Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

??? 23rd, 2027, ??? PM, Base, ???

*Beep*

*Beep*

*Beep*

*Sobbing*

*Beep*

*Beep*

*Beep*

Chapter Text

???, ??, ????, 12:15 PM, ???, Texas

“Dude, I can’t believe you live like that. Must be super rough.”

“Y-yeah…”

“Why don’t you stand up to her?”

“M-mom always has a-a-a comeback to everything. I’d n-n-never win…”

“Can’t your dad do anything?”

“Mom won’t listen…”

Chapter Text

August 2nd, 2027, 11:56 AM, Base, Laboratory

“As you can see, the statistical increase in effectiveness has dramatically increased by as much as 43% — all thanks to the improvements of the Meowfficers,” Yuubari explained to the Commander and Howe, both arriving at the lab to see the results.

They had the time available to make this visit as there were a few minor things that the others could handle. The only thing that piqued the Commander’s interest while behind the desk was a weather report given to him by Tirpitz about a massive storm that would sweep into the area a little less than two weeks from now.

“Excellent work, girls. ” the Commander gave them a thumbs up. “And good work, Rose. ”

“Nya-dood!” Rose responded.

“So, was there anything else you girls wanted to show us? ”

“Nya-t at the moment, Shikikan-sama,” Akashi said while carrying a box of mysterious fluids.

“What are you doing, Akashi-san?” Yuubari asked her. “We don’t have anything else scheduled for today.”

“I was thinking about doing some rearranging, nya. Need to put these somewhere the little guys can’t reach, but still accessible to us. Howe-san, would you mind putting this box on the second-from-the-top shelf?

“Not at all,” Howe agreed, taking the box out of her hands.

As she walked over to the shelf, Rose spotted something that was also placed on it, and will always pique the interest of cats: a feather teaser. And seeing that Howe was walking over to it, she thought that she was going to pick it up and start playing with her. Jumping down from the table, she rushed over to where Howe was and jumped onto her back.

“Woah!!” Howe yelped out before a catastrophic cacophony of noise, lights, and colorful smoke encapsulated the whole lab.

Coughing out the smoke, the Commander, Yuubari, and Akashi treaded carefully to not step on anyone or anything dangerous. Out of the smoke, Rose waddled out with not the feather teaser, but rather a fake mouse — something that was also on the shelf.

“You are in serious trouble, Rose!” Yuubari reprimanded the robot, picking it up before it could do any further damage.

“Howe-san, are you okay?” Akashi asked as some of the smoke cleared.

“I’m okay, but bloody hell did that fall hurt. I also feel a little wet, I think some of whatever was in that box spilled on me,” Howe explained. Once the smoke finally cleared, the other three’s eyes bulged out of their heads. “What’s wrong?”

The Commander simply pointed to his head, telling her to do the same. Doing as told, Howe reached up and felt some sort of liquid on her head. Taking a finger to it, she put it in front of her face to see it was transparent green in color.

“This?”

Shaking his head, he then pointed to the top of Akashi’s head, then to her head. Repeating the process, she moved her hand to the left of where she previously found the liquid to find something triangular in shape, fluffy, and felt like she was touching her head.

“Huh?!”

Quickly rising, and avoiding the broken glass on the floor, Howe made her way to them and pulled out her phone to have a proper look at herself. When she did, the only thing that changed was that she now possessed two small, cat-like ears on the top of her head.

“Well this is interesting…” was Howe’s only comment on the situation.

John… had a different reaction…

Oh dear God, my girlfriend now has cat ears and I want to start petting the top of her head so goddamn badly! was what he was thinking.

“How are you feeling?” the light cruiser asked, still holding onto Rose.

“Hmm… I hear a little better than before,” Howe said. “Other than that, nothing else feels strange.”

“How about this, nya?” Akashi said, redirecting her attention to the feather teaser in her hands now.

“Nothing.”

“Akashi, what was in that box? ” the Commander asked, trying to distract himself from his intrusive thoughts.

“A lot of things, nya,” she said, surveying the broken bottles/containers on the floor. “Oh dear, a bottle of my Cat Hormones Medicine was also mixed into the box, nya!”

“You still have those?!” Yuubari questioned. “Just put them in your room!”

“But then Yuudachi-san will get into them again, nya!”

“Then just put them somewhere secure!!”

“So what else was in there?” Howe refocused the topic.

“... I forgot, nya…”

“You didn’t have labels on them, either!” Yuubari continued to scold her.

“I was going to, nya~!”

“So now what? ” the Commander cut-in.

“We’ll have to analyze the fluids here, and figure out what they are. Then we should be able to synthesize something to turn Howe-san back to normal.”

“This will take awhile, nya.”

“Well how long is ‘awhile’?” Howe asked, to only be met with shrugs. “Well, I need to go back to my room and get a new change of clothes.”

“Oh, you should give us your dirty clothes in case they contaminate something else if they are washed normally.”

“Good point.”

“We should also tell you sisters about what happened. ”

As soon as they left the lab, Howe was met by the gaze of passers by, curious about her new head attribute. Though it was only for a moment before they returned back to their task, it was a little unnerving to have a lot more people looking at her now than ever.

Once they finally arrived, Howe immediately went into the showers to clean herself up as John waited in the living room for her sisters to arrive — which didn’t take long.

“Well this is certainly interesting, innit?” King George V asked, sitting closer to Howe.

“Are you feeling abnormal, Howe?” Monarch asked.

“Feeling the same old me~” Howe reassured them as Charles rubbed his head on her newly found ears.

“That bloody cat…” Prince of Wales began. “Why does she only think of profits and not safety?”

“Doth be a question only God knows,” Duke of York mused.

Meanwhile sitting next to Howe, the Commander has been remaining silent throughout this whole conversation. That’s due to his intrusive petting thoughts, something well established within his head — being watched by two people.

“So… When do you think he’s going to do it?” Bremerton asked, eating a bag of mental popcorn. They had taken a break from their duties to watch this hilarious effort of their boss to not do what he wants to.

“This one thinks… before eight, tonight…” Shinano said.

“Yeah but do you think Howe’s gonna let him, or is he going to do it by surprise?”

“Hmm… This one doesn’t know…” she admitted, taking a sip of dream oxy-cola.

“John? John, are you listening?” Howe asked, waving a hand in front of his face.

Jumping out of his thoughts, he quickly nodded his head to affirm that he was listening to the conversation at hand, writing out, “Sorry, I was just distracted. ”

“Well since you seem to be normal, there shouldn’t be any problems with returning to your duties,” George concluded.

“We shall eagerly await the return of thy normal being,” York added.

“And we’ll make sure that Akashi gets that done in due time,” Monarch assured her.

“With force if necessary,” Wales also added, most likely seeking the chance to fight that cat for all of the “troubles” she’s caused the base over the years.

“I guess we should, John,” Howe agreed with them. “We still have some documents that need to be looked over, talk with Midway and Alaska, the requested reports from the patrol parties, and we still need preparations for tonight.”

“Right. We’ll be going then. ”

“Keep an eye on her, Commander,” the Chef instructed him as the two of them left the room. Once they were gone, she turned to her other sisters. “You all saw it too, didn’t you?”

“Of course,” the redhead nodded. “He was shooting headpatting daggers at her head.”

“Our poor, naive sister is not able to see it with her own eyes…” the Vampire lamented.

“So… When do you think he’ll break?” the Prince started the bet.

“Tonight.”

“Tonight.”

“Tonight.”

“Wow, there was no hesitation with those answers!”

Chapter Text

August 2nd, 2027, 7:21 PM, Base, Commander’s House

“Now, try to move them downwards,” Fusou META instructed Howe.

“Like this?” Howe asked for clarity, moving her cat ears so that they were pointing down at the floor.

“Yeah, just like that!” Yamashiro META affirmed. “If you had longer ears, you’d look like Takao right now.”

“Heehee~ I’d agree, Imōto.”

“I don’t,” Ember denied from the table before returning to her game.

You might be asking, “Why is Howe asking questions about how to manipulate her newly acquired ears?” That’s because she has no clue when she’ll get them removed. So as long as she’s stuck with them, might as well figure out how to use them and know any benefits that come with them.

“So what’s next?” she asked.

“Next, you want to give your biggest sad eyes. Like puppy eyes.”

“Hmm… puppy eyes… Like this?” she said before configuring her face to make it look like she’s on the verge of tearing up, and pleading with someone for something that she really wants.

“Hai, that’s exactly it.”

“And if you want to and more power to it…” Yamashiro began to say before picking up an empty try and handing it to her. “Hold it up from the top and raise it in front of your chest. This is the most effective way to get what you want.”

“Great! But how do you know if it’ll work? And what would I even use it for?”

Both of the sisters gave a quick glance at each other, as if telepathically sending a message to each other about the same idea. They then looked back at the British battleship and said, “Headpats.”

“Headpats?”

“Hai, headpats,” Fusou nodded. “They have a great feeling on your head.”

“Why don’t you try it with Shikikan-dono?” her sister insisted, both having seen the man’s glare at her head.

“Okay! Let’s see if it’ll work!” Howe said before turning to the Commander.

Ever since they got back to his house, John’s been trying his gosh-darn-best to not pet Howe’s head, even going so far to not look directly at her for a while — sneaking quick glances at her. He was actually not listening to that entire conversation the three of the ladies were having just a few feet away from him.

As he finished washing off the last of the trays, he felt someone tapping on his shoulder. Turning that direction, he saw his girlfriend giving him big, sad puppy eyes, holding a tray in front of her, and her animal ears pointing down to the floor.

“Do you think you can give me some headpats, Commander~?” Howe asked in a low tone, drawing out her last words to achieve maximum effect.

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!! John mentally screamed. Okay! Calm the FUCK down, John! Your incredibly beautiful and wonderful girlfriend who currently has cat ears is asking you to pet the top of her head, but you need to stay calm! Act like this isn’t what you’ve been waiting for your entire fucking life!

Listening to his internal dialogue, John simply shrugged and slowly reached the top of her head. As soon as his hand was planted atop her left car ear, he could feel that it was actually cat fur.

“Hm…? Why does this… feel… soo… good~… Mmmm…” Howe moaned out once he did that, closing her eyes and a blissful look coming across her face. “That feels… amazing~…”

GAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! CURSE MY WEAK MIND TOWARDS WANTING TO DO THIS!!!

Out of instinct, Howe decided to lean into his hands, while John started to rub her head slowly. Despite there being an entire congregation of girls in the house, both continued to show this display of affection. Speaking of those girls, basically all of them dropped whatever they were doing beforehand, and watched the two of them do this — those two being too distracted to notice.

“You’re really recording this?” Ember quietly asked Ash, who had her phone pulled out.

“Gotta let everyone else see this,” Ash reasoned. “Nice plan, Fusou Sisters.”

“It was quite simple,” Fusou downplayed their work. “You just have to manipulate their connected hearts to get the correct outcome.”

“What should we teach her next?” Yamashiro asked.

“How about controlling the sound she can hear?” Enterprise suggested. “I don’t think I have seen you two show her that.”

“Yes! We shall teach her that. It’s very important or else she could suffer irreversible hearing damage.”

“Then I trust you to lead the lesson, Imōto.”

Chapter Text

August 4th, 2027, 1:03 PM, Base, Commander’s Office

“That bagel was quite appetizing,” Howe commented, both her and John coming back from lunch.

“I’d say. ” he agreed, still rubbing one of Howe’s ears.

During the numerous times her boyfriend has done this to her, she’s grown more and more accustomed to the sensation. Though she does go slightly slack from it, she’s managed to retain most of her motor functions and not become mush. For John, the feeling still hasn’t dulled, it could be one of the greatest experiences of his life. While he has had the privilege of rubbing similar ears before, it was something special to do it with his girlfriend.

“When do you think you’ll stop~?”

“When you don’t have them anymore. ”

“Well, you’re gonna have to stop. We should probably get back to work.”

“Actually, there’s one thing I’d like to do before doing so. ”

“Oh?”

A couple minutes later…

“Ready? ” the Commander asked Howe who currently had her head laying on his laps — the two currently on one of the couches in the office.

“I am,” Howe nodded.

“Alright Shikikan-sama, the first thing you want to do is slowly bring the mimikaki down to her ears, and start circling around — slowly lowering it down,” Choukai instructed the man.

Originally, they had planned either Atago or Volga to instruct him; but the Sakuran is on a patrol today, and Volga is doing an errand. Luckily for the couple, Choukai was willing to lend her knowledge to cleaning ears — especially those similar to that Howe finds herself with. “Howe-san, this is going to be a very different experience compared to what Atago-oneesan did before. Please remain as still as possible so Shikikan does not injure your ears.”

“Right.”

Doing as instructed, she remained calm as the Commander inserted the pick into Howe’s right cat ear. But that all went out the window as soon as she felt the tool touch the inside of her ear. It was a lot more sensitive, causing her to shudder violently as she struggled to not squirm. It may have been the most difficult task she needed to do as John started to circle in her ear.

John is trying his best to be as gentle with his task, but that was also going to be a problem for him, too. He could see Howe’s blushing face, panting due to the pleasure, and as she kicked her legs to stay calm. He really doesn’t know what to make her, and he’s kind of enjoying it. Then there’s the call from the ears, begging him to start touching it.

Maybe I could… he thought as his other hand went over to the other ear.

This… is… too… much… Howe panted at the sensation, she could barely stay still. Suddenly, she jumped again as she could feel her other ear was being touched. Noooo…!!

Being too much, Howe tossed and turned within John’s lap as he tried to clean her ear, touch her other ear, and hold her down all at the same time. While it would be logical to stop one to do the other two, but his wants prevented him from thinking rationally. Doing so made this task much longer than it would normally take. Once he was done with that ear, he blew into it — causing Howe to collapse onto the ground, dragging John with her. While on the ground, Howe was still in her stunned state as her boyfriend was now rubbing his face on top of her ears.

Silently watching, Choukai hid her phone which was recording the whole thing so she may show her sisters about this hilarious ordeal.

Atago was right, this is both entertaining and adorable to watch… she thought, as she held back a giggle. “Ahem! Shikikan, please show a little restraint. Remember that we still have another ear to go through.”

Chapter Text

August 7th, 2027, 9:09 AM, Base, Laboratory

“Are you ready in there, Howe?” Chkalov asked, speaking to her through a microphone.

The Commander, Chkalov, Akashi and Yuubari were all in a control room overlooking a chamber where Howe is currently in. The three scientists/inventors worked long nights figuring out what caused Howe to grow cat ears, with many trials and errors along the way. Of course, since Akashi was kind of at fault for this whole thing, she had to be the one to be tested on first to see the effects.

“Yes, I am,” Howe affirmed.

“The first thing you want to do is make sure all of your safety equipment is secured to yourself. Goggles?”

“Check.”

“Gloves?”

“Check.”

“Face mask?”

“All secure!”

“Is that lab coat buttoned-up?”

“Affirm”

“Is your hair nicely tied up and secured?”

“It is.”

“Then we may proceed. First, mix in the blue liquid with the purple liquid. Once you do, we will be referring to it as ‘Solution 1’.”

“So why you girls didn’t just make the solution before we got here? ” the Commander asked the other two with him.

Despite the overwhelming feeling of comfort he felt whenever he rubbed Howe’s ears, something that happened many more times after the first, he knew that they had to go. They were a major distraction to his work, and Howe expressed how she wanted them gone to return things back to normal.

“The reaction will only last a few seconds, so she needs to be the one to perform it,” Yuubari told him.

“And you girls remembered what the components are? ”

“Of course, Shiki-nya-n-sama!” Akashi nodded, giving a tool thumbs-up. “I wrote down the ingredients, and have labeled them for everything, nya.”

“Do you have a digital backup for them? ”

“…”

“Make sure you do that. ”

“Roger, nya.”

Back over with Chkalov and Howe, they were now on the final stretch — having shot a flask of “Solution 1-3” with a certain miniature laser for five seconds.

“Okay, this is the last part, Howe,” the sleep-deprived scientist told her. “What you will need to do is mix Solution 1-3, Solution 2, and Solution 4-5 together, and quickly pour it over your head. Are you ready?”

“I am!” Howe enthusiastically said, before looking up at her head. “Goodbye cat ears, it was nice having you.”

She then did as instructed, pouring all the liquids together, mixed it thoroughly; the new solution began to make a similar reaction to the original mixture. Immediately, Howe raised the flask over her head, and poured the contents on top of the ears — a smoky explosion soon filled the chamber.

Everyone up in the control room waited with bated breath, waiting to see if it had worked. While the lab girls were nervous, the Commander was anxious with anticipation — praying that nothing bad happened to her.

Finally, the smoke began to clear and Howe stood there; eyes tightly shut to brace for something bad. When nothing of the sort occurred, she opened her eyes, and looked up at the window; seeing all of them looking down at her.

“Did it work?” she asked.

With a big smile, John wrote back, “It worked. ”

Relief filled her mind, as she tried to make the ears move around — feeling no such movement up there. Reaching to the top of her head, she only found her blonde hair; no fur, no pointy ears.

“Test completed. You’re free to remove all safety equipment, and place them all in the bin inside the decontamination room,” the carrier relayed.

After doing so, they conducted a thorough inspection on her to make sure that there weren't any side-effects or any residue from the test. Once she was given the all clear, Howe and the Commander started to walk back to the office, ready to get back to the swing of things.

“You know, I think I’m going to those ears,” Howe said. “I liked how it felt when my head was rubbed.”

“I will admit, your ears were super fine, and I could have continued to rub them. ” the Commander wrote, a light blush running across his face.

“Hmm… Hey, John. Could you do it now?”

“Do what now? ”

“Rub the top of my head.”

With a shrug, he did as he was told — starting to pet the top of her head.

“Hmm… It’s not the same… But, I would be lying if I said I still didn't like it~” his girlfriend said, leaning into his hands. They continued this until they were out of the building, but still continued in private.