Making Friends

Zerek spent a whole night searching through the library's section of spellbooks. One after the other, they failed him. Most spells were simply too high level for a mere sophomore in magic studies to understand, much less cast, and the rest had effects that stood no chance of helping him out at all.

Since his second semester or so, he'd had all kinds of trouble with one particular guy. He was this big jock who liked to bug and pester Zerek, and somehow or other kept winding up in all the same core classes! Any time a test or a paper got handed back, he'd get a glance of Zerek's grade over his shoulder and say something like, "Yeah, that's pretty good. But not as good as me!" and then show off his, usually much better, grade. Or he would yell stuff like "Hey, nerd! How ya doin'?" or, "Wanna race?" Even if Zerek made it clear he didn't want to race, he'd act like he won when they were both at their next mutual class. It made Zerek occasionally actually try to race just to try and make him stop doing that, but how was an aspiring mage supposed to keep up with an obvious future track star, anyway? A lot of it reminded Zerek of the bullies and jerks back in high school, except that there was no stealing lunch money, and they were both sufficiently adults to not actually have any physical fights.

It upset him enough for his advisor to notice, and she made him tell her what was going on by inviting him to tea with her, putting truth serum in the tea, and then asking him increasingly specific questions so that he couldn't answer truthfully without saying exactly what was going on and how he felt about it. After all of that, she didn't seem to think it was that big a deal. "You're a mage," she said. "If you're having a problem, then go find a spell that'll fix it! What's the point of learning magic if it doesn't make your life better, right?"

Well, it didn't seem like any of the spells he could find were going to fix his problem. Eventually he was desperate enough to pick up a book of animal husbandry spells, which sounded almost certainly completely useless. But he skimmed through it anyway, checking all the spell descriptions and titles, and one in particular actually did stick out to him.

The "wolf taming" spell was described as a spell "to convert even the most hostile and wild of wolves into a friendly domesticated dog". Obviously Zerek's problem was neither a wolf nor a dog, but what stood out was the use of the words "hostile" and "turn into" and "friendly". He was taking a class in magic modification this semester; the gist was that specific intent and a greater amount of effort and magical power behind a spell intended for one thing could make it do something similar, but different. If he could do that with this spell, modify it to emphasize the "hostile" into "friendly" aspect over all the others, then...maybe that would be good enough.

Anyway, he was desperate and running out of ideas, and the next time he met with his advisor she would be expecting him to have at least tried something. She was one of the best witches and magic teachers around, but also very demanding of her students—especially those she saw enough potential in to pick out as her personal advisees. With that thought in mind, Zerek checked out the book and went to his school-rented apartment to memorize everything he needed to know to cast the spell.

---

Liam had always thought he was really good at making friends. Usually loudly bashing his way into people's lives just sort of worked. Trying to stoke some kind of competition usually gave him and the other person something to start talking about. Sometimes just continuing to persistently talk to someone and greet them whenever he saw them was enough.

None of it worked with that guy. A whole year of trying everything he could think of to get him to start talking, or get into a friendly insult-trading contest, or at least gloat when he was clearly the one who'd got a better grade, and nothing. If anything, the guy seemed to get this disgusted look every time Liam was around, especially when he was talking to him. And it wouldn't be so bad if they hadn't kept on winding up in the same classes, like the universe was dangling this guy in front of him over and over again that he just couldn't figure out how to make friends with. To be honest, he wasn't used to failure, especially after spending so much effort on something, and so even when he started to sense that his efforts might be having the opposite of their intended effect, Liam just kept on trying.

He was weakening, though. The possibility of failure was a fact of life, after all, and some people just didn't want to be friends. Or maybe it was just a personality clash; maybe what Liam thought was perfectly friendly was coming off as mean or weird or annoying. It was just that these tactics had pretty much always worked before, so he hadn't had any experience coming up with new ones. Well, he might give up on everything else, but there was nothing going to stop him from continuing to give a friendly greeting whenever they wound up in the same place. He refused to be the guy to start giving the other guy the silent treatment.

The next time he saw that guy, he was on his way to lunch and saw him just standing there by the sidewalk looking..well, worse than usual. He seemed like he'd been up all night for some reason, his clothes a mess and probably not changed since the day before, and his hair left unbrushed to fall down over his eyes. Liam couldn't help but worry that something might actually be wrong, which compelled him to go check, even though it was a little out of his way. "Hey, uh, how are ya doin' there?" he said.

"Fine..." he said through his teeth. "Hold..still a second."

"Um, okay?" At that point the guy started waving his hands and saying something like a language Liam didn't quite understand. He knew this kind of stuff was what mages did when they were using magic, and so guessed that this was some kind of spell. The command to hold still made it clear this was a spell aimed for him; but he didn't have any particular reason not to play along, so he let it happen. There was a bright glow of red energy on his hands and then he spread them out toward Liam, making a brilliant flash surround him. Liam's body tingled all over briefly, and he shuddered slightly, but when his vision cleared it didn't seem like the spell had really done anything besides make him feel vaguely weird.

"Dude, was that a spell? Are you really a mage?" He'd had no idea before now. The guy didn't respond, just giving him a look through his hair like he expected something to happen and it wasn't happening. "...What kinda spell was that, anyway?"

He looked down again and sighed. "What's it matter, it didn't work." And then started storming off, looking frustrated.

"Hey, wait up! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, leave me alone." He waved back an extra 'go-away' gesture. Well, pestering him more when he was that grumpy didn't seem like a good use of Liam's time. He was still hungry for lunch, after all, and there should be plenty of time the next time they went to the same class to ask him what it had been about. Maybe the next day, after the poor guy had hopefully gotten himself some sleep.

The vague, strange feeling that had started after the spell was cast on him didn't go away. It faded into the background somewhat while he was busy doing other things like eating or paying attention in class, but it seemed to come back a little stronger afterward. His mind seemed drawn to the guy who'd cast that spell on him more than once, what other things he could try to make friends with him. At first that seemed natural, but the thought kept coming back to him along with the weird feeling seemingly every time he had spare brainpower. And when he was eating supper late that afternoon, it was almost all he could think about, besides that something strange was going on with his thoughts and maybe that spell actually had done something after all, namely whatever this was.

Yeah, he thought, tomorrow he'd come right up and ask what kind of spell that was. It'd be a perfect way to start another conversation; now that he knew the guy was a magic major there was all kinds of interesting stuff to ask! Mages were rare enough that Liam had never really gotten to know one before, as friendly as he usually was. He felt some hair tickling his forehead and the sides of his face, and idly brushed some away from his eyes, continuing the same train of thought. Maybe this would finally be the thing that broke the ice, and then they could finally be friends! He was...more excited about the idea than usual, he thought. And he was moving back and forth on the cafeteria chair a little strangely, just wiggling a little bit for some reason.

Liam stood up. Something weird and magical was definitely going on; it was almost definitely the red flash spell thing since he hadn't interacted with anything else magical-looking all day. He was finished eating now anyway, and had a kind of urge to make it back to his apartment before...something. What, he wasn't sure. With the spell actually doing something, if a little bit delayed in its effect, he would really have something to talk about then, right? He could even pretend to be angry and make that guy talk to him for a little bit; an apology was another way to start a friendship, right?

Walking the tray to the front and then walking on his way outside, Liam finally noticed his hair for real. It was swishing around his face, falling all the way down across each cheek, and the bangs threatened to cover his eyes. A hair growth spell? That would have an obvious immediate effect normally, but seemed wildly out of proportion to how flashy and long-winded the spell had been. And it wouldn't make any sense for him to have wanted to hit Liam with a sudden case of longer-hair. No, this was surely partial, or maybe a side effect. Feeling the wind blowing through, he couldn't help but notice that it wasn't just longer but softer; it felt rather nice against the skin of his face, actually, and running a hand through it felt good too. It would be hard to do anything but thank that mage for doing this, he found himself thinking.

After that, Liam started running the rest of the distance to his dorm, feeling vaguely excited. It was an easy enough sprint, but the increased heart rate from it only fueled his excitement more. He still didn't know what he was so excited about, but his certainty that it was more of that spell's effects mounted. No sooner had he gotten the lock in the keyhole and begun to open the door than his body began to tingle again, stronger and for much longer than it had right when the spell hit. He closed and locked the door behind him and rushed to his bedroom, having a look in the mirror to try and figure out what was happening.

Liam caught sight of the hair on his face and arms, much shorter than it usually was and still losing length and thinning away. His (head) hair looked pretty nice in the mirror, framing an increasingly soft-skinned face in a way that he liked more than he thought he normally would. His t-shirt's sleeves shrank in, strangely enough, disappearing until his shoulders were exposed. His hips rotated themselves ever so slightly in place as his thoughts turned briefly to the guy who'd cast the spell again, but he caught himself and forced his thoughts back back to what was right in front of him.

The tingling eased off, and then Liam found himself...shrinking? His room rose up ever so slightly around him, his image in the mirror clearly gaining more distance from the top. It didn't take very long for that to stop, but his body had more surprises in store, his toned arms beginning to visibly slim down, his face becoming smaller and rounder...

His shirt grew thicker and longer, and at the same time began to pull tighter against his body. His pants abruptly fell off of his hips and tore apart at the middle, softening and pulling tight against his legs. Liam watched with a combination of curiosity and fascination as he saw his legs undergoing the same kind of change as his arms, and the shorts he had on disappearing beneath the growing shirt, the leggings clearly shrinking away just like his sleeves had.

He slowly held up a hand to look at it, and saw it becoming smaller, the fingers thinner and more delicate..it looked so...nice. And his face in the mirror, now small and round and framed by hair, looked so cute! Cute..? Liam's face grew slightly warm, a blush appearing on the one in the mirror; yes, he was starting to look cute. He was beginning to feel cuter, which was a strange thing to think was going on, but he certainly was liking the alterations to his physique much more than he thought he would.

"I..." His voice sounded different; kinda high. "Ah...aah..aaa~aaah." Repeated uses only seemed to push it higher and higher, quickly sounding less and less male, and...cuter. The shirt was now tight against his body, and showed his frame pulling inward; his shoulders narrowed while his stomach grew slim, a gentle inward curve forming on either side. By now it was long enough to just barely hide his hips, but they were beginning to grow rather than shrink. His former-pants, meanwhile, had shrunk into tight black cloth, merging with his socks and reaching only to the thighs of his slim, smooth legs.

Liam's stance began to feel awkward, his balance shifting as the tops of his legs were pulled apart and his center of mass moved. He thought he might should shift his feet, but didn't get a chance before his underwear suddenly pulled rather tight between his legs, squeezing what was down there enough to cause a high-pitched gasp from his lips and a slight jump in surprise. "Wa-aa-aah~!" This knocked Liam the rest of the way off balance, and he was sent stumbling backwards several steps, dancing around in a small circle, before finally losing it entirely and falling forward, straight onto his bed. His hands went out to catch him and he landed on them and his knees.

He panted slightly, his heart rate going up again and the excitement from before rising back up. Despite how uncomfortable it had been a moment ago, his smaller underwear was beginning to feel pretty good down there. The material was so soft, and a gentle motion down there was quickly making the obstruction smaller. "I..I...?" Liam's voice sounded so high and squeaky now, nothing like it had been before. His face burned with a sharp blush as he understood fully just how cute he was going to become, but his lips curled up into a smile at the very same thought. The gentle melting away of his manhood felt so nice, too, drawing a soft, high "Aaah, ooooh~" from Liam's lips as the last sound he made as a boy.

"Mmnh!" Her first sound as a girl was no more dignified. Her blush came now as a result of a pleasant feeling from her new equipment while it continued to form, a gentle upward push in her lower stomach bringing full womanhood to her body. Her back wiggled back and forth slightly once more, and this time there was a sudden push from her lower back to accompany it. "W..wha, aah~?" She felt briefly confused at the feeling of something covered in hair sliding down past the hem of her top and beginning to whip itself back and forth through the air. It brought with it a gentle outward push of her hips, her butt, expanding them wider and rounder, and then an understanding in her head that of course, this was her cute, fluffy tail. It helped let people know if she was happy or sad, and having someone she liked pet it was the best feeling in the world!

"Aah...arf...y-yip!" Liam blushed again in embarrassment at making the animal noises, even as part of her insisted that this was a perfectly normal reaction. Her ears tingled once more and began to stretch out and upward, quickly getting covered in soft fur as they pushed past her hair. Her ears, she suddenly knew, were just as fluffy, expressive, and sensitive as her tail, but much easier for people to reach. Someone petting both at once would be just the best thing ever!

Her chest was starting to tingle and push out, too, tiny new breasts budding beneath her long, sleeveless sweater. This brought the pleasant feeling back between her legs with a vengeance, and now that she was fully feeling like a cute puppy the yipping and barking began anew, punctuated by brief huffs of panting for air and occasionally joined by a breathy, womanly "Aahn~!" when an especially hard push brought lots of new sensitive skin bursting out across the soft cloth of her top. Finally, with one final "Aah-aaAaah—arrrRRrrf!" her breasts pushed forward one last time, harder and farther than any push before, filling the rest of the way out to be a pair of huge, cushiony globes held tightly by the thick, velvety sweater she had on.

Liam slowly rolled over onto her back, her tail pulling itself mostly out from under her while she stretched herself out on the bed, wriggling up far enough to be entirely on top of it. She softly panted, dog-like at first and then eventually more like a human as her breath came back to her. The blush softened, but stayed; the feelings from her new bosom were hard to ignore and her body hadn't fully "recovered" from what she'd experienced as it grew. When her mouth finally closed, her breathing finally back under control, it closed to a small smile. As bizarre as what had just happened to her was...she really liked it!

The sense of excitement and energy that she'd felt in anticipation of the spell's effects finally taking hold (and that was what it had been, she felt confident somehow) had changed into a constant feeling of playful energy welled up inside her, ready to spring out at any time. Despite how much slimmer she looked, she felt just as strong as before, and even more limber and flexible; and her body was sooo cute now! There was just no getting around how much she had come to enjoy the idea over the last few minutes or so.

Liam slowly sat up, her tail beginning to swish back and forth across the sheets behind her. Well, he would just have to talk to her now! Look at the ridiculously strange thing that spell had done to her! And then they could be friends and he could pet her ears and...well, she paused to think, that was a whole new set of things to find herself wanting. Thinking back on how he looked, she couldn't help but feel he did look pretty cute..not cute the way she did, but cute to a girl, and..she giggled softly, blushing again. Yes, they'd have to become very good friends now.

But that would be for tomorrow. The new girl popped up onto her feet, finding a new sense of balance accounting for her body's new proportion, and the tail even helping out! She had some fun ideas for what to do tonight in her apartment, just in case the spell was temporary or something. Thinking back, she had to be thankful the apartment walls were thick, intended to mask the noise of a wild party one door away; she'd really made a lot of noise earlier! It'd still be best not to push things with any more loud noises, but now that she wasn't feeling, things, because of a magic spell that would surely be easy enough.

---

The next morning, Zerek noticed a girl he didn't recognize coming to his first class. She was drop dead gorgeous, and had some..unusual features, a dog's tail and ears. She was wearing a big, oversized t-shirt with a collar wide enough to show off most of her right shoulder and a hem down at her thighs that made it hard to tell whether she was actually wearing any kind of pants at all. Already people were talking about her, wondering who she was, and he thought he caught her looking over at him several times in the middle of the class. Then, after it was over, she approached him in the hall just after everyone else had gone. "Hi," she said cheerfully with a little wave, as if to someone familiar. She was the same height as he was, short for a guy but tall for a girl.

"Um, h-hello there," he said, a little nervously. Did she think he was staring at her? Well, okay, he had stared a little bit at first; her ears were twitching around in a way that just seemed to attract the eye in general, while her tail just kept going back and forth behind her

"Sooo, your spell actually did do something," she said. Spell? What spell? "Biiig something." She waved at her body, and Zerek's eyes widened as his dumbfounded brain finally put it together.

"You?"

"Yeah, me," she grinned. Oh wow, her teeth looked kinda sharp...Zerek was a little surprised that that only seemed to make her smile cuter. "I never really introduced myself by name, did I? It's Liam, but I'd like it better if you call me Lia."

"Um—I'm sorry, I didn't think it would do anything, l-like, that," he said. "I'm pretty sure one of the magic teachers can, um.." She just giggled.

"I like this a lot, actually. Enough I'm already coming up with a new name, y'know, and thinking about buying a new wardrobe, letting people know what happened...well, actually I was thinking of saying I ordered a suspicious potion online and it did this to me so nobody thinks it was your 'fault' or whatever. So what's your name, hmm?"

"Uh—um, Zerek," he said, still trying to make sense of the recent flurry of words. She liked this? She wasn't even going to tell people he did it? She capitalized on his still-stunned state to grab his hand and shake it forcibly a little bit.

"Heehee, I've been trying to get you to like me for like a year and didn't even introduce myself until now. Pretty stupid, huh?"

"You've been...I—what?"

"Yeah," Lia put a hand behind her head, "I guess I'm just not as good at making friends as I thought.

"But I...and you," he stammered awkwardly, "and the spell was..."

"It was supposed to make me friendlier, right?" she grinned, perceiving a confirmation in his continued inability to speak. "I was annoying you forever and you picked friendship over any kind of revenge. I'm lucky to meet someone so nice.” It was too complicated to explain how he'd only picked this spell out of desperation. “The spell did make me think about you a lot last night. And now I have another reason I want to stay a girl." She was leaning a little closer to him now, her tail whipping furiously back and forth.

"Wa—, wait. You, but if you're under the effects of mind magic, that's..." He shook his head, backing up slightly, but found a wall behind him.

She giggled lightly again, taking a small step forward. "Nah, the mind magic part wore off pretty fast, about as soon as the transformation ended. I'm clever enough to know which thoughts are my own. Oh, but if you don't like the idea..." she said, leaning back away from him again. She was still smiling, but her tail, which had been steadily wagging faster and faster behind her throughout the conversation, fell limp and her ears drooped slightly.

"Um...no, I..." Zerek realized he was blushing pretty brightly at this point. How had someone he'd thought hated him less than twenty-four hours ago suddenly turned into a beautiful girl who wanted to date him? It was just too much to process or make any sense of, but while his mind stuttered and dragged behind, his body was pretty clear on how it wanted him to respond to the situation. "It's...uh.."

"Oh, good!" She seemed to understand something out of all that, and came closer again, drawing her arms around him in an embrace. He quietly returned the hug, lost in the feeling of her body up against his, her face so close...and then to top it off it was coming even closer...!

The kiss was amazing, incredible, maybe even indescribable. Zerek didn't really consider himself a good kisser, but somehow the new girl seemed to know exactly what to do to make sure they both enjoyed it. The first kiss was followed by a brief moment of quiet breathing, her panting rapidly like a dog, which reminded him the ears and tail were there...on an impulse, he slowly drew his hand up, ran it through her hair a little bit on the way, and gently rubbed Lia's ears some. "Mmmrf~! I knew I picked right..you already know how to make me feel good," she smiled brightly at him. After a brief silence staring at each other, she went in for seconds, and Zerek found himself just as lost in this kiss as he had been in the first one.

The story went that after buying a suspicious potion that was supposedly a stamina booster, Liam had been turned into a girl, and that girl had come to really, really like Zerek. By the time she let all the friends she already had know what had happened, she was already introducing him as her new boyfriend. Lia would challenge him to races between their classes, with the winner getting the prize of a kiss; even the loser (usually him) got something that way. She hugged him when he made good grades and showed him hers in hopes he would pet her, which he often did.

The third person who knew what had really happened was his advisor; it was impossible to put anything over on her. The next time they met, she nodded approvingly with a smile. "You'll make a great warlock yet, Zerek. And..." She leaned in slightly, half-whispering, "she turned out awfully cute too, didn't she? Maybe for your senior research project I could lend you some more advanced books on familiar-making..."

---

Another caption that got well away from me on length and therefore became a story. I'm pretty happy with the result, though.

Also, as of this post, I'm adding the "standalone" tag to mark one-shot stories like this so it'll be easier to find them amid the sea of parts of all the ongoing series. Let me know if I missed one!