Sunlight broke through the ragged curtains, painting golden stripes across the tangled sheets. I cracked one eye open to discover a dark skull inches from my face.

  "Morning, Ashy!" Shady announced. I flinched back slightly at the big, silver eyes and rows of large teeth, then relaxed as my mind caught up to reality.

  Her massive jaw stretched into a cheeky, winning grin that looked more like a horror movie poster than anything.

  Black feathers fluttered up as she shifted, yawning wide. Then, lanky, muscular arms engulfed me in a crushing embrace that smooshed my face directly into her chest.

  She let go of me after a minute of breathless squeezing. Black antlers, dotted with silver sparks, nearly scraped the roof of the gothic four poster bed as Shady stretched in all her alien glory, completely naked and also utterly unconcerned about it.

  A yellow and black paw engulfed me from behind. I turned to find Nexxali's smug feline face greeting from the other pillow.

  "What quirky noms are on the breakfast menu today, Emperor of Earth?" she purred, stretching luxuriously.

  “Whatever we didn't devour yesterday,” I yawned and reached for my tablet, filled with new notifications. Thousands of resistance messages, reports from around the globe, and thankfully no urgent disasters requiring my immediate attention.

  "Shower first," Shady declared, grabbing me with one arm and Nexxali with the other.

  “Whaa–” the cat girl let out.

  "Efficiency!" Shady added, shoving us into the shower and then getting in herself.

  The shower, which was definitely not designed for three people, especially when one was a seven-foot cryptid and the other an almost seven foot cat person, immediately became an exercise of awkward positioning.

  Shady immediately turned the knobs all the way to the max.

  It was then that we discovered that the hot water heater had already been emptied by the other alien house invaders.

  "Eek! COLD! UNACCEPTABLE WATER TEMPERATURE!” Shady yelped as the spray hit us.

  Nexxali shrieked even louder when Shady decided to use the half-awake feline as a shield against the icy water.

  "Kitten, sing the water warmer!" Shady commanded.

  Nexxali sputtered water out of her mouth. "That's not how it works! Gah why—”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “Gotta get my morning dose of kitten terror,” Shady laughed. "Come on! Use your magic voice powers to warm the watah!"

  "My voice doesn't—" Nexxali paused, then shrugged. "Fine." She cleared her throat and began singing to the showerhead: "Ohhhh. Water… Be warm, be hot, heat up a lot?"

  The water remained glacial.

  "Sing better!" Shady demanded, swinging her antlers overhead.

  "Oh water of the chilly shower-mountain, please become a thermal fountain?" Nexxali tried again.

  "That's a fail," Shady voiced, grabbed the shampoo and dumped half the bottle on her head. "Ashy, wash my back. There's a spot I can't reach between my shoulder blades.”

  "How can you not reach it? Your arms are like three feet long and extra bendy!" I said.

  "Almost four feet, actually!” She grinned. “Not the point!”

  “She just wants to be attended to,” Nexxali commented.

  “Cat wisdom!” Shady agreed. “Also why are you singing to the water? Sing to make us think it's warm, dummy.”

  “Uhmmm,” the serval let out. “Right. Sorry, I'm not a morning prad.”

  She shuddered under the spray, yawned wide, let out a "Meyowah" and began singing:

  ",

  There's a fire that we three can hold,

  Not in flames that flicker, fade and die,

  But in the warmth behind each other's eyes.

  Feel the heat of morning's gentle grace,

  In every laugh, in every warm embrace,

  The shower's chill cannot compare or reach,

  The burning comfort that our hearts can teach.

  Remember summer mornings golden bright,

  When sunbeams chase away the bitter night,

  That same glow lives within the space we share,

  Transforming ice to silk upon our hair.

  Ohhh-ohhh-ohhh-mmm!"

  As her voice wove through the bathroom, something shifted. The water didn't actually get warmer, but I began feeling like I was warm. I allowed the music to take over my perception.

  Gradually, my skin started to tingle with phantom heat, my body becoming convinced that we were standing under a tropical waterfall instead of ancient, temperamental plumbing.

  The illusion of warmth made the shower much more tolerable and allowed me to notice that Shady's slick breasts were pressing against my back while Nexxali's soapy curves pressed against my front.

  The serval hummed and sang, making cat-noises and peppering me with kisses.

  "Together we're a furnace, burning bright,

  Three souls that chase away the coldest night,

  So let your mind think this water's warm,

  Because our combined hearts beat like a firestorm!"

  "Quality singery, catio," Shady praised Nexxali grabbing the body wash. "Now, let's wash our Ashy!"

  Her claws traced soap trails down my spine while Nexxali attacked from the front with a loofah.

  "Generally… I’m not a big fan of water," Nexxali purred, her tail wrapping around my thigh as she scrubbed my chest. "But this is nice… Mmmm… Extra slippery.”

  "Slippery is the best part!" Shady grinned, handing a loofah to me. "Ashy, here, important princess cleaning required!"

  I obliged, working shampoo through the silver-starred fuzz between her breasts while she made exaggerated "mmm" sounds that echoed off the tiles...

  []