I look over the contract that I've been sent for my appearance at GirlCon, and my eyes glaze over by the time I'm mid-way through the first page. It's all dense legalese, and I'm so used to contracts being used to fuck me over I can't quite believe the figures on this page.

The money I'm getting.

It's not much, but it's a 'couch-having-adjacent' level of money. It's "that's more than I make in a paycheck for a single day" kinda money. And just like that, I'm feeling guilty about it all. While I'm wallowing, I take out my phone. Might as well.

K: Can I send you this contract?

It's been a long, mostly quiet week. The notifications stopped once I made new accounts — or, well... Jessica made them and asked what I wanted the handle to be. I don't have good photos, but she told me to send my best.

I spent an hour fumbling with my phone, looking at tutorials Jessica sent.

I promised myself it's just for these photos. Just to get through the madness of this moment. I took one just for me, though, and I almost liked how I looked. I'm not thin. My jaw is still too sharp, but... I almost liked the way I smile. It was almost sexy.

I was almost... attractive?

I can't judge that, though. And it's not like I cared. I'd never be enough, so I deleted it the next day. Jessica chose the photo — I sent options — I liked the least and set it as my profile picture everywhere. And just like that, I was @RealKamilliajora.

And I had thousands of followers.

It's more people than I can visualize. I haven't posted anything. Jessica assures me that I don't need to for now. Just making the accounts is enough to get people's attention away from my "personal" accounts.

I have "personal" accounts now... because I can't be just a "person".

The irony of it isn't lost on me. It's been gnawing at the back of my mind. And now with this money, I think of tourists. And Lisette's. And Lis herself. We haven't spoken since everything. I haven't wanted to go to the bar because, well... it'd be bad.

Or maybe I'm just afraid.

I cannot tell anymore. It's gnawing at me, too. I wish I could see her again, so I text Rax.

K: When's the next Virgin Drink Night?

Rax types for a long moment, the bubbles bouncing. Then it stops. Shit fuck shit. Lis is one of his best friends. He's gonna be mad. And then he sends a message.

I see something pop up that's longer than a single line of text and cringe instinctively, but it's just a contact card. For Lis.

Rax: You really ought to talk to her

I hesitate only briefly before:

K: You're cool with this?
Rax: You're both adults!
Rax: Have an adult conversation

I sigh, and stare at my phone, and take a long, long beat to consider everything. My mind drifts back to that moment on the couch. The way she pinned me was nice.

No. The hell with that. It wasn't just nice. It was hot. Her bulge rubbing against me was hot, too.

Ugh. I gotta calm down.

My sex drive's been off the charts recently. Ever since Tiana, it's like I'm back to feeling like me again. I'm back to wanting things I gave up on. I want sex, yeah, but... I want affection. Maybe it's the dreams I've been having of home. Of Lae'sha. I don't know.

I miss being touched.

I miss Lae'sha, too. It's been so long that I've lost the fine details of her face in my memories. I keep forgetting and then remembering then I forgot things about her.

I know she'd be older. Would she get those gray hairs like her mother Dialla? Or would it stay black, like her other mother Vixi?

Either way, It's been over a decade, and — to hear Earth's best scientists tell it — there's no telling how time works between dimensions. Days could've passed in the time I've been gone.

Maybe it's centuries. I stopped caring until I started dreaming about it again. Until I gave that damn speech.

And now it's all I can think about.

I gotta get out of my head. So I do something nobody ever does. I tap Lis' contact card and call her.

It rings twice before she picks up. "Hey!" She says, her voice bright.

"Hey, I was, um..." I trace my fingers along the hem of the couch cushions. "You free?"

"Yeah, sure!" Lis replies. "Hang on." There's some scuffling, and then — muffled — I hear her shout "Bar's closed, everyone!" A moment passes. "Yeah. Free!"

"Lis, you didn't have t—"

"Yeah, I'm fucking with you. I'm in the back, but the kegs're real disappointed they gotta leave."

I let out a barking laugh, and feel the tension drain from me. "That does suck for them."

"Pyru can cover for a bit, if you want to stop by."

And just like that, the tension's back. "Are you sure? I don't want to—"

"Nobody gives a fuck you're a celebrity. Here. I'll prove it."

Before I can protest, I hear Lis say "Hey, tell Kam you don't give a shit."

The phone floods with a rousing chorus of loving fuck you's and other jeers.

"Get your ass over here, or I'll have to come and get you," Lis says.

I gulp. "Maybe you should."

"Pyru? Cover for me." is all she says.

She's at my place in ten minutes, and has my arms pinned to the bed not five minutes after that. Her top's off mere moments later. I'm glad to have her taking control.

I've missed this. It's not what I had with Tiana, but it reminds me Lae'sha. Desdemona, too, but I push away the sour note of that.

I'm not gonna let anything bad fuck this up. Lis is here, and she likes me. She's no tourist, and she's smart, and fun. She deserves all of me. So let go of it as best I can, and kiss her.

I gently bite at one of her nipples, then lick and suckle as my other hand rubs the hard nub of the other.

My tail slithers into her jeans.

"Okay?" I ask.

"Fuck. Yeah," Lis gasps out between purrs.

"It's been a minute since I, um..."

Lis pulls herself closer to me. "You'll be fine."

My tail wraps around her shaft, and then I pop the head of her cock into my tip.

"Oh, fffuck!" Lis yells.

I'm about to clarify when I feel her cock stiffen. The inverted heart-shaped tip throbs, and I feel warmth flooding into my tail.

Lis grunts, and her hands pull at me. We kiss again as my tail continues to milk rope after rope of cum from her. After it ends, she flops back and covers her face.

"Oh, god," Lis groans, this time in mortification and not enjoyment. She peeks out from between her paws. "You probably think I'm some quick-shot all the time. I'm not, I just..."

I rub my hands along her shoulders. "Even if you are? Doesn't matter."

"I'm not!" Lis protests, then sighs.

"You're just... I've always had a crush on you. And you're, well..." She gestures to me.

I look at myself, not sure what she's gesturing at. "Well...?"

"You're hot!"

"I mean, yeah to so—"

"Nope."

"I just mean th—"

"Nope."

"Okay, bu—"

"You're a smokeshow. Shut up and accept the compliment."

I'm about to protest more when I feel a jolt of something inside me — deep inside my body. I reel back.

"What? What's wrong?"

I can't talk. It's not inside me. It's inside my tail. In the void. By reflex, my tail bulges, and I feel a form I know all too well inside it.

How the fuck is she here?

I don't have time to even consider that as Tiana plops out of my tail onto the floor. Lis' cum clings to her hair, her face, and clothes.

Behind me, Lis lets out a terrified scream. Probably the right reaction given everything.

"H-hi..." Tiana stutters out. She looks scared. Then she sees Lis.

"Hi." I say. "You—" She blinks away. "—got something... on your..." I trail off.

"Does that..." Lis starts. Then stops, pursing her lips. "Does that happen often?"

I stare at the spot where she was. "No."

"So it happens... infrequently?"

"Literally has never happened before."

Lis blinks.

"Huh," is all she can muster. I can't do much more than that myself.

Lis tells me she's gonna go a few minutes later. I can't blame her.

"I'm not regretting any of this, it's just..."

"That that was a lot?"

Lis' eyes go wide. "Yyyeaaah," she drawls out. "Your life seems... wild."

"I'm sorry."

Lis baps me on the forehead with her paw. "Stop that. No more feeling sorry for yourself."

"What the hell? I just freaked you out!"

Lis baps me on the forehead again. "Nah, your ex-girlfriend with very poor boundaries did. Not you."

"She's not my ex-girlfriend."

"Ex-fuckbuddy, then!"

"Still! I should've—"

"Literally how could you have prepared for 'my ex somehow magicked herself into my tail's pocket dimension, a thing I didn't know was possible'?"

"That... I... shut up."

Lis nods. "Okay. I'm glad you're seeing reason." She checks her phone. "I gotta go. Pyru's shift's up."

I catch her arm, gently. "You're not mad?"

Lis cocks her head to the side, annoyed. Then she gets up on her tiptoes to give me another kiss. It's deep, and passionate.

"I'm really not." Her phone buzzes. "And now I really gotta go because I don't want to pay Pyru overtime money I don't have."

When she's gone, I sit back down on the edge of my bed and stare again at where Tiana was. I'm annoyed.

K: What the fuck was that?

I don't get a reply. I deserve one.

Fuck reading the contract. I'm going to GirlCon, and Tiana and are I gonna have a conversation.

I'm owed that much.