Love



"How much longer?" She half-complained. As the little girl, she wasn't allowed a watch or cell phone; not even his.

She turned her head slightly, crooking a smirk. "Until I say so, Juju."

"This isn't funny, Marie!" Her tone was anything but threatening given her diminished stature; she scarcely managed not to flinch at the other woman's glare in retort, quickly correcting her demeanor. "Please..."

Marie scooped the girl up in her arms. "That anxious to get back to adult life, eh kiddo?"

"Yes!" She nearly screamed. "This has been the worst week of my life!" Nearly one week ago on the dot, Alex had run afoul of the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time and learned that magic existed, the hard way: by finding himself in the form of her, a pint-sized brat no older than five. 'Why' was hardly a concern as she shuffled home in shock to his girlfriend Marie. Convincing her was hardly an issue; she readily believed her, all too anxious to play along, and within moments Marie's niece Julia was born. Metaphorically, of course.

"Oh come on," she chided, bouncing the girl seated on her forearm once. "It wasn't all bad."

Marie served as Julia's caretaker and tormentor in equal capacity, sheltering the girl from her boyfriend's family and friends and the insanity her presence would certainly reveal - so she said. All this came at the low, low price of being drowned in girliness wall to wall, a massive sink of both their wallets, from shopping to photos to even an ill-fated ballet lesson - all of which the niece, naturally, had zero input in.

But still. She shrugged in weak agreement. Marie wasn't wrong. Even after all the torture she'd gone through, there were some fun moments. Marie was warmer and more caring toward her than she'd ever been to him. There was a thin facade of safety buried beneath the stress, and on some distant level, there was a certain thrill to the idea of being someone else. Not because of, he corrected himself internally, but despite aforementioned someone else being a kindergarten-aged girl.

Her aunt's lips curled slightly higher, more warmly, at the oblivious blushing. "I see. And I don't suppose there's any way I can convince you to stay as Julia?"

"What?!" She blushed again. Marie knew that, overall, he'd been no fan of this curse, or hex, or spell, or whatever it was supposed to be. The intended lesson he was intended to learn, if any, was completely lost. "How would you even do that?"

"Well, I don't have to kiss you, y'know," she stated, booping Julia on her tiny nose and giggling at the flustered reaction that followed.

"Then I'd get my parents." The woman near-immediately snorted, stifling a laugh at this.

"Hey, d'you think you'll stay like this forever if nobody kisses you?"

"Stop it! This isn't funny," she huffed. "This is ac---this is kinda creepy. I'm not a girl!"

She laughed, fully this time. "Oh really? Then what are you?"

"I---come on! I'm your boyfriend," the tiny girl squeaked with anger.

Again, she giggled at the words. "Not right now you're not!" Another laugh, which she halted. "You're funny when you try to get angry, know that?" She pinched her left cheek. "You're just too cute for that though, my little Juju-bee!"

'Juju' pulled away, exchanging sour looks with her pretend aunt. "Please stop."

"Oh come on, you're no fun," she teased again. "How about it? We can get ice cream every night you stay this way!" Her chubby face perked up at this. She - or rather, her kiddy taste buds, her physical brain - found absolute bliss in ice cream and other sweets, the same way the vegetables Alex loved made her want to wretch. "Ooh, that got your attention, eh?"

Her face turned red at the sheer ease with which his girlfriend was jerking her around. "No."

"Last chance!" Her tone dangled for a few seconds, to no avail.

"Just..." a sigh. "Please; how much longer?"

Marie's brow furrowed at the unsaid answer. "That's too bad, then." She grimaced slightly and didn't check her phone. "It was about 10 minutes ago."

"Can we then?"

The woman nodded and eased the girl, perched on her arm, toward her face. His brain was somersaulting a mile a minute, at the mental fork in the road. One kiss and Julia would be a bad dream, a memory. Her heartbeat intensified. Shit; he was going to miss this, wasn't he? He enjoyed being someone else. But that's because Julia was someone else. Not who he 'really' was, and he knew he'd be be back to being Alex soon enough. If you're you, he reasoned, and not someone else, it's no fun. But he didn't have to be himself. He could always continue. Except he had a life. All he had to do was-

Out of nowhere, Marie's lips pressed into hers. With one noisy smooch, and all the passion of a simple goodnight kiss, it was done.

She squirmed in Marie's grasp, who got the signal, letting her down to stumble forward a few steps in the grass.

"What a nightmare. I..." The little girl's raspy train of thought ceased as the hum of magic kickstarted all around her. "Nn-ooh!" Her posture shot upright. "My body's..." For the first time genuine surprise came upon her would-be aunt's face.

Bones popped and muscled rumbled as she grew an inch. And then swiftly another.

And then...stopped.

She winced, scrunching her face in discomfort as the features upon it shifted ever-so-slightly. Her eyes seemed to float around, widening a fraction of an inch as her face rounded and softened, nose turning upward as her ears did the same outward. Radiating pricklingly from her heart, a slightly richer skin tone overtook her older, paler tinge, and her eyes followed in kind, dark browns injecting themselves into and erasing her hazel irises. Julia's hair was next; a generic light brown poured over her redheaded tresses, volume and wildness seeming to die out a little along with the enviable red hues, hair visibly taming even despite being tied up in pigtails.

There was a certain warmth, a fuzzy tingle that quietly ran up and down her minuscule frame. It was one of the many simple sensations so easy to tune out and take for granted. True to form, he had failed to notice this until it abruptly subsided, vanishing for the first time in just over a week.

Julia gasped. The magic was gone. And she was still Julia.

"What the...what the...no, no!" She screamed, patting her face down and staring at her inert hands. Though he was in no position to observe, her transition was subtle but pronounced: Julia had changed from a girl 'inspired by' Alex to one patterned after Marie.

"Aww," her mother-apparent half-toned, "Looks like it didn't work out, sweetie."

She was shivering, shaking, finding no comfort in her words; rather, unsettled at her nonchalance. "How can you be like this?!" The shrillness of her panicked voice made Marie wince slightly. "This wasn't supposed to happen! She said a kiss from you would change me back!"

"Actually," Marie retorted, the sheer smug quality of her word and smile managing to seize the petite girl's attention, "She said (1) 'In one week's time, to set your fate, true love's kiss, you must await.' Wasn't that how it went?"
(2) --'In one week's time, fate made real, true love's kiss, shall reveal.'
(3) --Come one week amiss, to determine your fate, true love's kiss, you must create.
(4) --'With one week amiss, your real fate, true love's kiss, shall illuminate.'



She went quiet, eyes wide, stomach sinking, shuddering and shaking at the slow realization: he'd never told her that. Hell, he didn't even remember it.

Yet she knew.

"I'm...I'm..." She started. Powerless. Stuck. Trapped. A little girl. A little girl and nothing more. A little girl and his girlfriend somehow made sure he stayed that way.

"My little girl," Marie said, finishing her sentence as she swooped her back up. "Looks like you're really my daughter now, too," she said, fishing out not a mirror, but her own smartphone and pointing the front camera at Julia.

His mind swam as she stared at the screen, into her own eyes, with a refreshed unfamiliarity. It didn't make any sense. "Oh my god..." She knew, how? "What did you do?" No answer. "What did you do?! No, this can't---let me go!" She flailed about, kicking and swinging her arms and stopping herself short of aimless screaming, to which Marie responded by dumping her unceremoniously back into the grass.

Her mother-apparent scoffed at this. "Throwing a tantrum already? You're really..." She took a breath, collecting her thoughts. "You're really getting into this 'daughter' thing, aren't you?"

"Fuck you!" She rasped.

Marie stopped dead at this, eyes wide, and let out a single, incredulous laugh at her ex-boyfriend's outburst. Fury smoldered in her eyes as she gradually knelt down to meet the terrified Julia eye-to-eye, clamping a firm thumb and finger around the sides of the little girl's mouth. For several seconds the two remained, the daughter absolutely petrified at the consequences of what she'd said, traumatic flashbacks of being hit as a young boy already flashing back through his brain. Her mother, meanwhile, merely softened her expression, stern lips curling upward into a smile as she gazed upon the girl's face, anger either washing away or pretending to with a shrug. "Looks like someone talked their way out of ice cream," she awkwardly quipped.

She'd steeled herself for a slap, a spank, a something. But instead, she refused to even acknowledge her anger and somehow that felt even worse. She was utterly stunned, shaking her head. His brain - her brain - couldn't cope. "How could you do this?" She shook her head again, trying to comprehend something, anything. "My life...My...I loved you, Marie," she said, voice wavering with the tears streaming down her cheeks.

"And I love you too," Marie shot back with a hint of vitriol at the past tense 'loved'. "But I love you more like a daughter. So this is your real fate or whatever." She shrugged, grinning with a tangible smugness. "I'm a lil' surprised you transformed again, but oh well; c'est la vie, eh?"

"You're..." She'd intended to say 'a monster', and then run - to where, he had no clue - but the words did not come. Not even the tears came, nor her strength. Only a numbness washed over her. Was this who she was now? Julia. Julia, Julia, Julia. Julia. Empty, sinking, she fell to her knees and did nothing else.

Marie pressed herself closer and in the void Julia felt the warmth of her whispering breath upon her ear. "Don't worry Juju-bee, Mommy's here for you," she said, grinning to herself. "I know this is what you secretly wanted," she lied, "In time you'll realize it too. And thank Mommy for making you her little princess. Love it or loathe it..." she murmured, pulling away and planting a kiss on her stunned daughter's cheek.

"You're all mine." Smooch.
"Mine." Smooch.
"Mine." Another smooch.

A weak "No..." was all the response the newly cemented Julia could muster.