When Vance parked, Marsh waited in the car while her friend got out.  It took Vance a moment to realize her plan, then he walked around and opened her door.  “Playing it to the hilt, are we?”

Marsh smiled up at him winningly and accepted his hand up.  “One hilt or another.”

She kept his hand as they walked into the mall.  When they caught up with their friends in the middle of the mall, Charlie was the first to notice and squealed delightedly.  “Are you two...”

“We are each other’s ‘it’s complicated’,” said Vance.

“What’s complicated about it?”

Vance shot a glance at the Venn Machine, and Charlie laughed.  “Oh!  We should have an all girls night.”

“Wait, what?” asked Vance.

Dan and Jeff shared a glance then shrugged.  “We’re in.”  They headed off to the Venn Machine and before Vance knew it two cute girls had emerged.

Dana glanced at Marsh for permission, then slunk up next to Vance.  “Hey there cutie.  Going to join us?”

Vance just stared at her.  “What?  How?”

Dana giggled.  “Oh, right.  I never told you, did I?”

“Told me what?”

“I was born a girl.  I just find being a guy easier, so I officially changed over.”

“What about Jeff?”

Jeff shrugged her shoulders.  “Does it matter?  Being a girl can be fun.  I’ll go back later...”  Jeff smirked at a smouldering glance from Dana.  “Or maybe not.  We’ll have fun either way.  C’mon, what’s holding you back?”

“Peer pressure much?” asked Vance.

That got several sets of rolled eyes, and Vance raised his hands defensively.  “Okay, okay.  I’ve only been a girl once, and I didn’t like how it made me feel.”  He caught Marsh’s eyes and sighed at what he saw there.  “Okay, fine.  I suppose the whole gym class thing was impartial and weird and not an entirely fair representation.  Just eight hours, though.”

Dana was already setting up the Venn Machine.  “Aww.”  She mock-cringed away from Vance’s glare.  “Okay, okay.  Live a little.”

Vance stepped into the machine, and was surprised when Dana hopped in the other side.  “Hey, what about...”

“If you accidentally changed Marsh, she’d revert in eight hours.  I’m safe.  Do whatever you like.”  Dana started humming softly to herself as she worked.

“Seriously?  You’d be okay with being a purse for the evening?”

“Oh please, you aren’t that boring.  If you’re going to change me, do something fun.”

Vance smirked.  “That sounds like a challenge.  Are you serious?”

“Please, eight hours?  I can be anything for eight hours.”

“How about five gallons of high test gasoline?”

Dana paused to consider that, then shrugged.  “It’d be different...”

“I’d never trust it to get the formula right, and even if it did, it’d probably wreck old Betsy.  Hm.  I could fit a good sized engine in here, but it’d take too long to get you installed.  Maybe a motorcycle?”

“Girl’s night, remember.”

“So you’d need to be a sparkly pink motorcycle?”

Dana giggled.  “I guess that fits.  Wait until I’m done changing you, then hit me.”

Vance poked at the interface, grinned at what he saw, and continued to tinker until he suddenly lost a few inches and gained curves.  He glanced down at his body.  “Huh.  Feels normal.”

“Exactly.  Now change me!” ordered Dana.

A tap later, and the doors opened.  Dana was slow to emerge, surprised that she could still move.  “What gives, why can’t I see?”

“Oops, here, let me give you a hand.”  Vance helped take Dana’s motorcycle helmet off.  She blinked in the light, then giggled.  “A bright pink motorcycle helmet?  Cute.”

“Eee, and the rest if you is so pink, too!” exclaimed Jeff, dragging Dana over to a nearby mirror.  Not only was her new leather jacket sparkly and pink, but so were her hands, her face, and what could be seen of her legs.

“Okay, this is pretty cool,” admitted Dana, poking at the back of her hand.  “I feel... extra durable, too.  What did you do?”

Vance shrugged.  “I don’t know.  There you were in sparkly pink motorcycle gear, and I just kinda kept going.”

Dana grinned wickedly.  “I think I need to see how far the pink goes.  Coming, girls?”  She headed off to the washroom, and shot a look over her shoulder at the stunned Vance.  “That includes you, Vancie-poo.”

Vance straggled along behind, and if it wasn’t for Marsh physically yanking him into the washroom, he’d not have entered.  “But...”

“You’re a girl now, chica,” said Charlie.  “Don’t sweat it.”

Vance tried his best to act cool about the situation.  But Dana had already stripped to her waist, showing that her sparkly pink skin extended at least that far.  He stared at her chest long enough to get a poke from Marsh.  “No nipples?”

Dana shrugged.  “I seem to be missing a few things.  Body hair, too.  A girl could get used to that.”  She tugged her skirt down, revealing just how extensive the featurelessness went.

“You look like a sparkly pink mannequin,” giggled Jeff.  “It’s a good look on you.  We should put you in a store window.”

“Ooh!” exclaimed Sasha.  “Candee’s gives store credit if you spend a couple hours as a display piece.  C’mon!”

The whole group trooped off behind Sasha, Vance boggling at how Dana was strolling through the mall effectively naked, and seemingly unaffected by the looks she was getting.

Candee’s was the junk jewelry store where Vance had bought “Princess Marsh” her tiara.  A bored looking clerk perked up when Dana marched up to her and asked if she could be a display piece.

“Can you hold a pose for an hour?” asked the clerk.

Dana shrugged.  “I’ll try my best.  This was a serendipitous change, I don’t know what I can do yet.”

The clerk nodded, and proceeded to drape Dana in necklaces, bangles, hoops and rings.  She guided Dana to a pose in the window and told her to hold still.  Dana stopped moving so abruptly it seemed like she was a robot that had been turned off.

“You’ll do nicely.  Just one more finishing touch...”  The clerk perched a tiara atop Dana’s head.  “There.  If you stay until closing, you can keep the tiara.”

Dana didn’t twitch.  Marsh placed a matching tiara on Vance’s head.  “Want to join her, Princess Van?”

Vance stared at her reflection for a long time.  “Princess?”

“Turnabout is fair play.  I’ll buy it for you, and you can be my princess this time.”

Vance looked away, and her gaze caught in the mirror again.  “Is that really me?”

“Do you want it to be?”

“I mean...  I don’t know what I mean.  This is weird.”  Vance turned back and forth, considering her reflected image.

“You can change back if you need to,” offered Marsh gently.

“Need, not want?” asked Vance.  “I’m not sure what I want.  It’s strange seeing a girl in the mirror.  I don’t feel like I’m in the wrong skin like last time.  This feels like... like another me, not familiar and yet not out of place.  I could put up with it for a while.”

“Just put up with it?”  Marsh sounded disappointed.

Vance turned to study her friend.  “You feel differently?”

Marsh nodded eagerly.  “This body feels like home now.  I wasn’t uncomfortable before, I just...”

Vance stepped closer and hugged Marsh.  Their lips found each other’s and the world went away for a while.  When they broke for air Vance looked around. “No wolf whistles?  Where’d the others go?”

Marsh pointed at the display window.  A sparkly purple mannequin had joined the pink one, and two new bust displays were being loaded up with sparklies as they watched.  “Looks like girls' night has become mannequin night.  Want to join them?”

“One change is enough for me tonight,” replied Vance.  “I think I’d like to go somewhere quieter.”

When Marsh went to pay for Vance’s new tiara, she found that their friends had already covered it out of the credit they were about to earn.  “Nice, guys.  Thanks.”

As they headed back to Vance’s car, Marsh scooped up her hand once more.  “Talk to me?”

Vance glanced down at the hand that was holding Marsh’s.  “This feels nice.  I feel like if I think about it too much, it’ll all come apart.”

“Ah.  Then don’t think.  Just go with the flow.”

Vance chuckled throatily.  “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

Marsh gave Vance’s hand a reassuring squeeze.  “I would.  Wherever it takes you.”

Vance didn’t reply.  Once they’d made it to Vance’s car, Marsh tugged on her friend’s hand to get her to stop.  “I have a request for Princess Van.”

Vance raised an eyebrow.  “One that you couldn’t ask Vance?”

“It’d be... more complicated.”

Vance smirked.  “This isn’t complicated enough already?”

Marsh took a deep breath.  “Can I spend the night at your place?”

“Uh...  Yep, that would be way more complicated if I was male.  But like this, I can kind of think of it as a sleepover, not...”

“Yeah.  Please?”

This time it was Vance’s turn to squeeze Marsh’s hand reassuringly.  “Sure.  Do you need anything from your place?”

Marsh shook her head emphatically.  “I’d rather not go back to the spiderhole.  I picked up a few essentials while we were in the mall.”

“Okay then.  Off to palatial Wren Manor.”

Vance’s parents had a detached “carriage house” style garage, and a small suite above it.  It had been a source of rental income while Vance was growing up, but once he’d started working for his father’s plumbing compnay it had been offered to him at a very competitive rent.  Vance parked at his usual spot off to the side, and hopped out.  He’d opened Marsh’s door before remembering her current shape.  “Wait, do girls do this for each other?”

Marsh smiled up at Vance winningly.  “I like it when you treat me like a princess, whatever you look like.”

Vance looked a bit dazed, but nodded.  “I can do that.”  She led the way up the stairs to her front door, and held it open for Marsh.  “After you, my lady.”

Marsh grinned.  “I could get used to that.”

“As you wish.”

After that, Vance figured they had to watch The Princess Bride.  When Buttercup encountered the screaming eels, Marsh burrowed against Vance’s side, and stayed cuddled up against her for the rest of the movie.

Once it was over, Vance realized that Marsh was already asleep.  She wriggled out from under Marsh’s arm, laid her out comfortably, and covered her in a blanket.

Around four in the morning, Vance woke when he changed back to normal.  He noticed a warm weight cuddled against his back.  When he tried to squirm free, Marsh cuddled up tighter.  Vance sighed softly, then figured there was no harm in it, and went back to sleep.

In the morning, Vance woke to an empty bed, and wasn’t sure whether or not he’d just dreamed it.