Well, the moon is broken, and the sky is cracked, come on up to the house

By the time Nick had fully woken up and gotten out of bed, any remaining traces of his dream from that night had been completely wiped away. It still lingered there, of course, in the back of his mind- an echo of some far-flung memory that he couldn’t quite grasp. He knew it had been a very bizarre dream, but that was all. Any attempt to pull something tangible out of the haze, something solid he could grasp onto to ground himself, was met with only frustration and a feeling of fleeting impermanence.

Finding it too uncomfortable to dwell on any further and distracted by the aroma of something cooking in the kitchen, Nick pushed aside his dream and turned to Morgana in order to wake her up… only to see that the space beside him on the bed was empty.

Now THAT was a surprise. How late did he sleep in? He’d come to know Morgana as a fairly late riser; but apparently she’d managed to wake up before he did- as apparently had Mary and Holly, because the Master’s Suite was empty save for the bustle in the kitchen. (Nick didn’t really care where Nola had scurried off to.)

He considered going into the kitchen to see what was up, but halfway there he stopped himself. He wasn’t quite sure why. But somewhere in his gut he had the strange feeling that he shouldn’t be finding the others… that there was someone else he should be finding instead.

Thoroughly confused, he decided that his hesitation was probably due to not wanting to greet his wife, and the woman he’d just slept with, in his present state of undress. Holly would be fine with it though. So he went to the bathroom and got changed, going fairly quickly in order to make up for how late he’d slept in.

A glance at the clock told him that the other girls had already started their day by this point, likely. He needed to get ready to meet Sylvia, assuming their date was still on. (Right… he hadn’t arranged anything concrete with her, either, just like with Morgana. He had to get better at that…)

Feeling pretty hungry at this point, Nick decided that he wasn’t going to hesitate any longer, and went to go see what was cooking in the kitchen.

The first thing Nick noticed when he stepped inside was that Morgana was back to her original self. Err, her normal self. …Well… her transformed self, that was it. It took Nick a couple of tries, but he got there. Mainly because he was stunned to see what she was wearing.

A large sweater wrapped around her breasts, clearly struggling to contain them. At the same time, a very modest white skirt clung to her curvaceous rump, which her body filled out perfectly. As chaste a garment as it was, Morgana’s body gave it an oddly compelling allure, and Nick found that he couldn’t take his eyes off of it.

“Well, look who’s finally up! In more ways than one… hehehe…”

Holly’s playful giggle drew Nick’s attention and he immediately tore his eyes away from Morgana’s backside to look at the snickering ponytailed girl.

He frowned. “Very funny, Holly,” he said, rolling his eyes. As captivated by Morgana’s butt as he had been in the moment, he was quite far from having an erection, so he knew that she had just been messing with him. He didn’t mind it- Holly was gonna be Holly. But he was a little curious why Morgana was dressed in those clothes.

They almost looked like… no, no way, right?

“Hi Nick! I hope you slept well!” Mary smiled. Morgana glanced bashfully at him, a shy smile on her lips as well.

“I-I kinda did, yeah,” Nick mumbled, faint traces of his strange dream popping back into his mind. “…Sorry, uh… sorry for sleeping in so late…”

“You looked very deep in sleep,” Morgana informed him. “My transformations returned and everything, I even got my money from the bounty!”

BOUNTY COMPLETE!

Morgana: 0 BP + 5000 BP = 5000 BP

“That’s good,” Nick said, happy for her.

Morgana bobbed her head up and down, giving her newly-regained curves quite a workout in the process, which Holly didn’t miss. “It’s such a relief,” she said with a sigh, placing her hand over her wobbling breast. “Now I can pay Dawn back for her help… and keep an extra 2000 BP as well for myself, as leftovers!”

Nick was pretty sure Dawn was nice enough to just let her keep the whole thing, but he kept his mouth shut and decided Dawn could be the one to tell her that.

“What about me, and my help?” Holly asked cheekily. “What do I get?”

“You didn’t loan me anything,” Morgana pointed out.

“I loaned you those clothes, didn’t I?” Holly exclaimed. “Since you weren’t smart enough to prepare a change of clothes for yourself before coming up here, I mean! You think those moonlit milkers could fit in that skinny top you were wearing before? I don’t think so!”

Morgana’s face turned as red as her contact lenses. “M-milk-? That-!” She stammered, unable to come up with a response.

“Those are my clothes, though!” Mary pointed out, looking a little irritated. “…Or, well, they were.” She scratched her cheek sheepishly. “They’re some of the clothes I loaned to Emmy, actually.”

A lightbulb went off over Nick’s head. No wonder that skirt + sweater combo looked so familiar, he should have guessed.

Holly pouted. “But who was it who went to go borrow the clothes back from Emmy?” She reminded Mary and Morgana. “Me, right? Before they even got up here, too!”

Morgana frowned. Holly had a point, that WAS gracious of her. Although, Morgana could have just asked a faerie to bring her some of her own clothes, or Nola, whenever the leprechaun came back from whatever it was she was doing…

Then a notion occurred to Morgana.

“…Wait, if you borrowed these from Emmy, then couldn’t you have just gone into my room and borrowed some of my own clothes?” She questioned, tugging uncomfortably on the ill-fitting sweater her boobs were stuffed into. While Mary’s skirt may have fit Morgana well due to her own rather supple bottom, the redhead had been flat as a board when she’d first bought those clothes before coming to the island.

Holly blinked as three sets of eyes stared at her.

“…You know, if Nick wants a good breakfast before he goes to meet Sylvia, we should really get those omelets cooking now!” Holly scurried over to the stove. “Nick, you still like ham, mushrooms, and olives in yours, right?”

“Hold it.” Mary stopped her before she could get away with a solid yank of the brunette’s curly ponytail, dragging her away from the stove.

“YOW! Hey!” Holly flailed her arms in protest as Mary pulled her over. “Come on, it’s not a big deal, just a harmless prank! I knew she’d look great in your old clothes, and she does! Right, Nick?”

Holly turned to Nick, knowing that he would never let her get chewed out by Mary if he could help it, not over something as light as this. He’d certainly come to her rescue!

…The fact that Morgana really did look adorable didn’t hurt, either.

“You look nice, Morgana,” Nick said sincerely. “When I first saw you like that, I couldn’t take my eyes off you.”

Morgana’s face was ablaze as her eyes bulged slightly behind her bangs. She quickly brushed them out of her face and smiled bashfully, looking down at the kitchen floor. “O-oh, it… you really think so? Wh-white’s not really my c-color, so…”

“Yes, for real, you look amazing,” Nick insisted, not about to let her slide back into doubting herself, especially now that her transformations had returned. “Besides, the dress you wore on our date was pretty nice, too, and that had a lot of white in it.”

“I think you look great as well,” Mary said, the anger fading from her expression and replaced with a generous smile. She placed her hands on her hips. “Just wear it with confidence!”

She was trying very hard not to be frustrated by what Morgana’s boobs were doing to her sweater. Even though Mary had rather large breasts herself now, it still felt surreal.

“It doesn’t clash?” Morgana asked worriedly, tugging on the neck of the sweater. “W-with my skin tone and everything?”

She raised a valid point, Morgana’s pale complexion did kind of give a weird vibe when combined with light colors like Mary preferred to wear. Which raised another question in Mary’s mind.

“You’re right, it does stand out a little, but in a good way,” she conceded, trying to be honest. “Holly, I know I had other colors of skirts and sweaters you could have gotten for her, so why white?”

Holly’s jaw dropped. “Oh my gosh, Mary, you can’t just ask people why they’re white!”

Mary thumped her lightly on the head. “The sweater,” she griped.

Holly rubbed her forehead and scowled. “What happened to nice, sweet Mary who wouldn’t hurt a fly? The audience will be so disillusioned…”

Mary gave her best friend a frosty look. Regardless of the “perception” of her in the eyes of the audience, she wasn’t some blushing damsel who bemoaned **** and fainted at the sight of blood. Even at her most innocent she still had a spine, and she wasn’t going to take crap from anybody, even playfully-flung crap from her best friend.

Regardless, it was obvious that her question had already been answered, given how Holly couldn’t stop staring at Morgana’s boobs with an amused grin. Yes, she had “accidentally” forgotten to bring her a bra to go with it. How forgetful of her. A darn shame, really.

Nick couldn’t help but laugh.

“Eh?” Morgana stiffened up in surprise, not sure why he was laughing. “Did-did I say something funny?” He wasn’t laughing at her, right?!

“I think his brain is broken,” Holly said, in a tone that sounded just a little too serious. “Morgana, you really must have fucked his mind out last night.”

“No! No I didn’t!” Morgana wailed.

Mary bit back her more choice words, and just exhaled in a long sigh.

Nick stopped laughing and shook his head. “No, it’s nothing like that,” he assured the three of them. “Nothing you guys need to worry about. It’s just… seeing you guys together, it really made me feel a lot better.”

Mary’s smile faded and she looked at her husband with renewed concern. “Feel better?” She asked worriedly. “Were you not feeling alright before?”

“Oh no!” Morgana went pale. “Did… I didn’t wear you out, did I!? Last night!?” She was about to ask more questions only to finally remember her Sotto Voce transformation. Aghast, she clasped her hands over her mouth and stumbled backwards, nearly bumping into a frying pan.

Holly sighed. These two… she had noticed something was up with Nick the second he arrived. Hence her meticulous effort to harangue him with jokes until he forgot about whatever it was that had been bothering him.

Apparently, she would have to bring in the big guns…

“Did you have a bad dream?” She asked curiously, leaning for. “Ooh, better idea, did you have a sexy dream?” She flashed a smile, hoping to throw him off with her playfulness.

Nick was about to call her out for being ridiculous, but as he opened his mouth he suddenly got the vivid memory of Holly’s naked body right up in front of his face somehow. Like he was staring at her up close, and she was incredibly small. It made no sense, but it was enough to give him pause, and Holly immediately seized on the hesitation she saw in his eyes.

“It WAS a sexy dream!” She crowed triumphantly.

Nick’s face reddened. “N-no!” He stammered, even though he didn’t know. “It wasn’t, I just, well…” Whatever the dream had been, he was pretty sure Holly had been in it somehow.

He wasn’t sure if he felt comfortable revealing that information or not, though. Not when Holly was being so… Holly.

“Was I in it?” Holly asked, hoping that the answer was “Yes” from how Nick was looking at her.

“M-maybe?” Nick stammered, finding it difficult to look her in the eye. “I really don’t remember… I just remember it was a really weird dream, that’s all.”

Holly paused. “A weird dream?” She asked, a note of concern reaching her voice as she actually started taking this seriously.

Nick nodded. “Yeah, it… I can’t describe it… but it was really weird.”

“So like… foot stuff?”

“HOLLY!” Mary turned crimson and glared at her friend.

“Well, what ELSE would it be?” Holly asked, holding up her hands. “When it comes to ‘weird’ Nick’s actually pretty vanilla, so-”

“It wasn’t a sex dream!” Nick groaned, more of sure of it now than ever before, even if solely out of spite. “It was just… weird. And long, and… I don’t know, honestly.”

“A weird dream…” Mary’s eyes slowly drifted to Morgana. It wasn’t an accusation, but… well, if dreams were involved, she was the logical suspect, right?

“It-it wasn’t me!” Morgana waved her hands wildly. “I-I already took care of my diary entries! And- and it’s not like they work on him anyway, right?”

Mary nodded. Good point. “…Wait, you said you already took care of it? What do you mean?” She asked, curious.

Morgana blushed. “Well… actually, earlier this week… I was talking about my transformation with Amelia, and, um, we… we did a little experiment, actually…”

She started fidgeting with her hair again.

“So it turns out… if I’m proactive with my diary… that works,” she managed to stutter out. It was far from a complete explanation, though. “That is… what I mean… …So, um, if I write a diary entry… with one of my fantasies, in… in the morning… or afternoon, or… well, any time, really, that’s kind of the point… that counts for that night’s dream!”

Everyone was surprised to hear that.

“Wait, so you won’t be compelled to run off into the bathroom if you get it out of the way in time, then?” Holly asked, raising her eyebrow.

Morgana quickly shook her head. “I mean… it makes sense, right?” She twiddled her fingers together sheepishly. “I’ve been writing in it voluntarily right before bed, and that’s been working… I don’t really have to run off compelled anymore, right?”

Nick nodded. Morgana had mostly gotten that transformation under control by this point, which was good. But now that he thought about it, she was right. “So if you do it even earlier, it still works then? Like, in the mornings?”

Morgana bobbed her head up and down. “I can write the entry in the morning, and it just lingers until night! It’s so convenient, really… I don’t have a ticking clock anymore, or anything! Isn’t that great, Nick?”

She gave him a smile, but then it faltered. Her blush slowly returned and she shrank back, embarrassed all of a sudden.

“S-sorry,” she stammered out, shaking her head. “I just, um… I was eager, so… we-we were talking about your dream… and I kind of just jumped in…”

“No, it’s fine, forget it,” Nick said, waving off her concerns. Some dumb dream didn’t matter as much as Morgana’s sense of self-worth. “It was just a dream. I’m a lot more curious about what’s going on in here,” he said, changing the subject.

Mostly because he was starving. So while thoughts of his dream lingered still in the back of his mind, he pushed them aside, and focused on the girls instead.

Morgana’s eyes widened, and for a second Nick wondered if he’d said the wrong thing. She looked downright mortified by his attempt to change the subject!

“Oh, don’t worry,” Mary said, foreseeing Morgana’s reaction and intercepting the conversation before either of them could get the wrong idea. “She’s just feeling a little bashful because she’s been doing such a great job helping me cook!”

“Yep!” Holly nodded excitedly. “Morgana’s doing great!”

“I-I-I-!” Morgana babbled, her eyes swimming in her head as she struggled to look from one smiling face to the next.

But Mary and Holly practically had her backed into the stove, completely cornered.

“You’re cooking?” Nick’s face lit up. “That would be great! I’d love a chance to try your cooking, Morgana,” he said, seizing any opportunity he could to help her self-esteem.

Morgana looked at him in amazement, her fear momentarily gone. “You… you would?” She asked, blinking a couple of times.

Nick nodded. “Yeah, I would,” he assured her. “If Mary and Holly say it’s good, then it must be good, right?”

Morgana wished she could have as much faith in her culinary abilities as Nick seemed to. She appreciated his words, she really did, but…

She didn’t really feel like he was… correct.

“I’m… I’m still just starting,” she mumbled. “Just omelets… and those two are helping me a lot…”

“Come on, Morgana,” Holly said, rolling her eyes. “It’s not like you’re baking a soufflé. It’s an omelet. You’d have to be really incompetent to mess up an omelet. You don’t need as much help as you think you do.”

“Holly’s right, Morgana!” Mary nodded enthusiastically, her eyes shining like a field of grass in the sunlight. “We’ve got your back, but believe me, you can handle this all on your own!”

Morgana looked at the two girls, finding herself backed into a corner once again. She looked desperately to Nick as her final lifeline, hoping somehow that he would be able to save her, but he just gave her a gentle, encouraging smile.

It had the opposite effect. Her heart sank in defeat and she sighed.

“…Do you really want me to make you breakfast?” She asked. A rather sad question to pass her lips, given that she had been the one to ask Holly and Mary for cooking lessons so that she could make him breakfast.

Now that he was saying he wanted her to, she suddenly felt uncertain? That was sad in a way that both girls felt for the goth.

But before either of them could say anything, Nick answered with the only answer he would ever have, given the circumstances.

“Of course,” he said with a grin.

And just like that all the doubt and hesitation on Morgana’s face washed away, and she returned his smile with a beaming one of her own, much to Holly and Mary’s relief.