After sitting and brooding in silence for a long while, each lost in their own private thoughts, Matthew finally shrugged, turned, and started walking towards the water. “Show us what they’re doing on the other side,” he commanded Jen, while keeping his arm wrapped around Rebecca’s shoulder and cupped around her breast.

“Working me to death,” Jennifer muttered sullenly, slowly getting up to trail behind them. “They saw how I could make things with glass, so they’ve been having me make one thing after another for them,” Jen moaned pitifully. “Last night after everyone did their woo-woo and ooh-ooh, the moisture condensed on the rooftop and it rained on us in here. They were all too exhausted and slept through the drizzle itself, but everyone woke up wet and moody.

“Since I could make things out of glass,” she explained, sounding almost as tired as she did disgusted, “they’ve had me creating thick glass supports and covering the tops with glass roofs, while they’ve been basically using vines and ferns to make the sides of the buildings and all.”

“So that’s the construction we can see in the distance,” Rebecca said.

Stopping, Matthew turned and stared at Jennifer for a moment, frowning heavily. “So basically, they’re making you use all your magic to help build the essential parts of their shelters, and then they also make you go out and investigate and deal with anything suspicious, like two intruders?” He didn’t sound very happy at all.

Tired, Jennifer just nodded. “I think a few of them are upset that I didn’t spend the evening with them like everyone else, if you know what I mean,” she explained.

“So it’s a case of ‘screw ‘em or they screw you over’.” Snorting, Matthew turned and slowly started walking again. “It’s your class and the fact that you’re now a player and not an NPC which helped you resist the lure to procreate last night,” Matthew explained. “Though that doesn’t make you immune to the influence either,” he warned. “Resistance isn’t immunity and the more nights you stay in here the greater the chance that you’ll succumb to its influence.”

“I think we’ll pass and sleep somewhere else at night,” Rebecca piped up, clinging a little tighter on his arm. “I don’t need some crystal trying to control my actions. I’ll be passionate with you and no one else, and I don’t need some stone trying to alter that.”

“Agreed,” Matthew nodded, stopping at the edge of the river. Staring out across the lake, he could see the reflection off the glass roofs of the buildings the others were constructing. “We’ll stay elsewhere at nights.”

“Can… Can I stay with you guys?” Jennifer asked, quietly.

“Nope.” Startling Matthew, Rebecca was the one to flatly refuse the idea. “You won’t share Matthew’s bed, so why should you run to us when it’s inconvenient to sleep elsewhere?”

“But we agreed I wouldn’t have to!” Sounding shocked, Jennifer stared wide-eyed at Rebecca.

“You don’t have to,” Rebecca assured her. “We’re companions and we’ll keep you safe and from harm. From what I can tell, these guys don’t want to harm you; they just want to screw you. You’re not in any real danger here, and there’s no real reason to stay with us either at nights, as you’ll just be trading ‘they want to screw you’ for ‘Matthew wants to screw you’. If you’re that much against it, you should just find some place alone to sleep,” Rebecca told her coldly.

“Of course,” she warned, smirking lightly, “it will increase your level of danger, as you’ll be helpless while asleep. It’s hard to say who – or what – you’d wake up to find screwing you.”

“Or worse,” Matthew added, staring wide-eyed over at Rebecca.

“Or worse,” Rebecca agreed, “but, that’s sometimes he price we pay for the choices we make.”

“That’s not fair!” Mouth agape, Jennifer stared bewildered at Rebecca.

“What’s not fair? Personally, I think it’s very fair. You don’t want to be with Matthew, and no one’s going to force you to do that. At the same time, I really don’t want some perverted voyeur just sitting and watching and listening to us when we are together. Why should I have to put up with a peeping tom just because you’re scared?”

“But… I…” Flustered, Jennifer turned her back and looked almost as if she was going to cry. “I’m not a pervert,” she finished softly.

“You don’t want to be with a man, but you’re more than willing to stay by a man’s side while he’s with someone else? That sounds like a pervert to me,” Rebecca snorted lightly.

“But I don’t want to be alone either,” Jennifer whispered, head hung low.

“Then I guess you have choices to make,” Rebecca told Jen, as she wiggled out of her tattered skirt and left it laying on the edge of the grass. “You can stay here and spend your nights with these people, instead of us, knowing how this place affects them and will eventually affect you. You could come with us, avoiding them, and actually spend the nights with Matthew and me, as a full partner and not just a traveling companion. Or, you could continue to be our travel companion only, and not spend the nights around any of us horny, immoral bastards. The choice is yours.”

Turning, Rebecca took a deep breath and then leaped out into the cool water and began to swim across to the other side. Smirking to himself, Matthew said nothing, and leapt into the water following her.

Jennifer stood shocked and slowly sunk down to her knees, hanging her head and crying lightly. “I never said you were horny, immoral bastards,” Jennifer whispered into her own hands, sniffling uncontrollably. “Is it really too much to ask, to wait until you find a partner you love for your first time?”

Feeling abandoned and alone, she hugged herself and trembled uncontrollably. Faced with what she felt was an impossible dilemma, she simply sat and cried, rocking herself back and forth as her mind leapt from one impossible choice to another.

Shaking the water from his clothes as he emerged from the water on the other side, Matthew grabbed Rebecca’s arm and tugged it hard, forcing her to turn to face him. Looking slightly irate, he demanded to know, “What was all that crap back there about?”

“Just a little push from woman to woman,” Rebecca told him, flashing him a wide smile as she lightly patted him on the cheek. “You were regretting that she wouldn’t actually be a part of us, not really, you said. You told me that you felt like she’d cemented her decision and it was always going to be a wall of some sort between all of us, putting a distance between us. I just wanted to see exactly how strong a wall she plans on building.”

Shaking his head, Matthew snorted slightly as he released her arm. “And what if she decides she’d rather sleep by herself?”

“And take a risk that the other boys here will come out and find her while under the influence of the crystal nights? I sincerely doubt that,” she snorted. “Besides,” Rebecca blushed lightly and then tried to copy Matthew’s usual noncommittal shrug, “in the long run, it’s just easier for me if she agrees. On those nights when I’m not in the mood, or filling bad, I can just send you off to enjoy an evening with her while I relax and spend a little time by myself.”

“Rebecca!” Shocked, Matthew barked a shocked laugh and shook his head from side to side. “You’re trying to get her to agree, just so you can pawn my affections off on her whenever you don’t want to deal with me!”

“I am,” Rebecca admitted, forcing herself to stand tall and stare him in the eyes, “and you can’t blame me for it either. What’s the point of being 'first’ as you called me, if there’s not a ‘second’ to pass the job down to? You might be my ‘only’, but I never asked to be the same for you. I promised I wouldn’t resist you,” Rebecca pointed out, putting her hands on her hips, “and I still won’t – not even when I’m sick, moody, or just not in the mood – but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t take advantage of the opportunity to pawn you off somewhere else from time to time.”

“So you were just being a selfish little thing back there!” Blinking stupidly, Matthew stared wide-eyed, shocked. Somehow, he had a feeling that women were a lot more complicated creatures than he’d ever imagined them to be.

“Well, yeah.” Turning her back on him, Rebecca shrugged slightly and then turned to walk on towards where the buildings were being constructed.