Or even rearrange ya

Nick was **** to trust Vivian when she said that she wanted to help the two of them get more comfortable. A big part of that was due to her personality, but another factor was that Vivian herself was one of the contributing factors to their discomfort was all the people that were currently in the Master’s Suite with them.

Still… it couldn’t hurt to hear her out.

“What did you have in mind?” He asked cautiously.

She just returned his question with a playful smirk. “What did I have in mind… well, that’s the thing, isn’t it? All this talking, sharing our thoughts, it just leads to more anxiety! What we should be doing is focusing on doing!”

Nick still wasn’t sure what she was talking about. He stared blankly at her, then he looked to Ella.

“Ella, are you getting any of this?”

The shy latina shook her head slowly.

Vivian giggled, not at all bothered by Nick’s concerns. “You’re taking it too seriously!” She said, shaking her head. “You both are. There’s no pressure tonight, you know that, right? Falling in love doesn’t have a set schedule!”

Ella blinked.

“…Huh?”

“I’ve seen a lot of people like you, Ella my darling,” Vivian said, wiggling her finger from side to side like a teacher warning a student (a rather ironic notion). “Everything is drastic, everything must go perfectly, and if it doesn’t, well, it’s the end of the world, isn’t it?”

“Vivian…” Nick said warningly, not liking the direction Vivian was going with this. Ella was obviously in a sensitive state, and the heiress hadn’t exactly demonstrated a lot of sensitivity in the short time he’d gotten to know her.

He really hoped that he was just being paranoid, but he couldn’t help but worry about how the other girl was conducting herself towards Ella, even if her tone sounded considerate instead of her usual slight condescension.

And it was clear that Ella was responding, and not in a positive way. The fact that she was sitting there petrified made that abundantly clear, and Nick honestly didn’t know what he could or should do about it.

Then, to his surprise, she spoke.

“I know… it’s not the end of the world,” she said, raising her head and looking Vivian in the eye. “I’m not stupid, Vivian. And I’m not as fragile as you think I am.”

Before, Nick would have been concerned that Cinder was taking over. But that’s not what he saw when he looked at Ella now. Having gotten to know her better over the last few days, he had learned that she might be soft-spoken and shy, but she wasn’t a delicate little flower that needed to be protected. She could stand up for herself when it really mattered… and when she couldn’t, and got overwhelmed, that’s when Cinder took over.

Maybe I was being too protective over her again. It was a difficult line to tread, he knew that. He just had to hope that right now, he wasn’t being too insensitive, and that if he let Ella fight her own battles it would end up causing a major problem down the line.

A lot of that would depend on how Vivian responded, and he hoped she would have the foresight to not turn it into a big thing.

“Fragile? Who said anything about fragile?” The heiress shook her head. “That’s not what I mean at all, Ella. I’m not worried about stuff like that!”

She touched her fingers to her lips as Ella made a confused face.

“I’m just saying you should try a little smile! After all, you had fun on your date, didn’t you?”

Ella tensed a little, but then she nodded reluctantly. “I… I did,” she admitted. “It was fun.”

“Right? That’s great!” Vivian nodded. “What was your favorite part?”

Nick’s favorite part was the aquarium, of course. But knowing Ella, she would probably say-

“We… we got to watch ‘Beauty and the Beast’ together just now,” she said, and a bashful smile touched her lips just as Vivian had urged.

It couldn’t match the beaming one the brunette gave, though.

“Great! Isn’t that just great?” She chortled. “You two got to watch a movie together! And Nick, you had fun doing that, right?”

“Well yeah, obviously,” Nick nodded. Even if that film wouldn’t have been his first choice, the fact that Ella had watched it with eager eyes and leaned forward in her seat had been such a good feeling for them both.

“So now you guys are getting all tense? Even after a big date like that? No no no, not good, not good at all!” Vivian shook her head and put her hands on her hips. “You two should be celebrating a successful date, not looking like you’re going to throw up after your first bite of Mary’s delicious dinner!”

Nick and Ella shared a tense look. There had definitely been high points in the date they’d both enjoyed, but there had been low points as well. And it’s not like they could help the fact that having everybody around making a commotion made them uncomfortable!

“…I think we’re just feeling a little awkward due to all the company,” Nick said. “That’s all. It’s kind of hard to relax with everybody here.”

Vivian shrugged. “Just pretend like we don’t exist!”

Oh, if only that were possible.

“Kind of hard to do when you’re standing right here,” Ella muttered. She was grateful that the girls were here to help, but at the same time, she couldn’t shake the murky feeling in her gut. She constantly felt like she had to keep on her toes so as not to mess up, and the more people she messed up in front of, the worse!

I wish I could just pretend like it wasn’t a big deal… but you’re wrong, Vivian! This is a very important date, because if it doesn’t work out, then… then… um…? Ella bit her lip and raised her head, looking at the concern on Nick’s face. He was really trying hard tonight, just like she was. She appreciated that so much, she just wished there was something she could do, some way she could make this date go even smoother. But her mind was drawing a blank, and Cinder was being as unhelpful as always.

Vivian looked between the two, and was about to say something before Rose returned with Ella’s water. It was fancy mineral water, not tap water, an extra embellishment that should have been seen as a kind gesture, but just put even more pressure onto Ella.

She still drained the glass dry, enjoying the carbonation. The way the bubbles gurgled down her throat made her feel all floaty!

But the drink didn’t do a lot to quell the feeling of anxiety rising up inside her.

“Vivian, I appreciate what you’re trying to do right now, helping us relax,” Nick said, turning to the heiress, “but it’s fine. We’re doing fine, right, Ella?”

“Right,” Ella mumbled with a shaky nod. “Fine…”

Yeah, not only was Vivian never gonna buy that for a second, but Nick wasn’t exactly convinced by that display either. He sighed and shook his head.

“Ella,” Vivian said, her voice unusually gentle like it had been whenever she talked to the other girl. “It’s not going to be the end of the world if something goes wrong. Stuff like this happens! You just gotta face it with a smile, and not care! Like I do!”

Ella winced. “But…”

“Let me guess, you’re worried about turning into Cinder, right?” Vivian asked. “You think that’s going to mess up the date?”

“Obviously!?” Ella let out a startled cry, a lot louder than she’d expected. Vivian… she had just said it! The thing she’d been so concerned about, and she’d just-!

“Vivian, are you sure you should do that?” Rose winced.

“I-I think Rose is right,” Sylvia agreed. Both maids wondered if bringing up Cinder might have been crossing a line.

Nick was concerned about it too, but he focused more on Ella than on Vivian herself. And Ella might have made that outburst, but she wasn’t doing anything else.

She just looked a little shocked.

Mary rushed out of the kitchen to see what all the commotion was about.

“Dinner is almost ready!” She said. “Did something happen? I heard a scream!”

“It-it wasn’t a scream!” Ella shook her head frantically.

“True, it was more like a gasp,” Vivian nodded.

Mary bit her lip and looked at Nick. He looked at Ella in turn, then back to his wife.

“I-I think we’re fine out here, Mary,” he assured her, and she scurried back to the kitchen to join Holly on putting the finishing touches on the meal.

With that settled, back to Vivian’s insensitivity.

“Look, I’m sorry for saying what I said,” Vivian apologized. “But even if you’re not made of glass, Ella, that doesn’t mean you have to worry about how tonight’s going! Tell you what- let’s play pretend! Pretend I just ruined everything and made tonight the worst date in the history of dating!”

Ella stared at her in confusion. “Huh?”

“Vivian, what are you trying to do?” Nick was completely lost, and he had no idea how the heiress’s proposal would actually help things along. At this point, he was counting down the seconds until everyone left them alone!

…Assuming Vivian and the other girls actually went back to their rooms, of course. The thought that they might stay the night chilled him.

“It’s just playing pretend,” Vivian said. “Pretend I did something really bad, and now the whole night is ruined. Well… what then? What would you say to me? Go on, say it!”

“Err… um… why… why would you do that?!” Ella demanded. It sounded cute, and completely devoid of anger. Probably because she was more confused than anything else.

She didn’t even know what “that” was.

Vivian was happy to play along, though. “Because I wanted to! And aren’t you all having fun now?” She tapped the back of her hand. “It seems like you could use a bit of motivation to get further with Nick tonight!”

Ella looked down at her own hand, and the number that hadn’t changed. Today had been a very chaste date, and she hadn’t done anything that would have earned her more VP points.

“All I said,” Vivian continued, “was that maybe Nick would like it if you took your blouse off, that’s all! No biggie.”

THAT wasn’t what anybody expected to come out of her mouth. Ella and Nick both looked at her in stunned shock, while Sylvia grinned and Rose fought back a giggle.

“Err, I… um…” Ella blushed crimson. Suddenly this had gone from being a game to an actual embarrassing moment.

Nick stood up. “Okay, Vivian, that’s enough,” he said, trying to keep the anger out of his voice. “You’re making her uncomfortable again. So stop it.”

Vivian glanced at Ella, and decided maybe he had a point. “…You’re right. I’m sorry, Ella. I was just trying to get you to open up to me a little. But I might have pushed you too far.”

“N-no, it wasn’t too far,” Ella stammered. “I can handle stuff like that… a little bit. I just got surprised, that’s all!”

She wasn’t very good when it came to sexual stuff. But she wasn’t a little kid who needed to be coddled, either!

Ella just wished there was some way she could feel relaxed.

That seemed to be what everybody wanted right now.

“Nick,” Vivian said, turning to him without a trace of concern about his frustration towards her at the moment, “quick question.”

“…What?” Nick wasn’t exactly in the mood to humor her right now.

“If today’s date had been a disaster, would you have held it against Ella?” She asked, causing the shy girl to freeze like a statue.

“What!?” Another question from the heiress that nearly set him off. “No! Of course not!” He shook his head vigorously. Then he turned to Ella. “…I wouldn’t. Vivian might have a big mouth, but she’s not wrong. A date not going well isn’t the end of the world.”

Ella nodded slowly, thinking back to their conversation a couple minutes ago about the fear of the unknown.

Maybe… maybe that’s what this really is. I’m so worried about what could go wrong that I’m not focusing on enjoying myself.

“Vivian…” Ella turned to the heiress, still red in the face but also looking at her with a newfound understanding. “I think you’re right.”

“Mm? That’s good to hear! …About what?” Vivian chirped.

“…I was really worried… but maybe it wasn’t that big a deal.” She glanced at Nick again. “I really had a lot of fun today,” she murmured, taking him in as she recalled her time at the Aquarium, going clothes shopping, and most of all, watching that movie together. The café had caused problems, but the rest of it…

“I had fun too,” Nick nodded.

He was surprised when she shook her head.

“No, um… that’s not… sorry, I wasn’t finished yet.” She cleared her throat and sat up straight in her chair, looking a little taller. “I… the times I had the most fun… were when I wasn’t thinking about trying to have fun. That cute little flapjack octopus, or the movie… I was enjoying myself so much I wasn’t even worried about messing up, or about Cinder coming out. I just…”

“You were living in the moment!” Vivian interrupted her. It was a rude gesture, but it smashed through the tangled mess of Ella’s thoughts and perfectly crystallized what she was trying to say in her mind.

“Yes! That’s exactly it!” Ella nodded, her eyes wide with excitement. “Instead of worrying, I just got to have fun! I… I’ve never… I’ve never had that before…”

Her excitement was sharp but short-lived, and it drained away almost as quickly as it arose to be replaced with her shy sheepishness again.

“…I wish I could do that all the time,” she admitted. “Maybe… maybe I would have had more fun at the beach party yesterday if I hadn’t been so worried.”

“I don’t think you’re to blame for that,” Rose said. “Everybody has worries and concerns that they have to deal with! Like what if you get split ends, or you break a heel? Or chip a fingernail? What Vivian is saying is just don’t let that stuff get to you! I know I sure don’t!”

Nick fought back a sigh of exasperation. Rose was trying to help, she really was. But the scale of the issues she was empathizing with Ella over simply couldn’t be compared.

“…You know what? You guys are so right!”

Everybody turned to Sylvia, who had been surprisingly quiet.

“I was so worried about my date with Daddy tomorrow… but I shouldn’t be concerned!” She declared. “I shouldn’t hesitate, I should do what I want! Thanks, Vivian! Ella! You two were a big help!”

“Eh?! What about me?” Rose pouted.

Sylvia shrugged. “Anyway… I’ve made up my mind! That bounty… I’m going to take it!”

Nick wasn’t sure what she was talking about for a second, then he remembered. “Oh! You mean…”

“So you’re really going to give up your night to someone else?” Rose was surprised to hear that.

“Why not?” Sylvia shrugged. “I wasn’t sure at first, but it’s not like Daddy and I are going to be doing anything,” she pointed out, nodding to Nick. “And we’ll still spend the whole day together. Ella, you had a lot of fun on your date, right, my girl? And you’re not going to do anything sexual with Daddy either!”

“Uh… that… no, no I’m not,” Ella acknowledged, nodding shyly.

Sylvia clapped her hands together. “So it’s decided! I knew it was the right call, coming up here! Good thing we coordinated with you, right, Vivian?”

“That’s right,” Vivian nodded with a wink. “And that way, we could get Mary involved with things, too! Everybody had fun.”

“I guess so,” Rose agreed.

Nick was a little slow on the uptake. He wasn’t sure if they should just brush over the discussion they’d just been having with Ella to turn to a new topic, but before he could say anything Ella herself stepped in with a point of her own.

“One question, um…” She bit her lip. “You guys, you all… planned this out together?” She asked.

Vivian nodded. “Rose and Sylvia came to me,” she explained. “Because of their punishment game.”

“Well, that’s why Sylvia came,” Rose clarified. “I wanted to see you about that collar, remember?”

“Ah. Yes, that’s right, the collar,” Vivian nodded.

Nick blinked.

“Collar?”

Rose blushed. “Err… don’t worry about it. That’ll come later.”

“She’s got a surprise for you,” Vivian giggled, sending him a coy wink. “But if she’s dressed as a maid, the collar would be a distraction. Or the maid costume would be a distraction. Either way, it would remove from the effect to do ‘em both together, so… well, that’s not the point.”

She shrugged.

“Anyway, I thought it was a great idea, and thought it would be even better to get Mary involved!” Vivian pointed out. “Let everyone that’s gonna be up here tonight join in the maid party!”

Ella nodded. “That, um… that’s the part I don’t get, actually,” she said, glancing at the kitchen. “Doesn’t Mary… doesn’t she have to wear that one outfit every day? The tied-up flannel shirt? Or is she just wearing that because she likes it?”

“No, that’s because of an old transformation,” Nick clarified for her. “She has to wear that every day. But Vivian’s New Style transformation lets her replace other people’s clothing transformations with a new one for a day, so that’s why she could wear a maid costume tonight, and that swimsuit yesterday,” he explained.

Then he realized something.

“Wait… no, how does that work?” He turned to Vivian, and frowned. “Doesn’t your New Style transformation only work once a round?”

Vivian smirked, and brought up the transformation.

• New Style: Vivian is an excellent designer with an eye for all the chic styles. Each day, she can either copy someone else’s clothing transformation for herself, or temporarily negate someone else’s clothing transformation, allowing them to wear whatever outfit she picks out, instead. She may use both effects on the same person in the same round once each, but she may not use the same effect on the same person twice in one round. [NOTE: Both these effects last for 24 hours.] (Fashionista)

“Mm, well, would you look at that?” She hummed. “Right on the money!”

Something didn’t sit right here. Nick turned to the only person who might be able to address his concerns.

“Sylvia? How’d she do it?” A former host would know.

“Weelll… you’re not wrong, Daddy!” Sylvia giggled, giving him a mischievous look. “I’ll say that for now.”

“I’m really confused…” Ella mumbled.

“With a transformation like that one, Vivian can only use it once per round, but another person could use it on Mary a second time in the round,” Sylvia clarified. “Assuming, of course, that there were two people with the same transformation.”

Ah. So that was it.

“You copied it, then, didn’t you?” Nick realized. “With the transformation you borrowed from Rose.”

Rose shook her head and Sylvia giggled.

“Nope! Wrong again!” She chirped. “You’re so silly, Daddy! Weren’t you listening before? Rose and I used our Method Acting transformations to copy Ella’s maid transformation for the night! I can’t use it twice!”

Oh, right. Which just left…

Nick’s eyes widened. “Wait, you didn’t-!”

“Yup!” Sylvia nodded. “I used Fuck the Voters to veto Vivian’s New Style transformation for the rest of the round, and now, I can do it, too!”

Nick’s jaw dropped, and Ella looked just as shocked.

“You did? But… why?” Nick knew Sylvia had been experimenting with transformations all round, but he didn’t expect her to make a choice so suddenly. And for a reason as frivolous as putting Mary in a maid outfit for a night.

“Because, Daddy, I wanted to do something special,” Sylvia stated, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “Out of all the transformations I could have picked, this one lets me choose my own clothes! At least, for a little while.”

She did a little twirl, showing off her skimpy maid costume.

“I like skimpy clothes, don’t get me wrong,” she said. “But with New Style, I can wear something else, instead! Like copy Carly’s cosplay, or a schoolgirl uniform, or heck- even Mary’s outfit, if I wanted to!”

Nick was pretty sure that any of those clothing transformations would still fall within the boundaries of wearing something skimpy. But he supposed Sylvia’s reasoning was still a valid one.

“And plus… it’s almost like, at least for a little while, I got some of my old powers back,” Sylvia said wistfully, looking down at her hand. “Being able to dress someone up in whatever outfit I choose… it’s not quite a transformation, but it’s still special.”

That logic was a little more worrisome. But Nick was confident that Sylvia at least wouldn’t go too far and alter someone’s clothes without their consent. Hopefully.

Either way, it was her decision. And he could make a big stink about it, or he could acknowledge that she was doing what she wanted.

“I’m just surprised you’re okay with this,” Nick said to Vivian.

The heiress shrugged. “I wear what I like anyway,” she pointed out. “And the round’s halfway over anyhow. I might have wanted to save it for Gina’s party coming out, but hey, no big loss if I can’t dress anybody else up for the rest of the week. And I’ll get it back next round anyway, along with a whole bunch of new transformations to test out!”

Vivian really does have a way of not letting things get to her. Ella admired that more than anything.

It was only then that she realized, with everybody talking about Sylvia’s copied transformation, she hadn’t thought about Cinder or her date going poorly even once.

Maybe more people around wasn’t a problem. If things could be as casual as this, if she could enjoy herself with the company of others this easily… maybe it could even be the solution.