It was an overcast day, and Stephen was in an overcast mood. He was nearly to his friends’ place — they’d called him here because they had a surprise to show him — but he was really nervous about what it could be. Surprises and Stephen just didn’t get along.

Then again, his friends were very good. To the point where he didn’t think he deserved friends like them.

As Stephen trudged along the sidewalk towards their apartment, he sighed to himself. How had such a dumb guy like him ended up friends with two genius lesbians? And even more than that, how had it gotten to the point where they called him their best friend? What exactly had he done to make them like him? He didn’t really get it.

But then again, he wasn’t going to reject their invitation. Partially because he was incapable of saying no, and partially because he was willing to give in to the desire to be loved, and, well... whether or not he deserved it, they seemed to care about him.

And that was the train of thought that took Stephen from the safety of his own home, the train of thought that carried him through his journey, and the train of thought that brought him to their place.

He found himself there, then, too nervous to even knock on the door. Maybe he should just go back home. Sure, yeah, they might call him and ask him ‘where the flip he was,’ but then he could just give an excuse like ‘I got sick, go on without me.’ Or he could say his dog ate his willpower to move. That would be a good excuse too... unless they knew he didn’t have a dog.

Then the door opened very suddenly and Stephen jumped backwards, startled. It was Lily, her pretty, thin eyebrows raised high — clearly she was as shocked to see him as he was to see her.

“Stevie, what are you doing out here?” Lily laughed.

“M-my dog ate my willpower to move,” Stephen stammered.

“You don’t have a dog,” Lily rolled her eyes. “You’re a cat person. Right?”

He looked at his feet and nodded. Okay, so maybe his friends could see through him after all.

Nervously, he looked back up, and Lily held open the door for him, ushering him inside. He stared at her for a second, trying to decide whether or not he should take off, whether he should run the whole way back home and then hide in his bed again. Honestly? That might be a good idea. He just felt so out of place, the dumb dorky boy next to the two extremely pretty girls that Lily and May were.

Lily, for instance, was tall and willowy, with long, straight, black hair framing a beautiful face with high cheekbones and piercing eyes. She had two rings in her right eyebrow, one stud on her nose, and if he remembered right, a few rings on the top of each ear as well — but those were currently obscured by her hair.

She was also dressed in her usual style — that being ripped jeans and a long-sleeved, button-down plaid shirt that she left open, under which she was wearing a form-fitting white shirt that Stephen had to make sure not to look at too closely, or else he’d see the shadows and therefore the shape of her body, which was... It was just inappropriate and he shouldn’t stare, y’know?

Anyway, yeah, Lily was incredibly attractive, to the point where Stephen felt extremely out of place around her — not only because his appearance was ugly and terrible, but also because she was pretty to the point where he had to keep reminding himself that he needed to not be thinking about how attractive she was. Like, he was a straight dude and she was a lesbian, and she was taken, too, for that matter, and spending any time thinking about it was just bad and wrong! Honestly, the fact that he could get so stuck up on stuff like this was probably another big part of the reason why he felt so out of place. They didn’t know the bad stuff happening inside his stupid brain. If only he could get it to shut up.

“Stevie, what are you doing? Come on, get inside,” Lily laughed again.

“S-sorry,” he said, and finally walked past her into their apartment, burying any of the dark thoughts in his mind.

It was cosy in there... in his friends’ house. Warm and friendly and bright. The two of them had such very different styles — Lily liked to go for a mixture of dark colours and lots of wood furniture, while May liked to go for sharp, modern furniture in garish colours — but somehow it all fit together in a cohesive way. It was ridiculous and cute and it just... worked. Just like they did.

It was comfortable here, but Stephen was still out of place.

“May’s in the stasis chamber,” Lily said, walking down the hall in front of him. “She’s just doing one last check over the hardware.”

“One last check?” Stephen asked, following her through the door.

“Oh, did she not tell you? We finished the software last night. We can all play, finally!”

“Oh...” Stephen blanched. “I...” He had no idea what to even say. They had talked before about the three of them all playing VR for the summer, but... well, it hadn’t ever been something that he actually expected to happen. He didn’t belong with them, after all. “Are you two sure you want me along?” he asked, wringing his hands nervously.

Lily turned back to him and scoffed. “Are you kidding, Stevie?” She crossed her arms and looked down at him with such an intensity. “Of course we want you along. Right, babe?” she turned towards the pair of legs obscured completely by a tower of hardware.

“Mhm, yep!” May replied. If Stephen was right — and he probably was, frankly — she was not paying attention one bit, with her head buried in that tangle of wires and tubes which made up their VR setup. But she acted as though she was, saying, “I sure do!”

Stephen wasn’t convinced, and not just because May didn’t seem like she was paying attention. He loved his best friends, but he really did always feel like a third wheel around them. A dumb, out-of-place boy... Why would they want him along? And besides, wouldn’t it be really bad of him to intrude on something that would otherwise be really special for them? And, like, he cared about them. He really did. Even if he felt bad just with that. So, obviously, if he cared... why would he choose to do something like that? 

“But... won’t I just get in the way?” he finally mumbled.

And Stephen especially didn’t want to pressure them into including him, and he was nervous that just by existing that was exactly what he was doing, and—

Lily put a hand on his shoulder and he flinched. “Stevie. Calm down, hon. You’re our friend. Our best friend. We want you to play with us, okay? It wouldn’t feel right if you weren’t here.”

“Oh, and make sure you get mine with mushroom!” May called.

Lily kicked her in the shin. “We’re not getting pizza, May, we’re comforting our friend!”

May finally pulled her head out of the electricals and other internals, pulling up her goggles. Her face was bright red and her frizzy brown hair was all over the place... and when her eyes landed on Stephen and she smiled wide, Stephen found his heart start to race. Stupid, stupid! Yes, Stephen found her appearance pretty cute, but he knew better than to allow those kinds of thoughts. Again, his friends were lesbians. And taken, for that matter. By each other! 

“Yeah, a ten-inch sounds fine!” May grinned at Lily. “When will it be ready?”

Lily put her head in her hands. “Okay, we can get pizza, but first you’re telling Stevie whether you want him to come with.”

May’s face adopted a confused expression as she looked between the two of them. “No? You don’t need to come with, Stevie. Not if you don’t want to?”

Stephen breathed out, simultaneously relieved to hear the truth and also feeling like his heart was being pierced... Stupid, this is exactly what you wanted! You wanted them to be honest! “...Thank you for... being honest,” he choked out. “I’ll just—”

But May stopped him. “Wait, am I missing something? Why don’t we just get it delivered? Then nobody has to go.”

Nobody said anything for a moment, Lily just staring and Stephen swallowing back his feelings. 

“Oh goddamnit, May,” Lily then groaned. “I meant for Stevie to test out VR with us. Not to pick up a freaking pizza.”

“...Oh! Sorry, guess I got some wires mixed up,” she winked at Stephen. He sniffled. “Being all wishy washy again, then, mm Stevie?”

“I-I just don’t want to be annoying!” he protested, a bit too loudly. He winced at the sound he’d made. Then, much quieter, he said, “Your first extended VR test will be... well, it’ll be special, won’t it? A time for you two to... be together. I dunno why you’d ever want me with you, and especially for so long, and, like—”

And then before he knew it May had jumped at him and started hugging him. “Noooooo,” he whined. “I don’t want to be hugged... I don’t like this...”

May sighed, pulling away. “Stevie. I don’t know what Lily told you, but we’re your best friends! We love you, and yes, we want you along. It wouldn’t feel right without you!”

“I said pretty much exactly that, babe,” Lily said.

“Wow, same wavelength,” May grinned at her.

“B-but...” he stammered.

“No buts!” May said. “You’re playing or... no pizza for you!”

Stephen sighed. “Okay. If you say so.”

* * *

Except for previous, much shorter tests of their setup, Stephen hadn’t gotten the chance to try VR for extended durations before. VR was just really expensive, and, well... he was a poor college kid, honestly. It had always been the kind of thing he hoped to get into, someday. Maybe take VR vacations from his future job. The idea of not having to be himself for a long while sounded fun. An escape. 

Honestly, he thought he was really lucky that he was friends with Lily and May. 

Stephen didn’t think he deserved it, either; from his insecurities about feeling out of place and unloveable to the fact that he definitely couldn’t stack up to them, what with his lame business major that he was terrible at, opposed to their engineering majors which had led them to... well, this. Like, they’d been smart enough to design and build their own VR system! Sure, they’d been given a grant for it, and they’d raised money from a crowdfunding campaign... but, well, not just anyone could do something like this! These girls were really amazing. And Stephen was just riding along on their coattails.

“Alright... Looks like all systems are green,” Lily said, pulling Stephen out of his reverie. 

The three of them were full up on pizza and ready to enter VR stasis, a state their bodies would remain in — maintained by technology that Stephen could never hope to understand — for the rest of the summer, if everything worked out. Stephen was laying down on his cot already, and May was bouncing around next to her own while Lily did one last check over their configuration and system status.

Lily continued, “We’re full up on nutrient supplements and meds, with months to spare, we’ve done numerous stress tests of the equipment, we have plenty of safeguards in place to make sure we’re staying good and healthy. And our backup power supply looks good-to-go, too, that passed all the tests. May? Stevie? How are you feeling? You two ready?”

“Yes ma’am! Ready and rarin’ to go!” May saluted, jumping onto her cot and pulling down her goggles. “Let’s get these months of fun started!”

Stephen nodded, not quite able to get words out. As much as he was really excited to not be himself for a few months, he was also terrified that at some point they’d... See him for what he really was? Get annoyed with his presence? Push him away where he should be, so that they could finally be alone? Sure, he wanted to spend time with them, and he loved them, but he also was pretty sure they were just doing all this out of pity or something. Why else would they want him around?

“Good!” Lily smiled. “Okay, it’s set. A few months of fun, coming right up.” She moved the mouse and clicked a couple times, then walked over to the third cot, and Stephen heard a creak as she laid down.

“Goodnight, babe. Goodnight, Stevie.”

* * *

Stephen’s eyes shot open, and he was greeted with a stark, white, featureless ceiling, what he was pretty sure was the ceiling of the VR hub. He still couldn’t quite feel everything, it felt like all his senses were numbed — that was usually how it started when playing VR, though. It tended to be the best method to slowly acclimatise you to the replacement senses, or something.

Sitting up, he looked around, and saw two girls on the cots to his left, both also sitting up. Assuming reality matched the VR hub, the closest girl was May, and the further was Lily.

“Everybody make it in alright?” Lily asked.

“No!” May gasped. “I can’t feel my toes!”

Lily didn’t respond, and Stephen glanced over to see her face in her hands.

“Okay, I’m just being silly. I know I’m not supposed to yet.”

“Yeah... I’m in,” Stephen said quietly.

His voice was a lot different than normal, though. It was... higher. And smoother. Different in a major way that Stephen did not have the words to describe. Different enough that both of the girls turned to look at him, a bit startled.

“Oops,” May said.

“May, why is Stevie in a girl body?”

And that would explain why Stephen’s voice was like that.

“I... uhhh... I was testing things, and... I might’ve forgot to set User #3 back to the Stevie model we made?” May said, rubbing the back of her head with a sheepish smile.

Lily had already gotten out of her cot and walked over to a very shocked, smaller Stephen, and he shrunk back a bit in his nervousness. “Are you okay?” she asked, her voice low and gentle. “Are you uncomfortable?”

“I’m okay, and... I... I don’t... think so?” he mumbled. “It m-might be because my senses are still... numbed, though.”

“Do you want to take some time and make a new model?” she sat on the cot near him, but not right next to him. Just close enough that he didn’t feel... nervous. “It’s up to you, of course... I just don’t want you to feel dysphoria.”

“What do I... l-look like?” Stephen asked, staring down at his hands and legs, and trying his very best to ignore his chest because that was inappropriate.

“Cute?” May offered.

Lily glared at her.

Still a bit shell-shocked, Stephen laughed, but it came out as a giggle. That was... He...

Both of them were staring at him again. He shifted uncomfortably. “Don’t look at me like that...”

“I’m sorry, Stevie,” Lily said. “I was just... surprised, is all. Anyway... why don’t we open Humodeller and you can see what you look like and... well, do what you want to do to make yourself more comfortable?”

“O-okay,” Stephen mumbled, sneaking a glance at her.

She smiled, then brought up the VR interface, sliding it over to him. “Press this button to open the app. We’ll stay out here to give you some privacy. If you need help you can use this to call us, okay?”

He nodded, feeling his face get a bit warm. Then he pressed the button to enter the modelling app, and his friends disappeared.