"Everything's going to be so awkward now," Alasea lamented. "He knows I like him and he's seen me naked and I've already hurt him twice... augh."

She pushed herself back up into a sitting position and let out a sigh. "Why can't anything around here be easy?" she wondered aloud.

Stupid! Stupid stupid stupid! She thought this would make things better, but now Alasea was going to stay away from R.D. and...ugh. What a screwup.

"I'm sorry," Helena said again, and her voice sounded notably pathetic now.

"Its okay," Alasea mumbled, sounding equally pathetic.

"... what are you gonna do now?" Ileyna spoke up to break the awkward silence.

"Obviously I'm gonna have to go and apologize to R.D.," Alasea replied. "You know, after I'm capable of looking him in the face again."

Helena stayed slouching, her hair obscuring her eyes.

"Hey," Alasea called to the downcast weredragon. "I'm not holding this against you. I'm the one who screwed up here."

Helena pulled aside some of her bangs, and Alasea could see the light of a candle flicker in her tawny eyes. "I started it, though. I should've kept out of it." Stupid crush.

"Yeah, well, its not like life goes out of its way to be fair to us," Alasea said. "You're not the one who yelled at him and threw him into a wall."

"Let's just drop it," Helena said. No way this could be fixed now.

Alasea sighed, looking off to the side. I wonder if R.D.'s thinking about this right now, she wondered while Ileyna looked back and forth at the two older girls, confused as to what she should do.

===Boys' Hotel Room===

How does he keep doing that? R.D. wondered, frustrated at the GAME OVER that blinked on the screen of the second handheld game console. He ignored Matt's continued gloating. That's five times he's beaten me!

===Girls' Hotel Room===

The day's events were beginning to catch up to Alasea, and she had to stifle a yawn as Ileyna finally gathered her clothes to go take her own shower. As Alasea stretched, something caught her eye.

"Huh?" She leaned in closer, trying to get a better look.

"... Helena, did you know your ears changed?" she finally said, realizing what exactly she was looking at.

"What?" Helena brought a claw up to her angled ear. "Oh. Yeah, I know about that already."

"I just noticed it," Alasea said, looking at how the ear went from human at its base, to a fin-like, green-colored dragon's ear at the tip. "How long has it been like that?"

"Ever since I decided to stay like this," Helena said. "Why, what's wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong," Alasea said, shaking her head. I'm just blind, that's all. "How's staying in that form working for you, anyway?"

"It's...well, I'm getting more adjusted to it, but it still feels weird. Like I'm a normal person who just became a superhero. You know?"

Alasea smiled. "Sounds like me when I first made contact with my Pillar of Dawn," she said. "It was a... bit of a shock."

"But a pretty good tradeoff," Helena said. "I mean, besides this -" here she lifted her claw - "I really like all these new powers I've got. If I can just figure out how to use them without ruining my shirts, I'd be set."

"We really should find a seamstress who can make some holes in your shirts for your wings," Alasea agreed.

Helena frowned. "It's not like they just...slide through." She thrust forward with her claws to demonstrate. "They spread out when they're growing. Unless you clip the whole backside, they're just going to rip through anyway."

"Yeah, I guess that'd be a problem," Alasea mused. "You could always wear backless dresses then."

"I don't want to wear dresses all the time. If I can just keep the gem when I go home, then I'll be fine."

Now Helena found herself unable to contain a yawn, and hers was longer and higher-pitched than Alasea's was. "Ohhh. I really need to get to sleep."

Alasea stifled a giggle at Helena's now-apparent exhaustion. "Alright, go ahead and settle down," she said. "I'm going to wait for Ileyna to come out before I sleep."

The night passed uneventfully. As always, Matt was up stupidly early, keeping himself occupied by taking stock of their situation. Judging by the inventory list he took, their food supply was decent and their medkits were still usable - most of their injuries were covered through healing, but hey, gotta have a backup plan. They had way too much clothing, though. Sure, Helena charged through their supply like a freight train, but the Fabric Repair Device could fix most of it up. Matt knew their packs could store all that clothing, but it still felt like a waste.

Oh, well. Everything was good, otherwise. Now to sit back and wait until everyone got up.

It wasn't long before R.D. woke up, coming to early like usual. After getting up and grabbing his clothes, he stumbled off to the bathroom to shower and get dressed. Fifteen minutes later, he exited, fully dressed and fully awake.

"What time is it?" he asked Matt upon leaving the bathroom.

"Who knows," Matt said. After all, they were currently in a dimension where talking animals lived in wooden houses, except in those places where you could find a normal bathroom. He was still squinting by candlelight, but he had dragged a few over to the desk he was sitting at so his inventory task could be easier.

A half hour later, Alasea, Helena, and Ileyna had woken up from their slumber and were getting ready to leave, having gathered up their stuff and tidied up the room a bit.

The door to the bathroom slid open and Alasea stepped out, now clad in something different than her regular red and black ensemble. Rather than her black skirt and jacket and red tube-top, she wore blue-gray capri pants with the laces tied up, exposing a bit of her calves. A pair of spaghetti-strap shirts went with it, a dark purple one worn under a light green one with floral print, leaving her arms and shoulders bare. A simple, purple jewel necklace hung around her neck, and simple sandals were strapped to her feet.

"Well?" she said, looking about herself self-consciously and inadvertently posing to the girls in the room. "How do I look? I usually don't dress in this fasion..."

"You look good!" Helena said. She changed her outfit again to jeans and a green blouse, held together by a single button near her stomach, overlapping a normal black T-shirt. "Are you dressing that way because...you know."

Alasea shook her head, though her cheeks were tinged with a bit of red thanks to the reminder. "No, uh, actually, my other outfit's a mess," she explained. "They're caked with dust from Kamina's world, and what with all of the fighting we were doing yesterday, I really needed to find something else to wear."

Rolling up her sleeping bag, Helena picked up the bundle and stuffed it into her pack. "Next time we camp, let's wash all our clothes. It should be quick if Matt rinses them off for us."

Alasea nodded. "Yeah, alright," she said. "Let's... let's go see if the guys are ready to leave yet."

The girls found Matt loitering around outside of his room, already packed to go. He turned around as Helena slid the door shut. "There you are. You got everything together?"

"Yeah," Helena said.

"Good, let's roll. The sooner I'm away from that giraffe, the better."