"So, I was wrong about you," I admitted.

"Oh?" Nicky asked.

She'd woken up fully, after about ten-ish minutes, and the biggest difference in our situation was that we were cuddling in a slightly different way, with me sitting up, and Nicky still wrapped around me like a koala.

"You've got a subdued and dignified manner about you," I said. "And I mistook that for you being boring and unpleasant, and didn't really consider actively reaching out to try and build a relationship here until Akane told me to."

"I see, I see. And how much of this change of heart can be attributed to waking up in my bed with a hopeful desire to reach second base?"

"Nicky, I don't know if you're aware, but Akane also has fat-ass knockers, and would require zero convincing to let me touch them." Nicky snorted, and I continued. "I mean, yes, you are very attractive and I do desire you carnally-"

"Such a silver tongue you have."

"-but that isn't what this is about. This is about the fact that I misjudged and dismissed you on spurious grounds. And... I'm sorry. You didn't deserve that."

"I came to your room at night to pick a fight about letting a homeless teenager-"

"Lisa's twenty, actually."

"-crash in our basement," Nicky said. "That is... honestly, a perfectly valid reason to dislike someone, and refuse to consider their redeeming qualities."

"Let's split the difference and say we're both hardheaded idiots who have trouble getting along," I said. "On a different, less recriminating note, is this an exception, or do you think this is the start of a pattern of being more open to affection in general?"

"You've been drafted as my new weighted blanket," Nicky said. "God, I needed this..."

"Hah, gay," I said.

"Bisexual, actually," Nicky said.

"Fair enough," I said. "Although in this context I was intending 'gay' as a monosyllabic shorthand for 'experiencing and acting upon same-sex attraction.' I did actually remember that you're bisexual and therefore also, to some extent we haven't discussed, a boyliker."

"'Boyliker' feels slightly derogatory," Nicky said. "Like, yes, I do like boys, but something about the semantics of having a word for 'person who likes boys' feels... off."

"Hrm... Kinda complicates things, don't it?" I asked. "Like, the thing about existing in this fallen world as a woman is that our culture kind of hates women and everything they do. Despite heteronormativity declaring that women are supposed to like men, the fact that they're women means they're despised and shamed for liking men. I don't think there can be words in this cultural context for describing a woman's sexual preferences that is neither clinical nor derogatory-sounding."

"Mmmn. Fair."

"Also, are you still up for that game of Factorio?"

Nicky snorted, and started giggling.

"What?" I asked.

"Remember how I said I hadn't thought very hard about what my vtuber avatar would be?" Nicky asked.

"Are you actually a vtuber already?" I asked.

"I am, and my avatar is a catgirl," Nicky said. "I alternate between wearing an OSHA-compliant hardhat with a cat ear headband on top, and wearing no hat but still having cat ears."

"How much did you have to pay the artist to make that?"

"I did it myself," Nicky said with a shrug. "3D modeling is a nice hobby, and the fact I can make vtuber avatars gives me an extra revenue stream that I can conceal from my family."

"How much do I need to pay you for a demon girl avatar with big tits and bigger horns?" I asked.

"That depends," Nicky said. "Do you want a full body model, or do you want just a chest-up model?"

I hummed quietly. "...I'd say a full body model, yeah. It'd be fun to use it in VR Chat or something, not just for my guest appearances on your stream while we do multiplayer Factorio."

"What makes you so confident I stream Factorio?"

"Your avatar wears an OSHA-compliant hardhat."

"...Point."

I grunted, and sat up a bit more, taking my hands off of her.

"Right, well, it is well past noon, and as much as I enjoy cuddling, I am really fucking hungry, and I should eat something."

"Just text Akane or Lisa and ask them to bring us some food," Nicky said, refusing to get up.

"I also have to go to the bathroom."

"That's not my problem."

"I can make it your problem."

"You're a big strong woman," Nicky said. "You can carry me."

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"Morning," I said, at one in the afternoon, walking down the stairs and into the living room with a curvy warrior-princess wrapped around my torso.

"You're awake," Akane said, a suddenly-alert foxgirl sprawled across her lap. "What'd we miss?"

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"A lot of talking," I said. "Also, some... reconciliation. I guess Nicky and I are friends now."

"Huzzah," Nicky said flatly, again still with her arms and legs wrapped around me.

"Anyhow," I continued, carefully prying her off of me with tentacles as I approached the couch. "Congratulations on the completion of your first thesis, Doctor Sakurai." Nicky let go of my torso, but then clung to the tentacles themselves, refusing to be set down, and so I ended up scooting her off to the side and wrapping her in a tentacular hug.

Just in time, too, for Akane to get up and hug me, depriving my torso of freedom once more. I returned the hug, obviously, because Akane was my best friend and I loved her dearly, but still.

"What, I don't get a tentacle hug?" Lisa complained.

I sighed dramatically, extruding a few more tentacles to wrap Lisa up snugly, and an extra to rub her ears.

"I'm proud of you," I said, mostly to Akane. "You've come a long way."

"I couldn't have done it without you," Akane said, squeezing me a little. "What's next?"

"Fuck knows," I said. "We'll figure it out tomorrow. It's Saturday, and despite the events of last night very much profaning the shabbat, that's no excuse to keep profaning it. I am going to sit down on the couch, I am going to cuddle with my roommates, and I am going to do nothing productive at all."

Saying so, I hefted Akane up and off her feet, turning around and seating myself on the couch, and pulled Nicky up onto the couch next to me, before sparing a hand to rub Lisa's ears properly.

I inhaled deeply, and sighed.

For this moment, at least, all was right with the world.

"I think we should find out what the implications are of superheroes being half-spirits," Akane said.

"It is Saturday," I insisted.

"It would be nice if I could learn how to shapeshift," Nicky said, ignoring me.

"I don't do that because I'm half-spirit," Lisa said. "I do that because I'm half fox spirit. I don't think you'd wanna manifest the form of an actual flying brick."

"My spirit is likely one of gravity," Nicky said. "Which... is even less of a discrete object than a flying brick is. Hrm. Perhaps I'll just settle for learning your other druid tricks."

"Is nothing sacred to you people?" I asked, affronted. "It is Saturday."

"Is that supposed to mean something?" Lisa asked.

"All of you have been rooming with a semi-observant Jew for at least a month," I said. "And absolutely none of you have picked up on the fact that Saturday is the day of rest? It is the Shabbat. The Seventh Day, on which we all rest, and abstain from productive labor, or talk which would lead to productive labor- because, yes, in Judaism, talk is action. It is Saturday, and unless lives are actively at stake, I ain't doin' jack shit, and I'd appreciate not being surrounded by an interesting but productive conversation I'm not supposed to be having."

"Providing a lecture on Jewish doctrine feels like productive talk to me," Lisa pointed out.

"Discussion and contemplation of the Torah is not merely permitted but encouraged in this time," I said defensively. "More importantly, though, if you insist on continuing to have this conversation, I will get up and leave the room."

"You'd deprive us of our most precious furniture?" Nicky asked, aghast.

"You're evil," Akane said.

"I am Jewish and it is Saturday," I said firmly. "C'mon, let's watch a movie or something."

----------------------------------------

We ended up rearranging ourselves on the couch. This removed me from the center of attention, but aside from that, it was a perfectly reasonable layout, with all of us lying across the couch, stacked atop each other like artfully-displayed sliced bread.

I was the one in the most direct contact with the couch- only after I'd gotten up, eaten a sandwich, taken a piss, and otherwise attended to my bodily needs- with Akane lying on her back and my stomach, using my tits as a pillow. On top of her, Nicky and Lisa were wrapped around each other, with Nicky on the bottom and her head on Akane's stomach. As a concession to the fact we lived in Texas, and it was the middle of the day, we forwent the blanket, and were rewarded for this decision by being able to see Lisa's tail wag.

There had never really been much animosity between Nicky and Lisa. Oh, sure, Nicky had pretended there was for all of two minutes, as a pretext for picking a fight with me, but Nicky had been, at most, indifferent towards Lisa. As for her snubbing of Akane's bounteous chest pillows, she had started out with her head resting on Akane's rack, but unfortunately, they were too big to do so comfortably, and had left her neck cocked at an uncomfortable angle. They were just tits, and thus could be pushed down and out of the way, but they had to go somewhere, and the first attempted solution left Veronica mostly blinded.

It was a hilarious problem to have, and we had laughed at it for a good while, but then we'd settled down and started arguing about which movie to watch.

"I say we watch the Porn Parody Earth's Charlie's Angels movie," Akane said.

"Can I change my vote to that?" Lisa asked.

"Absolutely not, we're not watching it," I said. "Nicky, back me up here."

"I wanna watch the Porn Parody Charlie's Angels movie," Nicky said.

"Oh you traitorous bitch. Fine. Fine! We'll watch the fucking movie!"

It turned out that I'd overstated the prevalence of sex in Porn Parody Earth's cinema. By just a hair, at least- yeah, Charlie's Angels opened up on a lesbian orgy, but the movie overall treated the fucking much like it might treat, say, action sequences. There were scenes without them, to build up to and contextualize the scenes with them, as well as to wind down from those scenes. Also, there were still action scenes- even one action scene that was also, simultaneously, a sex scene, where one of the heroines and a henchwoman were competitively hatefucking, wrestling for the advantage.

"What the fuck," I said about an hour into the movie.

It also turned out that this movie was not just ninety minutes of crime drama sucking and fucking. The titular Angels turned out to be actual angels, and the villain turned out to be a literal succubus from Hell.

"This fucking rocks," Lisa said.

"This sucks, but it sucks in an interesting way that's funny to talk about," I said.

"Oh quit whining, we just got to watch three trans women bukkake a succubus into being good and holy," Lisa said. "Quite aside from the thematics and framing of trans women, their bodies, and the sex they have as beautiful, desirable, good, and sacred, it was also just fucking hot."

"Just because it gives me a boner doesn't mean it isn't also cringe," I said.

"Was it actually that bad?" Nicky asked.

"Eh," I said. "It wasn't actively offensive, at least. And, well... Okay, maybe I do like having things to complain about." The ending focused on the three angels all marrying the reformed succubus, who was herself now also an angel. You may now fuck the bride, roll credits... over another lovingly-shot gangbang of the succubus. "Either way... I'd say I've had a pretty good day."