Really Strange Stuff

=::= Bailey's PoV =::=

"What a day," Callie commented as she stretched.

Her arms and ears reached upwards for the ceiling as she stood on tippy-toes, while her tail stretched straight out behind her. Then she all but flopped over sideways onto the bed like a puppet who's strings were just cut. In an instant she went from straining every muscle in her full-body stretch to being more like a floppy catgirl puddle, with one leg and her tail dangling over the edge of the bed.

"I don't know about you," she sighed, "But I am all peopled out."

I gave her a sympathetic smile then stifled a yawn as I sat down on the bed next to her. I reached over and ran my fingers through her hair and scritched the base of her ears as I agreed, "Me too cutie. I hope you had a good time though?"

Her eyes half closed as a sleepy smile appeared on her face, and a quiet rumble emanated from deep in her chest. It took a few more seconds before she mumbled her response, "Mhmm. It was nice. Your folks are nice. Jasmine and Heather are cool. Your whole family's cool."

"Thanks Callie," I smiled as I continued giving her headpats and scritches.

Her purring got louder as her eyes fully closed, and soon she seemed to be completely lost in the blissful sensations of being stroked and petted. My hand faltered once as I caught myself wondering what it would feel like to have tall fuzzy foxy ears. Or better yet, what it'd be like to have someone give my foxy ears some gentle scritches, and maybe even some headpats too.

Then my thoughts drifted to my cousins, and how adorable they looked. I couldn't help wondering if I'd be that cute as a foxgirl, although I wouldn't want to be as small as Heather and Jasmine ended up. It turned out I kind of liked being bigger than Callie, it made it easier to take charge of her now and then. Which was something we discovered we both enjoyed. So I kind of hoped my foxgirl form would either be the same height, or not that much smaller. I definitely wanted to keep a few inches of height and reach over my girlfriend.

My cheeks suddenly flushed as I realized what I was thinking about, but fortunately my calico catgirl's eyes were closed so she didn't notice my expression. Or the way I grimaced as I tried to push those thoughts away.

We still needed to have that conversation, except I had no idea what I was going to tell her. The truth was probably the best option, that she'd walked in on my mom and I while the two of us were teasing each other, and I hadn't really meant any of those things. Except I wasn't entirely sure that last part was completely true.

So maybe the real truth was that I hadn't made any decisions yet. About the plushie that is. I had no idea what to say about the Serenity situation.

Over the past seven weeks the tall ravenette catgirl and I had grown closer than we'd ever been before. And I couldn't deny that she was an attractive woman. I wasn't sure how she felt about me, but having my girlfriend tell me Serenity was looking at me like that was definitely a surprise. Not as big a surprise though as finding out Callie would be willing to invite her best friend to join us in a catgirl foxgirl catgirl polycule.

I honestly had no idea how to feel about that. I wasn't sure if I was willing to try it, or if I even wanted to. Although once again, I couldn't help feeling at least a little curious about the idea. I liked and respected Serenity, both as a friend and coworker. Before her transformation I thought she was a bit distant and guarded, even though she was always friendly. Now I knew that was probably due to dysphoria, or the stress of being a closeted trans woman. And the past seven weeks she'd definitely opened up a lot more, and it was great seeing the real Serenity finally shine through.

A few minutes must have passed while I lay there lost in thought, but eventually some little paws stepped on my belly and snapped me out of it. I'd been so distracted I hadn't even noticed when Callie used her plushie. Now her nightshirt lay empty on the bed next to me, while a small calico kitty curled up on my chest between my boobs.

"Ok cutie," I smiled as I brought one hand over to resume petting her. "Just hold tight so I can get comfy too."

She made some grumpy little noises as I shifted around until my head was on the pillow, then she jumped clear while I pulled the blankets up over myself. Callie returned after I'd stopped moving, and curled up ontop of me once again. She purred as I stroked my fingers through her soft fur, but it was less than half a minute before she was sound asleep.

I drifted off not long after, wondering what it'd feel like to be a small fluffy fox curled up ontop of the bed next to a little kitty girlfriend or two.

• • • • •

Friday turned out to be as busy as we all expected.

Callie and Serenity did a couple online interviews with some friends in the paranormal business. Folks they trusted enough to let them see advance copies of the new show, so they could have reviews and promo pieces ready to go as soon as the episode dropped.

Meanwhile I was already working on the promo cuts for next month's episode, short teasers we could roll after the first episode, or share on social media. They were based on stuff we'd already recorded, although the second episode itself still had a long way to go before it was ready.

Fortunately it meant both Callie and I were way too busy and distracted to think about that stuff that came up in my parents' kitchen yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, Saturday was a completely different story.

We spent the morning working, but by mid-afternoon there really wasn't anything left to be done for that night's episode. And we were all too anxiously excited about the first episode to focus on the second one. So what we really needed was something to distract us and get our minds off all that stuff for a while. Which meant it was actually an ideal time for my girlfriend to bring up that conversation we'd put off since Thursday.

"Hey here's something that'll get our minds off tonight's premier for a while," the calico catgirl suggested as the three of us tried to relax. She and I were sitting together on the sofa, while our friend was curled up across from us on the easy-chair. "Bailey said something to me at her folks' place, but we agreed to hold off until the three of us could all talk in private."

Serenity's ears drooped as she gave me a worried look, "You're not planning on leaving the show are you?"

"What?" I blinked at her in surprise, "No! Of course not!"

She let out a sigh of relief, "Good! Because it's been great having you on the team, Bailey. It would have taken me and Callie at least two or three more years to get to where we are today, if you hadn't joined us."

"Damn right," my girlfriend nodded in agreement. "I know our numbers saw a spike after the on-screen catgirl transformations, but that's still small compared to the boost we got over the first few months after you took over a lot of the production work."

I found myself blushing as I cringed slightly into my hoodie. I couldn't help smiling though as I replied, "Thanks you two. I think you're both exaggerating, but I'm glad to be here. And I'm happy to be able to help."

"So what did you want to talk about then?" the tall ravenette catgirl asked her best friend and I.

My heart-rate picked up and I cringed a little further into my hoodie, while my mind raced. This was it, I couldn't put it off any longer. The problem was I still hadn't figured out what to say, or how to say it. But I knew I had to say something, otherwise Callie would just keep going with the assumptions she made the other day.

"My mom and I were sort of teasing each other while I was helping out in the kitchen on Thursday," I blurted out. "I didn't realize Callie had joined us, and like a sit-com she overheard just enough of the conversation to jump to the wrong conclusions..."

My voice trailed off when I saw how my girlfriend's ears and tail were all drooping down.

She gave me a sad look, "That was all just a joke?"

"I'm sorry cutie," I sighed. "The truth is I hadn't actually made any decisions about the plushie."

I added quickly, "I've been thinking about it a lot though. Pretty much every day since I got it, but especially these last two days. Seeing Jasmine and Heather didn't hurt either, they both look amazing."

Callie's ears perked up again and she gave me a hopeful look, "So you're still thinking about it?"

"Um," I hesitated as I felt my cheeks heating up once more. Then I gulped, "Yeah. Like I said, I've been thinking about it a lot lately."

My girlfriend smiled and her tail twitched happily, "Yes! So should we plan to bump our December live-stream up a week? We could do it on the second, and if you've made your mind up we'll get you on the sofa with me and Sere. Then you can do the transformation live, it'll be amazing!"

The other catgirl responded, "If Bailey's going to do it on our next live-stream then I think it'd be best if one of us took her spot behind the camera. At least for that show? I'll take her place so you and your girlfriend can do the on-screen stuff together."

"No way!" Callie insisted. "You have to be there Serenity, all three of us on the couch together! That's the other thing me and Bailey needed to talk with you about."

The tall sexy ravenette tilted her head to one side as she asked, "Why's it so important to have all three of us squeezed into the shot together?"

Once again I felt my heart racing and my cheeks burning, while my girlfriend looked to me. Her ears drooped slightly as she hesitated, "Oh. You were just joking about that part too?"

"I mean," I gulped as I glanced over at Serenity. "I can't say I've never thought about it? But that's all, just some idle thoughts..."

Serenity frowned slightly as she looked back and forth between Callie and I. Then her eyes widened and her ears flicked. "Wait seriously? What... no hold on. I'm not jumping to any conclusions or making any assumptions. What exactly are you two thinking about? And what are you proposing? If anything."

Callie glanced at me then focused on her best friend again. The calico took a deep breath then explained, "So first up I've seen the way you and Bailey have been looking at each other. Not at first, but the last four or five weeks for sure. It seems pretty clear to me you two are into each other, or at least there's some real attraction there."

"And I've been keeping quiet about this up until now," my girlfriend continued, "Mostly because I didn't want to upset you or freak you out Sere? Because of all the history we have together, how long we've known each other and been best friends and everything. But yeah, what I'm trying to say is I think you're hot."

She glanced at me again before sighing, "So on Thursday I heard Bailey and her mom talking about you and me like she was girlfriends with both of us. I was surprised, but I figured if you and her were ok with that then I was willing to give it a shot as well."

"Plus I thought if she was going to use her fox plushie then it'd be pretty wild right?" Callie added as some of that excitement crept back into her voice and expression. "Two catgirls and a foxgirl, all three of us would be cryptids running our own paranormal show together. And all of us being in a relationship together? That'd be really nice."

My girlfriend finally went quiet, while I was once again blushing brightly as I cringed into my hoodie. It occurred to me that a big floofy fox tail would come in pretty handy, since I'd always have something I could hide behind whenever I needed it. Then I cringed a little more as soon as I realized what I'd been thinking about.

While I was worrying about my apparent case of tail envy Serenity just sat and stared at her best friend. She looked like she had no idea what to say or think, about any of the things Callie just told her.

Eventually the tall sexy catgirl responded, "Alright first off the three of us are already in a relationship together. We're friends, and we're coworkers, and we live together. What you're talking about is expanding that to include either romance or sex, or both."

She hesitated briefly on that thought before continuing, "I'm not opposed to either of those options. Or both of them. Honestly I find both of you very attractive, and if you two weren't already a couple I might have been a little more forward about pursuing something like that with one or the other of you myself."

"But on that note we should make sure we're all on the same page before we go any further," she added. "Like all three of us need to know what each other wants and expects, if we're all going to become involved romantically or sexually. We need to make sure nobody gets hurt and no-one's disappointed. I'd hate to lose either of you as friends, and I'd hate to see Really Strange Stuff suffer because we let ourselves get too caught up in personal stuff."

Serenity paused again for a moment, before focusing her attention on me. "I get that this all started with a misunderstanding the other day, but I'd like to hear what you think about all this Bailey? Since we've already heard from Callie, and now you both know how I feel as well."

Part of me had been dreading that question, and being put on the spot in front of my girlfriend and her best friend like that. On the other hand they'd both been honest about sharing their own feelings, and I owed it to them to do the same. So I pushed my hang-ups and preconceived ideas to the side for now, then took a deep breath before answering.

My voice still came out a little quieter and less confident than I'd intended as I replied, "It's not something I ever thought about before. Heck two months ago I thought I was straight! I'd never imagined I'd have one girlfriend, let alone two. But Callie's right, I've been feeling attracted to you lately too."

"It's not just a physical thing," I added quickly, while my cheeks heated up a bit. "I've felt a lot closer to you as a friend as well, like the more I get to know the real you, the more I like?"

I took another breath before getting to the point, "I guess what I'm saying is um, yes. If both you and Callie are ok with it, and you're both interested in taking our relationships with each other a little further, then I'm interested in that as well."

"All right," Serenity nodded. "Then Bailey, Callie, let's figure out how to do this so everyone's happy and everyone knows what to expect."

With that the three of us ended up having a mature and rational conversation, as we ironed out all the details of our new relationship status together. And even though it was very new and a little bit scary, it was also kind of exciting.