"Ethan? Are you ok?" I asked quietly. "Please say something?"

We were up at the top level of the Science Centre, they had a little 'quiet zone' that was probably meant for when people got overstimulated or whatever. It was a very big overstimulating environment after all, especially with all the exhibits and the sounds and I could imagine when it was full of school kids it would get really loud.

At the moment there was just the two of us in the quiet area, sitting together in a corner. My demon bits were still invisible of course, but he knew they were there. He kept glancing up at my head, and down at my lap. I had a feeling now that he knew about them, he could probably pick up the distortions in my skirt as my tail moved back and forth just under the fabric.

"I thought you were joking," he half-whispered. "Last week when you said... I thought it was some strange joke you were making, like an inside joke that I didn't get?"

I sighed, "I'm sorry. I suck at lies, especially coming up with stuff on the spot? When you asked why I was doing that weird stuff with the hat I didn't know what to say, so I went with the truth. I just tried to make it sound funny."

He glanced up at my head again, then asked "Are they always invisible?"

"No," I shook my head. "I just do that when I'm out in public. I didn't realize they'd show up on that funky camera. They don't appear in normal pictures."

Ethan went quiet again but I was glad he was still here, and at least we were talking. Like, he didn't take off in a panic or anything. And he was freaking out, but he was doing it quietly. And he wasn't even freaking out a lot, at least not on the outside.

After another minute or so he asked quietly, "So you're a demon? For real? You have horns and a tail and magic?"

"Part demon," I replied. "I'm not even half, I'm still mostly human. And yes, I really have horns and a tail. I can't do much magic though, the only spell I know is how to hide them. Other than that, I'm like a totally normal human girl. More or less."

He frowned slightly as he sort of processed that, then glanced up at my head again.

"May I see them?"

I nodded "Yes, but not here. We need to go somewhere private, ok? Where we can talk and not worry about anyone else walking in and disturbing us?"

"Right," he said as he looked thoughtful. "My folks are away, we could go to my place? My sister might be home but she'll probably leave us alone."

I gave him a friendly smile, "Ok Ethan. And thank you for bringing me here? It's really been a lot of fun."

That got a little smile out of him, then the two of us got to our feet and headed out.

We were both quiet and awkward during the drive. He was mostly focused on the road, and I just sort of stared out the windows as well. I wasn't really worried about him learning my secrets, I was more afraid that I was going to scare him off. Except the fact that he was willing to bring me home to talk seemed like a good sign. And I figured the fact that he wanted to actually see my horns meant he was curious rather than horrified.

I spotted Susan's house as we neared Ethan's place. The big dumpster out front was nearly full, and all the windows were covered over with tarps. I figured Mr. Goranov had just about finished gutting the place by now, and he'd probably got all the cracked and broken windows out too. Maybe next week the tear-down would be over and the dumpster would get taken away. Then he'd start work on all the new improvements we wanted.

Ethan's house was literally just around the corner from Sue's place which was a fun coincidence. When the renovations were finished we'd be neighbours.

We got out of the minivan and he led the way up to his front door and in. We left our shoes by the door, then from there we went straight up the stairs to his bedroom on the second floor.

It wasn't a huge house, a bit bigger than Sue's place and a bit nicer. There were four bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor, and Ethan's room was a good size. The decor was fairly typical, he had a desk, a fancy computer, bookcase, bed, dresser, and closet. He had some pictures and a couple anime posters on the walls.

He sort of gestured vaguely around the room and said "Uh, sit wherever you like? Can I get you a drink or something?"

I smiled, "Just water's good for me thanks."

"I'll be back in a sec," he replied then he went back out and down the stairs.

I stayed on my feet for now as I continued to look around. His bookcase had an assortment of sci-fi and fantasy novels, and two full shelves of manga. There were also several books on photography, and more on drawing and painting and illustration and all that.

Ethan was back in just a minute or so. He had a bottle of water for me, and a can of root beer for himself.

He closed his bedroom door behind him and handed me the water as he said, "My sister's home but she's going to be heading out soon. She probably won't bug us, I told her I had a friend here."

"Cool," I smiled as I thanked him for the water. "So do you want to just dive right in with the awkward stuff and get it over with?"

Ethan blushed, "Like you mean, uh, the demon stuff?"

I grinned wider, "Yeah, I mean like that."

He opened his soda and had a gulp then nodded "Ok. Yes please. I mean if it's all right? I'd like to see them..."

"It's no problem at all," I replied. I set the water bottle down on the corner of his desk, then I slipped my skirt down and stepped out of it.

Ethan's eyes almost bugged out of his head. I realized he was just thinking I'd show him my horns, suddenly he thought I was about to get fully naked.

"Sorry!" I giggled, "I was just getting that out of the way so you could see my tail properly. I'm not going to get naked for you."

After a second I added with a naughty grin "At least, not yet. We'll see how things go later."

While he was coughing and sputtering I dismissed the spell, so when he was settled down from my little tease my demon bits were on full display.

His eyes went wide as he stared, and he half-whispered "Holy shit..."

I wrapped my tail around my waist so the tip was sticking up in the air between us and I offered "You can touch it if you want. Just be gentle ok?"

Ethan gulped and set his soda down on the desk. He wiped his hands on his pants, then nervously reached out. He acted like he was scared I was going to bite him or something, but after a few seconds he eventually ran a couple fingers up along the side of my tail.

"It's soft," he remarked in surprise. "And warm."

"Yeah," I smiled. "It is."

The fact that he wasn't freaking out or screaming or kicking me out of the house made me feel a lot better. Like he was clearly uptight, but he was also fascinated. Which I could totally get, like how often do you meet a half demon? If I was in his place I'd probably act the same way.

"Can I touch your horns?" he asked as he looked up at them.

This time I hesitated, and I blushed. "Uh... Let's maybe leave that till we know each other a bit better? They're a little more uh, personal."

"Oh," he frowned, then nodded. "Ok."

We ended up sitting together on his bed, I was sipping my water and he had his soda. Of course he had a million questions about all this stuff, but I wasn't ready to give him all the answers yet. I confirmed that I wasn't from hell and neither of my parents were demons, and I told him I wound up like this as the result of an accident and it was totally unexpected. I told him that my girlfriends knew about it, so did my mom, but he was the only person outside of like immediate family who knew.

And he promised to keep it secret, he swore not to say a word of it to anyone else.

By the time we were both done our drinks he actually seemed to have gotten more or less used to the whole thing. Like he was still fascinated and stuff, but he wasn't acting freaked out and he wasn't so jumpy anymore.

We were both kind of relaxed and chilling when we were startled by his sister knocking at his bedroom door. I don't think I ever cast that spell as fast as I did right then, but I managed to disappear my horns and tail right as the door swung open.

Ethan's sister was eighteen, she was about the same height as him, with long brown hair and a pretty face. She was wearing tight jeans and a cute blouse. Whatever she was about to say was forgotten as she stared in shock at me, sitting next to her brother on his bed.

The intuition thing I got as I looked back at her was she couldn't believe Ethan had a girl over. As far as she knew he didn't know any girls, didn't even talk to girls. She thought her brother was a shy quiet weirdo who was just into yuri manga and anime.

"Tracey!" Ethan half-shouted, "Don't just barge in damnit!"

She finally took her eyes off me and looked at him, "Sorry ok? I just came to tell you I was heading out. Don't wait up, I might not be back till morning. I'm going out with Annie and Christine, and we might all crash at Annie's place tonight."

"You know you're supposed to be back at midnight," he sighed. "Mom and dad were pretty clear on that."

"Whatever," Tracey rolled her eyes. She gave me a look then grinned at him, "You two have fun."

Ethan was blushing again as his sister headed back downstairs, but she left his door open.

"Sorry about that Mara," he apologized. "She's nosey, she probably wanted to see who I had over."

"It's ok," I replied. "So I guess we have the place to ourselves now? What do you want to do?"

His blush grew a bit brighter, "Uh, I don't know? What would you like to do? If you're hungry we could get dinner? Like we could go out somewhere, or order something in?"

I frowned slightly as I thought things over. I figured, we got through the demonic reveal ok. I'd been watching him and observing stuff for a week now and I was seeing a bunch of stuff that reminded me of my own pre-girl self. And now I knew we were going to be alone for a few hours at least. Maybe it was time to poke at some gender stuff with him, and see how he reacted.

"I'm not quite ready to eat again yet," I replied. "Maybe in a couple hours? Right now, there was something else I wanted to tell you. Another secret, basically."

"Ok?" he sounded a bit wary, and I guess after finding out I was part demon he probably worried what other sort of secrets I might have. Which, fair enough.

I was quiet for another couple seconds as I figured out how I wanted to say it, then I finally said "So like I said, I wasn't born with the horns and tail right? I was born a normal human?"

He nodded quietly.

I took a deep breath then quietly told him, "I was actually born a guy. Like, me and my mom and everyone else thought I was a guy? But I really wasn't. I just figured that out last year, with a lot of help. I was really a girl inside, and now I'm a girl outside too. What I'm trying to say is, I'm trans."

Ethan's face rapidly went through a number of different shifts in expression as he sort of unravelled everything I just told him. I was watching him closely, sort of holding my breath, and trying to get a feel for what he was thinking or how he was processing everything.

He didn't respond, and my intuition was giving me a lot of mixed-up stuff. I was pretty sure he was curious though, like maybe in a 'me-too' kind of way.

After about a minute I added "The reason I wanted to tell you that is, uh, you kind of remind me a lot of my old self? And it just sort of made me wonder if uh, maybe you're like me?"

His eyes went wide and his face turned red, and I knew that was a step too far. I could feel the embarrassment coming off him and the only sense I had from him now was he desperately wanted to hide or disappear.

PurpleCatGirl

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