Chapter 4
Kade led Winston up the narrow staircase, hyperaware of each footstep behind him. The apartment door creaked as he pushed it open, suddenly self-conscious about the sparse apartment.
"Sorry, it's not much," he said, flicking on the overhead light.
The space was small but comfortable. It was old fashioned and narrow like the shop below.
Normally, Kade thought that made both feel cozy, but now that he had a guest, he was second guessing himself.
He didn’t have a lot of furniture, just the basics and most of it second hand.
There were almost no decorations. Instead, prototypes, sample fabrics, and sketches were piled on every surface.
Pieces of old projects were cluttered on the built-in shelves next to costume reference books.
The TV was still on, but it played a different creature feature.
Winston stepped inside, his gaze sweeping the organized chaos. "It's perfect. Very you."
"How would you know what's very me?" Kade asked, closing the door behind them.
"Because you've got good taste." Winston winked at Kade, and Kade’s heart fluttered again.
Winston’s fingers trailed his finger over a sample of silk in an open swatch book.
"And you care about things. I can tell."
Heat bloomed out of the fluttering in Kade's chest at the simple observation. He busied himself grabbing two bottles of water from the fridge, needing a moment to process the unexpected tenderness in Winston's voice.
"Water?"
"Thanks." Winston accepted the bottle, their fingers brushing. His form had stabilized into something closer to his original appearance—dark hair, strong jaw, those mismatched eyes that seemed to see straight through Kade.
They stood in the middle of the small space, suddenly awkward now that they weren't touching. The sexual charge from downstairs lingered, but uncertainty crept in around the edges.
Winston's stomach chose that moment to growl loudly.
"Oh shit, are you hungry?" Kade asked. "I don't really cook, but I've got..." He opened cabinets at random. "Beef jerky? Oh! And a lot of Halloween candy.”
"That sounds amazing actually."
Kade paused, a bag jerky in one hand. "Really?"
"I didn't get to do regular Halloween much as a kid. Foster parents thought it encouraged mischief.” Winston shrugged, but Kade caught the flash of old hurt. "Never had trick-or-treat candy."
Something fierce and protective surged in Kade's chest. He grabbed the left over bags along with a few packs of jerky and gestured toward the couch.
“Well, you're about to get a crash course."
They settled on the couch, the bowl of candy on the coffee table between them. Winston approached a piece of candy with scientific curiosity. He turned it over, examining it carefully.
“They’re just smaller versions of regular candy?” Winston’s confusion was so genuine that Kade found himself grinning like an idiot.
"What did you think it would be?" Kade asked holding back a laugh.
“I don’t know,” Winston said around a mouthful of chocolate. “Everyone made such a big deal about it, I thought the candy was different somehow. Better.”
“It is. The miniaturization process makes it better,” Kade said.
Winston glared at Kade from the corner of his eye, reaching for another piece. As he moved, his shirt rode up slightly, revealing a strip of skin that flickered between different tones. Kade's attention snagged on the shifting patterns.
"Does it hurt?" he asked quietly.
"The changing? Not exactly." Winston considered, chewing thoughtfully. "It's more like... restless energy. Like I need to move but can't figure out how. Stress makes it worse, so yeah. That’s really inconvenient.”
"What helps?"
"Touch, apparently." Winston's gaze flicked to Kade. "It’s never stopped completely since it started. At least not before tonight."
The admission hung between them, weighted with possibility. Kade set down his water bottle and shifted closer on the couch. "Can I?"
Winston nodded.
Kade reached out slowly, placing his palm against Winston's chest. The fabric of Winston’s shirt was warmer than Kade expected. It made sense when he thought about it, the shirt was part of Winston. Somehow.
The shifting slowed him beer Kade’s touch, like ripples calming on water. Winston's breath caught.
"Better?"
"Much."
The word came out rough, and suddenly the space between them felt charged again. Kade's hand was still pressed against Winston's chest, and he could feel the steady thrum of his heartbeat in the fabric, as if his shirt weren’t there.
"Kade." Winston's voice was barely above a whisper.
"Yeah?"
"I want to touch you, too."
Heat flooded Kade's system. "Yeah. Yes. I want that too."
Winston's hands found the hem of Kade's hoodie, tugging it up and over his head. With a little twitch, Windton’s shirt just disappeared, shifting back into his body. Kade reached out to trace the shifting patterns with his fingertips.
"Shower?" Winston suggested. Kade nodded.
Kade's bathroom was barely big enough for one person, let alone two, but they made it work. The spray was hot against their skin as they pressed together under the narrow stream. Winston's form cycled through subtle variations—broader shoulders, rounder belly, new constellations of freckles.
Kade wrapped his hand around Winston's cock, stroking slowly as water cascaded over them. Winston's head fell back against the tile, a low moan escaping his lips. The sound echoed off the walls, intimate and raw.
"Wait. I wanted to do that to you," Winston breathed, reaching for Kade.
Their hands worked together, finding a rhythm that had them both gasping. Water made everything slick and warm, and watching Winston's face change faster and faster as pleasure built was hypnotic. His features would sharpen with intensity, then soften as Kade found just the right touch.
"You’re beautiful," Kade murmured, his eyes wide as he watched Winston.
Winston's laugh was breathless. "All of me?"
"Especially all of you."
They came within moments of each other, Winston first with a cry that sounded like Kade's name, then Kade following as Winston's shifting hand worked him through it. They stayed pressed together under the spray, catching their breath.
Later, dried off and both wearing real t-shirts and pajama pants from Kade’s drawers. They collapsed into Kade’s bed. The easy intimacy surprised Kade. He'd expected things to be awkward after, but Winston curled against his side like they'd been doing this for years.
"Tell me about the shop," Winston said, playing with the strings on Kade’s pants hoodie. "How'd you get into costume making?"
"Started in high school. I was obsessed with being someone else.
Went to this anime convention as an excuse to make a costume.
I spent months making this elaborate armor costume.
" Kade smiled at the memory. "It was terrible, but I was hooked.
Started taking commissions in college to pay for better materials. "
"And now?"
"Now I make bank off people's last-minute panic every October." Kade grinned. "Though I'd rather do more custom work year-round. More creative, less stressful."
"You will," Winston said with surprising certainty. "Your stuff is incredible. I've been watching your social media."
"You have?"
Winston's cheeks flushed, visible even through his shifting features. "I may have been kind of stalking you for a while before tonight."
"How long is a while?"
"About a month."
Kade turned to look at him properly. "A month? Why didn't you just talk to me?"
"Because I didn’t know you’d take the shifting this well. Hard to have a normal conversation when you're cycling through bodies every few minutes." Winston's form flickered slightly, as if responding to the memory. "Plus, I wasn't sure you'd be interested."
"Are you kidding? I've been thinking about you since the second you walked in."
Winston's smile was soft and genuine. "Really?"
"Really." Kade pressed a kiss to Winston's temple. "Your turn. What's your story?"
The shifting slowed as Winston spoke, his voice steady but careful.
He told Kade about how his foster parents had allowed him to stay after the boyfriend incident as long as he was in school, about how they’d thought he was possessed when they saw him shift, about how he couldn’t hold stop shifting long enough to talk to people, about the loneliness.
"I was able to hide it at first but the shifting got worse for a while after I was kicked out," Winston admitted. "Stress makes it worse. I'd sometimes go days without being able to hold a form long enough to get a job or find a place to stay."
"Is that why you were in the shop? For somewhere to sleep?"
Winston nodded, embarrassed. "It’s not why I came. Your costumes are so good. They’ve helped me practice holding specific looks. But when I got there, it just felt…safe.”
Something clicked in Kade's mind. "You're the reason things were moved around."
"Sorry. I tried to put everything back, but I wasn't always sure where it went."
Kade laughed, the sound surprising them both. "I thought the place was haunted."
"I guess, you weren't wrong."
They talked until nearly dawn, voices growing softer as exhaustion set in. Winston's shifting had slowed to barely perceptible changes as they held hands under the covers—a freckle appearing and disappearing, his hair lightening by a shade or two. The trust building between them was almost visible.
"Stay," Kade murmured as his eyes grew heavy. "Don't leave."
"Okay," Winston whispered back.
Kade drifted off with Winston's warm weight against his side, feeling more content than he had in months. The last thing he remembered was Winston's fingers tracing gentle patterns on his chest, the touch steady and real..