Week 1: Morning of the First Challenge

Groggily opening her eyes, Aífe slowly sat up, cracking her neck to ease a bit of stiffness. Looking to the sleeping figure next to her, she was reminded of exactly why her neck felt stiff that morning—exactly what had transpired the night before.

Yep. That’s Natalia Vorona, famous online model, lying next to you in bed after riding your face. Aífe thought to herself, the idea sounding so absurd to her that it didn’t feel real, despite arguably far more absurd things that had happened to her over the past 9 days. Yet no matter how much her rational brain knew it had really happened, the sight of Natalie’s slumbering form—only half-covered by the blankets, leaving her breasts bare for Aífe to stare at—kept the less rational parts of Aífe’s brain torn between thoughts of “this can’t be real” and “ooh, titties.” Her silent appreciation of the view couldn’t last long, unfortunately, as the subject of that appreciation was beginning to stir.

“Is it mornin’ already?” Natalie sat up and stretched, yawning. It took her a couple moments of waking up before she remembered whose bed she was in, and the feeling of Aífe’s eyes on her chest due to her transformation brought attention to the fact that she was naked, her nipples having visibly hardened. “U-um… could you not… stare at me quite so much?” She pleaded as she did her best to cover her chest with her arms, her cheeks reddening from the mix of embarrassment and arousal.

“Sorry.” Aífe turned away, though she could feel her eyes trying to glance over again. “It’s just not every day you get to wake up next to someone so beautiful, y’know?” She paused for a beat before shutting her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose. “What am I saying? I shouldn’t be making excuses. I really am sorry, Nat—I bet you don’t have to deal with this from Mallory.”

“Well…” Natalie trailed off, thinking of all the times she had felt her roommate’s gaze wander onto her—especially her legs and ass. It seemed Mallory was quite fond of her lower half, though Natalie had still felt plenty of glances toward her breasts over the past week. “I-I’m not gonna ride you too hard on that. The two of you are only human, after all. Besides, we’re all… dating now, so I suppose I don’t mind a bit of starin’ now and then. Just keep in mind that the feelin’ is a lot stronger comin’ from you, so try not to stare so much while I’m sleepin’ or tryin’ to focus.”

“You sure rode me plenty hard last night.” Aífe muttered.

“Sorry, what was that?” Natalie leaned in, not quite hearing her, only to realize what had been said after a few seconds of processing. She finally remembered exactly what happened the previous night—or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the events were brought to the forefront of her mind, and her blush spread, turning her whole face a luminous shade of red. She quickly got up from the bed, trying to ignore the feeling of Aífe’s eyes opening and being drawn to her movement. “I-I should really go freshen up! I’m probably a real mess after… I’m gonna go get a shower!” She rushed out of the room, barely hearing the Aífe’s slightly confused “yeah, okay” said in response.

Oh, my God—what the hell came over me last night?! She screamed internally as the hot water rushed over her. I don’t remember everything I said, but the bits that I can recall are so… so cringey! I was actin’ like some Russian dominatrix outta one of those cheap pornos they have at seedy gas stations off the interstate. God, I hope that’s not what she thinks of me. Wait—was I… was I even any good? I think she was enjoyin’ it, but I can’t remember for sure. That thought brought some of the specifics rushing back to her train of thought, and the mental image of Aífe staring up at her from between her legs made her clench the legs in question together as she once again found herself getting hot and bothered. She switched the water to cold as she tried to calm herself down—now was not the time for her to be getting horny. She managed to get her body and mind clean for the time being, doing her best to keep her voice even as she let Aífe know that the shower was free. The two swapped places, with Aífe heading to the bathroom to freshen up, herself, while Natalie looked for a change of clothes.

“I think I might need to ask Holly and Missy for some skincare advice—” Aífe thought out loud as she came back wrapped in a towel, patting her hair dry after her own quick shower, “since I never know what’s gonna happen during a date, it’s hard to get a good shower schedule worked out. I’m worried I’ll end up bathing too often and drying my skin ou—wait, are you okay?” She cut her thought short as she saw the more serious look on Natalie’s face.

“I-it’s nothin’ bad, I just—” Natalie fidgeted as she tried to work out was she was trying to say. “I’m sorry if I… came on a bit strong last night. I honestly don’t know what came over me. All I could think about was how pent up I was, and I… well, I’m worried that I kinda just used you to get off. God, that’s really not how I wanted our first time together to end up…” She looked away and held her hands up to her face, looking for a way to hide just how shameful she felt.

“Hey, whoa!” Aífe quickly cut in before Natalie could spiral any further. “Relax, Nat! It’s not like I was complaining about last night. Sure, it was a lot different than I was expecting—and a lot more intense, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy myself!” She put her hands over Natalie’s, cradling the blonde’s face as she forced her to make eye contact. “Sure, I might not want every date between us to end like that, but it was kind of exciting, the way you took charge like that. I’m willing to bet I’m the only one who’s ever gotten to see that side of the legendary Natalia Vorona.” She pulled her hands away so she could strike a pose as she said the last few words, putting them in an exaggerated Russian accent and eliciting a laugh from Natalie.

“Thank you. I was real worried there.” Natalie sighed. “I spent the whole shower convinced you were gonna think I was some kinda dominatrix.”

“Try not to say ‘dominatrix’ out loud too often, or the audience is gonna find a way to make that your next photo shoot.” Aífe teased. “Besides—you should be less worried about me imagining you dressed in leather and more worried about Mallory staring a hole in us when we get down to breakfast—she’s probably looking at the scoreboard and pacing back and forth while she tries to work out the math on what we might have done together.” She leaned in close. “Not to mention what you’ve technically promised to do to her later. The three of us made a deal yesterday, remember?” Aífe finished getting dressed while Natalie rebooted, her system crashing after that reminder.

Finishing their morning routines with little else in the way of fanfare, they made it down to the dining hall to find that Mallory was indeed staring a hole in them, her eyes burning with curiosity—as were Diona’s eyes, though they also bore what Aífe could only describe as a hint of smugness. Aífe shook off the stares from those assembled at the table, having grown used to them over the past few days. Natalie, however, took a moment to compose herself as this was the first time she’d been on the receiving end of the morning stares, her transformation flaring up a bit. Standing out among those looking their way was Cecilia—her expression seemingly more bitter than usual. It should’ve been me , dammit, she thought as she glared, her eyes tracking Aífe.

“Not bad, you two.” Erica playfully elbowed Aífe as the redhead sat down with her breakfast, Natalie jumping somewhat as she fixed her own plate. “Though not enough to pass my score. So—are you gonna fill us in?”

“Of course, not.” Aífe refused between bites of bacon. “Would you have wanted me to tell everyone about what happened between us the other day? Besides, where’d this cocky attitude come from? You didn’t seem so proud of jumping to first yesterday. As I recall, we were both apologizing profusely.”

“Yeah,” Erica shrugged, “but then Diona said it was all cool, so I figure I might as well look on the bright side of things, am I right?” Erica directed the question to Diona.

“I don’t know…” Diona drew out her words with that same smug expression on her face. “I’m starting to get a bit offended. First, you sleep with someone else on my day, then you take Nat’s V-card after you told me you were sure that wouldn’t happen so soon. Lucy, you got some splainin’ to doooo.”

“I’m surprised you even know that show.” Aífe muttered before getting back on topic. “Look, things just… happened, okay? The mood was right, and we’d just spent a nice evening together, so things just kind of progressed from there. Neither of us needed to force it; it just kind of happened naturally. And no, I’m still not telling anyone.” Aífe crossed her arms with a huff, while Diona’s smug grin grew even wider as if she were in on some secret joke.

“I don’t know, I’d kind of like to hear what it was.” Aria shrugged, startling everyone with her unexpected request. “It could be useful to know. We got the whole rundown on what you and Erica got up to, thanks to Cecilia, but we don’t know why Natalie’s score is still a good 30 points lower. If we could get a play-by-play, then we’d be able to figure out what individual things are worth.”

“Which would defeat the whole point of the show.” Sera’s voice cut in as she appeared in a swirl of petals. “While I appreciate you taking this seriously, Miss Aria, I’m afraid I’ll have to insist that you not try too hard to dig into the mechanics of this show. You see, ratings tend to fall when the audience gets the feeling that the contestants are simply checking items off a list, instead of actually trying to win their Mistress’ affection naturally. And when ratings decline, Hosts have to get more bold to bring the viewers back.” Aria simply clicked her tongue in frustration. “Besides, we do have a more transparent method of earning points! A method you’ll all be taking part in today! Now that the first week has come to a close, it’s time for the first challenge of this season!”

“Like, right now?” Aoba asked nervously. She didn’t know what kind of challenge a show like this would have, but she was hardly the most athletic, and she also doubted she was smarter than someone like Elise or Aria. Even Diona, for that matter—Aoba could’ve sworn she remembered hearing something about her majoring in chemistry.

“Not quite yet, Miss Aoba,” Sera assured her, “after all, there’s one other tradition often observed on challenge days here at Harem Hotel. That’s right, it’s time for fan mail!” Sera clapped as the shadow at her feet darkened and expanded. A figure rose from the shadows, coalescing into a slender, feminine form. As the inky darkness receded, Umbra emerged, dressed in a dark Santa dress, holding a large sack, and looking very annoyed.

“I get that I’m here to deliver fan mail.” Umbra growled, “but why do I have to wear this ridiculous outfit?!”

“Because this is the closest thing we have to Christmas, my dear.” Sera blithely responded, moving on before Umbra could voice any more complaints. “All of you received multiple pieces of mail—some even containing gifts from other Hosts or contestants! So as to avoid chaos, I’m going to use a bit of magic to cognitively isolate each of you—you’ll still all be present, but you won’t hear each other or notice anything the others are doing unless one of you deliberately draws the other’s attention. Likewise for the viewers, each recipient will have their own feed for you to watch their reactions to their mail.” Sera was just about to snap her fingers to cast the cognitive isolation when she remembered something important. “Right, one more thing before I forget…”

“What’s up now?” Aífe raised an eyebrow, moving her plate to the side as Umbra set down her mail.

“Some of the gifts are from my dear friend, Shar. And it simply wouldn't do to have you open the letters you received from her without your memories of her.”

“Memories? What are you—“ Aífe was cut off as Sera snapped her fingers. All at once, memories of an extra day came flooding back to each of them—the tall, imposing figure of Shar, being sucked into a tabletop world based on her castle, and the challenge that followed. They all reeled from the sudden recollection, their reactions varying from anger, to embarrassment, to laughter.

“Now that that’s taken care of…” Sera snapped once again, letting the cognitive isolation fall over the group as the feeds split.

Aífe

Erica

Aoba

Cecilia

Mallory

Elise

Aria

Diona

Natalie

Staff

With all of them now holding an interesting assortment of gifts and showing a wide arrangement of expressions, ranging from joy, to irritation, and even to dread, Sera clapped to turn their attention back on her.

“I hope you all enjoyed your fan mail.” She smiled. “You’re free to take it back up to your suites and figure out what you’d like to do with it. Normally, you’d only have a couple of hours to do so before needing to be in the central pavilion at noon for your challenge. However…” She walked over and placed a hand on Aífe’s shoulder. “I’m afraid I’ll be stealing Lady Aífe for a bit—we’re going to be attending a wedding on another season, and won’t be back for a couple of days… for us, anyway. It should actually be just a few hours for all of you. The challenge will be rescheduled for later this afternoon, so you can spend the time until then at your leisure.” She dismissed them to go do whatever they wished as she dragged Aífe along to get ready for the wedding, the redhead still asking questions.