When you're falling in a forest and there's nobody around, do you ever really crash or even make a sound?

Morgana was shaking in her leather pants as she stared up at the high wall of plastic rocks in front of her.

How had she been roped into this mess?!

“So, you ready to get started?” Carly walked over to her, already having put her harness on over her cosplay. It was rather surreal to see.

Oh… that’s right. That’s how.

Morgana had been trying to appeal to Carly as a friend. And a big part of that unfortunately involved throwing herself at a climbing wall and hoping she didn’t fall down.

‘Come on, Morgana!” Nick called to her. “I bet you’ll have a lot of fun!”

“You can count on me!” Carly said, giving Morgana a thumbs up. “Back home, I do a ton of bouldering in my spare time. It really helps keep you in shape! You train your muscles, flexibility, balance… you don’t think I get this awesome figure just with my good genes, do you?”

She ran her hands up and down her curvaceous figure.

“Ahem.” Marley cleared her throat.

“That doesn’t count, you copied my body with weird slime magic.”

Marley crossed her arms underneath her large boobs and raised her eyebrow.

“…Okay, fine, fair enough,” Carly said, rolling her eyes. “Yeah, genetics played a bit of a part in it too… but still! It’s best to supplement good genes with good exercise, wouldn’t you agree?”

Morgana could only groan. Back in high school, she’d sat out her P.E. classes. Physical exercise was not high on her list of priorities.

But she didn’t want to be rude, not when Carly had gone to all the trouble of inviting her out to have fun.

Morgana would prove what a good friend she was! …By scaling a cliff of plastic and ceramic rocks.

Yay.

Morgana took a deep breath and stepped up to the wall. Once she made sure that her line was secure (after checking it three times) she grabbed one of the fake rocks, and used it to try and pull herself up the wall. Then, she reached for another rock, and another one, and before she knew it, her feet had left the ground.

Aargh… my arms! Morgana’s body was screaming at her. She could feel her strength leaving her body, and she wasn’t at all happy about it. This was ****, actual ****! Why couldn’t she have started with something a little easier?!

While Morgana floundered less than two feet off the ground, Carly scaled the wall like a pro. She had a lot of energy to work off after that party last night, and she was filled with excitement to share something she enjoyed with someone else.

Plus, she could feel Nick’s gaze on her. His eyes were scanning over every curve of her taut body, every muscle she flexed moving from one rock to the next.

Whether it was behind the camera or on a wall, Carly loved being the center of attention.

Nick turned to Marley. “You know, your sister and Dani really have a lot in common when you think about it.”

“Really?” Marley turned to him, surprised to hear him say that. “Because they’re both in good shape?”

“Something like that,” Nick nodded. “But no, I’m not talking about how they both like nature walks. It’s more like… how they both have the tendency to throw people into the deep end when they’re supposed to be teaching them.”

He pointed to Morgana’s **** attempted to climb the wall. She’d already fallen off, and was trying again.

“Ah…” Marley nodded. “Yeah, those two don’t know shit about moderation, huh?”

“What about you?” Nick asked, turning to the brunette. “Shouldn’t you be doing some climbing too?”

Marley rolled her eyes. “Please. My sister’s the one who got all the mountain goat genes. Me, I don’t do the whole physical exercise thing.”

“Okay, but… that’s not what I meant.” Nick pointed at Carly as she continued to scale the side of the wall. “That wall is a lot higher than ten feet.”

Nick could practically see the gears turning in Marley’s head as she processed that little detail.

“…Wait! Sis! You can’t go too high!” Marley wailed, running over to the wall. “You’re gonna-!”

Gloop.

Marley collapsed into a puddle of slime.

Nick knew he shouldn’t laugh at that, but the fact that Morgana had to angle her body out of the way as she slipped off the wall again, just to avoid landing in the pile of Marley juice? Hilarious.

“Aargh! Sis!” Carly quickly slackened the rope, hopping back from the wall to speed up her descent. By the time she reached the ground her sister had reformed herself, crossing her arms and giving Carly a VERY unamused expression.

“Um… heh… sorry… I wasn’t thinking…” Carly apologized sheepishly.

Marley thumped her on the head.

“No! You pretty clearly weren’t!” She snapped. “I turned into a puddle, Carly! A puddle!”

“Hey, come on, it’s not like you remembered either,” Nick pointed out. “Carly’s not completely to blame for this one!”

“Rrgh…” Marley held her tongue. Nick was right, as much as it pissed her off to admit it.

“Aww! Thanks, Nick! See? Nick’s on my side!” Carly boasted.

“Uh, no, I still think that was a really bad call on your part,” Nick replied. “She’s your sister, Carly, you can’t just forget that she’ll turn into slime if you get too far away.”

Marley burst out laughing as Carly’s cheeks reddened.

“Sorry,” she apologized sheepishly again. “I just haven’t been bouldering since at least last round, so… it didn’t even cross my mind.”

“Well, I’m glad to see you two are making up,” Nick said, trying very hard to hide the smirk in his heart. “But I think there’s someone else you need to apologize to, also.”

He turned and pointed at Morgana, who was suspended above the ground. Her climbing rope had gotten tangled around her curvy body, making her look like a piñata.

She wasn’t very amused either.

“…I’m not having fun,” Morgana stated dryly.

“Aah! Sorry, sorry! Let me help you down!” Carly wailed, rushing over to the poor girl. “How did this even happen?!”

It took about five minutes to get the goth girl down, and by the time she made it to the mat, she felt completely exhausted.

“I’m done…” She gasped for breath. “No more… can’t… don’t wanna… arms too heavy… can’t breathe…”

“Okay, yeah, I agree,” Carly said, helping her sit up. “Maybe… maybe this was a bit too much for you to start with?”

“Come on, Carly, she’s just being dramatic,” Nick said, walking over to Morgana. She looked up at him with a wary expression.

“I… well…”

“I’ve never done bouldering myself,” Nick admitted. “But Morgana, was that really too much exercise? Are you really THAT sore?”

Morgana couldn’t meet his eyes.

“…Not really,” she mumbled. It had been difficult, sure, but she was exaggerating just a tad.

“If that was too much for you, Dani’s training regiment is going to be brutal,” Carly chuckled. Then she winced, and tensed up a little.

Marley sighed and shook her head, exasperated.

“Sis…”

“What? Nothing, it’s nothing…” Carly was really distracted now, and desperately looking for a way out. “Anyway, let’s get going! Still more walls to climb!”

“Carly, is everything okay?” Nick approached her cautiously. “With you and Dani, I mean. There seemed to be some awkwardness between the two of you at the wedding yesterday…”

Carly tensed. Her eyes landed on the ground and she bit her lip.

“It’s… it’s nothing, okay?” She mumbled, shaking her head. “Don’t worry about it…”

Nick wasn’t going to go for that. He WAS going to worry about it, because she made it something worth worrying about.

“Carly… I saw what happened at my bachelor party. I don’t think Dani remembers, but… I do.”

Carly turned pale. “You… you didn’t TELL her, did you?!” She cried. “Aargh, no wonder everything was so weird!”

“I told her a little!” Nick said defensively. “I thought she deserved to know what happened!”

Morgana watched things curiously. She’d been so busy on the pole that night that she hadn’t heard anything about this. She turned to Marley.

“What happened?” She asked.

Marley just shrugged. “I didn’t really get a good look… and it’s not my place to say. But yesterday, before the wedding, Dani came over to see Carly, and, well…”

She sighed in exasperation.

“The two of them stared at each other in silence for like ten minutes, then they hugged. I have no idea what’s going on, either.”

Nick looked at Carly, hoping that he could get through to her somehow. “Carly… you know Dani is in a really rough spot right now, yeah? The audience is getting sick and tired of her.”

“That’s not my fault!” Carly wailed. “I just… I don’t know, okay?!”

She held her chest, and her face flushed with anxiety. “After… that happened… I don’t know… things are just so weird between us!”

Carly hated feeling this way. It was like, every week, there was some new sort of drama between the two of them. She didn’t want to keep going like this! She wanted to be friends with her friend, not deal with drama and anxiety all the time!

“Come on, Carly, it wasn’t that big of a deal, was it?” Nick asked. “I mean, she just petted your hair a little bit, because you asked her to.”

“I thought it would be nice!” Carly protested. “I didn’t expect to… well…”

She tightened her thighs inward as her cheeks turned pink.

Vivid memories of squirting all over Dani’s lap flooded into her mind, followed swiftly by the hot exchange that came after it, where she grabbed the blue-haired tomboy and began vigorously making out with her.

That… that wasn’t normal.

Carly felt like shit.

“It’s like I’m leading her on,” she mumbled, crouching down and leaning back against the wall. “I feel just awful…”

“Well…” Nick wasn’t sure what advice he should give her in this situation. The way she was acting just didn’t feel like the Carly he knew. She’d never been this shy and **** around anyone before. It almost felt like…

“Carly, are you sure you want to be Dani’s friend?” Nick asked. “Because if you really want to be friends with her, then the two of you need to resolve things, once and for all.”

“Thank you!” Marley practically screamed. She rolled her eyes in frustration. “God! This isn’t that complicated!”

Carly felt even worse hearing that from her sister. Nick ignored the exchange. “I’m sure you must know how Dani feels about you, right?” He pressed. “After all, you were able to figure out how I felt, right?”

Carly winced. “…Yeah,” she mumbled, staring down at the ground. “I know…”

“Well… I’m not going to tell you how to handle your relationship,” Nick told her. “But I think that the two of you really need to talk things out.”

Carly knew that, too. But she’d been trying not to have that conversation.

Because she didn’t know where it would go.

“I’m just… not good with stuff like this,” she sighed. “Sex? Sure, I can have sex with someone if they want to have sex with me. Maybe even with a girl. But feelings, that stuff… it’s difficult, you know? I’m not used to that sort of thing!”

Carly wished that the issues with Dani could be resolved by sleeping with her. But not only was it difficult for her to think about doing that, she knew how awful it would be for the other girl. That would REALLY be leading her on, then.

She needed to resolve things. She just didn’t know how.

“Um…”

Morgana felt a little shitty herself. This whole day was supposed to be about her, after all. She was the one who was supposed to be deepening her relationship with Carly and bonding with her, not Nick. But it seemed like she had been forgotten.

“Thanks, Nick,” Carly said, looking up at him with a grateful smile on her face. “It really means a lot that you’re looking out for me.”

Nick cracked a smile. “No problem, Carly. I’m happy to help.”

“But… don’t you have someone else to take care of, too?” She nodded towards Morgana, who blushed and averted her eyes when Nick turned towards her.

Nick winced, feeling like shit.

“S-sorry,” he stammered, walking back to the goth. “I didn’t mean to… I mean…”

“No, no, I get it,” Morgana said, forcing a smile to her lips. “Carly’s issues… they’re important. Because she’s important to you. I get it…”

Nick felt even worse. “Well… Morgana, you’re important to me, too,” he said, and the goth had to fight back the urge to burst out laughing.

“Okay… well… even if that’s the case,” she said, trying to keep a straight face and not sure if she’d start cackling or crying, “it’s pretty clear that you care more about the girls you know.”

Nick was confirming everything Morgana feared. He’d switched from her to Carly at the drop of a hat, and needed prodding from someone else to come back to her side.

That wasn’t the kind of role she wanted to have in his life. It made her feel cheap and worthless. And while Holly might have gotten off on something like that, Morgana…

Morgana wanted to be treasured. She didn’t want some guy to only see her as some consolation prize. She wanted to be the witch queen of the harem, the most desirable woman there!

But of course, she was who she was.

She couldn’t really blame Nick for not finding a loser like her attractive.

Nick could see the downward spiral playing out in Morgana’s eyes, and he started to panic. This was the exact opposite of what he’d wanted to happen. He bit his lip worriedly.

“Morgana… I’m serious. This is important,” he said, taking her by the hand. “I’m sorry I was focusing more on Carly than on you. But Carly and Dani are important to me. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to help you, either.”

“I guess…” It would take a lot more than that to convince Morgana of the sincerity of his words, and Nick understood that.

“This is why I wanted you to find other friends,” he confessed. “Look, Morgana… I know you have this great fantasy of me being the harem ruler or harem king or harem emperor or whatever…”

“Master is fine,” Morgana interjected.

Nick sighed. “…Right. But… that’s just not me. I’m not great with stuff like that. I’m the kind of guy, where if I see someone who needs my help, I’m going to drop everything and try to help them. And not to brag, but I think that’s one of my more admirable qualities…”

He hung his head. “But it’s also a huge pain in the ass.”

Morgana was surprised to hear that coming from him. “R-really?” She asked, surprised.

Nick nodded. “See… my mom used to tell me… err, I mean, Amelia, my step-mother, she used to say that I was too nice. That I let people walk all over me.”

Marley blinked.

“…She was pretty much right.”

Nick turned to her and scowled. “Not helpful.”

Marley replied with a shrug.

“…Anyway,” he said, turning back to Morgana, “my point is that… a situation like this… it’s a complicated one. I’m trying to make everybody happy. But that means that I might end up prioritizing other people over you. And that’s… a really shitty thing to do.”

Morgana had to agree. She felt pretty awful.

“I think you need to work on that, too,” Carly said quietly. She looked at him with a tense expression and bit her lip. “I get the need to help the people you care about, Nick,” she continued, trying to **** a smile to her face. “But look. Caring about me… it hurt somebody else.”

Nick could only sigh. “That’s the kind of life ahead of you, Morgana. And believe me, I’m trying to change, but… there’s going to be times where I might get distracted, and worry about making other people happy instead of giving my full attention to you.”

Nick was already married to Mary. There were other women in his life, a lot more, too.

What was he supposed to do? How could he make all of them happy at the same time? It seemed like everyone had their own problems he needed to comfort them or confront them about, and he was only one guy.

Morgana looked anxious. She didn’t want him to have a flaw like this. She wasn’t sure what to do about it.

“I just… I don’t know,” she admitted. “Maybe you’re right… maybe… maybe I got involved in this too fast.”

Nick certainly wasn’t the perfect guy she’d built him up to be in her head for all those years, that was for sure.

He was just some guy trying the best he could.

With all the women in his life, it was natural that he’d end up helping one over another. Even if he tried to be fair and not play favorites, he was still only human.

And if Morgana really wanted to have a role in his harem, she’d have to accept that.

Now I can see why Nick was trying to discourage me from going right into the sexy stuff, she thought. He wanted me to see for myself whether he was worth it or not. Whether this harem life was something worth fighting for or not.

Frankly, Morgana still wasn’t sure. But she could tell from Nick’s eyes that he was being honest with her. He was showing her some of the negative sides of himself, and he hadn’t even intended to do that.

Shouldn’t… shouldn’t she respond in kind, then? Shouldn’t she try to reach out to him, to meet him halfway?

Morgana didn’t want things to end between her and Nick, that was for sure. She still wanted to have a role in the harem, at least right now.

She let out the breath she was holding in a long sigh.

“I’m… not perfect, either,” she admitted. “I’m no powerful witch… I’m just… I’m just a girl. Is that good enough for you?”

“Of course it is,” Nick gently replied.

That made her smile. She really wanted to believe the light she saw in her eyes.

“Then… I’ll try to find out if you being just you, warts and all, is good enough for me,” she promised.

The smile he gave her reinforced that hope.