It was around half past four in the morning when we pulled into the carpark at our new property. And despite having been up all night, none of us felt especially tired yet.
In fact both Yuki and I spent most of the ride back to East Sussex feeling almost giddy from the adrenaline rush, while Cara radiated a quiet sense of smug superiority. That good mood stayed with us as I drove past the little souvenir shop and the information office, then guided our Rebel out of the parking lot and along one of the footpaths that led to our castle.
There was some mist hanging in the air over the dark moat, and it gave the old weathered stone walls a foreboding feeling. It also left me grinning happily, because I still wasn't entirely used to the idea that this place belonged to us now.
"You know there's nowhere to sleep in there, right Aster?" Yuki asked as I followed the moat around towards the bridge that led into the gatehouse.
I brought the bike to a stop just short of the bridge then sighed, "Yeah. I guess I was so caught up thinking about finishing our first mission, I just came straight back here since this is where we started from? But I didn't actually think about what we'd do when we got here."
"Maybe I should have taken us back to Brighton instead?" I added with a frown. "We'll need to head back to our flat at some point anyways, to pack up all our stuff."
In headspace Yuki's ears drooped while her tails all hung down low and slowly swayed back and forth. She asked, "Do you want to return to our flat now? We'd probably get there just in time for sunrise."
"Maybe that's -" I started to respond, before Cara distracted me.
Our raven friend was nestled in between my boobs again for the drive, but she began to squirm like she wanted out so I quickly undid my jacket.
She hopped out onto the tank then looked up at me and asked, "Those human ears of yours really aren't much good, are they?"
I rolled my eyes, "They're not as good as my fox ears, no. And being stuck inside my helmet doesn't help."
"It's not easy to hear things over the bike engine either," Yuki added. Then the little arctic kitsune tilted her head to one side and asked, "Why? Did you hear something Cara?"
The large bird was perched on the bike's handlebars by that point. She tilted her head as she looked to the north, past the little coffee shop behind us. Then she replied, "Yes. You are being hailed."
I turned on my seat to look over my shoulder, and was surprised to see my sister in the distance. She was at the far end of the field just beyond the small restaurant, waving and gesturing for us to join her.
"Oh! I wasn't expecting to see Shirley up so early," I commented as I waved back.
Cara took to the air as I turned the bike around, then drove past the tea shop and cut across the field to reach where she was waiting.
As I pulled up to her I called, "Hey sis! What are you doing up at this hour? You didn't wait all night for us to get back, did you?"
Her ears were standing up and her tail stuck out straight behind her while she frowned at me, "Of course I waited up for you, I've been worried! Did everything go ok? Are you alright?"
"Oh," I grimaced. Then I smiled and my tails all started wagging, "It went great! We were in and out without anyone seeing us! Cara and Yuki were amazing, and I'm positive there'll be some interesting stuff on the news today!"
My sister seemed relieved knowing that our first assignment was a success. Then she gave me a look as she commented, "Well unless you wanted to sleep on a cold stone floor I don't know what you were doing at the castle."
"Wes and I are in that farmhouse," she added as she pointed at a building another field away behind her. "And there's plenty of room for you in there too. So let's get you inside, and if you like I can fix you up a drink or some food. Or if you're not hungry then you can head straight to bed, and we'll worry about breakfast later."
"Yes mom," I teased.
Shirley rolled her eyes, "Speaking of mom, it's Sunday today and we're all invited to join mom and dad for roast again this afternoon."
"Ooh!" Yuki exclaimed. "I want Sunday roast! I bet Cara does too."
I smiled, "Alright Shirl, thanks for looking out for us. I think maybe something light would be good right now? Then we should all get some rest. We can shower and make ourselves presentable later on, before we go visit our parents."
"Sounds good," my sister agreed.
I slowly set off across the next field on our bike, while Shirley jogged alongside us. And I couldn't help noticing the tall strong athletic wolfgirl had no trouble keeping up, even though we were going nearly twenty kilometres an hour at one point.
She continued on into the farmhouse while I parked the Rebel, and the moment I took off the helmet I had my fox ears return. That put another smile on my face, and I flicked my ears a few times just to feel them move.
With my tails swishing back and forth behind me I made my way up to the front door, then the moment I opened it our raven friend soared right over our head and into the house. I ducked out of reflex, while my ears folded back and my tails all tucked down low. Cara sounded like she was trying not to laugh as she glided down the hallway before us, into the kitchen where Shirley was getting some food sorted out.
"Where's Wes at?" I asked as I joined the raven and wolfgirl in the kitchen. Then with my tails all wagging again I added, "Hey do you want to hear how it went in London? It was really cool!"
My sister gave us a patient smile, "You can tell both Wes and I all about it later, alright Aster? For now please keep your voice down. Wes is sound asleep upstairs in bed."
Then as she set a couple plates down on the table she added, "And now that you've got something to eat I'm heading upstairs to join him."
As promised she'd prepared us something light. There were a couple slices of buttered toast and jam for Yuki and I, along with a glass of juice. And a half slice of toast for our raven friend.
"Thanks Shirl," I smiled as I sat down, while Cara hopped up onto the table and started pecking at her toast.
My sister nodded as she headed for the hallway, "You're welcome. Try and get some rest after you've eaten. We can talk more later."
I was already chewing on some toast so I just nodded while Yuki answered for me.
"Thank you Shirley!" the little arctic kitsune called from inside our head. "Have a good night!"
I had no idea if my sister heard my headmate, but I couldn't discount the possibility. Not since that magic water transformed her and Wes last week. If she did hear Yuki she didn't reply though, as she was already on her way up the stairs by that point.
And as it turned out, we weren't that far behind. The adrenaline finally started to fade around the same time I finished breakfast, and that's when the weariness caught up to us. Cara seemed to be feeling it too, as she perched ontop of my head while I slowly made my way up the stairs in search of a bed.
Shirley and Wes were in the master bedroom, but there was a smaller room across the hall from them with a twin-size bed in it. My sister already turned down the covers for us too, and I started shedding our clothes as I made a bee-line for the bed.
Cara perched on the footboard while I collapsed into the sheets, and as soon as our head hit the pillow I slipped into our headspace. Yuki and I exchanged a goodnight hug and some kisses, and both of us bid Cara a good sleep as well. After that it was only a few moments before the little arctic kitsune and I were sound asleep.
We slept pretty good too, despite being in a strange bed. We finally woke some time around mid-day, but we weren't quite ready to get out of bed yet. A quick glance around the small bedroom revealed our phone and keys things were all on a little bedside table, but our clothes seemed to be missing. So was our raven friend, but we could hear some sounds from downstairs so I figured Shirley and Wes were both up, and Cara was probably with them. Or maybe she went outside to stretch her wings.
Either way I picked up our phone and opened up a social media app, since both Yuki and I were eager to see what the various news outlets were doing with the information we sent them.
"Could have guessed that," the little arctic kitsune commented a moment later, while her tails all flicked back and forth in headspace.
I nodded in agreement as I started slowly scrolling through the posts. The tabloids were having a field day with those compromising photos, and that in turn led to a surge of reposts replies and responses from the public. In fact the top two trending topics on social media were both about that minister, one regarding the photos themselves and the other was people calling for his resignation.
After another minute or two of scrolling through both of those threads I frowned, "Ok but why isn't anyone talking about him trying to profit on illegal oil deals?"
"Maybe check the actual news sites, instead of social media?" Yuki suggested.
"Right," I replied as I did just that.
We already had a bunch of tabs open from when we were putting together our list of news contacts last night, so it didn't take long to check them all to see what their top stories were this morning.
It probably shouldn't have come as a surprise, but all the tabloid sites were leading with the 'gay sex scandal' side of things. The photos and the fact that a staunchly queermisic minister was caught in bed with his male bodyguard seemed to be all they were interested in. The fact that the guy was looking to line his pockets by screwing the environment a little further didn't even seem to register. A few pages mentioned it in passing, but you had to read the entire article to find the information somewhere near the bottom.
The situation was only slightly better on the more reputable news sites. They still led with the sex scandal story, but at least they listed the corruption as a separate story.
"This sucks," I sighed. "Now I'm wondering if we shouldn't have done those photos after all? It feels like that's distracting people from the main issue."
Yuki sounded thoughtful as she responded, "Perhaps? But maybe if it was just about the crooked back-room deals nobody would have even noticed at all. A politician being greedy and corrupt isn't exactly breaking news, you know."
I sighed again, "Maybe you're right. Maybe it doesn't matter why he gets booted out of office, as long as he's not in a position to hurt Gaia or the environment anymore. Assuming that's what happens."
After a little pause the little arctic kitsune responded, "If nothing happens and he goes ahead with that deal, we'll just have to pay him another visit."
"And next time we'll have to do more than just threaten him," she added quietly.
"Yeah," I frowned. "I'm sure it'll be a lot harder though. Even if he doesn't know how we got to him last night he'll probably be beefing up his security a whole lot from now on."
"Then it's a good thing we've got magic," Yuki stated.
I couldn't argue with that, and by that point I'd seen enough of the news to know our plan wasn't the slam dunk we hoped it would be, even though it went perfectly. So I set our phone back down then got up out of bed as I started looking around the room for any sign of our clothes.
Except it turned out that everything we'd been wearing was gone. The only thing I found was a large terry dressing gown in the closet. It was big on us but I pulled it on and did up the belt so it kept us covered. Then we made our way downstairs to see what the others were up to.
"Good morning sis," Shirley greeted us when we wandered into the kitchen.
She was seated at the table with a mug of coffee in front of her. Cara was there too, perched on one of the chairs. And there was more coffee waiting in the machine on the counter, so I helped myself to a mug while I bid the pair of them a good morning as well.
As we joined them at the table I asked, "Where's Wes? And does anyone know what happened to our clothes?"
Shirl answered both questions, "Wes is downstairs in the cellar doing the laundry, but he should be done soon."
For some reason the thought of her boyfriend doing laundry surprised me at first. Then I realized it actually made good sense, considering his magic was water-based. I figured he could probably get things cleaner and dryer than the best modern machines.
"It's honestly a nice change of pace," my sister commented with a smirk. "Having him take care of all the washing up, I mean? Now I can't help wondering how he'd look in a cute little French maid outfit."
After a deep sip of my coffee I frowned at her, "I'm not sure you should be joking about that that sis. I thought he was still feeling kind of sensitive about how he's changed."
Shirley rolled her eyes then leaned forward and half-whispered, "Trust me Aster, he's mostly just playing it up as a gag now, for the sympathy? He got over the actual shock almost as fast as I did."
"And going by how he's been acting in the bedroom lately," she added with a sly grin, "I think he's really enjoying his new figure. In fact I almost wonder if he'd like things to change a little further."
That left my cheeks flushed, but I was also curious. "What about you sis? Are you ok with how you and your boyfriend have changed? And would you be ok if Wes changed even more?"
My sister was still smiling as she leaned back in her chair and had another gulp of her coffee. Then she admitted, "I was always the one in charge of things between Wes and I. The only difference is now our bodies reflect that. And yeah Aster, I'm ok with it. Honestly, Wes and I have been having a lot of fun with it."
"Isn't that right cutie?" she added as she looked past me towards the stairs.
The petite dog-kin was there holding a hamper full of clean clothes. He was dressed in a pair of off-white leggings and a large loose white scoop-neck t-shirt. The colours suited his cream coloured hair and fur, but the the clothes looked like they came from the girls' aisle of the shop.
Wes had a cute little blush on his face, and his fuzzy ears were standing up straight while his curly tail started wagging behind him as he nodded. "Yeah Shirl. It's definitely been fun."