Violet focused intently on her reflection, trying to ignore the pressure of her friends watching her. She was staring into her bathroom mirror, attempting to demonstrate her ability to will her horns away for Kate, though she also hoped to find out whether she could remove them completely. Maybe she would even be able to hold them that way for more than a few seconds.

  “Wait, How? You’re controlling that?” Kate exclaimed as her horns seemed to melt away into her hair.

  “Right?” Meryl said excitedly over Kate’s shoulder. “It’s like magic! Oh, do you think you can change anything else?”

  That’s a good question, Violet thought, pleased to see her horns weren’t coming back even as her focus drifted slightly. She imagined her reflection’s glowing, purple eyes fading to the soft lavender color she’d seen in them just the morning before, and the inky blacks of her sclera retreating. A few moments later, she no longer needed to imagine the changes.

  Violet risked a glance away from her own eyes and smiled at the astonished look on Kate’s face. “You can really control it?”

  “I guess so…” Violet answered, looking back to the mirror. She was still having a hard time believing it herself. “I think it’s easier to hold when I can see the result like this.”

  “Hold? Like you can feel it wanting to change back?” asked Meryl, bubbling with curiosity. “What’s it feel like?”

  “It’s kind of like, a tension. It’s not exactly physical, but I can feel it pulling, somehow. Almost like trying to focus on a bunch of things at once, maybe?”

  A thought occurred to Violet. Did it need to be a small change? If the changes she’d managed to control so far required focusing on the end result, could that end result be anything? Maybe she should try looking exactly how she used to look? No, that’s boring– Oh… She looked back at Kate and Meryl with a mischievous expression.

  “What?” Kate asked.

  Violet didn’t respond, instead imagining a pane of glass between them, as though Kate was her reflection in the mirror.

  This is a mirror… That’s me… I’m Kate… I’ve always looked like this…

  She continued repeating all the phrases she could think of to solidify that thought, that knowledge, that this was her. A strange, warm sensation spread over her skin, while feelings of shock washed over her from her friends, and Meryl actually gasped.

  “Holy shit…” Kate muttered, and Violet turned again to the actual mirror. Two red haired, freckled Kates looked back at her, one shorter than the other.

  Holy shit, it worked!

  “Oh…” was all Violet managed to say. She felt dizzy, and exhausted.

  “Vi, this is a fucking superpower! Literally, magic. How did you ev–” Kate’s shocked and excited voice trailed off into the distance as the room seemed to darken. She was suddenly having a much more difficult time figuring out exactly which direction was up as the world faded to black.

  “Vi!”

  She was moving, spinning.

  Who said that?

  “Hrnn,” she tried to mumble in response.

  Violet blinked. Everything seemed a blur, and she couldn’t feel her body. She tried to remember where she was, or what she was doing. As she started to regain sensation, she found she was lying on something soft, and her bedroom slowly came into focus through the blur.

  “Vi? Are you ok?”

  Meryl’s voice. Violet nodded. She was in her bed with Meryl hovering beside her. Kate sat on the end of the bed by her feet.

  “Oh thank god,” said Meryl.

  “What happened?” Violet asked groggily.

  Kate answered her, “You passed out, just a minute ago. I caught you, mostly, and we carried you in here.”

  “Oh… Oh!”

  She reached for her hair to find it mostly straight and white, though a few strands were still red or pink. She also confirmed her horns and ears were their normal, pointy selves.

  When did this become ‘normal?’

  “Yeah, you started to look like you again as soon as you passed out,” Kate added. Violet nodded, then slowly sat up.

  As she continued to regain her bearings, Violet realized part of the tingling in her abdomen wasn’t from blacking out, but instead an increasingly familiar sensation. She was starving. The realization was thrilling, bringing back thoughts of Meryl pinning her to the counter with her horns. Or the sensations of Kate’s orgasm the night before, wishing they’d done so much more.

  Her face warmed with embarrassment. Even so, she couldn’t help looking at both of her friends hungrily. Would they be weirded out if she tried to coerce them both into something? She’d feel awful asking one of them to leave, after all. What would a threesome feel like, adding two whole bodies’ sensations to her own? That sounded amazing. She still felt a little dizzy, but the fuzzy cloud in her head was fading.

  “Vi, are you really ok?” Meryl asked, pulling Violet’s thoughts back to feeling her friends’ concern. “I’ll get you some water.”

  “Um, yeah… Thanks.”

  Violet glanced nervously at Kate while Meryl left the room. She could still feel both of their amazement, and some relief, but their primary feelings were of concern. Yeah, it was definitely not the right moment to pounce on Kate, but every part of her being wanted to. It would feel so good, and she wanted to make Kate feel good.

  Kate interrupted her daydreams, “What’s that look?”

  Violet flinched, looking down at the bedsheets to avoid Kate’s eyes. She felt like she’d been caught, despite Kate’s emotions not revealing that to be the case. Meryl returned with a glass of water and set it down on the nightstand beside Violet, then she glanced back at Kate as she tried to read the room.

  Violet continued struggling to keep her thoughts off of lewd fantasies of her friends, becoming more and more aroused as various possibilities played out in her mind, competing for attention. Her body ached with overwhelming hunger for that wonderful warmth she knew Kate and Meryl could give her.

  But that’s not why I invited them here! Well, besides with Meryl earlier, and Kate last night. But those weren’t supposed to happen. This wasn’t supposed to happen!

  It was almost worse that she knew they would oblige if she asked. Maybe they would say yes, but what would they think? Frustration overwhelmed her. Frustration at this ache filling her body, at her inability to think about anything else, at her friends’ kind intents along with their complete obliviousness to how much she needed what they could give her right now. Frustration was the only fleeting thing she seemed to be able to hold on to besides her desperate arousal. Tears began to stream down her cheeks.

  “Oh Vi,” Meryl said comfortingly, sitting down beside her and squeezing her arm gently. “We’re here. What’s wrong?”

  Again, Violet didn’t answer. No single word could explain what had just been rushing through her head, and attempting anything more coherent seemed impossible from within her panicked spiral. After a few more moments of Meryl consoling her with a gentle embrace, Kate spoke up.

  “Yeah, whatever you need, Vi. We got you. I can give you some space, too, if you want.”

  Violet shook her head as she tried to hold herself back from sobbing.

  “You know, I bet this shapeshifting stuff just takes some practice. You’ll get the hang of it. I can cover a few of your shifts, too, until you’re ready. There’s no rush.”

  Kate’s thoughtfulness was sweet, and Violet didn’t blame her for her guess at what might be bothering her, but she didn’t care about any of that at the moment.

  “I–” Violet tried to begin through her tears. “I– I’m sorry–”

  “You have nothing to be sorry for!” Meryl insisted.

  “I– I didn–” Violet interrupted herself to wipe her tears on her shirt. “Didn’t mean for this to ha– happen.”

  Her friends shared feelings of confusion.

  “I don’t want to fo– to make you, for you to feel like you need to. I understand if y– you want to leave.”

  “You haven’t forced us to do anything,” Meryl continued in her soft, comforting voice.

  “No– I mean– I need–”

  Violet gave up on her sentence as she continued to sob. She rolled to her side and pulled the comforter from the other side of the bed up and over herself. Why was it so hard to say what she needed with both of them there?

  Meryl’s confusion suddenly resolved to surprise. “Oh! Uh, both of us? I don’t know if, um…” Meryl started, then trailed off.

  “Anything,” Violet mumbled from somewhere inside the bed.

  She felt Kate’s confusion fade a bit, replaced in part with amusement. Meryl, however, didn’t have this information and awkwardly began to explain, “She’s, um– she describes it as ‘hunger,’ which I suppose makes sense seeing how she seems to have replaced food with–” Violet could feel Kate smiling. “–oh, sorry, did Vi already tell you all this?”

  Kate nodded. “Basically, yeah. Our little succubus is hungry!” she said, as if she found the idea adorable. “I guess trying to copy a whole person was a little too much for your first day of shapeshifting.”

  “True,” Meryl added thoughtfully. “It’s so incredible, though! Kate’s right, I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it!”

  Violet pulled the comforter down just enough to look at her friends, each wearing her oversized night shirts. She glanced at Meryl, who was smiling but looked away shyly, then at Kate, who returned an awkward chuckle as she ran her fingers through her curly hair.

  After a quick attempt to exhale her lingering frustration, Violet slid off the end of the bed, then scooped the comforter off the far side. She shook slightly as she turned back to Kate and took her wrist, guiding her to lie down on the bed. Kate hesitated momentarily but followed Violet’s direction. Without waiting for her to finish climbing onto the bed, Violet moved to give an extremely nervous Meryl the same direction, then followed, kneeling between her friends’ legs and looking down at them both as they lay side by side.

  “It– It’s ok if you want to stop, or leave– and I– I’m probably not thinking straight, so–”

  Kate surprised her with a grin. “No, this seems like it’s getting pretty gay, to me.”

  Violet gave her the most dramatic eye roll she could manage, then reached for each of their hands, lifting them from the bed. She squeezed them both, feeling her hands still shaking, though she wasn’t sure if it was from hunger or nerves over what she’d just initiated.

  “If there’s anything that makes you, um, uncomfortable, please stop me…”

  For a moment, Violet considered the swirl of sensations and emotions circling the three of them. She would know, of course, if she did anything to truly make them uncomfortable, but it still seemed important to say it outright. Particularly for Kate, who didn’t know her ability extended to emotions. Her hunger pleaded for her to hurry, to get what she needed as quickly as possible. The strength of those feelings scared her, and she needed to prove her self-control and ensure she was not, in fact, coercing her friends.

  She felt their hands in hers. Kate’s freckled hand was soft, Meryl’s slightly rougher. She felt her hands in theirs, softer and smaller from both their perspectives. She felt their hesitation and excitement, and their concern. They were obviously all well outside their comfort zones, but her friends' curiosity and desire were there as well. They were shy and nervous, but she was increasingly sure they didn’t want to leave. Violet released her friends’ hands, then guided them toward each other until their fingers intertwined. She smiled as she watched them glance shyly at each other, then she finally allowed her instincts take over.