When suddenly a girl, her skin the color of a pearl

“Congratulations on your victory, Nicholas,” Amelia said as the two of them walked out of the Hotel Bowling Alley.

She sounded sincere. Nick was surprised, but only slightly. He knew that Amelia didn’t take losing that personally. In spite of how competitive she’d seemed to get during their little bowling match.

Maybe her frustration was at her own abilities and not at him.

“I thought it was fun,” Nick said honestly. “Did you have fun?” He asked his stepmother hopefully. He’d been hoping this would be a good date for her, and not even because it was part of his test. He just genuinely wanted the two of them to enjoy themselves, and while he had (even with the interruption of Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin) he could never be sure when it came to his stepmother.

Amelia looked at him, her eyes sharp behind her glasses. She gave him the faintest of nods.

“It was enjoyable,” she answered, succinctly as always. But at least it was enough to convey her feelings, which made Nick sigh with relief. He’d been worried that their time together wouldn’t go as well as he wanted.

“I’m glad to hear that,” he said sincerely.

She was still looking at him, though, and there was a sense of expectation in her gaze.

Nick didn’t need to be a genius to realize why that was. His heart sank in his chest as he figured out what Amelia was waiting for.

She wanted him to push forward and inform her of the next part of their date. He really should have expected that from her.

“So, uh… I was thinking…” Nick quickly checked the time, and saw that bowling didn’t take nearly as long as he’d expected it to. They actually had quite a bit of time left before dinner. “Now that we’re done bowling, um…”

“It is alright if you do not have anything else planned,” Amelia said, not taking her eyes off of him. “That is an aspect of the date, after all.”

Nick bristled at her words, realizing what she was getting at. Amelia was not-so-subtly letting him know that he was supposed to be improvising. And, well, he wasn’t doing the best job at it, judging by the way she was waiting on him.

“…How about something craft-related?” He blurted out.

She raised her eyebrow curiously at him. “Excuse me?”

“…Sorry.” Nick’s face was burning with embarrassment. “It’s just… well…” He bit his lip anxiously. “I mean… there were a few different craft stores I went to this week… with Rose, and with Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin… we made stuff like pottery, or in Rose’s case, a stuffed bear… I just thought…”

He could tell this was getting away from him, and he felt like a complete idiot. “…I’m sorry, I’m blowing this date, huh?” He started to apologize, averting his eyes. “The bowling was a good idea, but now I’m flubbing it…”

“Nicholas, it is fine,” Amelia assured him gently. She reached up to cradle his cheek, her transformation urging her to show him how much she cared using physical gestures. “Your sincerity is being conveyed perfectly,” she said. “I know how hard you are trying right now.”

“Amelia…” Nick was stunned. He was so used to his stepmother’s coldness, even if it was unintentional, that the way she was reaching out to him and trying to be kind to him struck him right in the heart. It felt like she really was getting better at sharing her true feelings with him, and as her stepson, that was a relief unlike any he’d ever felt before.

“Tell me, is that what you wish to do?” Amelia asked him.

“Huh?” It took Nick a second to process what she was saying.

“The crafts,” Amelia coaxed him gently. “Would you enjoy yourself, doing those activities?”

“Oh, uh…” Nick felt his face heating up. He bit his lip and shook his head. “To tell you the truth… not really.”

He’d had fun with Rose and Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin on his dates with them, but that had been because he’d enjoyed seeing their smiles as they took part in those particular activities with him.

But for something like this… Nick wasn’t so sure he would enjoy doing the same activities with his stepmother.

And Amelia could see that in his eyes. “Then do you think I would enjoy them?” She asked, already knowing the answer to that question.

Nick thought about his stepmother making a stuffed bear. Then he thought about her sculpting clay. Both activities he could imagine her being good at, but he also could have imagined her being good at bowling, and THAT hadn’t gone the way he expected.

So his mental image of his stepmother was recalibrated, and he pictured her messing up the stitching on the stuffed bear, and making a lopsided pot. Then he imagined her getting chagrinned at her failure, in that reserved, “I can’t believe this is not working properly, what is the matter with this?” way that she’d lowkey cursed the bowling ball with.

Yeah, the more he thought about it, the less certain he was that Amelia would actually enjoy either of those activities.

“I… I don’t really know,” he conceded. He didn’t know as much about his stepmother and her interests as he would have liked. “Do either of them sound fun to you?” He asked hopefully. Nick knew he was trying to get Amelia to bail him out, but he couldn’t help but ask.

She shook her head. “Not particularly,” she said. “However, that is not the purpose of a date, is it?” Amelia’s question caught Nick by surprise.

“It- what?” He asked, looking at her in confusion.

Wasn’t the point of a date to have fun together?

“Just because I do not foresee myself having a good time, that alone is not reason enough to reject the idea,” Amelia calmly explained. “To make such a decision would be akin to denying the possibility of enjoying something new, would it not?”

Again, Nick found himself at a loss of what to say. He never imagined Amelia as the kind of woman who would enjoy herself with new activities. Her fastidious nature always seemed to him like she was the type of person who did the same things she already enjoyed doing over and over again, living safely in her comfort zone.

But to hear that she was actually considering something new and exciting… well, potentially exciting, anyway…

“So… you want to go to a craft store?” He asked, not sure how else to interpret her statement.

She peered at him from behind her glasses and it felt like she was looking into his soul. The way she carried herself always intimidated him, and being an adult now didn’t change that as much as Nick wished it would.

Then she softly shook her head.

“It is not about my own personal desire,” she said bluntly, placing her hand over her chest. “Right now, I am open to the possibility of new experiences, Nicholas. Are you?”

Well, wasn’t that the question of the century?

“I- I mean, of course I am,” he said, his face heating up. “I just want to make sure that you’ll have a good time, that’s all.”

“Do you think I will not?” She asked.

How was he supposed to answer THAT?

“I…”

“I would like to experience the date you intend,” Amelia said, taking him by the hand. “You must have proposed those places for a reason, no?”

Nick felt his face burn. How could he tell her that the reason the idea had popped into his head was because Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin was stuck in his mind, and he’d found himself remembering their date together? When he was supposed to be spending his time with his stepmother instead?!

That didn’t seem like it would go over well.

“We… we probably shouldn’t do pottery,” he said quickly, earning him a surprised look from Amelia. She raised her eyebrow.

“Why not?” She asked, leaning forward and searching him for understanding. He felt like he did back when his stepmom was interrogating him about whether or not he broke her rules as a child. She could be so stern sometimes…

But he pushed past those previous thoughts and asserted himself again. “Because, um… the last time went there… it was with Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin, and even though we finished making our crafts, we had to wait a full day for them to be finished,” he explained. “Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin couldn’t get her bowl… cup… …thing… until the next day.”

He didn’t know what to call the twisted monstrosity Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin had made, but she sure had seemed proud of it.

“I see,” Amelia said, nodding slowly. “That makes sense,” she agreed. “Tomorrow will be the challenge, after all. There may not be time to come back and collect our items.”

Nick nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking,” he said. “The regular crafts store I went to with Rose is probably a better idea.”

Not that Nick had any idea what they would make at the craft store, anyway. He wasn’t exactly artistic. And he didn’t think his stepmother was, either.

Again… Nick found himself realizing that he didn’t know nearly as much about his stepmother as he would have liked, a fact that made him feel extremely embarrassed, like he’d failed her as a stepson somehow.

But the more he thought about it, the more he let himself off the hook. After all, now he was finally making up for his mistakes, and trying to meet Amelia on her own level. If this was what she wanted to do, then he would accompany her.

That was the point of a date, right?

I guess I’m getting a little better at this, he thought as they headed towards the elevators to make their way to the Shopping District. I did come up with something, even if it took a while. Maybe I can get better at improvisation after all.

Nick glanced at Amelia, wondering what was going through the woman’s head. Was he living up to her expectations, or was he defying them?

Pleasing a woman like her was incredibly difficult.

The walk to the Arts & Crafts Store was longer than Nick remembered. Or maybe it was the lack of conversation that made it feel that way. But it wasn’t like Nick was trying to keep quiet or anything! He was just finding it really difficult to come up with something to talk about.

“So, um… I’m going to be honest with you, Amelia,” he started.

She didn’t slow down her pace. “I would certainly hope so,” she replied, a notion that made Nick recoil from the obviousness of it, and feel like an even bigger idiot.

“W-well…”

“That was a joke,” she informed him.

He didn’t laugh. He just stared at her, not sure if laughing was even what she wanted from him.

“…Right, well, uh…” Nick bit the inside of his cheek thoughtfully. “Look, Amelia… I think… well… what I meant to say, was that I’m not doing as good a job at this as I want to be,” he confessed.

“You are doing perfectly fine,” Amelia assured him with a slight shake of her head.

That was nice to hear, but Nick wasn’t convinced. “We should be making small talk or something,” he pointed out. “That’s the kind of stuff you do on dates, right?”

“In most cases that is true,” Amelia agreed with a nod. “But you must keep your partner’s interests in mind,” she pointed out.

“Huh?” Nick wasn’t sure what she meant for a second, but then he got it. “Oh, you mean… you’re not the kind of woman who appreciates small talk, so I shouldn’t go out of my way to be chatty with you because you’d rather we just walk in silence?”

“And enjoy each other’s company,” Amelia said, turning to look at him. Her green eyes carried a depth to them that felt as if they were lightening the burden Nick felt on his shoulders. “Would you agree that is the purpose of a date?”

Well, it was hard to argue with that. Nick nodded his head.

“Yeah, you’re right,” he agreed. “Enjoying each other’s company is important.”

More important than just engaging in inane conversation for the sake of feeling like something needed to be said.

Now Nick just had to deal with the uncomfortable feeling that came with the silence…

“Are you looking forward to being a father?”

“What?!” Nick recoiled in shock, his head snapping around to stare at Amelia. His mouth dropped open. “That… Amelia?!”

She didn’t reply. She just kept walking as though she hadn’t asked such a personal and serious question. It almost seemed as though Nick had just imagined it!

“I… wh-what do you mean?” Nick asked awkwardly, struggling to catch up with her.

Amelia’s eyes flickered over to him. “Small talk,” she calmly replied, and Nick was left totally lost.

Wait, but she just said… no, wait! He realized what was going on here. True- Amelia had no need for small talk, she was perfectly content with walking alongside him in silence, not bothered at all by the atmosphere around them.

But… Amelia wasn’t asking the question for her own sake. That wasn’t why she was trying to make small talk with him.

She had asked because she was trying to be considerate of his feelings!

Amelia must have realized how uncomfortable Nick was feeling with the awkward silence, and so she was taking the initiative here to make the date better for him.

It was touching. Nick honestly felt that way.

Now if only his stepmother had a better grasp on what constituted “small talk” it would have been perfect.

“…I’m incredibly nervous,” he said sincerely, knowing that this was kind of a weird way to start a conversation. “I mean… the more I think about it, the harder it is to imagine that it’s real. This whole island… some nights, I’m dreaming, and then I wake up and I think that there’s no way this could have really happened, and I wonder if Harem Hotel itself was all just one big dream.”

It didn’t happen very often. Not anymore, at least. But some mornings he did still wake up and think he’d imagined this whole weird trip.

“…I can assure you, Nicholas, this is no dream,” Amelia said bluntly, shaking her head.

“Yeah, I… I know,” he mumbled, his face heating up again. Amelia had that way about her that just made Nick feel like he was a child again. He didn’t like it, but he couldn’t stop it.

“It’s just… how I feel in the morning sometimes,” he explained. “And sometimes it takes the presence of someone else in bed with me when I wake up, to remind myself that it really is real, that it wasn’t just a dream.”

Amelia could hear the loneliness in her stepson’s voice. It made her heart ache.

“…I myself went through something similar,” she confessed, stopping in place and turning to look at him.

Nick reacted with surprise. “Wh-what? Seriously?” He asked, not sure he could believe that coming from her.

Amelia nodded. “Not here. But… when I first married your father, it felt… like I was dreaming. There were some mornings when I woke up… and I could not believe I was no longer in my family home. I was a part of someone else’s family now, all of a sudden. There were times when… it didn’t even feel real.”

Nick saw the wistful look in her eye, and he didn’t know what to say. She stared off into the distance with the faintest of nostalgic smiles on her tight lips, and he felt a yearning feeling in his heart.

Then she turned back to him and their eyes met, and he saw the woman he knew and loved as his stepmother again, smiling at him with her eyes the way she so often did.

Amelia was difficult to read even at her best. But there were times when Nick just knew she was looking at him, and seeing him for who he was.

Those times… it felt like he couldn’t be happier.

“Amelia… thank you for becoming part of my family,” Nick said.

The look of surprise on her face almost made him laugh.

“That… I… I do not know what to say,” she honestly confessed, shaking her head. “You are… very welcome.”

Nick could tell that he’d shaken her with that. He almost felt proud.

Amelia was a difficult woman to shake!

“I’m not joking,” he said firmly.

“I know that.” Amelia was almost snappish in her response. She didn’t handle embarrassment well. “I… you do not need to say such things,” she said, shaking her head. He saw color touch her pale cheeks. “…But I appreciate that you did,” she added, raising her head and looking him in the eye.

He smiled.

“It will be different for you,” she added. And it took Nick a second to realize what she was talking about.

“Huh?” He looked at her in confusion.

“When you become a parent,” she clarified. “It will be difficult. For you.”

“O-oh… right,” Nick said slowly, nodding. “I guess it will be…” He’d almost forgotten how their conversation had started.

But Amelia wasn’t wrong. She had entered someone else’s family, when Nick was already partially grown up. For Nick, he would be starting from scratch. He and Mary were having a baby, and Holly was pregnant now, too.

He had no idea who else would be pregnant by the end of this show. How many new lives was he bringing into the world? How many babies was he going to end up fathering with different women?

Nick found himself thinking about it seriously for the first time, and it gave him pause. Amelia could see the hesitation playing out on his face, and it almost made her smile.

“Don’t worry, Nicholas,” she assured him, reaching out and patting him on the shoulder. “I am certain you will be a great father. But it is a lot of responsibility. I hope you are ready for it.”

Nick swallowed, not realizing how dry the inside of his mouth was until he did. He nodded slowly. “Yeah. I… I hope so, too,” he mumbled, feeling a bead of sweat roll down his forehead.

This was serious. And talking with Amelia had helped him realize it.

“Let us not dwell on small talk further,” Amelia said, sensing how uneasy her topic of conversation had made her date. “Let’s go.”

The two of them resumed their walk, both unaware that a pair of blue eyes was watching them from the shadows.