I need you by my side, you're my best friend

A cat-like yawn escaped Dawn’s lips as she turned over in bed, and stretched her arms over her head. She didn’t want to get up. She wanted to spend the rest of her life sleeping on this comfortable mattress, curled up nice and warm in the finest sheets money could buy.

Dawn was not a lazy person. Ever since she was a little girl, she’d been driven by ambition, and knew how to keep her eyes on the prize. She’d known from a young age that she wanted to be a doctor, and even in elementary school she had already been planning the steps necessary to ensure that would happen.

Things hadn’t gone exactly as planned… but it wasn’t for a lack of effort!

No… Dawn Willowbrook was the most driven woman she knew.

Which made it all the more unusual that she didn’t want to do the responsible thing and get out of bed in the morning!

She couldn’t help it. Even while part of her was reminding her that she should get going, that they had a busy day ahead of them (even if that wasn’t the case) a more primal part just loved the soft mattress and sheets.

The room Dawn had been assigned was the Luxury Suite; the bed in here was nicer than any Dawn had slept on before- even the Master’s Suite was a tough comparison!

Could you really blame a girl like her, who’d always worked so hard and never taken a moment to relax, to finally enjoy a bit of a reprieve?

Also- the dream she’d had last night had played a significant role.

Morgana had been fretting about her diary all afternoon. She was clearly traumatized by what she’d done in the challenge, and Dawn could sympathize. Because the goth was so wary about giving a dream to someone else after letting her emotions get out of control, Dawn had volunteered to be the subject of the diary for the evening; and she’d had a few suggestions that Morgana had happily applied to her fantasy.

That night, Dawn had been Nick’s pampered kitten. Oh, she was still human, obviously- at least, as human as she was now. But the cat girl didn’t have to do anything but laze around the mansion (in her dream, Nick owned a mansion) and be petted and doted on.

…Oh, and the sex. Lots of hot, steamy sex in which Dawn was treated like a queen.

It was such a good dream that she didn’t want it to ever end- if possible, she’d spend the rest of the day reliving that memory in the back of her mind, while bundled up tighter than pre-Harem Hotel Mary going to church on Sunday.

At the same time, that dream was what finally managed to pull Dawn out of bad and encouraged her to get prepared for the day. As nice as the memory was (and it was a good one) reliving it in her mind could only go so far, even with her perfect recall.

Nick wasn’t actually in bed with her- he was still somewhere else.

Dawn knew her mind was in a bit of a haze when she climbed out of bed, but it wasn’t as bad as Morgana. The goth girl was dead to the world, snoozing away with a blissful expression on her face. Dawn looked down at her with an amused smile and rolled her eyes. After the hard time the goth had yesterday, she deserved her rest.

By the time Dawn headed for the closet to get her clothes, she’d managed to return to reality. The bed was nice, but she couldn’t believe that she’d actually been content enough to laze around there all morning!

How slovenly! Dawn felt her face burn with shame. She needed to do better! What would Nick and the others think!?

Once she gathered up all her clothes, she headed for the bathroom, but stopped about halfway into the shower.

Her ears twitched as she looked around, and she wasn’t just taking in the exquisite décor of the bathroom, either. Crystal nozzles? Gold faucets? Fine marble tile? All that was nice and all, but something felt off.

She looked down at herself, and realized what it was.

Why did I think I needed a shower? Dawn wondered. There was nothing wrong with a shower, obviously. But it wasn’t like she actually needed one.

Her tongue would be far better for cleaning herself off.

Part of Dawn knew that this was obviously her new transformation trying to compel her to change her behavior. She was still the smartest girl on the island, even if she’d been bed-brained for a bit this morning.

But even if it was her transformation speaking for her… even if she should obviously take a shower, because that’s what regular people did… she still didn’t want to.

Dawn’s tail twitched behind her, a grim reminder of when she’d first had to start getting used to her sensitive body. Back when she’d first been struck by her punishment transformation, she’d been miserable. Sleeping had been a nightmare; getting used to turning over and accidentally squishing her tail, sending a mini-orgasm through her body? That was only fun for the first few times. But showering had been just the worst. She remembered having to wipe her furry tail down, keeping herself on the brink of orgasm.

That memory was the deciding factor. She tossed her change of clothes aside and stripped out of her pajamas, letting the cool air of the bathroom kiss her skin. A nice sheen of sweat covered her body, the remnants of a warm summer night wrapped up in the finest blanket money could buy.

She extended her long tongue, and licked her wrist.

A tingle shot through her hand and her body twitched. Ooh… that felt nice! She licked again, a little harder this time, and found that the pleasure got even stronger when she did that.

It was so odd; as the owner of five cats, Dawn had received her fair share of lickings. And cat tongues had the same rough texture hers did now. It was a nice feeling, one that sent like sparks through her fingers as she wrapped her tongue around them. The lick of a cat had a pleasant sensation normally, in spite of the texture-

This couldn’t compare.

Dawn licked herself all over as her pleasure skyrocketed, taking full advantage of her flexible body and long tongue to get every nook and cranny of herself clean.

Morgana awoke to the soft, blissful sensation of the warmest blanket she’d ever felt. For a moment, she was perfectly content. Her body was safe and warm and hugged from all sides, filling her with contentment as all the bad memories from the day before washed away…

Wait… bad memories?

“Weeh!” Morgana sprang up in bed, gasping as the previous day’s events came crashing down on her like a pile of bricks. Her pale skin flushed with shock and embarrassment as she tried to come to terms with what she’d done, and she **** down a wail.

She’d hoped things would be better in the morning, that her anxiety was just stress, and after a long night’s rest, she could settle down.

Well… last night had been about as restful as you could get.

But she still wasn’t settled down.

“…There’s no getting out of it…” She mumbled, looking down at her lap as her face burned with shame. “I did that… it was wrong, but… I did it…”

She’d have to live with the consequences of that when she got home, there was no getting around it, unfortunately.

Morgana felt sick to her stomach. But as she sat in bed, fingers clutching at the sheets, she **** herself to get over it for now.

She’d been down this road before, when she’d used her diary on the other girls. Beating herself up and feeling miserable wouldn’t fix things. The only thing she could do was apologize and try to make it right somehow.

Not that she could do that until she got home. And who knew when THAT would be?

Sighing, Morgana reluctantly trudged out of bed to get started on the morning. The shower wasn’t running so she assumed Dawn had already left. But when she headed for the bathroom, she found the door locked tight.

Oh? That’s strange. Morgana knocked gently. “Dawn? Um… are you in there?” She called. “I need to take a shower…”

Morgana heard a squeak from inside, then some shuffling. Whatever was going on in there sounded pretty frantic.

Then the door swung open and Dawn stuck her head out, wearing a smile on her flushed face. Her ears twitched, and her tail swished behind her frantically.

She looked odd. She wasn’t wet, and the air wasn’t humid, so Morgana could tell she hadn’t taken a shower. But her skin seemed positively glowing, and the goth was certain she could see a nice sheen over it.

“Um… good morning,” Dawn said awkwardly, stepping aside and letting Morgana into the bathroom. “Sleep well?”

Morgana gave her a muted nod. She had, in fact, slept well- and Dawn knew it.

They’d shared the same dream, after all, and in the same bed. But the weird smile on Dawn’s lips was rather weird, Morgana thought.

She looks… guilty. Like she was doing something she wasn’t supposed to be doing. But what…?

Then the goth girl gasped and her eyes widened as she remembered the new transformation Dawn had gotten yesterday. Suddenly, all the things she’d picked up on earlier took on a new sense of meaning to her.

Dawn shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other and averted her eyes. She knew that she was busted- Morgana had found her out.

“Um… okay, look,” she stammered, not used to being the embarrassed one of the two. “It’s not what you think, okay?”

“No, there’s nothing wrong!” Morgana quickly waved her hands. “I don’t have a problem, really, I don’t! If you want to, um… lick yourself, then that’s, uh… well, better the bathroom than anywhere else, right? I mean…”

“It’s not what you think!” Dawn repeated, her cheeks reddening. “It’s not like I was in here ma-ma-m-m-masturbating or anything!”

Just saying that made her feel like Mary. Or Morgana. Both were rather frightening thoughts in their own ways, and Dawn’s face burned with shame.

She quickly shook her head.

“L-look!” She stammered. “Licking myself felt good! I’m not going to deny that! But it’s not like I was trying to pl-pleasure myself! I swear, that’s not what it was! I stopped myself before I went too far, really, I did!”

“O-okay,” Morgana stammered back, not sure what to really say to that. She sniffed, and sighed in relief. The air, at least, didn’t have the scent of female musk.

…Yeah, Morgana knew what that smelled like. She’d been a horned-up teenager with lecherous fantasies for years. So what?

The two stood in the bathroom, looking awkwardly at each other, not quite sure what to say. Dawn felt like dying of shame after being caught, and Morgana, the one who caught her, couldn’t help but feel the same way.

“…So, uh… I need to take a shower,” Morgana finally mumbled out, looking away. “Could I get some privacy, please?”

“Oh! Of course, absolutely!” Dawn nodded frantically. She would say or do just about anything to resolve the awkward air hanging between them. She turned and headed out the door, but paused just before crossing the threshold.

She turned back to the goth, her cheeks red.

“Um… instead of a shower, how about…” She couldn’t even bring herself to say it, and clamped her hand over her mouth before she could.

Morgana’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped. She stared at the cat girl in shock while Dawn felt herself melting into a puddle of humiliation that Marley would have been envious of.

Finally, the cat girl closed the door on herself, and rushed over to scream into her pillow.

She couldn’t believe she’d done something so humiliating. What was the matter with her!? All because of one little transformation, compelling her to view licking as the most viable means of cleaning oneself?!

…Well, that, and a very, very nice dream.

As Dawn turned over in bed and stared up at the silk canopy, she wondered if Nick would like her to lick him all over as well.

Only the memory of the awkward exchange she’d just shared with Morgana kept her from diving any further into THAT particular fantasy.

By the time Morgana finished her nice, cold shower and walked back into the room, both girls were in a much better place, mentally. The awkwardness of minutes prior had vanished, and they could finally start interacting as friends again.

Dawn seemed much more composed herself. And when their eyes met, they both agreed to not say anything more on the subject.

“So… breakfast?” Dawn suggested.

Morgana nodded. But she hesitated, too.

“Actually, um… before that… there was something I wanted to do,” she said, a statement that intrigued Dawn.

“Oh? What is it?” The cat girl asked.

Morgana’s eyes widened. “Um… okay, listen, you can just ignore me and go to breakfast, okay? It’s not a big deal or anything!”

That flustered reaction told Dawn that whatever this thing was, it was, in fact, a “big deal”. She looked at Morgana and placed her hands on her hips, raising her eyebrow.

“Morgana, I’m your friend,” Dawn reminded the other girl. “If this is important to you, then I want to know about it. Are you still worried about that stuff you were talking about last night? About what happened to your family? Because, believe me, the others probably don’t care about that. Didn’t you have fun with Sylvia in Carly’s room? And Carly and Dani, too? You were all playing games together. See? They’re fine with it. I know I’m fine with it, anyway.”

Dawn couldn’t exactly be throwing stones, given the size of the glass house she’d built around herself when she’d used the transformation gun on another version of her.

Morgana’s blush deepened. “It, um… it’s not about that,” she said. Although Dawn bringing that up certainly didn’t help her feel any better. “I just… well…”

She bit her lip and glanced over at the door.

“I was thinking about… that other girl. Ella.”

Dawn blinked. “Ella? What about her?”

Morgana bit her lip, and offered Dawn a shy smile.

“It’s just… she reminds me a lot of me, back when I first came here,” Morgana admitted. “You remember what I was like, right?”

Dawn nodded. She remembered it vividly.

“You were a lot more aggressive about your witch stuff, though,” Dawn reminded her, which made Morgana feel like dying of embarrassment.

“Um… please forget that…” She begged.

Dawn shook her head and offered a grim expression as her only means of consolation. “Sorry, that’s not really possible…”

Blegh. Morgana could just kill herself.

Instead, she inhaled, and let out a long sigh.

“…Ella… I think she’s going to spend the whole day bundled up in her room,” Morgana said quietly. “And that’s not good. I know Dakota got rid of the Auditionee system, so she doesn’t actually HAVE to make any friends if she doesn’t want to, but…”

“But you feel bad for her, right?” Dawn grinned from ear to ear. She was so happy to see Morgan so concerned for another contestant! The goth girl was really coming into her own. “I know exactly what you mean. It’s the reason I tried to reach out to you and be your friend! So what were you thinking? You wanted to invite her to breakfast or something?”

Morgana nodded, feeling like a massive weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Dawn seemed to know just the right things to say to make her feel better- it was a massive relief.

“Well, I think you’re right,” Dawn nodded. “Let’s go invite her!”

Even as she said that, though, in the back of her mind she was hesitating. She knew that Ella had some issues; they had all seen that in person.

But so what?

The girl needed friends. And if someone as shy and **** as Morgana was willing to step forward and try to befriend her, could Dawn really be expected to do anything less? Of course she couldn’t. She should have been the one to come up with the idea in the first place, in fact!

As the two girls headed over to Ella’s room, Morgana was relieved that she had Dawn at her side. If she’d had to go alone like she’d tried to do in the first place, she might not have made it to the door. The thought of approaching a stranger and asking to be friends was one of the most frightening things she could conceive of!

Having someone smart and cool like Dawn in her corner was definitely a big help.

The two girls stopped outside the door, and Morgana fretted impatiently.

But Dawn just turned and looked at her.

“You were the one who wanted to ask her,” she said firmly. “You’re the one who really wanted to be her friend. So go ahead, knock.”

Morgana felt like she was going to throw up. She knew what Dawn was doing- the other girl was trying to get her to move past her own insecurities at the same time they were trying to help Ella.

But knowing that didn’t make this any easier.

Still, Morgana was done being a coward. She took a deep breath and raised her hand, and knocked on the door.

Only after she finished did she realize they didn’t even know if Ella was in there or not. For all they knew, she could have already gone off to breakfast herself already! Maybe they were barking up the wrong tree, maybe-

The door cracked open and Morgana jumped. A single amber eye peeked out through the crack, looking hesitant.

“W-what is it?” Ella’s wary voice asked.

“Good morning!” Dawn grinned, and elbowed Morgana lightly in the side. “You’re Ella, right? We were just wondering…”

She gave Morgana a pointed stare, and it took the goth a few seconds to realize what she was going for here.

“…O-oh!” She gasped, standing up straight. “Sorry! Um… I’m Morgana, and this is Dawn… we, uh, we met yesterday, but, um… I was… I was wondering… have you had breakfast yet? And if not, um, would you like to go with us? We got kind of a late start…”

Well, she managed to make it through without mispronouncing any words, even if she’d stammered quite a bit. In Morgana’s eyes, that was a downright good performance!

The door opened a little wider and Ella stepped out. She looked hesitantly at the two of them, but Morgana could see a familiar gleam of hope and anticipation in her eye.

It was the same look Morgana so often saw in her own eyes, when she was working herself up in the bathroom mirror to do something she knew she needed to do, but was too hesitant to do it.

Like ask Ella out to breakfast. She’d spent five minutes this morning working herself up to that one.

“…Okay,” Ella said softly, trying to smile. It didn’t go very well, sadly. “If you want to, I mean…”

Morgana sighed in relief. That was so much easier than she’d built it up to be in her mind!