Nao slept for a couple of hours in his cat form. Then changed, and played guitar for a bit. When he was bored of that, he got up off the couch.

He smelled.

He smelled so bad, he even felt compelled to a shower before going out. Now that was really saying something.

He got the dress and the underwear out of the secret hiding place, and took them with him to the bathroom. He washed himself and the clothes and brushed his teeth using Ryan’s toothbrush. He knew that was cheeky and absolutely not okay, but he smiled at himself for doing it anyway. Indirect kisses, he figured with a smile.

When he and his clothes were clean, he twisted the fabric into a ball to squeeze the water out. Now he needed to dry them. Nao thought of his options, and figured the microwave was probably the fastest way to dry the clothes. He put them in, set the timer to 5 minutes and pushed ON.

*Ping* said the microwave and Nao skipped over. He opened the door, and black smoke erupted from the inside.

“Fuck!” He yelled out loud.

Nao put on the pants Ryan was wearing yesterday, and took a clean hoodie from the closet, since there wasn't a used one left on the floor. He put the wig in a bag, put his shoes on, and took the bus to the city centre.

He knocked on the back door of the gay bar and a beaming Izzy opened the door.

“Ha there you are! My girl got lucky yesterday?” He half-asked, half-stated enthusiastically.

“Well ehm…” Nao began “The clothes you lent me….” “

What about them?”

“Well.. they are kind of…. Um…”

“Ripped them off ya, did he?” Izzy laughed. “No worries sweetie. That happens. Say, why dontcha make up for it by dancing a little for us this afternoon? You can dance right?”

“Dance? What kind of dancing? Do you mean on stage? I’m not sure I can do that…” Nao answered honestly.

“Don’t you worry honey, you just try it out. We’ll put you on stage for the matinee today, you dance for a couple of songs and you don’t have to worry about those clothes again. Sounds good?”

Nao wondered if he had a choice…

“Fine”, he said, “I’ll do my best.”

The ‘queens’, as they called themselves, put Nao in a silver dress that was shorter and tighter than any dress he’d seen girls wearing yesterday. He needed to wear their shoes, so he wrung his paws into high heeled silver boots, hoping no one’d notice.

No one did.

They actually felt quite nice, and after only a few practice-runs he could walk in them easily. He put his strawberry blonde wig back on and received glamorous make-up. The queens even painted his lips and eyelashes silver.

“Fabulous!” they decided.

Nao looked in the mirror and decided they were right.

“For Ryan” he whispered to himself as the queens pushed him on stage to dance to Shakira’s hips don’t lie.

Startled by the spotlight and the applause coming from the crowd (he couldn’t see anyone’s face from up there). Nao froze.

“Hey psst… move!” a voice sounded from backstage.

Probably Charmaine, he thought. But as the audience turned silent, Nao still wasn’t moving.

Suddenly a loud voice boomed over the speakers, and Izzy appeared in a revealing red glitter dress.

“Gentlemen! I present to you the one, the only…. She won’t move until she gets a serious round of applause… Princess Sparkles!!!”

The crowed stood up clapping and cheering and Nao snapped out of it. He had to move NOW.

He plastered a wide smile on his face and started dancing.

In his mind he thought of all the moves he’d practiced playing Just Dance on Ryan’s X-box. As he got a feel for the rhythm, he tried to combine the moves he learned from Beyoncé with some breakdance moves he thought were quite cool.

The audience thought so too, judging by the sounds they made. Then he tried some tricks on the pole that was standing in the middle of the stage, and found himself having fun. The strength in his arms and legs in ratio to his body weight made it a little unfair to other pole-dancers. But Nao didn’t care and had himself a nice work-out.

After the third song faded out, he heard the voice of Izzy over the speakers again.

“Applause for our lovely Princess Sparkles!!”

Nao took the following applause as his cue to bow, not really sure if that was protocol. But he figured he'd go with it anyway. He even blew a kiss into the venue, before he quickly disappeared backstage.

“Sparkles! Sparkles!” he heard the audience shout. Which probably meant he did fine.

He took a deep breath and walked back into the dressing room.

“Honey, you were on fire!” Izzy yelled out.

“Where did you learn to work the pole like that?” Charmaine shouted hysterically, hugging Nao tightly. “Please come and work here! The pay is good!”

Blushing from the compliments, and still a little dazzled by the amount of fun he had on stage, he actually considered it for a milisecond. Then he remembered that he HAD a job. The most important job in the world, even. And that he was NOT doing it at the moment.

“Sorry but I am not looking for a job. I should get going.” Nao answered, eager to get home before Ryan.

“Oh but darling, you’ve got talent! You could be a star here!”

“Not interested” Nao said, putting his clothes back on.

He sat down in front of the dressing mirror and carefully took off his make-up. He did the left side of his face first and stared at the difference between the two halves. They were the same face but completely different. One was a boy and one a girl. The queens had done an awesome job indeed.

Izzy gave him a hug as he stood up. “Well honey, you just think about our offer. If you ever need our help again dressing up for the guy you’re chasing, you can just dance here instead of paying us, okay?”

“I don’t think I will, but I’ll keep it in mind. Thank you so much for the offer Izzy and Charmaine”.

Nao kissed both queens on the cheek (since apparently, that was how these people greeted eachother) and left. It was 7:30pm, Ryan wasn’t home yet. Nao was hungry and sniffed at the catfood, then decided he was going to wait until Ryan got home. He might get something better to eat, and he didn’t want to spoil his appetite with those filthy dry crackers.

What a day...

Nao hoped with all his might Ryan would keep his promise of a quiet Netflix night. He wanted to just curl up against him on the couch and forget about everything else.