Sleeping Arrangements

"...is she gone?" Annie spoke up first. The anxiety of the silence had beaten the anxiety of whether or not Rahne was listening.

"Fuck cares if she is, none of us are going upstairs with that bitch."

"Woah, okay," Sigrid turned to Kate, hands up trying to deescalate the situation. "Kate, look, none of us want to go up there, but do you really want to try to test the rules on a magic game show?"

"Maybe we fucking should! What if this is a test and by not standing up for ourselves now, we're setting ourselves up on a slippery slope for later? 'dja think of that?" Kate, like most people, was a few inches shorter than Sigrid, but she still squared up.

For the second time that day, Sigrid was in a stare-down with someone. "Look, we can't start fighting. Literally the only people with any kind of common ground with you here are the rest of us."

"One of whom, may I remind you, the other six of us are going to be fucking bound to until we fucking die. We cannot fucking trust each other."

"We're going to be stuck together until we all die," The two tallest contestants both turned to see Nat. "We have to trust each other."

"Thank you." Sigrid said and turned back to Kate. "See, that's what reasonable looks like."

"Fuck you, bitch."

"Fuck you, too then I guess. I was going to have a discussion about pros and cons before suggesting this, but I don't think you've got many people wanting you as a roommate right now, so: All in favour of sending Kate upstairs." Sigrid raised her hand. Mia and River's soon followed. Both had run a similar line of thinking. Sigrid wasn't wrong; Kate seemed like a lot to deal with as a roommate.

"Nat?" Sigrid turned to the pink-clad woman, curious as to why she hadn't raised her hand.

"I just said we have to stick together. That means not exiling someone just because they're being a bitch today." Nat said, definitively. Sigrid's suggestion of raising her hand would have lifted her crop top, leading to her flashing her nipples to everyone, and that may have had a lot more to do with this decision than she declared. The principles of the situation definitely still played a part though.

"Danni?"

"Kate and I have been hanging out all day. Feels like a betrayal to vote for her." Danni said, already internally bemoaning the loss of the 'secret' part of their secret alliance.

"Fair enough." Sigrid acknowledged Nat and then turned to the last member of the group. "Annie, you really want her in your room?"

"No, I um," Annie gulped. She really was about to say what she was thinking. "I was actually thinking about volunteering."

That got a six way, unison, turn-and-look-incredulously from the other contestants.

"Fuck off, Annie." Kate was the first to blurt something out.

"I think what she means is, 'don't just do this to be a hero.'" Sigrid reassured her. "Only volunteer if you actually want to."

"Skyscraper here is right, for a fucking change. Don't do it."

"It's, um, my, uh..." Annie swallowed. "One of my fetishes today is, uh, cum play. And, uh, Rahne has a, y'know..."

"Are you trying to fuck the host?" Danni blurted out increduously.

"No! I mean, kinda? But not in a 'trying to win' way, I promise! I'm just, ugh, I hate that I have to say this to explain."

"Take your time." Nat stepped in and place a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"Damn it." Annie sighed. She took a deep breath and then fired through some rapid, mumbled works no-one understood.

"All I got from that was 'cum' and 'want'; did anyone understand her better?" Kate inquired the rest of the assembly.

"I mean, that's kind of the whole thing really." Having said it once, she sighed and tried again. "One of my fetishes today is cum play. Rahne has a girlcock and my body is craving it. I want it real bad."

"Are you sure?" Sigrid turned to the redhead. "You don't have to do this on account of us."

"Hey, stop trying to look good now that you're not getting your way!"

"Kate, chill," Danni stepped up and placed a gentle hand on her new friend's shoulder. She then gestured towards Annie with a subtle tile of the head. "The conversation has moved on."

"So, uh, I guess, I'll, um... go upstairs? I'll let Rahne know I've volunteered."

"I'll come with you." River piped up. "For, uh, moral support. And to find out who's in a room with who so you don't have to come back down."

"Good call." Sigrid nodded approvingly as the two of them walked up the stairs, again, ignoring the lift.

"You know, I could have come back down to tell everyone." Annie said to River in a tone that said 'Why are you really doing this?' quite clearly.

"I know." River sighed as they got to the top of the stairs. "I was just thinking that, well, you're not the only one with a compulsion."

"Oh shit! I completely forgot. How are you holding up?"

"Not well. Like, part of me assumes this won't work, but another, much larger part needs, wait, demands that I at least give it a shot."

"I'm so sorry." The redhead was genuinely at a loss. At the end of the day, she wasn't even really sure it was a compulsion, like River was describing. What River was talking about sounded like an addiction. Annie was just super curious and she'd never felt good at denying herself that.

The two of them stoop outside the door to Rahne's suite.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

And, despairingly, they knocked at the door.