Chapter 1: Double Shot of Magic, Please

“Alright, you think you’ve got the hang of it, Mark?”

“I think so. The register is not too different from my last job,” he replied to his new manager with a light chuckle.

“Good. Sarah will help you if you have any questions, and she’ll help teach you about making the drinks. We aren’t in a rush at the moment so it shouldn’t be too hard.” The manager patted Mark on the back, while nodding over to Sarah. “Looks like you’ve got your first customer,” he said as the door chimed open. “She’s a reg so she should go easy on you.” With that the manager went back to the back room, leaving Mark alone at the register.

Mark looked up at the woman walking over to the counter and felt his heart ache just ever so slightly. Though she was not the tallest woman in the world, she walked with the confidence of one. Her tailored suit hugged her just right while still being professional, and her heels clacked on the floor in the way that always drew Mark's attention. Deep down he wished he could have her confidence in himself, but he had never felt that way. No matter how he dressed, or how handsome people told him he was, he just never felt right.

Before he knew it the woman had walked up to the counter and her deep emerald green eyes looked him over. Under her gaze he felt even more self-conscious than normal, but he did not let it show. He rarely let emotions show, and to be honest, sometimes it felt like he did not even have any.

“Haven’t seen you around before,” the woman said with a gentle smile. “New?”

“I—yes. My first day, actually,” Mark said, returning the customary smile.

“Well, you’ll probably be seeing a lot of me here. I come in pretty regularly, so much that Sarah already seems to be making my coffee,” the lady said with a chuckle and looked over at Mark’s coworker to find she was doing just that.

“Well, I guess I better get you checked out then,” he responded a little awkwardly. He never really knew how to talk to people. Especially women who looked happy and confident in themselves. Something he wished he had. 

Checking her out was rather easy. He did not even have to ask Sarah for help on the register, which was good. Though he was a little slow, because by the time he was done, Sarah was already handing over the coffee to the woman. 

“Thank you, Sarah, and thanks,” she paused to look down at his nametag, “Mark. Name’s Rose, by the way,” she said. “Since you’ll see me a lot, I figured you should know.” With that she walked over and sat down at one of the tables.

Mark could not help but glance over as he went about helping the next customer who walked in. She had pulled a stack of papers out of her briefcase and set about getting some work done, but what really caught Mark’s attention was her pulling her dark brown hair back and putting it in a bun. He had always loved the look of hair buns and for some reason always wanted one himself. But he could not do that, now could he? He was a man. Men do not do buns. Then he remembered man buns were a thing, but it felt wrong doing a man bun. But what was the difference between them? Was there really one?

~~~

The store was a little busy today for a small coffee shop, and things were a little bit hectic with trying to get everybody’s drink done during the lunch rush. But thankfully that was just about over. Almost everyone had their drinks and the vast majority of people had already headed back out to work. Which meant that it was time for a regular customer to show up, and as if on cue, Rose walked in. Mark had learned over the past couple of weeks that Rose always came in at the end of the rush, when there weren’t many people still sitting in the café and not many in line. Even on days when things were more hectic, she always seemed to appear at just the right time to sit down in a more chilled-out coffee shop.

“Hello, Rose,” Mark said as she walked up to the counter. He was already punching in her regular order.

“Hey, Mark. Busy today?”

“A bit, yeah. Though you always seem to just miss it.”

“What can I say? I’m just lucky like that.” Rose smiled as she tapped her card to pay for her drink. “Also, I like the bun,” she said, pointing at Mark's hair. “It looks good on you.” The smile she gave him was absolutely genuine before she went and grabbed her coffee from Sarah.

Mark could not even respond. He just stared slightly wide-eyed at Rose. He had always liked his hair longer than what most men had, much to his mother’s dismay, and only recently had he discovered it was just long enough to make a small bun out of. He had been doing it at home for a few days, but today was the first day he was brave enough to do it out in public. A warmth flooded in his chest like he had never felt before, as Rose’s words repeated over and over again in his mind. Never before had someone complimenting him made him feel that way. Never had he actually felt like what the person said was true. But right now, for the first time in his life, Mark felt that he actually looked good in some way.

“Are you hot?” Sarah asked, breaking Mark out of his freeze. “Your face is all red. Do you need a break?

~~~

Mark looked down at his nails again. Black was a manly color, right? It was not weird for a man to paint his nails. Lots of men did it. And it did not mean that he was gay or anything. He still very much liked women. And women liked men that painted their nails black, right? Nothing weird or strange about this at all.

The door chimed as Rose walked into the store at her usual time of just missing the rush. Mark had learned that she was a lawyer in the last week, and boy did he fear for the people against her in a case. Though she was always friendly and charming with all the staff, there was an incident where another customer was trying to shoot his shot far too hard with her. Mark had never seen someone be able to take a man down so many pegs he was on the bottom rung in less than a minute flat. Rose even did all that with a smile still on her face and a charming tone to her voice. It was extremely impressive and a little frightening, but in an exciting kind of way.

“Hey, Mark,” Rose said as she strode up to the counter. “I’m going to need a double shot in my usual today.” She gave a slightly exhausted chuckle as she waited to tap her card on the machine. “Had an all-nighter last night.”

“That’s never fun,” Mark said as he put it in the system, though he conveniently forgot to add the extra charge for the double. “Ready when you are. Alright, I’ll go make that for you, since Sarah’s still on break.” He had made her drinks before, but it was usually Sarah who did it. He had not messed up yet, and he really did not want to while Rose was having a day.

“Thank you so much. And don’t think I didn’t notice you forgot to add the charge,” she said with a smirk.

“Well, what’s the benefit of being regular if you don’t get a little something for free every now and then.” It had gotten easier to talk to her. Much easier than normal customers, but most of them were not regulars. Within a minute, he was handing over her drink, and he noticed her eyes looking at his nails.

“Oh, we’re matching,” Rose said with a smile as she took the coffee and showed him her black nails as well. “I always think black is one of the best nail polishes.” 

For some reason Mark felt his face heat up every so slightly at the mention of matching with Rose in some way. Could he ever hope to be similar in any way with the beautiful lawyer? “Yeah. I thought black would be the manliest so it wouldn’t be weird,” he admitted nervously.

“I don’t think it would be weird no matter what color you painted your nails,” Rose said casually. “Do whatever color you like. I think it would look cute for you to have some bright colors.” Rose’s phone began to ring. “Shit, thought I had more time. Thanks for the free double! Hello?” she said, answering the phone. “Yes, yes I know, Scott…”

While Rose headed back off, Mark once again just stared at her. Him, cute? That could not be. He could never be cute. He should be manly, not cute! Then why did the idea of being called cute make his heart jump so much? Why did he love the idea so much? Did he want to be cute?

~~~

Mark was so completely out of focus today. After Rose had said he could be cute with bright nail polish a few days ago, things had just started spiraling down a rabbit hole he had never even imagined. First it was the idea of being cute with bright nails, then it was wondering if using a scrunchy in his bun would look cuter, were there any clothes that would be cute on him, and so much more. He wanted to be cute. He wanted to look cute. So much that his heart hurt in yearning just thinking about it. His entire perception of what he wanted, what would make him feel good, changed on a dime, and it only got worse.

The rabbit hole had taken him down the road of trying to find cute things for guys. Looking at images of cute guys. Trying to understand how they were cute, what he could do to be cute like them, but none of that felt right. It didn’t feel right to want to be cute as a guy, like the guys he had seen. He just wanted to be cute, but not in a manly way. Then what other way was there? There was androgynous cute, but that just was not right either. There was only one other option in Mark’s mind, and he could not get it out of his head.

Mark had spent hour upon hours last night searching as much as he could about it. About what he might be feeling, about what others felt in his situation. How many others felt exactly like him, and what they realized and did to help themselves. How they did it. How it was done. What could be done. What steps there were to take. How easy it was to do. How difficult. All that bombarding his mind as he struggled to come to grasps with what it all meant.

“Mark?”

The voice broke Mark out of the thoughts running through his head, making him jump a little. Looking up he found Rose standing in front of the counter, looking at him with concern. He had not seen her come in. He had not heard the door chime. Was he really that out of it?

“You okay?”

“Y—yeah. Sorry,” he said, jumping back into work and ringing her up.

“It’s okay. But you sure? Never seen you that out of it. Even on really busy days.” There was definite concern in her voice, and she was not wrong. Even on those types of days, he still had it together.

“I just... I just have a lot going on. Really need to figure some stuff out,” he admitted as he went about ringing her up.

“Well, whatever you’ve got going on, my mom always says to make sure to do what’s best for you. Do what makes you the happiest and feel the best in yourself,” Rose said with a gentle smile as she tapped her card on the machine. Mark looked back up at her but could not find the words before she went to grab her drink from Sarah. “Have a good day, and I hope it all works out well for you, Mark.”

“T—thanks,” she replied, having already figured out what she needed and wanted to do.

~~~

Things had gone surprisingly well, she realized, as she went about serving customers. Her state was rather liberal, which made it easy for her to get on estrogen and spiro in only a month’s time since her realization. She had read that for some other trans women it could be a massive ordeal, and in some places she would need to be living as her true identity before even being on hormones, the thought of which scared her quite a bit. Either way, she was one week on, and not much had happened yet, not that she expected much yet. She did wonder when it would get to a place where she could no longer hide it from family. That thought was a little scary, but since she only saw them every few months, she had time. 

The door chimed as Rose arrived at her usual time, and before she could even get up to the counter Mark was already ringing her up.

“Hey, Mark.”

“Hi, Rose, busy day?”

“Not today,” the dark brunette said with a thankful smile. Before she tapped her card however, she looked back up at Mark with a little bit of puzzled expression and ever so subtly sniffed the air. “Did something change about you?”

“Uh, yeah, I shaved my face.” Mark could not help but smile and even blush a little. Her life felt so much lighter ever since she discovered herself and shaving her beard had felt so freeing.

Rose did not seem fully satisfied with the answer, but she smiled anyway. “It looks good. Can really see you smile now. You also smile a lot more recently, I’m glad,” she said with a tap of her card.

“Me too.”

~~~

She stared at her new nametag in her hands. Was she really doing this? She was not even dressing feminine yet. Well, she was dressing a little more fem, but not entirely in girl mode yet. But she knew her name and did not want to be called Mark anymore. No one at work had seen it yet, but that was because she still had not put it on. She was not afraid of what her coworkers might say, since a few of them were queer themselves. But it was just nerve-racking. This would be her first time going by her true name in real life.

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she swapped over to her new nametag and just in time for the door to chime open. Always on perfect time, Rose walked in just as the lunch rush had ended and made her way up to the counter. Before the lawyer said anything, her eyes glanced over the new name tag. A lightbulb seemed to finally switch on in her mind as everything finally snapped into place.

“Juniper,” Rose said with a heartwarming smile that made Juniper blush a little. “That’s a really cute name. It suits you well.”

“T—thank you. It took a while to figure it out,” she replied nervously rubbing the back of her head. It felt good that the person who had unknowingly helped her find herself would be the first person to call her by her true name.

“Well, I’m glad you did. I guess that’s why you’ve been looking a lot happier recently?” Juniper nodded. “Good. Also, we’re both plants!” Rose chuckled but seemed to study her just a bit more closely.

“Yeah, I guess we are.”

~~~

Juniper took a deep breath and blinked a few times, trying to help wake herself up. Last night had been a pretty late night because of getting sucked into a game that just came out. That and the massive lunch rush they’d just had had really wiped her out. Thankfully it was just about coming to an end. Which also meant that— 

The door chimed and in walked Rose, who also happened to look a little tired and worn out. There was one person in front of the lawyer, which was a little odd, but it did happen every now and then. Said customer looked down at Juniper's name tag and scowled. “Men should be men,” he said under his breath before walking off to get his coffee.

Juniper just sighed. It happened every now and then, even in this liberal city. But she had gotten used to it, sadly. Looking up, she found Rose, glaring holes into the back of the man’s head, and Juniper was sure she heard a light growl. Then it was all over, and Rose was walking up to the counter with a tired smile on her face.

“Sorry about him,” she said. “Some people are just assholes.”

“It happens,” Juniper admitted. “Need a double shot today? You look a little tired.”

“That would be wonderful, thank you.” Rose paused for a second, looking as if she was mulling something over. “Would you also make me a second drink?”

“Uh, sure.” It took Juniper back a little bit. In all her months of working here Rose had only ever ordered one coffee. But today was a day already, so why not. With just a few taps a second order was added and paid for.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. We will be right on it.” Juniper yawned again before getting to help the next customer. Apparently, the lunch rush still was not quite over. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Rose take her two coffees, and stand there holding them both for a few seconds as her mouth moved ever so gently. Then when Juniper finished with the customer, Rose walked back up and handed her the second coffee.

“Here, I thought we could both use one of these,” Rose said with a tired smile.

Juniper looked at the coffee, not really sure what to do. Shaking her head, she reached forward and took the coffee with a tired smile of her own. “Thanks, I could really use this.” Taking a sip from the still hot coffee, Juniper let out a sigh of relief, and saw Rose give a bit more of a happy smile.

~~~

Rubbing her face, Juniper could not stop thinking about her mornings the past two weeks as she went about her shift. Normally she would have to shave every other day or so, sometimes everyday to make sure she was clean shaven, but over the last two weeks, she had shaved once. Once. Her face was still smooth. Last week it had taken forever to grow back to a point that she could actually shave her face clean, and now it just had not grown back at all. This was not supposed to happen, right? Hormones do not affect facial hair, but she had just stopped growing facial hair. She was not complaining, of course, but she just did not know why this was happening.

“Hey, Juniper,” Rose said, making her jump a little. Juniper had been so focused on her face she had not noticed the regular come in. “Your face okay?” Roses chuckled. “You’ve been stroking it since I walked in the door.”

“Y—yeah.” Juniper snapped out of it and went about ringing Rose up for her usual. “It's just smooth,” she absentmindedly said.

“Must be the hormones helping.” The lawyer smiled as she tapped her card. “Glad too, you look cuter with a smooth face.”

Juniper blushed before saying, “Thank you.” Though part of her wanted to point out the fact that hormones do not help with facial hair, she left it.

“Oh right, almost forgot.” Rose reached into her briefcase and pulled out a plastic-wrapped cookie. “Made some home-baked cookies. Though I ate nearly all of them, I thought I’d offer you one as a thanks for always making me a great cup of coffee.” Recently Sarah had been taking her breaks just as the rush ended so for a while now Juniper was the one taking the order and making Rose her coffee. Rose's order was never too complicated, but Juniper always did her best to make her favorite regular’s coffee perfect.

“Oh, thank you.” Juniper took the cookie with a smile. It was nice to feel appreciated. Especially by someone that helped her so much.

“Don’t share it around. Don’t want your coworkers getting jealous,” Rose said with a smile.

Juniper found it a little weird for her to say that, but paid it no mind. Later that day, she did notice Rose watching her as she ate her cookie on her break. Juniper just smiled back and gave the lawyer a thumbs up to say that it was good.

~~~

“Hi, how can I help you today?” Juniper asked the customer that had just walked up. Her voice was lighter and less masculine than it had been not too long ago, and she loved it. There was just one massive problem with it, though. One massive problem that has been causing her a bit of stress. That problem was that her voice had naturally changed. She had done nothing to try and make it sound any different. It just did it by itself. And it was not like she could change it back. Her voice had actually changed. That was not supposed to happen! Hormones do not do that! “Thank you, come again.”

On cue, as the customer left, Rose walked in through the door. Perfectly on time to arrive just as the store was almost empty. Juniper had already set about making her usual order as she arrived at the counter.

“Hey, Rose,” she said cheerily with her new voice.

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“Hi, Juniper. How’s the day going?”

“It’s alright. Lunch rush just ended, but you knew that already. How about you?”

“Just another day at the office. Nothing special,” Rose said, tapping her card. “You sound pretty cheery though, and your voice is a lot lighter.”

So it was not just her imagination. It really was changing. Enough that people noticed. Or at least Rose did. “Y-yeah. Been working on it,” she lied, not really knowing how else to explain something that should not be happening. Rose gave her a little bit of a strange look, but apparently Juniper was not the best liar and she saw through it.

“Well, I’m glad you’re happy with how your voice is. It fits you a lot better than what it used to sound like. Cuter, too.” Juniper blushed as she went about getting the coffee and fought back the beaming smile so that she would not look like a total idiot. As she handed it over to Rose, Rose handed her a brownie wrapped in plastic. “Getting into baking recently,” she said. “Thought you should get some, since you’re always making me the perfect coffee.” 

~~~

Juniper rubbed her sore chest when she thought no one was looking. She had heard that your breasts could get sore when growing, and she was really starting to feel that now. Though she could not help but feel they were maybe growing just a little bit too fast. The puffy nipple stage had come and gone in the blink of an eye before she started to grow some breasts. She had bought a sports bra to help hide the puffiness under her shirt, but now that was starting to feel tighter very quickly. She had done some research into how fast boobs can grow, and for some people it is pretty fast. Juniper could still not help the feeling that this was a little too fast. This along with her voice and her facial hair was starting to worry her a bit.

The door chimed as in walked the shop's regular customer, looking ready to tear into someone. Juniper had never seen Rose this upset before, and she did not like the look of it at all. Thinking it best to help her out as quickly as she could, she went about making her order already with a double shot in it. She did not even bother charging Rose today. Maybe it would help cheer her up a bit.

Before Rose could even get her card out, Juniper was already handing her the drink and said, “Regular with a double shot on the house today.”

Rose stared at the coffee, still looking rather heated from whatever was going on before she came in. Then her entire demeanor switched. Her shoulders relaxed as her whole body let go of its stress. She left out an exhausted sigh, before giving Juniper one of the most genuine smiles she had ever received. “Thank you so much. I really need this.”

“Well, I’ve also got this for you, too,” Juniper said, grabbing a cookie she had stashed away earlier. “I baked a batch myself and thought I should give you one since you’ve brought me stuff.” She gave Rose a gentle smile and managed to blush only a tiny bit.

Rose looked at the cookie with a little bewilderment before her own face tinted just the faintest shade of red. “T—thank you, Juniper.” She took the cookie and just stared at it for a second. “Thank you.”

~~~

Juniper fretted over the realization she had come to. She had only been transitioning for a couple of months now, but she was basically fully passing. Which was an amazing feeling. It was just a problem that it should not be like this. Too many things had happened that should not have happened. Like her facial hair had completely disappeared on its own, her voice had literally changed without her trying to do anything, her breasts had grown so fast, she had shrunk at least an inch and a half, her shoe size had changed, her hips had grown a lot wider, so did her ass, and her hands were smaller and daintier. It was all so perfect. But it could not be perfect. It should not be perfect. This should not happen. This could not happen. But it all fucking happened.

For weeks, maybe even months now, she had noticed all this and was constantly worried about it. Worried about how and why this was happening. She had done a ridiculous amount of research trying to understand what was happening to her body. She had even contemplated going to a doctor and telling them all about this, but the worry of what might happen to her if she did was too much for her. No end of tests, doctors and scientists would be studying her endlessly. Fears stemming from movies about governments abducting people to study and experiment on them filled her mind. She knew that would never happen, but she was still so afraid and confused by all this.

Then… last night Juniper had had a realization that shook her. These changes that should not happen all had one thing in common. The day before they started, she had either eaten or drunk something that Rose had given her. Something that Rose had touched. Over the past few months that had become a regular occurrence between the two. Most of the time it was home baked goods that they swapped. Juniper had just thought it was a nice thing. A thing that friends do. Not that she knew whether they could consider each other friends. They had become close, chatting a lot more when she came in, even sitting together occasionally on Juniper’s breaks if Rose was still there. A few times, even, Rose had stayed in and talked to Juniper as she closed the store. But they had never swapped numbers or anything. Never once met outside of the shop. So were they really friends or just acquaintances? Either way, these changes in her that should not be happening at all had happened after Rose gave her something to eat or drink.

Today, when it was just about time for Rose to come in, Juniper took a break, not knowing how to confront Rose about this. It was basically the first time since working here that Juniper had not taken Rose's order. Which apparently really threw her off, according to Sarah. But Juniper just had no idea how to engage with Rose about this. She needed to confront her, but could she even do that? She’d been hiding her transition from her family just because she’s afraid of the confrontation it would lead to, even if it went well.

Now Rose had been sitting at one of the tables for hours, working away. Juniper had seen her do this before, getting caught up in paperwork and her laptop she occasionally brought in. When Rose got like that, she really got sucked in, completely losing track of time. Normally Juniper would go over and remind her about the time or to take a break, but today she just could not bring herself to do it. The few times that Rose did seem to break, Juniper would make herself look busy so that she would not have to talk to her. But the issue now was that Juniper was the last employee here to close down the shop for the night, while Rose was the only customer left. No one else was in the shop besides the two of them, which had happened once or twice before, and because Juniper had put the ‘Closed’ sign on the door, no one else was coming in.

Taking a deep breath, Juniper walked over to Rose, who was completely oblivious to what was going on around her as she worked away. She did not get as close as they normally would and did her best to look more professional than friendly.

“Hey, I’m about to close up.”

Rose jumped a little bit as Juniper broke her concentration, then with wide eyes, the lawyer looked around confused. “Wow… I really got sucked into work. Fuck, I didn’t go back to the office…” Starting to pack her stuff away. “Sorry, I hope I haven’t kept you late,” Rose said looking over at Juniper with an apologetic smile.

“No, you haven’t,” Juniper replied a little flatly.

Rose paused her packing with a little concern on their face. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No.” Juniper said it faster than she could think, her body fearing the confrontation that could be had.

Rose did not look fully convinced, but said, “I guess it's been a day for you. You weren’t even here to take my order.” Rose finished with a nervous chuckle, before reaching into her bag and pulling out a brownie. “Hopefully this might make it a little brighter.” The lawyer handed it to her with a gentle smile on her face.

Juniper just stared at the brownie being offered to her. Her heartbeat quickened as her mind wondered just what that brownie would do to her, because it had to be Rose doing this. There was no other explanation she could think of, not that she even knew how Rose was doing it. She just knew it was Rose.

“It’s you…” It came out as barely a whisper.

“What?” 

“You’re the one doing it.” Juniper's hands shook ever so slightly with her pounding heartbeat.

Rose did not respond right away. A look of shock washed over her face, before being hidden by a mask of a friendly smile. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Juniper.”

“It’s the food and drinks you give me. They're changing me.”

Worry took over Rose's face as she stood up from her chair, causing Juniper to take a step back. The brownie was still in her offering hand, only now her hand was no longer steady, but shaking a little. “Juniper, I don’t know what you mean. It’s just a brownie.” Though Juniper was one hundred percent positive that Rose was a master of hiding emotion due to her job, Rose’s friendly, confused, façade was cracking.

“You’re changing me. You’re doing this to me.” Surprisingly Juniper’s voice was strong, if only shaking a tiny bit.

“I—I don’t. Juniper I—”

“It’s you, Rose! I know it's you! The changes only happen after you give me something to eat!”

Roses façade broke down fully now. The calm lawyer was gone. Her body shook ever so slightly, and Juniper could see she was nearly on the verge of tears. “I—I… I just wanted to help…”

“Help?! You sure as hell helped! Did things that I didn’t think were even possible! But you still did them to me. Did it without telling me! Why?!”

Finally, Rose lowered the brownie and opted to hug herself lightly. “You… You just looked cute and were sweet, so I wanted to help… And the more I helped the cuter and happier you got and the more I wanted to keep helping…” Rose’s voice was not very loud, but Juniper could still hear her clearly.

She had not expected Rose to be honest like that. Not that she had even known what she expected. Maybe some kind of experiment? Some project or something? But just because she was cute and sweet? She had not expected that, and she had not expected how much hearing Rose say that made her blush.

“J-just because you thought I was cute?”

“And sweet…”

Juniper had no idea how to respond to that. All she knew was that she was blushing up a storm and that hearing it again made her heart jump a little.

“What was in the food and stuff?” Juniper asked after a long moment of awkward silence.

Rose just shrugged and said quietly, “That’s not important…”

“Since you’re doing it to me, I should definitely know what’s in it!” A little fire came back into Juniper’s voice, making Rose cower a little again, like a kid being caught doing something they should not.

“It's… It's just some light spells and enchantments…”

Juniper blinked a number of times as she tried to process what Rose had said. She had thought it had to be some experimental drugs or something; she had not expected magic. Though she could not deny that the effects were magical, and that Rose was clearly not lying anymore.

“A—are you like a witch?”

“No, I’m not a witch,” Rose said, shaking her head.

“Or like a wizard? I don’t know what other terms there might be.”

“I’m not any of those.”

“Then how did you do it?”

Rose bit her lip as she clearly thought over how best to respond. “If I show you, will you promise not to freak out?” As she said this, she did take a step closer to Juniper. This time Juniper did not step back, though she felt like she should.

Not knowing how to respond, Juniper just stammered, “S—sure?”

All of a sudden something she could not see touched her nose, causing Juniper to sneeze. As a little kid she had always been teased because if something touched her nose, it always made her sneeze. Apparently, that was not manly, so she grew up doing her best to hide that fact from others. Though she did wonder now if she should not be so embarrassed by it, now that she was not a man. Still, her face heated up as she looked back up at Rose, hoping that she would not be made fun of.

Rose was no longer standing in front of Juniper. Or rather the human Rose was no longer standing in front of Juniper. In her place, and still fitting Rose's general shape and looks, stood a demon. A demon with dark forest green skin, shining emerald cat eyes, a pair of rams horns in the same dark brown to match her hair, and a long tail with a spade tip that was pulling back from Juniper. With wide eyes, Juniper just stared at Rose as the demon fought to hold back a giggle.

“You sneeze when someone touches your nose? That’s really adorable.”

“Y—you. You’re a—a demon?” Rose nodded and Juniper tried to hold herself together mentally as all the implications of what this meant bombarded her mind. “Do—does this mean I’m going to hell because of what you did?”

“No,” Rose said firmly, hoping to chase away the fear Juniper was visually starting to feel. “That’s not how that works. That’s not how any of it works. I’m not even from hell. My family hasn’t even lived there in generations.”

Still trying to comprehend everything Juniper grabbed the closest chair and almost fell into it. Rose, meanwhile, grabbed her chair with her tail and pulled it closer so that she could sit down closer to Juniper.

“Sorry… I know it’s a lot. That’s why I didn’t want to explain everything…”

Juniper just nodded. “You’re a demon, not a witch…” Really her mind was stuck in a little bit of a loop now.

“Yes, I’m a demon. And if anyone’s the witch here, it’s you, considering the amount of magic you’ve been exposed to,” Rose said with a chuckle. Though that chuckle quickly disappeared as she saw the even more confused and shocked expression on Juniper’s face. “That wasn’t helpful, was it?” Juniper shook her head. “Sorry…”

“It—it’s okay. It’s a lot. Like a lot…” Rose looked really upset with herself as Juniper spoke. “B—but I’m not mad,” Juniper said, surprising herself as much as she did Rose. “I mean, I’m really happy with all the changes. I finally feel happy in myself. I—I just wish you would have told me instead of doing it without my knowledge.”

“Yeah… That was not okay of me… Like really not okay for me to do… At first I just thought I would only help with the facial hair. I know that it’s a problem for trans women here, and I already knew how to do that because my brother got cursed with a beard when he was like twelve and he didn’t want our parents finding out.” Rose could not help but let out a big laugh at the memory. “That’s all I wanted to do. As a thanks, I guess.” Rose shrugged and then blushed a darker green. Somehow Juniper still found it cute. “Then you… You just looked really cute, and I thought why not do it again. Then again… and again…” Rose held her head in her hands as the reality of changing someone without their permission settled in her mind. “Fuck, that was so fucked up of me to do… I’m so sorry, Juniper…”

“I—it’s okay. I mean, it’s not… But I’m not mad about the results. I’m actually really happy.” Juniper paused and then blushed lightly as she went to admit something. “I wouldn’t have even realized I was trans if it wasn’t for you, so it’s a little fitting that you would help me transition.”

Rose looked up at her with wide eyes. Though with her slitted eyes it looked more like a cat when they go wide. Juniper found it rather strange how a literal demon could be so cute. “You figured out you’re trans because of me?”

Juniper nodded. “When you said I would look cute with bright nail polish. It kind of sent me spiraling until I realized that I was trans and wanted to be cute and not handsome.”

Rose looked shocked but was also blushing up a storm. “I… I didn’t realize saying something so simple like that could really affect you.”

“Well, it did. It changed my life, and I’ll never forget it.” Now the human and demon were both blushing up a storm. “It made me really happy. All you’ve done for me has really made me happy…”

“I—I don’t know what to say.” Again, for the second time tonight, Rose looked to be on the verge of tears.

“You don’t need to say anything,” Juniper said with a smile. She was surprised how easy it was to forget Rose was a demon and now just imagined Rose had always looked like her true self. “Well, maybe admitting that doing all that without my permission was not okay.

“Yes,” Rose said aggressively, nodding her head. “Yes, that was really not okay of me to do.” Rose paused. “But I’m really happy that the changes have made you finally feel like yourself finally.”

“Me, too.” Juniper was smiling again, and it felt like everything was going to be okay again.

A banging on the door to the shop made both of them jump. Juniper turned to find a wannabe customer looking through the glass door, clearly missing the closed sign.

“We’re closed!” she yelled to the guy, who then looked annoyed and walked off.

“Right, you need to finish closing up.”

“Yeah.” Juniper wanted to ask whether the guy could see Rose’s demon self, but the guy would have probably reacted noticeably if he did.

“I guess I better finish cleaning up so you can finally close up and go home.”

Juniper giggled. “Yeah, it’s been an eventful day.”

“I bet it has,” Rose chuckled out. Then a look of nervousness washed over the demon’s face. “Though, would… would you maybe like to go out and get dinner when you finish closing?”

Juniper looked up at Rose with wide eyes of her own. Her heart jumped in her chest at the thought of going to dinner with Rose. “I—I,” Juniper started out nervously. “I would like that.” The blush on her face must have been massive from how hot her face felt. 

“I guess it’s a date then.” There was a massive smile and blush on Rose’s face that made Juniper’s stomach flutter.

“I guess it is.”

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