Chapter 3

Goldie yawned as she opened the bedroom door.

There was a difference, some of her friends could have told her, between a morning person and someone who just tends to wake up early. Between enjoying the start of a new day, and having biology just starting the day too damned early. Goldie, definitely, was in the latter camp. She hated waking up. The whole transition from being comfortable on a nice soft bed, and having to get muscles and brain ready for actual activity. But ... once her eyes opened, there was no going back. Her internal alarm did not so much ring, as rip the covers off and push her off the mattress.

Just another way biology was screwing her.

Standing on all four limbs, she stretched. She could hear the cracking, especially as she rotated her neck. Once, when she was half asleep, she had heard this horribly loud crack and thought she had broken something. Worried the heck out of her. Wrinkling her nose, she also realized she could smell herself. Her fur stunk. The humans, full humans, wouldn't notice for another day or two most likely, but her brother would.

She looked down at her furry arms.

Maybe if she shaved it all off...

Another yawn spawned, surprising her. OK, enough self reflection. She needed a shower to get rid of the stink, and wake up. Time to move.

She padded out into the hallway. Turning, Goldie reached up her clawed hand and grabbed the door knob, pulling the door shut. Anthony had offered to make the door more four legged friendly, but she had squashed that. Goldie didn't want special treatment. She wanted to be like them. Be ONE of them.

So, no doggy doors.

With another yawn, she ambled down the hall.

The ship, especially this store, was the most bestest place she had ever lived. Bar none. Now, true, before she had been a slave, living in some sort of cage (even if a nice one, compared to most cages). That alone could account for most of how she felt, her experience in the area of accommodations being rather limited. Still ... carpeted floors, nice beds, clean bathrooms ... What more could you want?

There was a sound behind her. Someone else was up. Stopping, she sat on her hind quarters and turned her head.

From Hannah and Anthony's room, a sleepy Mary stumbled.

Her eyes were half closed, brown hair a frizzy mess. Her skinny body was clad in an orange oversized t-shirt which fell almost to her knees. The faded image of a mean cowboy's upper torso holding a Lacrosse stick covered most of it, along with the words Buffalo Bandits. One hand held a stuffed pink creature with lots of eyes.

Goldie froze. If she turned and ran quickly, maybe she'd be away before the girl noticed her surroundings. But, then again ... this was Hannah's daughter. Hannah had been like a second mother to her, and Anthony the only REAL father she had ever had. Over the past year, Goldie had come to realize that the story her mother had told, especially the part about "Real Daddy" (as opposed to "Fake Daddy", the one who got Mom pregnant), had been mostly fantasy. Embellishing truth for the little girl. Real Daddy ... had just been a boy she liked, before all this happened. Anthony was real, and wonderful.

Goldie silently sighed. She had to try and make friends with the newcomer.

"Good morning!"

Mary looked up, eyes opening. They then opened wider. Her hand finished closing the bedroom door, but even as the latch clicked Goldie could see the girl hesitate, consider opening it and going back inside. To her surprise, instead of being hurt, as she had been last night at the screams of terror aimed at her, she was emboldened. Neither girl was happy at what was to come.

Goldie could be stronger than her.

"Did you sleep well, Mary?" She turned her body to fully face the girl, but otherwise stayed seated. She could see the war on Mary's face. Her smile stayed simple, sincere. She hoped. It was what Goldie was feeling, but she never really knew what she looked like to others. Especially the full humans.

"Umm, yeah. Thanks." Letting go of the door, Mary reached up with her hand and rubbed her eyes. Blinking, she seemed to regard Goldie with ... wary acceptance.

Maybe.

"Mom ... told me about you. And your brother. I'm sorry. About yesterday ... Goldie, right?"

"Right!" Well, this was going well so far! "Don't worry about yesterday. You'll get used to things."

"Right..." Mary shook her head. "Um, bathroom?"

"Oh! Down here! I'm going there too, to take a shower!" Not waiting for a reply, she stood and turned, heading down the hall.

"Um ... can I go first?"

Goldie turned to look at Mary, puzzled, hand already on the bathroom doorknob. She could see the teen's legs together, her body tense. Ah, that was it!

"Oh! Don't worry, it's big! Come on!" Opening the door, she paddled forward onto the tile.

The gasp behind her was, for some reason, very satisfying. Continuing a few feet into the room, she waited until she was out of the way before facing Mary. The poor girl's eyes were practically bugging out of her face, stuffed creature barely held onto. Goldie nodded, happily.

"Alicia said, when women design a bathroom, they design a bathroom!"

The humans had started their interstellar travel with the Bells Supermarket's usual bathroom arrangement: a men's room and a ladies room, both with four toilet stalls and two sinks, in the back by the break room. The first problem with this setup had been noticed almost as soon as they realized they weren't on Earth, namely that there was no water connection anymore. That was bad. Once things had moved to the next level of silliness, with the store now on a spaceship in zero gravity, the bathrooms became useless. Piss and shit floating back at you is not a desired thing, apart from some of the more unusual fetishes not shared by those on the ship. Thus, that aspect of human activity was done in the Orang designed bathrooms placed among the ship's crew quarters.

With gravity restored to the dome, and the store, designing proper bathrooms fit for fussy women became a high priority (the original store ones, naturally, having been declared icky). Tammy had decided that, instead of recreating an updated men's room/ladies room setup, with added baths and showers, they should do one big multi person bathroom. After all, they were used to being around each other, and not all that shy. Four toilets from the ladies room were moved up to the second floor, placed in new, extra roomy stalls made from a nice wood painted white. A bank of four custom made sinks sat opposite them, set into a black and grey swirly marble counter. Copper faucets sat before a long mirror.

In the back, both corners of the room held showers, curved curtain rods providing some privacy. Two large baths, half submerged into the floor, completed the necessaries. From the ceiling, copper lights hung down around the edge of a large skylight.

A small R2 robot under one of the sinks, waiting for something to clean, completed the picture.

"Toilets are there," Goldie said, although she immediately regretted it because, well, it was obvious where the toilets were. "The one at the end is kind of special built for me, so try the other ones. I'm going to take a shower."

She turned, not waiting for a reply. The girl made her nervous. She, obviously, made Mary nervous.

She needed that shower.

The sound of a stall door closing came to her as she pulled aside the shower curtain. It was covered with blue flowers, matching the blue tiles of the shower. She liked blue. Her mom had told her it was the color of the sports teams in her home city of Buffalo (one team even used blue and GOLD!). Mom ... she didn't think of her mom as often as she used to. Surprisingly, when they came, the thoughts were now happy, of the good times. Maybe because SHE was happy now, having good times...

Cold water came from the shower, drawing a quick yelp from the girl. She turned the hot water nob a bit. Finding a comfortable temperature, Goldie steadied herself ... and rose onto two feet.

Closing her eyes, she let the water wet her down. She could feel her hair become one with her body. Fell it stick to her like ... like clothing. Starting at the top of her head, her hands began running down her body. Only when she was soaking, like this, could she truly feel her body. Could she feel ... human. Her hands came to her breasts, cupping them. They were firm, not changing shape when she stood like a person, filling her hands. Her stomach was flat, her hips swelling.

She wanted the hair gone. Wanted to look human. Human women had no hair below the neck, or at least shaved most that was there. Why was it that SHE got stuck with all this fur? Danny had NOTHING down there, so far as she could see, yet human men had tons of hair! Chuck had short curly hair on his chest, arms and legs!

Eyes still closed, water hitting her face, she reached for the shampoo.

Mary couldn't help staring.

She could see the outline of Goldie behind the flowered shower curtain. Goldie was...

Human.

Actually human.

Oh, there was an oddness to her legs, the angle of her hips, that spoke of something not being quite right. She occasionally staggered a bit, losing her balance staying upright for that long. But, beyond that there was no doubt about it. Even the two ears on top of her head looked like nothing so much as waterproof cosplay costume stuff. What her Mom had said was true. Goldie was...

"Oh, tell me what you want, what you really really want! I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want!"

Goldie was singing a bad oldies pop song.

Smiling, shaking her head, Mary looked around. There were two comfy chairs near the shower. More proof this was designed by women. Taking a seat, carefully setting Mr. Eyeball on the armrest, she waited for Goldie to finish.

Nona woke to mild, jabbing pain.

Her hand made its way up to the problem area. Her forehead, it seems, was pressing against the corner of something on the wall. This was fixable. All she had to do was shove her body away from the wall.

Her eyes opened.

Why was she floating in the dark?

Moving her head away from the attacking point, she put one hand on the wall as her brain slowly came online. She had been sleeping. In zero g. This, most likely, meant she was in her old cabin. Why had she come here...

Oh.

She closed her eyes.

"Oh, God... ," she muttered, rotating her neck as she worked the kinks out of her aching body. "I didn't take that well, did I?" Nona had always hated being embarrassed, or the focus of attention. Her actions hadn't helped in that regard. Now they'd be treating her like some sorry kid, when all she wanted was to deal with it on her own. She didn't need...

Oh.

Her hand finally realized the object on the wall was, in fact, a light switch. She turned it on.

She was in her cabin, nude.

Floating across the room, sleeping in her sexy black dress from the wedding, was Tammy.

Luckily, for both of them, it wasn't possible to stay together while floating un-tethered. If Nona had woken with the blonde girl cupping one of her breasts or something...