Santa's Secret Transfic Anthology Vol. 2 / Everyday Sweets #13

Watch Me Pull a Rabbit From my Hat

by DerbyGhost

have you ever been to a bar and there was a magic show going on? I feel like that would be surreal for everyone involved. Fucked up right?

— DerbyGhost

 

It was somewhere between the 11th and 13th hole on the Mount Olympus themed miniature golf course at approximately 11 o’clock at night that I realized that I was madly in love with Ariel. It might have been between the selfies that we took with the ridiculously stacked Aphrodite statue, or maybe the cute little way she posed and preened whenever she hit a nice shot just clued me into something that honestly I really knew all along. She was hilarious, she was adorable, she was my partner in crime, and she was a lesbian. Which meant that there was nothing I could do to even begin to catch her eye as anything more than a friend. 

Wait. No. That’s not the start of this at all. Let me rewind just a little bit. The best place to really start this story is a few hours earlier. Before the shots. Before the minigolf. Back at the Magic Castle. Back at our gig. 

4 Hours Earlier

The Magic Castle, as you probably could have guessed by now, is not a castle at all. Instead, it’s yet another Tourist Trap tucked back next to the Margaritaville and the Medieval Times at what anyone who has ever been to Myrtle Beach known as the epicenter of trash that is Broadway at the Beach. The whole shopping center was a few miles away from the beach itself, and a whole world away from Broadway itself. It provided a nice little bit of cover for talking to my parents, however. Oh, hey mom and dad, how’s the magic show? Well we’re doing just fine, Ariel and I have gotten some semi-permanent gigs lined up at Broadway. What theater? Don’t worry about it. 

I don’t want to sound snobby or anything, the Magic Castle treated us right at the very least. It kept us fed, made sure to give us complimentary drinks before and after the show, and helped us find a reasonable place to stay. It wasn’t much, but we didn’t need much. As long as I was with Ariel it was fine and I was happy, or at least as happy as I could be in a place like Myrtle beach. 

If you’ve never been to Myrtle Beach, well, it certainly is a world of its own. I’m not entirely sure if I mean that as a compliment or an insult. Myrtle Beach is the kind of place where nobody has ever heard of the word Tacky. It’s the kind of place where you see Confederate Flags being sold like candy, and t-shirts remarking about how a certain Game Show Swindler is still their rightful president. But at the same time, there was a joy to be had in the trash, and Ariel certainly helped with that. No matter how cheesy a situation is, she seemed to dive in with the full intent to enjoy it. That’s why after every gig we would get semi-shit faced and go to whatever minigolf course was closest to our bar of choice. She said that by the end of our little stay before we had to hit the road to whatever other two-bit restaurant or cheap hotel had booked us that we would be masters of whatever kind of miniature golf the world could throw at us.

Mini golf in Myrtle Beach is no laughing matter, as a tourist trap it tends to try to do things bigger and better than most places on the East Coast. This place we went to the other day was Adventure themed and we had to take a mine cart ride off to where the course started. The night before we played at Jurassic Putt which had animatronic dinosaurs who would snap at your ball if you got too close. And even before that there was Peter Putt (I’m sure you’re noticing a theme here) which had some of the courses on a full blown pirate ship. Ariel wasn’t a huge fan about that one because there were some mermaid statues that then lead to plenty of Little Mermaid jokes. It's not her fault that that movie was all the rage when she was born. You get a name like Ariel and well, you’re kind of stuck with mermaids for the rest of your life. 

But mini-golf was later. At this point in the night, Ariel was currently busy sawing me in half. 

Yes, scary,, I know. Or at least it was supposed to be the big show stopping scary finale. Watch as this scruffy looking guy with long black hair gets cut right in half! How exciting. Well, maybe exciting back in the 1890s. Now the majority of the crowd was on their phone, or trying desperately to pick up the hot waitstaff in skimpy fishnets. No respect for the art of magic, let me tell you.

After a quick show that, yes, I was carved clean in two, Ariel put me back together and let me out of the box. Cutting someone in half was a pretty simple trick, you just had the dummy legs at the other end of the box. It was up to the assistant, that would be me, to sell the trick and make it look like there was ever actually any peril. And lemme tell you, I just wasn’t up to it. This was the end of our first week with this gig, and there just was a sheer lack of enthusiasm on my part. I don’t know if it was the crowd, my life, or just a general sense of ennui. But Ariel more than made up for it. 

“You’ve all been a wonderful audience. I’ve been Ariel Dangerous and this is my partner in crime Adelai, and it’s been a pleasure to perform for you. Stick around for a 10 o’clock performance of hypnotism and wonder by Sophic Sounds, that one’s 18 and up folks.” With that we both did a quick bow and hustled off the stage as fast as possible. It’s the role of an assistant to clear the props off the stage asap, so I stayed behind a little bit and then eventually made my way to the bar. 

If there was one positive to our stay at the Magic Castle, it had to be Trin. Trinity was an absolute peach of a bartender, and it didn’t hurt that she was kind of my type as well. Short multicolored hair, piercings for days, and eyes that you couldn’t help but sink into when you looked into them. She had this low husky voice that just grabbed you by the brain and caused you to focus on her, which was helpful for a bartender. Our first show had been a little dead, so we had used the time to really get to know Trinity. She liked a lot of the same games and comics that we did, as well as dabbling a little bit more in magic on her free time. Although she claimed that her magic was “a little different” than the stuff that we did on stage. She never really wanted to say more beyond that. Kind of a cryptic sort. 

As I approached the bar I could see that Trin and Ariel were already in a little bit of conversation. I plopped into a bar seat beside Ariel, but didn’t talk much. There was no point to interject where I wasn’t wanted, but it seems like my presence threw a little bit of a blanket over the conversation and they quickly both hushed up, changing the subject almost immediately. I swallowed the tiny bit of pain that came from the abrupt change, it probably was some girl conversation and once again I plowed my way somewhere I wasn’t exactly wanted. 

“There’s everyone’s favorite assistant!” Trin shouted, pretending to just notice that I had joined them. “We were just talking about you, you seemed a little out of it tonight. Are you okay?”

For a moment I considered broaching the faux pas and just saying ‘I feel like shit’, but even on my worst day that wasn’t necessarily something that I wanted to say. That would cause them to feel bad for me and things would just go downhill from there. “I’m fine,” I gave them the best thing I had to approximate a smile. Neither of them bought it, obviously. I’d been in my head all night during the show, almost missing my cues. The Magician’s assistant is an important role, some would say more so than the magician themselves. They had to make sure the tricks actually went off well, and were in charge of selling the actions.

Me? It felt like I was sleepwalking during the performance. It’s not that I didn’t want to be a part of things. In fact, I wanted nothing more than to be present and joking along with Ariel. But it felt so hard. I felt like my whole body was encased in Jello, that everything was sluggish and slow. My body was a 20 year old computer running Windows 98 and my mind was some new AAA video game, it wasn’t just lag; it was a complete crash of the hardware. 

“Well,” Trinity rummaged behind the bar for a moment, she always had to be in motion. “Ariel told me about your quest to play all of the mini golfs in the area before you have to blow out of town. Have you tried Mount Olympicus yet? It’s a couple of blocks away, and looks a little run down on the outside, but I swear it’s the best mini golf in this whole dang misbegotten state. Girl Scout’s Honor.”

Ariel nodded, “Well we have been meaning to try that one out. What do you say, Adelai? You seem a little tired, are you too down to go out for some mini golf?” She gave me those big puppy dog eyes that she does when she’s trying to get on my good side. Dammit, there’s no way I can say no to those. All my body wants to do is lay down and go to sleep, but I know if I wake up then all I’m going to want to do is sleep more. 

There’s a moment of silence as I’m trying to figure the best way to say yes without sounding like I’m only saying yes because of those big innocent looking eyes imploring me to go along with whatever she wants. “Yeah maybe, I guess I can nap afterwards.”

That must have been the right thing to say, as both of them let out a little cheer of joy. Trin whipped into a flurry of motion, telling me that she was going to have just the thing to get me in the spirit to hit small balls for roughly an hour and a half. It was hypnotic watching her, the fluidity and grace of her motion and she shook together various ingredients was a sight to behold. There is an art to bartending beyond pretending to be interested in the lives of your customers, a physicality to it akin to a dancer. And no I’m not just saying that because her movements also showed off just how hot she was, either. I’m not that much of a creep.

When she finished, she placed two different shots in front of the two of us. Ariel got a deep onyx thick liquid with a nice little helping of whipped creme on top. In front of me was a tan liquor with its own little hefty amount of cream. I gave it a questioning sniff, which I presume might have been seen as rude, but I had learned the hard way a long time ago about accepting random shots from strangers. “What’s in this?”

“So you said you were thinking about napping, so I thought I’d whip you up something special. It’s a carrot cake shot, but it’s made with some coffee liquor so it’ll give you a little boost of caffeine. I’ve given a variation of this shot to other people as well, and they’ve said it’s completely renewed them. Shaken them up a little bit, trust me. You’re not going to regret it at all!” Trin turned to Ariel to describe what she had made for her, but the waifish magician had already pounded hers down, licking her lips with a look of contentment on her face. 

For a moment I was hesitant. I’m not really a big shots person, mainly from a whole college career spent head first in the toilet after my so-called friends pressured me into going shot for shot with them. But I was older, and the shot did look delicious. I was making this choice of my own volition and could always just give it back to her if I wasn’t comfortable. Well, obviously as my mind was already made up I reached out and took a drink. 

The taste wasn’t exactly carrot cake, there was a lingering taste of butterscotch and the coffee was stronger than I was expecting. I’m not really a coffee drinker, but I like coffee liquors and ice cream. There’s something about taking a bitter nasty thing like java and then distilling it into this sweet and easily consumable form that felt appropriate to me in the moment. Something to smooth out the rough edges and make it lighter, freer. The thought left a bittersweet feeling in my chest which I quickly wrote off as just being upset that I drank the drink as quickly as I did. Something that I typically didn’t feel much when it came to shots. 

“Oh my gosh, Ad’s pouting, I think he liked your shot.” I turned and Ariel was giggling. I suppose I should have been more upset being the center of attention, but I just giggled back. Oof, I guess the shot is hitting much faster than I thought. 

“N-no.” I had to save face somehow, although talking isn’t always my biggest strength. Typically it just leads to more teasing, but there has to be a first time for everything right? “It was just really good and I got lost in thought, although I guess, maybe I would like another. It was really yummy.” What was I saying, I probably shouldn’t get too plastered. Just a drink, then miniature golfing, then bed. Plain and simple. I was not getting wasted on shots tonight. 

We then proceeded to drink multiple shots before stumbling out of the Magic Castle. Look I’m just as disappointed as you, but the shots were both free and delicious, so I don’t know what to tell you. 

The rest of the night after the shots was, admittedly, a bit of a blur. Whatever she had packed into mine, it really hit fast. I wasn’t really the kind of person to get that drunk, not to the point where I was giggly and overly enthusiastic about things. Sure I laughed a lot when I was high, but this wasn’t the same. This was different. This was nice. I might have been allergic to something in the shot, as every once in a while my body would itch in various odd places. The sensations would shift and wouldn’t necessarily fade once I scratched. The top of my head burned every now and then, but the worst was my chest. The rough black t-shirt that never really gave me problems before was now irritating me to no end. But I was still a little too drunk and a little too happy to be out of my depression fog to care.

It was in this haze, hole after hole at Mount Olympicus, that I realized that I was in too deep. The whole night, fostered by a bliss of booze, the two of us had been close. Gentle touches on the arm. Lingering hugs while we waited for the people in front of us to get the dang ball in the hole already. There was definitely a point where we were both singing songs from the Disney Hercules movie at each other, much to the chagrin of the other patrons.

But beautiful nights like these have to come to a close, and all miniature golf courses must have 18 holes. Well, in this case there were 19 holes. The final trick shot was a long long thin slice of astroturf that challenged you to “Sink the Ball in Zeus’s Hole” which definitely caused a little bit of snickering between the two of us. Considering that we were quite plastered, we both absolutely missed. But it didn’t matter. Hand in hand we made our way to our uber and subsequently passed out in our large single bed in our hotel. There was a magic show to put on tomorrow, and we definitely had a hangover to wake up to in the morning. 

***

There is a particular taste that comes with hangovers. It lingers in your mouth, almost scolding you for going overboard the night before. Sure, people tell you to drink water when you’re drinking. And sometimes I can, if I remember it. But last night I got drunk so fast on whatever was in that shot, well it all was a blur. 

And yet, no hangover. No longing for death as soon as light hit my eyes. No cringing under the covers as my stomach slowly begins to demand for explanations for what I’ve done. Instead I feel good, great even. There’s this energy humming in my veins, like I’ve been plugged up and charging all night. In other words, something’s wrong. 

This is not my normal morning wakeup, I surmise as I shift under the covers. And in fact, my body seems to agree with me. While I move, something’s not right. The sheets are softer than they were when I went to bed. And they’re bigger on me as well. Well, this could be a prank. My brain’s still waking up, and even with everything as fuzzy as it is that sounds like it could possibly be at least kind of right? But then why would Ariel prank me with nicer sheets? That doesn’t make any sense. 

I slowly raise up in bed and yawn, synapses trying and failing to jumpstart my brain. Something is still off, nothing seems right. My voice is a little too high, and I let out a little squeak at the end of my yawn. My pajamas, just a simple sleeping top and underwear, seem baggier than they were last night. Not that I have anything wrong with that, it’s comfier that way anyway. It feels like I’m missing a piece of a puzzle, something to satisfy the screaming in my brain that everything is off. Something is wrong. 

“Uh hey, I don’t know if Adelai brought you in last night or if you’re just crashing or whatever, but I have to say I really like your bunny ears. They’re at least really cute from the back.” I jump in bed and immediately turn to where Ariel’s voice is coming from. It’s loud, almost like she’s standing right behind my back. And yet, she’s just walking out of the bathroom now with a concerned look on her face. I probably scared her, jumping like that.

“Uh… What?” My brain is still slow and fuzzy, but did she just say bunny ears? I reach up to feel the top of my head, and standing there connected to my cranium are what feels like fluffy rabbit ears. A mirror. I need a mirror immediately. Lurching off the bed, I stumble my way past Ariel without saying anything. As I move my body responds in an utterly alien fashion, with a little more extra bounce than I’m used to.

The fog almost immediately lifts when I make it to the bathroom, or it would be more accurate to say that the peaceful haze that I stumbled through came to a crashing halt. Reflected in the mirror is what I would assume my sister would look like if she also happened to be a big fan of cute fluffy animals. For a moment my brain tried and öfailed to rectify the image that I saw in the mirror with the image that typically accompanied me for years. Gone was the long lanky look. Sure the girl in the mirror was tall, but even in the flurry of movement there wasn’t the same awkward motion that had previously graced my form. Her black shoulder length hair was messy, but silky and bright. Running a hand through my hair I reveled in just how soft it was. 

Her face was extremely similar. Same slightly long nose, same bushy black eyebrows. Her mouth was curved into a brief smile, giddy and yet not daring to hope that this was in any way permanent. Her two front teeth were slightly longer than the others, something matching the bunny ears on the top of her head. My head. I was a bunny? But how? 

My ear twitched as I tried to grab it again and I came to the quick realization that, yes, I can control how they move. This was incredible, this was magical. I was a girl. Something inside me was saying that I should be upset with this fact, but why would I be? I was never really a happy guy, so maybe this is the change that I need to grab life by the ears and have a little fun. All I’d need to do is completely reinvent my life, tell my parents, update my ids, break the news to Ariel, maybe find a new job, buy a complete new wardrobe, deal with bigots who find my ears weird, not live in the South anymore, is it hot in here? I feel like it’s hot in here. 

These changes, great. Amazing. But for how quick I accepted the change in myself, now all my brain could think of was how hard it was going to make the rest of my life. I gripped tighter to the hotel sink, air struggling to make its way into my throat, the breaths that I was able to take sharp and jagged. I desperately tried to turn on the sink to splash some water on my face, but as soon as the tap was turned on the water decided to defy gravity and gush up towards the ceiling. This just caused my whole little panic attack to get worse as I realized that the objects in the room were whipping around me like a miniature tornado. Travel shampoos and single packaged soaps whizzing in satellite orbit around my head. 

At this point, my brain had simply descended into pure animal panic. I slumped to the ground, breathing getting harder and harder. Air pushed out of my lungs as soon as they even began to enter it. Towels, hair dryers, bits of makeup and brushes breaking the laws of physics around me, moving and pulsing with each ragged breath. 

I don’t know how long I was caught in the panic attack. But I do know what got me out of it. Touch began to ground me, to bring me back to reality. At some point in my panic, Ariel had come into the bathroom. I don’t know how she didn’t see this complete and utter break with the way the world worked and not run out the room screaming, but instead she sat down on the floor next to me and gave me a hug. 

I can’t tell you how long the hug lasted. I wasn’t in a state where I could even begin to know. But eventually my breathing settled back into place. The bathroom staples- towels, soaps, and all that good stuff- stopped moving by itself. The room let out a breath, and reality decided to work as normal. All that was left was two women in a hug, one crying in alternating waves of relief and panic into the other one’s arms. 

***

“So what you’re saying is, you have no idea of how this happened?” The magician punctuated her sentence by inhaling a massive forkful of hash browns and a sip of shitty coffee. We had ended up in a fugue state after my cry, somehow dressing ourselves and making our way to a diner to process what exactly went on. Ariel somehow had figured out that the weird bunny girl crying her eyes out in her bathroom was her good friend and assistant, and decided that getting both of us food was the most important plan for the moment. 

Getting dressed was a little bit hectic. I realized that besides the ears I also had a cottony white ball of fluff above my much rounder ass. I also had to, y’know, borrow some of Ariel’s clothes. It was funny because I was still so much taller than her. She had this very flowy, baggy ethereal style though, so we were able to make some leggings and a very loose top on her fit pretty well on my new body. There had to be some arranging to account for the tail, but we made it work. However, all that planning and there still was a moment of panic before we both went into the diner and I realized, oops I still have some very visible ears. After a moment of concentrating I realized that I could make the ears invisible. They still twitched at the top of my head, but to everyone else I was a normal looking human. 

Why was that so disappointing? I was still a woman, so that was still all new and different. I had decided to give it a shot, see how it went. So why was I so upset to be hiding my inhuman aspects? 

“Hello, Earth to uh… Ade. I asked you a question. Wait, actually, what would you like me to call you? I can use whatever pronouns or anything you want?” Right, Ariel was talking to me before and I was staring off into space. I think she understood that I had a lot on my mind. 

“I think I want to go for a complete break from my old name. There was one name that really stood out to me, I think I’d like to go by Imani, please.” I think I had come across the name in a story or a textbook for some history class, and I just adored it. It was one of those names that I had in my head that I thought was just much more interesting than Adelai, it just had its own musicality to it that Adelai was sorely lacking. Who’s Adelai? Some schmuck who works for the local government or something. Imani was mysterious and powerful, Imani was me. “Oh, and let’s try she/her for a while. I think that might stick.”

Ariel nodded, “I had a feeling that it would.”

“Seriously?”

“Hell yeah. You woke up and as soon as you figured out that you had changed, your first thought wasn’t ‘oh no how do I turn back?’ It was ‘where’s a mirror?’ It just wasn’t a very cis reaction, honestly.” As Ariel talked she buttered some rye toast and proceeded to smother it with as many tiny jam packets that she could find. “I honestly thought you seemed a little, hm, softer last night. More feminine. But I didn’t want to say anything about it. I was sure I felt a little chest press up against me as we swaggered home. But I was so drunk at the time I didn’t want to say anything.” 

I scratched at my ears, trying to be as subtle and bunnily possible. I didn’t want people to think I was some kind of weirdo just scratching the air. “Huh, I mean I did feel a little bit different, but I thought it was just an allergic reaction or something. I was just in this happy fog as soon as I drank… Wait a second. Do you think this has something to do with the shot that Trin gave us?”

“It’s possible? Or fate could have just seen that you were a complete and total girl and decided to help give you a little shove in that direction. Either way, it worked. What, do you want to check Magic Castle?”

“Hmm, no. We’re going to go there anyway for the show. I think I need to, oh shit the show! We’re still scheduled to go on tonight and for at least the rest of this week. What are we going to do?” Stress clutched again at my heart as I felt my breathing begin its irregular pattern of a panic attack. The camouflage that I had over my ears suddenly went away, I could see them reflected in the silver of the napkin container.

“Imani,” Ariel’s voice pierced through the fog. My name. That’s my name. I’m Imani. “Imani you’re starting to panic again, I need you to focus on my voice. Okay? I need you to practice some breathing like we’ve done before. Four seconds in, four seconds out. Okay?” The pancakes on the table flapped against the hold that gravity had on them, looking like they would arc for liftoff at any second. I couldn’t make a scene, not here. Southern diners weren’t really known for their accepting and friendly clientele. If our kindly grandma of a waitress came back to us I couldn’t necessarily say ‘hi, I was a guy yesterday and now I’m a bunny girl and I’m freaking out not because of my situation but because of how people will view my situation and why I’m not freaking out.’

So I took a breath in. Deep. And held it for a moment. Held it until my lungs began to ache. Held it until I found myself  begging for the release, so that I could breathe in again and welcome the fresh air back into my lungs. When I no longer could hold it anymore I let out a gasp and sucked in as much air as I could. I focused and willed my ears to go away, and now that I stopped myself from the spiral I found that again they vanished easily.

“Is that better?” Ariel was there, by my side like normal. Looking at me with those precious eyes of hers. I didn’t really think I could speak so I gave her a little nod. “How do you do that? Y’know, your whole Stranger Things thing?”

“The telekinesis?” 

“Yeah that! That’s real fucking magic! How do you do that?”

All I could do was shrug, “I don’t know. It’s not like I’ve really had much control over it at all. Both times it happened I was just in this intense emotion and all of the sudden it’s all going Carrie.” Ariel’s face was blank and it was her turn to shrug. “You know, Carrie? Awkward girl? Pig's blood at prom and she goes all psycho?”

“Is this a comic book movie thing? You know I don’t watch those. Anyway, why don’t you try it again? It would be so cool if you were psychic!” Ariel leaned over and snatched my chocolate chip pancakes from my plate and moved them a few feet away from me. “Do you wanna try it now? Maybe see if any emotion could work?”

I sighed, but she was right. It would probably be nice to figure out how my powers worked, if I even do have powers. It could still be some sort of freak accident. I could still wake up tomorrow and be a guy ag- no. There’s that panic again, I can’t have that happen. I can’t be that person again. Imani is here to stay. 

Oh, that’s a fuzzy thought. Let’s hold onto that. I’m going to stay a girl. I can be a girl and I can figure out what kind of girl that I want to be. I can dress how I want, and maybe, just maybe something can happen between me and Ariel. I stole a quick glimpse at her, which quickly devolved into my face flushing up so quickly. She was looking at me so intently, her pink soft lips giving me the most gentle of smiles. My heart skipped in my chest as I heard the pancakes slowly slide their way across the table by themselves until they stopped gently in front of me. 

“It’s emotion,” I said. “I can control it with emotion. I was having really positive thoughts, and then it was like there was a thread that I could pull to get my desired result, it just kind of happened before I even actively realized it was happening.”

“That’s so fucking cool, you’re so fucking cool, Imani!” Ariel bounced up and down in her seat, I wanted to savor the look that she gave me forever. Oh my God I was a useless fucking lesbian, I’d tear the whole world down telekinetically just to see that smile.

***

“Are you sure I have to wear this? It’s so stereotypical.” 

“What, you don’t have a problem when I wear a sexy dress for the shows. What’s wrong bunny, getting cold feet?” 

I blushed and sputtered, “N-no, it’s just. Well. What if people laugh at me?” I wasn’t wearing anything that outrageous, just a slinky black dress with some fishnet tights. We had paired it with a short black jacket with shiny buttons. It felt stereotypically Magician’s assistant, which I was, sure. But it was still a slight step outside my comfort zone. But figuring that the whole day was a step outside my comfort zone, I figured I might as well go all out. That was earlier, when we spent part of the day at thrift shops and part of the day trying on seemingly outfit after outfit until we found one that was just right. 

“I mean people are supposed to laugh at us, right? We are technically supposed to be comic magicians. But if you’re worried about them laughing at you, well why would they? You’re a fucking gorgeous woman. The dress gives you a killer body that anyone would love. And, most importantly, if they laugh at you directly, I will personally kick them in the balls and/or ovaries depending on their genitals. You have my promise as a gentlewoman.” 

“I… I don’t know.” This was worse than our very first show. There always was this veneer that I had between myself and the audience. I realize now that I never really was showing them my true self, so there was no reason to worry about what they thought of me. I was always the clown, the shaggy haired guy who thought getting a laugh was more important than people liking me. If they laughed then that meant that I had worth. Somewhere along the way though, through this transformation I felt stripped bare. 

“How about this, what if I tell you that I personally know that you’re going to kill out there. That you’re going to be the best bun assistant that I’ve ever had. And that the crowd is going to love you. We’re going to put on our best damn show, and if we do, I’m going to give you a kiss.”

My eyes went wide, I even let out a little eep of shock. “A kiss??”

“Yeah,” Ariel leaned closer to me, a look of pure mischief dancing in her eyes. “Just like this one.” And then she kissed me. 

It was soft and sweet and a complete surprise. I didn’t have time to react, to protest, to tell her that she was making a big mistake. That she had so many other choices than boring old me. Before I had a chance to inform her that she made a big mistake, she stole in for a second kiss as well. This time I had a little bit more of my wits about me and kissed her back. Nothing scandalous, just being more in the moment. Pushing aside all of my negative thoughts and just dwelling in the moment. She slowly slid closer to me, my telekinesis wrapping her up and gently pulling her in for a hug. 

“So, uh, like that?” I asked, slightly panting from the sheer dynamite of a kiss. 

“Well, probably a little more than that, Bunny. Those were just first kisses, I aim to give you plenty more. Especially if we kill out there.”

All I could do was nod, and adjust my dress a little bit until I was ready. The people of Myrtle Beach came to the Magic Castle for the best discount magic show that they could possibly get. And by God, I was going to give them the best show possible. I caught one last look at myself in the mirror before I rushed off to join Ariel on the stage, shutting the door on the way out without touching the handle. 

 

I'm so hoppy you gave my bun story a shot. Hare are some more of my stories for all of my rabbit readers out there.

— DerbyGhost

 

Santa's Secret Transfic Anthology Vol. 2 / Everyday Sweets #13

Follow to catch Sometimes it's too Late on June 16th

Support the authors and get instant access to all stories and more for $6 on itch.io