You know your culture from your trash

Dawn had always been annoyed by the fact that she had to stand on her tiptoes to kiss Nick. And she knew it must have frustrated him as well, having to lean down to kiss her back. Couldn’t Vivian have given her some money for her height, too?

Oh well.

The two of them swapped spit in the spa showers, running their hands across each other’s bodies as they washed off the last remaining traces of the aphrodisiacs. But it would be a long time before their bodies returned to normal and the **** left their systems.

Technically, they were supposed to go to different sides. Boys’ showers and girls’ showers, after all. A twisted little game on Dakota’s part. She could have just done the obvious thing and make just one shower, forcing Nick to have to join the girls if he wanted to use the hot springs. But by splitting them up, she could present a veneer of respectability.

Right now, though, Dawn didn’t care about any of that. She was too focused on the heat and passion of the moment, and Nick was exactly the same. She just followed him into the boy’s room since there were no other boys on the island, and they got to continue their fun there. With the staff’s full approval, of course.

“Mmm,” she moaned into his mouth, running her fingernails down his back as she pressed her chest up against his.

…Boy, that aphrodisiac was taking a while to wear off.

Finally Nick broke the kiss.

“We… we should really get into the water,” he panted, looking down at Dawn. “We don’t want to miss our reservation.”

“Dakota controls time,” Dawn replied back, trying to kiss him again. “She can hold it as long as she wants.”

“Yes, but I won’t.”

The two naked lovers jumped in surprise.

“Dakota?!” Dawn screeched, frantically covering herself on instinct. The mere presence of another person in the locker room was enough to drive any trace of aphrodisiac from her system and get her thinking clearly. Her face burned with shame as she looked aghast at the host, who was sitting back on one of the benches just outside the shower with an amused smirk on her face.

Dakota wasn’t even paying attention to Dawn. As expected, her eyes were focused entirely on Nick, hungrily devouring him with her eyes. He didn’t even bother to cover herself like Dawn- informing the cat girl that he had probably gotten used to her popping in on him when he was naked at this point.

He didn’t even look irritated. Just exasperated.

“Come here to play peeping tom?” He asked, crossing his arms over his chest and giving her a look.

The host laughed. “Can’t I appreciate a fine sight? Like the show you two put on in the spa, that was quite something. I think Vivian can expect a fine return on her investment if the rest of the night goes like that,” she chirped.

“It… it wasn’t for the money,” Dawn stammered, her face heating up.

“Oh, I never accused you of that for a second,” Dakota replied, finally taking her eyes off Nick to glance at Dawn. “You were quite eager to get your hands on him all for your own sake! And he certainly felt the same.”

She licked her lips to emphasize her point, and Dawn’s blush deepened. She felt her skin start to heat up again- maybe all the aphrodisiacs weren’t out of her system after all.

Or maybe she was developing an exhibitionist streak, like Kim. That was a scary thought.

Dawn shivered and shook her head.

“Anyway, as I was saying, no, I will not be holding any reservations for you,” Dakota said, sounding upset that Dawn would even raise the possibility. “As much as I’d like to, the system doesn’t work if I start playing favorites. I’m not going to rig things to give you more time with Nick than the other girls get, and I think someone as smart as you would know that, Dawn.”

Dawn scowled. But she knew Dakota was right.

“So if you want to get to your romantic rendezvous in time, I would suggest- and I can’t believe I’m saying this- let each other go, take a quick dip in the hot springs, and then go get changed, okay?” Dakota asked, flashing a sunny smile.

It was the kind of smile that left Nick and Dawn both feeling very perturbed. They shared a look, questioning why Dakota was suddenly so interested in seeing them not screw their brains out for the rest of the way, but rather do the responsible thing.

When they actually stepped out into the hot spring, that question was answered immediately.

“Oh! Hey guys! How’s the date going?”

Gina waved, from the water. Notably, it was with her arm that was covered in tattoos, filling Nick’s mind with all manner of perversions in a flash. Dawn lucked out, since her bad eyesight kept her from actually reading anything. But the fact the two of them weren’t the only ones here still made her freeze up with concern regardless.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin was lounging in the water, and Dani was sitting a good distance away, trying to keep from looking at Gina directly. Both the tough girls brightened when they saw Nick and Dawn, though.

“Oh, whoops, totally forgot.” Gina slapped her arm down under the water with a splash and moved over to the edge of the hot spring. “How’s the date going so far?” She asked with a twinkle in her eye. “You guys certainly look like you’re getting hot and heavy!”

She just had a nose for it, apparently.

Dawn sniffed and crossed her arms over her chest. “We were just taking a shower,” she pointed out indignantly. As much as she was willing to let down her guard and have a good time when it was her and Nick, the presence of other women caused her to retreat back behind her defenses. Especially when those other women consisted of the two most annoying roommates she’d had to deal with on this show, past and present. (Rose was a distant third.)

“You came out of the same shower, though,” Dani pointed out with an amused smirk. “What were you doing on the boy’s side, Dawn?” She asked, looking pointedly at the other girl’s chest. “You don’t have the chest for it.”

“Anymore,” Gina unhelpfully piled on.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin silently giggled from the water, but she was more focused on Nick right now.

Nick himself stood up in Dawn’s defense.

“We’re on a date,” he replied, draping his arm over Dawn’s shoulder and pulling her close to him, taking care to make sure neither of their towels dropped. Dawn’s tail shot up with joy and she fought back a smile. “I think a little intimacy is warranted.”

“Not so little,” Gina replied, glancing at his towel and licking her lips.

Dawn rolled her eyes. She couldn’t make out the expression on Gina’s face because she still wasn’t wearing her glasses, but she knew the punk girl well enough at this point to perfectly picture it in her mind.

“Sorry to intrude,” Dani apologized. “I’m almost out of time anyway. Just came by after my afternoon workout.”

“It’s fine,” Nick said. More than anything, he was just glad that he and Dani were both naked, and neither of them were making a big deal out of it. The last thing he wanted was to make her feel uncomfortable. “Wouldn’t be the first interruption we’ve had on our date.”

“We’re just here to take a dip, anyway,” Dawn said, sliding out from next to him and slipping off her towel, dipping her toe into the water. “We won’t be staying long. We have a reservation to get to, after all.”

Nick was a little apprehensive about joining her in the water. Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin looked more dangerous than most sharks right now, with the way she was eyeing him up, and Dawn couldn’t even tell.

Gina wasn’t much better.

Still, he got in the water, not missing the way the slender assassin was edging closer to him. Almost like she was testing the boundaries of what she could get away with.

…Which was actually refreshing, given her usual lack of care about them.

“So Dani’s a no-brainer, but what are you doing here?” Dawn asked, squinting at Gina to get a better look at her.

“Hey, that’s mean!” Gina huffed. “Dani does so have a brain!”

“That’s not what she- Oh, whatever,” Dani sighed, rolling her eyes at Gina’s lame joke. Dawn couldn’t help but do the same. And a second later Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin did so as well, even though the nuance was probably lost on her. She was just mimicking what she was seeing.

Dawn splashed at Gina a little, surprising the punk with her playfulness.

“I mean, you’re not the kind of person who comes to the hot springs,” she pointed out. “When was the last time you’ve ever even taken a shower?”

“I took a shower just now! Before I got in the water!” Gina exclaimed. “It’s the rules!”

Right, that’s something Gina cared about. Rules.

“I meant before that,” Dawn clarified.

“This morning!” Gina said proudly, omitting that Amelia had insisted on it.

Dawn wasn’t convinced. But she didn’t bother pushing the issue, she just rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation. “Well, okay then.”

“Apparently, they’ve been spending all day with your stepmother,” Dani offered. “Gina was just complaining about her.”

“I-I was not!” Gina protested, blushing a little. “I just meant, well… why’s she taking so long in the shower, huh!?”

Nick froze. “Wait… Amelia is here?”

Gina nodded. “She said she was going to take her time cleaning herself, and would be out to join us in a little bit.”

“Wow, so she needed a long shower after spending the day with you? That’s crazy…” Dawn said flatly.

Gina turned to Dawn, her mouth wide open. She wasn’t used to getting hit with cuts like that from Dawn of all people, and yet the cat girl had fired off hit after hit today.

“Did Vivian give you cutting wit along with those breasts?” Gina asked, cracking a grin. She kind of liked the way Dawn was dishing it out. Gina could take it. And it was better than being an annoying nag all the time.

Dawn looked surprised. “Good guess,” she said. “How did you know?”

“Her new transformation,” Gina pointed out. “When you don’t get one yourself, you pay attention to what everyone else is getting, and Vivian’s the only one who could give you an actual boost upstairs, that’s why.”

Dawn’s mouth flopped open and she just stared.

Gina giggled. “That’s right. She’s perceptive! She showers! She even cleans her room! I’m a constant surprise.”

“…Yeah, you’re right,” Dawn admitted. “Vivian gave me an investment. For my date today. Because thanks to somebody I ended up getting a pair of ridiculously massive breasts last night that made it impossible to sleep comfortably, so I think she was making amends!”

She squinted in Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s general direction.

The trained killer looked as innocent as a lamb as she batted her eyelashes guilelessly.

Before the issue could be pressed any further, the sound of the screen door sliding open stopped the conversation, and Ameila stepped out, a towel wrapped around her slender figure. She had a scowl resting on her face that made her look irritated, but Nick recognized that that was just what his stepmother looked like when she was squinting, since she wasn’t wearing her glasses.

“Oh.” Amelia sounded vaguely surprised when she realized that it wouldn’t just be her and the girls today.

Nick blushed. “Um, hey,” he said, awkwardly waving to his stepmother. “Sorry to interrupt you guys…”

Amelia shook her head brusquely and stepped forward. “Not at all,” she replied. “We are the ones interrupting you, it would appear.”

“No, no, it’s fine!” Dawn shook her head, her eyes widening. “We were just here for a quick dip to cool off, before heading out.”

“Cool off… in a hot spring?” Dani asked.

“Yes!” Dawn didn’t mean “cooling off” like that, and Dani knew it! Why was she causing trouble like Gina?!

“Come on in, Amelia!” Gina chirped. She was about to wave again, only to remember what happened last time. “The water’s fine.”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin nodded her head. Dani leaned in, a little curious to see whether or not Amelia would take Gina up on her offer, considering Nick was here. She didn’t seem like the type of person who would-

“Flumph!” Amelia shed her towel without hesitation, revealing her spectacular body to everyone there. Her skin looked at pale and flawless as a porcelain doll, even in the steam, and softer than anything Dani could imagine. Her breasts were moderately-sized, sculpted perfectly to fit her slender frame. She looked like a model on a runway, without a hint of excess or blemish. And in spite of her age, everything remained exactly where it was supposed to, even without support. She was 37, but her body seemed to have the youth of a woman half her age.

Nick turned a little red, and shifted awkwardly beneath the water. He considered looking away, but drawing even more attention to that would just make things… Yeah.

It wasn’t as if Amelia seemed to care at all that her stepson could see her naked, anyway. In fact, Dani noticed that she was almost preening for him. She arched her back to emphasize the swell of her breasts and reached up to tuck an errant lock of her wet hair behind her ear, undone from her braid for once. Even if she couldn’t see the reaction she was giving him, her body seemed determined to elicit it regardless.

Which caused Dani to remember one of her transformations.

“Amelia, um…” Before Dani could say anything, however, Amelia seemed to realize what he was doing, and hastily scurried into the water, showing slightly less class than she normally carried herself with.

Her stepson seeing her naked was one thing, but evidently she drew the line at posing for him like a centerfold.

Then Gina brought up the elephant in the room.

“Wait, why didn’t your number change?” She asked.

Amelia blinked. “What?” She asked sharply.

“Your number, on your hand,” Gina said, holding up her own hand. “When I first came to the island, I was topless, and Nick saw my boobs, so I got some VP for that.”

Amelia raised her eyebrow. “Why were you topless?”

“…Long story, I’m just saying…”

“That’s right, you should have gotten some VP for Nick seeing you naked,” Dawn agreed. She hadn’t seen the numbers herself thanks to not having her glasses, or she would have commented herself. “The only reason you wouldn’t get any VP for that would be…”

Her thoughts died on her lips as she fully processed what she’d just been thinking. A note of amusement tugged at the corners of her mouth.

Nick sank deeper into the water, his face burning with shame as Dani covered her smirk with her hand and Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin scooted closer, confused and intrigued at the same time.

“I would think that you of all people would be familiar with the rules, Dawn,” Amelia said nonchalantly, leaning back against the edge of the spring and letting her breasts rest out in the open for everyone to see. Normally she would be more modest than that, but she was still being unknowingly affected by her Mrs. Robinson transformation. “Not every contestant is eligible for receiving VP by the same means, after all.”

Mrs. Robinson wasn’t the only transformation unknowingly affecting Amelia right now. Even though she couldn’t make out Nick very well, she still found herself glancing in his direction, as passing thoughts about his penis occupied her. She couldn’t get a good look at it, but that was no big deal. Not that she would be concerned about those thoughts even if she were more consciously aware of them. After all, it was only natural for a mother to be concerned about her son’s genitalia.

Because of Amelia’s exceptional poker face, no one picked up on the thoughts occupying her mind at the moment. They remained innocently focused on the other woman, not realizing what she was thinking about.

Dawn’s brain was too busy putting the pieces together, wondering what Amelia meant when she said that “not every contestant” was eligible for receiving VP by the same means.

Then she put it together and her face turned red. She snapped her head around to stare at Nick and her mouth dropped open. “O-oh!” She stammered, squirming in the water uncomfortably. “You… you mean you… Nick, you’ve…”

Nick simmered in the hot spring like a potato being boiled. He looked down at the water and nodded sheepishly.

“I… it was just once or twice! …When you live with someone…”

“There is nothing to be ashamed of.” Amelia tried to be reassuring because she could see how uncomfortable her stepson was being put on the spot like this, but she didn’t realize just how unhelpful her attempt to help was. “I raised Nicholas as my own child. A son walking in on his mother in a state of undress is a perfectly understandable occurrence. It isn’t something that anyone should cause a fuss over.”

The softness of her voice was intended to soothe, but it just made Nick feel even more humiliated. Amelia had never been one of those parents who did things to embarrass him in front of other people when he was growing up, but right now?

Talking so frankly about the times he’d accidentally walked in on her changing, or coming out of the shower, made him want to curl up and die. Especially in front of multiple women he’d slept with, including his current date!

Dawn, picking up on how uncomfortable Nick was with this subject matter, cleared her throat.

“Well, this was… an illuminating conversation,” she said, rising from the water. “But Nick and I have a reservation at a fancy restaurant, and Dakota already warned us about the time. So we need to be heading out.”

“Y-yeah,” Nick agreed, moving to follow her. “What Dawn said.”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin didn’t want him to leave, though. She grabbed his arm and hugged it tightly to her chest, shaking her head.

“Indeed, it is important to uphold your obligations,” Amelia agreed. She glanced sharply at the clingy assassin. “And to allow one to uphold them.”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin returned the older woman’s glare with one of her own. But when Nick tugged his arm again, she reluctantly let him go.

She was still sulky about it.

Nick and Dawn excused themselves and quickly exited the hot spring, glad they’d weathered another interruption with minimal issue.

And Nick was just glad Dawn didn’t dig any deeper into the conversation with Amelia. He really needed to show her how much he appreciated her giving them the opportunity to make a quick exit like that.