It took almost a full day before Paige and Izzy realized just what having their very own apartment really meant. That wasn't to say that they hadn't given it a certain amount of thought during their senior year in high school, hanging out in each other's bedrooms and keeping one ear open for the sound of parents coming up the stairs while they quietly explored each other's...feelings. Very, very deep explorations, as it happened. Some genuinely probing and emotional sessions, in fact. But all too often, those explorations had to be cut short with frustrating haste by the arrival of a family member who wouldn't necessarily be put off by explanations of the age of majority and the growing acceptance of lesbian relationships. It was times like that when they really thought hard about the benefits of moving out.
But the first day was too exhausting to really give it much thought. It was physically grueling-most of their furniture didn't fit in the elevator, so they had to haul the bigger items up two flights of stairs until their blonde hair clung to their skin with sweat beneath their matching bandanas. Even with parental help, it was hard...especially since they had to be careful to make sure their parents never saw the inside of some of their boxes of belongings. That was about as taxing emotionally as the heavy lifting was on their arms and legs. By the time they got everything moved in and sorted into the right rooms (of course, they were still pretending they'd be using separate bedrooms) they were just too exhausted to think about anything but ordering pizza, showering off the grunge of the late-summer heat, and collapsing into the same bed together in an exhausted slumber.
The next morning, though, Paige looked into Izzy's bright blue eyes. Izzy looked into Paige's big brown eyes. Both of them smiled a secret smile. And with a quick "Be right back," Paige went to go find one of the boxes they didn't let their parents see into.
Izzy spent most of the wait trying to push down a sudden attack of nerves. It was silly, but now that they actually had the time and the space to really live out some of the fantasies they'd never had a chance to do much more than tease each other with, Izzy was very quietly freaking out. What if she really couldn't do everything Paige wanted her to do? What if it turned out that all the games they played back home were really just that, and when she got the opportunity to do more her brain didn't want to cooperate? What if Paige got mad at her and dumped her and they spent their whole freshman year hating each other and they couldn't tell their parents what happened because they'd have to admit they were a couple and their parents were so totally not ready for that even if they were 'liberal' and and and-
Paige came back into the room. Her clothing didn't. Izzy was so excited she didn't even know where to stare first for a moment, but Paige solved that problem pretty quickly. "Look what I found for you, kitten!" she cooed, holding out a wand with a small clump of feathers dangling at the end of it. And suddenly all the anxiety and nervousness and fear in Izzy's mind simply fell away as she watched the little brown birdie sway and dance at the end of the line.
It wasn't exactly gone, of course. There was still a part of Izzy that felt ashamed-not just ashamed but embarrassed at finding such an absurd fetish so unbelievably fucking hot-but it was already receding into the dim, distant recesses of Izzy's mind. Paige had found her favorite kitty toy. Izzy was watching it dance and wriggle at the end of the line. Everything else seemed less and less important with each passing moment as her eyes helplessly followed its movements.
"That's my good kitty," Paige said softly, her eyes shining with excitement. "That's my good little Izzy-kitten." Her reaction helped steady Izzy's mind and soften her thoughts into a state of peace and calm. Paige didn't seem to think it was silly that she wished she was a cat. Paige wanted Izzy to be a good little kitten. Paige wanted Izzy's mind to melt into a fuzzy, purring, eager little ball of fur, and knowing that made it so much easier to simply let it happen.
Izzy had always loved pretending to be a cat, even when they were kids together. It was one of their favorite childhood games, Paige pretending to be a magical princess and Izzy pretending to be her faithful feline companion. But when Paige brought it back up eight or nine months ago, it felt...different. To both of them. When Paige teased her with the cat toys that her family's elderly tabby no longer chased, and Izzy giggled and batted at them, she felt a sudden and unfamiliar heat between her legs that she prayed her friend didn't notice. The game took on a momentum all its own, neither one of them quite knowing what was happening but also not willing to stop.
And when Izzy rolled into Paige's lap, and looked up into her wide brown eyes, and Paige reached down to rub her belly just like the kitten she was pretending to be, and Paige's hand unaccountably strayed a little bit further down Izzy's body...they both figured it out.
They did a little research after that. The Internet was a wonderful place for a pair of clever eighteen-year olds with smartphones they understood better than their parents and inattentively secured wifi. Izzy learned about petplay, and Paige learned about D/s and hypnosis. And over the course of several months of 'study sessions' and 'sleepovers', they managed to put a lot of what they learned into practice. But never enough to satisfy them.
But now Izzy was watching her toy. Her kitty toy. Her very own pretty kitty toy, for a pretty little kitty...she took a swipe at it as Paige got closer, swatting it with hands that were already instinctively forming the shape of paws.
"Oh, that's a good kitten!" Paige said, reaching out and scritching Izzy under the chin. Izzy was almost astonished out of her deepening trance by the purring sound she heard emanating from her own throat. It sounded so real-like she wasn't pretending at all.
She tried to tell Paige how shocked she was at how well the suggestions were taking root in her mind, but found that all she could remember how to say was, "Mew?" She tried again, but her voice refused to form anything but a small, chirruping "merp" of confusion. Soon, Izzy felt like she couldn't even remember what words she wanted to use in the first place. Everything seemed so simple now, her world reduced to soft petting and pretty toys.
"That's my sweet little fuzzy-head," Paige said, turning the scritches into long, slow strokes of the fur on Izzy's head. Izzy found herself leaning into the motion, nuzzling Paige's hand every time it got close to her cheek. "But you know, kitties look very silly wearing clothes."