Lynne yawned herself awake, blinking into the sunlight streaming into her room.  Right.  Weekend.  No work, no alarm.  She gave herself a little shake, then stretched her arms high above her head with another big yawn.  That was followed up by a good leg stretch, and then a hindleg stretch.

Lynne paused, her fuzzy ears tilting in confusion.  She stretched each leg in turn.  One.  Two.  Three.  Four.  Huh.  Four felt like the right number, but everything seemed fuzzy.  Especially her legs.  She’d kicked the duvet off in the night, again, but her legs were still nice and warm due to a thick layer of blonde fur, the same colour as her hair.  She reached down to give it a skritch.  It felt nice.

“Coffee.  Definitely need coffee,” she muttered to herself, rolling off of her futon and onto all fours.  As she padded to the door it opened, revealing the familiar face of her roommate Cara.

“Hey Lynx.  Got some coffee for you.”

Lynne pushed the door open, revealing that Cara had black-furred lower body that matched Lynne’s own.  She blinked at it for a moment in confusion.  “Oh.”

“Hm?” asked Cara with a smile, handing over the steaming mug.

Lynne took a grateful sip.  “Fuzzy headed.  I had the weirdest dream last night.  That we tottered around on two legs, and something about... Venn Machines?”

Cara laughed delightedly.  “Oh, Lynx, you always have the most fantastic dreams.  C’mon, have some breakfast and tell me and Marg all about it.”

Marg was waiting in their shared kitchen, lounging against the table on four spotty-furred legs.  She’d always kept a streak of white in her sandy hair, and the look blended naturally.  Lynne frowned at the thought, and shook her head again.  “Hey Marg.”

“Quite the night, wasn’t it, Lynx?” agreed the other woman, perking her ears forward curiously.

Lynx nodded.  “Yeah.  I think.  I don’t remember it, it’s all mixed up in this weird dream.  Can you imagine only having two legs?”

Marg snorted, and glanced at Cara, who was grinning broadly.  “Where do you get your ideas from.  How would we balance?”

Cara reared onto her hind legs, tottered half a pace, and landed heavily back on her forelegs.  “I just don’t see it.  But tell us all about it.  You said something about... machines?”

Lynx swallowed a good slug of coffee and sighed happily as it percolated through her system.  “Yeah.  They were the wildest thing.  You could get in with someone, and turn into anything you liked!  In the dream, you turned one of our friends into a pretty green bra.  Just like the one you’re wearing now, in fact.  Is that new?”

Cara giggled and nodded.  “Yeah.  Just got it last night, in fact.  Maybe that’s why you dreamed about it.”

Lynx’s ears perked as her eyes widened.  “Of course!  That would explain a lot.  We were at a club, and drinking...  Uh, was that the dream, or real?  I don’t feel hung over.”

“We made sure you drunk lots of water before we poured you into bed.  You got pretty sloshed.”

Lynx nodded slowly.  “That... tracks.  There was this cute guy with tiger stripes.  Did you get his name?  Did I get his name?”  She looked around, frowning.  “Have you seen my phone?”

“We’ll try calling it later.  I’m sure it’ll turn up.”

Lynx relaxed, and spun her dream into fanciful tales about two-legged people getting into all sorts of troubles, letting her imagination run free.

By the time she wound down, it was time for a light lunch, and Lynx helped Marg put together a nice omelet for the three of them, with a little side salad.  As they ate, Marg and Cara told stories about work and friends, all of whom were quadrupeds like themselves.

At one point, Lynx asked about the news.  She was worried about fighting off somewhere, and protests closer to home.  Marg and Cara shared a look, then shrugged.  They had no idea what Lynx was talking about.

Lynx looked distressed, so the two of them cuddled her and reassured her that all was right with the world.

The weather was horrid, so they stayed in that afternoon and played card games, since Lynx’s phone still hadn’t turned up.  Cara offered to cover dinner, and ordered pizza.  She had a long hushed conversation with the pizza place, and when the pizza delivery guy arrived with their food in his panniers, she tipped him extra well.  He grinned, and bobbed his head.  “Glad to help out.  Mind if I drop by after work?”

Cara smirked.  “What, are you auditioning for a porno?”

He chuckled.  “It looks cozy.”

Cara slunk closer to him and whispered something into his ear that made it flick wildly as he blushed.  “I can do that.”

“New boyfriend?” asked Lynx amusedly after the delivery guy had left, padding off on four fuzzy feet.

Cara giggled.  “I’m always on the prowl, you know that.  He was nice.  And the pizza guy thing... c’mon, it’d be fun.  Wanna tag team him?”

Lynx’s ears perked.  “Are you serious?”

“You need to relax, girl.  You’re always wound up.”

Lynx stretched all six limbs languidly.  “Not today.  I’ve never felt better.”

“Huh.  C’mon, let’s eat.”

*** *** ***

“Oh hey, you came back!  Hey Lynx, your sweetie’s here!”

Lynx bounded up to the door, then blushed a little as she saw the sandy-haired guy standing there on four feline legs.  A long tail with a dark tuft at the end swished behind him.  “Hi!  I’m Lynx... wait, Cara already said that.”

“Call me... Leo.”

“You look like a Leo.  C’mon in!  We weren’t planning much, maybe a movie.  Cara suggested Lion King?”

Leo grinned.  “Sounds like a grand idea.”

Lynx popped popcorn while Cara set up the movie.  The four of them ended up in a cuddlepile partly on but mostly off the couch.

By the time the movie was over, Lynx was nearly asleep with her head in Leo’s lap.  He gently extricated himself, then helped Cara carry her off to bed.  “Poor kid’s entirely tuckered out.  Thanks for hanging out with us.”

Once Lynx’s door was closed, Leo looked Cara over.  “You three have something fun going on here, but I feel... out of place.  Can I get a raincheck on your offer?”

Cara smiled.  “Any time.”

*** *** ***

Lynx woke and stretched.  Two arms.  Four fuzzy legs.  Just like it should be.  She rolled out of bed and padded out to the kitchen, surprised at how quiet it was.  There wasn’t even any coffee brewing, so she started a pot.

Cara emerged blinking into the light once the coffee was ready, soon followed by Marg.  Lynx already had pancakes on the go, and made two shaped like a C and an M for her roomies, getting giggles out of them.

They lounged around the kitchen table for some time after breakfast was done, musing on what to do for the day.  The weather was still grey and rainy, so Cara nixed a walk in the park, or much of anything outdoors.

Marg suggested another movie, but struggled to suggest one.  Cara came to the rescue with “March of the Penguins”, followed by several nature documentaries.  Between that and more card games, they managed to keep Lynx distracted until late afternoon.

Cara suggested that if Lynx would cook dinner, she would go get the groceries.

“But that’s usually my job,” protested Lynx.

“So maybe it’s time we mixed it up for once.  A change is as good as a rest, right?”

Lynx shrugged.  “Sure, I guess.  I’ve felt awfully rested this weekend, so something must have changed.”

Marg shot Cara a dirty look, but Cara just smiled and shrugged.  “So that’s a yes on you cooking, and me shopping this time?”

“Sure,” agreed Lynx.  “Marg and I can swap stories about you behind your back.”

Marg chuckled at that.  “Sounds fun.”

Marg and Cara were childhood friends, and Marg spun tales of visiting her grandparents’ farm with Cara.  She told of how they’d race through the fields on all fours, or set out with baskets strapped to their flanks to harvest vegetables or berries.

“Sounds idyllic.”

Marg grinned, and nodded.  “Oh, we had the best times back then.”

“Is the farm still there?  Do you think we could visit this summer?”

“Yep.  Mom and Dad moved out there when Gram and Gramps got too old to handle it, and they scaled back the farm to focus on self-sufficiency and hay.  I mostly visit for Thanksgiving these days, but a week there this summer would be grand.”

After dinner, Lynx started to fret about her phone again.  “I’ll need it tomorrow when I go back to work.”

“I’m pretty sure it’ll show up in about...” Cara checked her watch.  “Ten minutes.”  Her eyes widened, and she made shooing motions at Marg.

Marg shot her another dirty look, but retreated to her room.  Cara padded around behind the couch to lounge there, upper body leaning against the back.

Lynx dug through the couch cushions, finding a small trove of loose change, a set of keys, and two old chapsticks, but no phone.  “Are you sure about the ten minutes thing?” she asked as she put the cushions back.

“Pretty confident, yeah.”  Cara wobbled uncertainly, then settled a little lower against the back of the couch.  She brushed her hair forward to cover her ears.  “Not long now.”

Lynx flopped onto the couch, and kicked her hindlegs into the air to wriggle for space so she’d fit.  “Even if I just lie here?”

“Even so.”

Lynx hummed softly to herself for a minute.  Then quite abruptly, without any fuss at all, her lower legs vanished and she was human once more.

Lynne stared at her legs in confusion.  Then the purse that had appeared at her side started to jingle repeatedly as her phone caught up with two days’ worth of notifications.  She yanked it out and stared at it, her face crumpling in distress.  “It wasn’t real?”

Cara padded around to give her a hug, revealing that she’d become human earlier too.  “Shh, shh, sweetie.  I know it was a mean trick to make you think you were a quadruped.  We only meant it in fun.”

“Is it over?” called Marg from the hall.  “I want to get these kitchen chairs out of my room.”

Lynne started to cry in earnest then.

“I know it was terrible of us,” pleaded Cara.  “We all went quad for the weekend, because there was a four-on-the floor night at a local club.  Some of the guys at work told me about it.  Then you got falling-down drunk and we had to get you home.  Is your memory coming back?”

Lynne nodded, but if anything her crying got worse.

“Oh girl, please don’t hate us for this.  It was just a little fun.”

“I wanted to tell her that afternoon, not play cards,” groused Marg as she thunked down another chair.  “You’re the one that turned it into this whole production, taking away all the magazines and talking the pizza boy into venning first.”

“I thought it was real!” cried Lynne.  “I thought the world was full of people like us.  Was your story about the farm even true, Marg?”

“The farm is.  Had to edit a bit to pretend we’d been quads, though.”

Lynne curled up in a fetal position on the couch.  “I want to go back.  I reject this reality!”

“This reality has Venn Machines,” noted Cara.  “That’s a plus.”

Lynne blinked at Cara.  “Did you really turn Sally into a bra?”

Cara giggled and nodded.  “For a month!  She’s out of work and needed somewhere to stay, so I offered my drawer.”

Lynne uncurled enough to glare at Cara.  “Is that a nice thing to do?  Humans are horrible to each other.”  She shook her phone at Cara.  “All this crap we do.  I want none of it.”

“I could use matching panties...”

“No!  I just want to go back.  Can’t I?”

Cara shrugged.  “Check with your boss, but most places are OK with whatever shape as long as you can do your job.”

“Eee!  Will you change with me?  Pretty please?”

“Leave me out of it,” grumbled Marg.

“Aww, but your fur was so pretty.”

Marg smiled at that.  “Okay, yeah.  The built in fur coat had upsides.  If I do it, I’m not stacking these damn chairs back in my bedroom.”

“We could sell them,” mused Lynne.

Marg blinked at her.  “Wait what?”

“Come on!  Three year changes all around.  Please?  You can go back if you like, but I really want to try running around your farm...”

Marg shook her head ruefully.  “I guess.  Not like I can’t change back if I get tired of brushing all that fur.”

“I’ll brush it for you,” offered Lynne.  “Both of you.”

Cara smiled.  “How can I refuse such a pretty offer.  Let’s go.  And this time, put your purse in the damn locker.”

Epilogue - Three Years Later

“One more big push!” encouraged the nurse.

Lynx groaned and bore down as best she could, then gasped with relief.  “Was that it?”

“Yes, that’s the both of them out.  We’ll tidy them up, weigh them, and they’ll be in your arms in no time.  I promise!”

Lynx smiled happily at Cara.  “Ready to meet your kids, Daddy?”

Cara grimaced.  “Can you not call me that?  I want to be Mom, or Mummy.  I even got venned so that I’m lactating.  You’ll need the help, with twins.”

“OK.  You’re Mommy, I’m Mum.”

“Well, Mum,” said the nurse.  “Here they are...”

Cara stared down at the two babies in surprise.  “They have four legs.  And fur.”

“Just like us,” cooed Lynx happily.  “You saw the ultrasounds.  Why are you surprised?”

“But... but...  Kids can’t venn!  They’ll be stuck like this until they’re teens.”

“Mhmm.  They’ll look like their parents.  It’s good, sweetie.”

“Have we brought a new species into the world?” wondered Cara.

“Not the first time,” chuckled the nurse as she started working with Lynx on getting the little ones swaddled.  They had to be a bit creative to manage the extra limbs.  “Not even the first on this ward, or this month.  We had a woman last week with a dozen half-snakes.  Swaddling those was a nightmare compared to your two cuties.”

“So this is... normal?”

The nurse patted Cara’s hands.  “You’ll do fine.  Everyone’s nervous with their first kids.”

Cara shot a look at Lynx.  “First?”

“Your turn next.”  Lynx offered a bundle to Cara.

Cara cradled her daughter in her arms, her heart melting.  “I...  I can’t wait.”