Finishing dinner set things up for the night, and on some level, even with a full belly, Lucy wasn't entirely opposed to resting a bit. They'd gone through a rather hectic and even draining period in which two Slug Women tried to transform and brainwash them into Slug People in service to their master, a wizard who had some dark design on the town. They'd all moved around town looking for help, and only managing to find out that the Catholic Church might have some information that could be shared later and that one of Zoe's friends in high school was a lesbian and had wanted to be with Zoe while in high school and only having things coming back after the Chapmans became Slug People. It wasn't much and was exhausting.
Their best help had come from the Slug Person colony and started with meeting the Slug Woman now hosting Lucy and Jeff. Melody had been kind and Lucy sensed a great deal of honesty from her that went beyond what she got from Megan and Jenny back at the Chapman home. It helped bring out feelings that surprised Lucy at times. Much of it related to some of the looks that Lucy felt she got from Melody combined with that sense of honesty, and with Melody looking fairly beautiful as well, and that surprised her. As she'd always considered herself straight, but that was soon where the reminders of her now being a Slug Woman created the fact that with few male Slug People and all Slug Women being hermaphrodites, human sexuality really wouldn't work. But for the moment, Lucy had been unable to say all that much directly on those feelings, though given some of Jeff's at times defensive comments probably gave Melody some sense that the attraction was there. Lucy, meanwhile, had to do her best while thinking things out and retaining some measure of control.
And so, she followed after Melody as they moved through the living room and into a hallway, which Lucy soon noted was the same hallway they'd initially entered the house through. Or at least that it looked like it went toward the front door to east of where they were. To the left, there was a door along the west wall and there was then another door that was almost directly in front of them. Lucy watched with one eye as Melody ushered Jeff to that door to the left.
"This would be my guest room," Melody spoke, "I'll show you how to work the thermostat and things like that."
"Thanks," Jeff answered politely.
Lucy then paused for a moment to check on things and approached that door in front of her. It slid open easily, but it soon revealed a tiled bathroom that was colored blue and Lucy could pick up the scent of the soaps and cleaning agents through her sensory stalks on her upper lip. That then left Lucy to back up and she turned back into the hallway and in doing so, that's when she saw it. On the south wall, and opposite the next door to the in the hallway to the east of the bathroom door was another painting behind a heavy clear plastic shield. This wasn't too much of a surprise, as Melody had seemed to have plenty paintings that were under such protective barriers. It was something that fit within Melody's personality.
The surprise wasn't the presence of the painting, it was the painting itself. Centered on the painting was a bright yellow-orange sun shining over a colorful landscape. The bottom had the most color with green grasses and shrubs that were mixed in with all sorts of flowers of differing colors and styles. There were red roses, bluebonnets, and various other flowers that brought in all sorts of other colors. None of the flowers technically grew in the same places on Earth, but they were there to bring color to the scene. Going up behind them and curving around the sun were various sets of pine trees with brown trunks and very dark green needles. The trees didn't overlap the sun and that left some small spots of light blue to show the sky, but they framed the sun well and one of Lucy's teachers told her that the painting did a good job of bringing attention to the sun and the perception of light coming from it, even with the various multicolored flowers at the bottom. Lucy smiled at the memory, as the painting was one she did for one of her art classes in college. She got a good grade, and offered it to the college to sell for their art program, as she didn't have the space for it at home. But she'd been sick with the flu the night the work went on auction and thus didn't know who bought it.
"You bought one of my paintings... one I painted for college," Lucy said as she noticed Melody sliding back into the hall on her tail.
"Yes... it's one of my favorites," Melody said weakly, "I'd heard about it somewhere... I can't remember where I was when I heard about your college's auction for art done by students. And this... it caught my eyes and the colors and everything just looked pretty... like a place I could bask in and relax... with colored flowers looking beautiful."
"My professors thought that was a bit "abstract" for all the flowers being from different areas, but I made up for it with how I worked them in and balanced things out with the sun," Lucy answered, "and they ultimately liked it."
"I loved it," Melody answered and Lucy watched as Melody reached out to put her hand near the bottom where Lucy had put in her official "signature" so that the artist was known to any who bought it, "and I really did. And I wanted to meet whoever painted it when I bought it... tell them how good it was and how much I loved it. Particularly when I know I'd never be able to paint something like this."
"Makes me sad I had the flu when the college held its auction," Lucy said slowly, "others in the college's art program that weren't sick got to attend and explain their pieces... or at least explain what they were going for."
"Yes," Melody nodded, "and so... because I couldn't meet you then, I found out as much as I could about you. And I found out a lot that made you great as a person... wanting to be an individual, something tough even for humans, when one thinks on all the fads and trends that often want people to have similar styles. It all stood out... and in a way I liked that. Something different from the colony. Now, granted, we Slug People will have various colors and forms, often based on what species of slug our body is modeled after... but in many ways we are and can be rather uniform, even with our individual personalities."
"I'm sorry not to have been able to have met you then," Lucy gave Melody a small smile, trying to provide Melody with some sense that all was okay.
"And finding you had a kind heart and a tolerant nature, more so than many people we Slug People often meet... often relying on our own defensive magic to avoid outright attacks," Melody continued, "defending us from those that would want to do us harm... even though there was no colony at the city where your college is at and nothing I'd found indicated you'd had much to do with the colony while growing up."
"As a little kid, I was probably rebelling more against parental authority and all that to pay attention," Lucy told her, "by the time I got into high school... I was starting to get into my drawing that a lot of that ate up a lot of my free time."
"Still," Melody tentatively reached out for Lucy's shoulder and her voice getting a bit weaker, "you presented qualities that would make for a great human friend and one I would have been glad to have. And I'd dreamed of us being able to meet. Shake hands and things like that... so to find you as a Slug Woman... transformed against your will, by one of my friends from the colony... after she'd been caught by Cupple away from the protection that our hive mind could give her... it... it wasn't how I wanted to meet you."
"I'm sure," Lucy answered as she pivoted on her tail and hugged Melody, feeling her breasts compress a bit against Melody's, "but you've been honest and friendly... things I like. In some ways, you've done a lot to help me be better with what I am now... a Cellar Slug Woman. Providing me with the assurances that I'd never just become some mindless drone or have my mind merged with my brother's... Some of that was already there... but you did a lot to help me confirm it."
"Thank you," Melody said slowly, "I can let you have my room... and I can show you how to work the thermostat so you'd be as warm or as cool as you want while sleeping..."
Lucy worked up some of her bravery, battling some of the feelings of attraction she'd been having to Melody had been there for a while. And while it was just "help against Edward Cupple," there was no reason to go further. But now, something just told her that there could be more. Melody had known of her and wanted to at least be friends for a while and her feelings of hurt at Lucy being transformed felt genuine to Lucy, and that only drove some of the attraction that had been there. It was something that Lucy didn't want to fight all that much at the present moment, particularly as her sensory stalks picked up the beginnings of arousal on Melody, and knew she would be getting aroused soon as well if things continued to build.
"Or we could sleep together," Lucy said softly.