Battle Vixens! - 133

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Episode 133: How to Save a Life

Petra clapped, giving everyone present a brief applause—and also gaining their immediate attention thanks to most still having highly-sensitive-to-sound fox ears. "Alright alright! Excellent job everyone! Now then—dinner's on me!" she said, sweeping her arms out dramatically.

Karis turned to face her. "Wait, whose dinner?"

"Everyone! All of us who contributed something to tonight's victory. There's a place in this town I've been wanting to try for a while, so if they're still open—or if they'll open for us..."

"And, we can afford to treat this many people?" Karis said, waving at the multitude of vixens around them—not to mention, probably, Light, Rowan, Magus, and whoever else might happen to be on that end of things.

"Just this once? Absolutely! Anyway—I'm rich, I'm famous, I promised you already, we all deserve it, and I want to!"

"Pfft," Karis giggled briefly. "All right then, I guess there's no arguing with that."

"It's decided then! But while I arrange things, let's just get outta this rain!"

Miraculously, a nearby community center was one of the buildings recently saved from the tank's efforts to trample over the town, and it was even unlocked. Several of the vixens changed back as a means of drying off, and Emma did the same even though she could've used Rowan's power to do it. This was, at least, one convenient thing about not being able to hide who she really was...

Clark came in shortly behind the rest of the group, Thad trailing behind her while he shook off an umbrella, and immediately went in Rory's direction, shifting back to human form before speaking: "Are you alright?"
Rory had been sitting in a folding chair hunched over, and she sat up enough to answer. "Yeah...yeah. A little winded, I guess. Emma saved me a little trouble...eh, maybe just plain 'saved me', actually."

"That's good. Were you, going to thank her, then?"
"Uh-huh. I was..getting to that. HEY!" she sat suddenly upright and belted, waving. "EMMA!"
She jumped. "Eep! Uh..."
"My wife would like to thank you," Clark said after a brief facepalm—in a voice raised only enough to be heard. "Preferably not at this volume!"
"O-oh."

Thankfully, everyone was staring at Rory instead of her, and that only briefly before resuming their prior conversations. Simon didn't even look away from his phone. So Emma had a relatively stare-free walk over to the Quinns.

Rory gave her what was probably supposed to be an encouraging smile, although she still looked pretty weary. "Hey, I dunno if I said it properly before, so—thank you. You really, really helped, showing up when you did."
"Um..y-you're welcome. I just...I didn't want you to have to face that thing alone."
"You don't think I could've—uh," Rory interrupted herself, pushing off some kind of instinctive need to put on a bunch of bravado. "I mean, yeah, it was probably too much for me.

"..Say, I hope I haven't been too hard on you or anything."
"Uh—no? Not that I can think of," Emma said.

"That's good. I just haven't always had the nicest thoughts directed your way, I guess. I've never had any real mental issues myself—I mean, at least not before 'widespread retrograde amnesia'. So—nothing like depression, panic attacks, or whatever. And, as a scientist I'm objectively aware the people who have to deal with that kind of thing, can't always control it. Literally can't. Even so, I've got this emotional knee-jerk reaction about those issues if I don't think about what I'm doing first, like: 'why don't you just fight harder and will yourself better'? It's just that I really don't know what it's like to have your own brain sabotaging you. Sooo, if I say something out of turn in the future, sorry in advance. You can bop me on the noggin for it if Clark's not nearby to handle the job," she said, lightly knocking her fist against her head to demonstrate this.
"Uh..th-that's okay," Emma said. "It's..I think in my case, I know what makes me worse and sometimes I just, slip back into bad habits. I really could've done better today, but beating myself up over it, is one of those. So there can be this, awful cycle where I tell myself I should be doing better, and it makes me feel guilty that I'm not, so then I do even worse. But—you shouldn't ever, um, take something like that as an excuse. People still choose to do things, whatever their brain is doing. I'm still responsible for what I've done wrong."

"Eh, maybe in your case," Rory said, shrugging. "I guess Light already forgave you for trying to kill her, and it's hardly my business in the first place, right?"
"Um, I guess?"
"But you remember—when it comes to other people, the insanity defense exists for a reason."

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Light jolted awake, all-at-once realizing that she was sitting down and trying to get up, only to bump her head against a very low-seeming ceiling. "Ow." She winced, properly sitting up as it became clear that she was in a car seat.
"Uh, sorry about that." She was, more specifically, sitting in the front seat of Amory's car, with him in the driver's seat. "You okay?"
"Yeah..just...what happened?"
"The last monster died, and then you fainted."
"Right...and, after that?" A brief look around the car found Magus, still unconscious, in the backseat.

"Ning carried you and put you in here. And I helped put Magus in the back, while Rowan got rid of all the water on everyone."

It hadn't even occurred to her at first that she was completely dry—fluffy tail and all—despite the rain still hitting the windows of the car fairly hard. "And...where'd they go?"
"Well, Simon invited 'everyone'" (he used his hands to make air quotes) "out to dinner. So they're headed that way. It's up to you if you want us to join? Or, I guess, when Magus wakes up I could drop her off if she doesn't."

Speaking of, a faint groaning could be heard from the backseat. Turning that way, Light said: "Hey, don't—!" but this warning was interrupted by what it was supposed to prevent as the mage vixen's head audibly hit the car roof.

At least it woke her up, anyway. "...Ouch." She rubbed her head through her hat.

One brief, repeated explanation later, she said: "Oh, sweet! Like a vixen party? I wanna go! Are you guys going?"
"...I guess it doesn't sound so bad," Light said. "Just remember—Amory is a friend of ours who drove us here, and nothing else."
"Uh..right, yeah. I can stick to that," she nodded. "...I think."

"Okay, settled!" Amory cranked the car, the vixens buckled up, and they started on their way.

A minute or two of quiet driving later, Magus said: "Uh, hey—Light?"
"Yeah?"
"What was the, glowy thing you did, right after I cast Sunblaze?"
"'Glowy thing'?"
"Uh—yeah. Like, with your swords? It was, blue, like on the blades."
"Blue?" Light waved her hand to one side where Magus could see it, holding it palm-up and making a small ball of blue light over float above it. "Like this?"
"Uh, no, it was—like it wasn't just the color blue, it was—and it, like.." she gestured incoherently with her hands, not quite finding the words for what she was talking about. "And! It, like, cut through the army, like they weren't even there."

"..I noticed that, but I thought it was just a strength boost or something," Light said. "Everything felt practically weightless once I was absorbing your light."

"...Huh. Maybe it was just—I mean, I was tired enough to be kinda delirious, I was still dealing with Emma's power all running around in my head...there was a lot of light around to maybe reflect off of things, including all the rain...did you see anything, Amory?"

"I was too far back," he admitted. "This was when you were both surrounded, right? Just before Rowan's car pulled up, and then I was busy with her."

"So—you don't remember putting like, a cutting blue light on your swords, then?"

"I, can't make 'hard light' like Zeno does—at least, not alone; apparently Wave can do it to some extent. So, I wouldn't even know how to make a 'cutting light'," she said.

Magus shook her head. "Maybe it was just my imagination or something..but hey, either way, you were amazing!" She launched from this into gushing about the part of the fight she'd been able to witness before passing out, and eagerly asking how the rest of it had gone.

---

The restaurant staff needed some time to get things ready, so everyone had to stand or sit around for a few minutes. The indoor waiting area was slightly crowded, not built for quite this many bodies at once, so Emma joined a few other people in waiting outside under an awning instead. It wasn't perfectly dry out there, but it was better than nothing. After a few minutes, Rowan's car showed up and—Ning walked out of the passenger seat?

"Ning? Are you okay now?"
"Yep! Doin' pretty good," she nodded, hurrying up to Emma before suddenly grabbing her into a big hug.
"Aack!" It didn't help that Ning was a little wet from running over through the rain.

"Heheh—sorry, sorry," she let go and hopped back out of personal-space range. "I heard you had a pretty rough time today—thought you could use a hug?"
"Um—that's. True. Thanks. H-how's Nadia?" Rowan walked by, casually waving her hand to pull the water back off of both of them and toss it away to one side.

"She better be asleep by now," Ning said, putting her fists on her hips. "One of my neighbors volunteered to babysit and house-sit. He can be a little soft about bedtimes, but I couldn't say no under the circumstances."

While they were talking, another car pulled into the lot, and three more people stepped out. It took a lot of restraint for Emma to not run back out into the pouring rain, and instead wait right near the edge of the awning until Amory came close enough to pull him into a hug. He was a little surprised by this gesture, but returned it after a couple of seconds, both of them staying silent for a long moment before letting go.

"Um. S-sorry," she said, "I just. We kinda. Left on bad terms, a-and.."
"It's alright. You can always come to me for a hug," he said. "Any time. Are you..feeling a little better now?"
"Y-yeah. I really just, needed to sort some things out in my head. A-and...um." She paused, deciding on the best way to put it with other people around who might overhear. "'Beryl' told me, that my help was really badly needed—in kind of a convoluted way involving..."

At this point, Emma noticed Magus awkwardly talking to Thad—who'd also come outside when she had. He'd started with: "Heyy, Magus! I'm a huge fan."

And then her response was an absolute disaster: "Uh! Y-yeah. Nice to, um. Meet a fan. Who I definitely, have never met before. Hoooww are you uh, here?" Emma could tell that this was someone Marcus knew at this point, and it seemed like it was only going to get worse if Magus kept talking.
So she hurried over to cut into their conversation. "ThisisThad!" she said, rapid-fire introducing him with an excited wave. "He gave me a ride over to help fight the tank."

"Hah, yeah. We're, acquaintances I guess? And she knew I had a sports car. You know, that could go real fast."
"Yes! That."

This seemed to break up the awkward moment, and Magus hurried to go talk to someone else, so Emma went back to where Light and Amory were. "Anyway, uh—she sent the message through him for some reason," she said at a low whisper. "Mmaaaybe just because he has a fast car and was willing to drive it really fast?"

"What exactly was this message?" Light asked.
"Um..something about the uh, 'probability of Rory surviving alone'..being really low. That's what I remember of it..."

"Hey, Gemma!" She jumped, then turned—Magus had come her way now. "Uh, sorry—didn't mean to scare ya. Just, like, I kinda sorta borrowed your power without permission? I mean I didn't exactly get a chance to ask you, I just—came up with the idea, spur-of-the-moment like, when I was talking to Light before our fight. Didn't even think about it 'till right now, to be honest."

"Um—that's okay. I told her to use it 'however she needed', and that includes lending out. I, didn't think I'd be really using it for a while, at the time. Anyway...did you find it, helpful?"

"Oh, definitely! It's really powerful."

"That's good," she nodded.

"But also uh—super overwhelming and insane! Like dude, how do you keep all of that from giving you a headache or something?"
"Well uh...I guess, maybe, having 'two brains' helps me process it all? Oh, and...I didn't get it all dumped on me at once, too. It's, a bunch of different things that I learned gradually, one at a time."

Magus nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense. Oh yeah, I did this awesome thing with like, all your weapons, where they fought the monsters off on their own all at once!? Dude, I really hope someone took some video of that I can watch back later!"

She noticed some of the city vixens milling around at this point, and hurried inside to talk to one of them. "Well..I guess she's a ball of energy...even after all that," Emma said.

"I think Magus is one of those people who runs around faster the more exhausted she gets," Light said. "We did both spend some time 'asleep', and then had some time to rest in the car. Anyway, let her have her fun. She...saved us both. Came up with a spell to make a light for me so I could keep going, and..." She sighed. "I'm aware how stupid it sounds, but that spell—the big ball of light it made, taught me something. Or...reminded me, I guess.

"I've been thinking that I needed to hold everything up on my own...that people who tell me to use their powers, or who offer to help me, or just say they want to see me succeed, are..expecting something out of me. When all they want is, to put something in."

Emma nodded, slowly. "It's, not exactly the same thing, but...I felt like I was alone, too. You...helped a lot with that, actually. With what you said before, and...also, giving me back my phone."

"Well, that's...good. I'm glad you're doing better."

"Mm-hm," Emma nodded. "You too."

"I'm...gonna see if someone will vacate a seat for me." With that, Light headed for the door to go inside.

She looked back at Amory, who had a slight smile on his face—maybe from seeing that exchange. "Soo uh...you've kinda, seen me at my worst now," she said, moving slightly closer. "I guess when I'm—when I have things together it must be kinda nice to be around me? But..."

"You don't seriously think I'm gonna give up on you just because of that, do you?"

"I'm just saying...I don't know, if it's gonna get better or worse, over time." She looked down at the ground. "Especially if I..decide to 'stay a vixen' at some point, and never actually grow older after." And if you do the same thing...

"Hey, if beating yourself down and needing someone to pick you back up again is your worst, I think I can deal with that. The best is so good, after all," he said, gently taking her hands in his and picking them up to a spot between the two of them. "Who knows? Maybe I can learn to help you out of it a little better than I did today."

Emma looked up again, feeling a slight blush come on from his touch, and giggled slightly. "H-heheh..we're both, such dorks, you know?"
He had on the sweetest, warmest smile in the entire universe. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

Both of them were jolted out of this moment by Simon yelling from a just-opened front door of the restaurant: "ATTENTION EVERYONE! WE HAVE TABLES!"

Honeymoon Suite 3: Needs

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Cole stood in the closet, staring at the games—at the spot where he'd kissed the little wolf-girl a second time, after letting her pet his ears—for several seconds. He forced himself to breathe slowly, emphasizing that giving himself a panic attack wouldn't help anything about this situation.

Alex had insisted that she enjoyed it. His memory of that precise moment was kind of blurry, but it was fairly sure that she had been the one who started the kiss itself. It wasn't like he'd forced himself on her and she was just being nice. Under normal circumstances, everything about that event would have convinced him that he'd found a girl who actually, really liked him, and that he liked back. But there just wasn't...anything normal about these circumstances!

There was a rising worry..approaching a terror or a panic lately, that 'turning back' hadn't really turned him back. Even though he felt mostly like himself with cat ears and a tail..how could he be sure? Maybe this place had fundamentally changed him...changed both of them, and now it was going to keep them changed. How could he, or she, be completely certain about what was or wasn't against their will, if this place had altered that will?

Cole took a step forward, then another, coming up to the shelf. There was no gorgeous, scantily-clad wolf-girl to brush her tail across his this time, so it was easy to just reach up and..take the box she'd pointed out earlier. To calm himself down, he tried examining the situation rationally: For now, at least...they still both wanted to escape. That was a normal thing for people in their situation to feel. Based on some of what Alex had said from the bed a moment ago, both of them were still uncertain if the other's displayed affection (while female) was real, or forced. She'd at least been right that it would be a lot more worrying if that wasn't the case, if their worries about that had simply disappeared.

His ears were capable of hearing a lot more than human ones could, from farther away. At the same time as Cole had found herself turning back into a man, (s)he had been able to hear basically...every bit of vocalization Alex made while becoming a girl. There just..wasn't any good reason to tell her that. It would only embarrass, if not upset her. At any rate, he could now hear her walking out of the washroom thanks to those ears, so he decided to head for the living room.

"Cole! I have some good news for once!" she called.

"You found a phone?"

"Uh—no, sorry. Not that good. But—" The wolf-girl appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, proudly holding up a small tube. "—I did find waterproof epoxy! Which I'm pretty sure is basically literally the exact thing we need!"

He crossed his arms, feeling his ears fold down a bit. "That's..uh, kind of suspicious, isn't it?"

"Yes," she nodded, dropping her arms back to the sides. "It's about equally as suspicious as a bunch of board games that I specifically know showing up in our closet. But that doesn't mean it's not useful, right?"
"True..."

"So, you're still just, holding the box there?" she asked, gesturing with her free hand.

"Uh—yeah, sorry. I got...distracted," he said. "Let's go to the...dining room, figure out what to write."
"Alright." She turned around and went through the kitchen to get there, clearly intending to leave him a wolf-girl-free path through the living room to the same destination. Cole immediately felt irrationally sad about this; a part of him wanted her to come hug him and say his behavior earlier—both kissing her and the panicked tantrum that followed—was okay. He argued that he didn't want that because those things hadn't been okay, but his emotions didn't seem willing to follow logic. He just went to the dining room.

They spent a few minutes composing a simple, straightforward, short message: Both of their names (first and last), where they were from (she was from somewhere fairly far away from him, a state neighboring the state neighboring his), that they were trapped in the penthouse of an unknown building with seemingly no front door, and please send help. After that, Cole spent a couple of minutes trying to pry the lids off of the hourglass before Alex held her hand out across the table, and after a moment's hesitation to realize why she was doing that, he gave it to her and she had them off in a couple of seconds. Then she dumped the sand out, he put the carefully folded message inside, and Alex applied the epoxy to the lids and fixed them back on.

"Okay, this needs an hour to cure and become fully waterproof," she said, setting the the hourglass down on the table. "We..don't exactly have a clock here, though."
"We do," Cole realized aloud. Her ears popped up in surprise. "Oh, sorry—I mean we don't have, like, a clock that says what time of day it is, but there's a timer in the kitchen, plus the microwave and oven have timer functions." He stood up. "Maybe I should set it for two hours, just to be absolutely sure?"

"Makes sense to me," she said, watching him go around the table and past her to the kitchen. "So—while we wait, and you know, to take our minds off of stuff—maybe we could actually play one of these games?"
Cole got out the timer, winding it to two hours. "You realize that's what whoever stuck us here wants, right? Why else would they put them here?"
"Just because they want it, doesn't mean it's bad. They obviously wanted us to be clothed and fed too, after all."
"I guess." He came back to the dining room, and found her turned completely around, leaning forward against the back of the chair to face him.

"Come oonnn, you're super stressed, right? I think both of us could use some fun."

He discovered that it was nearly impossible for him to say no to the face she was making right now. It wasn't just that it was really cute; it was a look of genuine concern...for him. He wasn't used to seeing that kind of expression these days, and so he had no guard against it.

"Okay, okay. Which one do you think we should play, then?"

"Well, we've got these two out. Sooo..?" She waved at the one they'd taken a score card from to write the message with. "How about it?"
"Sure..."

The next two hours seemed to go by blindingly fast. They played a couple of rounds of that game, and then Alex named another one she thought he'd enjoy, so he got up and went to the closet, returning with it. Aside from a couple of interruptions to get water or go to the bathroom, they went back and forth between playing the game and talking about...just whatever. Their lives, their jobs, things they liked. Alex seemed to have a fondness for bad puns and dad jokes; Cole usually cringed at things like that, but somehow she seemed to have a talent for timing them in a way that made him laugh anyway. At some gentle encouragement from her, he explained what he liked about video games, giving a few examples that he loved, hated, felt lukewarm about...

Both of them bolted upright, startled by the sudden noise of the something ringing loudly from the kitchen. It was Alex who remembered what it was first. "The timer! Epoxy should be good now," she said.

"Oh! Right. Uh.." Cole glanced around a moment before realizing that they'd shoved the all-important message in a bottle all the way to the far edge of the table. "There," he pointed. "Um...think we should test that it's water-tight before flushing it? I mean—is there a way to open it and reapply that stuff if it's not?"
"There might be something in the kitchen that'd dissolve it," the wolf-girl said after a moment's thought. She hopped down onto her feet and went to get the hourglass. "I say let's test it—get a bowl full of water and drop it in!"

"Okay..."

Cole filled a bowl with water and set it on the counter, and Alex came up next to him, dropping their precious cargo inside. It...floated, of course, because it was full of air.

"Uh..."

The wolf-girl giggled at his nonplussed reaction. "Pffheheh, right. Lessee—" She pushed it down under the water, submerging it and keeping it there with an index finger across the middle. "Watch for bubbles!"

Both of them stood there, leaning partway forward over the bowl, to see if any bubbles formed. Cole very, very slowly realized that they were maybe half a foot or less apart right now, and when that occurred to him, his heart started beating a little bit faster. Was she going to touch his tail with hers again? Did he...want her to do that? Or did he, perhaps, want to be the one whose tail...?

"Nothing," she said, interrupting his thoughts, and picked her hand up out of the water, dropping it to her side. "Looks like we're good! Up to some reasonable testing, at least."
"Uh, r-right," Cole said, feeling his face flush.
"Oh, sorry—I wound up standing kinda close, huh?" she said, turning her head up to face him briefly before taking a couple of steps away. "Better?"
"Um..y-yeah..." It didn't feel like it was better. Part of him was kicking himself for not just...flicking his tail over to the right when he had the chance. "I guess we should send it, then," he said, choking those thoughts back and picking up their message. "The sooner it goes out, the sooner help can come."

"Heheh..." She giggled softly as he headed out toward the bedroom.

Cole turned back. "What?"

"Oh—sorry. It's just...even though I know it's pretty serious...I can't help feeling at least slightly silly about putting our hope in uh, literally flushing something down the toilet?"
"Yeah...it is kinda absurd if you think about it. But it's not our fault—we're in an absurd situation!"

"True that. Hey, uh, maybe I can make us some sandwiches for lunch?" she suggested.
"That'd be good," Cole agreed as he left. They'd been having so much fun together that they seem to have missed normal lunchtime, and his stomach seemed to remember the concept of hunger the very instant that the subject of food came up.

After he quite literally flushed their hope down the toilet, Cole went back to the living room. Over the half-wall, he could see the wolf-girl working hard at making their lunch, so he decided to head to the dining room to wait on her. She called out to ask him what kind of meat and cheese he wanted—turkey and swiss—and soon came with a pair of plates in her hands. "There's some chips in the washroom pantry, too," she said while setting them down. "Barbecue okay?"

"Yeah, that's fine."

After they sat down to eat, Alex picked up her sandwich and seemingly consumed half of it in three rapidly-consecutive bites. Cole stifled a laugh, snorting quietly instead and putting some chips in his mouth to keep it from being too obvious. Bad table manners usually bothered him, but it felt like she was just that hungry—and something about that impression made it seem much more cute than annoying. He'd noticed her seemingly needing to keep a tight rein on herself to not just scarf down all of her food at breakfast, too...maybe it was part of those 'canine instincts', given that male-Alex had eaten pretty normally the night before.

"So, uh...we've had a really busy 'morning'," Cole said about halfway through his meal (while Alex was at least three-fourths of the way through hers). "Maybe we should go on and take that nap after we eat."
"Yeah," Alex said. "I'd love a good nap. You wanna use the bed? I mean, I guess it's 'your turn' or whatever anyway."
"I guess so. You're okay with the couch?"
"Mm-hm!" she nodded cheerfully. "I can picture myself curled up on it already~." Now that she'd said that, Cole found it difficult not to picture her doing that himself. The adorableness of that mental image was enough to make him blush again. "The sun's coming down through the skylights right onto it," she continued blissfully, either not noticing or at least choosing not to comment on his red cheeks.

Cole didn't have as much trouble getting to sleep as the night before. Maybe it was because he was in a bed; maybe it was because his body was...mostly normal again; maybe he was simply more tired because of how little sleep he'd gotten that previous night. He did find himself instinctively curling up a bit in bed. It was simply...more comfortable, and maybe it always would be—as long as he was part cat.

He was thankful that he woke up to afternoon sunlight—but not quite that of a sunset. He got out of bed carefully, standing up and gently nudging the door to the living room open. The wolf-girl was still curled up on the couch there, under the covers he'd lent her...she was just as adorable in that position as he could have imagined. He shook his head, stepping back and turning away—he hadn't wanted her to still be asleep so he could stare at her! Rather...he just wanted to take a shower in peace.

There were two bathrooms, and they had locks, so he could easily just tell her he was going to take a shower. But he had a feeling that she would then feel motivated to 'jokingly', 'teasingly', offer to join him...and he just didn't want to deal with that. He rifled through the dressers in the bedroom for some fresh underwear and a t-shirt, then went into the bathroom whose closet didn't open out into the library. He took a nice, mostly normal shower—aside from shampooing his ears and tail along the way, and the fact that he couldn't seem to get them fully dry afterward. For as long as he was stuck being part-cat...that was going to be a new part of 'normal', he mused. Finally, he put on the underwear, shirt, and a pair of jeans, before coming out into the bedroom.

Alex's comment about him—as a catgirl—being in a nightgown all night had bugged him a little bit. He'd realized that he'd been kind of exposed, as a girl, all night—and as a result had sort of been passively teasing Alex with...well, at the time with her body. The nightgown-and-panties combo were essentially sleeping clothes, and they were what boxers-and-tank-top, also sleeping clothes, had morphed into. What he was wearing now, he hoped, would 'translate' into something more decent when he...when he turned back into a catgirl. At least, that was what he hoped for. And—when he came out into the bedroom, the golden light coming in through its window let him know that the change of clothes was hardly too soon.

"Alex?" he called. "You awake?"

"Rrfh~.." A high, cute sort of bark came from the living room. "Mngh? Oh, well—guess I am now!" she said. Then came a cute yawning noise: "Hwwaaa~aaah..." Was she doing it on purpose?

Cole walked out into the living room near the end of the yawn, and found her sitting up and stretching her arms out in a Y shape. "I guess you're at least well-rested, then..."
"Yep!" She tossed the covers off, revealing a rapidly-wagging tail. "I feel full of energy! And you—" she paused for a second. "...You smell nice. Uh, I mean—changed your clothes?"
"I took a shower. And changed clothes, yes," he said.
"Oh." She took a moment to lean down toward her right shoulder, audibly sniffing a couple of times. "Guess I oughta do the same, huh?"
"Um..Alex," Cole said, his tone of voice carrying some urgency.
"What?"

"It's...the sun's...setting," he said. The very same feeling he'd had the day before, an excited, anxious anticipation, was starting to mount.
"Oh?" She looked up at the quickly dimming golden glow from the skylights. "So it is...a-and, I guess we're about to change again," she said, a slight blush appearing on her cheeks.
"Yeah...most likely..."

"Do you..want to go back to the bedroom? For some privacy?" she suggested.
"I...s-strangely, I...don't," Cole said, taking a couple of steps forward. "I feel kind of...I don't know, scared? That, doesn't feel like the right word either. B-but—this is so weird. I..want you to be there. Uh—here. When I, um..when it.."
"Okay," Alex nodded. "It's fine! You don't need to explain it. This whole deal is bizarre. If me being here will make you feel better, then I'll be here. Come take a seat?" she suggested, gesturing at the chair next to the couch she was still sitting on.

"Thanks..."

Cole came and sat down, and both of them waited in silence. The light above them was getting weaker and weaker, and he felt increasingly..excited, eager, for the coming change. Not only was he about to turn back into a girl, but the beautiful wolf-girl in front of him was going to turn back into a man. Somehow...he felt nervous about both of those things, but also kind of impatient. A part of him was..looking forward to it? Maybe?

As darkness finally fell across the room, the last of the sun's rays disappearing...it came on so much faster than the first time. Cole shivered as his entire body was hit with a race of tingles, and immediately his hair fell out across his cheeks and forehead, his shoulders, his back. Before his eyes, the wolf-girl's hair retreated upward, shortening even as she herself began to grow. Cole had been..kind of groggy when he'd turned back into a man, but that had happened pretty quickly, too.

He gasped, feeling a sharp tug between his legs as the world rose upward around him, his clothes sagging and falling down around him. The massage-like pressure of shrinking was back, and stronger than before—seemingly so that it could act so much faster. The breath of the gasp came out in a helpless "Aa~aa~aa~aah...!" that let both of them hear Cole's voice rising higher and higher in pitch as his entire body, and indeed his manhood also, became rapidly smaller and smaller.

"Rr~rrfh..! Rrfh!" Alex softly barked as she continued to grow, her breasts deflating and her curves flattening away. Just as swiftly as the masculinity was disappearing from Cole's voice, hers was deepening into a boy's—a man's. Cole's face burned, his tail flicking around wildly behind him, his heart racing—both at what he was feeling, and what he was seeing.

"Aah, aa~aah..AAH!" One last, high-pitched yelp was Cole's final cry as a boy, in response to the shift between his..between her legs. This was followed immediately by a helpless "Mrr~rrRRR~RRRrrhh..!" as, just like the first time she'd changed, a brief burst of girlish pleasure hit her; this was accompanied by a much more rapid push from her hips, bottom, thighs, and chest, as her curves filled themselves out completely and totally in only a scant few seconds. At the same time as this happened, she felt her clothes rushing up close on her, pulling tight and snug against her slender, curvy figure. The jeans yanked their leggings all the way up to the top of her thighs; the boxers shrank into panties and, along with the jeans, hugged her wide hips closely and pulled completely flat between her legs; the shirt lost its sleeves and over half its length, and gained a deep cut down the middle, all of which served to expose her shoulders and arms, most of her slim, flat belly, and some generous cleavage.

"Mmngh..!" Alex's sex changed at the same time as Cole's. He let out a low "Nnnnggh...!" as his body shaped itself the rest of the way into the tall, strong, handsome man he'd been before turning into a wolf-girl—with the exception, of course, of his still being part-wolf in all the same ways: Ears, tail, and fangs. His underwear was boxers again, which were visible because the shirt he'd had on before hadn't changed at all...which meant it fit him quite well now.

"H-haa~aah..." A high, girly sigh of relief came from Cole's lips as the change completed and she was left in its afterglow. "H-hffh, hffh.." Panting quietly, she slowly lifted herself to her feet. Alex looked...so, so good. Why did him..being a wolf-man now make her feel even more attracted to him?!

(old image)

"S-so uh..how are you feeling?" Alex said. He was blushing pretty brightly, and it was hard to say whether it was the result of his change..or hers, right in front of him. Or maybe...her standing over him was doing it?
"I..I...! L-like I really really wanna make out with you," Cole blurted. She'd been trying so hard to keep a lid on it! But even more spilled out: "L-like I want you to pick me up in your arms and pet my ears again, but this time don't stop." What was she doing!? She was letting...whatever had made her like this...win! But she was also just...just telling the truth!
"H-heheh, I guess it uh, hit you pretty strong." Alex stood up—and, right there in front of her, he was so tall! "Here..." And he picked her up in his arms...he was so strong! But the way he picked her up, it was so gentle, too...!

Cole wasn't sure when her arms had moved; before she knew it, she was hugging him tightly, like she was terrified that he'd let go and she'd fall an entire mile down to the ground if he did. "...Here," he said again—quietly, gently, kindly. Cole's heart fluttered in her chest like a panicked, possessed butterfly. He'd loosened his grip around her with one arm, but that was just so that hand could reach up and gently...rub the bases of her ears. And stroke...slowly...down through her long black hair.

"M-mmrrh.." She tried to suppress the rumbling, feline purr that came out at first. But then—she just couldn't help it! "Mmrrr~rRRRR~RRrhh...!" She leaned forward, pushing her nose into his cheek hard, and nuzzled him affectionately.

"Rrfh." The soft barking sound she heard up close sounded so..deep and manly. And then he started..nuzzling her right back...!

Was this really...what she...what Cole...wanted? Would male-Cole really want this? The doubtful questions in her mind kept being answered by an insistent yes, yes, yes! Maybe it wasn't even correct, but it was impossible for her to think anything else right now. Yes she wanted to, and she did, pull her head back just slightly from the nuzzling after a moment, and yes she pushed her lips onto his, feeling some tears well up in her eyes as she closed them, feeling him willingly return this gesture of affection too...!

Cole slowly, cautiously, ramped up the intensity, the passion, of the kiss. The wolf-man holding onto her returned exactly what she gave him, not drawing back and not demanding any more. She felt wave after wave of girlish pleasure coursing through her as it happened, as the pent-up desire of the entire previous night was released all at once. And not only then, but stretching back so much farther; she'd been lonely for so long, wanted someone—anyone—to like her enough for something like this...!

When it finally ended—and that only because both of them kind of needed to breathe—the catgirl leaned forward immediately after the loud smack that ended the kiss, pressing her cheek against his. "I...I-I..." she squeaked incoherently, and then let out a helpless, feline "Mrrroo~oowh...!"
"You enjoyed it?" Alex asked, and she felt like it was just a little unfair that he could form words right now!

Nonetheless, she answered, breathlessly: "Y-yes..!"

"Well..me too," he admitted. "Are you upset?"
"N-no!" she answered instantly. She was...very, very excited...in a lot of ways...but 'upset' was entirely the wrong word for it.
"Well—I'm not upset either, about the kiss in the closet this morning," he said. Oh—that. She'd kind of forgotten all about that. Was that his point? What a silly thing to still worry about, she thought first, before remembering that she was sort of supposed to still be worried about it. But...she wasn't! She couldn't be! After all, he'd just kissed her, and all indications were that both of them had liked it!

"That's...that's good," she said breathlessly. "Will you um...k-kiss me again? Just, once more?" With the...intense urge to kiss him mostly satisfied, her rational mind was back enough to remember that they couldn't just do this kind of thing all night...as much as she kind of wanted to. They were supposed to be trying to escape!

Alex leaned back enough for their noses to almost touch. His expression conveyed an emotion Cole wasn't sure she could put into words. But it was...definitely a positive one; it was gentle and kind; and it was directed right at her. "Sure," he said, and initiated the second kiss himself. After all—she'd asked for it!

"MMH—mmmm~mmnnnh.." After a brief squeak of surprise, Cole gave in to this one, too. They didn't ramp up the passion so much this time; this kiss was more gentle and tender, winding her down from the extreme excitement of the first one. Despite all that...she enjoyed it just about as much.

Then they were cheek-to-cheek again, close enough for some tears coming out of her eyes to land on his face. She was able to find her words much more quickly this time, but her voice faltered a bit from the crying. "I, I...I'm b-being a real jerk, huh? After yelling at you this morning? And now I'm just, practically—uh no, literally throwing myself at you."
"You just have certain needs," Alex said. "I didn't get it last night, but after getting turned into a wolf-girl all day today myself—well, now I get it." He gently set her down in front of him, just far enough away for her to crane her head up and look into his eyes. "Just remember I have my needs too. Like, uh—kinda hungry again, already?"
"You want me to cook supper?" This came out in the tone of a sincere, eager offer, with no trace of annoyance or sarcasm.
"If you...wouldn't mind. Maybe I can go take that shower while I wait, so I'll smell a little better for you."
"O-okay," she said quietly, feeling her face burn again at the thought of him—unclothed—in the shower. "Sure..."

---

And here you can see the main thing I wanted to use generated images for, when it comes to this story. There are two main characters, they change on a consistent cycle, and I wanted a different image for each change (more or less). I suppose if I were paying to use someone else's generator, and/or more clever about using them, I could make images for their male forms too or something, but I'm personally happy with exactly this level of image use.

Honeymoon Suite 2: Messages

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Under almost any other circumstances, a beautiful woman throwing herself at him would've been amazing. A dream come true, even! Alex had admitted right out the gate that the...catgirl the man trapped in this strange little penthouse with him had turned into was hot. Her hair was amazing, her face was adorable, her figure was unbelievable! Even the ears and tail, as odd as they were at first, were sort of captivating in their own way. He caught himself staring at her mouth occasionally when she was talking, noticing the long, sharp fangs her canines had turned into.

But..as attractive as she was, they didn't know each other. He wasn't even sure that her...attraction to him, was real. By all indications, it was possibly against her will—or at least, against the will of the man she'd been before that night. They had...started to meet each other now, but that only made him feel worse about feeling attracted to her. Cole was supposed to be a guy living his own life out there, not...some kind of attachment to him!

He lay in bed still thinking about it. What had happened to them? How? Had it really just been because they both volunteered "anything" or "whatever" to some..wish-granting website?! That just seemed impossible. But, with one part of his mind turned to this topic, and another still remembering the beautiful woman he'd spent the better part of the evening with...it hit him.

When Alex had requested something of that website, his exact words had been...'a sexy kitten'. Cole had literally said that she felt "sexy"—and, honestly, she was—and...he certainly hadn't meant a catgirl when he'd typed out his wish, but it was certainly an available, overly literal interpretation of that wish. Was this...his fault? He'd thought of a woman in the abstract, not at all seriously, and somehow this had resulted in a guy he didn't even know turning into her?! Some unknown, impossible power or being going out of its way to force her to be..that, for him? If this was supposed to be his wish, though...it wasn't what he wanted. Not really.

Sure—if he'd met a woman like that out in the open..if she'd seemed attracted to him in a normal way, brainwashing-free...if they'd gotten to know each other over some normal dates...then living with her was the kind of thing that Alex definitely would've wanted! But...seeing something like that happen to an actual person, with a mind and desires of his own, completely ruined the fantasy. A woman like that, just for him, didn't exist. Couldn't, shouldn't. Not because he was a bad person and didn't deserve love, but because nobody deserved to be forced into such a role. If he ever really got with someone...he would honestly want her to be her own person, even if it was in ways that he didn't think he wanted. Those surprises, good or bad, were...meant to be part of being in love with someone. This way was...wrong, all wrong.

A part of him still remembered that kiss, the feeling of her soft body pressed against his, her arms wrapped closely around him and a hand holding the back of his head tightly, desperately, to keep it going. That part of him wanted to know why he hadn't caught her in his arms, reciprocated, asked for another...but he knew the answer to all of those questions. It was...wrong, to do that to her. To him, to Cole—who'd she'd been for the entire rest of her life. He should leave here now, get far away from her, to keep things from going any farther down that road.

But...they were trapped here together. They had to find a way out before this got any worse! At least Cole still seemed sincere about coming up with ideas about what exactly had happened, and ideas to escape. It gave him...some hope, at least, that the person he was talking to was mostly the same as the man before. Not—him replaced by the catgirl, but somehow...the 'being a catgirl' and 'attracted to him' stacked on top of the person she'd been before. It was something she could fight against, if not always entirely resist.

With his thoughts in such turmoil, it took Alex a while to get to sleep. But, exhausted as he was from the stress of their situation, and from trying hopelessly to get them out of it with physical force..he did eventually fall asleep. It was even a quite restful sleep at that; he woke up to the very first of the sun's rays feeling completely refreshed, despite the fact that he usually slept in until noon or so on his days off.

In fact, even though he felt like he'd slept enough, Alex wasn't sure he was quite ready yet to get up and face the situation they were in. No sooner had he remembered what was going on than he turned away from the window, putting his arm over his eyes to block out the sunlight. This was usually enough to get himself back to sleep, but...not this morning. If anything, the warmth of the rising sun on his back was making him feel sort of restless. It was...a nice, pleasant warmth; it made him feel a little excited. Somehow...there was a part of him that just wanted to jump out of bed. He felt his heartbeat pick up a little bit as the sunlight became impossible to ignore, its brightness visible even through his shut eyelids and his elbow. It was time...!

That thought—that it was time—struck Alex as strange. It was time for..what? To wake up? To get up? Maybe, but why'd he feel so...sure about that? Why did it feel so inevitable; why did it seem to be..exciting him so much? But the rising sun's brightness, its warmth across his body only seemed to reinforce the thought, with no further explanation.

He shuddered slightly, but not because he felt cold. Rather, the warmth on his body seemed to have suddenly caused a rush of tingling, starting on his back—down the center, along his spine—and making its way forward, upward and downward to cover every inch of his skin. It felt so..nice, and when it reached up to his scalp he was surprised..yet strangely happy...to feel the movement of hair as it fell down along his face and his back, and across the front of the arm still held up against his eyes. Moving that arm a little, he found that both the arm and his face felt oddly soft and smooth to the other, like his body and facial hair had all gone missing at once. How strange..!

"H-heheh..." A soft chuckle came out of Alex's mouth. It didn't make sense for him to be feeling these things: For his skin to be so soft, or his hair so long. And something about it struck him as...funny? A part of him knew he should be worried instead, but it didn't have much say right now.

He had the curious feeling, as the tingling subsided, that the sun's warmth was..melting him? Bizarrely, it wasn't unpleasant—just the opposite. He drew his arm down away from his face to his side, turning over onto his back, and wriggled around a little under the covers, feeling it happen: His body pulling itself inward, becoming shorter and slimmer—smaller in every way. A curious feeling came to his arms, his legs, his abs—all the muscles he'd worked so long to attain and maintain; it felt like a long-held tension relaxing. The sun's warmth was...melting away his strength, the stress of keeping it—of being a big, strong man. He could be..small, and soft, instead!

"H-heheheh...!" The voice that chuckled..or more giggled, from Alex's mouth at this point, no longer sounded like a man's. It was still fairly low in pitch, but strangely..soft and cute at the same time. The sun had taken the hardness from his voice, too, it seemed—and he kind of liked the new sound. "H-hahah..heeheehee~..!" A full-on giggle came out next, his voice suddenly expressing quite a range as it came out awfully high, adorably cute—and this was in response to a strange sort of tickly feeling...down there. Between his legs.

"Mm~mmnh.." Feeling a little confused, Alex sat up and gently tossed the covers away from himself. He felt long locks of soft brown hair falling down his cheeks and across his shoulders, and most of the way down his back. His boxers seemed much tighter than he remembered, and his top had shifted into a long-sleeved dress shirt with all of its buttons undone. Looking down, he was faced with the sight of a slim, slight body—soft and smooth skin, not a hint of muscle anywhere! "H-hahah..!" All he could do in response to this strange sight was softly, cutely chuckle again, even as the more rational part of his mind struggled to comprehend if this was real.

The tickly feeling 'down there' progressed into a sort of slipping, tugging feeling. He was...melting in the sun's warmth...in that way, too. It was only fitting for all of this softness to belong to...a girl, after all, rather than a boy. "Heehee, I-I'm..mm~mmh..." he murmured softly, still feeling oddly happy about what was happening. Was this...how Cole had felt, when it happened to her? His shrinking manhood felt awfully excited for its own extinction, too, which was making his heart beat pretty fast and his face even warmer than the sun had already made it—thanks to a blush.

Tug, tug, tug...Alex found himself enjoying something he should have hated! He moaned quietly, a girlish "Aa~aaah, oo~oooh..!" coming out as it came closer and closer, until finally, with one final movement, his manhood disappeared completely! "Aa~aahnn...!" she let out a low, yet very feminine sound as the new womanhood came in, bringing with it a burst of girly pleasure.

A tingling raced across her ears at this point, and made its way down from there, racing along her spine to its base. She felt..happy, and excited to see what was coming next! How curvy was she going to be? An answer started to come to her right away, as her hips started to spread themselves out. She could feel her butt getting bigger, her thighs plumper, and at the same time—the tingling on her ears gave way to a pulling, stretching sensation, as though they were stiff limbs in need of relaxation. The feeling of new curves growing in was unexpectedly stimulating to her new..'down there', too, drawing some giggling and then a helpless "MmmMM~Mmmnh...!" from her throat.

"Aa-aa~aah..!" As her ears, now grown up into a pair of big fluffy triangles, flicked around excitedly, she felt a rush of tingling across her chest, radiating out from her nipples. This was followed immediately by a push as a pair of little bumps rose up, becoming a pair of prepubescent bumps. At the same time, Alex could feel something stretching its way out from her back—from the base of her spine, rapidly growing longer and longer and whipping back and forth through the air as it came out. A...tail!

"Mnnh, mrr~rrRFh..!" She surprised herself by letting out a sort of..puppy-like barking noise in response to another push from her chest—which signaled the growth of the tiny breasts into something more substantial. It startled her a little bit, but on reflection it wasn't so surprising. Her new tail was rapidly growing thicker and fluffier, and she could feel some of her teeth becoming fangs, her tongue lengthening ever so slightly—as not only was she becoming a girl, but also a...dog? Or maybe...a wolf!

"Mnh, rr~Rfh..!" She was leaning down on her hands now, helplessly wriggling around as she felt her breasts push out bigger and bigger, their weight hanging down from her front. Her tail was wagging excitedly behind her as she enjoyed being a girl more and more...! She giggled, feeling the globes tingle once again, and then let out a low, satisfied "Ooo~o~OOOOhhh..." as they pressed themselves out one last time, growing to a full, enormous size—bigger than Cole's, even!

"Haa~aah..rrfh...! Heheh..." Alex slowly pushed herself most of the way upright, still rather enjoying the results of...all of that! She was still slowly huffing air in and out when...surprisingly...a male voice called to her from the living room.

"Alex! Are you okay in there?"
"Uhhm...I guess?" she said, starting to feel already like the deep, mature alto tone that rang out from her lips was how she was supposed to sound. "Something..uh, happened, though! Heehee..." she giggled softly. "Come uh...see!"

The door to the bedroom opened, and Cole was standing there. Not Cole the catgirl, but the same man he'd been the night before, when they'd first met. Well..not exactly the same; he still had bright yellow eyes with slitted pupils, and cat ears, and a tail. He looked..pretty cute!

(old image)

"Uh, hey—wow you're cute!" she blurted, hopping down onto her feet. She'd shrunk so much that...even though Cole was a little on the short side for a boy, her eye level was about at his chin. It was kind of nice! "L-looks like there's more to the..the thing that's happened to us...th-than we thought.." What was coming over her? She felt...warm, and excited, and she was shuffling closer to him..! Wait, this was...just like what Cole had done the night before, wasn't it?

"Uhm, really? I don't think I'm—I mean, wait!" he said, putting out his hands. "You..wouldn't be feeling um..a nearly-uncontrollable urge to uh.."
"To kiss you?" she finished for him, her tone teasing—her body already just a foot and a half away from him. His nervousness, his hesitancy about this, was just..adorable. She couldn't help herself! "Y-yeah, pretty much! What's wrong, aren't I cute enough?"
"Th-that's really not the problem here. I mean..look, I was able to control myself better after...after that happened, s-so if you really need to..—"

He was probably going to say something like 'I understand', but at this point the wolf-girl seized the opportunity to step up, lifting herself onto her tiptoes to pull him into an embrace, and in the very same motion press her lips against his.

Kissing him felt...wonderful. Unbelievably so! The pleasure she'd felt while turning into a girl lit back up all at once, feeling even better than before. He didn't resist, instead gently holding her in his arms and letting her passionate kiss play itself out—all of which made it even better! When she finally came up for air, she didn't stop hugging him—and he didn't let go, though the gentleness of his embrace made it clear she was free to break out of it. "Hhheheh, enjoying yourself?" she teased in between huffs of air.
"I..just thought you'd like it better if I didn't try to pull out," he said nervously.
"Tell you the truth?" she said, letting go of him and dancing back a couple of steps. "I totally did."

"S-still. I'm uh..not entirely sure, this counts as consensual?" Cole said, crossing his arms. "I mean, like, you know exactly what I'm concerned about, don't you?" His ears were folded down and his tail flicking around behind him—both of which were just as cute as Alex had thought they were when their sexes were the other way around. Plus he still had those fangs!

"I do, I do! It's pretty hard to explain, huh? I still feel like me, even though I'm also very much a girl who wants to kiss you again! Super weird!"

"Y-yeah.."
"Hey, I'm hungry!" she interrupted suddenly. "Can you still cook?"
"Can I—?" he started, confused, before seeming to remember his previous admission that he hadn't known how to before becoming a catgirl. "Strangely uh..yes? I feel..about as confident about that as last night."
"And that turned out great!" the wolf-girl said encouragingly. "I want bacon and sausage!" she declared excitedly. "Eggs, can we have eggs too?"

"Uh..sure, I guess..? You seem a lot more..energetic?"
"Ooh yeah, I feel it, too. Like a little puppy or something! It's..kind of a nice feeling, liberating in a way? I dunno!" she concluded. "Anyway, I guess I'll get a little more dressed while I wait, so you don't have to stare at me topless all morning~!" He had turned his gaze down toward her chest a few times, maybe without really meaning to. Her teasing declaration had the intended effect of making him blush and look away.

"Uh—y-yeah, sorry. I guess I was a little more..decent than uh, that, last night. We didn't really check what was in the dressers, though—maybe there's nothing?"
"I'll let you know!" she said, then put her hands on his shoulders to gently turn him around and push him out the door (as much as she wanted to pull him into another kiss instead!) "Now go, go! I'm not getting any less hungry!"
"Okay, okay—!" he seemingly couldn't help chuckling at her behavior as he left. It seemed her happy excitement was infectious—at least to him, which was all that mattered!

Once the boy was out of the room, she took a moment take a long deep breath and let it out. She'd gotten...a little too excited there. Maybe way too excited. It had short-circuited any semblance of self-control. Was all of that even her? That is...was it the person she'd been before the sun...or the sunrise, or whatever, had changed him? Well—it was true that she was hungry, and bacon, eggs, and sausage sounded really good...

Alex took a small mental step back as she went to rifle through the dresser drawers. Had the change...or whatever effected the change, messed with her mind? It must have...but how much? She felt very much like a girl right now, for one thing. Was that why she felt so attracted to Cole, all of a sudden? Just because she was female, assaulted with all of that sex's hormones, and he was the only male in the vicinity?

The drawers contained a variety of clothing, fit for either sex. She eventually settled on a t-shirt that looked like it would've fit her pre-transformation and tossed off the dress shirt she'd had on until now to slip that on in its place. Sure, there were bras and other clothes that would fit a girl's body better...but this just seemed more comfortable, for the moment. Anyway, it was just the two of them.

While she did this, she tried picturing some people and gauging her current opinion of them, attractiveness-wise. Male friends she knew to be fit and attractive, or even male celebrities? Meh. She was..vaguely aware that they were supposed to be attractive, and why, but none of them seemed to appeal to her much more than when she'd been a boy. The girls she'd dated recently? Them she still felt sort of attracted to, and yet..she couldn't seem to help comparing them to Cole as a catgirl, with the distinct opinion that their hotness paled in comparison to hers.

Overall, it was like her sense of attraction had only been nudged ever so slightly toward how a girl should feel when it came to everyone else except for her unwilling roommate. That either meant that her attraction was genuine somehow, not based on his/her appearance so much as who she/he was...or that whatever had affected her mostly had a very specific target in mind. Given the way Cole had acted last night, if the catgirl had been affected by something similar...it was too easy to believe the more worrying option. And yet—she couldn't prove things one way or the other. If Cole was...as attracted her way as she was to him...or the catgirl was as attracted to male-Alex as he was to her...it wasn't impossible that it was natural. But...it would still be wrong to take advantage of their situation...right?

Well...she had sort of made puppy-dog eyes at him to get him to make food for her. But..he was the one who knew how to cook. She..well, back when she was male, at least, she'd had the brawn to try to get them out of this situation. And—if Cole had eventually turned back into a guy, then maybe...so would she? And she could..try to be more useful then, to make it up to him.

It didn't really occur to her until she walked out toward the dining room that her big, mobile tail would be constantly lifting up the back of the shirt. However, it didn't bother her enough to go back for some pants. Cole's response to her new outfit was to raise an eyebrow (and the ear on that side) and go "Soo, you found some more clothes, I assume—and that's what you went with?"
"It covers everything important," she huffed. "Not like you have a lot of room to criticize after prancing around in a frilly gown all last night!"

"I wasn't—" he cut himself off with a sigh. "Either way, I guess that's fair. Anyway, uh.." he gestured toward where he'd set out a plate of food and a cup of juice for her.

"Yeah! Thanks, really," she said, giving him a genuine, bright smile before heading for her chair. If he'd been blushing a little because of her state of dress, that made him blush a lot more. Ugh, she was still teasing him like that, even after deciding not to!

It took a conscious effort for her to display normal table manners, instead of scarfing down the meat like a rabid animal. Evidently, the changes that made her wolf-like were more than skin deep. After finishing about half of it, she remembered something. "Oh, right! Um.."
Cole looked up from his plate, which he'd been carefully, slowly-yet-steadily picking through. "Yeah?"

"I-I realized something last night, after we went to bed. I was gonna bring it up, but then um...well.."
"You turned into a dog-girl?"
"Wolf-girl!" she snapped immediately. "I mean um, I think. I don't know why that felt so...a-anyway. You know that, weird wishing website that's maybe our only explanation for how we wound up in this place.."
"Our only lead so far, at least," Cole said, nodding.

"W-well um, do you remember what I said I'd 'wished for'?"

"You said: 'a sexy kitten to come home to at night'," he recited, seemingly remembering it better than she did.

"Yeah. S-so what I realized was that..." She paused, wringing her hands around each other nervously. "While I obviously didn't actually imagine a cat when I said 'kitten', 'cause I was just kinda playing around anyway...w-well, if you take that literally...alongside the actual intent..."
"..Then a catgirl isn't an unreasonable result. Huh."
"S-so, if that's the case, then maybe it's my fault you wound up like that, last night. A-and so, I'm sorry about that."

He looked away slightly, looking more apologetic than upset. "That's..well." Then, suddenly, his ears popped upright and his eyes wide open. "Waitaminute.

"You.." He pointed at her. "Would you say you feel more like a wolf than a dog, basically?"

"Uh-huh?"

"And the way you've been acting...well, I wouldn't—necessarily be inclined to put it that way, but it could be described as 'wild'."

"I guess..?"
He gave a small sigh, realizing that she either didn't remember or hadn't made the connection—both of which were pretty much true. Putting a hand to his own chest, he said, "My wish was, I quote, 'a wild woman to wake up to in the morning'. Which is, uh—that matches. Along with both of us basically giving the website, or whatever is behind it, carte blanche with our answers to what we'd be willing pay for it..."

"Ohh, I see. So...I guess this is pretty much both our faults. More or less equally."
"That seems to be the case."

"...Is it bad that that makes me feel a little better?" the wolf-girl asked, before going for another bite of bacon.

"I guess not. I'd rather that than have you feel guilty, since..my own stupid desperation got me into this situation. Oh, wait.."

She paused with a piece of sausage in her hand, her mouth open and just about to bite into it. "What?"

"Sorry—I don't mean you have to stop eating. It's just—besides what kind of girl we both basically wished for, the rest of our wishes..I mean, specifically the way they were worded...uh, at night and in the morning?"

"Whmm about it?" Alex said with her mouth full—her efforts to eat with some manners lapsing.

Cole didn't seem to mind, just continuing the conversation (which was sweet of him): "Well, I turned into a girl when the sun set...and turned back when it rose. And, would you say you turned into, uh, that at the same time? Sunrise?"
She made herself swallow before replying: "Seems like it..oh. I get it.

"So—your theory is that, because of our wishes, both of us 'turn' when the sun rises or sets. In which case—I'd be a dude again when the sun sets, but you'd.."
"Be a catgirl again, yeah."
"Given what we know so far, I think that's a good guess, at least," she admitted. "I kinda hope so—as I am now, um, well I'm not very strong. So if we need to force our way out or break something...it'd be better if I could go back to normal first. Or—at least mostly back to normal? Given that you've still got kitty ears.."
"I...agree," he nodded slowly. "I'm not...much use when it comes to brute force either way. In that case, we need to plan on how to break out during the day, and then enact those plans at night. After, probably, sleeping some of the afternoon so we're rested enough to stay up as late as needed."
"Yeah, that's a good idea!" Alex agreed. Her response was so eager, perhaps, because a small part of her just liked the idea of taking a nap in the afternoon sun.

She was finished with her food—full and satisfied—before Cole was, and waited patiently for him to finish. She tried not to stare at his plate or him eating, which seemed to be yet another strange new instinct that being part-canine had hit her with. "I'll, get the dishes," she offered as he finished. "I mean—since you cooked. And there is a dishwasher, and we don't want this place to stink."
"True..." Cole nodded while she reached across to take his plate. "Thanks, I guess." He stayed sitting at the table for a couple of minutes, then followed her into the kitchen. She got to work on everything that had been used for preparing and eating not only that morning's breakfast, but their supper together the night before.

"Messages," he announced without much context.
"Huh?"
"We should be trying to send messages. To the outside world. I mean—the water you're running through the sink right now, it's coming from outside, and it's going into a sewer outside, right? And the electricity is coming from somewhere too..."

"You think we should try to flush a message-in-a-bottle down a toilet or something?"

"That's not a bad idea...we'd have to find a way to make something compact enough to get through the pipes. Working with the electricity is even harder. I guess we could try to cause some kind of fault so a fuse blows somewhere outside of here, and maybe someone would..come check on the room?"

"There's a fuse box in the washroom," Alex pointed out. "You didn't notice?"
"I..did not."

"'S the kind of thing I notice first, going through an unfamiliar house or whatever. I've lived lots of places, had to throw the breakers plenty."
"I see..."
"Anyway, it'd suck to cut our own power and not be able to fix it!"

"True. I guess trying to break something upstream of that box should be a last resort, if anything. I'll..go look for something we can flush and have a message survive, then."

Alex felt a bit frustrated with herself, that she hadn't paused her work to go peck him on the cheek or ruffle his ear-fur or something—either when he'd come in, or before he left. She tried to clamp down on that kind of thinking, reminding herself that Cole-the-catgirl had been able to exercise better self-control than this after only one, very-resisted kiss. The desire to show some sort of physical affection persisted anyway—even after he left the room.

After her wolfish ears picked up the sound of him walking around through their living space for a bit—opening a door or two, shuffling some items around—he returned just about as she was putting the last of the dishes into the dishwasher. "I found some games in an upper shelf in one of the closets," he said, holding up an example. It was...a relatively obscure game Alex and her friends had tried out once a year or so back, and enjoyed enough to add to their regular rotation. "This one has a score sheet and some pens inside."

"That's...relevant?" she asked cluelessly after turning his way. She was looking up at him with her ears lowered and her tail wagging, the urge to do...something still coming on strong.

"We can write our message on the paper?" he said, as though it was obvious. "So we just need a 'bottle' water-tight and small enough to store the paper in, we've got what we need."

"Oh! Right." That entire topic had slipped her mind somehow. "So you...saw some other games, in that closet? Can you show me?" Forcing herself to focus on that made the desire to go pet his ears a little easier to ignore.

"Sure..." He turned around and led the way to the closet in question. Alex felt partially mesmerized by the constant motion of his tail, but fought to keep it together.

As they came into the closet, she realized that both of them should've remembered all the clothes hanging up in the closets when the subject of her finding something more decent to wear had come up. Like the dressers, there was a mixture of male and female garments all around; Cole had shoved some of the hangers apart to reach the shelf of games. He gestured at it and moved aside; there wasn't much room in this closet, so he shoved his way in between some dresses.

Alex stood up on the balls of her feet to see what was there more easily. While her heart beat a little faster from the thought that the two of them were sharing..such a small space together, she tried to concentrate on whether she recognized any of the games, and whether any of them might have something they could use in its components. Looking through the titles on display, she realized something...interesting.

She let herself back down onto her heels. "I recognize...all of these," she said slowly.

"Is that..unusual?"

She turned to face him, wringing her hands to keep herself from reaching over to pet his ears. "A little? I mean—some of them, like the one you were showing me earlier, are kind of pretty obscure. Not only are these all games our, uh, group has played recently or regularly enough for me to know the rules without looking at them, but they're all..uh, appropriate—you could say—for two players?"
Cole sighed. "I guess whoever stuck us here, doesn't want us to be bored. And knows an uncomfortable amount about you, at least. But, I'd guess they know just as much about me..."

"Y-yeah. Anyway, um..." She turned her head back to the games, pointing at one near the top of the stack. "That one's got a sand-timer. We...might be able to pop that open and put a folded-up piece of paper inside. I'm not..so sure about how to make it completely water-tight, though. I uh...don't think I can reach it without it falling on my head though, 'cause of how uh..s-short I am. Right now."
Cole nodded. "Yeah, I'll get it."

Seeming to have momentarily forgotten about the wolf-girl's...condition, the cat-eared boy just came right up next to her—inches away—to reach up and get the game. Alex's face instantly flushed, her heart racing..she wanted so badly to pet his ears or, or something! While she tried her best to keep it under control, her traitor of a tail acted without permission, flitting over to curl across the base of his. He let out an unexpectedly high-pitched "Mrowh!?" in surprise, turning to face her in a way that yanked his tail out from the reach of hers immediately.

"Uh—sorry sorry!" she said immediately, at the same time as thinking how cute that surprised noise, and his present, blushing expression were. "It uh, m-my tail kinda has a mind of its own. But also I, I r-really wanna know what your, hff, wh-what your ears would feel like...b-between my hands..." she confessed helplessly, getting slightly out of breath from how excited she was feeling. After all, while he'd turned away, he was still standing quite close...!

"You're uh..h-having some trouble controlling those urges, huh?" he said.
"Yes! You m-made it look soo easy, hff, l-last night.."
"I'm starting to think it was easier for me for some reason." Alex couldn't help but think it was because she (he at the time) hadn't been giving so many positive signals! Cole was still standing so close to her, his face alight with a blush, his ears low and his tail flicking around so excitedly that it audibly thwapped across the hanging clothes behind him.

She inched a bit closer still, lifting her hands. "J-just a little touch?"
Cole sighed and frowned, expressing reluctance—but this felt insincere to her, like he was just playing hard to get. "F-fine.."

Alex slid her fingers around the feline ears, and found them just as soft as they looked. And they were warm, too! Besides that, Cole's face flushed even brighter from her touch, and as her slender fingers brushed through his fur, rubbing the bases of the ears, the low, deep rumbling of a feline purr became audible from his throat.

"Mrr~rrrh..." He leaned forward, downward, into the petting. It was so, so, so cute! Alex couldn't help herself...! She shuffled closer still, got on her tiptoes again, wrapped her arms around him in a hug—continuing to pet his ears the whole time. His arms slowly lifted and closed around her small, soft body, making her heart skip a beat! And now..his face was so close...!

"Mmnh~!" The wolf-girl pushed her lips into his, her body and mind all-at-once demanding another kiss. When this happened, Cole's arms wrapped around her held on tight, and to her intensely delighted surprise, he didn't just submit to her passionate kiss this time—he returned it! She felt a rush of girly pleasure and excitement coursing through her...! It was only five or six seconds, but it felt like it lasted much longer!

The end of the kiss was the only disappointing part. Cole broke it off what felt like way too early, yanking his head back away from hers and letting go of her—making her stumble slightly from the sudden loss of support—before staggering back far enough himself to bump his back against the closet wall, knocking a couple of dresses off onto the floor in the process. He was looking at her wide-eyed when she opened her eyes from the kiss.

"Um.." Alex's tail was still wagging behind her, her face wearing what felt like the goofiest grin; she wasn't feeling very coherent right now.

"Sorry!" Cole said. "I—I lost control! Something just, came over me..!"

"It's...it's okay!" she said, hesitating to gasp in some air.

"No, nonono, it's—!" He pulled himself up off of the wall and hurried to the door, practically bolting out of the closet.

It took the wolf-girl a moment to get steady on her feet, and by that point it sounded like he'd made it clear to the opposite end of their "apartment". She went out into the bedroom and called out: "Coooole, it's okay! Really!"

"No! Th-that was not okay!"

Her legs were..still a little weak, so she went and sat on the bed. "Seriously! I know what you're thinking. This...thing, that's happened to us—made me kiss you? So it's not like I really wanted to?"

"So that wasn't consensual!" he finished for her.

"But I..I think it was! I think I might..actually like you. And even if I don't, I'm not angry! I definitely won't be, even after I turn back to normal. I mean, were you?"
"No, because—I mean—whatever turned me into a girl, also screwed with my head! A-and, apparently I didn't go all the way back! Not even mentally!"
"Cole, will you at least come into the living room so we don't have to yell for this entire conversation? I'm sitting on the bed, and I'm not gonna get up! Promise!"

"Okay...okay." He came into view a moment later, standing a good few feet away from the doorway.

"Look," She crossed her arms. "If you'd been 'mentally altered' and not gone back, why wouldn't it be in a way that would keep you from worrying about it?"

"W-well how do you explain me, purring and..grabbing you like that?!" he demanded, his voice cracking a little when he shouted the first 'you'.

"I think you just have some 'feline instincts'. Just like how I wound up with some definite 'canine' ones. And you were a boy in close proximity to a pretty girl who was obviously giving you some serious signals," Alex said. "Plus...you're not just any boy, either, right?"

"What do you mean?"
"Well, you said you were 'desperate' before, and that you don't have a lot of friends?" she said, lowering her ears a little bit in sympathy. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you seem pretty lonely."

"Yeah..." Cole sighed. "Yeah. That's, the right word for me. It still doesn't excuse me doing...that."

"I'm gonna keep telling you not to worry about it," Alex said. "I happened to enjoy it. Wish it had lasted a little longer, even. Maybe it'll convince you if I say it again after turning back?"

"I dunno..it'd help, I guess—if you weren't just saying it because you felt like you had to, because we're stuck here together and we need to work together and get along and not be at each other's throats to survive to have any chance of escaping," he rattled off with increasing panic, each word coming out faster than the previous one.

This time, Alex sighed. "Look, just—go get that game with the hourglass in it, 'kay? I'll be sitting right here, so you can keep as much distance as you want." And the next time you want a kiss as a catgirl, I'll give it to you! she thought.

"Okay...right..." Cole nodded slowly, taking a deep breath to calm himself down. "Okay..." He slowly stepped into the bedroom, crab-walking along the wall opposite her while she watched, until he got to the bathroom door, then backed his way through the bathroom to the closet.

Alex felt..a sharp pain at seeing him that upset, and especially at feeling like he was afraid to get close to her again. But she kept it in; trying to go comfort him would only make it worse right now. Instead, she stood up and announced: "I'm gonna go check if there's some, like, glue or something in the washroom, okay?" Along the way, she went and picked up the broom she'd left on the floor the night before to take it with her.

"Okay. I'll see if I can get the hourglass open."

---

Now and then, I've expressed my distaste for TG, or really transformation stories in general, being "character A is entirely replaced, in both body and mind, by new character B". It morally grosses me out because it amounts to character A just plain dying (and if another character was responsible then that person basically committed murder); there's also a tendency for that situation to quickly turn into something that seems very..let's say, not consensual for character A. However, it's also disappointing to me as a storyteller/reader because you leave such interesting options for character development and interaction on the table when you throw away that tension of who the person was pre-transformation being in conflict with how they wind up. Not to shame you if you enjoy, or even write, things in that vein, but it's just not something you'll see me write or enjoy. I bring all that up more to say: I very much wanted to play around with that tension in this particular story.