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The Shape of Things: Starting Over By Green

Vincent Linus leaned back in his seat with a satisfied groan, letting one hand rest on his stomach and using the other to wipe his mouth with a napkin. The arctic fox slouched down a little in his seat, both making himself more comfortable and giving his tail a little room to wag tiredly. "Oh man," he sighed, "now I remember why we don't eat here more often. That was delicious, but I'm so full I feel like I'm in danger of hibernating when we get back..." His dining companion, an appropriately large Komodo dragon, grinned as he picked some burger fragments out of his intimidatingly sharp teeth. "Funny, you don't look like a bear to me," he said, "You don't even look like a fox at the moment." Vinnie scoffed as the waitress came by to drop off the cheques and collect their trays. No words were exchanged, but she smiled softly at Vinnie before she left. "You see?" he asked, crossing his arms triumphantly, "Chicks dig the new pelt. And I don't even have to make up some ridiculous story because mammals can just go out and buy dye!" The Komodo, Vinnie's roommate and best friend Andrew Raynor, sighed, a low and rumbly sound which made a squirrel in the next booth bite her lip anxiously. Komodo dragons have that effect on people with nervous dispositions. "Of course she smiled at you," he said, after finishing off his drink, "She's expecting a tip, so she's obligated to be nice. On that note, you gonna get this, or should I?" Vinnie smirked, a green-tipped ear twitching. "Rock-paper-scissors," he said, smiling confidently. That grin faded seconds later as his scissors were metaphorically smashed by Andrew's rock, and as the lizard laughed delightedly, Vinnie shot him a glare and got out his wallet.

Soon, the two of them stepped back outside, ready to walk the short distance home. Despite being rather impressively bundled up, Andrew groaned as soon as he stepped away from the door. "Ugh, I just do not know how you mammals put up with this nonsense," he muttered, kicking at a pile of snow on the sidewalk, "If reptiles ran the world, we wouldn't even have bothered building cities this far north. This is where parents would tell their children they'd go if they were bad." Exaggeratedly rubbing the thick, puffy fur on his tail that kept vulpines nice and toasty in exactly such weather, Vinnie grinned, not missing a beat. "Then the mammals would have thrived in the snow and ice," he said, deadpan, "Eventually, we would build giant moving structures of ice to move into your reptilian civilizations and lay waste until we took our rightful place. True story." The Komodo snickered, but just shook his head without replying as they headed down the street. There was a fair amount of snow already down, but it was currently much too cold for any to be falling. It was hard to say which the reptile would prefer; as a general rule, most people who fell on his side of the animal kingdom weren't too fond of the winter, but while the snow made walking in the city kind of a hassle, this freezing weather wasn't exactly what he'd been hoping for, either. Soon enough, they'd arrived at one of the apartment complexes lining the street, and after a few seconds of struggling to use the key through thick gloves, Andrew stepped inside and sighed with relief. "That's more like it, nice and toasty," he said with a pointy grin, practically dancing on the spot beneath the space heater built into the ceiling, "We should get one of these for our place, make the place a bit homier." Briefly checking the mailbox assigned to their apartment and determining that it was empty, Vinnie grinned and shook his head. "Come on, you can order yourself a basking rock online if you want," he teased, "but if we hang out in the entrance any longer, someone's gonna think we're hobos and call the rent-a-cops on us."

The elevator ride to the eighth floor wasn't as warm as the entryway, but at least it was quick. And though it wasn't as immediately satisfying as stepping in out of the cold, there was something intangible about actually getting home that always made Vincent relax a bit more as soon as he crossed the threshold into their apartment. Sighing with relief, he slipped his coat off and hung it up, nearly losing his balance as he removed the heavy-duty boots that served him well on the walks he continued to take in the colder months when he needed to gather his thoughts. As he took off his hat, a well-woven black toque that he stowed in his coat pocket out of habit, he gave his ears a flick. He wasn't a big fan of shoving his ears through the little ear holes in tight hats, most canids weren't. Vinnie's in particular were somewhat striking looking; while arctic foxes are almost entirely white and fluffy during the winter, the tips of Vinnie's ears were a vibrant emerald green, with a thin stripe running down the backs and meeting like a Y on the back of his head, converging into one slightly wider line that ran over the top of his head, between his eyes, and down his muzzle to stop neatly at his nose. He'd done it in the first place to make his profile more distinguished; Vinnie was a writer for Modern Canid magazine, and he had felt lately that the small image of his face seemed a bit plain, that the plain white vulpine with the half-smirk was a bit forgettable. Admittedly, he'd also been hoping to use it as a conversation starter, help break the ice and maybe help with this impressive dateless streak of his. It hadn't been difficult for him to implement, after all; it wasn't dye.

Vincent Linus was in fact a member of a species called the Mokaji, a quiet race of shapeshifters so shy that the majority of the world didn't even realize they existed. By default, they were shapeless, featureless little blobs of flesh, a most unappealing sight indeed. Which made it handy that they could reshape their anatomy at will, with an astonishing level of control over the process they simply referred to as 'the Change', being able to make alterations as small as adjusting the colour of a single hair or as large as switching their height, the shape of their musculature, the species they appeared to be, and even their gender, all in one go. Andrew Raynor, on the other hand, was every bit the morphic Komodo dragon he appeared to be, as he settled down on the apartment's couch and flipped on the TV, his thick tail gently slapping against the cushion while he made himself comfortable and looked for something more exciting than the weather report that greeted him, reminding him how cold it was going to be in the near future. Andrew was in on Vinnie's secret, as they were quite close friends, though to be fair, it wasn't as if he'd ever had to help him cover for it or lie to ominous government agents about his buddy, as the Mokaji as a people were doing a remarkable job of staying hidden in the Internet age. Scrolling through the on-screen guide (and finding page after page of terrible movies and reality television), Andrew glanced up at the high-pitched beep from across the main room. Vincent was checking the answering machine, on the counter in the kitchen next to the main phone. "No new messages," the chipper, yet eerily robotic voice said. Vincent's ears drooped just a bit, vulpine body language coming just as naturally to him as any real fox. The dragon smirked and went back to looking through the channels, settling on a rerun of Fringe. "You know what they say about a watched coffee pot?" he asked, "The same goes for an answering machine you check all the time. We were only gone, what, forty-five minutes?" Blushing, Vinnie lowered his ears and pouted. "She could have called in that time!" he said, somewhat defensively. The dragon glanced back over, unable to hide his grin. "You know, you could be going after other girls instead of hoping that cat that gave you a fake number in the bar gives you a call," he said, as gently as he could, "Why do you always get your hopes up for the feline girls, anyway?" His curiosity was more than casual; Andrew taught psychology at a nearby community college, hoped to work his way up to a more prestigious institution, and he liked to entertain himself by analyzing his roommate. Vinnie crossed his arms and shrugged, feeling on-the-spot again. "Hey, that could have been a simple mistake! And I dunno, I just... like cats," he muttered, somewhat lamely, before coughing and changing the subject spectacularly un-subtly. "Hey! How about we order in tonight, I don't feel like cooking, and, uh..." Andrew snickered and scratched an itch on his tail while he answered, allowing Vinnie to slip out of the spotlight this time. "I don't feel like anything right now, still full of burgers," he said, "and buying food twice in a day feels wasteful, I was just gonna make macaroni or something." Examining a Chinese take-out menu anyway, Vincent shrugged. "So you pay this time, I don't -" his train of thought was interrupted as someone knocked on their door, in a rather energetic 'shave and a haircut' rhythm.

Vincent looked up from the menu, ears perked in curiosity, while Andrew put the TV on mute, as it had switched to commercials anyway. "You expecting someone?" the dragon asked, quietly, eyes darting back and forth between the fox and the door. "No," Vincent replied, frowning, "and even if I was, they'd buzz up from the street entrance first, not just suddenly show up knocking on the door." Walking over, he exchanged one last glance with the reptile on the couch, then unlocked and opened the door to the hallway. He had just enough time to register that there was a shapely tigress in a tight blouse and a short skirt standing there before she smiled from ear to ear, looking absolutely delighted, and sprang towards him, leaping into Vinnie's arms as he stumbled back into the apartment in surprise. Putting her arms around his neck, already beginning to purr, the tiger giggled happily and nuzzled against the shocked fox. "Vinnie!" she cried, "It's been so long!" Blushing fiercely, Vincent swallowed, acutely aware of how soft and warm she was against him, a part of his mind trying to work out whether or not she was above the age of consent even as most of him was busy being embarrassed. "D-do I know..." he started, then trailed off, his eyes widening, searching the girl's face as if he'd suddenly realized it was a mask. "...Niara?" he finally asked, the shock obvious in his voice. The girl instantly began to purr even louder, giggling again in delight. "You do remember!" she laughed, "It's been so long I worried you'd forgotten all about poor little me." As Vincent stood there, dumbfounded, she leaned in and planted a kiss on his cheek, her voice barely above a whisper. "I've missed you so much, big brother."

Vincent stared into the girl's eyes, so many questions darting through his mind that he found himself unable to pick one and ask it. He was startled back into reality when Andrew cleared his throat across the room. "Uhhh... is there something you want to tell me, V, or...?" Blushing harder than ever, Vinnie stood up a little straighter and let the tigress down to her feet. "S-sorry about that, I was just, um, surprised..." he stammered, as his roommate approached, curiosity etched into his expression. Vinnie realized the tigress had stepped behind him, and was staring at the reptile with suspicion in her eyes, and made eye contact before nodding in the dragon's direction. "It's okay," he whispered, "He's cool, this is the guy I mentioned in my letters, knows about our people." Taking that as his cue, the lizard stepped that last little way forward. "Hi, I'm Andrew, Vincent's roommate," he said, extending a hand, "And your name is... Niara?" She giggled again even as she took his hand and shook it, looking more comfortable, and Vinnie scratched at the back of his neck. The dragon had heard the part he would have no context for. "Er, Andrew," he said, gently, "'niara' isn't a name, it's a... It means 'sister'. In Mokaj." This wasn't strictly true; owing to the Mokaji's nature as technical hermaphrodites who could toggle back and forth between the sexes, their language, Mokaj, had an awful lot more personal pronouns and titles than most did. Niara actually meant 'person who has the same parents as I do and generally prefers to be female' (with the male equivalent being niola), but yes, 'sister' was close enough. Andrew nodded at this, smiling pleasantly. "Oh." A moment passed, and suddenly his smile disappeared, eyes widening in surprise as his mind caught up to the significance of that response. "Oh!" His eyes darted between the fox and the tigress, who still clung to Vinnie's arm, tail floating back and forth behind her, grinning with such obvious delight that it only made the surprise and shock on the males' faces look even more ridiculous by comparison. "S-so this is your little sister from back home, huh?" Andrew asked, not so much to get a response as because his brain was still working through it. "You know, it's funny, but I don't remember you mentioning she was coming here to visit." He tried to make the glare he sent towards Vincent subtle, but making malevolent expressions anything less than overt is difficult for a predatory reptile. The tigress giggled, as though completely untroubled by it. "That's because he didn't know, silly!" she said, pleasantly, "I wanted to surprise him!" Vincent swallowed, forcing his ears to stand back up again. "In that case, it worked," he muttered, before looking back up at her. "Well, since you're here, uh - what is your name, anyway?"

While this might seem like a profoundly strange question to ask one's own sibling, the Mokaji concept of names was a little different compared to that of most species. Since they could reshape their bodies and appearance wholesale, some were known for changing their names and identities faster than the world changes the seasons. Enabling them to keep track of each other was a peculiar sixth sense that allowed them to know, with absolute certainty, that the person they were looking at was a Mokaji, and which Mokaji, if they were already familiar with him or her; that sensation, impossible to describe to Outsiders, was what their culture considered a Mokaji's real 'name'. So, while a few seconds of direct attention was all Vincent had needed to realize that this shapely tiger was in fact his younger sister, he had no idea what name she was going under while living amongst the rest of society.

Bowing down dramatically, the tigress took Vincent's hand in her own as she straightened up, shaking it firmly and winking. "My name's Tai, big brother," she said, before turning towards the reptile and shaking his hand too, rather more formally, "It's nice to meet you, Andy, I've read so much about you from Vinnie's letters." Andrew, who generally disliked that particular nickname, frowned and crossed his arms, his long tail thwacking lightly against the leg of a table next to him. "'Tai?' You guys invent your own identities and that's what you came up with?" he snarked, "What's your last name, Gurr?" Tai pouted in his direction, stopping short of sticking out her tongue, and stepped in closer to her brother, holding onto his arm as if seeking his protection. "No," she said, in a somewhat snippy tone of voice, "I, uh... I don't actually know." She turned to the fox she was clinging to with an embarrassed smile. "Sooo, I kinda saw you guys in the restaurant right after I arrived, and followed you here, and I heard on the way that you were calling yourself 'Vinnie', but, um, I didn't catch your last name, and since I'm your sister and all, I was thinking I could just use that?" One of her ears tilted to the side and she gave him the Cute Kitty Eyes as she finished, and Vincent found his mouth suddenly aridly dry. He really did have a thing for felines, even if he himself wasn't currently one, and the fact that he could feel Tai purring against him was rather deeply distracting. "Um, s-sure, it's 'Linus'... Vincent Winterwind Linus." It was remarkable, she was already beaming at him, but Tai's eyes lit up at this as if he'd informed her she was heir to a faraway throne and was now officially a princess. "Oooh, I really like that! 'Winterwind' is so pretty, I'm gonna have to think up a nice middle name, hadn't even considered that..." she said, "Tai Linus, huh? I like the sound of that."

She suddenly leaned in and planted a kiss on her brother's cheek, earning herself a bright blush, before letting go of him and walking (practically skipping) back out to the hallway, where a backpack lay against the wall in the corridor, a long winter coat draped over it. "Here we are," she murmured as she brought the items in and closed the door behind her. Andrew was still looking at her like he was having trouble reconciling her as a real person that existed. "Wait..." he said, "You two aren't even the same genus, and you're going to pass yourself off as his sister?" Tai shrugged, unconcerned, as she carefully hung her coat up on the rack. "I dunno, maybe one of us is adopted," she said, casually, "It's not that big a deal. Maybe you're right though, maybe I can manage a family resemblance..." As she turned around to face them again, grinning that delightful smile, she raised her arms just as the orange fur on the back of her hands changed colours, becoming a vibrant light green, which quickly spread down her arms and to her entire body. Giggling at the looks she was receiving, Tai winked at the boys and put her hands on her hips. "What do you think?" she asked. Vincent scratched at the back of his neck nervously. "Ummm, I'm not supposed to be green, Tai, I added this for fun, told people it was dye..." She pouted at that, letting her head hang down as her pelt changed back to a more traditional orange. "Oh, alright, then. Maybe on, what was it called? St. Patrick's Day..."

This brought an important question to Vinnie's mind, and he swallowed and stepped towards his sister again. "W-wait, niara, you haven't actually said... it's great to see you and all, but what are you doing here?" Looking up from the bag she was rooting around in, Tai looked up, surprised. "Oh, sorry. I thought it went without saying," she said, "I'm here to see you, big brother! You left so suddenly, I never really got to say goodbye, and it's so hard to get messages back and forth between the Inside and the Outside..." Across the room, Andrew shrugged his shoulders and awkwardly stepped away from what had suddenly become a personal discussion. "Huh. They really do just call the homeland 'Inside'," he muttered to himself, "I thought for sure he was just fucking with me." Meanwhile, the fox had stepped in closer to his sibling and lowered his voice, blushing despite the fact that his roommate had returned to the couch and was ostensibly back to watching Fringe. "You - they just let you go?" he asked, "They're not real big on day trips, uh, Tai..." It would take a while before he naturally associated that name with her. She blushed, finally seeming a bit off-balance as she shrugged. "Ummm... I sort of maybe told them I was coming out here to bring you home..." the tigress admitted, her tail hiding between her legs. She coughed, and started poking her index fingers into each other, ears lowering flat. "A-and I knew your address from the last time you managed to send a package home, b-but there was no way to contact you first, so I'm sorry to just, you know, show up like this, but... can I stay with you, Vinnie? Please? I - I've got nowhere else to go..."

Vincent tensed up, any objections he could make rendered powerless in the face of the Sad Kitty Eyes, which Tai appeared to have mastered. "Uhh... I - Look, niara, I know I didn't mention this in the letters, but this is a two-bedroom apartment, there isn't exactly a lot of room to go around..." Across the room, while his eyes remained upon the antics of a somewhat confused Walter Bishop, Andrew raised an eyebrow, though if he had anything to say about the situation, he kept it bottled up. Tai whimpered, biting her lip before answering, studying her own feet as though she'd never seen them before. "P-please, niola?" she asked, practically begging, "I - I'll sleep on the floor, I'll help keep the place clean, if it's really that big a problem I'll try and find another place to stay, but right now I don't know where to begin with this culture, I need some time... I didn't think it would be this big an issue, I thought you'd be happier to see me..." Vinnie hesitated, a strange look coming over his face, and then he sighed, sagging down slightly. "...I didn't mean to sound like I'm not happy to see you, niara, it's just not the most convenient thing that's happened to me lately, eh?" he said, rubbing his forehead, "Okay, okay, you can stay here as long as Andrew doesn't have a problem with it, it's his place too." Looking up and positively beaming at him, in a way that made him instinctively smile along with her, Tai leaned in and gave him a big, tight hug. "Oh, thank you, Vinnie! This means the world to me!" she said, "Don't worry, we'll work something out, I'm sure of it!" As Vincent returned the embrace, Tai kissed him on the cheek again and whispered something in his ear, grinning playfully. "Er, I - I don't think it'll c-come to that..." he stammered shyly, his own smile remaining even as he began to blush again, "But thanks anyway... I think." Tai winked at him, then looked around. "Umm, so first question," she said, quietly, "Which of those doors is the bathroom?" Vinnie pointed wordlessly, and she nodded at him gratefully, turning back to face him as she walked away. "Oh, and one other thing, since we're out here among all the 'solids', you should probably start calling me 'little sister' while we're in public. Just sayin'." Without waiting for a response, she turned and walked confidently away, her tail disappearing into the bathroom before the door closed, leaving Andrew and Vincent alone once again.

After staring at the door for a moment, Vinnie went and flopped himself down in a chair, letting out a deep breath as he did so, trying to wrap his head around this sudden turn of events. Andrew quietly cleared his throat, lowering the volume on the TV. "So..." the reptile finally said, "...Family." The fox nodded, not even sure what to say. "Yeah... It's been a long time," he eventually replied, "What a way to start the year." Andrew's eyes left the trailing credits and briefly flicked over to the bulging backpack still sitting by the front door. "...Vinnie, I get that you're all private about your people," he said, softly, "I mean, you have every right to be, but I'm curious... is being all handsy like that normal, or is it Tai?" Vincent stiffened for a moment, one of his ears twitching almost imperceptibly, before he blushed and looked over with suspicion in his eyes. "What do you mean, 'handsy'?" Clearly not bothered by the glare he was receiving, Andrew laughed. "Oh come on, Vinnie, don't tell me you didn't notice," he said, grinning, "she was all over you, dude! Jumping into your arms, kissing you on the cheeks, holding onto you like you were her daddy and she didn't want to lose you in a crowd or something... I mean, no offence, man, but she didn't just hug you. I thought for a moment she was gonna cop a feel!" Now blushing such a dark red that one might think he was Changing his cheeks that colour, Vincent lowered his ears and bared his teeth. "H-hey, shut up, man! She's my sister!" he protested, though it didn't seem to put Andrew off in the slightest. "Are you sure?" he asked, playfully, "Because you suuuure weren't acting like she was your sister! Starting to wonder if she's not your long-lost fiancée or something, the way you were so nervous around her." Crossing his arms and sighing exaggeratedly, Vincent slumped down in his seat and pouted. "...Fucking psychology majors, making everybody's lives difficult," he muttered, "For your information, I was nervous because I haven't seen her in years and years, and she's in a completely different form than the last time I saw her!" Looking down at his feet, the faux fox sighed. "I guess she's changed," he said, quietly, "When I left, she preferred to be reptilian, I thought she'd found a favourite shape as an iguana." Andrew's 'ears' were small holes in the sides of his head, but if he'd had the kind of ears that lend themselves to body language, they would have been perking up in interest. "Really?" he asked, "I was about to apologize for teasing you like that, but now I'm more interested in hearing about Tai being all green and scaly... Shame she changed her mind..." He looked back towards the bathroom door, where the sound of the sink running was mixing with some light-hearted humming. When he looked back, Vincent was giving him an entirely different kind of glare from the one he'd sent earlier. "You know, I'm not a psyche major," he said, "but I'm pretty sure you're imagining my sister as an iguana in that short skirt, and I don't like it."

Before Andrew could respond though, the door to the bathroom swung open, and Tai walked out, looking just as cheery as she'd been when she arrived. "Ahhh, that feels so much better," she said, plopping herself down into the remaining chair, directly opposite the one her brother was sitting in, "Feels like I've been travelling all day, haven't had time to stop." As if to underline her point, she lifted a be-stocking'd foot, having left her winter boots at the door, rested it on the opposite knee, and began to rub and knead, sighing happily and beginning to purr again as she did so. Vinnie, though, wasn't really thinking about her feet, as the particular angle she'd left her leg at lifted her skirt just slightly and made a very small window through which he could spy his sister's panties, somewhat obscured in the shadow, but clear enough to his eyes that he could see they were striped. He swallowed and tried not to blush, tried not to stare, forcing his eyes to the TV even as he desperately wanted to glance at Andrew to see if he'd noticed. He didn't dare, though, knowing he would turn beet red if the dragon's expression even suggested he'd seen that moment of impropriety. What the hell is wrong with me? Vinnie silently asked himself, You'd think she was the first girl I'd ever seen in my life! Taking a deep breath, he looked back up to the TV, which had gone on to a police procedural he wasn't familiar with. After a few moments, he dared to look back at Tai, who had changed to a more modest position, crossing one leg over the other, her tail flicking back and forth behind her, slowly. "So, uhh, Tai..." he said, wishing the moment didn't feel so awkward, "How's the family back home?" A thought suddenly occurred to him, and his ears lowered a little. "Wait, y-you said you told the others you were coming to bring me home. Mom and Dad aren't -" Looking mildly alarmed, Tai raised her hands and shook them energetically. "No no! Nothing like that!" she insisted, "Our parents are fine! Dad's started doing these stretching exercises, she's got the shifting potential of someone half her age." Andrew raised a hairless eyebrow, managing only to enunciate his confusion in the form of going 'uhhh...', and as a very relieved Vincent sat back in the chair, he raised a hand and made a gesture towards the reptile that was so vague even he wasn't sure what he was trying to indicate with it. "We don't call them 'mother' and 'father' back home, there are more Mokaji words for that, it's just easier out here," he started, "Our Dad prefers to be female, just like Tai, only shifted to male long enough to..." here he coughed; the Mokaji don't like thinking about their parents making love any more than anyone else does. "...Long enough to father us, then she goes back to being female." Instinctively picking up on the explanatory vibe, Tai picked up from there. "Our mother, on the other hand, has a very rare condition, she really is female," the tigress said, looking down at her feet uncomfortably, "They call her a relekahan. Some of the other Mokaji... aren't very kind to her because of that, Dad's always been rather protective of her."

As the room fell into awkward silence yet again, Vincent coughed, blatantly trying to shift the subject. "Sooo... is Dad still into birds of prey?" he asked, "Nobody ever did a parental scowl like an eagle." Tai brightened up a little at that. "Oh yes," she said, "And Mom still prefers being human. She's started trying all their different breeds, though, guess she wanted to try new things after a few decades of being the same." "Humans call them 'ethnicities'," murmured Andrew, who appeared to be trying not to smile, "Oh, by the way, Vinnie told me about the tongue thing," he said, "What's your, uhh, Calling Card? Calling Card." Before Vincent could react, Tai lit up, tail twitching happily. "Oh! I never get to show off anymore," she said, grinning, before she started unbuttoning her shirt. Her fingers were quite nimble, and before either of the males could say anything, she opened the last button and shrugged off her top, leaving her in a tight-fitting bra, one cup bright white, the other dark red. She bent forward and turned her back to face Andrew, one hand pointing at her shoulder blade, where, standing out amidst the black and the white and the orange, was a chocolate brown crescent moon. "There, see? The moon stays with me no matter what colour I make my skin. I was a brown bear for a while, tried to hide it, but it just wasn't me." This was among the most basic facts taught to Mokaji children, as they all had a Calling Card; Vinnie's was the fact that his tongue was perpetually a curious shade of emerald green. So it's a good thing that he knew all about them already, as he didn't hear a single word Tai said; her current posture, even with her attention directed towards the Komodo, meant that she was giving her brother an excellent view of her cleavage. As she sat up straight again, she glanced over at her brother, seemingly unbothered by her exposed state. "And before you ask, niola, I've been into mammals for a while now, they're just so soft and warm, and I just love the way purring feels!" Meanwhile, Andrew was rooting around in the drawer in the end table next to the couch, eventually producing a single piece of paper. "Huh," he said, quietly, "So that's what that was about..."

Vincent, who was still trying desperately not to stare at his sister's breasts, wishing even more than usual that he had a regular source of sex, so as to work such thoughts out of his system, didn't pick up on Andrew's comment. So it was Tai, sitting up straight, girls standing out proudly, who looked over to the Komodo and smiled politely. "What what was about, Andy?" she asked. The reptile twitched, and as Vinnie forced his attention to the much less visually appealing sight of his fully-clothed roommate, he wondered if Tai was under the impression that Komodo dragons were herbivores, to keep teasing him like that. "I would prefer you just call me Andrew, just FYI..." he started, a slight amount of strain in his voice, "But, uh, about a week and a half ago, we got a letter in the mail that was just addressed to 'occupant', and when I opened it up, this is all that was inside." He held up the piece of paper he'd found and turned it over, revealing that the 'letter' had no words on it, just a large picture... of a brown crescent moon. Tai giggled and gestured to Vincent. "Well, sure!" she said, "I wasn't about to just show up without giving you a head's-up first! And you kinda don't sign your Outside name on the letters you send home, so I didn't know who to address it to... wait, you never showed him the picture?" She crossed her arms over her chest, and Vinnie sighed in quiet relief before glancing back over at his embarrassed roommate. "Well, I... look, it was a picture of a moon, it didn't mean anything to me, and Vinnie was at the office late in a meeting or something, it slipped my mind," he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. As Vinnie took this in, something occurred to him, and he frowned. "Waaaait a minute," he said, narrowing his eyes and lowering his ears, "You just said at the door that you wanted to surprise me!" Caught in a lie either way, Tai blushed, and Vincent cursed himself for finding the look so appealing. Finally the tigress shrugged embarrassedly, and gave him a cute smile. "Well... let's be honest here," she said, "if I'd really wanted you to know I was coming, I would have, you know, written you an actual letter." She couldn't help but giggle as she shrugged again. "Fine, maybe I just wanted something to point at so I could claim I did warn you I was coming."

As Andrew laughed at that despite himself, Tai tried to change the subject by pointing over her shoulder. "Hey, uh, do you guys have any place I can put my stuff?" she asked, "I don't have much of it, but it would be nice not to be living out of a bag..." Vincent nodded at that, letting out a deep breath as he stood up and looked out the window. "Yeah, I guess you can use the closet in the hallway for now, I think all that's in there is a vacuum cleaner," he chewed the inside of his cheek as he stared at nothing in particular, just thinking to himself. "Actually, if you're gonna be staying here for a while, there are a few things we'll need to do, find you some sheets and a pillow and get more food, just off the top of my head..." She nodded at that and stood up, slipping her shirt back on and walking over to get her bag. "All good ideas, big brother, but let's focus on one thing at a time," she said, "Do you guys have plans for dinner? Maybe I could help make something nice." Without waiting for a response, she headed down the hallway, humming happily to herself, and Vincent caught his own gaze lingering on the hem of her skirt, then before he even had time to chastise himself, felt even worse as a hand clapped gently on his shoulder, Andrew letting him know none-too-subtly that his focused attention had not gone unnoticed. "Vinnie?" he said, softly enough that Tai couldn't hear him from across the apartment, "I am a psyche major, and I'm pretty sure you're imagining your sister just the way she is, out of that short skirt. And I find that hilarious."

The rest of the afternoon went by pleasantly enough, and once Tai got her shirt buttoned up, Vincent found it wasn't as much of a problem thinking of her as his sister instead of an attractive tigress. There was much talking over dinner (which was pretty good, considering the limited ingredients they had to work with), with Tai seeming fascinated by listening to the men talk about their jobs; she thought it was really cool that Andrew was a professor even though he wasn't 'an old man in a tweed jacket with leather patches on the arms', and she thought it was downright awesome that her brother had gotten a job as a writer for Modern Canid, though lacking a lot of the pop culture exposure of most 'Outsiders', she didn't quite see why Andrew thought it was so funny that Vinnie's current assignment was a vulpine-focused advice column entitled 'What Does the Fox Say?'

Vinnie was more relieved than usual when it was finally time to call it a night. He made sure Tai was comfy on the couch, wished her sweet dreams, and headed off to his bedroom, breathing a sigh of relief as the door closed behind him. He slipped off his T-shirt and sat down on his bed as he opened the belt on his jeans, wondering what tomorrow was going to be like. As he sat there, just unwinding, he reached up to scratch an itch behind his ear, glancing down at the distinctive curving marks he'd placed on his chest; he hadn't stopped with the marks on his head, though unlike those, which he'd gotten rather obsessed with perfecting, as he sought to make his profile more striking for the magazine, he hadn't quite found a layout for the marks on the rest of his body that felt just perfect yet. Even as he pondered it, he moved a mark on his abs a few inches to the left, moving its twin on the opposite side of his torso to the right to compensate. That being done, he nodded to himself with a smirk, and lay down with a sigh, pulling the covers over himself and putting out the light.

An uncertain amount of time later, Vinnie grunted in confusion, his eyes fluttering open as he felt the covers shifting. Before his sleep-addled mind could process this, he felt a soft, warm hand press against his ribs and slide forward, gently wrapping him in a hug. He gasped at about the same time he felt the rest of a warm body pressing against him from behind, and wasn't much reassured by the gentle giggle that greeted his ears. "Mmmm... I had a bad dream, big brother... can I sleep with you tonight?" Vinnie tried to look over his shoulder, forgetting that it was pitch black in the room, and felt his sister's lips press against his cheek, followed by another giggle. Pulling away from those soft arms, as much as a part of him desperately wanted to stay, Vincent yelped and turned on his reading light. The covers had been disturbed enough by his escape that when he turned to look at the intruder, as if he wasn't already sure who it was, the sight nearly took his breath away. Tai lay on her side facing him, head propped up by one striped arm, the other lying languidly along her side, accenting her curves. Her tail floated back and forth freely behind her, and her hair had been freed from the ponytail she'd been wearing when she arrived to cascade down her shoulders, a few locks partially obscuring her smiling face, giving her an air of mystery. And, of course, he could see that she had slipped out of the baggy pyjama pants she'd had on when she went to bed (well, went to couch, anyway) and was now clad in the same striped panties he'd caught a tantalizing glimpse of earlier. She was a vision of beauty, and if she hadn't been his sibling... "Mother of God, Tai, what are you doing here?" he whispered, hoping his tangled feelings weren't telegraphed too badly in his voice. The tigress giggled yet again, her eyes roaming her brother's own form, and as Vinnie belatedly realized he was wearing even less than she was, used to sleeping in his boxers as he was, he began to blush even harder. "Well, niola," she replied, cheerily, "I'm in your bedroom, in your bed, in the middle of the night, and I'm in my underwear. If I had to guess, I'd say I was probably trying to seduce you."

A corner of the fox's mind wanted to cry yes, oh my God yes, and take the girl in his arms, but he ignored that urge and whimpered, glancing to the door nervously and shaking his head. "Wh-why, sister, why are you doing this?" he asked, head spinning from her blunt revelation. The tigress just grinned. "Why? Well, that's a silly question, don't you think?" she teased, "So you'll hold me close and have your way with me, of course, that's why!" Vinnie resisted the urge to press his hand against his face. Ask a stupid question... "Holy crap, Tai, you don't waste much time, do you?" he muttered, "Are you crazy? We can't have sex! Those - those sorts of things might be whispered about back home, but out here they take it a lot more seriously. It's a crime in most places!" The tigress didn't seem especially put off by this, and merely winked before she responded. "I won't tell if you don't." Before he could respond to that, Tai suddenly burst from the mattress, using the literally superhuman reflexes the feline species were blessed with to lunge across the bed, grab him by the shoulders, and pin him against the mattress, grinning triumphantly as she settled down on top of him. "Oh Jesus!" he cried, before lowering his voice again, "S-seriously, Tai, fun's over, t-time for you to get back to the couch." Tai pouted exaggeratedly, though she made absolutely no effort to move, and there wasn't much Vinnie could do for his part, since she was holding his hands to the bed with the tightly-corded muscles of a big cat. "Awww, but big brooother," she whined, "the couch is so uncomfortable, I can feel the seams between the cushions poking into me. Your bed is soooo much softer and nicer." Swallowing, trying to ignore how warm and soft she felt against his body, Vinnie thought about looking away from that cute face of hers before realizing how transparent his attempt not to get turned on would be. "Uh, y-you know, the couch folds out into a bed," he said, "I could help you with that, if you want..." Tai pretended to consider that for a moment before shaking her head. "Hmmm... nope!" she teased, smiling down at him, "I think I'll stay right here and go with my original plan to seduce you." He really, really wished his penis hadn't given a twitch in his boxers as she said that. "Now then," Tai continued, "Where was I?" She pursed her lips, making her intentions somewhat explicit, but spelled them out anyway. "Ah yes, that's right... I was going to kiss you," she whispered, breathily, making her brother's pulse speed up, "And none of that cheek stuff this time, I'm going to give you a real kiss. Is that alright with you?" "Oh man..." the fox whimpered, "This is fucked up..." Tai laughed delightedly, and leaned down towards his face. "Not yet it's not," she teased, "though that is the idea..." Before Vincent could utter another word, she leaned down and made good on her word. As he felt his sister's tongue push into his mouth, Vinnie tensed up, making an alarmed noise that was muffled by his niara's muzzle. But after a moment, he couldn't help but shiver at how gently she was moving, how soft and warm her tongue was, how nice she smelled from this close, and how good it felt to be kissing her. Despite his best efforts to resist the pleasure, Vincent found himself sighing through his nose, his muscles relaxing as he closed his eyes and began to kiss her back.

A few blissful moments passed as the siblings just shared in the experience of this taboo level of intimacy with each other, before Tai broke it off with a delighted smile, beginning to purr softly. "Oh, niara," Vinnie whimpered, resigned to (and perhaps even eager for) his fate, "What if - what if Andrew sees the empty couch?" The tigress began to stroke his cheek with the back of a finger, a surprisingly soothing sensation. "Does your roommate make a habit of wandering the apartment in the middle of the night?" she asked, not the tiniest hint of mockery in her voice, "and if he does, so what? I'll tell him I had to, I don't know, go out for some 'feminine products', I haven't been out here very long, but it's been long enough to learn that men will immediately drop a conversation if you bring that up... at least on TV, anyway." As she continued stroking his cheek, Vinnie belatedly realized she'd let go of his wrists at some point during the kiss, and he'd continued kissing her of his own free will. As if reading his mind, Tai cocked her head to the side and looked at him carefully. "You know, Vinnie, you keep giving me reasons why we shouldn't want to do this, reasons why it's a bad idea to do this," she whispered, "But you haven't once said that you don't actually want to do this." He picked up on the unspoken question and lowered his ears submissively, scarcely able to believe what he was about to say. "I - I do want you, Tai, I just..." while he struggled to find the right words, Tai suddenly got up on her knees. "That's all I wanted to hear, big brother..." she whispered, looking down at him with that Cheshire smile, beginning to unbutton her shirt, more slowly than before. Swallowing, his male instincts lead him to glance down between her thighs, where he saw, in this more direct light, that his sister's panties were covered in alternating red and white stripes. "Oh," he whispered, almost to himself, "now I get it... the stripes, the bra... they're candy cane-themed, right?" The tigress giggled and nodded. "That's right, Vinnie," she breathed, "but I'm not wearing the full set right now." With excellent timing, she pulled her shirt open, revealing a pair of truly exquisite breasts, dropping her top on the floor and beginning to rub and knead them before her sibling's mesmerized eyes. As she released her tits and got down on all fours, Vinnie forced his gaze back to her eyes. "S-say," he stuttered, trying not to focus on his sister's near-nudity, "Wasn't your hair black when you got here?" Tai knelt down next to his head, leaning back to sit on her heels, and nodded curtly. "Oh yes," she whispered, "But when you went to the bathroom during dinner, Andrew let it slip that you have a weakness for redheads."

Vinnie had another non-sexual question he'd been planning to ask to try and keep his nerves from shattering, but it evaporated as Tai gently took hold of one of his hands and unceremoniously shoved it down the front of her panties. Both siblings inhaled sharply as Vinnie felt his fingers and palm sliding against Tai's hot, needy slit. "Ch-Christ, little sister, you're so wet..." breathed Vinnie, suddenly aware that his penis was almost fully erect and would soon be struggling against its confinement in his underwear. Even as his mind warred between the aching desire to have this beautiful woman and the dreadful fear that it was wrong, Vincent's hand instinctively cupped itself over his sibling's vulva, giving her box a squeeze and savouring the feeling of her flesh under his fingers. Even as he did this, he felt a distinct pulse as Tai's pussy clenched down on nothing and she whimpered, moaning to herself in Mokaj before switching back to English. "Ohhhh, b-big brother..." she groaned, "You have no idea how hot it makes me to hear you c-call me 'little sister' while you touch me..." As Vinnie shuddered from the tips of his ears to the end of his tail, Tai carefully lay down, one hand protectively pressed against the material of her panties, holding her brother's hand in place, before she made herself comfortable and leaned forward, taking hold of the fox's boxers. "I - I know you're still not entirely sure about this, niola," she whispered, "So how about you just lie there and enjoy yourself while I do all the work... God, I think I'm going to enjoy this almost as much as you do..." That being said, she tugged Vincent's underwear down to his knees and left them there, focusing her attention on his genitals. Vincent's 'gear' wasn't that different from the average human's, aside from his scrotum being covered in a thin layer of white fuzz. As Vinnie reeled from all the arousal dancing around his system, his sister leaned in and took hold of his penis, examining it curiously, as if she'd never seen one before, though her confidence betrayed that idea, immediately following her inspection by pressing her muzzle against the base of his prick and inhaling deeply of the fox's most personal scent, a shudder running through her body and her pussy giving a twitch as she did so, one strong enough that Vinnie's hand could feel it clearly. "God," she moaned, "I've wanted to do that for so long... now I know you better than anyone..."

Vincent just lay there, unable to tear his eyes away as his sweet little sister, his beloved niara, licked and lapped at his testicles, nuzzling against his gonads and teasing her tongue along the sensitive underside of his prick. She hadn't so much as given him a single stroke, and already pre-come was beginning to leak out of him. "Oh man," he whispered, "I c-can't believe you're so good at this..." As she finally began to slide her soft, soft hand along his aching length, Tai giggled and glanced up at him. "You wanna know a secret?" she asked, blushing, "I practiced on myself. Went male for a while, made my neck nice and long and flexible... and I may or may not have been imagining it was you when I did it." Vinnie couldn't help but grin at that, though he dropped the facial expression in order to moan quietly when, without warning, Tai finally bent down and took her brother's penis into her mouth. "F-fuuuuck!" The fox hissed, jamming his free hand into his own muzzle, to try and mute the cry of pleasure that so desperately wanted to escape as he felt the hot, wet, velvety embrace of Tai's lips and tongue and cheeks close around his cock, teasing along his flesh with something close to reverence, adoration, making the times he'd received head from other women seem awkward and crass by comparison. Tai let out a moan of her own, and while he initially thought she was getting off just by finally having him in her mouth, Vinnie soon realized he'd instinctively clenched his hand when she surprised him, and a pair of his fingers had slipped between her labia as a result, just barely teasing into the slick warmth beyond. She'd said that he didn't have to do anything, but partially because of his nature, wanting to return the favour, and partially out of simple desire and curiosity, Vinnie began to gently work his fingers into and out of his sister's cleft, feeling her honey soaking into the fur on his fingers and rubbing the heel of his palm back and forth against her throbbing clitoris. Tai groaned around her mouthful, closing her thighs together and trapping her lover's hand against her slit. Possibly spurred on by this, the tigress began to bob her head up and down along Vinnie's dick, easily taking the whole of his manhood into her muzzle and running her tongue all over it before pulling back until just the head of his cock remained inside. On each stroke, Tai always lingered there for just long enough for Vinnie to feel the comparatively cool air of the bedroom on his shaft, just long enough to yearn for the warmth and the pleasure of her mouth, and then she would grant his wish, pushing back down until her nose pressed against his belly and her chin tickled his scrotum. He didn't much notice that last part, though, as she was using her free hand to fondle and massage his balls, giving them a good squeeze now and then to really enhance his pleasure. Letting his head loll back on the pillow, the fox whimpered. If it felt this good when Tai went down on him, he couldn't help but wonder; what would it be like if he fully gave in to his desires and had sex with her?

The siblings continued their furtive dalliance, losing track of the time, of the things they had to do the following day, of anything except pleasuring the other Mokaji no matter what society had to say about it. Vinnie was really getting into fingering his sister now, working his digits into her sopping entrance with all the gusto he could manage, and the way she was rolling her hips against his hand let him know that she appreciated it. Meanwhile, she continued to lick and suckle and tease his almost painfully erect prick, and Vinnie couldn't keep the rest of his body from twitching and dancing and writhing beneath her, great pulses of pleasure spreading out from his penis to fill his body. He was getting closer to the edge, wanted to just close his eyes and let it happen, but he was fighting it with everything he had, fighting it so that he could spend just a little bit more time doing this forbidden dance with the sister he loved, with the most beautiful girl he'd seen in a long, long time. His toes began to curl and he dug the nails on his free hand into his thigh, trying to hold off the pleasure with pain, but it was no use, and he soon abandoned that tactic so as not to spoil it for himself, whimpering out a warning to his lover. "Ungh... Oh Jesus, T-Tai... L-little sister, I'm g-gonna... I'm gonna cooome..." This time, when Tai moaned eagerly around his cock, Vincent was sure she was getting off to the idea, even felt her inner walls clench down hard around his fingers. The message was clear; let it go, and let it happen. Forcing his eyelids to remain open, Vinnie just lay there, breathing hard through his nose, free hand already clamped over his mouth because he could tell he was about to come hard. Soon enough, the moment was upon him, and he arched his back, gasping out a single word - 'Tai!' into the hand that kept his cries from waking the sleeping dragon. Every muscle in his body tensed up as Tai pulled back to just the tip of his cock one last time, stroking his shaft with her free hand as she squeezed his sac tight (though not tight enough to hurt, of course). As Vinnie's prick began to throb and spasm against Tai's lips, as he began to spurt thick, gooey jets of hot, sticky Mokaji seed into his sister's eager mouth, Tai made a muffled gasp of her own and tensed up, rubbing her thighs together - and her brother's hand against her throbbing clitoris; it took Vincent a moment to realize, in his orgasm-addled state, that when she'd tasted his semen, Tai had been so overwhelmed in the moment that she'd succumbed to her own climax. With this in mind, he began to work his fingers in and out of her squeezing, clenching vagina so fast and so hard it made the joints on his fingers ache, though he ignored the protest and focused on making sure his niara reached the same exquisite level of ecstasy as they shared the moment of orgasm together.

When they'd both been drained completely, Tai slowly pulled away, letting Vinnie's cock slip out of her mouth and slap against his belly, still hard but wilting quickly. Then she fell back on her haunches, doing nothing to dislodge her lover's hand from its place in her panties. Avoiding eye contact, letting her hair hang down in front of her face, Tai audibly swallowed her brother's sperm, which she'd apparently let gather in its entirety in her mouth first. Vincent felt her give another clench, a minor after-shock as she took such pleasure from her niola's 'gift'. Finally, as Vinnie reluctantly pulled his hand away himself, Tai moved to lie down next to him, kissing him on the cheek and pressing herself against his side. "That was everything I hoped it would be, big brother," she whispered, after a few moments. She blushed and giggled as Vinnie started licking her juices off his hand before he answered. She really did taste great, too, he'd almost expected it to be sour to counter how amazing she was in other ways, but no, apparently Tai was the real deal, and he found himself wishing they'd gone for a sixty-nine so that he could have gotten her off with his tongue instead. When there was no more flavour to be harvested from his fingers, he finally responded. "I didn't know I wanted it," he breathed, "but I thought it was fantastic too." Then, brother and sister leaned in and shared a kiss, a warm, soft moment like a nice ribbon on the present that was their taboo intimate encounter. But when they broke it off, Tai was grinning like she was trying not to laugh. "What?" he asked pleasantly, believing no bad joke on her part could ruin the night. Reaching in and poking him in the chest, Tai laughed softly. "You love-copied me!" she said, delighted, "That's so adorable!" Suddenly paling, Vinnie looked down at his chest... and discovered that he was no longer an arctic fox with green highlights, he was now a big, muscular tiger, and knew without checking that his marking layout and colouration would be absolutely identical to those on Tai, aside from the necessary differences caused by their differing genders. As his sister laughed and poked him teasingly, Vinnie groaned and blushed, burying his face in his hands and muttering to himself. "Oh, brother..."

The next morning, Vinnie sat at the table, stirring a bowl of oatmeal and staring blankly into space. He was still a little embarrassed about that surprise at the end of the night; he still suffered from an embarrassing, though harmless quirk that most Mokaji either never had or worked out fairly quickly, a quirk an Outsider doctor had once dubbed 'involuntary post-coital replication'; basically, when Vinnie had sex with someone, at the moment of orgasm, his body would Change by itself, on some instinctive level, to mimic his lover's body as closely as possible; while it never caused his gender to switch, as that was a much more complex Change that required a fair bit of time and concentration, on the few occasions when he'd had same-sex encounters, he'd ended up as a near-perfect duplicate of his partner. His Outsider lovers, not that there had been many, generally found it strangely endearing, but it was different with Tai, as she knew Mokaji culture, and knew just how embarrassing Vincent found it deep down. But while he felt a little sheepish about it happening with the tigress, he was, understandably, more focused on the fact that he'd let his little sister give him a blowjob last night, and fingered her to climax while she was at it. He was still so conflicted over it... on the one hand, it had felt so damned right at the time, he would have been willing to make her his if she'd stayed for a second round, but she'd insisted on leaving shortly after poking fun at his accidental shapeshifting. But on the other, she was his niara, and a part of him was very afraid that he'd let his hormones do the talking, that he'd given in to Tai's perverted lusts when he should have fought harder... it was a different culture out here, but no matter where they were, she was still his little sister! At the very least, he thought to himself, Andrew remained happily unaware of the forbidden tryst that had taken place last night.

Indeed, as he walked into the room, the Komodo was the very picture of calm, reading the newspaper and sipping on his coffee, and rather than berating Vincent for his... moment of weakness the previous night, he'd barely said two words to the Mokaji (who was indeed once again a fox) all morning. As Vinnie sat there, still lost in thought, Andrew sat down across the table from him and set his cup down, frowning at an article indicating the cold snap was going to last all week. "Good morning," the lizard said, casually. "Morning," Vinnie managed to reply, staring into his oatmeal like he was trying to divine the secrets of the universe from its mushy depths. "Would you pass the milk?" Andrew asked after a moment, and Vinnie wordlessly pushed it over to him. "Thanks." This was no good, Vinnie felt so awkward he was sure Andrew would notice as soon as he started directly paying attention to his roommate. "Vinnie, about your sister," Andrew said, without looking up from his newspaper, and therefore not seeing Vincent's ears flatten against his skull, "Has she mentioned to you what she's going to be doing while she's here, or...?" Vinnie felt immense relief as he realized it wasn't about their tryst, and was just starting to think about the actual answer to the question, when Tai came into the room, wearing a pair of tight jeans that showed off her curves quite well. She walked up behind her brother and gave him a hug, and the moment of warm, slightly guilty happiness that resulted from this (and the accompanying kiss on the cheek, something she seemed to have become fond of), made Vinnie's ears rise up again, along with the corners of his mouth. "Good morning, big brother, Andy," Tai said, cheerily, before walking across the room and collecting some toast from the toaster. As she started smearing peanut butter across it, humming to herself, Andrew finally looked up from his paper, perhaps intending to chastise her for continuing to call him 'Andy' before he got a good look at her. "...Tai, you seem different," he said, "Have you done something with your hair?" The tigress had returned her hair to the well-kept ponytail she'd been wearing the previous afternoon, but it was still the same fiery red that had sent Vinnie's heart a-flutter later that night. Tai looked over her shoulder, then rolled her eyes up, towards her bangs, as if she herself had forgotten. "Hmm? Oh, this," she said, smirking, "Sure I did, shapeshifter, remember? It's easy." Andrew took another sip of his coffee, continuing to scrutinize Tai as he did so. "Yes, well, I had a good idea of the 'how'," he muttered, before glancing back at Vinnie, who was looking at his smartphone (which wasn't even on at the moment, he just needed somewhere else to direct his eyes). "...I was really more curious about the 'why'." He said this last part so quietly Tai didn't seem to notice, and after she added cheese spread to the other slice of toast, an odd choice that both of her new roommates would have commented on if they hadn't been so busy trying to act natural or studying each other (respectively), the tigress pressed the slices of bread together and happily left the room, no doubt returning to looking at Internet videos of puppies on Vinnie's computer.

A few moments and a few more spoonfuls of oatmeal later, Vinnie swallowed a sigh. "...You're still looking at me, aren't you?" "Mmm-hmm." Actively forcing his ears to stay erect, Vincent looked away from the darkened phone and at his roommate, who was indeed staring at him with a calm, though totally unreadable expression. Reptiles may not have advantageous gifts like the Sad Kitty Eyes or Puppy Dog Face, but what they did have was a seemingly universal talent for an impenetrable poker face. "Vincent... last night when you were in the can, Tai asked me if you were seeing anyone," Andrew said, quietly, "And then she asked me what you looked for in a girl. I thought she just wanted to make up for being an inconvenience by helping you find a girlfriend, because lord knows you could use the help..." Vincent let the diss lie, focused as he was on just remaining composed. "...But then this morning, I see that she's taken one of the things I mentioned and applied it to herself." "Are you trying to imply something? Tai changes her hair colour all the time, she's never been able to settle on just one," Vinnie lied, "I wouldn't be surprised if we go in there and find she's a different species." Foxes, on the other hand, were not so good with the poker face, and Vinnie in particular was kind of shit at it, used to wearing his emotions on his sleeve. Andrew continued staring at him, lacing his fingers together and resting his chin on his joined hands, like he was a principal interrogating a misbehaving child. "Vinnie, did you see her just now? Humming and smiling while she made white bread toast... nobody's that happy in the mornings," he said, "With one notable exception... and Tai was practically glowing." Feeling his facade quickly crumbling, Vinnie shrank in his seat, and briefly considered making that literal so he could hide under the table. "Wh-what are you insinuating?" he asked, feeling the sweat beading on his forehead, "I'm not sure I like what you're getting at." Andrew openly frowned for the first time as he quietly sipped from his coffee again. "I'm not sure I like what you've been getting at," he countered, before finally laying his cards on the table, "Vinnie... have you been up to anything... unsavoury with Tai?" Heart beating like a jackhammer, entire body trembling, the fox could feel panic building up in his system, making it hard to think of a convincing lie. "I... Well, we... I..." he stammered, uselessly. Apparently taking that as all the confirmation he needed, Andrew sighed and rubbed the top of his muzzle with his fingers. "God dammit, Vinnie..." he muttered, shaking his head, "I mean, I saw all the signs yesterday, but I - I told myself that maybe your family was just really close and she was acting that way as some kind of friendly intimacy play, that you were only getting embarrassed because you weren't used to it after spending so much time away from her... I didn't think you'd actually be stupid enough to - to..." he trailed off, unable to say the words, looking more and more put off every second, before finally finishing with "Christ's sake, man, magic fairy shapeshifters or not, she's still your sister!"

Ears finally pinned against his head, like they were trying to hide from the shame, Vinnie swallowed a whimper. "Hey, it's not like I was trying for this, she just - she just showed up in my room in the middle of the night, and we didn't even go all the way, so uh..." Amazingly, this was even more uncomfortable than he'd feared it might be. "Well, ah, you know nothing life-changing could happen unless we were trying to make it happen. I've told you that much before! Besides, it's not like this is even the first time it's happened, so -" "What?!" Andrew suddenly cried, and for just a second, Vinnie thought he had to re-explain the handy biological trait that any given tryst between two Mokaji absolutely will not result in a pregnancy unless both partners wanted it to, given their much more active control over their biology than most species. Then he realized what he had blurted out after that. "Oh - I - well..." Vinnie let his head hang down, sighing in defeat. Time to come clean. "...Okay, I kinda didn't mean to mention that part, but, uh..." he started, just as nervous as when he'd revealed his species to Andrew in the first place, "...Back before I left, me and Tai - though she wasn't called Tai, and, uh, I guess I wasn't Vinnie... anyway, we used to, you know, fool around together... it was a casual thing, we'd work some stress off, sort of practice our technique, make each other smile..." He finally dared to look up and discovered that Andrew had once again retreated behind his poker face. Anxious, he continued his explanation, trying not to sound defensive. "The pregnancy thing I told you about? Well, since we can't have kids by accident, we Mokaji have always been more, ah, accepting of casual sex, and, uh, while they might not endorse the idea of messing around with your cousins or siblings, they don't consider it sick or evil, either. It's just that, um, Tai doesn't seem to get that it doesn't quite work that way out here." That, of course, was a filthy lie. The tigress had made it abundantly clear last night that she understood that Outsiders weren't as down with the idea of incest as their people. She just didn't care. Andrew said nothing for a long, awkward moment, before finishing off his coffee, folding up his newspaper, and standing up. "...I need some time to work through this, Vinnie," he said, walking over to the front entryway and stepping into his boots. "I've got a meeting today, so I've gotta get going... but we'd better have a talk about this when I get home." As the dragon turned to pick up his coat, Vincent felt a sudden moment of panic. "W-wait! Andrew, uhh... do you - did this cost me your respect? Because I never meant to -" The Komodo interrupted his roommate with a dismissive gesture. "No, no, we're still cool," he murmured, "...like I said, this is just kind of a lot to take in." Tell me about it, thought Vinnie, as he nodded and wished his friend a good day at the school.

Once Andrew had left, Vincent sank down into his chair with a sigh. The last day or so hadn't exactly gone the way he'd expected it to. Hurriedly gulping down the last of his oatmeal, which had gone cold, he got up, trying to think of something, anything to fill the time - and turned around to find himself face-to-face with his sister. "Gah! Curse that feline stealth!" he muttered, blushing at his own reaction. Tai just smiled. "So! Alone at last..." she said, eyes a-twinkling. Vinnie stepped away, ears lowering. "Oh come on," he protested, "I - I'm still working through my feelings from last night, you c-can't just jump me whenever we're alone together!" She continued to walk forward, and he backed up awkwardly until he found himself with his butt against the kitchen counter. Tai crossed her arms and looked him up and down, something close to curiosity in her eyes. "Look at you, Vincent," she murmured, reaching up to touch his face, clicking her tongue when he tensed up just at the touch of her fingers against his cheek. "Tsk, tsk, tsk... What happened to the brave, confident big brother who gave me my first kiss in the woods? The one who traded my virginity for his own without a moment's doubt?" She leaned in even closer, her voice lowering. "Come on, niola, I'm not stupid. I wouldn't be going after you so aggressively if I didn't know you wanted it just as badly as I do," she whispered, "It's written all over your face, in the way you act when I get all close and tease you like this. You've never been the type to let society make the rules in private..." She was now so close that he could smell her natural scent, and it was tickling his nervous system, making him want her so, so badly. She chuckled, her eyes twinkling mischievously. "You know, I did ask your permission first," she teased, "Right before I kissed you that first time." Vincent pouted, and averted his gaze. "Yeah, but then you didn't stop when I said 'no'." Tai frowned at him, and this time her annoyance seemed genuine. "Oh don't you say that, you never said no," she said, poking him gently in the chest, "I would have stopped if you actually said no, I'm not some uncivilized brute! You kept coming up with half-assed reasons why we shouldn't be together, why we shouldn't want to be together, but you also admitted that you wanted me as badly as I want you." Suddenly, she leaned in and kissed him fully on the mouth, and after a moment of shock, Vinnie relaxed in her arms, surrendering to the moment, and kissed her back. It was just so unlike kissing any of the girls he'd been with Outside, so tender and soft and warm, and the taboo elements he'd been bemoaning last night, despite his claimed worries, just made the whole thing sexier, the forbidden aspect enhancing his enjoyment, not diminishing it.

Just as suddenly as it began, it ended, Tai stepping away with a smile. Knowing she'd proven her point, Vinnie slouched, lowering his ears a little in submission. This time, though, there was something different about the look in her eyes. "The thing you don't know, big brother," she said, "the thing that probably never crossed your mind, is that I know the real reason you're so afraid to touch me, the real reason you're so resistant to what you want so badly." Looking him square in the eyes, Tai spoke plainly, voice barely above a whisper. "You may think you're some mysterious cipher whose actions only make sense to himself, but you underestimate me," she murmured, "I know the real reason you left our homeland, big brother." Suddenly feeling light-headed, Vinnie leaned against the counter, shocked. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Tai just turned and walked towards the door. "It wasn't exactly hard to work out, Vinnie," she said, casually, as if discussing a recent sporting event, "I've known since you left. But now I've found you again, and we can face it together." "T-Tai..." he started, having no idea what to say to that. She slung her coat on and shook her head. "You don't have to say anything now," she said, smiling more gently this time, "I just wanted you to know. Now then, I was going to go to that great big mall down the street, find out how much it would cost to get a computer of my own, I know you'd prefer I wasn't using yours. I, uh, don't actually have much money, so I won't be gone for long, I just thought you'd appreciate a little time to yourself." Having finished bundling up as she spoke, she opened the door and paused for a moment. "I'm sorry for bringing all this stress into your life all of a sudden, Vinnie..." she said, quietly, "And I think I've forgotten to say it up 'til now, deserves saying." Taking a deep breath, she smiled at him. "I love you, niola." Despite the whirlwind of feelings rushing through his mind and heart, Vinnie managed to smile back. "I love you too, niara."

Once she left, Vinnie wandered over to the living room, numbly, and flopped down in one of the chairs. Things were moving way too fast for him to be comfortable with it. Suddenly his sister was back in his life, she was still interested in his body, and he was completely unable to hide his own attraction to her. Not to mention the icing on the cake, that not only had he immediately crumbled in the face of her seduction, but Andrew had more or less instantly figured it out after spending time with the siblings the next morning. And then even afterwards, Tai had somehow had an even bigger bombshell tucked up her sleeve... as he rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands, he couldn't help but hear their words in his mind.

Christ's sake, man, magic fairy shapeshifters or not, she's still your sister!

I know the real reason you left our homeland, big brother.

Full of feelings he didn't know what to do with, anxiety and fear and tension rising to the surface above the jumble of others, Vinnie allowed himself a moment to vent some of them now that he was alone, and let out a very canine whine, a long, whimpery sound, while his ears lay flat against his head, and his lower lip trembled. It was true that he hadn't told his family the truth about why he left the Inside, and that he'd hoped to find a blank slate in the world of monoforms Outside, a way to change the shape of things to come the way he could Change his body. But if Tai really did know, for starters, that meant it was possible other people back home might know... and more importantly, if she knew and she was here with him now... it might just make starting over a lot more difficult than he thought.