"Remember the plan?" Niall whispered to his two friends, both holding half-empty spray-paint cans. The group stood in a cramped alleyway lined with trash bags and haphazardly discarded items from the adjacent convenience store.
"For the fifth time, we do," sighed Tony as he shook a can of red paint. He was a slightly disheveled-looking young man with blond hair that looked a mess no matter what he did with it. But it matched his worn plaid shirt and equally-used jeans.
The third boy, Aidan, then piped up, holding up three fingers, One for each part of the plan. "We distract the clerk.You go in and grab your loot. Then we run." He followed up with a shrug. He didn’t seem too interested in the idea, but was going along anyway. Like Niall, Aidan was 18, and also happened to be the most put-together of the three. He had short black hair, a youthful face and a strong build -- like that of an athlete -- for his age. In contrast, Niall looked a little older than he actually was. His beard was beginning to grow in, and he had a pale complexion thanks to his cigarette usage.
"Good," Niall nodded approvingly. His friends had all they needed for the plan, and all he had to do was look inconspicuous.. A basic graphic t-shirt and jeans combo was good enough, while the dark green beanie atop his bushy head of brown hair gave him a laid-back vibe. "I doubt the guy will chase you, but let's keep the underpass as our meet-up point."
Aidan nodded as well, giving the mastermind behind this plan a lazy salute. "Got it, boss man.”
After shooting a smug grin their way, Niall left his friends to fulfill their parts of the plan as he strolled into the small 24/7 convenience store. Its large front windows emitted cool, comfortable white light onto the dark streets beyond
The store was small, almost cramped, but it had a decent selection and most importantly, it was clean. A lone clerk sat at the cash register, with thinning hair and a slim figure. Niall almost felt bad that he was going to mess up his shift with his friends, but surely the clerk would appreciate a break from the monotony.
The young man then made himself look busy, looking through a selection of unappetizing microwave meals when he began to hear the planned commotion from outside.
"Go faster, come on!"
"Hold on, I'm not finished with this yet!"
Aidan's and Tony's voices carried easily into the store as they practically shouted at each other while also shaking their spray paint cans far more than was necessary. The *click click click* sound they made was easily recognizable and that's what quickly caught the clerk's attention as his tired eyes flashed to life. Just as planned.
The man began to make his way outside, clambering out from behind the register as he squinted his eyes, ready to lecture the punks he expected to find. This was far from the first time that people had tried to fill the store's outer wall with their spray paint artwork.
"Take your time," Niall whispered to himself before he sprung into action, grabbing a plastic bag from near the register and beginning to fill it with whatever he could get his hands on. Candy, chips and soda were the obvious first targets, but they were quickly joined by packs of cigarettes and other goodies. He didn't bother hiding from the security cameras. He doubted they even worked, as they looked outright ancient.
All this time, he could hear the clerk shout after his fleeing friends, so he took this as his cue to get out as well, bounding into the cool night air while the clerk could only blink in surprise as Niall dashed past him.
Several colorful phrases masterfully utilizing the word 'motherfucker' were the final things Niall could hear from the guy before he was far enough away to catch his breath safely. A sweet buzz of adrenaline had his heart thumping in his chest as he grinned victoriously, strolling to the underpass with the confidence of a master criminal.
The underpass itself sat underneath a highway leading out of the town, with the underpass itself opening up to a path that would take people to a local recreational area. Niall had never really checked it out. But since people hardly used such places in the dead of night, the spot was nice and devoid of pedestrians so it allowed the young man and his buddies to utilize it as their little congregation spot. It even shielded them from any possible rain!
Right now the sky was as clear as it could ever be, though, meaning Aidan and Tony could see Niall's wide grin from far off as they stood at the shady underpass.
"A success, I'm assuming?" Tony chuckled, mirroring his friend's expression.
"Hell yeah it was. Catch," he replied and tossed a pack of cigarettes into Tony's hand.
The group relaxed together, smoking and filling their bellies with sugary and salty snacks alike.
"Guess we can't go there after this," came Aidan's comment after a moment spent in relative silence. Cars could be heard driving over the underpass on occasion in either direction, but the friends didn't care as long as those cars didn't also come with flashing red-and-blue lights atop them.
Niall shrugged as he lit up his second cigarette of the night. "Guess not."
"Do you think Summer's gonna find out?" Aidan spoke, looking slightly nervous even if the smokes were helping a little.
"Not unless we tell her."
Aidan looked skeptical and nodded toward the haul that was the full plastic bag, "She's gonna ask questions though. You know, if you bring that in."
"Shit, fair point," Niall tapped away some of the ash that had accumulated onto his cigarette. His previous one sat next to his foot, having been stomped underfoot when it had lost its usefulness. "I'll stash it near the building somewhere. Weird time for you to get nervous, man."
Tony took the opportunity to butt into the conversation, "Weird time for you to forget that she's got her eye on us already," he says with a bit of added sarcasm in his tone. "She was mad enough when she caught us tagging the first time. If she found out we did shit like this, she’d probably rip our heads off.”
"And she won't find out as long as we're not total idiots about it," Niall pointed at each member of the group. "Just chill."
"Sure," Aidan nodded. "This was your idea though, so you know who'll get blamed."
"I know."
The group enjoyed their loot for a few moments longer, emptying a bag of chips together before they got moving. Niall hung the bag over his shoulder as the boys walked along the largely-empty streets until they arrived at what looked like a normal apartment building with a pastel yellow facade, which they promptly entered, though not before Niall took a moment to hide the bag in the bushes next to the building.
Instead of simply featuring a simple hallway interior, however, the place first opened up into a cozy-if-plain lobby. An opening into a small cubicle or office sat on the left-side wall, and a pair of attentive eyes locked onto the boys from within that same office as they made their casual entrance.
Summer's eyes.
"Up late?" the early-twenties woman called out, lifting her hand in a small greeting. Her ginger hair was a slight mess, but given the hour, that was more than fair. "C'mere for a sec," she patted her desk, eliciting slightly nervous looks from the boys. Still, they did walk up to the window with Niall in front.
Summer sniffed the air just once, her expression souring a little more while her grey eyes locked onto Niall's own. "Last time I talked to you, you were flat broke. Where'd you get smokes from?" There was a definite accusatory edge to her voice, but it was as if she was still offering the friends a chance out of this situation.
"A guy gave them to us, don't sweat it," Niall raised a hand, placatingly..
The woman's eyes scanned over the two boys behind Niall. Tony had a decent poker face, but Aidan had always been a bad liar. Even right now, his hands were balled up into tight fists, and his posture was stiff, like that of someone who'd gotten a steel pole shoved up their rear end. Summer chuckled and shook her head slowly.
"A guy, sure," she smirked as she straightened out her back and leaned into her chair before her shoulders slouched. "You're bullshitting me, I know that much. I wish you didn't feel the need to, but... I get it." The previous attitude befitting a strict teacher quickly melted away to reveal genuine concern. "I thought stuff like that was fun at your age too, but guys, you're in transitional living right now. Try to make better decisions, okay?"
That's when she waved the boys off, and they walked their way upstairs where the place took on the appearance of a normal studio apartment building again.
Transitional living facilities weren’t fancy - the occupants usually had troubled pasts, ranging from drug use to prison time to juvie, depending on age. Niall, Tony and Aidan all had that last one in common, though being here meant that they'd seen improvement, and a good deal of it at that.
"Get ready for another lecture tomorrow," Tony sighed, giving Niall an annoyed stare before all three of them stopped in front of their respective doors.Tony and Aidan's were right next to each other, while Niall's sat directly across the hall.
"Goodnight," Niall opened his door and stepped inside only to collapse onto his bed the moment he reached it. "Fucking hell," he grumbled as he fished his phone out of his pocket and let out a prolonged sigh, all of the confidence he had earlier evaporating with it. "Summer was in juvie, too. She's one to talk," he muttered to himself. Summer had, indeed, been a problem child herself once. But she'd long since straightened out, and had since built a career around helping others in the same position she’d found herself in.
All of it is to say that Niall didn't have much of a leg to stand on here. But with that, he spent a few moments on his phone, trying his best to distract himself from the thoughts gnawing at the back of his consciousness. 'You know you can be better,' they said, but he just scoffed.
"Shut up."
It didn't take long for him to fall asleep after that, still fully clothed.
--
Morning came all too soon, and Niall roused fully but reluctantly upon hearing a knock at his door. As he buried his face in his pillow, Tony's voice called out to him. "Hey man, you should get up. Summer wants to have that talk."
The grumpy delinquent cursed under his breath and glanced at his phone. "It's barely 8 in the morning," he called out in return.
"I'm just the messenger," Tony replied casually, and Niall could just *tell* that he shrugged as he said that.
Without further back-and-forth, Niall forced himself out of bed and exited the room, joining Tony in heading downstairs, though he did so with a scowl.. In spite of that, the two reached the lobby in short order to find Summer and Aidan already sitting there, the former having arranged a few chairs into a circle.
“Good morning,” Aidan said, doing his best to sound chipper, and Summer gave Niall a small wave.
After everyone had gotten seated, Summer cleared her throat. "I hate telling you guys about this stuff just as much as you hate hearing about it," she began. "But you gotta start being smarter about things. About what you use your time on, about your future." Summer herself had heard lots of similar talks in her day, but sometimes they were simply a necessity. Such as when the young men in her care were being irresponsible when they had so much to lose.
Niall just rubbed his temple, looking both disinterested and annoyed while Aidan's expression reflected only nervousness and a hint of fear.
Summer continued, "I know it's cliche and that you've heard this a billion times, probably from your own folks. So I know how it feels."
Niall bit his cheek and felt his body tense up. "No you fucking don't. Not for me," he glared at Summer, who froze up, realizing her mistake.
"Okay, you're right. I'm sorry, Niall," she stammered.
The boy huffed, exhaling heavily through his nose like an angry bull. Though unintentionally, Summer had poked a very sore spot in his mind. "You’re right to be," he replied, bitterly.
"I know. Again, I'm sorry. What I wanted to get at was-" she stopped immediately as Niall had lifted up his hand in a silent 'stop' gesture.
"Just... leave it," he stood up, taking a deep breath as his friends looked at each other in surprise. "I need some fresh air."
With that, he started for the door. Summer briefly considered trying to stop him, but she didn’t. Instead, she watched with a pained look in her eyes as the young man left the building.
"Should we go after him?" Tony leaned toward Summer, who turned and glanced between him and the door a couple times.
"Do you think he's going to do anything reckless?" she asked.
"I don't think so," Aidan interjected.
Tony nodded in agreement. "Niall's not stupid. He probably just needs a bit to clear his head. Dude's wound tight right now."
Summer sighed.Niall was by no means perfect, and she knew that better than most, but she couldn't help feeling a little guilty. "Let's hope so."
--
Niall’s palms began to sweat as he tread onward, lighting a cigarette after he'd fished the stashed bag out of the bushes. He needed to calm down, and the smoke helped. His feet carried him toward an already decided-on destination, otherwise not sparing a single thought to his movements. He walked, his feet carrying him somewhere, but where, exactly… he couldn’t say. It wasn’t of much consequence in his mind. Distracted as he was, even Summer’s little lecture had been pushed to the back of his mind. The sooner he could forget about it entirely, the better.
With nothing more than his thoughts for company, he arrived at the underpass and walked up the adjacent ramp to reach the edge of the highway. A metal railing was the best seat available as Niall sat down atop it, placing his bag of ill-gotten goods between his legs.
Eager to distract himself, Niall simply watched the occasional car drive by, the sounds of their engines filling his ears as he snacked on his loot. He occupied his mind by naming the states that each car was from. Colorado, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, a cat... wait, what?
Blinking, Niall watched as a black cat lazily waltzed right up to him, now sitting before him with a quizzical look on its face. His mood brightening somewhat, Niall stared right back, a small smile slowly forming on his lips. . "Where'd you come from?" he asked and carefully reached out a hand for the cat to sniff at.
After only a sniff or two, the cat gently rubbed its head against the young man's hand, who reciprocated the affection and stroked the cat's very soft fur. "Really friendly, aren't you? Awww," he couldn't help but coo at the adorable little animal. It was clearly someone's pet, as even though it lacked a collar, the fur gleamed beautifully, and it looked well-fed. *"Maybe it belongs to someone from the houses next to that recreational area,"* he mused in his mind.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
He was more than happy to take advantage of the chance, though, and ran both of his hands against the cat's back, one after the other. Shortly after, the feline began to purr. "Would have thought you'd have been after the snacks," Niall chuckled. "Nah, you're just a little cuddlebug instead. Yes, you are!"
The cat had managed to nicely distract Niall from his current situation, every thought of the things he'd said to Summer simply floating in the background of his mind without them getting any sort of acknowledgement. It certainly felt better for him that way in the moment.
He sighed with slight relief, a couple of his fingers still stroking the cat's head as he ate a couple pieces of candy. "You *definitely* wouldn't be the judgmental type, I bet. Summer might think I'm a massive fuck-up, but you’d understand." He let out a small sigh, the bitterness from earlier still simmering in his chest.
"Cats have it pretty good, huh?" he chuckled to himself. Though as he looked toward the passing cars, he failed to notice that the cat had done the same thing and was now casually trotting toward the road, evidently intent on crossing the highway.
Niall's fingers touched only empty air as he went to try and pet the cat again, now noticing its absence. "Where'd you... O-oh wait, hold on!" His eyes widened when he saw where his new friend was heading. It was now very confidently standing in the middle of the first lane.
"Stop! Please, I just wanna help you out," he said carefully, standing up as he looked to his left and right to check for cars before he began to advance toward the cat, hands outreached.
Now the sweating was really getting to him, much more so than when he'd left the building in a huff, as beads of it were gathering on his forehead and his palms felt slick. *"Am I really gonna do this just for a cat? Fuck..."* he thought to himself. "Easy, easy..." he gestured at the cat placatingly, but the animal didn't appear to mind much either way. It just stood there, likely wondering what this silly human was doing.
Seconds passed as Niall inched closer to the cat, those seconds feeling like entire minutes even as he tried to be as quick as he could. He couldn't startle the cat, as that meant it could run off and have a higher chance of getting run over in its panic.
After what felt akin to a small eternity, Niall was just a couple inches away from it. "There we go, now let's get you to safety," he smiled. Moments later, a loud rumbling filled his ears. An engine.
"W-wait!" he gasped as his eyes instantly focused on the source of the noise: an enormous truck that was entirely too close to him now, letting out an ear-splitting beep with its horn. In that terrifying moment, Niall's body froze and his blood did the same in his veins. He was going to die.
Every regret he had surged to the surface and then... everything went dark.
–
Niall gasped again, his lungs filling with air more than they ever had before. It felt like his heart was thumping in his throat, but as he breathed and realized he was indeed drawing breath, he looked down at himself. "What the f-fuck..." he stuttered in a panic, touching his body all over just to confirm that he was still corporeal. When his eyes veered to his feet, underneath them he saw... grass?
That immediately prompted him to look around himself, and sure enough, he now stood in a beautiful forest. The trees around him looked healthy and vibrant, and ample sunlight filtered through the caps in the canopy while birds sang their songs somewhere among those same branches. "Am I in... heaven?" he muttered aloud. There were no pearly gates to be seen, but the place was far too pleasant to be any kind of hell.
Suddenly, a voice spoke out from behind the startled young man, "Not really. Sorry if that's a disappointment." The voice was calm, and it was beyond difficult for Niall to tell whether it was masculine or feminine. Carefully and with fear still filling his veins, he turned around to face whoever it belonged to.
He instantly froze again, but this in awe and confusion. In front of him stood a humanoid being that was at least ten feet tall, though its lithe frame kept it from looking even more intimidating. A pair of large feline ears sat atop its head, fluffy and very lively. They twitched with curiosity as the being's similarly feline eyes looked directly at Niall.
As the boy took in the sight, he also noted the clothes it was wearing, a light beige cloak with holes in the hood for those huge ears of theirs while a head of mid-length white hair spilled out from underneath it to contrast its lightly-tanned skin. The being was truly as androgynous in body as they were in voice.
"I'm not... disappointed. But uhm, who are you?" Niall gulped.
In response, the being twirled around and chuckled merrily. "None other than Two-Tails, the Deity of Cats! Wonderful to meet you." It finished the greeting with a small bow, revealing its namesake tails from underneath the cloak: two amply fluffy appendages that matched the orange fur color of the ears. Even the apparent deity's hands were fairly catlike, with their fingers still keeping them looking humanoid enough underneath the fur, claws and paw pads.
"The deity of cats? Huh? Where the hell am I and... why?" Niall gestured rather wildly at the being.
"Well, I'll get the good news out of the way first," Two-Tails began in response, holding up a single finger. "You're not dead. In fact, I saved you from being run over by that truck just now. You're very welcome," they smiled cheekily at the still-confused boy.
"Uhm... thank you, I guess?" he replied, scratching his head as he was still putting all the pieces of this crazy puzzle together. *"Maybe I'm in a coma?"* he reasoned in his mind.
"Also the cat you tried to save is fine, and it would have been all along," the deity smirked. "It was small enough to slip underneath the truck unscathed. But it'd really have been a pity to see you die after what you tried to do, though it presents us with an issue."
At that, Niall cocked his head and leaned forward slightly. "And what's the issue?" He wasn't sure if he was honestly accepting all of this as real, but everything here felt frighteningly realistic. If this was a dream, it was the most vivid one he’d ever had, and he was starting to think that it wasn’t one.
"I can't return you back to where you came from."
Niall shifted from foot to foot before the news hit him, at which point he stared at the deity blankly. "Why not?"
"Scooping you up into this little realm of mine was something I don't really tend to do, call it a one-time courtesy. Besides, I obviously deal with cats, not humans, and so my powers only extend to them."
"But you *did* take me here! You can't just put me back? Like the same thing but... in reverse or whatever?" The nervous fidgeting had now become greater, with Niall's breathing hitching in his throat and his hands trembling.
"I technically could, but only as a cat. Unless you've always wished to be a housecat or a tiger perhaps, I wouldn't recommend that route," Two-Tails idly chewed on the claw of their thumb in thought, their eyes flitting from Niall to their surroundings.
"Well obviously not!" the boy practically shouted, the deity flinching slightly. "I don't want to be a damn cat!"
"Yes yes, I get it," came the deity's answer, calm and smug simultaneously. "I do have a second option for you, and it's at least *mostly* human. How about it?"
Niall felt like he was being strung along as if he was at a car dealership and the salesman wanted to sell him an old rust heap for an insane price. He squinted at the being. "Mostly human how?"
"Now that'd take hours of explaining, and I've got places to be. So, do we have any takers for the second best thing on offer?" they briefly swished their hips from side to side, the tails repeating the motion with the exact sense of superiority that cats exude so effortlessly.
Niall grumbled and rubbed his head in thought almost hard enough to dig his fingernails into his scalp. If this was all real, was he about to take on a terrible bargain and suffer the consequences? Though on second thought, the deity *had* saved his life. He slowly looked up at the smug cat person. "Even if I'll be mostly human, as you put it, is it possible for me to become *fully* human again? To return to my friends?"
Two-Tails didn't waste time, and gave a shrug and a nod. "Probably. There's a chance."
"And if I choose to become a straight-up cat, I won't have that chance?"
"Correct. " The answer was clear and concise.
"Well what fucking choice do I have then?" Niall gave an exasperated sigh and a shrug of his own.
"That's the spirit!" Two-Tails began to hop in place, clapping their hands together before they promptly snapped their fingers. "Have fun now. I'll be seeing you soon!"
Without delay, a strong tingling sensation took over Niall's body, much to the boy's shock. "What did you do?!" he shouted at the deity, and he had a feeling that he was royally fucked. What kind of Faustian bargain had he just agreed to? To top it off, his grip on consciousness began to quickly slip, and no matter how much he shook his head or pinched his arm, there was no stopping the wave of tiredness that so quickly came over him. The final thing he saw was the smiling face of Two-Tails before everything went black for the second time today.
--
"Nrgh..." Niall groaned as he felt a small gust of wind ruffle his hair. Awareness returned to his mind slowly, like a puzzle being put together as he soon realized he was laying on grass. The soft yet slightly prickly sensation was familiar, and the sunlight that warmed his chest felt honestly very comfortable as he hadn't opened his eyes yet. *"Did that bastard just knock me out?"* he thought to himself, grimacing before he allowed his eyelids to part carefully to avoid being blinded by the sun right above him.
A few small patches of white clouds drifted along the sky lazily while the young man sat up and went to rub his eyes, but instead of the bare skin of his hands, soft fur touched his face. "Hm?" Niall blinked and looked down at his hands, only to immediately find himself absolutely speechless. His hands looked frighteningly similar to the ones of the deity he'd just met, sporting a mix of orange and cream fur along with claws and soft pink paw pads, with the fur trailing some distance up his arms. "That fucking-" he began to shout, but the strangeness of his voice made him shut up without a second thought. It was... a girly voice, much softer than before and undeniably feminine.
With his heart threatening to beat its way right out of his chest, Niall was afraid of confirming what he now feared was his current situation, but his hands moved up to his head almost automatically thanks to nothing but morbid curiosity. The fuzzy twitch he felt against his fingers made it clear: he had cat ears, big ones.
"No no no no..." he whispered, his chest feeling an almost crushing tension from the sheer stress and fear. Then, just as slowly, his left hand moved to his rear, flinching when it touched the base of a tail. "Mostly human..." The deity technically hadn't lied, and that's what frustrated Niall even more.
And finally, his vacant right hand trailed to his crotch, pressing against it. He almost preferred the thought of having been killed by that truck now as his hand wasn't met with a bulge of any sort. "F-fuck fuck, no," he whimpered before his left hand moved again, this time to his chest just to bump against two soft protrusions. "Tits... I have tits," he sighed in defeat as he gave one the slightest nudge. They weren't huge, not even that big, though that didn’t help.
As his head already hung low, he allowed his eyes to take in the sight of his body, no matter how much he knew he'd hate it. It was indeed a girl's body, one remarkably slimmer than he'd been as a guy, and probably shorter as well even though he had no way of knowing that for certain right now. He assumed the breasts were somewhere in the B-cup range, and underneath them was a toned midsection and a flat stomach. At least his skin had retained its previous slightly pale color, but as he looked at his small waist and wider hips, everything just felt so wrong.
However, his body hadn't been the only thing to change, as he now donned an outfit that definitely didn't belong in modern times. In a cosplay convention, maybe. It consisted of what looked like a hooded crop top and shorts, though the materials they were made out of were scratchier and less refined than whatever polyester blend his hoodie had used. It felt thinner but still sturdy, the light brown color of it working as a good contrast to his new fur. A few darker stripes ran across the fabric as well. He also had on something he wouldn't quite call shoes, as the footwear was more akin to flimsy sandals with leather straps binding them to his ankles.
Fiddling with the hood and glancing back at it, Niall quickly found out that it possessed spots for his ears to fit into comfortably, keeping them warm if need be. He'd definitely seen designs like that before, though he never would have expected for it to serve an actual purpose. That quick look also gave him a glance at his tail. Its orange fur fluffed up toward the cream tip, and right now it was very slowly swaying from side to side without Niall having to will it to move.
Then, heaving the largest sigh of his life, he stood up and another gust of wind took the opportunity to whip his new, long and orange hair right into his face. "Damnit..." he grumbled and angrily swiped the locks back to their place. What he *wanted* to see instead was his surroundings, and he took them in by slowly turning around.
As he'd suspected, he was in a meadow, with relatively sparse trees surrounding it on all sides. However, his eyes zeroed in on something much more important, a dirt road that ran through the meadow just some feet away from him. "A road," he spoke to himself, a hint of hope mixing with the anger he currently felt toward the cat god. "Roads always lead somewhere."
Niall knew that he desperately needed help if he wanted to figure out where the hell he was, not to mention the issue of turning back into a human. He couldn't get that help by staying in the middle of the woods.
And so he began to run down along the road, kicking up dirt as he was fueled by nothing else but desperation, frustration and an immense dose of anger. As he huffed, he turned his head toward the sky, shouting "WHY A GIRL, YOU PIECE OF SHIT TRICKSTER?!"