Go on, dust your shoulders off, keep it moving

Dani wasn’t wrong when she’d warned Nick to stick with the 10-pound weights. It wasn’t that hard at first. But thirty arm-curls later, and he was starting to get a little winded. Even if they were done in reps of ten at a time. Three sets of ten reps, alternating between each arm, and Nick could tell he was getting in a good workout.

Unfortunately, there was a complication that was making it a little harder.

Once Nick shifted to doing lunges, which were a little more strenuous because they involved more movement, Kim started to get involved. She had set up her yoga mat right in front of the area he was using the free weights, and Nick didn’t realize why until now.

The tomboy had her back to him- no, make that her backside. She took a wide stance with her legs spread as far as they could go, then leaned forward at her waist, planting her palms flat on the mat in front of her. This resulted in her effectively shoving her ass out towards him, and with her legs spread her bloomers tightened to highlight the curve of her plush bottom.

Nick was almost positive he could see the outline of her pussy. And before he caught himself, he squinted for a closer look.

“Ahem.”

Nick jumped, nearly dropping the weights as his poor form splayed out his body. He whirled around in surprise and saw Dani staring at him, smirking.

“Problem?” She asked, her green eyes glinting knowingly. “You slowed down, and your form got sloppy. Need a break?”

“So this is the plan?” Nick set down the dumbbells and sat down, wiping the sweat from his forehead. It was kind of embarrassing to already be sweating when he hadn’t even been working out for twenty minutes, and was just handling free weights. “You’re gonna chide me for improper workout form, while Kim stands in my eyeline and waves her butt in my face?”

Dani batted her eyelashes innocently. At the same time, Kim hopped back upright and turned around, fanning herself.

“Did I hear my name?” She asked. Her white shirt was moist with perspiration and she pulled on the collar, fanning herself.

Nick wasn’t sure if the pose he’d just seen from the tomboy was an actual yoga pose, but he didn’t know enough to call her on it. Regardless, it was definitely intentional, and he didn’t appreciate it.

“I’m serious about working out,” he reminded Dani. “If this is one big joke at my expense-”

“I’m serious about helping you,” Dani interrupted. She crossed her arms over her chest. “I mean it. This is just… an obstacle, that’s all.”

Nick stared at her. “…An obstacle.”

Dani nodded. “When you’re working out, you’ve gotta focus on the exercise. You can’t let yourself get distracted! Even if there’s a hot girl right in front of you dressed in skimpy workout gear and waving her butt in your face. You need to just ignore it and focus on what you’re doing. Otherwise you’re going to get blasted on social media for being a creep.”

Kim jerked her head up and down in agreement.

“…Right,” Nick said, giving both girls an exasperated look. “So you don’t mind if I bring Carly over next time you’re working out, and ask her to jump up and down while you’re doing squats or something, then?”

“Well, Carly’s really busy looking after Emmy right now, so…” Dani shrugged.

Nick rolled his eyes. “Come on, you know what I mean.”

Dani smirked. “That’s different. Since Carly and I are dating, I’d do even better, because I’d be showing off for her.”

“Hey, wait, does that mean Nick isn’t showing off for me, then?” Kim asked, frowning. She glanced warily at Nick, who blushed.

“Well, that depends,” Dani replied, giving Kim a curious look. “Are the two of you dating?”

Now that Kim was the one on the receiving end of the tough questions, her amused expression slid off her face. Her mouth fell open and she glanced hesitantly over at Nick, who looked back at her. Neither of them knew quite what to say.

“…We, uh… we haven’t really… defined terms like that yet,” Kim mumbled hastily, scratching her head. She continued to not look him in the eye.

“Yeah, let’s just say our relationship is kind of complicated and leave it at that,” Nick suggested, glancing over at Kim again.

Dani wasn’t exactly thrilled to hear that. “Come on, guys. You two obviously like each other, you’ve been on dates, you’ve had sex, doesn’t that make you at least boyfriend and girlfriend?”

Kim and Nick glanced at each other again. Though neither could bring themselves to make eye contact with the other.

Finally, it was Nick who stood up and took the initiative.

“First off, Dani, it’s a little rich for you to be the one saying that, considering how long you and Carly spent dancing around that same issue,” Nick pointed out.

Dani blushed. “That… that’s different,” she mumbled out.

Sure, maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. Right now though, Nick had other thoughts on his mind.

“Second,” he continued, “it’s complicated because I’m the master of a harem, in case you forgot.” It still sounded weird, referring to himself like that. It sounded like he was the protagonist of some cringe anime. “So it’s not that strange for Kim and I to have kind of a nebulous relationship with one another as we try to sort out where we stand- you know, in regards to our relationship status and stuff like that.”

Dani sighed. She had seen plenty of harem anime where the main character kept the girls in his life in a perpetual state of limbo and while her own issues had led her to do the same with Carly (though that was a completely different situation) she wasn’t going to abide it from her friends.

“Nick-”

“Actually, that’s not why,” Kim quickly interrupted.

That earned her surprised looks from both of them.

“Wait, it’s not?” Nick asked. “But, I thought… wait, then… what is the reason you don’t want to, uh…” He wasn’t sure what the best way to put it was. “…Refer to yourself as my girlfriend?”

His heart sank in anticipation of the worst. But judging by the semi-embarrassed expression on Kim’s face, his concerns might not have been what he thought they were.

She looked away, like she was ashamed of something.

“I, I don’t… really want to talk about this right now,” she finally said, an answer that worked just fine for Nick but not at all for Dani. She was trying to support Nick in his relationships, and while she cared deeply about Kim as a friend, she wasn’t about to let her close friend go down the same path she had before.

“Kim, can I talk to you for a second?” Dani asked, approaching her.

Kim turned on the tomboy with a fierceness in her eyes that startled the other girl, and made her pause in place.

“Dani… it’s fine,” she said firmly. “Nick and I are fine. We just… don’t need to have that kind of talk yet, alright?”

She looked bashfully over at him, with a shy smile that made Nick’s heart melt. In the face of that smile, he found himself not caring at all about the actual, technical definitions of their relationship. Did stuff like that really matter? The important thing was that Kim cared about him, and that she had strong feelings for him.

“It’s okay if we go at our own pace,” Nick said gently, trying to win Dani over to Kim’s way of thinking. “What we have works for us. My relationship is different for everyone.”

Dani could see the sincerity in both lovers. “…Maybe I’m just getting worked up over nothing,” she admitted, scratching her feathery hair and letting out a sheepish sigh. “Sorry guys. I was just worried, that’s all.”

“No, it’s okay, Dani, I totally appreciate you being so concerned about me,” Nick said, giving her a smile. “Really, it means a lot.”

“Yeah, totally,” Kim said, her apprehension vanishing in a flash and being replaced by a wide-eyed grin. “You’re the best. Trust me, even if there was a problem, we’d be able to work it out.”

Dani still wasn’t sure. She glanced surreptitiously at Nick out of the corner of her eye. She could tell that there was some underlying reason for Kim’s **** to define the relationship. And if she could pick up on that, Nick should definitely be able to as well.

Fine, I won’t pry. But whatever’s going on with you, Kim, I hope you don’t end up hurting him. Otherwise, friend or no, you and I are going to have some problems.

Unfortunately, it was hard to tell what Kim was thinking behind that dazzling smile of hers. Years of hiding her soul-grinding despair from dead-end jobs behind the perfect façade of customer service had given her a poker face that could play at professional tables, and if she was determined to smile like that through anything there wasn’t much either of them could do about it.

“Also, it’s like you said, Dani, if I’m Nick’s girlfriend then he won’t be distracted by me, right? That’s no good at all!” Kim added with a pout.

Dani recognized the attempt to pivot using humor for what it was, but she chose not to say anything. If that was how Kim wanted to play it, then it wasn’t her place to butt in.

“I won’t get distracted!” Nick objected, turning red.

Kim flashed him a crooked smile. “Oooh, is that a challenge I hear?” She purred. “Okay, tough guy. You wanna dance? Because I can dance.”

Dani rolled her eyes and let out another exasperated sigh. “I’m washing my hands of this,” she said, exaggeratedly making a hand-washing motion. “This is me, washing my hands of this whole flirty mess. Nick, you focus on the routine I showed you, and don’t let Kim distract you, okay? Me, I’m going to go get a protein shake.”

“Wasn’t this whole distraction thing your idea, though?” Nick pointed out.

Dani selectively ignored that. She walked over to the juice bar and ordered something with lots of orange and strawberry, and sat back to watch Nick’s progress from afar.

The more Kim tried to tease and distract him with increasingly absurd yoga poses, the better she felt. By the time her protein shake was empty and she was heading back to the two of them, Nick’s free weight routine was winding down and Kim, well…

“That is NOT a yoga move,” Nick said, shaking his head and smirking in amusement.

“Sure it is,” Kim said. She was standing in a squat with her arms straight and her hands clasped together in front of her, jerking them up and down like she was stabbing a stake into the ground. “It’s called, um, uh… the spanking monkey.”

Nick rolled his eyes and Dani nearly spit up her protein shake with laughter.

“Okay, have mercy on him,” she said, shaking her head. “Any more of this, and those shorts might just tear right off.”

“Yeah, that’s the point,” Kim said, rolling her eyes

Nick just sighed and shook his head. He smiled from ear to ear. “Kim, man, you really have gotten wild, you know that? You were always so level-headed, not… like a Holly Jr.”

The tomboy turned red. “I… I’m not… am I?” She looked warily over at Dani, who pinched her lips together tight to keep from saying anything and slowly nodded her head.

Kim looked like she was going to be sick.

“B-but-! Dani! You were the one who-! This wasn’t my idea-! I-!” She started to flounder, and for the first time Nick saw a real crack in her façade.

“Wait, Dani, YOU put her up to this?” Nick asked the tomboy, shocked to hear that this had been her idea. He had no issue with Kim being bolder and having fun like this, but if someone else had dragged her into it...

“No!” Dani shook her head quickly. “I… I mean, not entirely! Just, you know, the important stuff.”

Ah, that made it better.

“It wasn’t Dani’s fault,” Kim clarified. “I, uh, I kind of… put her up to it? A little bit, I mean. Well, a lot. See, I got this bounty… wait, you already know about that... uh...”

“Kim came to me looking for a threesome,” Dani said. “You already know that, though.”

Nick nodded. “Yeah, I was there, it was a whole thing.”

“Well, when she asked me, Carly was there with me,” Dani explained. “And, uh… Kim and I, we… neither one of us are exactly experts when it comes to threesomes…”

“I have had sex exactly once,” Kim said, holding her finger up. She blushed. “Well, I mean, one night. As for the amount of times, well…” Frazzled, she started mumbling to herself while holding up fingers, much to Dani’s amusement.

“You wild one, you,” she cooed at her friend. Then she stood up straight and cleared her throat. “Anyway, Carly overheard the whole thing, and, well, she has that transformation, remember? Veteran Experience.”

Suddenly it all made sense.

“I think I get it,” Nick said, smiling in amusement. “So Carly looked at the two of you, and saw right away that you were both about to get into something way over your heads. And so she gave you some ideas about how to get the mood right, and work me up for the incoming threesome, while also giving you some free rein to lower your own inhibitions and get in the mood. Does that sound about right to the two of you?”

The admission of guilt was clear on their faces. Dani and Kim couldn’t even look at each other.

“…Dani was the one who agreed first!” Kim whined.

“No, no, Kim was the one who said she’d be up for anything if it would make tonight go well!” Dani protested.

The two of them tried to push the responsibility onto each other like a couple of children being punished by their teacher. It was actually kind of cute.

Nick clapped his hands together and they both jumped.

“Okay, um… look. I get it, you two are trying to make this… date? Go well, and I totally support that. For obvious reasons,” he said, looking to them both. “But don’t you think, I don’t know, you’re getting a little carried away? I mean, it’s one thing to **** yourself out of your comfort zone, I totally support that, especially for you, Kim, you know I’m always encouraging you to do new things. But are you both sure this specifically is how you want to go about it?”

“Well…” Kim was the first one to speak. “I’ll tell you the truth, I did really enjoy teasing you,” she admitted. She stretched her arms over her head, looking lighter already now that she was coming clean. “But at the same time, I don’t think it was to Holly levels… right? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like Holly just fine, but…”

“But we’re not on her level,” Dani finished the sentence. “…Right?”

Kim nodded and gave Nick a set of puppy eyes.

“…Holly isn’t an insult,” Nick said, shaking his head. “That isn’t how I meant for you two to take that at all. I just meant that it felt like you weren’t acting like yourselves. …Well, Dani was. But Kim, if you want to tease me, sure, go for it. I was just a little confused because it’s not the way we usually have fun together.”

“Huh? I tease you all the time,” Kim said, frowning.

“Yeah, but not, like, sexually.” Kim’s teasing was usually a little more playful and a little less bawdy. “Though I definitely think Carly’s a good influence on you,” he said, grinning. “I did enjoy some of those poses.”

“I know,” Kim said, her eyes falling to Nick’s shorts. “I’ve been sneaking peeks.”

Blushing, Nick tugged his tank-top down. He shot her a look and she smiled innocently at him and batted her eyelashes.

“…Right, so, I’m still confused,” Dani said, clearing her throat. “You want us to stop the teasing, or… what’s up?”

“Well, I didn’t actually mind the teasing,” Nick said, rubbing his shoulder. “…Maybe my muscles will in the morning, but for now I’m fine. I was mainly just concerned because I thought Kim was acting really weird. But if you guys want to keep it up…”

He shrugged, leaving things open-ended.

Dani looked over at Kim, wondering what she wanted to do.

Kim just looked relieved.

“…To tell you the truth? I don’t know how much it’s actually helping,” she admitted, smiling sheepishly and scratching her head. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, Nick, seeing you all flustered like that? It’s kinda a good time for me.”

“Gee, thanks,” Nick said, giving her a sarcastic smile.

Kim held up her hands like she was under fire.

“Hey! Come on now. The thing is, when it comes to getting ready for tonight and stuff like that…” She glanced over at Dani. “I’m not so sure I’m feeling it, you know? I’m still really, really nervous about this actually. Since, you know, I’m, kinda gonna be the center of attention and all.”

Dani nodded. “I-I guess… you’ve got a point there,” she admitted, scratching her cheek. If they were going to make this threesome work, it would be a little difficult when she and Nick were incompatible. Which meant most of the night would probably be focused on Kim. Carly’s suggestions had been about what would please Nick most, due to the nature of her transformation, but Kim was going to be the center of attention tonight one way or another. There would be a lot of Nick doing stuff with her, and Dani doing stuff with her.

And while she was clearly looking forward to it, hiding that behind a bunch of teasing wasn’t helping calm her nerves. If anything, it was only getting her more worked up.

“…Maybe we can take a break from teasing for a while,” Kim suggested with a smile. “Nick, you and Dani work out a little bit, you know, focus on actually getting in a good workout. I’m gonna go regroup at the juice bar and come up with a new plan of attack.”

Nick raised his eyebrow, not sure what to make of that specific wording. But he didn’t say anything, and turned to Dani, who just shrugged.

“Hey, you heard her,” she said, slapping him on the back. “This might be my night with you, Nick, but Kim’s gonna be doing her own thing too.”

“Yeah, I guess she is,” Nick agreed, nodding. He just hoped they’d be able to have a good time while doing it.