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The next morning.

Cindi sleepily hugs onto Akari. Not awake yet and no desire to do that either.

Akari is still snuggled up beneath Cindi, having been relatively unable to move through the night, but there wasn't much effort or desire on her end either.

The doe unconsciously nuzzles against one of Cindi's floppy ears.

Cindi giggles in her sleep, the ear twitching.

Akari slowly wakes up at the sound of her girlfriends muffled laughter, yawning slowly as she looks down at the ear draped over her snout.

A little more deliberately, she shifts to get a hand free. She's feeling a bit stiff but surprisingly, shockingly good otherwise. With the hand-hoof carefully out from beneath them, she brings it up to gently stroke behind Cindi's ear.

Cindi gigglesnorts softly, one of her legs twitching. "Mmrrf~."

Akari notes the sudden leg movement, and cannot help herself as she shifts in place to continue scratching, her heart soaring a little at the sight as she keeps her voice still low, "Good morning, love."

Cindi mm's for a second more before she starts to actually wake up. She blinks her eyes open, and for a split second she looks like she's forgotten how she got here.

But after that she smiles brightly: "...good morning, love."

Akari giggles, leaning up to peck her snout. "You're extremely cute when you're sleeping."

Cindi blinks, then blushes fiercely: "I... I-I am?" She does, in fact, look rather cute with her bed-hair and befuddled expression as well.

Akari grins, "Almost unbelievably so. How are you feeling this morning?"

Cindi smiles warmly despite her blush: "P-pretty good. Bit sore but I'm electing to ignore that."

Akari hums, "Yeah, I uh, I think my arm fell asleep? Still feels totally worth it."

Cindi glances down, at Akari's arm under her. "Oop." She shifts off her lover enough to free her arms' movement: "Sorry."

Akari shifts her arm free and laughs, "No worries. It's my first time sleeping like this with... With someone else. Or even only the second time I've slept in this body, even!"

Cindi pauses, then nods: "...yeah, really, fair." She leans to kiss Akari on the snout: "I slept great, but you're comfy~."

Akari blushes, nuzzling Cindi after the kiss, "Comfy is something I would strive to be for you, yes. Feels really good having you snuggled against me."

Cindi smiles warmly: "Well, we're certainly in agreement about that." She pauses, blushing more fiercely: "...gosh, I hope sleeping with you when we're human again doesn't feel like a downgrade despite the lack of fluff." She winces, feeling bad for even voicing the thought.

Akari blinks, unable to really stop herself from cringing at the flood of negative emotions that come with hearing that fear voiced aloud. "I... I don't know... I probably can't quite live up to Akari... I hope that it'll be alright..."

Cindi swallows, then nods: "Y-yeah..." She sighs: "...I need to be better than this. I do love Rowan as well, fluff be damned." She smiles: "I love you."

Akari blushes, her expression sad before it begins to soften, "I... I know that. Just... Don't mind me. I love you too."

Cindi sighs, leaning her snout towards Akari: "I'm just a worrywart. You know me."

Akari nods, leaning up until her snout boops against Cindi's. "Me too... I'm hardly as huggable as Rowan. Or as cute..."

Cindi pauses, then hums with slight amusement: "...but I think comparing our normal selves to... this, in terms of cuteness, is being a bit unfair. We designed our... furselves to be extremely cute."

Akari takes a breath, "Yeah... It's unfair... I can't always be like this." She shakes her head, "Starting to really feel what those words mean, when we take this form off, that's all. It seemed so ominous when Rowena told us, but, now..."

Cindi shifts her position slightly, then gets up to sitting on the bed, inbetween Akari's legs. "Yeah. That... said..." She hesitates, putting a paw onto Akari's thigh: "...I kind of want, or some part of me wants..." Why are words suddenly so hard after everything? "...if we can do the spell this morning, and reaffirm... the other side, the 'normal' side of things, a-as well?"

Akari lowers her hand to touch overtop of Cindi's. "Maybe... Maybe a good idea. Just to do it. And then we can know if it's just Cindi and Akari being themselves." She already knows her answer. She's loved Jac' for years, in one sense or another. Being Akari didn't change that feeling.

Cindi nods. "Yeah. And... on a more practical note, I think we gotta get out of fur for a bit anyway today, my fridge is sort of empty right now." She gives Akari a warm smile with just the tiniest bit of hesitancy to go along with it.

Akari chuckles awkwardly, "Then probably wise to go 'be people' again. Yeah." She sits up, some part of her hesitating, as if not really sure this is the right thing to do.

Cindi nods, then offers her palm, fingers up, for Akari to touch. "We can do it. In this together, with or without fur." She is quiet for a second, before adding: "I love you, and that means, all of you."

Akari sniffles, taking Cindi's paw. "I love you. All sides of you. Let's do this."

Cindi smiles, pressing her paw pads against Akari's hoof-nails. "Only one way to be certain, even if we mostly already are."

Akari swallows nervously, "Yeah... I'm sure I am, but..." The doubt isn't in her love, nor in Cindi's... so why does she hesitate so much doing this again?

She takes another breath, and closes her eyes, voice squeaking a bit as she recites the magic words,

"One's true form, fulfilled.

One's fake form, needed.

Become what you need to be,

To eventually return to what you are."

Cindi looks at Akari recite the words, then closes her own eyes and does the same before she can double-think any of this.

After what seems like forever but is probably only some seconds, she... he gasps inside the now-costume's head, and with slightly shaking hands lifts it off.

Jacinto's expression is one of a tired smile, the spell always taking a bunch of energy out of one. "... Phwee. That's always... A thing, for sure."

Akari breaths out, feeling the breath inside the head instead of through it, finally telling her that it has taken effect. She reaches up and removes Akari's head, feeling exhausted as well, and more than a little bit anxious, "We just woke up, but feels like I just ran a marathon... I... h-how you doing um... Jac?"

Jacinto shifts his sitting position now that the costume is once again 'just' that - although he could swear his body adapts to this thing so eerily smoothly even before he puts the head on...

He wipes a bit of sweat from his forehead with a paw, then smiles at seeing Rowan's face. "As good as when we woke up, I think."

His heart feels like it's trying to pounce off of his chest, but it's also telling there's just one way forward from here.

Akari... no... Rowan, sadly, smiles back at Jac'. "Still feeling it, then. The padding is a little less cuddly like this, and and it's not soft in the right places... plus, you have to look at this ugly mug now." He gestures towards his face with the costumed hand, forcing a smile through the self-deprecating jokes.

Jacinto almost starts to nod, then stops himself and lifts a paw... before stopping himself again, wiggling himself free from the suit enough to free his left hand, his very much human hand, and lifting said hand to gently touch Rowan's cheek. "Hey. T-that's my boyfriend you're disparaging."

Rowan breaks at Jacinto's words, at his touch, tears flowing freely as he cries at his best friend... his boyfriend's acceptance. "Th-thank you..."

Jacinto leans closer as best as he is able, his own eyes not exactly dry either. He whispers with a smile regardless: "I promised, didn't I."

Rowan shakes his head, sobbing quietly, "N-never doubted you... just... h-hearing the words.... I... I love you, Jacinto."

Jacinto swallows, sniffing. "Y-yeah. Words." He then leans closer for a soft kiss, because fuck the concept of words right now, actually, in comparison.

Rowan's eyes go wide in surprise, only for him to eagerly return the kiss, wrapping his suited arms around Jacinto.

Jacinto finds himself holding the kiss just as eagerly as Cindi would Akari's, for quite the moment. When he finally lets go, he's crying and smiling and blushing all the same. "Love you."

Rowan just holds Jacinto close for as long as he can, not wanting to ever let go. After several moments, he finally pulls back, fumbling through a sobbing mess of a joke, "Y-you... y-you're um, a better kisser too. Than Cindi, I mean. It's the snouts..."

Jacinto blinks, then breaks into soft laughter. "Oh. Heh. Probably." He lets out a breath he did not realize he was holding, and just holds Rowan close. "...both? Both is good."

Rowan nods, "Both... both is... very good."

Jacinto gives a nervous giggle of sorts. "Gosh... this all is going to be a lot to keep ourselves from talking about in mixed company, isn't it."

Rowan chuckles through the tears, clearly happy beyond belief, "Y-yeah. Guess so, huh? I still just want to hold your hand and let you pull me off into whatever adventure springs to mind. That's what I've always loved about you."

Jacinto smiles and leans close, swallowing: "Y-yeah, me... Me too. I want to make you smile in new and crazy ways for the rest of our lives." He gives a soft laugh. "A-although it might be hard to top becoming a Real Fur."

Rowan shakes his head, "I don't know... this moment... kinda feels like it tops it all."

Jacinto blinks, then reaches for another hug: "Y-yeah. You have a point."

Rowan hugs Jac' tight in response, "Not usually... but sometimes. I don't know what our lives look like from here on out. I don't know how our furselves factor into it, or how we can or can't display our affection in public... I don't know."

He swallows, squeezing, "I do know that so long as you'll have me, I won't let go. I promise."

Jacinto lets out a little gasp at those words, and just nods in the hug. "One s-step... Or hug, at a time."

Rowan nods, "Yeah... it's all we can do, huh?" He holds the hug a little long before finally letting his hands drop back to his side, smiling wide, "Guess I should change out of Akari, now that I've changed out of Akari, huh?"

Jacinto nods, lifting his free arm from around Rowan. "Y-yeah. We have a lot to figure out, but... Maybe we can start by heading out for pizza in town and refill our drinks and snacks for tonight."

Rowan leans into Jacinto just a bit, "Would not do to leave your pantry bare. And pizza does remain my favorite food. It's a compelling argument for leaving bed."

Jacinto laughs softly. "Pizza is always a compelling argument. And it's probably easier to eat out of fur, too."

Rowan sighs dramatically and shifts off the bed, reaching back to unzip the suit and slip himself out of the furry one-piece. "Probably. Though the shower did wonders washing away the taco sauce."

Jacinto laughs: "I don't know, it would start to get a bit tiresome to have a shower after every meal." He pauses. "...well, depends on the kind of shower, last night was pretty uniquely amazing."

Rowan smirks, slipping his arms out of the suit and stepping out of the legs, feeling a deep pang of disappointment at returning to his body. He doesn't really take the time to process that emotion at the moment, still flying high from the newfound closeness to Jacinto.

"Yeah... the water, the heat, the you. All perfect."

Jacinto starts getting out of the suit as well, being careful to not damage everything... maybe more careful now than ever before. Once he's out of the suit and just in his t-shirt and panties, he gives Rowan a blushing smile: "...funny how seeing you like this feels so... different, now."

Rowan carefully folds up his own suit, eyeing Jac with a laugh, "We've seen each other like this a hundred times before at cons, or just hanging out... but, you're not wrong."

Jacinto swallows a bit, then sets aside Cindi's bodysuit. "...I look at you, and I see you... and on some level, Cindi sees Akari. What we are, in either form..." He gets up and takes Rowan's hands in his own: "...both matter."

Rowan feels the heat rise to his cheeks, and he slowly nods, taking Jac's hand to squeeze it gently. "I... I see that too. You... Cindi... I love you both. But they're both just you. And I love you."

Jacinto lets out a soft giggle, leaning close to touch his forehead to Rowan's. "Y-yeah. You got it, I think." He whispers, closing his eyes as he holds Rowan's hands. "And I love you."

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