Even if I could have come up with something reasonable to say in the moment after Vivi asked that question, I wouldn’t have been able to. Both fight and flight had abandoned me to huddle shaking on the floor, mouth agape like an idiot, shuddering with the beginnings of words that were never actually going to manifest. Vivi appeared to be running out of patience.

“Answer me, right now, and do not make me ask again,” she snarled, “Where. Is. My. Girlfriend.” She was doing a good job of putting on the intimidating lady act, but behind that the genuine terror in her voice was pretty obvious. She wasn’t doing that much better than I was. “Were you pretending to be her? For how long? What did you do with her?!”

That was apparently enough to snap me out of my frozen state, and the words just started tumbling out, completely outside of my control. “N-no!! I-I mean, yes- You don’t- I-It’s not like that! I-I mean I was pretending, but she’s not–”

“Spit it out now, before I force it out of you! I swear if you laid even a finger on her–”

“P-please, you don’t understand, she never–”

“Tell me where she is now!”

“I’M MAPLE!”

With the screen no longer flashing, I could barely make out her expression in the darkness, but for a single second we just stared at each other in silence- before I realized what I’d just said, and then I couldn’t shut up.

“I mean- okay, wait, I mean I’m not her, but like I’m her in the game because I wish I was her– n-not like that, I mean like she’s better than me, but not real because I made her up to replace me– in the game– I can’t, you have to let me talk but I can’t explain it anyway because it won’t make any sense and I don’t know what to tell you and–”

A warm finger- flesh and blood, I noted-  pressed softly against my lips, and in that instant I went perfectly still and quiet. To my surprise, my face was wet with tears; I could have sworn that my heart had stopped. From what I could see of her face– and oh my god she’s somehow just as pretty as she was in the game– the anger was no longer there. Instead, all I could see was confusion and concern.

Whatever I had felt up until that point, whatever fear or disbelief, was entirely drowned in that moment by one surprising emotion: overwhelming shame. Here was the girl that I’d dressed up in slutty clothes for cheap sexual pleasure for the past two weeks in my free time, and now I’d been unknowingly impersonating the love of her life as well. Yeah, she was a fictional character, and everything was fine then, and easy for me to suppress in the name of dopamine; but now that she was a real person everything was different, and uncomfortable, and I just felt like a creepy asshole. Not only that, but she knew every perverted crime I’d committed, and there was nothing I could do to hide. I wanted to crumble into dust right there on the floor.

Vivi didn’t appear to notice my internal turmoil. She knelt there for a moment, staring at me- through me. Then, to my great surprise, the fear and concern disappeared from her face, replaced with her familiar smile, as if nothing had happened. If anything, it seemed a little bigger than usual, like she knew something I didn’t. Despite being naturally comforted by her face, the baffling tonal shift only made me more uneasy.

Stepping back a bit, Vivi rose to her full height, leaving me on the floor.

“Doy~ That’s totally obvious, huh; typical Vivi not catching on to what’s right in front of her,” she giggled.

I felt absolutely horrible. “Hey– um, I-I’m really sorry– for ruining your surprise, um, m-maybe I can make it up to you, somehow? Also, uh, h-how are you real–”

“What? Oh, sweetie, don’t apologize, you didn’t ruin anything!” Vivi giggled again, as if this was all just a funny misunderstanding and not a total restructuring of my perception of reality. “Though the surprise was for Maple, and even though she’s not here right now,”

She looked right at me, and with a wide, mischievous grin on her face, said, “I think you’ll work just fine.”

Try as I did to understand whatever it was she meant by that, it was too much for my brain to handle. Instead I responded with an eloquent, “I’m. What?”

That made her laugh, and despite now feeling like I was very much in danger I blushed profusely at hearing that wonderful laughter right in front of me. In the shock of everything that had happened, I hadn’t really looked at her, but now that I did I was completely floored. Despite appearing to be a normal human, and no longer a cartoon, her proportions still pushed the boundary of belief.

“Struggling to speak, huh? Am I just that gorgeous?” Vivi grinned and did a little pirouette. “The outfit you made for me is pretty flattering.” Her gaze returned to me then, with a hunger in her eyes that made me feel hot. “I know, technically ‘Maple’ made it for me, but…”

Suddenly she had descended upon me, her face inches from mine; two fingers underneath my chin, lifting my eyes to meet hers.

“That’s who you are, isn’t it?”

“I-I don’t–”

I was cut off by a flash of light from Vivi’s shimmering irises, the color of which I couldn’t quite place no matter how hard I focused in the dark room. “Shhh-sh-sh, Sugarbear, I can do the talking for you,” Vivi whispered, as her thumb moved over my lips, “since I know it’s so hard for you."

Only a moment ago, it felt like I’d regained my senses enough to flee and escape. But now, that previously dominant part of my mind was suddenly confused. Her words sounded true enough, I supposed; I was having a hard time talking, and Vivi seemed to be really good at it.

Somehow, she could see that realization clicking in my head, and she grinned, satisfied. “That’s a good girl~”

A wave of pleasure coursed through my body from end to end, making my spine curve and pushing me further into her. Vivi took that opportunity to lift me from the floor and push me back onto the bed, before positioning herself above me. “I wasn’t kidding about dressing you up… I’m getting so excited just thinking about it~”

“Wh-what do you… I’m not a girl…?” I stammered, a pleasurable haze steadily growing in my head.

“Of course you are, darling, don’t you remember? It feels right, doesn’t it?"

Now that I thought about it, the idea of being a girl did feel kind of familiar… like I had somehow suppressed or forgotten some obvious truth. I blushed, feeling a little silly.

She giggled softly as she held my cheek, the gesture once again flushing my thoughts. “My poor Princess… alone and lost for so long. But now that I’m here, I can help you remember, and make it all better. Doesn’t that sound nice~?”

I smiled dumbly and nodded my head, which earned me another one of her perfect giggles. Gosh, she was really pretty. I felt kind of bad that she was stuck with a guy like me. But… I guess, I’m not a…

Vivi returned my attention to her with another gentle redirection of my chin and a flash from her beautiful eyes. “Let’s start with your cute little body, hm? You’re wonderful as you are now, but wouldn’t it be nice to be even softer? That would feel really good, right?”

I… hadn’t really thought about it, but yeah, that did sound nice! I vaguely remembered being heavier than I was now, too– I must’ve lost a lot of weight at some point. “That… would feel good…”

Vivi smiled lovingly and kissed my forehead. “Good girl!” This time I couldn’t quite stifle a moan as the good feeling flooded my body. “I’m so proud of you for figuring that out~ Now, I’ve got another surprise for you, one I think you’re really gonna love. Picture how you would look in your head if you were even softer than you are now- just focus on that image for me.”

That sounded easy enough, and I did so: I imagined my facial hair fading away, my cheeks filling out, my hips and tummy gaining a little chub. It felt good to imagine that, almost like I’d been keeping a limb in an uncomfortable position for too long and was finally letting it rest where it was supposed to.

To my shock, I felt my body actually, physically shift. Vivi kept her thumb over my lip, and began to stroke my face- as she did so I felt the hair there fall away, leaving only smooth, soft skin behind. I felt- and watched- my clothes grow tight as my body changed from undernourished to adorably chubby. I beamed up at Vivi, but she didn’t seem satisfied. She met my gaze as her eyes flashed.

“This is a great start, Sugarbear, and you’re looking cuter already… but I remember you being even softer than this.” Was I? I didn’t really remember myself, but if Vivi said so… and it did sound nice. As I thought about it, I began to grow even more, my belly peeking out from under my now-too-small shirt. Vivi hummed to herself, “Mm, no, even softer than that.”

I started growing before I could even really think about it- I just wanted to be softer for Vivi, like she remembered. My hips pushed outward and my butt and thighs bloomed, quickly decimating the stitching of my pants. Vivi decided to do me a favor and pull them off, leaving me only in my tattered underwear. I blushed bright tomato red, earning more wind-chime laughter from Vivi.

“Sorry, I couldn’t wait anymore. You’re way too cute.” I tried to cover my blush with my hands, and Vivi took the opportunity to pull my shirt over my head, leaving me almost entirely naked. Looking down, I gasped– I must’ve gained over three times my original weight. I was positively plush, like a person-sized teddy bear. Vivi looked very happy.

“Oh yeah, this is the beautiful body I remember… except…” She furrowed her brow, before whatever she was looking for suddenly came to her. “Your breasts! They’re way smaller than they’re supposed to be, aren’t they?”

Something about that pulled me out of the haze, and I pushed myself back against the headboard, away from Vivi. “Wait, this isn’t… what are you doing?” Something in the back of my head was screaming at me to wake up and run, but it sounded a lot like the mean voice, and I didn’t want to listen to that voice anymore.

Vivi’s smile faltered, and she wasted no time crawling up to me and taking my hand in hers, her chest pressing into mine as she leaned close to my face. “Shh-sh, Maple, it’s okay, you’re okay. I’m here. Darling, look at me.”

I was a little scared, but I trusted Vivi, so I looked. As soon as I did, her irises began flashing all sorts of colors, and I found myself unable to look away. “You want big tits again, like you used to have,” she said, stroking my face as she did so. “You keep thinking about how I used to play with them, pinch them, suckle them; how good they looked in your favorite low-collar shirts, and how often I praised them. You want this so badly, Maple; it’s all you can think about, and it’s wonderful.”

Vivi was right. I really missed my breasts. I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten all of this, all of Vivi’s love, and I desperately wanted it all back. On cue my chest began pressing out slowly, before suddenly ballooning against Vivi’s, big to huge to massive. Without missing a beat Vivi reached up and eagerly groped one of my tits, and in that moment it was the best, most fulfilling thing I’d ever experienced– so good I came on the spot, moaning loudly in surprise and gently shaking in Vivi’s embrace.

“Whoops,” she muttered, her face now glowing almost as red as mine, “I may’ve overdone it a little.” As I came down from my orgasmic high and my exhausted eyes met hers, my favorite smile returned in full force. “Actually, nah– that was perfect."

I was perfect! I smiled really big for Vivi. With all of the touch jogging my memory, I started to realize just how different I was now from how I was supposed to be, and it felt really bad. Vivi must’ve been able to tell, because her expression turned a little sad. With some effort, she pulled me up to a sitting position and guided me over to the full-body mirror next to my closet, straddling me from behind.

By now my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and with the assistance of the moonlight peeking through the cracks in the window blinds, I was able to see my reflection pretty clearly- and it left me speechless. The changes I’d consciously thought into existence were one thing, but at some point my face had changed entirely. My lips were full and soft, my eyes round and bright. I looked… really, really cute. 

For the first time, I looked for that painful feeling inside of me and realized it was not a voice, but a tiny flame. Now that I’d finally given it air to breathe, it had transformed into an inferno, had taken me over, and it was so warm. My heart was hammering in my chest. My hand fumbled around at my side, and Vivi, as if she’d done it so many times before, caught it in hers and squeezed softly. 

“I told you you were beautiful,” she whispered into my ear. “But we aren’t done yet. I think you know what to do.”

Somehow, I did. As if I hadn’t been looking at it clearly enough the first time, my reflection began to change. My hair was far too short, and as I watched as it grew long, dark and curly, until I had a full head of fluffy black hair reaching down to my collarbone, my bangs cut just above my eyes. At the same time, I slowly began to shrink, smaller and smaller and smaller, until I had gone from nearly a head taller than Vivi to half a head shorter. She seemed to really like that, and wrapped her arms around my narrowed shoulders possessively, burying her grinning face in my soft hair.

“Now this… this is the gorgeous girl I fell in love with,” Vivi said, gently palming some of my tummy as she did so. A shiver ran up my spine, and I sighed, the pitch now high and soft. I leaned backwards and into her for support, and she hummed appreciatively. “Now, I think it’s finally time for my anniversary gift.”