John got up, wiggled his head to get his neck in the optimal position and relaxed. Closing his eyes, he just enjoyed the feeling. The support for his neck was both soft and form-fitting, like a mixture of gelatine and memory foam. In the heat of the weather-adjusted day, it radiated a nice cool. “Undine still wins,” he declared and opened his eyes, looking up to the slime girl whose thighs he was currently lying on. Not that it particularly mattered which part of her fluid body he laid on.

“Fuck,” Salamander crossed her arms and squished her newly acquired landmasses between her forearms. It didn’t look like she had even intended to do that, their size was just so impressive it happened naturally. “I thought I would finally win with these melons!”

“Yeah, sorry,” John responded with a thoughtful expression, “it goes: butt, breasts, thighs, Undine – in terms of pillows.” The comfort ranking was assuming a good level of thickness in all categories. Obviously, John’s harem was full of above average butts, that was his favourite part of a woman’s body after all. Breasts were more diverse and, although he wouldn’t say no to putting his head on Scarlett’s chest, there was no particular comfort in it. As for thighs, nobody around was lean enough to make that a bony experience.

Not anymore, to be exact.

“I am glad my thighs were of pleasant support.” Nia’s neutral tone and straight pose made her happiness a pure statement. One that John believed regardless, smiling at her.

“You’ve definitely improved a lot downstairs,” the Gamer complimented. “Nice and toned thighs, round and soft butt, your workout has been paying off. I love you for making that effort for me.”

A few seconds of silence, then Nia responded with, “I love you too,” and blinked. To give her some sort of reward, John started patting her head. The backwards oriented strands on top of her head were just as soft as a cat’s fur. Leaning into the scratches, the pariah smiled softly as she enjoyed the touch.

She had been continuing her workout routine even during the Raid and was just about at the end of her journey when it came to muscle acquisition. Unless she started taking steroids to really bulk up, which John did not want whatsoever, she would only gain a little bit more and then maintain what she had by supernatural means. Which, with her body type, wasn’t the most impressive figure ever. Her legs had almost doubled in diameter, which went more to show how spindly they had been before, and the ass naturally followed the lead. She didn’t have the Chun-li thighs that looked as if she could squash watermelons between them, but they were really attractive. Often, it was enough for a woman to just be taking proper care of herself to be physically attractive to John.

Nia had the advantage of a gorgeous face, as did the rest of John’s harem, so she had to seriously let go of herself to become ugly. Her raising the desirability of her body, at least in his eyes, made him all the more thankful that he had this concentration of drop-dead gorgeous babes all deeply in love with him (and each other, to some degree). In order to keep all of them happy and secure, he would have to keep working to make himself a better man and the world a better place. That was his duty, he felt.

“Still surprised ya put butts last,” Rave, who had been the obvious subject for the backpack pillow, put out there.

“It’s really awkward to get a proper angle,” John explained with a sour face. “It’s definitely nice, firm and soft, but either I have to lie on your legs or on your back or come in from the side, which is an awkward elevation… it’s just kind of difficult. Access to boobs is just cuddling face-to-chest instead of face-to-face.”

Rave hummed and turned on her back. Although she was naked, all of them were, John did not have the wish to climb on top of her and do what felt natural. Following the intense intercourse with Salamander, he had made his way into the shower, where the usual had happened. It was now in the early stages of night and they were in the pre-bedtime lull, where they just hung out, talked and played video games.

Before they could continue the discussion, an absurdly cute sound echoed from the bedroom. A series of barely held back squeals in an unsteady tone of voice, accompanied by little tramples of feet on carpet. John had been about to retreat to one of the private corners of his apartment, the gaming room to be specific, and spend some alone time with a strategy game, but that piqued his interest enough to go check his bedroom first.

There, he found Eliza standing in front of the group’s harem-sized bed. Still tip-toeing from one foot to the other, she hastily looked over to John and then pointed at the bed. On top of the taut and recently changed sheets laid Velka. The Magryph was adorable enough under normal circumstances, especially while she was sleeping. What made Eliza so fidgety was the way Velka grabbed a teddy bear in her sleep, however. Eliza’s teddy bear, one that she had gotten from the entity known as Kyonchi last Christmas, which usually resided in her room or on the nightstand. Likely, Velka had decided that she wanted the extra headrest, especially since it smelled so much like the girl known to pamper her.

Bird-like front legs around the brown, fuzzy body of the teddy, the Magryph occasionally moved in her sleep, rubbing the side of her face against that of the plushie. Her hind legs were extended, showing her dark toe beans. When they had acquired her, Velka had been smaller than the plushie, now she was over twice its size. The white and black bird-cat warbled softly and opened one eye. Like all felines, deep sleep wasn’t something she was particularly invested in. Once she spotted John and Eliza, she meowed louder.

“AAAAWWWWWWWwwwwwwwww.” Eliza tapped on the spot, her voice becoming ever higher in pitch until it suddenly vanished and the blood mage charged at the bed. One quick jump later, she grabbed a surprisingly willing Velka. Holding the Magryph, with the teddy still being held by the Magryph, the pretty little psycho let out a series of really girly noises. “She’s just too fudging cute, John!”

“Are you complaining?” John asked in an amused tone.

“No, although my heart might melt and then I’ll die but I can die like this, that’s cock-eating fine by me!” she blabbered about, scratching and cuddling Velka with the adoration of a baby crazy housewife/sex slave.

“What happened to ‘no cursing in front of Velka’?” The question accompanied him approaching the bed and climbing on top at a moderate pace.

“I thought we were eating chicken today?” the blood mage cheekily responded and caused John to roll his eyes. “Ehehehehehehe,” Eliza let out a laughter that was both creepy and adorable. It came in reaction to her jest and to the Gamer wrapping his arms around his masochistic, submissive, one-day-to-be-the-mother-of-the-first-of-his-children, compact love.

Because she was so nice and small, John could comfortably hold her in his arms, making them a four-layered construction of hugs and, now that he was close enough, kisses. He and Eliza were half-committed to making out, a will manifesting in a series of short pecks on each other’s lips and faces. Mostly kisses by John, the sexually dominant personality of the Gamer showing even in little engagements like this. Eliza was happy to be embraced and pampered, just as Velka was happy to be stuck between them.

Not wanting to be left out of all the kisses, the Magryph stretched her neck up and softly gnawed on John’s chin to get his attention. Obliging the young, thieving bird, John kissed her fuzzy head with the innocence that only a pet owner could offer to their pets or a parent to their children. Eliza followed the example and Velka started to purr. The sounds caused tiny vibrations that John felt against his chest. Under normal circumstances, nakedly cuddling Eliza would have been more to John’s taste, preferring smooth skin and squishy breasts to fur and feathers, but at that moment the fuzzball was exactly where he wanted her to be.

“Uhm, so, I was wondering what was going on…” Gnome muttered when she peeked into the room. “C-can I join in the hug?”

Eagerly, John waved her closer. It wasn’t cuddle season until the autumn elemental arrived. Gnome hesitatingly climbed on the bed, crawled the few metres towards them and, once she had arrived at the centre of the bed, put her arms around Eliza and John as best she could. With just the right mixture of firmness and care, the earth spirit joined the hug. Blood mage and Gamer both instinctively leaned towards the brunette with the partly braided hair, enjoying her perfect, reassuring hug. None of them wanted to move.

“Oh mah lady,” Rave announced her entrance, a lot more loudly than Gnome had. “This is almost as bad as consensual handholding!”

“Rebel that you are, you must join this illegal activity,” John told her with a grin.

“Don’t mind if I do,” Rave responded with a big smile of her own and soon added herself to the hug. To add to the degeneracy of the loving embraces and occasional kisses between all participants, John did exactly what Rave had condemned and took her hand. Their fingers interlocked completely.

Stirred by the Lightbringer’s loud mouth and the general weirdness of people one by one being swallowed by the bedroom without moans following, more of the harem members showed up. Those that had been on the couch with him were first. Salamander and Undine came in, both moderating their body temperature to not cause any oddities, and put themselves in wherever they fit.

They had exceeded the level where everyone could feasible be in contact with everyone else. Because they all wanted to, however, there were the occasional position changes. They were often slow, accompanied by head pats and more kisses, and only occurred where there was coordination with few or no words. Only Eliza didn’t move at all, still holding Velka, holding the teddy. The Magryph was the biggest source of sound, happily warbling whenever another one of the women got close and placed another kiss on her well-groomed fur. Ears flicking and giving kneading steps of happiness to the squishy chests presented to her, the bird-cat was a constant stream of amusement.

Nia, who had just suddenly appeared in the mix, almost refused to move. Scratching Velka’s belly and letting the pet play catch with her fingers, the pariah was entranced by the black and white chimera for a long while. Then she suddenly looked up. “You’re so adorable,” the blonde said, while looking Eliza in the eyes.

“What’re you looking at me for while you say that?!” Eliza wanted to know, her voice cracking from embarrassment.

Nia leaned forwards and, only moments before their lips met, stated, “I like you.” What followed was the longest kiss between two people in this hug-pile yet. Eliza even took a hand off Velka to answer Nia’s embrace. Although the blood mage often voiced annoyance with the pariah, the two did get along in their own way.

Beatrice came in next. She had to be goaded a little bit into the hug, displaying her usual passiveness. Only when Metra came along and dragged the maid in herself, did Beatrice relent. She wasn’t a particularly enthusiastic member of the hug-pile, but she warmed up to it enough to partake in it properly. Metra, just like Aclysia when she could put aside cooking for long enough to join, was a bit overly focused on being close to John. Even with that, they spread their love around. Being a servant and lover of John Newman made one, through time or natural interest, a happy lover of the remaining harem after all. People that couldn’t share that lifestyle simply didn’t get to the stage they were now at.

Sylph soon burst in, complaining loud and long about how she had missed that this was even going on. “Kisses and hugs between the courtesans without the concubine are unfair! Mean! Gimme all of them! Let me cuddle the cute gryphon, cat, panther, thief, bird, thingy!” The thunderstorm elemental dropped into the middle of it all and immediately showered Velka with her attention. Several surprised and somewhat distressed warbles caused the hugs to stop for a moment. Then everyone laughed, seeing that Sylph’s enthusiastic approach had caused the Magryph’s hairs to charge. The ball of fuzz was now a puffed up ball of fuzz.

Sylph laughed the loudest, and in that laughter, lay a little revelation. She shared that laughter with John, who couldn’t help but continue to grow more amused as he kept hearing it. The initial joke had long faded, but he was still giggling along, struck by the jolly mood all around.

Of all the elementals, it was of course Sylph for whom this message would pop-up in such a weird situation. John was too happy to be annoyed or ecstatic about it and just closed it. The embracing continued with Siena suddenly joining in. Getting the jump on John, wrapping her tail around him, she gave him a dangerous grin. “Using your naked bodies for entertainment without me around? How disloyal.”

“Just join quicker, edge-queen,” Salamander returned and embraced John from the other side. John experienced a full body hug that was completely new to him. The large breasts and attentive, jokingly bickering women were as well-proven and pleasant as ever. Being tightly surrounded by not only arms and legs but also two long tails had a constricting relaxation to it that was difficult to put into words. He was bound in happiness. It ended soon enough, as the shifting partners of the dense pile of limbs moved on.

Things continued for several minutes without interruption. John got hard somewhere in the process, an unavoidable reaction given all the attractive women surrounding and touching him, but the act itself stayed pure in intent. Any touching of the sexes was a pure incident of the situation.

“I anticipate depravity and find a wholesome pile, how odd,” a hard voice pulled everyone out of it for a second. With an eyebrow raised, Lydia stood at the foot-end of the bed and started to open the buttons of her shirt. The lingerie she always wore when staying showed underneath. “By all means, continue, we will join you in a second.”

“Didn’t know I became one of your subjects,” Scarlett, who had come in alongside the queen, playfully complained. The two must have hung-out or the redhead had simply decided to take it on herself to give the queen a hand in getting through the teleporter. There was no need to know the exact reason, the fact of the matter was that both disrobed and joined the pile. They were just cuddling, kissing and petting Velka for almost thirty minutes.