Week 1: Natalie's Date, Part 1

Aífe awoke from a very confusing dream in which she was being strangled by a snake in the middle of a hot, humid jungle, only for the snake to turn into a sexy lamia constricting her while pressing her face into the newly-present boobs—suffocation on two fronts. Blinking the sleep from her eyes, she found the reason for these strange dreams, namely Diona, who had shifted position as the two of them slept, until she had Aífe’s face buried in her cleavage and a firm hold on Aífe’s head and shoulders. Very carefully, Aífe managed to slide out from her bed-mate’s embrace without waking her. Once out of bed, her slightly damp, cherry-scented pajamas and the warmth pulsing in her core clued her in on the reason for the sexual nature of the dream. She resigned herself to starting the day with a cold shower—something that she was loathe to take, and wouldn’t bother with if she didn’t have a date in a little over an hour.

As Aífe shivered under the cold water, she thought back on the events of the previous evening. Despite her knowledge that she was in the right for asserting her boundaries against her rather pushy date, she found herself feeling a bit guilty. While it was true that Diona had been wanting to take things much faster than she was comfortable with, Aífe wondered if she’d been too harsh a couple of times when she’d rejected her. This compounded with the guilt of lying by omission when she chose not to tell Diona about the tryst she’d had with Erica, as well as the realization that refusing to engage with Diona sexually in any way last night could potentially have very real consequences on Diona’s ability to maintain a safe position, point-wise. As much as she wasn’t looking forward to such an awkward conversation first thing in the morning, she knew that the feeling of guilt would keep her distracted during her date.

When she returned to her room, body clean and teeth brushed, Diona was still asleep, though beginning to show signs of stirring. She figured that she’d go ahead and let Diona finish waking naturally, especially since it gave her time to get dressed in the walk in closet. She imagined that the conversation would likely be even more awkward for her if she were dressed in only her towel. She remembered her date with Cecilia the other day, and found the blouse and skirt the other redhead had picked out for her. Once she was dressed and had styled her hair as best she could—something that she’ll probably seek additional lessons on later, as with makeup—she took a deep breath and walked back out to see Diona now sitting upright and stretching.

“Morning.” Diona yawned. She blinked the sleep from her eyes before giving Aífe an appraising look. “Look, I’m trying not to be offended, but you’re starting to make me think I should be. I get that I came on a bit strong last night, but you’re dressed way nicer for your date with Nat than you were when it was my turn.” Her assessment was spot-on—Aífe really hadn’t known what to expect yesterday, so she just played it safe with a v-neck and jeans. While she certainly hadn’t appeared slovenly by any metric, it was much more casual than her current outfit.

“Chill, it’s not like that.” Aífe assured her. “What I wore yesterday is what I’d prefer to wear at the moment. Y’know, with the whole ‘still getting used to girl clothes’ thing? I’m wearing this because I was given homework the other day.”

“I thought Teach was super serious about you not being her student anymore.” Diona chuckled. “Or is she such a hardass that she gives her dates homework, too?”

“Your guess is off by a couple days—” Aífe corrected, “it was Cecilia. She made a big deal about needing to keep up a certain standard if I was going on a date with a model… though she also applied that standard dates with her, of course. Last thing I need at the moment is to give her a reason to yell at me. I know that Fuyumi will automatically adjust all of my bras, but it’s still a pain in the ass.”

“I don’t know,” Diona got up from the bed and walked to the closet to get dressed, “I might be tempted to egg her on a bit. You’ve got pretty nice boobs already, but I’m not gonna complain if they get even bigger. If she ends up being a bit too harsh, then she can buy her boobs back at the TF shop.”

“Hey…” Aífe started, not seeing a better time to broach the subject than this, “speaking of being harsh, I’d… like to apologize.”

“For?” Diona asked as she started putting on underwear.

“Last night.” Aífe fidgeted. “I was a bit harsh a couple of times. Sure, you were being pushy, but there were definitely some moments where I just completely refused to engage. I should’ve been more proactive in using that time to actually have a positive discussion about boundaries, instead of just completely shutting you down.”

“Thanks… I guess?” Diona looked at her quizzically. “Um… I don’t really know how to respond to that. People who don’t want to fuck usually just shoot me down and move on. Uh… apology accepted? Hope you decide to fuck me soon?”

“That’s it? Aren’t you worried at all?” Aífe was taken aback somewhat. “Yesterday was your big chance to earn points, and I completely blocked you. Shouldn’t you be upset that I’m putting you at risk like that right before a challenge?”

“Look at it this way—” Diona explained as she finished getting dressed, “Sera’s being crazy generous with points. Even with you completely ‘blocking’ me, as you put it, I’m still 20% of the way to the finish line—twice the pace I need to keep, since this is a 10-week show—and you haven’t even touched me, outside of when I kissed you. Do you really think she’s going to turn around and be ruthless with the challenge?”

“Yeah, you’ve got a point.” Aífe had to agree, especially considering that Erica was only 1 point away from the finish line after the two of them only fucking once.

“I don’t know how it’ll be later on,” Diona continued, “but I’d bet that, for the first week, she’ll probably only take away 5 points from the person in last. That means that the only ones in danger would be the ones who completely refuse to do anything sexual with you, like Cecilia. Any of us could get enough points to be safe this week, and all we’d need to do is change clothes in front of you. That’s a ridiculously easy bar to clear.”

“I gotta say, you’ve put a lot more thought into this than I expected.” Aífe followed as Diona, now fully dressed (though that phrase doesn’t particularly mean much, given who it’s referring to), started walking to the bathroom to finish getting ready for the day.

“What are you talking about?” Diona scoffed. “They took something I’m super good at that comes naturally to me, and added points and rewards to it. Of course, I’ve thought about how many points I need and how to get as many as possible.” She washed her face and reached for the toothbrush and toothpaste. “Imagine that they started giving your rewards for breathing—wouldn’t you want to breathe as much as possible to max out your points?”

“Okay, one: pretty sure the reward for breathing is staying alive.” Aífe started poking at Diona’s analogy. “Two: breathing as much as possible is just hyperventilation, which would make you pass out, and three: you’re talking to someone who grew up with asthma and like 5 different pollen allergies—breathing isn’t exactly my forte.” All Diona could answer with was a shrug, as her mouth was currently occupied by a toothbrush. They traded more analogies as she finished putting on makeup and tying up her hair into her signature twintails. By the time Aífe realized that she was running out of time to broach the other subject she needed to talk to Diona about, they were already approaching the elevator to head down to breakfast. She'd let Diona completely take over the direction of the conversation. Aífe tried to quickly gather the courage to confess what happened yesterday. She couldn’t just chicken out at the last second, could she? She needed to do this while they still had privacy.

Nope. I’m a chicken. Aífe panicked at the last moment, boarding the elevator in silence. Hopefully, we’ll run into Erica on the way there, and she can help me explain this.

Much to Aífe’s dismay, the lobby was empty when they reached it—everyone else seemingly already at breakfast. Before she could say anything, Diona had already reached the doors to the dining hall and started opening them. The atmosphere inside was… awkward, to say the least, with those already at the table shooting knowing looks in Aífe’s direction. Something that Diona was too focused on breakfast to notice initially, happily making her way to the serving table and gathering a large plate of food. Aífe grabbed something light to make a quick escape, hastily sitting by her “partner in crime”, as it were. Half of those seated were casting glances her way, Cecilia’s stare being particularly accusatory as her eyes looked Aífe up and down before she looked away with a huff of begrudging approval that Aífe had at least remembered the homework she’d been assigned during their date the other day. The other half were sneaking looks at Diona as the shortstack sat down to begin eating, wondering if she was already aware of yesterday’s events.

“What’s the deal?” Erica whispered at Aífe. “Did you tell Diona, or not?”

“Look, I—” Aífe stammered out a hushed reply, “o-other things came up, okay?! She’s not exactly the easiest person to talk to, and I don’t even know how to talk about this stuff to begin with!” She glanced toward the end of the table, where the girl in question was tearing apart a stack of waffles. “I was hoping we’d run into you in the lobby so we didn’t have to do this with so many people around!”

“Yeah, how’d that work out?” Cecilia could be heard muttering under her breath, apparently just in range to hear the whispered conversation.

“What’s up?” Diona’s voice shocked them out of their conversation as she looked curiously at them. “Everything good? And why’s everyone else so quiet?” Before Aífe and Erica could think of an answer, the doors to the dining hall swung open, Sera and Umbra making their daily mealtime appearance.

“Good morning, everyone!” Sera chipperly greeted. “We’ve officially reached the final day of our season’s first week! You should all be quite happy—many seasons sputter out before reaching this point, doomed to spend an eternity as reruns.” She reached the table and offered a polite, quiet round of applause. “And a special congratulations for yesterday’s performance! Few, if any contestants have ever made such a monumental leap in points in a single day!”

“What are you talking about? We didn’t...” Diona trailed off as her eyes finally met the mirror displaying the current scores, a piece of waffle falling from her fork as she stared, wide-eyed, at the screen.

“So, is the mirror broken, or something?” Diona rubbed her eyes to make sure she was reading the scores correctly. “Do you need to send it back to the store to have it fixed?”

“No, I assure you that the scores listed are accurate.” Sera’s eyes landed on Aífe and Erica. “As I saying, someone had a very successful day.” Diona looked back and forth between them, no words coming to her mind.

“WE’RE SORRY!” Aífe and Erica exclaimed in unison, the guilt breaking their flimsy facade. They explained what had happened between them the previous day; how Erica had underestimated the potency of her new transformation, and was left with little choice but to beg Aífe for relief. Diona sat with her arms crossed during the explanation, and they were left waiting a beat for her reaction.

“Geez! Why didn’t you just tell me that last night?!” She leaned back in her chair and face-palmed. “That’s why you were so unresponsive! Seriously, here I was thinking that you didn’t think I was hot, or something crazy like that, but it turns out you were just spent already!” Diona sighed in relief.

“Wait… you’re not mad?” Aífe looked at her, confused.

“Of course, I’m mad—at myself!” Diona grumbled, resting her cheek on her fist as she leaned on the table. “I didn’t think anyone would swoop in like that. Sounds like we even used basically the same strat, too. Of course, you weren’t going to be receptive to a repeat performance so soon.”

“Hold on a sec.” Erica pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to process the other girl’s frankly absurd response. “I have sex with the girl who was supposed to be on a date with you at the time, and the one you’re angry at is you?!”

“Well, yeah.” Diona shrugged as if her reaction was the most obvious thing in the world. “We’re on a competitive sex show—of course, she’s not gonna stick to just me, just like I’m sure she isn’t expecting me to stick to just her. I took a gamble on something I thought would be a sure hit, and the gamble didn’t pay off. It was my fault for leaving such a big opening for someone else to get to her.” Erica and Aífe slumped back in their chairs, still processing the unexpected response, along with the relief of not needing to tiptoe around the issue... where Diona's concerned, at least.

“I’m glad to see that someone is keeping the right competitive mindset for where you all are.” Sera sagely nodded. “Though I hope Miss Diona doesn’t get so wrapped up in her competitive zeal that she forgets to foster romance during your time here.” Her gaze turned to Natalie. “Speaking of which, I hope that you show similar zeal on your date, Miss Natalie—our final date of the week, no less.”

“I-I don’t know if zeal is the right word for it,” Natalie gulped as she felt a slight flush from everyone’s attention—and gazes—being drawn to her, “but I do have a nice day planned.”

Author's Note: Happy Anniversary! This marks a year since I published the first chapter of this season of Harem Hotel. I honestly didn't think I'd make it to the 50 chapter mark, let alone that anybody would still be reading. Thanks to everyone who's kept up with the story so far, and especially to all of my readers and fellow authors on the HH Discord. It's surprisingly wholesome for a porn server. Here's hoping I can get the ADHD goblins in my head to behave so I can actually post more than once every 3 months. - Luquier