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Chapter 14: Future perfect.

Days turned into weeks and started to verge on a month. With repetition the bizarre world of changes, feedings, sleeping in cribs and reversion to childhood became routine. Walking upright on two legs and talking made slow, frustrating progress but progress nonetheless. Our night time raids grew less frequent but more daring.

"Anyone know how four cleaning robots got combined into one giant cleaning robot?"

My tail swished in the water, churning up the thankfully scentless bubbles of my bath.

"No.. but i hear it can go up stairs now...

I put my paws over my eyes and got a bucketful of water dumped over my head, in response then got a few minutes to relax while the tub drained. I stood up taking the nurse's hand not because i needed it but because it was faster than fussing, and turned about so the dragon could blast my fur clean with a high pressure gout of water.

"So clean... squeak squeak squeaky clean.. Did someone see a little mousie here.?" She wrapped me in a warm towel and sat with me on a clam shell and handed me a tile like the ones dotting the room, a grippy laserscribe, and a color pallet. "Little tradition sweetie we have here towards the end of your stay. You get to leave a tile for the other cubs to see." I blushed a little. Progress on manual dexterity was especially slow.

"It doesn't need to be any good sweetie. Just needs to come from here" she tapped by chest. I held the pen in my fist, and shook it at the little dragon to try to tell the computer that yes that was how it was going to be used. The laser started to shift colors slowly, i pointed it at the orange fur on my tail and started to draw a little version of myself with a triangle head, black ears, and stick figure socks.

"Can I get a picture of our group?" I asked the computer, and got a picture of us neck deep in robot parts. Edda was absurdly good at turning bolts with her fingers, chuck was acting as the look out, and Mathias had arranged some spare parts into a crown while Suzie was helping me with some of the math on our modifications. I eeeped a little

"A picture that's NOT going to get me grounded!" I specified. The computer, being snarky, returned "Database Error. No such picture found", I stuck my tongue out at it.

The nurse smiled "I saw nothing" she hmms. "Sweetie, don't try to add more detail than your art can handle. A circle and some squiggly lines are fine.

I huffed a little. I was always bad at drawing but not THAT bad. I stuck my tongue out and concentrated, with miss Luna stroking my back encouragingly the picture came together rather quickly. The art was objectively bad but there was something about it i kinda liked, but i couldn't place my finger on it.

"Not using the palette?" she asked as I brought up pictures of my friends . " Probably a good call. I think your color visions even worse than mine"

That was likely true. Still got yet another view of my tongue as i held the tile up proudly. She kissed my nose and put it up on the wall "I'll have Creary cement it in later. Right where your little friend can see it" indicating Mr. Dragon.

The outfit was a light gray shirt and darker shorts today. Only my padding was pink and that was thankfully out of sight. Mostly, an examination of my rump in the mirror showed that the bulge was clearly visible no matter how i held my tail.

"Yes yes you have an adorable rump" the nurse said as she picked me up with a crinkly pat and took me down the hall.

For once, Dr. Bernard was being the cranky pants, sitting with his arms folded inside his slightly oversized lab coat. What little I could see of Dr Ockerman from around the computer screen seemed to be in a good mood. My tail tucked a bit as i was sat on the couch, wondering if i'd done something wrong. Miss Luna ruffled my headfur and pointedly said to the doctor "Tell her the good news. And wandered out with a wave.

"You got into Sturmholtd" Dr Bernard said with a huff

"What's that?"

Dr. Bernard was less than forthcoming so Dr. Ockerman took over " A school for kiddults. An especially good one considering. It's mostly lower income and hard luck medical cases mixed in with a few coming in from the criminal justice system like yourself. You didn't think you were going to stay here until you were all grown up again did you?"

I ermed a little. I'd been so busy just going through the motions, physical therapy nap eat speech therapy nap eat sleep I hadn't even thought about it.

"So why's Dr Bernard sad about that?

The little Doctor took his arms out of his oversized labcoat to gesture with his hands. " Most facilities won't let a correctional TG identify as the opposite sex. It forces you to at least try out the new gender for a few years. Sturmholtd will honor your identification as a boy... if you decide to do that."

"I can be a boy again?" My squee of delight probably should have disqualified me.

The lanky doctor sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "This is why i just prefer to alter DNA and bodies. Those are largely fixed. You can wear blue, go to mechanics classes, play junior crashball. You won't be able to surgically, prosthetically or chemically alter your body until you reach maturity. The state isn't that accommodating

"IcanbeaboyicanbeaboyIcanbeaboyicanbeaboy...

"That really is going to be quite difficult for you. And someone needs to explain why, or I'm putting them to bed.

Dr. Bernard closed his eyes and took a few breaths. His glasses lit up with a list of talking points.

"Sturmholdt subscribes to a very... free range attitude when it comes to children. Especially the boys. The monitoring levels are set very low. Supervision when not in class is woefully inadequate. To many immature minds you will BE a girl because of what's between your legs , and you'll have to try twice as hard to prove your boyhood because of it. You're a Kin, and a Reynard line Fox at that, so you'll be smaller than other boys your age and remember you're younger than most rejuves because we had to change... things. Needing diapers is going to get you a lot of grief if you don't grow out of them quick...

"IcanbeaboyicanbeaboyIcanbeaboyicanbeaboy..."

" ... and the changes we made to your brain while very minor now, will make the .. I'll be charitable and call it "stereotypical" emotionless ideal of "manly" rather hard to pull off. Especially once you get older. "

I stopped running circles around the couch "Am I going to like boys?"

Dr. Bernard taped the table for second and said "Maybe" while Dr. Ockerman chimed in "Yes". I gave them both puzzled looks.

"It's hard to say." Dr Bernard tapped the table a few times, a picture of my brain along with what I imagined were probability distributions for future brains " I've never adjusted the brain of someone that wasn't interested before. You're going to be feeling a lot of things that are confusing. I think some of them might be, or might be confused for puppy love. I don't think you need to worry about it too much."

" For now. But when you get old enough to undergo... certain changes, you'll desire male companionship. Even the rare Kin who normally prefers her own gender will find herself looking longingly for a boy for a few weeks in february." I harumphed at the irony. Dr. Ockerman had no trouble forcing my body to make those changes but was uncomfortable talking about them. Suppose it was harder when the person you were messing witho could glare back at you.

"You're growing at half speed because it's your second time through so you have plenty of time before you need to worry about that." Bernard put in gently, giving my ears a pet. "One step at a time okay?"

"If it's so great how come you're mad i'm..go...ing..." the now familiar sensation of the ear rub washed over me, making me feel very calm, relaxed, and trusting. The little boy smiled at the reaction and his mood brightened considerably.

" I didn't ask for you to go to Sturmholtd so you could go to Sturmholdt. I asked so you could go to Raxana or Nagjebi"

I snickered a little. "So you were trying to be sneaky and got caught. Doesn't explain why you're mad"

The doctor grumbled. " Identifying as a boy means that my work failed. It means they'll go back to re adjusting kin the old way"

Ockernman scoffed. " One data point over hundreds of years won't change anything. Sh..he..That's going to get complicated again isn't it? Your patient is a Reynard line Fox Kin. The only one on the planet likely to ever go through correctional re assignment. As far as experimental data goes they're a useless anecdote. No offense"

"You say anecdote. But I say story. Stories have more power than data with the people who make these decisions." The little physician was back into full on sulk.

"Wait... you want me to be a girl so they'll let other doctors...girlify convicts the way you do it instead of the way they do it?

Dr Bernard huffed no as Dr. Ockerman said "Essentially"

"Your obligation is to your patient and their well being, not your crusade or your pet theories. Congratulate Rona..n on getting into school"

"Congratulations"

The lanky Dr. Came around and held his paw out of mine. I shook it. And there was a sudden sharp jab from his ring.

"Ow ow ow ow ow what...." I whimpered a little, trying not to burst out crying. A little bit of water around my eyes didn't count. It was just a surprise that's all. "Hey why'd you.."

The cut expanded, a shiny grey expanding against the matte black. A second later my platelets and antibodies kicked in and sealed it, forming ...

"My scar...You gave me my scar back!" It wasn't anywhere near as good as having my dog back, but rubbing my thumb along the rapidly knitting flesh brought back some memories, sad and happy alike. But they were mine.

Crying over a little cut and hugging someone's knees as they awkwardly patted my head was hardly the best start to being a boy. But it would do.

That evening I was allowed to walk the halls alone. The place seemed oddly deserted when I wasn't being carried, and the window frames cast large, strange shadows by the light of both moons. The lion headed doorknocker door to the blue room nodded when I shuffled up to it, double checking the note telling me to be here. I wasn't sure what mischief the group wanted to get up to or how they'd gotten into the room, but a sniff revealed that the entire gang was there along with Miss Luna. Had she already caught them? Should I turn back?

"That's as close as you're going to get her, she sniffed you out" the cow shaped door knocker called out, and swung the door open.

"SURPRISE!"

Even with being able to see the group crouched under the table the sudden noise and everyone jumping up was a little scary, enough to frizz out my fur and send a rush of warm liquid between my legs into the padding. Despite that, a rising joy came out of the pit of my stomach at all the smiling faces, along with the handmade "happy birthday" sign with "& Sturmholdt" hastily added in mismatched letters.

"Awww.. you guys..." I devolved into a bunch of happy squeals. Luna quickly sat me at the head of the table and let me cut a piece of black forest cake with minimal hand holding.

"Two paws sweetie, the cake cutter's a little dull"

I couldn't quite cut the bottom layer of chocolate, but I did get a scoop full of cherries, chocolate cake and whipped cream onto my leaf. Miss Luna took the implement from me in exchange for a fork, laughing as I just ate the cake off the platter and got whipped cream on my nose.

"So I heard the good news, you going to try to be a boy?" Chuck drooled as the othe..as the girls got served.

"Not gonna try, I'm gonna do it!"

"Awwww you're too pretty to be a boy!" Edda interjected, picking me up. Ever since she'd gotten the use of both of her hands back and was talking slightly better than I was she'd decided I was her doll. Or little sister. It was hard to tell the difference as i was lifted up into her lap. She was feeding me, but it was her piece of cake so... totally worth it. I nommed what i could, but her coordination with this hand was still off, and depth perception around my muzzle was not my forte, so I wound up with a good bit on my chin.

"Smile!" Luna said, and snapped a picture. I heyed a bit and hid behind my tail, which just covered the fluffy appendage in more whipped cream. She tsked and took me away from Edda to try to clean it up, putting me in reach of Suzie.

"Awwwwwwwwwww" she squealed until i flattened my ears "I'm going to miss you all so much! " and hugged me hard. "Thank the hospital for the extra time together miss Luna"

"No problem sweetie." she twitched my tail a bit and declared it clean enough, and tried to take a few pieces of her own cake before the father and son finished shoveling theirs in.

Suzie started tying a ribbon onto my tail.

"Hey Come on. I can't wear stuff like that anymore"

"Relax! It's a boy ribbon because it's blue. And you like it i can tell. Your tail's wagging!"

"It's trying to escape!"

"Wagging! Waaaaaging" the father and son put in in a sing song harmony.

"Come on. If you're going to be a boy it means we can tease you" Bob was trying to steal off of Mathias' plate, with about as much success as Mathias had in stealing off of his.

"Dad, she'..he..they're still a baby. So... soft teasing. ANd soft noogies!" His noogie consisted of a scratch to the back of my ears with his knuckles.

"Not a baby!" I insisted, in a much higher voice than I'd have liked.

"Notta baby! Notta baby!" they mocked. Edda punched his arm. Suzie tried to hold her back. I started tickling Bob with my tail. We all started wrestling with each other for a few while, then exhausted, collapsed in a heap all at once, going from full speed to stopped in the blink of an eye the way only animals and small children can.

Miss Luna tosses us a random assortment of blankets and pillows, licked a few plates clean while she thought we were asleep, and let us have a sleep over on the floor.

Even though I couldn't wait for morning, it came too soon.