Russ shuffled his shoulders from side to side, grumbled as his shirt kept feeling like it was going to slip right off him. Although, ‘shoulders’ weren’t exactly the best word for his particular anatomy, since his rodent body shape was far more tubular that most other mammals, with only ferret or weasel anthros having a harder time finding clothes that fit proper around their slim figures.
“Sorry about that, Russ,” Fitch laughed gently as he watch the rat squirming in the baggy clothes. “If I’d remembered that you’d have a tough time fitting into my clothes, I’d probably have kept your old ones instead of tossing ‘em…”
“It’s fine… I never really bothered buying rodent-tailored stuff anyway… Too expensive,” Russ replies automatically, then he frowned at how… odd it sounded to say. ‘Rodent-tailored? What the fuck does that mean, anyway?’, he thought to himself. It like new words and concepts were leaping to the forefront of his mind, only without the actual experiences associated with them.
Noticing rat’s whiskers twitching fitfully, Fitch stepped up and said, “No worries, I hear there’s a great anthro-style clothing shop opening up down the street soon. I bet they’ll have a big sale opening weekend, you’ll have to pick up some new stuff. ‘Til then, hope my stuff doesn’t smell too bad.”
At that, Russ blushed over his whole body, his pink tail going a few shades pinker. “N-no, it’s fine… I mean, it smells fine… I mean, no, I’m not… Umm…”
Fitch just chuckled and winked at the stammering young anthro, offering a paw to hold. “Come on, let’s get dinner.”
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After leaving the building’s lobby, where Zeke was shouting out a few last-minute orders to some work teams before the workday ended, they stepped out onto the street and walked a few blocks. Russ tried to avoid holding the rabbit’s paw, but it seemed like whenever he stopped paying attention he soon felt a soft, fluffy paw wrapping around his own. Or he was unconsciously nudging closer to Fitch’s without even realizing. Or a little from column A, little from column B.
As he walked, Russ marveled at the feeling of warm cement under his paws, barely noticing the odd pebble or broken bit of cement he unintentionally stepped on thanks to the thick pads under each paw. And yet, he felt an odd sensation at walking down the street bare-pawed. Like he was walking out of the house naked or something. His eyes drifted over to some of the humans passing him by on the street, lingering on the different shoes they wore over their feet with a peculiar recognition.
But that was absurd. Why would he, a rat, even think about wearing stuff made for a human being, especially when his own paws were perfectly fine?
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After a walking a few blocks, Fitch spotted the place he had in mind for the night, a cozy diner tucked away on a quiet avenue. The bright neon sign in the font window boasted it was ‘Full CVO’, one of the reasons Fitch had decided to bring Russ there in the first place. The other reason, of course, being that it was one of the first businesses that Anthro Renovations had ‘fixed up’, and the owner (who was now a rather rotund arctic fox) made sure to keep the place as anthro-friendly as possible.
“...CVO? What’s that supposed to mean?” Russ asked curiously as they walked in and found a booth in the corner. Unlike the rest of the city, the staff and clientele at the diner was nearly all-anthro, other than a few curious humans who probably had wandered in by mistake.
“Oh, come on kid, you know what it-,” Fitch started, then he caught himself. First rule of helping people settle in as anthros was not to draw attention to things they didn’t know about. That would come in time, but at the start there were too many gaps, and making them aware of those gaps just lead to more questions. “Err, I mean… You know? Carni-Vegi-Omni? Means they have a menu that can accommodate all different dietary requirements for anthros.”
“Right… obviously…” Russ replied with a nervous chuckle. ‘How the hell didn’t I know that? Not like I haven’t eaten at a restaurant before…’
Fitch could clearly see the gears turning in his new roommate’s head and figured it was better to just change the subject. “So… You were serious about joining up with Anthro Renovations?” he asked offhandedly, stopping to ordering up a vegetarian appetizer for him and Russ to split from the cheerful cat waitress that stopped by. “I think you’ll like it. The hours are long, but the guys are all really…”
“Nice? Hot?” Russ asked with a smirk.
“I was going to say ‘interesting’.”
The rat smiled at that, but to be honest he was still a bit concerned about joining up with the construction company. “I guess I’ll find out…” he said. “I mean, that wolf I saw the other day was good-looking, but I dunno if I’d want to get on his bad side.”
“You already did,” Fitch laughed. “But… Gio doesn’t have enough brain cells in his head to hold a grudge. Not enough space up there, you know? Besides, you probably won’t end up working with him much, since you’ll just be starting off. One of the veterans like Hank will probably be showing you the ropes…”
Russ’s whiskers drooped a bit hearing that. “O-oh? I thought… you know, you and me…?”
Fitch laughed and smiled hearing that, letting his impressive front teeth protrude charmingly. “Well, maybe a couple times a week, if the shifts work out,” the rabbit said. He gave a cute wink and added, “Although, maybe after a couple of nights with me as your roomie, you’ll already be sick and tired of me?”
“...Nah. Probably not sick of you,” Russ grinned. “Maybe tired, though, if you’re as much of a sex maniac as I’m beginning to suspect…”
“It’s a rabbit thing, sorry not sorry,” Fitch laughed, reaching under the table and gently stroking Russ’s skinny, furry leg. “Mmm, this is gonna feel even better when you’ve got a little more muscle on there…”
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After the food arrived, Russ and Fitch dug right in. Fitch had gotten a grilled vegetable sandwich and a side salad, while Russ went for a bacon cheeseburger and fries. Russ had wanted order a beer to drink, but he was annoyed to when he remembered that his wallet (along with his fake ID he used to buy alcohol) were still missing. Fitch had assured him that he’d tell keep an eye out for the wallet, but somehow he suspected that he probably wouldn’t be getting that fake ID back even if the wallet was found.
Fitch chuckled a bit to himself, knowing that Russ’s wallet would probably ‘show up’ before too long, complete with a brand-new driver’s license showing a charming new rodent face on it. The guys in change of making them went all-out to make them as real as possible, right down to altering clothes and fur styling in the photos to make them look a few years older. Everything he’d need to get settled into a new life as an anthro and let the dampener field in the city do the rest of the work.
And yet, no matter how comfortable he tried to make Russ, no matter how many questions he answered or how nice he was, there still the look on the rats face, plain as day. The look that deep down, Russ wasn’t buying any of this. Every time he looked down his long rodent snout and saw his whiskers, or when he saw his slender, delicate paws or felt the breeze on his naked tail behind him. It wasn’t exactly rare for humans to react this way after getting changed, but it usually resolved itself on its own. And it didn’t usually last this long after the initial transformation.
And Fitch liked Russ, so he hoped to god it would resolve itself on its own, or he’d have to start answering some pretty awkward questions, and likely without Zeke or one of the others around to back him up.