I hummed, stirring the creamy potato soup while I finished the st bits of seasoning. I’d considered using my shapeshifting more to do things like give myself a better nose while cooking, but no matter how many times I did it, the process still icked me out – even just going from Sarah to fox-Sarah or vice-versa.

  My ears twitched and I spun around, smiling at Luna as she opened the door. “Welcome home,” I grinned, my tail wagging up a storm.

  She rexed upon seeing me, bending over to take off her shoes. “Hey, Sarah. It smells delicious.” She continued walking, putting her purse away in our bedroom before coming back to the kitchen. It almost seemed like she was going to keep walking up to me – and possibly hug me – but she stopped just outside of range and leaned up against the wall.

  “So, how was work…?”

  True to my expectations, she groaned, rolling her eyes exaggeratedly. “It was terrible and I hate my boss. I’m so gd to be home.” She sighed, “You don’t have to do anything special – especially if you’re busy with work – but I took the rest of the week off because I couldn't stand to be in there another moment. And if they fire me for giving them short notice, then…” She shrugged, half-wincing.

  I set down my spoon and turned off the burner before walking over to her and pulling her into a hesitant hug. “I’m gd you’re taking some time off, and of course we can spend some time together. I have to go to work on Thursday afternoon, and I might have a meeting on Friday too, but other than that, I’m yours.”

  Luna pulled me deeper into the hug, sighing. “I’m so gd to have you…”

  After a moment of our too-good embrace, I reluctantly broke away and fshed her a smile, happy our retionship was in a better pce. I turned back to the stove, an awkward question on my mind. “So I was thinking…”

  Luna hummed, showing interest.

  “I want to at least try to make up with Melody, and with your schedule, I was wondering if I could invite her over so you could be there when we talk.” I sighed. “It’s not like it’s likely for her to agree to talk anyways, but if she does, I think you could help me when I’m struggling to find the right thing to say, and it’d maybe show her that you’re nice and not an evil witch.”

  She eyed me curiously at the st statement before shaking her head. “Yea, that sounds fine. I’d be happy to meet her and I have no problem with you having people over.”

  “Thanks,” I smiled, “And now that we have a chance, let’s try out that card game you were talking about tomorrow!”

  Luna ughed. “That sounds nice, I was actually reading the rules yesterday, and it’s really not as complicated as it sounds. You see, the main decision you’re making on your turn is whether you want to focus on technology cards or on resource cards, and within those two systems there’s a number of sub-games to engage in that are all pretty easy to understand. I’m really excited,” she bounced up and down on the balls of her feet, grinning wildly.

  I couldn’t help but beam at her, looking on with a warm feeling in my chest. “Well hearing you talk about it has got me excited too.” That was definitely true, with the only caveat being that I knew she would kick my ass. It was worth it.

  She refocused, pointing to the soup behind me, “Are we going to have dinner, or…?”

  “Oh yeah, sorry!” I jumped out of the way, letting her pass by to grab a bowl and fill it with soup. I didn’t know what was up, but I felt full of energy, and it was hard to stay focused.

  Speaking of it being hard to stay focused…

  “Hey, Luna? What does dysphoria feel like?”

  She startled, dropping the spoon she was getting out of the silverware drawer. “Uhh… Let’s sit down for this.”

  I pouted, getting my own food and sitting down at the table with her before watching her, waiting for an answer.

  “Didn’t you do a bunch of research about this when I came out? I thought you were pretty well-informed…?”

  I tilted my head. “Yeah, that’s true, but I swear everyone describes dysphoria differently, or they’ll say that they don’t experience it, and then also describe feeling what someone else describes as dysphoria – and then it’s like you don’t have to have dysphoria to be trans… It’s confusing.”

  Luna nodded along. “Okay I guess that makes sense. For me, it’s like the feeling that something is off about my body or the way people see me. It can be almost invisible and ruin my day anyways, or it can be gringly obvious and also still ruin my day…” She paused. “Did that help?”

  I shook my head, “No, not really.”

  She slumped slightly in her chair, huffing a ugh. “So what is it that you’re confused about, if you don’t mind talking about it?”

  I hesitated, half gathering my thoughts and half considering if I wanted to keep talking. “Well, when I first started using a feminine body, back when we got Snuffles back, it felt like all of my senses were dialled up to eleven and it was really hard to focus. I’d kind of thought that was dysphoria, because of like a disconnect between me and my body, and then I felt it when I started being Sarah, and then… it kind of faded?”

  “That sounds more like gender euphoria, unless you think it’s unpleasant?”

  “No, not unpleasant, it just made it hard to focus. Like when I went outside for the first few times I got really anxious about how people were seeing me and how I was supposed to act and stuff…”

  “Yeah, the first times I wore feminine clothes or makeup were like that for me – and it then turned out no one cared and it just became normal. For you, it might be a bit different because…” she trailed off, looking at my ears.

  “Yeah, I think I’m okay with getting weird looks for these – and it’s not like I use them all the time.”

  Luna ughed, “Yeah, can you imagine if you pulled them out at work?”

  I winced.

  “Wait… Seriously? What happened?” her mouth hung open.

  “Well I was talking to a trans coworker… and when I mentioned I was questioning, she got the wrong idea that I was maybe trans-masculine, so I showed her the ears to expin my shapeshifting, and then our boss walked in.”

  Luna burst out ughing, leaning her face onto the table with fits of giggles bubbling out of her.

  “Hey!” I pouted, watching her and trying not to join in ughing.

  “Sorry, that’s just…” She closed her eyes for a moment, collecting herself. “So what happened?”

  “Oh, she was cool about it – she just kind of grumbled about kids these days and moved on.”

  “Wow, your work sounds like the best… If I ate meat I’d totally come bother you while you were working,” she ughed.

  I awkwardly joined in ughing alongside her. That’s the whole point of that lie… and that one is a bit too useful to clear up for now.

  “This is really good,” she said, slurping up the st of her soup, “So when are you getting promoted to head chef?”

  “I don’t know anything about cooking steak. Besides, I like my current position – my coworkers are all really cool and nice.”

  “Okay, fine.” Luna stood, taking her bowl over to the sink and washing it. “So, what’re we doing now? Are you going to keep me up all night?” Her smile faltered, “Like with a movie or something,” she added.

  I gnced down at the st bits of soup in my bowl. “Well there was that time you asked me to turn into a cuddleable body for movie night…”

  “Hmm, you do look very cuddleable…”

  My tail swished against the chair below me, trying to wag. “It’s your turn to choose, right?”

  “Yea… There’s that one anime movie where the girl turns into a cat – that seems relevant, right?”

  “I guess,” I grumbled, standing and joining her at the sink. “I’m not a cat though.”

  She giggled, grabbing my bowl from me, “I’m well aware how foxy you are.”

  I scurried away, throwing myself on the couch and curling up to hide my flushed expression. I loved that Luna wasn’t treating me differently since I started being Sarah around her, but the fact that she still flirted with me was…

  A few minutes ter Luna joined me on the couch, sitting in the middle and scooting into me until I was pinned up against the armrest. Then she got comfortable, ying out on my chest with both of her hands buried in the fabric of my loose shirt. We fidgeted a bit, me swinging my legs under Luna to y them out across the couch, and her finding the right pce for her head to rest on my chest so she could still see the tv, but once we found the right position we both sighed, taking pleasure in the intimacy.

  Luna drew in a sharp breath. “Wait… where’s the remote?”

  I whined, pulling her closer, “Who cares…” I muttered.

  —

  Luna and I did end up watching the movie, although we stayed cuddled together with a bnket draped over us the whole time, and, even after the movie had finished and the tv was off, we were too sleepy to go to bed, so we ended up sleeping together on the couch.

  Sleeping together as in sleeping in the same pce, not…

  Anyways, when I woke up, my joints protested, my arm tingled with poor circution, and my tail was angry about being sat on – but my heart sang, the image of Luna’s rexed face drooling on my chest more than making up for the awkward positioning.

  As if she could sense my smile – or more likely, feel my heart rate pick up – Luna’s eyes fluttered open soon after mine. “Morning,” she mumbled, turning to bury her face further into my chest while she arched her back, working out the kinks. Her hands stretched past my neck and then lowered onto my colrbone, pulling her face up towards mine as her body dropped back on to me. “Mmmm,” she groaned, tilting her head with her eyes shut as her mouth got dangerously close to mine. One hand came up to cup my cheek, I leaned in, and–

  We both froze when my phone dinged, signalling a new message. I gred at my phone on the coffee table while horror washed over Luna’s face in the corner of my vision.

  She coughed, jolting away from me and ending up on the other side of the couch, bleary eyes darting around as she tried to wake herself up.

  I sighed, deciding not to bring up what had almost just happened – Luna still didn’t know about my job, which would make her rethink getting involved with me, and even ignoring that, if she actually wanted to kiss me, she would’ve, rather than getting spooked as soon as she realised she wasn’t dreaming. My phone vibrated again, and I picked it up, seeing a couple of messages from my mom, asking when I was going to call.

  “Mom wants me to call,” I told Luna, picking up my phone and dialling while she watched, blinking with a puzzled expression.

  “Hey honey, how are you? Hope I didn’t wake you up – I never know when you youngsters are getting out of bed these days.”

  “No it’s fine, Luna and I were having a bit of a slow morning but I’m awake. What’s going on with you?” I asked, keeping the phone up near my fox ear while leaning back into the couch.

  Luna waved urgently at me from across the couch, and when I waved back she shook her head, facepalming.

  “Is that you, Madeline? Why do you have Greg’s phone…?” My mom asked, concerned.

  I froze, then pinched my brow.

  Oh no, not again…

  “No, mom, it’s me… I’m…” I rubbed my fingers into my eyes, trying to figure out how to expin this over the phone.

  Luna beckoned for the phone and I handed it over to her, happy to let her expin.

  “Hello Mrs. Campbell, this is Luna,” she called out in a cheery voice.

  She stood, shaking her head and beginning to pace behind the couch. “No, we’re having a bit of gender questioning over here and I don’t think she was thinking when she called you.”

  Luna nodded for a moment, listening to my mother, and then ughed, “Of course, I’ll be here as her teacher if she needs me. And hey, Mrs. Campbell–” she paused, smiling and rolling her eyes in a way I was very familiar with, “Fine, Laura, she’s not quite ready yet so we’d appreciate it if you kept this a secret for now. We’ll let Maddy know when she’s ready, but for now…” She nodded, “Thank you, I’ll hand the phone back now.”

  I grabbed the phone from Luna, mouthing ‘thank you’, while she smiled shyly and scurried off towards the restroom. “Hello?”

  My mom went straight into it. “So, do you have a name I can call you, or is that still secret?”

  I stifled a sigh, smiling. “You can call me Sarah or your daughter… but like Luna said, it’s still very new.”

  “Hmmm… And what were the two of you doing that had you together on a ‘slow morning’?” I could hear the mix of motherly concern and teasing, even from two hours away and through the distorted static of a phone call.

  “Mom…” I whined.

  “Now listen here young dy, I may be old but I’m not senile. I’m well aware that the apartment you live in only has one bedroom, and the two of you have always been… close. I’m not upset, but if there is anything to keep me in the loop on please do.”

  I sighed again, resisting the urge to bask in the sound of my mom calling me ‘young dy’. “I swear there’s nothing going on…” I gnced towards where Luna had disappeared off to, “Officially. Why would you even think I’m attracted to women?”

  “Honey, I never doubted you when you said you liked men, but…” She sighed, getting lost in memories for a moment. “You’ve always been… fascinated by women.”

  I groaned, not wanting to think through what exactly she’d seen when I was a teenager. “Fine, we can talk about this more on my birthday.”

  “Oh! You’re coming?” She didn’t bother hiding her excitement.

  “Of course I am, unless there’s some dire emergency going on. Next time you talk to Maddy you can ask her to come as well and the two of you can scheme as long as it all stays small,” I emphasised, knowing my mother and sister had a habit of over-preparing for a gathering. “Oh, and I’m supposed to bring Luna too,” I added.

  “Well that’s nice, good to have one of the daughters bring a woman home…”

  “Mom…” I warned.

  “Sorry honey, it’s just so exciting! Well I’ll let you two get to it, don’t let me keep you. See you soon Sarah! I love you!”

  “I love you too mom…”

  She hung up just as Luna came back into the room, raising an eyebrow in a silent question.

  “Thank you so much Luna, I have no idea what I would’ve done without you,” I muttered, sinking back into the couch.

  “That’s what happens when you let your best friend actually help you, instead of keeping everything a secret,” she lectured. “And I’m gd she took it well. Even if we could’ve expected that…” she paused, staring off into space, “You never know,” she finished.

  I stood, taking confident steps over to Luna and pulling her into a hug – something that was already becoming a habit. Words didn’t need to be exchanged; we’d already had this same interaction dozens of times since Luna first came out. Instead, she leaned her face down into my shoulder and took a deep breath, expelling the tension out.