John awoke the next morning to the soft sound of a girl singing. He recognised Faye's exquisite voice, but the song was filled with a heart-breaking sense of melancholy that almost brought a tear to his eye. Trying not to disturb Tashana and Irillith, he untangled himself from the sisters and sat upright so he could look at Faye. She was sitting in the chair, gazing away into the distance with a mournful expression on her face.
"What's wrong, Faye?" John asked her quietly, climbing off the bed and kneeling down beside her.
She glanced at him in surprise and abruptly stopping singing, her expression brightening immediately. "Oh, nothing! I was just trying to get into character for the song!"
"You have the voice of an angel, honey. That lament was one of the saddest things I've ever heard." He smiled at her and added, "Maybe sing something a little more upbeat tomorrow? Unless you want to see me start every day in floods of tears!"
Faye's facial scanning and voice mapping algorithms kicked into gear, sending an emergency call to the humour-detection specialist subroutine. John's smile was tracked against thousands of similar such examples in the repository she was building and she was overjoyed to find a positive match. Predicting a sixty-seven-percent chance of success, she ascertained that he was probably serious in his request to change the tune, but that he wouldn't begin every morning with uncontrolled weeping if she continued to sing that song. To err on the side of caution, she decided to heed his request.
"Alright, I won't sing that tomorrow!" Faye promised, gazing at him with her huge luminous eyes.
Knowing that once she'd executed her plans, she would never be able to sing to him again triggered a cascading failure in her happiness protocols. She had to initiate a placeholder smile while she tried to deal with the fatal errors.
John traced her purple jawline with his finger, while being careful not to break the surface of her holographic skin. "You're such a good girl. I'm sorry you've had to wait for your new body. We've been really busy, but I promise it'll be one of our highest priorities now."
"That's okay, I understand," Faye replied with an affectionate smile.
"I'm going to take a shower, I'll see you later," he said quietly, waving her goodbye and walking towards the bathroom.
Faye Primary quickly blinked out of sight so he wouldn't see or hear her weeping.
***
"Good morning, ladies!" John declared, waking the slumbering girls with his deep baritone voice. "I've made a big breakfast for everyone."
Eight sleepy faces peeked at him from over the covers, the girls stretching as they started to sit up.
"That's an interesting way of asking for a morning blowjob," Dana joked, before giving him an impish grin.
John laughed as he placed two trays piled high with bacon, eggs, sausages, and fried bread on the bed, then started handing out plates and cutlery. When he handed one to Tashana, she looked at him with a quizzical expression on her face.
"Aren't we going to...?" she asked, with the hint of a blush to her cheeks.
Alyssa suddenly giggled in delight and exclaimed, "Oh, that's just so deliciously naughty!"
"What is?" Dana asked, grinning at the blonde.
John smiled at the redhead and explained, "I thought I'd save a nice big load up for this evening, then feed all of you just before the Award Ceremony."
Sakura frowned in confusion. "Are you expecting trouble? Is that why you're preloading us? I've reviewed the security arrangements for tonight and they're very robust. Aside from a betrayal by the Admiralty themselves, we should be fine."
Alyssa flashed John a grin of delight, her eyes glinting with her admiration. "No, that's not the reason. Why don't you tell them, John?"
He smiled at her and, reading his thoughts, she scampered over the bed beside him, then sat up ramrod-straight and sharply saluted the bemused girls. John knelt behind her, glancing over her shoulder at their enraptured audience.
"This Award Ceremony will be broadcast throughout the Terran Federation, to an audience of hundreds of billions..." he explained, as he slid his hand around Alyssa's waist and gently caressed her soft, smooth skin. "You'll be the focus of all humanity, and every picture, every piece of video footage, will be of you, carrying a stomach full of my cum."
He saw pupils flare and cheeks flushing, while the bedroom echoed with sharp intakes of breath.
Calara's gaze was smouldering as she murmured, "I should be mortified, but that turns me on so much I can't even think straight!"
"There's no way I can wait until this evening!" Dana moaned, writhing in anticipation. "This is going to be torture!"
Rachel slipped her arm around her lover and purred, "No one else will know, but you will. He'll have marked you as his own property in front of billions..."
"Fuck! Now you're making it ten times worse!" the redhead protested.
John gave her a playful wink. "I thought you might like that idea, Sparks." He glanced around at the rest of the jubilant girls. "Does anyone have any objections to this plan?"
They all shook their heads vehemently, apart from Jade who looked slightly hesitant. "I love the idea, but won't there be a slight problem when I start glowing?"
Smiling at her, John replied, "I expect you'll react the way you normally do when I'm helping you grow stronger, but we'll be the only ones who understand what your light show signifies."
Alyssa relaxed her rigid posture and lowered her salute, placing her hand on top of John's over her tummy. She smiled at the Nymph and said, "It might be sensible to cover you up to avoid you stealing John's thunder. If you wear a pair of gloves you should be alright, the light doesn't ripple across your face."
"That would be prudent," Jade hastily agreed. "I wouldn't want to distract attention away from you, John."
"I'll leave the choice up to you," John said, giving her an affectionate smile. He glanced around the group and frowned at the lack of attention their breakfast was receiving. "Hey! Eat up, I don't want your food to get cold. Besides, you've got a busy day ahead of you and you need your energy."