Trust Machines - Cassiopeia 2

Cass woke briefly when Brian got up in the morning, but he busied himself to meet the day and was out the door before she knew what was happening, so she went back to sleep.

After Brian had put the groceries away, he returned to the computer and frowned.  “I don’t remember a new... chair...  Oops.”  He spun Cass around and stared into her face.  “Oh.  My.  God.  I thought that was just a dream.”

Cass giggled up at him.  “Nope!  You have a new computer chair.”

“But I... but you... for a month?”

“Yep!” Cass said brightly.  “Hey, can you set up my phone like you said?  I should probably call Tara and tell her where I’m staying.”

With something to do, Brian calmed down.  He dug up a charging cable for Cass’ phone, and busied himself with setting it up on the network and configuring voice activation.  Then he went to hand it to Cass so she could train it to her voice, and she giggled.

“No hands.  Just set it on my seat, I guess.”

Brian watched Cass with a rapt expression on his face as she talked to her phone.  First to train it, then to try out a call to Tara.  Tara talked a mile a minute compared to Cass, and was amazed that she’d moved in with a guy.  Cass tried to explain, but Tara insisted on coming over and wanted the address and the call was over before she could say no.

“Um...  Do you mind if Tara visits for a bit?” Cass asked Brian apologetically.

Brian shrugged.  “Is she always like that?”

Cass giggled.  “Sometimes she’s worse.  Depends on the wig, though.  That sounded like the redhead.”

“The redhead?”

Cass nodded.  The new chair design left her a bit of mobility in the shoulders, and she managed a bit of a shrug as well.  “Every wig she wears has a different personality.  She really gets into the role, you saw how she was with Alice.”

“Huh.  Imagine what she’d be like Venned to have the hair, instead of just with a wig.”

Cass discovered she could shudder, too.  “She’d really get lost in the role.”

“Not unlike a certain chair of my acquaintance.”

Cass blushed.  “I guess.  It’s just... I...”

“Why are you so keen on it?”

“Oh, there’s lots of advantages.  Notably, I don’t need to eat, or even need clothes.  So I can live really cheaply like this.”

“Oh so you just want me for a place to crash?” asked Brian, with a chuckle.

“You like it too.”  Cass countered, confidently.

Now it was Brian’s turn to stammer and blush.  He made an inexpert attempt to change the subject, and Cass let it pass.  The talked about TV shows they liked, finding that while they didn’t have the same tastes in dramatic shows, they both liked some of the same comedies.

There was an insistent knocking on the door, and Brian started so badly he knocked over the old desk-chair he’d been sitting in to chat with Cass.

“That’ll be Tara.  Let her in before she pounds the door down, will you?”

Brian chuckled ruefully.  “Sure.”

Tara breezed into the apartment like she owned it, flowing red locks trailing in her wake.  “Hey Brian, where’s my girl Cass?”  She looked around the place twice.  There wasn’t much to see - tiny nook kitchen, computer desk with two chairs, one fallen over, and a broken-down futon bed in the other corner.  A closet door was ajar, showing the messy contents, as was the door to a tiny bathroom.  “Where is she?”

Cass coughed.  “Here,” came her voice from the one standing chair.

Tara stormed to it and turned it to face her, then her mouth opened in surprise.  “You...”

“At a loss for words?” Cass laughed.  “That’s new.”

“Why are you a...  Did he do this to you?”

Cass nodded, and Tara turned wrathful eyes on Brian.  Before she could start shouting, Cass said, “I asked him to.”

Tara spun back to her friend, and stared at her.  “Why?  You’re a chair, for pity’s sake.  I would have thought a few hours at a time would be quite enough.”

“Hours?  Tara, I was the throne for the whole run.  Brian took me home over the break.”

“You were stuck in the theatre alone?”

Cass shrugged.  “Brian stayed with me when he could.  I slept a lot.  It was peaceful.  Better than home.”

Tara winced.  “Oh.  Yeah, I guess.  Didn’t think of that.  Is that why you’re here, now?”

“Brian needed a chair.  I wanted to be one for a while.  Seemed like a good idea at the time.”  Cass paused a moment, then grinned.  “Still does.  Except he’s kind of skittish, and hasn’t sat in me yet.”

“But...” protested Brian.

Tara shushed him, then gracefully sat in Cass.  “Mm.  You are comfy.”  When she wriggled back to lean against the padded cushions of Cass’s back, Cass made a soft cooing sound.

“You really do like this, don’t you?” asked Tara with a grin.

Cass sighed happily, her eyes half-closed.  “Oooh, yesss.”

Tara hopped up out of Cass, and pushed Brian toward her.  “Go.  Sit.  Have fun you two.  I’m off, got a hot date.  Maybe I’ll get him to Venn me, looks like it might be fun.”

And on that note, she was out the door.

Brian just stared at the door for a minute.  “She...”

Cass giggled.  “Yeah, she’s like that.  I’ll see if I can’t talk her into wearing the cute little brown wig instead, next time.  She’s less a handful when she wears it.”

“It was like she was an entirely different person,” Brian said, still dazed.

“Yeah.  She’s... well, kind of empty inside without something to hold on to.  Her cancer tore her family apart.”  Cass shuddered.  “It was ugly.”

Brian patted Cass on the arm, and she smiled up at him.  “C’mon.  Sit in me, that’ll make me feel better.”

“Are you sure?  It seems weird to sit on a person.”

“I’m not a person any more,” insisted Cass. “I’m a chair.  Please?”  She looked up at him with pleading eyes.

Brian couldn’t resist those eyes, and didn’t try.  He did make sure to lower himself into Cass carefully.  “I’m not too heavy?”

Cass’ only reply was a soft moan.

“Cass?”

“I’m...  Wow, this feels nice.  You fit so perfectly, it’s like...”  She giggled. “Like I was made for you.”

Brian laughed loud and long.  “I guess you were at that.  You are the most comfortable chair I’ve ever had the pleasure to sit in.  I’m going to miss you when the month’s up.”

Cass just smiled and didn’t say anything.

They settled into a routine after that.  If Brian wasn’t sleeping, working, or cooking, he would be sitting in Cass and chatting with her as he played computer games, or watched TV shows on his computer.  If he slouched a bit to one side, and Cassie leaned her neck the other way, she could rest her chin on his shoulder and watch along with him.

In the mornings, Brian was always a bit out of it and Cass would pretend to be asleep while he ate breakfast and did some early morning browsing.  She liked being just a chair for him.

While he was out, Cass would sometimes use her phone to call Tara, but after a week Tara stopped answering.  Given what Tara had been saying about the new guy, and the fun they’d had with the Venn Machine, Cass figured Tara was just... busy.  She called a few of her other friends to see if they’d seen Tara, but none of them had.  Cass tried not to let that worry her, as there was very little a chair could do about it.

Before Cass knew it, a month had passed.  One fine Monday morning while she was napping in front of Brian’s computer, she suddenly tumbled to the floor with a yelp of surprise.  She had arms that could move again, and legs and... everything!

Cass took a few minutes to get used to being human again, and to wonder at how good she felt.  Six weeks of recuperation had gotten rid of all her old bruises, and her broken ribs weren’t hurting any more, either.

Then with an impish grin she turned to Brian’s computer.  She’d seen him log on often enough that she knew his password by heart.  It wasn’t hard, he’d changed it to Cassiopeia shortly after she’d taken up residence.  There was a folder he’d been assiduously avoiding all the time she’d been there, just labelled ‘Stuff’.

Cass had figured it for a porn cache, and she wasn’t wrong.  Picture after picture of skimpily dressed women lounging on chairs, chaise longues, love seats...  She frowned as something occurred to her, and she jumped randomly through the folder.  Every picture, without fail, was on a chair or something like it.  There were even a few that were just chairs, with a piece or two of female clothing artfully draped over them.

Then she found the ‘Best Stuff’ folder within it.  It was surprisingly empty, just a handful of video files with nondescript names.

Cass watched them all through twice.  It didn’t take long.  “Huh,” she said finally.  “Imagine that.”

When Brian got home, he was shocked.  He barely recognized his apartment.  It was clean, and there were wonderful smells coming from the stove.  Cass was stirring something in a frying pan.  She turned to him and waved.  “Hi Brian!”

“Hey, Cass.  I like what you’ve done with the place.”

“Yeah, you should have a girl turn from furniture to human around here more often.”

Brian laughed, which drew a big smile from from Cass.  “I guess I should.”

“Though you should probably hide your porn stash better.”

Brian’s face fell.  “You found...”

“Oh come on, you labelled it ‘Stuff’.  Wasn’t that hard to figure out.”

“Did you...”

“Find the ‘Best Stuff’.  Yeah.  What the heck is up with that?”

Brian couldn’t look at her, he turned toward his computer and the spot where Cass had spent most of her days as his chair.  “I...  I told you about finding about Cassiopeia, the lady in the chair.  And how I misinterpreted it.  But... that image stuck with me.  It got all tangled up in the teenage hormones of a shy, clumsy boy who never could talk to girls.  So...  Yeah.  Girl-chairs turn me on.”

“I thought it was something like that,” said Cass softly.  “But what I meant was... the videos in that folder are crap.  A handful of badly done morphs of a girl to a chair, with the background tearing as she goes?  Hell, I made better ones than that in computer art class at school.”

Brian chuckled ruefully.  “I know.  But there’s like... three of us.”

“Three people that are into people turned into furniture?  I find that hard to believe.  Heck, I bet there were at least three guys in the audience of our shows that went home wishing they could have come up and touched me.”

“No,” said Brian.  “Fans of people turning into furniture.”

Cass moved the pan off the heat, and walked around Brian to stand where she’d spent so long as a chair.  “I’m not sure I’m seeing the distinction, here.”

“It’s not the person as a chair that I’m infatuated with... though that was really nice, having you as my chair, don’t get me wrong.  But... what I most want is to see the process of change.  To watch someone slowly losing their humanity, becoming just a chair.”

“Ah.  Hence the videos.  There really isn’t anything better?”

“I’ve looked.  There’s a part of a film called Tokyo, but it’s not... not right.  She goes all spindly and wooden, not a comfortable chair, and you can’t really see her change.”

“But... you live a few blocks from a Venn Machine.”

“It’s not fair!” shouted Brian.  “They turn anyone into anything.  But they do it instantly.”  He paced as he ranted.  “If you like furries, no problem.  Want to spend a day as an inflated doll, got you covered.  Even if you like being a useful chair,” here he favoured Cass with a smile, “done deal.  But if you want to watch someone slowly change from one thing to another... Bzzzt, sorry, please play again.”

“Oh!” said Cass, her hand to her mouth.  “I never imagined... this means that much to you?  To see the change?”

Brian nodded, the glimmer of a tear at the corner of his eye.  Cass impulsively darted forward and hugged him.  She smiled when she realized he wasn’t pulling away from her or panicking, and she wanted so badly to cheer him up.

“I... what if you changed me a bit at a time in the Venn Machine?  Start with me five percent chair, then ten, and so on...  All the way to ninety percent.”

“Hundred,” whispered Brian.  “All the way to chair, nothing left.”

Cass swallowed once nervously, then forced a smile to her face.  “OK.  I’ll do it.”

“Really?”  Brian pulled back to stare at Cass in wonder.  “You’d be OK with me turning you all the way into a chair?”

Cass giggled nervously.  “Yeah.  I’ve been mostly chair for a month.  How bad can all-chair be?  Just... maybe not for a month, OK?  I like talking to you.”

Brian laughed.  “Not a problem.  I like it when the chair turns back into a pretty girl, too.  If I had my way, I’d come home and change you after dinner every night, and you’d change back the next day.”

Cass grinned broadly.  “I’d love that.  So.  Dinner first?”

Brian nodded.  They ate standing up, as Brian had only one chair left, his battered old desk-chair that looked ready to collapse at any moment.  They talked about what to do with it, neither was willing to try sitting in it.

“You should just throw it out,” said Cass.  “You have me now.”

“You’re not going to want to be my chair forever, though.”

Cass dimpled.  “Maybe.  If you asked nicely.”

Brian choked on his bite of pasta.  He cleared his throat, and asked hoarsely, “Really?”

Cass just grinned.

They ate in silence for a while as Brian digested that.  Once dinner was done, and the dishes were in the sink, Brian grabbed his truck keys from the hook by the door.

“C’mon, let’s go to the mall.”

Cass’ grinned even wider.  “This is going to be fun!”

After the first few changes in the Venn Machine, the button ran out with Cass only partially changed.  Her feet had been the first to change, but now her legs were all sleek and leathery.  She creaked as she walked.  Brian was staring at her raptly, and she posed against the wall next to the machine.

“Well?”

“You’re... incredible.  Ready for more?”

Cass just nodded.  The second round left her with just her arms and head free, her lower body was that of an overstuffed leather chair, on legs this time instead of casters.  Brian had to carry her out of the Venn Machine so another couple could use it.

While they waited, Cass encouraged Brian to see if she was comfortable enough.  She snuggled up against him happily as he sat on her.  “I could just stay like this forever,” she murmured.  Brian gasped softly, but didn’t say anything.

Once again the button was vanishing.  All that was left of Cass was her head.   “Ready for the last step?” asked Brian as his hand hovered over the button.

“Make me your chair,” Cass said, without fear.

“I love you,” Brian whispered.

“I...”  Cass’ reply was cut off.  She was a chair now.  Chairs didn’t get to love guys, did they?  Cass hoped they did, and that they could be loved in return.  When she felt Brian’s strong arms pick her up, she wished she could squeal with happiness.  The silence and darkness were familiar friends, she’d spent enough time with both in the theatre.  But being unable to speak...  It drove home that she was just a thing now.  A possession.

Cass loved it.  She even loved being strapped down in the back of Brian’s truck like a thing, carried into his apartment like a thing, being sat upon like an ordinary piece of furniture.

The next day, Cass woke up as she tumbled to the floor.  She couldn’t believe it had been sixteen hours already.  She wished it had been longer.

Once again, she had dinner ready when Brian came through the door.  The expression on his face made her run to him, and hug him tight.  The kiss made the world go away even more thoroughly than being a chair had.

“Can we do that again?” she asked breathlessly.

Brian laughed.  “The kiss, or the chair?”

“Both!”

So they did.  After dinner, they went back to the mall and once again Cass got gradually changed within the Venn Machine and carried home as nothing but a chair.  Her favourite part, she told Brian the next day, was how losing all her other senses made touch so much more important.

“You prefer being all chair?” Brian asked, wonderingly.

“I...”  Cass paused.  “Well, as long as I get to talk to you some of the time, too.  I don’t think I’d like to be all chair for a month, I’d miss that.”

“No worries.  Shall we leave your head free tonight?  There’s a new episode of your favourite show...”

“Ooh!” Cass clapped.  “Can we watch it after you change me?  Watching over your shoulder is the best.”

Once the show was over, Cass egged Brian into opening up his ‘Stuff’ folder, and asked which pictures he liked best.  To her amusement, it was more about the chair, than the woman draped over it.

“What about those ones with a chair and just a bra draped over it?  I mean, the normal implication... but you get something else out of it.”

Brian laughed softly, the embarrassment having slowly faded thanks to Cass being so accepting.  “I bet you can guess.”

“You imagine the chair is a woman... she’s changed, but her bra still remains.  Close?”

Brian turned in the chair, and smiled right at Cass.  “Got it in one.”

Cass pushed her head forward as far as it would go – today’s chair design left her even more mobility there – and kissed Brian on the lips.  She saw Brian’s eyes go wide in surprise and wonder, then he was leaning into the kiss and wrapping his arms around her.

When they finally separated, panting, Cass smiled up at Brian.  “You really like this...”

“I wish...”  Brian said with a look of longing on his face.

“What?” asked Cass eagerly.

Brian blushed, and shook his head.  “I can’t...” he whispered.

Cass giggled.  “Oooh, it must be good.  I bet I can guess.”  But Brian was blushing even brighter, and was starting to look terrified of her again.  That was the last thing she wanted, so instead of teasing further she asked if any of his favourite shows were ready to watch.

They watched three more shows, then Brian kissed her on the cheek and went to bed.

The next night, just before she stepped into the Venn Machine, Cass pulled her bra out from under her shirt and tossed it to Brian.  “Something to decorate me with.”

To her delight Brian broke out in a shy smile.  Better yet, he stopped the changes well short of the usual, leaving her upper torso mostly intact.  Everything below her neck was covered in brown leather instead of skin, so she was still decent.  Brian handed Cass' plain tan bra back to her, and when she put it on she figured she looked less dressed while wearing it than she had without.  Brian agreed with a blush, but didn't ask her to take it off, either.

Watching shows while Brian was sitting in her was much more distracting than ever.  Cass figured that if she'd had nipples they'd have been poking through her bra.  The kissing and snuggling after the show went even further than the previous night, and Case's bra ended up on the floor.

Brian handed it back to her in the morning with a grin and only the very slightest of blushes.  Cass grinned back, but could see that trying to push further would hit a wall.  She mulled the problem while Brian was off at work, and found herself browsing through his 'Stuff' folder for inspiration.  She found a few images that she figured would make passable morph targets, and bought some good software to help in her task.

She left it rendering while she prepared dinner, and when Brian got home it was ready.  It was a little better than the videos Brian already had of girls turning into chairs, and he declared it his new favourite.  Cass grumbled about the lack of decent source images then started to grin.

“Do you have a camera?”  Cass asked.  Brian didn't, but Cass was undeterred.  “Never mind, we can use my phone.”

After dinner, Cass bought a roll of masking tape at the mall, then avoided the Venn Machine. Instead they went for a nice walk that ended up back at the mall well after it had closed.

Cass and Brian waited while another couple dithered over how long to change for.  She wanted a month, but they eventually settled on three days.  The guy's reluctance was proven valid when he got worn out of the mall as the woman's new purse.

Cass grinned a Brian.  “Want to spend the night as my possession instead?  It’d be a change of pace...”

“But...”

Cass giggled.  “Oh, the look on your face.  I have no interest in turning you into a purse.”

“Oh,” Brian said with obvious relief.  “Whew.  I mean, it would only be fair, but...”

Cass patted his cheek fondly.  “One day.  Today we’re here for a photoshoot.”  She handed Brian the masking tape, after tearing off a few pieces.  “Mark a spot for me on the floor, and give yourself a mark too, so you can take the shot from the same angle each time.”

Brian did so, and then looked up at where Cass had used the tape to put three cross-marks on the beige wall of the mall.  “What are those for?”

“Registration marks, for the morph program.  Try to frame the shots so they’re right at the edge, so I can crop them out after.”

Cass posed prettily for some before shots, then many trips into and out of the Venn Machine followed.  Brian was largely bemused by the whole thing, but at Cass’ urging started to give directions for how to pose.  He asked her to look excited and pleased rather than surprised and worried.  Cass was only too happy to comply, and noted that it didn’t take much acting.  Brian laughed at that, making Cass grin even wider for the next shot.

Finally, Cass only had her face left.  As he’d been doing for a while now, Brian picked her up and walked to the Venn Machine.  Cass giggled softly.  “Going to have a plain old chair tonight?”

“Yup.  Unless you wanted to stay like that for a month...”

Cass gasped softly, then when Brian started to laugh, she giggled.  “Good one.  And... not yet.”

Brian set the usual sixteen hours.  “Not yet, hm?  You’re serious?”

Cass couldn’t even nod so she smiled instead.  “Yeah.  I’d like to try it, but not tonight.”

“I don’t think I could go a month without seeing your face,” Brian said earnestly, and Cass awwed.  Then she was in the Machine, human again only briefly.  She waited for the change, for the darkness.  It didn’t take long.

Feeling Brian’s touch without being able to respond was delicious torment.  The ride home was short, as was the trip into the apartment.  It felt like he was at the computer again, and something about his rhythmic motions at one point made Cass laugh in her silent realm.

When Cass finally changed back it was early afternoon.  She checked the computer quickly, and found that Brian had already downloaded the images from the camera, in a ‘Cassiopeia’ folder, that had its own ‘Best’ folder within.  She looked through the ones he’d picked for there, and found a sequence of one shot from each state, from fully human, to fully chair.  Flipping through them one by one she had to grin.  Brian had assembled a perfect storyline, and she was pretty sure that this was what he’d been looking at last night.  The fact that the folder had been left open was also suggestive.

The pictures were also perfectly suited for morphing.  Generating twenty short tween sequences took her hours even so, and she had only just finished compiling them into a single video when the doorknob rattled.

Cass yelped and fell off the rattletrap old desk chair.  It finally gave up the ghost and broke into three pieces.  She looked so upset and so apologetic that Brian rushed over to help her up and give her a hug.

“I didn’t even get dinner ready...” fussed Cass.

Brian looked at what she’d been doing on the computer.  The animation was still rendering, 98% complete... 99%.  They watched with bated breath until it ticked over.  Cass hit play.

On the screen, Cass appeared, standing against the plain beige wall of the mall.  Her her pose shifted slightly as her feet smoothly expanded into padded leather chair-feet.  As the change crawled up her legs, her expression grew surprised, then excited.  Her hands moved to touch her changing legs, then fused with her chairlike body.  At the end, she blew a kiss before her face melded away into the chair.

When it was over, Cass fanned herself, even though she’d been working on it all afternoon, seeing it like that turned her on.  She turned to see the effect it had had on Brian, and his face was flushed and he was covering up his crotch with both hands.

“Oh.  I...  Wow.  Seeing me change did that?”

Brian nodded mutely.  Cass grinned impishly, and hit play again.  This time she watched Brian instead of the computer.  From the way he was reacting she knew what her next step had to be.

“Hey Brian,” she cooed sweetly, once the video was over.  “Do you have any condoms handy?”

His eyes went wide with the implication, and Cass waited nervously for the next reaction.

“Crap!” Brian said with feeling.  “No, I don’t.”

Cass smiled, and kissed his cheek.  “Then change me.  Halfway.  Part chair, but girl where it counts.  If I’m changed enough down there, I can’t get...”

“Oh.  Oh!  But that’s just... wrong,” Brian finished weakly, as if far from convinced.

Cass leaned into him, pressing her chest against his.  “I won’t just be a chair-girl you can sit on, but one you can... have your way with.  Please?”

She didn’t have to ask twice.  But she did have to wait while Brian changed his pants.

Cass waited in the Venn Machine, eagerly wondering what she’d become this time.  Brian had never taken so long to craft her form before, not even the first time.  But from the rapt look on his face, she knew she was in for a treat.

When the change hit, Cass quickly looked down at herself.  She was amazed to find that she was still mostly human looking.  Sure, her clothes were gone and her skin was the same lovely chocolate-brown leather that by now was more familiar than her real skin.  She looked sort of overstuffed, especially her legs.  There was something odd about the way her thighs felt, but she couldn’t quite place it before the doors opened and she dashed out of the Venn Machine and into Brian’s arms.

“I love it,” she cooed.  “But I don’t feel much like a chair.”

Brian’s lips curved into a grin.  “Pose like a chair for me.”

Cass looked at him curiously, then took a step back and crouched.  As she did so, she felt the back half of her thighs swing away and settle to the ground.  As they touched, there was a loud click from each hip that she more felt than heard.  Cass stared down at her legs.

“I can’t move them,” she said in wonder.  Seated like this, her thighs pressed together, her bottom half looked much more like a chair than a person.  “Am I stuck?”

Brian shook his head.  “Look at your hips.”

Cass craned her neck over and saw a large round embossing on her left hip, that looked almost like a large sewn-in button.  She pressed it, and her left leg unlocked.  Another touch freed her right leg, and she stood up again.  “How clever.”

Brian grinned even wider.  “Touch your shoulders.”

Cass’ eyes widened as she found buttons there too.  She immediately crouched like a chair, giggling as her hips clicked into place.  Then she posed her arms tight to her side, forearms out like chair-arms, and felt those lock into place as well.  “Oh...  Wow.  Now I really am stuck.”

Brian grinned, and lifted her up.  “You... you seemed to like that.”

Cass moaned happily all the way to the truck.  Brian unlocked her limbs, and opened the passenger door for her.  “A beauty like you shouldn’t be heaved into the bed of a truck.”

Cass mock-pouted, then grinned and gave him a kiss.  “Flattery will get you everything.”

The drive back to Brian’s apartment took almost no time at all, and yet it felt agonizingly long.  Once they were inside, Cass pounced.  She had no clothes to remove, and soon Brian’s were gone as well.  The futon proved somewhat small for their efforts, but neither minded or noticed.

After Brian had drifted to sleep, Cass lay beside him, watching her sweet lover with a smile on her lips.  It felt wrong to be lying in bed and sleeping.  She hadn’t slept in a human body in so long...  Cass pulled her legs up, felt them latch into place, then posed her arms as well.  Much better.

The next morning was Saturday, and Brian spent most of it in bed with his chair-girl.  He had to unlock her limbs several times.

Cass looked up at the clock.  “Damn, my time’s nearly up.  Can we go back to the mall?”

Brian shrugged.  “Sure.  Why?”

“Because I want you to lock this change in for the next month... no, the next year.”

Brian’s eyes sparkled with delight.  “Only a year?”

“For starters.  Mark the calendar, so we know when to refresh it...  I don’t ever want to go back to normal.”

Brian kissed her hard, and when he let go Cass stumbled back and landed in chair form, all her limbs locking at once.  Brian stared down at her in amazement and wonder.  “I love you so much.”

Cass smiled back up at him.  “I love you too.  C’mon, carry me to the mall before I change back.”

So they did, and before long Cass was ‘stuck’ as a chair-girl for the next year.  As he drove her back home, Brian asked, “Do you think you did the right thing?”

“No,” said Cass.  Brian stopped the truck.  “I’m already wishing I’d asked for three years.”

Brian laughed, and carried on driving home.  Cass chaired herself right after getting out of the truck, and Brian carried her over the threshold, kissing her as he did so.  “There.  My chair, my love, home where she belongs.”

“Thank you,” whispered Cass through sudden tears.

“For?”

“Giving me a place to belong.  I haven’t had that in so long...”

Brian kissed away her tears, and comforted her the best way he knew how.

They didn’t leave the apartment again that day, and wouldn’t have on Sunday either, except for a frantic call from Tara.

“Wait, wait, wait,” said Cass.  “You spent the last month as what?”

“I’m not exactly sure,” Tara said over the phone.  “Sort of a living sex toy.  God, it fucked me up bad, I think I spent the last month as a hooker.  It’s all kind of... fuzzy.  The only clothes I have are hooker clothes, my landlord boxed up all my stuff when I didn’t pay last month’s rent.”

Cass looked over at Brian.  “We have to go get her.”

Brian was already getting dressed.

“Tell me where you are.  We’ll be right there.”

When they found Tara, she looked like a wreck.  She didn’t know what had happened to her wig, only that it was long gone.  Her hair had never grown back after chemo, leaving her with ragged little tufts of pale brown hair straggled over her head.  Wigless, her personality was much more subdued.

“What are you going to do?” asked Cass as she sat beside Tara on the seat of Brian’s truck.

“Stay away from wicked boys and Venn Machines for a while, I think.  Other than that...  Wow, look at you.  What’s with the leather look?”

Cass giggled.  “I’m a chair girl.”  She told Tara how the hip and shoulder locks worked, and demonstrated with one arm.

“Wow.   You look really good like that.”  Tara looked over at Brian, who was determinedly focussed on his driving.  “You know, I don’t have a place to stay any more...”

Cass tilted her head to one side, considering it.  “You know, we could use a bigger futon.”  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Brian twitch, and grinned.

“Sounds better than what I’ve been through last month.  Sold.”

“To the mall, sweetie!” called Cass.  “Maybe I should call more of my friends, we could furnish your whole place!”

Brian laughed.  “You’re mad, and I love you dearly.”  He peeked at Tara.  “So how long are you willing to spend as a futon?”

Tara looked from Cass to Brian, then shrugged.  “As long as you’ll have me.”

“That might be a long, long time,” said Cass.

“Good.”