A smashing sound echoed around the room.

I think I'm going to have to reinforce those containers though. The rats have really done a number on the acrylic over the past few days and

I carefully levitated the clear plastic boxes and carried them over to the workshop next door, keeping a careful eye on it as I fabricated a much more resilient container for the rats.

I worked quickly, putting together thick sheets of tempered glass to produce several large containers that I promptly put each of the acrylic tanks into before sealing them shut.

Now to put them in the growth accelerators to make sure that nothing would go wrong with the changes that I made.

There shouldn't be, the majority of the changes are complete and the conversion process should be the most dangerous stage, but there's a chance that I bungled something in the design of the nano-mechanical actuators that I'm replacing the myosin with, or that my integration with the nervous system isn't quite up to snuff. Or that my adjustments to update the cardiovascular system to work with the new muscle tissue aren't quite right, but those should have been caught by the simulations.

Stretching, I checked the time.

Damn it. I lost track of time again.

Grabbing the flask of Bane of Morpheus, I pulled myself out of the lab and out to the kitchen.

Yawning, I grabbed some eggs and some ingredients, prepping some things to put together a hollandaise. My blade blurred through the shallots and the herbs as the vinegar came to temperature.

Before long, I had my vinaigrette ready and the hollandaise was taking shape.

Eggs went into a pot of simmering water, poaching as the portal in the next room roared to life.

Before long the three women were being served up some eggs benedict.

"Fancy!" Gwen commented, "Did something special happen?"

I furrowed my brow, "No? I mean, I lost track of time again, so I needed to make something relatively simple so I made this."

Angela stared at me, "Aren't poached eggs hard to make?"

I shrugged, "Not in my experience. As long as you are confident about it and you use fresh eggs, it's not a problem."

"And the hollandaise? Isn't that supposed to be difficult?" Raven asked, "Cyborg keeps messing it up when he tries to make eggs benedict for Jinx."

I chuckle, "I admit that I cheat a little on that. When I built this kitchen, I stole some of the laboratory hot plates and stuck it here so that I could accurately control the temperature of the stuff I'm cooking. Pair it with some heavy-bottomed dishes and it's almost a casual thing to make hollandaise. Takes a bit of time, since you need to make a vinaigrette first, but it's pretty straightforward after that."

As the girl tucked in, Angela turned to me, "Hey, Jon, do you have my signal ready?"

I rolled my eyes and summoned the three jewellery boxes from the kitchen, floating the large cases over to each of the girls.

"Uh… Jon? Why are the boxes so big?" Angela asked.

I shrugged, "Well, I had a bit of free time since the rats were undergoing growth acceleration, and my tests for asteroid mining in this solar system has really started to make a lot more materials available to us… so I decided to get some practice with mystical manufacturing techniques?"

Angela opened her box first, gasping at the array of different accessories. The other two ladies turned to look at her, leaving their boxes unopened.

"I'm not supposed to wear all of these just to tell me that I'm busy, right?" she asked.

I chuckled, "Nah! If you wear any of them, I'll leave you alone. I just figured that you might want to try different things."

Angela shook her head, "Actually. If I'm wearing exactly two of them, then I'm busy. These are too pretty to leave in a case."

"It's your choice." I deferred.

She smiled, "Then, our deal officially starts now."

Sliding a golden, flower-encrusted comb into her hair, she turned to Gwen, "You know, your box is bigger than mine, I wonder what's in it."

Gwen's face flushed crimson as she opened up the box.

Unlike Angela's array of artefacts, Gwen's gift was a single item. A golden chain harness that was crisscrossed over an entire felt-covered mannequin torso.

"How am I supposed to wear that?" She asked me with a strange mix of lust and sheer shock lacing her strangled exclamation.

I chuckled, "You see how the chains connect? Well, you can actually disconnect any of the chains at any of those little hubs. You could even disconnect parts of it so that it's less ostentatious, and all of the chains work as a necklace by themselves if you ant that."

Raven stared at the blushing Gwen as she picked off one of the chains and strung it around her neck, "You know, I'm kinda worried about what I'll find in my box. Everything so far has been absolute overkill."

I laughed nervously as they opened the last box.

"Yep. Overkill." Raven said with a deadpan tone, "When the fuck am I supposed to wear ." I scratched my head as the gothic girl pinned me with a stare, "Well, I know you don't normally wear too much jewellery, so I tried to make it really over the top so the few times you wore it to a special event or something, it would be really impressive. Plus, you already have that choker and the earrings." Raven shook her head and sighed, "Well, it's still very beautiful. Even if I don't get to wear it any time soon, it will look pretty nice in my room." She turned to look at me, giving me a small smile before pulling me in for a hug, "Thanks, Jon. It's a little ostentatious, but I still love it." The other two joined in, with a "Me too!" as their hands wrapped around the two of us. I smiled, "I'm glad you all like them, it was a lot of fun getting them looking right." "Really?" Angela asked, 'Some of the pieces I have looked really delicate." I shrugged, "I found some fabrication spells that duplicate a shape in a given material, as long as you have a reference, So it was really a matter of smoothing and sculpting things before adding extra bits for the cold parts. The gem setting was the hardest part for a lot of your things, truth be told." Angela nodded toying with the comb in her hair, "Thank you so much for this." She laughed when she saw me stare at her, my eyes locked to the comb in her hair, "Do you like seeing us wearing it?" I nodded sheepishly as I dragged my gaze away from it, "I dunno, something about seeing you wearing something I made. It's just a massive turn on for some reason." The girls nodded, and Gwen turned to me, "So… I could ask for other stuff?" I nodded, "Jewelry or clothes at the moment. No leatherworking, unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to learn that yet, so it's going to be a while before I can do shoes and jackets and stuff." Raven perked up, "Could you do a corset? I can't find anything that doesn't try to sinch my waist so right that I can barely breathe." "Sure! It's going to take some time, but I can probably pull a Symington pattern for reference unless you have anything specific. I assume you want it in black?" I ask.

"Black should be fine for the colour." She confirmed, "Do you have the patterns on you? I want to take a look and see if I like any of them in particular."

As Raven looked at the images on the site, I turned to Gwen who was staring at us in confusion, "What's up?"

"Aren't corsets… like, really uncomfortable?" Gwen asked.

I shook my head, "Those fetishistic modern variants are, but actual corsets are supposed to be pretty comfortable, especially for women with bigger breasts. Something to do with the fact that there's more surface area to press against as it provides support, apparently."

Gwen turned to Raven with interest, "Is that true?"

"I don't know about the big breasts thing, but I hate the bras I had to buy when my old corset tore," Raven answered, "they always cut into my shoulders and my back so much."

"Huh, that sounds cool." Gwen mused.

"I'm happy to make you a corset too if you want." I offered, before pausing and turning to Raven, "By the way, do you still have your old corset? I could take a look at the pattern for that if you don't like any of those."

Raven shrugged, "I'll have to see if I didn't throw it away, but it wasn't all that great. They only sold good patterns for people who had finished growing, the rest were pretty plain."

I nodded as Gwen moved over to see the patterns over Raven's shoulder, striking up a conversation with the younger girl and setting up a sizing session in the evening.

Turning to Angela, I raised my arms, "Do you want one too?"

Angela shrugged, "I tried corsetry when I was younger, it doesn't really work for me."

As I packed away breakfast, Angela walked up to me, "Hey Jon?"

"Yeah?" I responded.

"Do you have any sleeping pills or potions? I've been so stressed the last few days, dealing with Talon related stuff that I haven't been able to sleep well." She asked.

I shrugged, "Sure, I'll pass it to you later."