Where, it don't matter, long as we're going somewhere together

Mary took a deep breath and exhaled. She felt the wind rush through her hair and the sunlight kiss her skin.

The skirt of her dress billowed in the breeze, and she smiled. She was finally wearing a dress again! It felt like an eternity since she’d worn something this modest.

“Well, don’t you look nice and happy?”

Oh, right. In her pleasant, mood, she’d almost forgotten.

Mary looked over her shoulder to see Rose standing next to her with a smile affixed to her face. Mary could tell by the aura she exuded that the blonde wasn’t exactly thrilled about her change in dress, but at least she was responding positively to it.

“What do you think, Mary? Is it me?” Rose did a twirl and then held her hands behind her back, thrusting out her chest.

She was wearing Mary’s old clothes. The flannel tied shirt and daisy dukes that had made up Mary’s wardrobe for weeks at this point now clung to Rose’s feminine figure, and Mary had to admit that the other woman pulled them off. While Mary had the rustic look of a cowhand thanks to her pigtails and freckles, Rose brought an entirely different energy to the table. With her model good looks, it was as if she’d stepped right off the set of some sexy picture set in the deep south, where she starred the well-meaning and gorgeous young farmer’s daughter. The blonde hair really sold it.

Meanwhile, Marley was trying not to laugh.

“This is too much,” the brunette chuckled, shaking her head. “I never would have thought in a million years that you’d voluntarily take that transformation, Rose!”

Rose’s smile slid off her face and she glared at her 24-hour sister. “It wasn’t like I volunteered for this, you know!” She scowled.

“Still… thank you,” Mary said, offering the other girl a beaming smile that Rose couldn’t quite find it in herself to argue with. “It means a lot that you accepted Dakota’s offer.”

Rose sighed and rolled her eyes. She was finding it very difficult to stand up to the sweet-hearted redhead.

An hour ago…

“Hello girls,” Dakota greeted them with an amused smile. “What’s this I hear about a proposal?”

A shiver went down the collective spines of the three of them. Mary gulped.

No, I’m not going to back down! I’ve already confronted her before on this! She summoned her courage and stepped forward with her head held high.

“I’m getting married to Nick!” She declared. “I’m proposing to him tonight!”

For a brief moment, Dakota looked completely taken aback. But she quickly recovered and her eyes narrowed into slits as a dangerous smile spread across her lips. “…Oh, really, now? Is that right?”

Mary nodded. She wasn’t backing down for anything. “I’ve made up my mind!”

“And what about the rest of us, huh?” Dakota asked, crossing her arms and cocking her hip to the side. “Do you really think Nick is going to be fine with just marrying you, and leaving the rest of us out in the cold? I don’t think that’s gonna fly.”

Mary twitched, but she fought back with defiance. “That’s… something we’ll figure out later!”

Dakota stared blankly at her. This time she really HAD been caught off-guard.

“…Come again?” She asked, rubbing her finger in her ear to see if it was clogged with something. “I don’t think I heard that properly…”

“I’m going to marry Nick, and I’m going to be his lawful wife!” Mary declared again. “As for the others, they can marry him if they want to! But only if he says yes!”

“Yay, go Mary!” Rose applauded, proud of the little redhead for asserting herself.

“You go, girl!” Marley cheered.

“That’s right,” Mary continued. “So if Rose or Marley or whoever wants to get married to him, that’s just fine with me!” She didn’t have to like it, but she would accept it. In the grand scheme of things, it was a small price to pay for happiness.

“Wait, hold on there now!” Rose sputtered, turning red. “Wh-who said I wanted to get married to him, huh?!”

“Yeah!” Marley exclaimed, her flushed complexion standing out even more against her white outfit. “I’m not even in his harem anymore, remember?! That stuff’s for other girls!”

Mary turned to them, honestly shocked. “Wait, you don’t? But I thought…”

Rose and Marley both glanced away, fumbling for the right thing to say.

“W-well, it’s not that I don’t,” Rose stammered, twisting a lock of her curly hair. “It’s just a little too soon to be thinking that way, you know?”

“R-right,” Marley nodded. “And sure, if I was in Nick’s harem then I’d absolutely be considering, but that’s just how it is, yeah?”

“What?! No! You guys have to!” Mary exclaimed. “It’s not fair if only I get to be his wife! You two want to marry him too, right?”

She had certainly come quite a long way in five minutes.

“Well, this is quite something,” Dakota smirked, leaning back against the door as she observed the flustered faces of the other girls. “Mary, I never thought you of all people would come around so fast on everybody marrying Nick. And here I thought you’d be one of the longest holdouts there was…”

Mary turned back to Dakota with a sour expression on her face. “…I’m not thrilled about it,” she admitted, clutching her chest. “My brain keeps telling me that it’s wrong… that marrying multiple people at once is a sin… but in my heart…”

She only saw Nick, and the happiness she envisioned when she finally had sex with him.

“I see… well, that’s as good a place to start as any, I suppose,” Dakota mused. “Of course… I don’t think this decision is coming from your heart.”

Mary blinked in confusion. “Huh? What do you mean?”

Dakota slinked forward like a predator stalking her prey. She reached out a pale hand and pressed it against Mary’s exposed midriff, just below her belly button, and pushed.

Mary let out a yelp and hopped back, feeling a massive surge of heat rise up inside of her.

“It’s coming from there, isn’t that right? Your little womb…” Dakota purred, running her tongue over her lips. “It must be quite something I imagine. All that heat building up in there, **** to be released… and yet, you just can’t find it. You know what it is that will satisfy you.”

She leaned in close, her cold breath tickling against Mary’s cheek and making her shiver.

“Nick’s cock,” Dakota whispered into her ear. “His hot, hard cock shoved deep inside you… demolishing your virginity… your purity… your veneer as a good girl… and turning you into what you’ve always been all along…”

Mary responded with a whimper. She squeezed her legs together and shook, feeling her loins heating up as Dakota dragged out her final words for an excruciatingly-long period of seconds.

“…Nick’s breedslut.”

To Rose’s eyes, it looked like Mary actually came. But that was impossible! No way had she orgasmed after just a few words! But she certainly looked done. Her face was red with relief and her eyes were glassy and distant, and Rose could see drool piling up in her open mouth.

Dakota wasn’t wrong. Mary might have wanted Nick for entirely pure and genuine reasons, but there was no denying that a mountain of impure desires had mixed in there as well.

“You said that any girl who wants him will be free to join, or something along those lines, right?” Dakota cooed, wiping a trail of drool from Mary’s lips with her finger. “Does that include little old me?”

Mary blinked and quickly regained her sanity, taking a few stumbling steps away from Dakota to recompose herself.

“I-I don’t have a problem with that,” Mary said. “It’s clear that Nick loves you… so if you love him… I don’t see anything wrong with you two getting married either.”

She swallowed, knowing the next part would be a bit of a challenge.

“But… I’m going to be his wife,” she asserted. “His lawful wife. It says so right here!”

She flung her paper in Dakota’s face. It wasn’t like the dark-haired girl hadn’t seen it before; she knew what Mary’s purchasable items were, because she’d already bought one of them for her in a previous round!

Dakota smirked as she took the paper from Mary and scanned it with her eyes. “Ah, yes, those ‘Rings of Confirmation’ or whatever they’re called… a promised bond between you and the master… you’re not wrong, I doubt anyone else has gotten something so… intimate.”

She shrugged.

“Of course, that doesn’t mean he’ll say yes. Maybe even agreeing to let him have multiple wives won’t be enough to win you over.”

Mary froze. She hadn’t even considered that, but Dakota was right. It was one thing to give Nick permission to marry multiple women. But… what if he didn’t want her to be one of them? What if he wanted someone like Dakota to be his “real” wife, and Mary was just some piece on the side?

Now that she was certain that Nick was her one and only, the thought that he might not want her became frighteningly real.

No! Don’t let her get to you! Nick loves you! He said as much! Mary reminded herself, shaking her head frantically. Her defiant glare returned.

“We’ll make it work somehow!” She asserted, though she had no idea what that “somehow” was.

“I see… excellent then,” Dakota said with a grin. Even her pleasant smiles looked scary. “I just wanted to make sure. Like I said before, it’s absolutely my intention to marry Nick, and my conviction has only been strengthened since last night!”

“Why?” Rose asked curiously. “What happened last night?”

“Nothing much,” Dakota giggled. “Nothing real, at any rate. But… I had quite a lovely dream…” Her voice took on a wistful, whimsical lilt, and for a second she seemed like a child again. Her younger self had often dreamed of marrying Nick, but that was a lifetime ago… in a very literal sense of the word.

Mary saw tears in the corners of Dakota’s eyes as she smiled. Then the black-haired girl turned back to her and her expression hardened again.

“Morgana gave me everything I ever wanted in that dream,” Dakota said quietly. “A perfect life married to the man I love… living a life of fulfillment, as if nothing had ever changed between us. And you can’t imagine how much I want that.”

The menace in her words made Mary flinch. But she knew that Dakota wasn’t mad at her.

“If you marry Nick, you can have that,” Mary nodded. “But I’m proposing to him anyway. I’m going to be his real wife. I know it.”

She couldn’t explain the logic behind her confidence. But that had never been a problem with Mary before.

Like so often in her life, she carried herself with absolute faith.

Dakota just smiled.

“I’m glad to hear that,” she said, holding out a hand to her. “It seems that we may get along just fine after all…”

Mary was hesitant to take the other woman’s hand, but she did anyway. After all, maybe Dakota was right. Maybe they COULD get along and support one another as future wives in Nick’s harem.

It would all be up to him.

Rose cleared her throat. “This is fine and all, but don’t forget, Mary, we have some work to do, remember?”

“Oh gosh!” Mary gasped. When faced with all the drama with Dakota, she’d completely forgotten! “I need to prepare!”

Dakota raised her eyebrow. “Prepare?”

“Yes!” Mary nodded frantically. “I’m proposing to Nick tonight! Rose says that I need to look my best and get ready for him, and that could take hours!”

“Well, Rose is an idiot,” Dakota bluntly replied, earning her a scowl from the blonde.

“Hey!”

“Trust me, okay? I’ve known Nick a lot longer than that bimbo has,” Dakota assured her.

“HEY!” Rose scowled. This was quickly not becoming funny.

Dakota placed her hand on Mary’s cheek, caressing her freckled face. “Mary, you don’t need to look your best, or do anything special. You don’t need to plan out some grand speech. Maybe for another fellow, but not for Nick.”

She smiled. “You know that, right? That’s why he’s so special. You could propose to him wearing a trash bag with your hair a mess and your face covered in mud, and that wouldn’t matter to him at all. He doesn’t care about your appearance or anything like that. You just need to be there.”

Mary’s eyes watered and she nodded.

“Yeah… yeah, I know,” she murmured, lost in the air of a woman who was head over heels. “How I look doesn’t matter… I don’t need to make Nick fall for me ‘so hard he can’t say no’ because… he’s already fallen for me, hasn’t he?”

“Well… yeah,” Rose mumbled. Not even she could debate that point. But still, she thought that Mary would be best-served by looking her best!

“…Even so, I don’t want to wear a trash bag,” Mary added with an awkward laugh. “I want to be beautiful. I want to be beautiful for him. And the same goes for my wedding, as well. It might be a little hard to do in this outfit, but… if it will make him even the tiniest bit happier, then I want to do it.”

She held her hand over her heart, feeling the warmth come out from within.

“After all, he’s already making me the happiest woman in the world.”

Marley watched the women discuss with a blank expression on her face. Assuming he says yes, right? You realize this ‘happiest woman in the world’ is only if he says yes?

She sighed. No sense in raining on the poor girl’s parade.

Dakota looked Mary over with a curious eye. “Yes, that is a bit of a problem… I’m sure you want to get married in a wedding dress, isn’t that right?”

Mary nodded glumly. She wanted that so much… but some sacrifices had to be made. She couldn’t even afford the Rings of Confirmation; no WAY would she be able to afford the temporary transformation nullification!

“Well, I won’t help you with this,” Dakota said, tossing the purchase sheet back to Mary. “But… I might be able to help you look your best, what do you say?”

“Really?” Mary’s face lit up with glee. Because of her trusting nature she had no reason to suspect Dakota was being anything but genuine when she offered to help.

Rose was not so naïve.

“That’s very generous of you,” she said, stepping in front of Mary. Something about the redhead just made her protective instincts flare up. “But are you sure that wouldn’t be a bit of an imposition? What’s the catch?”

“No catch at all,” Dakota said, tilting her head to the side with a smile. “Have you already forgotten? What I want most is for Nick to be happy. And the best way to achieve that is by giving him the most beautiful bride-to-be in the world when she makes her proposal!”

“…Well, okay then…” Rose reluctantly agreed. That definitely made sense with what she knew of the dark-haired girl. But she still felt a murky sensation in her stomach.

“Of course… it might be a bit difficult for you,” Dakota noted, tapping her lips suggestively. “Given your… well, you know.”

Mary’s eyes slid to Dakota’s lips and she gasped, turning pale.

“Th-that’s… I mean…”

“It’s a small price to pay, right?” Dakota leaned in close, amused by how much the redhead was studying her face. “Just one little kiss, and then you’ll be able to wear whatever clothes you want. You still have them, right? Your old outfits?”

Mary nodded glumly. They were relegated to an unused part of the closet, because the only thing she could wear on her body were her flannel shirts and daisy dukes. Everything else would just disappear like her old towel.

“I think you’ve got a lot of pretty clothes,” Dakota continued. “So what do you say? One kiss? It’s not like it’ll turn you gay or anything,” she snickered.

“Hey, Mary, it’s okay, you don’t have to do this,” Rose assured her. “Dakota, this is a little cruel, don’t you think?”

“It’s not like I have a choice in the matter,” Dakota snapped. “It’s how my transformation works! If she kisses me, I can take away one of her transformations. It’s not like there’s a ‘Christians only chaste handholding’ alternative.”

“…I’ll do it,” Mary said, letting out the breath she’d been holding. Her response surprised everyone there, including herself.

“What?” Mary looked around, trying not to seem too bothered by it. “If I’m going to allow Nick to have other wives… if I’m already betraying my beliefs… then what does one little kiss with another woman matter?”

Rose frowned. She didn’t like this one bit, but she couldn’t complain. If Mary wanted it, that wasn’t her place. It wasn’t like she was the other girl’s caretaker.

Mary turned back to Dakota, resolved. “I’m ready.”

Dakota smiled, her golden eyes flashing with anticipation. “Well, alright then,” she cooed, lunging forward and smashing her lips against Mary’s before the redhead could change her mind.

The kiss just felt… off. It was nothing like kissing Nick. Where kissing Nick felt like he was trying to become one with her, kissing Dakota felt like she was trying to eat Mary, mouth first. Like she was sucking up everything that made her “her”.

…Or maybe that was the transformation. Mary couldn’t be sure. All she knew was that when the kiss was broken, her farmgirl garb had disappeared.

Unfortunately, nothing had taken its place.

“EEEYYEEEEEEEE!” Mary shrieked at the top of her lungs, collapsing onto the floor and frantically covering herself. She was so relieved that Nick wasn’t here to see this, but the audience certainly was getting an eyeful!

“…Well, I didn’t expect that,” Dakota said, genuinely surprised. “I guess that’s how cutting clothing transformations works. Now then…”

She tapped her juicy lips thoughtfully, and turned to Rose, who was helping Mary.

“Rose, if you would?”

“Eh?”

Back in the present, Rose was still bitter about that.

“She could have at least asked first,” she griped.

“I know, that was bad,” Mary said, nodding in agreement. “But I really appreciate that you took my transformation for me.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Rose muttered. “I think that woman just likes spreading chaos.”

“Right, because you’ve never been guilty of that,” Mary commented, giving her a side-eyed look.

Rose chose to remain silent.

“…Anyway, now that you’ve got free reign to wear whatever you want for the next 24 hours, there’s only one place to go!” Rose declared as they stopped outside of the boutique Kim worked at. “Let’s get you something that’ll really knock Nick’s socks off!”

The three girls entered the shop, and were surprised by what they saw.