THE SHIFT

Chapter 4

It's me, damn it

She had planned to go see Ren right away when she thought it back at the time but after this, she had more urgent matters at hands. For example: How the hell do you make this thing go down? It has been hard since she had left and still didn't soften.

Cursing as she stumbled on her own legs and stepped on the sidewalk, she awkwardly put her bag in front of her to cover a most probable humiliating embarrassment, and all but run to her car. She hurt her head while sliding herself in the driver seat and though she had pushed back the seat earlier, she still hit the same bruised knee once again.

She wanted to cry, but then noticed something. Her new anatomic member had finally judged she was depressed enough to not stay weirdly excited.

Hurrah.

There were days like that she decided. Days you shouldn't get out of bed. Days worth of cheating, lying and pretending to be sick no matter what. This was one of those days and she fully intended to go back under the covers once home.

She kicked off her shoes after closing the door, and not even caring changing she crashed onto the comforter covering her bed with a groan. She didn't care it was only four in the afternoon, she was going to sleep it off. And tomorrow, hopefully, everything would be back to normal.

She had still sent a com'mail to Yashiro to report work for the next day. She had said she didn't feel well and called it off. He had thought it weird and called her but she had messaged to say she had no more voice and that it was too hoarse from coughing, thankfully he hadn't insisted more. He had even proposed to postpone the day after next day too knowing a hoarse voice and cold could take more than one day usually but she was still hoping, so for now she had declined.

It was just in case of, but it was preferable to be prudent if it didn't go back tomorrow. She knew it was unlikely but she was still crossing fingers. She also asked Yashiro if Ren had any time tomorrow because she needed to see him for something, she didn't say why, obviously. He had told her Ren didn't start too early in the morning next day, only the end of it – half past eleven if she remembered correctly – and so she could attempt to see him before that, if she wished. He also had been worried that if she were that bad she wouldn't be able to go there by herself, and proposed to drive her but she had assured him she would take a cab if not well enough and made him drop the matter.

When she woke up, it was barely six a.m. and she was already on edge. First, she was still man! To her greatest despair.

And she had had weird dreams all night, imagining she was running in the forest for hours and had felt an odd tension floating in the air in those dreams. Like something was missing or something was chasing, or even like she needed to do something but she hadn't known what.

She had been more and more restless by the minute, and then this stupid useless man problem came back.

Why is it up?

She looked at the erected member. What a pain. She wasn't even thinking anything funny. It was really useless. She was pitying men right now. Because either she was doing something wrong or men weren't supposed to have control on that thing. Either way, it was really annoying and nothing she did to solve the issue worked.

Maybe she should cut it? Kyoko knew she wouldn't use it anyway. Yeah, it would hurt, of course, but if she were supposed to stay like that she was going to turn nuts. She could always ask a surgeon to remove it. She was only half serious for now but she would really start to contemplate it if she didn't soon find a solution to her problem.

All in all, the conclusion was the same. She was going to see Ren.

Barely awake and eyes lost in the darkness of his coffee cup, Ren was contemplating with tremendous humour his yesterday and more acutely, his last audition to date.

It wasn't that he had rejoiced taking this audition but he needed to expand his board of competences and roles and despite what he was thinking about all this pressure hovering on making children that the government and the outstanding families obliged everyone to endure, he couldn't avoid it longer. Yes, he loathed the way things rolled but the place the reproduction mania was taking in show-business industries kept growing and growing and if he didn't want to be excluded he needed to be able to perform those too.

This was the reason he had accepted to take part in this audition for children and shifters propaganda. He knew what they would expect of him. He knew because his parents were shifters, very famous ones at that because it was in both areas, which was a rarity. Concretely, it means they were both able to shift whether in the other gender or in an animal. Lucky them. But in a weird coincidence of bad luck, he was not. He couldn't shift, at all. Shifters could reveal themselves at different ages but the infant of two shifters usually changed early in life. It was very unlikely to happen later on.

But, it was okay, he was slowly starting to accept it. He was now striving to be acknowledged by his parents through acting, hoping it would suffice to atone for his sins.

In this spirit he did his best to not cringe at the audition subjects and roles, he was supposed to act. Playing family didn't bother him that much and he wasn't against gays at all, he had even friends who were of that side but being groped wasn't his kink. And in such an over-sexualized audition, there really were all kinds of abuses going on.

The director even had to intervene once or two times because it was even done in plain sight so much so some people had no shame at all, and when one of the last auditioned had decided that molesting was okay, Ren had nearly lost it.

To say his patience was running low reaching the end was a big understatement and he had had to refrain to just drop everything right there at the moment.

Then some odd dude had stepped on stage, a bit wobbly on his legs and clearly not comfortable. He hadn't really paid attention at the time. He was at least civilized and even a bit funny, a nice change after all the bullshit he had endured so Ren had relaxed for a few minutes until the test started.

Then, he had roared. Something had felt so wrong there.

The guy had awkwardly sat on his knees and his scent had waffled over Ren for the first time. The change had been instantaneous and Ren had grabbed for his sanity as for the first time ever he was excited by a man. Thinking it wasn't normal, he had kind of yelled at him to stop it. He knew some people were able to indulge in some tricks like magic or special plants to fake desire in another person even if the victim wouldn't ever be attracted otherwise. It was typically used in shifters family to the non-shifter ones or to seduce a person even from the other gender side so that a person normally straight would suddenly felt attracted to the same gender and vice versa.

When the dude had denied it, Ren had decided to riposte in the best way he knew, attack until he would cave. He made him straddled him and followed the steps of the audition while trying to make him stop, touching areas he knew were sensitive to guys, though he avoided the most obvious one.

That's where things turned weird.

The amber eyes of the man, like Kyoko – which had not helped him by the way – , had enlarged with shock and pleasure and the guy had squeaked in surprise. Ren had been able to clearly decipher the man hadn't expected to feel something, and most of all, he had seemed to start freaking out. He had tried to insist, another squeeze on another cheek, a little bite here, but it had only made him unsettled more and though Ren had clearly felt his body was appreciating the touches, if the bulge he was feeling on his thigh was any sign, he hadn't seemed at all okay and more, he had looked completely lost.

Then he had whispered something about his responses being kind of against his will and Ren had begun to doubt his implication in all of this. The guy didn't even seem aware of what zones of his body were sensitive. He had wondered if such a person could scheme something to seduce him against his will, and then panic his wits out in his arms when touched. He had concluded it was very unlikely, and a new guess had taken shape in his mind. Quite shocking for Ren, to say the least, but he had decided to check it out just to be sure, as the audition allow such an opportunity. But after an unsettling kiss, the guy in front of him had seemed to not agree with anything that could be related, even remotely, to touch him and had just vanished from the stage after giving up.

The next day, Ren was still pondering on the discovery he had had after the kiss. Because he had been right. The man hadn't done anything to him and to Ren's most astonishment, it had been him, that had been feeling something. Him for the guy. As said before he had nothing against gays but he knew he was straight. Reason why it was fairly astounding that Ren could now state with certitude he had been attracted to this Ky guy. Like, really. He had desired him a fair lot.

Ren was used to be in control. In his line of work, you always needed to be in control. From day to night. The only person he hadn't always been in control with, was Kyoko and even there, knowing the risks, his grip on his moves was much tighter in her presence.

So losing control of his body over a complete stranger; it was greatly unnerving.

He already had enough troubles with his relationship with Kyoko that he couldn't manage to move forward, and had somehow stuck into close friends when he wasn't paying attention.

He didn't need more personal issues in his life.

He rubbed his face, trying to clear his mind and shrug off the remaining cloudiness of sleep while his head kept the dwelling on and on.

Did I deny myself too much physically?

Sure, he knew he wasn't having a palpitating intimate night life because there was only one person he wanted and, he couldn't have her. So, it kind of bored him if it was not her. Was it his body's way to show him he was pushing the limits? He knew nowadays, people kind of needed it more than in the past. But it was mostly for shifters, he knew that. He had learned all the specificities of shifters from his parents and books. But he wasn't a shifter; he shouldn't suffer any impacts from his lack of activity. Unless he partially evolved? He might not be able to shift but still feeling the urges?

He groaned and leaned to the counter. His mind was coming with absurdities. As if it could be that. He really didn't envy the shifters if the magnitude of their urges was faithful to the books he had read younger.

He was more or less still grouching against himself for coming up with nothing in all uselessness when the bell rang.

He went to his entering hall and pulled open the door wondering who could be there in the hue hours of the morning. He was sure it wasn't Yashiro. He had received a com'smail from him just one quarter ago saying it would wait for him at the agency in the forenoon.

But when the door passed by him, a man was facing him. A resolute air on his very lightly effeminate face shaped in a heart, a long straight nose, small fleshy lips he knew to be soft, a one-day stubble that seemed to have escaped a bad shave, dense messy auburn locks covering his forehead and reaching the middle of his nape and, of course, his big elongate amber eyes. Ren was starting to think he was being haunted by golden, really, the first guy he met and is shockingly attracted to, he has fucking golden eyes too.

He moved down his examination watching his mid-large shoulders, salient collarbones – the dude was quite thin in body fat and rather muscled in the arms and legs – , a narrow waist follow and that butt. He was also rather tall for a Japanese man though compared to him, he was still smaller. But he still must be around six feet from what Ren could tell.

In front of him stood Ky, slightly panicked but determinate; the dude from the audition. Ren sighed internally. What was he doing ogling a man like that? Really, he must be completely out of mind, or else, his theory about his abstinence was to be reconsidered.

"Yes?" Ren inquired after a long stretching silence.

"I need your help." Blurted out the guy in a grumble and he barged in Ren's flat without any further words or asks of permission.

He closed the door and went back inside holding back a comment. Complications here, there were.

He was just going to ignore all this and tell him to leave nicely. The man would not know he had been attracted him, not even if snow fell in hell.

The guy was waiting for him in the living room walking from right to left frantically.

"Look I don't know what you expect of me but if it's about yesterday I can't be – " Ren began.

"What? Started Ky, "No, it's not about yesterday," he told him with a push of the hand in the air like it was the last of his issues and he didn't care any less for it.

Ren frowned, not comprehending what else he could want.

"You have to help me figure it out." Shrieked the guy, tearing at his poor hair, clearly flipping.

"Help you with what?" he questioned, trying to keep his calm at the weird dude barging in, and the whole nonsense happening.

"With me, damn it!" Shouted the dude with some sort of angry desperation.

Lost, Ren looked at him and the guy stared back puzzled for a second, before something seemed to down back into him. Maybe he had suddenly realized that going to see a nearly stranger in his house in the early morning to help you like you were the cosiest buddies was not normal.

He suddenly sat on his couch with a deep huff of air out. But of course, suit yourself, it's not my home at all.

"Sorry," he said, "I forgot you don't know, for a second. So much so I'm used to come here." When had the man ever came here? What the hell was he babbling about?

"What do you mean?" What don't I know?" He asked.

The guy stared back at him with so much intensity he was managing to make Ren awkward.

"Do I not look any familiar?" asked him Ky.

Beside the eyes,

"No."He said.

Ky groaned and put his face in his hands.

"There really is no easy way, it seems…"He mumbled sombrely but Ren caught it.

He looked at Ren again and then without any hesitation this time, he said:

"I'm Kyoko."

Ren merely arched a brow, nonplussed.

Really now. What was this?

When seconds ticked by and he didn't react, Ky groaned some more but added.

"Like in your friend, a woman and the actress."

"Yeah, I'm sure you know Kyoko," he uttered quietly to this bullshit tentative. Was he someone who had noticed he was close to Kyoko and was hoping to pretend to be her? What were his intentions? Getting a lover? Money? Company?

"No, you don't get it." He countered, "I don't know her, I'm her." He looked rather desperate but he wouldn't fall for it.

"I think that will be all," he told him, "now if you could leave, I'm quite busy."

He snorted.

"No, you're not," he hissed, "I know you don't have anything planned, I checked with Yashiro-san."

"Did you fool him with this nonsense?" Ren growled.

"It's not nonsense damn it! He yelled, look at my eyes."

Ren didn't even bother.

"Yeah, they are golden," he admitted, "and so what? Kyoko isn't the only one having those eyes I'm sure." He grumbled, more and more irritated. What this man was sprouting was ridicule. Kyoko wasn't even a shifter, neither had shifters parents.

A scream came and as he wasn't looking at him, a fist landed on his jaw, making him stumble, until he caught himself on the wall.

He turned his face to his attacker ready to retaliate when two hands grabbed his collar with fury and Ren's gaze fell in the other man's eyes, full of rage and life. For the first, a doubt thrived in his heart. He only knew one person capable to express such a life in their eyes.

Ren shook his head. The dude was making him hallucinate.

"Fine," said Ky getting out words between clenched teeth. "You don't want to believe me, I will make you."

He kept talking after that and Ren's eyes keep growing in size with what he said.

"You have bad habits with eating," he started, "you are kind of a clean freak, you are a consumed professional with acting, you love to tease me relentlessly." He took a breath before starting again, "I know about Rick, you are wearing his watch, your true name is Kuon Hizuri, you are my childhood friend, we have known each other for years, I mistook you for a fairy prince, I – … Fuck Ren, figure it out already." Tears poured out of the man's eyes as he started to cry…"Or I'm going to punch you again until you believe me."

Ren stared at her stupidly, dumbfounded and somehow reflexively closed his warm arms upon her as he realized with a shock how stupid he had been. He had the same eyes, same hair. He was acting. Of course it was her. What an idiot. She had come for help and he had nearly closed his door at her face. She looked terrified. He really did deserve another punch.

He breathed in. It was the same scent. Hers. Sweet with notes of orange blossoms. Merely muskier than before.

He rubbed his hands on her back in wonders but hoping it would relax her even just a bit. She was so different as a man, stronger in shape and yet,

The same.

Still so alive, so stubborn, so sweet. He remembered the audition, how unsettled and kind of cute he, no, she, had looked while awkwardly sitting on his lap. Now, it was no wonder he had been attracted.

"I'm sorry." He told her as he kept her larger frame in his arms. "I'm sorry for taking so long to figure it out, Kyoko."

He felt really amused by the situation. And he had freaked so much on being attracted to another man, feeling like he suddenly didn't know who he was anymore.

Kyoko stepped out from his embrace and scowled at him.

"You can be sorry." She grumbled at him, "I thought I was going to get kick out from here without even being able to make you understand, idiot."

She messed up her hair even wiping the lock back several times, still distressed.

"Damn, I want to punch something again. It's all the time, it's unnerving," she growled out before plopping down on the couch again.

Ren chuckled a bit.

"Don't laugh Ren! She told him in a whisper before exclaiming: "Look at me! I'm a man. A fucking man! I'm so much taller than before than I can't stop tripping on my own legs all the time and I'm still a few inches shorter than you, how do you even do this?! I have hair in areas that shouldn't have it, I have a beard, a beard Ren!" And I didn't even manage to shave it!"

He put his right arm around his midsection, his body starting to shake. Putting the hand attached to the other arm in front of his mouth, he mumbled he could help her with that but she didn't seem to catch.

Kyoko went on her angry monologue.

"I'm a man from head to toes, I have a fucking three-piece service and I can't seem to be able to understand how the hell it works!" She cried out. "My body reacts in ways it didn't before, I have nerves and sensitivity where I didn't before, I don't understand it anymore! I hate it! I really need your help getting rid of this!"

Ren bent over, not able to hold it anymore. He exploded in cackles, tears forming at the corners of his eyes as his head registered one after another the things she had just said. So that's why, yesterday at the audition, she had been so jumpy and squeaked here and there at each placed he had touched. She had been really surprised by the new sensitivity. The stubborn poor foul, going at an audition, not even having her own body figured it out.

"Buahahahahaha…" he busted again.

What a situation.

But there was another thing that did not go unnoticed as he reflected on what he just learned. If his mind wasn't playing tricks on him, there was something to remember. Yes, she had been highly disturbed by the situation and new sensitivity but not only that, she also had shown no sign of indifference. Or rather, she wasn't unmoved by their closeness. Quite the contrary if he remembered well. And that, for Ren, was a tremendously precious knowledge.

She was attracted to him.

At least to some level.

That could be of utility…

He smirked inwardly as he slowly calmed down sprawled on his back and trying to catch his breath. His heart was beating erratically in his thorax with each echo of this information. He could make a move. He had finally a chance.

He rose back to sitting after one last breath and staring fondly at her now masculine appearance as she glowered at him for his bout of laughs he opened his lips and told her:

"I will help you with the shift."

Under her relieved face, he couldn't help but to laugh some more and she threw him a cushion in revenge.

"Don't laugh," she said.

Oh, but I'm only starting sweetheart…

So: I'm hoping you'll love this one. It's coming from the heart of my sadistic nature and I enjoyed very much writing this. It was so funny to write. I still don't know when the rating will go up. It could be for next chapter as much as it could be in a few more but it will upgrade so be warned.

I do not forget evolving to reach each other but I wasn't really inspired lately, reason why I took some delay. Also, I had some more hiccups with my health which is the other reason I did not have the time to update more. A guest asked when are my updates for ETREO and in case she reads this story, I'm answering here first.

I don't know when are my updates. I can say that I try to update as much as I can and that my goal is one chapter a week, a goal I won't meet unfortunately. So, it's more realistic to say I'm trying to update to ETREO at least two times a month and whatever I can grasp more. I know it didn't go like that last month. I'm trying, okay… But with my health it's really not easy so beside telling you what the most likely you will have and what might happen once in a blue moon but not very often, I cannot really tell you. As I do not even know which day I will be okay, it's often a day-to-day planning such as "Ah, great today I can write, I'm good. Shit, not today, shit not today either… Oh great, finally a better day…" Something like that… It's not funny, I know.

I'll stop with the ranting give you kisses.

Reviews are food. Feed me.

MIMAGFAN.

AUTHOR OUT.