You know I'd be lying if I said that we were meant to be

Dakota disappeared with the tap of her cane, living Cinder with the others. The tan-skinned girl stood in the center of the Banquet Hall with a plastic smile frozen to her face, and a hollow gleam in her eye. It was impossible to see any trace of the real Cinder behind her manufactured expression, and no way to tell how she would respond to the position Dakota had placed her in.

“We’re not seriously considering this, are we?” Dawn shook her head incredulously. She could be cynical about this issue and see it as the right course of action to do the most good for Cinder, freeing her from a transformation that was obviously causing her distress, but the part of her that was a decent person refused to let her do that.

It was disturbing that it could even be something worth talking about.

“No, of course we’re not!” Dani and Nick shouted at practically the same time. They both glanced at each other, a little shaken.

“While I can understand the pragmatic reasons for cutting the knot and just kissing her, I’m with Nick on this one,” Rose nodded. Pragmatist that she was, she couldn’t let this one slide. “Not only would Nick feel uncomfortable with this, but it’s wrong!”

“Yeah, I think you should emphasize the wrongness a little more,” Marley pointed out.

“As hot as it would be to see Nick kiss her, I’m not into **** stuff,” Holly lied through her teeth. She was actually totally into it, as long as it was her consent being violated (and even then, only by Nick.) But she knew better than anybody that the man she loved would never do something like that, and never for a second believed he would take Dakota up on her offer.

The fact that he had proven her right made her beam at him with admiration, and she walked over to him and placed a hand on his arm. “It’s okay. This is the right choice.”

“I know it is,” Nick said, having never doubted for a second. He turned to Cinder. “Look, it sucks that you’re stuck in that state for the next 12 hours. But I’m not going to kiss you to bring you out of it.”

Cinder blinked. “Is there a reason for that?” She inquired.

Nick shook his head. “While I believe that you, the real you, would want to get out of this state as quickly as possible, I can’t know for sure whether you would be willing to kiss me in order to do that,” he answered.

Cinder’s smile widened. “You do not have to worry about that! If you would like me to kiss you, then I would happily oblige!” She took a step closer and pursed her lips, but Nick stepped back and raised his hands to stop her.

“No, but that’s my point, don’t you see?” He said quickly. “You can’t actually consent. You’re being controlled by that mirror transformation. You’d say anything if we asked you. That’s not consent, it’s brainwashing. And even if you actually are fine with that inside, I can’t possibly know that. Unless I can get verifiable consent about what you want, I’m not going to do anything to you. I know you might not believe what I told you and Ella about how I wouldn’t ever do anything to violate your boundaries, but I’m telling you again. Until I know for a fact that you want me to do something, I’m not going to do anything to you.”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin let out a muted huff and rolled her eyes, annoyed at all the preachiness. She approached Cinder and placed herself between Nick and the other woman, cocking her hip to the side and crossing her arms.

Cinder stared blankly at her, not sure what her roommate wanted. Internally, while she was grappling with trying to understand what Nick had just said and trying to process it, she also wondered if Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin could even give her any orders without using her words.

She didn’t want to find out.

I don’t understand. That guy… he could do whatever he wanted with me, but he isn’t? That’s… I don’t understand how someone could be like that.

If Cinder were capable of shaking her head in disbelief, she would have. Nothing about this made any sense. Wherever she went, she only encountered wolves that would try to use her and take advantage of her, and here was Nick, having full control over her body, and not doing anything with it. Even when he had an excuse! He could claim it was to free her from the transformation and steal her first kiss, and yet… he refused.

Was he touched in the head or something?

She felt the strange yet familiar tugs on her heart from Ella. Her other half might have wanted to seize control, but there was nothing she could do, suppressed as she was by the mirror’s effects.

Cinder was in the driver’s seat… or at least, as much as she possibly could be with the transformation controlling her words and actions.

“I think the assassin might disagree with leaving her like this,” Carly murmured, approaching Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin carefully. Then she saw the woman’s lips curl up into a smile.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin circled around the petrified woman, eyeing her up like a shark studying its prey. The others followed her with their eyes, not sure what to make of the figure in front of them, and what she may want.

“Hey, Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin, is everything okay?” Nick asked, approaching her cautiously himself. “What are you doing?”

She turned to Nick and shrugged. Then she poked Cinder in the cheek a few times, almost tauntingly.

He might not have fully understood her, but he had a feeling he got the message.

“No, I’m not going to do any of that stuff,” he said, giving his best guess at what she meant. He assumed that she probably disagreed with their whole idea of leaving Cinder alone, and that she wanted him to possibly even take advantage of the maid.

That was obviously not going to happen, for a wide variety of reasons.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin looked disappointed. With a mute grunt she stepped away from Cinder and crossed her arms in a pout.

“So if Nick’s not going to kiss her, because obviously, what are we going to do?” Rose asked, addressing the elephant in the room. “It’s not like we can just leave her like this for the rest of the day.”

“Obviously not,” Dawn agreed, shaking her head. “Who knows what could happen if someone stumbled onto her in this state, without knowing what’s going on?”

She could just picture Morgana finding her and saying something totally innocuous that would result in Cinder doing something she didn’t want to do. That would be horrible for all parties involved, and she wanted nothing to do with it.

“I don’t know,” Nick admitted, shaking his head. “But you’re both right. There’s no way we can just leave her alone. I guess the only thing we can do is stay with her for the rest of the day, until the transformation wears off.”

Cinder probably wouldn’t enjoy that. But it would be better than the alternative.

“We’ll have to be careful about how we word things, too,” Dawn said, glancing warily at the frozen girl. “Anything we phrase like a command, she’ll obey. Which means we can’t talk to her in any way that sounds like an order if we don’t want to risk her feeling violated.”

Nick nodded. That sounded pretty inconvenient, though.

“What a pain in the ass,” Dani groaned. Part of her thought that the best thing to do would be to just order the other girl to lock herself in her room for the rest of the day. But she also knew that wasn’t okay either, and kept her mouth shut.

“Dawn’s right,” Rose agreed. “We need to be careful about what we say. We don’t want anything to get misunderstood.”

Everyone looked at her. Dawn especially.

“…What?” Rose flinched a little, caught off-guard by the way everyone was staring. “Why are you all looking at me?”

“Because if anyone is at risk of inadvertently saying something that’ll mess her up, it’s definitely you,” Marley dryly pointed out.

Rose wasn’t exactly known for not sticking her foot in her mouth, and this was no exception to that issue.

The blonde looked scandalized. “Well… hmph! It’s not like this is a perfect situation either, you know!” She pointed out. “Remember, the mirror transformation lasts for 12 hours, that’s a whole day! Which means that when she has to go up to the Master’s Suite to do the cleaning, she’s going to be stuck like this still! How’s that going to work out?”

Nick opened his mouth to respond but he realized that Rose had a point. That was an unavoidable fact. And he remembered what happened the last time Cinder was “cleaning” his room- she had freaked out and made an even bigger mess than he’d started with.

This wasn’t good.

He bit his lip and frowned.

“We’ll have to figure that out when we get to it,” Holly sighed, glancing at the other girl. She still had that frozen expression on her face as she waited patiently and listened to the others discuss her fate. “Until then, well… at least we have a lot of time to figure out what to do, right?”

True. They had nothing but time right now.

“It’s okay, Morgana, it’s going to be fine,” Mary said gently, encouraging the goth to do her best. “We have nothing but time right now. You’ll get it.”

Morgana looked at the smoldering remains of the dinner she’d tried and failed to create.

“Are… are you sure?” She asked, muttering weakly. Thanks to the time dilation effects of the kitchen, the two women could spend hours preparing dishes and the time would just fly by. And she clearly needed the help.

“Yes, it looks like this recipe was a little too complicated for you,” Mary nodded, doing her best to provide the goth girl with encouragement. “Let me double-check the setting on the stove next time, okay?”

“I-I forgot to stir it,” Morgana mumbled, looking helplessly at the charred pasta in the pan. “I knew I should have stirred it…”

“And we’ll add another cup of water,” Mary agreed.

Morgana had performed okay in the few cooking classes she’d taken with Mary, even without the redhead’s hands-on support.

Mary was starting to wonder what the issue was. It felt as though the goth was all thumbs now, and constantly forgetting everything.

I don’t think we’ll get anywhere like this. She’s clearly worked-up about something or other, I should probably help her resolve that before we waste any more food. Mary bit her lip and walked over to the countertop Morgana was toiling away at.

“Is everything alright?” She asked gently, pulling the ingredients to safety before Morgana could get her hands on them. “You seem like you’re a thousand miles away today.”

“Um, yeah, I just… it’s a little overwhelming,” Morgana admitted, her pale cheeks flushing. “Before, in our previous lessons, I was kinda just going along for the fun of it, you know? To get to know people better and make friends.”

“And things are different now?” Mary pressed curiously.

Morgana swallowed and nodded. “Yeah,” she admitted. “A lot different. Now, it’s like… I don’t know. You know? Because I’m cooking for Nick… I’m cooking food for him! He’s going to taste it… what if he doesn’t like it?! What if it’s not good enough!? I just keep thinking about that, and making all these mistakes, and I just… aagh!”

She groaned and rubbed her forehead in frustration. “I’ve messed up enough this round already,” she mumbled, shaking her head.

“Messed up?” Mary blinked.

Morgana looked at her with eyes that almost seemed scornful.

“You know what I mean,” she muttered, looking down. “With my family. The challenge. The transformations…”

Mary blinked, then she gasped. “…Oh. Oh, you meant…”

“Mhm,” Morgana nodded and bit her lip. “I got all flustered, and I just… I transformed them all… not just my cousin, but my parents, my aunts and uncles, everybody. Just because I lost my focus. And Nick… somehow, he let me off the hook for that. Everybody did…”

But Morgana herself clearly hadn’t.

“Look… I won’t say I condone what you did,” Mary said, placing her hand on Morgana’s shoulder and tenderly caressing her. “But the Bible says that the first thing one must do when they harm another is to acknowledge that harm and apologize to God for their sin. Have you done that?”

Morgana stared blankly at Mary. She wasn’t serious, was she?

“You know that I’m… that the stuff I’ve said and done… I don’t think God would be a big fan of me,” she muttered, shaking her head.

“All those things are superficial,” Mary chided her. “I can see your heart, Morgana. I know I said some harsh things to you when we first met, but I can see now that you’re a sweet and gentle and caring person inside. So all that… it doesn’t matter at all.”

Morgana looked up at her with wide eyes. “Really?”

“Of course! I would never lie to you,” Mary assured her. “But you must accept the lord’s grace inside of you to truly find forgiveness.”

Morgana felt a tug on her heart, telling her to doubt. It felt like she was being indoctrinated into a shady cult of some kind. But Mary’s sweet words felt so compelling, she could hardly resist.

“I just wish there was something I could do to make things right,” she sighed. “But I can’t. The transformations, they’re permanent, I know that much…”

“Then, when you get back to the real world with the rest of us, you need to apologize,” Mary firmly declared. “It’s as simple as that, Morgana! Apologize, and admit what you did was wrong. Tell your family that you didn’t mean to do it, but that you still feel awful that it happened, and let them decide next. Alright?”

Morgana swallowed her doubts and nodded. That did make her feel a little better. “Yeah… apologize,” she agreed. “And maybe then… I can make things right. Even if I can’t reverse the transformations, there should still be something I can do for them.”

“That’s the spirit!” Mary patted her on the back. “In the future, if you devote yourself to the lord and seek to make amends, then anything is possible!”

Morgana wasn’t the biggest fan of Mary’s sudden return to religion, but she definitely felt like a weight had been lifted off her chest, and words couldn’t describe how much she appreciated that.

Now that her head was a little clearer, maybe she could finally start focusing on her cooking.

“…I’m still worried, though,” she said, glancing at the pasta. “Are you sure this will go well? What if I mess up again? What if I don’t do it properly!? I know we have a lot of time, but it could take days for me to get it right!” She wailed.

Why couldn’t her night have come later in the round? She would gladly switch with Rose and go last if that were possible!

But Mary was adamant. “We can do this, Morgana! You just have to have faith in yourself!”

Morgana sighed. She really wasn’t feeling the faith. Not in herself, or in the lord.

If only there were some shortcut she could take.

“I wish I could be like you, Mary,” she admitted somberly. “You’re so perfect at this… Cooking, cleaning, other stuff… you’re the perfect housewife!”

“O-oh, really?” Mary blushed and squirmed with a pleased look on her face. “That’s so sweet of you to say, Morgana, thank you!”

Morgana was young, she was still just 18 years old. But she wished she could be grown-up and mature, like Mary. The kind of woman who would be a perfect wife.

It’s strange… I never thought I’d want to be a housewife before. But I really want to make Nick happy. He was the first person to support me and really believe in me… I just want to support him in exchange. How strange is that?

Morgana couldn’t help but laugh at how much she’d changed in a few short weeks from that obsessive, messed-up kid she used to be.

“You’re smiling!” Mary noted with a pleased grin. “That’s a good sign! I guess that means something good is happening, huh?”

“You could say that,” Morgana admitted with a shy smile. “I’m just thinking that I never would have imagined wanting to be like you when I first came here. But part of me can’t help but want to be the perfect woman for Nick, you know?”

Those words set off a twinge in Mary’s heart.

Is it just me, or is it getting hot in here? She wondered, looking away from Morgana briefly. She knew it was a kitchen, but still…

Wait, that’s it! I almost forgot, her transformation! Mary glanced back at Morgana, and her heart started to race. The goth girl had such a pure and wholesome look of innocence on her face, staring back at Mary with those big red eyes.

Because of Mary’s accumulated transformations, her libido had skyrocketed. That wasn’t so bad normally- she could usually keep that under control with a little willpower.

But Morgana had a transformation of her own.

Because of Sotto Voce, anyone who heard Morgana talk for an extended period of time would find themselves getting incredibly horny, and Mary was no exception to that.

I didn’t realize it because we hardly spend any time together… but Morgana’s transformation, it’s really powerful, Mary thought, feeling a ping of envy in her breast. What she wouldn’t give to be able to seduce and arouse her husband with just her voice?

“Mary? Is everything okay?” Morgana asked timidly. She wasn’t perceptive enough to understand what was going on, but she could feel the other girl staring at her in a way that was different from how she’d been looking at her before. “I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?”

“No, of course not,” Mary assured her with a shake of her head. She patted Morgana’s hand tenderly. “I was just thinking about some stuff. About Nick, and what will make him happy. And I think that you might have just the thing, in fact.”

“Really!?” Morgana’s eyes widened larger than the pan they were using for the pasta. “You think so? For real?”

“I know it,” Mary nodded. She couldn’t believe she had missed it until now, how perfect Morgana was, a malleable canvas that she could shape into the perfect woman for her husband. “You’re great how you are, Morgana, but like you said- there’s a lot you can do to be better for Nick.”

And Mary had just the thing to make some improvements.

“I’d be happy to help!” She said, smiling a wide smile that made Morgana’s heart and hope soar.