Woo, girl, need to kick off your shoes

Nick had just moved on from the free weights when Kim returned. She still had a playful smile on her face, and she sipped loudly on her smoothie as Dani showed him the proper form to use the bench press.

He was only half paying attention. “Hold on, Dani, one sec,” he said, stopping her before she got too engrossed in the workout.

Dani looked at Nick, confused for a second, but when he turned to Kim she understood what was going on and she nodded.

“Kim, you good?” Nick asked.

“Huh? Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” The tomboy chirped.

“I may have gotten a little too… I don’t know, weird. Earlier. You know?” Nick was fumbling his words a little because he couldn’t get a read on how Kim was feeling. “…With the teasing stuff, I mean.”

“Yeah, no, you lost me,” Kim said, taking another sip of her smoothie as she shook her head.

“What I mean is…” Nick sighed. “I didn’t have a problem with you playing around and teasing me,” he assured her. “You were just having a good time. I really liked it, actually! I just said all that stuff before because I thought if you were forcing yourself…”

“I wasn’t forcing myself,” Kim assured him, shaking her head harder.

Nick sighed in relief. “Oh, good. That’s great! So, uh…” He blushed and scratched his head. “If you… wanted to keep teasing, well…”

“Let’s not tease him on the bench press, please?” Dani piped up. “That’s got all the making of a crushed ribcage.”

Nick jerked his head to look at her, and his eyes widened in surprise.

Dani had raised a very valid point. Teasing with free weights was one thing, but on a machine where a loss of focus could result in serious injury…

Kim laughed and stepped between them, finishing off her smoothie. “I’ll make this easy for both of you,” she said, tossing out her cup. “I’m not gonna do any more teasing while we’re working out.”

“Oh. Okay…” Nick was relieved to hear that, but he couldn’t hide his disappointment. The look of delighted mischief in Kim’s eyes told him all he needed to know about her thoughts in regards to that- he’d been caught.

“Sorry Nick,” she cooed, wiggling her eyebrows. “But you were right the first time. I was kinda going along with it because Carly suggested it. But it’s not me, you know? I’m not the sort of girl who wants everyone to stare at her, even if one of those people is the guy I like.”

Kim sounded sincere when she said that, but Dani remembered how excited she’d looked while doing those yoga poses. I’m not so sure.

“So with that in mind… you guys keep going with your workout,” Kim said, flopping down on a work bench. “Just pretend like I’m a fly on a wall… and in the meantime, I’ll think of some other way we can all have fun together, sound good?”

“Works for me,” Nick agreed, looking to Dani for confirmation.

Dani nodded. “I wanted to do a serious workout anyway,” she said, winking at Nick. “Sorry but if you’re looking for a girl to tease you while lifting weights, find someone else.”

Nick laughed out loud. “Yeah, I’ll do that… as soon as I’m confident I can even lift that thing.” He nodded to the barbell, which looked like it was loaded with about 200 pounds worth of weight.

“Yeah, let’s… see what we can do about that.” Dani began removing the weights from the bar, carrying them like they were paper plates. Nick shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other as he was viscerally reminded just how strong his weightlifting instructor was.

When she was done, the bar was left completely bare. Nick waited for her to put some lighter weights on, but Dani just stood there staring expectantly at him.

Nick blinked. “…Is that it?”

“Yeah,” Dani said, shrugging. “What? Don’t think you can handle it? Because there’s literally no way to get less weight on there, unless you want me to swap out the bar with like a broom handle or something…”

“Dani,” Nick sighed, giving her an exasperated stare, “I can handle a little bit of weight. You don’t need to make me lift an empty bar.”

“That bar weighs 45 pounds,” Dani said pointedly. “Just because it looks like nothing doesn’t mean it is. Go on, try it out, see what you can do.”

“I have tried it out,” Nick reminded her. “This isn’t the first time we worked out together. You put more weight on there last time.”

“Yeah, and you were sore as heck afterwards,” Dani reminded him. “You’re gonna need your energy for tonight; can’t have you tiring yourself out.”

“Gotta side with Dani on this one,” Kim said, whistling in agreement. “Come on big guy, you gotta start somewhere.”

Dani looked over at Kim. “Kim, you can’t lift much either, don’t jeer him.”

Kim blushed and glanced down at her shoes.

Satisfied that the heckling had been adequately quelled, Dani turned back to Nick and gave him a sympathetic look. “Okay, how about this? You start out with the empty bar, and if that’s too easy, we start adding weight,” she suggested. “Sound good?”

Nick could tell that she was trying not to be patronizing, but it still came across that way. His heart swelled with a desire to prove her wrong.

“I can do more than just the bar,” he said firmly. “Show me the proper form again.”

To Nick’s credit, he did manage to prove Dani wrong. The empty barbell had barely any resistance as he lifted it up and down, and after a couple reps Dani admitted that he could add a bit more weight to it. He got up to 25 pounds on each side before it became too much for him to lift comfortably, so they stopped there.

After that, her treatment changed. The tomboy was more willing to accept Nick’s perspective and acknowledge that he could try pushing himself a little more, and in appreciation of that, Nick trusted her judgment a little more himself. The two worked together to try and find the perfect routine for him that wouldn’t strain his body too much, and by the time it was all said and done, Nick walked away feeling like he had a good start planned out.

“You did really good, Nick,” Dani said, wiping the sweat from her forehead with a towel. “But keep in mind, this was just one day. If you want to see any real improvement you’re going to have to really dedicate yourself. Don’t slack!”

“Hey, you know, if you wanted, we could work out tomorrow, too,” Kim suggested. “On our date, I mean. I could budget out an hour or so; I haven’t really planned anything specific yet.”

“Are you sure that’s the best idea?” Nick looked to Dani to see what she thought. “I mean, isn’t it better, like, if you take breaks every other day or something to give your body time to heal?”

Dani looked conflicted. “Normally that’s good advice,” she agreed. “Especially for a beginner. But I designed your current routine to not be that strenuous on purpose. So as long as you go easy tomorrow, it shouldn’t be a problem… assuming you don’t wake up in brutal muscle pain.”

The lopsided grin on her face showed that she’d meant that as a joke, but Nick didn’t really find it that funny. He glanced at Kim, who shrugged.

“I trust Dani,” Kim said. “If she says you can handle it, you can handle it.”

“But you do absolutely need to take days off,” Dani added, her voice turning firm. She gave Nick an intense look. “Having rest days for your body to recover is absolutely vital. It doesn’t necessarily need to be every other day, but if you’re going to work out tomorrow as well then you absolutely need to not do anything strenuous the day after that.”

Nick felt a chill. He could tell from Dani’s intensity just how serious she was about this, and the last thing he wanted to do was upset her.

“Y-yeah, obviously,” he meekly replied. “Look, maybe we just wait and see how I feel tomorrow, sound good?”

Kim nodded. “Works for me.”

“Good, you’re both using your brains,” Dani said, relieved. She resisted the urge to mutter “For once!” under her breath. “Now then, uh… I think it’s time we go get ourselves cleaned up, don’t you?”

“Oh yeah!” Kim chirped, pumping her fist into the air. “Time for the best part of the workout! Going to the hot springs!”

Dani took issue with that, but it wasn’t the reason she rebuked the other girl. “No, Kim,” she gently chided the tomboy. “We’re going to the showers first.”

Kim frowned. “Really? But there’s a shower AT the hot spring,” she reminded Dani. “Why do you want to take a shower now, just to take a shower later? You’re not making any sense.”

Dani stared at Kim for a second, then pulled her aside.

“Hey, uh…”

“Kim, let me explain something to you,” Dani said calmly. “Right now, Nick’s been working out like crazy.”

“Uh, yeah, I know,” Kim said, rolling her eyes. She glanced past Dani and spied on Nick, who was looking a little out of sorts standing there in the middle of the gym. “I was there, remember? Kinda saw the whole thing?”

Dani sighed. She wasn’t getting it. “So… he smells?”

Kim blinked. Then she turned bright red. “O-oh, yeah…” It was one thing when it was just her and Dani; but walking all the way to the gym in the hot sun, with Nick covered in sweat? That was a little much. And Dani had a nice sheen of sweat herself.

“Wait, I don’t smell, do I?” Kim quickly looked down at her clothes.

“You weren’t really doing much working out, so no,” Dani assured the other girl. “…Well, maybe a little bit…”

About halfway through Nick’s routine, Kim had felt her usual compulsion to do her high-intensity interval training, and there was no fighting that. So she’d gotten herself worked into a nice sweat as well, even if it wasn’t as bad as Nick’s drenched clothes.

“Also, Nick’s tank top is completely soaked through, and I can see his chest. And his shorts are practically glued to his legs, and I won’t have that, I just won’t,” Dani said firmly. She only had so much tolerance for being around Nick while he was almost naked, and she had to save it up for tonight.

Kim couldn’t care less about any of that, but she definitely didn’t want Nick to think she smelled!

“Ugh, I’m such a slob,” she groaned, ruffling her hair furiously. “I didn’t even think about all of that stuff… nice save, Dani, that could have gone really badly…”

She knew Nick wouldn’t mind if she reeked of sweat. But she wanted to put her best foot forward!

“Hey, no worries,” Dani said, flashing her a grin. “What are friends for?”

Dani and Kim returned to Nick, hiding their embarrassment behind a set of smiles. “So Kim and I, we’re gonna hit the showers real quick before going to the hot spring. You should probably do the same, ‘kay Nick?”

She gave him a pointed look, signaling him to do what she asked and not push about it.

Nick wisely decided to take it. “Okay, sure, uh… you two have fun in there,” he said, smirking at them.

Kim turned red and Dani rolled her eyes. “Now who’s teasing?” She giggled, leading Kim to the showers while Nick headed the other way.

“…Haaah… finally, I can breathe again,” Kim sighed in relief as she closed the door to the locker room behind her.

“What, were you holding your breath?” Dani looked incredulously at the other girl. She hadn’t wasted any time, and was almost completely out of her clothes already.

Kim glanced sheepishly at the tomboy. “Well…”

“Dude, it’s fine,” Dani said, rolling her eyes. “Nick doesn’t care. I just thought it would be best for everyone if we, well…”

“I know he doesn’t care! I care!” Kim groaned, taking off her shirt and pulling down her bloomers. “I barely managed to convince him I’m not a teasing pervert earlier, do you have any idea what he’d think if I was smelling his sweat?”

Dani just stared at her, not sure what to say to that. I mean… that’s really, really specific, Kim. I doubt he would even notice if you could smell him… he’d probably assume you could, right? That doesn’t mean he’d be bothered by it.

Not that Kim was the kind of girl who would take a big old whiff of him. She wasn’t Dawn.

Dani decided that some questions were better left unasked, and stripped off the rest of her clothes. She headed for the shower, which like all the showers in the local facilities was a communal shower. Their host definitely intended that the women in Nick’s harem get used to the fact that they would intermingle like this.

Some people might have had a problem with it, and once upon a time those people had included Dani. By this point though, she’d come to terms with the fact that she’d be exposing herself regularly to other women (and Nick) and didn’t let it get to her.

Kim was well ahead of her in that regard, and walked right up beside her without hesitating for a second.

Maybe if Dani was still bothered by being around other girls, she would have cared that Kim kept glancing her way. But she knew Kim wasn’t into girls. Still, the younger woman’s eyes couldn’t help but drift down to check out Dani’s voluptuous figure. Kim was pretty proud of her slim, athletic frame- it was a testament to how hard she’d worked to better herself since coming to the island! (The occasional food binge notwithstanding.)

But sometimes, she was pretty envious of Dani’s womanly curves. Having lived a life of plainness for so long, it was one of those things you just didn’t think about until it was right in front of you.

“So I was thinking about a lot of stuff, while you were helping Nick work out,” Kim said suddenly, feeling now was the best time to adjust their strategy.

“Oh?” Dani preened at her feathers and looked curiously at the other girl. “You were? What kind of stuff were you thinking about?”

Kim grinned. “All the good stuff,” she sniggered, wiggling her eyebrows. “Specifically… getting you some Victory Points.”

Dani froze midway through soaping up her belly. “Eh?”

“I saw you hug Nick right before you guys started,” Kim reminded her. “It was kinda awkward. I mean, you’ve never done that before, right?” She raised her hand and tapped the back, indicating to her Victory Points.

Right, Dani’s number had gone up. She glanced down at the back of her hand, which showed a glowing “60” through the soap bubbles.

“That’s your game, right?” Kim cracked a grin. “You’re trying to get more VP, but through ways that you’re comfortable with? I can get behind that.”

“You’d help me out?” Dani asked, surprised. “I thought you were planning out something to help us all get more acclimated to the threesome. Wouldn’t this be just the opposite?”

Kim looked at Dani like she was a moron.

“Dani, are you a moron?” Kim asked.

She was a pretty direct and honest person these days, not one to sugarcoat her thoughts about other people.

Dani huffed, shooting her a look. “What do you mean by that?” She demanded.

Kim shrugged. “Well… why do you think those two things are mutually exclusive? You know that even the stuff you’re comfortable with, it’s going to raise the temperature quite a bit, right?”

“Raise the temperature?” Dani frowned.

“Yeah. Like… okay, so you don’t want to do sexual stuff, because Nick’s a guy, and you don’t like him that way. Totally get it,” Kim said, nodding her head. “But like… a lap pillow, for example, that’s pretty intimate.” She let out a wistful sigh as she remembered how nice it felt to have Nick’s head resting in her lap. She could imagine from Rose this morning how nice it would feel the other way, too.

“I can handle it,” Dani assured her.

“Okay… what about twerking, then? That’s worth a Victory Point, and it’s not like you’d have to actually do anything with him,” Kim pointed out. “Do you think you could handle that?”

Mmm, that was trickier. Dani considered it. “Well… I mean, he’s already seen me naked, so twerking with clothes on, that’s not so bad.”

Kim nodded slowly. “Well, that’s better than I thought… but what about dry humping?”

Dani nearly dropped the soap. “H-huh?”

“Ah, there it is,” Kim said, smirking. She pointed at Dani. “There’s a line! You’re not comfortable with dry humping! Even though it’s only worth a couple of VP, you might not want to do it! Look, I’m not trying to make you do anything you don’t want to do, I’m just saying if you’re careless about this, doing intimate stuff with Nick, even chaste intimate stuff with Nick, it’s gonna raise the temperature between you two. By a lot.”

Dani didn’t like the fact that Kim was probably right.

“We can handle it,” she said firmly. “We’re adults. If things get awkward… I don’t know, I’ll just offer you up on a silver platter to distract him.”

Kim shot her a dirty look. “Hey, I’m just trying to help,” she huffed.

Dani’s face softened. “I know. And I appreciate it, Kim. Really, I do. And you’re right… maybe I’ve been a little careless thinking that I could just do whatever as long as it wasn’t too sexual and things wouldn’t be awkward between us.”

She remembered Serenity’s warning earlier that morning. The siren had been looking out for her, and Dani needed to give her concerns some serious consideration.

Kim grinned. “There we go, that’s the spirit. And to be clear, I’m not trying to discourage anything!” She assured the other girl. “I’m just saying you need to be mindful that your actions, well…” She shrugged. “They might raise the temperature a little bit. That’s all. You don’t need to be concerned about that, though.”

Dani scoffed. “What, raise the temperature like this?” She reached over and turned the dial on Kim’s shower all the way before turning it back.

“Yow! Hey! That’s hot!” Kim wailed, jerking slightly. “Oh yeah? Two can play at that game! Why don’t I help you ‘cool off’ a bit before you see Nick, huh?” She taunted, setting Dani’s shower nozzle to rain liquid ice down on the blue-haired tomboy.

“Yeeeeek! You jerk!” Dani laughed.

The two girls worked off their tension by playfully teasing one another, spraying water down on each other’s heads. By the end they sat giggling on the floor of the shower like there was nothing to be concerned about at all.