How can you expect to be taken seriously?

Nick awoke to the feeling of something hard and insistent pressing against his face. He knew that it wasn’t the case that he had fallen asleep smushed up against the headboard or something like that, no, because whatever it was that he felt, it was being active and pushing up against him insistently, like it had a mind of its own.

He tried to move away and turn his head, but wherever he ended up, the strange thing kept pushing against him. Finally, he opened his eyes, and saw a foot. The toes wiggled in front of his eye as the sole of the pale foot pushed against his nose and mouth.

Ugh, gross! He twisted away and tried to free himself, and got a better view of the situation in the process.

Somehow, through methods fair or foul, Gina had completely flipped over in the middle of the night. He saw a thrashing tangle of black hair at the foot of the bed and felt her partially lying on top of him. Her crotch rubbed against his stomach, while her legs flailed about in his chest.

Right. He really should have thought a little harder about this. The more people Gina got into bed with, the more she seemed to turn into the Tasmanian Devil.

Scooting out from under Gina as best he could and shifting her legs over so they were resting off the side of the bed instead, Nick felt something soft and tender squish up against his arm.

“Mmm… Daddy…”

His blood froze in his veins, and he realized that he was still naked. Not only was he naked, but the girl sleeping next to him was Sylvia!

For one dark, chilling second he dug through his memories of the nights’ events, trying to recall if anything had happened. Once he was satisfied that nothing had gone down between the two of them, he sighed in relief and allowed himself to relax.

His penis had other ideas. Unfortunately, that was still as hard as a rock somehow, even after the workout he’d gone through with Mary. Realizing that if he stayed in bed things could lead in a direction he very much didn’t want, he tried to scoot out and go find his clothes, only to learn that Sylvia wasn’t just sleeping against him.

She had her arms wrapped tightly around his, and she wasn’t letting it go. The soft feeling of her budding breasts pressed through her shirt made him feel sick to his stomach. He turned, about to **** himself free, when he saw the peaceful expression on her face.

Sylvia was smiling, and she giggled slightly. And when Nick saw that, his heart went out to her. She looked so… happy. Even after the horrible week she’d had, even with her horrible attitude and all the bad things she’d done, in that moment Nick didn’t see any of it.

All he saw was a girl, alone in the world, and happy to be cuddling with someone she cared about.

After the initial shock wore off, Nick felt extremely guilty. He remembered the discussion he’d had the night before with Sylvia and the other girls, about what her fate would be when the show ran its course. It had been something he’d been trying to avoid. He had no idea what would become of them when they were finally sent home. How much of the women he loved would remain? What about the people he cared for like Dani? How much would she be warped by this sick game?

And what about Sylvia?

Mary and Gina had been right about how unfair it would be for her, getting plopped down on earth with no capability of fending for herself. She’d probably end up in jail, or in a home somewhere, if she didn’t end up on the streets.

He didn’t want that to happen. Even the things she’d done hadn’t completely been her fault. Someone needed to look out for her, someone needed to make sure she was alright.

Nick was starting to realize just why Sylvia’s role in the harem was to be his daughter. She was practically made for it. And he didn’t step up for her and try to help her out somehow, then things were only going to get worse.

He didn’t want that. No one would.

“Daddy…” Sylvia followed that with a fit of giggles, and Nick guessed she must be having a very good dream.

Beyond that, he really didn’t want to know the specifics. Especially not when he had an erection like this.

Taking a deep breath and exhaling, he slowly, gently slid his arm out from her grasp, letting her settle in all on her own. He really needed to go change his clothes and put on something that wasn’t doused in body fluids.

As he crawled over Gina to get out of bed, he heard a rustling in the kitchen followed by some pots and pans clanging around, and nearly fell over. His eyes snapped up to see what was going on, and that’s when he saw…

The door to the kitchen was wide open, and standing in front of the stove humming to herself as she cooked breakfast was a very familiar face.

“Holly!” He cried, forgetting all about the girls whose sleep he’d been trying to preserve mere seconds ago. He rushed over to the short girl just as she turned to him, and swept her up into his arms.

“Whoa! Howdy, sailor!” Holly gasped in surprise as Nick hugged her close. “Geez, you’d think I died or something!”

“I was so worried,” Nick said, hugging her even tighter. “I didn’t know if I’d ever see you again!”

“Well, uh… yeah, I’m right here,” Holly said, chuckling gleefully. “Come on, it’s not a big deal. I’m okay. Better than, in fact.”

A sly smile crept up her lips. “Is that for me?”

Nick was confused for a moment what she was talking about. Then he felt her rub up against him and gasped.

“…Pants!” He blurted out, turning red in shame. He let the short girl go and stumbled out of the kitchen, rushing over to the closet while Holly followed after him, laughing hysterically.

“And the penny drops,” she cackled as he hastily struggled to pull his clothes on while the other girls started to wake up. Mary came first, always the early riser, while Sylvia woke up not long after. She looked absolutely miserable though, like someone had poured a bucket of cold water over her.

“Ugh, I’ve got a headache now,” she mumbled, feeling sick to her stomach. “That’s the last time I’m ever doing something like that. Got that, my girl?”

She turned to look at Gina to punctuate her point, but Gina was still dead to the world.

Not exactly an early riser, that one.

“Holly!” Mary brightened when she saw her best friend. “You’re back! Where were you, anyway? I was worried…”

“Ah, nothing important,” Holly said, waving her hand dismissively. “I just wanted to talk with Dakota about some stuff. Then she let me go and I came back here!”

The room turned cold at the mention of Dakota’s name.

“…What kind of stuff?” Nick asked worriedly.

Holly shrugged. Her cheeks turned a little pink, and the sparkle in her eyes spoke volumes.

“Well, uh… the stuff kind of stuff,” she replied vaguely, as if that made any sense at all.

Nick could tell that it was a private secret. He was sure that if he pressed her and told her that it was an order that she would agree to tell him, but he didn’t. After all, he wasn’t that kind of guy. The sort of person who would order a sex **** to betray her own privacy.

Holly recognized that, and she smiled warmly at him. “Thanks for not pressing, master,” she said, holding the hem of her skimpy maid costume and curtsying.

Nick nodded. “Yeah, of course not,” he said, shaking his head. “Anyway, that, uh… I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“I know,” Holly said, smiling gleefully. Her eyes slid to the crotch of his pants, where his dick was still very much in play. “That for me?”

“What?! No, I just-!” Nick sputtered in embarrassment.

“I know, I know, I’m just teasing you,” Holly giggled. “I know that you’d never be aroused by me, master.”

Nick winced. That wasn’t at all the lesson he wanted her to take away from this.

“No,” he said, shaking his head quickly. “That’s not what I meant! I was just saying-”

Holly held up her hand and cut him off.

“It’s fine!” She assured him, even though it didn’t feel fine at all to Nick. He felt dirty and unclean. “Anyway, I need to get back to making breakfast. Mary, want to lend me a hand?”

“Of course!” Mary replied automatically. She was still shielding her chest with her boobs, though. “Just, um, just let me get my clothes back on first.”

Unlike Nick, Mary didn’t have a change of clothing available in the Master’s Suite. But she was perfectly fine with walking across the room and picking up her flannel top from off the floor, even though it had been practically drowned in milk.

Giggling, the two chefs skipped into the kitchen, leaving Nick alone with Sylvia and a still-sleeping Gina. Not exactly the best place to find himself in.

“Hey, uh, Sylvia…” Nick turned to the eager-looking girl sitting up in bed, staring at him with a curious expression on her face.

“Yes, Daddy?” Sylvia chirped innocently. Nick didn’t cringe this time, which made him feel better. He really did need to get around to changing that nickname one of these days… but he wasn’t sure what he would choose to replace it, or what Dakota would allow.

Besides, that wasn’t the issue right now.

“I wanted to ask, um, about what we talked about last night…” He didn’t know how to bring up the topic, especially when he’d shot it down so passionately the last time it had been brought up.

Sylvia cut him off before he could, though.

“Ugh, don’t remind me about last night,” she groaned, the smile sliding off of her face. “Is this what a hangover is like? My head is bounding like a hammer keeps hitting it, and my vision keeps coming in and out.”

Nick winced. That sounded like quite a pain. “Well, it sounds to me like you learned your lesson about underage drinking, then,” he pointed out.

Sylvia’s smile returned. “Yes, Daddy,” she sweetly agreed, and this time Nick cringed at it.

So much for getting used to lines like those. He needed to work harder about getting acclimated to her, this was quite a mess.

“Okay, well… I just… I don’t think that Mary and Gina were wrong,” he said, glancing at Gina’s sleeping figure. “You know, when you guys were talking about what’s going to happen to you when we all go back to the real world?”

“Maybe I could be a stripper,” Sylvia skipped over to him and suggested gleefully, relishing in the look on his face as she twisted the knife into his gut. “What do you think? Could I be good at that, Daddy?” She struck a pose, like she was working a pole, and Nick just stared at her.

He knew she was just teasing him, but he still found himself getting horrified at the prospect. “Come on, Sylvia, don’t say stuff like that,” he cringed, shaking his head. “I’m trying to take this seriously, okay? So could you just… I don’t know, take this seriously? Please?”

He looked at her with a pleading expression on his face, and in a flash, she returned to normal. In fact, more than normal. Her teasing look completely slid away, and she stared calmly at him.

“What exactly do you mean by ‘take this seriously’?” She asked, her voice sounding mature in a way he hadn’t heard from her in what felt like months. So it seemed that she was capable of interacting with him as a functional adult after all.

“…You know what I mean,” Nick said, hoping she wouldn’t make him say it out loud.

No such luck. She knew she had his balls in a vice, and she crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her hip to the side, showing that she was capable of and willing to drag this out all morning if she had to, if not the entire round.

Seeing that he was trapped, Nick just sighed.

“…Okay. Look. The thing is, we’re stuck together, for better or worse,” Nick said gently. “I know you think you’re in love with me-”

“I do love you, Daddy,” Sylvia said. Hearing her say that without trying to sound like a bratty little girl was unnerving. It reminded Nick just how **** the transformation really was.

He turned red. Even if it was Sylvia, hearing someone say they loved him with such certainty still threw his heart for a loop.

“…Well, alright then,” he mumbled, not sure what else to say. “All I mean is that… well… Sylvia, it’s just… I don’t think you really grasp the situation here.”

“I grasp it better than you do,” she replied. “My existence is hanging in the balance here, Daddy. Even if you got Dakota to promise that she won’t erase me from reality if I get eliminated, that doesn’t mean I’m in the best position, you know. She’ll still give me as harsh of an elimination transformation as she can, just because she can.”

Sylvia didn’t even look horrified at this; it seemed to be business as usual.

“It’s her job, after all,” Sylvia said with a shrug. “So I’m fighting the best way I can. I’m trying to figure out who I am, Daddy. I’m trying to show her that I’m a person, that I can think for myself. I know she doesn’t believe that, I know… maybe even YOU don’t believe it, but it’s true.”

“Of course I believe it!” Nick exclaimed. “Why do you think I wouldn’t believe you’re a real person, Sylvia?”

“…Because you don’t act like I am,” Sylvia said quietly. “Even now, the way you’re acting, it’s like… you’re doubting me. You seemed incredulous at the idea that I could actually love you, but… I do, Daddy. I really do.”

She stepped forward and took his hand in hers, and wrapped both hands around his and held it tight.

“I love you, Daddy,” she said again, looking up into his eyes. “But you keep avoiding the issue. You keep putting me at arm’s length. And I get it. The whole ‘Daddy’ thing weirds you out, right? And you don’t know how you feel about me in a romantic sense, because of how our relationship started, right?”

Nick winced. She was right on the money… but there was more to it than that.

“Sylvia, you just don’t understand, it’s not that simple,” he pleaded with her. “Stuff like this, it’s very complicated, and…”

“I know it’s complicated, Daddy,” Sylvia said solemnly. “That’s why it’s difficult for you. But either way… my feelings for you aren’t that complicated. I love you, Daddy, even if you don’t feel the same way about me.”

The sadness in her voice stung Nick’s heart. She hung her head and stared down at the floor.

“I just don’t know what I can do to make everyone happy. Not even myself…”

Nick could hear the desperation in her voice and see it in her eyes. He could tell just how much pain she was in, and unfortunately, he didn’t know what he could do to make it better.

“I know you’re trying, Sylvia,” he said gently. “And I’m not going to say that going out drinking with Gina was the right thing to do. But… I think her heart was in the right place. And for once, she might have had the right idea.”

Sylvia scrunched up her face curiously. “What do you mean?” She asked, turning to look at the snoring punk girl half-fallen out of bed and yet still somehow asleep.

“I think that if you want to prove that you’re a person, you have to do more,” Nick explained. “Personally, I know you’re a person. I can see that you have feelings, and I believe that they’re genuine. That they’re something that belongs only to you.”

“Oh, really, Daddy?!” Sylvia’s face lit up with joy. “Oh, thank you! That means so much to me, Daddy! Thank you so much!”

Nick wasn’t finished though.

“But it’s more complicated than that,” he said gently. “It’s not just a matter of having feelings. You have to be more… I don’t know the word… I guess… active? Try and find something that you’re passionate about, I guess. Something you like doing. Is there anything you like doing?”

Sylvia stared at him blankly.

“…I like you,” she offered weakly.

Nick shook his head. “Not what I mean.”

“Then… spending time with the other girls in your harem, maybe? Like Gina?”

He wasn’t getting anywhere like this.

“Okay… Sylvia, pretend that the rest of us suddenly disappeared. Pretend that you were all alone on the island. You have the whole place to yourself. What would you want to do?”

Sylvia seemed even more confused.

“I don’t understand,” she said, shaking her head. “What would I do?”

“Well, think about Dawn, for example,” Nick tried. “Dawn would probably spend her time reading. Same with Mary. Gina would probably get drunk and rock out to music or something like that. Dani would work out, Carly would go for a nature walk, you get the idea? Those are hobbies. But you don’t have any hobbies, do you? Something that you do just because you like doing it?”

Sylvia shook her head.

“Not really I guess,” she said with a shrug. “Why? Do I need one?”

“…It’s not that you need one,” Nick replied. “It’s just… don’t you want one? Don’t you want something to do, something you can do to make your days enjoyable?”

“I guess so,” Sylvia said, her voice echoing with blankness that showed she wasn’t exactly convinced. But at least she was open to the idea.

“Okay… I think what you should do, Sylvia… no, here’s what I’m asking you to do. It’s an order. Can you follow my order?”

“Of course, Daddy!” Sylvia stood up straight and saluted. Then her expression turned playful. “But… I may disobey every now and then… since I’m a bad girl now, and everything…”

Nick sighed. Yeesh.

“Sylvia…”

“Okay, okay, I was just kidding!” Sylvia pouted and puffed up her cheeks. “You don’t have to get so upset Daddy…”

“Just… please, do this for me?” Nick begged. “I want you to try and find something you like doing. Something that brings you joy. Not drinking, obviously. Or getting a tattoo. Or… okay, how about just stay away from Gina and her hobbies altogether, okay? But be open to new things. Try and ask the other girls, if there’s anything you can do together. I want you to try and have fun today, okay? And I think that maybe, if you can have fun doing those things, you’ll start feeling a lot more human. Can you do that for me?”

Sylvia looked uncertain. But she nodded. “I’ll try my best, Daddy,” she promised.

Nick sighed. That was the best he could hope for.