The morning goes by smoothly and swiftly, Cat laying on her bed reading the book I got her while I bide my time getting her wardrobe actually clean and organized. We’re really going to need an iron at some point, this girl must think folding clothes is a crime… Then again, when has thinking or even knowing things are crimes ever stopped us? Anyways, it doesn’t take me too long before everything is all tidied up, my partner thanking me with a smile as I take a step back from her wardrobe. Some tea would be nice right about now, but we have no idea when Zee is going to show up and I wouldn’t want either the tea or our time at Zee’s to be wasted.

“We should see about nabbing some thermoses,” I mumble to myself. 

Cat looks over and tilts her head at me. “What was that, hun?”

GHHFF-- Hun?! Once again my heart is racing and my face is red. 

“G-guh, it’s nothing. Just musing about tea, you know, as I do…” 

I know ‘hun’ doesn’t have to be romantic in any way, but it’s hard for my dumbass brain to process it as otherwise out of some dumb hope that maybe she will someday use it with me romantically. Oh well… Cat smiles and nods at me before stretching and putting her book to the side. She pulls out her pocket watch.

“Man, it’s almost noon already, and no sign of Zee. You think they’re alright?” 

I throw Cat’s question around in my head for a moment. “They’re probably sleeping in or something. They can try all they want to, but the human body won’t want to run without proper sleep.” 

My partner giggles before humming to herself. “I’m surprised we were able to get our schedules in check as quickly as we did, thinking about it.” 

I chuckle and sigh as I think back. The sentiment is mutual. It took a little over a week of adjusting for us to get used to our heist schedule.

“It wasn’t easy, by any stretch of the imagination, though. That first week was brutal, on top of just not having the cash to get by. How we went about multiple heists while tired and starving is the part that surprises me the most.” 

Cat groans as I remind her of our early Railsent trials, prompting me to walk over and sit on her bedside, placing a hand on her head and patting her. I swear I can hear a semblance of her purring from last night.

SLAM.

Cat nearly jumps from her bed straight to the ceiling.

“Oh, Zee’s here.”

Cat looks at me like I just told her ghosts are real. Although, considering the last few days, who knows…

“What do you mean Zee’s here, what was that?!”

“The sound of this house somehow still standing. C’mon.” I give her one last pat for good luck and slide off her bed, stretching before walking out towards the front door with my partner in tow. Opening the door, we see our wonderful thembo rubbing their sore looking nose. “Rough landing?”

“Nothing I can’t handle! What’s UP furry folk!” Zee greets us with their usual zeal, to which I put my hands on my hips and shake my head with an amused smirk.

“Is that what we are now, huh? Furry folk?” 

The tech wiz laughs as my tail snakes its way up my shirt and forms into a scarf once more.

“I kinda like the sound of that, it’s cute!” Cat chimes in, adjusting her hat with a smile. I lightly smack her arm with the back of my hand.

“Don’t encourage them. Look, take care of yourself, Zee, the two of us might be experienced in tending to the other’s wounds, but that doesn’t mean we go around looking to get hurt--” Before I can continue lecturing them, however, Zee slowly lowers themselves closer to the ground before making themselves collapse onto their back.

“Oh. Ough. Oh no. I’m wounded. I require the tending of two beautiful women. Please. Help.” 

I only manage to huff at their display while Cat laughs it up and hauls them back onto their feet.

“We’ll tend to you whenever you need us to, Zee, don’t worry.” 

My partner is keen on enabling this chaotic entity of course, to which I can only shake my head.

“Don’t be so dramatic, please,” I add, the other two chuckling at me in response. “Are we good to go now? Standing a few feet away from our shack is not as exciting as you might think, I can promise you that.”

“Oh, right! Yeah yeah yeah, follow me, girls!” 

With that Zee zips off on their rollerblades, though, at a more restrained speed so we can actually follow where they’re going.

 

As it turns out, Zee lives on the opposite side of town, closer to the path to the huge forest just off to the side of Railsent. I’ve always been curious about taking a stroll through those woods, but it’s been hard to find the time or motivation over the past few months. Maybe soon though. Regardless, we’ve made it to Zee’s place and from the outside it looks like a rather standard house, just like the rest of the village. However, I can only imagine what our friend has done to the interior. Unlocking the door, Zee soon shows us just that…

“Voila~! Casa de Sue-Zee!” 

Huh? The two of us blink, then look to our friend as opposed to inside of their house.

“Susie?” I wonder out loud, hoping in vain Zee might have an answer. Instead they shrug.

“Don’t worry about it! I’ll introduce you soon!” 

It’s the best we get from them, which, you know, alright. I’ll accept that. Moving past that, we all make our way inside and--

“Dang, Zee, you live like this?” Cat blurts out almost immediately.

I can’t help but share her sentiment. Our friend rubs the back of their head bashfully and shrugs once more. All around us: tech. Their house opens up immediately into what I think is the living room, at least from what I can tell based on what isn’t buried under their gadgets and gizmos. Consoles of some kind, things with way too many fans, robot arms...are those rockets duct taped to a skateboard?! Despite all the junk everywhere, Zee traverses the room with ease, throwing themselves onto the couch stranded in a sea of…things…

“C’mon, make yourselves at home! Oh, I’ve got snacks and drinks in the kitchen actually, I’ll be right back!” Zee bounces back off the couch, moving as if they’d just reversed the motion of them throwing themselves onto the couch. I’m starting to wonder if we actually understand Zee at all, or if we ever understood them… Though, taking a closer look at the ground, it’s almost as if they have a designated path of steps… It’s organized chaos, but I think I can get into it. Stepping here and there and around this and that and flump. I have successfully traversed my way to the couch.

“How the heck did you do that?” Cat asks from the other side of the room, tilting her head at me.

“Uhh… I looked before I stepped?” 

I don’t have much better of an answer than that, the pattern made up of seemingly random things and stuff just started to make sense. So I shrug. And Cat does as well. She then attempts to follow my lead, getting the swing of it pretty quickly and landing her butt right next to mine, smiling at me. Maybe having these animal feet is helping?

“Yo! Uhh, we’ve got… Chocolate milk… Apple juice… Water… Uhh, there’s some granola bars and chips ‘n stuff too. Any of that sound appealing?” Zee sounds off from the kitchen, and I can feel my tail start to wag. Chocolate milk… I haven’t had that in ages…

“Chocolate milk, and a bar for me.” I call out, then looking to Cat, hand to her chin as she thinks for a moment.

“Just apple juice for me. I’m still good from breakfast, really.”

And with Cat’s answer, Zee appears almost immediately, sliding in on their skates which they’re still wearing indoors for some reason. “Fetch!”

Their shout sets off our instincts, our hands flying up and catching the juice box, milk carton, and granola bar. Seems Zee caught on to our code pretty quickly after yesterday, we’ve been using that for ages now.

Our friend then returns to the couch, shoving themselves between us before we all start to talk. Zee brings up the conventions to Cat, who seems just as eager to show me what they’re talking about, but not tell me a lick about it. Those two then start talking about that anime stuff Cat was into in high school, though I never found much interest in it myself. Anything I would have been interested in was marketed towards girls, and… Yeah, okay, I see where this is going. Stopping that train of thought right now. It’s nice to hear them go off together though, Zee seems to have that effect on Cat. The once reserved girl is finally finding herself and her voice, it’s a joy to witness. I’ve never had much trouble talking, though at a certain age, that became more out of necessity when my partner had trouble speaking for herself rather than me actually wanting to hear my voice, because I certainly did not.

While I’m lost in thought, Zee seems to remember something they wanted to show us, hopping off the couch once more before motioning us to follow. Cat takes my hand and pulls me up, getting me out of my funk as we trail behind our pal.

 

Past the kitchen and down a hallway, we find ourselves before a door that is very clearly Zee’s… Sue-Zee’s. A sign hanging from the door is labeled as such, further drawing out my curiosity.

“Alright, alright, I trust you two, like, A LOT. It musta been pretty heavy to have let me join your secretive crew, so I hope you two can trust me too.” 

I’m not entirely sure what Zee is getting at, but I give them a reassuring smile. “Of course we do, you’ve been taking care of us in a lot of ways since we came here. I’m not sure we’d be where we are without your support. We trust you a ton.” 

Cat nods in agreement. Zee lets out a relieved sigh before shaking their head and slapping their cheeks.

“Okay! Alright. Alright okay okay alright. Just give us a second then, they’ll give you the good to go when we’re ready, alright?” 

I give Zee a nod, though, their phrasing is confusing me a bit. Us? They? They did say they were going to introduce us to their friends, but…oh well. Our friend slips into their room and closes the door behind them, after which we hear a muffled, “Deep breaths, Sue… You’ve got this!” 

A few moments pass before we hear anything else.

“O-okay, come in…!”

Hmm. I turn the doorknob and push open the way to Zee’s room, where we see… Zee. It’s just Zee in a dimly lit room with a bed and a desk with a computer atop it (and a pretty heavy duty one at that). There’s posters on the walls, figurines and other trinkets lined up atop their drawer. It’s a pretty standard nerdy bedroom if I ever had to imagine one, and sitting at the desks’s chair is…

“Sue.” 

Sue? They seem a lot more nervous than before, arms kept close to their sides, hands holding one another, seeming rather stiff. 

“I’m Sue. Uhm. Sue-Zee Rivers is our full name…”

Huh? I look at Cat, expecting them to look at me too, but she continues to look at… Sue? It’s Zee saying this, but they almost sound like a completely different person. It’s their voice, but softer spoken, and the air around them is totally different.

“Sue, huh?” Cat says, walking towards the bed and taking a seat with a smile. “Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Sue!” 

Sue seems incredibly relieved by Cat’s reaction to them, but I’m still left feeling incredibly confused.

“H-hold on, am I missing something? I’m…kind of really confused.” 

They both look to me, Cat shrugging while Sue sinks into their seat.

“Uhm…well…there’s two of us?” 

I blink at their explanation. 

“Like…like, okay, you really have to just…trust us on this, but… Zee and I both exist within this body? And uhm. We switch sometimes. I’m kind of…scared a lot, so I don’t really come out anywhere I’m not needed, or that isn’t home…”

Huh, okay. 

“I still don’t understand--” I begin before Cat clears her throat, everyone looking to her.

“You don’t have to, Fox.” I tilt my head at Cat, who gives me a soft smile. “Sue-Zee is Sue and Zee, just like they say. Maybe it’s new and hard to wrap your head around, it is for me too! But…well, you didn’t question me whenever we talked about my pronouns or gender, did you?”

I give her a nod as I cross my arms in thought. “Of course I wouldn’t, I have no reason not to believe you’re anything you say you are--”

“Exactly! Even if you don’t understand everything about it, Sue says they’re Sue, and that Zee is in there with them. We don’t have any reason to not believe them, and we don’t need any explanation to believe them either.” Cat looks back to Sue after lecturing me as gently as she could, giving them a smile as well. “All we need to do is make sure Sue and Zee feel comfortable and safe around us. I’m sure with time we’ll come to understand things better anyways, but making Sue sit here and defend their existence isn’t necessary. Only that our friends here know we believe them, and we’ll kick the butts of anyone who gives them trouble for them knowing who they are.”

Sue finally smiles as Cat’s speech concludes, huffing and holding their hands up to their chest. “You really don’t have to beat anyone up for us…”

“But we will,” I add, giving Sue a big smile. “Cat’s right, I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable at all. Good to meet you at last, Sue.” 

Our friends seem to slump down further into their seat with another sigh, small tears falling from their eyes as I walk over and offer a hand to them. They look up at me, surprised, then to my hand, seeming hesitant as they begin to reach out to it. Their gaze moves back to my face, at which point I nod, their hand finally reaching mine, allowing me to pull them up into a hug. Even more surprise takes them at first, but as Cat pats their back before joining in the hug, Sue’s crying gets a little heavier, but also a little happier.

“Thank you…”