For a moment Nao was the happiest person in the world.

He was purring in the arms of his beloved, and had to make an actual effort of keeping his mouth shut, instead of blurting out: “I love you too Ryan.”

Nao kept purring while they ate the dinner Ryan had brought home.

Between bites Nao sneaked some peeks at Ryan’s face. His lips were wet with chicken juice.

Nao stared at them as Ryan kept on eating.

A droplet started forming in the corner of his mouth. And as it slowly ran down to his chin, Nao couldn’t control himself.

He jumped up on the table and licked the chicken juice from Ryan’s face.

As his tongue touched Ryan’s lower lip Nao’s insides screamed at him. An electricity-like jolt went down his body and his legs turned mushy. Not a good thing, if you’re getting thrown off the table.

“Kitty? What the fuck?” Ryan shouted as he jumped up and swiped the cat off the table in the process.

Nao landed on his side on the floor and slid a couple of feet on the smooth surface.

He was lying there long enough for Ryan to get worried and walk over. “Hey Kitty, did I hurt you? I’m sorry but you startled me man…”

As Ryan stroked his sides Nao tilted his head and looked Ryan in the eye, purring.

“Weird cat.” Ryan said as he stood up and got back to eating his chicken. After a few moments to catch his breath Nao did the same.

***

After dinner Ryan got up and left.

“I’m sorry Kitty, but I’ve got to be a good boyfriend and go clubbing with Lilah tonight. Don’t wait up for me!”

And with that, he was gone.

Nao’s felt a tightness in his chest, and decided he had to do something. Anything. Even if it was against the rules. Even if it wasn’t okay. He HAD to.

Minutes after Ryan had left, Nao gathered all of his courage and his saved (okay maybe stolen) money, changed into his true form, put on some pants, a hoodie and his shoes, and went after him.

Nao took the bus to the city centre. It was crowded and there were multiple clubs Ryan could have gone to. He’d never been here before, so he didn’t really know where to look for Ryan.

He thought he’d follow the music. Ryan liked music with heavy guitars, so he’d probably be in a place that had music like that.

As Nao was looking around, it suddenly dawned on him that he didn’t know what to do when he’d find Ryan. He was just a boy in a hoodie and Ryan liked girls… He didn't stand a chance.

Nao scolded himself for not thinking this through at all, and turned back to the bus stop. His mission failed before it even began.

As he sat there, he noticed a man walk by that looked like a woman. He knew from the smell it was a man, but his eyes were fooled.

A plan formed. Nao took a deep breath, and decided to get help.

He followed the man for a bit, until they came to a club. The man entered through the back entrance and Nao followed.

“Hey!" said the man. "What are you doing? This is the artist’s entrance.”

Nao gathered all of his courage, and looked the man in the eye.

“I want to look like a girl. Will you help me? I’ve got money”

The man turned around and eyed Nao with surprise in his face.

“Really? Do you little one? What kind of money are we talking about?”

Nao handed the man a hundred dollar note. He had no idea if that was enough, or maybe too much, but it seemed okay, since the man's eyebrowns went up, and his mouth curved into a smile.

“Oh wow, you’re serious. Fell in love with a straight guy, did you honey? I’ll have to warn you though, that kind of thing never works out.”

“Please?” Nao stammered.

“Charlene? Come here girl, we’ve got ourselves a mission!” The man shouted seemingly at nothing.

“Ok honey, let’s see what we’re working with here, take your hood off please”.

Nao concentrated for a bit and changed his ears. He had to keep concentrating to keep them from going back to normal, but he could do that.

He flipped back his hood and looked up at the man.

“What is it Izzy? What have you got in your tentacles now?”

Another man that looked like a woman came rushing in, and stared at Nao’s face.

“Wow!” he said, voice full of admiration. “Now this is going be fun! This guy is a natural, look at those eyes! Oh my, with a little eyeliner and mascara… So, hi there sexy, I’m Charlene and you’re gonna be the prettiest ladyboy anyone’s ever seen when we’re done with you! I’ll go get you a dress”.

“Thank you.” Stammered Nao.

Charlene and Izzy had fixed him up good. They had even given him underwear. It was a bit weird having a lace running between his buttcheeks, but he’d just have to get used to it.

He was wearing a simple black dress, and the guys had propped him a bra to give him a small B cup. A strawberry blonde wig covered his ears and he was wearing pink lipstick.

The only thing that felt real were his boots. Charlene and Izzy had wanted to put high heels on him, but he could only make his feet look like ordinary human feet, not feel like it, so he had decided against it.

The 'queens', as they'd called themselves, had kept his, or actually Ryan’s clothing for safekeeping. He had to bring the dress back either this night before 3am or, if he got lucky, tomorrow at 4pm, right in time for the matinee show.

***

Nao tried to walk like a woman.

He watched a couple of girls and mimicked their walk. He was graceful enough, and felt he pulled it off quite nicely.

Time to look for Ryan.

He went to a club that sounded most promising, and pulled out some money to pay for entrance.

“Leave it cutie.” The doorman said, refusing his money. “Go buy yourself something to drink”.

“Thank you.” Nao said. But as it came out of his mouth, he realised something had to be done about his voice.

He quickly ran in, before the doorman could change his mind, and zigzagged through the crowd.

When he was sure he wasn’t followed, he walked up to the bar and, in a slightly higher pitched, melodic voice, ordered a White Russian.

He needed some liquid courage now.

Immediately a man came up and put his hand on Nao’s ass.

Nao spun around and found himself staring into the eyes of a large man with brown hair and a slight beard.

“Hey sexy, what are you doing here all by your lonesome?”

Nao felt the guy's hand tracing his figure and squeezing his butt.

Nao decided that maybe he could use the voice thing to his advantage too, and answered in the deepest voice he could muster: “Well I’m just having a drink, what about you?”

The man looked at Nao in shock, immediately let go of Nao’s ass and walked off.

OK so that works. Good to know.

***

Nao took the stairs to the balcony overlooking the venue. If Ryan was in this club, he’d spot him from up there.

Nao was surprised that in the short walk from the bar to the balcony he had needed to use his voice trick another two times. It worked like a charm though.

Nao positioned himself on the balcony and started scanning the crowd.

The first thing he spotted was unfortunately no Ryan, but a couple of guys pointing at him. One of them was a guy he’d just brushed off.

“Shit”. Nao said out loud. “I’m a certified idiot, blowing my cover like that. I need to stop doing that.”

And Nao got his chance immediately as the group of guys that were staring at him came up to the balcony and started to pick a fight with him.

“That’s him” one of the guys said to the others. “He’s a dirty drag queen baiting men, we need to teach him a lesson.”

Nao’s heart got caught in his throat. Think fast, he prompted himself.

He used his energy to change his voice to feminine and said: “what exactly are you accusing me of sir? Doesn’t the fact that I don’t go for the likes of you make me even more of a lady?”

It worked.

The man’s friends all made fun of the guy. And although he flipped Nao the bird, he meekly walked away with them, leaving Nao alone on the lookout.

Nao let out a deep breath, realised the he got off lightly, and decided to stick with the feminine voice for the evening.

***

He spotted Ryan on the dancefloor with Smelly. He looked like he was having fun.

Nao stood there, leaning in the balcony railing, just watching him for a while. The way he moved was so enticing. The way he smiled even more so. Nao remembered all the times Ryan had smiled at him. Those were loving smiles. The way he smiled now was playful, coy. And all Nao could think about was Ryan smiling at him like that.

As the DJ played Prince’s Purple Rain, Smelly wrapped her arms around Ryan and placed her head in his neck as they slow-danced together.

Nao felt a lump in his throat and a heaviness in his chest. He threw back his drink, and decided he needed more liquid courage.

He went down to the bar, got a second white Russian, and started walking towards where he’d seen Ryan dance.

The next song was more upbeat and as he took a big gulp of his drink Nao felt better. No more slow dancing, good, time to bust some moves.

Nao had been at home a lot with an X box and had found a game Ryan hardly played. It was called Just Dance, and Nao was quite proficient at it.

Nao climbed on a platform that’d be in view for Ryan, and started dancing. It felt good. For a moment he closed his eyes and pretended to be alone in the living room.

He opened his eyes when someone shouted: “Just Dance?” through the music.

Nao looked up and saw another girl with bright pink hair dancing next to him.

“I play too! Wanna do some routines together?”

Nao nodded and danced with the pink-haired girl for a bit then scanned the crowd to see if Ryan was watching.

He was not. He was kissing Smelly.

Nao froze. “Hey, what’s up?” the pink-haired girl said, placing a soft hand on his shoulder.

Nao looked at the floor and saw drops of water splashing on it.

He realised he was crying; ragged breaths escaped his mouth. He had to stop himself before he’d starts sobbing like an idiot. He was on a platform; everyone could see him. Ryan could see him!

He gulped down his drink and looked at the girl.

“Sorry, I’m just… I need another drink”

And with that, jumped off the platform and swiftly walked away. He took a deep breath, licked at the back of his hand out of habit, and started cleaning his tear stained face.

***

As he came up to the bar again the bartender looked worried.

“Hey girl, are you alright?” he said.

“Yeah…” Nao answered, but the bartender visibly didn’t buy it.

“Your make-up is runny, I can see you’ve been crying girl”.

“Oh…”

Nao realised the predicament. “I’d better fix that up first then, wouldn’t want him to see me cry”.

“The bastard’s not worth crying over,” said the bartender, as if he had a clue. “Fix your make-up and I’ll get you another drink, okay?”

“Okay...” Nao meekly agreed. Then walked towards the ladies room.

It was his first time in a ladies room, and he was in awe. Instead of people just taking a piss, he found that girls were all waiting for each other, chatting happily and fixing their make-up. One girl even offered to fix Nao’s.

“Honey are you hurting?” she said.

“Just a bit”. Nao answered. “Thanks for fixing me up, I feel much better now”.

Nao looked at himself in the mirror. He really did look like a girl.

“OK. No more crying, it’s time to shine!”

He hadn’t realised he had said this out loud until the girls all started cheering him.

“You GO girl! Show him what you’re made of!” They yelled.

Nao’s cheeks flushed red as he ran out of the bathroom and bumped right into Ryan.