The next thing I saw was the ceiling of a room in the hospital. A monitor beside me was displaying my vitals. Everything felt… fuzzy. I was hyper aware of every inch of my body, a ton of stimuli flooding my brain. I groaned and raised my hand to rub my face. There was a coarse but yielding sensation to my palm. What? I opened my eyes again and looked at my hand. It was covered in black fur, while my palm was dark and looked a bit rough. Each segment of my fingers had a similar dark pad on it. Oh no. Oh crap. I have… paws? Paw hands? Haws? Pands? My breathing accelerated rapidly, and one of the monitors started bleeping faster.

“Kat? Honey?” Jen leaned over my bed, taking my pand in her hands. “You’re awake… Thank God.” She let out a long relieved sigh, giving my pands a squeeze.

“What… happened?” My tongue didn’t want to move, and my mouth felt so dry. 

“There was an incident. Your watch came off and you fainted.” Jen frowned, brushing her thumb over my knuckles soothingly. It felt weird with the new fur, and general sensitivity of my pands, but… not unpleasant.

“Am I… like this all over?” I asked, looking at what little of myself I could see outside the confines of the blanket and the hospital gown. My arms were covered in the same black fur, but with random streaks of a darker gray that broke up the monotone coloration, similar to what my tail and ears had looked like before. I really should have seen this coming...

Jen nodded. “Yeah, hon… but it’s OK, I promise I still love ya. I’ll still take you in.” She’s crying now. I want to tell her it’ll be OK, that I’m fine… but my mouth isn’t working so well right now. Instead I focus on hugging her, and being hugged by her in turn, until I can feel the now disturbingly familiar sensation of purring. It seems to help calm her down, though… so I’m not going to fight it.

We stayed like that for a while, though I’m not sure how long exactly, until the moment was broken up by the return of another familiar face.

“Ms. Carson,” Dobbs droned, “glad to see you’re awake.”

==========

There’s a saying so common that even I know it: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. The instructions are a little less clear on what to do when life turns you into a walking anthropomorphic cat girl.

Returning to school was certainly out of the question. I couldn’t go wandering the streets either. Even getting home was a mess with all the reporters that had gathered up around the hospital and tried to tail us back to the condo complex.

At first, Dobbs had pushed to have me stay for more testing, but Jen managed to negotiate for letting me stay at home for the testing period. 

Stuck on lock-down by the Bureau, most of my days consisted of lounging around the house. Jen brought Gigs home from the café to keep me company. ‘You girls take care of the place while I’m gone,’ she had said. ‘Just us cats, now’, I remember thinking.

The one blessing was that at least I could nap to pass the time. Before, sleep had been racked with weird dreams, but now everything was blissfully blank. I also learned I could fall asleep so much easier. All I really had to do was curl up somewhere warm and close my eyes and I was out. An easy few hours gone in a blink - unless something loud startled me. It was even better when Gigs would curl up with me on the couch or something.

A regular pair of cat-nappers, we were.

Eventually, I was cleared for online schooling, so Jen set me up with a computer, and life started to approach some kind of new normal. Wake up. Classes. Lunch. Cat nap. Afternoon classes. More napping. Homework. Dinner. Bed. Through it all, texting with Cassie and the others was the thing that kept me sane. Cassie especially. The more we talked over text, the more I missed her...

The internet came with its own curses too, though. I made the mistake of googling news about myself, only to learn that I had already become something of an internet sensation; the first ever confirmed anthropomorphic cat-girl. That was to say nothing of the fetish stuff I had seen of myself… photoshops and artwork and… yeah. I’m glad the fur prevents my blushing from being super obvious now though… but my ears still give me away. Traitors.

It was nearly a month into my time spent hunkered away in the condo like a reclusive housecat when I was finally cleared to have visitors again. The Bureau was finally relaxing the restrictions since they’d found nothing contagious or dangerous about my transformation. 

The day I’d gotten notice that I could have visitors, Cassie had texted me to let me know she was “so coming by” with the others. With that in mind, I actually bothered to put on something other than pyjama shorts and a cami for the day, opting for one of my cute black skirts and a black flowy cold shoulder top. Sadly, most of my lighter colored wardrobe was made… impractical… by being covered in dark fur that gets all over everything.  

The doorbell rang around 6pm, and I checked the callbox beside the door. Visible on the video doorbell were faces I hadn’t realized how much I missed until I saw them just then.

“Kat!” The assembled group cheered as I threw the door open, greeting them with my tail swishing happily, ears perked up. Cassie, Ben, Pete, and the rest of the gang stood just past the threshold, and it took all my willpower not to pounce them like an overeager kitten.

“What’s it like?” Cassie asked as they all got settled in the living room. 

“I dunno… normal, I guess,” I said, shrugging. I could tell them about the benefits of not having to shower since cats don’t sweat, but then I’d probably have to explain that going to the bathroom involves a new level of cleaning up because… fur. Nope. Better to just skip that conversation.

“What’s been the weirdest thing to get used to?” Andi asked.

“Um… being covered in fur. It’s like wearing a set of clothes you can’t take off.” It had been the hardest thing to get used to, especially since all that fur gave tactile sensations, almost like touching something with a hand would.

“Really?” Pete leaned in a little closer. “You look so pretty though. Like a big sleek jungle cat.”

The complement set the insides of my ears blushing, and I pinned them back so nobody would notice. “U-uh, thanks…”

The others took turns asking questions about what had been going on, what life was like, favorite things about being a cat, weirdest things, etcetera. I was happy when the conversation turned away from me, and we were able to catch up on the goings-on around school and in the lives of my still-normal-humans friends. 

Part of me was jealous. I’d never have a normal life like that. I’d escaped homelessness… but now I was sure to be seen by society as a freakish mutant. The only one of my kind in the whole world. It was strangely lonely, despite the people I had in my life that cared about me.

When Jen returned to a house full of teenagers, she decided it was a pizza night, which I was all too happy for. Sitting here, surrounded by friends and… family… it was easy to forget my situation, and to just be myself again. To be happy.

==========

When the hour had grown late and the others had to return home, Jen asked me to show them all out and say my goodbyes. I walked them to the door, giving each a goodbye hug. I didn’t want them to go, I didn't want to be alone again. 

“Hey,” Cassie said as we broke our hug, holding my arms to prevent me from parting fully.

“Huh?” I blinked, my hands still partly resting at her sides from hugging her. 

“Look, I uh,” she paused, taking a breath and putting on her usual self-assured smile. ”I wanted to know if you would want to grab lunch or something sometimes, or see a movie together? Just you and me.”

I blinked several times. “Wait, are you… asking me out?”

“Duh! Yeah, you goofy cat, jeez!” Cassie giggled.

I couldn’t help but giggle, but my ears were definitely burning with embarrassment. I’d never actually ‘dated’ before, but… Cassie was a girl, so she was probably a safer choice than dating some guy, right? ”Sure, that sounds fun! I’ll let you know when I can do it, sound good?”

Cassie beamed, nodding. “Yeah! Thanks, Kat. See you soon?”

“Uh-huh,” I nodded, grinning, my tail lashing happily. “See you soon, Cassie!”

Cassie waved, dashing off down the hallway back towards the elevator. 

I stepped back inside and closed the door, turning my back to it, I found myself face to face with Jen. A startled yelp-squeak-yowl escaped.

“What’s this I hear about my daughter going on a date?” she asked, grinning impishly.

“J-Jen! Jeez you scared me!” I stammered, trying to still my hammering heart and smooth out my bottlebrush tail.

“So, you and Cassie, hm?”

I nodded awkwardly. “I-is that OK?”

“Of course it is, sweetheart. You can date anyone you want to date. Just be safe, right?”

“Right,” I nodded. Whatever ‘being safe’ while dating meant.

She released me from the interrogation stare near the door, and I was free to retire to my bedtime routine. I might not need to shower anymore, but I still had to brush my teeth and do something with my hair so it wouldn’t end up a snarled mess in the morning.

I found Gigs curled up in my bed, waiting for me. Directly in the middle, of course.

“You are such a jerk of a roommate, Gigs,” I groaned, sliding in under one corner of the covers and curling up. I swear, with how flexible I am and how easily I can contort into weird spaces and shapes, I must be like, part liquid. Some weird cat superpower, maybe…

That thought makes me giggle to myself, and I soon find the easy embrace of sleep.