Big boss man, can't you hear me when I call?

Cinder was NOT in a happy mood.

Because she had woke up in bed with another woman’s arm over her face.

Now, there were a few things wrong with that.

For one thing, Cinder wasn’t exactly used to “waking up”. Due to her strange relationship with Ella, being her alter, the way she tended to interact with the other girl’s body didn’t lend itself properly to things like “waking up” or even “dreaming” as it were. Very seldom could she even identify being the one to open her eyes in the morning.

Ella couldn’t either.

They both just sort of… were awake. Without either really knowing why.

That wasn’t the case this time, though. This time, Cinder very vividly remembered being the one to wake up, even though that very seldom happened. It wasn’t impossible or anything. It just wasn’t what she was used to.

The other problem with this situation?

Again, the FUCKING ARM IN HER FACE.

“Rrrrgh!” Cinder shoved Gina off of her and pushed herself out of bed. What the hell!? This was the Luxury Suite! She was supposed to receive comfort and pampering the likes of which she’d never imagined before! But NOOOOO, she was stuck with her face crammed into another woman’s armpit, because Gina only went to sleep in those ratty tank tops and couldn’t stay on her own side of the bed, damn it!

“Fucking bitch,” Cinder cursed under breath, standing up and brushing herself off. She caught sight of her appearance in the mirror and her bad mood immediately became worse.

“Why does she even wear stuff like this!?” Cinder grumbled to herself, shaking her head. Ella, as usual, went to bed in nice, frilly pajamas. Bright pink pajamas.

Cinder hated pink. It was probably her least favorite color.

“Why am I the one who has to be out right now?” Cinder stripped out of her clothes and stormed over to the closet. She found her section and put on some outfits that looked properly aggressive- her usual punk fare.

Much better.

But her mood still wasn’t improving. Because there was a strange absence in her head.

Normally, Cinder was used to being in the passenger seat, only taking over when Ella needed her protection. Which was why she so seldom was the one in control this early in the morning- unless, of course, Ella needed protection from a certain smelly armpit. But that was less likely.

The issue?

She couldn’t feel Ella at all. It was like her other self was hiding. Normally, Cinder wouldn’t have a problem with that. If anything, she relished the opportunity that came with having her body all to herself for once.

But she felt uneasy without Ella there. Like there was a reason she should be concerned. But the more she thought about it, the more she found herself lacking understanding. It wasn’t like she could communicate with her other self. And since they weren’t conscious at the same time, that meant Cinder knew very little about what Ella actually did when she was the “active” one.

Really, Cinder could only feel when Ella was at her breaking point, as that was the signal for her to take over. And as far as she knew, that hadn’t happened last night- not until Nick had gone missing. Once that happened?

All bets were off. Cinder had taken over, and almost gone on a rampage.

Not because she cared about Nick or anything! Of course not. It was all for Ella’s sake.

But, after finding out that Nick was fine, Cinder had gone to sleep and put all those concerns behind her. So shouldn’t Ella be the one who woke up now?

“Haaaaaaahhhh…”

Cinder turned to see Gina get up. Well, wake up, anyway. Getting up would be a little difficult, because her torso was hanging off the side of the bed thanks to her pushing. The other girl’s boobs were practically flopped down on her face.

“What the… huh?”

Gina demonstrated a surprising amount of back strength by sitting up in that position. She looked at Cinder with bleary eyes, and her face radiated confusion.

“Cinder? You’re up early…”

“You’re up late,” Cinder snapped at her. “Like I could fall asleep with you in that state,” she added with a mutter, shaking her head.

“Oh yeah… sorry about that. I toss and turn a bit in my sleep,” Gina said. “I guess it’s because it’s hard to have nice dreams when I’m so thirsty…”

She rubbed her throat and shot Cinder a teasing smile that made the other girl’s blood boil.

“Don’t you dare start that again,” Cinder muttered, shaking her head in disgust. That was the last thing she needed right now, more of Gina’s taunting from last night.

“What? What can I say?” Gina shrugged. “It’s really getting bad… gonna have to ask Nick to top me off today, for sure. Maybe first thing in the morning…”

Cinder didn’t want to hear any of this.

“I’m going to go brush my teeth,” she shouted.

“Sure, go ahead,” Gina called after her. “I’ll do that when I get back from Nick’s!”

That caused Cinder to change her plans slightly.

Throw up first, THEN brush her teeth.

Only, she hadn’t eaten anything, so throwing up would be hard… she really wanted to, though.

Maybe after breakfast then. She could brush her teeth twice. That’s what Ella would do, the little goody two-shoes.

Cinder finished brushing her teeth and stepped out of the bathroom to find Gina up and actually dressed. It seemed like she wasn’t kidding about going to see Nick first thing in the morning to do… that sort of stuff.

Then she noticed that Gina was holding a piece of paper in her hand.

Oh, well. None of her business. Cinder headed for the door to go get breakfast, and leave Gina to go find Nick and do whatever it was she was going to do.

“Hey, Cinder, hold on a sec.”

Cinder sighed in exasperation and turned around. “What is it?” She muttered, leering warily at the punk girl.

Gina frowned and held up the lined paper. “Are you writing notes to yourself now?”

“…Huh?”

Cinder stared dumbfoundedly at her. “What are you fucking talking about?” She grumbled, storming back to Gina. “Note?”

“Yeah, I found it on the dresser,” Gina said, ignoring the other girl’s privacy and reading it over without hesitation. She was a bit of a brat like that. “Yeesh, your handwriting is even worse than mine! And even I can see you made some spelling errors.”

Considering Gina’s grades by the time she’d flunked out of life, that was quite a significant achievement in her eyes.

“Give me that!” Cinder’s face burned and she grabbed the note from Gina. She turned it over in her hands and read it over. To her chagrin, she saw that Gina wasn’t wrong- her handwriting, and her spelling, were absolutely atrocious.

…Well, it’s not like Cinder had any formal schooling, or anything!

But there was one thing that Gina was wrong about.

“…This isn’t from me,” Cinder realized. Her eyes widened behind her messy bangs. “This… this is from Ella!”

Her other self had written her a note.

A note that Cinder nearly tore into shreds when she read it over.

---

There were a great many curse words Cinder wanted to spew as she stomped out of the elevator with Gina in tow, storming towards the doors to the Master’s Suite.

But she didn’t say any of them.

No matter how angry Cinder was, downright furious, in fact, her natural protectiveness of Ella kept her from directing any of that anger towards her alter. Which left her helpless, unable to do anything other than stew in impotent rage.

“That girl…” she growled to herself. “What was she thinking!? THE NERVE-!”

“Aw, I think it’s cute!” Gina giggled. “Don’t worry- I’ll let you go first.”

“Shut your mouth, you skank!” Cinder roared at her, glaring furiously at her roommate. “Get out of here! Why are you following me in the first place, bitch!?”

“Whoa! Hey, stop with the potty-mouth!” Gina said, pretending like she was the moral, upstanding, respectable one. It was fun to not be the one with the worst manners in the room for once. She actually felt like a good girl for a change. “Remember, I was the one who wanted to come here first. Before you read that little note of yours. So if anybody is following anybody, wouldn’t it be YOU who are following ME? Hmmmmm?”

Cinder had put up with some difficult roommates since her stay on the island. Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin had been annoying, but at least she’d been quiet. Rose had… issues… but Cinder actually tolerated her decently, and even respected her a little bit. Frankly, out of everyone on the island, Cinder probably liked her the most as a person, which showed what a low bar there was. (Most of their positive relationships came from Ella.)

Gina, on the other hand?

This was the first time Cinder was dealing with someone she actually despised. …Well, not including Nick, anyway.

And yes, “despised” was a very good way to define her opinion of Nick right now.

Maybe not fairly, but… hey. She didn’t have to be rational about how she felt, it was her right to be as irrational and spiteful as she pleased!

Meanwhile, Gina was looking at the seething girl, and honestly? She was starting to reconsider her actions. Okay, maybe I’m going a little too far, she conceded. It wasn’t like she really wanted to make Cinder absolutely hate her.

Things would go a lot easier for her without a roommate that wanted to murder her in her sleep. So she decided to stop being a bitch, and try to be a good girl for a little bit.

Hopefully Cinder would respect that.

Right now, anyway, her roommate seemed to be channeling her anger towards a more constructive path. Relatively-speaking, anyway.

“Nick!” Cinder knocked loudly on the door, pounding on it so hard Gina was actually worried she might hurt herself. “I know you’re in there! Open up, you bastard!”

The door cracked open and Mary stuck her head out. She didn’t look happy.

“What’s going on here?” She asked, stepping out into the entry hall and putting her hands on her hips. “We had a very long and hard night last night!”

Gina covered her smirk. “Heh.”

Mary shot her a scathing look. “…And we would very much like to catch up on our sleep, if you don’t mind!”

The truth was, neither of them had been asleep. But after everything Nick had been through last night, and given what he was planning to talk about with all the girls later, Mary felt like he was owed a bit of a break for now.

At least until she finished breakfast.

“See? Mary can be a real hardass,” Gina said. She shook her head and sighed.

Mary shot her a glare. “Watch your language!” She chastised the other girl.

Gina looked at Cinder and waved her hand lazily at the redhead. “You see? My point made for me! Hardass.”

Cinder rolled her eyes. She honestly couldn’t give less of a crap about this.

“Let me see your husband,” Cinder demanded through clenched teeth. “He and I have business to discuss!”

Mary paused. Her face softened slightly when she heard that, even if she didn’t want to reward Cinder’s hostility by doing what she wanted. If the other girl was telling the truth and she had something to talk with Nick about…

Gina was quick to jump in and take advantage of her hesitation. “See, Cinder, if you want Mary to believe you, then you should have come wearing a maid outfit. That would have been way more believable.”

For a moment, both Cinder and Mary were united in disbelief and agitation towards the snickering punk girl.

“…Whoa, hey, I actually have business with him,” Gina said, holding up her hands. She could read the room, and saw that things were getting a little tense, which wasn’t great. “…I have to give him a blowjob.”

Cinder sighed in exasperation. Mary was too exhausted to even think about questioning that. She just shook her head incredulously.

“…Seriously?”

“Hey, I’m in a program, but one step at a time, right?” Gina grinned. “…But Cinder should probably go first. I can wait.”

Mary was grateful for Gina’s consideration. It made it a lot easier for her to swallow Gina’s story, no pun intended. She looked at Cinder again expectantly.

Cinder’s face was flushed. She looked like she wasn’t sure if she wanted to curl up and die or murder someone more. Not exactly the nicest thing, Mary thought.

But… she could also see that Cinder wasn’t lying.

“…Ella… wrote me a letter,” Cinder said, holding up what was left of Ella’s note that hadn’t been shredded in her clenched fist. “Apparently, she wrote it last night, after I went to bed… She said… I have to go see Nick. And that she’s not coming back out until I do.”

“Isn’t that what you want?” Mary wasn’t sure what Cinder was even after at this point. In all the time she’d gotten to know Ella and her alter, it seemed like Cinder was determined to take over her other self’s body completely.

Or at least, that’s what Ella always seemed to be afraid of…

“No way!” Cinder exclaimed. She shook her head. “My job is to protect Ella and keep her safe! Yeah, taking over her body is the best way to do that, but… if she’s not around, then… why am I even here, huh!?”

It was an existential crisis for her. And a part of her suspected that maybe Ella even knew that.

The two sides of herself had difficulty trusting and understanding one another. But Ella seemed to be trying to put in the work to get to know her other self a little better, at least.

That was more than Cinder could say about herself…

“Look… I get it, I’m not… the most trustworthy person,” she muttered, looking down. “But this is something I just gotta do…”

Even if she really felt disgusted by it.

Mary could sense that there was something she wasn’t been told. And that didn’t work for her.

“I don’t want to let in someone who is lying to me,” she said softly. “What else do you want with Nick?”

Cinder’s face burned even hotter.

“I… I have to kiss him, okay!?” She blurted out, clenching her fists tightly.

Mary stared at her, dumbfounded.

“…Excuse me?” She shook her head slowly, wondering if she’d heard right. “Kiss him?”

“Ella said… that she and Nick have kissed… seven times,” Cinder said through clenched teeth. “Apparently, she’s been keeping track… and in the interest of fairness… she wants him to kiss me seven times! As if what I want doesn’t even matter!”

Mary didn’t even know where to begin unpacking this. But she DID know that no way was Nick going to kiss Cinder if she didn’t want him to.

This was starting to turn into a big headache.

“…Okay, come in,” she said, seeing the sincerity in Cinder’s eyes. “Just… please go easy on him, okay? He’s in a really rough place right now.”

“It’s just some kissing!” Cinder screeched. She stormed past Mary and into the Master’s Suite. When she saw Nick sitting at the table for breakfast, she froze.

Her face burned even hotter.

“Cinder?” Nick was surprised to see her so early in the morning. “What… what are you doing here? Why aren’t you at breakfast?”

“Sorry, Nick,” Gina chirped, skipping in after her roommate and giving him a wave. “We’re here to take care of some business. Would you mind terribly if I gave you a blowjob really quick? It’s kinda been a long while since we last got down to it, you know?”

Nick vaguely remembered Gina’s Adicktion Patches, and nodded numbly. Then he realized what he was agreeing to, and turned red. “…Wait! No way, what are you talking about!?” He sputtered. “What does that have to do with Cinder?!”

There was absolutely no universe in which he let Gina give him a blowjob in front of Cinder and came out without her despising him.

“No, yeah, that’ll be for later,” Gina said, waving her hand. “Don’t worry! She has business with you, first.”

She flashed a cheeky smile. “See how good I’m being? I was the one who decided to come up to the Master’s Suite first, but I’m STILL being nice and letting her do her business with you before I get the chance! Isn’t that nice of me?”

Gina was fishing for a certain compliment in particular. Luckily for her, Nick wasn’t averse to rewarding her.

“Yes, Gina,” he said, standing up and walking over to the two women. “You’re being a very good girl.”

Gina twitched. Pleasure surged through her body as her Trigger Word transformation kicked in, sending a jolt of ecstasy down into her nether regions that made her cum on the spot. “Oo-ohhhooohhhhhh!” She moaned out, and grabbed the couch to stay standing.

“Nice one,” Holly chuckled from her seat at the dining room table. This was everything she’d been hoping to see when the two of them burst into the Master’s Suite.

With Gina temporarily satisfied, Nick could turn his attention to Cinder now. Even if she was giving him the stink-eye.

He couldn’t really blame her, given what he’d just shown her.

“Sorry about that,” he apologized sincerely. “Can I help you?”

Cinder looked absolutely miserable.

“You owe me,” she spat, drawing closer to him. The hesitation in her eyes was clear to see. “Okay? That’s all this is. Ella says you owe me, and we have to settle the score!”

Nick had no idea what she was talking about for a second. Then he remembered what Ella had reminded him of last night, before everything had gone to hell.

About all the kisses that he had to give Cinder.

Apparently, Ella had decided not to wait any longer, and was not forcing the issue.

The two of them stared at each other, neither exactly ready for what was about to happen. But maybe it was just what Nick needed to clear his mind after everything that happened. And besides, wasn’t he supposed to be making the season more interesting, like Echo said?

But the real draw was the look of expectation in Cinder’s eyes. Despite her outward protests, it seemed as though she really was expecting something from him. Maybe even looking forward to it a little bit.

He didn’t want to disappoint her.