“Could you really see us?” asked Janis eagerly.  “That wasn’t something Katya imagined?”

I tried to blink the silk out of my eyes, gave my head a little shake to remind myself I was no longer a camisole, and recited “I am a human” a few times before answering.  “Yes, though it got kind of foggy when you moved away from the wardrobe.”

Angela smirked.  “We did leave it kind of foggy.  Someone needs to put on the maid outfit and polish it properly.”

I raised my hand.

“Are you volunteering as maid or outfit?”

“Yes.”

We decided to spin the ‘box’ bottle to decide which of us would be the maid outfit, the duster, and the maid.  Angela became latex and Janis got feathers.  Cleaning in the maid outfit was fun, even with nobody to show off for.  Then I remembered that Kayta could see, so I made a point of polishing the wardrobe extra carefully.

I spent an inordinate amount of time on the mirrors as well.  Not only for my own benefit, but also in an effort to tease Janis into learning how to see.

Later, she thanked me for the help... and the show.  Angela hadn’t managed the trick, because she’d mantraed herself into thinking like a duster.  She wasn’t worried about learning the vision trick, as she figured the point of being an object was to really be the object.

I asked if that meant she wanted multiple zaps, to the point she was a mindless pair of panties.

“Promise me you’ll treat me right this time.”

“Right for a person, or right for a pair of good panties?” I asked with a teasing grin.

“The latter.  I need to know.”

That made me frown in concern.  “Know what?”

“If Katya is right.  That being clothing can be... a good way to live.”

“What happened to the fierce independent woman who hated it when I accidentally left her as panties for a week and nearly cost her her job?”

“She’s stuck with awful shifts and getting tired of it.  I realized my boss doesn’t care about me, just that the work gets done.”

“That’s true of any job.”

Angela shook her head.  “Not all jobs.  Did you have fun cleaning up?  The apartment looks spotless.”

I grinned.  “Being a fetishy maid was seriously inspiring.  I’m not sure I can keep that spirit up indefinitely, though I’m definitely going to try it again.”

Janis’ eyes went wide.  “Do you want the job of fetish maid?”

“More like the job of latex maidwear.”

I held out my hand.  “Job’s yours for the asking.”

Angela stared at my hand, reached for it, then pulled back.  “No.  Not... not yet.”

“Offer will stay open.  Unless Janis scoops it up, but I’m sure we can work out some appropriate time sharing arrangement.”

That got all of us giggling, and we turned to the more pressing matter of lunch.  Afterward, practical matters took precedence – the pantry had become alarmingly bare with all the distractions of the past few weeks, and a major shopping trip was desperately needed.

When we got back from that, Frank was waiting at our door.  “Time to change your bra, is it?”

Frank nodded.  “Thanks for your pep talk yesterday.  It really helped.  That and remembering her smile.  I wish we could talk like this...”

I opened the door and gestured for him to precede us.  Instead he picked up the bags I’d put down and said, “Ladies first.”

I snickered.  “I’m no lady.”

“Could have fooled me.  You truly look the part.”

I glanced down at the new dress I was wearing.  “Janis said it really suited me.  Should I wear it to the office?”

We started unloading the bags, and I spent the next few minutes getting everything organized.  Once I was done Frank asked if I really was planning to wear the dress Monday.

“Of course not.  It will need to be washed and won’t be dry by morning.”

“That’s the only reason?  You’d be fine showing up as Daffodil and... what?  Just heading to the cubicle and spending the day debugging?”

“Tom might treat me better...”  I mused.  “Worth a try.”

“Wow.  You’re really just going to go say ‘hey, the rumours were true, I’m both David and Daffodil’?”  Frank was staring at me in what felt more like admiration than confusion

“Do you think it would go badly?”

“With the bosses backing you?  Not at all.  Hell, I think the ladies will cheer.  The guys will ogle – subtly – and ask some stupid questions.  Are you ready to deal with that?”

“Bring it on.”

Janis and Angela cheered.  “About time.”

“Ooh, we need to scan that dress before it gets dirty, so I can be it for you tomorrow,” enthused Janis.

Frank left us to our efforts, turning toward the door when I stripped out of the dress.

Two minutes later there was a knock at the door.  Frank had forgotten he was still wearing Giselle.

I changed her back, and walked her through reciting “I am human” until she believed it.  Then I asked if we should send her home as a boob pillow.  She looked tempted when I extolled how comfortable it was, and even more so when I offered to leave her head so she could talk to Frank and be clear about what she wanted.

“I might want to stay like that...”

“I don’t want to be married to a pillow,” grumbled Frank.

“Oh, we can add those bits to the pillow too.  It’s really fun,” said Angela, her deadpan tone belied by her salacious grin.

Frank stared at her gape-mouthed.  Then he caught her meaning and started to blush furiously.  “I...  I...”

“We’ll come by Thursday night to give it a try,” determined Giselle.  “I’ll take Friday off.  Might even give notice if it’s as good as you say.”

“Giselle!” protested Frank.  “Are you...”

Giselle’s laughter tinkled through the room.  “No.  Well... not yet.  Make it fun enough, and... maybe.  I’ll need to quit once we have kids, and you did get a nice raise recently...”

“Fair warning, you can get pregnant as a pillow hybrid,” noted Janis.  “Not until you’ve been one for at least a week, though.”

“Ooooh...  Please, Frankie?”

Frank sighed.  “Once you’ve given proper notice.”

“Yay!  Catch you fine folks later!”

I shook my head after they left.  “Lucky.”

Janis giggled.  “Yeah, you’re stuck with three girls who’d happily turn into pillows for you... or did you want to be the pillow?”

“I am a very fortunate pillow indeed.”

I didn’t get to talk after that.  Nor did I want or need to.

*** *** ***

Monday morning Janis turned me into Daffodil, and Angela made breakfast.  Once we’d eaten Janis asked if I was serious about going to work as I was.

“I want to try it, and see how people react.  I would like to wear my new dress...”

Janis grinned at Angela.  “Spin for it?”

Angela waved off the offer.  “I see how badly you want this.  Besides, I need to get to work before you’re done.  Shall I wake Katya before I leave?”

I shrugged.  “She’s happy like this, and I’ll have Janis with me.”

At work, nobody said anything about me showing up as Daffodil, and my ID card worked just fine.  Tom did a double take when he stuck his head into my cubicle.  “Aren’t you supposed to be here on Fridays?”

“I hoped not to make a fuss about it, but...”  I sighed and got up from my seat, then stepped into the open area beyond my cubicle entrance.  “Hey everyone.  As most of you have already guessed, I am both Daffodil and David.  I’ll probably be here off and on as Daffodil, depending on whether I’m feeling more female or more male that day.  Call me either, I don’t mind.  Not picky about pronouns either, use whatever’s easiest for you.”

As I’d talked more and more heads had popped up over cubicle walls.  When I finished, there was a ragged cheer, then the babble of questions started.  Tom forestalled them by saying to save the questions until lunch.

At lunch, the team had lots of questions.  I stayed cagy about how, but was much more open about why I changed.  I just liked being a woman some of the time, and had the ability to do so.  I looked around the cafeteria table.  “Who here wouldn’t at least try it if they could?”

There was a lot of muttering about that.  Frank admitted he’d tried it and while it wasn’t what he wanted to be, it had been fun.

“Was that an actual offer, then?” asked Shelly, one of the two women in our group.  She’d cheered the loudest at my announcement.

I nodded.  “Come by Friday after work with some loose clothes, and we’ll take you to Apparitions with us.”

“Us?” asked Uther.  “Does that mean asking Daffodil for a date is off the table?”

I laughed and nodded.  “I’m living with three women and it’s... complicated.  But working out pretty well so far.”

“So you have a harem?”

“Or are you part of one?” added Frank.

“Honestly?  More the latter.  As I said, it's complicated.  But really fun, too.”

“Do you trade off who’s Sultan?” asked Shelly, eyes alight with curiosity.

I blushed and nodded.  “Yeah.  Some of us are better at it than others.”

“Lucky...” said Shelly.  The chatter around the table after her comment was decidedly more mixed.

“Sounds crazy.  Handling so many people at once.  How do you do it?”

I shrugged.  “We communicate.  And... well, we have another edge that I’d rather not talk about.”

“I guess when everyone can change, you have more ways to make things work,” mused Shelly.

“Something like that, yeah.”

There were more questions after that, some silly, a few mildly rude or lewd.  The one that made me think was one that in retrospect I should have anticipated.  “Is it better to be a man or a woman?”

Claiming that both had their advantages and that I didn’t really have a favourite satisfied no-one, least of all myself.  After some grumbling I held up my hands.  “Do you really want to know what I think?”

There was a clear preponderance of yeses.

“I think in a perfect world, everyone could get to change back and forth easily enough that it was unexceptional to do so.  So everyone could find the answer to that question for themselves.  And if that answer is ‘I love being both and want to swap back and forth regularly’ that would be accepted too.  Because that is my answer.  Both are great.  I love being both, and do not want to give one up in favour of the other.”

There was scattered applause at that.  The loudest came from Alex, who’d joined the crowd along the way.  “Well said.  Could I borrow you for the afternoon?  A couple of projects could use your review.”

“Of course.  My adoring fans can email me any further questions.”

Alex did indeed have some projects for me to look at, some new ones the company was looking at taking on.  Mostly, however, he’d wanted to ‘rescue’ me.  I protested that the group was being nicer than I’d expected.

“Not from them, from Tom.  He did not take your surprise well, and asked to have you removed from his team...”

“Sounds good to me,” I interjected

“And he wants you fired.”

“Ah.  That would be inconvenient.”

Alex nodded emphatically.  “I need your help here.  And Rani’s team is willing to take you on as Daffodil or David.”

“One or the other?”  I asked.  “Or can I change it up from day to day.”

“Rani asked for Daffodil specifically, and I suspect she heard or at least heard of your big declamation.  Her team’s about half male and half female, so I expect she’d be happy to have someone who gets both sides.  Let’s go ask.”

I’d seen Rani around before, a tall woman with a commanding presence.  She always wore well tailored suits, and looked better in them than the guys did.  Most of the engineers wore more comfortable clothing, though all the sales reps wore suits.

I waved at her meekly when Alex introduced us, finding her gaze as intimidating as I’d expected.  Then she grinned at me and shook my hand, and I could tell I had nothing to fear.  She was perfectly fine with me coming as a man or woman as I saw fit, but almost shyly admitted she hoped Daffodil would show up often.  Impulsively I promised at least three Daffodil days a week for at least the first month.  The smile I got in response made it worthwhile.

We talked practicalities for a time.  Alex wanted my time three afternoons a week to help with project planning.  Because the teams were somewhat interleaved in the cube-warren, I could keep my existing desk.  I smirked at that.  “What do I say when Tom pokes his head in?”

“That you don’t work for him any more.  If he makes a fuss, tell him to talk to me,” replied Alex.  “I’ll sort him out.”

By the time I got home I was skipping and dancing with excitement, ready to share the news with Janis.  I hit restore without thinking, then had to scramble to turn her back into a woman, apologizing all the way.

Janis sighed happily when her boobs reappeared.  “Stop all the apologizing.  It’s not that big a deal any more.  I heard what you said this morning, and it was so inspiring...  I hope my uncle can help make that world of yours happen.”

“It’s not a big deal for you?” I asked, puzzled.

Janis shrugged.  “Sure, I hated being a guy.  But now... well... I’ve had so much girl time...”  She frowned, and shook her head.  “I don’t think that’s it.  It’s...  I was your dress.  I love being your dress.  I love fitting myself around you, against you, and... how fem are you feeling right now?”

“So, so fem.  Kinda want to turn you into the helix toy and just go at it for a while.  Or turn into the vase and get stuffed.”

Janis smiled at me indulgently.  “Or get fucked by your Sultan?”

I blushed.  “Heard that too, did you?  I know you’re not...”

“I’m game.  I like fitting against you, and... I want to try.  Just for a little while, with the box at the ready to change me back if it gets too weird.”

“If you’re really sure, I would love that so much.”

Janis picked up the box and twiddled with the dial.  “And that’s why I’m sure.”

The moment she stopped changing, I pulled her into a hug.  “Still with me?”

Janis swallowed, and nodded.  “This feels... wrong, and right, and confusing and oh fuck I’m getting turned on.”

I kissed her until she stopped panicking, though I could feel her hardness pressing against my thigh and tried not to think about how turned on that was making me.  “Better?”

“Mmm.”

“That’s not very helpful.”

“That’s shut up and kiss me again.”

So I did.  We did very little talking after that.  After a lovely session of canoodlig Janis scooped me up and tried to carry me to the bedroom.  I’m almost as big as Daffodil as I am as David, so we didn’t get far.  We stumbled into the bedroom together but stopped abruptly in front of the mirror.  Janis stared at the image there.  The light robe she’d been wearing at breakfast had been lost in our frenzy, and of course I wasn’t wearing my dress any more.  All I had left on were my stockings.

After the silence carried on a bit too long, I posed next to her and asked if she liked what she saw.  Janis sighed, and shook her head.  “Do penises always look so weird?”

“Kinda, yeah.  Especially when soft.  I take it this whole scenario isn’t turning you on...”

Janis snorted.  “Not exactly, no.  Sorry.  I’m trying, but...”

“Hey, it’s okay.  I think they look weird, too.  Don’t look.  Or... well, we could try a little manual stimulation, but I don’t want to freak you out.”

Janis considered the idea.  But her gaze kept coming back to the mirror so I moved into her line of sight.  “Stop worrying about how you look.  How do you feel?”

“Weird.  But I’ve been so many weird things, it’s... a little lost in the noise?  I used to hate this body, but it’s... not really me any more.  I can become a girl at the press of a button.  Or a dress.  I like being a dress way more than I like this.”

“Fair.  Being a dress is fun.  So is being a girl.  Being a guy is just... normal to me.  Default setting.  Tell me why you hate it?”

Janis shuddered.  “I don’t exactly know.  Everything.  Nothing.  My reflection is wrong.  Getting aroused is icky and weird.”

“So that’s a no on the handjob?” I asked, trying to lighten the mood.

“I...  Why are you offering?”

“Because to me, being a guy is kinda cool.  And you wanted to try being Sultan of our little harem, so... maybe if I show you how it’s fun, that’d help?”

“I guess...” said Janis, uncertainly.

“Look, I can just go get the box if this is sucking for you.”

Janis giggled.  “The sucking part might be interesting enough to try.”

I raised an eyebrow.  “That’s what you’re going to focus on?”

“A guy turned into a pretty girl, kneeling at my feet and her lips on my... yeah, I can sort of feel some appeal to the dominance of it.”

I slowly knelt before Janis.  “If that is what my Sultan commands.”

“Fuuuck.  Are you...”

I leaned in and gave her cock a kiss.  “This is weird for me too, but... kinda hot.  Tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.  This harem girl is yours to command.”

While Janis was gathering her thoughts, I repeated softly, “I am a harem girl”.  I wasn’t sure if it would work, but it felt like it helped me center myself in the role.

Janis touched my hair, then pulled her hand back.  “Why are you doing this?”

I grinned up at her.  “I am a good harem girl, subservient to the Sultan.  Is that not what you want?”

Janis licked her lips then shook her head.  “I just... want to be happy.”

“I am yours to command, whatever would make you happy.”

Janis looked away from me, and muttered “fuck me” under her breath.  I took it as a command, and leaned in.  Janis scrambled backward, falling to her back on the bed trying to get away from me.  I started to crawl after her, then saw the terror in her eyes.

It took me a few moments to shake myself out of harem girl mode and make a run for the box.  I hit the button as soon as I laid hands on it, then dashed back into the bedroom with it.  Janis was already female again, and huddled up at the far end of the bed.

“Whatever you’re thinking, whatever you’re worried about... I’m not going to do anything you don’t ask for, okay?  I’m going to stay right here until you say what you need.”

Janis sniffled.  “I don’t know.  You took care of the big thing already.  Thanks.  I could use a hug... but not from a girl.  Sorry.”

I shushed her gently.  “Don’t apologize.  You’re hurting, and I have no problem with this.”

I set the box on the bed so that it wouldn’t fall while the world quivered around me, then I slowly approached Janis. “Better?”

She nodded frantically, and threw herself into the hug the moment I opened my arms.  I petted her softly, and tried to make soothing noises.  “Do you want to talk about it?”

“I don’t even know what to say.  I was terrified of you, but it wasn’t you.  I was suddenly twelve again and... and...”  She closed her eyes and tears started to leak from them.  “No.  She couldn’t have.  Wouldn’t have...”

“Are you sure?” I asked gently.  “Did something happen?”

Janis couldn’t answer for the tears.  It took a long time before they stopped, and all I could do was hold her and whisper meaningless comforts.

She sighed, eventually, and thanked me.  I wryly asked what for, as I felt I’d done little but set her off.

“Thanks for being what I needed.  I don’t know what that was.  I don’t remember...”  She frowned.  “Maybe I tried to forget?”

“I don’t know anything about dealing with repressed memories,” I replied.  “It sounds like you need a professional.”

“I guess...” Janis admitted reluctantly.

“We’ll hunt around a bit, see if we can find someone that’ll work well with you.  I found it very helpful to talk out my issues after my divorce, I’m sure we can find someone that’ll help you deal with... whatever this is.”

Janis nodded, then her stomach growled and mine answered in kind.  “Dinner?”

“Food and sleep will help.  Food first.  If you want to sleep as a bra or a pillow...”

Janis got out of bed and found a robe to wear.  “I appreciate the offer.  It’d feel a little like running away.  Tempting, but... I want to sort this out, not hide from it.  I think... I think I’ve been hiding from it for a long time now.”

I offered a hug, and then we went to make dinner.  Afterwards, we cuddled on the couch and watched a movie in German.  It was some sort of romantic comedy, and Janis tried to explain what was being said but couldn’t keep up.  It seemed amusing enough, and that plus the attempt to translate kept her preoccupied until it was late enough to sleep.

Angela showed up just as we were getting ready for bed.  I told her Janis needed some human time.  She asked if the hand-wash offer was still open, so I turned her into a pair of panties.  One very sudsy hand-wash later I left her to dry on a towel and went to bed with Janis.

She snuggled up against me and drifted off to sleep with a peaceful smile on her face.  I found myself wondering about the day, especially at how readily I’d fallen into the harem girl role.  I tried chanting the mantra inside my head, but it had no impact.  I speculated it was because I wasn’t transformed.

In the morning I let Janis sleep.  I spent a while on my laptop, writing up my recollections about deliberately shifting my mind while transformed.  I added the bit about being able to see dimly as an object, and emailed it all off to Janis’ uncle.

I went to work as David.  Rani was a little disappointed to see me like that, until I explained that one of my sweeties had needed me to be male last night, and that had left me feeling more masculine than usual.  I promised more Daffodil time soon.

Tom wandered by a little later, glowered at me, then moved on.  I was pleased that he hadn’t bothered me.  At lunch, Frank commented on the incident and told me how lucky I was.  I winked at him, and asked when Giselle wanted to visit again.  Frank blushingly admitted that they “didn’t need the help right now”, and promised to visit again with Giselle once they’d sorted things out a little further.