Dusk approaches by the time Vera is awake again. She stretches out her limbs, and she steps from the mattress and right outside past the creaking door.
"Do you hear that, Maddie? That noise sounds like—music, far away."
Maddie tilts her head, one ear perked up to listen closer for the music. Hearing the gentle melody, she follows Vera to the door.
"Yeah, I hear this occasionally. It comes from the tunnel where I met you, although I've never bothered to look for the source of it. I just listen to it and enjoy it, it's quite nice. If you want to go check it out, I'll go with you."
Maddie steps next to Vera, peering down the tunnel.
"As a field researcher, I love investigating even simpler matters like this. Follow me."
Vera detours back inside Maddie's home to fetch out her taser. She stuffs it inside her sash, and she walks quickly to the tunnel. It would be much darker for the source of the music than it is for Maddie and her, assuming the source is human. It's no wonder Maddie had the upper hand that faithful yesterday night.
A wireless speaker is playing the music, and an older teenager is strumming a guitar with much lower volume than the music. He mirrors the main romantic chords and melody, however. Vera doesn't recognize the song.
"Why is he playing that down here instead of any other place?"
Maddie peers over at the musician and then shrugs. Still out of earshot, Maddie turns to Vera.
"No idea. Maybe he just wants some privacy? It can be pretty busy in the city and sometimes people hang out in the tunnels near my home. Why don't you go talk to him? Or I can if you really want, you seem very scared to show yourself to people when you're like... this."
Maddie gestures to Vera's ears, her own tail waving a bit.
Vera sits on the ground nearby and slumps forward. She shields her cat ears with her hands.
"I am scared, Maddie. I am. Convincing even one person to take me seriously is starting to resemble a nightmare. You can try talking to him, even if it was my idea to go here. Maybe he'll know something we don't."
"Ah, fuck it. I'll go talk to him."
Maddie carefully walks towards the teenager, silently, and then changes to a normal walking pace once she gets closer. She makes no attempt to hide her approach as she walks over, ears and tail easily visible.
"Hey, what's up? Not often I see other people in this tunnel. Whatcha doin?"
The teenager takes his pick off of his guitar, and his eyes widen. He speaks in a lower octave than one would guess. He turns off his speaker midsentence.
"Woah, hello there. Are you somehow a cat girl? Didn't really think those existed. Besides the point, uh, are you going to eat me?"
Vera rolls her eyes.
"Yeah. I do exist, I don't really eat people, I usually eat steak from grocery store. It's free if you know what you're doing which is pretty cool. I was just wondering what someone like you was doing down here, I usually just go around here for fun cause it's near where I live."
Maddie walks up and looks at the speakers, feigning curiosity as she waits for a response.
"Cool. I guess a lot of what I just said was kind of weird. Sorry. I'm just here for a similar reason you are. I like to practice my guitar down here for practice."
He shrugs, and he plays a couple chords on the guitar.
"I'm not a bother, am I? I could find somewhere else to practice if you want. Oh, I'm Reese, by the way. You live down here?"
His tone indicates that it's a question of how Maddie lives down here.
"Ah. I'm Maddie. I don't really live in here so much as that I live right outside of here. I can't exactly be a part of society for... obvious reasons."
Maddie wiggles her ears and waves her tail, to emphasize them.
Maddie turns around back to where Vera is hiding.
"Vera get over here stop hiding! Pspspspsps!"
Vera feels oddly compelled to come over when Maddie makes that sound.
"Pleasure to meet you then, Maddie... My mom told me a while ago that cat people exist and that her friend knew some personally, but I assumed that was like a fairy tale or something."
Vera appears from the shroud of darkness, her good posture traded for a forward-leaning slouch for some reason. She crouches down beside Maddie.
"I wish there were fairy tales sometimes... Is it possible that your mother's friend could assist me with a predicament I'm in? I need someone who knows a lot more about cat girls than we do. Please, Reese."
Reese seems a bit more uncomfortable now. He places his guitar down beside him slowly.
"Nice to meet you too Vera. Uh..."
"Oh. Right. Yeah, this is Vera. She only recently got cursed with being a catgirl. She doesn't really like it and wants to figure out how to go back."
Maddie's ears perk up as she gets a sudden idea.
"Oh! I could turn you into a catperson if you want! It's pretty fun, Vera's just kind of boring that way."
Maddie gives Reese a grin, showing her fangs, but no signs of hostility.
Shock flashes across Reese's face, and he covers his eyes with his hands for a few seconds.
"N-No thank you Maddie. Really, I'm really fine. I'm not bothered by my human features. As for Vera's 'predicament'... Maybe I could ask my mother or her friend. Maybe that could help. Not sure, to be honest, but it could be worth having a go?"
Vera nods quickly and easily, saying, "If anything comes of it, I promise we'll return the favor. Isn't that correct, Maddie?"
"Yeah, I'm not going to bite you by the way. It would be kind of rude to bite someone as soon as you meet them. Asking for more help would be great, please do it if you can. "
Maddie tilts her head, thinking about Vera's proposition.
"Not sure what kind of things you'd need a couple of catgirls to do for you, but sure. I'll suck your dick or something if you want I dunno. I'm pretty bored so I'll help out with pretty much whatever for the hell of it. I'll steal a car if you want."
Vera growls at Maddie for suggesting such a bizarre favor. And Reese grabs his stuff from the floor.
"There won't be any need to help me, Maddie and Vera, promise. It's sort of just exciting this happened at all! Thank you for making my night more interesting. Guess it's getting too late for me anyway, so I'm packing up, but it's been a treat, really. Oh, is there any other stuff you want me to bring when I come back next time? It wouldn't be any trouble, really."
He stares back at Vera's eyes with a kind of sympathy. Vera sighs and stands up.
"A cellphone could be very useful, if you have an old one or find any other I can use, Reese."
"One last thing, do you have like a laser pointer I can borrow? I know it's a bit of a bizarre request but I want to test something."
Maddie pats Vera on the head, ruffling the hair between her ears.
"It's probably time we get going soon too. We can meet up back here. Please don't tell too many people catgirls are real. I don't mind being popular but it can get out of hand really fast."
"Uh, yeah, sure, I have a laser pointer right now actually," He says. "It's settled then. I'll be here again when I can. Listen for my tunes. Your secrets are safe here. Thanks."
He removes a miniature laser pointer from a keychain, passes it to Maddie, and then walks out into the darkness the other way. He strums his guitar with just his fingers some times.
Vera watches him leave for quite some time before recognizing that Maddie has made her all too comfortable in her physical presence, so she slips away and returns back to Maddie's home.
Inside, Vera groans at her image in a silver mirror with chipped corners. Her hair is everywhere and her uniform resembles a moderately used napkin.
"I need to bathe and get new clothes. I look homeless. Mrr."
Maddie walks back and catches Vera complaining about her clothes.
"Hm. I can go grab you some clean clothes if you want. It's not too much of a pain, the clothing store is nearby. It'll only take an hour or so. Do you have any preferences?"
Maddie walks up behind Vera and gently pets her tail, knowing Vera will enjoy it.
A more relaxed sigh releases from her. She looks at the way Maddie touches her tail, and she then combs the hair from her face with her fingers. Her cat eyes are ever-startling.
"Thank you for your offer, Maddie. I prefer white and blue semi-formal outfits similar to my uniform I'm wearing, if you can locate that. Would you like money?"
The only blue in her current outfit, though, is her crescent moon hair clip. She holds up her wallet again from her grimy sash, dangling it between two fingers.
"Why would I need money to get clothes? Oh right... the whole 'stop stealing' thing you're trying to tell me. Don't be ridiculous, save your money. I can wash your clothes for you by the way, I have some soap and I can use the hose to fill a bucket. "
Maddie walks to the door, without taking the money.
"Alright, I'll be back from the store with what you want. Be back in an hour!"
She stuffs her wallet away again, and she states a snide under her breath.
She then continues, "I was wondering about how you clean your things. Okay, sure, thank you for that offer too. I'll be here, working."
She watches Maddie leave, and she then slowly pieces through the cat girl's private drawers. Vera's enhanced sense of hearing should make this safer. The harder part might be leaving everything as she originally found it when she is done, if Maddie is particular about her possessions.
Who cares about 'acting petty' anymore! If she can learn anything relevant, it's a step closer to ending this.
Vera, digging through the drawers, finds some bizarre things. She finds clothes, as expected, an unopened Lego set, at least 3 dildos, and a gaming PC, laid flat sideways to take up an entire drawer. She finds an old journal, with not much written in it. It's mostly full of doodles and random sketches, with not much of value. She does however kind of have the urge to draw in it, which is distracting her immensely from searching for a solution to her situation.
She places back away the majority of Maddie's possessions after they're all strewn about, taking extra care to grab the dildos with paper towels again from near the microwave. Then the only thing left is the journal. Vera would have to ask another day about the computer tower, perhaps.
She sighs, giving into the random compulsion by grabbing the Keerbo pen from her stack of papers and spending several minutes drawing a poor face of a woman with hair white with age. Well, white from the paper color. Vera had taken an elective in drawing once for her field research apprenticeship, but it was a weak subject of hers...
Vera absentmindedly flips the page a couple of times, most of which are blank, until she reaches a rather shocking page. It's a decently drawn picture of a woman and a catgirl having sex. One of them clearly is Maddie, and the other doesn't look like anyone Vera has ever seen. The page after it has a more formal sketch of the woman from the drawing; however, this sketch has catlike features, similar to Maddie and now Vera.
Vera growls loudly, suddenly. She shuts the journal after seeing the better sketch of the strange woman while her heart races the clock. "Pervert."
She places the journal away inside of its original drawer and position, and she collapses onto her mattress and throws her pen at her papers. What if all cat girls are also sentenced to being... floozy? Vera clearly is losing her grip on some things with her usual self, so she should exercise real caution...
As Vera is lying there, she hears a noise at the door, and she sees a fairly shocked looking Maddie gazing at her.
"Why are you going through my stuff... What are you even hoping to find?"
Then Maddie sees the journal, and she blushes deeply. She then drops the clothing she was carrying and dashes over to grab the journal.
"You didn't find... that page... did you? Please tell me you didn't see it..."
Vera faces Maddie from her bed, and a soft meow escapes her.
"Maddie, I can explain—I really need to figure out anything I can before it's too late. I don't know when it'll be too late, but I know I keep changing, and I don't know if the curse will become permanent somehow... I'm fighting for my life, okay?"
Her light flush and her tail's motions say all that Maddie needs to know: Vera saw the page in the journal.
"Thank you again for the clothes. I couldn't have done that without you..."
"It's not like you're going to die or anything... I've been fine as a catgirl, you might end up being fine too. But I'll still help you fix this situation. I assume you found the sketch... of her. Actually, maybe she knows more. If only we could find her again... I miss her."
Maddie gently puts the journal down and then picks up the outfit.
"Oh right. You should get cleaned up first. Want me to hose you down? It's pretty much your only option."
Vera nods apologetically, unsure of what she can say to assure Maddie's feelings, and she heads for outside.
"Okay, well, what do you mean by 'hose me down'? Shouldn't there be a shower somewhere I can use, hopefully? I imagine you have soap and a towel as well... There actually is no shower, is there? But I can't just rinse off with you looking at me. That's not okay."
"Oh come on. I can cover my eyes if you want. You just need to get cleaned. I will not allow you to be filthy in my house. It's improper."
Maddie smirks at Vera, knowing full well that her 'house' is a mess. She takes Vera by her hand, pulls her to the door, and takes her outside.
"You need to get cleaned. Now."
Vera, rather than protesting as a person who doesn't want to be hosed down, feels opposed to it more in the way of a cat that really doesn't want to be bathed.
"This is so embarrassing. I'm not really some housecat. I always shower in a bathroom. Please cover your eyes. And, okay, stop making fun of me—"
Vera struggles against Maddie's hand, her panicked desire to escape her and the hose seizing away all of her reasoning to bathe in the first place. It's even more embarrassing!
So she growls and mrows, then, but she has a hard time getting farther away than even Maddie's reach still. But she's still fully clothed, she wouldn't just spray her...
"Alright Vera. You have 30 seconds to strip down before I just start blasting you with the hose fully clothed."
Maddie pulls a bottle of shampoo from near the hose and tosses it to Vera.
"Come on, it's not that big of a deal. You need to get clean."
Vera catches her breath, shakes her head, and then stares at the end of the hose with a heavy reluctance.
"Cover your eyes and shut up."
She starts undressing afterwards, then, leaving nothing but her panties and her bra on. Even her hair clip is set aside on the dirty pile. Her cheeks are very red. She's primed to just lunge at Maddie with her recently sharpened nails at any defiance, at any perverted peek at all.
Maddie, without uncovering her eyes, turns on the hose, spraying it at Vera. It's cold, and the sudden impact of the freezing water surprises Vera, her tail sticking straight out.
"Okay, just tell me what direction you need me to move it in. Like this."
Maddie angles the hose up, spraying Vera in the face for a moment.
A sharp, frustrated yelp escapes Vera. She then purrs angrily. She opens up the fabric of her undergarments with her hands so that she can rinse out those areas as well briefly, and she grabs the bottle of shampoo by her feet. She tilts her head into the stream of water, unamused by the face spray. Then, she scrubs in the shampoo. All this cold water is going to give her the flu.
"Don't move," She yells.
She moves on to washing her petite figure with soap soon while the water creeps down from her head and to her shoulders. They have two large scars, one on each shoulder, which she would prefer to ignore.
Maddie continues holding the hose, not peeking at all. She waits for Vera's call to stop, patiently.
"Stop taking so long, I want to shower too you know! Oh also do you want me to grab you a towel when you're done? No one likes a wet cat."
Vera almost forgets to wash her tail, but she does wash it, shivering. She meows pathetically.
"Okay. I'm done. Get me a towel. Don't look at me. Do you have tea bags? I could use hot tea..."
She stares at her dripping mass of hair on her head in the reflection of the subway train glass.
"Yeah, I can probably find some tea somewhere in the room."
Maddie disappears inside, emerging a moment later.
"Think fast, soggycat!"
Maddie throws the towel at Vera, and it lands on her head.
"I'm going to start the tea now, come inside when you're dry."
Vera takes the towel and scrubs her head and figure and hides herself from view of the windows, wandering around outside for some time. When she returns to Maddie's home, she's dried, wrapped in the towel, and standing in the doorframe. She's made an attempt to cover her shoulder scars, but they're still partially visible. She's still red.
"Could you pass me my new clothes?"
She sneezes.
Maddie passes Vera the clothes. She then turns back to the table, where two mugs are full of water.
"I'm going to go warm up the tea, I'll be right back."
Maddie heads outside to the grill, placing the mugs on it to start heating up the water.
Vera frowns at the clothes Maddie selected for her. She honestly believed that Maddie had bought these for herself and that her new outfit would be something else she brought.
But, with resignation, Vera places on the pink t-shirt, pale blue jeans, and hoodie. She doesn't really understand what the colon followed by a three is supposed to signify on the hoodie's design. The clothes are all too baggy.
Somehow, Maddie returns holding mugs that are not completely ruined by the grill, each filled with hot water. As she walks in, she sets them down on the table and then notices Vera wearing the new clothes.
"Oh my god. You are absolutely adorable wearing that. You're so soft and cute!!!"
Maddie rushes over to Vera without further hesitation and hugs her, her tail waving back and forth. After a moment, she awkwardly breaks the hug.
"Oh... sorry. You are just so cute I couldn't resist it. The tea mugs are ready, I laid out some teabags on the table. Pick whichever you want."
Vera's late attitude takes in a dagger of serotonin by Maddie's compliments and hug. So, she does no less than an assuring smile and perking cat ears in return. She then gently leads away from the hug and shrugs as if only now just remembering who she presents herself as.
"It's okay. I suppose I've been struck by instincts too lately. But let's move on, Maddie, please."
She picks out the tea bag of green tea from the humble stash and plops it into her mug. She then sits at a chair and folds her legs, blowing on the surface of the liquid.
Maddie takes her own cup, adding a bag of fruit tea and a copious amount of sugar. She sits down across from Vera, cradling the warm cup in her hands.
"I'm happy to see how much more comfortable you are being cute, Vera. It feels like you can really be yourself more!"
Maddie laps up a sip of her tea, enjoying the sweet beverage.
"Anyways, we should get some rest soon. We need to get ready for tomorrow when we're going to figure out how to get you some help. Anything else you wanted to do before bed?"
"I'm not sure that's being myself, Maddie. I'm normally modest about my appearance, and I believe for good reason." Still, she smirks at the repeated mention of 'cute'.
Vera likes the noise of the sugar pouring in Maddie's drink. So, Vera reaches for the small bag and pours a smaller quantity into her own drink too. Shouldn't hurt.
"Sure, Maddie. I am getting tired, so I agree. Quick question, though: are you going to wash my old dirty clothes later?"
Vera isn't really sure what Maddie has in mind for figuring out how to help her, however. She laps some of her tea with her tongue as if it were a bowl of water before correcting herself to sip it formally.
Maddie waits for Vera to finish her tea and then pulls out a small object.
"Here's something that'll 'help' you for a bit."
She points the object at the wall near Vera, and a red dot appears on the wall. Instinctively, Vera feels the urge to try and grab or pounce at the dot, for seemingly no reason.
Vera groans. Her eyes flicker around the room, following the trail of the red dot. She stands up and follows it slowly, restraining herself. She has to find the right opportunity to grab it. Although—
"Maddie, why is this helping me at all? Stop playing with my head like that. Even if you keep it up, this dot won't escape my clutches, anyway."
She purrs and crouches close to the current wall with the dot.
Maddie points the light towards the ceiling, giggling as Vera slowly follows it with her gaze, wound up like a spring, ready to pounce at it.
"You'll definitely get the dot! You got this Vera!"
She shines the light to the other end of the train carriage, watching Vera sprint and pounce for it, barely stopping herself from slamming into the wall.
Vera purrs unhappily, bested by the red dot and this little game. Her attention for it slowly fades, but not without great effort. She does something of a little pout beside Maddie.
"I'm definitely going insane... Regardless, I've been thinking about it, Maddie, and I wanted to say I'm sorry about—looking at your stuff earlier. I'm sure that wasn't the right thing to do. Mrow."
Her tail extends to Maddie's side.
"Oh, it's fine. I don't really care much anymore. It's probably for the better, maybe there's something that could help us. Maybe I could find her again..."
Maddie begins preparing some bagels with cheese on them for dinner, humming as she works.
"Wanna cuddle to sleep tonight? I promise you'll sleep better, the cardboard box is super cozy! Tomorrow will be important towards getting you back, you should try to get the best rest possible!"
She watches Maddie preparing the meal. She tilts her head, and she wanders to the cardboard box, sitting inside it, not quite curling up.
"It's strange that not sleeping on the mattress is even an option. But I suppose... I like this box. I don't understand why. Cats are silly."
She shrugs. She joins Maddie at the table when the bagels are done, and eats slowly.
"So, okay, I'll join you in the cardboard box, but please no cuddling. I'm not like that. I don't sleep with people. This is all really a transgression of myself, honestly."
Maddie continues to eat, enjoying the taste and, for once, actually enjoying Vera's presence.
"You know, it's nice hanging out with you. I know you probably don't like this, but, now that I've gotten to know you, it's been fun. I hope you don't still hate me once this is all over.
She finishes one half of her bagel, waiting before eating the second piece.
"But anyways, tomorrow is important. Anything you want me to grab before we head out tomorrow, or do you think we're good to go?"
Vera's ears perk, but she looks away shyly.
"Thank you, Maddie. I admittedly have a better sense of your perspective now, so I can understand why you might have been so compelled to—bite me. Yeah. However, I can't guarantee that when I return to normal I'll still understand. So, I guess having fun now isn't such a bad thing? Or am I just justifying..."
Her voice trails off. She bites her lip.
"We should grab water bottles and a coffee by tomorrow morning. Could be a cold brew. Where are we going to go?"
"I'm... not actually sure. I was thinking we could go through the outskirts of the city. Maybe we'll find someone who knows more about this. I really don't know, but I don't know if that woman has left the city. Maybe she's still around, she could be very helpful in figuring out what to do."
Maddie walks towards the door, an empty bag slung over her shoulder.
"I'm going to grab some more water and some coffee. I'll be back in a little while, why don't you get ready for bed while I'm gone?
"It's a good idea," She says. "Maybe anyone else who's been cursed like you and I lives there."
She grabs the stack of papers and the pen from the side of the mattress and then returns to Maddie's cardboard box, properly settling inside of it this time. She curls up in a way she's unsure her anatomy could have allowed for before this assignment. Her hoodie is thrown over her still damp hair.
"Goodnight, then. Maybe we will find this woman, Maddie. I can kind of tell you worry about her."
Vera is unable to rest well, struggling to finally fall asleep. A couple hours later, she feels something warm curl up against her, joining her in the box. However, she feels as if nothing is off and this time falls asleep quickly, enjoying the company.