Where the cautious loners and emotional wrecks do an acting stretch as a way to hide the obvious

Kim had been quiet for a while, and that had Vivian nervous. After helping Mary with Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin, they had gone to take a much-needed break in the lounge, where Vivian had been trying to read a book for the last ten minutes but had struggled to get past the first chapter. She was too aware of Kim’s presence.

Whenever someone wasn’t talking when they were around her, she assumed it was because she had done something wrong. Except when that person was Octavia, of course. She knew that Octavia was different.

But Kim?

The other girl may not have been the center of the social scene, but she was still a very outgoing person who was happy to engage in conversation with her friends whenever the need struck her. So if she wasn’t talking, that was a signal to Vivian that something was up.

…Not that Vivian was one of her friends. But that wasn’t really the point anyway.

“Hey, uh… Kim? Are you feeling alright?” Vivian asked. She set down her book and looked over at the other girl, who was reading a magazine herself.

“Hmm?” Kim looked sharply up at her and Vivian flinched.

“Oh, uh, n-never mind!” Vivian waved her hands quickly.

Kim scowled. She closed her magazine and sat up straight on the couch. “Vivian, you don’t need to walk on eggshells around me,” she said calmly. “Just tell me what you want to tell me, it’s fine.”

She could kind of understand why Vivian was so apprehensive. They didn’t exactly have the friendliest relationship. Kim could finally acknowledge it- she had maybe treated Vivian a little more harshly than the other girl deserved.

Yes, Vivian was a billionaire, and she could be very insensitive. But the other girl was trying sincerely to do good for, at least, the people directly around her. That sort of myopia didn’t fly in Kim’s books (she was more the sort of girl who valued unambiguous good for everyone) but she could at least recognize that Vivian was trying.

And, well, things were awkward now, after everything that had gone down between them. And Kim didn’t really know how to fix it, or if she even should. All she could really do was give the other girl a silent look, and wonder about whether or not this was something that could be resolved between the two of them.

At least… she could try to be nicer to Vivian, couldn’t she? And less outwardly hostile?

After all… it was a really sweet thing that Vivian had done for Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin. A girl who had literally not said a single word to her before.

So, when Kim saw how nervous and doubtful Vivian looked at the moment, as though she were about to burst into a big ball of flaming anxiety, she immediately felt a wave of guilt and doubt wash over her.

“Hey, Vivian, it’s fine,” she said quickly, standing up. Vivian nearly fell over, she was so startled from the sudden movement on Kim’s part.

“It… it is?” She squeaked out, regaining her balance. Then she looked at Kim in confusion. “Wait… what’s fine?”

Kim shook her head. “I’m not upset with you,” she assured the other woman. “If you’re sensing that things are awkward between us, well… it’s probably because they are.”

Vivian bit the inside of her cheek. Of course they were. That much went without saying. But Kim admitting that didn’t make her feel any better.

“I’m sorry?” Vivian asked.

Kim rolled her eyes again. She was really getting tired of the other girl saying that. …Of course, she could acknowledge that Vivian was saying that stuff because of how she’d treated the other girl up until this point, so again- she couldn’t really blame her for it.

“You don’t need to apologize right now,” Kim said seriously, looking Vivian in the eyes. “Vivian, I understand. You’re worried that you said or did something to make me mad, again. But you didn’t. I’ve just been… thinking about a lot of stuff.”

“…Oh.” Vivian let out a sigh of relief. She bit her lip. “…Good stuff, or bad stuff?”

If only it could be that simple.

“Complicated stuff,” Kim answered her. “Stuff regarding my feelings. And my friends. Specifically, the way you were around… Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin.”

Vivian blinked. “That… w-well, uh… I didn’t… I didn’t cause any problems for you, did I?” She asked worriedly. The last thing she wanted to do right now was to make trouble for anybody.

“No, you didn’t,” Kim said. “In fact, you saved the day earlier.”

“I did?!” Vivian wasn’t used to hearing that. “What do you mean?”

Kim stared incredulously at the heiress. Did she really not understand how significantly she’d helped Mary and Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin earlier?

“…Vivian, Mary was really worried about Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin, because she was always being distant with other people. Reaching out to her the way you did, and helping her make those cards she could pass out, that really meant something to her. It probably is going to help her make a lot of friends.”

“I don’t think I did that much,” Vivian said, shaking her head. “I mean, I’ve tried making friends, but, like… it doesn’t tend to work out well for me.”

Kim held her tongue. She could say something about how the reason that method didn’t work for Vivian was because the heiress had other issues with her personality that tended to drive people away or upset them, but it would just end up making Vivian more self-conscious.

Why did someone who had such a huge ego have to be so difficult to genuinely praise? That was the part that had Kim most annoyed.

She sighed and scratched her cheek. “I think you’re underestimating your kindness, Vivian, I’ll just say that much. And… I probably wasn’t much help to you, in that regard. I’ll admit that much, at least,” she said, all but apologizing.

Vivian looked stunned.

“Huh?” She shook her head slowly. “That… I don’t… …How is this your fault?”

As far as Vivian could see, Kim had every reason to be upset with her. Once Vivian had stopped and unpacked her behavior, and analyzed the way she’d acted before, she could see that a lot of the criticisms Kim and others had made were valid, and that her opinion of Vivian was completely understandable and justified.

With that in mind, Vivian didn’t see how Kim could possibly be to blame for feeling the way she did…

Maybe this was just Kim being a better person than her. That was how Vivian saw the situation at hand, at the moment.

Kim wasn’t sure she wanted to look at things that way, though.

“Vivian, I’m trying to thank you here, and say you did a good job!” She groaned, rubbing her forehead in frustration. The last thing she wanted right now was for Vivian’s behavior to start giving her a headache. “That’s it. Really. You don’t need to be so… YOU about this.”

Vivian stared blankly at the other girl, not sure what to say. “How, uh, how am I being ‘me’ about it?” She questioned.

Kim was starting to feel that familiar irritation come back. She pushed down those feelings as best she could, however. Getting mad at Vivian… it wouldn’t actually solve anything. The heiress was trying her best. Normally, Kim would try to leave, to give her some space, but she couldn’t do that right now, not with her temporary transformation forcing her to stay in the room with the heiress.

“You did a good thing,” Kim said as bluntly as possible. “This is me thanking you for it. Giving you congratulations. Okay?”

“O-okay,” Vivian nodded, not sure why Kim was being so snippy if she was genuinely proud of Vivian’s actions. “…Thanks. For, the, uh, compliment, I guess.”

“Don’t mention it,” Kim said with a nod.

The two resumed their awkward silence, staring at one another without being quite sure what to say now that the moment had passed.

“So, um… do you want to do anything?” Vivian asked. “Not as, like, an order or anything, but if you have something you want to do…”

Kim could see that Vivian still felt bad about the situation that she was trapped in. The other girl was trying not to make a big deal out of it, but it was obvious to anyone with a working brain and a pair of eyes.

“…I took this transformation so I could have some time off,” Kim said. “And also, well… there were a few other reasons, but I’d rather not get into them right now.”

She looked at Vivian and wondered if it was really possible to get to know her better. If she could really be friends with someone like the heiress.

“Um… I do have one suggestion… if you’re interested,” Kim finally said. She probably wasn’t going to enjoy this, but Vivian definitely would. And Kim could at least be nice for the sake of someone else, couldn’t she?

She sure hoped she could be.

Vivian, to her credit, didn’t resist Kim’s suggestion in the slightest. She nodded in cheery agreement, her eyes sparkling with anticipation as she waited for what Kim was going to say.

While Vivian and Kim were- maybe- starting to get to work on developing their friendship, maybe, Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin was also trying to make new friends.

And right now, her newest maybe-friend had been posed with a very difficult question that would alter the course of their relationship significantly.

Morgana bit her lip and looked into the hopeful eyes of Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin, feeling wary already.

She remembered how eager and excited the assassin had been when she proposed to take part in the sex act with Morgana before. She’d really seemed to want it, even though nothing about the skilled killer screamed “sexually submissive” to her.

Just the opposite, in fact.

“Are you… are you sure you want to go along with that, though?” Morgana asked quietly. She glanced over at Nick. As she saw the look of concern and apprehension on her face, she realized that it was time to just lay all of her cards on the table for everyone to see.

“Okay… backing up,” she said, clearing her throat. Unpacking her thoughts in order would help her feel less overwhelmed. “Last night, I had a dream, where… where I was being… se-sexually d-domin-nant with… another woman. And Nick… you… were watching,” she admitted, shooting him a furtive look. She could feel her face burning.

Nick slowly nodded, feeling a little embarrassed at the prospect himself. But he powered through, for Morgana’s sake.

“I…” Morgana looked down. “…I wasn’t… sure if I wanted to go through with it, or not,” she said, glancing at Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin for a second. The other girl’s face was completely unreadable, especially for someone as socially-awkward as Morgana.

“…The reason I didn’t say yes to you, when you seemed so eager, is because I was worried, myself,” Morgana admitted to the assassin. “I didn’t know if I wanted to go through with it, or not, and then, well… you were so determined, and you’re so… aggressive… plus, you and I aren’t exactly close friends, so, I mean…”

There were a lot of factors that had led to her having doubts and hesitation about the whole thing. That… that wasn’t her fault, right?

She looked anxiously at Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin, who just stared back at her in silence. Not even her face was saying anything.

Then, Morgana raised her head and looked at Carly. “But today… Carly has helped me understand my sexuality a lot better… and be more comfortable with it,” she said softly. Her face was scalding now, and her heart was pounding madly in her chest. It felt like her whole body was about to explode in a burst of frantic hormones, and she could hardly control it. But she had to power through all the same.

Morgana took a deep breath, then exhaled. “…I posed for all those photos,” she admitted. “And not only that, I also, um… I… I also… …That is to say, WE also, um…”

Her eyes flicked back and forth between Nick and Carly so fast they looked like they might spin right out of her head.

“…I had sex in a movie theater!” Morgana blurted out. She powered through her apprehension with sheer volume, knowing that if she tried to stutter out her admission it would be in a whisper so quiet that nobody would be able to hear.

Instead, the whole lounge area heard. Including Dawn, who had just walked in to get some hot water for her tea.

“…Whoa, don’t look at me,” the diminutive cat girl said, holding up her hands. “I’m just here to get some tea, not to see it spilled.”

She scurried back to her room, deciding to have her tea later, and left Morgana staring at her in mortification.

Nick winced. That was pretty rough.

But surprisingly, Morgana was able to pivot.

“So… so anyway!” She said, shaking her head, “it-it may not, have been, like, ACTUAL sex, with, um, pe-penetration, or anything, but, uh… it was still really daring! Way more daring than ANYTHING I’ve ever done before!”

“That’s not wrong,” Nick had to agree. Even the time when they’d had sex outside in the forest couldn’t compare to the intense feeling of exposure that came with fooling around in the movie theater the way that they had done.

“Plus, you’re more comfortable with it, now,” Carly pointed out with a cheeky smile. “Which means you’re totally ready to fool around for real in the movie theater and have actual sex, isn’t that right, Morgana?”

“NO!” Morgana exclaimed, her eyes wild with surprise that Carly would even suggest that, even though her heart secretly loved the idea.

Carly’s shoulders sagged. “…Oh. Well, alright then,” she said glumly. “If that’s the way you feel, nothing to do about it…”

“Well, uh… m-maybe, maybe later,” Morgana conceded. She wasn’t quite ready to slam the door on that possibility JUST yet.

She recovered, and turned to Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin. “I’ve… my point is, a lot of stuff has really changed for me since this morning.” It was actually shocking to her, how much of a whirlwind of sexuality she’d been buffeted with today. It was like Carly was a tornado of human eroticism, and she’d been swept up by her.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin continued to stare at Morgana, her lips pinched together in an emotionless expression as she waited for the other girl to say whatever it was that she was going to say.

Morgana honestly wasn’t sure what that would be. She took a deep breath and then exhaled, and looked into the eyes of the mute assassin.

“…I think that… you’re not as scary as I thought you were,” Morgana finally admitted. “When you gave me that card just now… that really took a lot of courage.”

Morgana knew what it was like to not have any friends. To be the one weirdo sitting all by herself in the high school cafeteria, while all the other kids were in their cliques and friendgroups and she was the lone loser with no one to talk to but herself.

Only, Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin couldn’t even do that much.

How lonely must her existence have been? Morgana didn’t even want to think about it. She just felt so bad for the poor woman.

Now that she wasn’t letting herself be ruled by fear or prejudice, Morgana could see that Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin might have been a weird girl, but she was just as much a normal girl as Morgana was, if not more so.

So… Morgana could trust that, couldn’t she?

“If… if you want to join Carly and I… on the rest of our date with Nick… including going up to the Master’s Suite… I’m okay with that,” Morgana said finally.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s eyes widened with surprise, and her face lit up with joy. Her ears twitched like they couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Really? Morgana? You sure about this?” Carly asked. A note of excitement thrummed in her voice at the prospect.

“Yes!” Morgana nodded firmly. Then she looked over to Nick. “I-I mean, assuming it’s okay with you, of course,” she quickly said. The last thing she wanted was for Nick to get upset because she had made a unilateral decision like this. It wasn’t fair to him, certainly not!

“No, it’s fine, really,” Nick said, nodding. He glanced at Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin and saw the same hopeful look in her eyes that Morgana saw. He had always been good about getting along with the mute killer, but, like Morgana and everyone else, his interactions with her, even the positive ones, tended to be only skin deep.

The most he knew about who the other girl was as a person was that she liked pottery. That had been the most fun he’d had with her- just making something together out of clay, and enjoying each other’s company.

If only the rest of their relationship could be so simple.

“I’d like to get to know you better, myself,” Nick said sincerely, hoping that the assassin would understand him. “And, well, this date may not be the place for it, I’ll admit,” he said, scratching his head and glancing at the other girls in his harem. “But the more time we spend together, the better. That’s my opinion, anyway.”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin swiftly nodded in agreement. Apparently, she felt like that as well.

Which was a good sign.

“Oh! But… if we have sex- err, I mean, if you join in on the sex that I’m going to be having, with, um, Nick,” Morgana hastily corrected herself, getting all twisted up and flustered, “then it has to be on my terms, okay?”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin gave her a blank stare. But Morgana wasn’t going to back down about this!

“I mean it!” She put her foot down. “I want… I want, um, for all of us, to have… a positive relationship with one another, but tonight is still MY night with him!”

She didn’t want Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin to just take everything over and start running the show herself.

“Is that alright?” Nick asked the assassin.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin flashed a brilliant smile and nodded in agreement. That was a relief. Apparently, she COULD be reasoned with.