A day after his last changes occurred, Ryan is getting increasingly anxious about leaving his apartment. What if it suddenly started raining? What if someone spilled water on him? After having experienced these further changes last night, he is unsure of ever leading a normal life again.

Spending the day brooding on his sofa, his thoughts are plagued with the unfamiliar euphoria that washed over him during the transformations.


Meanwhile, a few blocks over, Judy is agonizing over whether or not to go visit Ryan. She hasn’t heard from him in a while and that was putting her off. Normally, they were at the very least texting each morning, and usually telling stories to each other.

She recalls him mentioning that something “happened” to him and wants to be there for him if nothing else. Finally resolving to visit him, she packs up and leaves the house.


Being pulled out of his thoughts when the doorbell rings, Ryan jolts up from the sofa and dashes over to the front door. “Yes, who’s there?”, he asks the intercom, wondering who would want something at 9 PM.

“Hey, Ryan, it’s me”, the familiar voice replies. “Wanna let me in?”

He opens the door for her and waits for her to come up to him. “What’s up? Something happen?”, he inquired, looking at Judy confused.
“You’re asking me? What’s up with you? I haven’t heard from you all day!”, she retorts, advancing into the apartment after closing the door behind her.

Ryan sighs, realizing why she showed up. “I’m sorry J, I’m still dealing with… what I told you last time.”
Judy scoffs, shaking her head. “Yeah? How about telling me what’s up!”, she demanded.

His mind starts racing. Surely she would think he was batshit crazy if he told her the truth.

He sits back down on the sofa, and explains to her that something happened to him at the lake and that he didn’t want to leave the house for a while.

Judy was still confused and wasn’t letting up. “I want the whole story, Ryan.”

Not being sure if he was doing the right thing, he let out a groan. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, so let me just…”, he interrupted himself by grabbing the glass of water on the table and dumping it on his legs, soaking his shorts.
“What are you doing?”, she asked, visibly confused. “Just wait and watch. And please don’t freak out!”, Ryan returned, pulling up his shirt a bit, exposing his lower belly and the healed cut.

Judy stares with anticipation, blushing at the sight of her crush exposing himself.

After about a minute, she wonders if he’d gone mad, when she suddenly spies tiny specks of iridescent purple on his belly, first only a few, then more and more, expanding outward and forming scales, covering most of his lower belly and stopping short of his belly button.

For a moment, she sits there in silence, not sure what to say. She looks at Ryan, as if to ask him to explain why he was growing scales, but she knew he must have been as clueless as her.

He breaks the silence, explaining “Something attacked me at the lake. And after that, this kept happening whenever I got wet. But this isn’t everything yet…”, he continues, waiting for the next changes to set in.

“May... may I touch them?”, she asks shyly and upon him nodding, extends a hand, touching some of the scales on his belly. “

He reacts by pulling away from the touch at first, but notices that the feeling is not at all unpleasant and leans in closer again, putting his head on Judy's shoulder.

"This is so weird, J. And the worst part? I'm somehow...enjoying it. It feels good when the scales grow and-", his explanation was cut short when his hands began to tingle, scales already forming on both arms. First slowly, then ever faster, they both watched as his arms were consumed by a wave of purple splotches. He shivered slightly as the webbing between his now purple fingers was beginning to stretch towards their tips.

Judy continues observing in awe as her love interest changes more and more, sitting in silence.

She notices the sharp tips erupting from his forearms, quickly connected by the same turquoise webbing that now bridged his fingers.

But that would not be all, as suddenly, Ryan notices a slight tug on his ears. He raises a webbed hand to inspect it and feels 3 cartilaginous spines extending from his ear, growing longer and longer until they reach about 10 centimeters in length. And as before, the room between those growths is slowly but surely filled out with yet more of the shimmering webbing. Both ears were now purple, slick fins protruding from the sides of Ryan's head.

He relaxed again, sighing quietly: "I'm sorry J, you must think I'm some kind of monster…"

Judy was still processing what she witnessed, but perked up at his words. "What? No, it's still you, I know that! And besides… I think it kinda suits you! You always loved swimming! Now you'll be really good at it!", she jokes and smiles at him.

"But, I-", he tries to get a word in when she throws her arms around him.

"I'll help you with this, okay? You don't need to do this alone!", she whispers, planting a kiss on his cheek, quickly transitioning to his lips.

Before he knew it, they were in a deep embrace and kissed wildly, making him forget all about his troubles.

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Yeah, I haven't forgotten about this one! And I thought there's no better time to continue than Mermay! I hope some people enjoy :)