Moonstone - Chapter 2
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Despite having the drive home to absorb what he had done and agreed to do, Duncan was still feeling a bit shell-shocked when he opened the door into his house.   As he walked through the kitchen he called out to his wife Sidney, "Honey, do you believe in magic?"

Sidney shushed him as he walked through to the dining room.  "Courtney is already in bed for the night.  And you know I do - I almost got turned into a cat once."

Duncan stared at his wife in puzzlement.  "Wait... what?  When was this?"

Sidney sighed, and pushed her chair back.  "I've told you this story before.  When I was eight, one of my friends figured out how to get into his father's lock-box, and brought something to the basement to show off to the other kids.  It was a little sculpture of Bast with emerald eyes that glowed softly in the dark.  Somehow it got triggered while it was pointed in my direction, and the eyes flashed...   The next thing I knew I had cat ears, a tail, and furry legs."

Duncan frowned.  "The last time I heard that story it was about you nearly being shot."

Sidney sighed.  "Magic doesn't let you talk about it to people who haven't experienced it.  That was *such* a pain for the next week."

"What do you mean?"

"I couldn't go outside.  The magic wouldn't let me - I physically couldn't leave the house without a hat and long pants on to cover everything up.  In the middle of the summer.  Heck, I think I would have preferred to have been a cat. The Bast sculpture could have turned me back once the kid ran to his father."

Duncan shook his head.  "So... why didn't you end up a cat for a bit?  I mean, that actually sounds kinda fun."

Sidney looked at her husband oddly, then her gaze drifted back to the past.  "Silver rings.  I was wearing a couple of cheap silver rings.  If they'd been good quality silver, I wouldn't have been affected at all.  As it was, it was enough to limit the magic, and totally mess up my returning to normal.  I became so paranoid about magic that it took days before I was willing to take them off.  I was convinced the moment they left my fingers I'd get stuck as a cat.  Ever since, I only wear good silver."

Duncan looked down at his white gold wedding band. "I guess that's why the shopkeeper asked if my rings were silver," he mused.

Sidney's attention returned to the here-and-now.  "That's right!  Was the shop from your dream actually there?"

Duncan crossed his arms in front of his chest a bit nervously as Sidney looked up.  "I... uh..."  For a moment he was distracted by the feel of his arms against the breasts he was trying to conceal.

"Well?"

"Sorry, I was... uh.. thinking of you as a catgirl!"  Duncan's gaze went to the distant place where Sidney's had been a moment before.  "I bet you were cute."

Sidney sighed.  "At the time, all I could see was a freak.  But yeah... thinking back I can see how you might see it that way."

Duncan leaned against the dining room wall.  "So what happened to the Bast figurine?"

"No idea.  We moved away the next year, I'm not sure I even spoke another word to Jeremy.  Though... thinking back, his mother had this amazing cat-woman costume at Hallowe'en that year.  Huh."

"Wait, I thought you said you couldn't go outside with cat-ears showing.  Some sort of magic censorship principle."

Sidney shrugged.  "I guess Hallowe'en is an exception.  Everyone expects to see crazy stuff then."  She looked at Duncan more intently.  "Wait, how are we having this conversation at all?  Last time I tried to tell you about it the 'I nearly got shot' story came out instead.  The shop had... actual magic?"

Duncan nodded.  "Something that can solve a problem I've been fretting about for a few months now.  I think that's why the dream called me there."

Sidney frowned.  "We've got most things ready for the new baby, and you were OK when Courtney was born.  I thought we were doing fine.  Yeah, I'm a bit worried about needing another C-section, but... what is bothering you?"

"I... well you remember how you couldn't nurse Courtney?" Duncan asked, apprehensively.

Sidney's frown deepened.  "I tried!  Really I did!  But my milk just never came in, nothing more than a few drops at a time."

Duncan stepped to her, crouching a bit and putting a comforting hand on her arm.  "I know!  And she's done really well on formula, it's just... it's likely to happen again, isn't it?"

Sidney pouted at her ample chest.  "It's stupid.  Given the size of them I should be able to feed *two* kids.  Was it some kind of spell to make my milk come in more?"

Duncan chuckled ruefully.  "Not yours, no."

Sidney stared at him confusedly.  "But then what...  Why is your shirt damp?"

Duncan looked at his shirt.  Two large damp circles had formed.  He cursed loudly, and stripped it off.

Sidney boggled at what was revealed.  "Why are you wearing a nursing bra?"

In response, Duncan attempted to wrestle it off, but had a hard time with the hooks in back.  Sidney reached forward and quite calmly popped the snaps on the nursing flaps.  "You have... breasts."  A droplet of milk emerged from each nipple.  "Very leaky breasts."

Duncan stared down at his exposed chest.  "Um... they were smaller earlier."  He winced as Sidney kneaded one, producing several more droplets of milk.  "I think I need the breast pump.  Where is it?"

"In Courtney's room.  You're going to have to wait until morning, she's sleeping."  A faint wail emerged from the baby monitor, followed by "Dada!  Dada!"

Sidney and Duncan both sighed.  "Sorry," he said.  "I was a bit loud earlier."

"And she missed you at bedtime.  Ah well.  You cover up, then fetch the pump down from her closet while I try to get her back to sleep."


Several hours later, after a story-reading, two breast pumpings and a reheated dinner, Sidney and Duncan were finally in bed and getting ready to sleep.  As usual, they cuddled together briefly after turning out the light.  What was unusual was that there was something in the way, or rather two things, covered by a nursing bra and some absorbent pads.

Sidney sighed softly.  "This is too weird.  I should not be saying to my husband 'your breasts are pressing into my back'.  How long are you stuck like this?"

"If I understand correctly, this will go away by the new moon, about two weeks."

"Will the milk vanish when your... breasts do?"

Duncan shrugged.  "I don't know.  I saved some in a bottle in the back of the fridge, it's labeled.  We'll find out.  If it doesn't, then it should be safe."

Sidney tensed up a little.  "Safe for what?"

"Well, for our son.  If it's not going to vanish, then we can use it instead of formula."

"You can't be serious.  You want to feed him magically-created milk?"

"Technically, it's normally-created milk, just from magically-created breasts."

"How is that any different?"  Sidney's voice was getting louder.

Duncan sighed, and rolled to his back.  "It just is.  I can feel it - my body is making this stuff, not the magic.  They were empty at first.  If it would make you happy we can get it tested."

Sidney grumbled a bit, but quietly.  "I still don't see how two week's worth of milk is going to help.  It'll have gone off before he's born anyway."

"Ah.  Well...  The Moonstone - the object that changed me - is... kind of for sale."

Sidney rolled to face Duncan in the dimness.  "For sale?  You want to bring a magic...  thing... into the house?  No."

"It's not going to turn you into a cat."

Sidney shuddered.  "Thanks for bringing that up.  So... does it just grow breasts?"

"Well... I didn't get all the details, but the shopkeeper said it was guided by the clothes you wear.  That's why I had to buy a nursing bra, I guess.  Otherwise I'd have just ended up with regular breasts.  Non-lactating, I mean.  So unless you go about wearing a cat's collar, you should be safe."

"Hah.  Wait... so if you'd worn a skirt, it would have turned you all the way into a woman?"

"I think so, yeah.  One that fit the clothes.  You still have some of your clothes from before Sidney was born, right?"

"Most of them.  You know what the basement is like."

Duncan chuckled.  "We're both packrats, yeah.  The thing is... if you put on clothes from when you were..."

Sidney sighed softly.  "You can say it.  From when I weighed a lot less than now."

"They'd end up fitting.  I think."

"Hm.  But it would just wear off again.  I'm not sure I could take that."

"Can't find out if you don't try," Duncan wheedled.

"You really want to do this."

"Yes.  More than anything."

"Why?"

Duncan wriggled over a bit so he was lying against his wife, hip to hip.  "You got to nurse Courtney.  I want to... do that, to have that.   It's not just worries about proper milk and such, though that's a big part."  He chuckled softly.  "Remember what you said about a third?  That it would only happen if I was the one who got pregnant?"

Sidney stared at her husband.  "You're not seriously thinking about that.  Are you?"

"No.  One of each is plenty.  But... I really would like to connect, just feeding bottles can't be the same."

Sidney laughed wryly.  "It's not much fun, you know.  Hurts, even before they get teeth."

"I play paintball for fun.  Surely it can't be worse than that."

"You'll find out."

"So we can buy it?"

Sidney sighed resignedly.  "Would it matter if I said no again?"

"Not really."

"Oh all right.  It'll be interesting to see how long you can take it.  But every second that thing's in the house, I'll be wearing silver."