I unlock the door to our apartment, push it open, then grab the bags I had left on the floor and walk in. Izei follows closely, his own arms full. As we drop everything in the living room, as out of the way as we can manage, he sighs and says:

"I didn't expect we'd end up with this much stuff! That was a pain to carry through the subway."

"You're the one who kept getting more ideas for things to buy!"

"Hey, don't just blame me, at least half of this is Marie's fault!"

With a smile, I respond:

"I know, I know. So, now that we're here, will you show me which swimsuit you ended up picking?"

"Nope! I'm keeping that secret until we get to the beach."

"Awww, why?"

He grabs the bag containing it and walks to his bedroom door, stopping just before entering and turning his head towards me:

"It wouldn't be any fun if I just let go of this opportunity to tease you."

I sigh as he closes the door. If I didn't know any better, I'd think he's messing with my feelings on purpose. I grab a few things out of our bags, place them on the dining table, then let myself fall on a sofa. I'll figure out how to organize and store all of this with Izei in a bit.

I lean back and close my eyes, taking a few minutes to rest. Izei appears behind my eyelids, making all kinds of facial expressions all cuter than the last. If he really was a woman, I'd do everything in my power to make him fall for me, that way I'd get to stay with him for the rest of my life. But he's a guy, and a straight one at that, so there's no reason to even entertain that idea.

I hear a door open, followed by footsteps getting closer. I open my eyes, revealing an Izei looking at the kitchen table. After a few seconds, he says:

"Let's eat first, we can put all of that stuff away when we're done."

I get up with some difficulty. I might have fallen asleep right there and then if he had spent any longer in his room.

"Agreed. I'll order something."

As we wait for our meal to arrive, Izei goes to the fridge and grabs four cans of beer. I look at him, not hiding my surprise as I ask:

"Four? Aren't you being a bit ambitious?"

He walks to the living room and places the cans on the coffee table before letting himself fall on the couch in front of me.

"After the day we had, I need some way to unwind. One can for now, and one can to go with the meal. The other two are for you."

"You know I'm not that much of a drinker. One will be plenty for me."

"Then don't mind if I do!"

He leans forward, grabbing one of the cans he had put on my side of the table and sliding it to his own. I shake my head, but I can't really protest. He's perfectly capable of handling three cans of beer in an evening, I've seen him down much worse before. Granted, that was when we were younger, but he should still be fine with this.

I grab my can, open it, and take a sip. As I put it back down, I'm surprised to see Izei chugging his, almost completely emptying it before letting out a satisfied sigh.

"Now that hit the spot! Nothing like some beer to help me forget that I'm about to reveal to some family members that my body got messed up this bad."

I suspected that was the reason he grabbed this much beer, but at least it's confirmed now. I don't think there's anything I can do to make him feel better about this, so I stay silent as he opens another can and takes several sips from it.

"You know, I..."

He stops mid-sentence, seemingly thinking about what to say.

"... I forgot, sorry."

I raise an eyebrow as I ask:

"Are you already drunk?"

"Nah! I'm totally fine, look!"

He tries to get up, but immediately loses his balance. I jump forward and make it just in time to catch him.

"Looks like alcohol is hitting you a lot harder now. And we haven't eaten in a while... Here, I'll help you to the table, dinner should be here soon."

He lets me carry him around without complaining, and sprawls on the table with a contented smile as a knock on the door lets me know that our meal arrived. I bring it to the table and split the food between our usual spots before saying:

"Here, this might help you a bit."

Izei manages to push himself up, grab a fork, and bring a bite of food to his mouth. He should be able to eat, what a relief.

As I sit on my chair, Izei says:

"You know... if I... if I ever got a boyfriend, I'd want him to be just like you."

I'm glad I hadn't started eating yet, as I would definitely have choked upon hearing that. I can tell from the way he speaks that the alcohol is in charge right now.

"What are you saying? Why would you ever get a boyfriend?"

"Well, you know... I could fall in love, maybe? I don't know! Having a boyfriend sounds nice though."

I stare at him in disbelief. Sure, he drank that beer really fast, but that was enough to have him babble complete nonsense? Did the transformation make him less tolerant to alcohol somehow?

Well, now that I'm thinking about it, he did get a lot shorter and lighter. So... yes, it did make him less tolerant. I completely failed to realize that.

Still, I'm curious to see what else this version of Izei has to say, even if it's all nonsense.

"I thought you were straight. Wouldn't you rather have a girlfriend?"

He looks stumped by my question, thinking about it really hard before muttering:

"Right... straight... That means I like women... but I am a woman... so I'd be gay if I liked women... and I'd be straight if I liked men..."

Now it's my turn to be stumped. Is he really trying to figure out his own sexual orientation in relation to his transformed body while completely drunk? I sigh and take another bite, but stop chewing as he exclaims:

"You're right! I'm straight, so I like men!"

I sigh and shake my head.

"That's not what I was saying. You're a man, and you like women, so you're straight."

Izei slumps, clearly trying to think really hard about what I just said despite the alcohol messing with his brain. After a while, he lets his head fall down on the table and says:

"Do you... really see me as a man?"

I'm surprised by how little he seems to be bothered by what he just asked. A few months ago, he cried in my arms about how scared he was of spending this much time in a woman's body, and now he's not-so-subtly hinting that he might not even see himself as a man anymore? Sure, he's drunk, but that just means he's not filtering what he says.

This is... really bad. I can't tell from his drunken confusion whether he started liking men or not, but he did open up with saying that he wants a boyfriend. And if he doesn't think of himself as a man anymore... What's stopping me from trying to get with him?

When I imagine myself in a relationship with her, my heart speeds up and I feel all warm inside. I want to hug her, cuddle with her, wake up every morning and see her before anything else, kiss her as we embrace under the covers and fall back asleep for a bit longer... and ever since I started feeling that way, I told myself that this could never happen, that Izei was a man and that she would never want that for herself... And now she dangles some semblance of hope in front of me, messing with my emotions further as I find myself unsure of how I'm even supposed to think about him!?

All this time, I tried my hardest to stay in control for his sake, but when she baits me like this, can I really be blamed for biting?

Izei is now entirely focused on eating, having left our previous conversation behind. Despite my emotions being in turmoil, I choose to do the same. I'll need to have some serious conversation with him once he sobers up, and I'd rather not risk being hurt further by having his drunk self make me feel like there's any hope that we could end up together. I'll confront him, he's going to tell me that he's still a man, and that will be that. No need to agonize any more than necessary over it.

"Ugh, my head hurts so much."

Izei is sitting on the couch, his head in his hands, as I bring him a glass of water.

"You should have been more careful with your drinking last night. Despite how drunk you were after a can and a half, you still went for a third."

"Well, it was already out, what else was I supposed to do?"

"Put it back in the fridge?"

"That's forbidden, you can't just put beer you already grabbed back."

Seeing him able to joke like that makes me feel somewhat reassured. Means he's doing fine, despite the headache.

"So, just a couple more days before Painter's Day. How are you feeling?"

He finishes the glass before closing his eyes and responding:

"Horrified."

He doesn't seem interested in explaining further, so I instead turn to the question that has been burning a hole through my mind all night:

"Ah, um... Also... Do you remember anything from last night, after you got drunk?"

"Honestly, I'm making a conscious effort to not remember anything at all right now."

Yeah, that was to be expected. Now's not a good time to broach the subject anyway, so I wasn't going to push further either way, but knowing whether he even remembers what he said or not would have helped calm some of my anxiety. I'll just have to keep it in for now.

I grab his empty glass, fill it with water again, and bring it back to him. Before drinking it, he half-whispers:

"Thanks. And sorry."

I smile at him before responding:

"Don't worry about it. Just let me know when you feel like eating breakfast."

I drop our bags in Ariciel's car as she asks:

"So, where's Izei?"

As I close the trunk I respond:

"Said he needed some time to prepare mentally. Shouldn't be too long."

"I sure hope so. I can't wait to see what he looks like now!"

Her husband seems a bit confused by the comment, so I assume she hasn't told the rest of her family about Izei's transformation yet. Still, he doesn't say anything. The two kids are in the car, seemingly very excited to be going to the beach.

It only takes about a minute before Izei finally manages to come down the stairs, wearing the hoodie I lent him despite the summer heat. The hood is down, however, allowing his sister to see his face and new haircut. She quickly runs to him and gives him a hug while saying:

"Wow! You look so different, but also the same, it's hard to describe! Are you going to be okay with that hoodie though?"

"Yeah, I think so. It was the only way I found to calm myself down enough to get here. I'll... try to remove it once we get to the beach."

With the two of them right next to each other like this, I can't help but notice how much Izei looks like Ariciel. They definitely had a strong family resemblance before, which was helped by the fact that they're the only two kids with blonde hair in their family, but now... Even their faces are strikingly similar. Izei's still the cutest of the two though.

As I catch my thought and am about to throw it away like usual, I stop myself. I haven't had the guts over the last few days to confront Izei about what he said while drunk, so I'm still in complete limbo as to whether I'm allowed to think he's cute or not. This situation really hasn't been good for my sleep, but I also didn't want to spring that on him while he was stressing out over today. I'll just wait for a better moment, sleep be damned!

With Izei and Ariciel being done with their greetings, the latter says:

"Alright, let's all get in the car! The earlier we leave, the earlier we make it to the beach!"

I can see that his husband is about to ask a question, but he seems to change his mind, simply getting in the driver's seat of the 6-passenger vehicle. With the kids being all the way to the back, Izei and I get into the middle seats. A quick glance at him tells me that he's not doing all that well, so I start reaching out to grab his hand... then change my mind. I don't know how we would react to that kind of intimacy displayed in front of so many eyes. Instead, I whisper:

"It's going to be fine. I'm here if you need anything, okay?"

He smiles back at me, but I can tell he's still just as stressed about the whole situation. I can't help but feel powerless as the car begins moving us away from the comfort and safety of our apartment.