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The next morning.

Nithya yawns as the late-morning sunlight finds her eyes. She's feeling warm, and after just a moment of introspection, she's certain why she is feeling warm - she's still snuggled with Clay.

Her lover. Girlfriend. Doefriend? 'Something like that.' Whatever the term, it feels so good waking up next to another warm and fluffy being while also being one herself. And a ravishingly beautiful doe at that.

Wait. Doe?

She glances at the window, sun definitely way too high for them to still have fur. Clay's smile she is sleeping against her is the only thing stopping herself from letting out a litany of expletives. Nithya swallows quietly, glance at her free hand and noting that yeah, they are still deer. They fell asleep and didn't do any ritual during the night.

She blinks again as another thing occurs to her. Today was supposed to be the day they need to decide if to renew their room or start packing. They had left it undecided, to make a choice after their ritual in the early morning, see how they felt.

The ritual they have now not done.

"Fuck."

Clay hums as she snuggles against Nithya, equally enjoying the warmth of softness of her girlfriend as she slowly starts to wake up. Her ears flick at the sound of Nithya's voice, "Mmmm? Wha? Nithya?"

Nithya groans a bit, then leans into a nuzzle at her lover. "Just... well, we're still in the fur."

Clay giggles, rubbing her muzzle against Nithya's, "Yeah..." She pauses a moment, then bleats softly as things start falling into place, "W-wait, what time is it?"

Nithya sighs as she glances at the sunlight streaming in. "Late."

Clay quickly comes awake now, following the glance out to see the light, "W-we were supposed to... b-but we're still deer! Ah shoot... um... okay, this... is no problem, right? We just... stay in the room today?" She pieces things together in her head and her expression drops, "Right... we were supposed to check out today. Shit..."

Nithya just sighs again and leans onto Clay. "...yeah, pretty much. We gotta do... something, before they come shooing us out and find a pair of does."

Clay sighs guiltily, "Guess we got a little too cozy last night, hm? Well, we can at least call the main desk to get them to wait a bit... But I don't know what to do if we actually have to get down there. We can't exactly sneak out the window down into the park. Not to mention the fact that the park probably has a lot more people in it now."

Nithya winces: "...dress up as much as we can and claim it's a costume?"

Clay deflates slightly, "A really, really good costume... Maybe we can say it's a costume test for a movie or something? Ahh, hell... I'm sorry, Nithya. I should have been more on top of things.*

Nithya sighs. "It's... well it's me as well." She smiles softly. "And I can't deny last night wasn't wonderful~."

Clay blushes, smile beaming, "I really can't. It absolutely was~." She swallows, "But... We'll have to be more careful..."

Nithya sighs, though her smile doesn't vanish entirely. "Yeah. At least until we're home... and by home I probably mean 'home, together'... there's so much to sort even once we land back in Atlanta and can try pulling our lives together..."

Clay reaches down to take Nithya's hands in her own, "Yeah... It'll be worth it though. Getting home is going to be hard, and then making ourselves a home together might be harder... But it'll be worth it."

Nithya nods, giving Clay a kiss. "Get ourselves together, call downstairs to see if we can extend our stay for a day, hopefully without needing to change our room. If not... Then I think our genuinely best option is to try and dash for the park, pull of the ritual somehow and come back human to sort this out... play confused about any deer sightings."

Clay kisses back and nods, "We'll have plenty of lazy days in bed together in the future. And... At least the park is big enough that we can probably lose any kind of pursuit if it comes to that." She frowns, "I really hope it doesn't come to that. Maybe we can just blame it on a local forest spirit." She finally manages to untangle herself from Nithya and sit up, swinging her legs out from the covers.

Nithya likewise gets up with a bit of a sigh escaping her. "Yeah, hopefully so. At least we sound more or less the same in both forms...." She blinks, pausing. "...right?"

Clay pauses, "I mean... Hard for me to say since... I sound a lot different now. I... I haven't really considered it. A few errant bleats here and there, but... Otherwise the 'same'?"

Nithya nods, leaning on the bed. "Yeah." She glances at the clock. "We have an hour. Want to call downstairs or should I?"

Clay considers a moment, then nods, "I can do it. We'll extend one more night... And... We really gotta get out of Japan, don't we? It's not as frightening as being trapped in Russia, but we can't get too cozy here. We gotta try for home."

Nithya sighs. "Yeah. If we're stuck inside all of today anyway, that means we're racking up our hotel bill and we definitely need to start looking at potential flights."

Clay nods, "The nearby forest is nice, but we won't be able to camp there cheaply like we usually do. Just a gut feeling and all... We need to get out of here. Let's... Let's get this sorted out." She reaches for the hotel phone.

Nithya nods and swallows, really hoping this goes their way.

Clay calls down to the front desk, apologizing for the late notice, and the last-minute need to extend another day. She tries to argue a few times, her Japanese not the best but good enough to deal with this, until at last she sighs, leaves her thanks, and hangs up.

"Adding a day is no problem, but we can't keep this room. Have to transfer to another one." She pulls out her phone and loads up the app the hotel uses... "Room is already there... 219... It's..." She frowns, "On the other side of the hotel."

Nithya sighs, half in relief, half in frustration. "So we're dressing up a bit anyway. I suppose... at least it's been pretty quiet in this hotel. We can probably make a dash for it."

Clay thinks, "Maybe... We can run to the stairs? People don't take the stairs in a hotel... I just have no idea how stairs and hooves will get along."

Nithya blinks, then winces: "...we gotta be careful. We can't get hurt doing this."

Clay sighs, "N-no, you're right. That'd just cause a lot more problems if we rush into something stupid. We... We have a little time to pack up and think this through."

Nithya smiles lopsidedly. "Just... stay calm, pack our things, maybe take a look at the floor plan and just avoid people." She winks: "We are pretty good at avoiding people, right?"

Clay takes a deep breath and laughs, "We did pick a career where the goal is to uncover places people aren't. Y-yeah. Yeah, this is easy...ish. but you're right. First thing first." She gets up from the bed and moves to get her things together.

Nithya takes a deep breath and starts packing her clothes... a few more dresses than when they checked in. "...we are going to be so broke by the time we're home safe, aren't we."

Clay frowns as she packs her own things up, "Oof, yeah... It's not going to be pretty. I am not looking forward to our report to the finance committee either..." She pauses to look at herself, "For a couple reasons..."

Nithya hums: "Yeah no kidding." She looks at a particular dress, a tan form-hugging one: "...'course, I could try to argue that getting a few pretty dresses was perfectly in budget for us and necessary..." She blushes a bit.

Clay shakes her head, "We can pay out of our own pocket for those at least. It's more... The whole 'me' thing I'm worried about. How am I going to explain this to them? To my parents? Even leaving the deer part out, obviously, I'm definitely not the same."

Nithya nods, considering. "Well, if we leave the deer part out... at least there's some precedent. Not as... er, magically forced, probably, but I'm sure someone out there has written about what to say... coming... out..." She blinks, then chuckles. "I'm not the best example. My father kinda disowned and went distant when I came out as gay."

Clay pauses a moment to stare down at her clothes, "Y-yeah... I remember that..." She was there for Nithya, or he had been, doing her best to comfort her friend. "It's... I'm not exactly sure I'm ready for that kind of reception. 'Hey Mom, hey Dad, even leaving out the how and the why, I'm a woman now and I th-think I like it better... So um... Surprise...?'. I have no idea how that'll go down..."

Nithya winces: "Yeah, er... you might want to... look up how to word things. And probably warn them before you get home so they have time to digest the base idea before you're face to face."

Clay sighs, then continues to pack. "I'll have to think about it... One problem at a time."

Nithya nods: "Oh y-yeah. Definitely. Let's get to our new room." She smirks: "Ready for the scariest hotel room change in your life?"

Clay checks herself, and hefts her hiking pack up, "As ready as I can be..."

Nithya nods, having dressed in one of her basic hiking outfits, not that it hides that much of her head or hooves. "Let's make a run... or given our hooves on these floors, a brisk walk, for it." She smiles, stepping over to give Clay a soft kiss. "We got this far."

Clay leans into the kiss and smiles, confidence bolstered by Nithya, "and it's nothing I can't talk our way out of if we get seen. Let's do this."

Nithya giggles, then puts her hand on the door handle. "Let's go."

Clay frantically gets the door open to their new room, which is basically the same as their last room, but across the building with a window facing the road and not the forest. "Careful, careful!" She helps Nithya inside, glancing back into the hallway to make sure no one else spotted them.

It started easy enough, a dash to the elevator, down to the second floor, but when the door opened, they were greeted by a family of three, with one young girl who squealed in delight while the parents stared in confusion.

Nithya had fallen back in surprise, while Clay had frantically tried to explain in Japanese "Convention in town... No, just make-up and face paint... Very convincing, yes." She helped get Nithya up and out of the elevator as the family entered, and helped her along to the door, and now, to the bed to check on her.

"Did you pull something? A-are you alright?" Her mind races. How would an injury even translate between their changes?

Nithya winces as she sits down, then shifts on the bed, still panting from the adrenaline-filled room change. "I just... I think I..." She shifts on her seat, looking at her tail. "...I don't think anything is broken, but my tail feels like it's one big bruise at the moment."

Her mind goes to the moments before. They got away mostly okay, and she's pretty sure no one saw which room they went into...

Clay examines Nithya once she's on the bed, going through their usual hiking check-up when one of them takes a fall, "Well... you seem fine, but admittedly my knowledge of deer biology is a little lacking. But I think you're right. Guess it makes sense that if the tail is so sensitive during... other times, it would be just as sensitive to fall onto."

She hums, glancing back towards the door a moment as if expecting someone to burst in, "I think... I think we made it."

Nithya pants for a bit, but nods: "Y-yeah... think so. I g-guess we can count on the family not saying much of anything that would... lead to us, up here."

She considers, then smirks despite her hurt: "...human nature to try and explain away things that don't make sense. I mean, we took how long to accept our changing reality?"

Clay chuckles between breaths, "Y-yeah... yeah, even when it was in our faces. Or uh, was our faces." She reaches out to stroke a hand along the side of Nithya's snout to her cheek.

"I think I did a good enough job talking it away? Plus, they saw you fall, and the parents just wanted to get out of the hallway without asking questions."

Nithya nods, smiling at Clay: "Yeah... probably so. And we'll be gone by tomorrow morning anyway." She takes a long breath.

"...I really hope this current tail kink doesn't turn into literal pain in my butt or any flights tomorrow are going to be very long indeed..."

Clay cringes, "I... was thinking about that too. If you broke a leg in one form... does it translate to the human form? There's still so much we don't know about how this all works."

Nithya sighs. "Yeah. I imagine we will find out in the long run, whether we intend to or not."

She shakes her head. "Don't want to worry about that now. Guess today's plan is order in from room service and figure out a plan for tomorrow."

Clay nods, turning to sit next to Nithya on the bed, "We have two choices, I think, for a flight... We can risk a Pacific flight, or go around the other way, lots of shorter flights across Asia to Europe and over the Atlantic in the north... it would take longer, and cost a lot more..."

Nithya winces: "...I am afraid to think how much that would cost the long way... And a lot more chances to get accidentally discovered..." She sighs. "Much as the thought scares me, I think we need to risk a slightly longer flight or two."

Clay breathes out, "I agree... I think we have to risk it. The long way is just going to be more chances to screw up on top of the cost. Maybe there's an island we can stop at first? ...or, at least Hawaii? Not the way I imagined a tropical vacation but..."

Nithya gives a small smile: "We can enjoy half a day in the sun while we try to not explode from stress and go doe in the middle of the street. Sounds like a plan to me. Crazy, but a plan nonetheless."

Clay laughs, getting out her phone to bring up her travel app, "Honestly? From what I hear, that's most people's experience on a Hawaiian vacation anyways. Well uh, minus the whole doe thing."

Nithya giggles and nuzzles at Clay's neck. "Mm, that's probably not as common an experience." She hums: "Although now I wonder if there are deer native to Hawaii or something."

Clay pauses what she's typing in and changes the search. "...invasive species...? How did they get there in the first place?"

Nithya shrugs: "Someone, sometime thought it was a good idea. You can go to Australia to ask about rabbits I imagine." She blinks. "...and now I'm thinking about what happened to us, but rabbits. That's just going to become a thing, isn't it."

Clay stops scrolling through the article about deer overpopulation and imagines Nithya with bunny ears and whiskers, blushing. "...You'd be cute as a rabbit.... that's... yeah, definitely a thing."

Nithya blinks and looks back from her browsing to Clay: "I..." She then shrugs. "...yeah, fair, probably."

Clay chuckles, turning back to her phone to re-open the flight app. "Well, we just have to be careful then. I'm going to lie on our forms and say we're not smuggling deer into Hawaii."

Nithya gives Clay a look and groans: "You did not just say that."

Clay smirks, "Maybe I did~"

Nithya sighs, then just leans onto the other doe. "You're terrible. Thank goodness I'm used to that I guess."

Clay reaches an arm around Nithya as she leans against her, "There... flight to Hawaii. Tomorrow morning..." She sighs, "That'll be... about 8 hours in the air. Easy."

Nithya smiles: "That much we can do, even accounting for... few more hours on either end, that's not in plane. Maybe thirteen-fourteen hours total we have to be human? We can do that."

Clay nods, "We've done that, yeah." She glances away, then laughs, "I've been human a pretty long time, I think I can manage it for fourteen hours more if I have to."

Nithya gives an amused snort: "It sounds so wrong when you put it like that, but then I look at the fur on my nose and have to relent."

Clay 's expression drops a little, "It uh, was meant to be a joke... but it's kind of not, is it?"}

Nithya squeezes her hand around Clay: "A bit of column A, a bit of column B. Gotta joke about our new reality or we'll go nuts."

She is quiet for a second, then relents. "Well, more nuts."

Clay holds Nithya's hand and squeezes back, "Well, less nuts than squirrels, at least. Joking is how I've always dealt with pain... not that this is 'painful' but... it's not wholly comfortable sometimes, is it?"

Nithya considers: "Not painful, not always comfortable-" She shifts her sitting position because of her tail: "...but impractical at times, for sure."

Clay: "Yeah... certainly could go with a few less close calls." She looks back at Nithya's tail, "You feeling alright?"

Nithya sighs, then nods. "Feels like it'll be mostly fine by the time we do our ritual." She looks at Clay: "No less than three alarms for us for it, by the way."

Clay nods, "Hotel clock plus both phones. We can't afford to miss out again, especially with the flight booked."

Nithya mm's: "Yeah. Though I guess we ought to conserve our energy, stay deer for as long into the night as we dare. Gonna be a very long day tomorrow."

Clay lets out a sigh, "Yeah... probably for the best we stay in the room today. Just wish it hadn't been because of a bit of morning panic." She smirks, "At least, as long as we don't get too crazy, staying deer means we get to feel pretty cozy together."

Nithya mm's as she glances about their new room. "It does seem that our new room has that big double bath. Want to see how it feels in fur?" She blinks: "...but let's set our alarms first."

Clay reveals her phone, "Already done here. I... I have no idea how a bath would feel with fur... but it does excite me to find out."

Nithya jots down the 4am alarm on her phone as well, then nods. "Yeah, me too. Could be good to relax after... all that. Though we might end up using all the towels."

Clay chuckles, "Normally I try to be good about that kind of thing, but we're in a hotel, so towels aren't my problem. We can always call for them to leave extra at the door with dinner."

Nithya nods: "Might be the prudent thing to ask for." She blinks: "...what happens to wet fur when you shapeshift it away? Does it still stink?"

Clay giggles, "Well, add it to the list of things we need to find out." She leans in with her snout to sniff Nithya. "Just to get a baseline... you smell pretty good currently."

Nithya finds herself blushing and getting a tingle of excitement at that sniff. "Mm... clearly it's a topic worth exploring a bit." She then glances at the door as though make sure it doesn't spontaneously unlock and open on them, then starts taking her shirt off.

Clay pulls back with a smile, the scent of Nithya lingering in her snout. She watches her girlfriend undressing for a moment, then begins removing her own clothing with a warm smile.

Nithya smiles, looking (and feeling) relieved as she gets to just her underwear once more. "Clothes just are not designed to be on fur. I wonder why?"

Clay chuckles, "Always felt bad for those dogs that people dressed up on Halloween, but now I feel like I know their pain."

Nithya blinks: "Oh. Yeah, no kidding." She gives Clay a look: "If you start sizing a costume on me, the deal is off and I will ship you back to Kamchatka. Just so you know."

Clay giggles, "Is it okay if I size them up on me? I think I could pick some pretty cute outfits..."

Nithya pretends to think, then nods: "Yes, that's more acceptable. Mostly because you're cute."

Clay blushes, still unused to actually being called that, "Ahh, I can deal with that then~. A-and thanks."

Nithya brushes her hand on Clay's shoulder: "You're welcome. Whatever else this crazy journey of us has been, it did make both of us quite beautiful. " She pauses. "And I'm electing to ignore the part of my brain that's trying to tell me the deer side shouldn't be attractive to me."

Clay smiles, "It's... I'm maybe not even thinking like that. I just find you attractive... human, deer, potential rabbit, whatever you are, I would find you beautiful."

Nithya giggles: "We can maybe leave the potential rabbit out of it for now. I want to at least settle at home for a bit before we go spelunking for more temples lost to time."

Clay comes alongside Nithya once she's stripped down and gives her a snug, "Yeah, that's perfectly fair. No rabbit."

Nithya smiles as she leans into the snug: "Or squirrel, or anything of the sort." Her hand touches upon Clay's chest, just being there for the moment. "Having fur though... it's probably one of the best things about this all."

Clay hugs Nithya, stroking her fur, "Y-yeah... but maybe I'm just too into it at this point... it feels good to have, and yours feels good to touch."

Nithya hums softly as her hands touch Clay: "Pretty much. I suppose there are worse things in life than enjoying what you share with your partner."

Clay hugs against Nithya, "So, lets take some time to enjoy it together, then? Just so long as we don't overindulge in one another, this time."

Nithya laughs a bit into the hug. "I'd like to think we've gotten like... the biggest desires out of our systems. Let's just enjoy the bath, but get out of it in time to order food a bit later."

Clay giggles, "Most of it, yes. Today, we relax, get our minds in the right space to travel, and then... tomorrow we start for home."

Nithya sighs softly, brushing her hand on Clay's arm. "Yeah. Tomorrow kind of scares me, but we have really no other options now."

Clay hums, walking Nithya towards the bathroom, "Me too... but we got this far. We can do this. Honestly... it's actually what happens once we get home that worries me more."

Nithya smirks: "See, now that's not yet worth worrying about. How about this: you stop me from fretting over the immediate, and I stop you from trying to catastrophize the future?"

Clay tilts her head a moment to look at Nithya, then smiles warmly at her girlfriend, "Okay, deal."

Nithya leans over for a kiss: "Deal." She then turns to start putting the water ready, mm'ing softly as she lowers her hand to touch the nearly steaming water.

Clay blushes, and pecks Nithya back. "Well, how's the water feel?"

Nithya glances at Clay: "Like you."

"Hot."

Clay blushes deeper, "O-oh~. Well, nothing to be afraid of getting your fur a bit wet then, right?"

Nithya: "Talk about phrases I haven't imagined hearing related to myself." She laughs a bit, then starts getting her underwear off.

Clay chuckles, "We can add it to the list of insane things we've said in the past few weeks. L-like, uh 'I need to take this bra off' is a bit of a weird one for me still..." She reaches up to begin removing her own underwear, still a bit shy about it.

Nithya nods, giving Clay a sympathetic smile: "Yeah. You got that. And..." She glances at the bathtub. "...I think we gotta be careful so we don't end up paying for hoof-related damages, too..."

Clay looks down at her hooves and laughs, "That's something I wouldn't consider, but I guess as long as we don't go in... toe? Point? The sharp bit at the end, don't put that part in first and don't kick around too much, we'll be okay. Thankfully the rest of us is relatively soft."

Nithya giggles. "So let's not get raunchy, motivation #2." She watches the water for a moment, then glances at Clay: "How are you holding up? With all the... feminine lady things... that we've sorta gone at last few days."

Clay looks down at the water filling the tub and sighs, "I'm... okay. But like, actually okay, not the okay you say when you're not okay?" She gets a bit of a vacant look on her face, trying to process something in her mind. "It's... odd. But good. Odd but in a good way... I sorta feel like, this is 'right', even when parts of it still feel weird and wrong. That 'wrongness' is usually just some kind of disconnect from what I expect versus the actual feelings I'm having, and I'm slowly getting used to it all."

Nithya nods, lifting her hand to touch Clay's shoulder: "Kinda like... the conflict is between who you are now, and who you 'should', quote-unquote, try to still be... and you kind of want to let the you that is here and now, just win. So to say."

Clay nods a little sadly, "Not that I want to lose who I was... letting one 'win' makes it sound like I want to erase who I was..." She purses her lips and glances away for a moment, "Maybe I'm more just trying to figure out what to keep and what to accept as changed..." She swallows, "W-we kept talking about the 'human half' and the 'deer half', and it's sort of like that... like there's two of me and I'm just examining each and trying to find the right 'me' between the two."

Nithya nods slowly. "I can see that. There's probably no simple answers... but I will be here to see you through all this with your sanity intact."

Clay nods, "If there's one thing that all sides agree on, it's wanting to stay with you. That hardest parts are always when I'm throwing something away... that's what would keep me up... if I weren't snuggled up with you every night. But... it's not been much. Honestly, I don't think the 'new me' is all that different. Except... I do want to embrace the feminine more... make-up, and clothing, and general 'cuteness' that I always wished I had, but wasn't really fit for."

Nithya smiles. "So you are mostly... Adding, building on top, and not maybe losing that much. I... I can see that." She blinks. "... I have no idea if I'd taken it as well if the goddess had made me a buck..."

Clay blinks, "...a buck...? Would... you have wanted that?"

Nithya frowns, then shakes her head. "No. While yes I have occasionally muttered how you had it easier as a guy, I wouldn't want to be one myself." She glances at the now-filled tub and smiles. "Besides, does get all the best parts, it seems."

Clay chuckles, "And there I was muttering that even if it was easier... I just wished I could be cuter and more feminine... well, maybe not muttering it but... that thought was there... I just never really listened to it." She looks at the tub and dips a hand into the water, humming, "Oh, that does feel good~"

Nithya hums softly: "Shall we, then?" Without actually waiting for a reply, she starts carefully getting into the tub. "Ooooh yess..."

Clay hesitates a moment, withdrawing her hand, then carefully steps into tub alongside Nithya, instantly feeling better, "Oh! Ohhh that's making muscles relax that I didn't even know I Had!" She giggles, "Last time I had a hot bath like this, I literally didn't have half these muscles."

Nithya first steps into, then slowly slides down to sit in the tub: "Y-yeah, it's been... well it certainly feels like a lifetime ago I could last enjoy something like this." She glances at Clay: "...and last time we'd have a chance for something like this, I don't think we did it together either."

Clay descends along with her, "I can't even remember... we did a lot together, but there was always a clear delineation of stuff to do together, and stuff to do alone. Bathing was always the latter... for the most part."

Nithya smiles as she sits next to Clay in the blissfully warm water: "There are things that are, kinda, couples-only... this probably counts as such."

Clay nods. "Certainly feels way better to do this as a couple than it would have before... so I'm sorta glad we... saved it? Does that make sense?" She chuckles, getting cozy alongside Nithya.

Nithya mm's, letting herself get soaked up to shoulders as she leans to kiss Clay on the cheek: "Makes enough sense now~."

Clay giggles at the kiss, shifting only to let her tail get comfortable in the tub. "Guess I don't really need sense..." She hums, "I've said it before... but without you, I'd be in a pretty dark place over all of this... and I don't just mean at the bottom of that hole still."

Nithya mm's as she leans close: "I'm not sure if I'd be faring that well without you either. You know how I overthink things if you don't call me out on it."

Clay nods, sinking down to soak up to her neck, "We have always done pretty good at keeping one another sane. Though, we're also pretty good at being crazy together."

Nithya giggles: "I think if we were afraid of the crazy, we'd have picked a different career."

Clay: "And different partners. But we've done pretty good~. Weirdness... you know what, this weirdness included."

Nithya sinks into the water, mm'ing: "I don't think I want to change this weirdness away, now. It's ours."

Clay nods, "It's ours... and it's us. Woman, deer, and us together. Maybe I have just gone crazy, but... if we get moments like this... I'm very okay with this."

Nithya touches Clay's side under the water: "I am too. Maybe that does make us a bit nuts, but I find myself not actually caring."

Clay closes her eyes to simply enjoy the water and Nithya's touch, "I don't think I care either~"

Nithya just feels the water around her, sighing quietly. "It's... kinda worth the admission price, even if that first week was pretty scary."

Clay hums, "Yeah... well, that first week was a lot of unknowns... and, well, intended as a punishment, I suppose."

Nithya nods, thinking. "Yeah... although our return, and the ritual we did... that was intended as a boon, I think. Even if we didn't first get it."

Clay smiles, "You're the translation expert, but it certainly feels more that way now." She smirks, "Even if the goddess is a pervert. Maybe I don't mind so much anymore..."

Nithya lets her hand wander to touch Clay's teats. "Mm, yeah... Guess that's part of the package too. Either that or we were both just craving for an excuse..." She has the decency to blush a bit, at least.

Clay laughs awkwardly, blushing as well, but definitely not denying Nithya's words, or her touch, "M-maybe we're the perverts, you mean? M-maybe a bit from column a, and a bit from column b..."

Nithya smiles softly: "Maybe. Evidence seems to point that way. I don't think it was just the deer being a bit lustful the other night."

Clay blushes again, "W-well, not just, no."

Nithya touches Clay on the side, the fur-on-wet feeling strange but great. "I think it's safe to say we have something of a hots for each other..."

Clay reaches around to hold Nithya's side, stroking her hoof through the other doe's fur as well. "We certainly do... you're beautiful~"

Nithya smiles as she leans onto the redhead doe: "Mm, you're prettier. Or at least as beautiful."

Clay giggles, "I had a hunch you'd say something like that." She pauses, "But thank you, as always. Or... as of the past month, I guess."

Nithya hums softly: "Something along those lines, but who's counting." She considers: "Not that I found what you were before... bad-looking, but... you know, attraction works in strange ways."

Clay shakes her head, "No, I get it. I was nothing special. I certainly feel more attractive now."

Nithya mm's... then touches and massages Clay on the shoulder. "Special to me, even if we weren't dating, then."

Clay blushes, rubbing her hands along Nithya's sides and down to her teats. "I... I never thought much of my looks."

Nithya giggles, then lifts her hand to lightly finger the base of Clay's ear: "Silly thing. It's not just your looks I love you for. Why do you think it was so easy to feel attracted to your doe side in the first place?"

Clay 's ear flicks at the touch, and she grins, "I know, I know. There's also my extremely attractive sense of humor."

Nithya gives the tiniest of pulls at Clay's ear: "Dork. I'm trying to be soft and emotional here, let me."

Clay eeps, giggling, "Oo! Careful! Well, I can definitely agree that you are soft~" She squeezes around Nithya's waist to emphasize, "But alright, alright, emotional is good."

Nithya grins, then gives Clay a kiss: "Good. I love your sense of humor too, but you gotta work on your timing." She pauses for half a second. "...or your timing is perfect and you know it already. Either or."

Clay leans into the kiss, humming, "The best timing is always the worst timing, my deer."

Nithya groans and slaps at the surface of water towards Clay: "You are definitely the worst kind of best at that."

Clay laughs, raising a hand to shield herself (poorly) from the splash, "I take that as a compliment, love." She settles down to set her hand against Nithya's neck, "But... I am glad to hear that it's because it's because it's me, and not just any random doe."

Nithya mm's as she leans on Clay again: "No other doe has the years of experience in being with me, so you have a definite home field advantage. For one, you aren't trying to be all sugary and romantic with me, and unlike so many people I've turned down, you treat me like an equal in our field."

Clay holds Nithya close, "Heh, well I sorta suck at the romantic stuff... and you are my equal in the field... honestly, more than, you're way smarter than I am."

Nithya mm's, nuzzling at Clay's neck, rather enjoying the wet feel of their hug: "Just... I want to be soft and cuddly with you and discuss stuff we love. Anytime before, I'd get one or the other if I tried dating."

Clay hums, squeezing Nithya once again, "Well... you are. You are beautiful, and soft, and holding you close like this is wonderful. Honestly... I don't feel like our relationship has changed much, except for this. The physical stuff. The rest... I don't plan to treat you any differently than I ever have."

Nithya smiles, then gives Clay another kiss on the nose. "Good. That's all I ask for." She shifts her position, sinking a bit more into the tub, just enjoying the water on her body and fur.

Clay 's snout twitches at the kiss, and she laughs, "You're always going to be my best friend. I promise that."

Nithya smirks from her now-lower vantage point: "Good. I'll hold you to that."

Clay shifts to come in closer, her boobs resting atop Nithya's as the doe leans in to kiss more deeply. "I love you, deeply, Nithya."

Nithya blinks, then giggles as she looks at Clay's boobs: "I certainly see that. I love you as well, Clay. A lot."

Clay hugs her a moment longer, before slowly shifting away to sit besides her in the water, keeping a hand on Nithya's thigh as she relaxes into the water. "It's a dream, still..."

Nithya lets her hands stay at Clay's sides: "Mm... perhaps a shared one, though. Even if we didn't know to ask for this, exactly."

Clay nods, "I couldn't have imagined it was possible, but here we are. Whatever we are."

Nithya The black (and wet) maned doe sighs softly, closing her eyes. "I don't know, and right this moment, I don't care."

Clay 's ears flick as she leans her head against Nithya, "No. I don't need to know. This moment is perfect~"

Nithya just smiles, and leans onto Clay. "Perfect~."

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