Chapter 2: Part 2/2

“I beat you again!” Amanda cried as she sent my final creature to the graveyard, “you were no match for me!”

“Alas!”  I replied dramatically, “you have bested my armies!”

“Jesus, get a room, you two,” someone in the back of the shop yelled. I blushed, hoping she hadn’t heard that, before I saw she was blushing as well. We had both become really good friends over the past year of living up here. But dating? Pfffft. I mean, she was cute, but we were just friends, right?

We began to pack up our cards, as we usually did, but I noticed she was uncharacteristically quiet. She was trying very hard to put her deck back in, but spilled her cards on the table in the process.

“Do you need help with that?” I asked.

“Maybe,” she replied, her face beet red.

I helped her gently package the rest of her cards back into the case, and load them up into her backpack. As we walked out, I heard a sound from her that sounded as if she wanted to say something. I turned to her and smiled, eliciting a squeak. Had I done something wrong?

“N..nancy, I just wanted to say I…”

My phone rang just then. I held up a finger to ask her to wait, and she nodded, waiting patiently as she shuffled her feet.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Hello Miss Devon,” the voice on the other end, who I recognized immediately as the floor’s transformation clinic’s secretary, said, “your insurance has approved your procedure, and we can fit you in any time next week.”

“Oh, that’s great!” I cried, “I have the last half of Friday off, could we do Friday at two?”

“Friday at two would be no problem, Miss Devon. See you there!”

“See you!” I replied, nearly squealing with glee as I hung up.

“Who was that?” Amanda asked, looking as if her nerves had cooled somewhat.

“Oh, it was the clinic! They can fit me in next week on Friday!” I cried.

“Seriously? That’s amazing!” she said as she ran up to embrace me.

We hugged for a few seconds before I remembered, she had something to say to me as well. I turned down to her, looking at her snuggling up to me, and asked, “Is there something you wanted to tell me?”

“Oh, not tell you! I just wanted to ask you, um” she stuttered as she looked away and fidgeted, “would you like to go on, a date date? As my girlfriend, I mean?”

“W..what?” I asked.

“It’s okay if the answer is no, I just–”

“Yes! Hell yes, of course, Amanda,” I replied as I hugged her even tighter.

“Thank you so much, Nancy,” she said, “I was so worried you’d say no or that you weren’t interested.”

You are reading story A Journey Upwards at novel35.com

“Amanda,” I replied as I looked down at her and smiled, “there’s no one I’m more interested in.”

---

Amanda’s work was surprisingly okay with her taking off a half day on short notice that Friday, so she came along with me to the clinic. The machines they used, filled with nanobots, would look and feel nothing like surgery. But, I was still a little scared. Amanda was holding my hand as the doctor explained once more what the procedure involved, and I nodded, signing the final papers that would remove any liability from them on the off-chance that something did go wrong.

They then presented me with a tablet screen with customization options. I had planned to go for a body much like mine, maybe a bit shorter, and of course much more feminine, but then I saw the “premium” options. I clicked over to that tab and saw all selection of ears, tails, and more! I knew it was possible but…I didn’t have the money.

“Hey, do you want that?” Amanda asked as I gazed longingly at the screen.

“I do but, no money,” I said, gazing downwards.

“Let me handle it,” she replied, “I’ve got a lot from my job.”

“R…really?” I asked.

“Consider it our one-week anniversary gift. You can thank me with buying dinner tonight,” she replied, grinning, “now hurry up and pick it out!”

I nodded as I returned to the screen, wavering between a few options before finally settling on black ears and a tail. I looked at Amanda, as if to ask what she thought, and she nodded, smiling at me.

“It’s gonna be so cute to pet them! Can’t believe it’s only two hours away!” she said as she put her payment details into the screen.

With that, it went through, and the nurse came in a few minutes later, guiding me to take my clothes off and get into the pod. It closed shortly after, the nurse giving me a thumbs up as I gave one back. As it flooded with perfluorocarbon solution and oxygen bubbled up from the vents below, I felt my lungs fill, somewhat unpleasantly, with it. They had given me a sedative which would reduce my drown response, and as the anesthetic laced into the solution calmed me more, I drifted off to a dreamless sleep.

When I awoke, the container was slowly unfilling. I coughed out the remaining solution, noticing a much lighter note to the sounds I made as I did. My ears flicked, still wet with solution, as I began to try and get up. I was still a little woozy, so as the nurse opened the container, she carried me to the alcohol shower they had.

The shower stung a little, but within a few minutes, the solution had washed off and I was squeaky clean, if not still smelling a bit of hand sanitizer. The complimentary bathrobe they gave me left no doubt in my mind that the procedure had gone well, even more so once I saw myself in the mirror, exactly as I wanted to be: not too short or tall, looking like I used to, except without as many hard features. I grinned at the reflection.

It was then I noticed the woman waiting with a big grin on her face behind a window behind me. I turned around to look at her as she pressed her face up against the glass jokingly. I asked the nurse nearby if I could leave, and she nodded, giving me a set of clothes to wear out until I could get my own.

I walked out in the baggy pants and shirt, Amanda hugging me as the door closed behind me, scratching my ears. I let out a squeak as she giggled, then brought out a small shopping bag from behind her back.

“I got this when you were out, I know you love dresses like this,” she said, “they told me what your size would be, so I bought one at a store a few blocks down.”

“Oh my gosh,” I replied, “thank you!”

“Gotta have my girlfriend looking her best for dinner tonight, right?”

“Right!” I replied, grinning.

---

A few weeks later, we had moved in together. It didn’t make sense for us to have separate apartments, especially since we could get a bigger one with both our incomes and we spent most nights sleeping in her bed anyways. The nice thing about the City was that walls could simply be rearranged, and when the apartment next door moved out a few weeks later, we just requested that one as well, and that the wall between them be removed.

No one was surprised at any of this, by the way. The people we’d met at the gaming shop and support group simply smiled knowingly as they congratulated both of us. She was still better than me, but I would beat her sometime with enough practice, I just knew it.

And that brought us to this evening, when I had made her dinner by candlelight. Moving in together wasn’t easy, gods know we’ve had to learn how to live with another person again, but it was something I was glad to do, especially when I saw the look in her eyes whenever she saw me. And as I brought the casserole I had made to the table, and I saw her fiddle with a box with something shiny inside, I knew my only answer could be: “Yes”.