AN: The chapter I've been working on has turned into a 6k word angst-fest and isn't even halfway done yet, so here's some fluff I wrote to take a break from that.

Also, I releasing this chapter on Christmas, so if you celebrate that then consider this my Christmas present to you all (which was entirely intentional and not just a happy coincidence I promise).

(This chapter takes place a few days after Chapter 3.)

A knock came from the front door on the Noceda household, drawing the attention of the three teens within.

"I'll get it," Luz said, leaving Masha and Vee alone in the living room sitting side-by-side on the couch.

"Well, here we go," Masha said to Vee. "You ready?"

"As much as I will be," Vee replied. "You?"

"Same."

Out on the front porch waited Zach and Alex. Although the wait wasn't that long before Luz opened the door. "Hey guys, come on in!" she greeted, stepping aside.

"So how have you been?" Zach asked during the short walk to the living room.

"Fine," Luz answered. "What about you, anything exiting happen lately?"

"Not terribly. By the way, where's your Mom?"

"Work."

Zach nodded as he and Alex entered the living room, where Vee and Masha greeted them. Almost immediately the new arrivals noticed a few differences. For one, Masha's nails had been freshly painted in a pattern of black-purple-white-yellow. More interestingly, however, was Vee, who was wearing these weird contacts that gave her eyes this really cool glowing effect. Also her ears were now completely hidden by her hair, but that seemed rather minor in comparison.

The group exchanged greetings and made small talk for a few minutes. At one point Zach tried to ask about Vee's new contacts, but she promised to tell him later (for some reason, both Luz and Masha snickered at him asking). Eventually, Vee moved on to the main subject.

"So, uh… like I said on the phone, there are a few things that we want to tell you about," Vee said, pointing between her and Masha.

Zach raised his hand. "Is it that the two of you have finally started dating?" he asked, ignoring the glare Alex sent him.

The two girls in question gave each other awkward glances before Masha gently clasped Vee's hand and said "Actually, yes, but that's not the on-"

"WHAT!?" Luz screamed, bolting out of her seat.

Vee gulped. "Uh… surprise!"

Luz quickly pointed between the two and stammered "Bu- you, an- I…" Then she reached up and pulled on her own hair. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"We're… telling you now?" Vee said with a nervous smile.

Luz just glared at her before dropping back into her seat in a huff. "Eres muy afortunada es imposible estar enojado contigo," she grumbled. {You are so lucky you're impossible to stay mad at}

Masha cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, is there something wrong?" she asked Alex, who still had a grumpy expression on her face.

"…No," Alex said in a displeased tone. She then procured a single twenty dollar bill from her pocket, which Zach accepted without complaint.

"…Wait, were you seriously betting on us getting together?" Vee asked incredulously.

"Oh, yeah," Zach admitted shamelessly. "I said you were getting together by end of this month, she said end of next… I won, obviously."

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Luz said, having already recovered. "So anyways, how long has this been going on? Where was your first date? Who made the first move? Come on girls, I need deets!"

"Er…" Vee groaned, giving a nervous glance to Masha.

Masha then said "A couple days, smoothies, and she did, believe it or not."

Zach clicked his tongue and snapped his fingers. "Darn," he said, passing the money in his hand to Luz.

Vee just stared at her sister in shock. "Seriously?" she cried.

"What?" Luz defended. "You're my sister, obviously I'm going to root for you."

"I… can't tell whether I'm offended or flattered right now…" Vee admitted.

"What about 'offlattered,'" Masha offered.

"…I don't think that's a word."

"It is now."

Luz cleared her throat. "Anyways, moving on; Vee, you have something else you were wanting to tell us?"

Vee bit her lip. "Actually, before that… Masha has something to say first."

Luz turned to Masha. "Wait, she does?"

Vee nervously glanced at Masha once more. "Uh… yeah…"

Masha gave a knowing smirk. "Honestly, I was just hoping to know what you guys think of my new nails," she said, holding up her vibrantly-painted nails for all to see.

Her friends (minus Vee) looked at her in confusion. Zach was the first to speak, saying "You… called us here just to look at your nails? I mean, they look fine, but…"

"Oh I know they do, but I was actually wondering if the pattern… you know, reminds you of anything?"

Zach hummed as he took another look. "It seems… vaguely familiar…" He then looked to Alex, who just shrugged.

"I mean, I guess it kinda reminds me of the non-binary flag…" Luz noted.

". . ."

". . ."

"…Wait a second, are you saying…'"

Masha's smirk turned into a full-blown grin. "Surprise!" they said, preforming a set of jazz hands.

"Huh. That's…" Luz's shocked expression soon turned into a grin to match Masha's. "Yeah, you know what, good for you!" she said earnestly, before leaning over to Vee. "You knew about this?" she asked curiously.

"They, uh… said it was something they wanted to tell you themself," Vee replied.

"Ah," Luz said with a nod before looking back at Masha. "So, they/them then? Or would she/them work, or uh…"

"They/them, please," Masha confirmed, and their friends (again, except Vee) nodded.

"Well, uh… thanks for trusting us with this, Masha" Zach said, before frowning. "Wait, it is still 'Masha,' right? Or is there something else you want to be called?"

"Oh no, no," Mahsa dismissed. "I mean… I'm still Masha, I'm just not… ya know, a girl."

Luz interjected with "Oh, yeah, sorry about calling you that earlier, by the way."

Masha just shrugged. "Eh, it's fine; it's not like you had any way to know."

"Well I'm… still sorry."

"Well then apology… still accepted."

Zach cleared his throat. "Anyways, like I was saying, I can only assume this took a lot of courage to say, so… yeah, thanks."

"Honestly it was a bit scary at first, but…" Masha glanced at Vee for a split second, "…let's just say it doesn't seem as big a deal any more."

Zach and Alex both noticed this pause, but neither of them pried. Instead Alex asked "How long have you known?" She then immediately backtracked by saying "You know, if you… don't mind me asking."

"No, it's fine." Masha bobbed their head back side to side. "Honestly, in hindsight, I think I've suspected for a while, but I didn't really know for sure until right before my folks sent me off to camp… and even then, it took me a bit to figure things out." They then noticed everyone was giving them an apprehensive look. "What?"

Luz swallowed and slowly said "That's, uh… you don't think that's why they…"

Masha raised an eyebrow. "Why who?"

"You know, your… parents."

"Why my parents…" And then the meaning of Luz's words finally hit Masha. "Ohhhhh, nonono," they quickly denied, waving their hands if front of them. "I, uh… haven't actually told them yet, so that was just a coincidence… I think." There was then a clap of their hands as they quickly said "Anyways, anything else?" Nobody said anything. "Okay, so, moving on; Vee, you're up."

"Right," Vee said, before clearing her throat. "Actually, I was hoping to get your opinion on a… new story I'm working on."

Zach shared a confused look with Alex. "Uh… Okay?"

"Yeah, so, uh… the main thing is, it takes place in a place called 'the Boiling Isles.' I-it's also in the Demon Realm, which is a realm where… many of the myths humans have originated from in some way."

"Ehh…" Zach hummed while making a "so-so" motion with his hand. "Sounds kind of boring to be honest."

"What do you mean?" Vee asked.

"Yeah, what do you mean?" Luz also asked, except she sounded much more insulted for some reason.

Zach held up his hands. "No offense, just… you know, the whole 'alternate world where all myths originate from?' It's been done; you've got to add something new to get people interested in it."

"Uh… It's built on the corpse of a giant titan?" Vee offered.

"…Well that's Alienife, but yeah, something like that."

"…Right… Anyways, like I was saying, a lot of mythical creatures are real over there, so things like dragons, centaurs, giraffes…"

Masha's head whipped over to Vee. "Wait, wha-"

"Long story," Vee interrupted. "But the important thing is that there's also these creatures called 'basilisks.' Um… they're a race of shapeshifters, and they're almost extinct… They're also feared by most people because of their ability to drain magic, but despite that they're… actually just… normal people."

Alex hummed. "Interesting take," she said, and Zach nodded in agreement.

The faintest trace of a smile tugged at Masha's face, but it was quickly suppressed. On the other hand, Vee's reaction was a simple question of "How so?"

Zach was the one who answered that. "Well, I mean… basilisks are normally these giant snakes that kill you just by looking at them, so… ya know, the whole shapeshifting and magic-draining thing is just… weird. I'm kinda wondering where you came up with that, to be honest." For some reason, Vee actually chuckled at that. Masha and Luz both did too, though theirs was a tad more subdued.

"Yeah…" Vee eventually said, "You guys have some… pretty weird ideas about us…"

Zach raised an eyebrow before turning to Alex, who looked just as confused as he was. "Uh… who's 'us?'"

Vee looked down and started fidgeting with her hands. "So… that actually leads me to my second point…" And then she took a deep breath and changed. Skin turned into green scales, hair shortened, and her legs fused into one large tail.

Zach and Alex just stared in shock as the creature that had once been Vee looked back up and gave a nervous chuckle. "Heh… Surprise?" it asked with a shaky smile.

The two shocked friends remained frozen like that in silence for several seconds before Zach finally managed to form a thought. "…Huh," he squeaked, before weakly asking "Alex?"

"Yeah?" Alex answered just as weakly.

"Did Vee just turn into a giant snake?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, good; so we're both going insane."

Masha shrugged. "I mean, I really hope not, cuz what would that say about me? Oh, by the way, could you look over here for a sec?" Zach and Alex both did so, and Masha held up their phone.

*click*

Masha snickered as they examined the picture they just took. "Yup; gonna be saving that for sure."

Luz turned to them. "Well to be fair, they seem to be taking it better than you did."

"How, uh," Zach said, before clearing his throat. "How did she… they react?"

Vee (it was still Vee, right?) cocked her head in thought. "Hmm… I think it went something like…" And then suddenly there were two Mashas. "AAAAGH!" screamed Not-Masha, falling to the side. It took a few seconds for Not-Masha to realize that their (her?) head had landed directly on the lap of Real-Masha, which caused them both to blush.

"…Close enough," Masha said, pushing their doppelganger back into a sitting position.

"…Right," Vee said, turning back into her natural form. Although her ears (those were ears, right?) were flapping up and down for a few moments after, which everyone would later agree was adorable. She then cleared her throat before saying "So yeah… uh, I guess you probably have a lot of questions for me…"

"Yeah, you could say that…" Zach said, disbelief still present in his voice. "Though I guess the big thing is that… you're still you, right?" It took him a few moments to realize that probably sounded bad, so he then said "I-I mean, back at camp, you weren't pretending to be someone else, right? Well, aside from… this."

Vee shook her head. "No, that was still me, just… different-looking."

"Okay, in that case I think I can get used to this… eventually." Zach barely got a breath in before changing the subject. "Anyway, anything you want to ask?" he said to Alex.

Before she could answer Masha said "Actually, I do; what was that about giraffes earlier?

Luz and Vee both shuddered before the basilisk said "…Any questions besides that?"

"Actually no, that's what I was going to ask too," Alex said.

"Oh yeah, what was that about, anyways?" Zach agreed.

Vee looked back and forth between her the three humans. "Ah, well, you see…" And then she looked back to Luz, who just shrugged helplessly. Slumping over, Vee let out a resigned sigh "Okay, here goes… so, the way I understand it things started a few hundred years ago…"

By the time she was finished, no one was ready to ask any more questions, and none of them would ever look at a zoo the same way again.

Later that night, Vee and Luz were watching some TV together before going to bed. Though really the TV was more like background noise to them, as they were more focused on talking about their day.

"I'm really glad I finally managed to tell them about this," Vee said. "I mean, I knew they would probably be okay with me being… me; but I'm still glad I finally managed to get this off my chest."

"Yup," Luz agreed. "No more keeping secrets… well, between Cabin 7, at least; we still need to figure out how we're going to tell Amity's family."

"Yeah," Vee said with a conflicted expression. And then after several seconds she sat upright with a jolt. "Wait, we never told them about Amity's family!"

Luz looked at her sister for a moment before dropping her head into her hands. "I knew we were forgetting something," she mumbled from between her fingers.