Ara's Switch

Ara didn't cook anything that evening, and instead let Oberon prepare dinner. When she walked into the kitchen, however, she was surprised by a rather unexpected sight. That is, Rena. Or rather, the fact that her clothes were tattered and her hair very messy. By the look of it she was also really annoyed. She didn't seem to mind the fact that a lot of her skin -including small bits of... private areas- wasn't exactly covered, but that's because Ara was a female -one she was in confidence with- and she didn't consider Oberon capable of certain thoughts, had there been a man she'd have gotten at least a change of clothes before going to the kitchen. Ara, on her part, wasn't exactly indifferent, her two tails -one had disappeared rather quickly- swaying behind her.

"W... what happened?"

"The cubs wanted to imitate what the brother did with... " the elf replied, stopping before finishing the sentence as that would have probably been like adding salt to a wound "... well, you got it. Calming them down was a bit troublesome"

Ara's tails stood straight up. Both because basically it was her fault and because they most likely didn't want to "imitate" but to... have another round? No way she'd have told her that though. Actually, that worried her on a few different levels as well.

"I honestly hadn't expected that" she commented as she started eating while Ara took a seat "I hope this won't become an habit of theirs" she said, not mentioning the fact that the little ones didn't get out of it exactly unscratched either.

"I hope so as well..."

Aside from that, dinner went by uneventfully -Oberon didn't eat anything- and the elf walked away, still clearly upset. Ara, on the other hand, finished eating a while later and didn't leave once she was done.

"Oberon"

He didn't reply, but he did close the usual book and turn towards her.

"Could you explain what you meant today in the antechamber?"

He thought for a moment about feinging ignorance, but that would have most likely been a bad way to respond and the idea was quickly discarded.

"I thought not knowing beforehand would make you act more spontaneously"

"And how would that help me with the... job?"

"I think some of the guests we have here might understand if you're not acting natural and react badly"

He didn't believe what he was saying himself -or rather, he knew it didn't make much sense-, but he didn't know what else he could tell her at the moment.

"I'm pretty sure that's not true" she replied, quite upset.

"If I might say so, I have far more experience than you when it comes to dealing with them" he said back, trying to back up his excuse.

"That's... true, I guess..."

She really wasn't convinced, and Oberon could tell so. Not that he really expected her to believe any of that, it all sounded stupid to begin with.

"Is that all?" he asked.

"No no no, wait. There's that other thing you said later"

"You feel nice to the touch" he said, this time going straight to the point.

"W-wha-?!" Ara replied, both her ears and tails standing right up as her face turned a bit red.

"Do you want me to go into the details?"

"N-" she almost shouted, then remembered that Rena was upfloor "No, thanks" she said, and for some reason she feared he was actually talking about that morning "I mean, I thought you... didn't really feel..."

"Explaining how my physical perceptions work might be a bit complicated"

Then he stood up and started cleaning the kitchen. Ara, on her part, walked away, headed to her room, reflecting on a few things. She didn't really want to end the conversation there, but maybe it was better to get some rest before going on with it. Once he was done cleaning, Oberon walked to the only locked door of the menagerie. There was something he had to do in that room.

Ara woke up surprisingly early the next day. She checked her tails, though she could tell they were both still there without having to look. That said, she was feeling rather normal, and that was a good sign. She washed herself and opened her wardrobe. After a relatively long pause she decided to not change outfit though. The one she had been using was the one she was most comfortable with after all, and the others were a bit more formal anyway. Maybe. She walked downstairs, wondering what was for breakfast. When she opened the door to the kitchen she saw Rena wasn't there. Instead...

"Breakfast is ready" he told her.

"..."

Rena was in her room, writing something on what seemed to be a notebook when she heard Ara's voice. Or rather, her scream. Surprised and also rather confused, she hurried downstair. What she found was... she couldn't exactly tell from the doorstep. She could see Ara on her knees, and by the look of it she was hugging some... thing? Someone? She wasn't sure. What really puzzled her was that Ara had three tails again, and they were all waving rather, well, happily.

"Ara, this is rather troublesome"

The elf recognized Oberon's voice, but he was nowhere to be seen. She walked up to Ara, and then she saw what -who- she was hugging. Oberon. Or rather... was that Oberon? No, no way. Oberon was taller than Ara, and the one she was squeezing was definitively shorter than her. By a long way.

"Ara" he repeated.

Hearing it again, Rena noticed that the voice had a somewhat younger pitch. Did Eve build a sort of younger version of Oberon? Meanwhile, Ara was messing up his hair in an aggressively affectionate way. The... child? He didn't seem too happy about that -nor too unhappy to tell the truth- but he was trying to get her off himself.

"Ara, who is this... boy?"

Either she completely ignored or straight up didn't hear her because she didn't reply. It most likely was the latter, since she seemed to be really focused on him. That rather worried Rena as she wasn't sure she had ever seen Ara that engrossed with anything, and tapped her shoulder. Once. Twice. The third one was actually a push, and Ara did notice that. Without letting go of the poor -fortunate?- child, she turned to the elf.

"Oh, good morning Rena"

"Not to be blunt but let's skip that and get to the point. Who is this child?"

"Child?"

Ara then looked down, as if she had snapped out of some sort of trance. Her ears twitched a couple of times as her gaze fell on the -too?- young boy. She put some distance between him and her, around half an arm's length.

"W... who are you?"

"Who could I possibly be?"

Silence. An awkwardly long silence, eventually interrupted by him.

"It's me. Oberon"

Once again, silence. A shorter one though.

"... no, for real. Who are you?"

"Do you remember that morning yo-"

Ara covered his mouth with both her hands so forcefully she almost pushed him away, her tails and ears standing as straight up as physically possible, her fur pricked up and her face bright red.

"... Ara?" asked Rena.

"It's nothing! Absolutely nothing!"

"I... I guess I'll go have breakfast in a bar or something..." the elf said before walking away. She didn't really know what was going on, but she didn't really have to deal with it. Not that early in the morning.

A short while after they heard the door closing, she moved her hands away.

"Y-you..."

"Maybe telling you that you feel nice to the touch was a bad idea, if these are the consequences"

"No they're not!"

Ara stood back up and took a couple of steps back to take a better look at him. He was definitively... younger-looking, but the facial features were very similar, and the clothes seemed to be literally identical barring the size.

"As I said, breakfast is ready"

"So you... you're really Oberon?"

He didn't reply, but the way he stared at her was enough of an answer.

"S-so... how?"

"My body is undergoing maintenance, for the time being I'm using this substitute"

"But why is it so... young?"

"I'm not the one who decided it so I can't answer that. You should ask the mistress"

Somehow I knew this was Eve's doing

Ara took a few long, deep breaths to calm down before taking a seat and at least try to eat. Her gaze, however, quickly fell back on Oberon, who was now cleaning the kitchen top. While standing on top of a chair because he was too short to work on it simply standing on his legs. Her fur, which had gone down, pricked up again as she felt a weird urge she could neither grasp nor understand tingling an odd part of her being deep within her. She forced herself to look away.

"S-so, how long are you going to... keep looking like that?" she asked, awkwardly eating her breakfast.

"From one to four days, it depends on how long the maintenance takes"

The words echoed in her mind, and without realizing it she found herself in a daze, thinking about... she really didn't know about what. A -short?- while later she walked away, leaving half of her breakfast on the table.

"Ara" he called out as she was about to open the door.

"Y-yes?"

"I could use your help today with some work"

"Wait, already?!" she almost shouted, instinctively bringing an hand over her womb as she could still feel those felines's seed inside her.

"Not that kind or work"

"Oh..." she replied, a bit embarassed from her own jumping to that kind of conclusion "O-ok then... sure..."

That said, she tried to avoid him for the rest of the morning. Rena had come back too at one point, and probably asked Oberon himself what was going on, though she wasn't sure what he said to the elf. Eventually, Ara went back to the kitchen and found Oberon there. Just like that morning, he was standing on a chair to properly reach the the kitchen top.

C... cute...

Then she realized he was calling her. A few seconds later she remembered she was supposed to have cooking practice. That said, there was something lying there in plain sight among the ingredients, something which awakened bad memories within her. She felt a chill run up her spine as her gaze locked on it for a short moment.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to skip this time... please"

Oberon looked at her for a few seconds, then turned to what her gaze had fell on. That is, eggs. On one hand he could see her reasons, on the other it felt a bit too irrational even for Ara.

"It's not a problem" he answered then.

A while later Rena arrived too. She had probably already had a talk with Oberon about his current appearance as she didn't ask anything. Lunch went by silently, but not exactly normally. Rena was constantly avoiding looking at Oberon because she found that small body to be so unfitting for him the mere sight almost made her laugh, and as much as she didn't exactly consider him in a... normal way, laughing of him in front of him still felt impolite. Ara, on the other hand, couldn't help but stare at him every other minute. As for Oberon himself, he was sitting in his usual spot, reading the usual book, apparently uncaring of his current situation.

"Alright, I'll get to work" the elf said once she was done eating.

Ara took around half an hour longer to finish as she was constantly dazing off. She eventually got herself together, went to her room and sat on the bed. There was a tingling feeling bothering her, and weirdly enough it was -mostly- in her hands. Then someone -namely, Oberon- knocked at the door. She went to open. And had to look down to meet his gaze.

"Shall we go?"

"Eh... ah, right. Sure"

"Very well"

As she followed him downstairs, she couldn't stop her tails from wailing, and the tingling on her hands seemed to get a bit stronger too. They went to the elevator, and then to the twelth floor. At first Ara was surprised to see it was radically different from the other ones, though thinking about it it wasn't that weird. Probably. Anyway, that place was a warehouse. A somewhat cold one too, and with a rather low ceiling less than three meters high.

"I thought these things were kept in the antechambers?" she asked as she walked around a bit, looking at the boxes filling the shelves. Each had something written on it indicating from one to a dozen of different rooms of the upper floors.

"Those are still in need of work, or in most cases they just have to age for a while. Here is where the finished products are kept" he replied as he started taking some boxes and handing them to her "Put these in the elevator"

She noticed that on each was also stamped the image of a mask, a different one on every box. To distract herself from a certain something -someone-, she asked him about that.

"These are all pre ordered, the mask is a replacement for the buyers's names"

A rather odd replacement, but far from the weirdest thing she had seen since she had started living there. They kept piling boxes in the elevator for a while, then Oberon called her and pointed to a box out of his current reach.

"That one"

For some reason her fur stood up for a moment, then she calmed down and took the box. They spent the following... hour? that way, occasionally going back to the ground floor and moving the boxes from the elevator to the entrance hall. At one point, however, Oberon pointed to a box on the highest ledge of the shelves. And... Ara couldn't reach it. Not by that much, but it was too high. She tried to stand on her toes -not that easy since she was wearing wedges- but it remained out of reach. Oberon thought about telling her to simply jump, but... she could be surprisingly clumsy, at least when it came to everyday activities like that, and he could picture her somehow dropping the box easily. For the sake of the goods -and hers as breaking one of those would have added to her debt- he discarded that idea. Maybe Ara was aware of that herself. Maybe.

"Lift me" he then said.

"... eh?"

"I can reach it if you lift me"

Her ears twitched a few times in quick succession as her tails waved energetically behind her, though only for a brief moment.

"Isn't there a ledge? A chair? ... something?"

"There is usually no need for it as normally I can reach that high"

"R... right..."

And so she grabbed him by the waist and lifted him. She could feel her hands tingling for some reason, and she couldn't help but stare at him. He was... cute, simply cute. Oberon then took the box and Ara placed him back on the floor. She took a breath of relief while he put the package in the elevator, then he called her over to a different shelf. And pointed again to a box out of her reach. A weird expression appeared on her face, something between a smile, a grin and something else hard to describe.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"N-no, not at all..."

The next half hour proved to be surprisingly awkward for Ara, urges she had an hard time identifying rising within her every time she had to lift Oberon up. He noticed she was acting weird, but for one reason or another he decided to not pay it too much attention. Well, until she sort of forced him to. Like all the previous times, she had grabbed him around the waist. But she stopped once she had lifted him at around her chest's height. Oberon waited for a few moments before inquiring.

"Is something wrong?"

A brief silence, then Ara fell -?- backwards, ending up sitting on the floor as she went from holding to straight up hugging him, rather tightly at that. She started running an hand over his chest as she... snuggled up against his back, pushing her head against his. Oberon was rather confused. When she slid an hand under his shirt he tried to stop her, but quickly gave up on that as Ara was way stronger than she looked and that tiny body couldn't really match her, especially now that she seemed to be in some sort of trance. He felt her holding him closer as her hand wandered around over his chest, eventually settling roughly where the heart was supposed to be. At that point he decided he had had enough of that. Or rather, he was actually rather intrigued by her weird behavior and didn't mind the situation too much, except for two small details. One being that he had planned to work and the other was that something about the situation actually annoyed him, though he wasn't sure what.

And so he pinched Ara, hard, using the knuckles of his fingers instead of the tip to make sure she'd feel it. Apparently that worked as, while she didn't really let go of him, she greatly loosened her grasp. A few more moments -and a couple more pinches- and she snapped back to reality. Sort of. She saw how she was holding him and hurriedly let go of Oberon, who calmly got back on his feet. Ara did so too after a few moments, and by the look on her face she was more confused than him.

"I-uh-well... I don't... I..."

"Now, what were you doing?"

"I..." she started saying, her hands still somewhat tingling "... I don't... well..."

Seeing she didn't seem to be able to give him a proper answer, he decided to skip ahead.

"Can we resume?"

"Eh?"

After a very brief moment she realized he was talking about the boxes.

"Ah, s-sure!"

"Are you really sure?"

She took a deep breath, then another, then at least tried to calm down.

"Yes"

And apparently she was right as things went rather smoothly after that. The afternoon went by, and by the end of it they were done bringing the boxes upstairs. They were quite a lot, and in truth there were still more back down. Rena probably knew about them already as she didn't seem to pay them any particular attention. Soon before dinner, Oberon called Ara for cooking. And aside from her usual... culinary feats, nothing special happened. For ten minutes. Then, as Oberon was about to get off the chair he had to use to reach the kitchen top to go get something, Ara grabbed him from the side and held him tightly against her chest. Again. He pinched her right away this time, though he had to put more strength into it compared to that afternoon. She dropped him and he landed on the floor.

"Ouch! ... wait..."

"Ara" he said, a faint hint of annoyance in his voice.

"I..."

She averted her gaze because his voice on that tiny body seemed so out of place -maybe simply because she was used to seeing him taller than she was, but still- and cute that she just couldn't look straight at him, not without the fear of snapping again.

"... sorry"

Then Rena walked in, and while she couldn't know what had just happened, she seemed to get an idea, especially because she saw Ara that morning. For one reason or another, however, she decided not to talk about it either. The next day things got sort of worse, as Ara would randomly grab Oberon for up to five minutes before he managed to make her snap back, and sometimes she wouldn't limit herself to hugging. One time Rena had to help get her off him as well. The third morning it got almost unbearable, and he found himself spending around two hours forcefully hugged by Ara. Once again, Rena had to help him get out of that. Lunch came, and Ara actually refused to eat in the kitchen because at that point she knew she coulnd't keep herself together -she wasn't even sure why- in front of him. She asked Rena to bring her something to her room later and walked upstairs.

She was sitting on her bed, and as her mind visualized Oberon's small body her hand subconsciously ventured between her legs. She realized it only when her fingers scratched against the belt. She quickly moved it away, and soon after someone knocked on the door. Of course said someone was Oberon. Ara opened the door and, without a word, he walked in and left a tray on the table -it was lower than the kitchen top- then turned to her, who was actually unsure what to say.

"Ara" he said as he closed the door.

She felt her fur stand straight up.

"I... what about Rena?"

He didn't reply. Instead he opened his arms as if to invite her.

"Go ahead"

A brief silence.

"... eh?"

"I think you'd get somewhat depressed were I to simply go back to my usual body and end it there. So, go ahead and get it out of your mind. I don't want you to get distracted over this in the next days"

On one hand, that was sort of... nice of him. On the other, she was feeling something scratching against the currently weak pillar that was her self control, her tails waving behind her as her ears were standing right up.

"A... are you... I mean..."

Her gaze met his for a brief moment, and at that point she pretty much lost it. She dashed forward, going dangerously close to tackling him. With possibly the swiftest move of her life, Ara grabbed Oberon, almost literally threw him on the bed and got on top of him. Her eyes were always rather bright when red, but now he could see some sort of light in them. Not to mention her expression. She literally tore his shirt open -that sort of annoyed him- and started, well, licking him. The outer layer of that body was, like with his main one, a replica of human skin, so it's not as if she was running her tongue over steel or anything like that. As she frantically ran her hands over him while moving up to his neck with her tongue, he wondered how he was supposed to act. Then she pressed her lips against his and shoved her tongue inside his mouth. This rather surprised Oberon who, after a relatively short moment, decided to play along. Or at least try, as he wasn't too comfortable with the role, whatever said role actually was.

And so he pretended to try to back off somewhat, at which she grabbed him with one hand to push him closer to herself. With her other hand she grabbed his wrist and brought it to her chest. He was about to start fondling her right away as that clearly seemed to be what she wanted, but then he stopped to wonder how... proactive he was supposed to be. And so he did start to move his hand over her chest, but with as much hesitation as he could fake. Which wasn't that much but apparently it still was enough to please her, or so it seemed. She pulled her mouth away, a small tread of saliva hanging from their lips. Her face was flushed, but there really wasn't any shyness to be found there. Then she pulled both her dress and bra down and pushed his face against her breasts.

"Here" she said with an alluring, seductive voice which almost sounded out of place coming from Ara.

After a brief confusion during which he thought about what to do, he placed his mouth over one of her nipples and started sucking. He wasn't sure he liked that situation -and he wasn't sure why- but since he had sort of started it in the first place, he was going to see the end of it.

"There, there..." she said, clearly pleased, one hand behind his head and ruffling his hair.

He kept sucking her chest, trying to act as... inexpertly as possible because he thought that would have been a better fit for the... situation? He placed his hands on her chest, but rather than groping he simply touched them. He wasn't sure for how long that went on, probably around five minutes, then she spoke.

"Do you like them?" she asked, giggling.

No clearly wasn't the right answer, but for some reason he felt like a simple yes wasn't the right choice either. After a brief but intense brainstorming, he replied.

"A lot, big sis" he answered trying to sound childish, immediatly wondering why he had done that.

Her ears, tails and fur all stood straight up upon hearing that, and he felt her gaze piercing right through him. She almost jumped.

"S-say that again"

He hesitaded, and this time not because he was acting a part.

"... big... sis"

She crashed on top of him, pushing her lips against his as she moved her skirt up and placing his hands on her butt. Taken aback by her... aggressiveness, he hesitated a moment before closing his small hands on her buttocks. She buried her nose in his hair and started smelling him, fondling her chest with one hand while holding him close with the other. She then got on her knees, bringing him up with her and pushing his face against her breasts while she ran her hands over his head and back, sliding them under his torn shirt. Shortly after, however, she pushed her pantyhose down, and in doing so her fingers met the chastity belt, reminding her of its presence.

"You know" she said, the tone of her voice almost making it hard to believe that was really Ara "Big sis could really use a key now, you know?" she asked while running her tongue over his neck "Do you happen to have one, my cute boy?"

He forced himself to make it look like he was actually feeling it -there weren't many times he was glad to not have normal physical feelings, and that was probably one of them- and he replied.

"I... do..." he replied as he took the key from a pocket.

"Good boy" she answered as she took it from him. Then she backed off a bit and unlocked the belt. She took it off and threw it away, making it land behind the bed. She stepped back on the bed, and then...

"Is Oberon still here?" Rena asked as she opened the door.

Time froze. The elf's gaze quickly ran over the room. Oberon lying on the bed, his shirt torn apart and traces of saliva here and there on his body. Ara, her breasts exposed, her skirt pulled up, her pantyhose down, her face flushed and her womanhood visibly moist. She slammed the door close and didn't open it again. After the longest minute of the last decade, Oberon stood up.

"Do you want to continue?" he asked, wondering if a part of him wanted her to say no.

"I... I..." she replied as she fell to her knees "... I want to die..." she said as she buried her face in her hands.

"... I guess we can pretend the belt wasn't unlocked this time" he said before taking back the key and walking out. He didn't put it back on her, he thought it would have been better to let her do it herself that time. Worst case he'd have made her wear it himself later. By the time he closed the door behind him, Ara had already lost a tail. Rena was nowhere to be seen, so Oberon headed to the locked door. He opened it, stepped into the room, locked the door again, then he mentally went over what had just happend. And maybe for the first time in his long, long life, he bashed his head against the wall.

That evening's dinner proved to be the most awkward one to date, Rena and Ara both looking only at the floor, albeith for different reasons. Oberon, on his part, didn't seem different from usual, though the truth was he was still wondering about what he had done and why. Once they were done eating, Ara went to the bathroom and took a long, long bath. Too long actually, mainly because she fell asleep there. On the bright side, when she woke up she found out that both her tails were gone, though her hair and eyes had yet to turn back. Well, considering why she was turning back that quickly -Rena's face upon seeing her and Oberon flashed in her mind again-, her tails being gone was of little consolation. She could have played with herself a bit since she had yet to put the belt back on, but she really wasn't in the right mood. It was late in the night when she walked out of the bathroom and back to her room. Her gaze fell on the belt, but she decided to leave it there for a while longer. She had almost forgotten how normal panties felt like, and she was glad she got to sleep with fabric rather than metal covering her privates for once.

This was really, really hard to write, and I'm also pretty sure it didn't come out that nicely, sorry about that.