And the slightest breeze for the first time

“Ah, delicious!” Sylvia stepped out of the restaurant and stretched her arms over her head, and then rubbed her belly. “Chili dogs are great! You know, that’s one of the things I like about becoming human, Daddy, the food is just so much more real to me!”

“Really?” Nick asked, intrigued. “Was there an issue with that when you were a host? Was it that nothing had a flavor or something like that?”

Sylvia shook her head. “No, not exactly. I could still taste things, but it was just less… I don’t know, I guess the word I’m looking for to describe it is ‘real’? Like, I know the food was real, and I would eat it, but since I didn’t need to eat it, it just didn’t have the same effect, you know? Does that make any sense?”

Nick nodded. “I can kind of get what you’re saying,” he agreed, though he couldn’t quite imagine it for himself. “I guess the important thing, then, is that you’re enjoying eating now, right?”

“Yep!” Sylvia nodded. “Now that I can really experience that stuff… it’s like I’m really feeling alive for the first time!”

Sometimes, Nick forgot that Sylvia was initially created as a magical construct by Dakota. It was only after she was stripped of her powers that she had become truly human. And just like she’d had to struggle to learn how to walk in heels, she had experienced eating real foods and experiencing real sensations as a person.

It was honestly touching to see her grow so much. Especially considering the bright smile she’d had on her face the whole time they were eating lunch together.

“Who knows? Maybe you could learn how to make chili dogs yourself,” he suggested.

“Whoa, you really think so?” Sylvia’s face lit up with excitement at the possibility. “Would Mary teach me how to do that?”

“I don’t see why not,” Nick said with a shrug.

Nick didn’t say anything, but he took Sylvia’s positive mood as, well, a positive. He couldn’t remember the last time she’d tried to be rebellious or bratty. It seemed like she’d gotten it out of her system completely.

If that was the case, he wouldn’t complain. He just kept his mouth shut and let things progress the way they looked like they were going.

It was only when Sylvia gasped and her eyes widened in realization that he realized things were about to come to an end.

“Rrrgh! Daddy, you tricked me!” She puffed up her cheeks and crossed her arms over her chest. “Being all nice and supportive! I almost got fooled into being your obedient little daughter! Well, no chance! Not gonna happen, you got that?!”

“Okay, if you say so,” Nick said, trying not to laugh. Sylvia could be hilarious and adorable when she got upset like this, and Nick certainly wasn’t complaining.

If anything? He was amused even more by her attempts.

“So what do you want to do?” He asked instead. “Now that we’re done eating, I mean. We’ve still got plenty of time for the date!”

Since Sylvia wouldn’t be spending the night with him, that put them on a solid curfew of 6 o’clock. He didn’t know how much time they would have together before that, but he decided to treat that as the hard deadline.

They should have plenty of time to get a few more fun events in, in the meantime.

Sylvia stroked her chin thoughtfully, and then a bright smile crossed her face.

“I know!” She chirped. “Gina gave me a great idea this morning!”

Nick wasn’t sure he wanted to know what a “great idea” from Gina would entail. Especially not one that Sylvia agreed with.

“Serenity? Yoohoo! I came here for a visit!” Sylvia stepped out of the elevator into Serenity’s private cove, with a very perplexed Nick in tow.

Serenity? The siren? What’s up with that? Nick wondered. He’d been taking great care to avoid bringing up the other girls in his harem and devote his time directly to Sylvia, even though she would occasionally talk about other girls, like Mary and Gina. But while Sylvia should have been all-in on spending time with Nick one on one, it appeared that she was doing the opposite now, and bringing another woman into their date, for reasons unknown.

And it was also the one woman on the island Nick probably knew the least.

Serenity seemed equally perplexed by this, and rose from her couch to look at the two of them with a quizzical expression as they entered her den.

Nick noted the way her eyes skipped over him without any consideration. Well, if she had to pick another woman to spend time with on our date, it’s probably smart that she chose the one who’s definitely not a threat of drawing my attention, I suppose.

After all, it wasn’t like the siren was even close to a romantic prospect, given what he knew of her sexuality.

She also didn’t seem that comfortable with his presence, either. It was obvious she wanted to ask Sylvia what they were doing here, but she didn’t. She kept her mouth shut and stared at the two of them, her brow furrowed.

Sylvia didn’t seem to mind one way or the other.

“Hey Serenity!” She chirped. “That’s what you’re going by, right? Serenity?”

Serenity nodded slowly. “…My name,” she said bluntly. The terse, glowing girl could give Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin a run for her money when it came to imposing silence.

“Err… well, I guess you’re wondering why I’m here, right?” Sylvia was quick to bounce back and change the subject. “I know I look a little different. I’m surprised you could recognize me at all, my girl!” She posed and did a little twirl, showing off her scarlet hair.

Serenity wasn’t that interested. She jerked her head towards Nick and narrowed her eyes. “Him?”

“What? Oh, yeah, Daddy,” Sylvia said with an exaggerated scoff. “Sorry, I didn’t want to bring him along. But he’s such a clingy Daddy, you know? He can’t see that I’m trying to get some independence for myself!”

Ah, so that was it. Serenity was serving as a prop for Sylvia to extend her role-play as a bratty teenage daughter.

Serenity seemed to realize that too, because her face morphed into a scowl and she pinched her lips together tightly.

“Why?” She asked coldly.

Nick didn’t know if she was asking why Sylvia had come here, why she had agreed to bring him along, or why she was pretending to be a bratty daughter. Maybe all of them at once? It was a pretty heavy question for a single word.

Sylvia straightened up. She could tell that Serenity was antsy, and the first thing she did was apologize to her.

“Sorry,” she said, lowering her head. “I know you’re not comfortable around Daddy, given your transformations. But don’t worry! He’ll make sure to keep himself at least five feet away from you at all times, so you won’t end up influencing him!”

She turned and stared at Nick insistently. “Right, Daddy?”

“Err, yeah, obviously,” Nick said, flustered and surprised. He hadn’t expected Sylvia to turn this on him like that, especially not while he was still impressed with how much empathy she had displayed just now towards Serenity.

It was really something on her part.

Sylvia seemed to accept this answer, and her smile picked up immediately. She turned on her heel and looked hopefully at Serenity, who seemed to begrudgingly accept this as well. At least, she seemed to relax a little.

“Okay,” she nodded. “What do you want then?”

Her voice also sounded more casual, and she didn’t seem as guarded. That was a relief for Nick, who felt like he was walking on eggshells.

Sylvia’s eyes sparkled. “I, um… this is a bit embarrassing, but… I don’t know how to swim,” she admitted, pushing her fingertips together. “And I was hoping, maybe you could… teach me how? Daddy wanted to do it himself, but I don’t want him ogling me in my swimsuit…”

Serenity raised her eyebrow and Nick rolled his eyes.

Sorry, when did I say I wanted to help you learn how to swim? Nick wouldn’t have a problem with that, obviously, but it hadn’t happened. Sylvia was making stuff up again to play as the bratty rebel. And Serenity was picking up on that, too.

The siren sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Sylvia… I’m grateful to you for helping me out before. But please leave me out of your fetish stuff, okay?”

Sylvia smiled apologetically. “…I know,” she admitted. “I wasn’t serious. I can’t even swim in this, you know? It’s a transformation and I can’t change into a bathing suit if I wanted to. I just wanted to check in and see how you were doing.”

Serenity glanced over at Nick, and for the brief moment their eyes met, they were thinking the same thing. If that was really all this was, then why play at the Daddy-Daughter relationship stuff? Obviously it was about a lot more than that. Sylvia had indeed been using Serenity for her “fetish stuff” even if her sympathies were real.

But she didn’t comment on that. She just smiled and nodded slightly. “Thanks for visiting,” she said. “Next time, no need to bring the stiff.”

“Hey!” Nick frowned.

She smirked his way and shrugged. Apparently it was partially in jest… Nick didn’t appreciate that, for obvious reasons, but he wasn’t upset by it, either. He nodded begrudgingly and turned to Sylvia, who was still all smiles.

“I’ll be sure to come back soon!” She promised, heading for the elevator. “Take care, Serenity! And sorry my Daddy had to tag along like this. He’s so overprotective, can’t he see I have my own-”

“Again, Sylvia, not playing into your fetish,” Serenity cut her off. She could be talkative when she wanted to be, in spite of her siren quirks.

Nick just gave her an awkward nod and followed Sylvia back to the elevator, and after a ride in awkward silence they came out in the middle of the Shopping District again.

“…Okay, so what was the point of that?” Nick asked, turning to Sylvia. “If you didn’t want Serenity to help you learn how to swim-”

“Fine, I get it, okay, Daddy?” Sylvia loudly cut him off, scoffing and rolling her eyes. “Serenity won’t help me, so I guess you’re the only person here who can teach me how to swim. You win, okay?!”

Ah. So that was it.

“You know, Sylvia, it’s kind of rude to use your friends as props to play out your fetish when they don’t consent to it,” Nick pointed out. “Like taking a girl on a leash into a coffee shop and introducing other people to your ‘pet dog’. You’re forcing them to interact with your fetish when they aren’t consenting, that’s a massive breach of personal etiquette.”

“Eh!?” Sylvia’s jaw dropped and she looked at Nick with such a shocked face that he wondered if the thought had really never occurred to her before.

“…You don’t see how that’s a problem?” Nick asked.

“W-well… I mean… not really?” Sylvia looked even more confused. “I mean, is it so wrong to just be polite and say ‘hello, doggy’ or something?”

Nick shook his head. “It makes people uncomfortable. Um… how do I put this… imagine someone came up to you, a random stranger, and wanted you to lend some input on a fetish that grossed you out. How would you feel about that?”

Sylvia blinked. “What fetish would that be?”

“…Uh…”

Nick quickly became aware of a fundamental misunderstanding in his proposition.

Fuck.

“…Okay, um… bad example…” Nick rubbed his temples and sighed. Were there any fetishes that Sylvia would be opposed to? Given what he knew about her, he honestly wondered if the answer to that question was no.

No wonder she didn’t see the problem here!

Okay, change of plans.

“Let’s use Dani as an example, then,” he said, coming up with an easy person for Sylvia to empathize with, even though it was breaking the rule he had set for himself about not bringing up other women. “Or wait, even better, how about Marley…”

“Talking about other women you’re sleeping with while on a date with someone else?” Sylvia huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “How crass of you, Daddy!”

Nick’s eye twitched. “Fine, Dani it is then,” he sighed. “Look, Dani is a lesbian. Which means she’s not into guys. Basic stuff, even you get that, right?”

“Yeah, obviously,” Sylvia said, rolling her eyes.

“So do you remember at my wedding with Mary, how you made the two of us have sex in front of a whole room of people, even though I picked Dani to be my best woman?”

Sylvia nodded. “Great wedding! I got to see so many of my friends…” Her voice turned sad. “…Although I lost contact with most of them after Dakota took her position back…”

Nick winced. Maybe this was a bad call. But instead of pivoting, he **** himself to drive the point home. This was for Sylvia’s own good, after all.

“Well, I think Dani was really uncomfortable watching me have sex with Mary and getting her pregnant right there in front of everybody. I mean, yes, I found it really hot,” he admitted, “but-”

“I found it really hot, too!” Sylvia chirped.

Nick **** a smile. “…But,” he repeated, “that doesn’t mean it was okay to do it right in front of someone who would be very uncomfortable seeing that. Just because you’re an exhibitionist, that doesn’t give you the right to **** other people to become voyeurs. Does that make sense?”

Sylvia frowned. “…I guess I never thought about it that way,” she admitted. “But it’s kind of like forcing transformations onto people, isn’t it?”

“That’s right,” Nick nodded, grateful again for all the hard work Mary had put in to getting Sylvia to see the harm in her prior way of thinking. “Just like forcing a transformation on someone is a massive violation of their body and mind, forcing them to participate in your fetish play is a violation of their boundaries.”

Sylvia’s mood took an obvious turn for the worse when she realized what she’d just done, and she nodded glumly. “You’re right, Daddy… I’m sorry. I didn’t think about it that way.”

If she was still being rebellious, she might have made a stink or put up a fuss. But even she could see that this was a serious matter that should be taken seriously.

“If it helps,” Nick added, trying to pick up her mood, “I think Serenity was more amused by it than upset!”

She’d barely been able to keep the smirk off her face. Even if the siren had been strict about setting her boundaries, it was obvious she’d appreciated Sylvia’s presence all the same.

That did help pick up Sylvia’s mood a little, but Nick could see that there was something else bothering her.

The way she was looking at him…

“What about you, then, Daddy?” She asked quietly, looking at Nick with watery eyes.

Nick blinked.

“H-huh?” He wasn’t sure what she meant by that for a moment.

Sylvia looked down at the ground.

“You just said… pushing a fetish onto someone without their consent is a bad thing… but isn’t that what I’ve been doing all day, then? Pretending to be your bratty daughter, even though you didn’t want me to… even though you didn’t like it… that was bad, right? Does that mean… I’ve been violating your boundaries this whole time?”

Nick’s eyes widened and his face paled as he realized that what he’d said could easily be construed in that direction.

“Ah…”

“Daddy?” Sylvia raised her head to meet his gaze again, and he saw the effort she was putting forward trying to keep the tears out of her eyes. It nearly broke his heart.

“Sylvia… no, that’s… no!” He shook his head. “That wasn’t what I meant when I said all that stuff.”

“But you don’t like the Daddy-Daughter stuff, right?” She sulked. “So I’m just pushing it on you by playing like this…”

Shit. How could he have not foreseen this outcome!? He had to do something to fix this and fast, or the whole date would be ruined!

“No, it’s different!” He blurted out.

Sylvia blinked, looking confused for a moment, then hopeful, then suspicious.

“What do you mean?” She asked, leaning forward and studying Nick carefully. “What’s different about it? Do you actually like that stuff?”

No. Nick didn’t like the fact that Sylvia had to refer to him as Daddy at all.

“It’s different because of our relationship,” he said, trying to find the right words to describe how he was feeling. But that just seemed to confuse Sylvia even more.

“Our relationship?”

Nick sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Sylvia… I can’t deny that on some level, I’m still attracted to you. Even after everything we’ve been through together.”

“Well, I would hope so!” She said in alarm, her eyes widening.

“…But the ‘Daddy’ stuff, it really does kind of turn me off a little,” he admitted. “With that being said… I know it’s part of your transformation. And even if it wasn’t, I can tell that you really do think about things, um… like that.”

Sylvia tensed, hesitant at first, but then she nodded softly.

Even before she had lost her position as host and been given the harem role as Nick’s daughter, she had looked at him like that. And on some level, he had picked up on that, even if he hadn’t realized it until recently.

“It’s because I care for you, and want this relationship to work out, that I’m trying to accept that fetish of yours,” Nick continued. “Even if it’s not something that really resonates for me. Because I know that it’s important for you. That’s part of compromising. Sometimes, people in a relationship are incompatible in certain ways. When that happens, they either break up, or they find a compromise.”

“And… do you really think there’s a possible compromise here?” Sylvia asked, struggling (and failing) to keep the hopefulness out of her voice. “Even though you don’t like… all that stuff?”

Nick nodded. He really did. “I hope there is,” he said. “Because I can tell that it means a lot to you, Sylvia. So I’m trying to get comfortable with it and get used to it. And if I didn’t think I could do that, someday, then I would tell you. But given everything else I’ve gotten used to on this show, I think the possibility is a lot likelier than you’d expect.”

At this rate, I might even end up being comfortable considering Amelia as a romantic partner, he thought with a shiver. When you compared how Nick was at the beginning of this show to how he was now, his comfort zone had been pushed out quite a bit.

For Nick, what he’d just said was a reaffirmation of his effort and hard work to accept Sylvia as she was, faults and fetishes all.

But to Sylvia, what he’d just said was nothing less than an oasis in the desert. Hope within a deep mire of hopelessness, a rope of light extended down into the dark chasm she’d buried the possibility of a positive relationship.

Maybe, just maybe, this could work out after all. Thinking that practically made her burst into tears.