“Hey, you okay Todd?” Sam asked, wrapping a furry arm around Todd’s shoulders. “You’ve been staring at your hands for like…15 minutes, I think.” Earlier that morning, Sam and Todd agreed that they’d meet in the Great Lawn after classes were done so they could walk around campus a bit together. However, when they went to meet each other, Sam noticed that Todd was walking rather slowly and completely unaware of his surroundings. Thinking something was wrong, Sam sprinted over to his boyfriend’s side…only to find that he was looking at his hands in awe.
Todd nodded his head, though he didn’t take his eyes off his hands. “Yeah…yeah, I’m f-fine…”
Todd wasn’t entirely sure how he never noticed during the day, but his hands and arms had undergone changes. The tops of his fingers and the palms of his hands were now rough, black paw pads, and his hands and arms had become covered in the same black fur that was covering the rest of his body. The only thing that was left now was his head.
“Why is my h-head the only thing left to change?” Todd asked, catching Sam a bit off guard.
“What do you mean?” Sam responded.
“Last night…my m-muzzle came in, b-but my face still has n-no fur…”
“And…?”
“D-Doesn’t it look a little…uncanny?”
Sam studied Todd’s face, a look of skepticism on his face. “Todd…you look fine,” he said, rubbing the wolf’s back a little.
“A-Are you sure?” Todd asked nervously.
“If you had a human nose, yeah, it’d be uncanny as fuck,” the jock said. “But you don’t have a human nose anymore, do you?”
“No….”
Sam grinned and booped Todd’s new canine nose, which made the wolf sneeze slightly before shrinking back a little in embarrassment. The tiger just laughed and gave Todd a quick peck on the cheek. “Honestly babe, I think you’re just being a little paranoid. Everyone else here is going to be dealing with the same thing you are at some point. Ollie, Dare, and I still don’t have our muzzles, Milo’s got a boar nose, and Curtis is dealing with the same thing you are right now!”
“Yeah….you have a good p-point there,” Todd said, a smile appearing on his muzzle. “Still wish I could get some f-fur on this thing though…”
“I doubt you’ll have to wait long,” Sam responded. “I mean, I think you’ve been changing pretty damn fast compared to everyone in our circle of friends. You basically got your entire lower body transformed in a single night. Hell, you’ve even got some fur growing under your muzzle right now.”
Todd quickly reached his hand up and brushed it under his muzzle. Sure enough, he could feel a bit of fur growing in. A mix of emotions washed over him at once as he realized what that meant for him. “It’s my last day.”
“What was that?” Sam asked. “Even with better hearing, I still can’t hear you sometimes. We gotta work on your volume next.”
“I said it’s my last day,” Todd repeated, speaking up this time. “I-I don’t think I'm going to be h-human anymore by the end of the d-day. It’s a b-bittersweet feeling, you know?”
“I can see where you’re coming from…” Sam replied with a nod. He was quiet for a few seconds before asking “Are you going to miss being human?”
“H-Honestly…no. I’m s-slowly becoming the type of person I’ve always w-wanted to be. I’m doing th-things that are outside of my c-comfort zone, I have f-friends I’d do anything for, my m-mom is finally involved in my life, my stepdad doesn't verbally absuse m-me, I have m-memories of a happier childhood, a-and…I have you…” The wolf leaned over and kissed Sam on the cheek, making the tiger blush a little. It was still a bit weird to think that the two of them were dating. He wasn’t complaining though.
As the two of them got closer to the freshman dorms, Todd’s ears twitched as he heard a familiar voice mumbling under their breath. He turned his head and saw Milo angrily walking in the direction of the sophomore dorms. He nudged Sam and pointed Milo out to him.
“Where’s Milo going with all that stuff?” Sam asked, a confused look on his face. “And why’s he look so angry?”
“M-Maybe we should check on D-Dare?” Todd suggested. “M-Make sure he’s okay?”
“Why Dare?” Sam asked, giving Todd a look. “If anything, shouldn’t we check on Milo? From what we’ve seen, Dare’s kind of a dick. It’s more likely he pissed off Milo.”
“Wh-What if we split up?” Todd suggested. “I check on D-Dare, and you check on M-Milo.”
“Yeah...yeah, that’s a good idea! I can probably catch up to him if I hurry. I’ll talk to you later babe!” Sam gave Todd a quick kiss before jogging off in the direction Milo stormed off. Todd proceeded to go the opposite direction into the residence hall. A small part of him hoped he wasn’t making a mistake choosing to talk to Dare.