[b][center]Drumsticks and Fishsticks[/center][/b]

[center]By Kaydrien Iceclaw[/center]





“As you may already have heard, we’ve hired another two security personnel to help cover the new add-on.”

None of the three security guards present let their relief show too obviously, but Cass was pretty sure he caught a general relaxation in his coworker’s body language. Two new guys meant that there would be fewer double-shifts. Which, to be honest, they were all totally sick of by now.

Harish, the marmoset who played security chief, either didn’t pick up on the release of tension or didn’t care. He was (literally) a dyed-in-the-wool code monkey and everyone who worked the physical side of building security knew it.

“I want Cass to give them the tour today. Meet them in the employee lounge in half an hour. Raj, you’ll be with them through their first night shifts to see how they do.”

“Boss, I kind of had some plans this week-“

“Check your calendar and [i]re-[/i]plan accordingly.” The diminutive primate glared up at the bulky tiger who was his nominal subordinate, reminding everyone else in the room that the most difficult part of this job was usually taking their painfully solemn nominal superior seriously, not playing office cop. “If they need more on-the-job training after that before being ready for a solo shift, I’ll consider giving you time and a half then. Vicente, I want you to make sure their self-defense training is up to snuff and that their other paperwork is squared away with HR by the end of the week.”

The jaguar nodded. 

Nods, shakes, and shrugs made up about 80 percent of Vicente’s vocabulary, most days.

“If you have no further questions, you should all get back to it.” Harish officiously tapping a stack of papers level on his desk and turning to his computer. Dismissed, the security guards walked out of the office, Cass ducking out ahead of the two big cats

“Prick.” Growled Raj, affectionately. He claimed to be unable to hold anything against the big-eyed puffball under whose tyranny they lived.

“At least we’ll be able to spread the load some more.” Cass put in diffidently. The rough-legged hawk was shorter by a head than Vicente and easily two plus shorter than the massive tiger, plus at least fifty pounds of muscle. Cass sometimes thought that if they ever had a violent break-in while the striped gym-enthusiast was on duty, they might be finding out the legal term for ‘unnecessary roughness’. Just as well Raj was a big softie at heart.

“Sure hope so.” Lazily crossing his arms behind his head as he strutted, Raj smirked down at his avian coworker. “Unless they put another entrance in the new wing.”

“Oh God, please no.” The hawk pleaded fervently to whatever deity might be available. “We’d need even more shifts!”

Raj chuckled. “I heard there wasn’t but you never know.”

“Would have to strangle Harish.” Tiger and hawk paused to blink back at Vicente. Obviously the leopard felt strongly enough about the idea to exceed his day’s conversation quota. Spotted face as unreadable as ever, they decided to take his statement as humor.

“That would probably be the only way out of it, yeah.” Raj agreed, resuming his easy stride. “At least you’ve got the easy job, birdie. Just give them the full tour and it’s business as usual after that.”

“Hopefully. They’ll probably split them up between us for day shifts for a while, so I’d only have to deal with that. At least I’m not in the camera room tomorrow. I feel sorry for Lina.” Lina was the monitor lizard who ended up watching the feeds most of the time.

“Oh yeah.” The toothy smirk put a lot of feline dental hardware on display. “You remember when Vic first came on? Even he couldn’t resist playing with all the buttons. Speaking of, Vic, you want any help facing down HR later?”

He craned his neck around, looking back at empty hallway. “…Lost him. How does he do that?”

“No idea.” Cass shrugged. “I’m going to drop by the locker room before showing the newbies around. You coming?”

“Nahhhh. I’ll let you stare at the mirror in peace for a bit, pretty birb.”

“[i]Raaaj…[/i]” The hawk sighed in exasperation. “I should never have told you anything.”

The cat only chuckled back. “I ain’t judging. It’s just kinda funky, is all. You do you.”

“I know. I know.” Cass shook off the tension in his shoulders. Raj meant what he said; the easygoing giant didn’t have a meanspirited bone anywhere in his body, seven feet though it was. “I just feel sensitive about it because I haven’t made up my mind.”

“If you ever need help finding out, you know I’m down.” 

Cass snorted back at the tiger’s shit-eating grin, trying not to smile too widely in response. “I know [i]that[/i] about myself just fine, and you’re so not my type.”

Raj added another tooth-width to his expression. “I’ll win you over yet, birdie. Holding out for Vic?” 

“Hah. Maybe if he ever drops the statue impression.” Feathered arm lifted to put Cass’s watch in view. “Gotta go. I need my mirror time.”

Raj barked a laugh and waved, lumbering into a side corridor on his way to whatever he had planned in the next hour and a half between now and his late shift. Cass sighed, watching those tight buns carry the tiger off. There was some appeal there but Raj was too much like a big teddy bear- a teddy bear who might break a few hollow bones if he wasn’t careful. Maybe that would be worth pursuing in the future, when Cass had worked things out.

The avian made it the rest of the way to the employee locker room undisturbed. At this time of day it was empty, except for one koala leaving early who bustled out past Cass.

“Who leaves an hour early on a Monday…?” The bird muttered as the door swung closed behind the mammal. It didn’t make sense to take off like that to Cass. Not if you’d have to make up the time later, anyway. Maybe the koala was salaried or something.

Coming to his locker, secluded in an out-of-the-way corner of the locker room, he swung the door open to inspect himself in the mirror he kept in the door.

Or rather, she opened her locker to inspect herself. “She. I’m a her this evening. Yeah.”

Cass had been having something of an identity crisis, though perhaps ‘crisis’ was a strong word. It had sort of been a low key [i]thing[/i] on and off since a few years ago, coming out of community college. Starting in the locker room there, in fact. Someone at the gym had made a comment about him. Cass couldn’t remember the details. Something about the way his gym pants had fitted, and how (like most birds) he didn’t have anything to fill out the crotch with a bulge. Maybe a pass was made at him.

Instead of any of the details, what stuck with Cass was how it made him stop and think. He didn’t feel offended at all, hadn’t even denied anything. It was too much of an odd… shock? Aftershock perhaps. He felt like he’d handled the event in multiple ways and couldn’t make it resolve in his memory which was true. It was possible he was conflating multiple experiences into one memory.

Later, he’d checked the gym pants and found that they were a women’s design. He had no idea how he’d ended up with them- probably just a shelving mistake that had gone unnoticed when they’d fit.

In any case, periodically after that, he’d [i]wondered.[/i] Wondered if he was lowkey trans or something. He’d never been uncomfortable in his own skin, or with the Y chromosome. Maybe if it had come with a dick, he’d have been bothered by that? Or not. It didn’t feel like something that would get under his skin. If he was a him. 

Another thing he wondered was just how often other people thought of themselves as attached to a pronoun at all. Not something you could ever have a real answer to, of course. You couldn’t quantify thought that easily.

Cass did know for certain that his ill-defined uncertainty didn’t impact his taste in partners, as few as he’d had. His tastes were eclectically bisexual with a leaning toward guys, and he was fine with that since forever.

Only later, a year out of college and a year before now, had he started to really experiment. Mostly inside his/her own head. He didn’t really care what anyone else called him, and it seemed awkward to ask anyone else to bother when it was no feathers off his tail to leave it as it was. He had no idea what he really wanted yet anyway.

This afternoon, he had decided to take another shot at being a [i]she[/i] in the comfort of his- no, her own head. What was special was that she was taking things a smidge further.

She tilted her head from side to side, admiring her beak. Sharp curved with a wicked tip. Smaller than an eagle’s would be for her size. Dainty. Yes, dainty worked just fine for her when she was being a she. It might feel like an awkward descriptor when the hawk was a guy- [i]he[/i] would prefer the term ‘understated’. But when dispensing with masculinity, dainty would do just fine.

The dainty beak was set in a rounder, less angular face than most raptors. Cass’s skull structure coupled with facial feathers that defaulted to lightly puffed out to give her something of an owlish look, her large amber-brown eyes completing the impression to nearly anime levels of ocular dominance. She thought it made her look cute (/he thought it made him look thoughtful).

She reached down hesitantly to pick up a plastic case from a shelf, snapping it open and picking out the thick little brush inside. Dabbing at the reddish powder, she tapped off the excess and barely, just barely, daubed a little of the bronze-pink ‘Peach Luster’ blush into the feathers at her cheeks. After that, she picked out a vial and unscrewed its brush cap, applying just a touch under her eyes.

The blush added a little warmth to the speckled cream feathers at the sides of her face. Not much, she didn’t want more than could be put down to a quirk of coloration by someone who didn’t look for it. Yet. That warmth was flanked above and below by the fuzzy-edged darker streaks; the lower curving off down her neck and the upper out to the side of her head from the outer corners of her eyes. To her lower lids she had added a few flecks of glinting gold. 

Her forehead and above was a streaky gray and cream that looked a lot better than it sounded by description- she didn’t dare experiment there quite yet, but perhaps some pink highlights? On some future weekend where she could dye or wash them back out before coming back to see people she knew.

Cass turned this way and that, looking critically over the minimalist work. She almost reached for an eyebrow pencil as well, but chickened out. One step at a time. Right now, it was a terrifying thrill just to know that she was wearing [i]makeup.[/i] At work, even. 

Barely any, for plausible deniability in case things got weird sooner than she wanted them to. But she was wearing it. She [i]squee[/i]’d inside.

Actually… Cass glanced around. Nope, nobody here. She clutched her hands to her chest and [i]squee[/i]’d out loud for the fun of it.

“Hokay. Hooo-kay. Deep breath.” The rough legged hawk turned, curved her neck to glimpse at the back of her slacks. Filled out just right by her species-appropriate feather legs. “Looking [i]fiiiine[/i] girl.” 

She couldn’t help but giggle at herself. And, just a little, she thought ‘he’ was chuckling at herself from inside. Cass sent herself into another fit of giggles by loudly and sarcastically thinking [i]’Men.’[/i].

“Right. Looking good. I think I can make it for an hour. I suppose I get to try it out on the new guys.” She glanced at her watch and started, neck-feathers poofing out of her collar. “Oh shi- Gotta get up there fast.”

Still, her smile wouldn’t go away. Stopping short on an unladylike vulgarity, what would she do next. Never mind that she avoided heavy profanity as a guy all the same. It was fun.

She made a fast walk up the stairs, turning the left-right-left to the third floor staff lounge. With one deep breath, she fluffed out her chest feathers just that little bit she felt she needed, and swung open the door.

“Hello! You two are the new hires?”

“Yes.” “Yep.”

The new hires turned out to be a squat warthog who seemed to have been pacing on the linoleum tile. He had a nervous air, like he was expecting to be yelled at any second. Cass bet herself he would be gone in a month if he didn’t lose that attitude fast; even being an office cop took a certain swagger to pull off on the bad days.

The other made a hell of a lot more impression. Sprawled back in a chair with one leg folded over the other, the shark was helping himself to a mug of the office coffee like he didn’t have a care in the world. He had a warm tan tinge to his back and sides that gave way to the paler skin of chin and neck. A black-tipped headfin swept back from his skull at a rakish angle. Dressed in a black t-shirt and jeans, he looked the part of a security guard- well, upscale bouncer at least- already.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you both. I’m Cass, and I’ll be showing you around the place. I haven’t been given your files so you’ll have to introduce yourselves.” She reached out to the warthog, as the nearer of the two. He took her hand and shook desperately like he was clinging to a flotation device in a flood. Cass put another few bucks on him not lasting the year.

“Thanks! My name is Wilbur Heckie. I look forward to working with you, sir- er- mis..ter-“ Cass’s moment of freezing discomfort melted nearly instantly under amusement at the painfully obvious embarrassment the squat porcine was going through. He- [i]She[/i] took pity on him while dodging the issue.

“Just call me Cass. No need to be formal.” With some difficulty she extracted her hand from the hog’s earnest grip and turned toward the lanky shark, who was standing upright. A head taller than her. Again. Well, she supposed big was helpful in this line of work. She’d always made do with people skills, and being visibly pointy at the business ends when that wasn’t quite enough. “And you are?”

“Jayce Filbert. Nice to meet you, Cass.” His grip was firm but not crushing. Good, no ego games- or unspoken pleas for rescue from [i]everything[/i]- here. “So, where do we start?”

…Had she let the handshake go just a second too long? Well, no matter. She pivoted around to start out of the lounge, the newbies trailing along behind awkward and relaxed, respectively. “This way.”

She tried to decide whether Wilbur had really almost called her ‘miss’, or he was just being terminally awkward. Maybe she’d just assume the former and take it as a win for girl energy.

Cass led them around the level, explaining that half of the six floors had a near-identical layout. Restrooms here, management offices there, cubicles everywhere else. “And you already saw the lounge. There’s a smaller break room on the floors two and four, same place.”

Wilbur was actually taking notes on a little paper pad he’d pulled out of a front pocket. File that mannerism under adorkable, heavy on dork. “What about the other floors then?”

“We’ll peek in at the top floor in a minute, but there’s not much to see. That’s where the executives have their offices, and there’s a conference room on the north side, but we don’t really go up there much. Actually, we mostly don’t leave the first floor on an average day. We’ll go there last so you can meet up with Raj” They passed by the plasticked-off hallway that lead to the new construction work. “Or are your first shifts later?”

“Mine is tonight.” Wilbur volunteered. “Who’s Raj?”

“One of our coworkers. Nice guy, he’ll be tagging along on your first couple of night shifts. He’s the big guy with the stripes.” Cass chuckled back while she leaned on the elevator call button. “What about you, Jayce? It was Jayce, right?”

“That’s right.” The black-tipped shark’s smile was immaculately toothy. “My first day is really tomorrow, but I guess they thought it’d be easier to bring us up to speed at the same time.”

“It probably is.” She nodded back, stepping onto the elevator ahead of them. “You have a uniform yet?”

“Nah.” Inside the elevator he seemed a little taller still. He had a good figure on him, Cass realized, and the tight t-shirt didn’t hurt anything. Jayce glanced down at their blue button-down shirts and black slacks, which now that Cass noticed was a neat flip of his own black top and blue jeans. He turned, patting himself at the back to show off a short fin protruding from the fabric. “They didn’t have anything handy with a slit for my backfin, so I’m on my own for a couple of days. I got a shirt that’s pretty close back home though. Figured I’d wear that.”

“That…” He had a rather pleasant thick tail too, between those pants-hugged glutes. Damn that was nice to look at. The hawk dragged herself back on topic. “That should be fine, I think. Oh, here we are.”

She tried not to be too obvious about sneaking a few more peeks at the shark on their quick circuit of the executive level. [i]Down, girl. You just met the man.[/i] Was she just that thirsty as a woman? Cass decided it was probably just from being excited. She’d been low-key buzzing with delighted nerves inside every time she remembered she had on blush and a few sparkles, feminine- no matter how slightly- on the outside as well as in. [i]Not that he’s not a damn fine piece of fish-steak. How long would it be until it’s not too weird to ask him out?[/i]

“…And that’s the sixth floor. Let’s head back down to ground level and I can show you where we spend most of our time.”

“Um, excuse me mi- er, Cass.” Wilbur raised his hand as if asking to be called on in class. Cass managed not to roll her eyes; behind the warthog, Jayce didn’t extend the same effort. (Was that cut-off stutter going to be a miss or a mister? It gave her a pleased little shiver to think it might have been the former.) She nodded at the tusked porcine to continue. “What about the fifth floor?”

The ding of the arriving elevator delayed that answer for a moment as they piled in again, Cass swaying her hips a little accidentally on purpose. “Someone else will show you in there once they finish your background check.”

“Huh?”

“What he said.” The shark seconded.

“It’s top secret or something.” Cass explained, not offended by their raised eyebrows. Those were just a sign to clarify before they got the wrong idea. “Not like [i]exciting[/i] top secret. I think they write spreadsheet stuff for some tiny government department no one cares about. Except it’s technically Department of Defense so the red tape says you have to sign a billion waivers before you get to be in the same room with glorified office software.”

“Boring top secret. Gotcha.”  Jayce nodded, while Wilbur wrote that down in his little notepad for who-knew-what reason.

Cass’s tailfeathers flicked against the elevator door on the way out as she squeezed past a harried-looking office drone rushing into the vacated compartment. The falcon ducked around the corner into a institutional office-green hall, swaying her hips a little more than strictly necessary on the turn. Cass figured it was never too early for that much, at least. Even if she didn’t dare look back to see if Jayce noticed.

And if her curves were mostly poofy feathers, well, just her luck for being a rough-legged hawk. 

She lead the way to a nondescript wooden door, knocking at it twice before turning the handle. “Hey, Lina. Coming in.”

Inside was dark, not totally unlit but dim compared to the actinic glare of the office fluorescent bulbs that reigned through the rest of the building (barring the executive suites). It was warm, too. The reptile seated at the office chair basked in the glow of a beat-up space heater situated worryingly close to her toes, shoes discarded off to the side. In front of the pebble-scaled lizard were a dozen screens showing security feeds from across the building. A handful of orchids took up one side of the desk, matching the fake but extremely pretty bloom nestled incongruously in Lina’s uniform shirt pocket. “Eyyy. Cass, haven’t seen you all day. You got guests for me?”

“Nah, I’ll get out of your scales soon enough. These are the new guys. Meet Jayce and Wilbur.”

“Coo’.” Lina waved at them all, hand making as wide a sweep as proximity to the wall allowed. She was already smirking at her joke, the joke she made every time she met someone. “I am the lizard that works the monitors. The monitor lizard.”

“How do you do, miss.” Wilbur stepped past Cass to shake Lina’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Charmed.” The lizard’s eyes twinkled in the low light. “And are you Jayce? Or is that tall dark and toothy back there?”

“I’m Wilbur, miss.”

“I’m Jayce.” Added the shark, leaning on the doorframe. “Looks a little crowded, so I’ll shake your hand later.”

“Fine by me.” Lina rolled her chair back half a foot to show off her wall of screens proudly. “You’ll both be back to learn how to work the rig, I reckon.”

“It looks very complicated.” Wilbur chimed in dutifully.

“Not so bad. Practically runs itself and they don’t really need anyone staring at ‘em half the time anyway.” The monitor lizard drawled, spinning slowly in her chair. “Just don’t let no-one catch you watching porn on it and you’ll do jus’ fine.”

“I’ve still got to finish showing these two around.” Cass smoothly interrupted Wilbur’s spluttering and Jayce’s snicker. “Hey, are you still picking up Vicente’s shift on Friday?”

“Sure am.” Lina hissed, eyes laughing kindly at the disconcerted warthog. “You’ll have to make do with Raj’s company on the bar crawl.”

“Guess so. Come on, guys, just a few more stops.” Cass gently pulled Wilbur around by the collar and pulled the door to the monitor lizard’s lair.

“See you later, cutie.” Lina winked at the warthog as the thick wood slab swung closed. Jayce’s coughing fit was [i]surely[/i] coincidental to Wilbur’s blush.

“Nobody really watches- uh-“ Wilbur managed sheepishly after being shepherded a few dozen feet and around the bend. “Adult material there, right?”

“No. At least, [i]I[/i] haven’t, and I’ve never heard of anyone getting caught.” Cass took stock of the intersection, feathered head turning this way and that, and decided that a quick stop by Harish’s office was the second to last stop. “I wouldn’t put it past Lina though. She has eyes in the back of her head, and obviously she can see if anyone is coming on the screens.”

“O-oh.” The warthog went quiet for a dozen steps. “Wouldn’t that be a security risk?”

“I once saw her filling out paperwork with one hand and typing out an email with the other.” Cass pointed out. “If she did, she’d probably still be paying more attention than anyone else.”

“And she called you a cutie, hot stuff.” Jayce gave the boar a hearty pat on the back. “Better watch out or she’ll drag you off somewhere and have her way with you.”

Cass giggled at Wilbur’s renewed spluttering, unable to keep up the façade of a serious senior employee. Lina just might, at that. The lizard always had quirky taste in just about everything, so why not a shy, stammering warthog? [i]Maybe I can go have some girl talk with her and find out…[/i] Cass stamped down on the bubbly feeling. She still had a job to do, for the next fifteen minutes at least. 

Clearing her throat, she indicated the door on her left, impressively plaqued with ‘Security Chief Harish Aniruddha’. “This is the boss’s office. You’ll get called here once in a while if Harish wants to move your shifts around, or something. Otherwise he’ll be in there playing email tag with the computer guys.”

Cass counted off her mental checklist on her fingers and nodded, satisfied that they had seen everything worth seeing. She checked her watch, which showed later than expected

“Hey, Wilbur? It’s just about time for your shift and I should be on my way out in a few. I’ll show you both to the locker rooms, but after that if you go that way-“ She pointed one talon down the hallway. “And take the first left you’ll come out at the front desk where you and Raj will be hanging around for the night. Sound good?”

“That’s fine, I’m-“ Checking his own watch, the warthog’s eyes widened. “-late!”

He jumped, and fast-walked down the way Cass had indicated. “I’ll ask mister Raj to show me later thanks for the tour, um, Cass!” 

“You don’t have to be-“ The hawk called back, feathers unpoofing once she realized his alarm had been unfounded. Wilbur was around the corner before she was half-finished, leaving the rest of the sentence to wither down to a mutter. “-in such a hurry.”

She stared after the uptight newbie for a moment, then sighed in amused exasperation.

“He’s going to burn himself out if he doesn’t loosen up.” Jayce noted conversationally.

“I was thinking the same thing earlier.” Cass admitted. She shrugged. “Well, that’s on him. Come on, I’ll show you the lockers and changing room and you can pick one out.”

“Do people actually use the changing room?” The shark asked, following half a step behind Cass down the hallway. “I was figuring I’d just come in dressed.”

“Some of the cube jockeys bike in. Makes sense for them, I guess.” Cass pulled open the door, continuing on in. “Just go ahead and take any of the empty lockers. I keep a raincoat and some snacks in mine.”

“Will do. Anything else I should know?” 

“Don’t think so. Uhhhh… Changing room stalls are separated, locker room is unisex, bathrooms off the changing rooms.” Cass shrugged, heading around into the end row where her own locker was. “That’s about it, I think. You can head home and I guess we’ll be seeing each other around.”

“I’m going to like seeing you around.”

It took her a minute to realize that hadn’t been [i]just[/i] a thought in her head. Someone, Jayce, had echoed it aloud word for word.

“Hmm?” She turned around, seeing that the tall off-bronze shark was propped up against the wall by the outlet of this row, looking at her with what he probably thought was the smoothest sexy look on the continent and [i]dammit[/i] if she didn’t agree with that assessment. She felt her feathers poofing out under her clothes and around her neck. “I… you would, would you?”

“Yeah.” And there was that toothy smile joining the party, as he strutted toward her, stretching one arm across his chest in a way that showed off his triceps aaaaallllmost incidentally. “And I think you’d like to see more of me, too.”

“I, um.” Cass flushed under her plumage, sizing up the masculine shark. Not too thick. Definitely not skinny. A swimmer’s body with some weight training to round things out. Er, did he mean seeing each other around or seeing [i]more[/i] of him? Same answer. She breathed it out. “I think I might.”

This felt so strange. Cass had been flirted with before. He’d even been on the opposite end of this a few times, putting himself that little bit on display for whoever he was eyeing up. But, well, [i]himself[/i] seemed to be the key word. Not as a her. The contrast must have been in her head but she thought it felt different to be doing this as a woman. 

She didn’t feel like she needed to be smooth back at Jayce if she didn’t want to, for one thing. He could come to her and she only needed to make a contest of it if it struck her fancy to play it that way. It was a shivery feeling, and it let her devote nearly all her attention to appreciating his approach, the only uncertainty being whether to put him off or not. 

While she was thinking he’d loomed up to her. Jayce reached out one hand, a black-edged fin hanging sleek off of his forearm, to brush against the side of her face. Cass froze, unsure if he was going to caress her (and even more unsure if she was ready to be caressed just at the moment) but he only came away with a small charcoal plume. “Loose feather.”

Oh. But- no, wait that must have been on purpose. It blunted the edge of tension wonderfully even as awareness of his body so near hers amplified the mental pressure. Cass felt something squirm in delighted anxiety in her stomach.

“Thanks.” She was shocked how steady her voice sounded. “I guess I’m molting a little bit. It happens.”

“Mmmm.” And now he did go as far as brushing against the side of her face, gently ruffling through the fluffed plumage. His eyes were sea-green and slitted, meeting her dark gold pupils from less than a foot away now. She could feel his breath. “So if we’d both like to see more of each other, we should probably do that.”

“Yes.” Cass breathed. She reached out to touch the gill slits at the side of his neck, back of her talon bumping over the fleshy slats one after the other. He twitched a moment, but didn’t stop her.

“Careful with those. They’re sensitive.”

“Sorry.” Cass winced, pulling back. He caught her wrist gently and brought it back.

“It’s fine. Just don’t be too rough, or rub it the other way.”

She felt when they flared out a touch with his breath, no doubt scavenging what his lungs didn’t.

“Right now?”

He blinked at her and shifted his weight a touch to the left to rest against one of the lockers. “Right now, what?”

“See more of each other.” She hooked a talon over the collar of his shirt, sliding the back of it against his collar bone. “Right now?” 

“Oh.” His expression went from blank to gratified, with a flash of white triangular teeth. “[i]Now[/i] now, huh?”

“I…” Cass pulled far enough out of the haze to realize just when now was, and where here was. “Oh. I wouldn’t, I mean, maybe we can meet up for drinks or…”

“Oh, now is just fine.” Jayce pulled her in against him, nipping against the side of her head slightly. She felt his arm fall around her lower back. “I wouldn’t dream of making you wait, after you spent the last hour flipping your tail feathers at me.”

That took a moment to register. She realized her tail was fanned out right now, raised as if to welcome Jayce to everything under it. “I did?”

“You did.” The shark had moved into grinding against her front, pulling her tight. “Saw you checking out the goods too.”

Oh bother. Had she really been making that display at him, all around the office? Maybe… maybe once or twice. She had picked up that one napkin to throw it away when she could have just left it on the floor, but that was just tidiness. Not an attempt to give this handsome shark a view of her ass. And she hadn’t fanned her tail for him, right? …Not on purpose at least.

Right?

Shoot, they were still in the company locker room. They’d missed the main rush of office workers leaving for the day, but it would just take one working late to catch them. “C-changing room. If someone comes in-“

“Good thinking. Can’t get us both fired on my first day.” Seemingly without effort, he lifted her, slipping an arm under her knees to carry her side to chest. He turned carefully, making sure not to bang Cass’s head against one of the rows of lockers. His tail slapped against the metal in the process though he took no notice. “Huh. You’re not as heavy as I thought.”

“Hollow bones.” Cass said, dazed. The hawk had never been carried like this, and she thought she liked it. It was a great opportunity to look at his chest and neckline up close, and she could feel his muscles working under his skin, which was cool but not slimy. “Are you cold blooded?”

“Us sharks are- Excuse me.” He adjusted his hold on her to pull open the door, which he held ajar with a knee while he slid them both through. “We’re not cold blooded. There’s a fancy word for it, but we’re not warm blooded either. Just a little warmer than the water.”

He tipped her upright into a changing stall, flipping the door closed behind them in the bare minimum of speed to pin her against the wall, hands pressing at her chest. She felt like he ought to have been growling possessively, but he was very quiet. Very deliberate about the hunger in his voice. “You’re warm though, little bird. And soft.”

Cass pressed into his hands, eager to feel the pressure of them through her plumage. He was intoxicating. “You like soft?”

“[i]Yes.[/i]” What he did then wasn’t a kiss- That was difficult enough between a beak and a pair of lips, let alone whatever the hell you called the spike pit Jayce had for a mouth. He nuzzled, if that word could be applied. It reminded Cass of what the shark’s feral cousins did to inspect a dive cage. A gentle ramming that had him breathing into her face through the interlocking arrowheads of his dentition.

“Your breath smells fishy.”

Her beak snapped shut on the end of that statement as if to hook it back in, and she flushed. He pulled back, teeth showing. “You like fishy?”

Cass nodded. Jayce added a few more teeth to his smile at the edges.

Something caught her attention, which had been picking at her awareness for a few minutes now. “…This is the women’s changing room.”

“Of course.” Strong hands pressed her to him, stroking down the hawk’s back. “Wouldn’t want to get such a pretty chick in extra trouble by dragging her into the wrong room.”

All of Cass’s feathers stood on end, white phosphorus burning a giddy line down her spine. He really thought she was- no, ‘thought’ would be if he was wrong, wouldn’t it?

“Sorry. Is ‘chick’ a slur?” 

There was a good three seconds between Cass hearing him and registering that he had stopped when she stiffened up. She pulled herself back into him, feeling at his back-fin with a hand. “No, not at all.” [i]Maybe to someone who wasn’t getting off on it.[/i] “But you might want to try ‘hen’. Or I’ll start calling you ‘daddy’.”

“That would be terrible.” Jayce deadpanned.

“Aren’t you worried about [i]you[/i] getting in trouble?”

The shark chuckled by way of answer and returned to feeling up his catch, one hand gripping at her butt and kneading. “You’re very soft back here. Doesn’t feel like too many doughnuts though.”

“I’m very feathery.” Cass admitted. His grip was pleasant, massaging her rump without mussing her tailfeathers. She didn’t know, or for the moment care, whether that was luck or he just knew his way around a bird. She moaned as his grip tugged against her slacks just right, pulling fabric against her cloaca. It must have been swollen and red with her arousal by now. “Ah-“

“You got some very nice drumsticks under the feathers, too.”

“Now I think [i]that[/i] might be a slur…” The avian didn’t sound at all offended. She did, however, dig her talons playfully into the flesh either side of the shark’s tail, hard enough to let him know they were there as much as his teeth were up here. It seemed fair. “You want to look at them a little closer, I think I should get to see what’s on the sushi platter first.”

At Jayce’s neck his gills flared out visibly, and he took a hand off her ass (extremely unfair, she thought) to play with the top button at her collar. “Ladies first, hen.”

Cass’s spine felt carved out of petrified lightning and the butterflies in her middle bore down to dampen her crotch at his husky voice. Well, when he said it like that, how could she refuse? The hawk relinquished her grip on the fabulous fish filet to undo her belt buckle, then accidentally sliced off the button of her pants waistband- worth it- and undid the zipper. Slowly. She felt a man should be kept waiting just a little, to keep him interested.

He wasn’t very interested in waiting, pawing at the waistband to pull the fabric away as far as her handling of the zipper would allow. Underneath… [i]Oh. Right.[/i] Today, in anticipation of the makeup she had put off so long in her nervousness, she had put on something a lot less visible. The black silk panties were new enough to her wardrobe that they felt strange to put on, and even stranger when she realized in the middle of a conversation that she was wearing them and no one else had any idea. But not so new that she was constantly aware of them.

Jayce had the distinction of being the first to see them on her. She moaned, as he rubbed a hand over them, pressing the silk against her oozing cloaca. Jayce didn’t comment on the undergarment; of course, he had no reason to make anything of a pretty woman wearing panties. That was as good as his touch.

She guided his fingers into the waistband and helped him pull them down to reveal the wet mess of her cloaca. Cass was oozing clear pre that stretched from her hole to the smooth cloth, and he collected a little on one finger while he pulled pants and panties alike down further. She let them fall into a pile around her ankles, which she kicked aside along with her shoes. He raised the strand of precum to his mouth and tasted it with exaggerated relish.

“Mmmm. Chicken.”

Cass burst into giggles and had to grab at her beak with a hand. Someone could still hear from the other room. [i]Oh gosh. Do I taste like a girl should?[/i] The thought was a terrified delight to her. Jayce must have found nothing wrong with the flavor, at any rate. He dove back in with a hand to poke and prod at her hungry cloaca, slipping one finger in to the first knuckle to make a swirling motion that pulled at her edges. 

She grasped him at the hips to indicate his pants. She hoped she’d be able to keep coherent while he gently stretched her vent with that finger.

“I’ve never done this-” [i]As a girl before.[/i] “-with a shark before. Do you… have a fish stick for me in there?”

The stifled snort came with an eye roll. He jabbed into her hole once with that finger, hard enough to make her squawk slightly before pulling his hand away trailing more of her pre. It stained the waistband of his jeans while he popped the buttons free. “That’s terrible. But since I’m such a nice guy, why don’t you see for yourself?”

He let the jeans fall to his own ankles, letting it rest there. Cass kneeled down, reaching around to the back of his boxers to undo the tailsleeve fastener by feel before pulling them down with both hands.

“Two?” Cass blinked at the… she didn’t really know what to call them. There were a pair of small fins and a pair of tubular sort-of-fins hanging limp between his legs. Without meaning to she reached up to poke at one, and it twitched, both plumping slightly under the attention. “What [i]are[/i] those?”

“Claspers.” As if to underline the smug statement (and maybe he did it on purpose for emphasis, she had no idea if ‘claspers’ worked that way) they rose, bending at a sharp angle near but not quite at where they joined his body to twitch upward. “And yeah. I got two."

The shafts continued rising upward. Cass realized how close she had leaned in when the tips swung past her beak on either side, coming to a stop at a forty-degree angle from vertical. Abruptly they seemed to tower over her, each slender and perhaps seven inches. 

“Wow.” The hawk bobbed her head this way and that to look at the smooth pillars from different angles. Tentatively she wrapped her fingers around them, one in each hand and careful not to nick them with her talons (something with which she had some practice, for when she didn’t have the silicone talon-sheaths she had special-ordered handy). “Two fish sticks for birdy. Must be my lucky day.”

“This is going to be a thing with you, isn’t it?”

“You started it with the drumsticks crack.” Cass gave the quasi-cocks a soft pump each then let go, raising her face to look up such that from Jayce’s perspective she would be framed between the v of his claspers. She felt them brush against the sides of her plumage, near where she had applied the blush earlier. “I’d love to get all over these in so many ways, but-“ She clacked her wickedly curved beak and squeezed a few times at the air with the talons of her hands, illustrative. “I don’t have covers for my sharp bits with me, and I’m [i]really[/i] not built for blowjobs even with a beak sheath. So…”

She stood, letting Jayce’s claspers brush down the front of her shirt on the way up and taking no notice of the two thin smears of pre they left on her shirt. Under his curious gaze she turned, flicking at his skin and the black t-shirt he still had on with her tailfeathers. She sauntered the few steps over to the wall, not the flimsy freestanding one between this stall and the next but the room wall opposite it, and leaned forward against it with tail fanned to give him an excellent view of her fluffy feathered rear and dripping hole.

“How about we skip to the main course for now, hmmm, Jayce?”

“Sounds perfect.” It seemed odd that he didn’t growl that. It should have been a growl. Hungry. Maybe it was an aquatic thing, but the statement was merely rock solid. It did the job just as well.

He took his time coming for her, propelled by long lean muscle and gracefully smooth despite the slacks hanging around his ankles. Naturally Cass’s brain ruined it for her. [i]Duh-dunn. Duh-dunn. Duh-dunn duh-dunn duh-dunn duh-dunn duh-[/i]

She held the giggle in, mostly.

“Something funny, [i]hen?[/i]” His finger was hooked into her cloaca from behind before she realized the motion was starting, taking control of her movement by virtue of the smooth penetration.

“N-nothing!” Cass gasped. The sexy bastard was making her sway for him by his grip on her crotch, thumb digging up at her tailbase to provide leverage for the index finger inside her. He worked the other hand over his claspers to the sight of her hips shifting this way and that. Far from being upset, Cass liked this. [i]Always nice to be appreciated.[/i] “I hope you’re going to do more than appreciate the view.”

“It’s a nice view.” Jayce agreed. He slapped his malenesses against her spread rear feathers a couple times before going back to the leisurely jerk. “Might just take my time. Appreciate it nice and slow until I leave a mess all over your tail feathers. What would you do about that, birdy?”

Unspoken, the implicit threat that she couldn’t do anything if he so decided forced a coo of arousal out of her. She kept following his embedded finger back and forth while he casually masturbated to his finger puppet. “I think I’d… I think I’d come all over your hand.”

“I think you’re right.” Her hips kept moving for one more sway before missing the guiding hand and were yanked to a halt as it took hold of her tailfeathers instead, making her squawk in surprise. That limb might have acted all on its own for all Jayce’s tone changed. “But today the lucky hen’s going to get stuffed. Is one enough, or would two be too much?”

“One or…?” The pull at her tailfeathers made it hard to focus, and then the memory of his cocks, claspers, presented itself for review and there was only one sensible choice. Cass spread her legs further and jerked her hips back toward him, the pull against his grip on her tail plumes unavoidable and totally worth it. “Both. Oh god, I need both.”

“Greedy bird.” His tips rested against her trembling cloaca for only an instant before he pulled her onto his erections by the handful of feathers. A bird’s cloaca isn’t really meant for large objects (outside of an egg) and it was a brutal stretch; fortunately the claspers were individually slender, and even together not enough to seriously hurt her. Doubly fortunately, Cass wouldn’t have cared right now if they had. Being full of male was more than enough to outweigh any discomfort. 

Jayce gave her only enough of a recovery period to let her [i]start[/i] shaking again before he pulled smoothly back. Slick friction pulled an low wail of audible pleasure out of the hawk, her aroused dampness easing the way. With the hand not savagely yanking at her tail (a necessity to keep her hips from diving greedily back onto his shafts) he pinned her shoulder against the wall. 

He was in total control of the coupling, working himself in and out at varying depths until he found the spots that made her coo most prettily. Cass had to do no more than melt inside.

“Such a pretty bird.” Jayce was totally unstoppable, a shark thoroughly enjoying the woman tightening needy and slick around him. His organs seemed to be scraping against her insides somehow, points everywhere against her walls and pulling hard. “That Wilbur guy is an idiot. Don’t think he could tell what a sexy hen you are…”

The words tugged her consciousness against the current of pleasure she was drowning in, intensifying and sharpening it. He knew she was a hen. A sexy hen. Her insides made a motion that would have been a cramp if it didn’t feel so fucking good, rewarding him for his perspicacity.

“I’m going to fill you up. Stuff you. Does that sound good? Want me to put an egg in you?”

Cass came, hard, cum spraying out around the claspers pounding into her and over the shark’s crotch. He took it as an opportunity, thrusting harder and faster against the flow to take advantage of the extra lubricant, and started cumming just as she finished, burying himself to the hilt and staying there. His semen came in slow steady jets rather than paroxysmal bursts, filling her passage wonderfully.

He wasn’t even panting.

“Damn that feels good.”

She trilled low in agreement, letting her weight settle back down onto his hips as he let go of her tail. “…you feel bigger than when you started.”

“I am. They flare out some.” 

“Those are some fancy fish sticks.”

“Damn straight.” He pulled back and out, leaving Cass disappointed that from this position she couldn’t grab him by the waist to hold him in. Sure enough his claspers hooked against her entrance weakly on the way out. She thought she caught a glimpse of them furling up at the tip, somehow. 

Of course this also let a sizeable portion of their mixed fluids escape after them, splattering against the tile floor. Cass thought it was very impressive.

“Fucking hell.” Jayce stepped back as she turned to look at him, hoping to see a bit more of his claspers flared, but they were already back to thin pointiness. He was looking down at the pants still around his ankles, coated in sticky white. “Dammit I thought I had pulling out down to a science so this shit wouldn’t happen.”

“Oh. Sorry that’s probably mine.”

He stared at her. She realized what she just said. “I mean, it’s- I, uh.”

“You, uh?” Jayce bent down to scrape a little of the avian semen out of his underwear, flicking it at the wall. “Yeesh. Is this a species thing?”

“No, I’m…” Cass didn’t really feel very female right now. Or very male. Mostly just mortified. “I’m sort of a guy.”

[i]Why did I say it like that?[/i]

“Oh.” You could practically see the gears turning in Jayce’s head, for all of the several hours Cass was sure scraped over his nerves. “You’re a hell of a trap.”

“Thanks?” The hawk stamped down the surge of shy gratification viciously, aided by guilt. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to trick you. It just…”

“No, no, I, uh, pressed pretty hard.” Jayce’s embarrassment if anything amplified Cass’s. “It’s my fault, I knew about the bird cloaca thing, I just didn’t think you were- Jeeze, sorry for calling you a hen. I really thought you were a girl.”

“I was.” It was out of the hawk’s mouth before he knew it. He scrambled to cover the slip. “And don’t be sor- Look, I’m sorry. Really. If you just want to pretend it didn’t happen I’m totally on board with that.”

He scrambled for his discarded pants and panties, but froze before he could slip on the undergarment. It seemed wrong, somehow.

“Uh. Oh. [i]Oh[/i], sorry.” Cass, cheeks burning, couldn’t look over at Jayce but the shark sounded as if he was having a revelation. “Right. I’m sorry for saying you weren’t a girl then. If you’re trans that’s fine, totally okay with that.”

Cass’s head flew up, eyes wide. “No, not like that. It’s complicated. I sort of…”

Jayce’s confused expression must have weighed a few tons while the hawk tried to find the right words. Dammit, he was standing there still sexy as hell with his pants down. It wasn’t fair.

“…I… don’t know.” He admitted, stumbling over the concepts. “Sometimes I like to think of myself as a woman. But I don’t think I’m… Only sometimes? And it feels right. And then you flirted with me like I was a total babe, and I kind of lost it.”

Cass shrank under his steady gaze, shriveling from guilt at having misled such a handsome, likeable, easygoing guy. Fuck it all, he’d probably screwed up any chance he had with the shark.

“So you’re genderfluid?”

“I’m… what?”

“Like…” Jayce scratched at his headfin thoughtfully, leaning against the wall he had so roughly fucked her- [i]him[/i] into. “What you just said, I think.”

That wasn’t a word Cass had heard before. He turned it over in his head. Gender. Fluid. Like something you could pour into a mold, and then from that into another one, and back. [i]She[/i] took a turn examining the idea. It was good. Cass liked it.

“…Yeah. I’m genderfluid.” He nodded, feeling his feathers unpoof. “I’m still sorry you… didn’t get what you were expecting. I didn’t mean to make it gay or anything.”

“It’s fine. Just haven’t done anything with a guy since high school.” Jayce waved it off. A hint of toothiness revealed itself between his lips. “Guess I still haven’t.”

Cass caught a question before it made it out of his mouth, inspected it, and after a great deal of thought let it out unchanged. “Would you like to sometime?”

“I think I might.” The smile with way too many teeth was back. Damn him for being a sexy hunk of fish. “Wouldn’t mind being reintroduced to that sexy hen I filled up a minute ago, either.”

“I think both of those could be arranged.” Deliberately, with full intent to do so, the hawk lowered the panties he had been holding in front of him, and cross-dressed. He winked at Jayce. “If I can get another helping of fish sticks.”

Jayce groaned while Cass retrieved his pants and ducked out, returning with a wad of paper towels for the shark’s sodden pants.

“So. Guys night out on Friday?”

“Yeah. Guess that means you’ll leave the makeup at home.”

“You noticed that.” Cass fluttered his eyelids up from where he was wiping his cum off the denim. “You like?”

“The blush is too red.”

“What!?” Cass squawked, mock-offended. “And what would a guy know about my makeup?”

“I have three older sisters, all of them have different colorations, none of them can shut up.” Jayce chuckled down at the avian. “Believe me, I know. Try something in bronze next time.”

Cass hauled the Jayce’s underwear and pants up to the shark’s waist, taking a good grope of the soggy-cloth-wrapped claspers before unlatching the stall door. “I suppose I can bear taking a lesson in girliness from a total hunk.”

“Happy to help, hen.”



[center]The End[/center]