Hausfrau
I've been on a huge stepfordization kick while working on commissions lately and it sort of culminated in this.
hausfrau
by feder
Felix didn't know what to make of it. A package had arrived, the plain cardboard box sitting on his doorstep with no warning or even a bored-looking courier asking him to sign for it. The cat knew he didn't order anything, his paws traced along the taped flaps on top, then made quick work of the packing tape with his clawed fingers.
Curiously, there was one a CD in an unmarked jewel case inside, with no identification or receipt or anything other than the disc and the packing peanuts. He picked the CD out of the box, wiping the cover off on his acid-wash jeans, then looked it over. It was just a plain compact disc with "Pleasantville's Top 40 Hits" written on it in magic marker. Did he get somebody's mixtape by mistake? Was this a prank? Was some douchebag viral video star going to jump out from behind a bush?
Still, whatever it was, it was free music and Felix wasn't the kind of cat to refuse that. And it's not like giving it a listen would hurt him. He brought the package back in and popped the CD in his stereo. He'd had it since he was 12 and it still worked like a charm, he re-applied the peeling tape holding the bottom-right corner of his grunge band poster to the wall and flopped down on the bed with his best earphones. Felix always believed in his gut that you only really hear an album if you do it with good noise-canceling headphones, even when he had to be helped down off the ceiling after listening to that industrial noise band Tom told him about.
The cat pressed play and relaxed back on his bed, he hadn't made it in a while but it was plenty comfy enough. All he heard were weird thrumming tones and some notes that sounded like a phone's dial tone in a higher pitch. The sounds made his ears twitch under the headphones, and for a second Felix thought the music was all scrambled from a bad transfer, but after a few seconds of noise came a poppy 50's style song. It was an odd choice of material, and the lyrics were cheesy as hell but Felix found him twitching his tail and bobbing his head in tune with the music. Good music was good music, even if it had some goofy female vocalist singing about how good her boyfriend is to her.
And all the tracks on the CD were like that, upbeat retro pop with those weird tones between each song. Even with those unwelcome interruptions, Felix found himself captivated by the music, even humming along to some songs, until one listen became a second listen. The fifth track was especially good, a rockabilly number with some of the most impressive guitar playing the cat had ever heard on any album. Then when the last track faded out, Felix looked up at the digital clock on the wall in a daze, letting out a little gasp when he realized he had somehow let himself listen to that mixtape for three hours.
He ejected the disc and put it back in its case, his kitty ears buzzing with those weird tones. Still, it was a pretty good disc. The cat picked a stay t-shirt that lay wadded up on the floor and sniffed it, drawing back a grimace. At least it would make good listening while he cleaned his room out.
It had been a couple weeks since Felix got the disc. He rolled out of bed and took his headphones off, growling a little as he rubbed his head. It had been going like clockwork ever since he fist listened to it. He couldn't sleep at night, unless he put the disc on. His head started hurting every few hours, unless he put the disc on. And on top of that, his chest felt puffy and swollen right under his nipples. He prodded them as he stood in front of the bathroom mirror, but they weren't sore at all, unlike his sheath. For days his sheath and balls ached, but it was just a faint throbbing ache and not the raging soreness that usually came with problems down there. He made his bed, tail flicking back and forth as he hummed one of the songs. "Hope I'm not getting sick..." Felix mumbled to himself, "At least it's Saturday." Then his phone vibrated on the nightstand with Tom's number lit up.
"Fuck..." Felix hissed as he picked the phone up to his ear, his tail thumping angrily against the mattress.
"Felix!" Tom said, almost purring. That was one of the things that annoyed Felix, Tom was the most insufferably cheery kind of morning person. "How are you doin', man?"
"Not so good..." Felix said in a voice that was half moan, "you sorta caught me at a bad time."
"Aw, you sick?" There was something to Tom's voice that made Felix feel uneasy.
"Yeah.. is it that obvious?" Felix's ears folded back. "I've just been feeling bad for a few days. Whatever I got, I think it's a little worse today."
Tom hummed sympathetically on the other end of the call. " Well make sure you get some rest, buddy... and hey, you know what helps me when I get sick?"
"What, Tom?"
"Listen to some tunes! You should try that before you go to a doctor, save some money!"
Felix scoffed, "Thanks, Tom...", but before he could say anything else Tom had hung up on him. Felix growled and turned over in bed. He would have committed to sleeping in then and there if he hadn't remembered that he had to vacuum that day.
It was the next Saturday when Felix realized none of his clothing fit, leaving him in his room with several hoodies, pairs of jeans, and band t-shirts laying everywhere as the cat struggled through his entire wardrobe to no avail. They were all too tight in the hips and butt and yet too big in the waist. He turned to face the mirror, and indeed his waist seemed narrower than he remembered, and he knew it wasn't just his fur that made his hips look wider. And his chest...
Felix now could not deny he had a pair of breasts, they'd started out small enough that he could hide them with another shirt layered on top or just fluffing himself up, but they were big enough to be obvious, nearing a B cup with pink nipples peeking out from his creamy white fur. Every time the cat would move, they'd jiggle and bounce reminding him of their presence and of the hijacking of his own body. His sheath was hang closer and more tightly to his abdomen, he had cramps and aches if he didn't listen to that stupid disc every day, his memories of last week's classes were already getting foggy as he forgot more and more of stuff he knew he had learned.
The young feeling let out a feminine little mewl as he looked back to his reflection. His bottle green eyes misting up.
"What in the hell is wrong with me?"
He put the CD on again. Sure it was cheesy as hell, sure there were too many songs about finding and having boyfriends, but it brought comfort to Felix's mind if even for a moment. That's what he really needed, just to relax until he could figure out what was up... relax and listen, yes.
The cat made a mental note to go clothes shopping, maybe pick up something to cook for the evening.
Felix arrived at the clothing store looking like such a perfect idiot. He had to wear a pair of last year's jeans cinched tight with a belt just to get them to stay up and they still rode low on his butt, showing off how much it had grown, his fluffy tail leading eyes right to it. He had a hoodie on but his new assets still showed a bit. Felix ran his mind over his plan: go in, get some new clothes and then get the hell out before someone saw him like this.
He passed by an odds & ends store selling various items of pop culture kitsch and he saw in the window a pop art piece on canvas of a rather voluptuous purebred tabby lady in a vintage dress and apron wielding a broom with a big grin on her vacant face. Felix found himself lingering on the image, it was charming in a way; how happy she looked, how her dress and fur was so neat and well-groomed. A simple, happy cat from a simpler time when all a lady was expected to do was look pretty for her husband and make dinner by five. Felix felt a tinge of nostalgia just by looking at the picture, and for a moment he longingly wondered if he would make a good wife if he were a female... then he wondered why he wondered that.
When he reached the clothing store, he felt himself wandering towards the women's aisle as if compelled by some instinctual force mired in his subconscious. He was confused, of course... He didn't want to, of course... but he did it anyway with his mind having no say in it. His thoughts grew foggy as he looked over the dresses and skirts, everything past a week ago felt distant and murky and his thoughts kept wandering every time he tried to pin a specific memory down. But he had to fight whatever was taking over. He closed his eyes, breathed in through his nose and said softly to himself: "I am not a girl." And then he felt like he was lying by saying that. It was nothing he had power over, he simply felt dishonest on a base level telling her... himself that she... no, no he was not a elegant, demure lady cat... No he wasn't that either. He was not a... not a... Felix's ears folded back in panic. Even forming the words in his head was getting hard.
"Focus, focus!" He pleaded with his own mind, but it heeded him not and blithely wandered into a fantasy of Felix in a bright blue sundress lounging in a verdant summer lawn while her husband brushed her fur... but this wasn't what he wanted, no it wasn't but yes, yes it very much was and as he tried to take back his own thoughts, he heard that music again, the poppy love songs on that CD...
A dopey, complacent smile spread across Felix's muzzle as he picked article after article of clothing off the racks. Everything in his mental landscape was all a saccharine mess, like someone had gently massaged honey into the folds of his brain.
By the time he check out, he had picked out several retro-style dresses in different patterns, many different pairs of stockings in a variety of colors and styles with matching bras and panties, and even a couple ribbons to wear on his tail. The cashier called Felix "Ma'am" and he blushed, waving back at him as he left the building. His head still felt fuzzy and unfocused like an old TV set, but things were coming back to Felix. He had to fight himself to bring things back. Every time he tried to remember himself doing things he considered masculine, like getting into a fight in school or him with his first girlfriend, something tried to draw his focus away from them and towards dresses, cooking, and marriage. Felix was in his car daydreaming about being wed to a handsome hyena fella when he realized he had bought a bunch of women's clothing with the intention of wearing them... with the intention of wearing them regularly.
The following month, Felix realized in one of his precious few moments of lucidity that he had lost the fight. Her... no his memories were a foggy maze, nothing made sense and even his own name and face were strangers. In his sleep the name 'Felicia would worm itself into his thoughts, tugging him away from his old, fading self. Who was Felicia? Who was Felix?
Felicia... no Felicia... that wasn't right at all... what was the other name? Why couldn't she remember it? She shook her head and tried again to get her thoughts in order. Felicia shuffled into the bathroom to check her body's progress. The dwindling bulge in her panties was gone, and as she sank her paw down the front, her index finger slipped inside a moist cleft. She was no longer a tomcat... not one like Felix anyway... Felicia groomed herself in the mirror as she idly wondered about where Felix had gone. She was certain she'd known him... maybe a former boyfriend?
She decided on a red polka dot swing dress with tan stockings and matching red heels; Felicia still fumbled a bit with the clasp to her bra as she put it on. She did a little twirl in the mirror, the pink bow on her tail flowing with the hem of her skirt, and decided to get some chores done before lunch. She fetched the broom from the closet and started sweeping the kitchen floor, taking care not to leave even a speck of dust on the linoleum floor. And so the cat floated around her home like a worker bee, cleaning and listening to her favorite album. It was a lot of work, but with Pleasantville's Top 40, it all went by before she knew it.
She flicked the stereo off and admired her work, something about a clean house put her mind at peace. And then Tom strolled in through the front door, the red tabby shot Felicia an approving smile as he hung his jacket up. "Hey there, kitten! How you doin?" He said, his striped tail flicking up between her legs as he passed her.
"I'm just about to make lunch, how does a tuna sandwich sound?" Felicia smiled, but something felt off, felt obscene about this. She wasn't sure why or what the feeling mean, though. She got out the bread and a can of tuna along with some greens and set to work making their lunch. Tom looked over her shoulder, reaching his big, well-muscled arms around her in an embrace. Felicia blushed and averted her eyes; something about Tom's scent, that earthy musk, stirred something inside the former male. Her loins grew warm and needy, yet she felt anxious. Something was wrong but what was it? She forced the niggling feeling into a corner of her mind as she set the sandwiches out. She handed Tom's plate over to him and watched him eat, smiling a little as he enjoyed the meal.
"Oh, this is so good, kitten. How come you're not eating?" Tom said, wiping some tuna from his whiskers. Felicia stood with her back to him, gazing out the window. Her expression had turned solemn.
"I feel like something's been done to me. Something's not right." Tom rose to his feet and came over to put his arms on her shoulders.
"That's because something was done to you, sweetheart."
Felicia whipped around to face him, her fur fluffed up in shock. "What?! Tom, what happened to me?"
Tom just smiled and put the hands in the pockets of his suit. " The thing is, I got an offer to try out a special product being developed by this tech company. It's located in a lovely little town, you may have heard of it actually... does Pleasantville ring any bells?"
"What?!" Felicia backed against the wall, her green eyes wide and trained on the male cat as he cornered her, gently but firmly pressing her against the wall.
"This company has particular ideas what things should be like, my little hausfrau. And they wanted me to be a field tester for a little something they whipped up to make this idea a reality."
"The disc?" Felicia was shaking, Tom caressed her cheek with the back of his paw, purring as his other paw crept down towards her shapely rump.
"Hey congratulations!You finally caught on!" Tom said with a laugh. "What did you think was going on? An allergic reaction?"
"Tom, please..."
"You silly kitty, I'd explain the inner workings of this invention, but you wouldn't understand." He reached around her neck and fastened a black leather collar around her neck, complete with a gold bell dangling from the front.
"And since you're my wife from now on, why don't we just forget this conversation?" Tom said as he tapped his claw against the bell, sending it ringing back and forth as Felicia's mind turned back into a muddle of sound and color. Her eyes twitched, the room around her spun. The newly domesticated cat fell into Tom's arms, panting and needy.
She looked up at him with her big sparkly eyes and smiled. "Oh honey... I must have gotten dizzy again."
"I'll say! you feeling alright now, kitten?" Tom said, holding his dainty little wife close to his broad chest.
"Yes dear..." Felicia purred and nuzzled into his fluffy neck, taking in his earthy musk.
"By the way, do you remember our little conversation?"
"Conversation about what? I just made some tuna sandwiches."
Tom just chuckled and patted her head. "That's my girl."
It was a sunny Saturday afternoon and Felicia was welcoming all her girlfriends into the house for their weekly get-together. The girls sat around gossiping and enjoying the cookies Felicia had baked earlier that day. The stereo was turned on and blasting "Pleasantville's Top 40: Vol III" over the din of conversation. The cat didn't know why Tom asked her to play it every time the girls went over, but he was the boss, after all.
A voluptuous pony girl in a hot pink swing dress emerged from the crowd. Her hot-pink painted hooves click-clocked on the floor as she went to hug Felicia.
"Kitty cat! how are you?" The mare said with a giggle, almost smothering the cat with her black-furred chest as they embraced.
"Oh I'm feeling as good as ever, Didi! How's the stallion?"
Didi grinned and flicked her ebony tail as she guided the two of them over to a couple of chairs. "Oh he is just so good to me!" She said, putting her arm around Felicia as they sat together, "Thank you so much for introducing me to him. He's so sweet, he even let me quit my job so I could move in with him!"
"Oh that is fabulous!" Felicia said, almost squealing. "Has he proposed yet?"
Didi shook her head, her mane whipping side to side. "He hasn't yet, but I know it's gonna be soon!"
"I'm so happy for you!" The cat pulled Didi into a not-quite-as close embrace while Tom watched from the corner of the room, a knowing smile on his muzzle as he watched the experiment continue. "If some CDs had this effect", he mused to himself, "...then imagine what a digital release would accomplish."