You know your green from your red, you know the quick from the dead

After accepting that she could not leave the Master’s Suite, Cinder didn’t take Dakota up on her offer of letting Ella take over. She didn’t look at Nick, either. The only thing she did was start cleaning up the Master’s Suite, much to Nick’s confusion. It seemed almost… normal.

Which was completely abnormal. Cinder was acting as if everything that just transpired had never happened at all, as if it was completely natural for her to be cleaning after… everything.

Nick decided not to question her choice, figuring that she was just making the best of a bad situation. Even talking to her could set her off again, and he didn’t want to make Cinder any more uncomfortable than she already was. He cared about her too much to do that.

So he grabbed a change of clothes from his closet and ducked into the bathroom to get changed.

But he wasn’t thinking about locking the door, since he never did. Which led to a certain someone sneaking her way inside.

“Hey there.”

Nick jumped, nearly falling over thanks to his pants only being halfway up his legs. He hopped about and turned around, eyes wide, staring at Dawn in confusion.

“What? Dawn, what-”

She shut the door behind her and pranced over to him, tail wagging excitedly behind her. She practically leapt into his arms, leaning up against him.

Nick noticed that she was remarkably more stable on her feet than she had been before; maybe Mary had sobered her up?

“Dawn, now really isn’t a good time,” Nick said, glancing down at the spot on the bathroom floor, where he and Ella had just… “…I’m half-naked!”

“Only half?” Dawn giggled.

Well, he definitely wasn’t expecting her to be this playful and fun, either. Especially given the tension they had just faced tonight.

“Come on, Dawn,” he said, gently pushing her off of him. “There will be time for this later, right now, I just need a second to unwind, okay? What happened with Cinder…”

Dawn’s face fell. She sighed and her ears drooped in disappointment.

“Yeah, you’re right,” she admitted, nodding sheepishly. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have pushed like that. But I’m just so worked up, you know? After all the stuff we did tonight, I was hoping, well… I was hoping that we’d get to continue right when we got up to the Master’s Suite, before this whole mess with Ella and Cinder happened…”

“Dawn, you were totally plastered when we got back to the Master’s Suite!” Nick pointed out. “Were you even sober enough to ‘hope’ for anything?”

“Eh… well…” Dawn giggled an awkward, sheepish laugh, and batted her eyelashes at Nick. “…Maybe not completely…”

Try more like “Hardly drunk at all.”

Nick sighed and rolled his eyes in amusement. “Well, at any rate, you’re doing better,” he noted with relief.

“Yup. Much better!” She chirped. “But then… I am feeling a little light-headed…” She pulled the hem of her dress out slightly to show off her newly-enhanced cleavage a little better, and fanned herself as she leaned back against the counter. “Any strapping young man could take advantage of me, and there would be nothing I could do about it.”

“Come on, Dawn,” Nick said, finishing getting dressed even though there was a very good chance he would end up out of these close pretty soon. “That’s not funny.”

“Maybe not,” Dawn admitted. “On the other hand, my memory is good enough that I can remember you getting a little handsy in the elevator, so…”

“That was you!” Nick exclaimed with a laugh. “You were all over me- don’t try to deny it!”

Dawn laughed. “Maybe we were both up to some funny business,” she admitted. “But right now, it’s just the two of us here…”

She moved closer to him and rested her hand over his heart. She leaned against his chest and gazed up into his eyes- hers were watering.

“Whatever happened… we don’t need to let anything outside this door affect what’s inside it. Okay?” She whispered to him. “We can just… be.”

Her lips were close to his. But only close. Even on her tiptoes, they didn’t touch. She gazed longingly up into his eyes, silently signaling him to kiss her if that’s what he wanted right now.

Cinder wasn’t doing a very good job of cleaning up the Master’s Suite, all things considered. She wasn’t exactly motivated to do her best right now; she swept her broom up and down across the carpet, not actually cleaning anything, but just going through the motions.

Mary and Holly were giving her a wide berth, crouched on the other side of the room and whispering to each other.

“She totally is,” Holly pointed out.

“Holly!” Mary hissed.

“But she is! Just look at her! She keeps glancing at the door!” Holly said, literally pointing out what Cinder was doing while she swept.

“Not the time!” Mary elbowed her friend in the side. But in spite of her desire not to acknowledge what was happening, she couldn’t help but notice Cinder’s behavior was quite odd, given what had happened only a couple of minutes ago.

The latina had a somber expression on her face as she swept up, and Holly was right- she kept shooting passing glances towards the bathroom door, almost as if she was expecting something.

Or regretting something.

Mary bit her lip. Maybe Holly’s right. Maybe Cinder… maybe she wishes that she was in there with the two of them. Or maybe she just wishes she knew what was happening in there.

It was hard for Mary to say at this point. And there was no way that she was going to ask. She may have been an honest person, but she still drew the line at reckless stupidity.

Then the clock started to gong. Cinder jumped, startled by the sudden loud sound, and her eyes spun to land on the only other person in the room- the two of them.

Mary froze, not sure what to say. Holly shut her mouth up tight, knowing that anything she said would be the wrong thing.

Neither girl knew how to process the expression on the other woman’s face. Cinder looked at the both of them like a deer caught in the headlights, and her breathing was coming out in hasty, shallow bursts. Like something had just happened that she hadn’t been expecting.

And Mary could tell that she was close to freaking out.

Without quite knowing why, she took a hesitant step closer to the woman, and Cinder immediately bristled, shifting into a defensive stance as she prepared herself for something that seemed frankly Ella-like in demeanor-

She looked like she was ready to run.

“…You can leave now,” Mary blurted out. “The chime means it’s been an hour, right? So you can leave. The door won’t stop you.”

Cinder bristled again. Her eyes shot to the door immediately, and Mary could see the longing in her gaze. Then her head slowly turned towards the clock, and she gave it a look that the redhead couldn’t really place.

The closest thing she had to describe it was a kind of venomous loathing, but that made absolutely zero sense.

Finally, Cinder took a step back.

“I-I need… I need to see him again,” she finally spat out. The broom clattered to the ground as her arms fell to her sides. “I can’t leave until… until we have another talk.”

Holly winced and raised her eyebrow. “Is that… a ‘talk’?” She asked hesitantly. “Or a talk?”

Cinder stared dumbly at her, not knowing the difference. Mary wasn’t quite sure she understood either.

But there was one thing she did know.

“Because of how your shift works… don’t you only have, like, 15 minutes between the bell chimes, and the Master’s Suite is shut for good?” She asked worriedly. Mary didn’t want to upset the other woman, but… she also knew that if Cinder was **** to stay in the Master’s Suite overnight, the latina would probably absolutely freak.

And that wouldn’t be good. For any of them. But at the same time, she didn’t want to just throw Cinder out, either.

The woman had enough issues with people as it was.

Cinder kept glancing at the door. Not the door to the Master’s Suite, though. She kept looking at the bathroom door, casting frustrated and expectant glances towards it as her impatience built and built and built.

Finally, Holly had enough. She stomped over to the bathroom and began pounding on the door.

“Nick! Open up in there! I know that you’re probably up to some really sexy shenanigans with a cute little cat girl, believe me, man, I know that’s something special, but there’s a sweet girl out here who needs to see you before she goes!” Holly barked, knocking harder and harder and harder until the door swung open and a flustered Nick stumbled out.

“Holly!” He exclaimed, his cheeks red. “Dawn and I, we weren’t-! We were just talking, and-! …Cinder.” He stared at the latina, surprised. After hearing the clock chime, he had expected that she would have fled as soon as she could.

But no, there she was, standing in the center of the room. Her cheeks were red and her eyes were burning with an indecipherable mix of emotions as her fingers fumbled with the rubber-band around her wrist. For a moment, that was enough to make him think she was Ella instead of Cinder.

“Thwap!”

She snapped it, and the sound echoed through the awkward silence hanging over the room.

Dawn, genius that she was, wisely decided to crouch behind the bathroom door as she peeked out, waiting for the two of them to resolve the issue.

“Cinder…”

Nick approached the other girl cautiously, not sure what she was still doing here. But the fact that she was still here, instead of running off… that was a good sign, right?

“You promise…” Cinder’s voice cracked, and the fierce gleam in her narrowed her eyes made her statement come out as a hiss. “You promise… right?”

It took Nick a second to realize what she was talking about. When he did, he nodded quickly.

“Yes! I swear!” He assured her.

“You can trust him,” Mary said, backing up her husband. “Nick’s word is his bond, if he promised you something, then he’ll do it. No matter what.”

“Mhm! Mhm! Mhm!” Holly nodded eagerly. “Like, he promised me that he’d never let me cum, unless I really deserve it, and even now he hardly ever lets me-”

Mary clamped her hand over Holly’s mouth and dragged her out of Cinder’s line of sight. She wasn’t helping anyone right now.

“…I promise,” Nick said again, approached Cinder slowly. She said nothing, but she didn’t run away, either. She stood still as a statue until Nick got within arm’s reach of her, and the two of them looked into each other’s eyes.

Cinder looked like she was going to cry. Or throw him off the balcony. Maybe both.

“Ella… she wants to trust you,” Cinder said finally. She took a deep breath, as if the next words out of her mouth were going to kill her.

After hearing them, Nick wouldn’t be surprised if they would.

“…I want to trust you.”

His eyes widened as he looked into her watery eyes. She seemed so damaged and **** that he didn’t know what to make of it. But he knew he didn’t want to betray those eyes.

In spite of her harsh demeanor, in spite of all the things she’s done, Cinder is still part of Ella. All the sensitive and gentle parts of Ella, they’re a part of Cinder too, right? She’s just as fragile and ****, maybe even moreso.

Knowing that only hardened Nick’s resolve to do right by her, and make sure that she knew that she could trust him no matter what.

He reached out a hand to Cinder to wipe away her tears, knowing it was a risky move but still feeling like it was the right thing to do.

Maybe it was; it broke the spell. She pulled away like his fingers had burned her, and she looked at Nick in shock. She took a step back her lips quivering, and then she almost, almost smiled.

Then she turned and fled the Master’s Suite, leaving a void in the room as she did so.

It took Nick a second to regain his ability to breathe and realize that there was nothing left to be worried about in the Master’s Suite.

“Ahem.”

…Well, one thing.

Nick turned back to the bathroom, where Dawn was poking her head out of the doorway. She didn’t look thrilled.

“…Sorry,” Nick apologized awkwardly. “I know we’ve been having interruptions all day, but-”

“No, it’s fine,” Dawn said with a tired expression on her face, completely forgetting she was supposed to be drunk. She walked out to Nick and smiled up at him. “It’s just the type of life we’re living, isn’t it? There are other women, other concerns… having you to myself, it’s kind of like a privilege, isn’t it?” She reached up and wrapped her arms around Nick, pulling him into a hug. He gently hugged her back.

Hugged the Master! +1 VP

Dawn recoiled, her eyes wide with surprise.

“Wait, have we never-?” She wracked her perfect memory, stunned by the oversight.

“I-I guess we haven’t,” Nick said, scratching his head sheepishly. The two of them had done a lot of things together, including Nick carrying her like a princess. But apparently, a traditional, gentle hug wasn't one of them.

Dancing must not have fit the bill either. Or maybe Dakota was doing bookkeeping to make up for past oversights.

Either way, it was an excellent method of breaking the ice, and Dawn couldn’t help but laugh at the irony there.

“So what now?” Dawn asked, turning and looking at Mary and Holly. “I mean, even now, we don’t exactly have a lot of privacy…”

Mary cleared her throat. “And I think that’s our cue to leave, Holly,” she said, turning and heading towards the kitchen, her usual refuge in this situation. She would have to drag the horned-up little maid with her, probably.

“Don’t you dare!” Dawn snapped, placing her hands on her hips. She had a surprising bit of fierceness in her voice, much to Nick’s surprise. He still thought that she must have been intoxicated, given what she was focusing on right now.

“Dawn?”

“Later. Mary, Holly, um… hehe… I want you two to hang around!” She resumed her impression of an intoxicated cat girl and skipped over to the two girls, grabbing each of their arms.

“Really?” Mary was surprised to hear that, given the context of the conversation she’d just been listening in on.

“I’m also confused,” Nick said, scratching his head. “I mean, we’ve been spending all day getting our date interrupted by other people, so why-”

“How’s the old saying go again?” Dawn pretended to think, tapping her chin as her ears twitched, playing the airhead perfectly. “Oh! I remember now. ‘If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!’ That’s right, that’s what it was! And then, when you join ‘em, beat ‘em! That’s what I always say!”

She laughed at her own dumb joke, while a confused Mary and Nick just looked at each other.

Only Holly was able to put the pieces together.

“Hotdogging!” She laughed. “It’s the hotdogging thing, isn’t that right, Dawn?”

Dawn nodded eagerly. Nick looked at her in surprise.

“Wait, you… you were serious about that?” Mary’s cheeks turned red as she recalled the little description of “hotdogging” Holly had given her. “I-I don’t, um… I don’t know about that… This is supposed to be your night, right?”

Mary certainly wasn’t opposed to the idea, but she was still trying to be considerate of Dawn. Tonight had been far from the type of erotic night that would get her motor running, so even if she had been interested in getting involved in the sexy times, it didn’t seem like the right thing to do after the tense moment they’d all been a part of.

But Dawn wasn’t having any of it. She stared intently at Mary and shook her head firmly.

“You remember my transformation, don’t you?” She asked the redhead. “My new one? Because I’m really excited to put it into practice!”

Mary swallowed and nodded, recalling Dawn’s transformation.

• The New Thing All the Kids Are Into: At the beginning of each round, Dawn will have a vision of a specific sexual act. (Blowjob, handjob, etc.) She will feel more strongly compelled to do that act than any other form of sex, and urge other girls to do the same, aspiring to show that she can do it better than they can. Each time Dawn “wins” against another girl in this competition, as determined honestly by Nick, she will receive a small sum of VP as a prize. (Competitive)

“So that’s it, then?” Mary asked, biting her lip. “You want to compete against me in a… ‘hotdogging’ contest, in order to get some VP?”

“Ooh, nice, way to go, Mary!” Holly giggled. She elbowed Nick in the side. “You lucky dog, you!”

Dawn nodded intently. “And not just you, I also want, um… for Holly to join in as well.” She glanced at her fellow brunette. Holly’s eyes widened in shock.

“Eh? You want… me? …Oh, I get it. Because I’m going to be an easy win, right?” She sighed. “I suppose that’s hot in its own way! Getting outshone by one of Nick’s girls, especially a cute, limber gymnast like you!”

“I want an honest competition,” Dawn said firmly, not letting Holly get away with denigrating herself like that. “I don’t want to win on some technicality, alright? No, I want you to give it your all.”

Holly looked at her, even more surprised than before. This definitely wasn’t what she had expected.

“Well… I…” Holly bit her lip and looked over at Nick. He just blushed, and nodded briefly. If that’s what Dawn wanted, he didn’t see much point in any of them putting up a fight about it.

Holly smiled a little. “Well… it’s your funeral then, Dawn!” She boasted. “Because Mary’s butt is a nice, juicy thing that’s going to turn Nick on something fierce! She’ll beat you no sweat!”

Dawn laughed. “Maybe so,” she agreed. She didn’t seem that bothered if that would be the case. “But I’m not giving up, either!”

She had considered inviting one of the other contestants to compete with her tonight; maybe Rose, or even Carly. But this would work too. Starting with Mary and Holly, people who were around Nick when he was having sex the most, should be a good barometer of how well she could compete with the other women in the harem when it came to hotdogging.

Dawn was still a little ****, even if nowhere near as drunk as she’d pretended to be. But the freeing feeling that came with it was something she appreciated. Maybe Gina had the right idea, getting plastered all the time…

Or maybe I’m way more intoxicated than I thought.