Drayden and Alice, on Marmalade Island:

Both Drayden and Alice had noticed during the day that the bearing and distance to the other Misfits seemed to be changing.

By evening, they were sure of it.

"Look, they are closer. It's not very much closer, but the bearing has changed too. They must be going sideways." said Alice.

"If we assume that they are coming for us, at least I hope so, then that implies they have to sail diagonally. Perhaps a combination of wind direction and obstructions?" said Drayden.

"I want to know how long they intend to take?"

Bronsen, sailing on the boat:

The following morning, they had another wonderful bowl of grey goop.

"Hey, I got some mystery tentacle meat!" said Cassy.

"Lucky you, I don't think I got any. Although I can barely taste the flavour."

Bronsen had an idea. "Say, Skip, do you think we can lure another tentacle into the docking bay by casting out a bit of garbage again?"

Considering who was asking, Skip decided to give this idea due consideration.

"Well, actually, that was only a small Kraken. They can be much bigger, like a hundred metres long bigger. Perhaps not a good idea to allow a tentacle from one of those access to the boat's insides."

"Oh. Nevermind." said Bronsen.

The navigator came past and informed them that, based on the conditions, they should be at Marmalade Island in another week. He explained that they had to make a circuitous route to get there because of shallow waters and reefs.

"Oh, thanks. That explains why our ability to detect where our friends are keeps shifting in what it reports their direction is," said Cassy.

They retreated to their cabin.

"This is so boring," said Cassy, "Not that I'm complaining or anything!"

"Yeah. There is nowhere to go and nothing to do. At least half of the cabins are almost empty. Imagine what it's like when it has a full load of crew members!"

"Packed in so tight they must have breathed in synchronisation to fit. Horrible life; I suppose they were ordered to wait on their mattresses and not to get in the road of anyone doing any actual work until they were needed to do something."

"And every time they have some duty, there's a high chance that some of them would die," said Bronsen.

"Do you think they appreciate that we are looking after them sufficiently well that no one has died? - err, besides, you know who, of course."

"I think so. The ones with maxed-out abilities certainly do. I guess many others also, although it is hard to tell."

They spent the rest of the day going through the other Blue's cabin, inventorying the contents, and making plans to work their way through the whole ship to investigate all of the cargo holds.

That night, after their evening dining experience:

"Only four days to go!" said Cassy.

"But are Dryden and Alice OK? Maybe there are some ranking slavers on their island?"

"They probably are OK. Remember they made that vow to look after my sister? That tends to imply they are free of any slave collars and have enough free time to talk about such things."

"Still, just in case, we won't dock immediately when we see the island. It could be an idea to hold off just out of range of any attack and have a good look first."

There was a relaxed silence for a while. Finally, Bronsen smiled sweetly at Cassy, but Cassy got in before he could say anything.

"I know, I know, you're going to ask me to strip off all my clothes and let myself be subject to your advances, aren't you?"

"Ahh, that's if you have no objection," said Bronsen.

"Well, now, I can't think of any..."

Lying on a reasonably clean blanket, they cuddled up to each other.

"Of course, I intend to be a complete gentleman and not entice you into anything that would ruin your reputation as a virtuous woman of high society," said Bronsen.

He was currently lying on top of her, and both were naked, but Cassy still chose to believe him.

"I trust you completely! I'm sure you'll never lead a young virginal maiden like me astray!"

There was giggling from both of them until they both abruptly stopped.

"Is there something hard coming up down there?" said Cassy.

"Yeah... looks like it is. I think I know where this is going to go."

Cassy had been running her hands gently up and down his back. But now her strokes were more - urgent. They were both breathing faster.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Well, hurry up!" she said.

...

Sometime later, they separated and lay next to each other. They were soaked with sweat - and other stuff.

"Oh wow. That was fantastic!" said Cassy.

"It was indeed," said Bronsen.

"Just as good as it was the first time Drayden and I did it!"

"Hmm" said Bronsen.

Ding! Sexual technique raised by one point. But don't get too cocky; you need to work a few things out.

"System san is always snarky about our sexual abilities, isn't she?" said Cassy, "And, what things do we need to work out..."

Bronsen inexplicably felt a stab of emotional pain in his heart.

What was that... Oh right.

He frowned.

He also noticed that Cassy momentarily looked discomforted.

"You're thinking about certain specific things, aren't you?" said Bronsen.

"Ahh, I guess we should, you know, be completely honest about all this... right?" said Cassy.

"I can't see how it will work unless we are."

"Well, in that case, for a brief moment, I felt like totally forbidding you from ever having sex with Alice ever again..."

"But you want to have sex with Drayden again, don't you?"

"That is different!" said Cassy, "Err, except it isn't."

"Course it isn't. I admit it; I felt jealous as all hell for a moment thinking about you being together with Drayden. But, of course, I really, really want to get into bed with Alice again."

"And that sets off my jealousy!" said Cassy.

"And Drayden sets off my jealousy!" said Bronsen.

Alice, on Marmalade Island:

As usual, after eating their catered evening meal (surprise! It's crocigator stew and bread with marmalade!), they locked their holiday chalet's front door and retreated to their bedroom.

Sitting there, knees to knees and holding hands, Alice looked at Drayden.

"Judging by how your eyes keep roaming over my body, and especially my breasts and legs, shall I make an educated guess about what you are thinking?" said Alice.

"Well, now, you certainly can. Even with our libidos switched off, I am still impressed by your lovely body."

"Hmmph. Men, with their one-track minds. You probably want me to remove my clothes to get a better view, right?"

"Of course," said Drayden, "Is that an option."

Drayden was very hopeful. Alice must have felt generous, as she merely said, "Sure, why not?"

Big grin from Drayden.

Despite their complete and utter lack of sexual arousal, it only took five minutes for them to be stretched out on the floor, completely naked, with Drayden lying on top of Alice.

"Do you think my Bronsen is doing this with your Cassy?" asked Alice.

"Probably."

"And, tell me, Mr Weirdo, do you still get off on the idea of Bronsen being with Cassy?"

"Certainly. Well, with my libido being switched off, it's hard to tell..."

Right then, something happened...

Neither Drayden nor Alice spoke for some time.

After their panting died, they lay there in silence, feeling slightly damp.

Ding! Sexual technique raised by one point. But don't get too cocky; you need to work a few things out.

Alice checked her status.

"Yep, it's up by one, no, two points! That means the other two have also been making love!" she said.

"So Cassy has had sex with my Bronsen! Damn the little hussy!"

She came close to shouting this out. She flung out her arms and tail to emphasise this statement. Drayden, still on top of her, was jotted around, so he got up on all fours and then leaned back to sit on his legs. But he was still sitting in between Alice's legs.

He giggled and said:

"Ooh yeah, I can just imagine Bronsen moving..."

He added a bit more description to this without being too crude.

Alice screamed in frustration and levered her body up so they were almost sitting on each other's laps.

"That is not funny! How can you be so relaxed as Cassy commits adultery with my Bronsen!"

"Well, dearest, you just committed adultery with Cassy's Drayden."

"That's different, different! This is, this, aaargh!"

She rocked side to side, hands clasped to her head, muttering incoherently. Drayden hugged her and patted her back with his tail.

"Sweetheart, you enjoyed that as much as you enjoyed making love to Bronsen, didn't you?"

Alice calmed down slightly and stopped talking to herself. They both noticed that Drayden was getting excited again.

Drayden went red in the face, and Alice looked as if she might be embarrassed also.

"Say, how about we twist our tails around each other’s again?" said Drayden.

Something happened again. And again.

Eventually, without saying anything more, they both relaxed, cuddled up to each other, and went to sleep.

Bronsen and Cassy, back on the boat:

"And that sets off my jealousy!" said Cassy.

"And Drayden sets off my jealousy!" said Bronsen.

They were now facing each other. Bronsen leant on his elbow to raise his head to get a bit of an elevation on Cassy so that he could glare at her. Cassy copied his actions, and now they were back to having their heads at the same level, but with both glaring.

Bronsen gave up and collapsed back to the ground. He laughed. He had just checked his status.

"Hey, look at our statuses; our sexual technique has just risen by yet another point! This is ridiculous! While arguing about jealousy, the other two are banging themselves silly!" said Bronsen.

"Yeah, I know. We are both committing adultery, and we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the other two are also, and we are not going to stop doing it, and they are not going to stop either, so why do we have to get so uptight about it?" said Cassy.

"Let's lie here and practice being calm and relaxed, shall we?" said Bronsen.

"I suppose so... say, you don't look quite as relaxed as you should be..." said Cassy.

They made love... a few more times before finally having a sleep.

Cassy:

The following day, she woke up and noticed that the boat must have changed course again sometime in the night since it was no longer leaning to one side or the other. However, it was rocking forward and backwards with enough force to push Cassy's and Bronsen's bodies up and down the cabin. And every time, there would be an extra loud crash of a wave hitting the bow. White foam from the waves obscured the portholes.

Amazing, we've been sleeping through all of this? I still haven't gotten used to our strengthed bodies.

Hmm, come to think about it, we also might have been slightly tired last night from all our exercise...

Ah yes. I have now slept with both Drayden and Bronsen! Two men! Wow!

They are the only two men in this Ringworld I can sleep with.

But I'm sure I wouldn't have a problem with that. Not at all. Since Bronsen and Drayden are so sexy!

Sigh.

Despite it all, I still feel this damn stab in my heart.

Yeah, how dare Alice sleep with MY Drayden.

And, how dare MY Bronsen still intend to sleep with Alice.

This is so stupid.

An extra violent crash of water hit the bow, and Bronsen flew forward a metre and slammed into a tied-down box. This caused him to wake up.

Bronsen:

What was that little tap on my head - ahh, I appear to have broken one of the storage boxes.

He sat up and saw Cassy sitting opposite him. She smiled sweetly at him and waved.

"If you really wanted to open that box, you could have just released the catches," she said.

Bronsen didn't bother to reply to that. Instead, he started thinking about last night.

Bloody hell, I still feel jealous. Definitely only a tiny amount of jealousy. Definitely. But it is still there. This sucks. I suppose we will have to work through it.

And Cassy's naked body looks so lovely, sitting there cross-legged...

It took another hour before they were ready to go out and see how the breakfast preparations were going.