After that touching moment, Mike and his father proceed with the afternoon's chores, filling the feeders with the newly purchased feed. As the feed rattles into the trough from the feeder, Mike goes and rounds up his herd with a proprietary eye.
{None of them are in season yet, but I think Clover should be due tomorrow. I'll check her then and get started on her then.}
It was a strange thought process, even to him. He realized he was both aroused - he was talking about having sex! With what, as he could now admit, he found to be a very attractive female! But he also felt a bit detached, thinking about it purely in the context of how much milk Clover could make when pregnant.
{I'm thinking as both the farmer and the bull...that's gonna take some getting used to!}
As the cows headed for the trough, his father looked at him speculatively.
"You gonna eat with them from now on, or should I tell your ma to keep a place for you at the table?
Mike thought that through.
"I think...well, I'm still part of the family. I still *feel* like part of the family, I want to be a part of it. I know there'll be a point where I can't do that so much - it's gonna be hard to come inside once I..."
Mike looks a bit embarrassed.
"Well, we both know cattle don't have the right muscles to be house broken, so that'll be a problem eventually. And I won't have hands anymore, so I won't be able to open the door or anything, and until it gets to that point I think I want to keep things...normal. So, let's not clean out my room all at once, and I'll come to dinner."
His dad nodded, and looked a bit relieved.
"Great, I'll let your mother know. You can have some of the feed, but don't over eat and ruin your supper!"
Mike laughed, climbing down onto all fours.
"Don't worry - I've already got a bull's appetite, I'll still be hungry!"
Later that evening, Mike sat down at the table with his mother, his father, his two sisters and his three brothers. He hadn't changed much since the early afternoon, but his fur was more even across his body. He was also wearing a saddle blanket wrapped around his midsection like a kilt - his mother insisted, as long as he was bipedal, that he be 'dressed' if he was in the house. He'd had another long heart-to-heart with his mother, including much crying and hugging. Now, with a large salad in front of him, he faced his family as a unit.
It was Camden, aged 14, his oldest brother, who spoke up first.
"So...I mean. I knew for a while now I was gonna be the one to inherit the place."
"Right. And honestly not much is gonna change. I'll just be, you know, living on the property."
"In the barn."
"Yep. Not all at once. I'll move my stuff out of my room little by little - deciding what I want to keep, what I want to give away. You know I never liked clutter, anyway."
His youngest sister, the six year old Alice, giggled.
"You sleep in the barn already!"
That got a round of laughter, because it was often true. Mike nodded.
"Exactly. This isn't me becoming someone or something else. This is just me becoming who I've always been inside. That's what I want you all to remember. Even when all I can do is moo, remember that I love you all, so very much. I'm not going anywhere, I'm just gonna be built different."
That lead to a chorus of murmured support. Finally, Camden sighed dramatically.
"Damn. I'm gonna have to stop eating burgers, though. Can't bring myself to eat beef when my brother IS beef."
Everyone laughed at that, no one louder than Mike, who squeezed his brother's shoulder fondly.
Even though he said he was going to move in slowly, Mike decided to sleep in the barn that night. He herded in the cattle, got each cow into her stall, and then - instead of heading up to the loft as he normally would - he found an empty one. With a sigh of satisfaction, he stepped inside, closed the door behind him, lay down in the hay, and fell asleep.