Duality - Chapter 11 (Novel Commission for Code-Shark101)

TAGS: Anthro, Transformation/TF, Slice-Of-Life, Milk/Lactation, BE, Hyper, F/F

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The panda girl rose to her feet, and Beth came with; seeing as the man behind the desk said nothing to this, the both of them walked through the door into the main office area, their interlocked fingers going white at how hard they were being squeezed against one another. Sweat began to roll down Linda’s brow, but still her bust remained unchanged, a fact that didn’t elude the woman by her side; when the two entered Simmons’ office, however, things quickly took a turn for the… weird.

Beth had been expecting an actual doctor’s office, in part due to the clinical aesthetic of the reception area, but mostly just because the man was referred to as Doctor Simmons. Instead, the two went from a very boring-looking corridor into what looked to be a luxurious room, truly worthy of a millionaire’s mansion; every surface was lined with varnished wood, while the walls in front and to their sides were obscured by ceiling-tall bookshelves filled with books of such a wide variety of subjects that Beth gave up trying to read them all. A handful of comfy sofas were arranged in a circle to their right side, with a large mahogany desk dominating the rest of the room. Behind it was, presumably, Simmons, sitting on an expensive-looking swivel chair and looking like he hadn’t slept in a couple of weeks. He beckoned the two towards the sofas, then walked up to sit on the one opposite the couple. Linda, being already accustomed to this, said nothing nor reacted with anything more than her already-present apprehension, leaving Beth to feel like she was truly the odd one out; just what exactly had she gotten herself into?

A long time was spent waiting for someone to make a move. The panda girl could ask why she was there, or Dr. Simmons could open his mouth and explain that himself; instead, the two stared one another down for what felt like hours, not so much with animosity, but with a mutual understanding that they were both equally screwed. Linda’s experiment had gone wrong in so many ways that practically nothing could be salvaged from it and they both knew it; whatever happened next was little more than scientific damage control, the vague hope that maybe, just maybe, they could scratch together some useful data. But that wasn’t enough to get them to start talking.

There were far more pressing matters to attend to first.

“So about my tits,” Linda finally cracked the ice, prompting a long groan from the man in front of her.

“We have no idea. Frankly, it wasn’t even in our wildest projections,” the assumed scientist replied, “as soon we got the report from our representative we just sort of… stared at it, hoping it was some kind of weird, twisted joke. Of all the things that could’ve happened to you, this was not one we thought remotely possible; we believed you’d sooner fatten up like a panda before anything else.”

Beth had to exercise a lot of strength of will not to go “huh” at that comment.

“So what, you have no idea? Is that why I’m here?” Linda carried on, crossing her arms underneath a bust that seemed a bit tighter around the seams than before.

“Pretty much. Linda, I truly apologize for the document, but they made us sign it. It was either that or everyone got sent home or to another project; we can’t just abandon you like this, not at this stage! Whatever happened to you isn’t just vital for our research, but it should also be reversible, and we promised you we’d work to bring you back to normal. So that’s exactly what we’ll do.”

“Maybe I don’t want to go back to normal,” the panda girl mused, giving a sideways glance to Beth, “maybe I like being all fuzzy. Just not with a pair of tits I can’t control.”

What she had just said was half-true. It was entirely, technically correct she dislike the notion of having no kind of control over how large her bust was, but there was a very good reason why she made no mention to said bust’s size in that comment. Simmons didn’t seem to catch onto this; he let his head fall onto his hands before dragging the latter down across the former, looking about ready to just give up on life entirely.

“I know, Linda, I know,” he pleaded with her, “but please, I promise you that we’re doing everything we can to get you back on track to having a normal life. Why do you think we let her in?” - he pointed towards Beth, who suddenly felt very self-conscious - “We have no intention of caging you up like an animal and poking you with a stick, Linda, we really don’t. We want you to be as comfortable as you can be while we run as many tests as we can; we’re going for a shotgun approach here, and honestly? I can only dream of having any kind of result whatsoever. At this point, I’m just about ready to accept the whole thing is going to be filed away as a failure and we’ll be forced to abandon this line of research.”

“Hopefully after you fix my breast issues.”

“Hopefully, but I can’t promise you anything,” the doctor sighed again, “if Rivtech pulls the plug… I can’t really do anything. I’ve pulled as many favours as I had up my sleeves to even get you this far without the lawyers shutting the whole thing down, and while I don’t expect thanks, I at least expect you to think about that means to us. In practice.”

“Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?” Linda scoffed.

“No, you’re supposed to understand that if we don’t do this right now, then we’ll never get another chance at it. It’s either now or never, Linda; that’s what we need you to understand.”

The panda girl kept staring forward, unwilling to drop her gaze from her future captor for even a second. Truth be told, she wanted to be mad at him more than she actually was, but Linda was far too well aware of who the true culprits were to bring herself to blame the head researcher. He’d never been anything if not pleasant and cordial towards her, and though that entire conversation could’ve been structured in a way to corner her further, he did choose to open up and (presumably) be as honest as he could be… and she had to appreciate that. However, she was no longer alone when deciding what to do with her future; Beth had seen to that.

“What do you think, Beth?” she asked, turning towards the woman by her side.

Startled, the other human flinched before letting out a low “uuuh…”, her brain needing a few seconds to process everything it had just hard before formulating a response. She didn’t feel like she had any right to say anything at all, in fact; Linda’s future should be her own… but should it though? That was an interesting question to ask, because she did just that immediately after making a declarative statement to herself: was Linda’s future her own? Had they not spent a night together, sharing not just in intimate sexuality but also domestic familiarity? Did they not share a dinner together, followed by Beth tucking her partner into bed, feeling like she belonged there and nowhere else? And had all of that not followed what were weeks of a budding relationship, furtively built away from cameras in dead angles and the alley outside work? These were all facts and she couldn’t deny them… so was Linda’s future her own?

Or their own?

The realization hit her so hard she didn’t quite know what to do with it. Her girlfriend, for that was exactly what she was, had just asked her to help decide what to do with her life. It was Beth’s responsibility as much as it was Linda’s, and now that Beth knew that… it made things a whole lot better. Like, for once, she belonged somewhere. With her.

With Linda.

“You can stop crying now, Beth, or else I’m gonna start too and then we won’t be able to stop.”

The panda girl’s comment struck the human as odd, at least until she felt her own tears roll down her cheeks and into her mouth, after which she hastily excused herself and wiped her eyes with a sleeve. Embarrassed beyond belief at the sudden emotional outburst in such a formal context, the fact that the doctor talking to them had to fake a cough and look aside only made her feel even more out of place than before; suddenly things weren’t so simple, if only because even she wasn’t expecting the reaction to her realization to be so strong as to make her openly cry without even realizing it. Again more apologies were issued before Beth turned her attention towards her feet, taking a few moments to recompose herself before offering her answer.

“I think…” she mumbled, picking her words very carefully, “that Rivtech has a responsibility to make sure that anything they can do, they will do to help Linda. And that, at this point” - she looked aside to her partner, begging for her mercy for what she was about to say - “I don’t think that fighting one another is going to resolve anything. If it has to be done, then it has to be done, even if it means Linda has to stay here to deal with it.”

The other woman in the room closed her eyes and sighed; she knew what Beth had just said was entirely true, but had hoped, perhaps even expected her to take her own side exclusively. To be fair, that would’ve only made things worse, as Linda herself wasn’t thinking of telling Rivtech to go take a hike, but it would’ve been… a gesture. She didn’t know, it was hard to think about what it meant to be in a relationship in a time of such immense stress such as that; it felt like a cosmic joke that the two of them would end up consummating their relationship at literally the worst possible time for their budding romance, even if it was entirely her fault that it happened then and not a moment before. Still, Simmons needed an answer and she had to give it to him; not like she had a choice.

“Beth’s right… Simmons, I’m sorry, alright? It’s just… things have been going so quickly that I can’t even begin to imagine what I’m supposed to do with my life. I mean look at me! Just last night I had tits so big they took up my whole room!” - the doctor’s neck practically snapped with how quickly he turned to face his future test subject - “And now I’m here and I wanna be mad at you and I wanna be mad at everyone, but I know it’s not your fault. You guys have never been anything if not amazing to me, and I don’t want to take my frustrations out on you. I wanna take them out on Rivtech. So tell me what I have to do.”

Simmons looked at Linda with an expression that belied how much the last comment resonated with them; the good doctor wasn’t without his own reservations towards the company, and now he saw in Linda not just someone he had an obligation to help, but a potential ally against the draconian policies of his employer. Perhaps, if he played his cards right, he could save her from her fate and get back at the company for corrupting his research as hard as they had; that was the dream, at least. He looked around at the many corners of the room, confirming that the cameras were still off; it was company policy to allow private meetings to go unrecorded unless requested, so what he was about to say would never leave that room… assuming neither of the two women there with him blabbed, of course.

“Linda, I will do everything in my power to make everything right,” he promised, “and if, by any chance, we stumble onto an opportunity to bring the people responsible to light so they can get their comeuppance? You can count on me to stand by your side. This much I can guarantee.”

The panda girl’s ears perked up at the sudden candidness, but it wasn’t ill-received; after the initial shock wore off, Linda nodded and outstretched her hand, shaking Simmon’s own and sealing her fate for the foreseeable future. There were still a great number of factors they had to consider, not the least of which was Beth’s participation in the next phase of the study; the young woman had become a fundamental aspect of Linda’s life, and whether or not the research team liked it, the two had developed a bond and had explored the panda girl’s limits to the point where her presence might prove more useful than disruptive. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Rivtech would never in a million years sign off on a second person being made to move on-site, especially not with the lawsuit-in-the-making that was Linda… but there was nothing in the rules that stated she couldn’t be allowed ample visiting hours when they weren’t busy running tests on her; in fact, as long as they could justify it as being a vital component in “preserving normalcy”, then the research team could get away with murder so long as the lawyers were appeased. And if they had learned anything in their many years working for the company, it was how to bullshit reports and get things done by bald-faced lying to the hierarchy.

The scientific way.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, Linda was not to move into Rivtech’s installations until a few days from then, meaning she now had to go back home and face her landlord after he most likely had time to boil in his own rage after finding out what one of his tenants did to their house. This was in no way anything she wanted to do, hence why both her and Beth decided it was best for them to head to the latter’s home and stay there until the final move could be arranged; Simmons meanwhile informed the two that he’d put in a good word with the legal department in order to smooth things out and pay for any damages (and well he should, considering it was Rivtech’s own experimentation that led to such damages in the first place). He seemed immensely surprised at just how much Linda’s body had reacted to arousal, and how far her limits were stretched, to the point where he caught himself wondering aloud about whether or not they could replicate that in a laboratory environment, much to the embarrassment of everyone involved. Figuring it was best to end the conversation there, he ended the meeting and asked them to leave a phone contact with the front desk clerk, then went back to his desk to pretend to do some work.

The drive back home was possessed of a far lighter atmosphere than the one over to the research facility, mostly because neither of them considered the possibility they would be made to work at the diner while they waited; Linda simply assumed that the letter meant she was excused, while Beth was far too enamored with the notion of her lover moving in with her, temporary arrangement though it may be, to really think about anything else. The two women were positively ecstatic once the door closed behind them, ignoring the many curious stares by Beth’s neighbors while they were walking up the stairs; they were alone, together, and now they had all the time in the world for one another… so what to do with it? That was an interesting question to ask, as neither of them had the opportunity to explore one another’s hobbies outside perhaps browsing art galleries and discussing a whole bunch of unwholesome things, given the nature of their brief encounters, so it wasn’t like they had a lot of groundwork to go from.

Thus, it was unsurprising that they ended up sitting on the couch once again, Linda’s head on Beth’s lap, their faces locked onto one another with the dreamiest of smiles stamped permanently onto them. Neither paid much attention to the human girl’s phone ringing, probably their boss wondering just where she was; it may as well not even exist for how little they cared about it, to the point where Beth absentmindedly threw it under a pillow after it got too loud for their tastes. Out of sight, out of mind.

Nonetheless, they couldn’t just sit around doing nothing all day, even if they were more than willing to do so; bodies cramped and minds craved stimulation, so the two opted to find the most terrible movie they could on a streaming service and spend a good rest of the morning making fun of it. Together, as they should. This turned out to be such a good waste of time that they barely remembered they were supposed to be eating lunch after a while, resolving to call for take-out and worry about the details later; their company was intoxicating, so much so that the mere thought of not being next to one another felt like downright heresy. It was mired by the unconscious realization that it was going to end eventually, and far sooner than they would’ve liked it to, but neither of them wanted to focus on that too much; better to shift their attention elsewhere, to more positive things.

Their days thus went by without a care in the world, Beth in particular consistently ignoring the calls from work just so she could pretend that things were normal, that this was how everything was supposed to be. It would be disingenuous to claim she wasn’t the happiest she’d ever been, being able to wake up with Linda by her side, being able to know she was there whenever necessary, being able to see her whenever she desired. The panda was her life, her world, her everything, something made all that much better by the knowledge that the same was true for Linda herself. The second day together started several hours late precisely because neither of the two wanted to leave their bed, being far too busy wrapping one another in their arms and employing a veritable arsenal of sweet nothings and pet names. Getting anything done around the house became a chore in and of itself as well, what with them being unable to go five minutes without some kind of intimate physical contact. It would’ve been maddening if it didn’t make them so unbelievably giddy and happy, enough that once Rivtech called up, they even considered ignoring that call as well!

For about five minutes. Then the existential despair set in.

Once the number was identified as not belonging to their boss, both of them knew that their wonderful time together had come to an end, so quickly that it barely felt like it was there at all; they had just gotten started with a routine, with getting used to one another, that the thought of just… ending it all felt horrifying on such a deep level that it made them both feel queasy. Didn’t the company know what they were doing? That they were wrenching two lovers away from one another right when their relationship was ready to blossom into something of beauty? Of course they knew, what a silly question; they probably had a full dossier on Beth as well by that point. They just didn’t care; Linda was nothing but a test subject to them, something they could stick needles into and pretend she wasn’t even alive.

Driving back to the facility took the most willpower out of anything else the two had ever done since meeting one another. Even something as simple as getting in the car took far longer than it should’ve, and they barely noticed as Beth deliberately took the long way to their destination, even if they weren’t looking at one another. It was also the first time in quite a while that Linda felt her chest begin to swell up as well; the two’s time together had been fraught with sexual intimacy and ample doses of arousal, but given that Beth was more than happy to suckle on both of her teats, the panda girl hadn’t actually seen a marked increase in size. Now though? Now that every last bit of emotional scaffolding had been unceremoniously yanked away from her and she was about to be incarcerated in a research facility to be poked and prodded away by uncaring machinery?

Now she felt it. And she hated it, knowing it’d just be exploited by the very people who sought to cage her like an animal.