Suri wakes up and she's not alone. Suri and Tooru confide in each other. And Suri makes a resolution.

The saving grace of turning into a half wolf, half leopard animal the size of a Honda Civic hatchback? A nice hard sleep that's hard enough to make you not dream. Not that dreams were a bad thing. But when they'd been a bunch of lewd fantasies about your friends and classmates driven by the libido of said creature you share your body with? Yeah, a dreamless night was sort of a relief.

After burning off all of the metaphysical energy that the full change takes and letting Atiena out for a long night of playing in the woods and hunting a deer, sleep was so needed. It had always surprised her that coming back to human form - even though she never remembered doing so - that she always woke with the remains of their hunt harvested and preserved. And she always woke clean, or mostly clean. It meant that Atiena had enough control over Suri's human form after the shift back to harvest meat remaining from the deer corpse to put into their freezer. Sometimes she'd even kept some of the deer hide; one of which had been big enough to become a rug in her bedroom. She may or may not have slept on said rug a few times. Aside from preserving meat and hides, she usually got Suri into the shower and then crawled her into bed before slipping back into that mental forest.

She wondered, if Atiena could drive Suri's human body for at least two hours, could she possibly do the same to Atiena's? Sure she had some of the sensory memories most of which she had enjoyed. The feeling of running through the woods, the smell of earth under her paws, the feel of cool night air breathing through her hair and fur, the taste of fresh blood filling her mouth with candied warmth.

That last one would probably make her friends disgusted or scared. Best to keep that one to herself until she could know for sure.

Her body still ached from the change, her muscles still a little tense and her eyes were still heavy enough that they refused to open. That was just fine because she could just lay in bed and happily spoon and squeeze into Mr. Squeak. She lowered her face into the back of her plush penguin's head and nuzzled her nose and cheeks into him.

But…

Something seemed a little off.

Normally the penguin plushie's fur was short with tiny curly tufts. Today it was long and smooth as silk. He was also a lot warmer than his usual self. And he didn't compress as much as he usually did when she cuddled and squeezed him. She couldn't snuggle into him as deeply as she usually did because for some reason he was bigger. A lot bigger. And where she would usually push her knees up towards her stomach, she met resistance. Very warm and smooth resistance. And he couldn't breathe or make the little noises she was hearing. Mr. Squeak never made noise, or talked, and he definitely didn't sound like…

"S-Suri…"

Oh. Shit.

Suri scrambled backwards and flung her eyes open as she quickly tore the sheets off of her and went for the far corner wall. Since her bed was against the wall she remained on it and grabbed the plush penguin she thought she had been holding the entire time. Mr. Squeak shielded her naked body against the intruder she had been spooning tightly. Her breathing was rapid and her eyes were wide as she eyed the indent laying against her bed, watching it move as the ghostly shape shifted. Suri recognized the voice, she recognized the scent, and she recognized the sight.

Now she had another sensory experience to go off of. Suri knew how the girl felt.

"T-Tooru! Y-you," she whispered just on this side from yelling. "What are you doing?"

"You... don't remember?"

She sounded disappointed.

"I… Normally I don't remember the time Atiena has control of my body until a little later, then it comes in flashbacks."

"Atiena?"

"Oh, right. That's um... her name," she replied, pointing to her heart. "I finally learned it last night. Wait... It was last night right?"

"Oh! Yeah, it's Friday afternoon, almost evening."

"Shit," Suri sighed, realizing how much time of Tooru's she'd probably wasted. "You haven't been with me this entire time have you?"

"Wow," Tooru replied with a little bit of offense in her tone. "You really don't remember."

"Girl, I'm sorry. I told you, it'll come back eventually but not for a few hours after I wake up. And when I have woken up with someone else it's cause we usually… Oh. My. Gods…"

The bed shifted and shaked wildly and Suri could ever so slightly make out shapes of flailing arms but Tooru's panicked voice said it all as she stammered.

"Nonononononono! We didn't! ImeanIwouldn'thavesaidnoor-ahhh! No! Absolutely not!"

Suri let a smile creep onto her lips, then she snorted, and then the dam broke as she erupted in laughter and snickering. Honestly, she could have done a lot worse for someone to wake up next to.

"Okay, girl, spill it," then her eyes went wide again with a thought. "Oh no, you didn't watch the change back did you?"

"Oh!" Tooru jumped. "No, Grandma said I wasn't ready for that. While you were out, she and I just talked about a lot of things, a lot about you, and I told her everything from school. Then, while we were chatting, you just walked back through the garage door. You were naked and covered in blood and you walked straight into your bathroom. It was, like, super scary and kinda weird but Grandma Kuroyashi explained to me what happened. It's really weird but also kinda neat how you really do turn into a giant animal. So when she explained the instincts and stuff, it kinda made sense."

Suri nodded and gave a soft smile as she listened to her friend. One question still egged at her though, especially with her past experiences at Lupanars. She wasn't a stranger to waking up next to her friends with benefits, or one night lovers, but one of her best friends that... Okay she had had those thoughts about the girl. No use in lying to herself about that but still.

"So," she let the word hang and gestured a finger between herself and the invisible girl. "How did this happen? I didn't… ya know," Suri made a pouncing motion with her hands.

"W-well um, after you got out of the shower, you dried off a little bit, came to the living room and took my hand and…"

"Fuck," Suri sighed in a dreary tone. "I forced myself on you. I'm so sorry Tooru I-"

Suri stopped immediately as she felt a finger press to her lips, shushing her with an invisible finger. The beast girl went a little cross eyed trying to make sense of the feeling of her lips being mushed against but not seeing what was doing it.

"No! You didn't do anything wrong. When you took my hand and started pulling me out of the chair you said we were going to go to sleep and asked if I'd join you. So I followed you, you climbed into bed and I…"

Suri had a flash, remembering her crawling into bed, laying into the soft, cool sheets and then looking up to see a floating sundress. Then she remembered watching that sundress begin to move upwards and then get tossed to the floor. Then there was the feeling of the bed moving and the curiosity that came with seeing the indentations but nothing to make them. Then there was the warmth, the same warmth she remembered from the gym, and then she felt the warm line of a back scooting into her and spooning into Suri's front.

"I… Atiena… we... climbed into bed and let you make the decision for yourself. You could have walked out and we would have been okay with that but you…"

"Y-yeah."

Other times this had happened, Suri had never had this reaction, never felt much of anything really. She'd woken up a dozen times to naked men. A little more than a dozen times to naked women, once or twice with more than one with her in the middle. Then there was the solid year that she had woken up sandwiched between three other people who she thought she loved and that loved her. So why did this time shock her so much? Was it because Tooru was the first non-lycanthrope she'd woken up next to?

"You're sure I didn't do anything right?"

"Suri, you didn't do anything I would've said no to," Tooru said with an assured tone. Then there was a teasing tone in her voice as she said, "you did get a little handsy when you woke up."

Suri giggled and shook her head as she leaned it into her stuffed penguin.

"Sorry, I thought I had a hold of him like I usually do," Suri replied, holding Mr. Squeak up a little. "Also, this stays between you and Mina and I. I don't know if our class would think very high of me if they knew I slept with a stuffed penguin."

"Deal," she giggled.

Suri smiled and let Mr. Squeak fall back onto the bed. She then began crawling towards the edge of the bed and beside Tooru who had gotten to her own kneeling position. Then Suri slipped off the bed and stepped onto the floor and let the feeling of the sturdy wood paneling help steady herself. She went to her dresser and began pulling out clothes when she paused and looked back to the invisible girl. Tooru was sitting there content and at ease, even after everything that just happened.

She felt bad for doubting Tooru and made the conscious decision then and there she would never question her friend ever again.

"Sorry about taking up so much of your time. You could have been training and-"

"You wouldn't have gotten your arms broken," she said before Suri could finish and sent pangs of regret through both of them.

"You mean this," Suri replied, holding up her arms and moving back towards Tooru. The invisible girl reached out and touched, running her fingers along Suri's skin. "I heal faster than normal anyway so most cuts, even deep ones heal in a couple hours or so. Breaks take a couple weeks unless I can fully shift. If I go full furry, almost any injury I can take will be healed or mostly healed once I come back to human form."

"Do they still hurt?" Tooru asked with amazement as her fingers then moved to where the wereleopard had dug his claws into Suri's shoulders. All that remained were tiny white marks where the skin had healed over.

"My forearms are a tiny bit tender but that shouldn't be too big of a deal. These," she pointed to where Yosuke had stabbed her with his claws, "are about as healed as they'll get. But I don't mind because I think scars can be cool or sexy. So meh."

Suri gave a smirk that said she thought of herself as a badass and the epitome of cool. Behind that smirk she was chewing the inside of her lip as she felt the delicate dance of Tooru's fingertips over her skin. She enjoyed it. A lot. The more she thought about having woken up with Tooru cuddled into her, the more she wanted it to happen again. And that worried her a little. Sure she wasn't a stranger to and was completely used to being fairly intimate with her close friends and, to wereanimals, nudity didn't equate to sex. It was just seen as something natural. Mostly because of their animalistic instincts. And that just now reminded her that she was stark naked and in full display to her invisible friend. Then again, so was Tooru. Even if Suri couldn't see anything with great detail.

"So," Suri let the word hang a little. "As much as I don't mind, ya know, showing off like I am now. Should we get dressed and I can walk you home?"

"Oh! Um yeah sure!" Tooru squeaked out with surprise and a flustered tone.

Suri giggled at the sudden reaction and walked back to her dresser and pulled on underwear and a set of flannel sweatpants and a black tank top. When she turned back she saw the sundress that had been sitting on her floor now being shifted to fit onto Tooru. Once she was dressed, Suri led Tooru out of her room, through the house, and out to the road to begin walking towards the invisible girl's home.

Suri enjoyed the evening sky and seeing the sunset into the horizon over the ocean. She loved that mix of reds, yellows, oranges and purples that painted the sky. Looking to her side she giggled a little noticing how the sundress Tooru was wearing was the same splash of colors and made her almost disappear into the sunset completely. If it weren't for the fact that her eyes were able to pick up the shift in space around the other girl's form, she'd be nearly as invisible with the dress on as she had been with it off.

"Hey, Suri," Tooru asked quietly, almost a shy tone.

"What's up?"

"Yesterday, when you said I'd be a better hero than you. Did you mean that?"

"I did," Suri replied with a half hearted smile.

"But how? My Quirk is useless, especially compared to what you have. Or Mina, or Midoriya, even if his Quirk hurts him, or Kirishima. And me, I'm…"

"You are an amazing woman, Tooru. Don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise."

Suri gave her invisible friend a smile, a real one that showed how much she meant what she said.

"You were my first real friend here. You've seen me at my best, my second worst, and you got to see the truth of who and what I am and you still stayed with me and made sure I wasn't alone. There aren't many people who can say that." Suri stepped in front of Tooru and stopped, looking down into her eyes. "Tooru, you saved a person's life yesterday. Two actually because you saved me from repeating a mistake I made not long ago."

"So, what Grandma Kuroyashi said was true. You actually…"

"Yeah," she choked out with a bitter sounding laugh. "I could have stopped. I had him beat but I had so much anger, rage, and fear built up that I had to make sure he couldn't make good on the threats he made. Yeah he threatened the lives of me and my family and I took him down. I didn't have to go as far as I did. But I did."

Suri reached forward and placed her hands on Tooru's shoulders and gave her serious eyes.

"You are and will be a better hero than I could hope to be because you're not a murderer. You have so much kindness and joy inside you that you'll never stain your hands the way I did. And you stopped me from doing it a second time. How good of a hero could I possibly hope to be if I struggle with being able to stop from killing again?"

"But I didn't do anything. All I did was hug you. That's not-"

"You brought me back to reality, sweetheart. That hug stopped me from ripping out Yosuke's throat and enjoying it. Tooru, your touch is what stopped me from being more of a monster than I already am."

"You're not a monster!" Tooru screamed and Suri felt herself being pulled down hard towards the shorter girl as she grabbed onto Suri's tank top and tugged. "You're an amazing woman, dammit. You're cool, you're strong, you're super talented and amazing, and absolutely gorgeous, and you're so incredibly kind and loving. Do you have any idea how much it means to me that you actually try to see me?! Like, actually fucking try?"

Tooru was choking up as she went and then, the tears began to pour. They clung to her cheeks as they rolled down looking like rain suspended in the evening sky.

"A monster wouldn't put as much effort into making me feel like they see me."

Suri raised her hands, following the line of Tooru's neck up so that she could wipe away the tears with her thumbs. As her eyes caught sight of the sundress again, Suri had a thought.

"That's why you go out shopping so much, isn't it?"

Tooru simply nodded once and laid into Suri's touch.

"You like to go for the cutest and sometimes flashiest clothing because it at least draws some sort of attention. You need those shopping trips so you can get even the slightest bit of attention and people noticing you being there."

Another half nod.

"And I've missed every single one of them…" Regret strummed hard throughout Suri's body and she gave Tooru a dreary sigh as she said, "fuck, I'm a bad friend."

"No," Tooru answered almost silently. "You're really the only one that's figured that out."

Suri gave a soft smile and pulled Tooru to her, wrapping her arms around the invisible girl and squeezing tightly. She cradled the shorter girl's form into her own and laid that line of body against each other and let Tooru lay her head into the crook of Suri's neck. Her left hand slipped behind Tooru's head, nestling her fingers into the smooth curtain of hair while her right hand slipped down and found its resting place in the small of Tooru's back. The two friends held each other tightly for a few long moments until Tooru pulled back and let the two of them look into each other's eyes.

"Thank you," they both said almost unanimously with nearly the same quiet voice.

They continued their walk towards Tooru's home in almost complete silence as the sun set and the sky darkened. It was into the early night by the time the two reached her apartment complex and Suri walked her friend up the community stairwell and across the third floor balcony towards her door. As they got to her apartment, they stopped at Tooru's door when she turned around to face Suri.

"Thank you for walking me home."

"Not a big deal at all. What are friends for right?"

Suri smiled at Tooru and knew she had done the same as they leaned in and gave each other another quick hug. The invisible girl reached for her front door and paused and gave what Suri imagined as a look over her shoulder kind of stance.

"I'm sorry for not texting back and ghosting you the way I did. I just… I was thinking a lot. What you said before we got on the train last week, it umm, made me question something?"

"What's that?" Suri quirked an eyebrow.

"What would it be like to date more than one person for one," Tooru said with a little hurry in her voice. It meant the idea still shocked her a little bit. "I mean… I like the idea of having the attention I could have doing something like that. Then I remember 'oh yeah, I haven't even been on a date before cause no one wants to date someone they can't see.' And then… I had another thought about what being in a relationship with more than one person would be like and if one of them was you. And I..."

Suri's eyes were fluttering as she listened to Tooru who seemed to be leaning into Suri the more the invisible girl talked. By the time Tooru had let her words hang and let the silence surround the two of them they could both feel the warmth of each other's breathing. Suri's lips felt like they were on fire and were buzzing with that need and desire for what her friend was inching towards her to do. And Suri could've almost sworn she saw the shape of Tooru's lips and slightly parted mouth from the steam the two were producing in the night air. So plump and full. So perfect for kissing. She wanted that. She wanted to kiss Tooru.

A dog barking in the distance and the sounds of Tooru's mother chasing one of her siblings around just behind the door broke them out of their trance. Tooru began opening the door with a heavy rise and fall in her chest, Suri could hear how fast her friend's heart was beating. Or was it her own? Tooru's cheerful voice came back in an instant as she opened the door to her apartment and began to slip inside.

"Thank you for walking me home, Suri. I really appreciate it."

"Sure," Suri replied, clearing her throat and trying to get her own normal tone back. "Any time."

"Text me when you get home and I'll see you tomorrow."

"I gotchu, baby girl," Suri gave her friend a fanged grin and a wink. "Get some rest for tomorrow all right?"

"Yes, my queen~"

Tooru gave a flirty tone and giggled as she shut the door, waving her friend off. The comment froze Suri for a second and then the girl grew the biggest grin she could manage. With that smile, she turned and put on a hurried pace that was somewhere between a jog and a sprint towards home. As she jogged home she could see her inner beast from inside that mental forest where she rested giving Suri a pleasant grin.

Atiena knew something, didn't she?

By the time Suri got home it was well after dark and she made light work of getting food to eat, mostly snacks that were at least somewhat healthy. She strided into her room towards her nightstand where she had left her phone and picked it up to text Tooru that she'd made it home. She was about to text that and a good night message to the invisible girl when she picked up her phone to see a text from Tooru already waiting.

Tooru: If it were with you and you asked me I think I could do it /

Suri stared at the message with wide eyes then quickly typed a reply with a fanged grin.

Suri: I made it home. Careful what you wish for, baby girl. Goodnight :3

Suri had made up her mind.

She was going to kiss Tooru the next time they were even remotely alone together. Gods help her to know what she was getting herself into.