Chloe was seated in one of the beanbag chairs, staring vacantly at the ceiling. The kittens had crawled into her lap, all five of them, and were engaged in a sleepy cuddle party. Morgan, nearby, was carefully watching over her partner and the kittens while a lilac-point Siamese lay against her thigh, purring loudly. Several other cats were milling about, curious about the visitors but unwilling to approach the kittens or the Siamese - Crystal, according to her collar.

Morgan simply sipped her third cup of tea and read a novel on her phone, casually scritching around Crystal’s chin and ears as she waited for Chloe to recover. Chloe’s energetic high had only lasted about fifteen minutes and the crash afterward was almost pathetic to watch. She crawled into the nearest beanbag chair, scooping up the two kittens she’d been playing with, and curled up with them to space out.

“You doing okay over there, Love?” Morgan asked Chloe teasingly.

“I feel like I stayed up all night working on a term paper and chugging energy drinks and now it’s, like, after class and I still have enough caffeine to keep me from sleeping but not enough energy to actually do anything,” Chloe mumbled in a voice that was nearly a moan.

Morgan laughed, startling Crystal slightly, as she replied, “That was strangely specific, but paints a very clear mental picture.”

At this point, Kelly had approached the pair with some paperwork on a clipboard and sat down next to Morgan. “Have you decided which of the kittens you intended to adopt?”

Chloe’s arms moved leadenly to point at two of the kittens, the longhair black and white one and the shorthair gray tabby that had been so adventurous and clingy before. The others had eventually joined their siblings, but it was more out of a desire to be together than any intense interest in the humans. “These two,” she said. “They like me.”

Morgan pouted. “And what about me?”

“They think you’re pretty cool, too,” Chloe reassured her girlfriend. “But the boys say they wanna be more independent. The white and gray tabby, especially, wants his own person.”

Kelly blinked several times, but said nothing as she processed what Chloe was saying. Finally, she asked, “Can you actually understand them, or are you just making this up?”

“Well, it’s not like they talk-talk. Not with words. It’s more like their body language, their closeness, and the way they push each other away or pull each other closer. I mean, yeah, their vocalizations have intent, but it’s everything else that shows what they’re thinking,” Chloe said, her voice gaining strength and energy as she spoke.

“And how are you able to understand this so well?” Kelly inquired, fascinated by the topic.

Chloe shifted in her seat, the kittens barely responding to the movement. “Instinct,” she said at last as her brow furrowed in thought. “Somehow, I just… know?”

Kelly turned to look at Morgan. “You said the ears and tail were a gift from your gods or something?”

Rather than responding immediately, Morgan took another long, slow sip of her tea. “You probably wouldn’t believe me if I told you the full story.”

With a wry grin, Kelly reached under the neck of her blouse and pulled a pendant free from her cleavage, dangling from a silver chain. As it twisted and glinted in the sunlight, both Morgan and Chloe recognized the image of a pentacle with green gemstones set at its five points within the circle. “Try me.”

Morgan’s brows went up in surprise. “A Sister? Surprise, surprise!” She set the teacup down on the small table next to her and pulled up her own pentacle pendant, this one bearing the image of a sickle in the center. “I follow two patron deities - Sekhmet and Bastet.”

Kelly nodded and gestured toward Chloe. “What about you?”

“Uhhhh… I would say that I’m primarily agnostic, bordering on atheist. Well, I was. I’m not entirely sure what I believe, now,” Chloe admitted. “In all fairness, dying as a tall man and being reborn as a tiny catgirl kinda messes with your worldview a bit.”

“Dying?!” Kelly exclaimed in shock.

“There was a bit of a slip-up during a ritual on the new moon and she tripped and fell on my athame,” Morgan explained. “My patrons chose that point to get involved in our lives a bit more directly by saving my boyfriend at our late kitty’s request.”

“Okay, you’re right. This is a bit hard to swallow,” Kelly muttered after a long pause. “I mean, I have my beliefs, but seeing evidence of the supernatural firsthand is… I don’t know.”

Chloe gave Kelly an understanding smile. “I’m with you. If this hadn’t happened to me, I wouldn’t have believed it, myself. But try this - come over here and look inside one of my ears.”

Kelly placed the clipboard she was holding on the coffee table in front of her and took a few steps toward Chloe to peer cautiously inside her right ear. “Uh, I can’t see much. You have a lot of hair in the way and the interior is a bit… furry.”

“You can touch it,” Morgan stated. “Just pretend you’re checking her for mites or something.”

“Ewww!” Chloe cried out. “Can that actually happen to me, now?” Her ears had folded back in annoyance and disgust.

Encouraged by Morgan’s permission, Kelly reached out and grasped the ear she’d been looking at, holding it open so she could look inside. “Oh my goodness, it’s really real! Do you have human ears, too?”

Chloe tilted her head, her cheeks suddenly very pink, to allow her hair to fall across her jaw. “Nope, no human ears. Just the kitty ones,” she said in a voice that sounded a bit strained.

“Oh, are you alright, Chloe?” Kelly asked, reflexively running her thumb up the inside of Chloe’s ear.

A blush enveloped Chloe’s face as she whimpered. “Uh… my ears are very sensitive and my body is having… uhm… a reaction to what you’re doing.” As she spoke, her tail had wrapped around her body, the tip curling outward. “Could you please let go?”

Kelly’s eyes went wide and she pulled her hand away from Chloe’s ear. “I’m so sorry! I had no idea!” Her own cheeks began to flush a bit, but she maintained her composure.

“Neither did I…” Morgan said somewhat flatly. Her face remained neutral, but the tone of her voice seemed to indicate a measure of displeasure. “Yeah, I think I’ll be the only one to handle her ears, going forward.”

“So… what are you going to do, now? I mean, if Chloe was transformed, doesn’t that make a whole mess of legal and medical issues? What if she gets sick or needs to see a doctor?” 

Having calmed down somewhat, Chloe replied, “That’s actually part of why we’re here. The kittens we’re here to claim are part of a plan that Bastet and Sekhmet have to help me fix the whole records and identity issue. I’m not entirely sure how the kittens figure in, but I don’t think the goddesses would ever dream of bringing any harm to them. Cats are held sacred in Kemetic belief, anyway.”

A dark expression shadowed Kelly’s face. “Is that the only reason you’re here? To get tools to help you fix your situation?”

Morgan bristled and was about to say something but she was interrupted by Chloe, who suddenly shouted “No!” - an action which jolted the kittens in her lap from their slumber. “I just lost a cat… a friend… she was with me for eighteen years. If the goddesses hadn’t requested it, I wouldn’t be doing this so soon. My heart’s not ready, yet. But that doesn’t mean I’ll love them any less because of it.” Her large, green eyes were glistening with unshed tears. “Cats are companions and family. Not tools.” 

Most of the litter had gotten up to find a less excitable place to sleep, but the gray tabby and the black and white longhair remained in Chloe’s lap with their eyes squinted in mild annoyance.

“We would have adopted another cat or two into our home, eventually,” Morgan explained. “The goddesses just pushed up the timetable a bit. In the end, we will treasure them all the same and they will experience every bit of love we have to offer.”

The tension in the room seemed to evaporate as the two kitties that had stayed behind began kneading Chloe’s thighs to resume their nap. Chloe smiled down at them, unable to hold back the purring that rumbled from her own chest. She gently stroked the fur on their foreheads with her fingertips, their little eyes closing happily. “They’ll never replace Luna. She was her own cat and she will forever be a part of my life. But they will be integrated into our family and our home and they will stake out their own places in our hearts.”

Kelly sighed but smiled nonetheless, her posture softening in the process. “It’s hard to argue with what I’m seeing. They’re already starting to bond with you.” She retrieved the clipboard from where she’d left it on the coffee table and tapped a pen to its edge. “Let’s get this paperwork filled out and you can take them home tonight.”

Chloe grinned excitedly. “Really?”

“I have some conditions, but they shouldn’t be a big deal,” Kelly stated. “First, I’ll need you to send me bi-weekly updates on their well-being for the first three months.”

Morgan and Chloe nodded. That wasn’t a problem at all.

"Next, you’ll need to get them in to see a veterinarian. I have a couple recommendations.”

Again, not an issue.

“Lastly, this one’s a request. Can Chloe work here as our poster girl every other weekend?”

Morgan snickered. Chloe simply looked dumbfounded.