Makin' the best of every virtue and vice

Nick felt an oppressive pressure hanging over him as he browsed the bookshelves. This wasn’t at all the way he expected things to go. He’d chosen the bookstore to appeal to Amelia, and thought that he’d made a good compromise by spending the morning here, and then picking something Sylvia wanted to do.

So what am I missing here? He wondered. What’s this other thing that she wants me to do?

She’d heavily implied that the test wasn’t over. “Use today to find out about it,” she’d told him, clearly expecting him to figure out for himself.

It was one of the things he didn’t like about his stepmother. Instead of explaining her actions, she expected other people to figure it out for themselves. Sometimes it happened unintentionally, because she thought she was adequately conveying her thoughts. Other times, it was on purpose- like right now.

She’s testing me like this because I keep messing up, he thought, biting his lip. If I was better at this sort of thing, the she wouldn’t need to put me through all this.

He knew that… but at the same time, he also knew that the reason she was testing him was because she had faith he’d be able to figure it out.

That part felt nice, at least.

For now, though, I need to figure out what I’m going to do on this date. That’s the important thing. What does Sylvia even like?

With Amelia, it wasn’t that hard. He may not have the closest relationship with his stepmother, but she wasn’t that hard to read. Sylvia, on the other hand… she was a little trickier.

Nick glanced at the blonde out of the corner of his eye. She’d expressed her disinterest in going to the bookstore, but she seemed to be making the best of it. She was curled up in an armchair reading… a picture book.

Well, I definitely didn’t expect that. Nick sighed and turned back to the shelf of mystery novels. Now that he was actually here, he might as well enjoy himself, right?

…Except the pressure of answering Amelia’s test kept weighing on him, making it harder for him to relax, and ultimately…

“Nicholas.”

Nick jumped at the sound of his stepmother’s saccharine voice. He whirled around to see her staring inquisitively at him. She adjusted her glasses with one hand, while the other clutched a thick book to her chest, and her lips frowned in an expression of concern.

“Are you enjoying yourself right now?” She asked gently.

“What? Uh, yeah, of course I am!” Nick lied. “I always have fun at a bookstore!”

Amelia gave him a frosty expression. She always did know when he was lying.

Finally, he sighed, and shook his head. “It’s… it’s kinda stressful, you know? Doing all this stuff, I mean…”

She bit her lip and nodded reluctantly. “I should have expected that,” she murmured. “My apologies. I didn’t mean for this to cause you so much stress. Forget about the test. Just focus on relaxing and having a good time. That will be for the best.”

Was this another part of the test? Nick couldn’t be sure. He could see sincerity in her eyes, though, so he knew at least that she legitimately wanted him to relax and enjoy himself. So he nodded and tried to put what she’d said before out of his mind. Even if the lesson she was trying to impart was vital, he didn’t need to focus on it now, right?

Amelia went on her way and he turned back to the bookshelf, but he caught Sylvia out of the corner of his eye again.

What am I doing? He realized. Was he actually just going to spend all day reading by himself? Wasn’t the whole point of this date to spend time with them? Instead, the three of them were all off reading in their own little corners.

The bookstore was looking like a worse and worse decision with every passing second.

Nick glanced over at Amelia. She was calmly reading the novel she’d selected for herself, no-doubt off in her own little world, just as he’d anticipated. When it came to his stepmother, one of the better ways to improve her mood was to sit back and let her entertain herself. She could occupy herself just fine on her own, without his help.

Sylvia? Not a chance.

Nick slid the book he’d picked out back into place, and headed over to where she was sitting. She looked up at him, surprised.

“Uh, hey, what’s up?” She asked, tilting her head to the side. “You need something?”

“No, no, not at all,” Nick said quickly, shaking his head. “I just wanted to check up on you, that’s all. See how you were doing. I know you didn’t want to come to the bookstore, so…”

He didn’t really know how to finish that sentence, so he just gave her an awkward shrug.

Sylvia looked blankly up at him. “…Ooo-kay… I’m fine, I guess. Just reading.”

She shook the picture book at him for emphasis. It was something he might expect a first-grader to read, not a woman who had done an excellent impersonation of a therapist for as long as she had.

Nick sighed, and sat down in the chair across from her. That only seemed to amplify Sylvia’s confusion, and she set her book down to give him her full focus.

“Okay, Daddy, what’s the matter?” She pressed. “You’re acting really strange. And I know that’s normal for you, but, like… stranger than usual. I told you, I’m fine.”

“Yeah, but you’re not,” Nick said. “Come on, Sylvia, I may not know you very well, but even I know that you’re not going to have fun just reading alone in the corner like this.”

He couldn’t kick himself enough for suggesting the bookstore. Amelia had been dead-on when she called him out for choosing an activity that only she would enjoy.

Sylvia shifted uncomfortably in her seat, and sighed. “Well… you’re not wrong,” she admitted, looking down. “Something like this… it’s just not my style, you know?”

Her style was apparently coming up with twisted games to pit women against each other in the fight for his affections. But he didn’t say that part out loud.

“Look, I picked the bookstore because I knew it was the kind of place Amelia would like,” Nick explained. He glanced over his shoulder towards his stepmother. “She’s the kind of woman where she can enjoy herself just being left to her own devices. But you’re different. So while she’s reading, why don’t you and I do something together?”

Sylvia scrunched up her face. “Are you sure about that?” She questioned. “I thought that’s why I’m getting my own date activity later?”

That was certainly true. But since Nick was still drawing a blank on what Sylvia would actually want to do, he thought this was another way he could compromise.

“Just because this is supposed to be the part of the date for Amelia’s sake, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have fun too,” Nick pointed out. “You don’t need to tolerate it just to wait for your turn. We can still do something enjoyable.”

“It’s a bookstore, Daddy,” she said in her best “bratty girl” voice. “There’s not a lot we can do besides reading, you know.”

Again, she raised a valid point.

“Well… then reading works too, right?” Nick offered.

Sylvia raised her eyebrow. “What, like… you’re going to read to me?” She snorted and rolled her eyes. “I thought you were trying to avoid the Daddy comparisons, Daddy?”

Again, another valid point. But Nick wasn’t convinced that easily.

“You’re smiling, you know,” he pointed out.

The second he did, the big beaming grin on Sylvia’s face quickly shifted into a neutral expression. “Well… I’m always smiling!” She replied.

“You like the idea, I know you do,” Nick said, cracking a grin. He’d found an “in” with her, and was taking advantage of it. “If you didn’t want me to come up with ‘reading to you’ as an activity, then maybe you shouldn’t have grabbed a children’s book, you know?”

Sylvia pouted and stuck out her tongue. “I’ll have you know, that’s one of my favorite books!” She snapped. “I used to read it to Mimi all the time!”

Nick glanced at the cover of the book. “Oh, the Places You’ll Go! By Doctor Seuss, huh? Marley likes those books, does she?”

Sylvia winced. “Well… probably not anymore,” she admitted, hugging the book to her chest as her face fell. “But I still do.”

Nick was starting to figure Sylvia out a little more. “Hey… so is that why you’re not a big fan of reading?” He asked quietly. “Because it’s so lonely?”

Unlike watching a movie, reading a book wasn’t exactly something you could share with another person easily.

Sylvia’s tense look answered Nick’s question pretty directly and he sighed. “Sylvia…”

“It’s fine,” Sylvia cut him off with a shake of her head. “I’m not lonely anymore, Daddy. I have everybody here now.”

“But not when you’re reading,” he pointed out. “Then it’s just you on your own.”

The former host glumly nodded. “When I read a book, I’m just trapped with my own thoughts. All it reminds me of is how many other experiences other people have, you know? They all have these deep, intricate stories, and me…”

Sylvia had spent her entire existence under Dakota’s thumb. That would have been bad enough, not even factoring in how Dakota treated her.

No wonder she likes children’s books so much. They’re not complex. They’re simple. Nick’s heart ached in sympathy for the poor woman.

“Daddy… did Amelia ever read you a bedtime story?” Sylvia questioned, looking past Nick and up at his stepmother.

A murky feeling welled up in Nick’s heart. He felt like he knew where the origin of that question came from, and he didn’t like it.

“No, she didn’t,” he said. “But… my birth mother did. When I was really little. She used to read to me a lot.”

“I see…”

Nick saw the faint gleam of tears in Sylvia’s eyes, and winced.

“Sylvia…”

“Can you read to me, Daddy?” Sylvia turned back to Nick, and gazed at him with an expression that stood as a twisted combination of hopeful and doubtful. “It doesn’t have to be this book… that would be kind of weird.”

She chuckled out a shaky laugh and sank back in her chair. “Believe me, the last thing I want to do is lean even harder into infantilization, alright? I’m not some little girl, Daddy. But I would like to read something with you, if you’re fine with that.”

Nick nodded. That seemed like the perfect idea. “Okay,” he agreed, rising from his seat and going to find a book that was a little more age-appropriate.

Knowing this place, though, anything that wasn’t a children’s picture book would probably be some erotic novel, and he definitely didn’t have it in him to read THAT.

“Finally,” Marley sighed, feeling the warm sunlight of the shopping center hit her in the face. “Freedom at last…”

“It’s very convenient that Carly can just assign you a babysitter like that,” Mary mentioned. “It gives you girls some time to yourselves.”

“Well… we know what Carly’s doing with her time off,” Rose cackled.

Marley shot her a glare. “You know, I don’t need those mental images in my head right now,” she replied.

Rose stuck her tongue out in response. “I’m not your babysitter this time, so I don’t need to be on my best behavior.”

She’d initially volunteered for the job when they’d managed to get Carly’s attention away from Dani, but Carly had ultimately decided to go with someone else.

“…I don’t think Vivian was the right choice for it, either,” Dawn muttered under her breath, glancing at the smug heiress.

“Whatever do you mean?” Vivian asked innocently, batting her eyelashes. “The reason I was chosen was because I was the one who came up with the idea of going shopping for bathing suits,” she pointed out. “If it wasn’t for that, then Marley would just be staying cooped up in her room the whole time. I’d say I’m being very responsible!”

The other girls weren’t at all convinced by that.

“Does that mean you’re paying?” Dawn dryly responded with a smirk.

Vivian gave her a serene smile in response.

It was a bit of a tricky situation they had. There were a lot of girls in the group at this point, who were coming along swimsuit shopping. Vivian was going to get something for Mary, of course, and Marley had been **** to get away. But Dawn, Morgana, and Ella were coming along as well. Rose wasn’t about to let the girls go off on their own to have fun, and Holly wasn’t doing anything with her spare time either, so everybody who’d been in Mary’s cooking class had gone off to join the heiress on her shopping spree.

…Along with a dark-haired assassin who still held a grudge over being called out for her fashion sense. The harsh looks she gave Vivian out of the corner of her eye said all the things that her mouth was incapable of.

Not that Vivian seemed to care.

“I’m surprised you’re coming, Morgana,” Dawn said, turning to the goth. “Don’t you still have that bathing suit you wore to Mary’s bachelorette party?”

“I still have mine!” Holly chirped. “I just wanted to hang out with everyone!” And spy on them putting on bathing suits so she could fantasize about Nick tearing them off the girls’ nubile bodies. That was the main reason.

Morgana blushed. “W-well… yeah, I still have it…” She admitted, fidgeting awkwardly. “But maybe I should pick out something… bolder?”

Dawn didn’t know what to say to that, but given the sultry bikini the goth girl had squeezed her pale curves into last time, she wasn’t sure they’d be able to find something bolder.

…What was she thinking? This was Harem Hotel. If somebody thought that was the limit of exposure, they were crazy.

“I’m just glad Marley and Dani are both coming to the cookout!” Vivian said with a bright smile. “It wouldn’t be the same without all the girls there. Don’t you think, Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin?”

She turned to the slender killer and flashed her a smile.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin gave her a puzzled expression for a moment, not sure how to respond, and then nodded cautiously. A tiny smile touched her lips.

She couldn’t say it, but she was actually very happy at being included.

“Um… d-do… do I need to buy a swimsuit too?” Ella stuttered, clutching the rubber-band on her wrist. “THWAP!”

“Of course you don’t, not if you don’t plan to swim,” Dawn assured her, remembering what the other woman had said on the beach.

“But then you’ll miss out,” Rose noted. “Don’t you think you’ll feel a little weird, being the only girl not to dress up while the rest of us are showing ourselves off to Nick?”

Ella gulped. She imagined Nick staring at her in a really skimpy swimsuit… judging her… questioning if he wanted to sleep with her…

…Then she felt Cinder’s insistent presence press against the back of her skull, and she tensed.

“I-I…” Her mouth flopped open and closed and her eyes swam in her head. She snapped her rubber-band a few more times for good measure. “THWAP! THWAP!”

“Rose,” Dawn warned the other woman with a sharp look. “Leave her alone, you’re making everything worse.”

“Hey, sorry!” Rose groaned, holding up her hands.

“N-no, it’s fine,” Ella stammered, shaking her head. “Please, stop rescuing me, okay?” She looked desperately over to Dawn, who felt a knot in her stomach.

“I- …Sorry,” Dawn apologized, looking down. “…I didn’t mean to.”

She was so used to bailing Morgana out, and with Ella’s problems, she felt a natural inclination to step in and help her.

But as the bashful girl kept making clear… she didn’t want that.

Ella took a deep breath, and then exhaled. She turned her attention back to Rose, who looked back at her with a note of apology in her eyes.

“…If the only thing you can do is show yourself off, I can see why you’d think that way… but I’m fine,” she managed to get out, staring into Rose’s eyes without back down.

Rose’s jaw dropped in shock.

“Wh-what?!” She exclaimed.

“Oh dang!” Vivian cackled. “Nice one, Ella!”

“I-! That-!” Rose was at a loss for words. Had she just gotten called out by ELLA of all people!? The shy little maid who would turn into a psycho killer under just the faintest hint of pressure?!

Ella looked at Rose with hardened determination, then **** a shaky smile across her trembling lips. “You… you see?” She glanced warily at Dawn for a moment. “I… I can joke around with everybody too, you know.”

“Yeah, uh… you really can,” Dawn nodded, trying hard not to laugh the way Vivian was.

Rose just fumed. But she wasn’t going to make an even bigger jerk out of herself by starting a fight with the other girl.

Ella winced. “Um… I’m sorry if I was too rude just now,” she apologized profusely. “I’m not good at stuff like… well…”

“What, playful teasing? It’s fine, you’re doing great!” Holly encouraged her.

“That’s doing great?” Marley raised her eyebrow. I think she tapped into a bit of her repressed rage with that one.

Dawn felt the same way. She wondered where the lines between Cinder and Ella really were, and how firmly they were drawn. Because that sounded like something Cinder would say.

She would never verbalize that feeling though.

“Whatever, it’s fine,” Rose assured the other girl. “I kinda had it coming, pressuring you to try on a swimsuit like that. But it’s just because I think you’d look really cute wearing one! And Nick definitely would as well.”

Ella’s complexion reddened as those thoughts crept their way back into her mind. “They… he will? Cute? Really?”

“Sure! Of course! There’s nothing cuter than a shy girl who’s dressing up to impress!” Rose nodded encouragingly. “Isn’t that right, Vivian?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Vivian nodded in agreement. “A shy little wallflower like you? Mr. Harem Master is gonna be beside himself with excitement!”

The two girls giggled, while Ella contemplated what they were saying. Nick admiring her… could that really be the case?

“Rose is absolutely correct,” Holly assured her, stepping in front of Ella to take her attention off the others. “Master would just adore seeing you in a swimsuit! You don’t need to worry about that. Take it from someone who knows- he absolutely loves beautiful girls like yourself.”

How many years had gone by since Ella received this many compliments in quick succession? Maybe she never had. Which was probably why she was so defenseless against them.

Even though she knew Cinder would throw an absolute tantrum about it, Ella couldn’t help but imagine herself dressed up for Nick’s attention, and how happy she would feel if he liked her.

Dawn sighed and shook her head. She could see that the more savvy women in Nick’s harem were leading Ella down a dark path. But the latina had asked her to stop with the rescuing, and she didn’t want to upset her.

Well, this is sure to end poorly.