It's in my fear and I can't stop it

Dani wasn’t confident that this was the right move to make. She hadn’t used her upgraded transformation yet, so there was a risk of it not working properly. Or working TOO well. Both of those things could lead to embarrassing moments.

Also, there was Emmy to account for. Because she agreed with Carly that making women orgasm from her cooking right in front of the impressionable girl was a bit of a leap, they decided to go their separate ways. After returning to their rooms and changing into normal clothing instead of their bathing suits, Carly and Marley had gone to the Banquet Hall for a late dinner, while Dani split off from them to attend to Sylvia and Vivian.

She was having doubts of her own about whether or not this was the right move.

“I’ll warn you right now,” Vivian said, leaning back in her chair in the kitchen Dani had borrowed from the hotel, “I’m a difficult girl to please.”

She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. “You realize I’ve tasted the finest cuisines from around the world, right? The best restaurants with the best ingredients, places you could spend months saving up for and not have enough to order the cheapest thing on the menu. So…”

“So what’s your point?” Dani demanded, crossing her arms over her chest and leering at the snooty heiress.

Vivian cracked a crooked grin. “So… if you think your food can compare to what Octavia makes for me, you’re gonna have to really pull out the stops here.”

Dani’s eye twitched. She didn’t like it, but Vivian was probably not that off base. Her transformation noted that the amount of pleasure the eater would get from her cooking would be proportional to how much they liked the dish. Could Dani even make something delicious enough with her meager skills, considering the heiress’s refined palate?

On the other hand…

“Just tomato bisque soup for me!” Sylvia said with a cheesy smile. “I’m an easy gal to please, if you remember.”

Dani cracked an eyebrow. “Yeah? ‘Cause I seem to recall you not being thrilled with my pot roast back when you were judging the cooking challenge.”

Sylvia rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t the judge,” she huffed. “Daddy was! Blame HIM for your low ranking… which wasn’t even that low, either! Carly got lower!”

Whatever. Dani didn’t want to fight about this. Surely even SHE could make tomato bisque soup good enough to push Sylvia over the edge. And as for Vivian…

“…We can do this two ways,” Dani said to the brunette. “Either I make you food that tastes good enough to bring you to orgasm, or I have to come up with some other method to do that, and in that case…”

“Geesh, Dani, don’t be so serious all the time!” Vivian held up her hands and laughed. She leaned back in her chair slightly, almost giving Dani the impression that she was trying to get away from her. “I’ll eat whatcha serve me, ‘course I will.” She winked at the tomboy. “I was raised to always clean my plate, you know.”

“…Right. And you always do what you’re told.” Dani wasn’t buying it. She sighed in exasperation and pinched the bridge of her nose when she saw the cheeky grin on her face.

“Don’t forget, Vivian, Dani knows what your favorite food is!” Sylvia pointed out.

Vivian flinched in surprise. “Eh? What could that be?” She tried to play it cool. “Steak wrapped in gold-leaf? Caviar? Truffle risotto?”

“Fish and chips, if I remember correctly,” Dani shot down all those fancy hypotheticals. She narrowed her eyes. “Remember the party? We all got our favorite dishes, and yours was-”

“Whoa, hold on there, bluebird,” Vivian interrupted her. The front legs of her chair touched the ceramic floor with a loud squeak as she sat up straight, rising to her feet. The wary expression on her face clashed with her firm tone. “That’s playing with fire.”

“How?” Dani demanded. “It’s your favorite dish. Dakota might not know everything, but I’d say it’s pretty unlikely that she’d get that wrong. And the best way to get you going is with your favorite dish- the more you like it, the easier it’ll be to make you… you know.”

She managed to stand her ground through most of the speech, but by the end she was a little shaky. Dani still wasn’t completely comfortable with completing her bounty this way, but she needed to get it done as soon as possible. Her transformation upgrade would only last 24 hours, and it was a useful tool for accomplishing her goal.

Dani would have to be a fool not to seize this opportunity! And yet, she couldn’t miss the look of hesitation on Vivian’s face, either.

“It’s because it’s my favorite dish that it’s not going to work!” Vivian proclaimed, crossing her arms over her chest. “Look, fancy food is one thing, you’d probably flub that, let’s be real. So I get why you think you’d need to make a simple dish like that one. But it’s not as easy as you think! Just regular ol’ fish and chips won’t… that is to say…”

Dani and Sylvia both found it curious that the normally eloquent Vivian was stumbling over her words and having a tough time expressing herself. It was definitely unusual for her.

“Look, if you’ve got something to say, Vivian, spit it out,” Sylvia urged. “Dani’s not a mind reader, you know.”

“…Well… how about this, then?” Vivian changed her stance. “I’m feeling… a little worked up, and I think we can all guess why.”

Her cheeks were a little pinker than usual, Dani noticed. Kim and Nick must have been getting started for the night.

Sylvia cracked a grin. “Way to go, Daddy,” she murmured under her breath, clueing into what Vivian was alluding to.

Vivian’s face turned hot again. “…Exactly! That’s just the thing. This is… not something I’m adept with, I’ll admit that.” She shook her head. “Normally this would be a great time for you to… well, you know.” She let out a tired sigh and rubbed her temples.

“So what’s the big deal?” Dani frowned. Vivian was trying to drag this out; she was making a bigger fuss about this whole thing than it needed to be! “If you’re feeling it from Kim and Nick being together, then isn’t this the perfect time to-”

“Because it’s not going to work!” Vivian exclaimed, startling both girls. “Look, I get it, I’ll try your cooking, Dani, because of course I will. It would be rude not to! But I’m telling you, don’t get your hopes up. You’re not going to win me over with fish and chips, no matter what you saw at the party!”

Vivian seemed strangely firm on that matter. Enough so that Dani honestly didn’t know why. She looked curiously at the heiress, wondering…

“…Why?” She asked. “Because it’s so cheap?”

“Tomato soup can come from a can,” Sylvia chirped.

“That… has nothing to do with it.” Vivian crossed her arms over her chest. Instead of her usual smile, she had a stern expression on her lips. “It’s just because… there’s no way you’ll be able to compete with Octavia’s, that’s all!”

It took Dani a second to process that. She remembered what Vivian mentioned before about her butler’s cooking, and realized that Octavia was the bar by which she compared all other meals to.

“Everything Octavia makes for me is the best dish ever!” Vivian insisted, practically stomping her foot like a tantruming child. Her tone softened when she saw the tension on Dani’s face. “…Look, sorry… I-I really appreciate you offering to cook for me… and I do want to try your cooking, but… it’s not going to be as good as Octavia’s. So don’t get your hopes up and think I’m gonna be all hot and bothered, okay?” She scratched her head and looked down contritely.

“…Man, Daddy must be having more vanilla sex with Kim than I thought,” Sylvia said loudly, turning the tense moment into a look of shocked confusion.

“Huh?!” Vivian’s eyes bulged in surprise. “What are you…?”

“Sylvia…” Dani groaned.

Sylvia shrugged. “What? If those two were going at it all hot and heavy, then Vivian’s transformation would have her all jumped-up and hot to trot, right, my girls? But she clearly isn’t. So maybe we should wait until Daddy really starts going at it before-”

“Okay, thanks, I don’t need to be thinking about that stuff,” Dani interrupted, rolling her eyes. “Let me just get cooking, okay?”

She looked over at Vivian, who still seemed to be in a sulky mood.

The heiress just shrugged.

“Look, I’ll try it,” she conceded. “Maybe I’ll even like it. But… just don’t get your hopes up, that’s all I’m saying.”

Dani nodded. She supposed that was only fair. With the issue settled, she went back to the kitchen, and got started on some new dishes to add to her repertoire, while trying to ignore the buzzing between her legs that reminded her she was cooking this food for someone else.

“OOOH!” Sylvia’s eyes rolled back in her head as she slumped down in her seat, shaking. “That’sh sho goooooooddd!”

Dani was a little flattered by the… positive reaction she received from the other girl. If one thing was true, it was that Sylvia made no illusions about how good she found the meal she’d received from the tomboy.

Four down. One orgasm left to go. Dani had to double-check her bounty to be sure, and was relieved to find that, yes, cooking a dish that was so good it was orgasmic did in fact count towards her total. It was just tomato soup, and while Dani felt like she had done a decent job, she also wondered if maybe Sylvia hadn’t done something under the table to help warm herself up first.

On the other hand… there was Vivian.

“…It was good,” the heiress conceded. She looked up at Dani with a sheepish smile on her face. An empty plate littered with crumbs sat in front of her on the table. “It really was. Delicious, Dani. You’re getting better at cooking.”

Dani sighed and scratched her head. “It’s alright,” she assured Vivian. “You don’t have to try to mollify me. You DID warn me, after all.”

Putting most of her effort into preparing the girls’ dishes, Dani hadn’t spent a lot of time on her own meal. She just slapped together something quick and easy, a nice juicy roast beef sandwich. It was plenty tasty, but not her best work.

And clearly, her attempt at fish and chips hadn’t been, either.

“Look, like I said, it’s not your fault.” Vivian had tried so hard to stave off this moment, and now that it was here, there was nothing she could do but try to reassure the other woman. “Octavia’s cooking is just that great. Nothing can top it! …I’m really sorry.”

She’d wanted to help Dani clear her bounty. But unfortunately, Vivian’s tongue was just too loyal to her butler.

Dani would have to understand.

“Again, like I said, it’s not a big deal,” Dani assured her, shaking her head. “I did my best. My skills just aren’t up to snuff.”

Vivian cracked a small smile. She looked across the table at Sylvia, who was just starting to come down from her high. “Well… at least one person was enjoying herself,” she chortled.

“That tasted great…” Sylvia wore a blissful smile on her face. She yawned and stretched her arms over her head. “Got me all worn out now… haaahn… I’m… gonna turn in for the night. You two have fun… byyyyeeeee…”

With that, she straightened herself out as best she could, stood up, and left the two of them alone to hash out the rest of the night.

There was silence for a while as Dani cleaned up the kitchen. It wasn’t her job (they had faeries for that) but as the one who made the mess, her sense of responsibility kept her from just leaving it to someone else to handle.

And it gave her something to focus on besides the awkward silence between herself and Vivian.

Still… even with her back turned, she could feel the heiress’s eyes on her. Finally she sighed and turned back to Vivian, brow furrowed.

“You know, you don’t have to stay here and keep me company,” she pointed out.

“Maybe I’d like some dessert!” Vivian flashed her pearly whites.

Dani raised her eyebrow, not that amused.

With a sigh, Vivian rolled her eyes. “Alright… fine. I’ll go, if you want… I just thought you might like the company… you’re almost done, anyway… but if you want me to leave…”

Dani saw the disappointment flash across Vivian’s face and her heart thrummed.

“No… wait. Stay. We… we can talk,” she said gently, setting down her last dish in the sink and approaching the heiress. She couldn’t miss the way Vivian perked up at that.

“Eh?” Vivian blinked.

Dani shrugged awkwardly. “It’s not like I want you to leave or anything,” she assured the other woman. “I just thought you’d have other stuff you wanted to do than just stay here watching me wash dishes and shit.”

She squinted at Vivian. “Unless you’d like to help…”

“Uh. No. Pass on that one.” Vivian shook her head adamantly. Then she cracked a smile. “…But I’ll be happy to provide moral support! You can count on me!”

Dani looked blankly at her. “…Yay,” she said dryly, rolling her eyes. “My hero…”

Vivian stuck her tongue out playfully. “It’s fine, Dani, don’t worry,” she said, patting the other girl on the back. “You got this!”

“…Right.”

Dani didn’t really mind. She never expected Vivian to lift a finger to help, anyway. But she was curious why the heiress wanted to stick around.

“…So what’s up with you?” Dani asked as she was finishing up.

Vivian perked up curiously. “You mean, why am I so cool and chill all the time? Because I like taking things easy, that’s why!” She leaned back in her chair again and wove her fingers behind her head in a lazy cushion. With Nick and Kim finished with whatever they’d been getting up to tonight, Vivian was a lot cooler in the head.

Dani rolled her eyes.

“No… I mean, why are you trying to stick around me so much?” She wiped off her hands with a towel and walked back to Vivian at the table. “I can’t imagine I’m very good company for someone like you,” she pointed out.

Vivian blinked. She looked surprised, as if the thought had never occurred to her.

“…Can’t a girl just like hanging out?” She asked with a shrug.

Dani raised her eyebrow. “Just… hanging out, huh?”

Vivian looked a little nervous now.

“…I like you, Dani,” she said firmly. “I think you’re an alright person! You’ve got a bold personality that commands attention, but you’re nice, too! Even when you’re in a situation where you’ve got every reason not to be.”

Dani smiled at Vivian’s praise, but a bit of cynicism leaked into it. She laughed and shook her head, scratching her feathery hair.

“You’re just saying that because you weren’t here earlier on the show,” she replied. “Believe me, I wasn’t always such a… …What did you say before? Someone who’s ‘so cool and chill’ all the time, I think?”

Vivian smirked. “Well, I definitely wouldn’t go that far.”

Dani playfully rolled her eyes.

Vivian hopped to her feet and shrugged, showing how ready to leave she was now that Dani was done. “Look, I getcha, you probably had some growing pains, what, being gay and everything and being stuck in Nick’s harem. I can’t imagine it’d be easy. I mean, even I’m having a hard enough time, and I’m actually into fellas, so with you…”

“True, it definitely wasn’t,” Dani said, crossing her arms over her chest. “But I’m making the best of it now. Are you?”

Her question was a curveball the heiress didn’t see coming. She blinked for a second, then frowned and shrugged her shoulders.

“…I’m trying, at least,” she said finally. “More than I ever thought I’d do for a guy.”

Dani found that statement curiously worded. But she didn’t press the subject.

“Well… if you’re here to fish for advice from me, I don’t think I can give you any clues for getting closer to him,” she said, scratching the feathers on her arm. “Nick and I get along just fine, but when it comes to romancing a guy? Pfft.”

She rolled her eyes and snorted, showing just how crazy she found that idea.

Vivian chortled and shook her head. “Yeah, I’d expect as much from you! But don’t worry, I’m not tryin’ ta pump ya for information,” she assured the tomboy. “I really just… enjoy your company, that’s all. Serious!”

Dani believed her… for the most part. She could see the sincerity in Vivian’s eyes, even it was tinged with her usual mischief. The look of joy on her face earlier that afternoon when Dani had invited her, that hadn’t been faked either.

Still, she felt there was something Vivian was holding back. Like she was keeping one foot out of the door, ready to bolt at any second.

…That was her right, though. And Dani knew better than to pry at this point.

“…Well, I enjoy your company enough myself,” she said, smiling at Vivian a little. “And I think Emmy really appreciated you coming along to the pool, also. …The others probably did, too,” she added as an afterthought.

Vivian’s face lit up and she nodded. “Emmy’s such a sweetie!” She said. “I really do want to buy her that car…”

“Yeah, I’m gonna stop you right there,” Dani said quickly before the heiress could get ahead of herself. “If you want my advice, don’t rely so much on the big gestures. Just be a supportive person, a friend, even. That’s more than enough.”

Vivian seemed to think that affection and friendship could be bought with big purchases. Or should be rewarded in the same way.

It made Dani very uncomfortable, and she felt it was counterproductive. But trying to explain that to the other girl just led to a blank look on Vivian’s face.

She’d had to try other methods of convincing her, it seemed. Or maybe just show her that she could enjoy the company of others without having to feel like she needed to throw her money around for them.

That was her hope, anyway.