ALL NOVEL Final Chapter – Moth
First Waves Day +20
He’d been in there for a week. A full week! That was even longer than it had taken her. Was there some rhyme or reason to it, or had he just been unlucky?
She was at her limit. Her job refused to let her go on leave; the clothing store at the mall still needed all hands on deck. If she had still been on her human diet she could only guess how much money she would’ve needed to spend on takeout to survive this week.
Yesterday’s hangout at Ariel’s had been invaluable in making her avoid a breakdown. Solitude was her worst enemy. They’d talked a lot about things she didn’t know about trans people, and she’d absorbed the information like a sponge. After mentioning the rates of neurodiversity in LGBTQ people, it had even swerved into mental disability territory. Being taught about your own quirks like they were well documented and understood was a strange experience. Where had all this information been all her life?
The time she did spend at home was now almost exclusively used to stare at her roommate’s cocoon. She’d poked and prodded it a few times, never more than that though. At some point, she had gained the presence of mind to put on some music in the room, hoping that would be enough to satisfy her promise to take care of him. She was sitting on his desk chair, holding her knees to her face and hugging her plush bunny.
On this particular Sunday morning, after a few hours of silently waiting, a crackling sound began to emerge from the cocoon.
At first, she thought she had imagined it. That thought lasted only for a moment as the caramel shell began to crack, before a similarly colored hand punched right through it, sending bits of the cocoon flying across the room. The pattern of the chocolate fuzz covering the hand gave the impression of a fingerless glove.
Another hand joined it and together, they tore a hole in the cocoon from which two giant leaf shaped antennae flopped out. Her roommate pushed himself out at once.
gasp
She felt disoriented as she regained her bearings on the outside world. The soft bed didn’t help and she quickly stepped off it.
She immediately followed by stretching herself. She cracked her neck, her shoulders, her knees, then properly followed her well memorized exercises, speeding through them a bit. It was relieving to feel her body still be familiar. Oh, she had muscles under that hide, and they were eager to get back to their workout. As for what did change, her hair, much rougher to the touch, cascaded down to her mid-back. She turned her neck to observe the pair of wings she could feel. They were draping down her back like a cloak, and unfolded at her command. Each was split into a fore and hindwing, the former decorated with a greyish brown and a pinch of red, the latter a bright pumpkin orange, and all four of them adorned with a motif in their center that was vaguely reminiscent of an eye.
Regarding the front, an ever-present brownish fuzz covering most of her body provided her with some modesty. It was strange having any amount of chest to speak of that wasn’t pectorals, but it did feel right — that was about all it took to convince her this was the right decision. It would’ve been one thing if, like her roomie, she had been forced into this with no understanding of how nor why, but with the context that it was possible, and what it meant… Even if her understanding was still pretty rudimentary, the puzzle pieces had been much easier to put together for her during that stay in the cocoon.
Her roomie was there, staring agape at her body. That was quite a reaction. It always felt nice to be this desired. She smirked. “Surprised?” Her voice was husky, similar to her old repertoire yet unmistakably new.
The shorter butterfly looked up at her face; her own was covered in blue from forehead to chin. She was breathing audibly, looking petrified. “B-but… you’re…”
“Yeah, I know. Bit of a shock, isn’t it. So how do I look?” She said, flexing her arm.
The butterfly let out a few meeps and similar noises as she tripped backwards over her chair. The tall moth swooped in to lift her in her arms. Her roomie clung around her neck for dear life, suddenly crying out. “I missed yuuuuu… I luv yuuuuu…”
“You’re adorable, roomie. I love you too.” She ruffled her hair and planted a kiss on her lips.
They had a lot to catch each other up on.
One month later.
She muttered in her sleep as she reached for her significant other in the other half of their bed. Finding the space empty, Holly opened one eye then the other. She searched for her phone and looked at the time. Work was in an hour. She stretched and flapped her wings, climbed out of bed and slid her feet into her blue slippers, whose color matched her nightgown. She fluttered to the window and pulled open the curtains, then stepped out the door to the smell of Minerva cooking herself something nice. She started looking around for her nectar bottle. “Morning babe…” She shot in the direction of the kitchen. “Where’d you put my—” she spotted it on the lunch table. “Found it. Thanks!”
“I always put it in the same place every time, you know?” Minerva shot back, before her voice would be drowned out by her mixing herself her bok choy smoothie.
“Hmmm,” Holly mumbled while sipping. She glided her way to the kitchen and waited for the noise to stop, before approaching her girlfriend from behind and cuddling her.
Minerva, as was her habit, ruffled her hair and planted a kiss on her lips. Already clad in her sports shorts and workout undershirt, she looked so athletic.
Holly admired her well toned body every day and felt like she would never get tired of it.
The self-described butch appreciated the pining looks from her girlfriend. From the sheer honesty behind the stars in those eyes, she could tell how deep Holly’s love for her was. All Minerva ever had to do was show off a little bit and Holly would fittingly melt like butter. She turned back to her stir fry and plated herself a hearty breakfast, turning the heat off and pulling out a tupper for the leftovers. “Am I still invited to Ariel's this Saturday or was that just for last week?” She asked.
“Hmm-mh!” Holly nodded vigorously, hovering behind her as they headed for the couch. “Oh! So what did you think of the thing Joshee told you to do?”
“Trying out they/them, right?” They sat down and cuddled while waiting for Minerva’s meal to cool. Holly stared at her with big, concerned eyes, helping the words out. “Didn’t really feel ‘me’, in the end. Don’t hate having tried, though. It was interesting.” She gave Holly a wide grin. “And you?”
Holly withdrew into herself a bit. “Attraction is weird…” she muttered, hugging Minerva’s arm tightly. Her own homework had been to look into her sexuality, and being bi had come as a surprising answer. Not fully unexpected, but weird in a way she couldn’t pinpoint. She still felt like she leaned towards women, but with how much apprehension she had towards her attraction to men, she doubted how accurate that analysis would end up staying over time. Maybe it would be, maybe it wouldn’t, but she had no way to tell from there. She still needed more time to process her feelings.
Both of them had put their studies on hold for the time being. Holly wanted to take the time to understand herself and to get the medication she needed for her anxiety; while Minerva had scored a job as an instructor at her usual fitness center of choice, and with the personalized regimen she often needed to come up with, the extra pay was decent enough that she felt she could focus on this for the time being. Ariel had severely recommended her to look into unionizing, which she knew little about, but she trusted the advice of the resident mom-friend of Holly’s queer friend group.
Life went on in that slightly strange way that now defined it. The ride was far from bumpless, but things were generally looking up.
Minerva pulled her girlfriend into a close embrace, and they cuddled on the couch, exchanging pecks as their whims took them.
