Don't Drink The Gene Juice

20

Cathy sprang up from the bench, and with deep concern in her face, put her hands on his shoulders.

"Oh my gosh," she teared up, "what happened to you Wy?"

"I guess...," he said, "I let things get a little out of hand."

"A little?" Jenna said. She just couldn't believe that Wyatt had let it go this far.

"You got more gene juice didn't you?" Cathy asked.

Wyatt shook his head. He walked over to the bench, and they sat down, with him between the two of them.

"Not exactly... I've looked it up. After you do a one time change, the altering virus can sit dormant for a bit until the fully disposes of it. But becuause I had problems breaking my canine instincts, it didn't let the virus die. It kind of stayed active, and my body was confused."

"You got sick a bunch," Jenna said.

"Yes," Wyatt said, licking his nose. "And during that time... I let it go full force. And because I didn't choose to let it die, like you're supposed to with one time uses, I gained the ability to change back into a dog."

A very embarrassed expression came to Cathy's face, one that needed no interpretation. Wyatt had been that dog nearby. He'd been listening in on them. He'd heard everything.

Cathy wheezed, too distresed to even sob. It sounded eerily similar to the canine whines that Jenna had gotten used to hearing Wyatt make now.

"But what about this?" Jenna said, trying to distract Wyatt from Cathy. She gestured to all of him.

"I've got kind of good at striking a balance," Wyatt explained. "This... this is the place I like to be. I've... I've never felt... quite human, if that makes sense. But when I first changed, that didn't feel exactly right either. But here in between... I like this."

Cathy was trying to hide her emotion, wiping her eyes with her head turned.

"I'm sorry I listened in on you," he said to her. "....Cathy."

Cathy looked about to break apart again, and Wyatt wrapped his arms around her. Cathy held onto his embrace in turn, the fur under Wyatt's shirt rubbing against her.

Jenna noticed, interestingly, that Wyatt didn't simply have hands, or paws, but a combination. He had the shape of his normal hands, but covered in fur, with pads on them. His arms and legs also had their regular skeletal structure. His face had elongated similar to a dog's muzzle, but it was shorter.

Huh. It reminded Jenna of a video she'd watched, about how pet dogs had something called domestication syndrome, that caused their muzzles to be shorter than their ancestral wolves. Jenna supposed being intelligent was technically domesticating even more.

Jenna shook her distracting thoughts away as the two of them held onto each other.

"Looks like we've both been keeping secrets," Wyatt said to Cathy.

"Yeah," she said with a hoarse voice.

"I guess we're sort of at an even ground of awkwardness then," he said. "You're feeling awkward because your childhood friend now knows you're in love with him, and that you want to be a girl, and I'm feeling awkward because I just admitted I want to be half animal."

"You're not awkward Wyatt," Cathy said, ending their hug. "You said your secret freely, without fear. I... I said it because I thought we were alone."

"Are you mad at me?" Wyatt asked.

"No," Cathy said. "I'm mad that I couldn't tell you sooner."

"Well I told you my secret because I have absolutely no filter, and don't know when it's smarter to keep things in."