And I wonder if she dreamed like me

Nick would have liked to spend the rest of the day on the beach getting to enjoy Kim’s company. They didn’t spend a ton of time together under normal circumstances, in part due to Kim’s busy schedule. But it felt like he was really enjoying today; perhaps even more than his time with her in Dream Alley last round.

But Kim had other ideas; other things she wanted to do. So they returned to the hotel.

“You want to test out your new strength?” Nick asked, raising his eyebrow as they returned to the gym. “That’s… something.”

“Don’t tell me you’re not curious,” Kim said, smiling cheekily at him. She flexed her muscles; ironically, they were less toned and developed than previously thanks to Dani’s transformation.

Nick shrugged. A little. It would actually be kind of cool, he thought, watching her work out.

“Just be careful,” he warned. “You don’t want to wreck your qipao.”

“Oh, yeah…” Kim looked down at her tight outfit. “…I’ll risk it.”

If she did mess it up, wouldn’t be a great loss. Besides; it wasn’t like Kim was planning on going through a full workout or anything. Just a couple reps to show off.

Nick sat back and watch her pile more weight on the bars. He thought it was a little excessive, but he didn’t say anything.

“Hng… ooh!” She lifted 200 pounds. Then 300. As she moved on to 400, she turned and looked at Nick, and wiped the sweat from her brow.

“What’s wrong?” She chirped. “Impressed? You’re not saying anything.”

She skipped over to him, batting her eyelashes. “Don’t tell me… you’re feeling shy and timid, seeing a girl who’s stronger than you?”

“Dani’s way stronger than me, and that was the case even before her transformation,” Nick pointed out. “Didn’t bother me then.”

Kim pouted. She knew Nick was a great guy like that, but he could at least play along a little bit!

“…Wait! I have an idea!” She clapped her hands together. “Forget lifting weights… there’s a better way to test out this transformation!”

Nick raised his eyebrow curiously. For someone who had made a stink about her upgrade at first, Kim seemed really into it. “What were you thinking?”

“Well, Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin is pretty tough, and she’s gotta be done with her lessons by now, right?” She pointed out.

Nick stared at her. “Uh… I-I really don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said, shaking his head.

“What? Why not?” Kim frowned. “You don’t want to see me spar with her a little bit? First guy I’ve met who doesn’t like the idea of seeing two cute girls go at it!”

Nick was happy that Kim considered herself a “cute girl” (it was great for her self-esteem!) but he didn’t think that involving Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin in their date was a good move in the slightest.

In fact, it seemed like a massive pain in the ass.

Still, if that’s what Kim wanted…

He opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, Kim spoke up.

“Never mind, maybe we should forget about it,” she said loudly, shaking her head. “I think… yeah, the two of us. Just us.”

The sudden shift intrigued him. “Kim? You good?”

Kim’s smile faded. She leaned in close, and blushed. “I… look, um… I get it, okay? Thanks for being concerned about me. But you’re also feeling… you want it to just be the two of us.”

She would have liked trying out her transformation with her friend. But if Nick didn’t want to do that, she wasn’t going to push him. It might not have even been out of concern, either; maybe he just wanted more time with Kim on her own.

Considering what happened with Dani and the others, Kim could understand that.

“I guess I got a little too excited,” she laughed, scratching her cheek. “You’re right, that girl can get a little clingy.”

She liked Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin well enough; but she could acknowledge that the girl had a way of making everything about herself, even when they were friends.

So with that in mind, the two headed out.

“Well, if you don’t want to see me fight, what do you want to do?” Kim asked, looking curiously at Nick. “I’m down for whatever.”

Nick shrugged. “I’m frankly just enjoying the view,” he honestly confessed, not making a secret about his appreciation of her body.

Kim grinned through her blush. “Well… that’s nice to hear,” she murmured. “You always know just what to say to a girl. Hmm… to be honest?”

She gave him a sheepish look. “I don’t really have a lot of ideas,” she admitted, shaking her head. “I’m not exactly a hobbiest, you know?”

Nick wasn’t sure what that meant. But he didn’t push. “Okay… I get it. You don’t have a lot of ideas about what to do? Well, we can come up with something together.”

Kim sighed. “Maybe I shoulda just stuck with a Dream Alley date after all,” she admitted. “It’s easy to come up with stuff to do in Dream Alley, you know?”

She looked over at Nick. “But, well… I’m not so sure…” she admitted. “If I’d done that, then you wouldn’t have… hey, what did you do today, anyway? You said you spent some time with Holly? How did that go?”

“It was actually really nice,” Nick said, thinking back fondly to his movie date. “We went out, caught a movie, had some fun, just regular date stuff.”

“Really?” Kim flashed a rueful grin. “What movie exactly?”

Nick gave her a look. “Not the kind you’re thinking of,” he chided, shaking his head. “Come on, I know how Holly usually is around people, but there’s more to her than that.”

Kim laughed. “I know, I know. She’s not always so… Holly. But you guys had a good time?”

Nick nodded. “It was the best.”

“Hm.” Kim scrunched up her face and stroked her chin. “Then it sounds like my work is cut out for me… this could be tricky!” She joked, winking and elbowing Nick in the side. “Didn’t think I’d have to compete with another date on my own day with you!”

Nick could sense the humor in her voice, but he still felt apprehensive. “Kim…”

“Yeah?” Kim turned and looked back at him with bright eyes.

“About Dream Alley… I was thinking… that is to say… my date with Holly this morning, it got me thinking… ugh, how do I put this, um…”

He fumbled for words, not sure how to express himself. Fortunately Kim gave him plenty of time, listening in close.

“…Do you think that maybe we’ve gotten too accustomed to using Dream Alley?” He asked finally.

Kim raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Too accustomed? Uh… I guess I kinda get what you mean,” she admitted. “I was just talking about how it was hard not to rely on Dream Alley when it comes to planning dates.”

Nick nodded. “Exactly, right? I definitely understand the convenience of it; you get me all to yourself, for the whole day, and you can do whatever you want, set whatever kind of script you want for the date, you know? That’s really convenient, no argument there. But… it’s not like we’ll have access to it when we get back home, right?”

“That’s a good point,” Kim acknowledged, nodding slowly. She hadn’t even considered that. “Yeah… now that you mention it, Dream Alley’s kinda…”

It was really convenient, you wouldn’t get any argument from Kim on that front. But she could see what Nick meant by it being a crutch. As someone who had always lived her life filled with restrictions and not able to do the things she wanted to do, the idea of Dream Alley was an entrancing and appealing one, for sure. But for Kim… it was hard to fully break away from the fact that it seemed a little… cheap. Like she was breaking the rules somehow.

“…I’m not saying it’s a bad thing,” Nick clarified. “I can definitely see the merit of it. But where does it end? I mean, the more BP everybody gets, soon enough I’ll be spending every day in someone else’s dream. This is supposed to be my harem, right? It doesn’t really feel that way if I only get to see one of you each day.”

He still felt a little gross referring to his relationships with the women he cared for as his “harem”. But in this situation, it served a purpose.

“Ah… you’re feeling sad, because relying on Dream Alley means no more threesomes?” Kim crooned. “Oh, poor baby…”

Nick rolled his eyes. “Kim-”

“I know, I know, sorry,” Kim cut him off before he could start. She knew full well how much of a jackass she sounded like, saying stuff like that. “I guess… yeah, you make a good point,” she conceded, nodding. “I mean, look at today. You got to hang out with Holly all morning. That wouldn’t have happened if you were spending all day in Dream Alley with me.”

“And it’s not just Holly, Mary too,” Nick pointed out. “And also, Gina…”

“Gina?” Kim cocked her head to the side. “What about her?”

“Well, think about it. We can’t exactly have a Dream Alley date together, can we?” Nick shook his head. “Her party transformation means we don’t even get a night to ourselves anymore, not really. And she seems fine with that, but… I don’t know. Earlier this afternoon, when we were talking… she seemed so happy. Like she was getting a special treat or something, just chatting with me. Catching up. And it made me realize, I couldn’t even remember the last time that happened. Just me and her hanging out and… talking. You know, we’ve never been on a real date, her and I? Not since that first week. She’s always off doing whatever she wants, and on her day with me she’s off planning her party instead. It doesn’t seem fair.”

“Well, you could always ask her to hang out more,” Kim pointed out.

“That’s the plan,” Nick said, nodding. “Thing is, if you’re all using Dream Alley…”

“Ah, yeah… I get that…” Kim nodded thoughtfully. “Huh… well… I definitely see where you’re coming from, Nick. This is a tough one…” She stopped walking and cradled her chin thoughtfully. “I wish I had an easy solution for you. Unfortunately, it sounds like this is a massive pain in the ass.”

Kim didn’t envy Nick’s position at all. With her busy schedule it was hard enough to make time with him where they could just talk like lovers should. She couldn’t even imagine having to do that twelve or thirteen times over to account for all the women in his life.

It made her brain hurt.

“I think… I’d rather not spend every day with the girls in Dream Alley,” Nick confessed. “It’s fun as a nice treat. But…”

“…But you’ve got girls like Rose, who try and angle for it every round,” Kim murmured. “Trying to monopolize your time as much as she can.”

Nick sighed. “Well, Rose is Rose, not a lot we can do about that. But for the other girls… I don’t know. I know, though, that our date in Dream Alley was fun, but I’m having just as much fun with you here.”

“Here?” Kim looked around, surprised. She raised her arms and held them out, surveying the empty street. “In the Shopping District?”

Nick rolled his eyes. “You know what I’m talking about. My point is, just hanging out with you, Kim, that’s enough for me. We don’t need some fancy scenario or something like that.”

Kim looked up at him with a small smile, and nodded. “Yeah… I kinda feel the same way,” she agreed. True, as someone who had been denied so much in her life, it was hard for Kim to resist the temptation of literally everything at her fingertips. On the other hand… maybe her rough upbringing had gotten her used to denying herself; given her a sense of perspective so she could appreciate what little she did have.

Which reminded her…

“Actually, I kinda gave Vivian the same advice before, last round,” she recalled.

Nick raised his eyebrows in surprise. He wasn’t expecting Kim to just volunteer that information. She hated mentioning Vivian. “You did?”

Kim nodded, biting her lip. “She had this whole big scheme about how she was gonna plan this fancy date to really wow you… shock and awe, you know? And she wanted my help. I told her to shove it, since I was already going on a Dream Alley date with you and didn’t want her stepping on my toes. She actually agreed, if you can believe that! I told her how much you care about really making a connection with people… and how ‘wowing’ you wouldn’t work without a real connection with her first. …Should I not have done that?”

Nick thought back on his first “real” date with Vivian. The way her face lit up when she introduced him to horseback riding for the first time, and her gallant figure atop the brown beauty she’d chosen as they climbed the mountain. And the serene look on her face as she gazed out over the lake.

He’d seen the real Vivian so many times that day; not the fake girl trying to impress him and win him over like some twisted blend of a seduction attempt and a corporate merger.

“Actually… that date with her… the one where we rode horses? That was so much better than our date in Dream Alley,” he admitted.

That may have been an incredibly low bar to clear given how catastrophically his last date with Vivian had crashed and burned, but Kim got the message. She nodded slowly.

“I think if we sit everybody down and explain it to ‘em, then it should work out for the best,” she agreed. “Everyone knows you care about them, Nick. Everyone. So if you explain that you want to cut back on Dream Alley use so you can spend more time with everybody and not have to devote an entire day to being isolated with just them… yeah, I think that’s really a smart move,” she agreed, nodding in approval of his idea. “I mean, if you want that, anyway.”

“Yeah, I really think that’s for the best,” he agreed. “It’s fair. Although Rose probably won’t see it that way…”

Kim laughed. “So first I have to share my date with Dani and Carly and the others, after letting you and the one that got away spend all morning together, now here I am listening to you talk about other girls and giving them advice? This is supposed to be my date, Nick, don’t you remember?”

He beamed at her, giving her a smile that she actually felt a little jealous of through her pounding heartbeat.

“How could I forget?” He said gently. “You’re one of the only people I can talk to about stuff like this, Kim.”

Kim and Dawn were perhaps the only people who he could really seek advice on this sort of thing from. Other girls either had their own agenda, like Rose, or weren’t used to thinking about stuff like this, like Dani. Mary would probably just encourage him to keep trying his best, since she was so idealistic.

Kim was more of a realist, and he appreciated that about her.

“So when do I get my private time with you, huh?” Kim scrunched up her face into a mocking scowl. “I turned down spending time with Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin… that’s gotta count for something, right?”

“I’d love to spend as much time with you as possible,” Nick laughed. “And hey, if we do change things and free up some of my time on other days, I’ll make it up to you then, sound good?”

Kim nodded. She could get behind that. At the same time, though…

“…Not sure if that’s good enough,” she said playfully, wiggling her eyebrows. “I still want you to myself. At least for the rest of the day. Any ideas what we could do?”

“Perhaps I could be of assistance in that regard.”

Kim jumped nearly a foot in the air, sending her curves bouncing. When she landed she was so thrown off her balance she almost knocked Nick over trying to keep from falling.

They both turned to see Dakota standing behind them with an unreadable expression on her face.

“Dakota… hey,” Nick greeted her, still not sure how to react to her presence. He tried to play it cool, like nothing was wrong, but he got the distinct, eerie feeling that something was wrong.

Specifically, the feeling of Kim’s fingernails digging into his arm. And with her enhanced strength he just had to hope she didn’t end up snapping his humerus bone like a twig.

“…Dakota.”

The tone of Kim’s voice was another enigma. The way she looked at the host was indecipherable, and Nick heard audible tension as she addressed the other woman. There was something going on between the two of them; something that hadn’t been present this morning, which was the last time he saw them together.

“Is something wrong?” Nick wasn’t sure if he was asking Kim or Dakota, actually. He just had to put his feelings out there.

It was Dakota who answered him.

“Wrong?” She batted her eyelashes innocently. “Not at all. I bring good tidings, Nick. Good tidings indeed.”

Her golden eyes swept past him, not looking his way for once. Instead, they landed directly on Kim, who stiffened up.

She narrowed her eyes right back.

“…Love the hair, by the way. And the new figure,” Dakota said, running her eyes over Kim’s body like she was gazing upon a succulent steak. Or maybe sizing up an opponent in a fight. “And is that your qipao? My my, you really pulled out all the stops.”

“…Did you want something?” Kim put on her best customer service smile. If you just caught a glance of her, you might think that she was genuinely pleased by Dakota’s presence. But Nick knew her well enough by this point to know when she was upset, and boy was it wafting from her at the moment.

He swallowed, wishing he could say something to resolve things, but he had no idea what there was to even resolve.

“I just said, didn’t I?” Dakota huffed. “You really must listen better if you’re planning to have a future in the service industry.”

Of course, she ignored the fact that Kim had plenty of experience in jobs like that already, and the fact that she absolutely did not want a future in them. To Dakota it was just another way of cutting the other woman down.

Kim didn’t take the bait.

“…I’m here to help,” Dakota purred.

Somehow, Kim didn’t buy that.

“Help?” She snorted incredulously. “How? Lock us up in a cage together or something, and not let us leave until we fuck? …Because I could be okay with that…”

“Oh, my, no, how vulgar!” Dakota placed her hand over her chest and twisted her face in shock. “No, no, I was thinking, actually, of giving you your prize. Remember? From that bounty you completed?”

She batted her eyelashes. “If you’re still interested, that is…”

Kim’s eyes widened. This morning it had been all she could think about, but after everything that had happened today, it had been the last thing on her mind!