You gave me love and helped me find the sun

“Okay ladies! Let’s go!” Dakota raised her cane with a twirl, and the dark screen reset itself. She was about to get ready to show the results when Mary raised her hand.

“Uh… is this really necessary?” She asked. “I mean, the only results that really mattered were the ones for the points, right?”

Dakota slowly turned to her, and gave her a scathing glare in reply.

“This is important!” She snapped, tapping her cane on the stage.

1. Morgana – 8.03%

2. Dakota – 7.52%

3. Mary – 7.38%

4. Marley – 7.31%

5. Sylvia – 6.88%

6. Gina – 6.68%

7. Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin – 6.33%

8. Kim – 5.87%

9. Carly – 5.64%

10. Vivian – 5.48%

11. Rose – 5.26%

12. Dani – 4.87%

13. Holly – 4.66%

14. Nola – 4.43%

15. Dawn – 4.38%

16. Amelia – 4.2%

17. Ella – 2.97%

18. Cinder – 2.09%

“And there you have it,” Dakota declared with a flourish.

Morgana’s red eyes widened like dinner plates. “I… I’m in first again?!”

“That can’t be THAT much of a surprise,” Dawn said with a giggle. “Considering how high your score was last time!”

“Yeah, the audience really does seem to like you, Morgana,” Rose agreed, feeling a lot better than the last time now that her hair was growing longer.

She was still a little miffed that Mary was so high up. But she wasn’t exactly shocked about that.

“Whoa, Dakota, you’re in second place? Wow,” Nick said, shaking his head. “Congratulations, that’s gotta be something special for the host.”

“Why thank you, Nick, that’s so nice of you to say,” Dakota preened, holding her head up high.

Sylvia was ecstatic herself. “I know, when I was running the last swimsuit contest, I only got- never mind, not important.”

She quickly shut up and smiled innocently, though nobody missed what she’d almost let slip.

Dakota snorted and rolled her eyes.

“Huh, that’s weird,” Gina said, squinting. “In the previous results, I was ahead of Sylvia and Marley. But now I’m behind both of them?”

“That’s right, and Marley jumped up, too,” Carly pointed out. “She was in fourth last time too, but now Dakota and Mary are ahead of her. So it’s more like Sylvia and Gina slid down in points.”

“That is weird,” Marley agreed, not sure what to make of that outcome. “Why would the results shift like that?”

Kim was also curious. “I got a few points higher than Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin in the previous results, but now she’s ahead of me. That is strange.”

She glanced over at the dark-haired girl, and saw Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin smiling back at her. Her lips curled up in a dazzling smile and her blue eyes twinkled.

“Well, there are a few reasons that could be the case,” Dakota informed the girls. “Part of the reason is because this poll had significantly less people voting for it, since it was just for fun. So if those audience members were fans of one girl or another, well, that would explain these results.”

“It looks like I had a lot of fans this time around,” Carly pointed out. “Since I rose above so many people! I definitely didn’t expect that!”

Seeing that brought her mood up, which was always nice.

“I’m above Holly now, too,” Dani noted. “Strange. So I was rated higher than Holly when the points didn’t matter, but she beat me out when they did? Even though she can’t get any points at all? That’s kinda a bitter feeling.”

Holly just smiled her way, and batted her eyelashes innocently.

Dawn scrunched up her face. “Actually… Dani raises a valid point there.”

“Huh? I do?” Dani was surprised to hear that from someone so smart.

Dawn nodded. “I think I know why Marley got such a high score. It could be the audience metagaming.”

“I think you’re right,” Sylvia agreed. “You see this a lot when it comes to poll results in Harem Hotel, especially ones where the polls are casual vs. competitive.”

Amelia frowned. “What do you mean by that?” She asked, not missing the look of frustration on Dakota’s face.

Sylvia was happy to explain. “Assuming a lot of people placed Gina, Marley, and I in about the same level, it makes sense that Marley would be ranked lower in the competitive poll. Because the people ranking our swimsuits would want to make sure Gina and I have the best chance of getting those bonuses, the BP and VP. But since Marley would be giving hers away, it’s not as necessary to rank her so high.”

“Oh, I get what you mean,” Marley nodded. “It’s like with Gina’s party. Since the results don’t matter, my fans can put me up as high as they want in the casual competition.”

“Which also explains why I scored so highly,” Dakota cut in with a smug smirk. “Clearly, I have more fans than just about anyone!”

Morgana blinked, not sure what she should be thinking about this.

“Well, you do have a really nice swimsuit,” Nick had to admit.

“But wait! Then why am I ranked so low!?” Nola demanded. “This was my only poll! I wasn’t even in the other one! Dakota and Mary got ranked so highly, but I’m, what, 14th place? I’m behind Holly!? How is that fair? It’s not fair! It’s so not fair! I really wanted to score high! I worked hard to find a swimsuit that matched my personal style! What do you think of my swimsuit by the way, Nick?” She asked, turning to face him. “There are clovers on it, you like it, don’t you? Oh, please tell me you like it, if you didn’t like it, I would just be so distraught, I would!”

“Err… I really don’t know what to say,” Nick said, shaking his head. He was more focused on the actual issues that mattered here, mainly keeping things from escalating. As pleasant as Nola might have been, her reassurance wasn’t a priority for him.

Dakota was just about done with her interruptions anyhow.

“Nola, it’s obvious that, as my assistant, you don’t have a lot of popularity,” she said bluntly, tapping her fingers on the head of her cane. “You should be glad that you placed as high as you did, given that you aren’t a member of the harem in any capacity.”

Dawn’s ears drooped. Nola was higher than her, and she hadn’t even slept with Nick! Talk about a major letdown.

“Err… I… I don’t know how I should feel about this,” Ella admitted. “Where I placed… I…”

“You ranked higher than Cinder did!” Sylvia pointed out. “That’s gotta be worth something, right?”

Ella stared at the blonde girl, not sure how to respond to that. “I… huh?”

“Sylvia.” Amelia’s tone came with a sharp rebuke. She pushed her glasses up her nose and narrowed her eyes at the other girl. “That is not a good way of looking at the situation.”

Sylvia blinked, not sure what the problem was. “Huh?”

Ella might have scored higher on the poll than Cinder… but Ella WAS Cinder. So really, it was like she got last place twice over.

Not exactly something to take pride in, to say the least.

Ella sighed and hung her head. “You know… it’s okay,” she said somberly. “It really is. I’ll be fine with all this mess, don’t worry.”

Her words sounded mature and measured, but it didn’t really come across that way. The important thing was that she did, at least, get some percentage of the votes, right?

Well, if I combine the scores I got with Cinder’s, then that would actually put me right in the middle of the pack… but it doesn’t work that way, does it?

Ella wasn’t exactly a math expert. And it wasn’t like she wanted to keep dwelling on these results, either. That would just make her feel even worse.

She sucked in air, and exhaled.

“It’s too bad you weren’t involved, Octavia,” Vivian said, turning to her butler. “You probably would have scored really high, I bet!”

“Perhaps, miss,” Octavia said with a slight nod of politeness, not at all interested in dwelling on that possibility. She was more concerned about the look on Vivian’s face.

Before anyone could react, Vivian hopped from her chair and skipped over to the stage.

“Whoa, Vivian, what are you doing?!” Carly gasped.

The heiress ignored her, climbing the stage and approaching Nick and Mary.

“Congratulations, Mary!” She gushed, leaning forward and waving her fingers at the stunned redhead. “Didn’t I tell you when I picked out that swimsuit for you? It would catch the eye and win over everybody!”

“Err… y-yeah, you did say something like that,” Mary stammered, trying to smile but finding herself a little confused and flustered. “Thanks for picking it out for me… I really like the color and the design, too.”

That was just the half of it. Mary owed a lot to Vivian, since it was thanks to her transformation that she could even wear this swimsuit in the first place.

“You really do have good taste, Vivian,” Nick said, trying to be diplomatic about this. He looked over at Mary, and couldn’t help but feel his heart skip a beat. She really looked gorgeous in that light pink swimsuit, and the frills really highlighted her innocence, too.

No wonder Mary had scored so high!

Meanwhile, standing beside them on the stage, Dakota fumed with anger. She’d scored higher than Mary, and gotten significantly more votes, and yet Mary was the one getting all the attention? It just wasn’t fair! Why wasn’t Nick complimenting her swimsuit?!

…Sure, he had already done that. But he should be complimenting it MORE!

Dakota took a breath to calm herself down. Getting angry wouldn’t help anything.

Instead, she smirked.

“I will say, Mary, you definitely made the right decision, not being involved in the ranking for points,” she said smoothly. “If you had, you almost definitely would have been one of the runners-up… in fact, you might have even won the whole darn thing!”

Mary’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Wh-what? I would’ve-? No, no way, there’s no way that would happen!”

She tried to joke it off, but she couldn’t help but imagine the possibility…

“No, really, I mean it!” Dakota said, nodding. “You got such a high score, it’s definitely something that could have happened! And then you’d be so pressured, right? You’d have to choose who would get all your points.”

Mary squirmed uncomfortably in her seat. “I-I know, that’s why I didn’t want to be in the running for the points,” she explained quietly. “I didn’t want to put that pressure on anybody…”

Mary knew that her voice carried an inordinate amount of weight in the harem due to her position as Nick’s first wife. Any decision she made would come with great consequence, and that was something she just didn’t feel comfortable about.

She wanted to be “one of the girls” not someone who would handle something that serious.

Couldn’t she just be nice to everybody?

Mary could still feel the pressure upon her from Dakota’s statements. But she wasn’t the only one on the stage right now. Nick could see what his wife was going through, and stepped in on her behalf, not at all pleased with what Dakota was doing.

“Come on, Dakota, I think that’s enough,” he said sternly, looking at her with cold eyes. “Stuff like this is just going to bother her. Let’s focus on the positives, alright?”

Dakota blinked, and looked like she was about to say something, but then she shut her mouth, obviously thinking better of it.

“…As you wish,” she relented with a flourish of a bow, lowering her head. “But there’s still another matter to determine.”

“Huh? Another matter?” Nick blinked.

“Why of course!” Dakota purred. “You still haven’t told us all who YOU think was wearing the best swimsuit!”

Nick’s jaw dropped and Mary let out a tiny squeak.

“Ooh, now that’s interesting,” Vivian chuckled. That notion had crossed her mind as well, but she’d refrained from asking because she didn’t want to get on anyone’s bad side.

Dakota obviously had no qualms about that, though.

Nick quickly found his voice, knowing he couldn’t let this topic go unaddressed. That wouldn’t be good for anybody, and the longer the question hung in the air, the bigger of a deal it would become. “Come on, Dakota, that doesn’t matter, right?”

“Daddy, it’s mine, right? Say it’s mine!” Sylvia cried, completely ignoring Nick’s attempt to turn this discussion into a no-contest.

For the first time, Dakota actually looked happy to hear Sylvia speak up.

“I don’t know about that,” she crooned, shaking her head. “It sounds like the girls really want to know which swimsuit you fancy most…”

“It’s okay if it’s not mine,” Rose said. “I know I didn’t score very high, so I could clearly wear something way better.” And yet, as mature as her words sounded, she shifted in her seat in a way that subtly pushed out her chest, obviously trying to look her best for Nick regardless.

“I’m definitely not used to wearing this, but I sure did make an effort,” Kim stated. “But I get it, if you prefer the schoolgirl swimsuit. Your tastes are a little creepy if you say that, though,” she teased, obviously goading him into disagreeing with her.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin didn’t say anything, she just stood up from her seat and posed, showing off her lithe figure.

“I’ll tell you straight-up, you can say you like mine the worst,” Dani said, offering him a slight way out. “It’s not like I care what a guy thinks about my swimsuit, right?” She chuckled and glanced at Carly out of the corner of her eye. The cosplayer’s opinion was the only one that really mattered to her.

As for Carly, she didn’t have much of a problem either. “It’s cosplay,” she said with a shrug. “If I was picking it out for myself, I’d have gotten first place easy!” She winked at Nick and shifted her shoulders in a way that made her breasts bounce slightly, causing him to blush.

Nick glanced awkwardly at the girls in his harem, not sure what he should say in this situation.

“Err… I mean… it’s not like I…”

He fumbled for his words, feeling pressure mounting on him.

“Come on, master! You’re so serious about all this!” Holly chirped, looking up at him with sparkling eyes.

Nick glared at her. He could see the way she was enjoying this, seeing him squirm. He had half a mind to tell her he liked hers the best, just to see the shoe on the other foot! Holly knew that since he wouldn’t pick her, she could just delight in watching him squirm over the other girls like the obnoxious little gremlin that she was.

He wouldn’t do that, though. But he was frustrated.

“Look, I think everyone’s swimsuits are nice in their own ways,” he said simply. “It’s not a matter of whose is the best or not! Everybody’s different, and I think everybody is wearing a swimsuit that really suits them.”

Well… maybe not everybody. Morgana looked amazing in hers, but he thought she’d be more comfortable in something a little more modest. And Kim definitely seemed more suited for something sporty, instead of skimpy. And Sylvia… yeah. But he kept those thoughts to himself because there was no need to say things like that.

All the girls had tried their hardest, and they all looked amazing. Wasn’t that enough!?

…Obviously not, given the unsatisfied expressions on the faces of a few of the girls. Even Mary was looking uneasily at him, like she wasn’t sure if he was putting it the best way.

Finally, Nick sighed. “Look… you guys know, I’m not good with stuff like this,” he said plainly, figuring it was better to be honest than to just make excuses. “First off, I have no fashion sense, alright? I just don’t. I’m not good when it comes to deciding what looks good and what doesn’t.”

“That is an accurate statement,” Amelia confirmed with a sharp nod. “He required my insight into what clothes would look good when we went shopping.”

Nick’s jaw dropped and Vivian burst out laughing.

“Wait, what?! Oh, Teach, come on! I had no idea you had such a great sense of humor! You’re joking, right?! Tell me you’re joking!”

“I-I was TEN when that happened!” Nick exclaimed.

Amelia stared blankly at him.

“…Does that change the accuracy of the statement?”

He really didn’t have a response to that.

Ella sighed and sank into her chair. She snapped the rubber-band on her wrist to calm herself down. You don’t need to come out. I’m fine. I already know that he would never say I look the best. But… it’s still nice to hear that he likes me, too. Right? She couldn’t help but smile when she considered that he liked her.

“Well, at least you’re being honest with everyone,” Dakota said, an amused smile touching her lips. Whatever negative emotions she had about Nick not being able to come to a decision about who he liked best, those took a backseat to her joy at seeing him squirm. “But to be clear, you think that everybody looks wonderful in their swimsuits, is that right?”

Nick nodded. “Yeah, I do! I really do! They all look great! That’s why I’m having such a hard time picking between any of them!”

He sighed and hung his head. “…Sorry, guys, but I’m not good at picking winners when it comes to something like this.”

Mary placed her hand over his and he turned to look at her. She gently shook her head.

“Nick… I think that’s an incredibly sweet thing to say,” she said. “And liking everybody… there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Nick smiled a little. It was nice, coming from her.

Dakota cleared her throat. “Exactly correct, Mary.” Then she gestured towards the girls.

Nick turned his head, and realized what Dakota was talking about. Everybody was looking happy. Rose had completely overcome her down attitude, Dawn was nodding in agreement, Morgana was bright as the sun, of course, and even Ella seemed to have made a marked improvement in her negative attitude.

Wait… was this Dakota’s plan all along? He wondered. Getting me to say I liked all of them equally, to clear any negative feelings that may have been brewing from the competitions?

He glanced at the host, and saw Dakota’s trademark sly smirk. He recognized that expression from when they were little, and she had just finished playing a prank on him.

Before he could press the issue, Nola popped up in front of him with shiny green eyes on her freckled face.

“Then that means you like my swimsuit too, right!? Tell me you like it! You like it, right? My clovers are so pretty! And green is definitely my color! It’s great and amazing and I look nice, you think that too, right? Just like all the other girls in your harem?!”

She was very forceful and filled with excitement, and Nick couldn’t really say anything other than yes.

“Yes, Nola, you look nice too,” he said, offering her a sweet smile.

“Yes! Oh yeah! I’m the best! Woooohooooo!” Nola punched the air with joy and spun, thrilled to hear something nice for once.

Nick wished it was this easy to please everybody.