You would always come around

“Thanks for all your help,” Nick said, smiling gratefully at Ella. “The room looks amazing, you did a really good job!”

“Um… yeah…” Ella tried to return his smile with one of her own, but she had a bit of trouble. She kept looking over Nick’s shoulder at Gina and Carly, who were chatting on the couch with one another, and she couldn’t help wonder how futile her hard work had been.

Knowing those two, the room would probably be a disaster zone not fifteen minutes after she stepped into the elevator.

Nick could kind of sense her apprehension for exactly that reason, and all he could do was offer her an apologetic smile that showed he understood just why she was so concerned.

“Don’t worry, I’ll try to keep them under control,” he promised, even though he knew that the chances of that happening were slim to none.

Ella appreciated his kind words regardless, and this time she was able to return his smile. “Well… you guys have fun, then…”

She took another passing glance at the two gorgeous women, and particularly their large breasts and skimpy state of dress. She had no illusions about what kind of dirty deeds they’d all be getting up to in here, even with Mary’s presence hanging over them. It wasn’t like she was right here now, after all, since she was cooking up dinner in the kitchen.

Those thoughts caused her face to heat up, and she quickly shook her head.

“I-I’ll be going now, then,” she said quickly, turning for the door. “Don’t want to get caught up all night, after all!”

“Ella, wait!” Nick stopped her before she could leave. She flinched and looked back at him with a cautious gleam in her eye.

“…Yeah?” She asked quietly.

“Um… well… tomorrow… tomorrow is our night together,” he reminded her awkwardly. “So I was wondering if you wanted to do something together? Before that, I mean.”

“Yeah…” Ella nodded slowly. Then she gasped. “…Ah! I meant, ‘yeah’ like, I knew that tomorrow is our night together!” She hastily clarified. “I wasn’t saying ‘yeah’ like I wanted to do something together with you!”

Nick winced. “So… you don’t, then?”

That would probably make things easier, but he couldn’t deny that her rejection hurt.

Her eyes widened like saucers and she quickly shook her head. “No!” She gasped. “I didn’t mean that! I would like to, I was just making it clear… oh, I’m so sorry!”

She started to fret, and grabbed the rubber-band on her wrist to give it a good snap. “THWAP!”

That made Nick wince again. He hated when she did that.

Ella took a deep breath, now that she was a little calmer. Then she tried again. “…Yes, Nick, if you would like, I would love to spend tomorrow doing something with you,” she said plainly, hoping he wouldn’t misunderstand this time. “But only if you want to, of course.”

Nick nodded. “I want to. Maybe those swimming lessons we were talking about before?”

Gina flinched from the couch. But Nick wasn’t looking her way to see it. Carly noticed it, but didn’t say anything.

“Yeah, maybe…” Ella murmured, but she didn’t seem that convinced.

Nick realized he would have to try harder than that. Something more special than just some swimming lessons.

“…We’ll think of something,” he said tactfully, pushing the issue back for later. “In the meantime, you have a good night, okay?”

“Okay,” Ella nodded, giving him a soft smile. “You, too. And I’m looking forward to it. Tomorrow, I mean.”

Nick smiled. That was nice to hear.

And with that, Ella left, and left him alone with Carly and Gina.

Quite a pair if ever there was one.

“So what do we do now?” Gina asked, stripping off her coat to reveal the tattoos on her arm. “Just get the orgy started right now, or…?”

“Orgy?!” Nick’s eyes widened.

“I mean, you, me, Carly over here, and you know Mary’s gonna want to join in, right?” Gina rapped her fingers against the arm of the couch, and Nick had to tear his eyes away lest he get an eyeful of her tattoos. “Holly’s probably gonna want to watch, but still. Sounds like an orgy to me.”

Carly giggled. “Well… an orgy is probably stretching it. Still, we should ask Dakota what the rules of this thing are, though. How the competition is going to work.”

Nick nodded. “Good idea.”

Dakota had been very forthcoming about the transformation up until now (minus trying to rig the wheel in order to get the most entertaining outcome) so he expected she’d tell them anything they needed to know.

“Sure, I’d be happy to tell you!” Dakota chirped, popping up and catching all of them off-guard. She was sitting in an armchair looking nice and comfy, as if she’d been here the whole time.

…Maybe she had. With her powers, anything was possible.

Dakota leaned forward and batted her eyelashes. “So what would you like to know?” She asked with a playful smirk. “If it’s just about how threesomes in general work, I think you’ve all experienced enough of those, wouldn’t you say?”

Nick had to chuckle at that, but Gina wasn’t laughing. She was surprisingly determined.

“Earning those points,” she said, leaning in intently. “I’m guessing there are some conditions to this whole thing?”

Dakota nodded. “You could say that,” she confirmed. “But really, I want to give you girls as much freedom as you like. You can really do whatever you like! If you want to take turns to show Nick and the audience your best, or try and please him together, that’s perfectly fine. You can try to show off the same things, or try to do things differently from one another, any of that is just fine. The only thing you need to keep in mind is that at the end of the night, the audience will vote on whose performance they liked the most, and depending on the way the vote goes, that will determine how many points you girls get.”

“Okay, so… let’s say I get 80% of the vote, and Gina gets 20%, then does that mean I’ll get 4 VP and she’ll get 1?” Carly asked.

Dakota nodded. “Something like that,” she confirmed. “For every 20% you manage to get, rounded, you’ll get that much VP. So if, say, you get 75% exactly and Gina gets 25% exactly, well… I tend to round in favor of the one with the most points. So again, 4 VP for you, 1 VP for Gina.”

“So I should always assume that we’re working from behind, then,” Gina nodded. She wasn’t good at math, but she could kind of figure it out. Carly wasn’t that good at math either, unfortunately.

Nick was decent at it, though.

“So what if they both get a perfect 50%?” He asked, narrowing his eyes. There was a chance that they could tie, after all.

Dakota smirked. “Well… I doubt that will happen,” she said. “But in that case, we’ll do a lightning round, I suppose.”

The three of them stared blankly at her.

“Lightning round?” Carly asked curiously.

“Yep,” Dakota nodded. “You and whoever you’re competing with that night will work as hard as you can to please Nick! You’ll go in two-minute intervals all by yourself, and whoever manages to bring him to orgasm first will win!”

“Okay, that sounds fine,” Gina agreed. “That actually sounds great!”

“Yeah, I suppose that works,” Carly nodded. “There are a few things I’m not so sure about, but the bottom line is that the sexiest one wins, right?”

She turned to Nick and batted her eyelashes, then made a kissy face.

Nick was surprised by that. He was used to Carly being sexually aggressive, but usually it manifested itself in a different way than this. She wasn’t the kind of woman who would pretend to kiss him. She definitely seemed more amorous, which struck him as odd.

I’ll have to ask her about that later, he decided.

“So, we’re starting right now, then?” Gina hopped to her feet, eyeing Nick hungrily.

While Nick felt like a lion was about to pounce on him, and Dakota leaned back, happy to watch that, his salvation came from another source.

“Absolutely not!”

Everyone turned to see Mary standing in the doorway of the kitchen with her hands on her hips. She was dressed down for once, still under the effects of Vivian’s transformation, and wearing an apron over a very modest dress.

She was pissed off, too.

“I worked hard on this dinner!” She snapped, narrowing her eyes. “And you three are going to eat it before we get down to any funny business!”

Gina, undaunted, raised her eyebrow and smirked. “…We?”

Mary turned red. “Y-you!” She hastily corrected herself. “Before YOU get down to any funny business, that’s what I meant!”

It was quite the slip, and Carly had to chuckle at it. “Well, I’m fine with eating first, if you are, Gina,” she said, winking at the punk girl. “It’s better than making Mary mad, right?”

Gina sighed in exasperation and looked at Nick. She still had that hungry gleam in her eye, and he suspected why.

Her stomach rumbled and she rubbed it longingly. “…Fine,” she relented. “There’s always later, for me to get my fill.”

The innuendo in her tone was picked up on by everyone in the room. Even Mary, who gave a sigh of exasperation herself.

“Again, after dinner,” she said, though her tone was a lot gentler than before. “I worked really hard on this.”

“Good, some nice home cooking,” Gina grinned. “Just what I’d expect from a future stay-at-home mom!”

“Oh!” Carly grabbed her hip. She’d bumped into the dining room table on accident. “…Sorry, wasn’t looking where I was going,” she said, smiling apologetically. “Don’t worry though.”

She winked at Nick and licked her lips. “I won’t be this careless in bed tonight,” she promised, giving him some serious bedroom eyes.

Part of Nick wished Dani was here to handle some of the heat coming off her. But a very small part.

“What about you?” He asked suddenly, turning to Dakota.

She looked at him in surprise.

“…Huh?” She asked, tilting her head to the side.

Nick shrugged. “Do you want to join us?” He offered. “You know how delicious Mary’s cooking is, and I’m sure she made enough for everyone. Right?”

“Yeah, I should have more than enough,” Mary confirmed with a small nod. She liked the idea. “Join us for dinner, Dakota?”

The dark-haired woman had a blank expression on her face, like her brain was rebooting. Then she laughed. “Uh… no, thank you, I’ll pass,” she said, waving her hand. “That’s not at all the sort of thing you’d catch me doing. You all have fun, though.”

Nick didn’t miss the smile on her face, brief as it was. She dismissed herself with her cane before he could get a closer look, but he knew what he saw.

We just have to keep trying. If we keep trying, I’m sure we can get through that cold shell of hers. He was certain of it.

He had to be.

“So can we eat already?” Carly asked. She sounded almost impatient, which was a bit of a surprise. Normally she was a lot better at going along with things. “I’m really hungry. And I’d like to get this over with.”

Mary looked hurt.

Realizing what that sounded like, Carly was quick to apologize. “Err, I didn’t mean it like that!” She said quickly, shaking her head. “I just meant… oh, I don’t know, it came out wrong… sorry, Mary, your cooking is delicious, really!”

“You’re a little scatterbrained today, huh?” Gina couldn’t help but comment on. “All that sun get to your head or something?”

“No,” Carly mumbled, forcing up another smile. “It’s not like that at all. Just a weird day, that’s all. Don’t worry about it.”

“I hope it’s nothing,” Gina nodded, not catching on to the other woman’s slightly-bothered state. “I want a chance to beat you at your best!”

Carly winced, and Nick didn’t miss it.

“You know, we don’t have to make this a competition,” he said, not sure what was up with Carly but not wanting to upset her. “We can just have some fun together.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Gina nodded. “Anyway, that’s for later, though. Don’t want to make Mary mad, after all, right?”

She turned and looked at the redhead as Mary walked in holding a big bowl of creamy white soup.

“Eh? Is that chowder?” Carly noted, perking up a little.

Mary nodded. “Clam chowder,” she confirmed. “After a long day at the beach, I thought it was a good fit, you know? Something with a taste of the sea.”

“I went to the trouble to put some oysters into it, too,” Holly commented from the kitchen with a grin. “You know. For tonight.”

Gina burst out laughing at that, and even Carly cracked a grin.

“I think he’s going to need it!” She joked, and Gina laughed even harder.

Nick sighed in relief and laughed along. Whatever had been eating at Carly, it didn’t seem to be bothering her anymore. And the chowder looked as delicious as it smelled. He couldn’t wait to dig in as Mary poured them each a bowlful.

“Hmm…” Gina looked at it suspiciously, getting the attention of the others.

“What’s up?” Mary asked, squirming uncomfortably. She didn’t like the look in the other girl’s eye. “It’s just chowder.”

“I know… I know…” The playful tone of her voice reminded Nick of how much of a prankster she could be. Especially the way she looked up at Mary with that smirk on her lips. “But what’s in it? That’s what I want to know. What did you make this with? Something else white and creamy, I imagine?”

Nick’s eyes widened and he dropped his spoon. That was a thought.

Mary’s jaw dropped. “WHAT?!” She exclaimed, looking hastily over to Nick and then back at the punk girl. “You… you thought that I’d… in the chowder?!”

“She didn’t put Nick’s semen in the clam chowder,” Carly said, rolling her eyes. “That’s ridiculous. She’s serving it to him, too, remember? She wouldn’t make him eat that stuff.”

Nick nodded. Good on Carly for making sense and thinking like a rational person!

But Gina shook her head. “Not what I meant,” she clarified. “I was talking about something else white and creamy…”

She glanced over at Mary’s breasts and licked her lips in an exaggerated fashion.

Carly turned pale. “Y-you mean…”

“I didn’t do that, either!” Mary’s face turned hot and she quickly covered her chest, setting down the bowl. She gave Gina a disgusted look while the punk girl just laughed.

“Hey, I mean, who can say, right, Carly?” Gina looked at the other woman with a smirk. “Mary’s so obsessed with being a mom, you never know, she could do anything!”

“…Uh-huh,” Carly mumbled, looking down at the chowder. She looked like she was about to throw up all over her plate.

Nick caught on that something was wrong.

“Carly?” He asked.

“Hey, is everything alright?” Even Gina could tell there was something up with the other girl. “Carly? You good?”

And then the cosplayer burst into tears.

Everyone froze for a second. Nobody knew how to react.

“C-Carly?” Nick gasped out, getting up out of his chair. “Are you okay?”

“I… was… was it something I said?” Gina stammered, turning white as a sheet. “I-I didn’t mean… I…”

“Carly!” Mary was the first one to rush to the aid of the sobbing woman, her eyes wide with fright. “What’s the matter?”

“No! Nothing! It’s fine!” Carly managed to **** out words through her tears, and frantically wiped at her eyes. But she couldn’t stop bawling. “I… I-!”

Her voice broke and she sobbed loudly, slumping over her chowder.

Nick didn’t know what to do. How could he help? What could he say to make her feel better? He froze halfway towards her, wondering if anything he attempted would just make everything worse.

Mary had no such qualms. She approached Carly, holding out her hand tensely.

Carly recoiled like a wounded cat.

“No! Stay away!” She snapped like a petulant child, swatting Mary’s hand. Her eyes were wide and wild, and it looked like she didn’t even know herself why she’d reacted like that.

She quickly shook her head. “I-I’m sorry, I… this isn’t… it was just too much!” She choked out.

Nick finally found his voice. Gina started to shut down, and Mary was scared to try again after getting rebuked so harshly. So it had to be him who comforted her, which was exactly the kick in the pants that he needed.

“Carly, what’s the matter?” He asked gently. “What can we do?”

“You can’t do anything!” She sobbed out, gazing up at him. She looked so poor and pathetic and weak in that moment, even though she was none of those things. “It’s… Emmy!”

Nick’s blood ran cold. A shudder went through Gina, and Mary blanched. Carly’s sobs were the only thing taking up the silence of the room.

“Emmy…” Nick mouthed. It sounded so foreign on his lips, and yet it carried such weight.

Emmy. Carly’s deceased daughter.

“I-I’m so sorry…” Carly sniffled, wiping at her tears. But her eyes just kept producing more in spite of her best efforts. She shook like a leaf, sinking into her seat. “I didn’t mean to… I thought… I thought I could, that I could push through it, but… this morning… while I was showering… I saw my reflection in the mirror, and I thought about Emmy, and I… I just…”

She’d barely been able to keep herself together for the beach party. She didn’t want to spoil things. So she tried her best to smile and pretend like everything was okay.

“We-we were swimming… and everybody… we were talking about Mary’s boobs, and how she was lactating, and kids, and… and-!”

More painful memories. Like jamming your finger into a wound that refused to close, and twisting away the scar tissue.

Her voice and she sobbed again, breaking down in front of them. “I tried… I wanted to pretend like tonight was special, but Amelia was so motherly, and then the chowder… breast milk-! I just… I couldn’t, I…”

Nick had no words. He thought that Carly had been doing so well. Marley’s presence, her relationship with Dani, he thought those things had helped her heal.

But it’s not that simple, is it? I should know that better than anyone. Dakota’s face flashed through his mind. Not the wicked woman who’d been tormenting them as the host, but the little girl she’d used to be. The little girl he’d lost.

Even now, those memories of Dakota are still painful. How hard must it be for her, to be plagued by those thoughts? To have a memory of your daughter suddenly spring up, and turn everything into a wreck?

And unlike Dakota, Emmy didn’t come back.

Gina felt absolutely miserable. This was all her fault. She hadn’t been thinking. She hadn’t even noticed how much the things she’d said had bothered the other woman, and she’d just kept pushing until she broke. How could she be such an awful person?

Nick had no idea how to make things better. He knew that he couldn’t. Should he even try?

…

Of course he should try. So he did. He approached Carly slowly and held out his hand. He touched her shoulder, just for a moment, and when she didn’t shy away, he let his hand rest there.

She leaned towards him, and he took that as a sign. He wrapped his arms around her in a hug and held her close, hoping that would be enough to help her, even just a little bit.

As for the rest of the night… who could say how that would go?