Week 1: Cecilia's Date, Part 2

Aífe rushed to catch up to Cecilia after she finished her breakfast, following the sharp clack of her date’s heels on the floor. She caught up just as Cecilia passed through the doors leading to the lobby.

“Woah, hold on!” Aífe pleaded as the other redhead maintained a brisk pace. “Are you at least gonna tell me what we’re doing?”

“Finishing the job that I clearly shouldn’t have left solely to Erica.” Cecilia huffed as she led them through the opposite set of doors, finding the familiar sight of Fuyumi’s boutique and the TF shop on the other side. “I’m taking you shopping, for real this time.”

“Is that really necessary?” Aífe asked, looking down at her jeans, t-shirt, and tennis shoes. “It’s not like I’m still dressed like I was a couple days ago. Hey, I’ve even been wearing a bra.” Her weak attempt at humor fell on deaf ears as they crossed the threshold into the boutique.

“Tell you what—” Cecilia spun to face Aífe, crossing her arms. “There are two reasons I’m taking you shopping today. If you can guess those reasons, then I’ll trust that Erica actually managed to do her job completely, and we’ll go do whatever dumb, nerdy shit you’re into, instead.”

Cecilia insulted the Mistress’ hobbies! -1% to all assets! (99% remaining)
Cecilia current BP: 1185
Aífe current BP: 1715

“Shit!” Cecilia cursed. She and Aífe both felt a slight tingle in their chests, as their breasts grew almost imperceptibly smaller and larger, respectively. Dammit, and here I went two whole days without slipping up, but 5 minutes alone with her is too much? You complete dumbass, Cecilia. She checked her watch as she mentally rebuked herself. “Oh, great. It looks like our kidnappers can’t even do basic math right. I was at 1200 BP after that purchase on the first night, but they didn’t account for that and took 1% of 1500, instead.”

“There’s a simple explanation for that, Miss Pine.” Sera’s abrupt appearance startled them once again. “And one I’m happy to provide.”

“You’ve gotta stop doing that.” Aífe breathed deeply, attempting to **** her heart rate to return to where it was before Sera startled her.

“You see, this was actually an issue that some of our focus groups had.” Sera continued, pretending she didn’t hear that. “An issue I’m fully willing to accept the blame for, since it’s largely due to imprecise wording on my part. You see, when your assets are being transferred to Lady Aífe, it isn’t a withdrawal from your current BP balance, but rather a transfer of account ownership—Lady Aífe now owns 1% of your BP account.”

“Okay, but that doesn't explain why you took 1% of 1500 when I had 1200 BP in my account.”

“Why should Lady Aífe receive less due to your own spending habits?” Sera shrugged. “The transformation is set up in such a way that, once 100% of your assets are transferred, Lady Aífe will have ownership of everything you’ve built up until then. So, from now until either the time when she owns all of it or the show ends, Lady Aífe will receive 1% of everything you earn. If you hit rock bottom while the show is still running, we’ll start a new account for you. One that isn’t linked to her.”

“And the negative balance? The way you’ve rigged this, I’ll be left with -300 BP, if I don’t spend any more of it.”

“We’d give you a temporary punishment TF.” Sera smiled smugly. “It would only be for 24 hours, and we’d make sure it didn’t overlap with the day of the competition.”

“This all sounds like a load of bullshit, if you ask me.” Cecilia scowled.

“You’ll find that there are many things we won’t be asking you for your opinion on, Miss Pine.” Sera taunted the angry redhead before walking over to chat with Fuyumi.

“What I meant to say was, ‘we can do whatever cool, totally interesting stuff you enjoy, instead.’” She said through a **** smile.

“How the hell am I supposed to know, Cecilia?” Aífe protested.

“Same as fucking always, then.” Cecilia grumbled under her breath.

“What was that?” Aífe couldn’t make out what Cecilia had said.

“I said, ‘Take a fucking guess, then!’”

“Geez, okay.” Aífe put her hands up in defense. “I’m guessing that it’s because you think the clothes Erica picked out for me suck and you’d do a better job?”

“While those statements aren’t wrong, they’re not the reason for our shopping trip today.” Cecilia wagged her finger. “The first reason is that she clearly didn’t help you pick out any outfits that could be considered actual date wear.”

“So, like I said before, ‘You think the clothes Erica picked out for me suck and you’d do a better job.’”

“You’re misunderstanding my point.” Cecilia put her hands on her hips. “It isn’t an issue of the clothes looking bad, though I’m sure I could find you something better in that regard, too. It’s an issue of dress code—sure, clothes that casual were fine when the date was just a couple of friends hanging out, but you should be aiming for a higher standard than that, especially if any of these dates become serious.”

“That… is actually a really well-reasoned argument.” Aífe had been expecting Ceclia’s reasoning to be far pettier and more self-serving than that.

“Exactly. Besides, if you’re going to be dating me, then we need to get you dressing better than that.” There it was. Aífe pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration.

Insulted the Mistress’ choice of clothing! -1% to all assets! (98% remaining)
Cecilia current BP: 1170
Aífe current BP: 1730

“Ugh, figures that would count.” Cecilia groaned. She had done a good job keeping the focus of her criticism on Erica until that moment, but her last statement was pointed enough toward the person wearing the clothes that it technically met the requirements for her transformation.

“Okay, so ignoring that last bit, what’s the second reason?” Aífe asked, more curious now that she heard Cecilia’s first reason.

“Fine. The second reason—” Cecilia held up two fingers. “Is that she didn’t pick out clothing that was very girly. Seriously, did she get you anything that wasn’t t-shirts, shorts, and pants?”

“That was deliberate.” Aífe defended the tomboys choice. “She wanted to make sure to stay in my comfort zone, since I’m still really new to all of this.”

“Exactly! That’s the problem!” Cecilia pointed at Aífe as she grew more animated. “That was exactly the time when she should have been pushing you out of your comfort zone! Seriously, your first shopping trip after coming out as a woman, with a friend you’ve known your whole life—that would’ve been the perfect time to have you experiment with feminine fashion for the first time, and she wasted it!”

“You don’t know, maybe she was planning to do that on another date later on.”

“I’ve seen how she dressed before her TF. Do you really think that Erica cares enough about fashion that she’d want to go on multiple shopping trips?” Cecilia began poking holes in Aífe’s defense. “Besides, even if she did take you shopping again, she’d probably cave if you said that you weren’t ready for dresses yet. Hell, I doubt any of the others would push you to expand the boundaries of your wardrobe, except maybe that big-titted sex addict, but she’d try to convince you to wear less clothes.”

“Your saying it’s a bad thing that the others respect my boundaries?” Aífe cocked an eyebrow.

“I’m saying there’s a fucking difference between respecting your boundaries and babying you.” Cecilia pressed further. “And if everybody just waits for you to say that you're ready, we’ll reach the end of the show with you never having worn a skirt.”

“And how would you know?!” Aífe bristled.

“Because I know you, and I know that you have a bad habit of being a spineless wuss when it comes to owning up to what you want and going after it.”

Insulted the Mistress! -1% to all assets! (97% remaining)
Cecilia current BP: 1155
Aífe current BP: 1745

“Go ahead, take my BP! I said what I fucking said! Be honest, how long have you known that you’re a girl?”

“What?” Aífe was thrown off by the sudden question. “The same time as you all. I hadn’t even come out to myself yet when I was transformed.”

“No, not when you admitted it to yourself.” Cecilia rebutted. “At some point you realized on some level that you were a girl, and I’m guessing it was a decent while ago, considering how much ammo Sera had ready to throw at you to get you to admit it.”

“I don’t know… three years, maybe?” Aífe answered after hesitating for a moment.

“Exactly, it took you three whole years just to admit to yourself that you’re trans. How long will it take for you to admit that you want to dress more feminine?”

“Well, who says I even want to dress more feminine? You never know, maybe I’m a trans tomboy.” Aífe denied unconvincingly.

“Pfft, please!” Cecilia laughed in response. “You’re not fooling anyone with that argument. Let me guess, did that Amazon cart that Sera mentioned include a mid-thigh length, pleated skirt and striped thigh highs?”

“How do you know about spinny skirts and programmer socks?!” Aífe gasped.

“Bitch, please. You’re not the first trans girl that I’ve saved from a fashion disaster.” Cecilia smiled and waved off the question before recoiling at another beep from her watch. She cringed and wondered if she could feel a gap between her breasts and her bra at this point.

Called the Mistress a bitch! -1% to all assets! (96% remaining)
Cecilia current BP: 1140
Aífe current BP: 1760

“Oh, come on! That one was clearly said in jest!” Cecilia bemoaned. “Ugh, so are we done arguing about this? You clearly want to wear dresses, so stop whining about it and let me pick some out for you.”

“Yeah, and you can keep making fun of me while you do.” Aífe rolled her eyes and adjusted her bra slightly. “I think my bra’s starting to get a bit tight.”

“Not to worry.” Cecilia smugly assured her. “With me choosing your outfits, there won’t be anything to make fun of. Especially not when I have such a good canvas to work with. Sera really did go all out with your transformation. And I wouldn’t even say you looked bad beforehand. You really just needed to work on your wardrobe and take better care of yourself.” Aífe was taken aback by how relatively nice Cecilia was being, excepting the occasional insult.

And thus began Aífe’s second shopping montage of the week, though this one was much more involved. While the trip with Erica had been mostly about finding clothes that functioned and looked okay, Cecilia was intent on having Aífe try on as many different styles as possible, from casual streetwear to party dresses and even a ball gown. All the while with Cecilia giving genuine encouragement, cheering for Aífe to twirl and strike different poses while Sera and Fuyumi also watched to provide extra support. Cecilia had remained true to her word—the only criticisms that left her mouth during the small fashion show were bits of advice on how to better wear certain items.

By the time they were finished, Aífe was worn out, having felt like she tried on at least half of the store, but she was grinning ear-to-ear. She’d never had so much fun trying on clothes before. Cecilia had ended up setting aside about a week’s worth of different outfits to be sent up to Aífe’s closet, and they’d settled on a cute, casual outfit for Aífe to wear on the rest of their date—a light blue, off-shoulder top with a beige skirt that reached her mid-thigh and a pair of strappy sandals with a small heel (Cecilia had been adamant about using the day to begin getting Aífe accustomed to heels).

“So, was I right or was I right?” Cecilia lightly nudged Aífe in the ribs as they left Fuyumi’s boutique.

“Fine, I admit it.” Aífe conceded. “That was really fun. And yeah, I do really like wearing skirts and dresses.”

“Of course, you do.” Cecilia basked in the joy of being right before turning and pointing a finger at Aífe. “Now, for your homework. You have now have more than enough clothes for every date day. I don’t care as much about most of your other dates, but you will dress nicely for every date with me or Natalie. You can just stick to the outfits I chose for you for now, but the goal will be for you to eventually come up with your own styles and surprise me.”

“Wow, haven’t even had my date with my actual teacher yet, and I’ve already got homework.” Aífe rolled her eyes, though she didn’t refuse. They were suddenly distracted by the sound of Aífe’s stomach growling. Cecilia checked her watch—they’d been shopping for a few hours, and it was well into lunchtime.

“Let’s go grab something to eat.” Cecilia suggested.

“Okay, but what are we doing after that?”

“Well, today is all about helping you look your best and making you feel as girly as possible, so I was thinking mani-pedis followed by a trip to the spa.” Cecilia wrapped her arm around Aífe’s and led her to the dining hall.