-Maia POV-

 

I hate shopping. Sure, it’s always nice to get new things, but it always takes so long to decide on something, and it’s often hard to find something you like at all.

In any case, I don’t like it.

And yet, here we were, shopping for underwear. This time, though, I wasn’t dreading shopping because of the pure tedium that comes with it. Instead, I was mortified.

Having your sister help you pick out underwear is an embarrassment I never expected to have to experience. To make matters worse, I had to go into the store without wearing any to begin with.

The one consolation I had was that Tessa was here with me, going through the exact same mortification that I was.

{Are you complaining about shopping again?}

[…Yes.]

Tessa looked at me and smiled. We had only just reached the entrance to the store, and I was hesitant to go in. Tessa seemed to be okay, since nobody was staring at her, but I was still a little worried. She reached out for my hand.

{You know, maybe clothes shopping will be fun now. After all, we can wear girl clothes now.}

I sighed.

[Maybe you’re right. Surely it can’t be too terrible, right?]

She giggled softly in that adorable way she had, before whispering playfully in my ear, “Maybe we can find some nighttime attire, too.”

What did she mean by nighttime…?

Oh. We were at a women's underwear store.

I felt my cheeks and ears heat up, and looking at Tessa, I could see that her face was bright red, too.

{…Forget I said anything.}

[No. That was adorable.]

She turned to me with a face that was both horrified and embarrassed.

{Nooooo.}

[I will treasure this memory forever.]

Marissa, having not heard any of our conversation, looked back at us from inside the store. Seeing that we were still standing outside, she rolled her eyes and motioned us forward.

Tessa walked in with her head down and ears red, and I followed behind.

 

-Tessa POV-

 

Why on earth did I have to say that?

I ended up distracted the whole time we were moving through the store, with my words and Maia’s reaction replaying over and over in my head. Luckily, I think Marissa just thought I was embarrassed to be there in the first place.

I didn’t even notice as we walked through the store and Marissa picked out things for us to try on.

I only snapped out of it when we reached the changing room. I was immediately overcome with a fresh wave of embarrassment, though, when I was handed a pile of underwear and told to change in the same room as Maia.

“There’s only one changing room available, and we have a lot of stores to visit today. Besides, it’s fine if you two change together, right?” Marissa said, ignoring our protests.

Skin burning, I stared at the wall as I stripped, then slipped on the underwear.

I felt the heat in my body abate as I admired how the underwear felt on me. I looked down at my chest, feeling a different kind of warmth fill me.

For so long, I could only fantasize about being here, wearing this. It was like a dream come true.

Suddenly, I felt warm arms wrap around me from behind. Maia hugged me, pressing her almost naked body against my back.

Before I could ask what she was doing, she murmured, “The clothes, the body, having you here… it’s everything I've ever wanted.”

I pushed away from her, before turning around and pulling her close. I felt our heartbeats both pounding as we held each other.

I was willing to stand like that forever, but only a moment later, Marissa’s voice came through the changing room door. “Does everything fit so far?”

We sprang apart, retreating to our respective corners of the room, before beginning to try on the rest of the underwear in our piles.

I snuck a few peeks at Maia as we changed, watching her strike poses in the mirror and trying not to stare at her.

She met my eyes, smiling that playful smirk she had, and began to remove her-

I hurriedly turned back around. I felt a small twinge of disappointment from Maia.

{Not the time, not the place.}

[It's a changing room. I would argue that it is precisely the time and place.]

{A changing room is not the place to be watching someone change.}

[So you would watch me change in private?]

{…You’re just teasing me now.}

[Ehe.]

Once we finished trying on the underwear and had our borrowed clothes back on, I opened the door to see Marissa standing right in front of it, frowning at her phone. Seeing that we were done, she put away her phone and took the two piles of underwear that fit.

We followed her to the register, trying once again not to look at anything in the store. I stood awkwardly to the side with Maia as Marissa checked out.

Hopefully, the rest of the shopping trip wouldn’t be as embarrassing as that.

 

-Maia POV-

 

I was actually looking forward to shopping for clothes for once. Since none of our clothes from before fit, and we couldn’t just keep borrowing Marissa’s clothes forever, we all went to a clothes store next.

After we got to the store, though, a problem made itself glaringly obvious.

Neither of us had any sense of fashion.

Of course, we’d never been able to wear girl clothes before, so we had no clue what we were doing.

Still, though, it pained me that all the clothes were right there but I didn’t know what went together or anything. I could feel that Tessa felt the same way, sending waves of discomfort.

We both looked at Marissa pleadingly, to which she responded, “Do you need help?”

We both nodded.

“Alright, so,” she began, smiling. “What did you have in mind?”

Surprisingly, she was actually quite good at picking out clothes. I will admit, I wasn’t sure she would be able to help, given her usual outfit of sweatpants and a tank top, but she knew what she was talking about.

When Tessa complained that the hoodie and skirt combination she wanted made her look like an elementary school student, Marissa found a slightly different hoodie and skirt set that Tessa was much more satisfied with. With Marissa’s help, Tessa found a lot of outfits that ranged from “cute” to “cool” and many things in between.

As for me, I wasn’t quite sure what style of clothes I wanted to wear. I didn’t really want to encroach on Tessa’s style, but none of the clothes really called out to me other than the cute ones.

However, when Marissa handed me an outfit and a pair of underwear we bought earlier and pushed me into the changing room, I was somewhat nervous. After I put on the clothes, though, I could only stare at the mirror, entranced.

I wore a black pleated skirt and a red shirt that matched my eyes. It was incredibly cute. Though I wasn’t used to the way the shirt was tucked in and the shortness of the skirt, I liked it. It just felt right. Looking at my eyes in the mirror, I could see my happiness reflected in them. I gave the skirt an experimental spin.

Oh yes.

I spun some more until I got dizzy, holding in giggles the whole time.

Reluctantly taking off the outfit, I told Marissa that it fit well and I liked it. Quite the understatement, but it got across the idea. She walked off in search of more clothes I might like.

{So you like the cute outfits, too?}

I blushed, nodding.

{Cute.}

With only a single word, I felt like I could just melt into a puddle right there.

Tessa pulled me in for a hug, and we embraced for a few minutes. Before long, though, we had to let go of each other. Marissa was coming back with more clothes to try on.

 

-Tessa POV-

 

After a whirlwind session of trying on clothes, buying them, getting shoes, and buying a new set of school supplies, we now had numerous outfits to wear.

The school supplies sparked a small debate over who would be attending as a new student.

“Why do we even need to both attend school? We could just be one student,” I asked Marissa.

“You could have done that in the past, but it’s important for you two to have your own lives and do your own things.”

That felt like a rather flimsy argument, but my own reasons were not much better.

{So which one of us will be the new student and which will be the transformed Alex?}

[I should probably be the new student, since I used to sleep through most of school. It’ll make more sense for me to not know things if I’m a new student.]

And so, we bought new school supplies for Maia.

Afterwards, we went to the food court for lunch. I ordered chicken tacos, Maia ordered beef tacos, and Marissa ordered quesadillas.

“You two really are twins, huh?” Marissa said, watching us eat our respective tacos.

{We should probably tell her.}

[It would be weird.]

{It’ll only get weirder the longer we wait.}

[...Okay. I’ll tell her.]

“Hey, Marissa?” Maia asked after finishing her taco. I braced for the conversation that would follow. Not even a day had passed since we had gained separate bodies, and we were already going to tell Marissa the true nature of our relationship.

Suddenly, the ground shook, and I heard a loud boom in the distance.

Sirens began to sound all throughout the building, and I began to feel apprehensive. We all stood up, intending to make for the exit.

All of a sudden, the glass roof of the food court shattered. Something had fallen out of the sky, gone through the roof, and was now falling directly toward us.

I tried to run, but I had put on my new shoes before lunch, and I tripped, not used to them yet. 

Maia, immediately sensing something wrong, turned back toward me. Her eyes widened upon seeing whatever it was plummeting toward us, and she rushed forward to intercept it.

When the object was about to hit us, Maia flinched, clenching her fists. A shimmer appeared in the air above us and around Maia. I watched as a pair of ghostly red fox ears and a tail appeared on Maia, and the falling object seemed to bounce off the shimmer in the air, roll midair, and slide across the floor.

With the danger past, I shakily stood up. Lying on the floor was a young woman in exercise wear, groaning in pain.

“Owwww that really fucking hurts!” she swore. She climbed to her feet and looked up. Strangely, for all the complaints she made, her movements didn’t look painful at all.

Following her line of sight, I looked at the broken glass ceiling. A wave of heat beat down upon me. The edges of the glass had actually begun to melt, and what looked like lava had started flowing into the almost empty food court.

“Come on, we need to go,” Marissa said, trying to pull Maia and me to the exit.

The woman that came through the roof abruptly turned to stare at us, before nodding to herself.

“You. Red eyes. I need your help.”

Maia hesitated, looking at Marissa and me.

{Your choice.}

 

-Maia POV-

 

It was tempting. So incredibly tempting. I wanted to help, to do something. So when Tessa said {Your choice}, I did.

I ran back towards the woman who was once again facing the lava flowing down the wall and into the mall.

“What’s happening?”

“Pissed off a lava dude. Trying not to die.”

“What?”

Suddenly, a fireball flew through the melted ceiling directly at us.

Pulling on the odd sensation I felt before, I formed a barrier in front of us. The fireball hit the barrier, bounced off, and sank into the lava.

A man in an old-fashioned suit, dripping with lava, appeared at the hole in the roof, looking unamused.

“I see you’ve found a friend, Anna.”

The woman beside me, presumably Anna, scowled.

The man stepped into the air, and the lava on the wall roiled before shooting out, forming a platform that lowered him to the floor.

“When I say go, make a bubble around him,” Anna whispered to me.

The man slowly walked toward us as the lava flowed and swirled around his feet.

“I’m far more powerful than you, Anna. You should give up,” the man monologued.

Anna made a noise of disgust, before saying, “Geez, you show someone up once, and this is what happens.”

“You made a fool out of me! I will not allow you to do so again.”

“If I can do it so easily, maybe you are a fool, Michael.”

{Is it just me, or does this seem like a really cliched superhero fight?} Tessa asked from her vantage point at the side of the food court farthest from the fight.

[It’s not just you.]

I watched, entranced, as the two of them traded insults and verbal jabs at each other. They were slowly closing in on each other, and that made me nervous.

Suddenly, Michael motioned with his arm, and all the lava around him shot out toward Anna.

“Do it now!” she shouted, standing still, seemingly with no regard for her safety.

Bracing, I formed a barrier around Michael, closing him in a bubble without his lava.

When the lava reached Anna, though, she disappeared with a faint pop.

Looking around, I saw that she had reappeared inside the shimmering bubble behind Michael. She smiled, putting a finger to her lips, before pulling what I could only assume was a stun gun out of her pocket and zapping him.

Michael collapsed backwards onto Anna, but she dodged again, allowing him to fall directly onto the floor with a thump. She tapped him a few times, lightly patting his face. After making sure he was unconscious, from the shock or the fall I couldn’t tell, she pulled some zip ties out of another pocket and tied his arms together, then his legs.

I dispelled my barrier, and Anna walked over to me.

“Thanks for the help. The police are probably on their way now, so we should clear out. I’ll see you around!” She disappeared again, presumably teleporting away somewhere.

{That was rather abrupt.}

[Yeah. We probably should go, though.]

{Yeah.}

I met back up with Tessa and Marissa, and we quickly left the mall. The drive home was largely uneventful, with Tessa and I slumped over against each other in the backseat.

Arriving back at home, Marissa immediately had to make a phone call, but I was too tired to ask what about.

That whole fight took a lot out of me, though it had only hit me just now. My mind felt foggy, as though someone had stuffed it full of cotton balls.

Tessa seemed to feel similarly, from the way her feet dragged and the vacant look in her eyes.

In a daze, we stumbled to our room. Too exhausted to find pajamas, we stripped off all our clothes and fell into bed in each other’s arms.

I sighed contentedly, and let the darkness of sleep take me.