They say, "Only, only, only the fittest of the fittest shall survive"

After Nick was **** to sit through a very long and criminally boring and poorly-written movie, he was about ready to scream.

But he refrained.

Because…

“I loved it!” Ella’s eyes were shining brightly. “Her dress was so pretty… the movie was so romantic… oh gosh, that must be my favorite movie ever!”

Lacking a formal education, it was no surprise that Ella didn’t see the countless flaws of the movie. And maybe that was for the best.

What mattered was that she’d enjoyed herself. Nick didn’t need to be some kind of big pop culture snob about the writing. Or the acting. Or the general stupidity of remaking a classic movie with a bloated budget and live-action cast just to have it be worse than the original-

…He was getting off topic here.

“I’m glad you liked it!” Nick said diplomatically. “That’s the most important thing about watching a movie. Whether or not the film can speak to the viewer. And it sure sounds like that movie spoke to you, huh?”

“Oh, it did, it really did!” Ella nodded vigorously. “I’m so glad we had enough time to watch it… I can’t wait to see more! I didn’t even know Disney MADE live-action versions of their famous movies! Did they make any other movies?!”

“Oh! Uh… yeah, I think so,” Nick stammered, trying not to think about any of that.

His vague statement only served to get Ella even more excited.

“Well, are they any good? Oh, I just can’t wait to go see them!” She cooed. “Maybe we can do that for our next date?”

Nick **** a smile onto his face as he contemplated being **** to sit through every last awful live-action adaptation Disney ever made.

But more importantly than that…

“Our next date?” He inquired.

Ella blinked, and then her face turned red and her eyes widened.

“I-I mean… I just thought… I…!” She started to fumble for words, and her eyes spun in her head. It was clear she was very quickly getting carried away with everything, much to Nick’s concern.

At the same time, he was a little relieved.

Finally, it seemed like Ella was ready to actually answer him. She took a few deep breaths and snapped the rubber-band on her wrist, and then raised her head to look him in the eyes.

“I actually… really enjoyed myself today,” she confessed. It almost sounded like she was ashamed to admit that. But she was happy, too.

“I enjoyed myself too,” Nick said, giving her a smile of his own. “We only got to do a few things, but I really felt like I got to know a lot more about you, Ella.”

“Me too,” Ella said with a small laugh. “I didn’t know you liked fish so much!”

Nick laughed back with her. If only the mood could remain this good the whole way through, that would be just perfect. But in the back of his mind, he was dreading what was coming. And that was because the date was fast approaching its conclusion.

The sun wasn’t setting yet, but they were already on their way back to the Master’s Suite.

Because Ella needed to get to work.

Nick could see that Ella was anxious about getting ready for her job. She would have to change out of this nice outfit that Vivian had provided for her, and into her maid costume, just to clean the Master’s Suite like a servant. It was a stark contrast to how they’d spent the day, and would only further draw further attention to the fundamental difference between their positions.

Given that Nick had wanted to enjoy his time with Ella purely in a romantic sense, without bringing the show into things, it was honestly the part of the evening he’d been dreading the most.

But there was no avoiding it.

“Um…” Ella stopped outside the door of her room and looked mournfully at Nick, clearly not wanting to go through with this but not having a choice. “Would it be okay if you waited here for me?” She requested. “Please?”

Nick opened his mouth, ready to say of course he would, but before he got the chance she continued to express her feelings.

“It’s just… I would feel much better if we could walk up to the Master’s Suite together,” Ella explained. “Normally, it feels like… like I’m a servant. Because that’s what the show wants me to be. Someone who comes up to the suite to serve you, the master. But I don’t want that! Not today! Not… not after everything we did together…”

She didn’t need to explain that far. Nick totally understood! Of course after a nice date she wouldn’t want to feel like she was beneath him or required to serve him! Of course she would want them to go up to the Master’s Suite together! She would feel, at least a little bit, like an equal partner in their relationship, even if she was wearing a maid costume.

“Absolutely!” Nick agreed without hesitation. “I’d be happy to wait for you to get changed! …In fact, why don’t you bring your clothes along with you?” He added.

Ella blinked and then looked at him in confusion. “Huh? Why?” She didn’t see what the point of that would be.

“Well, your transformation requires you to wear a maid costume while you service the Master’s Suite, right?” Nick explained. “But there’s nothing that says you have to wear it the whole night. Once you’re finished cleaning, you can just change back!”

Ella’s eyes widened like saucers. “Whoa, I… I never even thought of that! Wow, you’re so smart, Nick! That’s a great idea!”

Really? Nick thought it was a pretty fucking basic idea actually. But it just served as a reminder of how deeply Ella’s trauma was ingrained in her, that she couldn’t even comprehend not having to dress up as a maid and stay that way.

I wish there was some way I could ease her burden and make things better for her. Not just to keep Cinder from coming out, but to honestly help her heal. But I’m just one guy, and I’m definitely not a trained therapist. Can I really do something like that?

Needless to say, Nick had already done a lot for Ella at this point. And he was very grateful for that. But he couldn’t help feeling like he could do so much more for her.

Maybe he would get his chance.

Nick waited patiently outside the room, while Ella went inside to get changed. A few minutes later, she came out wearing exactly the kind of clothes he had gotten used to seeing her in for the last few days, the sort of outfit that this date had led him to forget about momentarily.

She sighed when she saw the look in his eyes.

“I know… I know you like me dressed like this,” she said glumly. “I get it, okay?”

“Ella, it’s not what you think!” Nick insisted. “I mean, yes, you do look cute in it, but that’s because you’d look cute in anything!”

Well… maybe he had a point. The look Nick was giving her right now wasn’t any different from the way he’d looked at her before, when she was trying on all those different outfits at the Boutique.

Maybe Ella could give him a pass on this one.

“Actually, while you were getting changed, I had another idea,” Nick said, which made her look at him curiously.

“Another idea? What idea?” She wondered. Some way to get her out of her responsibilities and obligations, perhaps?

“What if, while you were cleaning the Master’s Suite, I just went off somewhere and left you to it?” Nick suggested. “…Okay, that sounds really bad. But think about it! You want to maintain the balance of power in our relationship, right?”

Ella scrunched up her face, not sure what he meant with that.

“Huh?”

Nick sighed. “Well, what I mean is, I know you don’t want me thinking of you as just a maid. And I don’t! I like you as Ella the person, that’s why I had so much fun on our date together. You had fun too, right?” He asked.

She nodded obediently.

“But you don’t want me to see you as just a servant. To contrast that with the way we were having fun today, right?” He pointed out.

Again, another nod.

“So what if I just don’t see you doing your job? Like before, I mean,” he suggested. “I’ll just step out, let you do your maid work, get changed, and then come back to the Master’s Suite when you’re done? That way it’ll be like nothing happened at all!”

Ella could see the merit in Nick’s suggestion. She understood where he was coming from. But at the same time…

“…I think that might actually be worse,” she admitted, shaking her head.

“Really? Why?” Nick asked, genuinely surprised. He thought that this was the perfect solution to Ella’s stated doubts and worries.

Ella bit her lip. “Well… it’s just… I really don’t want to feel like your maid. Even though that’s exactly what I am. But if you just went off to do something else while leaving me to do all the work, well, that’s exactly how I would be treated, right? Like the cleaning staff. Not like your g-girlfriend.” She had managed to maintain her composure and strong stance all through that explanation, only to fumble hard right at the end.

Nick’s eyes widened as he slowly realized what she was saying. “Yeah… you’re right, I didn’t think about it that way,” he admitted.

Then he had another idea.

“Well, what if I help you, then?”

Ella must not have heard him properly.

“Huh!?”

“What if I help you clean the Master’s Suite?” He asked. “I mean, it’s kind of obvious when you think about it, right? It’s MY room. Shouldn’t I be partially responsible for keeping it clean? More responsible than you, anyway. And then, you wouldn’t feel like a servant! We’re just two people working to clean up the room together!”

“Uh… yeah, actually, that could really work!” Ella nodded, surprised by the suggestion. She never would have imagined Nick voluntarily asking to help her clean the room! It sounded so strange and unnatural, for someone to ask to help in that way.

But it was also very sweet. She couldn’t stop smiling at the idea.

“I-I think I would like that,” she agreed.

Nick smiled. “Then it’s a plan! And it’s just an hour, anyway. We’ll get it done in no time, and then off to dinner!”

Ella nodded.

The two of them headed to the elevator, and took it up to the Master’s Suite so they could begin cleaning the place.

But what they saw when they arrived threw them both for a loop.

“Welcome back, master!”

“Welcome back, Daddy!”

“W-welcome back… um… mas-honey!”

Nick had to do a double-take. Ella’s jaw hit the floor.

Standing at the door, waiting just past the foyer in the suite proper, with heads lowered and smiles on their faces, were three more maids.

Rose, Sylvia, and Mary.

“H-huh?!” Ella’s eyes swam in confusion while Nick tried to process what was happening. It took him a second for his brain to reboot, because the girls all looked so amazing in their outfits.

Rose was dressed as a traditional French maid, which he should have been expecting by this point given how much she’d done so over the last round. As much as she claimed to hate lowering herself to do such menial work, it was clear that she was built nicely for it, and her acting skills really helped sell the role well, not to mention her All Work and Role Play transformation to give it that extra oomph of believability.

Then there was Sylvia. Given her transformation, the maid costume she wore looked light on functionality but very high in fetishism on her youthful frame, just the way she liked it. Her eyes were shining with delight as she looked at the two of them, very excited to do her part. Why she was here Nick couldn’t hazard a guess, but she was, and he’d have to deal with that. Sylvia just did what she wanted, including embracing situations like this.

But the biggest surprise of all was Mary. Even though her clothing negation should have expired very early this morning, hence why she had changed back to her farm girl clothes after breakfast, apparently Vivian had given her a second dose, because now she was dressed up like a maid just like the other two. Her cheeks were flushed and she was clearly embarrassed to be doing it, but she was still giving it her all.

“Wh-what’s going on?” Ella stammered, not sure what to make of any of this.

“Rose, explain,” Nick said, knowing Sylvia would probably say something unnecessary and seeing that Mary was too flustered to communicate properly.

Rose was the best of no good options. Which she quickly proved by the sly smile curling up her lips as she bowed to him.

“We’re the new cleaning staff for the Master’s Suite, master,” she said with an exaggerated flourish. “A team of fully-trained maids at your service!”

Okay, she still wasn’t getting the “why” part.

“We lost at pool today, big time,” Sylvia said cheerfully, jumping into the conversation. “Because we lost so badly, we had to pick up a punishment game.”

“And whose fault was it we lost?” Rose maintained her service smile, but the aura of malice emanating from her couldn’t be beat.

“Uh… no comment. Anyway, Carly suggested that for our punishment, we should be dressed up in some sexy clothes so she could take pictures of us! With the camera I gave her way back at the beginning,” Sylvia continued to explain. “And then, Rose just had a ding idea!”

Rose took over from there. “One of the outfits was a maid costume, and I was fine with that at first since I’ve been wearing one so often recently. But then I realized that you and Ella were going on your date today, and that she’d still have to end up cleaning the Master’s Suite even though she’s on a date. Which would suck.”

She made a sickened face. “Having to work when you’re supposed to be getting pampered?! Can you even imagine?! And it wouldn’t have even been the sexy maid roleplay dynamic either, no, just actual maid work. Ick.” She made another face.

“Rose asked if there was some way for Ella to get out of doing her job today, and I compared it with how Kim has to do her job,” Sylvia explained, recalling the rules from memory. “As long as someone else is copying her transformation, Ella can pass on the responsibility of her transformation to her! Of course, the other person could pass the responsibility right back, but still. So, since I thought it would be a lot of fun to play maid for a night, I used my transformation to copy hers!”

“You mean my transformation,” Rose clarified, clearing her throat. “And I copied her transformation too, you know?”

Nick kinda got it. “So you guys copied Ella’s cleaning transformation so you could clean the Master’s Suite in her place, so she wouldn’t have to? That’s really sweet!”

“Of course it is, Daddy!” Sylvia chirped.

“It made the most sense,” Rose scoffed, fluffing her hair. “Better to show her just how a maid is supposed to please her master, wouldn’t you agree?”

Nick had no comment on that subject. However…

“…That doesn’t explain why you’re here, Mary,” he said, turning to his frill-clad wife. “Were you part of this pool bet?”

Mary quickly shook her head. “No! I was hanging out with Kim and the others all day! But when I came up to the Master’s Suite to get started on dinner prep, I walked in on these two cleaning!” She looked down at her costume. “And when they explained to me why, I thought… well, three maids are better than two, right?”

Yeah, that made sense.

“But how did you do it?” Nick wondered. “Wait, you didn’t call… of course you did, right.”

“Of course she did indeed!”

A cheerful voice chimed in from the corner of the room, and Nick turned towards it. He expected Vivian to be wearing a maid costume just like the other girls, but he should have known better. Of course someone of her standing wouldn’t lower herself to such a position.

No, Vivian was dressed completely differently. She wore a dapper suit that seemed to practically sparkle with class, and held herself with dignity as she placed a white-gloved hand over her breast and leaned forward in a bow, her eyes twinkling.

“…And you’re the butler, then?”

“I prefer the term ‘chief of staff’,” she replied with a chuckle, straightening up. “I’ll be overseeing your cleaning staff today, ‘master’.”

Everything out of her lips sounded like an elaborate joke, but Nick should have expected that. In the frenzy of this whole maid swarm, though, he barely took notice of Holly, who was standing off to the side with an excited look in her eye.

Apparently, a lot of maids serving him was another fantasy of hers. Like all her other fantasies.

There was something else to consider, though, and he was beating himself up for not doing so sooner. He quickly turned to Ella, hoping she was processing this okay.

Ella just stared blankly ahead, her brain obviously short-circuiting.

Nick winced. “Uh, Ella, is everything okay?” He asked warily.

“…Huh?” Ella snapped out of her trance like she was waking up from a daydream. She looked around in confusion, still trying to process.

“Wait, so… what?! Why are there so many maids?!” She had completely glazed over the explanation of what was going on.

Nick had to explain it to her. When he was finished, she was practically in tears.

“Wait, so… you guys… you all wanted to dress up like maids to make my workload easier?” She couldn’t understand that at all.

“Of course!” Vivian chirped. “I went to all that trouble of picking out a perfect date outfit for you, it would be a waste to have to spend the last of it toiling on your hands and knees.” Vivian gave the other girl a sly wink. “That’s what your servants are for.”

“Hey!” Rose gave Vivian a dirty look, but she couldn’t deny the heiress’s words. She just sulked instead, while Sylvia laughed.

“We… we’ll do our best to serve you tonight!” Mary promised. “You deserve a night of taking it easy, Ella!”

Ella’s jaw remained hanging open. She really had no idea what she should say.