After a good night's rest

Nate was surprised when he awoke to find his bunkmate still asleep – Serena had twisted her share of the blankets around her into a linen cocoon, with only her hair and horns sticking out above it. If it weren’t for the scale of Nate’s bed and sheets, she’d have stolen the blankets from him completely.

He climbed gingerly out of bed, doing his best not to wake the sleeping demon, and made his way downstairs to the Master suite’s kitchen. It took only three minutes to figure out the coffee machine, which resulted in him sitting at the dining table with fresh coffee in hand only moments later.

Nate always relished the early mornings – when his brain and body were freshly rested but just waking up. It was the only time of day his mind felt at rest. He spent the next while simply staring out the window, taking in the cityscape before him in the morning light.

Finishing his morning coffee and feeling much more awake, Nate considered what to do next. He still had an hour until the scheduled breakfast time. He considered some form of exercise, then dismissed it due to not knowing what the two scheduled training sessions might entail – he could afford to pass on one day of his morning exercise routines in case he needed the energy later.

As he considered what else to do instead, he heard Serena arrive in the kitchen. She trudged down the stairs, her heavy steps drawing his attention her way. She was still wrapped in his blankets, the excess making a long trail behind her. Her hair was a chaotic bedhead tangled up with her horns and with a grumpy frown on her face the demoness moved immediately towards the coffee machine.

“Someone’s not a morning person,” Nate joked.

Serena growled at him. Literally growled, teeth bared and everything. It caused Nate to flinch back. She turned back, removing one arm from the warm confines of her blankets and punching her order into the coffee machine like she bore a grudge. The moment the coffee finished dispensing, she tipped back the scalding liquid and chugged it down. Followed by cuing up another cup of the same. This repeated three times, before she finally stopped chugging the coffee, instead taking her fifth cup and moving over to sit across from him, looking much less like a feral demon.

“No,” she grumbled, eyes still squinted into slits, “I am not a morning person.”

“Noted,” Nate said. “I’ll remember not to bother you before you get your morning coffee, as well.”

Serena sighed, then sipped from her cup. “I come from a place far hotter than your world,” she explained, “Where nights are hotter than days. When my body sleeps, it generates far less heat in order to accommodate that change. I can cope with human living conditions, but waking up is very… difficult.”

“Thus the excess of blankets and five cups of caffeine,” Nate concluded.

Serena nodded. “It would be wise of you to shower and make your way down to breakfast,” she said. Nate glanced at the microwave’s clock, which read 7:45 AM. Deciding to listen to his Host’s suggestion, he rose from the table and went about his morning ablutions. Twenty minutes later, he was showered, shaved, and wearing a fresh set of clothing. He had checked with Serena after the shower about appropriate clothing, and she’d informed him there was no dress code outside of training, which made sense given his closet. Thus, he’d settled for a comfortable, collared, short-sleeve shirt and some jeans – the climate here was warm and summery, almost the exact opposite of the winter mountains he’d come from.

As he came back down his stairs to the first floor, he glanced over to see Serena still nursing her coffee – though whether it was the same cup or she’d gone for more refills was an even bet in his mind. “You not joining us for breakfast?” he asked.

Serena waved her hand at him in a shooing motion, so Nate shrugged and moved over to the elevator. He pressed the button, and the elevator door opened immediately.

“Greetings, Master,” Serena said from inside the elevator. She was dressed in her secretary attire, hair bundled up into a loose bun instead of free as it was the day before, and had her tablet in hand.

Nate did a double take, then glanced back over towards the dining room, which he could still see from the elevator entrance. To his further surprise, Serena was still sitting at the dining table, looking away from him and out the window.

“…Uhh… I… Wha… But you’re over there?” Nate’s brain short circuited.

“Yes, Master,” Serena agreed, “I am in many places at many times. Now please enter, you are holding up the elevator.”

Nate stumbled into the elevator obediently, and the Host pressed the button to take them to the recreational level, causing the doors to shut and the elevator to spring into motion, moving downwards.

The ride was spent in silence as Nate grappled with seeing the same person in two places at once for the first time in his life. It shouldn’t bother him, he knew – hell, he was pretty certain one of the Contestants had been offered a cloning ability, which would have been the same thing, right? Although, from the way Serena responded, he wasn’t sure that was the case at all.

The elevator dinged, doors swinging open, and Nate was ushered out onto the recreational level by Serena, who promptly gave him directions and then dismissed him, informing him she would arrive at the end of the breakfast period to organize everything.

So when Nate stumbled into the large recreational area consisting of the television section he had first appeared in and a massive kitchen and dining area, he was already off kilter, but what he saw only sent him through another loop. Or rather, who he saw.

Surprisingly, despite Nate being ten minutes past the start of the breakfast period, there was only one Contestant present when he arrived. Sarah was wearing some comfortable short shorts and a blue tank top that wouldn’t have been out of place on a Saturday morning back when Nate was in senior year at high school. She had decided on a bowl of cereal as her breakfast of choice and had claimed a glass of orange juice to go with it. It wasn’t that Sarah was the first in the room, what she was wearing, or even what she was eating that astounded Nate. It was the WAY she was eating it.

Sarah was currently holding herself upright with her hands braced on a chair at the table, had folded her lower body up and over her head, and was using her right foot’s toes to grip a spoon and eat the bowl of cereal in front of her. Nate stood there agog as he watched her flex her new contortionist transformation.

A few bites later Sarah noticed his presence, and a grin sprung to her face, “Oh, Nate! Sweet, you came down quick! That means I don’t have to hold this long. What do ya think?” Sarah bounced her eyebrows up and down.

“I-uh, I see your contortion transformation has settled in. I didn’t even know that was possible.”

Sarah placed her spoon down then carefully unbent herself, coming back to rest on her bare feet before sitting back down like a normal person. “Honestly, I’m not sure it is,” Sarah confessed. “I think this transformation is making me WAY more flexible than even the most flexible natural contortionist. Raises a lot of questions about what a more ‘severe’ version of my transformation might be.”

“More severe?” Nate asked as he went to grab himself his own bowl of cereal.

“Yeah, we got a list of things we can purchase with BP in our rooms. One of the options increases the severity of a transformation in exchange for also increasing the rank of the superpower it’s linked to.”

“Huh. Yeah, that does make you think. Would your body turn to rubber? Or gain extra joints? Fuck, that’s a terrifying concept.”

“Aw, you wouldn’t love me if I had two sets of elbows and knees?” Sarah teased.

Nate rolled his eyes. “Let’s keep the body horror to a minimum where possible, okay? It’s one thing to be **** to change by the competition, transforming yourself willingly should be done VERY carefully, if at all. Especially since there’s no way to know what the transformation might be ahead of time.”

“True,” Sarah admitted, patting the chair next to hers for Nate to sit in, which he did a moment later, cereal in hand. “How’s the Master suite?”

“Extravagant. And the bed is fucking huge. Like six King sized beds in one.”

“Oooh. Big enough to host your whole harem, eh?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.”

“Naaate, are you being difficult about getting the chance to be the head of a harem?” There was some accusation in Sarah’s voice.

Nate sighed. “No, not really. But if I was, could you blame me, with these circumstances? Five of you are family to me in one way or another, and the sixth is my best friend’s girlfriend, which presents extra complications since I don’t want to make Alex sad by stealing away her girlfriend. It’s a seriously fucked up situation.”

“From the way Serena was describing things, though, it sounds like that plays into your fetishes.”

Nate felt his face burn with shame, and he sputtered to respond. “Well- that’s, I mean… That’s besides the point. Just because I have a particular fetish doesn’t make it right to recreate it in reality.”

Sara shrugged, “Why not? Not like anyone’s gonna judge us. We’re here in this, like, other world being watched by interdimensional perverts who probably get off on this shit. And by the time we get back to reality, we’ll be the fucking superheroes who save the goddamn planet. Anyone wants to give us judgement or shame us for what we went through to save the fucking planet isn’t worth a rat’s ass in my eyes at that point.”

“Yeah, I get it. And, truthfully, I’m coming around to it. It’ll take me some time, but that’s really not the issue that’s making me hesitant about this whole situation anymore.”

“Oh?” Maria said as she entered the kitchen area. She had settled on a green cold shoulder shirt that was short enough to show off her toned midsection and a pair of tight gray denim shorts that hugged her legs. “Something is making little Nate hesitant? He isn’t delighted to be given a gift most men would kill for?”

“Morning Maria,” Nate replied to her teasing tone. “And yes. Social norms and taboos aside, there is something else that concerns me. I’m worried about infighting, inter-harem friction, you might say. Look at other reality shows and how much drama there is between the contestants, like on the Bachelor.”

“But on the Bachelor,” Sarah objected, “They’re expecting the bachelor to pick one of them. The drama is a form of, like, social combat, with the goal of the winner being decided by the bachelor. We’re not on that kind of show.”

Nate shook his head, “You’re right, but I worry that you’re also wrong. A harem is almost like one of those shows that never ends. Think about it, if all of you are supposed to be in my harem going forward, then for the rest of our lives you’ll be competing with each other for my attention. I’m only one man, I can’t be a full partner for any one of you if I have the full harem to take care of.

“And that’s the other part of it. I’m also worried about making a harem of people happy. I haven’t even been able to make a girlfriend happy, let alone multiple women. Do you know how common divorce is? I somewhat doubt that whatever magical harem bullshit Serena’s going to be throwing our way is going to allow for divorces. The last thing I want is to come out of this magically bound into a loveless harem built on the bones of my family and friends…”

“Hmm,” Maria said from the stove, where she was preparing breakfast. “Sí, you raise some interesting points, Nate, dear. Perhaps, as the only one in the room with marriage experience, I can help?

“Your second concern is indeed valid. Divorce and falling out of love with someone is a very real thing. However, it is a very different situation here than out in reality. In society, as you’ve said, divorce is common, normal. As such, many people gravitate towards it as a solution. It was this way between me and Ronald – I still wanted to work towards fixing our marriage, he wanted a divorce, el cabrón. That difference is part of why our divorce was so messy.

“If what you suggest is true, and we are magically bound together, then divorce may not be an option. Which could, as you suggest, result in one or more of us ending up feeling unloved and forgotten, but you, señor, are far too compassionate a man to let that stand for long. If one of us were feeling such a way and you found out, would you leave that person to suffer, or reach out?”

“I’d reach out,” Nate admitted.

“¡Exactamente! As for concerns about not being able to make us happy because you can’t give us your full attention, we are all coming into this situation with eyes fully open. This isn’t a situation where any of us expect to be your one and only!” Maria then muttered under her breath, “Y si alguien lo hace, los demás la desengañaremos de esa idea.”

“As to your first concern,” Maria continued as she moved to plate up the omelets she had cooked, “The onus for keeping peace between the harem should fall on us, not on you. As I just said, we all understand the situation we are in. We are competing, sí, but we are also a team, both on the show and in the harem. And we must have a different mindset. Unlike on the Bachelor or other dating competitions, we aren’t competing for a single spot. And our competitors are also people you care about. Us putting them down or dragging them through the mud will not please you – if anything it will upset you. It is a different scenario than usual, and we will need to police ourselves.”

Sarah agreed, pitching in with, “Yeah, let us bitches handle the bitches who want to be bitches. We’ll figure our own shit out, Nate. Nobody wants to live in a harem that’s fighting, like, all the time – occasional drama can be fun, but endless drama sucks fat chode.”

“Ever the colorful language, Sarah,” Maria smiled. “I’m always surprised your mother doesn’t care about it.”

Sarah stuck her tongue out at the older Latina in response.

“Besides,” Maria moved two plates of omelets over to the table, “You are alright with other relationships between the harem, no? That is why I got my transformation, no?”

Nate scratched his head, looking away awkwardly. “Uh, yeah, that’s fine.”

“So even if I were to pursue lovely Sarah here romantically, you would have no problemas?”

Both siblings blushed at that thought, and Nate gulped, answering with a dry mouth, “Uh, yeah, that’d be fair.” He hadn’t known before this crazy situation that he was okay with the idea of dating women who dated each other, but thinking about the concept, he was ashamed at how much he was for such a concept.

“So if I were to kiss her, to make love to her, to take her on dates, wine and dine her, that would be fine?”

“… I plead the fifth,” Nate finally managed, his face assuredly redder than a tomato. Yeah, he had a thing for inter-harem lesbian relations, it turned out.

“Well, then that takes care of your concern for not having time for us, yes? We are not just entering a relationship with you, Nathaniel, but also each other. How that relationship looks will vary – some will be just friends, others far closer – but with those extra relationships, we will fill the void of time you cannot spend with us individually. This is a different type of relationship than any of us have had before, but it is far superior to the alternative, no?”

Nate nodded his head, just hoping to escape the conversation at this point. Looking for any way to change the subject, he latched onto the empty seat to Maria’s left, in front of which sat a fresh omelet. “S-so where’s mom?” he asked.