Hey, baby, I'm just about starving tonight

While things were getting intense between Nick and Gina in Dream Alley, earlier in the day there was a decent amount of tension in the Arcade Suite between Carly and Dani.

Carly asked Dani a question that would redefine their entire relationship. The sort of question that was necessary to answer for them to move forward, and the sort of question that Dani would have to think about very, very carefully.

It was a question that Dani had never thought she’d have to answer, given Carly’s relationship with babies and her involved trauma. But now, Carly was moving past her trauma, and that meant that their relationship would need to change from its present state- there was no avoiding that reality, no matter how much Dani wished that they could.

So… she needed to answer. For both of their sakes.

“I… need to do something first,” she said finally, surprising Carly. The cosplayer looked at her girlfriend with a curious expression on her face.

“Huh?” Carly asked, shifting uncomfortably from one foot to another. She knew that this wouldn’t be some easy question for Dani to answer, and had expected her girlfriend to tell her that she needed some time. But that wasn’t what Dani had said.

She said she needed to do something. Which made Carly feel a strange, ominous uncertainty welling up in her breast.

“…Okay,” she said finally, giving her girlfriend a tentative nod. Dani had put up with a lot up until this point- it was only right that Carly give her as much space and time as the other woman needed to make her decision.

What she didn’t expect was for Dani to move around her and head over to the bathroom. She pulled the door open, revealing a startled Marley standing on the other side.

“Eh!?” Marley looked at Dani in shock. “Dani?! What are you doing?” She questioned, shaking her head. She’d been trying to ignore the conversation, but she’d picked up quite a lot. She looked at her sister’s girlfriend, and was confused by Dani’s confrontation.

“Come with me for a second,” Dani said, taking her gently by the wrist. “I need you to do something for me, Marley.”

Marley’s eyes flickered over to her sister for a second, but Carly looked just as confused as she felt.

“What’s this about, Dani?” Carly asked her girlfriend, concerned.

“Come on, you too,” Dani said to Carly.

Carly was relieved. Her girlfriend was being a little brusque, but she wasn’t upset, as far as Carly could tell. She was just taking things very seriously, which was a relief.

And a bit worrying.

“Carly and I need to have a private conversation,” Dani explained to Marley as she led the other woman over to the door. “And it’s kind of hard to do that with you listening in from ten feet away.”

“Oh!” Marley understood now. Yeah, Dani raised a valid point. Even through the bathroom door, Marley could still hear everything that was being said. So, it would be better for all of them if she was somewhere else, so the two of them could discuss this issue in private.

Carly relaxed a little too, once she realized what Dani was aiming for, and fell in line behind the two of them.

Dani wasn’t going to go so far as to ask Rose or even Sylvia for help using their Method Acting transformation, they’d done enough of that yesterday. It would be easier to just ask someone to babysit Marley for a bit using Carly’s upgrade of the transformation.

And luckily for her, she found her first volunteer not that far outside of the door.

Dawn was just coming out of her room when she saw Dani walking up to her with Marley in tow. Carly was tagging along with them, dressed as a nun.

“Dani?” Dawn asked, raising her eyebrow as she saw the tomboy approach her in a very strange outfit. “What’s up?”

“Dawn, I need a favor,” Dani explained calmly. “Carly and I need to have a serious talk, and it’s a private matter. These two share everything, but…”

She glanced at Marley, and Dawn saw a look of sheepishness cross the tomboy’s tanned cheeks. Clearly, this was a serious matter, though Dawn could have deduced that simply from the other woman’s behavior.

Dawn nodded slowly, and her eyes flickered over to Carly. The other girl was looking very anxious about this whole thing, which was another worrying sign for the vet.

“…We were hoping that you could look at Marley for a little bit,” Dani said. “Using Carly’s upgrade. It wouldn’t even be for an hour!”

Marley sighed in exasperation and rolled her eyes. “What am I? A pet?” She asked sarcastically. But in actuality, she agreed with Dani’s decision.

“We can pay you!” Carly added. “That’s how my transformation works, after all!”

“Uh… okay, I guess,” Dawn said, feeling very confused about this whole thing. She nodded slowly, not sure what else to say. “I’m just going to get breakfast, so… yeah…”

“Works out great, then,” Dani said with a nod. She looked at Dawn with incredible gratitude, and the cat girl felt kind of awkward about the whole thing. But she kept those thoughts to herself.

A minute later and the process was over, and Dawn was headed towards the elevators to go down to the Banquet Hall. Before they left, though, Marley stopped and looked back at her sister and her girlfriend with an awkward tension in her breast.

She could feel the seriousness in the air. And she wasn’t sure how that made her feel.

“Just remember, you two, you love each other,” Marley quietly reminded them. “As long as you don’t forget that, the rest doesn’t matter.”

Dawn looked at Marley, and wondered just what it was that the two of them wanted to talk about. But she was smart enough not to pry, and led Marley into the elevator and away from whatever drama her sister was involved in.

This was best for everyone, she felt.

Carly and Dani looked at each other. Their hearts pounded, and Carly could see in her girlfriend’s eyes- Dani had made her decision.

She’d already decided in her heart that she would abide by Dani’s wishes. She loved her girlfriend- Dani was the first person she’d ever loved, romantically-speaking.

Carly just wanted her to be happy in their relationship, because she knew how much Dani was dealing with.

“Let’s go back,” Dani said softly, extending her hand out to Carly. It was a symbolic gesture, more than anything- she knew that her girlfriend wouldn’t take her hand given her current transformation.

Carly nodded and smiled bashfully at Dani, trying not to let how worried she was show on her face.

The two of them headed back to the Arcade Suite, and closed the door behind them, shutting the rest of the hotel out of their private little room.

At last, they were alone together.

Which meant Carly couldn’t avoid the issue any longer. She stood there and listened as Dani turned to face her, and waited to hear what the future of their relationship would be.

Dani’s eyes were hesitant.

“To tell you the truth,” she started quietly, “I didn’t think that this was a conversation that we would ever need to have.”

Carly flinched. That wasn’t a good sign, if she began the conversation like that.

“…I know,” she said quietly, lowering her head. “I didn’t think so, either.”

It was only very recently that Carly had even considered the possibility of having a child. Up until this point, she had been completely against having any more children. But now, she was certain that this was what she wanted.

“…What would you say… if I told you that I didn’t want you to have Nick’s children?” Dani asked her. She studied Carly’s face carefully. “What if I said that I was willing to let you be with him in any way that you wanted, as much as you wanted… so long as you never had any more kids?”

It was a cruel question to ask. But if they were going to move forward, then she needed to hear Carly’s feelings.

Because Dani had been paying very close attention to everything that Carly said. She knew how much this meant to her girlfriend. It wasn’t just some passing fantasy or the lingering effect of her inherited fetish from the night before.

This was real. This was serious.

This was something Carly wanted from the bottom of her heart.

That was why… Dani needed to know just how deep this desire went, if they were ever going to make it as a couple.

“I… don’t know,” Carly said finally. “Dani… I don’t like that question.”

Dani winced. Dani didn’t like it, either. “I know… but…”

“Is that really how you feel?” Carly asked carefully. “You’re ‘willing’ to let me be with him?”

A stab of pain shot through Dani’s breast as she realized the folly of her words. “Ah… n-no, wait, that’s not how I meant it!” She clumsily protested. “I didn’t mean ‘let’ you as if I had any control over you or anything like that!”

She couldn’t believe she’d said something so disgusting. Going back over her words, she sounded like the most controlling girlfriend in the world. “Carly, that isn’t what I meant at all, believe me, I’m not trying to say I can ‘let’ you do anything!”

Carly’s eyes widened. That was a relief to hear, but… “…That wasn’t what I meant,” she clarified, leaving Dani a little confused.

“H-huh?” She looked at Carly.

“I don’t care about the ‘let’ part, that’s just… you not being the best with your words or feelings,” Carly assured her with a shake of her head. She knew Dani better than that. Her girlfriend’s heart was always in the right place, and the last thing she wanted was to be controlling.

“I meant… the ‘willing’ part,” Carly clarified softly.

A tense silence hung in the air between them as Carly looked anxiously into her girlfriend’s eyes.

Dani was at a bit of a loss. “That… …Huh?”

Carly’s eyes flickered down. “Dani… saying it like that… you’re making it sound like… like you’re not happy in this relationship. Like me being with Nick is something that you’re ‘willing’ to tolerate… but that you’d rather do without, if you could.”

Dani stared at Carly, not sure what to say. To be honest… she couldn’t completely deny it. “…I’m sorry,” she apologized, looking down. “To tell you the truth… there is a part of me that… that is a little bit hurt… that I’m not enough for you. But… that doesn’t mean it’s right of me to say it that way! I don’t… I don’t want you to end things with Nick, I’ve never wanted that!”

Dani knew that Nick made Carly happy and satisfied certain needs she had in a way that Dani just couldn’t. She knew how important their relationship was, and honestly, it made her happy that someone else cherished Carly as much as she did.

Were there times when she wished that Carly’s attention could be solely focused on her? Of course there were. But Dani was happier than she’d ever been in this unusual relationship with her girlfriend, and she wouldn’t trade it for the world.

“Carly, I want you to be happy, and Nick makes you happy,” Dani said gently. “He’s my best friend. I know how much he means to you, and how much you mean to him.”

“But… you don’t want me to have his baby,” Carly said quietly.

Dani gave her a hard look. “I just want to know how you feel,” she said just as quietly back to her girlfriend. “That’s all.”

It was hard for Carly to hear that. But she pressed forward, and confronted Dani directly. “Dani, you’re the one I love,” she said. “I have love for Nick, but I want to be with you. And if you don’t want me to have a child with him, then… I won’t.”

Yes, Carly wanted more children. But if she and Dani were going to make this relationship last, then Carly couldn’t decide on her own to have a child without considering her girlfriend’s feelings. Dani deserved just as much input as her if they were going to start a family.

“Carly…” Dani could see how much it hurt Carly to say that. But she could also see the love overflowing from her girlfriend’s wounded smile, and that made her feel like the worst person in the world.

“…I shouldn’t have asked that,” Dani realized. The question was poisonous, and she’d almost let its venom infect their relationship. “Carly… I love you. And I know how much having another child means to you. I… I was scared, for a moment there, but… I’m an idiot.”

“Huh?” Carly didn’t know what her girlfriend was saying. “Dani-”

“I was worried and jealous and stupid!” Dani confessed. Her face reddened as her guilt overwhelmed her. “I want to know that… you would pick me, so I was childish and stupid.”

Dani had just wanted to be reassured. And that had led to her doing something monumentally stupid that had nearly torched her entire relationship.

She couldn’t believe she had been so careless and thoughtless.

“Dani, I… I want to have more kids,” Carly said. “I know what I said before, but… they don’t have to be Nick’s kids. I can get a donor, or… we could adopt, or… something else, there are other options here, you know!” She said, trying to reassure her girlfriend while also probing where Dani’s boundaries on the topic truly stood.

It was a complex issue, and one that a relationship as new as theirs wasn’t quite prepared to handle just yet.

But now it was upon them, and they couldn’t run from it.

Dani looked at her girlfriend, and Carly looked anxiously back at her.

As the cosplayer’s heart pounded in her chest, she wasn’t sure what she wanted Dani to say. Did she want her girlfriend to reassure her that they could have kids through other means, thus confirming that her jealousy was only related to Nick? Or…

“…I don’t… want that…” Dani stammered out.

And, just like that, Carly’s heart collapsed in on itself. So… Dani doesn’t want any kids. Ever.

She did an exceptional job of hiding her despair. The kind of job that Rose would have applauded had she been there to see it.

But somehow, Dani was able to see through it.

She was able to see beneath the surface and look directly into Carly’s heart.

“What… what I mean is, I don’t want you to make that sacrifice for me,” Dani stammered out. “I’m not trying to control you, Carly! If… if you really want a child with Nick, then… we can talk about that when the time comes. But… I know Nick. I don’t think that he can just have a baby with you, and not be involved in some way.”

Carly’s eyes widened. So, Dani wasn’t saying she didn’t want kids, she was saying that she didn’t want Carly to sacrifice her desire for them with Nick? Was that right? Or, no, what she just said… …Did Dani even know what she wanted?

Honestly? Not even Dani was sure.

“That’s why, if this is going to happen, we need to make some ground rules,” Dani said. She held up her finger. “First, this isn’t going to be some passionate, in-the-moment sort of thing, alright? With how much you two are sleeping together, I don’t want you getting pregnant while this show is running. Neither of us are ready for a baby. I don’t know how safe sex can be on this island, but-”

“No, yeah, I completely agree!” Carly cut her off, nodding vigorously. “You’re absolutely right, Dani, I’m not ready to be pregnant again! I just became a mom!”

Dani was relieved to hear that. “Next, if possible… and this is something we’ll need to work out with Nick, if the time comes…”

Carly’s heart pounded in anticipation.

“…When the time comes,” Dani started, “I would prefer… if you, uh… ‘conceived’ using… other methods. Nick can be the donor, but… I don’t… want it to be, like… the natural way. If that makes sense.”

It sounded foolish coming out of her mouth like that. After all, Carly and Nick were regularly having sex. Why did it matter if the baby was conceived naturally, or through other methods? Why even bother drawing that line?

But… it was Dani’s line. And she hoped Carly would respect it.

The cosplayer nodded slowly. “I… I see,” she said. “I think you’re right, Dani. Nick… if we had a baby together… like that, it might, uh… be difficult for him to dissociate from it. But as a donor…”

“If we are going to have a child, someday, then it has to be our baby,” Dani said. She was putting her foot down here. “I don’t want… to be the third wheel in my relationship with our child. That’s too much.”

Dani didn’t have any qualms with not sharing a blood connection to her child. Ever since she realized she was a lesbian and that she didn’t want to ever become pregnant, she had seen that as an inevitability. But if Carly was going to maintain a relationship with the father of her child, then they would need to set boundaries, and one of those boundaries was that Carly and Dani would be the parents. She had no issue with Nick being a part of their child’s life, but…

Boundaries.

They were important, for all of their sakes.

“…This is, of course, assuming that Nick agrees to any of this,” Carly pointed out, suddenly feeling very sheepish and uncomfortable as she realized that the two of them were discussing a future involving his hypothetical sperm donation without even talking to him about it.

Dani shrugged. “Well… it isn’t like it’s going to be happening any time soon,” she pointed out. “It’ll probably be years before we’re ready. We can address it then.”

“I’m glad we addressed it now, though,” Carly said. Her heart had finally stopped racing. She felt secure again, secure in the knowledge that her relationship could develop without any problems moving forward.

And she saw the happiness and relief on her girlfriend’s face, and knew that she had done the right thing, talking with her about this.

“You’re the most important person in my life, Carly,” Dani said, taking a step closer to her. “If having a child makes you happy, then I’m going to be the best mom that child could ask for.” This wasn’t some big sacrifice Dani was making for her girlfriend’s sake. Having never considered the possibility of motherhood before, she was finally confronted with it, and found that she was looking forward to it more than she’d thought.

Someday. When she actually had a job that she could support a family with.

And… that’s what she wanted with Carly. A family.

But, before that…

Dani took Carly by the hand. Carly felt the warmth of her girlfriend’s touch and remained ambivalent for a moment, before a jolt of realization shot through her. “W-wait!” She cried out. “Dani, my transformation!” She tried to tug her hand away, but Dani was holding onto her tight.

“I know,” Dani said. Her eyes were sparkling. “But we were going to be touching anyway, it was inevitable.”

She moved in quick and pressed her lips against Carly’s, startling her girlfriend with a kiss. Carly’s breath hitched and her eyes widened as Dani pulled back, and looked dangerously into her eyes.

“You were a bad girl,” Dani whispered into Carly’s ear. She reached up and slid her hands into the gap of her nun costume, right at her neck. “Trying to get Nick to knock you up. No self-control at all,” she said in a playfully-seductive voice as she smooched Carly on the lips again.

“I, uh…” Carly’s brain was struggling to catch up with what her girlfriend was doing. She had no idea what to make of it, but her heart was racing again.

With a twinkle in her eye, Carly took her girlfriend and brought her over to the bed. The next thing Carly knew, she was lying on the mattress with Dani leaning over her.

For the first time, Carly was aware of just how much stronger her girlfriend was than her. Even if she wanted to struggle, she wouldn’t be able to escape Dani’s grasp, any more than she could have broken free from Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s last night.

Only this time, she was way more excited.

“I’ve got to discipline you a little,” Dani purred down at her captured girlfriend. “Just to remind you that you’re my girlfriend, and not Nick’s.”

A giddy smile slowly spread up Carly’s lips as she found herself intrigued by the prospect. Was this Dani’s fetish she’d copied, that was making her respond so submissively? …No, judging by how Dani was acting as she worked her nun costume off her curvy body, there was nothing submissive about her.

Carly leaned back and let Dani get to work, and the two girlfriends reassured one another of just how much they loved their relationship together, as Carly showed her partner that Dani was her priority for as long as the other girl would have her.