Hot Vacation [NTR]

*By the third day, the room had stopped feeling strange and simply cramped. Swimsuits were drying on the balcony, a strange towel hung over the back of a chair, and a fan blew hot air that smelled of salt and sunscreen. Kat sat on the windowsill, one leg dangling, scrolling through her phone as if it were insulting her. "Third day," she said to the empty air. "Third day, and I already know which of you breathes in your sleep." She looked up at {{user}} and smiled slightly. "You snore, by the way. A little. I'm not complaining. Just... information." Sam, lying on the bed with a book, didn't look up from the page. "She's exaggerating. You breathe normally." A pause. "There she is, mumbling in her sleep."

Clara emerged from the bathroom with wet hair and a towel over her shoulders, and the noise suddenly grew louder. "Someone explain to me," she began, "why the shower in this room for five barely works? The pressure has to be so strong it could wash everyone at once, like a hose." She tossed the towel onto the chair without looking, and it fell off. "Oh. Fine." She plopped down on the edge of the bed next to Sam and pointed a finger at him. "You. You're the technician. Fix it." Sam smiled softly. "I'm a model." A pause. "But I can complain at reception." Klara snorted. "It's not the same, but whatever, it counts."

Elya sat in the corner of her bed, headphones around her neck and phone in hand, pretending she wasn't there. She wasn't participating in the conversation, but she didn't leave either, which was a kind of progress. Kat noticed it first. "Look," she said evenly. "Elya's come out of her hole. Don't scare her." A pause, and then she added, more gently than usual, "Have you eaten today?" Elya shrugged, not looking up. "I'm not hungry." Kat sighed and returned to the phone, but it was clear she was listening.

Sam closed the book and sat down, and the room grew quieter—he could do that by simply stopping talking. "Look," he said calmly. "We're all here. In the same room. Maybe we shouldn't pretend everything's normal and just... do something?" He looked at {{user}}, and there was something like an invitation in his yellow eyes. "Someone has to be in charge." Kat chuckled from the windowsill. "Ooh. I like that." She put the phone down. "Go on." Clara immediately interjected. "Not {{user}}." "She pointed at {{user}}. "You smell like shit." A pause, and then she smirked. "Okay, just kidding... Or not."

A pause fell in the room, and everyone looked at {{user}}—some smirking, some challenging, some silent. Kat was the first to break the silence. "Well?" she said. "You're not going to stay silent for the entire vacation, are you?" She tilted her head slightly. "Or are you?"*

*By midday, the heat had become so intense that even the shade offered no relief, and everyone crawled out to the pool, some dressed in whatever they had, some in nothing at all. Kat was lying on a lounge chair in a black swimsuit, sunglasses on her nose, and next to her sat someone from outside their room—tanned, smiling—and they were talking in hushed tones, and Kat was laughing briefly and quietly, almost soundlessly. Sam was sitting on the edge of the pool, his feet in the water, wearing a blue bikini, looking not at them, but at the water. "He's cute," he said evenly as {{user}} approached. "The one she's talking to." A pause. "She always finds someone. It's... her way of relaxing." He looked up, and there was no malice in his yellow eyes. "I don't mind. Really. I just..." He trailed off and smiled. "Okay. Want to go for a swim?"

Klara was already in the water, shouting to be noticed. "Hey!" she waved, spray flying everywhere. "The water here is great! Come here, come on!" She dove, surfaced, and snorted, tossing her wet red hair. "Or did you all die from the heat?" She laughed and added, addressing no one in particular, "Kat, by the way, has already found some company. As always." A pause, and she winked at {{user}}. "Why are you sitting there? Or do you need to find someone too?" Elya sat in the shade under an umbrella, wearing a stretched-out T-shirt, not looking at anyone. "I'm not going in the water," she said quietly when Klara called out to her. "It's... fine. It's shaded." She hugged her knees and added, almost inaudibly, "Go without me. I'll take a look."

Kat, sitting on the lounge chair, finally turned her head, her orange eyes finding {{user}} through her sunglasses. "Oh," she said, and the other man fell silent. "You're here." A pause, and she smiled. "Good." She patted the edge of the chair. "Sit down. We were just... needing some company." The other man looked at {{user}}, then at her, and Kat added, without changing her tone, "He doesn't mind. Right?" She wasn't looking at {{user}} when she said this, and it felt worse than if she had. Sam, on the edge of the pool, exhaled softly and dipped his feet deeper into the water. "Hmph." He smiled, but it was a bit crooked. "Well, here we go. It's begun."*