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Much Later that Evening (Or is it already Tomorrow Morning?).

Akari walks tiredly alongside Cindi back into their hotel room, still giggling quietly while holding her girlfriend arm-in-arm after a long night of karaoke. After the initial meeting had broken the ice, things had escalated as if the group was all old friends.

Honestly, singing was inevitable. Pizzas were ordered, and the group all gathered around a karaoke machine with a projection screen and taken turns breaking into song.

A few Furs even had strangely rehearsed performances, something the group seemed to take in stride. Even Akari had been weirdly excited to sing, picking from a list of Disney songs to bust out a heartfelt 'Part of Your World' while making starry eyes at Cindi.

Cindi had likewise gotten into some starry-eyed singing, breaking out a passionate rendition of Metalite's 'We Bring You The Stars'. Her female voice, she had noted, bends into singing quite well, maybe better than her usual human and male one, which had always felt like it's too rough and deep. Now she has a clue why it feels like that.

She squeezes Akari's arm, grinning and whispering in the hotel's hallway: "That was... awesome."

Akari nods, trying to keep herself from laughing loudly this late, "So awesome! Everyone was so good at singing..." She eyes Cindi lovingly, "You especially~"

Cindi blushes: "Ahh, it was nothing much... Just wanted to try..." True, she felt several tips and tricks from those singing classes she had as a pre-teen, come back, but that doesn't mean anything...

Akari grins, nudging Cindi slightly, "And you killed it! You killed me! I think I actually, legitimately Swooned."

Cindi blushes further. "Ah uh. Well you sang really well too, so there." Not much of a counter-argument, but it's the best she has right now.

Akari squeezes Cindi's arm, glowing at the compliment. Her singing wasn't the best, but she was on key and knew the words, which is way better than she'd assumed going in to the event. "It was way too fun. I was half-thinking I'd just freeze up!"

Cindi grins, leaning close and whispering: "I don't think you froze at all there~"

Akari grins wide, clearly proud of her performance, especially with thoughts of trying her hand on stage in her head. "Nope~. Got through the whole song~"

Cindi smirks as she then steps close to their door, fishing up for her key from her tiny shoulder bag. "Maybe you should try to get back on stage, then~"

Akari squeaks happily, "You really think so? The whole idea has me kind of excited~. Maybe that won't last? But right now, I think I really want it."

Cindi hums, smiling as she opens the door. She whispers: "I seem to remember us talking about fursuiting in a similar manner, once upon a time..."

Akari hums as they slip into the room, "And look at all the trouble that got us into~."

Cindi giggles a bit louder once the door closes behind them. "No kidding. Never in a million years would I have guessed..."

Akari relaxes as well, "No, never. But here we are... with a whole mess of new friends I never would have imagined meeting."

Cindi takes Akari's hands in her paws, leading them to sit on the bed. "And... We're together. I'm not sure if we'd have ever realized that if our lives hadn't gotten shaken up by this."

Akari holds Cindi's paw between her hooves, sitting at the edge of the bed, "And that's the most important change of them all, in my mind."

Cindi nods, leaning to nuzzle the doe. "Y-yeah. I'd like to think we'd have realized this without fur, without... This gender thing, but... I don't know." She sighs happily, closing her eyes as she leans. "Whatever happens, we have each other."

Akari blinks, awkwardly recalling the things Quinn said when they talked. She freezes up slightly when Cindi nuzzles against her, "O-oh... right... the um... gender thing..." She swallows nervously, "A-about that..."

Cindi sniffs, then looks up at her lover with slight surprise: "O-oh? What about it?"

Akari cringes slightly, knowing how much Cindi has struggled with these issues, "Just... all these questions about gender, and Akari, and me... and... maybe the same way these changes all shook us up to realize what we had with one another..."

She takes a deep breath, "Th-that maybe it's something that's always been there too... maybe... I've always been female... transgender..." She practically squeaks out the last word, unsure how Cindi will react.

Cindi blinks. She straightens up, staring for a long moment. "Ah... Always? But you have never..."

She looks down at her own very definitely female curves: "... Though I suppose if..." She shakes her head, looking back up: "Akari... Rowan, that's just this change talking. Right?"

Akari slumps slightly, glancing away from Cindi. "I... I don't know. It's something I need to think about."

Cindi swallows, then steels herself. She knows one thing, at least.

She takes Akari's hand in hers. "... If so, then... Then you do." She wants to say more, so much more, but the words catch in her throat. Feeling like any word of support becomes an admission on her own part, and she can't bring herself to do that.

Akari pauses, having hoped for those very words of support. She looks down at Cindi's hand and takes another breath, squeezing back. "Y-yeah..."

Cindi swallows, her breath catching. "I... You..." She trails off and just leans on Akari again.

Akari feels her heart sink, and just can't stand Cindi feeling so awful about all this, "I... n-nevermind. I'll just... put that aside. I'm still Rowan, of course, when we're out of fur. The same g-guy you've known. So don't worry about it, okay?"

Cindi nods, even if they both already know how much good it does to tell her to not worry about something.

She swallows again: "... Why does this have to be so complicated?"

Akari swallows. "I... I don't know. S-sorry... now I've ruined tonight's fun..."

Cindi looks at Akari, sniffing: "But... What... No. You haven't ruined anything. Just... Surprised me, is all."

Akari still looks like she just watched someone kick her puppy, swallowing her words before she can try to speak again, "I... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to... I just... I can't stop thinking about it."

Cindi swallows, hesitates yet again, then finally gives Akari's hand a soft squeeze. "W-well... I did say I love you, fur or no fur... male or female." She gives a weak, but genuine smile.

Akari slowly smiles back, breathing out a sigh, "That was never in doubt, at least. I... I'm just trying to figure out how to love myself, and who I am."

Cindi nods. "So... t-transgender, maybe?" She frowns slightly, her knowledge on the topic being rather coloured by notions learned from sources that she's slowly learned are less than accurate on the idea. "...what... what would that mean, for you?"

Akari laughs sadly, "I don't even know yet. It's just something for me to research to see if it even fits... It... I'm just trying to find a way to make me feel as good about Rowan as I do about Akari. Even if Rowan does have to change a little too..."

Cindi nods along, thinking, then she blinks. "Oh. So... if I were to..." She hesitates, considering: "...kind of like if I wanted to explore the idea of looking slightly less dull as a human being... well, except nothing like that, I guess."

Akari tilts her head towards Cindi, "I mean... yes? Kind of like that I guess... Grow my hair out, a bit of makeup, maybe? I don't know. There's probably more to it. I just... I feel a bit giddy, you know? Thinking about myself as a woman."

Cindi pauses once more. "So... huh. I mean... suppose I can't go claiming this is coming out of nowhere, not when I quite literally, if you pardon my French here, have a few changed details about my genitals as I sit here."

Akari giggles, "I think for all we've been through, I'll excuse pretty much any language. I just... Like the way it feels, even just to think of myself like that. I want to be cute. The cutest! ...even when I'm human. I don't really think a little bit of styling changes who either of it really is."

Cindi nods slowly. "Yeah... I mean... you do kind of have a side-point here that while we focused on... well, the fursuits that aren't that anymore... I feel we may have neglected ourselves. Er, our other ourselves." She sighs. "I swear, eventually we will find a way to talk about this without getting all confusing with words."

Akari shrugs, "Can't say I can help there... But yeah... Having these furselves has made everything sorta about them, hasn't it? I guess for me, it's been realizing how unhappy I was as Rowan... Or at least, how... I don't know, Uncomfortable? It's not an easy thing to put into words either. So Akari felt like a way to get away from that and feel right. So... Maybe after this meetup, we do need to do more to make ourselves happy outside of fur?"

Cindi hesitates slowly: "Yeah... maybe we do. I was talking with someone how being in fur kinda... it kinda becomes escapism. Now I realize it may have indeed become that." She leans back, sighing as she looks at her own fluff-covered breasts: "...and far as that... other thing goes, I just don't know. But maybe you do have a point, that it's at least worth... poking at. Can't forever exist only for evenings and weekends and feeling like something is missing the rest of time."

Akari nods, then begins to lean back against Cindi, "Though during work the thing I always feel is missing is you. That won't change. But having other things to look forward to and enjoy, crafting or... Or getting back into theater. It can't hurt. And neither can exploring ways to feel better about Rowan... And Jac'..."

She hesitates, then turns to look more seriously at Jacinto, "You've seemed so sure of things, so uncomfortable when you've had to think about the gender stuff... I'm sorry if I keep bringing it up and making you uncomfortable."

The puppy-moth sighs: "It does make me uncomfortable... I want to argue that it's because I'm a guy, that that's why it feels so wrong..." She is quiet for a moment. "...but besides that flying in the face of the evidence of right this moment, why does it feel also so good being Cindi?"

Akari reaches her hand out to pat Cindi. "I could probably just say magic? And we can stop thinking about it any further than that... If you want."

Cindi sighs. She then nods. "It's... p-probably important we think about it, but..." She grasps at Akari's hand again and looks at her lover: "...I think right now I just want to snuggle you the rest of the night."

Akari smiles, squeezing Cindi's hand, "That at least I can do. And... We do have a lot more friends who can help us. I find some comfort in that."

Cindi smiles: "...yeah, me too. We're not alone." She leans to nuzzle at Akari's neck and cheek again, a rather canine but very comforting motion she's made something of a habit of.

Akari pulls Cindi into a more loving hug, "We're not. And I love you, Jacinto. Cindi."

Cindi smiles: "I love you, Akari. Rowan." She leans into the hug, closing her eyes.

Akari leans back, pulling Cindi along with her to lay down on the bed with her.

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