Part 2 of the updated story. Enjoy!

“At least keep your pants on!” Please make he doesn’t see me blushing!
“I wasn’t going to take them off.” His voice is slightly muffled by the grey sweatshirt he’s pulling over his head. Despite myself, I can’t stop staring.
“So, you like what you see?” he asks, bare-chested, arms spread wide.
His scales are a mix of pale and dark green on his head, back, shoulders and arms, and they slowly blend into the pale green and beige colours on his chest and stomach. The mottled pattern make him look as though he’s wearing camouflage. Then, I noticed his body. As long as I’d known Raph, I always remembered him as being frail enough, bordering on thin. However, the person in front of me had broader shoulders, stronger arms ,and a lean but visible six-pack. He wasn’t bulky or bulging, but each muscle was clearly defined, just like a marathon runner.
“You never told me you worked out!”
“I didn’t,” he said, frowning.
“Well, how did you get those?” I ask, pointing at his abs.
“Oh wow! I guess this does have some advantages!”
“You mean you didn’t know!?!”
“No. This is really awesome!” What... How could he...
As he turns and spins in the middle of the trailer, trying to get a good look at himself, I can’t help but stare at his legs. The way his ankles and knees bend, the way his digitigrade legs move, specifically, the muscles in his thighs and calves, now clearly visible, rolling and flexing under his skin-tight black sweatpants.
“Uh, Raph, I think... your pants...” Despite my efforts, my voice shakes a little. I hope he didn’t notice.
“Ya, I know, my tail made a hole in them,” he says, oblivious to everything except himself.
“No, I mean, I know why they’re so tight.”
He stops for a brief second and looks at me, confused. I point a shaking finger, he stops and stares at his legs.
“Wow.” Wow? That’s all he can say?
He moves his legs, tests his pants, and suddenly bends over to rip them.
“What are you doing!?!” My voice goes up an octave or two.
“They were too tight,” he says, continuing to rip his pants with his claws, “they wouldn’t come off because of my talons, so, RIIIIP RIIIIP I made shorts.”
When he stands up, I can see the ripped-off pant sleeves in his hands and the new ‘shorts’ cut mid-thighs, the ends jagged. Just like his arms, his legs are mottled pale and dark green, and look like the skin is stretched tightly over his muscles. Where his heels were, a 10 centimetre long claw protrudes, similar but larger than the four other ones sticking out of his toes. Raph was excited and looked at her with a rather foolish grin, but all she saw were the teeth, the claws, and the scales. ‘...image of a ferocious Raph hunting prey came to her mind...’

***

Outside, the sun was slowly rising. It was morning. Inside, Raphael was fast asleep. Kim twisted and turned for a long time before finding sleep. Her torments followed her in her dreams.

***

/Ok, it looks dark enough outside now./ I lift my head from the pillow and look around. Kim is still asleep. I carefully grab my sleeping bag to avoid ripping it, flip it off, lift my legs so I won’t rip the bed, squish my tail in the process, and stand up beside the bed. Kim twists and moans in her sleep, a frown on her face, completely tangled in her covers. I bend over and gently replace them. Lost in her dreams, she frowns and groans even more. I open the door and take a peek outside. Perfect. I walk down the steps and silently close the door.

***

Ding! Mmrgff. Coffee. Slurp. /Ahhh. Second cup. Now I’m waking up. What a terrible night. Stupid nightmares./ Grumbling, Kim got dressed and walked out of the trailer, a steaming cup of coffee in her hand. She stood outside, half wondering where Raphael went, half wondering what her nightmare had been. _...I don’t want to wake up with my handsh covered in your blood..._ Shivering, she stared into the nearby forest and wondered why he had left. He said it was done, so it couldn’t be a transformation. He wouldn’t be hunting, he ate only yesterday. Maybe he was...
“Hey Kim!”
“AAAAAHHHH!” The coffee flew, she spun around and saw...
“Relax, it’s only me!” Raph was standing just a few steps behind her, looking excited.
“Don’t do that! You scared the heck out of me!”
“Didn’t you hear me coming?” What? Of course not!
“No!”
“Oh, well, ah, sorry.” You don’t look very sorry.
“And where were you anyways?” How come he walks?
“I went in the forest. It was incredible, Kim!”
He explained where he went and what he did. At first she didn’t understand. /What on earth is with his face?/ Then, she realized he was smiling. “... should have seen! I heard them from far away, and I ran after them! I actually caught up and ran with a herd of deer! It was incredible! Just the smells of the forest, the sounds of the forest!..” Lost in the flood of his too-vivid memories, Raphael never noticed that while he spoke, Kim looked uneasy, almost intimidated.
/How did this happen? He was sick, he was weak, hell, if I hadn’t been there, he might have died! But now, he... changed. He was afraid for himself, he was afraid for me. That I could understand. I was scared enough myself. Now, he seems almost happy, careless. He could be happy his transformation is over, but it’s more like he enjoys his changes./ All the while, she walks in the forest, eyes darting left and right. Occasionally, she would spot him, a green flash silently running across the forest. Only twice did she hear him, while every step she took produced an embarrassing amount of noise.
Every five minutes or so, she’d see him waiting for her, leaning against a tree, sitting on a branch high up, or carving a piece of wood with his sharp claws. He’d wait for her to catch up, then would run off again after making sure she was doing fine. She couldn’t get rid of the nagging feeling she was being stalked. Once, he asked if she was hungry, then led her to a raspberry bush. He took a few, then sat on a fallen tree and patiently waited for her to finish eating. /How come,/ Kim thought,/ now he has to wait for me when just yesterday he couldn’t walk!/ Neither she nor he noticed she shivered a little every time she thought of him, nor that she unconsciously turned her back on Raphael. After a while, Kim came to him.
“So, where are we going?”
“Back towards the orphanage,” he says, standing up.
“Why did we have to walk?”
“I don’t know, I just know we had to. Also, it would have been hard for me to sit in the car with my tail,” he said innocently enough.
“And how do know where to find your orphanage? We don’t even have a map.”
“I don’t know, but I feel like I’m being pulled to the south, like I need to go there.” Kim didn’t find much to say about it.
With that, they resumed walking.

“Can you go check it out?”
“Hmm?”
Lost in her (dark) thoughts, Kim hadn’t noticed the woods were clearing up, that they could hear the noises of the city, and that Raphael had stopped walking.
“Can you go see? I can’t go closer, or someone might see me.”
“Oh, ya, sure.”
And Kim walked away.

***

/I still can’t believe it. Here I am in a forest wearing only shorts and covered in scales. Not only that, but I feel good! I worked in a boring office, a totally average guy, and then I transform into a giant walking talking lizard. These things only happen in books and comics, not in real life!/ Raph sat down, letting himself get lost in his vivid memories. “He was there, twisting in pain as his muzzle grew, and saw Kim getting nearer, even though it was pitch black.” “He was running in the forest, and he could smell everything! He smelled the squirrels, the trees, the pines, the oaks. Suddenly, a scent. Deer. He ran off in the opposite direction.” “He was running after the deer, he could feel every muscle in his body moving effortlessly. His tail swooshed left and right, giving him an almost perfect balance. Pointed straight behind him, it allowed him to run in a half-crouched position. His toenails clawed at the ground. He went even faster.” “It was so slight a sound, being a normal person, he would never have heard it. But he was not a normal person anymore. He heard the twig snap as if it had been just beside him. It was far. Very far. He was getting closer.”
“Suddenly, he saw them. Despite hundreds of years of evolution to produce a fur so well adapted to the forest it was a perfect camouflage, despite it’s stillness, despite the hundreds of branches, twigs, and leaves between it and him, Raphael instantly spotted the buck standing 200 metres away.” “Finally, he had found them. He caught up to the herd. The smell of the forest, the animals, sweat, panic, it all brought him to near euphoria. They ran left, he followed, they turned right, he followed. They swam across a small river, he followed. They ran straight, he caught up with them. They split and ran in every direction. After ten minutes of intense running, he still wasn’t tired.”

***

“You seem to be daydreaming a lot recently,” she said.
“Oh, hi. Sorry if I’m a little out, but I feel like I’m lost in a dream.” I’d say we’re lost in a nightmare.
“It’s deserted.”
“What?”
“St George’s orphanage, right?”
He nods.
“It’s empty. Nobody’s been there for like five years. The fence around it is half demolished and the building looks broken down.”
“Crap. Guess all the documents are gone too.” We came all this way for scraps of paper?
“I couldn’t get in. The doors were locked and the windows are blocked with plywood sheets.”
“We should still go check, just to make sure we won’t find anything.”

Kim crossed the 20 metres of grass between the forest and the orphanage first. Even though she assured him the area was deserted, Raphael ran nonetheless.
He broke in by ripping the plywood sheets off the windows, an impossible feat for those without claws. Inside, they walked out of the ruined office and into the hallway towards the reception. Half-way through, they noticed soot and blackened ceiling panels. They turned the corner, but the hallway was barricaded.
“That’s why it closed. I guess a fire burned away about half the place. I remember the kitchen was just a bit further,” he recalled.
“If we go to the second floor, we might be able to go around it.” She didn’t sound very enthusiastic.
“The stairs were that way.”
With that, Raphael and Kim went back the way they came from.

***

/I hate it, I hate it, I hate it! Outside it wasn’t so bad, but in here! In here, in a civilised building! Outside, I could look around, there were plenty of noises and distractions. In the silence of the building, I can only hear my footsteps and his, the clicking of his claws on the tiles, and the dry sliding sound of his scales brushing together. In the hallways, where else can I look, but at him? His face, his maw, his teeth, his slit eyes, his legs, his claws, everything, it just freaks me out. At every step, his talons go up and plunge back towards the floor, stopping just short of stabbing it. And his tail! It writhes ant twists, it makes me think of a huge snake. And it... Hey, where’d he go?/ Confused, Kim searched the hallway for Raphael. She spun around just in time to see the tip of his tail (/his reptile tail!!!/) disappear in the doorway. /What’s he doing now?/

***

Suddenly, Raph stopped dead in his tracks. With a look of awe on his face, he entered the room he just passed. /It’s here,/ he thought, /it’s here it all began./ In his mind, he could see the two rows of cradles that lined the walls. In his mind, the lights were on, the pink paint was fresh, and there was a nice view through the obstructed windows. /It was here, in one of these cradles. This is where my parents placed me for my own sake./
“What is this place, Raphael? It’s gloomy.”
“Before, the lights were on, the paint was pink, and there were two rows of cradles.” Turning around, he said:“ This is where my life began.”

The next half-hour was like a pilgrimage for him. Kim followed Raphael throughout the orphanage, where he’d recall all his childhood memories. They explored half of the second floor before reaching the burned area. They stared at the blackened floor, walls and ceiling for a few minutes.
“If there were documents telling how you arrived here, I guess they would’ve burned in the fire.” Het tone was unreadable.
Raphael didn’t answer. He just turned and walked back in the previous room.
“You know, the library was my favourite room. I loved the silence, the books and the huge windows. Seeing it empty and dark without the books and the sunlight, it just feels wrong.”
He slowly walks to the window and peers into a crack between the two-by-four’s.

16 years ago, he did the same thing. Raphael, age five, would peer out into the forest, shuddering at the terrible memories of his nightmarish adventure.

“I know where to go.”

***

“Hey! *huff huff* Wait up! *pant* I can’t run *gulp* run like you!” Kim said as she struggled to follow him.
“Sorry, I forgot. It’s just, I know we’re so close! I just have to go back where I saw them. I have to go back.” He slowed down to a rapid walk to give her a chance to breathe.
“*huff puff* Can’t it wait just a bit? *pant pant*”
“All right, but I know I have to be there soon.”
“Why don’t you go ahead?” Raph completely missed Kim’s slightly waspish tone.
“I also know you need to be there,” he said as he turned and looked her in the eye.
For some reason, that sent a chill down Kim’s spine.

Just as the sun was setting down across the forest, Raphael broke the nervous silence that had settled between them for the last hour.
“Kim, I think we should start running.”
“What is it this time?”
“It’s almost time.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know. But I do know my back is tingling.”
When Raphael spoke, Kim immediately caught the undercurrent of panic in his voice.

***

/What’s wrong? Is he going to die? Has he become allergic to air? We’ve been jogging for only ten minutes and he’s panting so much he’s almost desperate for oxygen./ Suddenly, he doubled over and fell.
-Raphael, are you all right?
/Oh God, what is wrong? I should help, but his skin, it’s just... Ahhhh, I can’t help him!/
“Got ...*grunt*... to keep ...... going!”
With a heavy grunt, Raphael staggered back to his feet and kept going forward. Often he stopped to catch his breath, and twice the pain was so sudden and unbearable he fell. /Gah! The pain! Why? I thought I was done! And why is it taking it’s time? It’s like it stretches the changes out as much as it can, just to make it more painful!/ She stood there, watching, praying he would get back up on his own. /Come on Raphael! Get back up. I can’t help... I don’t want to.../ They stumbled more and more often on the roots and rocks of the forest, Raphael blinded by pain, Kim by the growing darkness. Suddenly, it happened all over again. Wincing in pain, Raphael tripped on that selfsame root, the one he fell over 17 years ago. He twisted in his fall and his shoulder brutally hit the ground. He was overwhelmed by pain and lay writhing as the shock spread through his back. Kim knelt in front of him.
“Come on, Raphael, we’ve got to keep going!”
“*grunt* Can’t ...... it hurts! Argh! The pain...”
“But you said we had to keep going, you said we had to go deeper and...”
Kim kept talking, encouraging him, reassuring him, speaking to him. Her hands hovered in the air, but never touched him. Raphael, however, was oblivious to everything but his suffering. He heard every sound around him, smelled the damp odour of the rich soil, felt every square inch of his skin. His mind was sharpened by the pain, but it was also overwhelmed with so many sensations his brain simply couldn’t process the information. His eyes clamped shut, his mouth open in a silent scream, thrashing wildly on the ground, Raphael could only endure the pain. Kim ran around him, removing rocks before he rolled over them.
She finally mustered the courage to help him. Moving quickly before she could scare herself out of it, she grabbed Raphael under the arms, pulled him off the tangle of roots and onto the nearby patch of even ground. After he was, if not comfortably, at least less painfully installed, her hands lingered a bit on his scales. Although she didn’t know, her cool hand on his burning scales gave him a bit of relief. /I forgot how smooth and soft his scales are. It’s smooth, but it’s too hot! How can I.../ With a startled cry, Kim snatched her hand off his shoulder as fast as she could. /It moved! I felt it move! It’s like if something tugged at his skin, but from the inside!/ Delirious with pain, Raphael looked around through glazed eyes. /Hey, this is where I saw my parents./
His brain awash with pain, a memory struggled to reach up from the deepness of his subconscious. For some reason, he remembered it was important, but the memory eluded him, just out of reach of his sluggish thoughts. The tremors in his back were weak at first, but grew stronger. She had barely felt the tugging, but now she swore that, even in the dark, she could actually see something thrashing under Raphael’s skin. /It had something to do with my parents,/ he thought. /The way they looked like./ His mind was so overwhelmed with sensations it was almost disconnected from the outside world. It was buried so deep to hide from the pain he almost became insane. The memory, still tugging at his consciousness, pulled him deeper and deeper into his subconscious. /It was here. It’s something about here, this place. It has to do with the weird smell in the dorm, the weird smell in my apartment./
Kim had retreated a bit, and watched in horror as Raphael writhed and twisted, his tail whipping this way and that. His talons dug in the soil as his legs flailed about, and his arms were pulled tightly around his chest, the hands reaching for his back. The moon rose above the treetops, giving Kim a perfect view of his back. /It has something to do with windows and second floors. The seventh floor of my apartment too./ /That’s horrible! It looks like something’s trying to come out of his back!/
Suddenly, three things happened. /I remember!/ There was a wet ripping sound. Darkness engulfed him.

***

It’s incredible! I still can’t believe what’s happened to me! I feel so free, so... liberated! Left, plunge under the branch, thrust up over the next, dive down into the clearing. I land with a loud thump. I could do it silently, but Kim doesn’t like to be surprised. I walk towards our camp, half-way between the orphanage and the clearing. Kim found the orphanage depressing and had bad memories about the clearing, so I found us a spot for the camper half-way between both and near a small river. Kim hasn’t been smiling much in the last two days we’ve been here. I walk through the bush and into our camping.
“I’m over here,” she says from near the river.
“Coming!” I walk close to her.
“You seem happy.”
“Why shouldn’t I be? It’s a wonderful day.”
/You’re always happy when you come back from flying./
“I should bring you sometime. You ought to smile too.”
“I’ve got good news,” I say, turning around.
“You decided to stop being grumpy?”
I take a deep breath. He’s right there, just an arm’s length away from me. I study him, just as I have for the last few days. The muscles, the broad chest, the powerful digitigrade legs, the tail. Most of all, the wings. The proud wings sprouting from his back, reaching from head to tail when folded, reaching out a metre and a half on each side when extended. Okay, deep breath. Here we go. His face is half curious and half worried at my silence.
“You see, Raph, I’ve always known you were my angel.” (He smiled at that one) “Soon, I’ll be one too.”
I show him the back of my hands. He stares first in disbelief, then in amazement. He looks up to me, and I can read all the love of the world in those beautiful slit eyes of his. I smile for the first time in weeks. Here we are, standing near each other, bathed in the sprinkles of blue light reflecting off my few scales.