Christian lay sprawled across the living room couch, gaze fixed on the television. It had been nearly a week since Cailyn’s bizarre encounter at the Underground, and Nate had put her on paid suspension until he could determine what had happened. In effect, that meant that she was spending every day at home with Chris, while Aiden worked every day.

Only getting to see him a few hours each evening had really tanked Chris’ mood, but he couldn’t even begin to explain why. Perhaps because they’d become closer as friends since this all started? Yeah, that had to be it.

Thankfully, the weirdness with Cay’s encounter and the extended work hours for Aiden did little to impact the rate of his Knot Thing’s growth. Unfortunately it also meant that the apartment was rapidly becoming a mess, since Aiden didn’t have time to clean up, and Cailyn just wouldn’t.

Chris had considered tidying the place, but cleaning someone else’s apartment would probably be weird. He politely abstained from commenting on the accruement of filth and dirty dishes, and instead focused on watching trashy TV dramas with Cailyn, or playing mobile games on his phone - having to use the stylus because his cloth fingers didn’t work so well on it.

“Boo,” he jeered, miming throwing a piece of popcorn at the TV before popping it into his mouth instead.

“You’re just mad because Jenna didn’t hook up with Peter,” Cay teased.

“Well yeah, I mean, it would have made sense! They had so much chemistry, until the writers changed everything up when the characters moved to South Korea… now suddenly they have these totally different love interests and lives! It’s hardly even the same show!” Chris ranted, sitting up properly. He’d become way more invested in this show than he ever expected to.

“When the production studio decided to try and compete with K-Dramas, yeah… things got kinda weird. Still, it’s a good show, and it picks up again next season. Peter meets this really cute girl named Sa Yeon-Woo, and they really hit it off.” Cailyn helped herself to more popcorn, cueing up the next episode.

“Good for him… but what about Jenna? She’s stuck with that asshole Sobong Hyo.” Chris stood and stretched, having laid on the couch entirely too long.

“Eh, you’ll just have to wait and see,” Cay teased. She glanced over at him, then did a double-take. “Er, hey, Chris?”

“Yeah?”

“You might wanna consider getting some new clothes. That dress you got from the Underground is barely decent.”

“It’s not that bad,” Chris protested, looking down at himself. Sure, his body had gotten taller, and filled out a bit here and there; his hips were now nearly as wide as Cailyn’s, and his chest region had continued to fluff up a bit more, but that didn’t make his dress indecent, did it?

“Yeah, when you stretch like that it pulls up and shows off your uh, well, where your bits would be if you had any.” Cailyn motioned at his exposed groin, the flat expanse of cloth between his wide hips.

“Eh? O-oh…” He would have blushed if he could. Instead, he pulled the dress back down to cover himself. 

“Look, uh, I can always lend you some clothes until you unravel, you know?” Cailyn offered.

“Huh!?” He squeaked, once again feeling that he’d be blushing if he could. “But they’d be girl clothes!”

“Uh-huh… I hate to break it to you, but that body isn’t screaming ‘manly’ right now. There’s no way you’re fitting those hips into a pair of Aiden’s jeans, or anything you used to wear, string bean.”

“B-but…” Of course he had realized (it would be hard not to) that his Knot Thing was definitely looking more ‘girl’ than ‘boy’, but to wear actual womens clothing? “I can’t crossdress, especially not in your clothes, Cay.” 

“Why not? It’s not like you leave the apartment anyway. Nobody else is going to know. Besides, if you look like a girl, it’s not really crossdressing, is it?”

Chris considered that for a moment. If his body looked like a girl’s, then maybe it was okay? He’d been wearing a dress for days now without really thinking about it, after all.

“Er… Okay,” he conceded. 

“Great,” Cay stood up, depositing the popcorn and the remote on the coffee table before crossing the small space towards Chris. She measured up his height compared to hers, finding them just about equal, then turned and all but skipped to her bedroom. 

Anxiousness churned in his stomach fluff as he waited for her return, fidgeting with his hands. What had started as sharp bits of metal sticking out of cloth had become slender fingers with metallic nails. He still had to be mindful not to scratch anyone or tear up the furniture, but it was a far cry from the nightmare claws.

“Are you coming in here or what?” Cay barked from her room.

“Huh? You’re not bringing stuff out here?”

“No, you don’t want Aiden walking in on you changing, do you?” Cay asked.

He felt his face fluff warm, and hurried into her room, closing the door behind him. Somehow, despite his lack of defined features, the idea of being seen naked by Aiden seemed embarrassing. 

Cay’s bed was strewn with outfits - jeans, leggings, skirts, dresses, all kinds of tops. Clothes he was sure he’d never even seen her wear, and then there were the accessories…

“How do you own this much clothing? Your closet is like, tiny,” Chris said in disbelief. 

“Magic, duh. Closet of Holding. Now come on, let’s find you some good outfits.” She smiled, turning towards the bed and the clothing there-upon.

“This is a lot, Cay… I don’t know if I can do this…” Chris fidgeted with the hem of his too-short dress.

“C’mon, you’ve been wearing that dress for days now. If you weren’t a Knot, it’d reek. At least try some of this stuff on. If you don’t like it, you can talk to Aiden about borrowing some of his stuff, or we can grab you some stuff from your place.”

“Okay, fine, I’ll try some stuff on,” he relented. Some of the stuff did look cute, he admitted to himself. He grabbed a pair of jeans and one of the old band T-shirts that Cay had laid out, and eyed them nervously. 

“Here, before you put those on…” Cay tossed something at him, which he only barely saw out of his peripheral vision.

“Eep!” he squeaked, nearly dropping the shirt and pants as he caught the unidentified flying object.

Panties. Plain, in various shades of pink. His brows rose nearly into his cloth hairline.

“Don’t worry, they’re unused. Got them for a birthday or something one year and uh, pink isn’t my color, so they’ve just been laying in a drawer. Never know when you might need an emergency backup pair or something.” 

“Seriously?! You can’t expect me to wear these, I mean, they’re…”

“Underwear, Chris. Jeez. I don’t want you going commando in my jeans, even if you don’t have anything right now.” Cay planted her hands on her hips, fixing him with a ‘dare to argue’ look.

“Alright, alright… sheesh.” He looked at the packaged underwear again, once more glad that he couldn’t blush.

“Well? Go ahead and get changed.”

“Oh, right.” He started walking for the door.

“Where are you going?” Cay asked.

“The bathroom? To get changed.”

“Huh? Just change here,  jeez.” Cay laughed, shaking her head slightly.

“What? But I can’t just change here in front of you!”

“Why not, we’re both girl-shaped people, here.” Cay teased.

He felt his chest fluff flutter and buzz at the idea of being ‘girl-shaped’, and conceded another victory to Cailyn. He started to peel off the dress, then pulled up the panties. His ‘skin’ lacked tactile sensation, but he recognized that they fit him way better than he had thought they would.

“Cute,” Cay said, folding her arms and watching him almost critically.

He mumbled something approximating thanks for her compliment, even if it made him feel weird, and moved on to the rest of the outfit.

“Here,” Cay tossed him something else. “Even if they aren’t real you should probably wear one of these just, you know, to complete the outfit.

He recognized the garment as a sports bra. Great. Another notch cut in his man card. It had to be nearly snipped in half, now. He groaned and pulled it on, finding it surprisingly easy to do.

The shirt came last, leaving him re-dressed in Cailyn’s room, in Cailyn’s clothes, looking at himself in Cailyn’s mirror. The girl-shaped person looking back at him definitely looked cute. He’d guess maybe late teens or early twenties based on her size and build, and the clothes. She smiled back at him, flashing her metal teeth. For just a moment he tried to imagine what she would look like if she was a normal girl, instead of sackcloth and steel bits.

She was pretty. Beautiful, even. He could imagine the warm skin tone, the flowing hair, her smile that never failed to reach her eyes.

“Someone’s happy,” Cailyn said, shaking him out of it.

“Huh?”

“You were standing there smiling with your eyes closed, hugging yourself.”

“I-I was not!” Chris argued, turning away from her. “These clothes are fine. Thanks. I’ll wash them and give them back when I’m done, you know.” He turned and stormed out of the room, mentally kicking himself.

‘What was I even thinking, letting myself get carried away like that? Stupid. I can’t be done soon enough. Done, and back to normal…’