Week 1: Natalie's Date, Part 4

Mallory watched as Aífe and Diona’s figures moved further and further away until disappearing from her line of sight. She quietly gulped as their parting words echoed in her head, silent though they were—“Ask her out.” Yeah, sure, that’ll be a total breeze. She groaned internally. She’s just a gorgeous supermodel, how hard could it be? She turned back to face Natalie again, gently lowering herself down to join the model on the picnic blanket. Mallory hoped that Natalie hasn’t noticed just how nervous she is, attempting to swallow down the lump that formed in her throat. They sat in awkward silence for what felt to Mallory like several minutes, but was more likely only a few dozen seconds.

“So…” Mallory broke the silence, “how are you enjoying your date with Aífe so far? I’m sorry that me and Diona interrupted things. Curiosity really got the better of me.”

“You don’t need to feel sorry.” Natalie sighed, cradling her forehead with her hand. “I’ve been stressed out of my damn mind. Seriously, what are we even supposed to talk about?! I barely know anything about the girl—only thing I even know she likes is women.”

“At least you know you have something in common, right?” Mallory gave Natalie a reassuring smile. “That’s better than nothing. Besides, it’s not like couples know everything about each other from the start—isn’t that what dating is for in the first place?”

“I-I… guess I never thought of it like that before...” Natalie trailed off as she read Mallory’s expression of ‘Well, what on Earth did you think it was for, then?’, “I mean, I don’t really know anything about datin’ past the stuff my momma wrote in some of her romance novels, so… I guess I only ever imagined it as goin’ out with a cute girl an’ doin’ things that make your heart flutter, I guess. Her books didn’t cover a whole lot of the ‘gettin’ to know you’ parts.” Or was it that I just skimmed past those bits to get to the good stuff? I did read them when I was a teenager.

“Then just start with the basics,” Mallory offered as she inched closer to her roommate on the picnic blanket, “like is she your type? You don’t need to tell me if your personalities are a good fit because you’re still figuring it out, but do you at least think she’s cute? Does she look like the kind of girl you’d agree to go on a date with back in your normal, day-to-day life?”

“I think so…” Natalie wracked her brain, trying to remember as much of what Aífe looks like as possible. “I can’t say I really paid attention to what she looked like before… all this—but her new look is real cute! Sera did a heck of a job, and I’d definitely say Aífe’s new appearance suits her a lot better.”

“See? You already know more about her than you thought you did.” Mallory rocked to the side, playfully bumping her shoulder against the blonde’s. “You know that she’s cute and that she’s had to work through some rough spots to get to a better place,” she smiled before adding in a joking tone, “and if you think she’d look better with bigger boobs, you’ll probably only have to wait another week or two for Cecilia to fly off the handle.”

“Mal! That’s awful!” Natalie gasped in an overly offended tone before breaking down into laughter. “Thank you for that. I knew I was overthinkin’ things, but you know how hard it is to snap yourself out of that kind of thing.”

“Happy to help.” Mallory leaned against her, soaking in the bright sound of her laughter and the warmth of her body against the cool autumn air. This is it, Mal. You’re not going to get a better opportunity. “Y’know… if it would help you ease your jitters for your next date with Aífe, you could always try out a practice run with somebody. As long as it’s not the day of my next date, I could keep my schedule free—if you wanted some help, that is…”

“M-Mal, I…”

“I mean, it’s just I know we were already helping each other plan and stuff this week, but there’s only so much you can do in just the planning stage, and it might make you feel better if you went on a dry run the day before! Like a… dress rehearsal! Yeah! I bet a dress rehearsal would be super helpful for the both of us! I could do one with you the day before your date, and then you can do one with me the day before my date! Unless our dates are back to back, then we might need to do both of them in the same day, which might be a bit busy but it could be fun! And—”

“Whoa, whoa!” Natalie put her hands up to stop the sudden manic outpour. “Slow down and take a breath, girl. Look, I didn’t understand half of what you were sayin’ just then, so I’ll just ask right out—were you tryin’ to ask me out on a date just now?” She stared Mallory in the eye, and the brunette gulped before nodding meekly. Natalie squeezed her into a tight hug. “Of course I’ll go on a date with you, silly! You don’t need some random excuse like ‘dress rehearsals’—I like you more than enough to just go out with you without the pretense.”

“Really?”

“Yes, Mal. Y’know, you were askin’ all that stuff about whether or not Aífe was my type, but girl, you’re also my type.” Upon hearing that, Mallory returned Natalie’s embrace, wondering how she managed to get so lucky.

While Mallory was finally making progress on the dating front, Aífe and Diona were reaching the main building of the bed & breakfast.

“I’ll go tell Ember about the changes to the picnic menu,” Diona offered, turning back to look at Aífe and backing up toward the short hallway to the dining hall, “why don’t you just chill here and I’ll be back in a few minutes?”

“Huh? What are you talking about?” Aífe was thrown off by the suggestion.

“I mean, you’ve been walking all morning, right?” Diona continued backing away. “Just have a seat somewhere and I’ll be back in a couple of minutes. I need a second to think about whether I want to add anything to our order. Pretty sure there are some chairs on the other side of the staircase.” She didn’t wait for a reply, simply striding confidently away and into the dining hall. Puzzled, Aífe simply did as suggested and walked to the seating area on the other side, only to stop in her tracks the moment she saw a stranger sitting there.

“‘Sup?” The mysterious woman greeted Aífe with a casual wave. “What was her deal? She was acting even weirder than usual.”

“Wait, who—” Aífe stared at the woman, trying to piece together who she might be. It was when she noticed the woman’s eye color (combined with her small but quite curvaceous figure) that she realized who it must have been. “Hold on… Aria?! Is that really you? You look… human!” She luckily caught herself before saying “normal”, as that would have been quite rude.

“Yep! It’s me—for the next six and a half hours, or so. It’s my upgrade.”

Live 2d in the 3rd Dimension: Alexis will transform to look like a real-life version of her vtuber avatar, she’ll automatically adopt her persona’s voice and mannerisms, and her name will change to match. Don’t worry, Aria Astaria will receive full legal documentation at the end of the season, free of charge. After all, deportation is not sexy. (Vtuber) (Neutral) Upgrade: Most vtubers keep their streaming identity and personal identity separate. For the purposes of a secret identity, Aria will have all of her legal documents updated to list her as “Aria Martinez-Jones”, and she will be able to disguise herself as human for up to 8 hours per day.

“Erica and Aoba convinced me to get it while you were off with Natalie,” Aria elaborated, “Speaking of, why are you running around with Diona? You’re building a bad track record, you know? Hanging out with other girls while you’re supposed to be on a date.”

“Long story,” Aífe sighed as she sat in the chair opposite the currently incognito alien, “and I’ve got someone keeping Natalie occupied—fingers crossed Mal will have 2 dates next week.”

“Pretty sure you’re not supposed to set other people up with the girl you’re dating while you’re on a date, either. Unless you’ve got some kind of cuck fetish? I’m not one to kinkshame, but I don’t think that’s ideal for someone in your position.”

“Pfft, hardly,” Aífe scoffed, “Anyone can see how head-over-heels Mal is for Natalie, and I want to support her. What can I say? I’m a generous Mistress.” She decided to change the subject. “So where are Erica and Aoba? They convinced you to turn yourself human for the day then just skedaddled?”

“‘Skedaddled?’” She cocked an eyebrow. “What are you, my grandma? No, they wanted to check out the arcade, which was actually why they tracked me down in the first place. I’m a bit burnt out after going try-hard during our date the other day, so I’ve just been zoning out in this chair while they have their fun,” Aria explained with a shrug, “They’re gonna meet me here for lunch in a little bit, and we were gonna hang out afterwards.”

“That sounds pretty nice. What are you guys going to—”

“WHOA! Hottie alert!” Diona’s voice suddenly cut in, interrupting Aífe’s question. “Is that you, Aria? I am digging the makeover! Seriously, Aífe—doesn’t she look great? With that skin tone, you look like you could be my sister!”

“A bit weird that you would call someone that looked like your sister a hottie,” Aria grimaced, “Also, not really sure how I should feel about the comparison, given the little I know about her.” She was buzzed at the time, but she’s pretty sure she remembers something about said sister being in a threesome with Diona earlier that day on the day of the season’s opening ceremony.

“Nah, you’ve got it all wrong,” Diona corrected, waving her hand dismissively, “It’s not that you look like my sister—it’s that you look like you could be my sister! Totally different, and obviously you’d be worthy of being called a hottie if you looked like me. Besides, my sister and I don’t look anything alike on account of me being adopted.”

“Huh. I guess we do have something in common, then,” Aria mused, “but yeah, like I was telling Aífe—”

“Nah, girl!” Diona interrupted, “I don’t care about the ‘why’ or the ‘how’—I care about the ‘what’s next!’ And ‘what’s next’ is a trip to Fuyumi’s! I’m not gonna leave my honorary sister dressed in some boring old hoodie! We gotta get you in something that’ll really turn heads!”

“Wait—” Aria protested as her fellow shortstack began pulling her up by the arm and dragging her away, “but I was supposed to meet up with Erica and Aoba!”

“Great!” Diona excitedly missed the point. “They can come, too! Then we can all hang out afterwards!” She continued dragging her captive away, turning back briefly to shout in Aífe’s direction. “Sorry, Aífe! This is way more interesting right now than what Mal and Nat are doing! I’ll just have Mal fill me in on how it went later! And don’t worry—I’ll make sure to cancel my portion of the picnic delivery! Byeeeeeeee!” She disappeared down the hall with Aria, and Aífe was left sitting alone and slightly befuddled. After a few seconds, she decided it wasn’t worth devoting brain power to, so she stood up, sighed, and began making her way back to Mallory and Natalie.