Can a Shark Swim in Gender Fluid?

By Beedok

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Part Two

Laying on her back, Maraĵa needed a moment to process what had just happened. It had been… well, it had been good. She wasn’t really managing much in the way of higher order brain functions over all the serotonin, though. Just quietly letting out a happy noise as the large woman who’d just given her one of the best nights of her life stepped out of the shower.

“Not to bang and bounce, my little shark,” Thusitha said, walking over to a dresser in the small suite, “but I have to get ready for work, so I don’t really have time to stay and cuddle.”

Maraĵa blinked, slowly sitting up. “You—but you were up all night?”

Thusitha shrugged. Her back was to Maraĵa right now, and so the shark-like woman was give the sight of large back muscles moving around Thusitha’s shoulder blades, visible even though the large bodyguard had a healthy amount of fat on top of those muscles.

“I can handle a couple nights in a row without sleep,” she said, turning around as she pulled a sports bra on.

Rather a different looking undergarment from the spicier ones she wore last night. The other clothing the large woman put on was similarly utilitarian. Boxer-briefs, then thin pants and a just as thin shirt that Maraĵa vaguely recognised from movies as being a form of kinetic resistance armour. She didn’t know how it worked, but then again, there was plenty of stuff she didn’t know the science behind. It wasn’t like she could explain how the processor in her computer worked either.

“Is it ok for me to be here unsupervised?” Maraĵa asked, brain finally clearing. “I… I just know you guys are supposed to keep people from poking around too much… I especially don’t want to risk running into that one guy who already seemed suspicious of me.”

Pausing as she buttoned her shirt, Thusitha turned to her. “One of my coworkers was giving you trouble?”

“Nothing that seemed out of line,” Maraĵa replied, not afraid to admit she was kind of enjoying the view of Thusitha now pulling some pants on. “But then he flirted with me, and I had to tell him I’m a lesbian and… well, you know how men can get when they’re rejected.”

“Ah… him,” Thusitha said, wearing a slight smirk as she pulled on her jacket. “Don’t worry. You weren’t actually in trouble. It was just some playful flirting.”

 Maraĵa nodded, glad to hear it.

“Before I go, though, here’s my number,” the tall woman said, pulling a small card out of a pocket and handing it to Maraĵa.

She then gave a ‘call me’ gesture before slipping out the door. She was really gone so much soon that Maraĵa had liked… the poor waitress had barely gotten to enjoy the sight of that much woman in well tailored South Asian style men’s wear.

Sighing to herself, since there was no one else around, she headed over to the tiny bathroom of the economy suite, doing her best not to hit the toilet with her tail while she washed herself.

Then it was a reasonably short trip through the public part of the resort, and down a service elevator to get to her own small apartment. Where she passed out on her bed. She only managed to get about four hours of decent sleep, and then another bit of tossing and turning while hitting the snooze button every few minutes.

(Un)fortunately, she’d set her alarm clock up to shorten the gap a snooze offered, until the button eventually didn’t do anything, and she had to simply listen to the alarm for a few minutes. The little machine wouldn’t even accept being turned ‘off’ at that point. 

Annoyed, she accepted it was time to make breakfast, then find something to do with the rest of her morning.

 

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Sunday had been a reasonably quiet shift, but it usually was. Hence why they had less staff on. She’d texted Thusitha on Monday, hoping that was a respectable and yet polite amount of time to wait. It was always different with every relationship, after all.

The other woman had texted back, but explained that she was too busy that day. 

Which left Maraĵa a little disappointed, but she had other things she could do with her day off. For starters, her fridge was getting a bit empty. There was an employee cafeteria, but that was expensive and also meant giving her money right back to the Hydraquos resort. Which was, from a worker’s rights standpoint, not something Maraĵa was open to supporting. It was bad enough she had to live on the resort (rent automatically deducted from her salary)… so, no. She was going to grab the ferry to Menorca and get groceries.

Even if that meant going through the security checkpoints for everyone moving in and out of the resort.

At least there was minimal security on the way out, but she did not like the look of the queue for people getting off the freshly arrived ferry. On her own ride out to the island, she was left wondering if there were any foods that were going to raise more or fewer eyebrows with the security.

They could just x-ray it and be done, right? Probably.

Still, as she shopped, she supposed canned goods might be harder to see inside of, and so skipped over those. Which was a shame, because she liked her tuna and other fish these days, and couldn’t afford to get everything fresh.

It seemed her decision did not go unnoticed by Enrique, the owner of the small grocery store she always went shopping at.

“You need more meat than that, dear,” the greying shopkeeper said, looking at her basket. “You’re basically a carnivore now… you know that.”

“I’m not sure how well the security people could get through metal, though,” she explained. “The whole resort is on high alert now. I don’t want to get dragged into any trouble because they can’t tell my can of sardines isn’t a bomb.”

“You’re an employee, you’ve surely been there long enough not to raise suspicions?” the man said, sounding concerned.

He’d always been the sort who wanted to protect any of the younger feminine folks who shopped at the store… and also looked out for the young men who would let him. Or, at least, had been protective of her before she’d clued in that she was a girl, but maybe he’d just clued in earlier than she had. Either way, she was glad for his concern.

Honestly, he was fully like an uncle to her.

“They’re protecting an exiled president… that’s top level assassins stuff. They probably had nano-tubs they could impersonate anyone they wanted, right? You see it in the movies,” she said with a slight shrug. “So, being an employee probably only means so much. Besides, there’s restaurants on the resort if I get overly weak from lack of protein.”

Enrique seemed a bit less convinced, but gave a small nod. “Well, I’ll lend you a cooler to help keep the fresh meat on your ferry ride back. I know you’re good to return it.”

“Thank you,” she said with a closed mouth smile. 

She worried about spooking him with her teeth, with them so sharp. Though she was sure the rest of the changes were probably at least as off putting as sharp toothed smiles would ever be. Her parents were rather awkward about it, her mother mumbling sometimes that she’d been thrilled when Maraĵa came out as a girl, so she could have a daughter who looked like her… and had ended up with a shark.

At least Enrique hid any discomfort better, if he had it.

She thanked him again for the cooler when she was done shopping and headed back towards the ferry. They were only once an hour, but she’d timed her trip so she wouldn’t have too long to wait on the way back. Something she was glad she’d done, with the way a middle aged mother not far from her kept trying to keep her kids from looking Maraĵa’s way. No doubt worried that her ‘strangeness’ was contagious, as some baseline purists got.

The actual ferry ride was another half an hour, but she had her phone to keep her busy, catching back up a little on a donghua she’d fallen behind on. Which she did somewhere quieter, to avoid more gawking or whispers.

Then it was time to get into the lines for security. She was glad to see there was a seperate line for employees, and that it was quite a bit shorter. The two security guards running the sweeps, however, decided she needed enhanced screening. Whether it was caused by the amount of food she was bringing back, her being non-baseline, or her being a reasonably attractive young woman, she couldn’t say.

At least she wasn’t as intimidated by these security men as she was by the President’s personal bodyguards. They were just hired local security personnel, not towering giants. She partially wondered if they were going on a power trip to make up how those bodyguards intimidated them.

“Just why do you need so much food?” the one guard asked.

“Because I don’t know how long these security checks will last, and I want to minimize the amount of times I have to go through all this,” Maraĵa muttered.

“Oh? Trying to avoid security checks?” the other guard asked.

“Uh… yes? Everyone is?” she replied.

The guards narrowed their eyes, as if that was the wrong answer.

“Why don’t you just get food from the stores and restaurants on the resort?” the first guard asked.

“It’s overpriced and I don’t want my employer to claw back my entire paycheque?” she said.

“Seems suspicious to do it right after President Sharif arrived… leaving the resort and coming back with so much stuff.”

“I had bad luck with when I ran out of food,” she said, shifting in the chair after the urge to slump had ended up uncomfortable on her tail. “Listen, you can check with my coworkers to learn that I tend to go out for groceries every couple weeks.”

Before either of the men could reply, the door behind them opened. A large and familiar face marched into the room. The guard who’d attempted to flirt with her the first night.

“There’s an angry mob of employees forming out there, waiting for you two to process them,” the large South Asian man said. “Might want to do something about that.”

The two security guards stared up at him, being utterly dwarfed by the towering man while they were seated. They then paled. Rushing out the door, the one stopped to tell him he could handle the ‘interrogation’, before scrambling after the other.

Smiling, the tall man sat down and leafed through the quick notes the guards had taken.

“So, little shark… I see you’ve been detained for the crime of… ‘needing food’,” he said, still grinning.

Grinning in a way that seemed like he might be flirting with her again. Despite what she’d told him about her sexuality before… and to think she’d hoped he was a decent guy that night.

“Will I be allowed to go, then?” Maraĵa asked, her tone a bit flat and tired.

“Sharp today,” he said with a few blinks.

She smiled back, showing off her teeth. “Sharks are known to be.”

He let out a small chuckle, before standing up. “Fair enough, little shark. I see no good reason for you to be detained, so you’re free to go.”

Maraĵa grabbed her groceries and marched out past the large man. She found herself annoyed by the size difference, and the way it made trying to seem intimidating almost impossible… to think, she’d kept her height from before her transition specifically to not feel small and helpless like this. Worse still was the look on his face that told her he thought she was adorable.

Feeling grumpy, she marched over to the nearest service elevator and rode it down into the employee sublevels. Then she stomped her way back to her apartment, shoving her groceries away with still lingering annoyance. 

Needing to vent, she decided to shoot a text off to Thusitha, complaining about the whole process.

[You are cute.] Thusitha texted back, after a couple of minutes.

A reply that Maraĵa couldn’t help but picture the divinely beautiful woman saying. A mental image that left her flustered.

Still, she had to make her protests clear. [A guy should still be more subtle about thinking that about me.]

[I’ll see what I can do.] came the reply a short while later.

Maraĵa felt frazzled about that, quickly typing a simply reply of: [Don’t get into any fights on my behalf.]

[Don’t worry.]

Staring at that, Maraĵa wasn’t sure if Thusitha was saying not to worry about the possibility she’d get into fights, or not to worry about the results of any fights she got into. It seemed better to assume the former, so she did her best to. 

Instead, she tried to change the conversation topic over to the possibility of meeting up the next day. Sadly, Thusitha replied that she couldn’t make any guarantees. Reading the message over, Maraĵa flopped on her futon, staring at the ceiling.

She had it bad. It was embarrassing… even if she was certain it was understandable she’d fallen for an amazonian goddess like Thusitha. There surely wasn’t a lesbian alive who could resist that 110+ kg of muscular yet soft woman…