Chapter Twenty Six

Copyright © 2019 by S.M. TOZER

Raven turned his attention towards the hall wondering what it was that Menay was up to.

Standing up from the couch when he heard the water was turned on from the shower. He listened as it continued to run for a while becoming more curious of what Menay was doing back there as the minutes passed. He feared that Menay was going to try something shady in a method of getting him to bathe so he was cautious when he went to investigate.

He started walking down the hall when he noticed that the shower was turned off once more replaced by the sound of humming. Coming just beyond the bathroom door it grew louder followed by the footsteps that came closer. This made Raven pause wondering if it was just the sound of the faucet he had heard before since it was too quick to be a shower and the water was no longer running to be a trick.

When he went to knock on the door to inquire on what Menay was up to when the door swung open. This caused Raven's hand to open and land on Menay's bare chest making him pull back quickly once he felt the difference in texture. Rubbing his now damp hand on the side of his pants he didn't even have to question whether Menay was just showering or not. The answer was pretty clear by how wet he still was with just a brief touch.

Raven peered back at Menay as he was wearing nothing but a towel around his waist, "What are you doing?" He questioned.

"Just like you, I stunk," he declared while glancing Raven over for a moment wondering what he was thinking, "What else do you expect?" he grumbled beginning to complain while stepping back into the bathroom to grab a brush from the counter.

"I have been in my human body for days unable to bathe myself, I needed a physical shower, I can't clean this body with my tongue like..." he went to explain while brushing his drenched dirty blonde hair as he was cut off by Raven throwing up his hand.

"No, I do not want to think about you licking yourself, stop!" Raven shouts while he waved his hand at Menay closing his eyes trying not to imagine the body he saw before him being involved in the same positions that the house cat cleaned himself in before, "Just no..." He pleaded still trying to force the thoughts away.

Menay chuckled softly giving a slight grin, "Okay, don't ask then" he teased blaming the topic on Raven's doing.

Raven sighed with a roll of his eyes to how Menay wasn't affected or ashamed of what he was about to say at all when he got the wrong idea about what he was asking, "You're a cat, I thought you hated the water?" he clarified what he had meant before.

"Don't be spiecest," Menay grumbled putting down the brush, "And no I hated when you sprayed me with a water bottle but that is a different subject altogether" He claims waving his finger at Raven then suddenly stopping giving a smile like he had just realized he was able to talk to Raven now.

He pulled back still grinning, "Though now that you know, don't do that anymore" he requested folding his arms over one another.

"Spiecest? Okay..." Raven scoffed to his words thinking about them. He smirked in return knowing that if Menay was human the whole time he understood what the rules were in the house and chose not to follow them, "Then stop jumping on the counters." he responded with a shrug.

Menay chuckled as he couldn't believe the way Raven had just spoke to him finding it amusing though it was irritating, "Really?" He sneered arching a brow.

"Really, you know better" Raven repeated Menay in a mocking tone confirming what he said giving a slight attitude along side it to show where he stood with the familiar.

"I..." Menay went to protest as he looked down at Raven and let it go giving out a gentle snicker reaching out to Raven's head. Messing with his frizzy tangled red hair for a moment returning a smile to his face, "Fine I'll stop, you getting in?" he asked playing with Raven's hair a bit longer while he passed him by leaving Raven's path to the bathroom open.

Raven snarled as he moved his head away from Menay's grasp, "No" he hissed still refusing to get that far while his body still looked this way.

"You sure?" Menay inquired as he stopped walking to look back over his shoulder to Raven. His eyes looked Raven over for a moment while he thought of what to say to encourage him to at least try and use the restroom, "I can help if you need" he suggested gesturing to Raven's body offering to wash where Raven didn't want to look knowing this would cause a reaction.

"No!" Raven snapped as he felt his face getting hot with anger hating Menay all the more, "Please just don't go there" he growled.

Menay snickered giving a shrug, "Okay fine, at least try and use the bathroom while I get dressed" he suggests once more while making his way down the hall.

"Dressed?" Raven muttered confused. Now that he thought about it Menay had been wearing clothes since they got to the house though it wasn't his or his father's, "Why are you going into my dad's room?" he inquired almost tempted to follow but chose it would be safer to stay out in the hall.

"Go to the bathroom" Menay shouted while closing the door to his father's bedroom behind him.

Raven wavered his questions for the moment looking back into the bathroom letting out a huff. Though he was reluctant he figured there was a chance Menay would pester him further so he went in anyways. Even though he had no intentions of using it he knew he couldn't hold himself forever and there wasn't any harm in trying.

Slowly closing the door against his back he placed his head back on the door letting out a sigh while he glanced over into the mirror. Having avoided the bathroom he had not looked at the dream girl or rather himself since that Friday night.

Locking the door as a precaution he pushed himself off the frame and made his way closer to the sink. Leaning over he looked at his reflection a little harder still having trouble understanding that this was his face staring back at him. The baggy hoodie hid a lot of details that gave him away as a woman but the face was still different.

Looking at himself in such a state he was almost thrown back by her appearance not sure if this truly were the same woman from his dreams. She was always clean and beyond pretty in his opinion though the woman staring back at him now looked like she could be homeless with how much of a mess she let herself become.

Even if it was weird he couldn't stand the thought of letting her appearance be tarnished by his lack of care for this form. Looking down at the hair brush on the counter he picked it up and slowly parted his matted hair from the back and pulled it to the front. Laying his long hair out onto his chest on each side he started brushing out the knots at the bottom working his way up gently. Giving out a whimper and a hiss or two while the knots pulled and hurt more than they would with his shorter hair.

After a few curse words and more hissing under his breath he placed the brush back down to the counter looking back at himself in the mirror to see the difference. He gave a soft smile to see how the locks of hair laid out over his shoulders with a smooth wave just like the way he had always seen her before.

Though her hair within his dreams was still not the same, usually it had a bright red shine and looked soft to the touch. Now it was replaced by a the dull oil appearance weighed down with dirt. Revealing that he had not bathed in days and he was starting to regret it knowing he likely would need to be clean if he wanted to change back to a male.

Glancing over his shoulder to the shower he let out a sigh and pulled at the bottom of the hoodie he wore lifting it from his stomach. He went to pull it up and over his head like he usually would hoping to forget his current gender but as he lifted the hoodie it brought the shirt he wore under with it. He caught the reflection in the mirror as he got the shirt just above his chest at his elbows causing his face to quickly turned red dropping his hoodie from what he saw.

He hit the sink and fell forward letting out a sigh turning on the water. He cupped his hands under the running water and splashed his face opting out of taking a shower. Rubbing the water on his face in the sink trying to forget what he just saw on his chest preferring to wash his hair in the sink if he really had to. Though while he wiped his face dry with a hand towel he felt the pressure on his bladder worsen with the sound of the running water and being so close to the toilet didn't help him forget he had to use it.

Crossing his legs he held his breath and leaned back up looking over to the toilet. Even if it was an inanimate object he felt it was taunting him with the seat being left up from when Menay last used the restroom, like it was waiting for him to use it like a man.

Stepping over he peered down at it and reached over lowering the seat slowly knowing it wouldn't work that way for him now. He thought about how easy it should be as if he were using the bathroom just like any other day. Raven tried to convince himself that nothing was going to be different about going to the bathroom this way.

But then when he started to go into detail within his mind of the process of steps he went blank realizing he had no idea how woman cleaned themselves afterwards. This caused him to try and think of the anatomy to figure it out or remember if he had ever seen a suggestion on how it is done. Thinking about it brought images to his mind about himself and felt his stomach turning. Raven was becoming flustered at the very thought of what he would look like and the uneasy feeling became to much for him.

"Okay, so there are actually quite a few options for coffee shops and music" Menay yelled out from down the hall after having looked them up online while he was getting dressed.

His voice startled Raven making him back away from the toilet and let out a huff rubbing his face for a moment trying to forget once again. Moving his hands down to his pants he rubbed the fabric till his fingers became warm to calm his urge to relieve himself like he had done the last few days. This was the most Raven could do though he just couldn't stand still as Menay continued to speak to him.

"This might take us a while so we can't waste too much time here, it will take us about an hour to get downtown once traffic hits then we'll have to find the shop." he warned wanting Raven to hurry up and get ready.

"Okay," Raven muttered in response hoping Menay didn't come any further down the hall while he was knelt over in the bathroom trying to hold himself from using the restroom finding it harder to do than ever before.

Though there was silence for a short period of time this did not last long as Menay's footsteps slowly made their way to the end of the hall stopping in front of the door. "Hey your mom left some of her perfume here you can use it for now to cover up your smell" he offered while waiting for a response from Raven by the door.

Raven leaned back up as he finally contained himself knowing he didn't want Menay questioning what he was doing if he took too much longer, finding the situation embarrassing enough. Racing over he went to the toilet and pushed down the handle, dropping the lid quickly to imply that he had used the restroom so that Menay wouldn't pester him any further till things went back to normal.

"Feel better?" Menay taunted from the other end upon hearing the toilet flush waiting for Raven to show himself.

Raven rolled his eyes as he turned on the sink for a moment. "Don't say a word," He growled before he then opened the door to realize that the entire time he was focused on the toilet the voice that was usually in his head was speaking to him from the other side of the door.

"You're voice that was not in my head?..." Raven muttered staring up at the now much taller Menay noticing he was looking at a full grown man standing before him.

The first thing Raven noticed was the lack of tail or ears. His hair color went to a little darker shade of dirty blonde and was no longer ruffled with the protruding tan cat ears. He was much taller than before and his fully grown body filled out Raven's father's clothes in his adult form.

"What are you..." Raven faltered in his question as he was at a loss of where to begin with his questions.

He didn't even know what he wanted to learn about Menay at that moment but now the voice in his head finally had a face to go with and that was the only thing that made sense now.

"I told you before. I'm already an adult, I can just pick my age" he explained without Raven needing to say a word as he figured this question was the cause of Raven's silence.

"I'll be taking you there in this form, no cat ears, no tail, no glances so you'll be fine" he adds in a tone of voice that implied he was not giving Raven a say in the matter covering all the reasons Raven would say no.

Looking at what he was wearing he noticed it was too flashy and stylish for his father's taste. Though he had seen this outfit in his father's closet before he never seen his father wear them. Besides that looking at them the size was bigger than his father's other clothes since Menay was bigger build.

Raven scoffed as he looked away with a bit of an aggressive nod of his head while he registered that these were always Menay's clothes. His parents knew of Menay's forms, even his father knew Menay had a adult male body, yet they made an effort to hide his true form from Raven. He was irritated by not being told but he couldn't understand why and that bothered him more than not knowing.

"You coming?" Menay asked while he made his way to the front door. Turning the knob the second he approached this allowed the cold wind to gust in blowing Raven's hair around to his mouth.

"Oh..." Raven muttered still distracted by his irritated thoughts walking towards the door when the wind hit his face, "Yeah, ugh" He confirmed to coming along while he desperately tried to get the hair from his face which seemed like an almost impossible task.

Menay looked back to the voice that seemed in distress and gave out a chuckle shutting the door once again. Reaching out with his hand he brushed his fingers through Raven's hair combing it back getting it out of Raven's face in a much faster manner than Raven was doing picking it out strand by strand.

"You brushed it at least, looks nice but since you're so dirty it would be better to keep it back" Menay pointed out while stepping back to the door to pick up a hair tie from the dump tray by the door, "Probably make you feel better as well, out of sight out of mind" he adds walking behind Raven.

Raven narrowed his brow listening to what he was saying not sure what Menay was implying as he stepped behind him. This made him about to look back but his head was stopped and without warning Menay pulled Raven's hair back and began to put it up in a ponytail for him.

"Relax, everything will sort itself out" He spoke softly trying to comfort Raven seeing how he seemed so lost in his thoughts just moments before not knowing the thoughts were about himself.

He gave a snarl but it quickly went away while looking the cat over knowing he wasn't talking about the hair. He couldn't help but feel spite towards the words anyway, "Really, I can go back to being human again?" Raven hissed knowing this would never happen again glancing over his shoulder back to Menay.

Menay peered down pulling the long red hair between his fingers through the hair tie. He paused when he heard Raven's rhetorical question and though he knew Raven didn't require an answer he still responded, "No, but you were never human" he explained trying to help Raven understand better that it was never normal.

Raven's resentful eyes glared at Menay for the statement when their eyes met for a moment. He knew what Menay was trying to do by saying these words hoping he could help him adjust. Though he hated them and since it was coming from Menay after finding out how long he had hid his true form from Raven it only made him all the more angered by it.

Raven didn't respond to the comments further still feeling betrayed a little by his parents and Menay. He didn't want to speak any more while Menay finished putting the tie from his wrist around Raven's hair pulling it tight leaving the perfect ponytail on his head staying up and out of sight but not too tight. Reaching up when Menay had stepped away when he finished Raven was interested to know where it was. Being surprised by it he was slightly impressed that it felt almost too perfect while he couldn't feel a pull on his head.

He never grew his hair out longer than the nape of his neck in fear that it would attract more guys to him so he never put his hair up before. He had seen Jewels and other girls wearing them and wondered why they wore their hair up having always assumed a ponytail looked painful.

When Menay put one in his hair with ease, he questioned just how often the cat had done this for his mother. It was almost second nature to be a caregiver it seemed, something he never imagined a familiar would be objected to till he noticed all of what Menay had been doing this past weekend seemed so natural.

"Can I ask you something?" Raven asked as Menay opened the door again being too curious not to know why Menay was hidden from him now to just let it go for later.

"Shoot kiddo but ask while walking, we're burning daylight" He says on his way out the door gesturing for Raven to front him out the door.

Raven arched a brow as the word kiddo felt normal though his father never called him this. Shaking his head of it he looked back up to Menay while he passed him by going out the door, "Why were you hidden from me?" he finally ask aloud.

Menay froze at the door hesitant with an answer for Raven and even though he was just in a hurry he became reluctant to do anything. He just closed the door gently and let out a sigh. Almost as if he pretended not to hear Raven he locked the door and decided he was not going to respond.

This bothered Raven causing him to glare back at where Menay stood waiting for that answer. When Menay made it clear that he planned to ignore it Raven decided he would pressure him with guilt, "All those times I told you my secrets and worries you never once spoke up to comfort me... it's not like I couldn't handle the truth I knew what I was and yet I wasn't told I'd become a girl and then I wasn't told about you of all people how could you keep this from me, I trusted you the most" he adds to try and get closer to Menay's feelings.

Though it doesn't work as Menay still doesn't seem to budge in answering him. He stayed by the front door to make it harder to be ignored and even went to the front of him to look at Menay's face so he could see his expression while staring him down for an answer.

Menay's eyes look Raven over for a moment then glanced off to the sidewalk while taking in a deep breath unable to look raven in the eyes while he was being corned by the topic he didn't want to discuss. Menay refused to let this get to him and released the breath in a noticeable manner to show he was annoyed before he started to walk to the car without answering Raven yet.

"That was your mom's decision not mine, ask her" he finally stated feeling Raven was only going to press it further carrying a bit of aggression in his tone.

"That doesn't answer my question though I am asking you," Raven responded narrowing his brow hearing his mother kept this from him.

He wondered if she also was the only reason he didn't know about the gender change, "Menay? Medwin answer me, why were you a secret from me?" Raven demands following Menay to the car angered that he wasn't answering him like everyone else in the family holding secrets.

Stopping at the door of the car Menay leaned on it for a moment lowering his head to the car then looked back up smiling again in a playful manner, "Because one of me is enough right?"

"What?" Raven questioned shaking his head puzzled by the statement of there being two of him. Since he didn't know much of what a familiar was capable of he wasn't sure if he were just playing around or not, "What are you getting at now?" he asked further.

Menay sucked on his teeth and tapped the hood of the car while it looked like he were thinking of what he was going to say before he spoke not wanting to say the wrong thing, "When did you first find out about your mother?" he inquired clearly getting at something.

Raven narrowed his brow suspicious of the question as he approached the passenger door, "Since before I can remember, I was never allowed to kiss anybody so..." He wasn't sure where this was going at this point but he answered the question in a vague manner not truly recalling when he knew this information.

"No, I mean when did you find out being a succubus wasn't just kissing people?" He asked with a teasing grin and raise of his brows.

Raven looked away puffing out his cheeks to the question not wanting to admit the truth. That it took him a bit too long to realize what a succubus really did to feed and it was too embarrassing to let Menay know this with how much he teased.

He shrugged looking back as he gathered himself, "I don't know... my preteens maybe" he says in a lie knowing the exact age really didn't mattered at that very moment. He still wanted to know what Menay was getting at by this having to do with not knowing who he really was.

"Exactly, if I could speak to you and you knew who I was maybe you would think a small kiss wouldn't affect you for the rest of your life and you could just turn into what your mother is without knowing any of the other consequences yet..." he started to explain laying out a scenario of what ifs.

Raven went to protest though Menay continued, "All you would think about is 'I could have a kitty like Menay too' and boom your whole life would have been like this only sooner." He adds while his voice went a little high and a bit childish as he mimicked a younger version of Raven while he explained.

This reason bothered Raven not finding it enough to have lied to him all these years. He snarled at him making fun of his voice and claiming he would even wanting a familiar like him being conceded. He wanted to tell Menay off but truly he couldn't say that for certain this scenario would not have gone through his mind when he was a child so he dropped it, "Shut up, I didn't sound like that" he muttered angered by the voice the most.

Menay only laughs lightly, "Oh yeah you did, get in the car" He snickered taping a rhythmic beat on the hood of the car as he ducked his head sitting down to start it.

Raven nodded as he watched Menay disappear from his line of sight, he was reluctant to sit down knowing Menay was still hiding something from him. It was starting to feel like a straight answer to anything was getting harder to come by with every changing day.