=::= Tally's PoV =::=
"How about this one?" Jenny asked as she held up a jacket in front of herself. "What do you think, is it me?"
Bethany rolled her eyes, "Sure Jen, you'll look great next time you take your eighteenth century schooner out on the high seas."
The jacket her sister was holding was navy blue, with lots of decorative gold trim and buttons. It wasn't really some sort of historical navy thing but I could see where Beth was coming from. On the other hand, I couldn't deny it really did something for the tall blonde. Like she could totally rock the fancy jacket.
"I'm not sure it's the sort of thing you'd wear just out and about," I told her, "But I think you'd look really cool in that."
Jenny smiled, "Thanks Tally! I'm glad at least one of you appreciate my sense of style."
"I didn't know you had one," Beth teased.
Her sister ignored the comment. And she kept the jacket over her arm as she went back to looking at other clothes on the racks.
It was Saturday afternoon at the end of March, and the three of us were over at the Penn Centre. Jenny's birthday was a few days earlier and the tall blonde was looking for something to spend her birthday money on. Beth and I were helping her, and also looking at clothes and stuff for ourselves. With spring right around the corner we were all interested in some new outfits.
The three of us were also there to meet my sister. Lina was back in town again for the weekend, and we were planning to meet up with her at five. Then the four of us would grab a bite to eat, hang out a bit, maybe even go catch a movie or something.
It was kind of amazing how much my relationship with her had changed over the last two months. Things were still a bit tense with our parents, but my sister and I were closer now than we'd ever been before. It almost felt like I didn't even know who she really was until the end of January. Like the person who used to tease and bully me and stuff was just an act she put on to satisfy our mom, and it wasn't until she went away to college that she could finally be herself.
That meeting was still about forty-five minutes away though, so for now me and Beth and Jen were focused on the cool and bizarre clothes we were finding at this new shop. It was only another minute or two before my girlfriend picked out a dress.
"Check it out Tally!" she said as she held the garment up for me. "This would look great on you!"
It was black, with short poofy frilly sleeves and a knee-length pleated skirt. There were lots of decorative laces, or maybe they were actually functional, and it looked a little complicated but also kind of neat.
I took it into a changing room to try it on, and apart from my tail it fit all right and looked really good. It wasn't a big deal to get it altered with a gap for my tail, so that was ok too.
The three of us ended up spending another ten or twelve minutes there, but only me and Jen bought anything. I got my dress, while Jenny got that fancy jacket along with a sort of poofy ruffled white blouse. She really did seem to be going for an eighteenth century naval look, but if anyone could pull it off I knew it would be her.
As we headed out into the crowded corridor we were all talking about where to go next, Jenny wanted to visit a place that sold cheap jewelry and accessories, and since this was her post-birthday thing Beth and I went along with it. Unfortunately with the three of us all focused on our conversation we very nearly crashed into someone coming the other way.
"Oh!" I exclaimed as I stared up at him in surprise. "Steve, hi! How are you doing? You're looking really good."
It was my former best friend, but we'd barely talked to each other since starting grade twelve. He'd changed a lot over the last few months though. Back in December he finally used Cindy's spell, at the same full moon my sister first used it.
Steve made himself taller, and added some bulk and muscle. He also turned his hair a dark deep midnight blue colour which looked really good on him. Now he was dressed in black jeans and shoes, a white t-shirt, and a black spring jacket.
"Hey Tally," he replied. "And Jen, and Beth."
He wasn't as awkward as he used to be, the new looks gave him a lot more confidence. "You're looking good too. Sorry I can't stick around and talk, I'm on my way to meet someone over at the cafe."
"Oh yeah? What's her name?" Jenny asked with a grin. The tall blonde was probably trying to tease him, or maybe she was just kidding around.
Steve didn't seem to mind though. He just smiled back and replied, "Amy Silverton. Anyways see you around."
With that he continued on his way, while Bethany elbowed her sister and whispered something about not being a smart-ass to people. Then the three of us got moving again, towards the accessories place.
I was quiet as we walked, still thinking about Steve. I was happy he seemed to be doing ok, and he definitely seemed to have moved on from all the awkwardness with me. The fact that he apparently had a date with Amy was probably a big win for him. She was popular and attractive, and her going out with a former 'loser' and 'geek' like Steve was the sort of thing we'd probably be hearing gossip about at school before long.
"Hey check it out!" Jenny said as she suddenly stopped in front of the shop we were heading to.
She pointed at a display in the window, that advertised ear piercings. They'd do the piercing for only ten dollars if you bought a pair of their fancy earrings. That wasn't anything special, the bit Jen was actually excited about was something new.
Apparently they now did demi-human ears too, they even had a picture of a catgirl with rose-gold loop earrings through her orange fuzzy ears. And next to her was a bunnygirl with pierced floppy ears, fake diamonds in silver settings down near the ends of her black furry ears.
"Huh," Bethany frowned. "I wonder if that's actually safe?"
Jenny asked, "Are you seriously considering that? Mom might have something to say about it if you come home with pierced ears."
Beth shrugged and looked at me, "What do you think Tally?"
I grimaced, "Before I turned myself into a foxgirl I definitely wanted to get my ears pierced? I honestly haven't thought of it since then. Not with these ears."
A moment later I checked my phone and added, "We're supposed to meet my sister in fifteen minutes, so there might not be enough time anyways. But now that we know they do this, we could always come back again some other time if we really wanted to do it."
"Let's go inside and see," Beth suggested. "Maybe it doesn't take that long."
Jenny added, "Whether you get your ears done or not I'm going to do some shopping."
With that the three of us moved past the window and in through the doorway, where we nearly crashed into a tall skinny willowy blonde who was just on her way out.
"Oh!" I exclaimed. "Lina!"
My sister smiled, "Hey Tally. We weren't supposed to meet for another fifteen minutes yet."
"Yeah," I blushed. "Me and Beth and Jenny are doing some shopping."
A moment later I remembered Jen hadn't actually seen my sister since she changed, so I decided to re-introduce the two of them.
"Lina you remember Bethany's sister Jenny right?" I said as I looked back and forth between them. "And Jen, this is my sister Lina."
"Hello Jenny," my sister politely greeted the tall strong blonde. "It's been a while."
Jen sort of smirked as she responded, "Hi Lina. I see you finally figured out how to straighten your nose. That new one's a lot cuter than the one I broke."
Suddenly I was cringing. I hadn't forgotten that the two of them had some bad history together, but I'd been hoping neither of them would bring it up. And I really hoped they weren't going to get into a fight now. For one thing I was pretty sure Jenny could have taken Lina back when she was still a guy. As a girl my sister was weak and skinny, Jen could probably fold her in half if she wanted.
Except my sister didn't seem to take any offence. She didn't even seem upset. Instead she smiled back, "Thank you, I'm quite fond of it. I'll ask you not to break this one, but I suppose if you must at least I know how to fix it with magic. Even if it does take a month."
Then Beth spoke up, "Let's keep moving, we're blocking the entrance standing around here. If you two want to flirt you can do it inside, or out in the hall."
That got my sister blushing, while Jenny just smirked. Then all four of us went into the shop together. Jen started looking at some accessories and stuff while Beth went over to the counter where they had the earrings. And I stayed with my sister, as we moved off to the side out of everyone's way.
"So what brings you in here?" I asked. "Jewelry, accessories?"
Lina's cheeks were still a bit pink as she gestured to her ears, "Jewelry. Just got them done."
I hadn't actually noticed until she pointed it out, but now that I was looking it was obvious. Her earlobes were sort of red and puffy, but she had a pretty gold stud with a fake diamond setting in each lobe.
"Wow!" I smiled. "Those look really good on you sis!"
In a quieter voice I added, "I still can't quite believe it, you know? Even though it's been like three full months now."
She smiled back, "Thanks Tally. And it's ok, I understand what that's like. It took me a lot longer to get my head around things when you changed. And I know I'm not really typical for a trans girl."
I leaned closer and gave her a quick hug, "There's no such thing as typical, Lina. And we've talked about this right? You don't have to call yourself trans if it doesn't feel right for you."
"Thanks sis," she hugged me back. "Anyways let's not go into all that again. Aren't you here to do some shopping too? It looks like your girlfriend's excited about getting something pierced, the way her tail's going."
"Yeah," I grimaced. "I should go see what she's up to."
The two of us made our way across to the counter where Bethany was talking to one of the sales staff. Sure enough they were talking about piercing fox ears, the store employee was discussing demi-human aftercare and how it differed slightly from piercing human ears.
"Tally!" Beth grinned when she realized I was by her side. She gestured and introduced me to the young woman she was talking with, "Marcy here is the one who does the piercings. Marcy, this is my girlfriend Tally."
Then without waiting for either of us to respond Bethany continued, "It sounds pretty good, and she can do both of us right now if we want? It only takes a couple minutes. I was thinking I could get some rose gold loops and you could get silver ones? What do you think?"
"I don't know," I shrugged. Then I looked to Lina and asked, "You just did yours, did it hurt?"
My sister shook her head, "Not really? There was a pinch and that's it. They're tender now though, they'll hurt if I touch them."
Marcy spoke up, "It's not quite the same for demi-human ears, the piercing process is slightly different so it's not really comparable. But most people say the pain's nothing."
"So what do you think?" Beth asked again. "Will you do yours if I do mine? I think we should so them together, so we match."
I glanced back at my sister again, then looked at my girlfriend as I thought it over. It took me a half minute before I finally nodded, "Yeah ok. I like your idea of getting the loops? Rose gold for you and silver for me?"
"Cool!" Bethany grinned.
She'd actually picked them out already, she and Marcy showed them to me so I could decide if I like them or not. Which I did. Then we both had to sign waivers and pay for everything, and when that was all done Beth went first. My girlfriend sat in a chair behind the counter with me next to her, holding her hand.
Meanwhile Jenny and Lina ended up standing together near the exit. The two of them were talking about something as they watched and waited for my girlfriend and I.
It took a little longer than I expected for Beth to get hers done, then we swapped places and I took the seat while she stood next to me and held my hand. There was definitely some pain when Marcy did my right ear, and that got me wondering how it was even possible to get our ears pierced.
Normally our protective tattoos wouldn't let anything hurt us. After thinking about that for a few moments I remembered the enchantments were smart enough to work with intent, and in this case I wanted the earrings and Marcy wasn't intending any harm.
That reminded me of another benefit I'd almost forgotten about. Those same enchantments would speed healing, so my girlfriend and I wouldn't have to worry about sore or tender ears like my sister had.
Another couple minutes later I was all done, I had a pair of small shiny silver-coloured loops in my ears and I thought they looked really cool. Beth had matching rose-gold-coloured loops in hers, and they looked cool too.
Marcy had just started to explain the aftercare stuff to us when I was surprised and distracted by the faint sensation of magic happening somewhere in the store. Beth noticed it too, and we both glanced around to see where it came from. It only took a moment to realize Jenny was looking suspiciously innocent as she stood there next to my sister.
For just a moment I was worried she'd done something to my sister, but nothing appeared to be wrong with Lina. She was standing there alongside Jen, the two were still talking casually.
It wasn't until Beth and I were all done and went to join the other two that I realized Jenny must have used a healing spell. The redness and swelling in my sister's ears had completely faded. Her new piercings were probably fully healed already.
Beth gave her sister a look as the four of us started heading over towards the food court, but none of us mentioned anything. I knew Lina going to be surprised though, when she figured out she didn't need to worry about the aftercare stuff.
I just hoped she wouldn't somehow suspect one of us had anything to do with it.
Huh, Enemies to Lesbians!