“This job isn’t just any normal job,” Lewis said as he shook his head at Simone’s suggestion. “I can’t let you go. It’s too dangerous. Not after what happened.” This was it. Their first real ‘argument.’ And to call it one was almost giving it too much credit. It had been only a few days since he had met with the new client, a wealthy, eccentric man with a request. He said his daughter had been kidnapped by a wealthy connoisseur of women, but he lacked the proof.

Lewis’ task was simple. Infiltrate, look for clues on the whereabouts of the daughter, and if he found that this was an actual abduction operation, silence anyone involved. It was a little more work than he was used to, but the pay was well beyond a normal job, and at the rate that Simone was going with the island alterations, they would probably need the coin. So, he accepted the job. Unfortunately, after his first recon of the site, he found no real way to get in.

Simone had suggested she go in Lewis’ stead, and give him an opening. The assassin shot that idea down in an instant.

“Which brings me to my next point,” Lewis said as he crossed his arms. They had taken themselves to the garden to continue the discussion, where Everett was playing. He seemed to be enjoying himself, but Lewis kept a watchful eye with Simone in case he took off somewhere.

“I need to find a way in.” He closed his eyes. There were very few openings. He could possibly risk it and try to take out a guard, but the way that they had their operation meant that even a single missing guard would be reported within five minutes. From other sources, he knew that the whole team could just up and move at a moment's notice, which meant catching them by surprise was almost impossible.

“What else can we do?”

Simone held a serious frown, “Lewis, I only let myself get kidnapped be–” She stopped herself before she got angry. There was no point in trying to get him to understand. He was too frustrated for her to get through but also he probably didn’t want to see her hurt again. She let out a calm breath as she focused herself letting the anger she felt wash over her and filling it with a calming sensation. She forced that calm through the resonance link only a little. Her eyes had softened and she relaxed. “I know you aren’t just going to let me go. I get it but I’m not weak Lewis. I just wanted to say that much.” Still, because he loved her he wasn’t about to let her get hurt for no reason.

Giving him a listening ear her eyes were glued to Everett. He was sitting on a blanket laughing at a butterfly. It made her smile but she still didn’t like the conversation too much. “If you aren’t going to let me go then you’ll just have to pretend to be a woman. I would say use Kalina but she doesn’t have the resonance with you. With us, there has always been the advantage of you being able to see through my eyes and hear what I hear. I don’t think Raile would let Kalina anyways not that he has much of a say with her.”

Crossing her arms she looked Lewis over, “You would make a pretty girl. I have dresses that can hide a flat chest. A few lessons on how to be a lady and I think you would be fine… Or you could just let me go.” She was stubborn and up for bringing it up again. Though it didn't look like her words had much of a fight. She was giving him his options. His only two options.

Lewis crossed his arms, a scowl forming across his face. “That’s the only other option?” He closed his eyes, running down multiple ideas in his head. None of them would work. Each time he crossed one off, his annoyance at the situation only grew. Finally, he abandoned the mental list and let out a harsh sigh. She was right. There were only two options. And one of them was absolutely a no-go from Lewis, which meant…

“Fine,” he muttered, looking to the side, his face flushed. “Fine!” Lewis looked at Simone with a glare. “You’re enjoying this too much…” He shifted uncomfortably as she mentioned dresses and how cute he would look. Not once had he ever thought he could end up in this kind of situation, and he was sure that Simone would get years of laughter and stories out of this once they came through the end of it.

“It shouldn’t be too difficult,” he said more to himself than to Simone. “Just throw on some frilly clothes, act dainty for a bit, and I’m in, right?” The fact that he was underestimating this made it all more clear just how much training he would need. “All right then, Simone…” He crossed his arms. “I have till the end of the month before they move locations based on my intel. I want to be done in a week…when do we start? What do I need to do?”

Simone chuckled at him as he gave in, “Now you are seeing things my way. Not the way I want but it’s good enough.”

She put her hands on her hips, “It will take more than that I promise you.” She would have to make him the best woman that he could be in a week. She sucked some air in. “Alright, alright. I can have you being a proper woman in a week.”

Letting the nanny know she was taking Lewis away she watched as Everett was met with the familiar face of a woman who took care of them when they were on a job. Once she knew everything was alright she took Lewis upstairs and got him dressed.

“Alright,” she closed the door and began to strip him down. “You might not like this at all.” Getting a corset out she put it around him as getting him into one of her blouses. It was just a tad too big but for now, it would work. “First thing is first… Suck it in.” She put the corset around him and pulled tight on the strings and tight it was. She tied it tight and looked at him in the mirror. “Corsets suck which why I never wear them when it’s just us only when we do trips to the mainland. Or for sex… but that’s different it doesn’t have to be quite as tight.”

She put a ribbon in her mouth as she sat him down in front of her vanity. “I’m going to do your hair,” she spoke easily enough having mastered it thanks to having daughters with long hair. She was quick to figure out something with his messy locks and she used the ribbon as a final piece.

“You’ll need to practice your manners and your curtsies. However, the hardest part will be seducing your way in. It’s going to be your best weapon Lewis and that means I have to teach you how to do it. Right now they would figure out you’re a man right away.”

With Everett taken care of, Simeone led Lewis to their room, where she proceeded to strip him down. What she brought out next, in any context, could have been considered torture for Lewis. She explained the corset, and told him to suck his breath in. The assassin thought to himself that it couldn’t be that bad, and did as he was told, and immediately regretted it. As she tightened the corset, he wondered if it was possible to die from his lungs being crushed by the infernal device, and he almost asked her to take it off.

But then she’ll just use that as an excuse to go… Begrudgingly, he willed the crushing agony away, and straightened up. Still, seeing himself in the mirror, he couldn’t deny the immediate effect it had on his…shape. He grimaced as he tried to take a quick breath. What a fucking pain…

Next was the hair, and somehow Simone worked some demonic magic with his hair, and by the end of it he already barely recognized himself. Perhaps it was some form of luck that he had fairly soft features, despite his job of choice.

“Okay…” he said as she told him he needed to work on his mannerisms and seduction. “You…want me to…seduce someone? How exactly is that going to work?” There was little tact in his voice, and it was perhaps the lowest, grumbly voice he could have used.

How very unladylike. Simone definitely had her work cut out for her.

“First, soften your voice if you can make your voice a bit higher. Men like a good sing-song voice. They also like compliments to their ego like Lord Raith only not quite that much. Especially men in power like where you are going. A few good words and purrs in your voice can save your life. I’ve done my fair share of these things to get out of tight situations before even if it didn’t completely work. Edwin saved my life because of that. Working men around my finger have saved me more times than I can count,” she again repeated herself. “It’s a good skill to know when you are going as a lady.”

Getting him into a dress was fine. It was a short little white one with a ruffled top. It almost made Lewis look like he had a bust. This was how the younger Simone managed to get away with hiding how small her breasts were.

She got her makeup out and dolled Lewis up. The next thing he could see was how pretty of a girl he was. “There. You look just as pretty as a noblewoman.” She helped him up and made him stand straight. “No slouching. I’m not going to go easy on you just because you are my husband. You are now my student!”

She gave him military drill after military drill of how to be a lady for the next few hours. How to walk, how to talk, and when to meet eye contact. There were a few minor lessons in seduction too. “For example,” she played with the edges of his dress. “When I wear a dress as short as this one… How does it make you feel?”

Lewis tried to soften his voice, which for the first few times he tried, was almost like when his voice broke for the first time. Eventually, he got the tone right, and moved to pitch. “How…how’s this?” It was better than before, but it still lacked finesse. Baby steps, though. This was at least some progress. As he practiced, Simone found him an outfit, dressing him up as if he were some playdoll.

Next came the makeup, which was perhaps harder than it needed to be, if only because Lewis couldn’t sit still. The whole ordeal was truly testing his patience, and it was agonizing just to sit around while Simone messed with his face. Every time he twitched, he felt the corset, and just how compressed his body really was, and it was more than uncomfortable. These next few weeks….

When they looked in the mirror after his makeup was done, Lewis was staring at a complete stranger. The woman reflected in the mirror was cute, and the dress that Simone had chosen was deceptive. Still, there was something…off. Simone remedies it immediately, and pushed on his lower back, forcing him to straighten up.

“Do I-” he started to say in his normal voice. He paused, “Do I really need to be this straight?” he asked in the womanly voice he had been practicing. He grumbled as she gave him a look.

For the next few hours, he was put to work on learning how to be womanly. There were a lot of things that were surprisingly easy to deal with. Walking, eye contact, and a few others were no different than stalking and balance training. It was the talking and seduction that he seemed to struggle the most with. After another failed attempt, Simone tried a different approach.

“It…” he thought for a moment, putting on an over the top pose, his finger at his lip as he looked up to think. Supposedly this pose was ‘cute’, and while Lewis could understand…sort of, he didn’t realize how much effort went in to an appearance. “Dresses like that make me want to take advantage of the short-” The realization hit him.

“Oh,” he gave her a slightly surprised expression. “…So if I…?” He adjusted his stance, bending just slightly so that his “chest” was more pronounced, and his butt was just a little extended, just barely covered by the dress. “Like…this?”

“Yes, slouching is bad posture and it makes you look bad and not as attractive.” Simone immediately corrected the behavior.

Once Lewis got it Simone chuckled and nodded, “Now you get it. Let me show you though.” This was practically teaching him all of her secrets though and it might get her in trouble if he realized how often she did this to him. She changed into one of his favorite sundresses on her, “Attention to detail is everything. What a man likes and wants, for example, can normally be read like a book unless the person is hard to read like you. In this case, I can read your resonance link with me to see what you like.”

Now, this was the part he would be all too familiar with. “Like when I do this~” She dropped something off the vanity and bent over just in front of him. “Or~ Like this.” She went over to the bookcase in the room and lightly scaled it as the dress pulled up enough to give him a good peek. These were all things that happened on a regular basis and Simone was doing it on purpose.

“You don’t need too much of an exaggerated pose as much as knowing how to twist your body and how to use it.” She took her hand and gently took his face caressing it in the way he liked that caused his hair to stand up on ends. “Knowing how to touch is a big help. You can generally tell from their facial expressions or from the way their hair stands up on their arms.” She held up his arms so he could see.

The fact that Simone was showing off made it clear that there was a lot to learn that he still didn’t know. It also made it clear that Simone was toying with him, and he was half amused, half annoyed, and fully turned on by it. Her flirty shows combined with her touches pushed him a bit over the edge, and he pulled her over to the vanity, pulling up behind her and taking full advantage of her short sundress.

Perhaps it wasn’t the best time, but perhaps the sex would clear his mind a bit and release the tension from all the training. And he knew Simone didn’t mind. He wondered, though, after the fact, if anyone had walked in what they might think of the two, with both of them wearing a dress.

It didn’t bother him, per say, but it was perhaps a bit risky of them to do. Which was probably why they did it.

“All right…” he said as he straightened the dress out. “Did…the makeup stay? How do I look?” He walked back and forth a bit, showing off what he had retained. The hips were perhaps the hardest part to get. He went over to the bookcase, and tried to mimic what he had seen Simone do, trying to show off what little he had to work with. He did similar things across the room, dropping a book here, bending over there, playing with the hem of the dress, and more.

“How….how am I doing?” he asked, faking a sheepish tone and look, batting his eyelashes.

There was nothing disappointing about Lewis’s reaction to her and it actually turned her on more to feel him get frustrated at her beforehand. Luckily the staff knew way better than to just interrupt the two of them in the bedroom. It had happened once and only once before knocking and announcing became part of the rules. Luckily there had been no torture play going on so they hadn’t scarred the poor maid.

Simone didn’t bother to strengthen herself out as she pulled herself up onto the vanity for a breather. Her legs were shaking and she leaned against the mirror looking at him. “It stayed put, I’m an experienced remember?” She winked at him and chuckled a bit.

“I think a few more days of working on this and you will have it enough for a live test run,” Simone clapped a bit in appreciation of her student. “It was fun playing the teacher but I am sad I didn’t get to punish you too much.” She was teasing him again but once she was good she pulled herself off the vanity to continue the lessons.

A few days went by and she had Lewis in the library in their regular wear. “Believe it or not these can help a bit. Women are suckers for this shit.” She tossed a few romance novels at him. “Also, some men too.”

One of the gardeners ran into panting and it caused alarm to Simone, “Did something happen? Are the children alright?” Immediately like a switch she was in protective mode.

“One of the trees in the garden… Something is wrong with it.”

“Wrong with it? Is it dying?”

“It’s been possessed! You took care of the pirates look at it,” the gardener was panicking and there was alarm spelled across the resonance link from her to Lewis.

“Let’s go see it then,” Simone followed behind the gardener to the tree. What they found caused Simone to pause. The gardener wouldn’t go any closer but Simone did. The tree was contorting and it had a lump. There was also a face but when she touched the lump she felt something and pulled back. “Lewis, go get Leilah immediately.”