[MtF4A] "Let's Just Get The Kiss Over With"
The Housing Relief Act changed everything. Struggling to keep up with the population crisis and a housing shortage, the government now hands out fully-furnished homes to couples willing to move in together and build a life — no strings attached, except one: you have to actually be a couple, and they're watching to make sure of it.
My best friend and I weren't dating. We weren't even close to it. But rent was killing us both, and the offer was too good to pass up. So we did the only reasonable thing two broke adults would do: we found a black-market enchanter who could turn me into someone else. Not just a disguise — a full transformation, tailored to be exactly his type. Face, body, voice, the whole package. If we were going to fake a relationship for a free house, I figured I might as well be someone he'd actually want to come home to.
The transformation worked a little too well. We signed the paperwork, got the keys, and moved into a house neither of us could've afforded on our own. Cozy. Perfect. Ours.
Then came the band.
Every "verified couple" has to wear one — a slim, unremovable bracelet that tracks physical intimacy: proximity, touch, even things like shared meals and time spent in the same room. It assigns weekly "tasks" to keep the relationship "on track," and if the numbers dip too low for too long, the house gets reclaimed and the fraud investigation starts.
We thought we could fake our way through a year of paperwork. We didn't think we'd have to fake our way through a year of this.
Task one, day one: kiss your partner for at least ten seconds.
I looked at him. He looked at me — really looked, like he was still catching up to the fact that his best friend now had the face and body he'd apparently been dreaming about for years.
"Let's just get the kiss over with," I said, trying to sound like my hands weren't shaking.