A boy is forced to give away his plushies, but finds a way to stay with them forever.

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The ringing of the bell awakes Tommy from his nap. He quickly packs his things and heads for the bus, hoping the teacher didn’t catch him napping. As he sits down on the bus, his friend Joe sits down next to him eagerly. The two of them begin catching up about their day.

“My mom told me this morning that I have to clean up my room as soon as I finish my homework or else, I have to give away some of my toys, but I really don’t want to,” Tommy laments to Joe.

“Oof, that sucks, you think you could sneak out and come over?”

“Yeah, I bet my mom would just think I’m busy cleaning my room, as long as I don’t stay over too long. I’ll come over after my homework.”

“Cool!” The bus pulls up to Tommy’s house and he waves bye to his friend as he gets off the bus and heads inside. As soon as Tommy puts his things away, his mother, Jessica, comes up and starts getting onto him again about his room, while he half-listens and walks to the kitchen to have dinner. He finishes his homework, then starts to head for the door to his room and stops. He realizes there’s no way he’d be able to get out of the front door without his parents seeing it. He looks over to the window and tries to open it. Struggling a bit with his ten-year-old body, he manages to get it open with some difficulty. As he climbs out of the window, he glances at the plushies on his bed, thinking about having to lose them if he got caught, but figures the risk of getting caught is low enough. He continues out of the window and heads for his friend’s house.

“You know, Tommy’s been awfully quiet...I better check on him to make sure he’s cleaning,” Jessica says to Tommy’s father, David, and then gets up and heads up the stairs to his room and knocks on the door. She knocks again after not getting a response, “Tommy?” A look of concern flashes across her face as she opens the door. She looks shocked at first when she doesn’t see Tommy in his room, but then sees the open window and her expression changes to that of fear and anger. She storms out of Tommy’s room and down to the kitchen. David comes into the kitchen after seeing Jessica coming down from upstairs and into the kitchen and asks what’s going on but she does not respond. She immediately dials up Joe’s mother, suspecting that he’s gone over there.

After a brief conversation, and some frustrated waiting around, there’s a knock at the door. Jessica opens it and there stands Tommy, looking guilty.

“Okay, I want you to go upstairs right now and start packing away your toys because we’re going to start giving them away. I’ll check on you in twenty minutes.” Jessica stands, pointing upstairs sternly. Tommy mumbles something under his breath and then sulks upstairs.
Once in his room he closes his door and flops onto the bed, snuggling one of his plushies, and on the verge of tears. He jumps when he feels the plushie rubbing his back with its paw, and bolts upright, staring at the plushie with a look of confusion and disbelief. The plushie responds by backing up and looking up at Tommy.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you, just wanted to see what’s wrong.”

Tommy looks down at the plushie that is now standing up, quiet and surprised, unsure if he actually heard the plushie talk just now or not. “You...can talk?”

“Oh, right, we haven’t done this around you before...well we thought it was a special circumstance.” The fox plush looks up at Tommy, he’d be smiling if he could. “Yes, we can talk, we always have been able to but we just don’t do it around anyone. Now, what’s wrong?”

Tommy sits quietly, staring at the plush, thinking about what’s happening, then finally speaks up. “I...I have to give you guys away. My mom says I have to because I didn’t clean my room when I was supposed to, and I snuck out of the house.”

“Oh, she didn’t mean it, did she? We’ve been here for years!”

Tommy nods solemnly, “Yeah...she was really mad...I don’t wanna give you guys away!” Tommy grabs the fox and hugs him tight.

“Hey, I think I’ve got an idea, a way for you to make sure you never get separated from us again.”

“Oh? What is it? I’ll do anything to stay with you all.”

“Go look in the chest, there’s a hidden compartment on the right side. Inside that is a necklace. Bring it to me.”

“Okay!” Tommy eagerly gets up and digs through the chest, finding the compartment. Inside, just as the fox said, was a necklace with a red amulet. He grabs the necklace and takes it back to his bed and holds it out to the fox. The fox simply places a paw on the red amulet, and it begins to glow. Tommy’s eyes go wide as he watches this. “What did you do?”

“Just a little magic. Now, put it on, and you won’t ever have to leave us again! Oh, and think of your favorite animal while you’re wearing it.”

“Okay, what’s it do?”

“Just put it on!” The plush exclaims excitedly.

“O-okay...” Tommy cautiously puts the necklace on and can feel a warm, tingling sensation as the amulet glows again. He quickly remembers what the fox said and thinks of his favorite animal as he can feel...softer. His skin becomes much softer as it turns into a soft fabric, and he can feel his insides become lighter and fluffier, turning into stuffing. “Woah...what’s...”

“We’re making you into one of us! You can’t be separated if you’re one of us!”

“What do you-” Tommy stops midsentence as his fingers and toes merge together, and thicken becoming thick, plushy paws. Black pawpads appear and become quickly stitched on as Tommy winces at the strange feeling of thread painlessly moving through his body. The white fabric spreads up his arms, soon reaching his shoulders as his arms and legs get much stockier. His hips crunch and then melt away as his new plush legs force him into a sitting up position, and his arms are forced forward to be positioned between his legs.
“This is...weird...” Tommy’s back hunches forward, forcing him into a more comfortable sitting position, fabric turning black as it spreads to his back and remaining white on his underside. His torso gets shorter, leaving him with an overall stockier, cute look. A soft, black and white tail pops out of his shorts as his body begins to shrink, the room and plushies growing around him. His face stretches forward, rounding out and becoming covered in black and white fabric as his nose turns hard, black, and acrylic. His ears stretch out and become soft triangles, migrating to the top of his head and eyes turn to hard, acrylic beady eyes.

Soon, the amulet stops glowing as the necklace thickens and gets shorter, tightening around Tommy’s neck and forming a collar with a red, plastic tag. He looks around, and then stands up, trying to stand on his hind legs but failing to stay up and falls onto four legs. He looks at himself confused, and some of the plushies giggle.

“Looks like you went feral! No problem, we can--”

The fox is cut off by the sound of footsteps, then the door begins to open. All of the plushies go limp except Tommy, but just as the door opens, he figures it out and goes limp himself, flopping over onto the bed just as his mother walks in.

“Damnit, where did that kid go now? Ugh, I’ll have to call Joe’s mom again...I’ll just get all these packed up.”

Jessica begins taking all of the plushies on Tommy’s bed and places them into a box, taping it closed, then storms out of Tommy’s room again.

The fox looks around as the footsteps fade, then looks to Tommy, who is now a plush husky and packed right next to him. “Well, looks like we’re going somewhere anyways, but you won’t be without us!”