Morning found me nestled in Rachel’s arms, warm, cozy, and, well… sticky. I was definitely in need of a shower after a night like that. And god damn, what a night it had been. Despite the domineering, teasing, almost primal nature of her seduction, Rachel had been both a very skilled, and incredibly gentle, patient lover. Time and time again she’d showered me with all manner of praise and affirmation all while power-washing my insides. With this morning, like any morning, however, came hindsight, and with hindsight comes clarity. So, lying in bed, with Rachel enveloping me, as much as I wanted to feel small and safe and comfortable, instead I just felt conflicted. I’d just slept with one of my best friends, and yes she’d assured me that no matter what, she wanted me, but obviously she didn’t fully understand what I was going through. 

I stewed in those anxieties for a while, teetering on the edge of some really dark thoughts, when I felt Rachel stir. In a completely at ease, relaxed gesture, she stretched languidly, groaning wearily, and pulled me tighter into the crook of her neck. Casually humming to herself, she gently stroked my hair, then planted a kiss atop my head. “G’morning.” Still laced with sleep, her voice had lost any of its deliberate domineering affect, and instead had that low, scratchy vocal fry of someone freshly back to the waking world. Not that any of that made her sound less hot, this was just a new flavor of an old classic, really. But this was definitely not the time to fall back into lust, or something more for that matter, with my roommate. I just had too much going on.

Seemingly detecting my anxieties, Rachel propped herself up and squeezed my arm. “Hey, are you alright? This isn’t about the thing from before is it?” and here she was now feeling bad for me, even now.

“Kind of, yeah.” I kept my gaze averted.

“I see. Well, does it help to know I still feel the same way? And I don’t just mean the whole sex was good thing, either. I like you, Heather. I want more from this. If you need time to figure yourself out, that’s okay, but nothing you decide will change that for me.” Part of me wanted to ask if that included actually being a guy. But I just couldn’t. At this point I wasn’t even sure she’d believe me.

“It does help, I suppose. I just, I have a lot on my mind right now.” I replied hurriedly. I let her words hang in the air for a while as they soaked into my thoughts. On the one hand, she didn’t really seem to get what I was going through, why I was upset. And yet, on the other, she kind of did? When we were talking last night, She had used the wrong formula to solve the equation, but somehow got the same answer. And maybe that was good enough, for now. I wanted to come clean, Actually, that’s not true, I felt like I should come clean. I didn't want to though. Beyond just the confrontation that would follow, something about the idea of Rachel seeing me as a man, after everything we’d done last night, felt kind of disgusting. That thing I felt like I had to say, ‘I’m not a girl.’ It was still stuck to the roof of my mouth, scratchy little chunks of it itched the inside of my throat where they’d been caught. But saying it felt bad. Like, the idea of saying it at all, not just to Rachel. Part of me just wished Penny and I could keep this prank going forever. Eventually, Rachel got up to pee, and when she did, I quietly slipped back into my room. 

Unsurprisingly, I had quite a bit to think about. Also unsurprisingly, on account of Rachel, I hadn’t really gotten a ton of sleep, and I was certainly too tired to properly think through it all. So, for the time being, I climbed into bed, and quickly fell asleep. 

The sound of my phone chirping its notification tone woke me up. Apparently I’d slept for a solid two hours, which was enough to make up the deficit. And, honestly, just getting that extra bit of sleep was having a pretty positive impact on my mood. Which made sense, ‘cause I was definitely one of those people. The kind who would fall deep into bad thoughts only to realize it was just ‘cause they needed like, a drink of water, a nap and a sandwich or something so they could refill all their gauges. That wasn’t to say everything was magically better. But seeing that the text message I’d gotten was Rachel letting me know she was here if I needed to bounce anything off her was also pretty nice. Like wow, breaking news, finding out the people you care about also care about you makes you feel kinda good. Stop the presses.

With a self-indulgent groan—like come on, who wouldn’t want to hear a voice like that—I propped myself up on my elbow and took care of the first part of my morning routine. That is, staying in bed for like thirty minutes to an hour looking at memes and browsing social media. That was also kind of the only part of my morning that was routine on weekends, but whatever, it just meant I got it all done faster. Eventually, though, I got up, and did the ceremonial changing of the screens—aka hobbling over from my bed to my computer chair and booting it up. I pulled up my browser, and kind of just stared at the page. There was something I needed to do. The stuff Rachel had said about like, assuming defaults and things not always being super clearcut was weighing pretty heavily. Not in a bad way, just in an impossible to ignore way.

‘Cause, well, I had really enjoyed myself last night, and just in general I’d enjoyed pretty much every day since Penny and I changed. And I really, really didn’t want to change back any time soon. That much was obvious now. Maybe later? After I’d gotten to experience everything being a girl had to offer? That sounded better, best not to put a date on it. Just somewhere in the indeterminable future. The problem was though, our little prank did have an end date. A very set in stone one, that was what Penny and I had agreed upon. 

Maybe after the prank was over I could turn myself into a girl again and do the prank all over on new people? Or like, even better, what if I pulled on everyone? Pulled it  on society as a whole, that would be hilarious. And this one wouldn’t have an end date either. It would just be like, ‘how long can I keep up my wacky hijinks of being a girl?’ Plus, at that point I wouldn’t really be lying or deceiving anyone anymore, right? Like, it’s one thing to be a guy with a girl’s body for a couple weeks as a prank. It’s another thing entirely to spend years and years being a girl as a prank, that’s not really any different than just actually being a girl, right? 

At the very least, would be the closest a guy like me could get to being a girl. And considering how easily I’d accidentally slipped into thinking of myself as a girl, after a while I probably wouldn’t even think about being a guy anymore. Eventually I might even just consider myself a woman. That would be pretty cool. And also, uh, funny? Yes, very funny. Plus Penny would probably be down to join me, after all she loved pranks. Man, what a great plan. Just two bros pranking the world by being girls for their whole lives. The mere thought of pulling it off had me giggling furiously, which just made me giggle more because, obviously the way my voice sounded just made me happy in general. All girls probably felt that way about their voices, which was why guys wanted to be them.

With that all out of the way, if I wanted to pull this off, I’d obviously need my partner in gender crimes. I stood from my desk, having not even actually touched my browser—and to think, there I was about to consult the internet for answers to how I was feeling, how silly of me, as if the internet could ever help me solve this—and turned to leave my room so I could find Penny. As it just so happened, she chose that very moment to call me. 

“Hey! I was just about to come look for you; dude, I have the best idea for the prank and I—”

“Heather, stop. I—I can’t keep doing this. I’ve lied to myself for years now and I can’t keep doing it.” She sounded, well, she sounded a lot. Like, whatever emotional cocktail was going through her brain had her very, very high strung.

“Can’t keep doing what?” I simply had not been ready to be met with this kind of energy; she was out of breath, talking way too fast and it kind of sounded like she’d been crying?

“The prank, Heather, I can’t do this anymore, I’m not… I can’t keep pretending.” What had gotten into her? What could possibly make her want to back out? I needed her for this. This was supposed to be the prank of a lifetime, literally. I couldn’t do this without her support. So, obviously, I had to use my incredible skills of rhetoric and persuasion to win her over.

“B-but what about our ruse-cruise?” I asked.

The line was quiet, quiet for long enough I was about to check if she even heard me, when her voice finally came crackling through the speaker, “What?” 

I huffed, what was she not getting? “Our ruse-cruise. Y’know, we’re taking them on a ruse-cruise. And if you drop out now it’ll totally ruin the ruse-cruise.”

Apparently I still wasn’t getting through to Penny, given that her immediate response was incoherent sputtering. After an itchy silence occupied only by—redacted—thoughts tugging at the tablecloth of my mind, threatening to bring everything atop it crashing down, Penny finally managed to reply. “Why do you keep saying ruse-cruise?” At some point, her high-strung, panicky tone had been replaced with utter bewilderment.

“I mean the prank.” I rolled my eyes, Penny really could be dense sometimes. “It’s a ruse, and it’s really elaborate with a really long buildup before the end, so we’re taking them on a ruse-cruise. Plus it rhymes.”

“No, I get what it means, but—”

“It’s funny. Ruse-cruise. Try saying it.” 

I could practically feel annoyance dripping from each and every one of my phone speaker’s vents. “Okay, yeah, it’s kinda funny—”

“It’s also fun to say.” At this point, I was maybe, kind of, semi-consciously doing it on purpose. I wasn’t going to acknowledge it, but I definitely couldn’t let Penny finish. Like, there was just this shard of an impermissible thought that jabbed into my safe, comfy little bubble of ignorance. If I let her finish, that bubble would pop, and I wouldn’t be able to unhear what she said. 

“Sure, yes, fine. I’ll give you that too, it’s also fun to say, but what I’m trying to tell you is that—”

“You’re gonna ruin the ruse-cruise.”

“Oh my god, stop talking about the ruse-cruise,” she snapped. “Ugh, dammit now you’ve got me calling it that too,” she grumbled to herself, and took a few deep breaths. “Just—just shut up and listen for a second, please? I need to tell you something, and it's really important to me that you hear this, okay? I’m trying to tell you that, well, I actually really am a girl.” She grew faint at the end, just barely audible over the sound of my rapid breathing and roaring heart. Actually a girl? She didn’t really mean that right? This was probably part of the prank too, wasn’t it? “After our date last night, Will asked me if I would be his girlfriend. And I don’t know, something about the thought of that, of getting to be someone’s girlfriend, of getting to be his girlfriend, it just broke me. I wanted it so, so badly. And I couldn’t hide from myself anymore.”

“Um, P-Penny?” Somehow my voice felt even smaller than hers. “Are you, uh, maybe actually taking me on a r—”

“Don’t you fucking dare say ruse-cruise.” And then something weird happened, she kind of just giggled? Then she let out the longest, biggest sigh of relief ever done by a human. “God, it feels so good to say it out loud. Like, I’m a girl, Heather, for real. I’m trans. And I can just like, be me, you know?” At that point, she paused, as one does when one is expecting the person on the other end to respond. I didn’t have anything to say though, maybe more accurately, I couldn’t say anything. My lips were stuck in place, trembling weakly, my hands were shaking and my knees were wobbling. It wasn’t fair; how come she got to be a girl and I didn’t? “Heather?” she asked softly. 

“I, uhm, I’m really happy for you, Penny.” Any attempt to keep my voice from shaking or cracking was futile. 

“Heather, there’s something else we need to talk about. Given what I’ve realized, I think that you might—” I couldn’t, no, whatever it was I couldn’t do it, not right now.

“I’ve gotta go!” I shouted into the phone, ending the call. Then, for good measure I just went ahead and turned the whole thing off. Whatever it was Penny wanted to talk about could wait until I wasn’t having a crisis. I had so much noise in my head, but all the same I wasn’t really thinking. There was just this hive of thoughts buzzing around at random, vying for my attention. Penny, Rachel, the prank, me, everything I’d been through since I first got this body, everything in my life which had led to that moment of desperately craving this kind of body, and finally doing something about it. It was too much, I needed to get out, get fresh air, go for a walk, clear my head, do something. 

So I did. I got dressed, grabbed my coat, tied my shoes, and then just walked right out the front door. Then I kept walking. Then I got on a bus, and I rode it for a bit until my brain decided I wanted off. I power-walked down the street, eyes cast groundward, trying to keep a fucking lid on it. Then, finally, just sank into a park-bench, and wept. I cried for a while, and that kind of made me feel better. So I did it some more, until I was a runny-nosed, tear-stained, red-eyed, puffy mess. I caught my breath, sat back, and breathed long and slow, giving my surroundings their due attention for the first time since I’d stormed out. I was a couple miles from home, but that was fine, I knew my way back. Besides, I kind of needed a calm place to think, to sort out my thoughts. A park like this would do nicely. I closed my eyes, steadied my breathing, and started to assemble the scattered mess my thoughts had become. Peace and quiet like this was exactly what I needed.

“Oh my god, dude! I’m so excited for you. You gotta show me as soon as I get over there.” My eyes fluttered open in annoyance; about fifteen feet down the path from me, jogging in place with a phone pressed to his ear, was a literal slab of man. And no, I’m not referring to the Dark Souls 4 boss of the same name. He was what, like, 6’5”? It was kind of hard to tell since I’d never bothered to properly measure my new height. Atop of his head was a crop of messy, dirty blonde hair. He was dressed in jogging shorts and a muscle tank, with weights strapped to both his massive arms and massive legs. He was also red in the face, and kinda sorta literally glistening with sweat. “What? Dude! Hell no, you’re gonna look gorgeous in it! She’s gonna love it I promise.” God, was it possible for a voice to carry any more? The ground practically rumbled as he spoke. “Alright, I’ll see you in a bit, say hi to Olivia for me, okay?” He hung up the phone, and was about to keep on truckin’ when his eyes fell on me, and a surprisingly genuine look of concern crossed his face. “Hey, miss, you alright?” he called softly. Well, softly relative to before, he was still loud as fuck.

“I um, I…” You know that bit they do in movies and TV where the characters are trying to start a car, but it’s not working, then, after several attempts they finally get it to start, and the engine immediately explodes as the entire car falls to pieces? That’s what my brain did as I tried, and failed to find something, anything to say to what appeared to be the human lovechild of the word beefcake and like, a monster-truck made entirely out of biceps. When words failed me, I just softly shook my head.

“Yeah, s’what I thought.” He nodded, and jogged over. “Mind if I have a seat? I’m a good listener, I promise. Also uhh, I swear I’m not hitting on you or anything.” After a few moments of consideration, I sighed, and gave a little resigned nod. He seemed fairly harmless, at least, even if he did look like he could hurl me into the sun. “Cool, I’m Dylan, by the way.” With a big, kind of dopey smile, he plopped himself down. My nose then took the liberty of reminding me that this man happened to be a very, very sweaty walking advertisement for natural male enhancement pills, but I decided to grin and bear it. “So, uh, what’s on your mind? Boyfriend troubles? Girlfriend troubles? Troubles with a partner who's neither? Something else entirely?” He kind of looked like he was going to keep listing off possible problems, so I took the liberty of answering him.

“Uh, gender troubles?” Is it possible for the brain to clench? Cause it kind of felt like mine did when I said that. Why did I just admit that to a complete stranger? I was barely even admitting it to myself. What would this guy know about that sort of thing?

“Oh. Shit, I called you miss earlier. I'm sorry. I of all people should be better about this kind of thing. Are you a guy then, or something else? Believe it or not I might actually be able help you out with that. You know, tangibly.” I didn’t really hear most of what he’d said, because I was too busy internally cringing at being seen as a guy in this body. Honestly, what the hell, dude?

“No, no, nothing like that. I’m not trans or anything. I just, I’m a guy… or whatever. I used magic to turn myself into a girl. But I only did it as a prank! Now I kinda don’t want to change back, though.” I blushed and looked away, staring at my feet. Then I kept doing that, and pretty soon I became consciously aware that he hadn’t replied yet. Looking back up at him, well, I didn’t know any war-vets, but if that wasn’t a thousand-yard stare, I wasn’t sure what was. “Hey, uh, are you alright?” 

He let out a sigh so world-weary that Atlas himself would be like ‘Damn, dude, I don’t wanna carry that shit,’ then shook his head. “Not this shit again.”

SapphicSounds

Hello my lovely readers! If you just read this chapter and were like "Huh? Who the heck is this dude?" Might I direct you to the previous story in this universe. For those of you who don't feel like reading anything new: in short, he's the best friend of the main character of the previous story, a wizard, and a bit of a himbo. He helped hatch the previous main character after a lot of dumb egg nonsense out of her, and now it seems he's gonna have to do it all over again with someone new and possibly even denser. If you're aching for more now rather than later then guess what? You can read all of this story on my Patreon right now for as little as $2 a month. You'll also get a bunch of other stuff. Like, for example, patron exclusive bonus chapters (and smut), audio readings of some of my steamier works, access to my official discord server and (and I can't stress enough how valuable this last one is) Pictures. Of. My. Cat. Ziggy. There's a bunch of other cool stuff over there, but we'd be here all day if I listed it all.

To spend a bit more time shilling myself out, I take commissions! If you want to commission a work from me the best way to do so is either become a patron at a commission tier (which is a discounted rate) or to email me at [email protected]

Lastly, you should check out my twitter if you wanna. I mostly tweet about how much I love girls and how much I hate capitalism. 

Anyway that's it! Hope you enjoyed reading!