Picks up her glasses, puts them on, and discovers that she can't see a damn thing.

She blinks. She takes them off again.

Perfect vision. 

What the hell —

She is probably going crazy!

"Sable, Sable wake up, something's wrong, I don't know what's going on —"

Crash-scramble bootup. Okay, she's Sable and her girlfriend is panicking, right, no time.

"Bwuh? C'mere, sweetie."

She sits up in bed and pulls Ava into her arms.

"Tell me what's going on. Also, d'you sound different or something?"

"Do I sound different?"

More squeeze regardless.

"I can see without my glasses, either my vision suddenly fixed itself or I'm hallucinating, please tell me this isn't a dream and I'm okay?"

"... We do both sound different."

"Huh. And I can see you clearly without my glasses, now that you mention it. So either we're both having the same hallucination, and we-Pirates have never really been prone to that, on top of shared hallucinations being less likely than separate, or this is probably real."

Ava exhales. "Okay. Okay okay okay. What's changed? What's going on? Clearly it's something about us and not the glasses or the voice pitch—"

She tosses off her blankets and quickly starts to pull off her top and skirt —

Her breasts are bigger than she remembered.

"Where is my dick?!"

"What!?"

She checks herself over thoroughly.

Tits bigger, waist slimmer, hips wider, pretty little pussy instead of a cock...

"Holy shit did we get magic overnight transitions!?"

"It really looks like it!!!!"

"But, like, that is Not Supposed To Happen."

"This is, like, something out of a genderswap manga or something, right? This doesn't happen in real life."

"... Was Lucy right about the True Sea...?" 

"No, no, we'd be crashing out in that case, not just randomly turned into girls and abandoned..."

"... Iiiiiii have no idea what the fuck is going on."

"No, if Lucy was right, Maya would be laying atop us rather than in my head right now. This is something weird and unprecedented. We're still like... recognizable? But prettier and more femme and upgraded. So. Huh. Something weird's clearly going on."

She squeezes Ava tighter. "Probably the thing to do is not to panic, and just look for other clues? If there are any? And otherwise just enjoy it?"

"I guess, yeah..." 

Ava lets out a little breath. 

"Can you hug me?"

Sable laughs, arms still around Ava, and squeezes her tighter. "Always, my love. Absolutely always."

She pulls her as close as she can, squeezing her warmly and stroking her hair.

Ava snuggles into her surprisingly softer girlfriend, and lets out a sigh. 

Sable always knows just what to say. 

"I don't do well with surprises..."

"And if you've discovered magic and are pranking me, honestly, ten out of ten execution. But I doubt you'd be that cruel. That silly, maybe, but..."

"... I guess you're right that there's not much to do but try to live with it and keep an eye out for clues."

"... And if whoever did this is listening, um, thank you I guess?" She giggles.

She snuggles in close to Sable and hugs her tightly.

Sable giggles as well and nods. "Seconding the gratitude here," she adds playfully.

And she otherwise just continues to stroke Ava's hair and hold her tightly.

"Mine," she murmurs in her ear. "Keeping you. Nothing about this can derail our life together. I won't let it."

She squeezes and caresses and holds so protectively, snuggling adoringly.

Ava holds her Sable close, and lets go the remaining tension in her as best she can. 

"So, uh, practical considerations. Do we menstruate now? I think we can probably keep our current IDs without many awkward explanations... Though this certainly does suggest I should get my name and gender marker change through sooner than later. Should we tell any other people we know? Um, not to be crude but we're going to need to relearn sex too. Do we stop going to the optometrist? Do we go to a different optometrist to check that everything, is, uh, normal? Do we keep wearing glasses for fashion? Has anything else changed? Like, we don't have tails now or something, right?" 

She exhales. "Sorry, I'm spiralling again..." 

She presses her face into Sable's shoulder and lets out a heavy breath.

Sable smiles tenderly, still petting Ava softly, and replies. "Okay, taking it one at a time. We'll find out about the periods in a month or so. IDs should be fine, we can just say we got some surgeries when we get the photos done. Yes, you should get going on your name and gender marker, no reason to hold back. Only tell people we trust not to throw more of a fit than we can handle, so that probably means a couple online friends, probably no one else. Going to the optometrist would produce lots of questions we couldn't answer unless we managed to keep our past records from getting sent on. Fashion glasses are up to you, we can just as easily claim contacts with anyone who asks. And we don't seem to have tails or anything else, which is a kindness for the explanations we'll have to make, at least."

Gentle petting, gentle caresses, slow and steady, holding her warmly.

"It's going to be okay. We can handle this. I love you."

She nestles in close...

And squeezes Sable so fiercely tight. 

"... Can't believe I'll get to fuck you in a proper body," she says softly. "It's not my dream body, but it's maybe as close as can exist on Earth safely."

Sable nuzzles her cheek against Ava's, squeezing back just as hard. "Mine's certainly better than I ever expected to realistically have. Looking forward to it," she purrs. "So much to rediscover."

Ava giggles. 

"I think we should check the place over for any clues, just in case. I don't expect much, but, well. Let's try."

She nods and starts looking around. Clues? Any clues around here?

How about this handwritten note in red ink and sharply spiky cursive sitting on the bedside table next to the girls' obsolete glasses?

Hello, Ava and Pirates—

You're both likely rather confused at the moment. Allow me to explain what's going on, in as much as I can.

Yes, you've both been transformed into the most closest bodies to your ideals I can give you while still being somewhat superficially explicable to mortal science. You girls unknowingly did me a good turn some time back, and I make a point to pay my debts.

To explain in more detail, you're both fully functional, though sterile. You'll have the normal hormonal cycle, but modified to be bloodless since there's no need to keep refreshing uterine linings for a pregnancy that won't happen. Your eyesight is repaired and a bit upgraded, your metabolisms should be a bit more cooperative, and your flexibility enhanced. Ava, your knee and ankle are healed, as are your hearing damage and your tachycardia. Pirates, that bit of nerve damage in your finger is resolved, as is the glitch in the nerves around your right elbow that kept putting your fingers to sleep at certain angles, along with your shoulders and knees. Generally every instance of functional damage in either of you has been completely repaired. Scars have been left in place, however, because their disappearance would be harder to explain, and Hailey's attached to several of them. Balance and coordination is improved as best I can without involving any mental changes, and your aging has been permanently halted.

Furthermore, your sexual sensitivity has been increased, as has your libido and pain tolerance. You also both have easily suppressible gag reflexes now.

Have fun.

—a friend

"Aaavaa? I think I found a clue." She holds the note out to her.

She reads the note.

Then she breaks out in giggles.

"Okay, my best bet now is that it's, like, Jade, or Nathan, or basically any other random trans person I ran into in my work as an online mod. I'm trackable down by mundane means I'd bet, and if magic is in the picture, it's probably even easier to find me. Someone who lived, or had a friend live, or something like that. I can think of dozens of people who'd want to give away transition magic if they had it, and I was a bit of a public figure for a while, so..." She rubs the back of her head. "So if that's Who, the What is — some kind of biohacking, pretty clearly, if they can make that detailed of changes and locate all my physical issues. Probably it doesn't extend to brain work, or maybe they just didn't want to maybe mess with my personality — I know I wouldn't like to wake up as a different person suddenly. For all that I have done exactly that more than a few times, it's different when it's by another's choice."

Sable stretches and grins. "So someone either or both of us looked after hit the magic jackpot and decided to throw us a sneaky upgrade as a thank you? Yeah, that's a pretty solid angle. The "unknowingly" bit makes me wonder a bit, but maybe the writer's just being cheeky. Who knows. Either way, this is a pretty decent explanation and we can probably celebrate."

"I'd guess it's someone we don't know by name. A friend of a friend. But that's wild guessing, and I think the note explains enough. Probably they want their privacy — I wouldn't want to be inundated with a thousand requests to trans strangers' gender either."

"Yep! Well, we'll just have to distract ourselves from speculating. However shall we do that, I wonder?"

She grins, then flips Ava onto her back and pins her, kissing her fiercely.

Ava lets out a little yelp —

And then dissolves in giggles and pulls Sable in harder atop her.

Sable presses in tightly against Ava, kissing her deeply, savoring the subtle squish as their bodies fit together in new ways. One hand drags down and cups Ava's right breast, squeezing it, learning the new size, and then pinches her nipple sharply in the way she knows she likes so much.

"Ah!" She's definitely more sensitive now than she was before, and feeling the press of her extra boobflesh makes her feel awake and alive. Joy surges through her as she starts to feel just what her new body can do. 

She nuzzles her face into Ava's neck, nipping and kissing teasingly, She gropes roughly, squishing and squeezing her breast, other hand slipping down to squeeze her ass. With a little shimmy, she shifts to the side and straddles Ava's left leg, pressing her own thigh up in against Ava's sex.

"Isn't this just lovely," she purrs.

Ava grins, and carefully sits up, pressing into Sable and shifting so she can grind in her thigh more firmly. "Yeah," she says with a teasing smile. "Come and get me, cutie." She leans in and presses her lips to Sable's, and traces a hand down her jaw and over her collarbones to nestle between her breasts. 

She presses in against Ava's hand, savoring the richness of the heightened sensitivity, and kisses her fiercely, hungrily, grinding her thigh in against her girlfriend's pussy. She pinches and twists her nipple, nips her lower lip, and growls into her mouth. Her right hand caresses up and down Ava's side and shoulder and neck, tracing the edges of Ava's changed body, savoring every inch.

Ava lets out a harsh sigh, and grinds back against Sable, feeling alien but oh-so-right sensations rush through her body. Her body presses in close and firm against Sable and she lets out a harsh sigh, her hands grabbing firm handfuls of Sable's breasts to grope and pinch and twist. 

"Sable," she moans softly. "Sable..."

She flushes and gasps at the sensitivity and rightness in all the richer sensations, the simple euphoria in having so much more breast to grope, the blissful relief from dysphoria mingling with the building arousal as these unfamiliar folds slide against her love's thigh.

"Ava," she moans back. "Oh fuck, this is amazing."

Her hands dig in and squeeze, feeling and teasing every inch.

"I love you," Ava says, and grinds in her thigh harder, her breath rising, taking possessive handfuls of Sable's body. "Mine, mine, mine..."

Sable whimpers and moans at Ava's possessive grasp, shuddering and pressing against her, murmuring back, "Yours, yours, yours," with every breath. She grinds against her and writhes atop her and kisses and bites.

Ava gives as good as she's getting, feeling bright and full of confidence in her new body and pushed forward on a wave of bright sweeping euphoria and pleasure. 

It feels so fucking good. Even just grinding her clit in feels like it clicks, like it's part of her, like she owns it. And she wants to own Sable as well. And every motion and grind is full of that possessive, greedy hunger. 

Sable's just as hungry, just as desperate to claim and be claimed. Her breath comes in panting growls — growls that sound cute now rather than too deep or harsh — as she crushes her body against Ava's, sensitive skin dragging against sensitive skin, every touch full of arousal and euphoria in equal measure.

"Ah, Sable —"

Ava has just as much of a hair trigger as before, it seems. She squirms a little against Sable, her eyes squeezing closed —

And then she pushes Sable back and rides her, grinding in hard, clearly seeking the edge of her own orgasm —

Sable's not far behind, pressing in and grinding just as desperately, her breath hot and ragged—

"Ava, Ava, Ava—"

"Fuck, yes, come, come, come for me you gorgeous girl, fuck —"

Ava cuts herself off with a high breathy moan that surprises even her, and pushes the last inch, the last moment, and tumbles over the edge, falling, falling, pleasure shooting through her in electric lines, warmth flooding her body, and her hips buck in hard and she gasps out her pleasure —

Sable shudders and clings, her muscles twitching as the ecstasy overwhelms her, moaning and gasping as she tips over right after her, every nerve sparking in delight and bliss, moaning and writhing, voice clear and bright, "Fuck, Ava, hhaaaaahhhn —"

Ava's teeth meet Sable's shoulder and she bites, claiming her partner as they both shudder in orgasm, her hips still moving, still craving more —

Her hands wrap hard around Sable and crush her to her, their breasts pressing against each other, squishing against each other, as an intense flame of pleasure burns up through Ava's core and swallows her whole — 

"SaaaaaaAAAAAAaaaaable —"

She captures Ava's lips in a fierce kiss, moaning hotly into her mouth as they ride out their orgasms together, her arms squeezing Ava tightly.

And Ava slowly comes down with a satisfied sigh and cuddles in close. 

"Fuck..." 

She kisses Sable back and giggles. "Seems like we're figuring it out, huh?~"

Sable grins sharply, still a bit breathless. "I'd say so. More to try, but we're already off to a great start."

"Yeah..."

Ava squeezes Sable softly, then pops up from bed with a grin. "I'm going to go take a look at myself in the bathroom mirror, wanna come?"

Sable bounces up with a grin just as wide, stretching. "Hell yes," she agrees, following Ava.

Ava goes into the master bathroom and flicks on the lights. 

A familiar-looking woman looks back through the glass. 

Golden joy fills her up and brings a broad smile to her lips. It's not how she looks in her head, but as a body for Earth... It looks wonderful. 

No, that's not quite right —

She looks wonderful. 

She feels something go click, deep inaide her, an old longing only ever splutteringly fulfilled. 

She feels beautiful. 

"Wow..."

Sable is captivated by what she sees in the mirror. The changes to her face are all subtle, but together they make her look unmistakably feminine. There's no shadow of stubborn facial hair, her adam's apple is smaller, her jaw is different, it's all there. She just stares and stares, taking it in.

"Whoa," she breathes.

She's pretty.

Ava touches her lips. 

"... wow," she says again, quieter. "... This is going to change a lot, isn't it?"

She nods, a bit stunned. "We... just unarguably pass now. Voice, face, figure, without question. So many things are going to subtly change. Or radically. Who knows."

She runs her fingertips along her cheek.

"A little scary, but also SO COOL HOLY SHIT." Ava breaks out into giggles and hugs her Sable.

Sable twists in place and turns the hug into a catch-and-twirl, giggling happily.

Ava bounces back down onto her feet and stoops slightly to kiss Sable. "Yeah," she says. "I might still get some looks because of my height, but..." She shakes her head. "I couldn't have asked for better."

"I think it is time to spend a little of the fun budget. I know things are tight, but if we can't get takeout about this, what can we get takeout for?"

"Agreed." She grins. "D'you feel like Indian or sushi tonight?"

"Indian, I think. You know the usual order, right?"

"Lamb tandoori, chicken curry, naan, alu ghobi, samosas? You go start the rice while I call it in?"

"Sounds good to me! Let me go get some clothes on and I'll get the rice."

Dinner is delicious, and the girls end up with an extra order of samosas in their delivery, for free.

That sets the tone for the days to come. Sable gets compliments on doing better on girlvoice in a team meeting, and the users she supports stop misgendering her altogether. She gets more interesting callers, as well, and has a better time on her shifts overall.

Ava feels confident enough in her new body to go out clothes shopping in person, and on their impromptu thrifting trip they manage to snag a lovely blouse that goes excellently with her favourite purple skirt. On the way back home they stop in at the grocery store deli for lunch and end up with a four-pack of her favorite local root beer that happens to be on sale for half off.

It's not all perfect. The girls get catcalled more often, and randomly hit on in stores sometimes — feels weird to get gender euphoria from it, but it's validating in a way.

... And all the extra sex is definitely helping, too. With both her and the Pirates' flaky libidios well on the mend and a whole new body to learn, she finds herself in the Pirates' arms each night more often than not. 

And it certainly didn't hurt that a new queer-friendly sex shop's opened up, only a ten minute bus ride away. 

Things are going well enough, and Ava's having enough good days, that Sable feels comfortable encouraging her to push a little outside her comfort zone.

"Sweetie, d'you think you're up for doing disabiliity paperwork? I'll help where I can, of course, but a lot of it will need stuff specifically from you."

"Uff. That's going to be messy. Most of my medical records are still back in my old province. I'll have to send some emails."

"Still..." 

Ava sighs. "I've definitely been putting this off long enough, and if it goes through it'll be a big help. It's scary, but I'll try. For you."

"You'd better hug me about it though."

"I will hug you so much about it. No escape from the hugs."

In fact, she'll hug her about it right now.

Hug.

"I believe in you, sweetie. You've got this." She tips up on her toes and presses a soft kiss to Ava's forehead.

Ava lets out a tight breath and hugs Sable closer.

"Alright," she says. "I've got all the forms lined up already, it's just... a matter of starting the formal application process."

She hugs Sable tight. "You give me so much strength. Can you walk me through this? So I'm less scared?"

Sable nods softly and sits down with Ava, carefully going through the forms and the process together with her, helping her get everything sorted out. 

She is really so, so lucky to have this wonderful woman. 

It takes a few days, but eventually everything is squared away and submitted.

"Whew," Ava says. "Well, that's take one done. We'll still probably have to do this all over again in a few months, but..." She shakes her head. "We'll get there."

Sable hugs Ava close and strokes her hair. "I'm so proud of you. Good girl. I know it's hard, especially when we'll probably have to appeal it. But you did it."

"Thank you, Mistress. I couldn't have done it without you."

Well how about she rewards her precious girl?

Sable scoops Ava into her arms and carries her off toward the bedroom, peppering her face with kisses.

Several weeks later, there's an email in Ava's inbox from the disability office.

Ohhhhhhh this is gonna suck. 

"Pirates? Pirates I got the email, please, come over here, I want you here when I open it."

Hailey steps away from their computer and dashes over to Ava, wrapping her arms around her. "I got you, babe. Let's see what these assholes have to say for themselves."

She hugs Hailey. 

She screws her courage to the sticking point, to borrow a line from Shakespeare. 

And she opens the letter. 

Congratulations, Ava has been approved. She'll be getting this much money every month, here's where to set up her direct deposit, there's where she can file if she has new income or assets to report later on.

Guess she must've gotten lucky or something.

"Holyshitwhat????"

Ava almost falls out of her chair. She'd been expecting to have to fight this for months and maybe not get it even then!

Hailey cackles, hugging Ava tightly, tugging her tighter into her arms when she tips partly off the chair. "Fucking brilliant."

"Fuck, yeah, I — I didn't think this was a thing that happened, I thought that first round approvals were limited to people who had, like, terminal cancer or some shit like that —"

She hugs Hailey hard and crushes her close. "Mine," she says. "We're going to be okay. This means — this means a lot, actually. It means we're safe. It's not a ton, but it'll cover the rent, and that's — yeah."

She squeezes back tightly. "Yours. And fuckin' yeah. This means we've got margin. We've got room to treat ourselves more often and still be saving. We're stable."

She kisses Ava firmly.

Ava kisses back and smiiiiiiles.

"I love you. So glad you prompted me through this. This has been... just an incredible month. First the gender thing, now this..."

"S'like the odds are actually in our favor for once."

She grins and shakes her head. "Void knows we've fuckin' earned it. Don't think it works like that, but if it did, we have."

Ava nods thoughtfully, not wanting to voice that she doesn't think it works that way either. 

"Yeah..." 

She kisses Hailey's cheek and smiles softly.

Hailey squeezes Ava hard. "We'll still be careful, still prioritize keeping a big fuckin' buffer of savings in case shit happens. We're not gonna get caught out by assumptions. But maybe things are gonna go right."

"Maybe," Ava says. "Maybe, yeah."

"And I mean, we know magic exists now, so. Lots of stuff might go a lot better than we expected."

Hailey barks out a little laugh and nods. "Yeah! Magic shakes up all the math. Who the fuck knows what's going on. Maybe luck is a thing!"

"Yeah, maybe it is..."

"You don't think...?"

"Same person who fixed us up? Whoever the fuck they are?"

"I guess maybe? But why wouldn't they say? I dunno, maybe I'm just seeing ghosts."

"Maybe they don't want us leanin' on it too much? Maybe s'only a probabilistic change or somethin'?"

"Who knows? Could be anything, with magic in the picture." 

Ava shakes her head. "Probably best not to speculate."

"Well, I'd best distract you, then."

Hailey smirks and slips her hands under Ava's shirt, kissing her firmly and scratching along her shoulder blades.

"Ah!"

It hurts, but in a good way. Especially in this new body. 

"Alright, then, you, let's take this to the bed." She grins.

A wanton grin stretches Hailey's lips, and she tugs Ava into a kiss, making out heatedly while she walks her backward toward the bedroom.