We're on the trail, the sun is low, the canyon is wide

“Come on, Nick!” Carly called from up the trail. She was standing on the ridge, and waved her hand, smiling from ear to ear. “You can make it!”

“Hey!” Nick griped back at her, grinning a little. “I’m not as out of shape as I look, you know!”

He couldn’t blame Carly for being cautious. The first time they went for a hike like this, it had taken a lot out of him. But this hike wasn’t as strenuous as climbing a mountain, and he was confident he could handle it.

His legs were only a little sore!

Nick could see the eager expression on Carly’s face as he drew closer. She looked hopeful, like she was waiting for him to catch up to her. That’s when he realized that she was. So he pushed himself and picked up the pace, reaching her in another minute.

“Not bad, Nick,” Carly grinned, poking him in the chest. “You’re getting pretty good!”

“You should see me on a horse,” Nick joked, eliciting a laugh from her lips that made him feel giddy.

“Marley doesn’t like going on hikes like this,” Carly said, sighing. “She can, but she’s not great at keeping up. And given the transformation…”

Nick winced. That must have been hard. “I’m sorry to hear that,” he apologized. “I know how much you love hiking. Not being able to do it-”

“Whoa, hold your horses there, I can hike!” Carly interjected. She crossed her arms over her chest. “Marley is great! But I don’t want to drag her around on stuff she doesn’t like just for my sake, you know? We can go on nature walks just fine, but trekking up a mountain…”

Nick could see her point. “Carly, maybe you should bring that up with her, then,” he pointed out, even as he realized his words were somewhat hypocritical. After all, he had difficulty being open and honest with people about how he felt, too, and had a tendency to sacrifice for the sake of others without discussing it with them.

It was something the two of them shared.

Carly didn’t call him out on it, though. Maybe because she knew that on some level, he was right.

“…Yeah,” she said with a nod. She turned and clasped her hands behind her back, and continued walking down the trail. “You know, Marley and Sylvia were actually the ones who put me up to this? Going for our date together?”

“Oh?” Nick raised his eyebrow. He’d kind of suspected that. “Are you saying it wasn’t my dashing charms or my hiking ability that led you to ask me out today? I’m wounded, Carly, really.”

“Oh, stop it!” Carly tossed over her shoulder, rolling her eyes. She turned and looked back at him. “What I mean is… Sylvia actually volunteered to use her transformation to copy mine, even though it would make her into our sister.”

Nick was surprised to hear that, at least. “Really?” He asked. “I would have thought, well… didn’t she say she doesn’t want to use her transformation that way? She doesn’t want to become your sister?”

“I know, that’s what I thought,” Carly said, nodding. “It’s one of the reasons why I upgraded my transformation in the first place. So if she was going to actually do something like that now, and copy my transformation…”

Her voice trailed off, leaving her point to hang in the air. Nick understood what she was getting at, though.

If Sylvia and Marley were willing to go that far, it must have meant they really wanted the two of them to spend time together, alone.

“…Or maybe they just wanted to go plant shopping without me being there to veto something,” Carly said with a laugh, taking a step back from the serious and returning to her joking demeanor. Nick wasn’t sure whether or not he should let her get away with that, but he decided that there was no harm in humoring her just a little.

“Well… I think if anyone would veto something it would be Marley, don’t you?” He pointed out. “After all, you’re a lot more… free-spirited about stuff like that.”

Carly considered that for a moment, then she nodded. “Well, I suppose you’re not wrong,” she agreed. “Most of the time, anyway. But when it comes to plants? I think Marley might have a bit of a blind spot. Not that I could bring myself to break her heart, if she really had one her mind was set on…”

She gave kind of a swooning sigh, and looked up over their surroundings. While the hill they were walking wasn’t as steep as the mountain trail, it was still pretty high, and they’d been walking long enough that they were overlooking a good chunk of the island.

Carly turned back to Nick. Her eyes were wet even though her lips were smiling.

“I’m kind of just avoiding the topic, in case you were wondering.”

Nick gave her a shaky smile in return. “Really?” He tried to play it innocent. “I hadn’t noticed at all.”

“Hah!” She let out a loud laugh. “That right?”

Still, she appreciated the kind gesture regardless.

“I wanted to share this with you, but… I needed to be talked into it.” She looked guiltily up at him. “Sorry about that.”

Nick shook his head. “No, don’t be,” he assured her. “We don’t exactly have the most traditional relationship, you know.”

“Oh? Because I’m a member of your harem, dragged here by a crazed host, who now happens to think she’s both my sister, and the mother of my other sister?” Carly asked cheekily.

Well, when she put it like that…

“…Or is it because of Dani?”

And there it was, the elephant in the room.

Nick sighed. “Carly…”

“What, do you want to not talk about her?” Carly sat down on a log on the side of the trail, and looked up at Nick. He couldn’t read her expression at the moment, which wasn’t unusual in and of itself in regards to Carly, but this was different.

Most of the time, she was hard to read because she always had a playful, slightly-mischievous smile on her face. But right now, her expression was tight and hard, and difficult to discern. Her eyes were fierce and focused and they reflected the depth of their conversation.

Nick sat across from her, on a large rock that was just comfortable enough. The winding dirt trail stretched between them.

“…Are we really doing this, then?” He asked her finally. “Without Dani even here?”

“Maybe we should have her here,” Carly admitted, looking down. “But I didn’t want to talk about Dani. I wanted to talk about us.”

“That’s a little hard, isn’t it? Because Dani is related to ‘us’.” That was the point Nick couldn’t quite get past. He cared a lot for both girls, in some ways the same, in some ways different. They were both very important friends to him, but while his relationship with Dani was platonic, his relationship with Carly was very much not.

Only, she had a girlfriend now. It was something they’d been dancing around, but judging by the tense expression on her face, that was about to change.

“My feelings for Dani are real,” Carly said. “I want you to know that.”

Nick’s eyes widened. “Of course I know that,” he replied. “Did you think I wouldn’t know? The two of you-”

“No, obviously, yes,” Carly said, holding up her hand to stop him right there. “That… it’s not what I… …Aargh.”

She let out an exasperated sigh and shook her head. “Sorry, I’m making it even more complicated now, aren’t I?”

Nick winced. “…A little bit,” he admitted.

Carly sighed and rolled her eyes. “I just needed to say it, you know? To hold the space. For Dani. Because even if she’s not here, she’s a part of this.”

Carly really felt stuck. On the one hand, she knew that her relationship with Dani owed the tomboy her openness and honesty, particularly in regard to not talking about her behind her back.

At the same time, didn’t she also owe Nick the privilege of getting to speak with her about where they stood, without Carly’s girlfriend present?

Couldn’t they have something that was just for them?

The awkward silence hanging in the air was getting intolerable. Carly couldn’t take it anymore. She looked desperately up at Nick, who stared back at her, eyes widening slightly.

“Carly?”

“I like spending time with you,” Carly said bluntly. “And Dani knows that. She’s fine with it. So you don’t need to feel guilty, alright?”

Nick blinked. “I… I really wasn’t,” he said.

The brunette looked completely taken aback.

“Wait, you don’t?” She questioned, tilting her head to the side. “I-I thought… So wait, you’re not feeling guilty about the two of us hanging out together, without Dani? Even though she and I are dating?”

Nick shrugged. “I thought I was being pretty cool with it, actually,” he said, wincing slightly. “Was I coming off like I was jealous or something?”

Carly blushed. “Well, no… but I just thought…”

In Carly’s mind, who wouldn’t be jealous of her spending all her time with a cool girl like Dani? If Nick’s feelings for her were real, then wouldn’t he be at least a little hurt?

But confessing that he wasn’t… it felt like a massive weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She sighed in relief.

“That’s good then… the last thing I want to do is hurt either of you,” Carly said. “So you’re really fine with it?”

“No matter how many times you ask me, the answer is going to be the same,” Nick replied, almost feeling hurt that she didn’t believe him. But he also knew that she was really **** to assuage her own issues. This was more about Carly herself than it was about him. “I’m happy for you and Dani. I just don’t know what it means for the two of us.”

Carly wished she could be relieved to hear that. But she also didn’t know what it meant for the two of them either, sadly.

“You’re important to me, Nick,” she said honestly, gazing deeply into his eyes. “I’m in love with Dani, she’s… the first person I’ve ever felt about that way, I’m pretty sure. But me and you…”

There was something about her relationship with Nick that she couldn’t quite put into words. Of the many lovers of Carly’s life, Nick was special in a way that she didn’t understand. Maybe it was because of their close friendship before they had started sleeping together, or maybe it was because of the show coupling them together in a way that would make it very difficult to live without him.

At this point, she couldn’t say.

“…Just know, you’re a very precious person to me,” she said finally. “I don’t want you to think that this is just some casual fling, or just me having fun with you because the sex is so great, alright?” She rose from the log and crossed the barrier between them, reaching out and taking his hand into hers. “It’s not… I just…”

Carly sighed and shook her head. “You’re the writer,” she said, rolling her eyes, as if she couldn’t believe herself. “Maybe you can tell me what I’m feeling. Because the words just aren’t doing what I want them to, you know?”

“Yeah… it’s kind of hard for me to put into words myself,” Nick admitted. What he had with Carly was special, but when he tried to find a label for it, he just couldn’t think of one.

“Is this love?” Carly asked, sounding almost hurt. “It’s not the same as my love for Dani, but… everyone’s always saying that love comes in different forms. So is this… is it love, Nick?”

“…I don’t know,” Nick replied, shaking his head. “You’re the only one who can answer that question, Carly.”

“Ugh, I just knew you’d say that,” she groaned, letting go of his hand and turning away from him so she could pace up and down the trail. “You know, you could have done the charming thing, right, swept me up into your arms and told me that yes, it really was love, and that you and I were destined to be together.”

Nick stared at her. “…Come on, are you serious right now?”

“Well, every girl wants to be wined and dined just a little bit!” Carly replied sarcastically, cracking a smile. “Just saying, nine out of ten times, you tell a girl something like that, with the mood we’ve got going right now, and she’ll be swooning!”

Nick rolled his eyes.

“I mean it, nine out of ten.”

“Well, I’ll leave you to prove that one out,” Nick replied. “I’m not exactly the sort of guy who says stuff like that.”

He stood up to join her so they were now facing each other eye to eye. Carly sucked in a bit of air and looked back at him, expectantly.

“You’re right about one thing, Carly. Our relationship, it’s a complicated one,” he admitted. “I’m married, but my wife is okay with me sleeping with other women. Meanwhile, you and Dani are girlfriends, but you’re also sleeping with me. I don’t think what any of us have together is something you can describe as simply as ‘love’ do you?”

Carly paused and then shook her head. “…You’re probably right,” she admitted. “But man… I wish it wasn’t like that. Don’t you ever wish that sometimes, things could just be simple?”

“God, you have no idea…” Nick rubbed his temples, knowing that “simple” would likely never be a word that would describe his life ever again.

“…Well, I don’t.”

She flashed him a cheeky smile as he looked at her in alarm.

“Carly!?”

“I like that things are complicated between us,” she said, skipping over to him and pressing her fingers into his chest. “…Some of the time, anyway. I really don’t like when things get too complicated, but the fun, chaotic kind of complicated where you’re just holding on and enjoying the ride? That’s kind of my jam, you know?”

Nick remembered. Vividly.

“Well you’re in luck then, being in my harem,” he replied. “Nothing’s ever going to be ordinary with me around.”

“And don’t I know it?” Carly bit her lip and batted her eyelashes at him. “Before I showed up here, I was an only child.”

Nick laughed. “True. I guess in some ways, I’m responsible for you having a sister now. It doesn’t get more complicated than that.”

“And then you put the moves on my sister,” Carly noted, crossing her arms over her chest like she didn’t approve. She shook her head. “What do you have to say about that, mister?”

“Uh… you offered her up to me on a silver platter, that’s what I have to say about it.”

“Oh yeah, right.”

The two burst into laughter, only for Nick to wince. He was still pretty worn out from that hike.

“Ooh, thirsty?” Carly offered him a bottle of water, which he accepted gratefully. Then she plopped back down on the log and gazed up at him with a pensive expression.

It was another face that was hard to read, but again, it was different from all the other times. Far more whimsical and nostalgic, almost like she was watching an old home movie of herself as a little girl and getting lost in the memories.

She smiled graciously up at him.

“Nick… I’m glad I was brought to this island,” Carly murmured.

“Well, I would hope-”

“Not because of my sister,” she quickly clarified. “Or Dani. Or Sylvia, or anybody else. I’m glad I came here… for me.”

She placed her hand over her heart.

“I almost ran away from you this morning,” she admitted. “I was worried about going on a date, just the two of us. Marley and Sylvia basically had to **** me to, because I was so hesitant. I’m just that kind of girl, you know? The kind that runs away when… when things get too complicated.”

Nick didn’t say anything, but he managed a soft nod.

“But… being here, I think it’s really changed me for the better,” she admitted. “I don’t want to run away anymore. Not from you, and definitely not from Dani. And you both have done so much for me… I just wish there was something I could do to show you how I feel. That you’re special.”

It was hard to make space for Dani right now, but Carly still felt the need to try. Her tomboy girlfriend was great, but in Carly’s heart, she feared that too much of Dani would start to color her relationship with Nick. If the three of them were going to make this work, then there couldn’t just be time with Dani, or times spent with the three of them.

There needed to be opportunities where she and Nick could connect and have a relationship that was only defined by the two of them.

It looked like Nick understood that himself.

“I’m glad I came on this hike with you,” he informed her, unprompted. Carly’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Really? That’s so sweet…”

Nick nodded. “You’ve been great by me, Carly. And I really enjoy hanging out with you. I just kind of forgot, since… well… it’s been so infrequent, you know? I can’t even remember the last time we had a moment like this.”

Carly snorted and shook her head. “Nick… we’ve never had a moment quite like this,” she said quietly. “Every moment we’ve had together is special and unique in its own way. And that’s alright. Don’t you think so?”

Nick considered what she said, and nodded. He didn’t know how to describe their relationship any better than Carly could, but he knew that words like “special” and “unique” didn’t quite do it justice.

“So what now then, lover boy?” Carly teased, standing back up. “Want to see if we can finish that hike? I bet you’re getting pretty impatient, waiting to get to the good part.”

“Do you always deflect deep, heartfelt moments with jokes and innuendo and teasing?” Nick asked, raising his eyebrow.

Carly nodded. “Almost exclusively. So, you in?”

Nick sighed and rolled his eyes. “Don’t think this is going to change anything,” he replied. “We had a moment together, Carly. And I got to see just how much you care. And you know that I care.”

Carly blushed a little and smiled bashfully at him. “Yeah, I know,” she acknowledged with a nod. “Of course I know. That’s what makes our time together so special.”

Nick smiled back at her. As long as he recognized that, that was good enough for him.

“Then let’s keep going,” he agreed. “I’m having a lot of fun on our date.”

The two resumed their progress up the trail, and Carly quickly scooted over to him, sidling up next to him and leaning against his shoulder. Sometimes, it was nice not to lead, and just to walk side by side with another person. Especially when you felt so strongly about them, like Carly felt towards Nick.