I was always getting dragged along for events. It didn't matter much what we were doing, I wao be with my friends but I also didn't want to leave my apartment. Still, my roommate, Ellie, kept making sure I got out, and I was grateful for her.

  Today, we were heading to a rock climbing gym to meet some other friends. Ellie was already dressed ready to climb and I was... not. Not unless a hoodie and jeans ted, anyways. The train ride was niot too crowded today, and people kept to themselves.

  At the gym, we met the rest of our climbing group, a bunch of Ellie's friends she'd been making. Apparently, they'd been ing here a lot over the past few months and really got to know each other. "And this is Sam. Sam doesn't get out too often, so py nice, okay?" Ellie introduced me. As much as I wao say something, she was right. I didn't get out much.

  As the rest of the group was saying hi, one in particur kept staring at me. At first I thought she was going to ively ent on me, but then I looked again and realized she was... undressih her eyes? That couldn't be right. When it got to her turn to introduce herself, the guy o her had to elbow her since she'd been staring so hard.

  "Sorry, I'm Cait. o meet you." She fshed a smile at me and I nearly melted. What exactly did I do to have a girl pay attention to me? I look like a slht now. Damnit Ellie, tell me when there's someone who might be ied at these meetups. Although, to be fair to her, no one had been ied before, so it probably slipped her mind.

  I gave Cait a small smile, but I definitely felt like I was walking into some kind of trap. Cait was beautiful, her long hair tied up in a ponytail, ahletic-wear leaving very little to the imagination. I didn't know her well enough to say if that was on purpose or not.

  Ellie led us all inside and I found myself he back of the group. We all got checked in and fitted for harnesses before we were remihat there were spotters on hand if we wao try any of the taller walls. Not that I o worry about that, I might climb the boulder, but I don't think I'd want the attention to climb a wall.

  Everyoarted to disperse, though I noticed Cait kept looking in my dire. There was something about her I just couldn't get out of my head. Still, Ellie had told me to at least try to enjoy myself, so I made my way over to the boulder and started climbing. I never liked exerg, something about my body kept nagging me as nht and messing with my ability to do what everyone else was.

  I was about half when I heard from behind me, "Hey, mind if I join you?" Not thinking, I turned around to see who was talking to me, only to immediately lose my grip and fall. I tumbled down, nding on my butt, feeling the pain course through my bone. I keeled over, clutg my butt. I felt a pair of hands moving me so that I wasn't leaning on my butt anymore. Looking up through the pain, I found Cait, written all over her face.

  "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to startle you! How bad is it? Are you able to move?" Cait's voice was tinged with worry and fear, though I couldn't really process that with the pain. " we get a bag of ice, please?" she called over her shoulder. We sat there with her holdieady while leaning me over for a few minutes while someo a bag of ice. It y butt and I felt some relief from the pain, though it wasn't quite enough. Still, with time and now the ice, I could begin to tell that it wasn't a fracture, at least.

  Cait helped me stand up ahe bag on and walked me to the locker room. She id me face down on one of the benches and pced the bag down, theo her locker. Did... did she just brio the girl's locker room? Uhhhhhh, what? "Cait?" I spoke up. "Where did y me?"

  "To the locker room, silly. You needed somewhere to rest and could likely use a ge. At least into some shoes with better grip." Cait replied happily. I couldn't really remark on that st ent, but it felt like it was meant to distract me.

  "Cait, be ho. Which locker room?" I pressed.

  Cait sighed, "Fine, I brought you to the women's locker room. You are allowed in here, even if you think you shouldn't be." There was a brief silence before she followed up with, "Ellie talked to me. She's been really worried about you, you know? She wasn't even sure you'd show today."

  Tears started welling up. Rationally, I k wasn't a betrayal, but it still felt vioting. How much did she tell? As I was drowning in fears, I felt Cait's hand rubbing my bad her g at me. "Hey, it's okay. No one's going to hurt you. She just wanted my expertise on how best to help you." I looked up and saw her soft smile. "There you go, think through it." As she talked, I finally noticed the fangs in her mouth.

  Panic began to flood me, but Cait made no move on me. I tensed up, trying to think of what would happe, and that didn't go unnoticed. "Let me guess, you've heard plenty of stories growing up about us, how eople, best ways to kill us vampires, hmm?" She smirked. "Well, I'll just say, they didn't actually get any of it right. That was a fantasy to try to manufacture e at us. I should know, I was there." That ent brought my mind to a screeg halt. Just how old was this woman?

  As I was thinking on that revetion, Cait tinued, "I was asked if I would be willing to help you with your problem by Ellie. You seem like you'd like it, but I won't force you into it. And if you're worried about clothes after I'm done, don't worry, Ellie mentiohat you're my size, so I brought some extra clothes for today." The whole time she kept rubbing my back.

  "Wha-what... roblem are you talking about?" I squeaked out.

  Cait smiled, "I'll need you to say it, but Ellie is the one running your wifi, you know? She sees how you look up timelines."

  That broke me. Ellie cared so much about me that she was willing to find me help spurred me on. "... you help me transition?" I asked between sobs. Cait leaned in and pnted a kiss on my head.

  "Of course," she replied as she pulled back. "Though my way isn't what you're probably expeg. I help you without you having to go on HRT. My way isn't as easy to undo, and there aren't a lot of vampires thanks tious crusades, but we still try to keep up with trans people in our viity and help out where we . And it just so happens that I should be thinking of feeding at some point, so this works out perfectly."

  Rather than try to process everything she just said, my mind g to the part about HRT. "Wait, if not through HRT, then how will I be transitioning? Don't you o get on it to get surgeries?" Her ugh had me melting.

  "Right, of course. Except that when a vampire drains you, we eat hormones and our spit has chemicals that we magically trol to ge certain things in your body. Basically, it boils down to us being able to almost literally mold you. So," she leaned in and whispered in my ear. "Do you wao make you a woman?"

  "Please," I responded almost immediately. Cait sat me up before lig my ned biting me. I could feel her sug out my hormones, like she said, and her hands began roaming my body. Everywhere they went, ges began to happen. I looked down at the clothes Cait had sat on the bench across from us, knowing that I'd soon be wearing them. Tears of joy ran down my face as I pulled off my pants.

  Cait took that initiative and asked "'ickle or no 'ickle?" It took me a sed to figure that out before I started ughing, trying very hard not to move with her fangs still inside me.

  "Get rid of it, please." Feeling so much better now, I sat down and waited for my body to finish ging. Finally, she pulled bad I pulled off my hoodie, wanting to see the ges for myself. I'm fug hot! What?!

  Cait got up and grabbed the extra workout clothes. "There we go, feelier now?"

  "Yeah, thank you! How I ever repay you?" I replied, taking the top and trying to pull it on.

  Cait ughed and moved to help me with it. "Well, if you really feel like it, how about a date? It's been far too long since I've been on one."

  I froze and Cait must have slipped the top on because when my brain started w again, it was already on. "I- yes. Absolutely. How about the butterfly museum?"

  "Sounds great," Cait purred in my ear. "But you o get dressed and we'll head back out. I want to see what you really do." I needed no further encement and pulled on the pants that fit me rather nicely before following her out.

  Ellie was the first to see us e out and she rushed over and gave me a hug, gratuting me on taking a step outside my fort zohis is really nice, and there's no weird nagging in my head about h this is anymore. Is this eople feel normally?

  "Thanks, Ellie," I said, stepping back from her hug. "Now, I kinda wanna try climbing a wall. I'm feeling really energized for some reason."

  Ellie gave me a smile and waved over one of the gym's spotters. "e here, this is a medium difficulty wall they've set up. Should be just right for you." She started hooking me in while the spotter came over.

  Soon as she arrived, Jacky, my spotter, rahrough the safety checks and safe words before letting me climb. As I approached the wall, I started to get nervous as all my extended friend group was behind me. I got a few rocks in before a particurly slippery roearly made me fall back down, but I mao hold on and not lose my position.

  This time I felt more fident in myself. Cheers of "You go, girl!" and "Climb that wall!" echoed behind me as I lost myself in a climbing rhythm. I no longer felt a disect between my mind and body, and I easily grabbed ledge after nub, easily reag the halfoint. I started to feel tired, as I hadn't been going out much tely, but I powered through it when I heard Cait's voice cut through the crowd "You do it, keep going!"

  't stop now. o see this through. Prove to myself that I like going out. I wiped my hand on my hletic-wear befoing for the hold. The higher I climbed, the more fortable I started to feel. Is this really what I'd been missing all these years? Finally, I reached the top, to the cheers of my friends below.

  As I let my spotter slowly bring me down, all I could think was about how exhirating it was. Cait was on me as soon as I hit the ground, pulling me in for a kiss and unbug my harness. "You did great!" she smiled as she pulled back.

  "Thanks," I replied. "I feel better than I have in a long time." Then, deg to be brave, I added, "Looking forward to going out again." The smile that lit up Cait's face when I said that caused my heart to skip a beat.

  As she led me to the ging room, I looked bad saw Ellie givihumbs up and a smirk. I'm so gd I have such a great friend.