-Tessa POV-

 

As I stirred awake, I felt tears on my closed eyelids. Odd. It had been a long time since we cried.

Remembering the forest, I frantically reached out for Maia, before breathing a sigh of relief. She was there, just asleep.

I felt an odd sensation in my arms. It felt almost as though I was holding a large ball of fluff. Whatever it was, it was extremely comfy.

Sleepily pulling it closer, I heard a purring noise in front of me, which made me frown. We didn’t have pets.

After releasing the fluffy thing to rub my eyes, I opened them, only to stare in astonishment at the sight in front of me.

I was… back in bed, at home. And the fluffy thing I was holding was a large white fox tail. Connected to a girl with fox ears and long white hair. Sleeping in front of me. Oh, and did I mention that she was naked? I couldn’t see much since she had her back to me as well as a large tail, but I could still feel my face heat up.

I blinked a few times, confused and surprised.

For some reason, she gave off a feeling of… belonging. Of familiarity.

Before I could try to puzzle out why I felt that way, she began to stir.

Yawning, she said, “[Hey, Tessa, are you awake?]”

“…Maia?” I asked hesitantly, before quickly putting my hand to my throat. 

Now distracted by the sound of my own voice and the fluff that I felt on my neck, I rushed over to the mirror in the corner of our room. Or tried to, anyway.

I barely managed to not fall over when jumping out of bed, and did actually fall over at the first step, landing directly on my butt.

“Ow…” I murmured softly. Crawling over to the mirror and removing the cloth covering it, I stood up and stared.

Standing in the mirror was… a moth girl.

Okay. One thing at a time.

I had long white hair that reached all the way down my back and almost to my legs, tickling a little every time I turned my head.

On my forehead were a pair of feathery antennae. Reaching up to touch them, I could feel my hands moving through the air. When my hand brushed up against an antenna, I flinched, before rubbing it gently with my finger in amazement. It was a strange sensation, like I could almost taste my finger on my antenna.

Realizing I was getting carried away, I let my hand fall to my side.

Luckily, I didn’t have a moth’s odd eyes, though my irises were a bright shade of amber instead of the usual blue. Looking closer, I saw that even my eyelashes were white like my hair.

Lowering my eyes further, I could see that I had a strange white fluffy mass around my neck, like a scarf. It felt softer than anything I had ever touched before. I petted it, feeling how it was connected to me. I could feel a smile beginning to form, and for the first time in years, I didn’t feel the need to try and keep my face neutral.

Turning around, I noted gray-white moth wings attached to my back. It was surprisingly easy to move them about, and I admired them, tilting them in different ways. When I stopped paying attention to them, they draped across my back, almost like a cape or cloak.

Looking back at the mirror, I stared at my reflection. Fluffy white hair all the way down my back. Smooth, pale skin. Eyes that almost seemed to glow.

And I was a girl! I had dreamed of this for so long. I tried, unsuccessfully, to hold in a giggle.

I made various happy noises, listening to my voice. It sounded exactly how I always imagined it to. 

“You seem happy,” said a voice from the bed.

Maia was sitting up now, holding her tail.

Her ears idly flicked back and forth and I saw that her eyes were the same orangey-gold color as mine, though her pupils had changed to those of a fox.

“Yeah!” I said, fluttering my wings and giggling again.

Looking back and forth between her and the mirror, I noticed that we looked almost exactly alike, except for the animal parts.

I walked back to the bed, carefully this time so as to not lose my balance. I sat down on the edge of the bed, admiring how the sheets felt on my skin.

Ah, right. I was completely naked.

I was trying to ignore it, but I couldn’t anymore. Sighing, I began to stand up in order to find some clothes to wear.

Before I could, though, arms from behind wrapped around me.

Maia nuzzled into my neck fluff, pulling me back onto the bed. Her tail, more dexterous than I had previously thought, wrapped around me.

“Can we just… stay like this for a while?”

I nodded. This was nice.

[I was afraid I lost you back there.]

{I almost thought I lost you. What was that girl?}

Maia shuddered behind me.

[I don’t know. I don’t want to think about it anymore.]

I nodded again, before relaxing further into her. Luckily, my wings were okay to be touched, so I could just lay there with my back to her.

After a while, I squirmed. Maia had begun to move her hands around, and it really tickled.

“Ehe.” I heard a soft giggle from behind me.

Her hands roamed across my body, eventually coming to rest on my chest. She shifted her hands around, cupping my chest in different ways.

That felt… strange. Good, but strange.

Then, she let go.

I rolled over, curious why she stopped. She had a slight frown on her face, and her hands were now on her own chest.

[…I think you’re slightly bigger.]

Oh.

 

-Maia POV-

 

Cute.

That’s all I could think as I watched Tessa try to get dressed while watching from a beanbag chair.

Almost none of our clothes fit properly anymore, but I didn’t really mind. I didn't have any strong attachment to them, and besides, I enjoyed watching Tessa’s face as she tried and failed to find pants that weren’t far too long on her.

We had been only a little above average size for a guy before, and now as girls we were probably a bit below average in terms of height, not that I had a measuring tape handy. Since we tended to wear baggy clothes, just about everything was either too big now or fit oddly enough as to be uncomfortable.

I had put on a hoodie that was previously a bit big on us, smiling at the way it tented out in the front. Although, I was still pretty exposed due to my tail pushing it up in the back and the way it hung in the front.

Of course, none of our underwear fit anymore, and we didn’t have any bras at all. To be honest, I had no idea what we were going to do about clothing, but I was sure we could figure something out.

I watched as Tessa tried to put on a shirt that probably would have fit her, if not for her wings and her large, erm, chest. Mine was only a little bit smaller. As it was, the shirt fit her like a crop top and pinned her wings against her back.

“Okay, I give up! Hand me the scissors.” Tessa said, pulling the shirt back over her head.

“For wing holes?”

“Yeah.”

It was nice to be able to talk to each other out loud like this, though our telepathy had a certain intimacy that I also liked.

I looked around before realizing that we didn’t actually have any scissors in our room. Tessa, apparently having come to the same conclusion, sighed and sat down on the carpet floor.

“What now?” she asked.

Instead of answering directly, I patted the large beanbag I was sitting on and scooted to one side. Tessa smiled at me, then came and sat next to me. I hugged her tightly.

Suddenly, a knock came from the door. We sprang apart to the edges of the beanbag.

I was suddenly intensely aware of the fact that I was not, in fact, decent. And Tessa was still entirely naked. I frantically looked around for some way to cover up, but came up with nothing.

I heard Marissa, our older sister, shouting through the closed door.

“Alex! Breakfast!”

“Coming!” Tessa and I both said reflexively, before looking at each other.

[…Shit.] {Oops.}

“Alex?” Marissa asked. We could only stare wide-eyed as the doorknob turned.

I hadn’t realized the door wasn’t locked. We always locked the door. Why wasn’t it locked?

Marissa stood in the doorway, looking like a deer in headlights as she locked eyes with us. I noticed that she had apparently been given animal parts too, evidenced by the horns and cow ears on her head, as well as the cow tail idly flicking back and forth behind her.

She looked back and forth between me and Tessa a few times before asking, “Which one of you is Alex?”

“We both are,” I said, having pulled down my hoodie in an attempt to cover myself.

She stared at us for a few moments longer, before blinking a few times and saying, “Right. Well, clothes first, then answers.”

Glancing over at Tessa, I saw that she was blushing brightly, with her legs tightly pushed together and hands over her chest. She was staring at the floor with her neck contorted in such a way that her face seemed to be trying to sink into her neck fluff.

Marissa left, leaving the door open. Moments later, she popped her head back in, saying, “Come to my room, we’ll see what fits.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

 

-Tessa POV-

 

This was bad.

We had gotten dressed, with me in a tank top so my wings could be free and sweatpants and Maia in that hoodie and some jeans riding low due to her tail. We were also both going commando since we didn’t want to wear Marissa’s underwear, but I was trying to ignore that fact.

Marissa was staring at us from across the table.

“First I’ve turned into some sort of cow girl, and now my little brother has turned into a fox girl and a moth girl,” she muttered, briefly resting her face in her hands. She looked back up at me, then Maia. “So, what did you mean when you said you were both Alex?”

I thought about how to answer for a moment. I really didn’t want to explain how we were secretly two girls all along, and just never told her. I considered just telling her that this was caused by whatever gave us animal parts.

[I don’t want to lie to her.]

{Fair enough. But I really don’t want to explain.}

[I’ll do it, then.]

{Thank you.}

I smiled at Maia.

“And why do you two keep staring at each other like that?” Marissa asked. “It’s weird, like you two are reading each other’s minds or something.”

“We are,” Maia said. Before she could begin her explanation, though, I relaxed into my seat. Almost unconsciously, I requested for Maia to take control, like we used to do. And as though automatically, Maia accepted.

Before I even realized what I was doing, my body had disappeared with a small poof, and I was watching the world through Maia’s eyes.

Marissa was now staring at us as though she had seen a ghost.

{Erm… Oops.}

Marissa rubbed her eyes, stood up, and said, “…I’m gonna need some coffee to deal with this.”