“Now, avoid eating or drinking for 2 hours, okay~?”

I stare at Niamh, both impressed she can be like this after…that…and wholly unimpressed by her joke at the same time.

“...Oh boo, lighten up! You’re alive!” She gives me a smile and a pat on the shoulder. Can’t not smile back at a beautiful woman’s smile. “Theeere she is. Good girl~”

Ough. Don’t like how good that felt. Okay, maybe I do like it.  Just a bit.

“So, uhh, I really want to get us home after nearly dying to a ceaseless void,” Cat says, joining in the conversation with a swing of her hips and a swish of her tail, “but mind telling us why exactly you came to save the night?”

A giggle is the first response she gets out of the snake before she actually explains anything. “You two are interesting. Simple as that.”

“No way. Shut up and explain,” Cat says to gently persuade our ally for more information.

“Really! Really and truly. It’s something I’ve been doing for quite some time now~ I really enjoy sweeping interesting humans off their feet and taking them to my world, then sending them back once I’m bored~”

“You know, that works for me,” I say through my exhaustion, much to Cat’s displeasure. “Hey, just think about what we know about Niamh’s character. Seems pretty fitting to me.”

“Plus, I’ve been helping you since my defeat.” 

We both blink at her. 

“What? Hadn’t you noticed? Oh well, I’m sure you’ll suddenly remember in the dead of night and sit up all like ‘OH MY GODS, THAT WAS THE SEXY HOT SNAKE LADY!’. You know, as you do~”

“Alright, alright, but I’ve got my eyes on you,” Cat says, her doubt wavering but still very much alive.

“I sure hope you do~” Niamh pushes her chest out and flicks her tongue at Cat, turning her into a blushing mess. “So easy~”

“Shut up. Shut up! We’re going home. Goodbye.”

Cat sweeps me off my feet and carrys me…o-oh…bridal style…before beginning to walk away from Monorise and Niamh.

“I’ll see you two tomorrow, then~”

I wave to the snake woman from within Cat’s arms while my partner groans at her.

“Sure. Yeah. Sure we will. Good night.”

 

The ride home was…really nice. Maybe I’m just a bit out of it, but I really like being held by Cat. She gets us home real fast and I’m kinda sad to be put back on my feet. The both of us sigh heavily as we get back inside. I’d never felt more terrified in my life than I did moments ago, inches away from being consumed by an ever hungry void. Cat running alongside me. Both our lives at stake. But more importantly, her life was at stake. Our future together was in peril. And I want that future. I’m horrified thinking of how, in just a moment, I could lose the chance to explore and express all these feelings in me I don’t understand, all the memories we could share together. Ugh… I shake my head.

“That has to have been our longest night yet…” I say, shambling my way through our shabby home.

“I’ll say… I’d love to…take a break after that…”

“Same… Though, I doubt we actually will,” I say, turning and entering Cat’s room without a second thought.

“...Uhh, Fox? Your room is the other way.”

“Yeah. It is.”

My partner blinks at me, looking like she’s getting ideas from how she blushes as I throw myself onto her bed. “U-uhh, Fox, are you feeling okay?”

“No. I’m not. Get in here.”

But she just stands there under the door frame, flushed as her tail wraps around her leg.

“...Something the matter, kitty?”

And with that, she’s leapt into bed with me, though, only laying beside me.

“L-look, I’m just surprised. You always seemed so opposed to…things like this.”

I roll onto my side and look at her, the girl glancing at me constantly as she lays on her back.

“I nearly died on two different occasions in the span of minutes tonight. I’m not going to…stop myself anymore. From finding my own happiness. With you.”

The two of us lay in silence for a time, then Cat rolls onto her side to look at me. We smile at each other, gently and sweetly.

“S-so, uhm…” Cat begins to stammer out, her tail swishing anxiously. “Are we like…you know…”

At first, my answer is simply placing my hand on her cheek. But there’s more to this than that.

“...Let’s…not answer questions like that for now. For now. I… I want to enjoy… What I’m feeling right now…”

My partner places her paw atop my hand, holding it and closing her eyes.

“What are you feeling right now?

“...Let’s not answer questions like that for now.”

We chuckle at one another, but by the time I open my eyes, I realize just how close our faces are. A blush creeps across my face as my feet shuffle around nervously, but my hand remains in Cat’s grasp. It’s been quite some time since I’ve last seen her this up close, definitely before our ascension at any rate. She’s…so…

“...Beautiful…”

Fuck. Said it out loud. But you know what? Fuck it. I said it out loud. And I’m smiling. And she’s blushing. And I’m happy. And. I want to be close. I don’t want to lose this. I never want to risk not having this moment ever again.

“...What are you feeling right now…?” I ask with a cheeky smile, Cat holding back her laughter at me.

“What, do you want the facetious answer? Or the real answer?”

“I want the Cat answer.”

 We look at each other’s faces right now. Does she look at me and see someone pretty like when I look at her? Is she feeling this too? I’ve doubted it for so long but...her answer is coming very soon. I see it as she closes her eyes. Our faces are so close. I should close my eyes, too. Lean in. Tilt my head just a bit…

…

She’s soft…

Her lips, and all the rest of her held against me.

I want to keep feeling this.

We have to pull away eventually.

Just. Not right now.

Right now, my heart feels right.

She feels so right.

I love her.

“...I love you…”

Cat’s eyes slowly open as I speak my heart, gazing wider and wider. She looks surprised. By what I said? Or the fact I said it at all? I don’t know. But her face relaxes after a moment, and she brings her palm up to my cheek.

“I love you too, Fox. I always have.”

 Oh. Oh god. Always. Always… Hasn’t it been the same for me too, though? The nights we spent huddled up together. The times we laughed and smiled together.  All of it. Always.

“...Always.”

 

Despite all the trials the night presented to us, I’ve never slept as soundly as I did last night. And here we are. In the morning. Her arms around me. Our faces close. She’s so cute when she sleeps. I bring my hand up and hold her cheek. In response to my touch, the sleeping girl nuzzles into my hand and smiles. I love her. Holy fuck I love her so much. If I still had my tail, I’m sure it would be wagging something fierce. Soon enough, Cat awakens with a yawn, opening her eyes and smiling at me still.

“G’morning, hun.”

“Good morning, kitty.”

We’d said the same thing yesterday, but it feels so much different now. There are still questions we have to answer, but…right now, everything feels so good. I can’t help it, and I don’t think she can either. Our lips meet once more for a moment, but it’s a moment enough. It’s different than last night, physically anyways. But it’s nice. I don’t think I could ever not enjoy this.

“You wanna get up and answer some of those questions?” Cat asks jokingly, her hand sliding down my bare shoulder until it finds my own, holding it gently.

“Hmm? ...Oh. Oh right…” 

Just like that, I’m already embarrassed, looking down and…oh, I don’t remember that happening, but we must have gotten out of our clothes before we fell asleep last night… A good thing, too. I don’t think my new chest piece would exactly fit the same way it used to. I’m just avoiding the question now though.

“...Yeah. Let’s go,” I answer after moments of deliberation. 

My partner squeezes my hand gently before rolling over and sliding out from under the covers, her tail swishing and swaying the moment she’s on her ass oh my god her ass. I roll to turn away from my completely nude partner, hearing her giggling at me behind my back.

“You’re, uhm, allowed to look, you know.”

“No I’m not.”

She laughs more at me, and only then do I realize that what I saw wasn’t just Cat’s butt, it was Cat’s butt. As in, cat Cat’s butt. Which can only mean…

The covers are thrown off in a second, and there they are. Full fox legs, fur reaching up to just below my midriff. It’s so odd seeing hips this wide on this body without the rest of it, but… hmm. Tossing myself out of bed, I get a better bearing on my changes. Walking feels natural. Much better than how yesterday started out, at the very least. I check myself out some more, completely forgetting I’m in full view of someone else until she gasps.

“I don’t even know where to start with you, but how about… Oh my god your tail is so cute?!”

Eh? I blink hearing what Cat says, looking behind myself and… Lo and behold, a tail. It’s about a quarter of its original size, looking more like a pompom with a pointed end than anything else. Well. This is inconvenient. And slightly embarrassing. I’m glad I was able to save our lives, but…hopefully I won’t be needing a huge tail tonight…

“Secondly, dang Fox, your ass is FAT.” 

I haven’t even turned around to look at Cat and she’s already eyeing me up like that. Help. My legs give way and I fall down to hide behind my side of the bed, much to Cat’s amusement. 

“C’mon, it’s a good thing! You look great!”

Huff. Thanks Cat. Can’t stay hiding down here forever though. The problem with sleeping in Cat’s room is that none of my stuff is in here, thus, I stand up and begin making my way…

Tall…

Cat is… Really tall! Like, towering over me! Was that part of today’s change? Oh. No. Oh wait. That would mean.

“Fox, you are so cute, please come here.”

“Wait-- Wait, we’re both--!”

Guh. There’s no escape. Cat picks me up and hugs me tight, completely disregarding the fact that neither of us have gotten fully dressed yet. Huff. It’s nice, though…feeling her against me like this. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to…enjoy this. With a sigh, my arms come up and wrap around her, only making her hug me tighter. It takes a moment to get to the point where she actually lets me down, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying every second of it until then.

“Alright, alright, go get dressed,” Cat says jovially, patting my shoulder and shoving me off. “Oh, and if your butt’s too big for anything you’ve got, just check my wardrobe for something!”

Sigh. That’s right. My ass is fat now. Great. I mean, yes, great, I like it, but. Sigh.

 

On the bright side, being short makes basically all of my shirts more like dresses, so as long as I can get some underwear to fit, I might not need to wear anything underneath. It’s…a struggle, to say the least, but eventually I get something on and I’m good to go. Stepping out of my room, I find Cat oh yeup her being taller makes her clothes seem a lot smaller. Hmm. There she is, standing under her door frame in a skirt that once reached a little past her knees but now only manages to go a little past half of her thighs. She looks good, don't get me wrong, but. HUFF.

“Looking good, Fox!”

“Y-yeah, same to you, Cat…”

She gives me a bright smile before we both make our way to the kitchen, both of us taking a seat, except for me because there is only one unoccupied seat--

“Good morning, girls~”

Our gazes snap towards the familiar voice. Somehow, we straight up did not notice her sitting at our dining table until just now.

“Niamh?!” we both shout, eliciting a chuckle from the snake woman.

“Oh, you remembered! How delightful~”

“How is that--” But Cat doesn’t bother finishing her thought, simply pinching the bridge of her nose and taking her head in her hands.

“Niamh, why are you in our house?” I ask. I don’t expect a real answer, but better to get the question out there anyways.

“Your door was unlocked.”

“Our-- OUR DOOR DOESN’T HAVE A LOCK!!” my partner exclaims, throwing her hands into the air and getting a jolly laugh out of our snake friend.

“Exactly. No. Lock. Unlocked!” 

I find myself simultaneously frustrated and amused by this devil of a woman.

“...Would you like some tea, ma’am?” I ask as dryly as possible, which, of course, grants me the most enthusiastic answer from her.

“Why, I would love a cup of tea! My, I haven’t had any in quite some time, you really are a dear~”

Rolling my eyes, I get to work, setting up the kettle and all that jazz.

“Seriously, Niamh, can you please tell us why you felt the need to break into our house?” Cat asks exhaustedly, already worn out from this slithery conversation.

“Didn’t I tell you already?” The serpent rests her arms on the table and smiles at the both of us, and the sudden sound of kicking against the ground tells me there’s some tail shenanigans going on under the table. “You’re interesting. That’s all the reason I need.”

“You’re breaking and entering!” my partner shouts, which only makes Niamh’s smile grow wider.

“Is that not your job, dearie? If anything, you should be happy we have even more in common now~”

“That’s-- That is NOT a fair comparison.”

As frustrated as Cat sounds, it’s hard not to be amused by the antics of these two. Once the tea is prepared, I set the kettle and cups about the table for everybody before grabbing a third chair for myself.

“Come, dear, if you need a seat, there’s one right here waiting for you~”

Cat looks about to pounce before I slam the chair down and take a seat, blowing on my tea the moment I’m down.

“I’m having enough trouble getting used to intimacy with one person. I certainly don’t need trouble with two.”

“Oh~?” Niamh leans further onto the table, cup in…tail as she blows on it. “Have the two of you finally figured yourselves out? I could feel the tension from miles away~”

“We were GOING TO,” Cat blurts out, almost scowling at Niamh, “until SOMEONE interRUPTED US.”

And she merely chuckles more. “Well! Well. Don’t let me get in the way of that. I’ll just be enjoying some tea~”

Thunk. The sound of Cat’s head slamming against the table fills the silence of the morning before she peels herself off and shakes her head.

“Can you at least, like…make yourself invisible or something if you’re going to insist on being here…?” she begs, to which Niamh waves her hand, erecting a sudden wall of clouds between her and us. “...Good enough, I suppose.”

 

We continue to sit together in silence, sipping our tea until one of us musters the nerve to begin. Guess that’ll be me.

“...So…uhm…” I begin, Cat looking at me mid-sip, then putting her cup down and her hands in her lap. “...Last night, when you asked…what we are…you, of course, meant…?”

My partner chuckles nervously and rubs the back of her head. “Yeah. Like. Together.” She takes another sip, putting her cup back down with a sigh. “As in dating. You. And I. As.” She clears her throat before taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. “Girlfriends.”

Huff. Girlfriends, huh…

“I-if you’re okay with that term! We can just use ‘partners’ if you’d like!’

‘No! No no. It’s… fine… I think…” I offer a sigh myself, holding my cheek and shaking my head. “I don’t know… I don’t want to, like…be lying to you or something. Just because I’m going to end up looking like a girl…a-and if you’re only attracted to girls…”

Cat reaches over and places her hand on mine, smiling gently at me.

“I’m pansexual, don’t worry about that. More importantly…”

My partner stands up and walks around the table to my side, getting on one knee so she’s actually close to my eye level.

“Are you a girl, Fox?”

Easy. Of course I…no…wait… I… There’s a voice inside me telling me no, that I can’t be this way, that I’m only hurting myself and everyone around me by following this road. But there’s another part of me that’s been enjoying all of this, all of the changes, all the things I’ve been learning about myself. It feels good! Yet that other voice hurts me when I think such things… Is it right? What do I answer here…?

“...I can’t be, can I?”

You’re not like her.

“It’s not like I’ve been a girl this whole time like you. I can’t think back to anything that would point towards that.”

It’s wrong.

“I’d just be a creep pretending to be--”

“Stop.” Her voice is stern, but her hand is soft, resting on my shoulder and pulling herself closer. “Don’t say those things. I don’t want to remember thinking those same things.”

Huh? I turn to look at Cat more directly, tilting my head at her, only to blush as her free hand comes up to hold my cheek.

“Do you really think I’ve ‘always known’, or something? No. It’s something we learn. We learn why things feel so wrong. We realize the things that made us feel wrong.”

She stands up and takes me with her, pulling me into a hug that I can’t help but return, closing my eyes and holding my head against her torso. What is she getting at…? And why does it hit so close to my heart…

“I used to think those awful thoughts too. That I must be wrong. That there’s no way I could be this way that feels so right to me, because it’s wrong for me to feel right like that.”

She gets back to her knees and looks me in the eyes, hands on my shoulders.

“But it’s not wrong. We’re not wrong. Tell me, does being a girl make you happy?”

It does.

But it shouldn’t.

A pang in my heart tells me there’s no going back soon.

It’s not too late.

“Does thinking about being a girl, doing girl-coded things, does it make your heart feel something strong? Something you can’t ignore?” Cat continues to ask.

It does.

Ignore it.

Cat’s exactly right.

This isn’t happiness.

I close my eyes and ball my hands into fists, only for Cat to pull me back into a hug.

“You can say it. You can think it. You can feel it. You’re allowed to be happy with yourself, regardless of what others think.”

I… I can? But…we’d be in danger if…no…no, if Cat, and everyone like her can... Oh my god. The voice in the back of my head is finally quiet. Nothing more to say that can stop me now. I can be happy. I’m…allowed to be happy? Oh god. My hands slowly rise up Cat’s back before grabbing her, holding her, clinging to her. I want to cry. I am crying. I’m allowed to… I’m allowed to feel. I’m…

“I’m a girl…”

“There it is, hun… Let it out…”

“I’m… I’m a girl…! I… I want to be a girl with you… I want to enjoy these changes… I want to…love them… I want to love myself…!”

It all comes rushing through me at once. It’s a terrifyingly strong feeling. But…it’s my heart speaking all of these things, I can feel it. All of these bottled up feelings, things I was made to feel are wrong, they’re all right and true, and they’re all coming out now. I hold my… I hold Cat close. Closer than I’ve ever felt someone before.

In time, the tears slow down, and I feel Cat’s arms ease up, the girl pulling back and smiling at me. Oh. She was crying too…

“Feeling better, Ms. Vixen?”

God, and she knows what hits just right.

“Yeah. Yeah… I’ll probably…need time to process all of this. It’s been so many years in waiting, I’m sure it’ll take some more time.”

“But for now?”

“...For now… I’m happy to be your girlfriend.”