Adapt to Overcome

Natalie walked through the overly-ostentatious palace halls. She stopped in front of a mural featuring a woman, possibly a wood nymph, wrapped around a man whose face was buried in her hair. Ooh, a sex scene. This place had all the subtlety of a child sneaking cookies before dinner. She kept walking down the hall.

Suddenly, Audrey of all people rounded the corner ahead and nearly collided with her. The two women bounced back. "Audrey?" she asked.

"Oh, Natalie! How're you doing?"

"I'm doing fine. What are you doing in the palace?"

Audrey held up a book. "Research. They have a library in here."

Natalie raised an eyebrow. "Like...work research?"

"Mhm. Their collection is astonishing."

"You're doing research, for your job, on the show," she said flatly.

Audrey furrowed her brow. "Well I'm not going to stop just because it makes for bad television."

"Power to you then, I guess."

"What about you? Here to see Trevor?"

"Yeah. It's my 'night with him'."

"Oh! That reminds me," Audrey said. "I wanted to talk to you about that."

"Um, sure. What's up?"

Audrey looked around furtively. "Come on, this way." She began walking back the way she came.

Not knowing what else to do, Natalie followed. "Where are we going?"

"Back to the library. I just want a little privacy."

It wasn't too far, just at the end of the hall, but it was a long hall. When they got there Audrey shut the door behind them and took a deep breath. "I'd like to apologize in advance. This is a sensitive subject and I know it will be awkward. But I have to ask."

"Alright," Natalie said cautiously, "what's this about?"

"No, sorry, one second. I need to be clear on this. I have to ask. It's the...transformation, they gave me. It's like a buzzing in my head. More than that though, it slips under my conscious mind and bubbles back up. It's hard to tell what's it and what's me. It's hard to tell if there's a difference at all."

"I know exactly what you mean," Natalie said, thinking about her own mental changes. They felt so organic, like they were really coming from who she was. "I won't hold it against you."

Audrey looked relieved. She cleared her throat. "It occurred to me that you are on the receiving end of a particularly nasty combination of effects. Your need to sleep is gated another need, and that need is in turn tied to your brother. Have you been able to...handle it?"

Jesus. That was one hell of a personal question. "I'm doing just fine," she said, wanting simply to end the conversation.

"You look exhausted," Audrey said.

Was it that obvious? She sighed. "I could be sleeping better, I guess."

Audrey nodded knowingly. "That's what I thought."

"It's not so bad," Natalie told her. "So I go to bed a little late. Nothing I can't live with."

Audrey skewed her face. "I might have an idea that could help."

Natalie looked up. "Really?"

"Yes. I have to warn you though...it's a little...unusual."

"There is nothing usual about any of this. We're already in the deep end here doc."

"Even so." She licked her lips nervously. "What you need is a fetish."

"Excuse me?"

The corner of Audrey's mouth twitched, letting Natalie know that she was being toyed with. At least a little.

"A literal fetish," Audrey clarified. "An object of special significance that you can channel your sexuality into."

"I don't understand."

"I was thinking that a picture could work."

What was she talking about? "A picture of what?"

"Of Trevor. Or, more specifically, a carefully cropped photo of Trevor's...privates."

Jesus Christ she was talking about a dick pic from her brother. "I'm going to be honest. I'm not following. Why would I ever do that?"

"You could use it. It's a picture of Trevor, so it could satisfy the One and Only restriction on your sexuality. But it's not a full body picture. So you could think about it in the abstract, divorced from the reality of the situation. If it works, it's a loophole."

Natalie thought about it. Put that way it didn't sound quite as crazy. Or, well, it did, but it also sounded like it could work. And she was really tired.

And horny.

"It's kind of insane," Natalie finally said.

"Like you said. We're already in the deep end."

"I'll...think about it."

Audrey squeezed her eyes shut. "Alright."

"What?"

"I'd...strongly prefer to know that you were going to go through with it. That's the transformation talking though. You don't owe me anything."

"They really did a number on you."

"Yes. Again, I'm sorry about all this. I really wouldn't have brought it up if, well, you know."

"Don't worry about it. I get it."

"Enjoy your night," Audrey said.

Natalie had no idea what that was going to end up meaning.

***

Trevor opened the door to find Natalie waiting on the other side. She looked like she hadn't slept in a week. Her face was just a little too slack, and she had deep bags under eyes.

"Hey," she said with a smile.

"Hey," he said back, enfolding her in a hug.

He led her inside and they sat near each other in the conversation pit. "I saw Laura earlier today," he told her. "She said Hanna's settling in well?"

"Yeah, she's been nice to have around. She hogs the blankets a little but other than that no problems."

"Thanks again for coming through on that."

"She needed somewhere to go. I'm glad to help."

"How's the garden coming along?"

"Really well! It's fucking hot though, working out there like that."

"You should get a hat."

"Thanks. I hadn't thought of that. A hat. Do you charge for your wisdom or is it gift to humanity?"

"For you? No charge. I like to help out the less fortunate."

Nat stuck her tongue out at him. "Bite me."

Trevor laughed. After a hard day it was nice to just spend some time with his sister.

"So," Natalie began, "any of the girls have your attention?"

"What? No. Of course not." Why would she ask that?

Nat shrugged. "It's not that weird of a question. This is a harem after all." She said it with a laugh, but it made him uncomfortable.

"No," he felt the need to clarify. "Nobody has my 'attention'."

"Some of them are pretty cute though. I had lunch with Chloe a few days ago. She seems sweet."

"Yeah. I don't think she likes me very much." He'd caught her glaring at him more than once. He had no idea what he'd done, they'd never interacted much before the show, but he supposed that if she blamed him for this that he couldn't really in turn blame her.

"Well, that's true. She doesn't really know you though. She could warm up to you."

"Why are we talking about this? I don't want to think about the show tonight, Nat. I feel bad enough already."

She frowned. "You have nothing to feel bad about. None of this is your fault."

"Yeah, well, maybe it's survivor's guilt then. I'm the only one who stands to benefit. Ostensibly."

"Look Trevor. One of these girls is going to try and jump you, sooner or later. And that's not the end of the world."

What the hell had gotten into her. Trevor did not want to talk about any of us. He had thought Natalie was on his side. He was supposed to be able to count on her.

"Where is this coming from Nat?"

Natalie's voice grew soft. "Violet was right." His blood ran cold. "You're burying your head in the sand. There's a storm coming, and you're going to need to bend so that you don't break."

"You're asking me, no, telling me, to compromise myself."

"I'm asking you to be flexible."

He laughed and shook his head. "I can't believe this is coming from you."

"I'm just trying to look out for you Trevor."

"You think I'm burying my head in the sand? What about you?"

"What about me?"

"A couple days ago a bunch of strangers changed the entire course of your life on a whim. You seem really put together, considering. You sure you aren't just ignoring it?"

She looked genuinely taken aback. "I'm handling it."

"You haven't reconciled with it at all, have you?"

"I'm handling it. You don't get to tell me what that looks like."

Trevor knew he'd overstepped, that she was right. But he was angry and chose to ignore that. "And you get to tell me how to handle my problems?"

"You're going to destroy yourself," she proclaimed. "You're going to stand in front of a bus and let it mow you down."

"Read my lips Natalie. I will never, never, take advantage of these women. I will not become the monster that Violet wants me to be."

"It doesn't make you a monster. Just human."

"Doesn't it though? Chloe. You brought her up. She's eighteen. She's my student. I hold a position of authority over her. You're telling me there's nothing wrong with that? That it's all above board? No. I don't believe that for a second and neither do you."

"Well maybe that just matters less!" Natalie yelled in frustration. "Maybe you walking out of this in one piece is just more important."

"No," Trevor resolved. "It isn't."

Natalie sat there, breathing heavily. Trevor's pulse pounded but he remained composed. His anger began to fade. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have called you out like that."

"Yeah, that wasn't cool," she said, glaring. She closed her eyes and her expression softened. "I'm sorry I tried to pressure you. I still think I'm right, but I shouldn't have pushed so hard."

Trevor nodded. He'd already forgiven her. There wasn't much to forgive. Like always, she'd just been looking out for him. He hoped she forgave him too.

"So," Natalie asked, "what do you have for food around here?"

He looked up. "What are you in the mood for?"

***

The remains of a big dinner and even bigger dessert lay scattered across the living room table, joined by a healthy collection of beer bottles. Trevor took the last sip of the beer he'd been working on most recently, then stood up and stretched.

"All right, I'm calling it. It's about that time."

Nat blinked and held her beer up to the light, squinting to see how much was left. "Yeah, just about."

Trevor stepped out of the conversation pit and walked over to the trash to throw away his beer bottle.

"Do we need to clean up at all?" Natalie asked.

"Nah, someone will take care of it in the morning."

"Must be nice," she grumbled. And, well, it was. Trevor walked over and snagged a brownie from the tray that Natalie had made him order earlier.

"Hey, so, Nat. Do you uh, want me to wait out here while you...get ready for bed?" His back was to her, so he couldn't see her and, more importantly, she couldn't see him. Yeah, he'd been dealing with her habit for most of his life at this point, but it wasn't something they ever talked about.

"Yeah, um, that'd be good." He heard the sound of her fidgeting. "Actually, uh, I have a small favor to ask."

"Sure, what do you need?"

"So I talked to Audrey and she had this idea. I've been having a hard time...falling asleep, since that transformation at the contest."

Jesus. He really didn't want to hear about this.

"She thought that maybe, you know, if I had a picture that I could just focus on the literal picture and not, um...anything else."

"A picture of what?"

Natalie was silent for a moment. "You remember that guy Zach back in high school?"

"What? The guy who got expelled for sending all the..." Oh.

"Yeah. Like that."

Trevor swallowed a lump in his throat. "You want me to...do that?"

"Um...yes. No face, no body, just...the picture."

"And that will help?"

"Audrey thinks so."

Trevor was deeply uncomfortable both with this conversation and the implied conversation his sister had apparently had with his advisor. He looked around. Was there a hole he'd missed in here? Somewhere to crawl in and die?

If he felt this way, he could only imagine how his sister felt. She must really be struggling to reach out and ask for help like this.

"I wouldn't ask if it wasn't a problem," she she said in a small voice. "Trust me on that."

Looking at her, it was easy to imagine she hadn't slept in a week. The solution may be weird as hell, but that was just another sin to lay at Violet's feet. He couldn't say no.

Sighing, Trevor walked over to the front door and rung the bell.

"What are you doing?" Natalie asked.

"What you asked. Just...hold on a sec."

Less than a minute later there was a knock at the door. Trevor opened it to find an older man in a servant's uniform. "Hi," he said. "Could I get a camera? One of the ones that prints out the picture right away."

"Of course sir," the servant said. "Just a moment."

"Thanks." The servant began walking down the stairs and Trevor shut the door. He took a seat at the table.

"What was that about?" Natalie asked again.

"I don't have my phone."

"Oh."

What followed was the singularly most awkward silence of Trevor's life. Him and his sister sat there, in the same room, and neither so much as breathed too loudly. When a knock came at the door a few minutes later, Trevor physically jumped.

Standing up, he went to the door and took the camera from the servant, who bowed and left as quickly as he'd come.

"Right, so uh, I'll just go get changed then," Trevor mumbled. Natalie nodded silently.

He made his way to the bedroom, grabbed his pajamas, then went into the bathroom and shut the door behind him.

Alright. Nothing to it.

He took his clothes off and stood there naked. He needed to get hard. Or, well, he assumed that's what Natalie wanted.

Nope, not giving that any further thought.

Closing his eyes, he reached down and began to stroke himself. Doing his best to put the current situation out of his mind, he thought about some generic sexy stuff. Women. Sex. Boobs. As he touched himself, his mind drifted to the other day. He thought about Dr. Friedman's tits growing, growing to absurd proportions. He was hard. He shoved those thoughts out of his mind as well, feeling guilty. Not least of all because it had worked. He shouldn't have gone there.

Grabbing the camera, he carefully positioned his dick for the picture. He hadn't cum since the morning of the day before and his balls were a little bigger than golfballs, heavy in his sack.

There was a flash of bright light and the sound of a motor. The camera spat out the picture. He waved it around until it finished developing then took a look. There they were: his cock and balls. No body, no face, just like she'd asked.

Trevor pushed down a nervous laugh. He pulled his pajamas on and went out into the bedroom, setting the picture down on the pillow. He took a deep breath, steadied himself, then went back into the living room.

Natalie sat by the table, staring fixedly at her hands folded in her lap.

"The uh, the rooms all yours now. I left it on the pillow."

"Thanks," she said woodenly. She stood up and went into the bedroom. Trevor heard the sound of the door shut behind him.

***

Alright, Natalie told herself. This was fine. Not normal, but fine.

She'd had a bit to drink and her head buzzed pleasantly. That was probably the only reason she'd been able to work up the courage to ask. That, and the fact the she was absolutely exhausted. She hadn't had more than three hours of sleep for the past four days.

And she was desperately horny. During the day it faded to just background noise, but once the sun set the full impact started to set in. She really hoped Audrey had been right. She couldn't go on like this.

Natalie braced herself then took the picture up off the pillow. There it was. Trevor's cock. She tilted her head. Jesus, his balls were huge.

Ok. Bad thoughts. She pushed them aside. She took her clothes off and lay down on the bed. Closing her eyes, she slowly ran her hand down her stomach and between her legs. She had been so on edge for so many days that it didn't take long to get the motor running. She shivered and ran a finger over her drooling slit.

Natalie opened her eyes and looked at the picture as she continued to slowly run her finger up and down her pussy. It took a while to get in the right headspace. To focus on the pure physicality of the cock, not the context around it. Eventually she got there. It was working.

She moaned softly as she pushed a finger between her folds, thinking about the cock in the picture. As she continued to leak over her fingers she began to pick up the pace, working in a second finger. Her eyes stayed glued to the dick in front of her.

She pulled out of herself and began to rub her clit. She caught her breath then moaned deeply, rubbing it faster. Oh shit. She'd needed this so badly. She set the picture down in front of her so that she could use her other hand to massage her breasts. They were huge now, she thought idly.

Because that's how Trevor wanted them.

Suddenly it all came crashing down. She was masturbating to her brother's dick. She instantly stopped, bile beginning to rise in her throat.

She took a second to compose herself and slammed shut iron doors in her mind, locking that truth away. It was just a picture. Just a picture.

Slowly she began to work herself back into the flow of it. Faster and faster she ran her finger over her bud. Her pussy was on fire. Her eyes drank in the cock in the picture.

God, it was a perfect cock. She literally couldn't imagine a better one. The hand on her breast slipped down to join the one already between her legs and she worked a finger in and out of her sopping wet hole. She imagined that cock thrusting up into her - just the cock, nothing else - and felt herself begin to climb.

Panting heavily, her hands were a blur between her legs. As she got closer and closer she was able to focus more fully on the pure physical sensations she was experiencing. She closed her eyes and then, like a damn breaking, she was washed away on the waves of her orgasm.

One hand shot to her mouth, holding in screams of pleasure, while the other pressed down hard on her sex as she thrust her hips up against it. She shook violently, every muscle in her body singing in harmony as she climaxed.

Slowly the experience faded and she came back to herself. Her breathing was still heavy, but she wore a dumb grin on her face. She'd known she was horny, but damn; she hadn't realized just how badly she'd needed that. Slowly she stood up and slipped into her pajamas. She spirited the picture away into the pocket of the clothes she'd change into the next day.

She'd been a little loud at the end. With deep shame she really hoped that Trevor hadn't been able to hear here. She knew she could sometimes make a little too much noise during her nightly ritual, and while he'd never complained before she had to assume that at least once or twice she'd caused him some awkwardness.

Speaking of, she took a deep breath and prepared herself to let Trevor know that she was done. Her hand fell onto the doorknob. Right. Nothing to it. Everything is fine.

***

Trevor sat in the conversation pit flipping idly through a sports magazine he'd picked up from the periodicals section of the library. He read through an article while his sister was in the other room...getting ready for bed.

He'd opened another bottle of beer.

The sound of the door opening snapped him to attention.

"Trevor?" her voice called out. "I'm uh...we can go to bed now."

At first he was going to ask her if it had worked. Then he wasn't because he really didn't want to know. And then he was because despite how awkward it was he was genuinely worried about her. And then he wasn't because when he turned around the answer was obvious.

Nat's hair was a tangled mess. Her face was still flushed and a fine layer of sweat covered her body. Yeah, it had worked.

"Let me just kill this," he said. "I'll be there in a minute."

Natalie nodded and retreated back into the bedroom.

He shook his head, then tipped it back and chugged.

His head was foggy and that suited him just fine.

He stood up and brushed off his pajamas. Not for any reason. He was just delaying and he knew it.

Like a man at the gallows Trevor slowly trudged to his bedroom. The smell hit him like the wall of a fog bank. There was no doubt at all what had just happened in this room.

As surreptitiously as he could Trevor walked over to the far wall and opened up a window. Then, he pulled up the covers and slipped into bed. By the time he was settled in Nat had already fallen asleep, softly snoring on the other side of the bed.

Trevor closed his eyes and tried really, really hard not to think about how his sister had just cum a few feet away from where he was lying down.