TF (ice-cream, cigarettes)

Two perfect bowls of ice-cream sat on the apartment’s dining table. Each contained a scoop of vanilla and a scoop of chocolate, sitting in stainless steel dishes.

One of the ice-creams gave a little sigh of pleasure. If you looked closely, you’d see each of the desserts had faces, eyes and a mouth. And they were both smiling.

“You were right, Lou,” the first ice-cream said. “This is pretty wonderful.”

“Told you,” smirked the second ice-cream. “And it’s only going to get better.”

“Get better? How?”

“See where I put the bowls, Sophie? We’re in the afternoon sun. We’re going to melt, girlfriend!”

“Oh! That does sound rather lovely!”

Sophie and her girlfriend Louise were into imprinting potions in a big way. An imprinting potion didn’t transform you into an object; rather, it let you merge into something, to inhabit it as if it were your own body.

Lately, the girls had been experimenting with food. They’d become Chinese food, cakes, cookies, and quite a few other things. Best of all, according to Louise, she’d imprinted herself on a chocolate truffle and had been eaten by Sophie.

It had been a while since they’d done any imprinting. Both of them had had busy weeks at work, so Louise had thought some imprinting fun would be just the thing to relax. Still, when she’d come to Sophie and invited her to “come chill with me”, this wasn’t exactly what Sophie had in mind.

But they’d taken the imprinting potion and laid fingers lightly on the ice-creams, willing themselves to be sucked into the objects. And they had.

Sophie gave a little shudder of pleasure. “Who would have thought being an ice-cream was so good? I’m cold and sweet and delicious!”

“Don’t forget we’re two different flavours,” grinned Louise. She could feel the difference between her two scoops, how she was in both at the same time, resting in the dish. She got a real kick out of being two related objects at the same time — like that time she’d become a pair of Sophie’s best black stockings.

The sun’s rays were creeping further and further into the window, stretching up the table. As they reached the ice-creams, both girls giggled with anticipation. They’d been liquids before, and they knew how much fun it was to not be a solid, to in effect be formless.

Sophie basked in the sunlight. It was kind of like getting a tan at the beach — only you didn’t change shape then! How much fun would it be, though? To lay on a towel, to soak up the rays, only to turn into a shapeless blob and then into liquid, soaking into the sands …

“I’m getting soft, Soph!” Louise cried happily. She could feel herself becoming a liquid and it was delightful.

They could never have told you how long it took, as the hours ticked by and they became warmer and warmer, until they reached room temperature.

“I’m almost all liquid now,” Sophie said with a sigh.

“Me too, I can feel my firm bit shrinking … oh, oh, here I go!” Louise was floating in the bowl, a melted puddle of ice-cream.

“Mmm … well, this isn’t bad either …” Sophie enjoyed filling the dish with her liquid self. Not having a solid body felt like the best massage ever.

The two girls lay floating in the dishes for some time, two little pools of milk and sugar, as the room grew dark.

“Looks like it’s evening now. Maybe we should change back?” Sophie said.

“Sure, but we have to do this again,” Louise said. “Soon.”

“Absolutely. On the count of three?”

“One, two …”

If you’d been in the room you would have seen two women pop back into existence next to the table.

“Hey, ice-cream! Nice to be you, for just a little while,” Sophie said, picking up the dishes and dumping them in the kitchen sink.

“Mmmm, do I have some good ideas or what?” Louise draped herself over Sophie’s shoulders.

“That was a very good idea,” Sophie said, turning around to kiss her. “Let me know if you have any others.”

“Ooh, do you mean that?” Louise’s eyes were shining. “Because I have a lot of ideas. You might not like them.”

“Try me, baby.”

With a giggle, Louise rushed off to the bedroom to fish through her bag before returning to Sophie.

“What’s this?” Sophie said in surprise.

In her hand Louise held a pack of long thin girly cigarettes and a lighter.

Sophie stared at her. “But you don’t smoke. Or at least, you haven’t for years.”

“I don’t want to smoke a cigarette,” Louise said. “I want to be a cigarette.”

“But we’ve done that. Remember after someone left that pack behind after a party? We imprinted ourselves on two of them?”

“How can I forget?” Louise grinned. “But I want to go all the way.”

“Oh, you mean …”

“I want to be smoked.”

Sophie stared. “You, Louise, are a very strange person.”

“Aw, c’mon! You can’t tell me you don’t want to know what it’s like.”

“Well … I don’t know …”

“Please, Soph? You did eat me, you know.”

What the hell. Sophie could never resist that puppy dog look Louise gave. “Okay, sure.”

“Great!” Louise grinned. “Let me get the ashtray.” She fetched the one they kept for guests out on the balcony.

“I don’t think you‘ll need any more imprinting potion, baby. We have plenty still in us.”

“Okay then.” Louise took a deep breath. “Get out the cigarette for me?”

Sophie flipped open the pack and pulled out one of the cigarettes inside. She held it between her fingers, posing.

“All right. Here I go! I’m a cigarette!”

Sophie never got tired of seeing Louise vanish into an object. One moment her girlfriend was there, the next …

She watched as the cigarette blink, then giggle with glee.

“Oh, get a load of me!” Louise grinned. Sophie laughed at the little face at the end of the cigarette, just before her finger.

“Very cute,” she said. “Should I light you know?”

“Please!”

For a second, as Sophie flicked the lighter, Louise felt a shiver of panic. What the hell was she doing? She was asking her girlfriend to set her on fire! She would burn, be hurt …

But wait, what was she thinking? She wasn’t a person, she was a cigarette! Temporarily, anyway, but a cigarette didn’t feel pain. Being set on fire was what a cigarette did!

Sophie placed her girlfriend between her lips. That very thought sent tingles through her. She brought the lighter up to the end. “Okay, Lou?”

“I’m fine!” Louise felt exhilarated. Far from pain, she felt fulfilled. This was what being a cigarette was like!

Sophie didn’t really smoke but she had experimented a little in college. She inhaled shallowly, just a tiny little puff, before blowing it out.

The smoke hung in the air. As Sophie watched it seemed to form a pair of lips. “Ooooh!” it gasped.

“Louise?” Sophie said, amused.

“That’s right! I’m up here!” the smoke said.

“And down here too!” the cigarette said.

“We’re both Louise!” they chorused. “Oh, I love being in two places at once!”

“Well, let me make some more of you,” Sophie said, taking another small inhalation before blowing out another stream of smoke, which joined the rest of the thinning smoke in the air.

“More!” the cigarette Louise cried. “Make me more smoke!”

She felt joy as she was pulled into her girlfriend’s mouth, being transformed from tobacco into smoke, before joining the rest of the cloud.

“Oh, this feels too good, I have to …”

“Louise?” Sophie looked at the cigarette. Its little face had vanished; more, it didn’t feel alive any more.

“Uh, I’ve exited the cigarette,” the grey cloud of smoke confirmed. Sophie crushed out the end in the ashtray. She looked up at the thinning cloud, which had assumed a vaguely female shape.

“You should probably change back, Lou. You look to be really thinning out,” she said.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Louise’s voice was like a whisper. But even as Sophie opened the door to the balcony, to get rid of the smoke, Louise suddenly popped back.

“Oh! That was amazing!” she grinned, flinging her arms around Sophie. “Thank you! That was such a turn-on!”

“Oh really?” Sophie said. “Because I think I deserve some kisses for that.”

“That you do,” Louise said. She leaned into Sophie’s face, then drew back. “Ugh. But maybe you should clean your teeth first.”

“Idiot,” Sophie grinned. “Oh, the things I do for you.”

“Maybe I could do some things for you.”

“Maybe.”

“I’ve always wanted to be a toothbrush.”

“Double idiot. Okay, let’s go.”