Samus took her new friend up on her offer even sooner than she thought. Not more than 30 minutes after waking up and showering to try clearing away some of the hangover, did Samus get a call from Cassie, inviting “Jessie” to brunch with her and the girls from last night. Not really having any plans for the day beyond maybe trying another trip to the beach with her new layer of anonymity, the busty blonde decided to take the girl up on her offer.

Not soon afterwards, Samus arrived at the fancy restaurant Cassie had told her about. Waiting for her by the door was the semi-familiar form of Cassie. The pretty young woman had her dirty blonde hair tied up in a lazy, messy bun and a huge pair of sunglasses to guard against the sun’s rays while she dealt with her hangover. She wore a light, flowery sundress that gave her a flirty aura despite looking like she wanted to die a little bit.

“Oh my god, Jessie!” she perked up as the taller blonde approached. “I’m so glad you could join us. C’mon in, the girls are getting us a table outside.”

Samus was led though the restaurant and instantly felt self conscious again. The tight leggings and cute giant sweater look might have worked at the club last night, but was a bit out of place at a place this upscale. She’d probably need to add a summery dress or two to her wardrobe if brunch was going to become a normal thing.

Outside in the back area of the restaurant, Samus joined Casie and three of her friends from the night before, but couldn’t actually keep everyone’s names straight in her head. She was pretty sure that they were Ashley, Daisy, and Krissi, but might have gotten them mixed up with some of the other girls in the group from last night.

The girls all greeted her warmly and ordered several mimosas from the waiter who could barely keep his eyes off of Samus’s chest.

Samus was unprepared for the barrage of friendly questions the women asked of her, but she was able to brush a lot of them off with a white lie or half truth to keep too much of the morning’s attention from being on her.

“So, Jessie.” One of the girls asked, leaning in eagerly and giving Samus a good view of her modest cleavage, Samus acutely aware that she was easily the most conservatively dressed of the group, particularly compared to this girl’s skimpy crop top. “What brings you to Zathor-4?”

“Oh, you know, I was just thinking I needed to really unwind with a long vacation.” Samus answered easily and honestly. “I was going to go crazy if I couldn’t spend some time at the beach.”

“Omigawd, I totally get that.” The one that Samus was fairly sure was Krissi. “Winter totally sucks! The best thing about Zathor-4 is that it’s, like, beach season all year round!”

There was a round of affirmation from the group.

“What’re your favourite movies?” The redhead of the group asked. Daisy, was it? This time, Samus didn’t have an answer. She couldn’t even remember the last time she watched a movie that any of these girls were likely to have been able to sit through without complaining or falling asleep.

“Romantic comedies.” Samus decided. It was a nice, safe, easy answer that satisfied Daisy, who was mostly asking to scope out what celebrities Jessie liked, Samus would later that week find out that Daisy’s ulterior motive was that she refused to go to movies alone, and Samus was the perfect replacement for her boyfriend.

The questions kept flying, Samus answering casually with non-committal answers and a few white lies when needed. Nothing that would back herself into a corner, until she got a particular question from Ashley, the bottom-heavy blonde in a miniskirt.

“So, like, what’s your job anyway, Jessie? Your hands are like, super rough.” The ditzy girl asked, Samus’s blood running cold as her face froze.

“Oh, that’s, um, because I work out a lot.” Samus said hastily in an attempt to brush her off, pulling her hands back out of sight. Her hands were rough and calloused, a far cry from the delicate palms and slender fingers tipped with claw-like manicured nails of the others. It wasn’t suspicious, right? Her excuse was so flimsy!

“Oh yeah, you’ve got, like, nice legs an’ all.” Ashley settled for it, Samus blatantly avoiding the question. Thankfully despite the constant questioning from the girls, none of them were as inquisitive as she was scared of them being, simply coming to their own conclusions based on her answer.

But after the barrage of intro questions that were apparently always part of making new friends, the brunch became a fairly normal affair. The girls swapped stories about their respective hookups from the night before, made vows to never drink that much again (even though it was obvious they would), and made idle gossip about various celebrities Samus had never heard of.

She didn’t really know what was going on, but she was happy that Cassie and her friends had the opportunity for these peaceful lives. It was a far cry from watching people crawl out of their levelled homes after a Space Pirate raid, herself only arriving on the scene long after the idea of a normal life had been completely shattered.

Of course, once the topic of love lives came up, Samus felt even more out of her depth than she did during the twenty minute discussion of what these two “celebrity” Reality TV Stars were up to. Samus was the only one who didn’t pair off with a guy last night, so she already had nothing good to say during that part of the discussion. She couldn’t leave them high and dry again, could she?

“So what about you, Jess?” asked the brunette. Samus thought her name was Ashley, but pretty much all of Cassie’s friends from last night had names ending in “ie” or “y” so she was having a hard time keeping track of them all. “Got any fun boy stories to share with us?”

“Not really,” Samus said, blushing slightly. “I’m on vacation right now, so I’m not looking for anything serious.”

“Who says anything about ‘serious’?” Cassie laughed into her mimosa. “None of us are looking for anything serious right now either, but nothing helps you unwind like a night with a hunk.”

“Be honest, Jess. Are going through a bit of a dry spell right now?” the short redhead (Daisy, Samus thought) leaned forward to ask with a naughty grin.

Samus didn’t know why she was still being so hesitant right now. These girls were fun last night and they were still friendly now, giving little reason for her to be on edge. And it wasn’t like she needed to be honest in the first place. It didn’t matter what Samus Aran’s love life was like, not being Samus Aran was the whole point of this cover identity.

“It has been a while, I guess,” Samus said, trying to play coy and embarrassed a bit. “But if you wanna be my wing girls next time we go out, I’m all for it.”

There was a cheer from the group, Samus turning a little red from the flattery and encouragement.

“You’ll definitely get ‘em this time, Jessie!” Daisy said, the petite redhead giving her a knowing look. “It’s hard on your own when you’re that tall. Boys are sooo insecure about a girl who’s bigger than them, they can’t handle it. When I used to wear heels it was like painting “don’t fuck me” on my head.”

“You aren’t that tall though.” Samus pointed out without thinking. She hadn’t exactly studied the curvy redhead’s body in detail, but she was pretty sure she couldn’t be any taller than 5’4, which was definitely well in the average guy’s strike zone even if she wore tall heels. Most of the girls here were of an average height or on the short side, but Daisy was easily the shortest.

“I’m not now, but I used to be.” She smiled, surprising Samus. “But it was a pain, so I got spliced and got rid of about a foot, so now I’m short and sweet and I can wear platform heels if I want. Now the guys are all over me!”

“You were so cute the first time I saw you after that!” Cassie laughed, as if it were no big deal, like changing her shoes despite the advanced operation it required.

“I’m cute now too.” Daisy playfully pouted, unable to keep herself from grinning for long. Samus smiled, but was a little uncomfortable with how they were reacting to such a massive change to her body for such a simple reason.

“I haven’t gotten a splice in ages.” Krissi said wistfully, running a talon-like finger through her hair. “Maybe I should get boobs like Jessie.”

“I dunno, your boobs are cute the way they are.” Cassie pitched in. Now that Samus noticed it, she was the most obviously natural of the group, with the most average proportions and a face that, while beautiful, didn’t have any obvious signs of modification.

“Yeah, but only ‘cause Mom got ‘em done before she had me.” Krissi mentioned, cupping her breasts. “She was a B-cup before she met Daddy, but get this, she says her ass is all natural. No way that’s true, have you seen my butt?”

There was a round of laughter again, as Samus was reminded that toying with one’s body was the realm of the rich and playful, not just a bounty hunter sprucing herself up a little for her vacation. And then there was the method itself.

Gene splicing. It wasn’t a new technology by a long shot, but by Samus’ time it was nearly perfected. It had revolutionised and instantly replaced the old field of plastic surgery, and with what it could do it was no surprise. Gene splicing changed the body on a generic level, altering the body as if it had always been that way all along, even writing it into the subject’s genetic code and passing down the changes to their descendents. There were no unsightly scars, or obvious artificialness to the user, nor were there any tell-tale signs besides appearing a little too perfect. Most of all, there were essentially no consequences, as most treatments could be easily reversed. It was seemingly perfect as long as you could afford it, and ever so tempting.

Even Samus, hesitant at the idea of significantly changing her body, couldn’t help but think about what she could have done if she went to a professional treatment clinic instead of relying on her clumsy machine that could only grow in a linear fashion. She would have had much finer control over her breasts and face, that was for sure. Hell, she could have forgotten tweaking just her lips and eyelashes and scrambled her face entirely then changed it back later, as creepy as that sounded.

“Anyway, we are definitely getting you a man tonight.” Cassie said resolutely, bringing Samus back to the issue of getting laid, deciding to wonder about the questionably manufactured status of her newfound friends later.

It wasn’t like Samus was some shy virgin. She’d had a bit of fun during her time in the Federation Academy, as almost all recruits did. When she was in business mode, she avoided hookups and romance for fear of it being some sort of ploy to get her during a moment of weakness when she was out of her armor, but with the galaxy at peace and the Space Pirates on the ropes, there was no reason to be so paranoid, was there? All the guys in the bar the other night seemed down right intimidated by her looks except for the guy who almost recognized her. Working with these girls would be a perfect icebreaker.

If things got bad with any of the guys on this ritzy colony, she could just take them down without breaking a sweat. If she hooked up with anyone tonight it would be on her terms and she’d be the one taking the lead.

--

“Jessie, over here and take your pick!” Cassie called, waving with one hand while she held her girly cocktail in the other, the lights and music of the club pounding as she flagged Samus down, her gaggle of girlfriends accompanied by a band of boys. “I got Mandy to introduce us! ”

Cassie gave a brief explanation of the group of men assembled, but Samus couldn’t hear most of it, and it really wasn’t important either. You didn’t need much context for a bunch of macho party boys looking for a hot piece of ass to spend the night fondling and asserting their fragile masculinity over. Some of them were fairly attractive and had nice bodies, but Samus was utterly unimpressed by the lot of them. If she wasn’t doing this to see if she could find the appeal of the mutually uncommital relationships that rarely lasted longer than the night, she’d have laughed them off then and there.

Of course, she reminded herself, she wasn’t Samus Aran right now, way out of their league. She was Jessica, who had promised her friends that she was going to have a cute guy wrapped around her by the end of the night or she’d have hell to pay. It was essentially the entrance fee to her initiation, and so she had to put her usual attitude behind her. It wasn’t like she was fishing for their approval or anything. The girls were nice and she had enjoyed their company for what they were, but she was doing this to prove it more to herself than anybody else. It’d take more than peer pressure to convince her to go on a cheap date, after all.

“Got your eyes on anybody?” One of the gang of meatheaded chums asked another, eying the group like a freshly opened box of chocolates, each girl putting on their sexiest casual pose in response.

“I hear Jessie’s free today.” Cassie pushed Samus to the forefront, some of the boys whistling as they realised just how much sweater meat she was packing. Samus tensed up for a second, then relaxed, thrusting out her chest a little. It might have looked like a pack of carnivores fighting over what meat they wanted, but the impression that she had got from Cassie’s attitude towards them at least, perhaps not her less picky friends, was that she was in control here. She was the one who got to decide who got the juiciest cut.

“Your blonde friend’s got nice tits, but she’s got no ass. That’s a pass from me, dog.” The gym rat in his deliberately too tight t-shirt said, getting a round of whoops and jibes from the onlookers while Samus simply crossed her arms and turned her nose up dismissively in an exaggerated motion, the other girls oohing and aahing while they lightly hissed their disapproval in solidarity. She wasn’t offended so much as ready to laugh at him. Sure, she was a bit top-heavy, but in her opinion she had a pretty good ass. Not that he’d get the chance to find out with that attitude. Still, she couldn’t help but feel that he had a point about her proportions being a bit lopsided. She had heard that a girl with a big ass and no tits was passable, but big tits and no ass would always be lacking. She put it out of her mind, laughing at herself for even considering being self-conscious over something so ridiculous. If anything she’d want her chest to be smaller, not her hips to grow to compensate.

“Your loss, bro.” His slightly classier friend took the opportunity to dance right in, wrapping an arm around Samus’ shoulder and forcing her to suppress her trained instincts to instantly flip him over and put him in a hold that would dislocate several bones if he so much as twitched. Down girl, down! She told herself as she relaxed her shoulders and the side of her breasts smoosh slightly against his rock hard pecs, giving a smug, teasing smile at the man who had turned her down.

“I’m Kyle. How’s about we get to know each other a little better, babe?” He said less than charismatically, but he was cute so Samus decided she didn’t mind. She was way, way out of these jocks’ leagues, which made it all the funner to play along. It wasn’t long before she was stroking his chest and dancing with him, marking herself as his as the rest of the girls either assigned themselves partners, or themselves were assigned. Samus wasn’t a huge fan of how some of the boys wouldn’t take no for an answer, but none of the girls seemed to mind so she simply had another drink and went with the flow. If anybody got too grabby she’d break them over her knee and make them cry for mommy.

After that, things started to get a little hazy. She accepted whatever drinks he gave her, barely noticing that he didn’t seem to be keeping pace with and instead enjoying gyrating and grinding against him, getting lost in the music and the cheers of her friends. She remembered starting to need his support just to stay upright, slurring out a giggling farewell as he escorted her out of the club and hailed a taxi. She remembered some barely coherent flirting from her in the privacy of the automated hovercar, and that somehow her top was already off by the time she got back to what she assumed was his apartment. Things were a little clearer after that. The bare minimum of foreplay, clumsily tugging her leggings down, her bragging about her tits and letting him play with them as he pleased, her complaining that she wasn’t in the mood for his suggestions about what she should do with her mouth and that he should just shut up and fuck her already, and then…

--

“Thanks for the save, Old Bird.” Samus joked weakly as she held her the contents of her stomach, certain that she wouldn’t have had a chance of winning her fight with her hangover without those handy Chozo genetic modifications being put to good work. Maybe she should start reconsidering how much she drank, she mused as she ran the hot water of the man’s shower, his apartment relatively modest by the colony’s standards. Not drinking so much she ended up in an unapologetic one night stand seemed easy enough on paper, but in Samus’ experience it was the second drink that told her that she could handle another one, and then it was the third drink that convinced her that another drink or five never hurt anybody.

She felt the hot water wash the sweat off of her, refreshing her as she surprised herself by how little she was bothered by her actions last night. She had wanted to have a good time, but she wasn’t sure if she had intended to go this far. It was harmless enough, although it made her feel a bit cheap, like she should be holding herself to a higher standard than this. But then again, it seemed harmless to loosen up for once. Was she embarrassing herself? Not really. Sure, she had thought that she would never end up in a situation like this, waking up sprawled out on some guy’s chest, woken up by his snoring in the early hours while she struggled to remember what his name was and where she was. Samus would never let herself end up in a situation like that. But maybe Jessica would.

“Mind if I come on in?”

Her musings were interrupted by her would-be date’s smirk as he opened the door and let it all hang out, Samus unphased as she washed her hair, realising that she’d probably have to take another shower when she got home if she wanted to keep her curly new hair in its salon-advised pristine shape. Then again, she was thinking of going to the beach again, so it might be too much work for something she’d have to do over again anyway.

“Maybe next time, hotshot.” Samus said, sure to establish that she wasn’t as easy of a girl as she appeared when she was hammered. There was a difference between a night out and a fresh new day, after all. Not that she could see there being a next time, assuming her and his social circles were as frivolous as they seemed. She just couldn’t see herself in any sort of serious relationship with this Lyle guy, or even a casual one. It wasn’t like she was opposed to getting a boyfriend of some kind, but not this way.

“Alright babe, you can walk in on me when we’re at your place then.” He joked, Samus stiffening up at the lighthearted remark. The idea of bringing her one night stand back to her heavily armed gunship was… uncomfortable, to say the least. Awkward, perhaps? Disastrous, more like. That was definitely, definitely not happening!

Sure, it would be easy enough for Samus to make an excuse, maybe check into a no-questions-asked hotel at worst. But would drunk Samus remember that? With as many cheap drinks in her as last night she wasn’t sure if she could even pronounce the word “hotel” clearly. Not to mention it might be awkward if she was extremely secretive about her personal life…

“So, how’s about you and I…” He started as Samus walked straight past him and out the door with a casual wave. In her eyes, this was where their relationship began and ended.

“That’s okay, I like ‘em when they play hard to get!” He called after her, undeterred as Samus showed no response, already intending on forgetting about him. She took out her phone, checking out the group chat Cassie had added her to. She uploaded the selfie she had taken of herself in bed with him on impulse, winking at the camera with her chest barely concealed by the bedsheets while he snored away in a less than impressive position, and it only took a minute before she got a round of congratulations from the girls who had woken up from their stupor already. She even got a similar picture back from Daisy, albeit her's being not so modest. She tapped away at her phone’s group chat, deciding to change her plans to enjoy the day on her own, figuring that she could have more fun at the beach with friends, then maybe have them help her expand her wardrobe. It was a lot more fun to plan out than organising the details of a joint raid on a Space Pirate base, that was for sure...