Week 3 Susan's Date: Guests, Part Two

Laura was having a wonderfully chill day with Susan. Sam and Liesa, being a known factor to many of the harem, had made things easier, and they'd been thoroughly welcomed into the breakfast banter. There had been some shocks, of course, like when they realized Stacy and Tracy were twins, which led them to finding out they were Laura's little sisters. Sisters apparently weren't new in Andy's harem, but they were not his sisters.

That had led to talk of babies and Liesa's pregnancy, which shouldn't have shocked Laura with Shar's involvement in Arabella's season. And of course Candy's joy over that had her reveal her own twins. Then Anna and Susan got roped into the baby talk. Laura still didn't really know what to think about having four children on the way already. None of them dragons yet, but faeries, a cow girl, and a giant was still a lot to take in. She wasn't really sure just how much their transformations were hereditary, but Shar had strongly hinted at the physical ones at least being probable.

Candy and Liesa talking had ended up turning into a talk about her art, which got Misty involved. So when Shar had shown up again after the meal to take Sam to see something privately, the three had snatched up Gabriella and made off to show off the portrait gallery. Laura thought that was going to rope her into things, but Evelyn had noticed her reluctance and offered to let them into the suite instead.

Anna had wanted to wait around for Sam to come back, apparently wanting to show off the gym to her. It was supposed to be impressive, so Laura had waited with her, and so did Stacy and Susan. "You don't think this is a bad date, right? Just hanging out?"

Reaching over to take the busty woman's hand, Laura gave it a reassuring squeeze. "After yesterday, it is exactly right. Besides, theoretically you're taking me to a fancy wedding later on our date."

"Ha!" Anna barked. "That's right, however long we're gone at Nevernever Land, it's all going to be part of Susan's date."

"I just wish Tracy would stop running off for her stupid project."

Susan ruffled the pinkette's ears, which caused her tail to start wagging. "It's important to her, and she did say she had planned to spend the whole day on it before we heard about the wedding. We've actually seen more of her than we would have."

"I'm surprised she didn't want to show it off to Sam." Anna said, trying to decide if she wanted another plate of food. "They seem to really get along."

Stacy snorted. "Two troublemakers in a pod, but 'it's not finished yet." She finished in an impression of her twin.

Anna laughed, then had another thought about the food. "Shit. If we keep hanging out in here, they'll never get to set up for lunch."

"Well, we didn't know that Shar would be bringing Sam back here anyways." Laura shrugged. "We can just hang out in the pub instead." She smiled over at the Hispanic woman. "It's not like we have to drink there."

Nodding, Susan stood. "Plus it's got a dartboard."

"Now you play darts?" Stacy snarked.

"How hard can it be?"

.

Liesa had very much enjoyed getting to see Misty's paintings of the harem hung in their master suite. The collection wasn't finished, the cloaked woman had told her, but she had still been quite impressed by the skill of the silver-eyed painter. Candy had insisted on showing off the entire master suite while they were up there as well. Liesa had thought it was cozier compared to the lofty expanse of Andy's suite, if just as opulent. The lack of a kitchen was a stark contrast. Did no one here do their own cooking?

The green-haired woman with the pointed ears, Evelyn, had seemed nervous about them being in the suite without Laura, but gave in to Candy's wheedling. The faerie girl was a force of nature, with boundless energy, so Liesa was not very surprised. Misty had confided in a whisper to her that she was downright blinding to her sight.

Evelyn had also told them that the others had relocated to someplace they called 'the pub' and that Sam was with them, having finished her business with the pale host. The silvery disk of the Moongate brought them to a hallway with a massive picture window at the end. Liesa drifted over to marvel at the massive starlit hedgemaze that could be made out in the distance. The night sky itself was a wonder, with no lights aside from the castle to obscure the inky heavens. Massive storm clouds made up the horizon, and seemed to be streaming sideways in a strong wind. "Prachtig." She breathed, unconsciously posing against the night sky for the others.

"You should see it with the moon up." Misty told her quietly, caught up in the same spell. "It's massive, way bigger than our own moon."

Liesa turned to look into bright silver eyes that glittered in the starlight. "It is truly always night here?"

Nodding, Misty showed her the time on her bracelet. "It's near midday, you only know it's night when the moon is in the sky. Gabriella thinks this world must be tidally locked, with this side always pointing away from the sun."

The strawberry blonde followed her gaze back to the Spanish woman who still stood with the others. Gabriella cleared her throat, not expecting to be directly addressed. "Yes, well, by the angle of the moon, we must be near the equator, so this is not the result of the merely months of darkness you can get close to the poles. If, of course, astrophysics still works like our Earth here." Liesa nodded, eternal night made sense with what Arabella had said of this host.

Candy held the door open for everyone, and Liesa stalked into a room that did indeed resemble a European pub. Her eyes were immediately drawn to her blue-haired love, who held a glass of something that may or may not be alcoholic, sitting at a table with some other women, including Tracy. She sauntered over and bumped Sam with her hip, receiving a one-armed hug in return. "You are having fun, Schat?"

"Yeah. Shar had something, interesting, to give me. And some things to think about. She dropped me off here not too long ago, and I gotta ask Arabella why we don't have something like this at the HH." Sam pointed at the roaring fireplace that looked big enough to roast a whole ox. "The gaming atmosphere in here is off the charts!"

That got a round of laughs from the assembled women as the newcomers found seats. "Hey, before I forget again Sam, I wanted to see if you wanted to check out the gym after lunch." Anna told the blue-haired barista. "It's like nothing I've seen before. It even has an Olympic-sized heated pool!"

"I was going to see if they wanted to check out the hot springs." Susan countered. "But the gym has hot tubs."

Sam shrugged. "The gym sounds cool, but we didn't bring our suits. We didn't bring anything, really." She laughed.

"Oh, right, suits..." Anna blushed, not wanting to bring up the fact that pretty much everyone had stopped wearing anything while swimming or soaking.

"Bathing suits can be arranged no problem." Evelyn interjected brightly, glad she could be of service. This was exactly why she was there.

Liesa hesitated, not wanting to derail the plan, but having her own need. "I would need to triple up, at least three layers." It would not do to let her transformation go unchecked around new acquaintances. Sam gave her another hug for support.

Evelyn blinked at the request, then realized why the strawberry blonde wanted more layers. "If you like, I can ask Shar to suppress Paint Me while you are here instead. It's well within her ability.

Sighing in relief, Liesa relaxed into Sam's side. "Yes, please, and tell her thank you very much."

.

Sam sat back in a glowing hot spring and relaxed in the warm water with one arm wrapped around Liesa, and the other draped over Tracy's shoulders. After an excellent lunch, they had indeed checked out the gym, which was way bigger than a room in a castle had any right being. But after borrowing swimsuits, which oddly everyone but Stacy had had to do, But Sam was not poking that fact too closely, the decision had been made to head down to the grotto. Which had turned out to be this badass cavern full of glowing hot springs. Myra had made a pretty cool hot tub area for the HH, but this was a whole new level of odd. "We are underground, right?"

"I think so." Tracy admitted. "But there's really no knowing. The place seems carved out of the surrounding rock, but it could just be made to look that way. The Moongates don't really give you a sense of travel, and that's the only way to get here."

"The castle seems to have no end of hot water." Laura told them from across the pool, where she was leaning on Anna. "A geothermal source seems likely."

Tracy lifted a chrome hand out of the water, which did not glow itself as it ran down her arm. "A geothermal source doesn't have to be this one. It could be piped here, same as the rest of the castle."

Liesa smiled at the talk. This castle was even more mysterious for having visited that before they even came here. "How do you know that this is a single place, and not a series of interconnected worlds? Each but a Moongate away."

Blinking, Tracy looked over at the strawberry blonde who was smirking at the ceiling. "Well, I suppose we don't. You can walk from some of them to each other, though. Or see them from the windows. Still, very poetic." Sam smirked and held Liesa closer. All in all, this had been a very nice trip.

.

The small group stood in Shar's office, back where Sam and Liesa had started this vacation. This time Nimue, whom they both recognized from the ball, was there, handing out overnight bags to Laura's party. "These each have several changes of clothes, and anything else you might need to tide you over while away." She even had her own bag, so Sam supposed the blue-skinned woman wouldn't be near naked at the wedding, not that she wouldn't have had company doing so.

"Well, I guess we finally get to meet the rest of your harem and see how many of Tracy's tales are true." Stacy pointedly did not mention that after a quick shopping trip, Laura was now the same height as Anna.

Tracy poked her twin's nose, causing her to growl in annoyance. "Laura and Candy backed me up, they were there at the birthday party too."

"Like I'm supposed to believe there was a cake of a naked contestant and you ate one whole breast."

Sam busted out laughing. "There was, and she did. And she looked Erin right in the eyes the whole time while doing so."

Laura and Candy nodded along with Liesa, who blushed remembering the scene. There would be no naked cakes at the wedding. She was not so sure that Sam would not have them for the bachelor party, however. Then she thought of the baking contest and looked at the teal-haired cat girl, who was smirking at her as if reading her thoughts. No, there was no way her teammates would go along with that. Well, maybe the mermaid...

She was distracted from her thoughts by the tall redheaded host, who had been glaring at a section of wall for a while, opening a door that had not been there before. "That's got it. Hmmm, off by a smidge. Well, I can shift you over a tad earlier. You'll hardly notice the overlap. Have fun, and it was a joy having you two over." Liesa gave the host a hug before stepping through the door. Sam shrugged and stepped into her own hug as the others started going through. Last, except for Nimue, Sam looked up into dark eyes full of sorrow. "Tell Arabella goodbye for me, and Andi good luck."

"That I will."