The Misfits:

The Misfits had claimed three bedrooms. One for each couple and one for their meetings. They had also searched the Dormitory buildings and found two old sofas, which they appropriated and relocated into their shared room. Right now, they were sitting on those sofas and ready for a Misfits club meeting.

Alice wiggled from side to side and straightened the material of her trousers. Sitting to her right, Cassy swept her hand through her flowing red hair, then said.

"It's just not the same as wearing a short skirt, right?"

Bronsen, sitting on the other sofa in front of Alice, agreed.

"Yeah, I have to agree. We can no longer see Cassy's gorgeous legs... Oh, and Alice's too, of course."

He got a brief hot glare from Alice.

"And I can't see Alice's lovely legs, either!" said Drayden, sitting right next to Bronsen and thus opposite to Cassy.

Cassy raised her eyebrows. "So you don't mind not seeing my legs?"

"Oh, definitely I mind. Of course. After all, yours are so lovely..." said Drayden.

They were all a bit self-conscious. It was the time to have a 'talk' about a specific crucial topic, and they were slowly working themselves up to it.

"I still think it would be wonderful to see Alice comb Cassy's hair, especially now it looks so fantastic," said Drayden.

Alice and Cassy exchanged glances.

"You still want some girl-on-girl action, don't you?" said Cassy with as much scorn as she could manage.

"Of course!" said Bronsen, "After all that we have been through, let's return to our beginnings and celebrate our survival. So far."

Vigorous nodding from Drayden.

"Yeah. I am so impressed that we have managed to get back to having a meeting like this," said Drayden.

A snort of derision from Cassy. "You mean, you are impressed that we have become two proper couples."

"But, you have to admit that it is amazing. Even if we didn't make the choice ourselves," said Alice.

The conversation fizzled out at that point, and the four no longer eighteen-year-old school kids looked at each other with just a touch of embarrassment. But they knew they had to deal with the elephant in the room.

"Nonetheless, we may be in our couples, but it appears that we are all still attracted to the other one we could have chosen," said Alice.

"Definitely!" said Bronsen.

He got back a medium-level danger warning stare from Alice.

"But you are still in a relationship with me!" said Alice.

"Ah, yes, of course," said Bronsen.

"You will not have a physical relationship with Cassy!"

Alice upgraded her stare to a high-danger warning level.

Gulp. "Ah, yes, of course, agreed!" said Bronsen, "But, but, Alice, you must admit, you are also attracted to Drayden."

"That is a different matter entirely!"

"Ah..."

"Actually, isn't it the precise same matter?" said Cassy, "Bronsen is highly attracted to me, and you are highly attracted to Drayden."

"But, you are not allowed to have sex with my man!" said Alice directly to Cassy.

"I'm not proposing that we have sex. Just that we acknowledge that we are sexually attracted to each other. Indeed, we are strongly attracted to each other. In that case, what are we going to do about it?"

"Well, we will have to ignore the illegal attractions! If we don't, we could end up tearing ourselves apart with jealousy. And I don't want to lose Bronsen!"

"Alice, I don't want you to lose me either. And the other two also don't want that to happen. Nonetheless, when we were strolling through the markets, even when we had previously agreed to stick to our couples, we still walked hand in hand with the wrong person. And that includes you." said Bronsen.

"Remember, Alice, you and Cassy have total control over the male's libido. All you have to decide to do is never to turn it on, and everything is safe. We can enjoy each other's company, but it can never progress to any sexual activity whatsoever."

"Ah, yes, I suppose that is correct," said Alice.

"Of course! I want to enjoy Bronsen's company; I missed him in the last year, but I can easily make a moral choice and not turn on that switch," said Cassy.

She thought over things for a moment, then turned to Alice.

"Oh, and I have also missed your company. Err, but not in quite the same way."

Alice and Cassy had a deep and meaningful conversation in complete silence, merely by intense eye contact.

Eventually, Alice nodded. "OK, if we keep those switches firmly off and never ever switch them on in the wrong combination, then, I suppose, a certain amount of interaction is allowed."

Cassy nodded in affirmation to this. She looked at the boys, silently observing this, and sweetly said,

"Is that OK, boys?"

"Definitely! Definitely!" said Bronsen.

"Fine by me. But, there is a little detail - up to now, that libido switch thingy has always been presented as Alice/Bronsen and Cassy/Drayden. So, doesn't that mean that all of this discussion is moot? Maybe we, err, I mean the girls, can't switch our libidos on in the wrong combination, anyway?" said Drayden.

Silence as they contemplated this question.

"That's a good point. Right now, my status shows a reading of Cassy/Drayden," said Cassy.

The other three all agreed.

"I hate to point this out, but there is also the 'No Group Sex' constraint," said Drayden, "So maybe while we are all together or in public, the wrong combination is always prevented."

There was an awkward silence, with nervous glances between them. Eventually, Cassy was brave enough to propose the question.

"What if we are private, separate, and in the wrong combination?"

Another uneasy silence.

"So, I need to go to one of our bedrooms with Drayden... Purely for scientific research purposes only! And see what happens to our status display?" said Alice.

She didn't meet anybody's eyes as she said this.

The other three shared a three-way glance, and then Cassy smiled slightly.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"I think that is a good idea. Purely to find out the limits, of course! Ah, are we all agreed upon this?" she said.

The three waited, and eventually, Alice said yes.

"Remember, the switch stays off no matter what happens!" said Cassy.

"Of course!" said the other three.

A minute later, Alice was standing in her and Bronsen's bedroom, alone at last with Drayden. Drayden's face was going red, and possibly Alice's was also.

"Yep, the status display has changed to Alice and Drayden." said Drayden, "But, of course, it is still off."

"Ah, yes, definitely off," said Alice.

And they stood there, looking at each other.

"As long as it stays off - there's no problem with a shared hug, is there?" said Alice.

"Oh, none at all, I'm sure."

So they hugged each other.

"The last half year was pretty intense," said Alice.

"I know. But one thing that kept me going was the knowledge that somewhere in this world, you and Bronsen were also present," said Drayden.

"Hmm, yeah."

After a while, they returned to the clubroom and were soon joined by the other two.

"Soooooo - the pairings on our status display can change," said Drayden.

"At least when the switch is off. It doesn't necessarily mean that the switch can ever be turned on in the wrong combination," said Cassy.

An exasperated sigh from Bronsen.

"In other words, we still haven't found the real constraints," he said.

The awkward silence was filled with glances between all four teenagers.

"Well? What shall we do about that?" said Cassy, looking as if she knew perfectly well what to do.

Three teenagers looked at Alice and waited.

"Well..." said Alice.

She looked down at her hands, clasped together and sitting on her lap.

"I suppose..."

She looked away from everybody else.

"You all probably want to know... Don't you?"

"Ah, yes?" said Bronsen.

"After all, it is important that we know, isn't it?"

"I believe so," said Cassy.

"I'm not sure that we should... But, I don't know, maybe I'll allow the experiment... Since we do need to know, anyway. Right?"

"For sure," said Bronsen.

"OK, OK, I'm extremely reluctant to do this. After all, it is skirting very close to disaster. But, if you are all so determined, let's try it." said Alice.

There was a small silence while Alice looked away, and the other three shared another three-way glance.

"That seems like a good idea. As long as we are cautious, of course!" said Cassy.

"Yeah, how about the rule that it is for no more than five minutes, and we don't touch each other," said Drayden.

"And, of course, we remain fully clothed!" said Bronsen.

They waited, and finally, Alice nodded her head.

"Purely for scientific research purposes, OK?" she said.

The others agreed.

A minute later, Alice was again standing in her and Bronsen's bedroom, alone with Drayden. This time, they were really embarrassed.

"Ah, Drayden, I'll try turning the switch on now," said Alice.

They both gasped and began breathing heavier than before. After a few minutes, Alice looked down.

"Ah, right, you have an erection."

Gulp. "Yes, I certainly do," said Drayden.

They stood, rooted to their spots on the floor, a metre and a half distance between them, for a minute or so.

"I suppose this is the definite proof; there is the possibility of - you know what - between us," said Alice.

"Oh, you bet there is."

"I guess we should return to the others now," said Alice.

"Yes."

But neither made a move.

"Perhaps if you turned off the switch, now?" said Drayden.

"I will. Very soon," said Alice.

They kept standing there.

"Maybe... We can share another little hug, first?" said Alice, "I mean, nothing is going to happen, anyway."

"Ah, sure."

Drayden gingerly stepped close to Alice and put his arms around her. But he didn't make complete body contact.

She wrapped her arms around him and drew his body close to hers. By now, they were almost hyperventilating.

And then, they both twitched, seemingly relaxed and moved apart from their embrace.

Alice looked momentarily bewildered.

"Ah, sorry, I thought it was time to turn that switch off," said Drayden.

"Oh. Of course. It was definitely time. I would have turned it off very soon, anyway."

Drayden nodded his head.

"Of course, of course!" he said.

Without looking at him, Alice went out of the door. Drayden closely followed.

As it happened, both couples returned to the meeting room almost simultaneously.

They fidgeted and squirmed in their seats.

Finally, Cassy spoke up.

"So, it is possible."

Nobody asked what sort of possibility she was referring to.

"And, we have to make a small confession. We did hug each other. But only for a short period. Then I turned the switch off." said Cassy.

"Err, well, we hugged each other too," said Alice, "And then the switch went off."

More contemplative silence.

"So, to summarise, as long as the ladies never turn on those switches, we can agree to enjoy each other's company as we desire. Correct?" said Bronsen.

Murmurs of assent.

"I suggest keeping our respective partners informed about what we do. More or less. OK?" said Drayden.

More murmurs of assent.

Cassy clapped her hands.

"Now that that is settled, I want to move on to a related topic."

"Yes?" said Alice.

Cassy told the boys about when the man, who had tripped over Mason, had approached her and Alice.

"Yeah, I was sure he was going to make some creepy advance to us," said Alice.

"But, as soon as he got close to us, he seemed to lose all interest," said Cassy.

"Which was great. But that has never happened before, back on Earth," said Alice.

"And then, there was the conversation between the two serving ladies. You all heard that, didn't you?" said Cassy.

"We sure did. Our enhanced perception is certainly useful," said Drayden.

"And, more to the point, the same thing happened to those ladies. They lost all interest in us when we got within range. That is, they lost all interest in us as sexy men and appeared to be only interested in selling us food." said Bronsen.

"Oh, you poor boys," said Alice.

"Yeah, poor boys. The only females on this entire Ringworld that want to get into bed with you are us two," said Cassy.

"That's fine, fine! That really is fine, isn't it, Alice? You will never have the need to worry about me, or Drayden for that matter, straying to greener pastures. It just can't happen. System-san has decreed it to be so." said Bronsen.

"Yep, that's good!" said Alice, "Err, it's not just me that thinks it's good; it's Cassy also, right?"

"It certainly is," Cassy said with a big grin,

"And I'm sure you have already noticed, but we are not attracted to anybody outside our little group."

"Oh, definitely. No matter which girl I tried to ogle when we were out in the markets, I did not feel the slightest bit interested," said Drayden.

A vigorous nod from Bronsen.

A medium-strength evil smile from Alice.

"You poor boys. No one else wants you, and you can't have them anyway!"

So Bronsen gave back his own medium-strength evil smile.

"Oh, I think us boys can manage to deal with that..."

"I've been thinking, there's a certain asymmetry about this stuff..." said Drayden.

"Eeh?" said Cassy.

"When it comes to everybody else, we cannot feel the slightest attraction for them. We can't even appreciate their lovely bodies. And similarly in the reverse. Whereas, between ourselves, while we are together like this, or apart but with the libido switched off, we can appreciate the opposite sex's bodies. It's just that we can't get physically aroused by them." said Drayden.

There was a contemplative period while the others thought about this.

An evil grin from Bronsen. "Soooooo, us men can observe both ladies and store the images in our head, and then when we are in private with our designated other, it all becomes fantasy fuel."

"I'm willing to make that concession. After all, us ladies are also observing the men, you know," said Cassy.

More silence. It was getting late, but nobody wanted to leave.

"Everyone, it is so nice to be with you again. The last week or so has been too hectic to slow down and relax, but now that we can take our time, I appreciate the company of Cassy and Drayden," said Alice.

They all agreed.

"We don't have to get up early tomorrow - after all, there is no school, so let's catch up with some stories!" said Bronsen.

An evil grin from Alice, this time it was at full strength.

"In that case, let me tell you about the time that Bronsen went charging off, with nary a backward glance, and jumped onto the back of a monster hippo..."

Bronsen visibly paled. The others looked highly interested.

Half an hour later.

"Well, then, I shall tell you about the time that Drayden decided to be the alpha male and galloped along the shore of a lake without the slightest bit of caution," said Cassy.

"Oh-oh," said Drayden.

In the small hours of the morning, they finally decided that maybe they should get some sleep.

Cassy:

An hour later, in their bedroom, Cassy and Drayden finally took a break from banging each other silly. They had made very sure that the door was firmly closed and locked.

"Admit it, lover boy. You were madly fantasising about Alice, weren't you?"

"Of course. And you were doing all sorts of things with Bronsen, yes?"

"You bet your socks I was. Or, perhaps I can say, bet your penis?"

"Ah, I think I would rather bet my socks. My penis is special to me, and I wouldn't want to risk losing it."

Cassy laughed, so Drayden thwacked her with his tail.

"OK, tell me the truth, who turned off the switch when you and Alice were having your little experiment?" she said.

"Hmm, isn't that confidential information..." said Drayden.

He then had a good look at her body language.

"No problems! It was me, actually. Although Alice said, she was just on the verge of flicking it off, herself."

A big smirk from Cassy.

"She's not quite acknowledging her desires, is she?"

"Yep!"

A gap in the conversation.

"But, that switch never goes on between you and Alice for the foreseeable future. Agreed?" said Cassy.

Drayden checked her body language, again.

“Agreed!”

In the early hours of the morning, Cassy woke up. She looked at Drayden's face as he slumbered on, head only centimetres from hers.

It is so nice having him as my partner. And, I suppose our mutual attraction to the wrong partners probably won't cause problems. I hope.

At this point, she saw the teddy bear that he had obtained. It was sitting on the bedhead. So she quietly took it, and, with a big smile, she placed it between Drayden's face and his hand.

How cute!

Drayden squirmed in his sleep; then his hand closed over the bear. He rolled over to face the other way while cuddling the bear.

What?

Ah.

Well, I never. He didn't say anything about this before!

I betcha, back on Earth, he used to sleep with a teddy bear.

She started softly giggling.

I'll tell the others at our next meeting.

In the morning, four Misfits were very late for breakfast.