The sun wakes you the next day, as it streams in through the hole you followed her into, the birds singing random tunes outside the tree. Morning you think to yourself blissfully. Morning! you think again with shock and reflexively flail for your alarm, thinking you must be horribly late for work. When you see your tiny clawed hands you're given a brief shock again, but you quickly calm down, remembering what happened the day before. You turn your head to see the female you mated with looking at you eyes half-closed and smiling at you like the cat that ate the canary. She leans in and gives you a slight nuzzle, pressing her warm furry body against you. She giggles a bit at your reaction to waking up.
"Let me guess, you thought you were late for work, right?" she says through the laugh.
"Y-yeah." you respond, the nuzzling calms you down a bit, and having her close is strangely comforting to you. Strange, you almost feel bad for deciding to go for your 50/50 shot at humanity. You start to get up, but she pushes you back down and clutches on to your furry body, giving a disappointed moan.
"Nooo...not yet. Let's just stay here a bit longer. We've got all day." she says "Maybe even go for round three." she adds with a sultry look and smokey voice.
"The wizard sleeping in too is he?" you ask, complying with her wishes and laying back down.
"Hmm? The wizard?" she asks "Oh there's no point in seeing him anymore." she says. Her reaction confuses you.
"What...why not?" you ask.
"Because you love me." she says and snuggles in closer "We made love, and you said you said you loved me." she says as though that explained everything.
"Yeah I was there, but what does that have to do with my 50/50 shot?" you ask.
"You're stuck like this." she says simply. That statement wakes you like no cup of coffee ever could. You gasp and roll away from her, pressing yourself against the far wall of the tree as though she was made of spikes instead of soft, warm, wonderful fur. Why am I thinking of her fur at time like this? you ask and shake your head clear of the thought. She looks at you, though not in the offended or hurt way you'd expect. She simply lies on the floor, her paws folded in on each other as she rests her cheek on them, the same loving look on her face she's had since you woke up.
"What do you mean-" you begin asking
"You love me." she says in almost a sing-song voice "Don't try to deny it, it's true. I felt it the minute you said it. I love you in return. That makes us linked." she says, your confused look clearly reveals that you need more information so she gets on all fours and shuffles over to you. When she gets to where you are she takes your cheeks in her paws. "It means that you can't change back if I don't want you to. And I don't want you to." she says and nuzzles against you, pressing her body close to yours "You've made me so happy."
You can't believe what you're hearing. That being said you can't bring yourself to push her away either. Having her pressed against you does give you a feeling of warmth and comfort. Barely even realizing it, you find yourself nuzzling her back. Would staying here with her really be so bad? You shake your head again, give up on being human? Stay with her as a squirrel forever? She continues to nuzzle against you, occasionally she whispers "I love you." and "Stay with me." in your ear. Finally you push her away enough to look at her.
"There's really no going back?" you ask. She shakes her head.
"None at all. I'll never let you go." she says. Strangely you feel relieved. You knew that your chances of humanity weren't good, but somehow you had to hold on to them. Hearing her tell you that you're destined to spent the rest of your life as a squirrel with her whether you like it or not somehow allows you the permission you needed to like it. You give a sad smile to her.
"I love you." you say to her and pull her close again. You spend the rest of the morning lazily snuggling with your mate and emerge from the tree with her at about noon to start your new life together.