The best gift, that I ever got, didn't really weigh a lot, it didn't have a ribbon 'round, and it sometimes made the terrible sound

While all the other girls were back on the island, doing their own thing and having fun with one another, Kim was still stuck in captivity.

…Maybe that wasn’t the right way to say it. But she sure didn’t have the freedom to go home right now, even if she wanted to.

“Here you are!” Little Miss put a plate of steaming food in front of Kim, filling her nostrils with a delicious aroma that made her mouth water. “Mashed potatoes with gravy, and steak tips.”

“Mmm… that… wow…” Kim fought back the urge to drool like some slob, quickly shaking her head and sitting up straight. Her eyes flickered up to look at the smiling shopkeeper, and she felt her face heat up with embarrassment.

“I-I’m not this easily bribed,” she clarified, shaking her head. Suddenly her super-comfy sweater didn’t feel as comfy. “And even if I was… there’s other stuff you can bribe me with than food, you know! I’m not a pig!”

Little Miss frowned and touched her finger to her cheek. “Are you sure there’s other stuff you want?” She questioned, tilting her head to the side. “Because I’ve been trying all day, and it seems like the only stuff you’re really willing to be pampered with is food! You’re not a very materialistic person, are you, Kim?”

“You make that sound like it’s a bad thing,” Kim dryly replied.

The pink-haired girl nodded her head enthusiastically. “Because for me it is!” She replied sincerely. “My whole business relies on materialism! I’m not running a restaurant here- even if the food you can purchase is better than any you’ve ever had.”

Kim blinked. “…Okay?” She wasn’t sure how to respond to that. “Well… it wasn’t exactly my idea to come here in the first place,” she reminded the other woman with a wry look on her face. “Dakota’s the one who punted me here. My little ‘time-out box’ for messing with her yesterday, no doubt… ugh, that bitch…”

She wasn’t sure how to feel about being brought here, if she was being honest. This was hardly a “punishment transformation” like she’d expected, and was more time-consuming than if she’d simply gone to do her job.

But then, what was she supposed to do when she got back? Was this a sign that she should never accept one of those punishment transformations again, never use Sick Day again? After all, given what Dakota could have done to “put her in her place” this punishment was actually pretty tame.

…

Kim felt sick to her stomach even thinking that. Dakota deserved zero benefit of any doubt. Or maybe she was feeling sick because she was so hungry, and that food smelled delicious…

Whatever the reason, she decided there was nothing to be gained by throwing a fit; she was here, she might as well enjoy the meal put out before her, right?

Yeah, of course she should. So Kim dug in, letting the warm mashed potatoes roll down her throat, filling her mouth, and she moaned with delight.

“Oh my gosh!” Kim said through spoonfuls of the creamy, buttery delicacy. “Thish hash gotta be like… the besht mashed potatoes ever!”

Her face turned red as she swallowed her food, wiping the gravy off her lips. She really was behaving like a slob, but she couldn’t help herself! The food was just too good, it wasn’t fair!

Little Miss covered her mouth and tittered. “Aww, how cute,” she purred like a kitten, skipping over and clearing Kim’s plate off the table. A second later, another took its place. “You practically licked your plate clean!”

Kim’s face burned. “That… yeah, so what?”

“Mm? So nothing, I just think it’s cute, that’s all!” Little Miss chirped. “Remember, my job here is to spoil you, Kim! That means giving you everything your heart desires! I tried nice clothes, expensive hobbies, luxurious furniture, even fine art, but it seems like the only thing you’ve got an eye for is delicious food, so that’s where we’ll be focusing on!”

She winked at the embarrassed woman. “We’ll get you stuffed to bursting!”

Kim’s eyes flickered down to her body, which was nicely hidden behind her bulky yet comfortable clothes. The transformations she’d borrowed using her upgraded transformation (and the upgraded transformation itself) had worn off, leaving her with just the modest enhancements to her bust that Vivian had given her.

It still gave her a completely different look, though. She didn’t have the same slender figure she used to have thanks to the two large swells of flesh on her chest; not that she was complaining. It was just a different experience for her.

“It’s weird,” she murmured to herself, picking at her food. Now that she wasn’t stuffing her face, she could take the time to savor it. “Back when I first started working out with Dani, I had a little bit of a paunch in my stomach, even though back home I only ate, like, a meal and a half a day to save money. That’s weird, right?”

“Starving yourself?” Little Miss raised her eyebrow. “Yeah, that’s totally weird. If there’s one thing I’ve learned running this shop, there’s nothing better than indulgence! So go on, indulge, indulge, indulge!” She giggled, twirling around and raising her hands in a flourish.

Kim burst out laughing and shook her head. “No, that’s not what I-! …Never mind.”

Giggling, she rubbed her temples and sighed, sinking back into her seat. Her stomach was grumbling again, telling her to devour the dish in front of her, but she held off, knowing better than to just start stuffing her face.

Little Miss gave her a curious look. “Then what did you mean?” She asked, leaning forward, a worried gleam in her eyes.

Kim raised her head to look directly at her.

“…I’d have thought I’d be super skinny, since, you know, back home I didn’t really get to eat anything,” she said, shaking her head. That wasn’t exactly something to be proud of, starving yourself to skinniness. “I guess… my body was weird. I was so plain and frumpy, not some skinny model. But working with Dani and eating a balanced diet, it really helped me trim down.”

She ran her fingers across her chest and thought back to all the times she’d secretly snuck into the Banquet Hall to stuff her face with food until she just about burst.

That was enough for her to make a decision and she set down her fork, staring enviously at the chunk of steak at the end of it. Oh, how badly she wanted to bite into that… surely one more piece couldn’t hurt, right?

…No, she had to maintain her principles.

“I’m not hungry,” Kim said, pushing her plate further away from her. “You can take this back.”

Little Miss looked at her with a stunned expression on her face. Her jaw dropped and her eyes bulged out of her skull. “You’re not serious?!” She questioned, shaking her head in disbelief. “But… but isn’t it delicious?!”

“Yeah, it’s some of the best food I’ve ever eaten,” Kim conceded. Maybe not too long ago that wouldn’t have been saying much, but she’d gotten spoiled these last few months sampling what the Banquet Hall had to offer, when she wasn’t luxuriating in Mary and Holly’s delicious cooking. To top all that? The dish must be pretty special.

“The mashed potatoes are seasoned perfectly,” Kim murmured, counting off on her fingers. “And that steak… it’s so tender and juicy it practically melts in my mouth, but with just enough toughness to have a satisfying chew to it. And you used the perfect amount of sauce to compliment the flavor of the meat… like I said, it’s amazing!”

She was a regular food critic! Which was unusual, because her palate was more attuned to fast food restaurants and gas station snacks.

Little Miss, in the meantime, was stuck between feeling proud while basking in Kim’s praise, and feeling disappointed that she didn’t want to finish her meal in spite of all that praise.

“Are you sure that’s how you feel?” She asked, her shoulders slumping. “Then why are you turning it down? Isn’t it… delicious?”

Kim nodded. “Yeah, and I want to keep stuffing my face,” she honestly admitted, even though it embarrassed her to say.

Little Miss gave her a blank stare. “Then… just do it?” She shrugged. “What’s the downside? If it’s delicious, then-”

“I’m not going to be indulgent,” Kim said firmly, pushing her chair back from the elegant dining room table, just to get a little further from the food. “I’ve been down that road too many times before, and I’m not going to make myself sick.”

“That’s alright!” Little Miss said with a reassuring smile. “If you get sick, we have a solid gold toilet for you to-”

“Yeah, no, again, I’ll pass on that,” Kim said, swiftly shaking her head. No chance was she doing something like that. Why couldn’t Little Miss get that this wasn’t the kind of thing she was after? “Look… I have a bit of a problem with food. I get it. I’m working on it.”

It didn’t help that Nick had encouraged her to cut loose as well and just try to enjoy herself. That had led her down this path of indulgence in the first place!

Fortunately, her Sick Day transformation had suppressed her 100% Completion transformation. So for once she could actually put down her fork and not feel like she had to finish off the half-eaten meal in front of her.

Once it finally sank in that Kim was serious about not finishing her meal, Little Miss’s pleasant smile morphed into a huffy look of irritation. With grumble she placed her hands on her hips and puffed out her cheeks.

“You know, that’s not the reason you were brought here!” She pointed out, jabbing an accusatory finger at Kim, who just stared incredulously at her.

“…Excuse me?” Kim asked, blinking.

“Remember what your punishment transformation said?” Little Miss demanded. “You’re supposed to be getting pampered, and learning to just accept nice things as they come! Rejecting the food is the opposite of that!”

“Hey, I have no qualms with getting pampered!” Kim said, rising to her feet and holding up her hands. “I’m just saying that dumping a bunch of food on me isn’t the way to do it.”

“Well, what do you want then?” Little Miss was trying to be an accommodating saleswoman, she really was. But Kim was, like, the worst customer in the multiverse! Even if she was being polite about it, unlike a lot of other people.

Her job here was to fulfill the customer’s needs to their satisfaction! Giving them everything their hearts could desire!

Would it kill Kim to play along and just accept some good things? Little Miss did not think that was too much to ask.

Unfortunately, it seemed like Dakota had sent her the one poor person who wasn’t incredibly greedy and materialistic. Just her luck!

Kim just stared at the shopkeeper and shrugged. She wasn’t sure what the other woman wanted her to say at this point, and frankly, she was feeling a bit tired of all the pampering.

Then again, Little Miss raised a valid point. Dakota had sent her here to be spoiled. And for all she knew, time wasn’t passing while she was in this bizarre little shop. Given how much control Little Miss seemed to have over this place, it was a fair guess.

And it worried her.

“…I’m going to be stuck here, aren’t I?” She asked, frowning.

Little Miss blinked. “Huh? What do you mean?” She asked. Her frustrated expression immediately shifted to a look of concern. “You’re not going to be stuck here,” she assured the other woman. “Not if I can help it, anyway! The sooner you’re outta here, the sooner I can get back to helping my customers, you know!”

She flashed a cheery smile. “Not that I don’t enjoy your presence, of course! I love all my customers! Except the ones I can’t stand. But they know who they are…” A shadow crossed her face as she recounted a grudge Kim couldn’t even begin to care about.

She had enough problems of her own to deal with.

Kim shook her head. “This punishment transformation says I have to stay here until I learn how to appreciate being pampered and spoiled, but at the rate we’re going, that could take weeks… and time flows differently here, doesn’t it? So I really could be here for weeks!”

She didn’t like the sound of that- not one bit.

Little Miss bobbed her head up and down in a nod, confirming Kim’s worst fears.

“Yep!” She chirped. “But don’t worry, it’s not a big deal!”

Kim winced. Not a big deal? Was she really saying that?

“I don’t think-”

“It’s not a big deal!” Little Miss said again, interrupting her. She puffed out her chest with pride and shook her head. “You see, I have absolute faith in my ability to please my customers! Just leave it to me!”

She winked playfully at Kim. “I’ll find something you just won’t be able to resist, or my name isn’t Little Miss!”

Kim smiled a weak smile at her. “…Okay?” She said, nodding slowly. “Look, I wish I could explain it, but… I actually like shopping. I really do!”

Little Miss perked up when she heard that. “You do? That’s weird, that’s not what I heard.”

Kim blinked. “…Huh?”

“Your host told me that if you crossed the threshold of a department store without a nametag on, you’d burst into flames,” Little Miss said, stroking her chin in confusion. “Aren’t you one of those ‘fuck money we’re going to tear the whole system down and create a socialist utopia, screw materialism’ kind of people?”

Kim stared blankly at the confused pinkette.

“…I’m studying economics,” Kim muttered at her. “No, I’m not some kind of anarchist revolutionary who wants to eliminate money.”

Kim wasn’t some stereotype; you couldn’t shove her economic beliefs into a neat little box!

“Just because I want a more equitable system for people, that doesn’t mean I’m trying to overthrow capitalism!” She groaned. “That’s such a fucking strawman! Geez… nowadays it’s like you have to believe in dismantling capitalism or else you’re literally advocating for children in sweatshops! There’s a middle ground, you know, allowing for our current system to work to benefit everybody!”

Was that how people in the audience perceived her? She wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that at all!

“…Maybe it’s because you like gardening,” Little Miss proposed. “And nature walks! The audience must think you’re the sort of girl who wants to start some commune or something.”

“Yeah I like the botanical garden back home, but come on, a commune?” Kim made a disdainful expression. “Yeah maybe that kind of lifestyle is for some people, but I spent way too much of my childhood without reliable electricity to risk shit like that. No thanks!”

“Oh, Kim!” Little Miss’s eyes sparkled with delight. “I just knew we’d make a capitalist out of you yet! Now, let’s get that materialism into gear!”

Kim looked at her with barely-hidden exhaustion. “Look,” she said, walking over to the shopkeeper and staring her dead in the eyes, “I get it, this is your job, and you live in some magic pocket dimension where you can do basically anything and create anything you want. Trust me, I understand where you’re coming from and why you act the way you do… to an extent, anyway.”

Little Miss looked at her, a curious expression in her eyes. “Okay…?”

“But those of us who live in the real world, it’s not so simple,” Kim said, shaking her head. “I like shopping, yeah. But I also know not to go shopping too much. I don’t just throw my money around. I have to save it for when I need it. Spend it on the shit that really matters. You know what I liked most about shopping, Little Miss?”

Little Miss leaned in eagerly.

“…The bargain hunting.”

Little Miss blinked her big green eyes. Not at all what she expected the other woman to say. “…Okay???” She asked, tilting her head to the side.

“When I was a kid, my mother would take me shopping all the time,” Kim explained. “Mainly because money was tight. My little siblings were just babies and that piece of shit old man had just walked out on us, so we had to take care of two newborns while also making sure all the bills were paid. And you know? That was the hardest time of my life, because my brother and sister needed way more than I did. I was just a kid, but I had to be expected to go without. A lot. And my mom knew how unfair that was. So she did what she could for me.”

Kim tugged on the collar of her sweatshirt. “These clothes… they’re the most comfortable things I’ve ever worn. But the scratchy hoodie I have back home, the one that doesn’t even fit me anymore because I’ve had it since I was eight? The one my mom got from a bargain bin for just a couple dollars? I’d take another one of those over this in a heartbeat.”

Little Miss blinked, momentarily surprised. Then a smile stretched across her lips and she waved her hand, narrowing her eyes and crinkling her nose.

“Done,” she chirped.

Kim didn’t even realize what was happening at first. But in a flash, the nice sweater she was wearing morphed into that old, scratchy hoodie from her childhood, only sized up now to fit her grownup body and new breasts.

“Whoa, what!?” She looked down at her new clothes, her eyes bulging in surprise.

It was so familiar, like a dream she was only just now recalling. Instead of a soft, warm blanket wrapping around her, she felt like a thousand fire ants were crawling all across her skin. Every time she moved, itchy little barbs dug into every corner of her body, and only when she stood completely still could she tolerate the discomfort and resist the urge to scratch every inch of herself like she was being swaddled in a shag carpet.

A dopey grin slowly spread across her lips as that familiar warmth flooded through her body.

“Oh yeah, now that’s what I’m talking about,” she murmured, rubbing her shoulder and feeling the familiar looseness of where her mom had stitched the detached sleeve back into place. It still had that airy, breezy draft from the improper needlework.

“Satisfied?” Little Miss chirped, her eyes sparkling with pride.

Kim beamed at her. “Best sweater ever,” she nodded back. Itching and all.