Be careful what you wish for…

Bobby Butterfield was Ella Butterfield’s younger brother.

In his earliest memories, he, Ella, Mother and Father were all very happy. Mother was so beautiful, Father was so wise and Ella was so kind. It was Mother who first called him ‘Buttons’, he couldn’t even remember why.

Buttons was too young to understand when his mother became ill. Her illness was short and sharp and she was as beautiful in death as she was in life. Buttons kissed her cold face before they closed the lid of the coffin and wished his Mother peace. Father was so very quiet in the months that followed but Ella and Buttons supported each other and their love supported Father until he could smile again.

After a year, Father announced that he was sorry that he had not been able to look after the two children as they should have a right to be cared for and he would ‘snap out of it’ and go and find a proper mother for the children. Ella and Buttons were a little uncomfortable about this sudden change in their father’s behaviour but they told him that he was certainly right and they would support him in any way they could. Father left them alone every night for a month (except for the cook) as he went out into society and hunted for a bride. After a month he announced that he had found them a new mother with two lovely daughters and, in a very short space of time, the six of them were living together as a happy family. Buttons thought that the two sisters were very ugly and had very large hands and wore too much makeup, but he kept quiet, kept smiling and kept his thoughts to himself.

Tragedy had another painful surprise for the family. While father and the two ugly step-sisters were out buying shoes, lightning struck the bridge their vehicle was traversing and they were plunged to a dreadful death. Father’s body was never recovered. When the two sisters were pulled from the river, many miles downstream people were shocked to find that they were, in fact, two boys.

People shunned the Butterfield family then, only a few close friends came to the funeral of the three dead family members. Their Step-mother became increasingly strange and would wander the house going from room-to-room sobbing melodramatically. After a month, she had let all the staff go and the three of them lived all alone in the big house. Their step-mother announced that Ella and Buttons would have to take the place of their poor dead step-sisters. Buttons wasn’t sure what this meant. He was shocked to find that his step-mother intended him to live as a girl! She laced him into a corset and got him to try on so many dresses. Buttons was mortified, he didn’t want to become a girl! His step-mother threw out all his boy clothes though, so he had no choice but to dress in pretty dresses all the time. Ella tried to help him but he rebelled, despite her warnings, and the step-mother punished him by making him do all the chores.

Ella helped out as much as she could get away with; she did the cooking, but their step-mother insisted that Buttons must do all the dirty, smelly unskilled jobs until he could show he could be a proper young lady. Ella helped Buttons with his makeup and his clothes to keep their step-mother from flying into a fearful rage but the fear took its toll on their relationship. Buttons resented his sister for her beauty, poise and the affection their step-mother showed her. Ella resented Buttons for forcing her to suck-up to their crazy step-mother so much just to prevent the punishments becoming more extreme and humiliating.

Their step-mother picked up on their growing dislike for each other and she found cunning ways to play one off against the other. Ella and Buttons were just children so it was hardly surprising that she could play them off against each other. She bought Ella beautiful gowns and coached her in etiquette and all the courtly manners. Ella grew more beautiful and poised, although it was a cold, slightly brittle and haughty beauty. Buttons grew more isolated and resented the special treatment his older sister received. He practiced dressing like a girl, wearing makeup and tried to win some morsel of approval from his step-mother and sister. Ella still smiled at him and tried to protect him but her patience for his frustration at not being allowed to act like a boy began to wear thin. “Why should he want to wear trousers and rags when he could wear such pretty dresses?” She thought to herself.

Buttons took to hiding from his family in the attic and reading the fairy tale books he found there. He always made sure that all his chores were done, he wouldn't willingly risk his step-mother's temper. Ella gave him treats from the kitchen, but she treated him like an annoying little sister sometimes. Buttons was quite sure that both the women in his life were happiest of all if they thought he was busy, quiet and out of sight, so he did his best to convince them that's what he was. He even went so far as to create an outfit that made him look like an overworked scullery maid, with the hem of his dress slightly threadbare and little stains that looked as if they had been washed but hadn't quite come out. Buttons managed to hoard his prettiest frocks by doing his chores in the maid's outfit. His hair grew, he became more adept at using makeup and the exercise and small portions at dinner (his step-mother called them lady-like portions, he thought a better word would be “parsimonious”) combined to make him quite pretty in a fresh-faced style.

One of Buttons’ little pleasures was to sneak out of the house and forage in the woods for berries, nuts and, when he was feeling brave, mushrooms. He would wear a lighter dress, if he could get away with it, and take off any of the lace petticoats once he was away from the house so that he could run and jump like a boy.
One time, when he was roaming through the woods, he came across a young man in foppish clothes (that were a little the worse for wear in places) playing near the stream. Buttons tried to hide, for he was worried what the bigger boy would do if he found him dressed as a girl, but the boy spotted him before he could duck back into the woods.

“Who’s that?! Come out where I can see you!” the boy cried out.

Buttons shyly came out into the clearing.

“Oh! You’re just a girl.” the boy said.

“I’m not!...” Buttons started to say before he could stop himself.

“Not just a girl, I suppose - but a feminist as well?”

“Er… Yes! That’s right! I can do anything you can, I’d bet!”

“Ha! I’d like to see you try! I’m a prince, you know! Not a silly girl”

“Then… Tag! You’re it!” Buttons cried, as he tagged the boy’s arm “bet you can’t catch me!” and Buttons ran and jumped across the stream in a single bound and ran off into the forest with the astonished prince gaping like a landed fish.

The prince eventually caught up with Buttons and they had so much fun running around and climbing trees and such that Buttons completely lost track of the time. An older boy came along shouting “Prince Charming! Where are you!”

“Oh no! That’s Dandini, my father must have sent him to find me!” said the Prince.

“‘Prince Charming’” Buttons giggled “Pretentious, much?”

The prince blushed, my Mother’s doing, but she died so I can’t really hold it against her...”

Buttons started to cry softly “You too?” he said simply “My Mother died when I was small…”

The prince took Buttons in his arms and hugged him and the two of them held each other and sniffed back the tears.

“So we do have something in common” said the prince eventually with a wry smile.

“Yes! We are both very late!” said Buttons as he realised the time, and with that parting comments he stepped from the prince’s embrace and ran off heading for home.

Dandini came up to the stunned prince and saw Buttons departing down the forest trail.

“Who was that!” he asked the prince, looking down the trail.

“I have absolutely no idea!” said the prince cheerfully “But she was absolutely delightful, completely unspoiled, with no airs and graces, unlike the stuffy girls at the castle.”

Buttons got into trouble when he got home that first time, and he was more careful not to get so distracted that he was late back again.

X - X - X

Time passed. Buttons continued to slip out of the house and into the woods. Normally he did not see the prince, but on the odd occasions when they both played hooky at the same time they played together, innocently. Buttons never revealed his true gender, he wasn’t sure why. After the first meeting the prince just assumed he was a tomboy and Buttons never got up the nerve to tell him otherwise. It didn’t really make much difference, and it did explain why he was wearing a dress.

His step-mother started paying more attention to him. She organised a special tutor, a sour-faced woman who took delight in humiliating Buttons whenever he was anything other than perfectly feminine. The tutor taught him maths and science, but she also insisted that he did needlework and home-economics. The books she used to teach English were all Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters, which Buttons found very boring, at first.

His step-mother also took more interest in Buttons physical well being, she started getting special vitamins and a nasty tasting tea. Buttons diet was changed to include more salads and bitter herbs. His step-mother started dressing Buttons in a more formal way with long gowns and corsets, more like his sister, Ella. Ella would help him dress in the mornings and lace up his corset. Over time, they both realised that Buttons was blossoming, like a woman. He was developing breasts, his skin was soft and he never grew a beard. Buttons realised that his step-mother was doing something to him but, as a child he had no control over what food he was given and so he resigned himself to the feminisation process. He began to refer to himself by the feminine gender. His step-mother called him Bobbi, when she was good and Roberta when he was bad. I mean… well, let’s go back to that sentence again and agree to use the feminine forms for Buttons from now on? Anyway, her step-mother called her Bobbi when she was good and Roberta when she was bad. Increasingly there were fewer opportunities to be bad and Buttons had not seen the prince in months. Ella still called her sister ‘Buttons’ when they were alone, but she called her ‘Bobbi’ when their step-mother was around.

Bobbi started to get a little confused about boys and girls. But she still liked the prince, only now her thoughts of him were coloured by a feeling that she couldn’t describe, or fully understand. When she thought of him, or when she dreamed of him now it gave her warm tingly feelings in places she didn’t think she actually had. It was very confusing.

X - X - X

In the year following Buttons’ 16th birthday Ella turned 18 and so did the prince. The King decided 18 was old enough to marry and start producing heirs so he arranged a grand fashion-show so that all the most eligible girls in the land could parade up and down in front of the prince and he could choose one to be his bride.

The invitations were sent out to all the prettiest and most eligible girls in the right age bracket and income category and Ella was invited on a wildcard entry following a draw from a hat of the names of local beauties.

The big day approached and Buttons was becoming increasingly irritated with his sister’s constant prattling about how she might marry the prince and how Buttons could come and live with her in the palace and they would escape from their step-mother. Buttons was confused and upset to find that she was jealous of Ella and wondered why she couldn’t be with the prince, her friend. Of course, this led to a lot of angst and soul-searching (Buttons was 16, after all, and you know how self-obsessed teenagers can be!)

Buttons hid in the servants bedrooms at the top of the house while her step-mother fussed over her sister.

Buttons muttered to herself, “Why should she get get to marry the prince and live happily ever after in the castle? He’s my friend first. I wish I could be with the prince like that so that I could escape from here!”

They say you should be careful what you wish for, and wandering fairy godmothers are only one of the reasons why they say that, and not the most common of the many reasons at that. However, as luck would have it, there was a wandering fairy godmother outside the house at that very moment! It wasn’t that surprising, if you stop and think about it. She looked in on the children from time-to-time. The children’s mother was half-fairy on her father’s side and she had chosen Helena, her half-sister to be a godmother. Buttons muttered wish was so heartfelt that it tugged at the fairy godmother like a twist in her karma. To tell the truth, Helena wasn’t a very good fairy godmother, she hadn’t really done much to help the children through all their hard times. Fairy’s have a different perception of time from mortals as it has so little impact on them and she had only seen them a few time since they were born. Fairies are also a little more gender-fluid than mortals and it didn’t phase Helena to see Bobbi dressed as a girl.

Helena waited until Ella and the step-mother had left for the fashion show before she appeared in front of Bobbi in a shower of fairy sparkles.
“Never fear, Bobbi dear - for I am your fairy godmother and you shall go the the ball!” she announced.

“What the actual F___!” Bobbi said.

Helena launched into a long explanation about fairies and who she was and Bobbi’s mother’s family tree and all manner of things until Bobbi realised what was going on and cut her short.

“Yes, I get it, I think, you want me to go to the fashion show and seduce the prince and live happily ever after. There’s only two problems with that - 1. I don’t have a clue how to seduce and 2. I’m a boy, the first time the prince stripped me naked I’d be hung for treason!”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure!” said Helena archly “anyway, I can fix both those problems, for a limited time…” She concentrated hard, her face all screwed up as she made some mystic passes in front of Bobbi. Bobbi thought “oh, here we go, I can’t wait to see what excuse she comes up with when it doesn’t work.” That thought died pretty quickly as Bobbi’s penis quickly turned inside out, her testicles shot up into her body to become ovaries and her boobs overflowed out of her bra. The change was so sudden that Bobbi felt like she’d been punched in the abdomen. She gasped for breath, quite winded.

Her clothes then changed in a similarly dramatic way until she was wearing a formal gown in white and pink that was extraordinarily lovely and showed off bits that, until a few moments ago she didn’t have, to their best effect.

“Now, drink this!” cried Helena, producing a little leather flask from nowhere. Bobbi was too stunned to even think, so she did as she was bid and took a swig from the flask. The fairy godmother hurriedly retrieved the flask.

“Steady! That’s strong stuff, too much and you might take on the household cavalry rather than just the prince!”

Bobbi tasted cherry, vanilla, eucalyptus, licorice and herbs - it tasted… odd.

“What is that stuff?” she asked.

“Seduction” the fairy godmother answered simply “That swig you took should leave the prince a sitting duck!”

Bobbi’s features shifted slightly, her lips became red, her cheeks became pink and her irises became dark and lustrous as if someone was Photoshopping her in real-time. Bobbi began to realise that she really wanted the prince and she would do whatever it took to get him and keep him.

“Pop these on!” said the fairy godmother, as she handed Bobbi a pair of transparent shoes.

“Glass Court Shoes?” asked Bobbi, sounding confused “Won’t these just shatter?”

“These are fairy slippers” the fairy godmother explained “Custom made, one of a kind - just for you. They’re enchanted to be the most comfortable shoes you will ever wear. They are moulded to fit your foot and only your foot with perfect precision, they won’t fit anyone else but they match every nook and cranny of your foot perfectly!”

“Cool!” said Bobbi as she slipped them on. They were very comfortable, despite being vertiginously high.

“OK” said the fairy godmother, “Now for transportation… Do you have any Pumpkins?”

-X-X-X-

Buttons wasn’t quite sure how they got to the palace but she had a strange feeling it involved being squashed…. she shook her head, trying to clear the fuzziness.

“Now!” said a voice just behind her in the shadows “What is your mission?”

“M-mission?” said Buttons, confused.

“Seduce the Prince, leave before midnight (when the magic wears off) and don’t talk to your sister!”

“Seduce?” Buttons asked.

“Hmm, maybe another shot would help.” The fairy godmother handed over the flask and Buttons took a tentative sip. Warmth spread from her lips to her belly and from her belly to her loins and breasts.

“Mmmmm, seduce the prince!” purred Buttons as she turned to join the group of girls getting ready to hit the catwalk.

“Tag onto the end, dear!” called the fairy godmother as Buttons slinked over.

None of the other girls were wearing such formal gowns as Buttons, most of their dresses were short and modern and had transparent panels or safety pins. Buttons thought that they mostly looked very ugly, the dresses that is, not the girls. Although very few of the girls were as pretty as she was. She slipped onto the end of the line of models and got ready to strut onto the stage. There was a woman on the end of the runway who did a double take as Buttons came up the steps to the stage but she just shrugged to herself and ushered Buttons out into the spotlights.

Buttons flowed down the catwalk oozing sensual confidence, she spotted the prince at the end and gave him a cheeky wink and a wave, both comically exaggerated, before she curtsied with formal dignity and with a graceful turn, walked back to the end of the catwalk. She smiled to herself as the muttering began in the audience and the MC wrapped up the proceedings.

The proceedings sped along and pretty soon the after party got started and the prince and his friends came back-stage to meet the girls. The girls had all kept on the outfits they had modelled to make it easier for the prince to spot them. The prince looked like he was searching for someone, but he kept getting intercepted by one lovely lady or another, with the assistance of his friends, Dandini in particular seemed to be determined to make sure the prince spoke to each and every girl. Bobbi hung back, feeling instinctively that a certain air of mystery would only aid her cause. Also, she was trying to keep out of sight of her sister, Ella, who seemed to realise that Bobbi was her biggest rival.

Finally, Bobbi timed her maneuver just right, she was on the opposite side of the crowd to her sister just as Prince Charming came past. Dandini wasn’t close by and Bobbi seized her moment.

“Prince Charming!” she purred, right near the prince’s ear.

“Buttons?! Is that you?” the prince said, clearly not sure (and frankly not caring much).

“Come with me, my prince!” Bobbi said in a low seductive murmur, as she quickly led him out of the main room onto a nearby veranda. The Prince did not need urging twice and with a quick glance to see that they were not being watched he shot after her.

“There” said Bobbi “it was getting sooo stuffy in there, don’t you think?”

“OMG Buttons, you grew up!”

Bobbi chuckled “And so did you, my prince, so did you…Tell me, what games do you play now, I wonder? It seems so long ago that we played in the woods together…”

“I’ve missed you!” Prince Charming said “I would get into so much trouble for sneaking away but I would risk it for a chance to spend some time with you! And then one day, you stopped coming, and I never saw you again…”

“My mother disapproved of me running about in the woods, she thought I could meet all sorts...if only she knew!”

“How did you get to be here tonight? I thought I knew everyone on the guest list?”

“I have friends in odd places. I tagged along on the end, was that...wicked… of me?” Bobbi pouted.

The prince could have laughed at her, but something stopped him. He was hanging on her every word and his eyes drank in her beauty. He didn’t realise, but he was under the influence of the glamour spell in the potion the fairy godmother had given Bobbi.

The two of them wittered on in a similar vein for a few minutes. Both of them were completely rapt, paying attention to each other to the exclusion of everything else. To a casual observer, someone who wasn’t under the influence of any spells or excess hormones the conversation would have seemed incredibly dull. Bobbi giggled at the prince’s dry one liners the prince couldn’t take his eyes off of the vision of loveliness in front of him.

The one comment that broke Bobbi from her intense concentration was when he asked about her shoes…

“Your shoes… “ he said, with a dry mouth and a beating heart “they’re so, glassy!”

“Fairy slippers” Bobbi answered without thinking, parroting the words her fairy godmother had told her “One of a kind, custom made to fit only me, they match every part of my foot precisely and they’re sooo comfortable!”

At that moment Dandini and a couple of other members of the prince’s entourage found the two of them.

“There you are!” Dandini cried as they came out onto the veranda “Have you been monopolising this poor young lady’s time?” He asked gallantly as he took Bobbi’s hand to kiss it.

“Err… Dandini, you do remember Buttons, don’t you?” the prince stammered as he spoke, finding it difficult to tear his attention away from the girl.

“Buttons?” Dandini scratched his head and mimed amazement “Not the little girl in the woods! My word, you’ve grown!” he said as he looked her up and down appreciatively. “Anyway” Dandini continued “You’d better come back inside or it will be gone midnight before we get out of here!”

“Midnight?” muttered Bobbi, sudden apprehension seizing her “Why, what time is it?”

The clock tower started tolling dramatically at that very moment.

“Oh no!” shrieked Bobbi as she ran for the steps leading down from the veranda.

Everyone was so shocked at her actions that no one reacted in time to stop her and she had reached the hedge and turned the corner, out of sight, before the prince could react and call out “After her!”

There was a small pop as she went out of sight and no one saw her vanish, leaving behind a single glass slipper.

x-x-x

Bobbi didn’t know that the magic whisked her away for dramatic effect at just the perfect moment. The fairy godmother’s plan worked flawlessly (there was no way that a young woman in a fancy frock and high heels was going to get away from 4 grown men without a magic assist. Not that Bobbi was very appreciative as the magic didn’t quite get her home before all the spells wore off and she was running down the darkened street as the final 12th chime rang out across the town.

Her one remaining shoe vanished, sudden spasms shook her body and her breasts shrank, her shoulders widened, her balls popped out rapidly followed by her penis. She felt like someone had rammed a broomstick through her. Her clothes shredded as her body changed shape and she was left in the rags of the clothes she was wearing before the transformation. She hobbled home in pain and misery her mind whirling with memories of the evening, wondering what on earth had overcome her to make her act that way?

x-x-x

The next morning Bobbi decided that it had all been a nightmare brought on by eating cheese late at night. Not that she remembered any cheese.

Ella and her step-mother were all a twitter about the party and the strange girl who ran off and how she had lost all chance of being with the prince after her outrageous behaviour.

Bobbi was a little bemused by it all, was that strange girl really her? She could barely remember what she said, but she remembered a feeling like floating on air, before it was all snatched away.

So Bobbi was feeling a little grumpy later when she made her way to her room and in no mood for silly games when a slim hand grabbed her and pulled her into a cupboard with a “psst”.

“You!” Bobbi cried out when she saw her fairy godmother “I was starting to think you were a bad dream!”
“Really?” asked the fairy godmother “whyever would you think that?”

“Because I had to walk home half a mile in rags and in pain!” cried Bobbi.

“oh, pish posh” said the fairy godmother dismissively “Didn’t you _love_ the time you spent with the prince?”

“Well… yes, he was very nice to me…”

“And you want to escape your step mother?”

“Oh yes, especially after last night!”

“And you left the shoe so that the prince can find you?”

“What?”

“The shoe? One of a kind custom made fairy slipper?”

“Err...I lost them” Bobbi admitted

“Haha!” said the fairy godmother holding out one of the shoes “Not exactly! It was part of the plan! Now he will come looking for the match for the other shoe and you are the only one it will fit!”

“And what? I’m still a boy, at least physically!”

The fairy godmother said “Ahh, that’s the beauty of the spell - when he finds you and slides the other slipper on your foot the final transformation will be complete and you will be a princess and live happily ever after with the prince!”

“What?”

“A princess!”

“A girl!”

“Yes, a Princess”

“With dresses and periods and…”

“Well, yes, I suppose… but I doubt if you’ll have that many periods…”

“Good… wait! What do you mean ‘That many’?”

“Well, you do know what ‘Happily ever after’ means, right?” the fairy godmother said with a big smile.

“Er…”

“I imagine there will be sex…a lot of very enjoyable sex!”

Bobbi’s face went pale green.

And of course you have to be a princess to live happily ever after with a prince!”

“Er… I guess so, but why in particular?”

“Well being a happy marriage, it will be… fruitful!”

Bobbi’s face went white.

“So, you might get…’with child’, you know, before your first period!”

Bobbi gulped.

“and… well, you know where babies come from?”

“Er… when and man and woman love each other very much….”

“No, no, no – I meant which orifice?”

Bobbi looked down in shock and fainted…

The End