"Mom, I'm home!" Chris shouted as she practically dragged me through the front door of her house.

"It's a good thing your father gets home late from work or you'd have missed dinner!" came a reply from another room.

Chris shot back, "It's not late if that's when he's scheduled to get off, mom." But she was smiling so I guessed this was some sort of family joke or something.

Her mother walked into the room about then.

"I assume this is Morgan?"

"Yes, ma'am. Morgan Howe."

I hesitated, then continued, "And, I should tell you. I'm a boy."

She smiled. "My husband had already told me when he called about that fight you two were in. But I'm glad you were honest enough to tell me."

Turning to Chris she said, "And yes, that means the usual rules about boys. If you go up to your room together, leave the door open."

"Mooom!"

Her mom just laughed. "What, you think I didn't notice how you were being so careful to not mention what sex Morgan was when you called me?"

I just grinned and said "Busted!" to Chris.

We did go up to her room and study.

Ok, we got out our books and talked a lot while she showed me her room. Much to my surprise it was a lot closer to my room than to my sister's room. As she told me about things I realized that she did a lot of stuff with her dad. I guess that explained the "guy" stuff.

Mind you, it was a lot girlier than my room. But she also had stuff I wouldn't have expected. like the pics of her holding up some fish she'd caught.

We were still discussing teachers more than the assignments when her dad got home. A few minutes later her mom stuck her head in the door.

"Girls, time for dinner."

As we started to get up, she looked at me and said "Sorry, Morgan..."

"It's ok, when I'm dressed this way, calling me a girl is fine. Just try not to do it when I'm in guy mode, ok?" I smiled to show there wasn't a problem.

Chris laughed. "If guy mode is what you were wearing at school today, you'd better expect to get mistaken for a girl a lot."

We were almost at the table by then. Chris's dad looked up.

"Oh, you weren't dressed that way at school? I'd wondered about that. I see you toned down the look since I saw you earlier too."

Chris's mom wanted to know about the look her dad had seen, they both wanted to know about what I'd been wearing in school. I promised to show them after dinner.

That didn't get me off the hook though. Everyone wanted to know more about my day at school. (Oh god, what were my parents going to be like when I got home?) And Chris's folks wanted to know about what we did after school.

That led to a raised eyebrow from Chris's mom.

"You were trying on clothes at the stores?"

"Uh, yes?"

Chris's dad broke in. "Relax, Anne, it's legal. It's just women's locker rooms and other places involving nudity that Morgan has to stay out of."

"Uh, yeah. That's right."

He shook his head. "We've had the laws for close to 10 years, and we still get calls every so often from idiots in mall security when some busybody complains."

He chuckled. "Don't tell anyone, but that's going to change rather drastically soon. One of the busybodies actually hung around after claiming that a 'man' was in the women's restroom. I happened to catch the call as I was going through Dispatch."

"Would you believe that she actually said she'd seen his penis? While he was in a stall?"

We all looked puzzled. I was kinda squicked by the thought of somebody trying to see what I had in a bathroom.

"So I had the operator tell her to wait there with mall security until we got there. When the officers arrived they arrested her as a peeping tom. The t-girl she'd accused was more than willing to press charges. Funny about that."

"Anyway, once that hits the news, I expect the nuisance calls about trans folks in bathrooms and dressing rooms are going to drop a lot."

Chris chimed in "Well, I don't think Morgan has to worry about that. Even in his underwear you can't tell..."

Anne gave Chris a look. "You've seen Morgan in her... I mean his, underwear?"

Oops. I tried to defend Chris.

"They're kinda short of changing rooms, especially in the afternoon. We sorta had to share a few times..."

Chris added "We both had our panties and bras on. It's not that different than bikinis, mom!"

Her mom started to say something then looked at Mr. Watt.

"I can see we're going to have to come up with some changes to the rules, dear."

"We'll discuss it later. But I don't think there's a problem with what they did."

He looked at Chris. "Just don't go any farther, young lady."

Then to me, "Steve says you're trustworthy, and I trust his judgement. Even so, anything the two of you do is going to get looked at under a magnifying glass until you become old news. Sorry, Morgan, but that's the way it is..."

Steve? Who was... Oh, yeah. Sensei Rogers first name was Steve.

Then I started to think about what he'd said. Urgh. He was probably right. My folks and I had figured there'd be some problems, but it hadn't sunk in that any friends would get dragged into things too. This could really suck.

"Chris, maybe I should stay away from you..."

She reached across the table to grab my hand.

"Morgan, I can take care of myself. And I'd feel awful if I left you to face all the jerks by yourself."

"But..."

"Look, doesn't Sensei say that it's better to have someone to watch your back if you are facing multiple opponents?"

I wanted to argue, but she was right. Still...

"Yeah, but he also says that people who haven't trained together get in each other's way."

"Well, there's a simple solution for that. We just have to train together!"

Her dad said something about needing to see how that'd fit with other things she did.

Thankfully, talk shifted to other things.

After dinner, we went back to Chris's room. I grabbed my pack and ducked into the bathroom. I decided I could leave the tights on but quickly swapped out the skirt and top for the slacks and blouse I'd worn at school.

A quick check in the mirror reminded me to remove the jewelry and makeup. A few minutes later I walked back downstairs to give Chris's folks the promised look at what I'd been wearing at school.

From the top of the stairs I called "I believe you've met Chris's girl friend Morgan..."

As I reached the bottom I finished "... I'm her boy friend Morgan."

Chris's mom looked a bit surprised. Her dad had this look on his face.

"Boyfriend, huh? I better get my shotgun..."

Mrs. Watt went "Andrew!" at the same time Chris went "Dad!".

I was about to freak when he winked at me.

He shrugged and said "Hey, I gotta try to intimidate boyfriends or they'll kick me out of the Fraternal Order of Fathers."

"Maybe I should rephrase that. Hi, I'm her male friend Morgan."

"Ah. That does make a difference," joked Mr Watt.

His wife commented, "You know, you really don't look all that 'male' even in those clothes."

"Well, I have a choice between wearing super baggy stuff, wearing stuff like this that fits, and binding my breasts. Not only is binding a royal pain, but the docs say that doing it long term damages the breast tissue. So that isn't really an option."

"Well, you don't seem to mind wearing girly stuff, so..."

"So why didn't I wear the other outfit at school? Simple. Wearing this I got stopped in the boys locker room. Can you imagine if I'd worn that skirt and top?"

Chris started snickering.

Her mother went "Boys locker room?"

"Yeah, I'm still legally a boy and no matter how I present, I have to use the boys locker room unless I want to have certain body parts I'd rather keep chopped off."

Mrs. Watt blinked. Then gave me an inquiring look.

"That must have been, um, 'interesting'. Walking into the locker room, I mean."

"Oh it was."

I proceeded to recap things from my entry into the locker room, until the end of the school day.

Mr. Watt pointed out what I'd done wrong in changing before going to my locker. Chris and I both did the face palm bit when we realized how I'd screwed up.

I went and changed back to the skirt and top, with the bolder makeup. Chris's mom gave me a look but didn't say anything.

Chris and I went back to her room to finish our homework. We actually got it done in spite of the time we spent talking about other things.

Chris was teasing me about showering with "all those hunks" in PE. I guess I blushed or something. She wanted details. And she was leaning in close so we could talk more quietly.

I suddenly found my panties very uncomfortable.

"Uh, Chris? Could we talk about something else? Please?"

"I'm not embarrassing you am I?"

"Err, no, but..."

Then she noticed the way I was squirming and the pained look on my face.

"Oh. OH!"

She pulled back and I dashed to the bathroom to "adjust" things. I wished I could do more than that, but not in her house!

We both blushed and had trouble looking at each other when I got back.

Fortunately(?) we were pretty much done with the homework, and it was getting time to leave. So I packed up my stuff and we said our goodbyes.

When I got downstairs, Mr. Watt offered me a ride home. Even though I suspected he wanted to talk to me about something, I still accepted. The buses after dark weren't the safest place in the world, and besides, if he wanted to talk to me, he'd probably find some other way if I avoided him this time.

Sure enough, once we were in the car he started talking.

"You seem to be a pretty good kid. I don't have a problem with you hanging around Chris. My wife has a couple of reservations about the way you look in the makeup you're wearing now."

I started to explain, but he stopped me.

"I know, you were trying to look as different as you could. That's actually not always a good idea. If you get too noticeable, people will take a second look. Or a third."

He paused. "Of course, with you getting caught out today, you might as well give up on trying camouflage."

I sighed, "Yeah, but I still need to work up to wearing stuff like this at school."

"Those idiots already know, and they'll spread it around fast enough. You might want to reconsider your plans."

I nodded.

"But getting back to you and Chris, Anne and I have decided that as long as the two of you are friends, you'll probably wind up needing to change around each other. So we're going to allow that as long as both of you keep your panties on. And if you're over at our place, that's the one time you two can be behind a closed door together, ok?"

I nodded again. They were being a lot more reasonable than I'd have expected.

"Also," his voice kind of trailed off like he was nervous or something, "if you and Chris wind up as more than just friends, we're ok with that. But if you do, the rules are going to have to change."

"If you were both girls, we wouldn't worry as much. But since you are still a guy, mostly, you could get her pregnant. That would not be a good thing."

His tone made it clear that this was something very much to be avoided.

We arrived at my house not long after that.