There was a smile on my face as I carefully transferred the new components from the 3D printer and into my backpack. I'd spent most of the afternoon waiting for the print to finish, and as near as I could tell everything turned out perfectly. With the parts safely stowed I slung my backpack over my shoulder and set off for home.

  After years of research, preparation, and development, I was finally going to assemble my new invention tonight. Success was just a short walk and a twenty-minute bus ride away.

  Honestly I could have had the thing working st weekend if I'd been content to just wire it up as a bunch of loose components on my desk. I was sorely tempted too, but in the end I couldn't bring myself to do it. It may have been silly, but I really wanted it to have the right aesthetic when I fired it up. And that meant a properly designed full colour custom printed enclosure.

  Happily the busses were on schedule and traffic was unusually light, so I got home without any deys. Better still, there was no sign of my roommate when I got in. It was just past six in the evening, so odds were he wouldn't be home until well after midnight. Possibly not even until some time tomorrow afternoon. In a lot of ways he was like your typical frat boy, and this was Friday night which meant he was almost certainly out partying somepce.

  I probably should have paused for a bite to eat, but I was way too excited for food. Instead I carefully extracted the pstic parts from my backpack and pced them on the end of my desk, then went about setting out the rest of the components and sub-assemblies that made up my big secret project.

  Once I was satisfied I had all the parts and tools ready to go I took my seat then turned on my soldering iron. And for the next ninety minutes I was completely lost to the world, totally engrossed in tiny components and custom circuit boards, all while basking in the heady aroma of solder fumes.

  I double-checked each and every connection, made sure every wire and jumper was correctly pced, then once completely satisfied I turned off the iron and began the final assembly. The circuit boards were loaded into the cylindrical pstic enclosure. I made sure the tiny dispy was correctly aligned, along with the two status LEDs. Same with the power switch and the recessed red button that would trigger it.

  To my immense relief everything fit perfectly, the case came together like it was meant to be. Which it was. The upper assembly slid neatly into position within the main body of the enclosure, then I carefully tightened the four small screws that held it together. And just like that it was done.

  I looked down at the roughly hand-sized pstic fox I was holding and grinned, "Yes! This is so perfect!"

  Naturally I designed my big secret project to look like a little sleeping fox, curled up around the controls with its nose resting on its tail. I even printed the whole thing in fox-appropriate colours, mostly orangey-red but with bck tips on the ears and white for the chin, inside of its ears, and the tip of its big floofy tail.

  I gently slid the power switch to the on position, then watched in anticipation as the tiny screen came to life. I'd pre-charged the battery a few days ago, so that was reading a hundred percent. A little status-bar slowly filled up as the processor ran through the self-test routine I designed. When it was complete and the tests passed the first LED lit up, while the device moved to the second phase. I estimated this would take about a minute, then the second LED would light and the screen would indicate it was ready.

  At that point all it would take was one little press of the red button. Then the emitters would fire, and... Well, let's just say I'd be very happy if it worked as intended.

  So I was more than a little excited as I watched the 'loading' status bar slowly climb towards full. Except just as it reached the seventy-five percent mark I was startled by someone bursting in through my bedroom door.

  "I knew I'd find you in here!" my roommate announced. "Seriously dude, it's half past eight on a Friday night and you're messing around with another one of your gizmos? There's a party going on, and I'm not gonna let you miss this one!"

  Clutching my project tightly in one hand I did my best to control my temper as I stood up and faced him. "I've told you a hundred times, I'm not interested in partying. C'mon man, we've been roomies for almost three years now. You know I don't like loud music. You know I get anxious in crowds. And you know I don't like talking to strangers. So why would I want to go to a party?!"

  "Girls!" he replied with a triumphant grin. "Seriously bro. I know you like girls, so why don't you ever want to go meet some?"

  To look at us or listen to us argue like this, you'd probably wonder why we were roommates. You'd likely be surprised to find out we were actually friends. Although to be fair we did have an 'odd couple' vibe going on.

  He was practically your archetypical frat boy; tall, muscur, big into sports, and also very boisterous and outgoing. He got into college on an athletic schorship, but it was obvious from his grades that he was mainly there for the sports. Well, that and the parties. Meanwhile I was your typical shy quiet geek; just as tall, but skinny and awkward, definitely introverted, and way more interested in academics and STEM subjects than socializing. In fact if I spent half as much time working on my school assignments as I did my secret project I'd probably be getting hundreds in most of my csses.

  Luck of the draw saw the two of us assigned to share a dorm room back in our first year, and despite all our differences we ended up becoming unlikely friends.

  It happened during the first month of college, when he defended me against a couple jerks who were looking for a weak skinny nerd to torment. In return I offered to help him study. I even tutored him now and then, to help ensure he wouldn't flunk or lose his schorship. And by the end of our first year we decided to stay roommates even after we left residence.

  One subject where we were in full agreement was when it came to romantic interests: both of us were definitely attracted to the fairer sex. But where he had the confidence to go out and meet girls and even go on dates with them, I was way too shy and insecure for any of that. Not that my roommate was a womanizer or anything, as far as I knew he treated all his girlfriends really well. So I never really understood why they kept dumping him after only a handful of dates.

  From what I'd observed he was actually very kind and sensitive, he always acted like a proper gentleman whenever he was with a girl. I never once heard him use objectifying nguage or make crude comments either, even when it was just the two of us he was always very decent and respectful towards women.

  Which I appreciated, because there was another really big difference when it came to the two of us. My roommate was, as far as I knew, both cis and het. I on the other hand was very trans and totally gay. Not that anyone knew it, I was still very firmly in the closet. Although that was about to change, assuming my project worked as pnned.

  And with that in mind I took a deep breath then focused on my roommate and began, "Look I'm really busy ok? So if you don't mind - Hey give that back!"

  My roommate snatched the pstic fox from my hand and started looking it over as he asked, "So what's your new toy do? I see the little screen says it's ready, but ready for what?"

  "Please be careful with that!" I insisted as I tried to get it back. After all the time and energy and money and effort I put into it, the st thing I needed was for him to break it ten seconds before I was able to use the damn thing.

  He kept turning this way and that, using his thick muscur arms and broad shoulders to block my efforts to regain my secret project. And as he did that he asked again, "Just tell me what it is dude?"

  "Fine," I sighed. "It's a foxification ray. It'll turn someone into a foxkin."

  My roommate ughed, "Seriously? Like it turns people into foxes?"

  I shook my head, "Not entirely. If it works like I want it'll turn someone into a... It'll give them fox ears and a tail."

  "That's so cool dude!" he excimed. "That's like some evil genius stuff right there! So how do we set it off? Let's try it out, fox me up bro!"

  "What?! No!" I gasped. Then I tried to grab it again as I told him, "Look I'm serious ok? Please just give it back!"

  Unfortunately the big lout kept acting like the whole thing was all a joke. He ughed again as he kept turning and twisting this way and that, blocking my efforts to retrieve my device. It was frustrating and annoying but I just couldn't get my hands on it. Even though he and I were both about the same height, he probably outweighed me two to one in pure muscle.

  "What's the matter?" he teased, "Afraid it won't work?"

  I tried again to grab it as I told him, "No I'm afraid it will! Seriously, I'm not going to foxificate you! Now give it back!"

  Just then I managed to get a hand on it, but he wasn't letting go. Then I got my other hand on it and tried to wrench it from his grasp, while he held it even tighter. Then his free hand settled overtop one of mine, and I don't know who touched what exactly, but somehow one of us hit the red button.

  My ears filled with a loud buzzing noise while my skin tingled all over and everything turned orange for a few seconds, with some bck and white spots.

  When all those sensations faded I found myself sitting on the floor of my bedroom feeling kind of dizzy and discombobuted. I blinked a couple times to get the spots out of my eyes, then my jaw dropped as I focused on my roommate. At least I assumed it was him, because the person in front of me didn't look anything like him.

  Sitting on the floor a meter or so away from me looking equally stunned was a very petite, very feminine foxkin. And they were wearing my roommate's clothes. Sort of. More like they were lost inside his huge hoodie and jeans, while his size thirteen shoes sat empty on the floor near the foxkin's small feet.

  "Woah," they said in a cute femme voice as they stared at me. "What happened? Why's my voice sound so girly?"

  "I told you -" I started to say, before I realized my voice sounded just as girly.

  My heart skipped a beat as I looked down at myself, then it began to race as I felt a huge wave of euphoria wash over me. Just like my roommate, I'd also become very petite and very femme. And judging by the wagging sensation I suddenly noticed behind me, I was also very much a foxkin.

  "Yes!" I excimed with a big smile and a little fist-pump. "It worked!"

  My roommate stared at me for a second before looking down at himself again. Then to my surprise he actually grinned, "Hey yeah it did! Holy cow dude, you totally foxificated the both of us!"

  "Except how come I've got boobs?" he added as he poked at one of the ample mounds hidden under his hoodie.

  Without waiting for an answer he got to his feet. His oversized pants dropped down immediately, revealing two smooth attractive shapely legs, while his big floofy foxy tail slowly swished back and forth behind him.

  "No way!" my roommate excimed as he twisted to look behind him. "Check out my tail!"

  A moment ter he added with another grin, "Holy shit I can move my ears!"

  Instead of basking in the euphoria or exploring my own floofy tail and fuzzy ears I found myself staring at my roommate in shock. I thought he'd be freaking out, or threatening to kill me. Or maybe experiencing some kind of mental break at having his entire body completely changed without warning. Instead he seemed to be enjoying all the strange new sensations, or at least he was enjoying the novelty of the situation.

  After another half minute or so I finally got to my feet, and just like him my pants ended up staying behind on the floor. Same as my shoes. In fact I wound up with nothing on but a bck t-shirt, which now reached down to my hips. Unlike his hoodie though, my shirt did a much poorer job of hiding my new big rounded boobs.

  "Dude!" my roommate excimed as he looked at me with a wide grin. "You're a girl too! How come your foxification ray turned us both into girls?"

  I felt my cheeks heating up as I told him, "So that's part of what I was trying to tell you? But you were too busy pying keep-away to let me expin. The device utilized fox DNA, but the sample came from a vixen. I mean, a female fox. Anyways it used that vulpine genetic sample to modute the -"

  "Bh bh bh science," he interrupted as he rolled his eyes and flicked his tail. "Got it."

  Then he added, "So it's really a fox-girl-ification ray. That's some supervilin stuff right there, dude. Who were you pnning to foxgirlificate anyways?"

  "Um," I hesitated as my cheeks got even hotter. "...me."

  My roommate frowned at me while his ears pointed forward and his tail swished slowly back and forth. At the same time I felt my own ears drooping slightly, while my tail ended up tucked down between my legs.

  "So uh, personal question here, but are you trans?" he finally asked. And to my surprise he didn't sound scornful or hateful or anything. If anything he actually sounded kind of compassionate.

  I gulped and nodded, "Yeah. I figured myself out a few months ago? Like after more than two years working on my foxgirlification ray I finally realized why I was so interested in making a device that could turn me into a foxgirl..."

  He nodded slowly, while his tail continued to swish around behind him. Then he shrugged, "I'm gd you figured yourself out, and I'm gd you got your wish. Don't worry about any fk from me, ok? I'm totally an ally. Any of the other jocks or any creeps or assholes try and give you a hard time about it on campus, I'll be there for you. I got your back, dude."

  "Or not dude," he added quickly. "Sorry. Dudette? Or um, you got a new name you'd like me to call you?"

  My tail slowly began to wag again as my ears perked up, and a smile formed on my face.

  "Yeah," I nodded. Then with my tail swishing around happily and a smile on my face I told him, "Rachel. My real name is Rachel."

  He grinned, "Sweet! Cute name Rachel, for a cute foxxo!"

  "Anyways this has been fun but I'm ready to get turned back to normal now," he added a moment ter. "So can you hit the reverse on that thing? Or the undo key. Control-Z?"

  My smile faded as my ears drooped, and my tail tucked down between my legs again. "That's the other thing I was trying to warn you about. There's no reverse, no undo."

  "It's a foxgirlification ray," I added softly, "Not a defoxgirlification ray. I wanted to foxgirlificate myself, and I had no interest in undoing that afterwards."

  My roommate stared at me for a second, while his tail twitched once or twice. He gulped and asked, "So um, how long would it take for you to make a defoxgirlification ray?"

  I grimaced, "No idea? I never really thought about it before. And um, it took me almost three years to build the foxgirlification ray in the first pce..."

  "Oh," he mumbled softly.

  His eyes slowly drifted down until he was staring at the two mounds pushing out under his hoodie.

  After a few long seconds he asked just as softly, "So what you're saying is I'm basically stuck like this?"

  I nodded slowly, "Yeah. I'm sorry man. I tried to warn you..."

  My voice trailed off as I realized his tail had started wagging back and forth behind him, and his ears were still standing up tall.

  In fact I was almost positive I saw a hint of a smile on his lips as he forced a sigh. Then he shrugged, "Oh well."

  "I suppose there's nothing we can do about it," he added, while his tail continued to wag.

  He was definitely smiling as he continued, "I guess I'll just have to learn to live with it."

  "Somehow," he stated while his tail wagged a little faster.

  PurpleCatGirl