The door clicks shut behind you as you collapse against it, sliding down until your ass hits the floor with a soft thud. Your heart pounds so hard the sports bra struggles to contain it.
What. The. FUCK. Just. Happened?
Devon got... Devon just got... Your mind can't even form the words. Your FRIEND just got RAILED AND INSEMINATED by a dude she met twenty minutes ago. And you heard EVERYTHING. The pleading, the degradation, the moment of... of...
You clutch your head in your hands. This is YOUR fault. You should have gone out there. You should have made a scene. Instead, you wasted precious minutes playing fucking dress-up while your best friend's fate was being sealed by some random contractor's nut.
Your phone vibrates in your pocket.
Veronica: How's your morning, beautiful? Mine's INSANE. Three back-to-back meetings with Matsuhisa execs. They keep asking me detailed questions about market penetration in Florida.
Veronica: Send pics of the bathroom progress if you get a chance! Love you! 💋
The casualness of her texts makes you want to scream. You hit the call button, not trusting yourself to type coherently.
She picks up on the fourth ring, her voice hushed and rushed.
"Hey baby, can I call you back? I'm literally stepping into the boardroom right--"
"Devon had sex with one of the contractors," you blurt, voice breaking. "And she has this... this Breeder thing... J- Jake just came inside her. Like, just now."
There's a pause, and you hear muffled voices in the background.
"Wait, what?" Veronica's voice drops even lower. "Hold on, I need to--" More muffled sounds as she apparently steps away from others. "Alex, honey, slow down. What happened?"
"Devon--" your voice catches. "She was flirting with Jake this morning, and I went to change, and when I came back they were already..." You can't finish the sentence.
"Oh, wow," Veronica says, but she sounds more surprised than alarmed. "Is she okay?"
"Okay? No! She's not OKAY!" You're practically hyperventilating. "She could be PREGNANT now because I didn't stop it! And she was saying all this... stuff. Begging him to breed her and stuff. I don't- FUCK! I don't know what to do..."
"Baby, baby, listen," Veronica's voice turns soothing, but you can hear the distraction in it. "They're both adults. If Devon consented--"
"But it's like that thing she took... those Breeder effects... literally MAKING her want to get pregnant!" you hiss.
"I understand that's upsetting, but--" She breaks off as someone calls her name in the background. "Shit, I really have to go. This is the final presentation for the entire contract. Can we talk about this later? I promise we'll figure it out."
"But--"
"I love you," she says, her voice softening into that intimate register she reserves just for you. "Whatever's happening, you'll handle it. You're stronger than you think, even in that tiny body. Get her on birth control- that, what's that called-"
"Veronica, please--"
"I have to go, baby. Call me tonight, okay? Love you."
The line goes dead.
You stare at your phone. Then you throw it across the room where it bounces harmlessly off a pillow. Not even satisfying enough to break something.
Outside, you hear the men resuming work, drills and hammers creating a wonderful soundtrack to your misery.
You curl up on your bed, grabbing your laptop. If Veronica won't help, you'll have to figure this out yourself. You type "breeder pill birth control" into the search bar with trembling fingers.
The results load quickly. The top link: "Emergency Contraception for X-Change Breeder Variants: The NanoShield Option."
You click through, scanning the information with growing desperation:
*"Traditional methods of birth control are ineffective against the Breeder variant due to the pill's immune suppression of chemical contraceptives. However, NanoShield technology offers a potential solution. These microscopic robots target and neutralize sperm cells directly, providing approximately 73% efficacy if administered within 12 hours of insemination. Available only at licensed X-Change pharmacies..."*
You check the time. Devon was... finished with... about forty minutes ago. That gives you plenty of time to get her to a pharmacy.
A soft knock on your door makes you jump.
"Hey," Devon's voice calls through the wood. "Can I come in?"
You take a deep breath. "Yeah."
The door swings open, and your stomach does a flip. Devon stands there, but not the Devon from last night. This Devon is... glowing. Her hair has been brushed to a glossy sheen, and she's changed into a flouncy pink skirt and frilly white top that looks like it came straight from a Japanese schoolgirl catalog.
But it's her face that stops you cold. She's smiling--no, BEAMING--with an expression of such pure, uncomplicated joy that it's almost painful to look at. Her eyes are bright, cheeks flushed, lips slightly swollen from...
"Hi," she says, still grinning like she's discovered the meaning of life.
"Hi," you respond flatly.
Devon bounces into your room--literally bounces, with a little skip-step that makes her skirt flutter--and perches on the edge of your bed. There's something different about her movements, a new fluidity that wasn't there before. It's like her body has become more... integrated. Like she's figured out how to inhabit it properly.
Eyes
"So," she says, failing spectacularly at sounding casual.
"So," you echo, not helping her out at all.
She bursts into giggles--actual fucking GIGGLES--and falls backward onto your bed, arms spread wide like she's making a snow angel.
"HOLY FUCKING SHIT, ALEX!" she squeals, staring at your ceiling with wonder. "I just--that was--I can't even--FUCK!"
Your eyes narrow at her enthusiasm, but something catches your attention. A thin, pearly white trickle running down her inner thigh, escaping the confines of her cute little skirt.
"You're, uh, leaking," you point out.
Devon glances down, then laughs--a high, musical sound nothing like her former bray. "Oops!" She swipes a finger through the viscous fluid, examining it with fascination rather than disgust. "Guess Jake really did pack a load!"
"Jesus Christ, Devon," you mutter, covering your face with your hands.
"What?" she asks, sounding genuinely confused by your reaction. "Why are you being so weird about this?"
"Why am I--?!" You sputter, dropping your hands to stare at her. "Devon, you just had unprotected sex with a COMPLETE STRANGER twenty minutes after meeting him!"
"Yeah, and it was fucking AMAZING!" Devon bounces upright, practically vibrating with excitement. "Alex, I had no idea--NO IDEA--it could feel like that!"
"That's the Breeder thing talking," you say firmly.
"Maybe," Devon shrugs, still grinning. "But I. Don't. Care. It felt fucking incredible either way."
"Devon, there's a good chance you're PREGNANT right now!" You try to inject some reality into the situation. "As in, growing-a-human-inside-you pregnant! For NINE MONTHS!"
This should be the moment she snaps out of it, realizes the gravity of the situation. She cocks her head thoughtfully, lips pursing in consideration.
"Yeah, that would be kind of wild," she says. "Like an extended gaming marathon with a surprise trophy at the end."
You gape. "Are you HEARING yourself right now?"
"I know, I know," Devon waves dismissively. "It sounds crazy. But Alex, you don't understand what it FELT like when he came inside me." Her voice drops to an awed whisper. "It was like... SPLURT! Then, like every cell in my body just lit up at once. Like my brain literally melted and reformed around this one PERFECT sensation."
She catches her lower lip between her teeth, eyes going unfocused. "I've jerked off THOUSANDS of times as a guy, and nothing--NOTHING--has ever come close to that feeling. It was like... discovering CUMMING for the first time, but multiplied by a MILLION."
You watch her face as she describes it, trying to process that this is Devon--your CoD buddy, your wing-man, the guy who once drank beer through his nose on a dare--speaking so rapturously about getting creampied.
"Devon, I found something called NanoShield," you say, trying a different approach. "It's birth control that works for Breeder pills. We need to get you to an X-Change pharmacy ASAP."
Devon's expression shifts, her smile faltering for the first time. "Why?"
"Why? To prevent pregnancy!"
"But what if I don't want to prevent it?" Devon asks, and there's a stubborn set to her jaw that you recognize from countless gaming arguments.
"The REAL you wouldn't want to be pregnant," you insist. "The Devon I know--my FRIEND Devon--would not want to carry a stranger's baby for nine months. This is the Breeder hormones messing with your brain."
"But I AM the real me," Devon counters, folding her arms across her chest. "We're ALWAYS controlled by our hormones, Alex. Alice? Our WHOLE LIVES. EVERY HUMAN BEING IN THE WHOLE GODDAMN WORLD IS JUST A SACK OF CHEMICALS MAKING DECISIONS. But nobody ever put a pill in me to make me want to game for sixteen hours straight. Nobody ever made me rage quit when I was about to get sniped. So who THE FUCK ARE YOU to tell ME which of my desires are REAL and which ones aren't?"
You blink, taken aback.
"That's..."
"Besides," Devon continues, pacing now, "I've spent my ENTIRE life objectifying women! Gaming, jerking off, Twitch streams, spamming comments on fucking Instagram. All I've ever done is think with my dick--and now suddenly I'm on the other side, and I'm supposed to be all rational and responsible? Fuck that! That's some double standard bullshit!"
She stops, turning to face you with flushed cheeks.
"And you know what? It felt SO. FUCKING. GOOD. Better than ANYTHING I've ever experienced. So why shouldn't I get to enjoy it?" Her voice cracks slightly. "Why shouldn't I get to feel wanted like that?"
The naked vulnerability in that last question catches you off guard. Despite the ludicrous circumstance--despite the cum literally drying on her thighs--you suddenly see the real Devon beneath the hormonal haze. Your friend, who spent most of his adult life behind screens, experiencing virtual thrills, suddenly thrust into a body that delivers sensations he never imagined possible.
"I just..." you begin, softening your tone. "I'm worried about you, okay? Getting pregnant is a long-term consequence for a temporary feeling."
