"Are ya okay?"

"Don't push yourself. We can..."

Despite her parents' protests, Sunshine keeps stumbling forward. The balance of this new body, with its much more human shape, is weird, but not totally alien: It's no more awkward than carrying her sword was when she was small. It's not until she's taken half a dozen steps that she realizes she could tell them that she's able to do this alone—she could tell them! She doesn't need to wait until she can write it!—but one thing at a time.

Sunshine reaches her destination and slumps into a chair in the living room, with a rush of relief as the storm of new sensations from walking fades. Alice and Marisa approach her cautiously, and she takes stock of herself again. The unsteady gait has left her hair hanging over her face; without thinking, she brushes it back, then almost recoils from the strange feeling of it against her fingers.

"How are you feeling...?" Alice asks quietly.

Sunshine looks up, and her first instinct is to hunt for her pen and paper. She stops when she realizes that she doesn't need it anymore... but it's hard to figure out a response, too. Her first sentence, that was easy: She decided on it a week ago, and spent days rolling it around in her head and thinking about how it sounded. Speaking on the fly is a bit more daunting.

But she knows how to put words together. It's just a matter of gathering her thoughts enough to do it. Sunshine takes a moment to calm her nerves and settles her hands into her lap. The hesitation is long enough that Alice starts looking anxious again, and she forces herself to speak. "I." Hearing her own voice is still a shocking novelty, and she almost stops there. "Feel... okay." Sunshine looks up and tries to smile. Smiling is another thing she's spent hours thinking about lately. The feeling of her face deforming as the corners of her mouth pull up is almost surreal, but judging by the smiles they give in response, she did something right.

"You were unconscious for almost a full day. W-we were starting to get worried..." Alice settles into a seat on the couch across from Sunshine, without taking her eyes off the girl for a second. "The ritual... does take some time for the bonding to finish, but we had no idea..."

"She was bawling her eyes out. You should've seen it." Marisa grins and flops down next to Alice, and the other magician shoots her a glare.

"Says the one who was ransacking a library to double-check her work within the first ten minutes."

"Eh-heh."

With the brief argument over, the two of them turn back to Sunshine. She realizes that they must be expecting her to say something, but after a lifetime of communicating through charades and painstakingly slow writing, the newfound freedom is daunting.

Fortunately, Alice doesn't let the silence hang for long. "Is there anything we can do for you...? Anything you need? I know this must be a lot to adjust to."

"Um." Sunshine lifts her hands again and flexes her fingers. It's still so overwhelming. She just wants to relax and—Relax, right. That's what she needs. "Um." Sunshine looks up, and her parents' expectant expressions make her feel even more embarrassed about the petty request she has in mind. "Can... you... tell... me..." Her eyes drift down in concentration as she forces the words out one by one, but she looks back up at the end. "The m-moon story?"

They both look surprised, and for a moment, Sunshine thinks she's made some horrible mistake. But soon enough, Marisa chuckles. "Sure thing, kiddo. But y'know... you're not so short that you've gotta stay over there." She pats the spot between herself and Alice on the couch. "Do you wanna sit with us?"

Sunshine nods sheepishly, then stumble-runs over to flop on the couch between her parents.

Sunshine was plenty used to sitting in laps before. Tonight, her embarrassing clumsiness makes her feel like she should keep her distance, but before she knows it, she somehow ends up leaning against Alice. It's an entirely new sensation by itself: She can feel the slow, rhythmic movements of her mother's body as she breathes, coupled with warmth and a comforting hand fussing with her hair. Between that and Marisa telling the familiar story for the thousandth time, she's soon a little more relaxed, and the din of new sensations fades into the background.

"... so then I blasted Reimu again, and she just smashed through like three kilometers of bamboo. Left a really long skid mark on the ground. You can still see it if you know where to look."

"You..." Sunshine's voice is soft, but Marisa instantly stops talking and waits for her to finish. She feels embarrassed for speaking up, because it takes her a moment to assemble the rest of the sentence, but there's no turning back. "You lied again."

"Heh. Did I?"

"Well, I don't remember any skid marks," Alice says, with practiced neutrality.

"And. Before. Um." Sunshine's face crumples up a bit in concentration. This may be the longest sentence she's ever composed, speech or otherwise. "When you told it. You said that. That you shot her to the moon. A-all the way... to the moon." She lets out a little huff of mental exhaustion at the end, but pride swells in her chest.

"Yeah, well, see, she punched through the earth an' popped out the other side so hard that she—"

"Let it go, dear," Alice says. She gently pulls away from Sunshine, and the doll is surprised to find that this upsets her a little. She was comfortable like that. Comfort is another new concept, but one that she understands innately. Alice smiles down to her. "That sounded tiring. How would you like to take a break? We prepared another surprise for you."

"Oh!" Marisa looks up. "The cake!"

"... yes." Alice sighs, as her surprise dies a premature death, but the disappointment doesn't last long. "The surprise is cake. Would you like to try eating?"

Sunshine wants to go help slice and serve the cake, but her mother is having none of it, so instead she sits on the couch and experimentally wiggles her fingers. Behind her, she can hear the ongoing struggle as Marisa tries snatching an early bite and is held off by a brave contingent of spatula-wielding Shanghai dolls.

The two return from the kitchen, and one of the dolls dutifully sits a saucer down in front of Sunshine. On it is a hefty piece of strawberry shortcake, held together by a thick layer of white icing down the middle. Sunshine is immediately struck by the smell. She lifts the saucer in both hands and stares at it, almost intoxicated by the new experience, until Marisa's eyes pointedly meet hers. Once Marisa has Sunshine's attention, she cuts off a bite of her own cake and pops it into her mouth.

Sunshine studies the helpful example, then examines her cake again. After grabbing her fork, she stabs the tip of the slice, mimicking Marisa's movements as exactly as she can. The resulting bite is a bit larger than she'd anticipated, and in the process of stuffing it in her mouth, she smears icing on her lips and sprinkles crumbs on her dress. Normally, she'd immediately clean herself off, but—

Taste is a totally new thing. The girl freezes, as the sweet-and-tart flavor dissolves in her mouth, threatening to make her pass out from its intensity. A little squeak comes from her lips, and Alice looks at her with such concern that she reminds herself that people are supposed to chew food. Sunshine forces herself to scissor her jaws until she can swallow it, then coughs a couple of times and stares at the cake in awe.

"Is everything okay? Do you need a drink?" Without waiting for her answer, Alice gestures toward the kitchen, and a doll hovers off to fetch a cup.

The taste is still lingering, making it almost impossible for Sunshine to focus for long enough to string an answer together. "Y-yes..." The doll returns, and sits a glass of water in front of her. At least drinking is something she's mimed before. Sunshine tilts the glass back and takes a few inexperienced gulps. It's loud, and some of the water dribbles down her chin to leave damp spots on her skirt, but it mostly extinguishes the taste.

Judging by Alice's expression, this wasn't the intended reaction. Sunshine feels a pang of guilt. "Sorry. It was... " Strange? Overwhelming? She struggles to find a word that won't sound vaguely insulting. "... new."

"... I understand," Alice says, with a relieved smile. She reaches over and brushes the crumbs off of Sunshine's dress. "Just take your time and get used to it, and if you still don't like it, we can cook something else, okay?"

"Yeah, we're not in a rush," Marisa agrees. Her own slice is already half-gone.

Sunshine nods and looks down at the cake again, then cuts off a smaller bite. This time, she's more hesitant, but now that she knows what to expect, the taste of the cake is only a minor shock. She shivers, but makes herself focus on the flavor as she slowly chews. Now that she's not being taken completely off-guard, she's a bit surprised to find that she likes it.

Bite by bite, Sunshine gets accustomed enough that she can eat without feeling overpowered by the taste, and the cake slowly disappears. The last of it vanishes down her throat; Marisa grins and shoots her a thumbs-up, while Alice pats her back and has a doll usher the fork and plate away. "How do you feel? I know this is a lot to adjust to... If you want, we can let you rest for a bit."

Sunshine looks down at herself again. Even sitting, she still feels a slight rush of dizziness when she sees how far away the floor is is, but she's getting used to it now. And, now that she's not under constant bombardment from new senses, her earlier excitement is returning. That's right! Once she's used to this, she can talk and run and play every day.

So, she might as well get started now. "Can we... talk?"

"Well, I've already said plenty for one day," Marisa says as she leans back. "Do you want to say anything?"

That's a good question. Back when she couldn't speak, it constantly felt like she was bursting with questions; now that she can, she suddenly finds herself at a loss for conversation. "I... don't know."

"Well, how are you feeling?"

"Um. I'm okay." Sunshine takes her time and says the words carefully so she doesn't trip over them.

"Oh!" Marisa jolts up to sitting. "First, I've got a surprise for you too!"

This is obviously news to Alice. "Er. You do?"

"Yeah!" Without further explanation, Marisa hurries across the room to one of the cabinets and throws the doors open. Sunshine hasn't seen anybody open the cabinet in weeks, but she immediately recognizes the contents: clocks, vases, framed pictures, all the knickknacks that Alice pulled off the shelves after the accident. Marisa digs through it, nearly spilling some of the contents to the floor in the process, then reaches all the way to the back of the highest shelf. With a triumphant grin, she pulls out Sunshine's toy sword, then walks over and holds it out hilt first. "About time you got this back, isn't it?"

The doll's eyes go wide. She looks to Alice questioningly, and although she looks slightly annoyed, Alice nods her approval. The hilt feels both familiar and strangely new—she can feel the subtle grain of the wood under her fingertips, and it feels far too small. But it's still hers.

Sunshine rises to standing and gives the sword a few experimental swipes through the air. It's so tiny now. It used to be a weapon as large as she was, a thing to be held with both hands and swung with the force of her entire body behind it. Now, she could throw it across the room if she wanted.

Her face feels weird again. She realizes that without even meaning to, she's smiling.

Marisa is smiling, too. "The sun's coming up. Wanna play?"

"Ah..." Alice speaks up before Sunshine can. "We really should test some of the wards and defensive spells before you do anything too rough..."

"M-mom, please...!" Alice looks surprised at hearing herself called that. Sunshine's just as surprised as she is. It's the first thing she's said without spending ten seconds in thought first.

The blush only slowly fades from the dollmaker's cheeks, but she has a smile on her face despite herself. "Okay, okay," Alice says, throwing her hands up in defeat. "But try not to break anything."

Outside, the sun has only barely risen. Sunshine is immediately struck by how chilly it is. Every time Alice and Marisa breathe out, she can see a little cloud in front of their mouths. She reaches out for one of the clouds that trail behind Marisa, and her hand passes through it. Sunshine doesn't need to breathe except to speak, but she takes a few deep breaths and blows them out, and is disappointed when nothing happens.

"Er..." Alice had been spreading a blanket under a tree, but now pauses and watches her questioningly. "What are you doing?"

"How do you..." Sunshine stops huffing air and points at Alice's face. "Make clouds?"

It takes Alice a moment to realize what she's referring to. "Oh. It's because we're warm. See?" She puffs out a few thin wisps. "Since your body doesn't make heat like ours, you probably can't do it." Sunshine hangs her head, and Alice adds, "Sorry," with a soft laugh.

"And now the dragon can look like she breathes smoke!" Marisa tilts her head back and blows a much bigger cloud into the air.

"You seem more excited about it than Sunshine does."

"Heh." Marisa doesn't seem ashamed of this in the slightest. She turns to Sunshine. "So, are we doin' this?"

"Um." Sunshine isn't quite sure how she wants to hold the sword, but she raises it and points the tip toward Marisa. "Yes."

Marisa nods, pushes her hat down, and settles into a wide stance that Sunshine readily recognizes as her dragon pose. Sunshine does her best to get ready as well, and floats a few centimeters off the ground so she can dodge.

"Alright, here I come!" Marisa stomps her feet a few times. "Raaaaaawr!" She charges forward, her feet pounding on the ground imposingly, but Sunshine's used to facing this down by now. She stands her ground, and as Marisa draws near, dodges to the side, then smacks her over the head with the sword.

"Oh, ow."

Sunshine leaps atop Marisa and starts beating her over the head with the weapon. "O-ow!" Smack. "Okay, ya win!" Smack. Marisa's hat goes flying. "Oy!" Smack. Sunshine pauses as she realizes that Marisa usually doesn't respond quite like this when she's playing the enraged dragon, and she lets up on the beatings. Marisa lets out a relieved sigh. "You're pretty strong now, aren't you? Uh. ... I guess we need to have a talk about... you know." She hooks her hands under Sunshine's armpits and lowers her to the ground, then rubs the spot on her head where the girl had been hitting her. "Not playing too rough."

Sunshine only slowly puzzles out what this all means. Before, she used to flail and beat on Marisa with impunity, and Marisa even teasingly urged her onward. Never before has she had to consider that she might hurt somebody else. Her eyes go wide with the dawning realization, and she drops the sword as she trips over herself trying to apologize. "O-oh! I'm sorry!" She rushes over and hugs Marisa, hiding her face against the front of her dress. "I'm really sorry, mom!"

"Ah, calm down, you didn't hurt me that bad." Marisa crouches down and pulls her into a hug, and Sunshine clings to her. "Just no hittin' people in the head, okay?"

Sunshine nods, and Marisa rises to standing and hefts her up, with one arm hooked beneath her. She picks up the sword, then offers it up to Sunshine. "Now, let's try that again."

Sunshine has the sudden realization that something is weird. She's laying down, and something hard is under her head. Her eyes are closed. The last thing she remembers is sitting down under the tree with Marisa after playing for hours... but that seems like it was a long time ago. She can't remember anything that has happened in between.

It's almost like the nothingness she experienced while changing bodies. Sunshine fearfully opens her eyes, and finds that she's still on the blanket under the tree, laying on her side with her head in Marisa's lap. Marisa's leaning against the tree trunk, snoring softly with her hat pulled down over her eyes. There's a second blanket draped over the two of them.

Sunshine sits up, and the blanket slides to the ground. It's not chilly now that the sun has been up for hours. From her spot under the tree, Alice is nowhere to be seen.

Sunshine turns and shakes Marisa's shoulder a few times. She keeps sleeping, though, and Sunshine has to remind herself that she can speak now. "Um. Wake up, mom. Hey." The quiet, tentative way she's been talking doesn't seem to be doing the trick, so a bit more loudly than she really intends, she shouts, "Hey!"

"Mmh?" Marisa grumbles sleepily, but she's awake now. She pushes her hat up away from her face and rubs her eyes. "Oh, hey. What's up?"

"Um." Sunshine looks around again. How does she explain all of this? "I... don't know. I don't know what happened."

"... what do you mean?"

"We were sitting, and." All these words Sunshine has never needed to use before. "And then. Then it was now." She's quite aware that she's not conveying her thoughts very well, but the right words aren't coming to her.

Marisa stares at her blankly for a good ten seconds. "Are you talkin' about sleeping?" Sunshine tilts her head in confusion, and Marisa continues. "You fell asleep after we finished playing, remember?"

Sunshine frowns. She hadn't known that she could fall asleep. And she'd never imagined sleeping as feeling like that. "... no."

"Well, you did." Marisa yawns and stretches. "Probably means you're a little hungry. ... let's go see if Alice has made lunch yet."

Alice hasn't made lunch yet. She's sitting at the table and studying a thick book, but looks up with a smile when the two enter. "Welcome back. How was your nap?"

"... sleeping is. Um. Is weird."

"Oh." It's apparently not the sort of conversation topic that Alice was expecting. "Well, I'm sure you'll get used to it soon enough. With three meals, you'll still need to rest for about seven or eight hours a day, if our math is correct. Conveniently enough." Sunshine doesn't think this sounds very convenient at all. Night is her drawing and reading time. "Although unlike a human, if you eat more, you can be active for longer."

Sunshine ponders this. She's not really sure how long seven or eight hours is, since she's never had much reason to worry about time, but it sounds like forever. Before she can reach a decision, Marisa crouches down and hugs her from behind, interrupting her train of thought. "I think I could use a few more hours of sleep," she says, with a yawn at the end. "But we'll play together some more once I get up, okay?" One hand slides up to ruffle Sunshine's hair, and she leans forward to kiss her cheek.

Sunshine pauses. Now that she has lips, is she supposed to return the kiss? Alice usually does when Marisa kisses her. She turns around to do so, but Marisa's already standing up, and walks over to kiss Alice goodnight. It's not like the kiss Sunshine got at all. Just one more thing to try figuring out. "Oh! Um," she blurts out once they finish. "Good... good night." It's what you're supposed to say when somebody is going to bed. Sunshine knows that much.

"G'night," Marisa responds with a grin. She stumbles off toward the bedroom, already shedding clothing as she goes. Sunshine wants to tidy up after her, but fortunately, Alice has the same instinct; within seconds, dolls are working in teams to fold the discarded garments and ferry them to join the rest of the dirty laundry.

"Sorry," Alice says, as she closes her book. "We took turns watching you all night, so she's probably still tired." Sunshine nods, but her eyes aren't focused on Alice. They're pointed at the table, where something yellow is sitting in front of Alice... a shade of yellow that she'd recognize anywhere. It's her shade of yellow. She slowly approaches, and Alice holds it up: her older body. "It didn't seem right to leave it laying on the floor..."

Sunshine reaches out to cup the doll-body in her hands. It's disturbing, seeing herself laying limply like that. She does her best to push the body up to sitting, with the hand resting neatly in its lap, and brushes its hair back, but it still looks strangely lifeless. Sunshine instantly understands why they were so protective of her, at least: Now that she's getting used to this scale, her old body just looks so tiny. The arms are barely as thick as her fingers are now. "Can I... keep it?" She's not sure what she'll do with it, but it just feels right.

"It's yours," Alice reassures her with a smile.

After lunch (tea with sandwiches—the sandwiches are okay, but now Sunshine understands why Marisa puts so much sugar in her tea), Alice sits down with Sunshine on the couch and has her read from one of her picture books. It's plenty to dull the rush of energy from the food—she's gotten pretty good at reading, and she's learning how to speak, but doing both at once is just so hard that it's tiring. Educational, but tiring.

"And... so... the girl... b-beat... the..." Sunshine frowns at the book. "The... um."

"Look at the furigana," Alice prompts her gently.

"The... fair... ies." She pauses for a moment and stares at the characters on the page in an attempt to memorize them. "A-and. They. Never. Bo-ther-ed. Her. A-again." Sunshine lets out a sigh of relief as she reaches the end of the final sentence. At this rate, she'll need another nap soon.

"Very good." Alice pats her on the back softly. "... although it's important to keep in mind that this book was written by a human. Actual fairies aren't quite this stupid. Usually. ... sometimes."

Sunshine nods and commits this to memory... although it seems contradictory, since half of Marisa's war stories involve blowing up hapless fairies. She's seen them in the distance, playing in the forest, but never up close. It's a little disappointing. She sets the book aside, and Alice pats her back. "I'm impressed at how quickly you're picking up speech, though."

"Talking is hard."

"I'm sure you'll get used to it in no time," Alice says. "What would you like to do now?"

"Um. I wanna visit Reimu. And draw. And play. And um. Um." Never before has Sunshine needed to plan more than a few minutes into the future, but she finds the ideas piling up faster than she can say them. "And help you. And am I. Big enough to... fight youkai now?"

Alice looks equal parts amused and concerned at this question. "... maybe when you're older," she says, then gives Sunshine a squeeze when the girl droops. "Fighting is dangerous, so we'll keep you safe until you can handle it."

"Okay..."

Sunshine might still be figuring out speech, but she has this pouting thing perfected already. Alice smiles and brushes her hair back. "Right now, all you need to do is take it slow and get used to your new body. New Year's is coming up soon, and then we'll go visit the shrine and see Reimu. Next year, you can start learning magic, and go to school, and do all of those things you've been wanting."

"Promise...?"

"I promise," Alice says, with a firm nod of her head. "For now, though, why don't you focus on the 'drawing and playing' parts?"

And for the rest of her first day in her new body, that's exactly what Sunshine does.

Afterword

I'd originally wanted to include an epilogue when I first published this story, but at the time, I was having a lot of trouble writing one. I actually delayed uploading this fic for about a week while I tried to put together an epilogue. The big problem I was running into was that there was a lot of stuff I wanted to cover about Sunshine's life after she becomes big, and there was really too much of it to even hint at in a single chapter.

So, I started writing a sequel, and ironically found that a lot of what I was writing felt like it belonged in an epilogue.

... here's the epilogue! I'd still like to write a sequel covering Sunshine's further adventures, but I might take some time to work on a few other fics first. Or I might not; I've already got the first chapter halfway written.