Potage Choisy

Caleb wasn’t sure when he had gotten to sleep, only knowing when he woke up that his glasses had come off at some point. He groaned lightly as he pushed himself up. They had somehow gotten into the crease between him and Maya. Oh shit, that’s right. The events of the previous night surged forward as his mind finished rebooting. He leaned over to see if she was awake, to see her eyes wide open. She was hugging one of the pillows against her chest and didn’t seem to acknowledge his presence.

Caleb quietly cleared his throat. “Hey there, Maya, how are you doing?”

The purple-haired woman didn’t stir, but her eyes turned to look upwards at Caleb before pushing her face deeper into the pillow. She then muffled something directly into its soft folds that Caleb couldn’t make out.

“Hey, sorry, I can’t understand you through the pillow.” Caleb tried to keep his voice gentle amidst the resurging anxiety from the previous evening. He still had no idea what exactly had happened or if he had done the right thing when she started bashing her head.

Very reluctantly, Maya pulled her face away from the pillow just enough to expose her lips, “I said I was sorry…” Her voice was hoarse, no surprise, Caleb supposed, with how much she had been crying out before falling asleep. Maya’s expression was grim as she continued, “I ruined everything.”

Shaking his head emphatically, the Master moved so he was no sitting next to Maya’s reclined body instead of looming over her, “Hey, no. I still had a wonderful time. Fencing was fun, right? We had a nice time at dinner, and everything else was great up until…” he searched for the words.

Unfortunately, Maya cut him off sharply, “Yeah, until I ruined everything.” Caleb tried to reach out to comfort her, and she slapped his arm away,

A heavy silence fell between the two before Caleb summoned the courage to ask, “What…happened exactly? Did I push you too far? Did I do something wrong?”

“No!” Maya rounded angrily on Caleb, pulling herself up from the bed. Tears were building again in her eyes. “Everything was fine, and then I freaked out. I’m so stupid!”

She was radiating so much hostile energy at this point, Caleb wasn’t sure what to do. At the same time, all that energy was pointed squarely at her, and he had no idea why. For some reason, he felt the need to remain very still, as if any movement might scare Maya away. “Maya, I still don’t know what you’re talking about. It's fine if you didn’t want to have sex..I…” He trailed off as he heard a low rumbling noise, and it took him a moment to realize Maya was growling.

“I wanted to have sex! I wanted the VP! I was enjoying myself! But I…I can’t.” She squeezed the pillow in her arms hard, “Mom said not to…and I don’t want her to hate me.”

“Oh,” Caleb murmured flatly, unsure of where to go from here, still not sure he was really understanding, the master pushed on. “Your mom didn’t want you to have sex?”

Shaking her head, Maya leaned in towards the pillow and began rocking slightly back and forth, “No…she just said that I should do it with someone I love.”

Caleb was connecting the dots, “And you don’t love me?” It wasn’t accusatory, just verifying his understanding.

Maya closed her eyes, “I don’t know! How the hell am I supposed to know if I love you?! What does that feel like? What are the symptoms?”

Not sure how to feel about love being described with the same language as a disease, Caleb was nevertheless put in an awkward position. The nature of love was one of those BIG philosophical questions, and Caleb would admit that before his relationship with Lily, he would have been just as confused as Maya. He paused, “My dad used to always tell me when I fell in love, I’d know because suddenly the love songs on the radio would make sense.”

The look Maya gave Caleb at that was like she had just found a slug in her food, “What the fuck does that even mean!? Who has a radio anymore? Do they make sense? Do they not make sense before that? Is it code?”

The intensity of her words against something so banal couldn’t help but bring a smile to Caleb’s face at the absurdity of the situation, and he tried to fight back laughter because it was obviously not very funny to Maya, “Don’t laugh! I’m serious! What does it mean? I don’t understand, and it’s not fair!”

Caleb lifted up his hand to **** down the laughter and sighed, “Maya, I’m sorry, but unfortunately, it's really hard to describe to someone who hasn’t experienced it. It’s like trying to describe the colour orange to someone who has never seen it.”

Maya gave him a flat look, “Imagine yellow if it were redder.”

Wincing slightly, Caleb reiterated, “Like trying to describe it to someone who has no concept of colour.”

Maya’s eyes narrowed. “Why are you trying to hide this? I’m trying to have sex with you. If you know I’m in love with you, just tell me! It will make everything so much simpler.”

Caleb frowned, “Maya, I honestly don’t know how you feel about me. I’m not trying to hide anything. I thought from my perspective we were getting along really well, definitely felt like we were becoming friends. But you’re the only person who can say whether or not you were falling in love.”

Biting her lip and looking away, Maya briefly glanced over at Caleb, “Were you falling in love with me?”

Caleb had to pause; so much of his focus was on keeping the girls safe, having them get along, and just creating some form of stability. Despite the nature of the show, he now realized that he hadn’t realistically considered it an option, that given all the betrayal, the games, and the competition that he could actually find love here with one or more of these girls.

Did he love Maya? Unwrapping all his feelings of obligation and his desire to help them…it was hard. He certainly enjoyed her company; she was fun and had a totally different way of thinking that kept him on his toes. Attracted to her physically? For sure, but really, at this point, everyone here has met that hurdle. But love?

Maya had been honest with him; he owed it to her to be honest back. “Maya, I like you for sure. Under normal circumstances, I could definitely see myself crushing on you, too. I don’t know if I’m falling in love, but I also can say truthfully I am open to it and would be lucky to fall in love with someone like you.”

Absorbing what Caleb was saying, Maya nodded slowly, “I’m not good at the dating stuff. I dated a boy in elementary school for one week, and we broke up because I wouldn’t kiss him. It just sounded gross.” She blinked and looked at Caleb, “Not that I find kissing you to be gross! It does feel weird, though- but in a good way.” She rushed out the last bit, and Caleb smiled

“I want you to know I’m not going to push you into anything you are uncomfortable with…If you can’t have sex unless you love me, that's ok.” The master got up from the bed.

Maya followed suit, “You say that, but I need VP.” She said grumpily

Walking to his closet, Caleb began to get changed. “I’m sure we can find other options. You’re not in this on your own, you got me and Mira, and I guess Stella, it seems like you’ve started getting along?”

“Tolerate each other may be a better way of putting it,” Maya smiled as she began getting dressed, “Though we’re definitely getting along better than before. Mira and Eliza helped me with that.”

“Oh, that's good,” Caleb said, relieved, this being the first news about Eliza that wasn’t related to her refusing to leave her room.

They chatted a bit more, getting ready for the day, before making their way to the elevator, as the bell rang and they exited out into the Entrance Hall, Caleb was surprised to see someone coming in from outside. Coming down the steps with Maya, it became clear that the figure was Lily, who looked rather abashed as she came in, clothes made of thin leafy-like fabric and vines, and what appeared to be some sort of yellow flower fascinator on her head.

Maya noticed her, too, and waved, “Good morning, Lily! Heading to breakfast? Do you want to join us?”

Lily, who, on noticing the two had ducked her head and sped up her walk, was now **** to turn and answer, still keeping her face hidden, “No! Thank you, I just want to go back to my room, please!”

This was followed up by a separate voice, similar to Lily’s but not quite echoing out, “Of course I had to run into these fuckers, fresh off of bumping uglies, I bet, god I probably look like such a pathetic loser right now.”

Caleb recoiled slightly at the sound of the second voice and, unable to leave well enough alone, adjusted his position blocking the stairwell a bit as Maya craned to look over at Lily, “Hey Lily? Is everything alright?”

Looking up irritably and making eye contact with Caleb, Lily responded, “I’m just fine, Caleb, can you please get out of the way and let me go to my room?”

Followed by the voice again, “Acting like he actually cares about me, hasn’t even responded to me saying I love him, the bastard!”

Maya looked around curiously. “Where is that other voice coming from?”

“Please just let me get to my room!” Lily snapped, and it was immediately followed by “Of course it had to be her who saw me, backstab action Barbie.”

This time Caleb caught motion on Lily’s head and asked, “Lily, please, I just want to know what’s going on so I can help.”

Lily kicked her foot against the step, “Well, you can’t help, ok, Caleb?” and this time Caleb clearly saw it as the yellow flower on Lily’s head contorted it’s petals into a pair of lips and spoke up, “Saint Caleb acting like it’s not his fault that Lucian is pimping us out like this.”

Staring at the flower and then down into Lily’s eyes, Caleb clenched his fist, “Lily what happened to you?”

Lily choked on her frustration, “It’s a punishment, ok? For not going back to my room last night. Satisfied? It will be gone after I spend a night in my room.” Lily thrust out her ring hand and showed off the transformation

Seedy Thoughts: Lily grows a flower on her head that reveals her innermost thoughts. Almost. The Flower is mischievous and will say them in the most crass and unflattering way possible (Punishment)

The flower spoke up, “I wouldn’t have to do this if not for everyone ganging up on me.”

Heartbreak crossed Caleb’s features. “Lily, you don’t really think that, do you?”

Lily grabbed Caleb’s arm and pushed on it, and he relented, letting her pass as she frowned, “Why shouldn’t I? Obviously no one cares anymore, that’s fine, I don’t care that I’m on my own.”

Before Caleb could say anything, it was Maya who spoke up, “Lily, it doesn’t need to be that way. I know making friends is hard, but if you want, we could play games together? It’s a great way to get to know someone, whether it’s dice games, card games, board games…”

Lily kept her mouth shut, and the flower responded, “I’d rather eat my own vomit than play games together with you.”

Her enthusiasm instantly collapsing, Maya shrank inward and Caleb turned towards her to comfort her and heard Lily run off, turning his head, he called out, “Lily, wait! Goddamnit.” He turned his attention back to Maya, “She’s just upset, and that flower…I’m sure she didn’t really mean that. Let’s go get some breakfast, ok?”

Maya wordlessly nodded and let Caleb support her back to her feet. The walk to the dining hall was only made difficult by the weight of the interaction behind them. Still, once they were in the dining hall Maya saw Mira and Stella at their table and lit up

Caleb smiled at her, “Go on then, hey.” He grabbed her arm lightly, “I had a lot of fun with you, ok? It was a good date, I look forward to our next one.” He let go

Maya looked over at Caleb and seemed to toss the words over in her mind before smiling, “I had fun too. I’ll look forward to next time, then.” She then ran to join her usual table, leaving Caleb by himself as he let out a heavy sigh.

Amy rose from her seat. She was dressed like she was ready for the club, wearing a puffy crop jacket and some vinyl pants as shewalked over to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. “Rough night?”

“And morning,” Caleb frowned, he looked over at Amy, “Hey, did Lily really not go back to her room last night?”

The oni’s eyebrows shot up, “Yeah, she didn’t. How did you know?” As Caleb walked with her back to the table, Caleb explained to her and Maddy the encounter that Maya and he had just had.

Amy lightly slammed her fist against the table, sending the silverware bouncing. “Goddammit, Lily, why today of all days?”

Having shrank back when Amy slammed her fist, Maddy scooted her chair back in, “I can try talking to her while you’re both on your date.”

The oni ran a hand through her hair, “I’d really appreciate it if you could. Normally, I’d be all for going to talk to her about this, but I have to keep priorities in order today.

Caleb raised an eyebrow. He got along great with Amy, but he was more than a little surprised to hear that she had made plans for their date day, “I didn’t really expect you, of all people, to take this so seriously.”

Raising her eyebrow, Amy frowned at Caleb, “Didn’t I tell you yesterday? We all only have four more chances with you. That includes me. I’m not wasting any opportunities. I may not be trying to get some wish, but I refuse to be below one hundred by the end of this.”

Caleb swallowed, the determination with which she said that was more than a little intimidating. Instead, the master looked to Maddy, “I really appreciate you helping out, Maddy. I feel like you’ve had to deal with Lily’s moods a lot.”

Maddy smiled and shrugged, “I like Lily, it’s clear she’s going through a lot, even if I don’t fully understand. She’s my friend. I don’t want to see her self-destruct like this.”

Nodding resolutely, Caleb looked to both of them, “Any other news, maybe something a little less…dour?” Maddy told Caleb about how she and Mira had had Coffee together the previous day; she didn’t go into what they had discussed, that would go against the plan, but just that they had a good talk and enjoyed each other's company.

That was a relief for Caleb to hear, like the lines between the groups in the Harem were softening, and people were reaching out to each other. Sadly, he realized that was probably contributing to Lily’s feelings. As long as he had known her, her sense of right and wrong had been **** and rigid. He never knew the full story behind it, He knew it had something to do with her family and a lot to do with her sister, but she had always pulled away when he asked about that. She never wanted to talk about her family with him.

Still, this had to be overall good news. The girls getting along better had to be good for the group’s overall health. With that in mind, he tried to focus on his meal. It was hard not to think about last night or Lily right now. He felt a **** desire to try and fix things. But he knew if he ruminated on it too much, he’d have an angry Oni on his hands and did not doubt for one minute her ability to lay him up.

The group finished their meal, and immediately Amy grabbed Caleb by the hand, “Come on, we have a lot to get through and only so much time to do it.”

Caleb was carried by Amy’s momentum like a leaf in a windstorm as she took him up the elevator all the way back to his room. She walked inside, Caleb following behind curiously, “Any particular reason we are starting here?”

“Caleb, come on, don’t be dense,” Amy smirked over to him as she unzipped her jacket and the top of her pants, pulling back the jacket to reveal a mesh top underneath that her stiff nipples were poking through.

She sauntered over to him and grabbed him by the collar. “I told you last week, I had to hold back because I didn’t want to create more distance between me and others. Now? Caleb, I need to make up for lost time, so here’s the deal.”

The Oni reached down and grabbed his bulge through his pants, “We are going to go at it, until I am out of the danger zone, then I have a few other things planned for today, and then this evening…we’ll see how we feel, but for now…” She stroked his length through the tight confines of his pants, “I need you to keep up, Master, can you do that?”

Caleb swallowed. After the previous night, his cock felt like it was on high alert, and after being told there was an emergency shutdown was now being activated for a world tour. Work sirens went on in his brain as he answered, his mouth dry, “I don’t have any worries about keeping it up.”

“A good sign,” Amy purred, wrapping her arms around Caleb's neck and pulling him in for a kiss that threatened to give the man third-degree burns with its intensity

Amy- Kissed the Master! +1 VP

Amy- Hugged the Master! +1 VP