We had joy, we had fun

After the sandcastle building, it was time for lunch! The faeries set up some picnic tables out on the beach, and everyone gathered around for a nice meal together, enjoying themselves. It almost felt like a family.

Almost.

“Mary, I gotta say, your cooking is as great as always!” Nick complimented his wife as he sank his teeth into one of her juicy burgers. He could feel the meat practically liquefying in his mouth, it tasted so good!

“Oh, thank you, I really tried my best,” Mary said shyly, shifting back and forth with a bright smile on her face. “I’m still getting used to cooking on a grill, but I’m getting much better!”

Nick wasn’t sure how that could even be possible. After all, her skills were already phenomenal. She was an amazing cook! And he was lucky to eat her food every day, grill or no grill.

“I gotta say, I’m pretty jealous of ya, Nick,” Vivian chirped, leaning back in her chair and dabbing at her lips with a napkin. “I can see why you went and married her so quickly. What I wouldn’t give for a wife like that…”

A few people shot her alarmed looks, particularly Mary and Dani.

“Wait, Vivian, do you mean you…” Dani wasn’t sure what to make of the other girl’s bold declaration. She couldn’t really be saying that she was-

“Nah, ‘course not!” Vivian chirped, shaking her head. “I like guys, plain and simple. But damn, Mary, damn.”

She shook her head, savoring the taste.

Growing up, Vivian had access to the most delicious foods in the world. Steaks imported from the highest quality farms in Japan, caviar from the Caspian Sea, white truffles from Italy, and, the most flagrantly opulent, edible gold (though that one she didn’t like the flavor of all too much).

Indeed, the rich girl had an extensively-developed palate, the kind that would not normally find such “pedestrian” foods appealing.

And yet, with all that money and all those resources at her disposal, something about the burger she was eating right now brought a tear to her eye.

A mysterious smile curled up the brunette’s lips as she gazed at Mary from across the table. Even as the redheaded housewife shifted awkwardly in her seat, clearly uncomfortable, Vivian didn’t stop staring at her.

She knew the secret ingredient that made Mary’s meals so mystifying. And whether Nick knew it or not, he was a lucky man.

“…Still, Octavia’s cooking is better,” she added, unable to resist getting in the last word.

Mary jerked up straight and a shadow crossed over her face. “Wait, what?”

“Oooh, shouldn’ta said that,” Holly giggled, chomping down on her own burger with a smirk. “Mary can be really competitive!”

“What!? No! I’m not competitive!” Mary exclaimed in alarm, turning and looking at her friend in shock. “I-I was just surprised, that’s all! I don’t usually see people compare my cooking like that, so I was just caught off my guard!”

Nick laughed at Mary’s protests in spite of himself. It wasn’t like he disliked the fact that she could get a little competitive every now and then. It wasn’t like she was as bad as Rose or anything. It was just one of those things that made her who she was.

Plus- she was getting competitive over who could please him best. Something like that really spoke to him, even if he felt a little ashamed of that fact.

“Miss Carrington, you should refrain from provoking other people. But I am pleased that my food meets your high standards.”

Octavia’s words almost sounded tender, but they still held that sharp edge which characterized the elegant butler’s cold way of speaking.

“There you are,” Vivian said, flashing a smile at the silver-haired woman hovering behind her chair. “What took you so long!? I’ve been looking for you all morning!”

Octavia stared blankly at the younger woman. “…You informed me that today would be my day off, Miss Carrington,” she said simply. “So I slept in.”

Vivian puffed up her cheeks. “It was your day off, because you were supposed to come to the beach with us! Why do you think I bought you that swimsuit?”

Nick was surprised. Octavia was indeed wearing a swimsuit, and she looked quite fine in it as well. Beneath the bulky clothing she normally wore in her duties as Vivian’s butler, the elegant older woman cut quite the gallant figure, with a slender frame and surprisingly large breasts and hips. She looked like she could be a model in the sleek silver swimsuit Vivian had selected for her, and as he admired her body he realized that he had no idea how old she even was. Older than Amelia, most likely, given how Vivian talked about her going back for years. But it was hard to say. She seemed to defy the ravages of time.

Octavia noticed Nick staring at her, but didn’t draw attention to it.

She wasn’t the only one to notice, though.

“Eh? Look at that, Nick, checking out my butler like that,” Vivian accused with a playful smile, leaning forward. “I wouldn’t have expected that from a guy who’s already got so many beauties sniffing around him!”

“Err… I-I was just…” Nick flushed, a little embarrassed at being called out so readily. It’s not like he had actually been aiming for anything, it just happened to end up that way! He hadn’t been trying to…

“That’s Nick for you,” Rose sighed, shaking her head and smiling in exasperation. “No matter how hard he tries, he can’t hide his wandering eyes…”

“Daddy’s grown a lot since he first came here,” Sylvia said proudly, not that anyone was applauding Nick for this current lapse.

“Isn’t that what Holly’s for?” Dawn pointed out with an amused look on her face, her ears twitching. “If you’re interested in someone who would call you ‘master’ I mean.”

Holly blushed.

“I was just surprised, that’s all!” Nick said, putting his foot down. “It’s not like I’d actually be interested in-!”

Octavia raised her eyebrow.

“…Okay, um, sorry, that came out wrong…” Nick hadn’t meant to come across as insulting… but why was everyone focusing on him!?

Well, it’s obvious why. Because I’m the master of this harem. Of course I’d be the center of attention, and most everybody would be focusing on me.

“Go easy on him,” Dani laughed. “He’s already had a pretty tough day. Picking who has the best sandcastle must really take it out of you!”

…Of course, the “master of the harem” detail didn’t explain why Dani was so snarky. Nick shot her a look and she smirked back at him.

“It would not be the first time that Nicholas had a fondness for older women,” Amelia said plainly, a statement which stunned the whole table into silence.

As the other girls tried to process her meaning about that, Dakota grew a little miffed. After all, she certainly wasn’t one of those “older women” since they had been born at practically the same second!

…Of course, if you counted all those years stacked up as the host when time was flowing differently, that was another story. But Dakota didn’t like that story as much as she liked the one where they were tied together since birth.

She cleared her throat. “If you were going to buy Octavia a swimsuit, why didn’t you enter her in the swimsuit contest?”

Dakota looked obviously frustrated that they couldn’t have marketed the elegant butler as another piece of eyecandy to attract voters to the polls.

Vivian laughed and shook her head. “Well, that’s obvious, right?” She leaned back in her seat and gazed fondly up at Octavia. “Because if she entered it wouldn’t have even been a contest! Morgana might be all cute and get the audience’s attention, but come on. Octavia would roll over all of you!”

Morgana let out a little “Yeep!” and turned bright red. She sank into her seat and squirmed in modest delight while Vivian laughed.

“Oh, that right?” Carly flashed a challenging grin. “Well, Octavia might look pretty cool, not gonna deny that. But I bet I could have gotten more points than her.”

“Think so?” Vivian liked the sound of that challenge. “Because you may not know this, but she was actually a model in one of my magazines for a couple years!”

A chorus of shocked gasps rolled across the table. Octavia flinched slightly, just enough to display her consternation behind her polished professional façade. Something Kim could sympathize with. Sometimes, you just couldn’t help but let your actual emotions leak out, even if you knew that you shouldn’t.

“How about another contest, then?” Marley suggested. “You and Octavia, sis. See who can look sexier?”

It was a teasing suggestion, and one she doubted either woman would go for. Really, Marley just wanted to give her sister a hard time for being so competitive.

But Vivian was happy to accept the challenge on Octavia’s behalf.

“Sounds like a plan to me!” She chirped. “How about this? Carly, tonight’s your night with Nick, yeah? And you have that transformation, that lets you take someone up to the Master’s Suite with you? Well, take Octavia! I’m sure she can give you a run for your money!”

“Not quite sure it works that way,” Carly said, shaking her head. “Pretty sure I have to invite a contestant, not their butler.”

Vivian shrugged. “Then I’ll go, and sub in Octavia in my place. That should work, right?”

Nick smelled a rat. “Okay, hold on a second,” he interjected. “Vivian, are you just trying to sneak your way into the Master’s Suite behind my back?”

Vivian batted her eyelashes at him and rested her chin in her hands. “What do you think?” She purred with a saucy voice, earning her a roll of the eyes from Nick and Mary both. Not to mention Kim’s snort of irritation.

“Miss Carrington.”

Vivian flinched at the icy tone in Octavia’s voice. Shaking a little, she turned and looked back at her butler, trying not to let her smile slip off her face.

“H-hey, come on, we were just joking around a little, Octavia, don’t take everything so serious!” Vivian said, trying to downplay her statement.

Octavia wasn’t having it. She maintained the icy glare she aimed at her employer, and it was like a blizzard rolled across the beach.

Amelia might have had the Ice Queen transformation path, but right now Octavia was the one who embodied it.

“L-let’s change the subject!” Mary said quickly, trying to get things back on track. “Sylvia, Dakota, congratulations on doing so well in the sandcastle contest!”

“Thanks, Mary!” Sylvia was happy to accept praise, like always. “I really did my best! Err, I mean, we both worked hard, right, D-Dakota?”

Her voice shook a little by the end as she looked hopefully at her creator, hoping for just a few crumbs of kindness from the other woman’s lips.

“I would not call it an enjoyable endeavor,” Dakota said coldly, not even looking Sylvia’s way. Her focus was solely aimed at Nick. But her voice… her voice began to turn tender. “And yet… it made me wonder what fun could be had on the beach, back then…”

Nick knew that Dakota was likely thinking back to when they were kids. But Sylvia chose to believe that Dakota was talking about back when they were on the island together.

It was a **** and foolish hope, but some hope was better than none. Always.

“Considering I’ve never been to the beach before in my life, I actually had a lot of fun,” Kim admitted with a smile. She looked fondly over to Nick. Her words weren’t exactly the truth- she’d been to the beach several times since arriving on the island, of course.

But the sentiment was there. Prior to coming onto this show, Kim had never had time for the beach. Nor a boy to walk hand in hand down the beach with. But that had all changed.

And hey… maybe on their upcoming night, they could do something like that again.

You never know…

“Well, I thought it was a blast,” Gina chortled. “Who knows, maybe I have a bit of a career as an architect, or a modern artist! Dani, what do you think?”

She gave the tomboy a cat-like grin and Dani just rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperated amusement.

“You’ve definitely got a peculiar flare, don’t get me wrong,” she said, shaking her head. “But there’s not a major field for ‘sandcastle art’ in any gallery I’ve ever been to.”

“Have you gone to many art galleries, Dani?” Rose asked. “Because I recently went to go visit the Louvre. And the Musée de l’Orangerie, and the Musée d’Orsay, and…”

“You actually went to those places?” Dani’s eyes widened in surprise. “…Wait, no, that was in Dream Alley! That doesn’t count!”

Rose blushed and turned up her nose. “It most certainly DOES count!” She replied with a sniff and a scoff. “I’m sorry you think that it doesn’t, but you are simply wrong!”

Dani laughed. “Well, hey, since you’re such a fan of art, maybe we can go check it out together sometime?” She suggested.

Rose looked surprised. “Err… oui, that would… Well, no, wouldn’t you rather go with Carly? That seems much more to your taste!” She protested.

As much as she appreciated the offer, she felt that if she went to an art museum with Dani, she would only be demonstrating how little she understood about art and culture.

Dani looked a little disappointed at Rose’s rejection, but she did appreciate the thought. She glanced shyly at Carly, who responded with a shrug and a pleasant smile.

“Sounds like a fun date,” she agreed.

“Dream Alley is for you girls to spend time with the master,” Dakota said sharply. “Don’t think it’s there solely for your convenience, you know. If you’re not going there to spend time with Nick, why should I oblige you?”

Nick understood Dakota’s position, but she was definitely being too harsh. And he wasn’t going to sit back and ignore that, either.

“Dakota, don’t be like that,” he said. “It’s okay if they want to spend some time together. Not everything needs to be for my sake. And honestly, I’d actually be happy if Carly and Dani were happy on a date like that. It’s not all about sex.”

Dakota gave him a look that reminded him of a wounded animal… in the sense that she looked hurt and enraged at the same time.

But she held her tongue and **** a nod. “Perhaps something could be arranged,” she muttered, not at all enthused about the idea but not willing to make an issue of it either. If that’s what Nick wanted, then she could be… flexible.

Not that she wanted to.

Of course, with Dakota willing to negotiate, that definitely changed the climate of the conversation quite a bit.

“Gina? What about you? If you’re into art, maybe you could go visit a museum sometime?” Dani suggested. After working through her issues with Joan in the last challenge, her passion for art had been reignited, and she was eager to nurture some of the punk girl’s talent, if she was so interested.

But Gina was definitely not the kind of girl to bum around a museum for a couple hours.

She smirked and shook her head. “Sorry to disappoint you, Dani, but that’s REALLY not my thing,” she replied. “I might have a flare for the artistic, but come on. Going to look at some paintings? Does that really seem like something I’d be up for?”

Dani winced. That was fair enough.

“Besides,” Gina continued, flashing a toothy grin and stretching her arms to show off her stomach, “when it comes to art, I have my own specialties. Did you know, I actually did the designs for most of my tattoos?”

“Really?” Carly was surprised to hear that. “You did those yourself? That must have been really difficult, Gina!”

“What? Don’t be ridiculous!” Kim shook her head and rolled her eyes. “She didn’t give herself tattoos, that would be impossible.”

“Kim’s not wrong,” Dawn nodded in agreement. “Getting a tattoo is incredibly painful. It would be impossible to administer one yourself and have it look good.”

Everyone stared at her.

“What? I don’t have one!” Dawn protested. “I’m a doctor. I know this stuff.”

“It’s not endorsed, either,” Kim agreed. “She didn’t give herself tattoos, obviously. Most likely, she just drew up a design, went to a tattoo parlor, and gave the design to them to ink onto her. That’s the process, anyway.”

Now everybody looked at Kim.

“What?” Kim shrugged. “I worked at a tattoo parlor once. Just sweeping up and stuff, it’s not like I used the tools or anything.”

Gina laughed. “Well, that would certainly be-”

“Okay, maybe once or twice, on the weekends, but only when the actual artists called in sick,” Kim interjected.

That got her some more stares.

She cleared her throat and turned back to Gina. “So anyway, Gina, you were saying something about how you came up with those designs all on your own?”

“That’s right!” Gina boasted. “I designed my own tattoos. That’s the kind of art I’m into, and making those badass sandcastles!”

“You could get into sculpting,” Dani offered. “That would be fun, you could make stuff like that all the time.”

Gina smiled sympathetically at the tomboy. She knew that Dani was trying to get her interested, but honestly? Gina wasn’t looking for a career in the arts.

“I appreciate you looking out for me, really,” she said, giving the other girl a gentle smile. “But being an artist? That’s really not my thing. Sorry.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Amelia noted, adjusting her glasses as she looked at the other girl in a new light. “I remember you liking tie-dye day at Camp Saccharine quite a lot.”

Gina’s face turned red. “That… I was just a kid back then!” She fumed, turning away from the older woman in shame.

“Oh, yeah, I remember that,” Nick laughed. It had been so long since he’d thought back to those times. The good times, anyway. Because of…

“I think this is a topic we should bring to a close.”

Dakota’s icy words silenced the entire table. She held her cane tightly, like a scared child clutching their teddy bear.

Only this scared child had the ability to lash out. Violently.

Better to leave her be.

Everyone decided that it was a good idea to listen to her, and change the topic to something a little less problematic for everyone involved.