All I want is to be warm

Rose was all smiles when she brought out a tray stacked high with food into the kitchen. A mountain of pancakes sat beside the fattest omelet Nick had ever seen. She set it down on the table in front of him, and stood to the side, waiting eagerly for him to eat.

“Wow, it smells so good!” Nick said, starting to drool a little.

“Can I get some?” Marley wasn’t even attempting to hold back how hungry she was. She came into the room after Rose like a starving puppy, not even looking at Nick- her eyes were solely focused on the food.

Mary had to pull her back.

“It’s unsanitary to eat while naked,” she said. “We need to get you into some clothes.”

Unfortunately, the only clothes they had at the moment were in Mary’s closet. And because her old outfits were in storage, the only thing Dakota would let her have at the moment were spares of her cowgirl outfit.

Which is what Marley was wearing when she walked back to the table, her face red with embarrassment. Somehow, her embarrassed expression coupled with her current outfit seemed even sexier than being naked.

Nick coughed, nearly **** on his food.

“W-wow, Marley, you look, um…” Nick couldn’t find the words to describe what he was seeing.

“It’s not really my thing,” Marley stammered, pulling the ends of her shirt a little closer together. The flannel was designed to fit Mary’s curves, but Marley’s breasts were larger than the redhead’s most of the time. It seemed like they’d bounce out any second!

“Let’s, uh, forget about it,” Mary coughed, clearing her throat. “We have more important things to deal with I think, like, err… breakfast! That’s right, breakfast!”

She took her spot at the table as well; right next to Nick, which earned her a side-eyed glare from Rose while Marley sat across from him. It seemed like the right place to be, putting as much distance between the two of them as possible, for the sake of maintaining their professionalism.

And if it just so happened to put her body right in front of his, well, that just happened to be a coincidence. No sense in making a big fuss over something so pedestrian.

Her stomach started to growl. “So you two already have your food,” she mumbled, looking at their plates, “but what about-”

“Don’t worry, Marley! I’ve got you covered!” Holly walked out with a tray stacked even higher with food than the one Rose had brought in. She set it down at the table and Marley dug into it instantly, practically devouring it like a wild animal.

Nick was having flashbacks to last night.

“Well, she certainly seems… hungry,” Rose said, avoiding saying anything more forceful than that.

Marley looked up at her and scowled.

“I didn’t get to eat dinner last night,” she snapped. “We were doing an escape room the whole time. And then after that, well…”

She glanced at Nick and bushed again. Nick turned red too, much to Rose’s consternation and Mary’s amusement.

“Nick, I have an idea!” Rose leaned over, pressing the side of her breasts into his shoulder. “How about we do the ‘aahh’ game? Hm?”

Nick blinked. “Huh?”

“Like this, say ‘aahh…’” Rose took the fork from his hand and pulled off a bit of pancake and held it up to his mouth.

“Err… Rose…” Now it was Nick’s turn to start blushing like Marley. He glanced warily over at Mary to see if she could get him out of this, but she almost seemed excited. When their eyes met, she gave him an encouraging nod.

“What?! I thought you had a rivalry with her! You’re okay with this?!” Nick psychically demanded of Mary, even though he knew she couldn’t read his mind.

“Yes!” Mary replied back, at least with her eyes anyway. “It’s cute! This is the kind of behavior from Rose you should be encouraging!”

Plus, it planted the subtle insinuation that Rose was a maid. Mary might not have cared about hierarchies or anything like that, but she knew that Rose definitely did. And if Rose was thinking clearly about the implications, she wouldn’t be happy with this situation at all.

Which only served to amuse Mary that much more.

Nick sighed, and relented, opening his mouth and letting Rose feed him. He had to admit, seeing the normally-proud Rose waiting on him hand and foot, all because he said that he’d like to taste her cooking for once… it was cute. Sweet, even. Her dedication to the people she cared about even at the expense of her own pride was one of the things he admired about her, even if it was a trait she so rarely demonstrated these days.

“Do you like it?” Rose cooed. “I tried my best!”

“Yeah, it’s really good,” Nick said, smiling back at her.

Marley watched the two of them and tried not to get jealous. Because of Rose’s transformation she felt the bond of sisterly affection linking the two of them. But at the same time, a part of her wished she could cook for Nick, too.

But she didn’t know how, so she settled for eating more pancakes instead. It was a good thing that the Granger genes seemed to be anathema with getting fat.

“Once we’ve finished breakfast,” Mary said, glancing at Rose with a sly smile, “I’ll show you all the places around the Master’s Suite that could use a good dusting.”

Rose raised her head and scowled at the other woman, not at all pleased that her special time with Nick was getting interrupted like this. “Sorry, what?” She frowned. “I’m feeding him right now, and I’m not doing that stuff either.”

“But you have to,” Holly pointed out. “It’s on your bounty sheet, right? I don’t think Dakota is going to let you get away with claiming a bounty when you’re not even doing the job.”

Rose turned to her and glared. Holly wasn’t being very helpful right now.

The shorter girl just shrugged. “Hey, take it up with her,” she replied. “I’m not the one who put on a maid outfit for 100 BP.”

Rose wanted to dress as a maid to do sexy maid stuff with Nick! Not because she actually wanted to do chores!

What was she, some kind of Holly?!

Listening in on the conversation while enjoying the breakfast Rose had prepared for him, Nick knew that he could probably get the blonde to go along with it if he told her how cute she’d look dusting the place with a feather duster. But he knew better than to suggest that.

He had a lot of power over Rose, even if it was power she voluntarily gave him due to her feelings of affection. And while he might be willing to exploit that for the sake of maintaining the peace, he wasn’t about to start manipulating her at a whim.

This was going to be a long breakfast, though…

Carly stumbled out of the shower, rubbing her forehead and grumbling to herself. This definitely wasn’t the kind of start she was expecting for her day. Memories of Rose flooded into her mind as she stormed across the room, seeing that her sister was nowhere to be found.

She could put the pieces together pretty plainly. Marley had probably returned with Nick to the Master’s Suite, per Dakota. And because Carly wasn’t there waiting for her, her sister turned to slime automatically.

So Nick had probably sent Holly down to get her, or come down himself. And Rose, smelling opportunity in the air, pounced on the chance to get a pass to the Master’s Suite, and took advantage of Carly being in the shower to do it.

Still… that was something she could discuss with her new sister later. Right now, she was just going to spend time appreciating the fact that she had the rest of the day all to herself if she wanted. If Marley and Rose were going to hang around with Nick in the Master’s Suite, well…

Her stomach started rumbling, and she decided it was time for breakfast. But she couldn’t go down naked, so it was time to get dressed.

Carly looked down at the outfit hanging beside the bed, her costume for today. It was a pretty futuristic outfit; a black leotard that seemed to transition into shorts hung so low it revealed the curvature of her upper thighs, as well as a strange white unzipped half-shirt that revealed her shoulders while also having long sleeves. The outfit also came with a set of strange long socks that seemed to transition into shoes, with overlaying colors of gray and black.

Huh, this costume looks familiar, Carly thought, stroking her chin. Yeah, this is from that one show, Cyberpunk something.

Carly wasn’t much one for science fiction, that was more Marley’s domain. Still, she knew the character looked damn sexy, and her boobs weren’t even close to being as large as Carly’s were. She slipped on the outfit and changed her hair into a bob cut colored pink and blue with such a faint tone it was almost white, and then turned to look at her appearance in the mirror.

Oh yeah, this is definitely something! Carly bit her lip as she admired the way the cloth conformed to the swell of her ass. I’d probably give Dani a heart attack if I went down dressed like this!

…

That sounded fun.

Realizing how much she wanted to see Dani’s reaction to her new wardrobe made Carly feel all giddy inside. She couldn’t help herself! It wasn’t like she expected to fall in love with the tomboy- it had completely caught her off-guard.

But… something about this whole thing just seemed right.

As she walked towards the elevator and headed down for breakfast, Dani was all she could think about. Some people might wonder what made her start feeling the way she did about the blue-haired girl, and honestly, Carly wasn’t sure if she could come up with a reason.

If she had to think of something? It was because she’d been won over by Dani’s defiant personality and her passion. That sounded just as good as anything else.

But Carly wasn’t the kind of person to think that way.

She giggled to herself as the elevator descended. Wondering about my feelings… I’m just like Marley! This was the kind of overthinking that her sister was prone to do. It was one of the starkest differences between the two women.

Marley would always try to analyze every angle of a situation. The positives and the negatives, the potential ramifications, and only after giving everything serious thought, when she’d reached the point where she was confident she knew the right course of action, did she finally decide on what she wanted to do.

It was agonizing, frankly. Carly was way more the kind of girl to look before she leapt and follow her heart.

…Except with Dani… but that hesitation Carly felt had been a mistake.

“I guess love changes you, huh?” She said to no one in particular.

“It certainly does, doesn’t it?” Dakota replied.

“Whoa! Hey! Whoa!” Carly jumped, and stumbled into the wall. She turned to Dakota with an amazed expression on her face. “Dakota?! What… what?!”

“Sorry,” Dakota cooed, batting her eyelashes. “Did I catch you off-guard?”

“Uh, yeah?” Carly held her hand over her chest to soothe the pounding in her heart. “Don’t just pop in like that!”

“My apologies,” Dakota apologized again. “But I couldn’t help reply to that bit of philosophy you were espousing before…”

“Really?” Carly crossed her arms defensively, not sure if she should buy what the other woman was selling. “You came here because of my philosophy?”

“Well… that, and also because I was wondering… how are things going with you and Nick at the moment, hmm?”

“I… we’re doing fine,” Carly replied. “Why? What did Marley say?”

Carly might not have been as intelligent as her sister, but she could connect the dots. Dakota coming to ask her about her relationship with Nick the morning after her sister went on a long date with him? No way those two things weren’t related.

“This isn’t about Marley,” Dakota replied, shaking her head. “I just wanted to check in with you, for your sake, Carly!”

“…Really.”

Somehow, Carly found that hard to believe. Oh, it would certainly be nice if it was the truth, but somehow, she doubted it.

“The relationship between a master and the girls in his harem is a complicated thing,” Dakota said, nodding. “But when you add another member of the harem to the mix, well… then things really start getting tricky.”

Carly scowled. She wasn’t usually the kind of girl who let stuff like this get to her, but what Dakota was saying… “This is about Dani, then, not about Nick.”

“It’s about both, actually,” Dakota corrected her, tapping her cane on the floor of the elevator. It pulled to a stop.

“So apparently… you want to have a conversation, then,” Carly said, biting her lip.

Dakota smiled. “Why of course I do,” she replied. “You didn’t think you two were the first people on Harem Hotel to be in a contestant relationship, did you?”

“No, of course not,” Carly said, shaking her head. Given how long this show had apparently been going on, it was obvious that this wasn’t a unique situation.

“Of course,” Dakota continued, “most of the time the relationship has already started before the show even begins. There have been a few of those… a lot of the time, though, it involves turning a boy into a girl, which ends up splitting the couple. A pair of lesbians is a lot trickier, unless we’re dealing with a female master, of course…”

“I’m not a lesbian,” Carly said, not that she cared that much about labels. “And my relationship with Dani is doing fine. My relationship with Nick is also doing fine.”

“Oh, I never meant to imply that it wasn’t!” Dakota looked genuinely surprised, which Carly found a hair suspicious.

“…Really. Because it kind of sounds like that’s all you been doing,” Carly replied, putting her hands on her hips. “Or have I gotten this whole thing all wrong?”

Dakota pulled up her lips into a serene smile and batted her eyelashes. “Why, of course you have,” she replied. “I have the highest of faith in your ability to juggle your relationships, Carly. I just wanted to bring up… you sister.”

Carly tensed.

“Leave Marley out of this,” she said. “Whatever her relationship with Nick is, that’s their business, not mine. It has no impact on my relationship with him.”

Carly had already roped Marley into a few sexual acts with Nick, including helping him take her sister’s virginity. If Dakota wanted to stoke the fires of jealousy in Carly’s heart, then she was barking up the wrong tree. Carly had nothing but support for any relationship that Marley might want to pursue with Nick.

“I’m so very happy to hear you say that!” Dakota pressed her hands together and tilted her head to the side. “But keep in mind… you need to work on your own relationship with him as well. It’s concerning, right? Your drop in the popularity polls?”

Carly shifted uncomfortably. She had gotten quite a bit of a drop… but that was her business, not Dakota’s.

The host narrowed her eyes. “Judging from your facial expression, I’m betting you just had a thought like ‘that’s my business, not yours’ but I’m here to inform you that it IS my business, Carly. You see, this show thrives on popularity, and frankly, you and Dani? You’re not performing very well in the polls, I’m afraid…”

Carly scowled. “Hey! I’ve been trying, you know! Don’t you remember my last night with him? When I brought Rose in for a threesome, and we-”

“Yes, yes, let’s not rehash that again,” Dakota cut her off, raising her hand. “I thought it was very sexy, and so did the audience. But we need more than just sexy, Carly. You’re not a hole for Nick to pound into like a wild monkey. Your sister could perform that role well enough, you know that.”

“I said, leave Marley outta this!” Carly was trying really hard not to lose her temper. Once she got mad (which was honestly pretty hard to do) it was difficult to rein her back in.

Dakota looked at her with nothing but sympathy. “I know,” she said quietly. “Your sister’s relationship with Nick has no bearing on your own relationship with him. But my question is… what relationship? Because according to the audience, the two of you are… well, they don’t know quite what to make of it. But I do. Girls who refuse to build a romantic bond with the master don’t tend to be very popular with the audience, I’m afraid…”

She seemed almost disappointed, like this wasn’t at all what she was expecting. “I must say, the audience this season is not behaving in ways I anticipated… usually, a sexy girl like you content to be a fucktoy for the master tends to be a popular archetype. I’m certainly at a loss… perhaps it’s because the tastes have changed for this new audience? Or maybe, they’re disappointed because even though you’re willing to sleep with Nick, you refuse to devote yourself to him… hmm. It certainly requires further study…”

“Devote myself to him?” Carly scowled. “Let me guess. You mean because I’m not attracted to boys in that way.”

“Are you not?” Dakota leaned in close and studied the other girl’s features. “Have you really tried to, I wonder?”

“Of-of course I did,” Carly said, taking a step back to maintain her personal space. “When Sylvia first explained the rules to this show, I thought that it might be for the best to see if any of those old sparks still flamed up. And when they did, and I began to realize that the two of us would be bound together forever, I set my mind to figuring out how we could do that. I tried to fall for him, I did, but… I like girls. Boys are great, and Nick, well, I can’t deny I’m attracted to him, but when it comes to romance…

Dakota stared at her with an appraising gaze, as if she was trying to judge the veracity of Carly’s statement.

“Is that right…”

“I’m serious here!” Carly pleaded. “I tried! You might not think I did, but-”

“No, no, I believe you,” Dakota said, shaking her head. “I don’t think you’re lying to me. Or even to yourself. But feelings… they’re a tricky thing. Let’s see how it goes, shall we? Maybe you’re attracted to him in more ways than physically after all…”

Before Carly could formulate a response to that suggestion, Dakota tapped her cane on the floor and the elevator start going again. She disappeared and it jerked to a stop, opening up on the ground floor.

Carly sighed and stepped out, not feeling as thrilled about breakfast as she was ten minutes ago.