Searching the eyes, looking for clues

Mary felt two conflicting waves of emotions roiling against one another as Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin dried her tears and smiled a smile that seemed so much more genuine than the other ones she usually wore.

On the one hand, Mary was grateful to Vivian for stepping in and seeing what she couldn’t see where Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin was involved. The heiress’s perceptiveness had kept the situation from escalating in a troubling direction.

On the other hand, Mary felt a deep pit of guilt welling up inside of her as she rebuked herself for being such a fool and messing up like that. She’d almost driven the other girl away, and would have made Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin that much more hostile towards her as a result!

And that would be the outcome she deserved, too, for trying to be pushy and meddle in the other girl’s issues.

“I’m the worst…” Mary mumbled, looking down at the ground. She raised her head and gave Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin an apologetic look. “I’m sorry… I didn’t… I didn’t take your feelings into consideration,” she apologized, placing her hand over her chest. “Can you… ever forgive me?”

She doubted that the assassin would do so. And she wouldn’t blame her, either.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin wasn’t in a good mood. Once the positive feelings wore off, her smile disappeared, because now she was reminded of the fact that she had just allowed herself to be vulnerable in front of two women that she really did not want to be vulnerable in front of.

And that was not something she liked.

Kim was fine. She adored Kim. But Vivian and Mary? Even though they tried to help her, that didn’t change Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s heart. She wasn’t suddenly ready to drop everything and be besties!

But then she caught the look of sympathy in Vivian’s eyes, and calmed herself down.

“Hey, it’s alright,” Kim said, stepping towards her. She could see the complex confluence of emotions playing out across the other woman’s face, and she wanted to do whatever she could to help the poor mute girl.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin couldn’t properly speak up in her own defense. So, someone needed to be there for her, to stand in her corner, and right now, Kim was the only person she trusted to do that.

The fact that the assassin let Kim place a hand on her shoulder to comfort her was proof enough of that much.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin lifted her head and looked Kim in the eyes. The yearning for understanding Kim saw there was palpable.

“Mary is a good person,” Kim asserted. “And you’re a good person, too. Don’t you think, if you tried, the two of you could become friends?”

Vivian made note of the fact that Kim did not say that she was a good person, but she didn’t mention it. Not the time.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin looked past Kim, and stared at Mary for a few seconds. She looked at the nervous, hesitant expression on the woman’s face.

Then she pouted and crossed her arms over her chest. She puffed out her cheeks and shook her head stubbornly, looking every part the petulant child.

Kim grimaced. Vivian almost burst out laughing, but again, she remembered that this wasn’t the time for stuff like that.

Then Mary saw the fierce expression on the assassin’s face, as her eyes landed on her again.

What happened next was too fast for any of them to make out. Before Kim knew what was happening, Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin jerked away from her, pulling free of the other girl’s grasp, and ran right at Mary. They were too close and Mary was too startled to react. The mute assassin was in front of her in a second, eyes icy with murderous intent.

Mary had just enough time to flinch as the assassin raised her fist… and flicked her in the forehead.

It didn’t even hurt.

“Uweh?” Mary stared at the other woman in stunned confusion.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin closed her eyes and stuck out her tongue, then turned and dashed away before anybody could say anything.

“…So, I think you can take that as a ‘yes’ on the friendship!” Vivian said, optimistic as ever.

Kim and Mary weren’t so certain. But considering what outbursts they could have gotten from her, it could have gone a lot worse!

Per their agreement, once Rose’s party came to an end, she stepped aside and left Nick in Morgana’s care for the rest of the day.

It was a little surreal; like Nick was in the middle of a very bizarre custody battle. But he didn’t complain. Primarily, his goal remained the same- he wanted to have a good time with the people he cared about. He had to do his best, after all.

Because if things got too stagnant, then Echo would appear and cause problems. And he really didn’t want to indulge her twisted whims, even if it meant getting closer to Dakota.

If she thinks I’m intentionally messing up to get in contact with Dakota, she’ll make me do even more risky and difficult things. Or she could go even further and take the deal off the table completely, or alter the terms… I can’t risk that. Nick was playing a very dangerous game here, and he came to the conclusion that the only way to win was to just be straightforward and honest and do his best.

So that was why he decided that the best course of action was to just keep doing what he was already doing and try to enjoy his time with the women in his life. The party had been great in that front- Rose hadn’t made it about her as much as he’d feared, which had reaffirmed why he treasured her so much. She wasn’t afraid to put herself out there and go for what she wanted, which he admired, but she also had a good heart and cared about other people under the surface.

Deep, deep down under the surface, perhaps, but in Nick’s eyes that was still more than valid enough for him.

Now, though, he was going to let Rose do as she liked, while he focused on something else important- getting to spend more time with Morgana. The goth girl didn’t have a concrete plan for what they would do for the rest of the day, but that was what Carly was for.

Morgana didn’t object to her tagging along for the afternoon, either, and Nick wasn’t going to complain. He and Carly didn’t have that many opportunities to hang out. So the three of them left the hotel and were walking down the Shopping District, trying to come up with something that they could all enjoy together.

“So, I was thinking, do you guys want to see a movie?” Carly suggested. “It could be a lot of fun, if you ask me!”

“Oh, yeah!” Morgana’s eyes sparkled. “A movie would be great!”

Nick could get behind that. “Sure, what movie were you two thinking of watching, then?” He asked. The last time he’d watched a movie had been the previous afternoon, with Rose and Echo, who had been disguised as Mary. If possible, he wanted to wipe that bad memory out of his mind and replace it with more positive memories.

Figuring out what movie to watch, though, was when things started to fall apart.

“I don’t want to watch a horror movie!” Morgana insisted. “Those are too scary!”

Once upon a time, she would have been all-in on watching horror, because it went with her vibe. But she couldn’t stand horror. Nick was happy to see that Morgana was becoming more assertive and trying to do what SHE wanted to do, rather than trying to live up to the expectations of other people and what she thought a goth “should” be doing.

“I want to watch porn.”

Nick and Morgana stared at Carly in shock.

“Wh-wh-whaaaaaaat!?” Morgana’s pale face turned bright red and she covered it with her hands out of reflex, like the porn was already in front of her face. She peeked through a crack in her fingers, and looked shakily at the other woman.

“Carly, that’s a little…” Nick wasn’t the kind of person who put a hard “No” on something another person wanted to do in a situation like this, but for Morgana’s sake…

Carly looked a little stunned. “Uh… y-yeah, that’s weird,” she agreed, her face getting hot. She scratched her cheek. “I mean… saying that out loud, it sounds… really not what I want to do, but… I mean, well… uh…”

She looked flustered, and she glanced at Nick warily. Then at Morgana. Not even she fully understood why she’d just blurted it out. She’d had nothing but genuine intentions when she suggested they watch a movie. But once the idea was directly proposed, it was like a new thought just occurred to her, and she went with it.

Carly didn’t even know why.

“…Sorry,” she said finally, reasserting herself. “It just kinda slipped out. But I mean… don’t you think watching porn with a guy you like is, like, really really hot? Just the thought of it, it’s so… so exciting! You know?!”

“NO!” Morgana squeaked. Her blushing face just kept getting redder and redder. She shook her head furiously and gave Nick a pleading look, like she was begging him to save her from this.

“Carly, um… I get what you’re saying,” Nick said, trying to reason with her. “But-”

“No, I know!” Carly held up her hands. “I don’t think we should actually do it, either! It’s just… for some reason, I think it would be really hot, and you know me, always saying… the first thing that… comes… out of my…”

Realization dawned on her and her eyes widened. “Ah!”

“What?” Nick was surprised by the sudden gasp.

Carly snapped her head around and looked at Morgana, who fidgeted nervously. The goth girl was having difficulty meeting Carly’s eyes.

Carly turned back to Nick and gave him a diplomatic smile. “Hold on for just one second, Morgana and I need to do a little girls’ talk. Okay?”

“Uh…” Nick looked warily at her, not sure if he should say anything. Carly’s idea of “girls’ talk” might be more than Morgana could handle.

“Morgana, if you’re feeling uncomfortable, just scream ‘HELP!’ at the top of your lungs, okay?” Nick encouraged her. He was only kidding, but it might help the nervous girl in front of him relax a little, and he could tell she needed it.

“Nick, come on,” Carly sighed, rolling her eyes. “You know I’m not going to mess around like that, don’t joke!”

Morgana nodded. She looked at him with her dewy red eyes and bit down on her nervous smile. “R-right… as loud as I can…”

“Morgana!” Carly groaned. She rolled her eyes again and guided the other girl down the street, far enough away where Nick wouldn’t be able to hear what they were talking about. Morgana gave him one last look back.

There’s something going on here, Nick thought, but he didn’t have any clue what it could be. He just knew Morgana wouldn’t look at him like that if she wasn’t really nervous about her situation.

Nick just had to hope that Carly really was just playing around. He knew she would never try and pressure Morgana into doing something she wasn’t comfortable with, but pressure could take a lot of different forms when it came to Morgana.

She might go along with it just to try and impress Carly and be one of the “cool” kids, and that wasn’t very good, either.

But Nick didn’t have anything to worry about. Carly had pulled Morgana aside for a very important reason, one he couldn’t even begin to guess.

“I think I figured it out,” Carly said in a hushed whisper once the two of them far enough away from Nick to hear.

Morgana gulped and looked fretfully into Carly’s serious eyes. “Wh-what is it? Figured what out?” She asked, shiftily glancing aside.

That confirmed Carly’s suspicions.

She fought back the urge to smile. “Actually… you want to watch the porno movie too, don’t you?” She coaxed the goth girl.

Morgana’s blush disappeared, but only because the rest of the color on her face went with it. She looked like a walking corpse for a moment as she gave Carly a horrified look, and began to shake.

“I… I, uh… n-no?” She said, not convincing Carly for a second.

“It’s alright,” Carly said, placing her hand on Morgana’s shoulder and giving it an encouraging squeeze. “Don’t worry!”

Morgana bit her lip and looked nervously at him. “D-don’t… don’t worry?” She asked the other girl reluctantly.

“It’s the fetish I copied from you,” Carly lowered her voice even more. “Isn’t it?”

Carly was fine with porn. Hell- you could argue that she even made porn. But as fine as she was with the idea of watching porn with a guy she liked, it wasn’t, like, a thing for her. It had never occurred to her to be something she wanted.

But now, the idea was so exciting she couldn’t get enough of the thought! So either Carly had awakened to a very unusual fetish in the last couple of hours, unprompted, or…

“You’re right!” Morgana squeaked out. She clenched her eyes shut and started to shake. “You’re right, okay?” She whimpered. “I… I think… I think it’s really sexy… the idea of watching a sexy movie with a boy… in a movie theater, or-or in his bedroom… and while it’s going, we’re fooling around in the dark, it’s really hot! So…”

“So, I copied that,” Carly said, relieved that she finally had an idea of what fetish she’d copied from Morgana. “I can say… it could be worse, Morgana. I don’t think it’s something necessarily to be ashamed of.”

Morgana’s eyes popped open and she looked at Carly in surprise. “It… it isn’t?” She asked, finding that hard to believe.

Carly shook her head. “No way! I mean- look, is it my thing? No, no way it is. …Well, I mean, not normally. But right now, I can definitely see the appeal! It’s just the two of you, in your own little world, the lights are off, and then the couple up on the screen start going at it… and then you feel the guy’s hand on your leg, and you’re wondering if he’s going to go higher… and then he does, so you take the invitation and you start touching him back, and before you know it…”

She let out a swooning sigh as the scenario played out before her eyes. All the while, Morgana was just getting hotter and hotter.

“So… you really… don’t think it’s that weird?” Morgana asked.

Carly laughed and shook her head. “What? No way! …I mean, there’s always the issue of other people being around, but that kind of adds to the thrill, don’t you think?”

“Uh… n-no…” Morgana had to remember that Carly was a bit of an exhibitionist. In her own fantasies, it was always her and the guy alone in the theater together with nobody watching.

“Well… I guess we have our own tastes on the subject,” Carly conceded with a shrug. She stroked her chin thoughtfully. “Still, though… this is really something we need to take our time and unpack, don’t you think?”

“Really?” Morgana looked uncertain. “But… isn’t it enough if we just, um… d-do it?”

Carly was surprised by the other girl’s forwardness. “Wait, so you’re into it, now? You’re serious about us going to watch a movie and fooling around with Nick?”

Carly had been ready to toss the idea aside and focus on a genuine movie date, the same way that they didn’t do any messing around in the hot spring. But if Morgana wanted to actually live out this fantasy of hers, well…

Her transformation was making it pretty hard to say no.

“I-I was embarrassed when you found out… but… I think… I think it’s alright,” Morgana said, looking down and smiling sheepishly. She fidgeted with her fingers as the redness returned to her face. “I was scared you’d think it was weird…”

“Nah, no way!” Carly playfully socked the other girl in the arm. “I don’t kinkshame. You should know that by now!”

Morgana really should, shouldn’t she? But then, she had always been so intimidated by Carly’s sexiness that she’d barely spent any time talking with her, even though they clearly had a lot of interests in common.

…Not the sex in the movie theater stuff, to be clear. That was a result of Carly copying her transformation and nothing more.

“Only problem is, Nick might not be up for it,” Carly said, stroking her chin thoughtfully. “He seems really up for watching a movie the genuine way… hmm, that’s a little bit tricky. We’ll have to figure something out.”

“Or, we, uh… we could not tell him,” Morgana suggested. “And just… let it happen.”

In her fantasy, it was a spontaneous thing. But in the real world, she understood that initiating something like that without telling the other person first could be a little… dicey.

So, Morgana found herself stuck, not sure whether or not they could follow through on the idea properly.

“Won’t work,” Carly bluntly informed the other girl. “We’re going to picking out the movie together. Nick’s going to see right through us if we pick something too erotic.”

Morgana nodded. That was a good point too.

“…And also, the, uh, consent thing,” Morgana reminded Carly.

“Right, yes, of course, the consent thing, can’t forget about that,” Carly agreed.

…To be fair, Carly was pretty experienced with Nick by this point, and knew that he tended to be fine with her having a bit of fun here and there even without predetermined guidelines. She appreciated that he could be spontaneous with her like that.

But, Morgana’s presence here would necessitate a change to the rules. What Nick would have been fine with if it was just the two of them would definitely not fly if Morgana was involved, and he didn’t know she was up for it herself.

Nope. They needed to bring the idea up with him.

He’d probably be fine with it, though.

“I think Nick is about to have a very fun trip to the movies,” Carly said, cracking a sly grin and wiggling her eyebrows. “You’re up for it too… right, Morgana?”

She didn’t want the other girl getting cold feet- or worse, forcing herself to go through with something she was no longer comfortable with.

But judging by how Morgana quickly nodded her head, and the look of excitement in her eyes, Carly was getting worried about nothing.