What The Maid Saw and Did

Author's note:

This is a story for the Virtual Literotica Convention 2025 challenge, and is co-authored by Penny Thompson

Friday

Morning sun glittered off the glass of a modern hotel, taking up a whole block in the middle of the city. A young, petite woman made her way briskly past the front entrance, busy with limos and cabs picking up guests and rushing them off to wherever they were hurrying to this Friday morning. Many of them had their suitcases with them: they had checked out and would be rushing to the airport after their final flurry of meetings. A small team of staff were already taking down the banners from the feature conference of the week. By this evening, another conference or two would have started, to keep the hotel humming right through the weekend.

The woman turned at the corner of the building, heading to the staff entrance at the side. She wore a modest navy housekeeping dress, with classic white collars and cuffs, black stockings and practical, low-heeled navy shoes. Her head was bare, her sleek black hair gathered into a simple but elegant ponytail. Her face and neck were a smooth, creamy tan. She had classically beautiful south-east Asian features, accentuated by light make-up, lips pink-red, wide luminous eyes subtly highlighted. Right now though, she had a faint frown on her face, and her skin was slightly flushed.

"I'm sorry, Mrs Richards," she said as she came inside. "The bus was late again."

Mrs Richards, a late middle-aged, no-nonsense woman, smiled at her, if a little tightly.

"I'll excuse you this time, Hiraya," she said, "because you're a good worker. But you may need to drive a car to work."

Hiraya looked worried. "My Papa says we can't afford another car. He says it's better than we don't drive so that we can send a little money back home to the Philippines instead. But I am putting aside some of my pay to save for one. I won't be at home forever."

Mrs Richards just grunted. "Be that as it may, I'm going to ask you to work later tonight. We have another big conference to prepare for, and we're short on staff. Do your normal cleaning roster, and then report to the hospitality team manager. We'll need you all weekend as well."

As Hiraya nodded and turned to leave, Mrs Richards had one last thing to add, and she tried to say it kindly.

"Hiraya," she said. "I know you're a good Catholic girl. The conference this weekend might be a little bit confronting for you. It's all about erotic literature, apparently. Perhaps you might be a bit careful about what you tell your parents? We really do need you and the others to be broadminded, just as we don't tell the guests what they're allowed to do in the hotel rooms as long as they don't damage the furniture. And don't forget you'll be earning overtime rates."

Hiraya's large eyes widened further, but she said nothing, and nodded again demurely. The overtime payments would make a difference.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It was a long day of cleaning. The hotel had been full to bursting, and some of the rooms were in poor condition.

Some people are absolute pigs, Hiraya thought to herself as she tidied a particularly bad suite. I bet this guy put on a big suit and pretended that he was God's gift to the planet in his meetings, but he couldn't be bothered to pick up his used condoms. The erotica people can't be worse than this, can they?

She couldn't help wondering what on earth people would be talking about at an erotic literature conference. She hadn't read anything other than some slightly racy romance, which was enjoyable but hardly something that you would go to a conference about. She didn't have much direct experience herself, other than some embarrassing fumbles with a boy back when she was at school. It was after a party, and she had lost her virginity with him, but honestly it hadn't done anything for her, and she didn't think it was all that good for him either. It was more painful than anything. All of her friends seemed obsessed with sex, but for her, it seemed to be optional. Perhaps it was something to explore more after she left home, and she didn't have her parents watching and worrying about her every move.

She finally got through her work list in the mid-afternoon, and went to find the hospitality and conference manager. He was looking stressed and seemed really glad to see her.

"Hiraya, is it? And you're normally in the cleaning team? And you're as attractive," and he stopped to correct himself, "I mean, as well-presented, sorry, as I was told. I could really do with an extra person to go around all the conference rooms right through the weekend, straightening things out, cleaning up spills, and reporting any major issues to me. We're just really short on team members."

Hiraya couldn't help blushing when he accidentally said "attractive", but she also found it puzzling. Really? I suppose I'm skinny enough, but that comes with small boobs and small hips. I could still be a girl, were it not for my pubes. I don't know what they see in me.

"I'm happy to help," was all she said out loud, and then they quickly went through the details of the rooms that she would be looking after. There seemed to be an astonishing amount of events in the program, and Hiraya felt her cheeks going even redder as she looked through the program. Cuckolding? Erotic Art? Incest? Sensory Deprivation? Clothing Optional rooms? There were whole worlds that she knew nothing about, apparently, but the rooms that they inhabited would all need to be kept tidy.

"Plus there's the Meet and Greet tonight and the Dinner & Dance tomorrow night," the manager said. "But you can't work 24/7. Just stay as long as you reasonably can, and sign out when you go."

I'll start by checking how the rooms look now, she thought, and made a circuit. It was a hive of activity in the main area. Little groups of conference organisers were running around, excited but stressed, and sorting out various issues between different groups. The people themselves seemed remarkably... normal, apart from some interesting hairstyle and clothing choices. At first, she certainly wouldn't have twigged that there was an erotica convention going on, other than from the "[lit]CON" branding that was going up all over the place. She wondered what the quantum physics conference attendees on the second floor thought of it all. She didn't know much about quantum physics, except that somehow there was a cat involved.

I guess that's not for me to worry about, she thought. I can't be in two places at once, after all.

Things got more confronting when she got to the dedicated private rooms on the third floor, which was only accessible to conference attendees and staff. Rooms were being decorated in themes that ranged from sexy to scandalous.

There was a room that she found magnetic, but also seriously disturbing. A woman with vivid pink and black hair and wearing a short leather skirt was setting up a display of six paintings around the room, which was already fitted out as a makeshift dungeon. They were oil paintings, but instead of classical portraits or bucolic rural scenes, they showed women in chains, bodies contorted, and yet with expressions of rapture. It was almost biblical in an Old Testament way, yet strangely sexual as well. She stayed looking for a minute, but when the woman noticed her, Hiraya gave her a quick, apologetic smile and moved onto the next room. She didn't know that she had anything appropriate to say.

Back on the ground floor, she looked into one of the smaller workshop rooms, and there was a couple in there having something of an argument. They were an interesting pair. The guy was tall, skinny, and brown skinned, wearing big nerd glasses but quite well-made. His companion had a more androgynous look. Their skin was pale, head half-shaved, and hair dyed a vivid aquamarine, with matching chunky-framed glasses. They were wearing casual jeans and a black hoodie, with no make-up.

Right now, the two were locked in intense discussion. Hiraya thought that she might be intruding. She smiled vaguely when the guy looked in her direction, and started to turn to leave when he whispered in the other person's ear. Then she heard a distinct, hissed "just ask her already!", and turned back to see the guy nervously preparing to speak.

Since when were people nervous around a little hotel cleaner? she thought.

"Excuse me, but can you tell me if this room has Dolby Atmos in the sound system?" he managed. His companion rolled their eyes, but still looked to Hiraya for her response.

"Um, I'm just in the cleaning team, but I can try and track down one of the techs if you like," she said. "They may have gone home already, as it's been a long week for them, but there should be somebody who knows or they can call somebody in."

"No! No. I don't want to make a fuss. It's fine, we can figure it out, you don't need to call anybody in for this," the other person said. "I mean, it would be nice to know, but we can cope without high tech despite what some people think. It's just..."

"Yes?" prompted Hiraya.

"Well, we're giving a workshop about accessibility, and then we had this idea that we could demonstrate the value of giving an aural experience that is as rich as the visual and text experiences, and then before I knew it somebody wants to play some Flaming Lips to show how cool it is to have full immersion in sound. But I'm sure we don't need to go that far."

"'Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots' has just been re-released in that format," said the guy enthusiastically.

Hiraya was a bit confused, but for some reason she felt drawn to this pair – they seemed a bit more normal, a bit more human than many of the others, even if in a geeky way. Their argument even seemed kind of cute. She moved a bit further into the room.

"I'm not sure that I'm entirely following the technical bits," she said. "But I can still try and ask somebody the question. What was it again?"

The guy opened his mouth to speak, but his companion cut him off. "Actually, before we go there, maybe I could get your opinion as a third party, and you can help us settle our argument?" "I'm Scout, by the way. Pronouns they/them. This is Jeremy, he's my techie partner. Um. And boyfriend."

"He/him," Jeremy supplied with a grin.

"Hiraya," she responded, taking Scout's awkwardly proffered hand. "Um, She, Her, You Girl Clean Up This Mess, I guess."

Scout and Jeremy both smiled in sympathy with her self-deprecation.

"It's hard being at the bottom of the power chain, isn't it?" said Scout. "Okay. So. In our day jobs we work at a company that does web accessibility compliance and remediation. Captions on videos, alt-text on images, that kind of thing. Jer and I both love erotic literature..."

"Well, you love erotica, and then you send me your favorite dirty stories," Jeremy interjected.

"... Whatever, you love it. Anyway, when the program and call for proposals for this conference came out, I got a little annoyed and emailed the organizers. Their program and website had all kinds of accessibility problems, and I felt like it was excluding people with impairments. I wasn't really expecting a response, but the con organizers invited me to come and run a workshop on accessibility."

"Yeah, and then you got carried away and wanted to blow peoples' minds with an avant garde inclusive multisensory experience..." Jeremy said, grinning at his partner.

"Well, yeah. Accessibility isn't just about checking a box and forgetting about it. It's about creating experiences that anyone can access in a variety of ways. Text, speech, visuals, multi-modal... Sorry, I'm rambling..."

"I'm with you so far," said Hiraya. "This is quite interesting, actually."

"I'm pleased you think so," said Scout. "Most people roll their eyes at me. Anyway, so at the last minute, we thought that maybe we should try and demonstrate a rich aural experience. So Jeremy had this idea that we could play some music in advanced surround sound, and talk about the difference between that and a monotone, robot recording."

Jeremy jumped in. "And the name of the technology that does this is Dolby Atmos. It's awesome. I just don't know if they have it."

"Can you stop saying Dolby Atmos?" interrupted Scout. "You sound like a sales rep..."

"It is what it is," said Jeremy stubbornly.

Hiraya thought for a moment. She was tempted to just pass the problem to the tech team. She certainly should do so. But she had an idea.

"Can I make a different suggestion?" she asked. "This is meant to be a workshop, right? Isn't that an interactive thing?"

"Yes..." said Scout slowly, trying to work out where Hiraya was going.

"Why don't you get the workshop attendees to perform a bit of a story interactively, as a different way of showing engagement? That will give you surround sound and human participation."

Scout smiled. "That might work, actually. Let me think about it."

"We might need a casting call for grunters and moaners," said Jeremy.

"There's a story in that," replied Scout.

"If you don't have any spills to clean up right now, I'll leave you to it," said Hiraya, smiling, and turned to leave.

"Come back tomorrow afternoon. There might be the odd spillage of fluids," called Jeremy behind her. This was followed by the noise of a slap, and an "Oww..".

"Sorry about that," called Scout. "I shouldn't have let him off the leash."

Hiraya threw them an amused look back over her shoulder as she left. But she was also blushing again, and a bit worried. What was this convention going to be like tomorrow?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

She did another round of the rooms, checking in also with other hotel staff as they scurried around trying to meet some of the more unusual requests of the conference organizers. The post-conference debrief was going to be interesting.

Along the way, she bumped into one of the tech team members, who was projecting an ultra- stressed aura. She decided to not ask him about surround sound; he clearly had enough to worry about.

It was now early evening, and she helped out with the final preparations for the evening reception, making sure that everything was clean and tidy in the public areas, and doing whatever she was asked to do behind the scenes.

Pretty soon there was a buzz of conversation in the Grand Ballroom. She wasn't really dressed to perform any serving duties during the event, but the catering manager asked her to include table clearances of empty plates and glasses along with cleaning up spills and general management of incidents. At first it wasn't too bad, but as the alcohol started to flow, there were more shattered glasses and pools of liquid, just like any conference. At least tonight, there didn't seem to be any more bodily fluids than you would usually expect. And frankly, most of the people seemed a lot nicer than you had attending many conferences, particularly the boozy, male-dominated sales meetings.

She recognised many of the faces from those who were setting up the rooms during the afternoon. Most of them had taken the time to dress up for the reception. Some costumes were strange or revealing, but the majority had gone for classy evening wear.

She saw Scout and Jeremy, wearing their version of evening wear (nicer jeans and shirts) a bit awkwardly, but still in a charmingly geeky way. They were standing together near a wall at the back of the room. She wondered if her duties as a cleaner/troubleshooter should be further stretched to playing hostess, but just then saw another couple engage them in conversation.

There was a high-quality band on the stage, working through a set of sultry jazz standards. Hiraya loved music, and she thought that it was a real shame that most of the crowd were talking so loudly over it. But then, they were here to connect, not to appreciate the finer points of a good walking bass. There were exceptions though. There were two tall, athletic, redheaded and apparently identical twins near the stage, dancing together with what seemed to be an improvised pastiche of ballet and jazz. One would make a move, and the other would copy it, and then add a variation, often with a flirty touch and glance. They were wearing shimmering emerald-green dresses with matching ballet flats, and black stockings. They were eye-catching, to say the least. Somewhat to her surprise, Hiraya found herself mesmerised. She drifted closer as she worked, sneaking peeks at the pair. Just as she got near them, the band finished their piece, and the leader announced a short break. Simultaneously, the sound of crashing plates and some exclamations from behind her brought her back to her duties.

This spill was easily the most unpleasant experience of the night. It was a mixture of fruity chocolate fondue, oysters and champagne, mixed with shattered glass. As Hiraya knelt down to clean it up, there were some loud comments to the side, from a beery-breathed middle-aged man who had apparently positioned himself to admire her backside. Hiraya suspected that he was the cause of the spill in the first place: perhaps he had also been watching the dancers.

"I bet you'd like some of that mixture smeared over you, girlie" he said loudly. "You can practically see the sperm swimming in it. That's genuine local product, that is."

Hiraya froze for a minute, mortified. She hadn't missed the manager's slip of the tongue about her being assigned here because she was attractive, but she was just trying to do her job. It wasn't her fault that her figure and the dress appealed to a certain kind of guest. She decided to just keep going and ignore the man, but he tried again.

"I guess this event is a bit more high-class than what you're used to back at home."

An icy rage welled up inside her. She put her cleaning equipment on the floor, stood up, and turned to face him. He was much taller than her, flushed with alcohol, dressed in an ill-fitting business suit. He looked like he had arrived at the conference following a day selling used cars at the edge of the city. Nobody was standing next to him, but there were others watching, embarrassed but apparently unsure of what to do.

She opened her mouth to say something, but she didn't really know what. He was smirking down at her, secure in his height and his power to destroy her.

"Where do you think my home is?" was all she could manage.

The guy grunted. "Vietnam. Thailand. Philippines. What does it matter? They're all the same. I've seen a million girls like you."

Suddenly a body appeared on either side of him. Two elegant, muscular torsos sheathed in tight green dresses, arms reaching out to link into his, standing companionably next to him but preventing him from moving. The red-headed twins had arrived, apparently attracted by the disturbance.

"Are you right there, mate?" asked one of the women. "Not giving this young lady any grief, are you?" She spoke in a broad Australian drawl, at odds with her elegance, but in tune with her flashing eyes.

"I reckon he might be, Astrid," said the other. "I sense a disturbance in the Force."

The first woman looked at her Jedi-channelling sister, and then said something to her in another language. Hiraya caught something like 'sécurité', but couldn't hear the rest. The twin just nodded.

"Is your wife with you, sport?" asked the twin named Astrid.

"My ever-loving wife has divorced me, the bitch," replied the man, slowly. "I'm trying to forget her." His eyes were wide, intimidated by these women, but registering their physical proximity and exceptional bodies.

"Ah well. Explains a bit. Can't blame her, I'm thinking. Well, cobber, Ingrid and I are going to give you the time of your life. You're not going to forget us in a hurry." There was another quick conversation in the other language, then they wheeled around together to head for the exit. The guy went willingly with them, looking hopeful that his night had taken a turn for the better.

Hiraya felt someone come up beside her. It was Scout. "You okay, Hiraya? What a piece of shit that guy was..." They glared at the man's back as he disappeared around a corner, flanked by the redheaded bombshells. "I know a little bit of French. I think those twins are taking that prick to hotel security to get him kicked out of the conference."

"They are," confirmed a guy standing near them, speaking with a strong English accent. "I'm so glad they stepped in. One arrogant tosser can ruin a whole evening." He looked apologetically at Hiraya. "I'm sorry the rest of us didn't act sooner."

Hiraya nodded gratefully for their concern, but she didn't feel like talking much more. "Thank you. I'd better get back to the clean-up." She bent to her task again, assisted by one of the other staff members who had just arrived.

The rest of the evening went into a blur of conversation, spills and clean-ups, and steadily more tipsy guests. She noticed many quietly leaving, sometimes by themselves, but usually in twos, threes, or fours. Some guests were much louder. In one corner there seemed to be some women taking topless pictures of each other, to the sounds of hilarity.

The bedding changes are going to be hard work tomorrow, she thought. And we'd best be careful not to barge in on anybody.

Tomorrow. She looked at her watch. It was nearly 10 pm, and the last bus was about to leave for her to get home and get some sleep before the morning shift. With a quick apology to the manager, she left the ballroom and raced down the back corridors to the service entrance, barely making it in time. The bus was often late and was sometimes cancelled, but tonight it was on time, and she was home just before midnight. She crept into the quiet house. Her mother and father had gone to bed as usual: hopefully she would have time to see them in the morning before she rushed back to work. Perhaps she would tell them about the physics conference. Or not.

Her calves were aching after the long day, her feet sore and swollen, and she felt like her cheeks were numb from forcing a smile through her shift. She knew she needed to rest, but sleep eluded her for another two hours as she cycled through the images and sounds of the day. She made an effort to not think about the incident in the Ballroom. The intensity of the art in the bondage chamber, the visual feast of the twins dancing, and even the banter between Scout and Jeremy was mixed in with the soundscape of jazz, conversation, and her imaginings of the creaking of bedsprings at the hotel. It was a potent mix. She rarely touched herself, but on this night she yielded to temptation, finding herself swimming in moisture.

Clean up in aisle sixty-nine, she thought sleepily after fingering herself to a surprisingly intense orgasm. Truck-loads of staff needed in the morning.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Saturday

Hiraya got up promptly before dawn, in time to dress and catch the early bus, with a quick kiss on her sleepy Mama's cheek as she rushed out the door. She realised that adrenaline was driving her this morning. Luckily she was rostered off on Monday, because she would be wiped out by then.

She gave a cheery hello to Mrs Richards as she arrived at work, who looked at her watch in surprise and approval.

"We might need to allow extra time to clean some of the rooms this morning, Mrs Richards" she said, "and to deal with any unexpected situations. But hopefully people have mostly behaved."

"You're probably right, Hiraya," Mrs Richards replied, rolling her eyes. "Although the physics conference people might be worse, judging from the ink stains on the sheets last time."

Hiraya giggled. "Remember when that guy scribbled equations all over the wall with permanent marker? That was the worst."

"By the way, I heard about the incident last night," said Mrs Richards. "I was told you handled it well. I'm sorry it happened. We've kicked the guy out, and we're giving the women who helped you out an upgrade on their room."

"Thanks," said Hiraya, with genuine gratitude. "I didn't know how to handle the creep and nobody else was helping, but those twins were wonderful. I'm feeling good about it today."

Other staff were arriving, and Mrs Richards gave them all a brief on the approach to be taken and escalation of any issues. "Hiraya, you'll switch duties to the conference rooms mid-morning, and then stay as late as you can for the evening function. You can start a bit later on Sunday." She detailed other overtime arrangements, and then sent them on their ways.

The conference sessions started early for a Saturday, which meant that many guests had already left their rooms for the morning. Hiraya was pleasantly surprised. There were no ink stains from the physicists, who had mostly transitioned to virtual whiteboards. Some of the LitCon guest rooms were very messy, but none of them were gross, and it seemed that safe sex was very much on people's minds judging from what was in the waste bins.

Hiraya worked steadily and got through her allocation, then started circulating around the conference. She began with the main conference rooms, where everything seemed to be running smoothly. She gave a quick smile to Scout when she popped her head into their room. Their workshop seemed to be just starting, and she quickly moved upstairs to the themed, private floor of the conference.

Things were absolutely wild up there. Some people were wandering around wearing no clothes at all, but most had some kind of clothing or accessories that they were showing off. Many were gorgeous, but the bodies were all shapes and sizes. An extraordinary smorgasbord of breasts, buttocks, cocks and muscled torsos was laid out before her. After a while she got used to it, and also made herself look more at faces to try and see inside. Were the people kind or cruel, gentle, submissive, or domineering?

I wonder what's really attractive to me? she thought. I like herbody, hisface, theirwise expression. I wonder what thatcock would feel like inside me, or what it would be like to suck thatbreast or to kiss theirlips. She was getting dizzy with the deluge of sensory input and her own reactions.

The sights and sounds within the rooms were even more mind-blowing. There was a room that was completely dark, with a complicated arrangement at the door to stop the light getting in. Hiraya decided that there was no point in her going in: it would have to be serviced after hours. There were various other rooms, but the most shocking ones to Hiraya were one where people were actually having sex, in full visibility of everybody else. With those rooms, she just checked quickly for any obvious issues, and then left them to it.

She reached the dungeon room with the paintings in it. The woman was there alone, busying herself at the exhibits. She was wearing a collar around her neck.

Hiraya slipped in and started refilling the refreshments, sneaking another look at the paintings as she did so. The images were repulsive but also riveting. She wanted to stay longer, and started wiping down the equipment in the middle of the room, wondering at how people were attracted to this kind of lifestyle.

The woman started chatting to her, asking how she was, and then about her opinion of the paintings. Hiraya nervously tried to express what she was seeing, and the contradiction between the pain of the women and their ecstatic expressions. Much to her surprise, the woman gave her a brochure and suggested that she might offer a job to her. She took the brochure, but rushed out of the room, flushing and confused. Should she be getting turned on by this stuff? She had no doubt what her mother would be saying about it.

She headed downstairs, looking for more normality, trying to steady her beating heart.

Scout and Jeremy are nice, she thought, and turned towards their session. It was quite full, even though it was a small room. Scout was speaking to the audience, but gave Hiraya a quick nod and a smile when they saw her. They seemed to be working up to the climax of the presentation.

"And another thing... Technical accessibility is important, obviously. But it's not the only kind of accessibility! What about economic accessibility? The difference between paid content and free content. The difference between writers who get compensated for their work and writers who see their work monetized by others. What about being more inclusive and accessible to a wider audience in terms of gender identity and orientation? And don't get me started about how reductive and limiting the story categories in erotic literature websites are..."

Hiraya saw Jeremy clearing his throat and making a frantic cutting motion across his throat at Scout. She giggled to herself. They were so endearing, and Scout's passion for the subject was obviously holding the room's attention.

Scout had caught Jeremy's motion and looked abashed. "Shit, sorry. Um. But that's outside the scope of this presentation.... Maybe next year. Anyway! We have an interactive audience participation thing to try before we finish up."

Scout started explaining to the room how they were going to demonstrate for themselves how much more engaging and immersive a multi-sensory experience could be. They seemed to be making the point that catering for diverse groups, including (in this case) people who didn't relate to the written word for whatever reason, made things better for everybody.

"For example, what if all stories were available in audio as well as text? Not AI slop audio either, don't get me started on that. I mean real people."

Hiraya felt a gentle tap on her shoulder. Jeremy had made his way to the back of the room, and was holding something in his hand. "Hi, um, Hiraya, Scout was hoping we'd see you again," he whispered. "Could I ask you for a favour? Could you... do the line at the end, here? If you're okay with it?" He held out a sheet of paper with what seemed to be a script.

She looked quickly at the text, and stifled a guffaw when she saw what was going on. "Sure," she whispered back.

Scout was organising the room into groups of 'moaners', 'sighers', and 'grunters', and started conducting everybody in an interactive soundscape. Scout pointed to areas of the room where they wanted the sounds to come from, named the groups they wanted making the noises, and raised or lowered their arms to indicate volume and 'passion'. Finally they brought the whole room to a roaring climax of screams, and then signalled everybody to silence before pointing at Hiraya to say her line from the back of the room.

"Cleaning team reporting for duty!" she called out, holding her cleaning cloth and gloves up.

The room dissolved in laughter, and Hiraya got a huge and grateful smile from Scout. Jeremy whispered again in her ear. "Thank you! Scout was so nervous. But it's gone well. You were right that it's better when everybody's having fun."

"It's a pleasure," she whispered. "I'd better get back to my duties."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

She took a late lunch in the staff room. The other staff were buzzing, although many also looked tired. Some of them were also shocked and outraged at what they had seen. Others were amused, or excited.

"I wish my husband could learn a few things from the people here," one middle-aged lady was saying.

"I wish my husband was strapped to that cross upstairs!" said another. "I'd be taking my revenge for a few things."

"What do you think about all of this, Hiraya?" said the first lady, seeing her.

Hiraya thought for a minute. "This is all very new to me," she said seriously. "I was raised as a Catholic, and I still live at home. But I think the mixture of people is more interesting than what they are doing. Some of them are open, creative, and fun. Some of them I don't like very much. So it's like every other convention, really, but a lot wilder."

"I'm looking forward to the knitting expo next week, I have to say," said one of the others. "Getting wild means dropping a stitch and just keeping on going."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Things seemed to slow down a bit in the afternoon. Hiraya guessed that many people were either resting, or spending intimate time in their rooms. Conversations around the private floor were quieter, less rushed, and many of the workshops downstairs had finished.

She saw Scout again, this time on the private floor, wandering around the rooms. Scout smiled at her. "Hiraya! Hey, thanks again for your help, your idea from yesterday was great. I'm glad it's over, but the session actually went really well. Some really cool people attended. I feel a lot less alone here."

Hiraya hesitated, and then decided to speak her mind. "Scout, I was thinking to myself that you're one of the more normal people here. A lot of people who attend conferences are full of it. Loud, big-noting themselves. Competing for prestige. You're just trying to present yourself as you are. Which is somewhere between the extremes."

Scout blushed, looking deeply embarrassed. Their hands flapped at their sides for a moment, and then they gently touched Hiraya's arm. "Oh, wow. Um. Thank you, really. That means a lot, actually. 'Normal,' is a weird thing, especially in a place like this. I'll have to tell Jeremy you said that, it would crack him up."

"Where is he now?" asked Hiraya curiously.

"He's in the sexy video games workshop, arguing about Gwent and The Witcher. I was getting a little overstimulated though, so I snuck out to stretch my legs. He's loving it, though, definitely in his element."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Hiraya said with a giggle, "But it seems like you two have a really comfortable relationship. I like it."

"Oh! Um. Thanks," Scout said, blushing. "Yeah, I like him a lot. We're still figuring things out. And we're not totally exclusive or anything. We agreed on some parameters before we got to the conference, so he might get to have a bit of fun with the horny gamers. I think he's also looking out for those fucking twins... him and half of the conference-goers."

Hiraya took a risk. "Including you?"

"Hell yeah, including me. I don't think I'm their type, though."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Things got even quieter as people started preparing for the evening gala dinner and dance. Hiraya's fatigue was catching up with her, but she made an effort to keep up with her jobs.

The evening was to start with drinks on the outside terrace. The weather was warm and humid, unusually so for this time of year. Hiraya saw some flashes of lightning in the distance, and started to worry.

"What's the wet weather plan?" she asked the hospitality supervisor. "Just move them inside early?"

"Yes. If you could circulate around the crowd encouraging them to get inside if the weather gets close, that would be great," he said.

Soon there was a buzz of loud conversation. Just like the previous night, Hiraya was kept busy helping the catering team and doing clean ups. She forgot about the weather until a sudden, strong gust of cool air swept across the crowd. Most people ignored it completely, but some noticed. She saw a man near her pull out his cell phone and suddenly look worried. She moved closer to him.

"There's a severe storm warning out," he said to his companion, and he showed her the radar pictures on his phone. "We'd better go inside."

Hiraya couldn't see the manager anywhere, but she started moving around the crowd, encouraging them to go indoors to the ballroom.

A huge crack of thunder rang out across the courtyard, and all at once there was pelting rain. Most guests were now running for cover, but unbelievably, there was a small group dancing in the rain. They were wearing pagan style, witchy costumes, and were singing something about Mother Earth.

Hiraya tried her hardest to get them inside. "Please, ladies and gentlemen, there is a risk from the lightning," she urged, but they refused to budge. Finally, frustrated, she went inside and left them to it. She was soaking wet, her dress plastered to her body and dripping water on the floor. She cursed the situation, the stupid guests, and herself: she didn't have any spare clothes at work. How could she have let this happen?

The manager saw her this time. "Hiraya," he said, concerned but abrupt. "Stand down now, thank you. We have enough dry staff members to cope. Get yourself home." He rushed off.

Home. She wanted nothing more than to be home, but that would be easier said than done. Everybody here was too busy to help her, but she couldn't get on the bus like this, and no cab would take her. She couldn't possibly ask any of the guests to help her. What was she to do?

She was starting to shiver uncontrollably, and crying a little, when there was a touch on her arm. It was Scout again, this time with Jeremy.

"Oh shit, Hiraya... Hey, um. Do you want to come up to our room and dry off? We have plenty of towels..."

Scout looked over at Jeremy with a complicated expression, then seemed to come to a decision. "Don't worry about us, Jer. Go enjoy the dinner, have some fun, be safe."

Jeremy's eyes flicked between Scout and Hiraya, then he nodded silently.

She gratefully accepted Scout's offer, and they went up to the hotel room, with Hiraya dripping all the way. Sorry to whoever has to mop this up, she thought, but tonight it's not me.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Inside the room, Scout went straight to the bathroom to get some fresh towels. They brought them out to Hiraya, who hesitantly reached out her hand. It was shivering violently, and she fought to control it.

"Oh... Hiraya," said Scout, finally realising how distressed she was. "You need to warm up. Maybe... maybe you should take a warm bath. I could get one started for you?"

Hiraya hesitated, then nodded gratefully. Scout gently guided her into the bathroom, then turned to fill the tub and get the temperature right.

Hiraya stood and watched Scout work. Her shivering had intensified. She knew that she had to get her clothes off, but she felt like her fingers wouldn't obey her right now.

Scout turned back around and saw that Hiraya hadn't moved. "Can... can I help you with your clothes? Is it okay if I touch you?" Scout asked nervously. Hiraya nodded, still shivering uncontrollably.

Scout gently undid the zipper on her dress, drawing it down and off Hiraya's body. They helped her unclasp her bra, and slide off her stockings and panties, trying to avert their eyes and not stare too much.

They helped Hiraya into the bath and got her safely sitting down while the warm water swirled around her, staying with her until the taps were ready to be turned off and her shivering had stopped.

"Okay. Good. Just... relax for a while, warm up. I'll be right outside."

Scout quickly gathered up Hiraya's wet clothes, hanging them on the shower rail, then hustled out of the bathroom, closing the door behind them.

After a while, Hiraya was feeling more normal, the warmth suffusing through her body. She was very embarrassed at what had happened and her reaction, but she appreciated Scout's awkward but caring response. She lay back in the water, processing all the experiences of the weekend so far.

There was a quiet knock on the bathroom door, and Scout's head poked around. "Do you mind if I come in? I have some clothes for you."

"You've seen it all already," said Hiraya, smiling at her. "Come in."

"That doesn't mean I should presume," said Scout entering the room. "These might be too big, but I've got a sweatshirt, a hoodie and some jeans that might fit you if you roll them up a little. Um, I'm not sure about underwear, but maybe you could get away without it? Otherwise I could try and find some shops nearby?"

"No, that's fine," said Hiraya. She giggled. "This feels like the right weekend to go without underwear."

She stepped out of the water, taking the towel that Scout offered her, and dried herself. Scout averted their eyes, staring at the exhaust vent in the ceiling, holding the set of clothes out from their body. Hiraya noticed that Scout was breathing heavily, and seemed a bit flushed. She could also see that there wasn't really any dry place to put the proffered clothes in the bathroom, so it was awkward for Scout to retreat.

There was a bit to process here. She hung up her towel as quickly as she could, and then took the clothes from Scout with a grateful thank you.

"Scout," she said. "I might get dressed in the main room if that's okay, because there's a bit more space. And I don't mind if you look, if you want to. People have been wandering around naked and having sex and so on all day."

"And so on," repeated Scout, and smiled, looking Hiraya in the eyes. "Oh my God, that was all a bit confronting, wasn't it?"

They both moved out to the bedroom. Hiraya put the clothes down on the bed. She decided to try and be brave. She needed to stay naked for her next question.

"Scout, do you mind if I ask you about your body? Sorry, you don't have to. It's just that I'm still processing your pronouns. I don't really understand all that."

Scout was definitely blushing now, but attempted an answer. "Do you mean what bits I have?"

"I guess?" responded Hiraya, now bright red herself, "I'm sorry. Maybe just forget it. You're so nice to me, but I'm being rude." She picked up the jeans and went to put them on.

Scout held up their hand to pause Hiraya, and then forced out their own question. "Do you... want to see?"

Hiraya hesitated, then whispered, "Yes."

Scout took a deep breath. Off came the shirt, the khaki slacks that they were wearing, and the blue underwear underneath. They closed their eyes and stood still for Hiraya's inspection.

Hiraya looked at Scout curiously. She perceived Scout's body as feminine. They had small breasts, with pointed, engorged nipples. Their underarms were natural and unshaved. A faint trail of hair led down to Scout's nether region, which seemed unambiguously female underneath thick natural pubic hair.

"Do you... want to join me?" Scout asked quietly, opening their eyes again and moving to lie back on the hotel bed.

Hiraya hesitated, but nodded, putting the jeans back down and then lying on the bed next to Scout. She slowly reached out and ran her hand gently down Scout's body, carefully circling the prominent nipples, before leaning down to softly kiss them, and then kiss upwards to Scout's lips, and then on the closed eyelids.

"You're beautiful," she whispered. She moved her hand further down, around Scout's belly button to the pubes, and then feeling a fully aroused nub beneath. She started rubbing it softly, just as she would her own. Scout started breathing heavily.

Hiraya was fascinated by Scout's reactions. She had never thought that she had such power in her fingertips. "I hope I'm not being too rude, but can I keep asking questions?"

Scout blushed and nodded, shuddering at Hiraya's touch.

"So... what makes you a 'they'? Your body seems... female?"

"I was assigned female at birth," Scout said, returning Hiraya's gaze. "But I don't... Hmm. Okay. Let me answer your question with another question. You see yourself as a woman, right?"

Hiraya nodded. She had slowed her rubbing, but kept moving her fingers lazily as Scout continued.

"How would you feel if, growing up, your parents called you a boy? Not in an insulting way, not in a mean way, they loved you. They just... treated you like a boy, called you boy pronouns, bought you boy clothes and boy toys, wanted you to do boy hobbies?"

"I... would feel like they were wrong. It wouldn't feel natural to me. That's not how I see myself, it's not how I live my life."

"Right. Gender identity is complicated. It's not just your body or your chromosomes or your pink bits. It's your mind, your sense of self, the way you were raised, the culture you grew up in, all connected and sometimes in conflict. For me, growing up... I didn't feel like a girl. Female pronouns didn't resonate with me, didn't feel right. Dresses and dolls didn't make me feel good, didn't make me feel feminine. But I'm not trans either, I didn't feel like a boy, I don't identify as a man. I'm just... me."

Hiraya nodded slowly. "I think I understand... and I think it's part of why I found you interesting. You seem... comfortable with yourself."

"Hah," Scout snorted. "I don't know about that, I... don't always feel comfortable. But life isn't always comfortable. Most things aren't binary, aren't black and white."

"Maybe that's what makes life exciting," Hiraya said with a grin. She started rubbing more vigorously again.. She explored beneath Scout's clitoris, finding their entrance. Scout bucked their hips upwards, encouraging Hiraya to put a finger inside, and she did so. Scout was very moist, and soon Hiraya was able to put a second finger in, and start working inside more strongly. Soon Scout was sighing and moaning under her fingers, eyes closed in pleasure.

"I hope I'm doing this right," said Hiraya. "I'm sorry, I've never done this before. Just sex once with a guy, but otherwise I'm self-taught."

Scout chuckled, and opened their eyes to look at Hiraya. "You're doing just fine."

Encouraged, Hiraya bent to her task, nuzzling around Scout's breasts and sucking on and around the nipples. Scout's breathing got heavier, and after a few more minutes of steadily increasing moaning, they moved into a roaring, bucking orgasm, hips heaving on the bed, clenching spasmodically on Hiraya's fingers.

They both lay there panting, for a few minutes, before Scout abruptly rolled them over and planted a long kiss on Hiraya, tongue searching inside her mouth. They stayed like that for ages before Scout drew away to gaze down at Hiraya.

"Can I repay the favour?"

"I'd love you to," said Hiraya. Then she frowned and grabbed her phone to check the time. "I just need to make sure I don't miss the last bus home."

"I'll drive you," said Scout. "We drove to the conference. It's costing a fortune in parking charges, so I need to justify it somehow."

"Are you sure?" Hiraya said. "It's nearly an hour by car."

'Which means it's probably two hours by bus, right?" asked Scout.

Hiraya nodded, accepting, and smiled. "Thank you. That's very kind."

"Least I could do," said Scout, and started kissing down Hiraya's body, circling her small breasts and licking her prominent, engorged nipples before continuing downwards. Hiraya's mound was sparsely covered with dark hair, and Scout spent a while nuzzling into it, inhaling her scent. Hiraya spread her legs wide apart and gently nudged Scout lower. As Scout had been, she was very wet. Scout started licking her vulva in earnest, occasionally moving higher to tease her nub out from its hiding place, and inching their index finger inside.

"Oh!" cried Hiraya as Scout found her G-spot and settled into a complex rhythm of clitoral and vaginal stimulation. With their free hand, Scout reached up and started teasing Hiraya's breasts, lightly tickling and occasionally giving her nipples a soft pinch.

Scout had taken a while to come to orgasm, but Hiraya's climax arrived at supersonic speed, hitting hard with vibrations spreading from head to toes. She sucked in her breath, heaving and gasping. Finally, she pushed Scout away from her crotch.

"No more!" she panted. "I can't take it!"

Scout sat up on the bed and looked at her reflectively, smiling smugly. "At this point, it would be polite to tell me that I'm the best you've ever had, regardless of pronouns."

Hiraya giggled. "Of course that's true! But you're comparing it to a low bar, because the guy I had sex with previously did nothing for me, and I did nothing for him. I like guys too, but we must have been doing something wrong."

"It's a shame that Jeremy isn't here," said Scout, "or we could have explored that further."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

They went down to the carpark in the elevator together, looking like twins in matching hoodies and jeans. Scout's clothes were a little loose on Hiraya, but she didn't mind. She just had to hitch the jeans up occasionally to stop them falling down and revealing her lack of panties. She had her wet uniform bundled in a hotel laundry bag. She needed to wash Scout's clothes once she got home, so that she could give them back tomorrow.

It felt amazing dressing in Scout's style. She almost always wore 'girly' clothes at home and behaved as she was expected, demure in front of her parents and taking on the expected female jobs. In these clothes she felt like she wouldn't be recognised. Perhaps she could go and get drunk like the boys did, or play hoops in the backyard.

"I love this hoodie," she said. "If I'd been wearing this last night at the drinks reception, that guy would have just ignored me completely. I feel protected."

"Keep it," said Scout impulsively.

"I couldn't possibly!"

"No, I really mean it. I would get a huge buzz if I knew that you were wearing it. You could repay me with a photo of you in it."

After a bit more protesting, Hiraya reluctantly accepted. She actually felt thrilled. She hoped that it was obvious to Scout what a wonderful gift it was.

They chatted about various other things on the way. Scout asked Hiraya about her upbringing and the Philippine family influences, and Hiraya asked Scout about their journey to being an 'enby', which was a term that she hadn't heard before. She didn't think that she would ever identify that way herself, but seeing how Scout dressed and behaved helped her understand nuances of gender norms. Having met Scout as they were now, it was impossible to imagine them in a pretty pink dress and conforming to stereotypes. It would be soulless... hollow.

By the time Scout dropped Hiraya at her modest but neat family home, she felt like she understood so much more, although Scout was at pains to emphasise that it was just their journey that they could talk about and that everybody was different.

It was about 11 pm when they got there. Hiraya thanked her and apologized that it was probably too late to invite her in for a coffee. "My parents will have already gone to bed," she said. "I would have loved to have introduced you. They are nice people even though they're very traditional. But they also work six days a week, so I need to be quiet at night."

"No problem," said Scout, and gave her a gentle punch on the arm. "See you tomorrow?"

"Of course!"

Before she drove away, Scout wound down their window to ask another question. "Does 'Hiraya' mean something special in Filipino?"

"It means 'fruit of one's hopes, dreams, and aspirations", said Hiraya, smiling. "I think that my parents were thinking of our new life here. But I can also choose what I can dream of becoming. Perhaps I can use this weekend to inspire me."

Scout nodded, also smiling, and headed back to the hotel.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sunday

Hiraya had a later start the next morning, for which she was profoundly grateful. She arrived at work with her dress freshly washed and ironed, and Scout's clothes (minus the hoodie) washed and folded in her bag.

Mrs Richards wasn't working today, but her deputy efficiently dispatched Hiraya to clean a batch of rooms, followed by a roaming role as per the previous days. Much to her amusement, one of her assigned guest rooms was Scout and Jeremy's. She would need to play this carefully as obviously she was breaking the rules by having intimate relations with guests, but there was still potential for some fun here.

She decided to go there first, although she knew they would probably be at breakfast. But when she knocked on the door with the usual call of 'housekeeping!', she heard sounds inside. It was Jeremy who opened the door a crack, although wide enough for her to see that he wasn't wearing much. For an IT guy, he was in good shape. He was well-muscled, without the usual gamer's paunch. His skin was a glowing brown with an even sheen to it, a little sprinkle of curly black chest hair, and a dark trail of hair leading suggestively down into his boxers.

"Hiraya!" he said, surprised. "Scout is still asleep."

"That's okay, Jeremy," she said. "I've been assigned to your room, but I can come back at a better time. I'll just give you Scout's clothes back, if I may."

He took the clothes from her, and then leaned close to whisper so that he couldn't be overheard in the hallway behind. "Scout um... told me what happened, last night. With you two. I'm... kinda sorry I missed it," he said with an embarrassed grin. "Listen, don't worry about coming back to clean our room. But if... if you wanted to come back after your shift is over?"

"Thanks, that's most kind. I'd love to!," Hiraya said. The formality sounded strange in the circumstances, but it never hurt to be polite. She wasn't sure what to say next, but realised that Jeremy had left out something.

"I trust you had a good evening yourself?" she asked.

Jeremy grinned. "The best!" he whispered. "So good that Scout doesn't believe me. I might tell you more later." With that promise, he waved goodbye, and she went off on her cleaning rounds.

A fair portion of her assigned rooms had 'Do Not Disturb' notices on the door, and some of the others had occupants who obviously didn't want to be interrupted. She flagged these for the afternoon shift. Some of the rooms were also in a huge mess, although it was hard to tell if the attendees were from the physics conference or the erotica one. All in all, it wasn't massively different from most Sunday cleaning shifts, as people tended to be wildest on Saturday nights.

My Saturday night was certainly wild, she thought, blushing. It seemed like a dream, except that the evidence of the conference was all around her.

One of the final rooms on her list was a plush Executive suite. The door was answered by a tall, redheaded woman, hair slightly dishevelled. She was wearing green silk pyjamas. After a second, Hiraya recognised her as one of the twins who had rescued her on Friday night.

"Sorry to disturb you, Ma'am. Would you like your room cleaned? One of my colleagues can come back later if needed."

The woman frowned, and then turned her head as another woman's voice came distantly from behind her. "Can they clean while we're lounging around here? I don't feel like getting dressed yet, but a clean bathroom would be nice."

"No problem, Ma'am," said Hiraya, and with a nod from the woman at the door, she brought her cleaning trolley in. The other woman turned out to be the other twin, also wearing silk pyjamas, although in black. She was lying in the king-sized bed in the suite's bedroom, which the two of them were obviously sharing.

The twin at the door was looking at her closely, brow furrowed. "I feel like I recognise you, but I can't place it." Her accent was definitely Australian, but it sounded a bit different from Friday night: more cultured. It could almost have passed for an English accent.

"You and your sister very kindly helped me on Friday night at the function, by escorting that rude man out. Thank you so much for that," Hiraya replied, smiling.

The woman's face cleared. "Of course! It was a pleasure, um, Hiraya," she said, reading Hiraya's name badge. Do you know if they kicked him out? I'm Astrid, by the way, and my indolent sister over there is Ingrid."

"Yes, they did, and they were grateful," Hiraya replied. "Our staffing is pretty stretched this weekend, so you really helped us out. It was also pretty funny," she giggled.

"We're used to dealing with imbeciles like that. We have a stage show that sometimes attracts creeps, although most people are great," responded Astrid. "We find that it helps if you can make everybody laugh at the same time as you're putting people in their place."

"I have to ask... is that your natural voice?" asked Hiraya. "You sounded different on Friday."

"Australia has two basic accents: the city and the bush," explained Astrid. "We were hamming it up, so we used the bush accent. But we're city girls. We also speak French and some Norwegian, although the Norwegian isn't too good. If I may ask, where are you from? I'm not so good with Asian accents, but unlike that idiot I do know that people are different and that not every girl works in a bar."

"I'm Filipina, but I was born here," Hiraya explained. "My family speaks mainly Tagalog at home, but also English and some Spanish. I can't tell you how angry I was at that guy before you intervened. Usually I just go quiet in that situation. I think I might have exploded this time, but then I might have lost my job."

With some more polite conversation, she got on with the cleaning. As Ingrid had implied, the bathroom was quite a mess: it looked like there had been quite a bit happening around the bath itself. There were also some used condoms in the trash basket. She didn't comment, of course, but when she had the bathroom all straightened out, Ingrid apologised to her.

"I'm sorry, Hiraya. This is a bit awkward because you don't normally meet your hotel cleaner, but obviously we had a good night last night."

"Who would have known that an argument about Gwent would lead to such good sex?" called out Astrid from the other room.

Gwent? Where did I hear that before? Hiraya thought.

"Yeah, his deck was pretty bad... But his dick was grade A!" Ingrid giggled. "Shy, easily flustered guys can be so cute..."

"A perfect nerdy gentleman, that one was," Astrid said.

"A real dark horse, and built to match," replied Ingrid.

Suddenly it clicked.

"Jeremy!" Hiraya blurted out, and then clapped her hand to her mouth in horror. She couldn't believe she was being so unprofessional. As a cleaner, she was meant to be invisible, not naming sex partners of guests.

Ingrid looked taken aback, but amused. "Yes, Jeremy," she said, laughing. "You know him? I'm pretty sure that he didn't expect his night would feature a threesome with Australian twins, but he wasn't complaining, and we sure had a good time. Sure, he's a geek, but he's super-nice, he's pretty fit for an IT guy, and whip-smart. We don't put out for idiots."

Hiraya was blushing again. "Um, I might have spent time with his partner Scout at the same time. They have an open relationship. And I saw him this morning, and he said that Scout wasn't believing how lucky he got. I'll be seeing them again later."

Astrid had appeared in the doorway to the bedroom, grinning. "Well, this is blurring a whole of boundaries," she cackled. "But it's good fun. Don't think badly of us. We're really careful who we hook up with. Jeremy is in an elite group."

"Astrid, what was that thing he did last night? Maybe we should ask him to write it down so that we can require it of future lovers?"

"Oh gawd, you mean the thing with his..."

"YES! I don't think I've EVER cum like that before..."

Ingrid had grabbed a hotel notepad from beside the bed. She scribbled her name and a phone number. She added five love hearts, a smiley face, and wrote "Thanks for the loan!" and she passed the note to Hiraya.

"Tell this Scout that they can call me to verify our five star reviews, and that we hope we returned Jeremy in good working order."

"I will," said Hiraya, still red-faced. She got on with cleaning the rest of the suite, and then she left them alone, although not before they had also given her Astrid's contact details in case there was any fall-out from the incident on Friday night. It felt so nice to have guests actually looking out for her.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hiraya got through the rest of her guest rooms, and then after a quick break, switched back to the conference rooms for the last time. Things were definitely winding down, and some of the rooms were being packed up prior to the conference closing ceremony. She was finally able to turn the lights on in the sensory deprivation room. It wasn't too bad – the early morning cleaners had obviously had the chance to do some work there, and there hadn't been much action since. Everything seemed to be going better than she had feared it would.

She made it down to the closing ceremony soon after it had started. It was pretty lame: the room was half empty, and those that had come looked like they would rather be sleeping off the night before still. Up on stage, they were giving out various prizes and talking about the conference highlights, and the audience was applauding politely. She moved around the room quietly, refilling water and picking up trash, but there really wasn't much to do.

She suddenly heard Scout's name being called, and swivelled to look at the stage. There was Scout, looking embarrassed in their hoodie and jeans, being handed an award! The big screen announced that it was for the 'best technical workshop' for the conference.

This is great, she thought. It will give Scout so much confidence to back those good ideas with.

After Scout was sitting back down next to a beaming Jeremy, Hiraya discretely leant down and whispered in their ears.

"Congratulations! I need to go and finish my shift off, and I'll come by your room in about an hour, ok?"

She got a smile and a nod in return, and then Scout's hand reached out to grab and squeeze hers. "Thank you, Hiraya," they whispered.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hiraya had remembered to bring some choices for a change of clothes into work this time: sweatshirt, jeans and Scout's hoodie if she wanted to blend in, or a nice dress if there was an occasion. How did one dress for a potential threesome?

She quickly changed into the dress in the staff room. It was an A-line in topaz blue satin, reaching to her lower calves. Classy enough, modest neckline, and it worked well with her small bust. She had some matching heels, and changed her simple silver earrings for some nice topaz pendants that went with the dress. The outfit was from a family birthday party the previous year, but she thought it worked well enough for today. She kept the black stockings on from her work outfit.

After a bit of fiddling around, she also managed to do something with her hair, putting it into a twisted crown.

She used the guest lifts to go up to their room, so that she wouldn't be seen in the staff lifts in her party dress. She knocked on their door, which thankfully opened quickly, and she ducked inside, to discover both Scout and Jeremy gazing at her in appreciation.

Scout coughed. "I must say, Hiraya, that although you look good in a maid's dress, and in a soaking wet maid's dress, and even in a hoodie, you look rather sensational in this."

Hiraya was pleased but embarrassed, and quickly tried to change the subject. She stepped forward and threw her arms around Scout.

"I'm so happy for you," she said. "What a great award!"

Scout gasped, then returned the hug warmly, Jeremy standing close by, watching awkwardly..

"I think it was your audience participation suggestion that clinched it, Hiraya" he said.

"I doubt it," she said modestly. "From what I saw, you had lots of great content. Anyway, what does this mean?"

"It means we get invited back next year and I've been asked to give a longer version of the workshop in a larger room," said Scout happily. "I mean, that will be terrifying, of course, but I can put in so much more content. They even said they can pay a small fee as well as covering expenses. And this is all from a cranky email about program accessibility issues! I'm so hyped! To be honest, I was all ready to jump Jeremy's bones the instant we got back here, but he suggested that we needed to wait for you."

"I wouldn't have minded," said Hiraya. "You're partners, and I'm just the cleaner after all. Although from what I hear, Jeremy might have needed all the extra rest that he could."

Scout laughed. "He tell you that crazy story about making it with the twins, did he? I mean they are so far out of our league. I'm still trying to get him to admit what really happened."

"About that..." said Hiraya, and detached herself to rummage in her handbag, pulling out a slip of paper. "As you know, you can't hide things from the cleaners. I cleaned the twins' suite earlier today, and I can make a full report as necessary. But more to the point, they gave me their numbers, said to pass on their compliments, their review and their hope that they haven't worn him out, and that you're welcome to call Ingrid if you need direct testimony." She handed the slip of paper across.

"You might want to call Ingrid anyway," she added. "Maybe if they'd like to be blessed by Jeremy again, they should invite you along too?"

Scout looked stunned, but after a few seconds laughed again and shook their head.

"That will teach me, won't it? I'm not the only one exceeding expectations here, obviously. Sorry to doubt you, Jeremy."

Jeremy grinned. "Yeah, well... you've been trying to take more risks in life, so I figured I'd try to follow your lead. They weren't that scary once we started talking about video games..."

Jeremy trailed off into a brief, reflective silence. Hiraya realised that now was the moment to move things along.

"So, Scout, did you want to... have some more fun, before you need to leave? Maybe... with Jeremy too, this time? If he has energy left after the twins. If you wanted to! Because... I want to." Hiraya said, mustering up her courage.

Scout looked at Jeremy. Jeremy looked at Scout. They both looked at Hiraya.

"Lift your arms up, Hiraya," Scout said matter-of-factly.

Nervously, Hiraya complied. She was wearing a simple summer dress. Scout pulled it up and over her head, but left it there so that Hiraya's eyes were covered, her arms stuck uselessly in the air. She felt nimble fingers undoing her bra, and then a warm mouth sucking on her left breast, gently drawing out her engorged nipple. Soon, another mouth was suckling her right breast.

Jeremy's on my right tit, but his technique is nearly as good as Scout's.

Meanwhile, clever hands stripped her panties off, and started exploring between her legs. She shivered in anticipation. She was unbalanced though, and started falling backwards, giggling.

Both of them grabbed her to stop her falling further, and then with a bit of good-natured muttering, they manoeuvred her onto the bed on her back, head still covered by the dress. Strong hands were now holding her legs apart, and a tongue was slavering at her folds down below. Whoever it was (she thought it was Scout) was impatient; this was urgent rutting compared to the previous night.

A finger moved inside her to test her moisture. She started to buck up and down, expecting a similar treat to the previous night, but instead the finger withdrew and she heard the sounds of clothes being quickly removed, and then the sound of a condom being unwrapped. She tensed, and then remembered that she was with people who she trusted. She forced herself to try and relax.

It's just Jeremy. It's just Jeremy. I like Jeremy. Scout likes him. The twins like him, and they seem to know their toy boys.

Scout had clearly noticed: there was some urgent whispering to Jeremy, and then Scout's voice suddenly sounded in her ear.

"Hiraya, I'm sorry. I had forgotten that your first experience with a guy wasn't great. Jeremy's going to put his cock in you now, but he'll take it slowly, and if it doesn't feel right, just say so and he'll stop. Is that okay?"

She managed a nervous "Yes, Scout", muffled through her dress.

She felt something nudging her labia. Her legs were slowly pushed back so that they were pointing up and splayed to each side of her. Jeremy started pushing inexorably inside, and the fingers returned, this time tickling around her vulva and gently circling her clitoris. A tongue started licking around her breasts again.

She sensed that Jeremy had bottomed out, and he started thrusting, oh so slowly. It felt good. She was comfortably full, but unlike the last time, it wasn't painful. With every thrust, she could feel her sensitive spots being thoroughly rubbed. She let go, losing herself in the bliss of having her breasts, vagina and clit stimulated at once. She could hear herself moaning through the dress as Jeremy's tempo increased and the rest of the orchestra kept pace.

Hiraya came, screaming and shaking, and the music slowed and then ceased. She felt Jeremy, still hard, sliding out of her, and then her dress was finally removed from her head. She opened her eyes, blinking and smiling, to see the other two looking back at her affectionately. Jeremy was in the process of removing the condom.

"Thank you..." she managed. "That was... wonderful."

"We're not finished yet," said Scout, "but we'll give you a break from cock. Could you suck me?" And then Scout leaned over Hiraya and pressed their small breast into her mouth. Hiraya couldn't see anything, but she felt tremors through Scout as Jeremy moved into 'doggy' position and started thrusting vigorously. Scout was moaning loudly and came quickly, but Jeremy just kept thrusting until he too let out a cry above them, pumping into Scout. He stilled his motion, and then slowly withdrew.

"Just going to wash up for a second," he called, and headed to the bathroom.

Scout smirked. "That's the thing with guys. Things get messy."

Hiraya took her mouth off Scout's breast. "I wouldn't really know from my limited experience."

"Want to do something really filthy?" asked Scout. "I guarantee it will get him hard again fast."

"I guess," said Hiraya uncertainly.

"Just tell me to stop if it's too gross," said Scout, and switched position above Hiraya, moving their mouth down to lap at her crotch while slotting their own vulva over Hiraya's mouth. It was really slimy.

Oh! Oh course, he came inside them. So this is what cum tastes like?

She decided to go with the flow, and started lapping at Scout. It was not too unpleasant: really it was just like some sort of seafood cocktail or something. A bit of salt, a hint of sugar, some other strange flavours, mixed with Scout's own juices. Not delicious, exactly, but not as horrible as she might have thought.

They stayed like that for a while, lapping at each other. Scout started rubbing at Hiraya's clitoris, and Hiraya reciprocated. It felt nice, although Hiraya didn't know if she could come again.

Scout could come again, and did so loudly. "Oh wow," Hiraya heard Jeremy exclaim. She turned her head down, away from Scout's dripping fronthole.

She looked through the space between her body and Scout's to see Jeremy standing at the foot of the bed. He was hard again.

"One more time, Hiraya?" he asked. "That was um, inspirational to watch."

She nodded, and to her surprise Jeremy made her flip over on the bed, bottom in the air. It seemed like he liked the 'doggy' position, which she hadn't tried yet.

There was the sound of another condom wrapper (what will the cleaners think?) and then Hiraya's hips were being grasped firmly as Jeremy entered her from behind, less gently than before. Scout was lying on the bed, watching them casually, and then reached out a hand to start tickling around Hiraya's hanging breasts.

"Your tits look great from this angle," Scout said. Then, as Jeremy increased his thrusts, Scout reached down further and started vigorously rubbing around Hiraya's clit again. It was almost too much to bear, but suddenly she was coming again. It was a long, slow surge, not the screaming climax of earlier, but it was enough, and when Jeremy grunted and let go behind her, she felt like they had run a marathon together.

Jeremy pulled out and retreated to the bathroom again to dispose of the condom, and then poked his head out to speak to them.

"Do you mind if I take the first shower?" he asked. "There isn't room for three, or barely even two."

"It's fine," called Scout, and then opened their arms to Hiraya. "Let's have a cuddle."

They stayed like that until Jeremy came out of the shower, and then Scout pulled Hiraya upright. "No room for two Jeremys, but room for two of us."

They washed each other in the shower, a little awkwardly in the tight space, but it was fun. They then dressed each other. Scout shyly explained how they bound their chest to wear some things, and showed how it was done. Hiraya understood it from the mechanical point of view, but she was still getting her head around Scout's identity and choices.

What does it matter? The important thing is that they're a really nice, clever person and a lot of fun to be with. Jeremy is so lucky, and hopefully he knows it. If I were him, I'd be swearing off the twins forever. Maybe I should tell him that.

But she didn't, because when she saw Jeremy looking at Scout after they were dressed, eyes shining, she knew it wasn't necessary to say anything at all.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It was still only early in the evening. Jeremy and Scout insisted on driving her home. When they pulled up at Hiraya's house, she looked at them hesitantly. "It's not too late in the evening," she said. "Can I introduce you to my parents? As friends, of course, not, um, sex fiends leading me astray."

Scout made a face. "Shit, I don't know if I can handle more humans after this weekend, I..."

"Oh my God, what is that amazing smell?" Jeremy interrupted, getting a whiff of Hiraya's mom's cooking wafting from the front door.

"Oh, yeah, my mom always makes a big pot of adobo on Sunday. It gives us leftovers for half the week. If you come in, there's a chance you'll be invited to dinner."

"Adobo?" asked Jeremy.

"Marinated chicken, soy, garlic, bay leaves, and some other things. It's our national dish."

Jeremy looked pleadingly at Scout with his big, brown, puppy dog eyes. Scout still looked reluctant, but then a huge growl from their stomach betrayed them.

"Go on then," they said. "But we don't want to impose, really."

Hiraya led them to the front door, desperately hoping that her parents would behave themselves. But she need not have worried. There was a fleeting glare from her Mama for not giving her any notice of visitors, but after that she was warm, effusive, and delighted to meet new friends of Hiraya who had been 'leading an accessibility workshop' at one of the big conferences at the hotel. Extra places were laid at the table and dinner served in short order, and Hiraya's Mum even asked if they needed any vegetarian alternatives to the meat: she was happy to whip something up.

"Oh no, that's fine, thank you," said Jeremy quickly. "It's, um, been a protein-sapping weekend," prompting a confused look from Hiraya's Mum and a kick under the table from Scout.

Hiraya distracted them by explaining that Scout had really helped her out after getting caught in the thunderstorm the previous night. Scout praised Hiraya for helping with the workshop. Her parents asked Scout to explain what the workshop had been about, and listened patiently to stories of pictures without alternative text and all the other ways that people could be excluded from participating in life.

"I'm sorry, I'm going on about it too much," stuttered Scout, after realising that nobody had else had been able to say a word for the last five minutes.

Hiraya's Papa touched Scout on the arm. "No, it's fine," he said in his deep, resonant voice. "As outsiders here, we understand about inclusion. And thank you for making friends with our daughter. She's a good girl, but she doesn't usually smile as much as she is tonight."

"Your daughter is wonderful. And she really helped us out, too," said Jeremy, awkwardly. Hiraya blushed, trying to not think of the other endorphin-related reasons that she was smiling. It didn't help when Scout caught her eye and gave her a quick wink.

They stayed for some sweet dishes of haluhalo, the national dessert of the Philippines, and then took their leave. "They are nice parents," said Scout, as Hiraya was walking back to the car with them. "Not everybody has that. Cherish them."

"I will. I do. But I also need to leave home soon," said Hiraya.

"That too," said Scout, and started to say something else, then stopped. Jeremy took their hand, and squeezed it.

"I'd better get this one back to the hotel," he said. "Long drive home tomorrow, and then back to our boring jobs."

"I don't think either of you are going to stay in those jobs for long," said Hiraya. "You're too alive. Too talented."

"And the same goes for you," he replied. "You've got our details. Stay in touch during the year. I guarantee you that in a year's time, things will have changed for all of us. But come and visit before then," he added, shyly.

Hiraya nodded, a lump in her throat, and she suddenly clasped them both in a hug, her wide, luminous eyes moist. After a minute they separated, said their final farewells, and Scout and Jeremy drove off.

Her mother had been watching from the window, wondering about these unusual friends and their evening visit. But then she saw her daughter's radiant, thoughtful face as she came inside. Her husband had been right. She was a daughter to be proud of, and she was smiling much more than usual. And those were the things that mattered most of all.

She reached out and offered Hiraya a hug. "It must have been quite a weekend at work," she said wryly in Tagalog, "to have made such close and interesting friends so quickly and to be confident to bring them here. And I'm not going to ask how you came to be wearing your party dress at work, but it's nice to see you looking beautiful and making your own choices. And I can see that they are nice people. Thank you for introducing us. I would be happy to meet them again."

Hiraya gave a light laugh into her shoulder, and replied in the same language. "I love you, Ina, and thank you for not asking me for any more details. I think I'll go to bed now, and probably sleep all morning tomorrow. It's been intense."

She kissed her mother on the cheek, and then walked over to her bemused father to do the same. And then she prepared for bed, and her sleep was filled with dreams of light and laughter all night.

Acknowledgements

Penny Thompson kindly gave permission to use Scout and Jeremy from their superb "Accessibility Compliance", part of the 2025 "On The Job" challenge collection. Penny also contributed heavily to the text. Thank you Penny for this and for being such a joy to work with!

There are also some cameos from Bella from Andreas Kreuz's "Hotel Roissy 2A Experiment", (thank you Andreas), and some bonus appearances from Astrid and Ingrid of my story "Mirror Twin".

Thank you also to Freya Gersemi for organizing the challenge, and to everybody for creating the conference program, cross-fertilizations, and even conference merch! It's been a very, um stimulating experience...