Transformation Themes:

Merging (Male and Female merge, Intersex)

Shrinking

Growth

Other changes referenced (see previous parts for list)

Sexual Themes:

Nudity

Masturbation (implied)

Part 3: Sharing is Caring

I arrived home a little after 5:30 and was unsurprised to see that I had arrived before Hira as I always made an effort to be home earlier on Thursdays to prepare for our friends to visit. The first arrivals would likely appear within half an hour, but it gave me enough to time to get changed and tidy up a little.

After we graduated from university we had a period of a few months where we had slowly drifted away from some of our friends. As a direct response, I’d suggested arranging a regular meet-up that we could commit to. The end result was that every Thursday up to seven of our friends would arrive at our house. For the most parts these gatherings were centred around playing a tabletop role playing game, such as Dungeon and Dragons, or board games. The idea was to have something we could do as a group that also encouraged us to be socially active.

This week we only expected three guests, the rest being on holiday or having prior commitments, so my friend Matt was bringing over a board game that worked well for five people. I was actually grateful that the house would be less full considering that both Hira and I were dealing with modifications caused by the Device.

I changed into a comfortable jumper, hoping that the added thickness would make any prominent nipples unnoticeable, and a pair of old comfortable jeans. While in the bedroom I also grabbed the Device and set Hira’s block on “not speaking until spoken to” to undo as soon as she crossed the threshold of the house. I’d intended to just end it, but when playing with the settings, I noticed the ‘changed by condition’ settings and explored them a bit. What I learned from my brief exploration got me thinking about interesting options down the line.

A knocking at the door pulled me away from my explorations. I checked the time and realised that I’d spent fifteen minutes diving through menu options. It seemed that the Device was presenting more complicated options each time I used it, almost like it was choosing to slowly introduce its full features to prevent us getting overwhelmed. Based on its magical intuitiveness, my assumption was probably right.

Leaving the Device, I headed downstairs and opened the door to find Matt holding a large canvas bag and wearing a big grin. “Hey brother, how’s it going?” he asked as let him in. He put his bag down and took off his shoes and jacket with the familiarity of someone who was a regular visitor, needing no direction as where to store his things.

“I’m good thanks. How about you? Seem to be a in good mood even without Penny here?” I teased, referring to his wife Penny who was spending the week at her mothers.

“Maybe I’m good because she’s not here?” he joked as we walked into the living room together. I scoffed at his comment, knowing that he was probably missing her massively. Of the friends we invited over most were people we’d met during our time in university. Matt and Penny were the exception. Matt had been my best friend since I was seven years old and I’d been his best man when he’d finally married Penny, a girl he’d first met back when we were all in high school together.

Matt was about the same height as me, a little shorter than average, but had a slighter build than me which made him seem smaller overall. His hair was cut short and blonde, in contrast to my longer, darker hair. Despite our lack of physical similarity, we’d often pretended to be brothers when younger, which had persisted in Matt’s habit to call me ‘brother’ rather than by name.

We chatted for a while before I heard the sound of a car pulling into the neighbour’s driveway. Based on the time, I presumed it was probably Hira arriving from work. My presumption was proved correct a few moments later when the door opened and I heard her walk into the hallway. She popped her head into the living room and gave me an irritated look. I smiled and raised my eyebrows. “What?” she said with a pout, before realising she’d just talked and I gave me a curious look. Realising the block had been lifted, she had a brief conversation with Matt before excusing herself to get changed.

Just half an hour after Hira’s return our small gathering was complete, as James and Marie arrived together. James and Marie had been a couple for as long as I’d known them, to the point that I almost thought of them as a single entity. James was 6 feet tall and had retained the athletic physique he had earned as a member of the university football team. Marie was about my height and had a very slender build despite the fact that she seemed to have an endless appetite.

Once we were all present, we got down to the most important business of the night: ordering food. After much back and forth, we eventually settled on the ultimate compromise of ordering pizza.

While we waited for the food to arrive, Matt introduced the game to us and explained its basic rules. It sounded relatively simple, but with a lot of potential for inventive play by using trickery and deceit against other players. James in particular showed keen interest in that facet of gameplay and I could almost see the gears in his head turning as he began to form plans. After making sure we all had a good understanding of the rules and objectives, Matt decided to get the board set up so that we could begin as soon as we’d finished eating. He was insistent that we didn’t eat while playing though, explaining that the game involved picking up and handling a lot of cards that he didn’t want to be dirtied.

The food arrived and we began to feast, chatting as we did about how our week at work had gone, or about the new show we’d been watching. More than once I had to stop myself mentioning the Device or the changes it had wrought when describing my own week. I felt a little bad for keeping it secret from my friends but had agreed with Hira that we had to be careful about who we shared the knowledge with. Also, I really didn’t want to get into a conversation with anyone in the room about what Hira and I were currently using the Device for. I self-consciously adjusted my pants as I was reminded of the alteration to my genitals I had coped with for the past couple of days.

In time the pizza was devoured and we were all happily full (except for Marie who was trying to convince us to order dessert as well). Ready to play the game at last, we sat down to begin and were giving a brief recap of the rules one more time before we began.

The game turned out to be incredibly fun. It involved collecting resources to purchase units with the ability to take control of areas on the board, which could then be contested by another player. The real fun came when people began forming alliances and then subsequently breaking them. As expected James was at the forefront of alliance building, roping Hira and Matt into an alliance early on. In the interest of self-preservation, Marie and I formed our own counter-alliance to fend off the united assault.

Our position looked impossible. We were outnumbered and on the verge of defeat. Marie in particular was in a precarious position, about to be completely overrun by the enemy alliance. Yet at the last moment, James suddenly turned his forces against his allies with Marie’s support, despite the pair not communicating beforehand. As my last unit was removed from the board I shook my head in resigned admiration. “I swear you two share a brain,” Matt commented as he was defeated moments after me. Marie grinned and shrugged before finally defeating the last of Hira’s forces.

                

The last five minutes of game became a tense drawn out battle between James and Marie. Ultimately Marie proved the victor in a narrow deciding skirmish. We all agreed that game had been a lot of fun and agreed to play it again. James vowed vengeance upon his long-time girlfriend, although for her part Marie seemed unconcerned and proceeding to mercilessly tease him for letting victory slip through his fingers.

“Maybe we should play a game with some stakes someday?” James suggested and gave a pointed, if exaggerated, look towards Marie “I can assure you that if money was on the line I would never let you beat me.”

“That’s not a bad idea. Although I won’t play for money,” Hira replied, “Although maybe we could have forfeits and small prizes instead?”

“Oh! Like if I win I can decided where we order from next time,” Marie suggested.

“Or if you lose you have to give up chocolate for a week?” Marie’s eye’s widened in shock and horror at James’s suggestion, to which he just laughed waved the idea away.

“That could be interesting yeah. Oh! With the De…” I stopped myself before completing the thought. I’d got a little too comfortable and had been about the bring up the Device in front of the group.

“Ah yes, the Deh,” Matt sarcastically continued. “While I am fully aware of the famous Deh, why don’t you enlighten the others brother?”

I laughed and shook my head. “Sorry. Top secret. If I told you Hira would have to kill you. And then me.” I looked at Hira saying this and she smiled, but I saw a bit of tension in the look. She was obviously nervous that the conversation had touched on this topic. I noticed her squirm in her seat slightly and my eyes darted towards the bulge in the jeans she was wearing.

The conversation moved away from my slip up back towards suggestions for forfeits and prizes, much to my relief. While this was happening, Hira excused herself to head upstairs. At the same time I announced I was heading into the kitchen to get some drinks for people. James and Marie hadn’t driven so they asked for some wine, but Matt just wanted a soft drink.

I gathered bottles and glasses and placed them on the now cleared table we’d been playing the game on. It took a couple of trips and by the time I’d brought everything into the room Hira had reappeared. I turned to her to ask if she wanted anything else, but realised she was holding the Device.

“I want to let them know. If you’re okay with it,” she explained. The others had been talking amongst themselves, but her words had caught their attention and they looked towards us.

“Oh my god! Are you pregnant?” Matt said immediately, gaining a reprimanding look from Marie and a horrified one from Hira.

“What? No! No, nothing like that,” Hira replied. She gave me a significant look, as if asking for permission. Against my instincts I sighed and nodded. It was as if a weight was lifted from her shoulders and she smiled gratefully at me, before holding the Device up in full few. No one even looked at it, and I absently noted that the safety features that made it difficult to notice for unauthorised people appeared to be effective. “This,” Hira indicated the Device and it was if a veil had been lifted and everyone’s eyes focussed on it, “is… well we’ve just been calling it the Device. And it’s a… well we’re not sure what it is exactly. We actually don’t know too much about it. But it’s incredible. It can change people, physically and mentally, in impossible ways at just the touch of a button.”

The group was quiet for a moment. Marie appeared excited, if confused, but James was looking at my Hira’s face, as if trying to read it. Matt was looking at me for confirmation, which I provided with a nod.

“Is this like the introduction for a new role-playing game? Some kind of sci-fi adventure?” Matt asked. Marie’s excitement didn’t fade, but her confusion did lessen somewhat now that a believable explanation had been provided.

“Oh right! And are we using that to create some characters?” James pointed to the Device with a look of dawning comprehension. “Shouldn’t we wait until next week when everyone else is here though to do that?”

“No. This is real. Connor and I have used it already to do all kinds of things,” Hira insisted. I shot her a panicked look. “Like we’ve used it to change hair colour or build and things like that. And more extreme changes in some cases.” It was clear no one was believing her, assuming she was just really into setting the scene. I wondered how much was the Device itself trying to prevent itself from being identified by unauthorised users and how much was justifiable scepticism. Noticing this, Hira moved to the table and put the Device down.

“Okay. I’ll prove it,” Hira turned to me, “Connor, do something they’ll notice to me with it.” I was still reluctant to share so much with the group, but I could see that Hira was insistent. I imagined she’d probably gathered her courage to do this and now was unable to back down. With one last look to convey ‘are you sure’, which was returned with a determined nod, I activated the Device which was still on the table.

‘Merge’ was the top result of the Device when I turned it on, which was something I’d never seen before. In a different circumstance I would have investigated further, but instead I looked through the list for something very obvious I could do to prove the Device worked. Third on the list was ‘Shrink’ and I pressed it. I made sure to target Hira, to make sure everyone would be aware and to make sure it would be temporary. As it pressed it a ‘safety warning’ appeared and asked if I wanted to make clothing shrink and grow with changes, which I did, and also warned me that if a shrunken person was in space too small to contain them when they grew, they would not group until they had sufficient space. I silently blessed Hira for finding the safety options. All in all it took me nearly a minute to get everything set.

“Okay. Ready babe?” I asked with my finger hovered over the execute button. She nodded and I pressed the button.

Marie cried out “Oh my god!” in surprise. Matt stared wide-eyed. James jumped to his feet. And Hira rapidly shrunk to be half her normal size in an instant. Despite myself I grinned in delight at the reactions. But my grin lasted only an instant before I noticed that James’s sudden movement had knocked over the open bottle of soft drink I’d brought in earlier.

“Oh shit,” I managed to say before fizzy liquid poured onto the table, the floor and, most distressingly, the Device. Everyone’s attention shifted from the miraculous transformation in front of their eyes to the accident on the table. I picked the Device up instinctively and checked it with bated breath. To my distress, I could see that the screen seemed to be glitching out, showing a screen full of every changing buttons that were blinking in and out of view. I moved into the kitchen quickly and picked up a kitchen towel and wiped the screen. Everyone else, including the half-sized Hira, had followed me.

“Ooooh shit!” I said again as I realised that in my effort to wipe the screen I’d hit one of the glitching buttons. The words ‘Merge Executing’ flashed on the screen for a second before the screen went completely black. I looked in panic at everyone in the room.

“Hey. I feel a weird tingling,” James said.

“Me too,” replied Marie as she turned to face him.

And then they were gone.

***

They had James’s height, but not his muscle mass, they’d got Marie’s slenderness. Their hair was about shoulder length, but androgynous. Which could be said for their appearance in general. They appeared to perhaps have small breasts, but nothing obvious. They’re face was perhaps slightly more feminine, having more of Marie’s features than James’s, although it was slight.

Marie and James had seemed to be pulled together and in the place that they had been stood a new person. A person that was clearly a mix of the two.

“What the fuck.” Matt finally broke the silence and immediately everyone started talking. Hira was asking me what I’d done. Matt was asking who we could call. I was apologising and telling everyone I would fix things as I desperately tried to turn the Device back on.

“Quiet!” came a familiar, but completely new voice.

Silence fell as we all looked at the merged James and Marie. Their voice had been, like every part of them, a blending of their normal voices. They appeared somewhat uncomfortable, then gestured towards the living room we’d previous occupied. “Why don’t you grab some towels to clean up the table and we can work out what to do in there?”

Following the suggesting the four of us, or the five depending on how I counted, returned to the living room. The half-sized Hira and the merged couple moved to sit on a couch while Matt and I cleaned up. I gave Hira the Device to see if she could work out how to get it working again.

“I’m really sorry James and Marie. I didn’t mean to press anything. Are you okay?” I eventually said after sitting down on the couch opposite them. Matt joined me. He still appeared shell-shocked, but was slowly calming down.

“We are we think. We think it would be more convenient to just call us by one name? Perhaps Jamie?” they suggested. I nodded in agreement. “We think we’re okay. We know that we were two people, but this doesn’t feel wrong. Although I’m not sure if we’re Marie and James, or if we are some blending of the two to be a completely new person.”

“That’s a worrying thought,” I said and out of the corner of my eye I saw Matt nod sombrely.

“We agree, but at least for the moment we don’t think there is an urgent danger,” Jamie replied. They were looking at themselves, examining their hand. It seemed like their skin had found a middle point between both of their skin tones, James having been a bit darker skinned than Marie. “If the Device is broken, will this be permanent?” I heard no fear in the question, just curiosity.

“If the safety features worked, it would wear off in a week,” Hira answered, still attempting to turn the Device back on. I considered telling her to leave it alone instead it caused another unwanted change, but decided that I probably didn’t have the right to plead caution to anyone.

We were quiet for a moment while we considered the situation, but the moment of reflection was broken when Jamie stood up. “We’re going to the bathroom,” they announced.

***

We left Connor, Hira and Matt in the living room as we made our way towards the bathroom. We weren’t sure what people thought, but we hoped no one had guessed the reason we had wanted to go. Connor and Hira had a large mirror in their upstairs bathroom and we were interested to get a better look at ourself.

Our current situation was very strange. We knew that we were two people, but we couldn’t find the point where Marie ended and James began. Our memories were all available to us it seemed, we remembered being James as much as we remembered being Marie. If we really focussed we could tell that some things were coming more from one part of ourselves than the other. We could tell that it was the Marie part of us that was responsible for the perverse excitement at the situation, while the undercurrent of worry was clearly from James. Yet we had just one internal voice which was neither of us. The thought confused us.

We reached the bathroom and made sure to lock the door. A memory of James’s flashed into our mind of a time when he’d stayed over one night and forgot to lock the door while using the toilet only for Hira to walk in on him, embarrassing them both. We realised that Marie hadn’t known about that.

As soon as the door was locked we stripped and stood in front of the mirror.

We were tall, probably only a little shorter than James, but we didn’t have his bulk. We’d kept the fitness though, it was just combined with Marie’s more slender build. We looked lean and we posed slightly to admire our toned stomach. This brought our attention to our chest. We, mostly the Marie part of us, was disappointed to see that our breasts were small, no more than perhaps an A cup. Marie wasn’t particularly well endowed, but even so this was a large downsize. Our main point of focus was what was between our legs. We had both a penis and a vagina, although no balls we could see. Apart from being a light colour, the penis looked identical to James’s, for which we felt some relief. With a bit of awkward twisting we were able to get a view of our vagina and it seemed all in order.

With the most pressing questions answered we took a few more moments to examine ourself in the mirror. We felt our penis stiffen and our pussy moisten as we continued to check ourself out. “This is so weird.”

***

“Wait! It’s turning on!” cried Hira.

I got to my feet and rushed over. The screen was on, although no buttons were showing. We watched it, worry written on both our faces, until finally text appeared.

‘Self-repair in progress. Estimated completion: 2 hours.’

We looked at each other, some of our fear assuaged. “Okay. That’s not too bad. They might have to stay a bit later, but its not too bad,” I reasoned. Hira nodded, glad to latch on to any hope.

“Speaking of Mar… uh, of Jamie,” Matt looked towards the ceiling, “they’ve been a while haven’t they?” Hira and I exchanged a look.

“I imagine they might have taken the opportunity to get a better idea of what they look like,” I replied as diplomatically as possible. Matt raised his eyebrows, then smiled.

We returned to the couch and sat in silence for a few more minutes while we waited.

“They’re really pretty right?” Hira finally broke the silence, which prompted affirmation from Matt and I. “James and Marie are both good looking, but who would have thought that combining them would give that kind of result!”

“Speaking of results, what’s it like being mini?” I asked Hira. Even sitting down her size reduction was immediately obvious, her head was barely higher than my elbow and her legs dangled off the edge of seat without any chance of reaching the floor. I’d avoiding bringing too much attention to it while we were still unsure of the Device’s status, hoping to avoid bringing up the possibility that Hira could be stuck that way.

Hira looked down at herself and wiggled her legs playfully. “It’s bizarre. And pretty inconvenient; even getting on the couch is more effort and I felt like I was having to run to just keep up with people when we were moving before,” she smiled slightly before she continued, “but if it hadn’t been for everything else that happened I think I might have found it quite fun too. It doesn’t seem like it should make such a difference, but it makes everything look different and suddenly I see normal things as a challenge.” She paused again and then gave me a sharp look, “but I definitely want this reversed as soon as possible.”

“I know this might sound stupid considering the current state of things,” Matt sounded embarrassed as he spoke, “but I’ve got to admit I’m a little jealous that I didn’t get to experience something from the Device.” He glanced up again to where we knew the merged couple still were, “although perhaps something a little less random or extreme than we’ve seen so far?”

“Well if, I mean when, the Device fixes itself maybe we can look into it,” I suggested and looked at Hira for approval.

“We fix everything else first,” she said quickly. She considered for a moment, “but I suppose once everything else is back to normal a small temporary change isn’t too much to ask.” Matt smiled gratefully at Hira, which swiftly transformed into a smirk as he was reminded of her diminished stature.

The stairs creaked slightly to herald the re-emergence of ‘Jamie’. “Sorry about that,” they said as they entered the room. They noticed the improved mood and looked at me inquisitively, “Has the Device turned back on?” I explained that it would be back on in a couple of hours and we could reverse the changes at that stage. “That is good,” they said, although I thought I heard a hint of regret in their voice.

“What’s it like?” Matt gestured to an empty space on one of couches and Jamie moved over and sat. They took a few moments to gather their thoughts and put together a reply.

“It is surprisingly pleasant. It is like having the little voice in your head be a person you love,” Jamie reddened slightly. “It is surprising how natural it all feels to be honest. We think we’re a little slower than either James or Marie, because we’re processing two lines of thought at once and deciding which one we want to act upon, or find some suitable compromise. Yet that decision seems to be almost automatic.” They looked at themselves again and reddened further. “Our body is stranger than our mind. It’s made up of both of us, but that just means that everything feels unfamiliar.”

“You don’t have to answer, but…” Matt looked embarrassed to ask, but his curiosity won out, “are you a guy or…?”

Jamie went quiet and Matt began to squirm. I could see he was about to say something to dismiss the query, but before he could Jamie replied. “We’re both. Although we think we probably look more feminine overall.” They looked uncomfortable and Matt immediately apologised for even asking. “No. It’s okay, we would be as curious. In some ways we feel silly for even being embarrassed. It is only a temporary form anyway.”

***

We spent the next couple of hours just talking casually, having made an agreement to not ask Jamie any more questions about their unique circumstances. I could tell that Matt was still intensely curious, but he held back.

We had got onto a discussion about the current game of dungeons and dragons we were playing as a group (currently on hiatus while our other friends were away). Jamie was explaining their plans for James’s character when we heard a faint beep sound.

“The Device!” I stood up and took a step over to the table. Sure enough, the screen was on and a message appeared ‘Self-repair complete. Ready for use.’ “It’s back on. Let’s get everything fixed.” I turned to the group sitting down, “who’s first?”

Hira looked towards Jamie, but they shook their head. “If you wouldn’t mind going first please Hira. We want a few moments to prepare ourself.”

“Fair enough,” I said. Looking at the Device, the message disappeared and the normal contextual menu appeared. The first option was ‘revert recent changes’ and clicking on it gave a list of the changes made recently going back from most recent to oldest, with the oldest shown being the one that had given Hira a penis. I found the one for having shrunk Hira and selected it. “Oh. Of course,” I said with a grunt of amusement. I turned to the group to explain, “I’d only set Hira’s change to last for three hours anyway. She’d have turned back on her own in about half an hour. No reason to wait though.” I hit the button and instantly Hira began to grow. In the span of just a few seconds she’s doubled in size, finally looking her normal self again (at least as far as anyone else was concerned).

Despite having already seeing two changes, Hira’s restoration still entranced both Matt and Jamie. Hira stood up and stretched. “Are you sure I wasn’t a couple of inches taller?” she joked and I just laughed and shook my head. Matt was just staring open mouthed, while Jamie for their part looked pensive.

“You ready Jamie?” I asked and they started slightly. For a moment I thought they were going to ask me not to undo the change, but then they finally nodded. I smiled and used the Device to revert the change.

There was a brief flash of light and suddenly instead of Jamie, there stood James and Marie, looking exactly as they had just a couple of hours earlier. The first thing they both did was look down at themselves, and then turned to look at each other. After a heartbeat they grinned and hugged each other. They began to laugh and the rest of us joined in as relief rushed over us.

After a few minutes to get ourselves together, we all relocated back to the couches. We’d bombarded the couple with questions already, but hadn’t given them time to answer. James held up his hands as we sat and began to speak. “Okay, okay. I know you’re curious, but give us a second,” he chuckled, “but yeah. I remember the whole thing. I assume you do too?” he glanced at Marie who nodded her confirmation. “I remember being Jamie, but I was still an individual too. It was like I was Jamie, but my normal mind was just in the back of my head.” He shook his head, “I don’t know how to explain it any better.”

“It was pretty exciting once we got over the panic though. I quite liked it to be honest, although certainly not as a permanent thing,” Marie continued. “The weirdest thing was seeing your memories as if they were mine!” James paled slightly at comment, which Marie only laughed at. “I know it was an accident, and I don’t want the fear of being changed without knowing if I can go back again, but I’m glad we got to experience it.”

James didn’t look as enthused, but begrudging nodded, “It wasn’t all bad. But if we ever use that Device again I think I’d want to try something a little tamer.”

They answered a few more questions, but they found it hard to adequately express the sensations and we eventually moved on. I could see Matt starting to look inpatient and I remembered our earlier discussion about using the Device on him after we restored the others.

“Okay, okay. You look like you’re going to explode. We can use it on you now, but something small and very temporary,” I caught Matt’s eye as I spoke and he looked giddy. “Any suggestions?”

Matt nodded immediately. “Easy. Make me taller. How about you make me taller than James, just by a little?” I nodded in understanding and realised I should have guessed. Like me, Matt was only slightly shorter than average, but I knew he was more concerned about it than I ever had been.

“Alright. But it’s temporary okay. It will wear off in a few hours,” I cautioned as I scrolled through the option on the Device. ‘Increase height’ was nowhere near the top, but it was easy enough to find regardless. Matt looked a little disappointed at my confirmation that it wasn’t permanent, but he just nodded and smiled. I looked through the options and got everything set. Considering I was making it temporary I decided to give him a little more height that he’d asked for and executed the change.

“Oh! It tingles,” Matt observed as the change washed over him. He looked down at himself and his face beamed with delight as he looked down as saw the floor slowly stretch further away. He looked excitedly over at James and grinned as he reached his height, then laughed in delight as he continued to grow another few inches. When all was done, he stood at nearly six and a half feet tall.

He laughed in delight and stretched his hands to the ceiling, comfortably able to touch it. “Wow! This is amazing,” he looked down at us and broke into more laughter, “its like I’m on stilts but…”

“I’m glad you’re enjoying. Remember it will run out before the morning, so don’t get too attached for now okay,” I warned. Matt just nodded and smiled, but his eyes darted to the Device for the briefest of moments.

We decided to go outside and sit in the garden for a short time after that, since Matt wanted to really stretch out as much as possible. It was pretty chilly, so we were wearing our jackets and we’d noticed with interest that Matt’s shoes and jacket had adjusted to fit his new proportions despite him not wearing them while being changed.

James and Marie were keeping very close to one another, more so than I felt was normal for them. I could have put it down to the chill, but I couldn’t help but idly wonder if the merger hadn’t left them feeling closer than before. My pondering was interrupted when I head Matt chuckle as he pointed out that he could see over he neighbours fence now.

“Do you think it was a good idea to share it with them?” Hira asked in a whisper as she cuddled up beside me for warmth.

“I don’t know,” I replied honestly, “but even if it wasn’t, I’m glad we did.” I looked down at her with a smile. She returned it with grateful warmth and we sat down on the garden bench to enjoy the night with our friends.