The Beginning of something new

Shortly after breakfast

Chloe and Aubrey were heading over to Fashion Road. God, I can’t believe I’m finally doing this. I can’t believe Aubrey said Yes! But what if this goes wrong? Oh come on I’ve done this before with her, A stroll through town, shopping, mani-pedis, massages. It’s just a spa day with my friend. My friend, the friend I very much want to be not just my friend but girlfriend. UGH, This is going to go bad. Maybe I should just say it’s okay we can just be friends and forget this whole thing. She’s straight, how can this work? She even told me that she isn’t physically interested in me. I bet she’s just humouring me to not hurt my feelings. Why did I have to push so hard? AGH. Because I really wanted this, DUH. I’ve wanted this for years. Am I just taking advantage of her being upset to get what I want?

Aubrey was having similar doubts as well. Why did I agree to this? I’m just going to end up hurting Chloe, more than if I just told her no. Sure this is just a spa day and shopping, but like do I want more with her? I mean she’s family for sure. She’s pretty, smart, kind, thoughtful, assertive, and tall. I mean I guess if she were a handsome guy instead of a gorgeous woman, I would definitely be interested in dating her. So… If I became bisexual this could work… I know I told Mark I was going to check if I want this first. Would Chloe feel bad that I made that change? Maybe I should call this off, tell her I just want to stay besties. That she’s family but I'm not sure if I can offer more…

As they were walking they both turned to each other and spoke up at the same time.

“Aubrey—” “Chloe—” They both paused waiting for the other to go first.

“You go first.” They said in unison. Then they slightly chuckled in embarrassment.

“Chloe please, go first.”

“Okay, I… god this is hard. Thank you for agreeing to do this. I’m sorry I was so pushy before. I’ve wanted to take you on a date for years but never wanted to risk our friendship. So… Before we continue… I just want to be sure, you’re sure, that you want to try being more than friends. That… that you’re not humoring me, or feeling pressured to do this.”

Aubrey pursed her lips in a side pout. “Chloe, I’m not just humoring you. You are already family to me and my best friend in the world. Do I know if this is going to work? Absolutely not. But I’ve realized if you were everything you are, but a handsome man instead of a gorgeous woman, I would have asked you out if you didn’t ask me. So, I’m willing to give this a try. I… I want to tell you something but… I feel like I might be, I don’t know exactly. Maybe leading you on? And Might hurt your feelings.

“Aubrey, I promise you can tell me anything. I won’t be upset. At least with you. I realize that I might end up hurting because of this. But that’s how relationships work. There’s always risk. So tell me.”

“Yesterday, I was talking with Mark about stuff. The conversation turned to something that led to Mark and I discussing the two of us… As a couple.” Aubrey took a deep breath in readying herself to admit how she currently felt. “Okay Chloe, This might be a lot but please let me finish before saying anything. I Love you. I’m not in Love with you. But I find that the idea of falling in Love with you isn’t unappealing. I’m not sure if I want it or not, but I know that I’m not turned off by the idea. Unfortunately I am turned off by the idea of us being sexually intimate with one another. Which brings me to what I talked with Mark about. I told him yesterday I wanted to explore this, to explore us being a couple romantically. So, no. I did not say yes because I felt pressured or you pushed. I was planning on talking to you about this. I… okay… I asked Mark if we work as a couple romantically to make me bisexual.” She spoke so fast that she was hard to understand. But Chloe’s chest fluttered in delight. “So. I want you to know I’m taking this seriously. If it wasn’t for the show… I probably would have told you no because… Because if I’m going to be involved with a person, try and fall in love with them. I want to be able to be sexually intimate with them too.”

Sensing she was done. “Thank you. I… Thank you so much.” And she embraced Aubrey in a fierce hug, startling her, but after a moment she hugged Chloe back. “That—I—I didn’t realize that was possible. And I would have never asked you to do that. I… I had just hoped that we could be a couple romantically. I know, you said you love me, and I love you too. But I want you to know I’ve been in love with you for a long time. This hasn’t been an infatuation, I had been seriously considering asking even with everything else. Because I really want you to be my girlfriend. I’m sorry if I’m coming on strong but I wanted you to know where I stand. I’m happy to wait for you to come and meet me, where I’m at. I’m patient, there isn’t a rush. Take your time and if you determine you can’t reach me, can’t be in love with me. I’ll understand.” Chloe pulled back from her dearest friend. “Know we will always be family, even if this doesn’t work out. Now, I don’t want to push your boundaries or anything but could we, maybe hold hands as we walk?”

Aubrey just smiled at her and went a step further and slipped an arm around Chloe's waist, pushing up against the taller woman. As they walked through town for a long while just talking and enjoying each other's company before heading shopping.

After a pleasant walk towards the stores, with arms around one another, they reached the boutiques. “So, I figured you probably don’t want to see ASTRID or Cassandra today after what happened yesterday, right? I mean feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.” Chloe inquired.

“As much as I would like to go shopping at my store, as everything in there is so wonderful.”

Chloe sided-eye the bubblegum pink building down the street. I bet it is for her, everything is probably pink.

“You’re right. I just need some space after yesterday from all that. So I thought we could go to Maja’s Store then to Petra’s.”

“That works for me. Also I’m not sure if it's Maja’s, more like Mark’s store. What was it called?”

“I’m not using that ridiculous name. Did you see what they named your store? Yea they are ridiculous. I’m also fairly sure that Cassandra is changing the names as the show happens, as my store had a reference to farming in it which I can only assume is because of my sheep-girl path. And did you see your store’s name Chloe's Chic Candy Collection, they are all completely ridiculous.”

“You’re definitely right about Cassandra changing the store names,” She pointed towards Aubrey’s store’s sign, it now reading, Aubrey’s Ambrosial Amaranth Agrarian Apparel. “Wonder how long it took her to find an ‘A’ word for pink. Also how are you feeling about the sheep-girl path by the way?”

“I don’t know honestly, it might have been better for Mark to have picked the Pretty Pretty Princess path instead. But I’m glad he didn’t because I think he was right. Eventually it would have messed with my intelligence, which was why I wanted to get rid of the Student path. I love learning, I really do, but I also want to teach. I didn’t want to be an eternal student. When Mark was explaining the show to us, I was glancing through the store. I actually saw an option, Mark could have bought for me. It would make me have to relearn things all the time and when I did learn something I would forget something else. Realizing that was in the store I realized I would likely end up with something like that eventually, so I wanted it gone. I’m not too thrilled with being a sheep-girl, maybe it won’t happen, the other paths will win.” Aubrey, then looked up at the sky and glared daggers at it and shouted. “But it’s better than being some COW!” She then shook her head. “Disgusting perverts. At least lambs are cute, and adorable.” She once again shouted, “NOT LIKE SOME BIG, DUMB, UGLY, SMELLY, COWS!”

“Wow, okay.” Chloe chuckled. “I see that cow question really got to you.”

“Well yeah. The audience probably just wants to see my breasts get large filled with milk and make something sexual out of breast feeding. Like having Mark drink right from my teat. But it's an intimate bonding moment between mother and child. I definitely don't want to think of Mark as my child, that's for sure.”

“I mean you didn't seem to mind drinking Allie’s breast milk yesterday. And you know he also certainly suckled straight from Allie's breasts, right?”

“Drinking breast milk is one thing. But being milked like a cow, like all I'm good for is my milk isn't appealing AT ALL. I will say I mostly participated yesterday because I thought it would help with the urge to have Mark make me pregnant. And it did for a little bit.”

“Speaking of THAT. I've been thinking about what you mentioned this morning. About getting everything you ever wanted and being content but not really happy. I think we need to do something about the transformation.”

“What why? I want kids if I have to be with Mark anyway, wanting his kids isn't really an issue.”

“Yeah, but that's not what that does. Pull out your phone and read the description again.”

Nobody Like Mom: Aubrey loves kids, teaching them, playing with them, pinching their adorable cheeks, you name it. The only problem is that no one takes care of a child like a mother does and Aubrey now will want this too. Aubrey will gain an ever growing urge to have children of her own with Mark and this urge will grow while she is not pregnant. [Child-Care]

“Okay, I don't get what you mean here Chloe. What's the issue?”

“Ever Growing. Meaning it won't stop getting stronger, larger while you aren't pregnant. Doesn't matter if you already have kids with Mark or not. It will grow. You'll want more. You'll probably end up unhappy if not pregnant or actively trying to get pregnant eventually. And the urge won't go away simply because it's been momentarily satisfied either I bet. So you have gotten the thing you've always wanted which will make you content, but you'll have given up everything else as your purpose will have become to be a baby factory.” Aubrey brow furrowed.

“Are you sure? That would be a problem, I may want a lot of kids but I don’t want to be semi-permanently pregnant.”

“Plus it wouldn’t be fair either to your children or everyone else’s. Because I’m pretty sure that at least half of us want kids. The only one that I could see being actively opposed to the idea is Laura. Mark won't have adequate time to spend with all of them if he has to get to know 40 kids, which isn't fair.”

“I thought you weren’t interested in kids?”

“I’m not. Not really. But that could change. Also if Mark wants to have kids with me I’m not opposed to it. I kind of assumed I would end up having one or two if I met a guy and got married soon enough. But it isn’t a want, like it is for you.”

“Well, if you do decide you want kids, I’m certain you will be a fantastic mom. Actually… Scratch that. Assuming we end up working out you will be a fantastic mom. Because if we end up together I hope you know I’m not accepting less than you being my wife. Which means you WILL be a mom, period. Are you okay with that?”

“Well then I guess sign me up, and call me, mommy.”

Aubrey just stared at her for a moment. “I’m never calling you that directly. Ever.”

“BWHAHAHAHA” Chloe couldn’t help herself.

“What’s so funny?!” Aubrey exclaimed in exasperation.

“The face you made when you said that was so adorably cute. You do know you are so cute when you get flustered about something right?”

“I’ve been made aware…” Aubrey said attempting to be menacing, and failing.

“HAHAHAHAHA. Seriously, you’re too adorable and the pink doesn’t help you seem threatening.”

Aubrey feigned offense, “You. did. not. just disrespect pink!”

At this point they had reached the fountain in front of The Master’s Menagerie of Muses. Chloe looked up at the naked statues depicting all of the ladies' forms, her eyes lingering on one in particular.

“HEY! Don’t stare at a naked statue of me.”

“Sorry, but I’m pretty sure that the statue has bigger breasts than you do proportionally.” She took another glance then looked at the genuine articles. “Yeah, definitely bigger. Think Cassandra might be hinting at something? Either for Mark to buy or your future transformations?”

“I hope not, my breasts are perfectly large enough as they are now, and breasts swell during pregnancy typically. I don’t want something like an H or J cup. Oh crap. I may have just doomed myself. Mark said that the audience sometimes likes to mess with the girls and give them options that they complain about, because they think it’s funny.”

“Well, Aubrey, I'm sorry to tell you this. The only one who is going to complain about you being an H-cup is you, because I like big breasts, and I bet Mark does too.”

“Betrayed, by my own…” Aubrey paused her mock hurt, not sure what to call Chloe at the moment and decided then and there picking up where she trailed off. “My own girlfriend.”

Chloe lurched to a stop hearing Aubrey call her that, “Seriously? You mean… That you and I.”

“Yes, I already knew I liked you. That was easy, and even the short time so far right now has felt right. I don’t need to wait until the date is over to know I want another already. So yes, girlfriend. Not saying that I’m signing up to be bisexual yet, but this isn’t going to be our only date that much is for sure.” For which she was nearly tackled by the tall woman as Chloe hugged her, picking her up off of her feet, as Chloe was squealing for joy, and then Aubrey went and short circuited Chloe’s mind when she kissed her on the cheek.

“Um… Chloe… Aubrey to Chloe. Chloe, please respond. Chloe, could you put me down? Crap, did I break my girlfriend already? Do I need to find a new one?” Aubrey said teasingly hoping it would snap Chloe out of it.

“What? Wait… NO! I’m fine really.”

“And you say I’m cute when flustered. Mark is going to have so much fun teasing you.”

“Hey, not funny.”

“Wasn’t joking. Now, Let’s go shopping.” Aubrey dragged Chloe into the building.

As they entered the massive building, they walked down a dimly lit hall with a high vaulted ceiling. The floor and walls were made of a red marble with gold veins glittering in the soft light. The hall ended in a massive rotunda with 14 exits if you include the one the entered from with a statue of each contestant on a plinth in an alcove above them and the exit directly opposite containing a Golden statue of Mark upon a throne. Each of the other statues appeared to be in a unique material that captured the essence of their subject. Though three alcoves stood empty and the alcove above the entrance had a Platinum statue of Cassandra. Each statue around the room was illuminated by a set of bright lights focusing on them making them stand out in the otherwise dark room. In the center of the room was a large ring kiosk-like area for a receptionist, with a near lifelike statue of someone who looked very similar to Freya and her sisters but slightly different. Who was illuminated by a series of spotlights from every direction of the room.

“That must be Maja I’m guessing.” Aubrey pointed to the statue in the middle, looking around the room and when she saw the statue of Cassandra she burst out laughing.

“What’s so funny?’ Chloe inquired as she didn’t see anything funny about Cassandra’s statue.

“Cassandra—HAHA—Yesterday—HAHAHAHAHA—I shouldn't say—HAHAHAHA—She’ll get mad at me.” Aubrey just couldn’t help herself, it really was funny.

“Okay, now you have to tell me.”

“It’s just she’s up there.” She pointed to the statue of Cassandra. “And so are all of us.” Gesturing to the rest of the statues of the girls. “Then there's Mark.” Pointing finally to his statue. “Yesterday she got really bent out of shape when Mark teased her about secretly wanting to be part of his Harem, and there she is, up there, with the rest of Mark’s girls. I don’t think she thought the implication through.”

“Okay now that’s funny.”

~BOOM~

“NO IT IS NOT!” Cassandra shouted at them as she entered in a thunder. She turned around, waved her hand and made her statue disappear. Then whirled back on the two of them, and pointed a finger at Aubrey “You are lucky that right now, I’m feeling bad about not telling Mark something earlier and I don’t want to make him madder. So I am warning you Aubrey STOP JOKING ABOUT THAT! I might not be able to give you a permanent transformation for this but I can certainly give you a temporary one. A temporary one you won’t like and don’t forget I CHOOSE what the options are up for voting every round so maybe… YOU SHOULDN’T PISS ME OFF.”

Behind the two girls they heard the sound of heels along the marble floor.

A low sultry voice spoke in a slow cadence lingering on each and every word. “Oh, come now, Cassandra. Mother, I know you are… sensitive about the topic. But, It was rather humorous, the setup here. You can hardly blame the girl. She has good taste, observant, and knows how to coordinate her outfit. And mother dear, you know, I don’t like you shouting in here. It echoes just everywhere and completely throws off the atmosphere. And don’t threaten the girls over this, it is unbecoming, now apologize to them.”

Cassandra looked a little upset at being called out like this, “I’m sorry Maja, You’re right, I shouldn’t have yelled in here, I know you don’t like it.” Looking like she was swallowing bile. “Aubrey, I apologize, but you are trying my patience.” It looked like Cassandra was about to leave when Maja spoke up.

“Oh, and Mother dear…” Cassandra looked at Maja with a warm smile. “I want my statue of you back, you know it wasn’t yours to take. The design of this building is mine.”

Cassandra’s smile became a flat line across her face as she flicked her hand backwards towards the alcove and her statue reappeared. “Have a good day Maja. I love you.”

“Love you too mother.” and Cassandra vanished.

~Pop~

“Now… let me have a look at you two. Please follow me. Into the center of the ring.” Maja ordered them to move. And they noticed that the life-like statue that had been on the plinth was gone. “Come now girls. Into the center. Let Maja have a look at you.” She gently moved the girls along when they didn’t immediately comply. “Now stand in the light. Let Maja really see you.” they stood on the pedestal where Maja had been a few moments ago. “No. No. No no no no.” she said looking over Chloe. “My dear this is all wrong for you. Please you simply must let Maja fix this travesty. It is simply not right. Not your colour at all. For such a beautiful woman, with gorgeous eyes and silky hair, to not be looking her best, it is a travesty.” She then looked over Aubrey, gave a quick nod of approval, “You on the other hand. You pass. Though I will say I think that specific shade of pink is no longer optimal after your hair becomes golden. I have seen your wardrobe though you have plenty to work with. And don’t get me wrong I love that color it still works for you but it was much better back when you had that beautiful brown hair to go with it. Now it seems a little muted because of the golden luster. But I can tell you would have figured it out eventually. You’re just under so much stress. Let Maja help, that is what Maja does, it is what Maja lives for.”

Chloe had a sour expression on her face. What is wrong with my clothes? I look fine in these. But she’s right I think that dress was nicer on Aubrey when she had brown hair but it is still gorgeous on her. Am I missing something about my clothes? “What’s wrong with how I dress?” annoyed with being told her choice of clothing was all wrong, but not too annoyed because of the other compliments the woman paid, as it seemed she was genuinely trying to help.

Maja sighed heavily, “Maja does not know how to put this delicately. Chloe dear, your style is like that of a sorority girl who was **** to be noticed by the boys, who never updated her style after she graduated college. You’ve tried a bit I see, a slightly more mature look, a touch of professionalism. But you are simply trying to do too many things with that outfit. With your style. Look at Aubrey here, she knows exactly what her style is and has embraced it fully. She does not need Maja’s help but Maja is still happy to give it. Especially in these trying times. You on the other hand, no you do not have a real style. You have a few outfits for very specific circumstances which is fine, but no you simply buy pieces you think look good on their own and then pick whatever you’re feeling is right at the moment. You can do that if you have a style and buy things for the style, like Aubrey here. I’ve seen her closest and Mwha, one of the best closets I have seen during my time here, from all contestants. She can take almost any combination of clothing she has and it will look perfect together. The few instances, that doesn’t apply to, are a few black dresses, for more formal affairs that pink just won’t do, like funerals and the like. So please let Maja help you Chloe, sure you look fine. But that is it, fine. So please let Maja show you how good you could look with a proper style.”

Chloe looked a little sad and confused. “Aubrey? Do—Do you agree? Are my clothes just okay? I thought I was fairly stylish.”

Aubrey looked at her affectionately, “Chloe… Maja is not completely wrong. She isn’t totally right in my opinion either. But you definitely don’t have a specific style. Like if I were out shopping, I don’t think I could easily say, OH MY GOSH, This is SO Chloe. But I know you’ve done that for me. Where you saw a dress and thought yes this is perfect for Aubrey. Sooo…. Maybe let Maja help? I mean the worst thing that could happen is she makes some suggestions and you don’t like them right?”

“First of all, no, that isn’t the worst that could happen. Now is that likely the worst that would happen? Yeah probably. But magic Aubrey, magic. For all we know she could literally compel a style change.”

“Maja, could not. It is against the rules for Maja to use Magic directly on contestants even with consent of contestants without both Mark’s and Cassandra’s approval. Maja has made some specialty items already for each of you that I have enchanted but neither of you have the funds for them so Maja can’t even let you go look. Also Maja would never compel a style. Bah clothing TFs are the worst, so limiting, so unnatural. One should never wear a style that does not speak to them. Maja hopes to help all of you find your styles, whatever they may be. Maja has one-hundred percent satisfaction rate of all clients without clothing TFs. Maja regretfully only has a ninety-seven percent satisfaction rate for those with clothing TFs.” She said this last part so mournfully that Chloe and Aubrey thought she might actually cry.

“Okay fine, we came here to shop but Maja I don’t have a large budget, in BP right now.”

“Perfect and Don't worry about the cost dearie, Maja will find a way to sort you out. Now Aubrey if you could sit over there, and watch but don’t comment, it could disrupt the process.” she said pointing to a chair just outside of the ring. “Chloe, if you could stand on the center of the pedestal, I will work my magic and show you just how good you can look.”