When they woke up the next morning, Tee was acutely aware of the fact that they were still in Cassandra’s arms. In fact, it looked like, at some point during the night, they’d fallen over and pulled the blankets over themselves. Tee was completely wrapped in Cassandra, who was still wearing a lot of her armour, although most of the pouches and weapons had been taken off. Enough of them for Tee to be ridiculously comfortable. They’d always had a weakness for tall women -- especially easily flustered ones -- but this was their friend! The one they’d had a crush on for years now. Sure, she seemed to have changed. Cass was confident and comfortable in her body in a way that Tee had never seen. It was so damn attractive. And now they were wrapped up and they really wished they could sigh happily.

“G’morning,” Cass mumbled from behind her. In their head, Tee was starting the countdown. A conversation that they probably should’ve had before was just around the corner. In their defense, they’d been about to have that conversation when all three of them had fallen through the cracks in reality. Three. Two. O-- “Oh my god, I am so sorry,” Cass said, quickly pulling away from Tee, who was feeling very smug about themself. 

“You’re fine, Cassandra,” Tee said, sitting upright. They looked at Cass and realized that they couldn’t have this conversation while Tee didn’t have a face. They needed to be able to emote to some extent. On the one hand, they wanted to let Cassandra know that she hadn’t done anything wrong, but they also wanted to make sure that Cass didn’t think Tee was just going along with a bad thing. But first they needed a face. “We’ll talk later. About a lot of stuff, I promise,” they said to Cass, who was hiding her face in the pillow.

“Mrrrf,” Cass said, and then came up for air. Tee was surprised again at how resilient their old friend seemed to have gotten. Once upon a time she would’ve been wracked with guilt, or spiraled into a cascade of various negative emotions. Instead, there was a slight smile on her face. “I’ll take your word for it, Tee. Mort!” Tee was startled for a moment until they realized that Cass was yelling for the cat, who came walking from the corner. At some point during the night, he must’ve decided that the physical contact was too much.

“What?” he demanded, grumpy and yawning.

“Go see if Sal’s up. We need coffee,” Cass said, stretching. Tee tried not to stare. Mordecat just grumbled and sat down, glaring at Cassandra, and then at Tee for good measure. As cat glares went, Mort’s was pretty well refined. He had the intelligence to back it up with an annoyed glint in his eyes. Swearing was just the icing on the cake. Cass sighed. “Please, Mort. You can have some too, if you promise to take your meds.”

“That’s better,” Mordecat said haughtily. For a second, Tee was gonna ask how he was gonna open the door, but a cat that size had no trouble doing the big stretch and hitting the door switch. Cassandra sat up and ran her hands through her giant mess of hair. There was a lot of it, and it was all a very light blonde. She combed it with her fingers, encountering seemingly little resistance, and then began braiding it. Tee failed to not stare. Cass caught their gaze, and blushed slightly as she looked away. To avoid any awkwardness, Tee got up and stretched too, even if they didn’t strictly have to. It felt good to go through the motion.

“What’s the plan for today?”

“We still have some fifteen floors to go. My neighbourhood is on the way there, and I know someone who can help you get a face, and whatever other mods you might want to your… chassis.” Cass was done braiding and had started strapping her armor back on. “My place is close to there too, and I think I want a shower. No offense!” she quickly added, and Tee wished again that they could smirk, or raise an eyebrow. It had been fun to be faceless when they didn’t know anyone, but emoting at their friends was suddenly a necessity and not an option. I have no mouth and I must smirk. “I just don’t like sleeping in my clothes but, you know, I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.” Another adorable blush.

“Yeah, no I totally understand,” Tee said awkwardly. “Uh, I can’t really… drink coffee…”

“Oh, fuck, that was so insensitive of me,” Cass said with a soft laugh, grabbing her pack and throwing it onto her shoulder. It looked like it weighed twice as much as Tee. “Let’s just head out then. I’ll take something to go.” She led the way back down the hall to the front of the bar. Tee had spent some time in bars in the morning, mopping their way through college. The atmosphere appeared to be universal and consistent across dimensions. Sal looked awake. The two people, the large orc and the wolf girl, asleep on the bench in the corner were clearly sleeping off a hangover, leaning against each other. 

There were two cups of coffee on the counter. Mort was perched on a stool, happily lapping at one of them. “Morning,” Sal said. “Mort said three cups, but I don’t think your bot has any kind of… emergency induction port.” 

“You got it,” Cass said with a slight smile and a nod, and put two chits on the bar. “Keep the difference. Mort, we’re leaving.”

“What?!” For a second, Tee thought Mort was gonna attack Cass, but she didn’t seem even remotely worried. They’d seen cats look offended before, of course. All cats had the ability to look appalled when someone said their name wrong or touched their tail without permission, but Mort had turned the expression into an art form. “Why?!”

“Tee can’t drink coffee yet, so we need to get adjustments made.” Mort glowered.

“Acceptable,” he said, and gracefully jumped down from the stool, leaving Sal to toss two cups of coffee into the sink with a sigh. Tee followed Cassandra out the door, and they heard a grumbled, muttered cursing come from the direction of their knees. Outside, Tee didn’t see Cass hail a cab, but she must have signaled for one somehow. The ride was quiet. A lot of things were typed into the central console, most of which Tee could make neither heads nor tails of, so they spent their time placating Mort, who was grumpily curled up on their lap. 

“We’re close to where I live, so I got permanent permits to move around,” Cass said, as if that explained the weird rules regarding inter-floor movement. “An investment, but it was worth it,” she said. “I swear, Tee, for a city that seems to be strung together by crime, white collar and otherwise, there is so much red tape and paperwork.” Tee asked some questions about the city as they slowly ascended, slowly getting an image of the city, of how the wealth tended to trickle up to the top twenty or so floors, who looked down on everyone below that. Below floor forty, things seemed to be almost lawless, with crime gangs making up small governments. There were some havens of relative calm and safety, like Flock’s little domain, though. As Cass explained the sheer size of the city, Tee was coming to the realization that ‘Flock’s little domain’ spanned entire floors, and that floors were massive. Nobody knew how far down or forward they went. Flock ruled a small empire down there. It was just spread very, very thin, and any step out of line was severely punished. After a few hours, the cab hung next to what seemed to be an old quay. “This is us,” Cass said.

They all hopped out and walked up the stairs onto a small street. Tee realized they’d expected it to be wet and covered in rain like everything else, but this street was halfway up a block. For all intents and purposes, they were deep underground. There was still rust and dirt in most corners, but it all felt less rained down. The street was dimly lit, with some of the fluorescent lights flickering and humming. “You sure it’s here?” Tee asked, on edge. Cass just nodded cheerfully. 

“Don’t tell me you’re scared, Tee. You’re the scariest thing here,” she said, and then paused. “Well, you would be, if I wasn’t here.” Tee noticed her grin and couldn’t help but feel cheered up. It was good to see their friend like this. Now that she was over the shock of finally having someone again, she seemed to be in good spirits, and it was delightful. Not to mention the fact that she was most probably right. Cassandra looked like she could snap a door in half with minimal effort. If anyone bothered them, they were convinced Cass wouldn’t even break a sweat, or stop smiling for that matter.

“It’s just a bad neighbourhood is all,” Tee said, a little reassured.

“Nah,” Cass said. “Just looks that way because that’s what we’re used to back home. This is normal. Almost every subdeck looks like this, until you get to like, twenty. People here look after their own. They might not trust outsiders, but they’re not gonna bother you. Especially when you’re with me.”

They came to a door that was no different from any others, and Cassandra knocked lightly a few times. When there came no answers, she slammed a fist into it. Tee was surprised it wasn’t dented.

“Fuck’s sake, Cassandra,” a voice came from somewhere halfway up the metal sheet. “Kick the door down, why don’t you?” 

“And ruin your carpet? I would never, Mandy. Let us in, yeah? I’ve got work for you.”

“How do you know I’m not working right now?” 

“Because you were out with the Jake boy last night and you don’t go out if you have work in the morning. I take it the night went well? You sound tired,” Cass had a hand on her hip, and she grinned at the door with all the confidence of a woman who had dirt on everyone and very little in the way of shame.

“Come in.” The voice on the other side of the door was clearly laughing too. Tee couldn’t help but be impressed by Cassandra again. They’d never seen their friend this comfortable before, but she’d clearly blossomed here. The door slid open, and Cass motioned for them to go in first, and followed closely behind, lowering her head slightly so as not to bump it into the doorframe. She was so tall, Tee noticed for the hundredth time that morning. It was hard to look anywhere but Cass.

“Heya, Mandy,” Cass said as they walked into a living room that was… very cozy. For obvious reasons, Tee had expected houses to look like, well, dystopian hellrooms, all steel and dirt and grime. But while this room was cluttered, it looked like a fun place to live in. The hardwood floor was covered in colourful carpets and there were bright curtains hung up everywhere. There were piles of books and boxes of electronics on every flat surface. Several couches, and what appeared to be a conversation pit, filled with pillows. Several bookcases. And an operating table, in a separate part of the room. Mandy was cleaning it off with a rag. 

“Hey Cass! Who’s the shiny?” Mandy waved at Tee, who waved back carefully.

“Mandy, meet Tee. Tee, Mandy. Mandy can fix anything, and what she can’t fix, she can turn into something that either shoots or explodes. Tee is… a very old friend of mine.”

“Oh really?” Mandy said with a meaningful eyebrow-waggle and a grin. She had a little split between her front teeth that made her very easy to take a liking to. 

“Not like that,” Cass said as she rolled her eyes, but then looked at Tee. Tee was very glad they couldn’t smile guiltily, because their expression would have betrayed a lot.

“All right, if you say so,” Mandy said, and continued casually avoiding eye contact. “Tore says hi, by the way. Anyway! Have a seat, Tee, what can I do ya for?” With a nod of confirmation from Cass, who looked a little more serious, Tee did as they were asked.

“I would like to have a face,” Tee said. “Let’s start there. I don’t mind the body. Not at all, really.” They looked down at themself again. They loved the… simplicity of it. The elegance, without feeling like they were aggressively gendered one way or the other. “I wouldn’t mind being a little taller though.” They avoided shooting a look at Cass. Not that they necessarily wanted to tower over the giant woman, but it would be a lot easier to fluster her, and that was always a bonus. 

“Any functionality?” Mandy asked as she moved some machinery around that looked like dentist equipment and some kind of scanner. 

“Like what?”

“The stuff you’re working with looks like it’s magic-based, so there’s not gonna be a lot of integration with other electronics or like, guns and stuff. They’d just go haywire, and you don’t want a plasma core going off in your chest.” Mandy shuddered. “But the chassis is versatile. Magic allows for some weird shit when it comes to reconfiguration, so we could build that in, if you want.” She looked over at Cassandra. “Would cost extra, though. I’ve got the parts, but they’re rare.”

“Not a problem. Whatever they want,” Cass said resolutely as she sat down and picked up a book, like she was waiting for her friend at the hair salon.

“Well, like I said, I could add the parts needed to let you reconfigure your frame as needed. Adapt for speed, strength, stealth, that kind of thing. I’m not sure what you’re looking for here. If you’re a colleague of Cass, I’m sure you’ll find a use for them, though.” Tee couldn’t emote, or they would’ve blinked in confusion. “And a face, of course. That’ll be easy. Reconfig matrices make facial expressions easy, if you’ve had one before.” Mandy paused. “Have you had a face before? I hear they’re tricky to get used to.”

“Uh… Yeah,” Tee said. “I’m a human.” They looked down. “Was a human, at least.”

“Awesome.” Mandy reached behind Tee’s neck, shoved a screwdriver into their skull and twisted. 

“UM,” Tee asked with concern, “what did you just do?!”

“Turned off your pain receptors, Tee. I promise you’re gonna be grateful I did. Now, please hold still, this is still going to feel really… weird,” Mandy said, as she turned on what appeared to be a handheld circular saw. She paused. “What kind of face would you like?”

“Uh, pretty androgynous.”

“Hold on,” Mandy said. “Here’s a catalogue.” She handed them a little booklet. “Have a look while I get started on your legs.” 

Tee was so engrossed with the idea of a face that could be completely edited to their specifications, they weren’t even really aware of Mandy casually dismantling them from the bottom up until the sparks started to hit them in the face.

Elamimax

Thank you all for standing by! Finances are a binch. Anyway, enjoy some light fluff, with big developments for Tee in the face-department! 

If you like this story and want to know how it ends, the whole thing is up on my patreon! Subscribers will get access to every single chapter right now. Other than that, I will be posting a chapter (maybe even two) every other day (I don't think we'll get many more four-a-day like this :p). You'll also have access to my other stories, including some that aren't available on scribblehub yet!

If you're in the mood to catch up on my other stories, feel free to check them out. Additionally, Horns in the Library 1 is now available as an ebook! 

I also want to point people at the discord server of the ever-prolific QuietValerie (right here) where you can find her wonderful stories, like Ryn of Avonside, Falling Over and The Trouble With Horns, as well as other authors' works, and talk about them with fellow fans, and even the authors themselves! I heartily recommend joining it and reading their works! (Also check out Walls of Anamoor. It's rad as heck.) 

Thanks again for reading, and I'll see you all in the next one. 

<3