he made with Cinder, she was right there for them the whole time! How could Ella have made such a dumb mistake?! She wouldn’t have forgotten something like that, definitely not! And she certainly wasn’t calculating enough to have kept that transformation in mind when she coaxed Nick into making that promise, thus earning twice the kisses for herself out of him in the name of fairness for her alter!

…No, definitely not, that would be downright underhanded of her, and she would never do something so sneaky…