“All I ever wanted / All I want is / Always you / It's always you” 

 

“So.”

 

“So.”

 

“Why were—”

 

“—just happened?”

 

“N-no, you—”

 

“—go first.”

 

“I, uh...”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“This is going well.”

 

“Oof.”

 

Madelyn watched Sybil, waiting for her to say something, while Sybil watched Madelyn, waiting for her to say something. And shit, this stalemate was going to last forever, wasn’t it? Madelyn was exhausted, still panting from running most of the way back—though Sybil seemed to also be panting, for some reason—but even that didn’t account for just how absolutely beat Madelyn was, like all the stamina had just been sucked right out of her. Actually, the exhaustion was still coming, getting worse, too. Her legs wobbled, vision going blurry, then they wobbled again, except this time they also gave out, and Madelyn found herself in an economy-class seat on a non-stop floor-bound red-eye. Before she managed to process the fact that she was falling, though, Sybil rushed forward and caught her by the waist and under the arm. 

 

For her own part, Madelyn just kind of flopped into Sybil, who was strangely tall now? That didn’t sound right. Before, she hadn’t exactly towered over Sybil, but Madelyn had easily been eye-level with the top of Sybil’s head. This was not the case anymore, though, that much was certain. Come to think of it, Madelyn’s whole body felt kind of weird, though she was too exhausted to place how. Perhaps, she decided, this wasn’t the time to worry about such things. So instead, she just went limp against Sybil’s body. Sybil was warm. 

 

“Okay, this is not helping. You’re a lot lighter now, but still, this isn’t exactly easy, you know.” Her voice came strained, forcing itself out from the back of her throat. “Come on, let’s go, work with me here; we clearly need to get you some rest.” Groaning, Sybil lowered herself under Madelyn’s arm and shepherded her along. To her credit, Madelyn did her best to at least try to be helpful, though she wasn’t doing a great job. “Goddess, you must have run yourself ragged getting here.” For a moment, Sybil stopped short; there was a pause as she seemed to be suddenly struck by a thought, then she winced lightly. “Come to think of it, this was probably kind of my fault too, at least a little bit.”

 

Through half-lidded eyes, Madelyn watched as Sybil led her out of the study and down the hall toward Sybil’s bedroom. She blinked, then found herself standing before the bed. “Okay, get in. We’ll talk after you rest.”

 

“But, Sybil, th-this is your bed,” she slurred, head lolling to the side and mouth hanging half open.

 

“Yes, I know, but yours is upstairs and I’m not lugging you all the way up there. Now lie down.” Though firm, Sybil’s voice carried untold warmth and affection. And, while she’d certainly verbally asked Madelyn to lie down herself, most of the work getting her into bed had to be done by Sybil. It wasn’t too difficult, though, Mostly just guiding Madelyn down as she ragdolled forward. She closed her eyes, and, just before sleep took her, she thought she heard Sybil mutter something under her breath.

 

“It’s not like after this you’re even going to need your own b—”

 

Madelyn had a nice dream, it was about Sybil. Her and Sybil. Together. She didn’t pay it too much heed, though. Some time later, Madelyn wasn’t sure how long—which, admittedly, was pretty normal, given that she’d been asleep—her eyes fluttered open. She still felt a little weary, but was worlds away from the exhaustion of before. As her brain kicked on and reminded Madelyn of where she was and what she’d been doing before passing out, a sudden surge of embarrassment coursed through her. She’d made a complete fool of herself in front of Sybil, who probably just saw her as even more of a burden now and would just laugh at her when she—Beside her, Madelyn heard a stirring noise; Sybil was seated in a chair a few feet away, reading out of some leather bound tome, which casually floated before her. Her eyes flicked up from the book momentarily, and met Madelyn’s. A broad smile broke across Sybil’s face as she cast the book aside and leapt to her feet, scurrying over to the bedside and sitting at the foot of the bed.

 

“You’re finally awake.” Sybil was absolutely beaming, that smile was everything. Sybil had always been gorgeous, but there was something about that smile. Like it was reserved for Madelyn and only Madelyn. Needless to say, coming up with a response to a look like that was proving very difficult, especially when every time Madelyn tried to form words her tongue and lips seemed to not want to cooperate. She needed to say something, though, so she opened her mouth and said the first thing that came to her.

 

“Was I trying to cross the border?” That was definitely not it. 

 

For her part, Sybil just sat in silence for a few moments, blinking in confusion as she tried desperately to make sense of what she’d just heard. Obviously, nothing came of it. “What?”

 

“Sorry, bad joke.” Madelyn murmured.

 

“I don’t get it.”

 

“You wouldn’t.” Letting out a drawn out groan, Madelyn stretched lavishly—something still felt weird about moving around, but she once again couldn’t place it, and felt too cozy to properly investigate—then propped herself up on her elbow, turning to face Sybil. “I kinda ruined the moment, didn’t I?”

 

Sybil giggled, gently placing a hand on Madelyn’s leg over the blankets, which might have caused Madelyn to forget how to breathe for a moment. “It’s alright. Now, you wanted to talk?”

 

“Yeah. Yeah, I do.” Silent seconds passed as Madelyn struggled to find a way to organically bring up just what it was she wanted to talk about. It wasn’t working; instead, she opted for a more direct approach. After all, she’d faced off against monsters, cutlists, even an otherworldly eldritch being; how hard could it be to confess her feelings? Very hard, actually; maybe that wight was still around? She’d take facing off against it any day over this. “Sybil, I don’t really know where to even start, but there’s something I need to tell you, something you need to know. We’ve been through a lot, and it has meant a lot to me. It has meant a lot to me in ways I didn’t think were allowed. That’s why I left. But I realized I can’t let these things go unsaid. Even if there’s someone else out there for you. I need you to know; I’m in love with you.”

 

Then Sybil was crying, fat, wet tears rolling down her cheeks and off her chin as she trembled, frozen in place. What had she done? This was a terrible idea; all Madelyn was doing was forcing Sybil into a position where she needed to reject and hurt someone she clearly saw as an important friend.

 

“Oh god, Sybil, I’m so sorry. Please, just forget I said anything.”

 

Her crying grew more intense, then it became laughter, then crying again, then something in between. “How are you this oblivious?” Each syllable was undercut by interspersed choking laughs and gasping sobs. Before Madelyn had a chance to respond, before she really even had a chance to process what she’d just heard, Sybil dove forward and pulled her into a tight embrace. Stiffly, Madelyn’s own arms moved to return the embrace as her brain struggled to piece together the situation.

 

“Uh, Sybil? Are you okay?” Emanating up from her midsection, where Sybil’s face was currently buried, Madelyn felt, then heard a muffled giggle. Sybil’s grip around her waist tightened as she affectionately nuzzled Madelyn’s belly. 

 

“I’m very okay, Madelyn. Actually, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.” Even hearing it from Sybil herself still felt unreal, like there still had to be some mistake, some misunderstanding. 

 

“But the spell—what about her? You know, the girl from your dreams?” Unless Madelyn were mistaken, just moments after walking through the door to Sybil’s home she’d been teleported across the room into Sybil summoning circle, but wait, wouldn’t that—

 

“Madelyn, you are her; or at least, I think you are. And, frankly, if you’re not, oh well. You’re all I want. I guess, what I’m trying to say is that I love you too.” In movies and on TV, Madelyn had seen a lot of dramatic, tearful, heartfelt confessions. Typically the music would swell, the camera would pan in to relevant actors faces, or perhaps pan out to show the couple locked together in passion. Both would share a moment of joy and understanding as everything came together. That’s not what happened. Mostly, Madelyn was just confused, struggling to believe what she’d heard. Was this some kind of trick? A misunderstanding? Beneath that confusion, was a little wriggling, bouncing ball of joyous light that pounded against the stopper bottling it up. But it wasn’t getting out until Madelyn let it. 

 

“But when you summoned me the first time, you said the spell failed.” 

 

“I did say that, mostly—or, entirely, really—because I thought you were a man. By the time you told me otherwise, I was so convinced it wasn’t you that I was completely blind to the possibility. And yeah, I had a crush on you, pretty much the entire time. The thing is, I was scared. Scared you were going to leave me, just like Illis. It wasn’t until I got the letter that I realized it was possible for me to trust and not be hurt all over again. I understand now, though. And I’m not letting you go. So stop making excuses and believe it. I love you, Madelyn.” With practiced precision, Sybil’s words eviscerated each and every one of Madelyn’s well-fortified doubts and anxieties; unbidden, that little ball of light within her rose and expanded from the pit of her stomach into her chest, and out into every nook and cranny of her body. It warmed her toes and tickled her neck, sent shivers down her spine and coalesced then escaped her eyes the form of hot, salty tears.

 

Just above her belly, Madelyn felt Sybil’s weight shift again, as she shimmied up a little further and rested against Madelyn’s chest. Her head sunk softly into the plump flesh of her breasts and—Madelyn froze. That wasn't right. She had, admittedly—and much to her somewhat conflicted delight—started to develop something akin to breasts since her initial change, but this was something else entirely. Suddenly, the matter of her body having felt weird since pretty much the moment she had reappeared from Sybil’s spell seemed quite pressing. “Um, Sybil? Why do I have boobs?” Come to think of it, when Madelyn listened closely, her voice actually sounded a bit less husky, slightly higher, smoother. 

 

“I was kind of wondering when you’d notice. I thought that maybe, even though the pendant gave you a new body, it might be possible that it still didn’t fully line up with your internal sense of, well, you. So, um, I kind of cast a spell to fix that? You look different, but the spell is intended to give you a body that aligns with who you are on the inside.” Her voice grew uncertain, and she paused. Madelyn heard a strangled, slightly stressed noise escape Sybil’s lips before she suddenly began speaking again, this time much more quickly. “And now that I’m saying it out loud, I kind of realize I probably should have asked first if that was okay, but if you don’t like it, let me know and I’ll undo it right now.”

 

“Hey, calm down. It’s alright. Can I see? You’re currently kind of in the way.” Madelyn felt Sybil nod against her chest, which caused her breasts to lightly shift in what was one of the most bizarre—and also greatest—sensations she’d ever experienced. A moment later Sybil had sat up, entirely pulling herself out of Madelyn’s embrace, and Madelyn realized just what a horrible mistake she’d made. “Hey, wait! Come back,” she whined needily. Gazing down from above her, Sybil’s face lit up as she burst into a series of absolutely life-ruining, heart-exploding sounds which people who had fully functioning brains typically referred to as giggles.

 

“Be patient, we have all day to cuddle. Also all day tomorrow, and the next, and, well. I’m no Illis, but I’m quite the powerful witch; I’ll see to it that we both live very long. And I don’t see much of a reason why most of that time shouldn’t be available for cuddling, or, you know, other stuff.” Any traces of her giggles had been swallowed whole by a deep blush all across Sybil’s face. Come to think of it, given all Madelyn knew about Sybil’s life, she probably hadn’t had too many opportunities to explore that sort of thing, had she? Perhaps that was a matter best left for later, though. With a melodramatic groan of protest, Madelyn sat up. One almost certainly overzealous flourish later, Sybil had summoned a mirror before her, suspended mid-air and eye-level. She said something. Madelyn didn’t really hear her. Focusing on anything but what she saw before her had become just about impossible. 

 

Most shocking were not the ways her face was different, but the way it had stayed the same, all while being everything she could ever want. She had the same big, expressive eyes, and her nose, though smaller, was still her nose. Everything about what Madelyn was seeing was still her, just, well actually it was more her than it had ever been. From the plump cheeks to the dimpled smile, to the dark, messy pixie-cut she’d become so fond of since her initial change. Then there was the rest of her. And, yeah, Madelyn had boobs, they were plump, and soft, and it was taking a hell of a lot of self control for her to not just reach down and grope herself right in front of Sybil. It took seeing the slight swell of her loose cloak under her chest to realize, but damn, had she ever been missing out. Speaking of which, her cloak, it hadn’t been loose before. At least, it had been the normal amount of loose for a cloak. Now, though, Madelyn was practically swimming in it. She wasn’t sure just how big a change there had been, but Madelyn had gone from downright amazonian to smaller than Sybil—who, admittedly, was on the taller end for women—just how much shorter than Sybil she was now remained to be seen. 

 

That provoked an odd feeling in Madelyn though. The feeling which had always buzzed underneath her euphoria, from the very beginning, that things weren’t entirely as clear-cut as they might seem. And, luckily, having felt it now from the other side, Madelyn was starting to zero in on the problem. It seemed like a very solvable problem, though. Hardly cause for any alarm.

 

“So I take it from the look on your face that I did good?” Self-assured word-choice aside, Sybil was clearly nervous, so Madelyn flashed her brightest smile to assuage said worry. She caught a glimpse of that smile in the mirror, and, for once, realized that yeah, actually, maybe Sybil falling for her wasn’t that crazy after all.

 

“You did amazing, Sybil. There’s one thing, though. And don’t you dare take this as dissatisfaction.” Unfortunately it wasn’t that simple, and, despite Madelyn’s reassurance, an edge of doubt began to creep across Sybil’s face. With a surprising lack of hesitation, Madelyn cupped that gorgeous face in her hand, turning it to look back at her—apparently her own doubts could be put on hold if it meant soothing Sybil’s. “I said, don’t you dare take this as dissatisfaction. This is the second best thing that’s happened to me all day.”

 

“What was the best?”

 

“Now who’s oblivious? It’s you.” In place of a proper verbal response, Sybil just kind of shivered and squeaked. “As I was saying, I love this body. I want to be in it every day. I want to hold you in it, to be held by you in it, to feel your lips against mine, to feel your other lips against mine.” The little shudder which coursed through Sybil’s body was adorable. “But I also liked the old one. Not the old old one, but the new old one. The tall strong lady one. Is it possible for me to be one some of the time, and the other the rest of the time?” Actually hearing Madelyn out on her ‘one thing’ seemed to ease a lot of the remaining tension Sybil showed in the crease of her brow or the stiffness of her shoulders. 

 

“That actually explains so many things. You have no idea. Regardless, think I can manage that. Actually, you can probably still shift back and forth without my help at all. You could have done that this entire time, if you’d wanted to. Though obviously you haven’t. But I think the spell I cast just dispelled the pendant’s effects, it didn’t overwrite them. If anything was overwritten, it was your—what did you call it—old old form?” Sybil really was just bearing every bit of good news on the planet. “That’s actually partially why you were so exhausted before. You went from having superhuman endurance—which you’d already pushed to the limit—to having, well, that decidedly not superhuman body. All the energy you’d expended kind of snapped back and hit you upside the head like a broken spring.. So, um, sorry about that.” Madelyn shrugged apathetically; it all worked out in the end. She took a deep breath in, then out, and focused on her previous shape.

 

Second time around, the pendant was a lot less dramatic. There was still a little glow of light, but it wasn’t some blinding flash that encased her, more a light fog just luminescent enough to make its presence known. Momentarily, Madelyn found her vision jump up several inches, as she grew to fit cleanly back into her cloak. The light faded, and Madelyn grinned, meeting Sybil’s gaze. “Neat,” she chirped, her voice once again taking on that low, husky quality she was more familiar with. 

 

Across from Madelyn, Sybil was just kind of staring, eyes wide and hungry, lips slightly parted, chest heaving. Their eyes met, and her teeth gently clamped down on her bottom lip. Then her mouth moved, her lips forming a single word, the exhale barely audible, practically a whisper. “Fuck.”

 

“Hey, Sybil?” Madelyn called softly. “You doing okay?” 

 

“I think maybe you should look in the mirror again. This time when you changed, uh, well, it had a different template to work with and—”

 

Madelyn’s eyes flickered back to her reflection, and she saw what Sybil meant. Her face was unchanged from her newer, smaller form; well, mostly. Her cheeks weren’t so full anymore, her jawline was sharper; where before her face was warm and bright, it was now cool and serious. Though a certain mischievous twinkle could be glimpsed, lurking within her pale blue eyes. Madelyn’s breasts were still there, though slightly smaller; her arms—which this particular cloak left bare—were thinner, though that actually made her muscles more pronounced than ever. Madelyn made a quick mental note to check her legs out, she probably had some of those proper head-crushing thighs now, but that could wait. Beyond that, her body was pretty much just a taller, fitter version of the one Sybil had just granted her, except—”Oh.”

 

Sybil, who had been staring intently at Madelyn’s bare arm snapped her head up. “What is it?”

 

“I, uh. This is kind of awkward. Also, maybe a little soon to mention, but I still have my penis like this? Which is fine with me, it’s just that I’m not sure its—”

 

“Uh-huh. I’m okay with it.” Her eyes never actually left Madelyn’s arms, and she was very much looking forward to what effect her almost certainly prominent abs were going to have.

 

“Um, Sybil, you’re kind of drooling a little.” Another deep blush bloomed on the poor witch’s face.

 

“Don’t be mean. I’ve had to struggle to not stare for so damn long and now I’m allowed to so let me do it.” Her lips formed an adorable little pout. Madelyn chuckled. 

 

 “You’re really having a tough time with this, aren’t you?” Nodnod. “Right, well. Do you want to maybe, uh—”

 

“Yes.”