Moonstone 34

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Donna sighed gustily.  The lunar eclipse had cut her off from drawing power from the Moon, as it was no longer full.  Still, she still had a considerable reserve.  So she slipped off the table, stretching some of her tentacles to lower herself softly to the floor.

She drew on a fragment of her reserve to grow to full height, and looked at herself in the mirror.  “What a mess!  I can’t go home like this.”

So she set to, first petting all of her pussies closed, then combing her tentacles down until they lay smooth and orderly.  She eyed the result carefully, her eye-stalks swaying this way and that as she checked herself out.  Two large breasts sat atop a tidy column of tentacles, which flared out into a supporting ‘skirt’ of thicker tentacles.

“Looking good!  Now where are my clothes...”

Donna found her bra next to the Moonstone’s box.  As soon as she put it on, the Moonstone’s power reached out to her from inside the closed, wooden container.  Her torso reformed first, tentacles flowing together to form unbroken skin.  Her eye stalks merged to form her neck.  The largest eye grew bigger still and two of the smaller ones found places in the front of it.  Soon she had a perfectly normal head, and could stare at herself in horror.

“My tentacles!  My beautiful tentacles... all gone.  Ooh, all but one.”  She wiggled her tongue at her reflection and grinned.  “I guess I’ll be a little less obvious like this.  I suppose I can get used to it.”

Donna dressed quickly, packed the Moonstone’s box into her bag with the rest of her things, and headed out.  The she stopped and sighed at the card table.  It was a mess.  She disposed of the ruined cards and half-dismantled apparatus, and scrubbed the surface down.  Finally finished, Donna turned off the lights.  She was thankful for her cat-eyes as they guided her to the door in the dimness.

Donna’s drive home was uneventful.  She peered up at the clouds from time to time, hoping for a break that would let her see the eclipse of the Moon.  The clouds stayed unbroken, and just as she pulled into the driveway they released a torrent of rain instead.

Donna had a set of Duncan’s clothes in her bag, and changed into them before entering the house.  Sidney preferred it when she came home as Duncan.

Despite being locked in the trunk, the Moonstone still reached Donna, changing her form to suit his clothes.  As Duncan’s form returned, so did that part of his personality.  His eyes widened in shock as he remembered everything he’d done... including certain acts of memory erasure.

Duncan’s hands shot to his much-reduced chest.  “Oh no!  What have I done...  I hope you two are OK.  Crap, what were your names?”

Duncan racked his brain for clues.  The clearest thing he fished up was the memory of a spectacular thermite fire and something about crutches.  He was pretty sure the person involved was one of the erased, sure enough to head out to the apartment where the fire had taken place.

Once at the apartment building, Duncan easily found the scorched and broken flagstones where the thermite had triggered a steam explosion.  They’d been crudely reassembled, but not replaced.  From there, it was easy to retrace the run to the sliding door.  It was locked, but a touch of power reshaped the latch out of his way.

Inside the apartment, Duncan looked around.  He was pretty sure he’d been here before.  When he saw a dancer’s bra draped over the back of the couch, he was certain.  He recognized it from one of Pauline’s orders.

“Now how do I do this,” Duncan mused.  His first effort to pull away from the two ‘others’ within him failed when the Moonstone forced him back into Duncan-form to match his clothes.  He checked to make sure all the blinds were closed, then stripped.

Without the Moonstone’s interference, it was easy to melt into a puddle, and flow away from all the bits that weren’t him.  That left behind two little piles of pink goo on the floor.  As Duncan pulled further away, he brushed against his discarded shirt.  The Moonstone swiftly reformed him to normal, pouring him into the shirt.

Duncan put the rest of his clothes back on.  Then he nudged some power at the two piles, tentatively shaping them back into them into generic female forms.  He still couldn’t remember their names, or what they looked like.  It felt tantalizingly close, but his mind skittered off a glossy barrier when he tried to visualize them.

With the last of his power, he grew them taller, from thumb-sized to just shy of two feet tall.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.  “I’m tapped out.”

They stared at him in confusion.

“Are you OK?  What’s wrong?”

One of the tiny identical girl-mannequins touched her mouth, then slow asked, “Not boobs?”

“Ah.  No, you aren’t boobs.”

“Want be.”

“No.”  Duncan was very used to saying that to his little ones.  “I need to go back to my life, and you need to go back to yours.   Besides, I don’t have boobs like this.”

“No boobs?” asked one sadly.

“No boobs,” replied the other little girl-thing.

“You’re supposed to be women.”

“Oh.”

“Small.”

“I know.  I’m sorry.  I don’t have any power left.  Stupid eclipse.”

They both held their arms out for hugs, and Duncan lifted both of them onto his lap.  He talked to them, telling stories of what it was like to be a person, an adult.  He smiled wryly as he told fairy tales about paying bills, and buying groceries.

After the story about putting away groceries, one of the girls hopped to the floor and pattered into the kitchen.  She looked up at all the cabinets. “Too small!  I can’t reach.”

Duncan sighed.  “I know.  I said I’m sorry, I’m out of power.”

The one in his lap asked, “Moonstone?”

Duncan groaned, “Oh, of course!”  He reached toward the his bag, and the Moonstone’s box inside it.  His mind made contact long before his hand did.  He felt something click into place, and power trickled into him.  It wasn’t the rush of contact with the Moon, but it was more than enough.

The girl nearest Duncan started to grow, and giggled with delight.  “Bigger!”

That brought the other running, and soon both were just over five feet tall.

“There,”said Duncan.  “Back to... well, not normal.  Human, though, and a useful size.  Now all we need is...”  He plucked the bra off the back of the couch, careful not to touch his hand inside the cups.  He held out out to them.  One grabbed it, and put it on.

Duncan opened the Moonstone’s box, and turned it toward the one wearing the bra.  Her body filled out, changing from a generic womanly shape to someone specific.  AS her hair grew in, Duncan grinned.  “Now I remember you!   You’re Gwen.  That makes you Kate.  Yes!”

Gwen looked over at the other, who shrugged.  “I guess.  Wait, I think I put bras for each of us in your bag.”

Duncan dug through the bag, and found the two bras that weren’t Donna’s size.  One matched Gwen’s bra, so he handed the other over to the remaining generic girl.  “This should set you to rights.”

Before long, Gwen and Kate both looked as Duncan remembered them.  He hugged them both fiercely, apologized profusely, scooped up the Moonstone and his things, then left.

Once he was gone, Gwen turned to Kate.  “Well.  Now what?”

“I... something doesn’t feel quite right.”

“I know.  It has been one heck of a night, though.”

“True,” Mused Kate.  “But... do you remember spending part of it as a mannequin?”

Gwen nodded with a big grin on her face.  “Being stared at all night was... oh crap.”

“Yup.  You’re me.”  ‘Kate’ said.

“Eh, could be worse.  It’s only for a week.”

“Yeah.  Could be fun to try to live each other’s life for a bit.”

“I guess.  What are we going to tell your... my...  I mean Kate’s boyfriend?” asked ‘Gwen’.

‘Kate’ giggled.  “Won’t he be surprised.”

* * *

When Duncan finally plodded up the steps to the kitchen door, he was exhausted.  He usually felt energized through the night of the full Moon, but between the events of the past few hours, and the eclipse, he was drained.  Locking the door and re-setting the alarm behind him was pretty much done on automatic.

When he entered the bedroom, he was not surprised to see his wife’s bedside light was on.  Sidney never slept well when he wasn’t in the house.  What was more surprising was that she was awake, naked, and smiling at him as he entered.

Duncan blinked at his wife blearily, then noticed one even more critical detail.  “You’re not wearing silver?”

Sidney shook her head.  “You promised something last month.”

Duncan’s thoughts were sluggish, but he did remember after a few moments.  “Oh!  Right.  You wanted to be... hm, about the same size as a certain piece of my anatomy, yes?”

Sidney bounced on the bed, almost like their daughter was known to do when excited.  “Please?”

Duncan sighed.  “It’s been one hell of a night.  I’m beat, drained, and the lunar eclipse...”  

“You’re passing up the chance to play with your wife?” asked Sidney, lip quivering.  “Please, I’ll let you do anything afterward.  No complaints.”

Duncan looked down at the bag he was still holding.  He could feel the Moonstone there, the bond he’d forged earlier was still there.  He walked over to the dresser, and set the Moonstone’s box in its usual spot.  “If it wasn’t for the Moonstone, I’d have no choice.  But something happened tonight, and I seem to be able to draw from it.  So yes.  I can grant your wish.”

Sidney clapped her hands excitedly. “Make me tiny!”

Duncan didn’t try to fight the power that flowed at Sidney’s command.  It swirled around her, reducing her smaller and smaller.  She stood up and bounced on the bed, still shrinking as she walked across the huge, yielding surface.  She clambered up onto the thrown-back duvet, and made her way to the edge nearest Duncan.  She came face to head with his growing erection.

“My!  What a big penis you have!”

“The better to fill you up, my dear!”

They both laughed.

“With vanilla pudding, this time?” asked the doll-sized Sidney.

“I was thinking pastry cream, actually.”

“Oooh, turn me into your little eclair of...”  Sidney’s comment was cut off by her abrupt transformation into baked goods.

Duncan stared down at the oblong, chocolate covered pastry that lay where his wife had been.  He scooped it up carefully in both hands, and examined it.  It looked handmade, slightly lumpy with a flare in the middle that resembled a woman’s waist and hips.  It smelled divine.

Before temptation made him do something he’d regret, Duncan pushed a measure of power at it, and Sidney reformed in his hands.

“What the hell was that?” she demanded.

“Sorry.  You said to make you into... it, remember?”

Sidney nodded.  “But I didn’t mean to literally turn me into an eclair.”

Duncan sighed at the pastry in his hand, and restored it again. “My power is being kinda twitchy tonight.  Be careful what you say.”

“OK.  No talking.  Sit down already and let me play!”

Duncan needed no further urging.  Once he was seated on the bed, he set Sidney in his lap.  She was a bit taken aback at first, her husband’s shaft was almost as tall as she was.  But soon Sidney was grinding up against it like a dancer with a pole.

Sidney nearly got Duncan off just by hugging his pole tight and riding up and down on it.She could feel it throbbing like an earthquake.

“Not yet,” she commanded.  “I want that in me.  Can you... oh God!”  She looked down at her hips, where her pussy had just expanded until it took up her entire belly.

Duncan lifted his wife up, and set her on the tip of his shaft.  What transpired form there was the most unusual and intense secual encounter in either of their lives.

At the climax, as Duncan was pumping his wife full of pastry cream, the image of her as an eclair snapped back into mind, and was instantly made real.  Sidney’s yowls of pleasure were frozen mid-orgasm in pastry form.

It took Duncan several panting minutes to recover from his exertion.  When he looked down at where Sidney was still wrapped around his softening member, he saw the eclair and sighed.  “Oh no.  Not again.”

He carefully lifted her up then kissed her pastry form tenderly, resisting mightily the urge to lick off a stripe of chocoalte.  His second kiss was on a carefully restored Sidney.  She just sat in his hand, breathing hard, staring up at him with a lost expression on her face.

“Sidney?”

She didn’t respond.

Duncan waited for a minute, then set his wife on her pillow.  With a corner of the top sheet he picked up one of her silver rings, and placed it on her belly.

Sidney blinked, and very carefully sat up, clutching the ring like a life preserver.

“Sweetie?”

Sidney nodded.  “I feel very odd.  I... thought I was an eclair.  That I should be one, that it would be the most amazing thing in the world to be eaten.  Being human again felt... wrong.  Disappointing.”

“Ah, as I figured.  Your mind got changed, too.  Still is, if it wasn’t for the ring you’d go right back.”

“To being an eclair?”  Sidney asked eagerly.

“No, just to thinking you should be one.”

Sidney loosened her grip on the ring.  “Why didn’t you eat me?”

“What?”

“I... I was so convinced it would be the best thing ever.  I can still feel that need to be eaten.”

“I didn’t want to scare you.”

Sidney looked up at him sharply.  “Scare?  Not hurt?”

Duncan shook his head.  “After everything else tonight... No.  It wouldn’t have hurt, and I could have put you back together afterward just as easily as any other change.”

“Oh.”  Her eyes shone as she stared at her giant husband’s mouth.  She held the ring out to the side, arm trembling slightly from the weight of a ring big enough to be a belt.  “Please?  I have to know.”

Duncan nodded reluctantly.  “If you wish.”

“I wish,” Sidney said, and dropped the ring.  She fell silent, reverting to the eclair’s mind as soon as the ring left her grasp.  Her body reverted to an eclair’s a moment later.

Entranced, unable to even consider stopping, Duncan picked up the wonderful smelling pastry, and started to eat.  She tasted even more delicious than she smelled.  He savoured every mouthful, swallowing slowly and sensually.

When the last bit of chocolate had been licked from his fingers, the trance broke.  Duncan shook his head, and patted his belly softly.  “I hope that’s what you wanted, dear.”

He created a little door in his belly, and a few moments later Sidney’s tiny but fully human form stepped out of it.  This time, he’d nudged a little extra power into the change, making sure her mind was human this time.

Sidney stared up at her husband, panting heavily.  Her jaw worked a few times before she spoke.  “You... you ate me!”

“You wished for it.”

“But... but... you ate me!”

Duncan tried to explain how ‘wish’ had become something of a four-letter word to him that night, in between Sidney’s repeated exclamations.  Eventually she calmed down enough that the explanation partially registered.

“So... If I said I wish I was an eclair...”

Duncan sighed.  “Enough is enough.”  This time when Sidney reformed, she didn’t have a mouth.  Her eyes flashed as she looked up at him.

“Just listen.  Even if you don’t mean it, anything you say with the w-word will happen.  I need to get you back to normal before the moon rises, then we need to get some sleep.  The kids are going to be awake waaaay too early for us.”

Sidney just glared at him, and kept glaring as she grew back up to her full height.  Duncan restored her mouth last, then pointed at the silver on the bedside table.  Sidney nodded, and put her silver choker on before saying anything.

“This isn’t over.”

“I know.  But we both need to sleep.”  Duncan yawned hugely, triggering a matching yawn from his wife.

“Fine.”

Duncan knew it wasn’t, but he was so desperately tired he just wanted the day to be over.

The next day was Saturday.  Sleeping in wasn’t much of an option, though, once Courtney was awake.  Once he heard her exploring, Duncan knew he had to get up, no matter how groggy he felt.  Sidney slept in until nearly noon.

Despite the crazy night, the day went much like any other weekend.  Duncan took the kids to a park in the afternoon.  Sidney made dinner, and Duncan cleaned up the kitchen after the Victor and Courtney were in their respective beds.

When the Moon rose, Duncan tried to burn off the remainder of his power, so he wouldn’t have to deal with any more unplanned changes.

Sidney found him in the bedroom somewhat later, still growing and shrinking his breasts.

“What are you doing?”

Duncan reverted to a more masculine chest, and sighed.  “Trying to use up the power I have left, so I don’t accidentally make changes with it.”

“And you need to grow boobs to do that?”

“Well...”  Duncan looked at the ground.  “I suppose not.  It’s fun, though.”

Sidney sighed dramatically.  “Fine.  Just tell me when you’re done.”

“That’s the problem.  It’s not working.”

“You seemed to be growing boobs just fine.”

“Yeah, but I’m not running out of power.  It has been getting easier and easier to change myself, but it shouldn’t have gone to zero.  I don’t think...  I mean, I can feel that there is some power flowing, a little tiny bit.  But my reserves aren’t going down.”

“Lovely.  What can you do that takes more power?”

Duncan shrugged.  “Changing things, or other people.”

Sidney put a hand to the silver choker at her neck.  “Don’t even think about it.  Change some old clothes or something.  You’ve got lots of shirts you never wear.”

“Aww.  Not even a little boost to your bustline?”

Sidney shook her head.  “Not until you get yourself under better control than last night.”

“I told you, when someone uses the w-word around me, I can’t control it.”

Sidney sighed.  Then she dug through the closet and tossed a shirt at Duncan. “I wish you’d turn that into a pretty dress for me.”

In Duncan’s hands, the shirt wriggled and twisted, growing red and shiny in the process.  He handed it back to her as a knee-length dress in shimmery red satin.  “Thanks.  That drained a fair bit...”  He frowned in concentration.

Sidney took the dress, and held it against her body.  “Huh.  About the right size... but if we’re going to do more of this we need to work on your idea of a pretty dress.  What’s wrong?”

“I’m recharging.  That normally doesn’t happen except on the night of the full Moon.  Where’s it coming from?”  Duncan closed his eyes, turning back and forth.  “There!”

When he opened his eyes, he was pointing right at the closed box that contained the Moonstone.

“Oh great.  So now you’re going to be changing things at random all week?”

Duncan sighed.  “Maybe it’ll stop in a day or two.  At least for now, the Moon’s only out at night, and I can sleep through it.”

“Don’t dream of anything scary.”

Duncan gave his wife a withering look.  “Thanks.  If you wake up next to a tentacled monster, you’ll know why.”

Sidney was staring at him, and turning pale.  Duncan looked down at his arms, and saw tentacles instead.  “See?  This is what happens when you give me ideas.”  He changed his arms back to normal.  “It’ll be OK, I’ve never had issues with dream-changes before.”

“Maybe you should wear silver tonight, too.”

“I’d really rather not, unless something weird does start to happen.”

“Fine. But I’m wearing my rings tonight, just in case.”

“Fine.  Let’s just sleep this off and hope things look better in the morning.  At least we won’t be exhausted.”

Once they’d finished their nightly routine, they both met under the covers in bed for a last kiss goodnight.

“I do love you, you know.”

“I know.  I love you too.  Weirdness and all.”

Sunday morning the Moon had already set by the time they woke up.  Sidney made a bit of a game of checking Duncan over to make sure there were no tentacles or other oddities.  She commented on the slitted eyes, but Duncan shrugged those off as something from when he’d last tranced to the Moon.

“How are you going to explain them at work?”

“Contacts. Or I’ll just take out a couple of the fluorescent tubes in my office, it’s not so noticeable when the lights are dim.  My boss did that with hers, she likes it darker.”

“Maybe she has cat-eyes too,” Sidney joked.

“I think I’d have noticed.  Besides, she’s more of a dog person.”

Duncan spent the afternoon getting a few last supplies ready for his wife’s birthday party on Tuesday.

Monday was a pretty good day.  The Moon spent Duncan’s entire waking day below the horizon.  Work was... well, the usual.  It kept his analytical side fed.  Sidney had even relaxed enough that she didn’t glare at him when he called her his “little eclair”.  Instead she blushed, and stammered out a protest it was clear she didn’t mean.

Tuesday was when everything went wrong.

Duncan cursed softly as the alarm jerked him out of sleep.  He could feel the Moon’s power coiled inside of him, just waiting for the wrong suggestion to do something strange.  He slapped his alarm clock with a tentacle, then grumbled again and reformed it into a hand.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?” mumbled his wife.

“Nothing.  Just the Moon.”

“Oh!”  Sidney sat upright.  “Is everything normal?  My birthday’s today, and everyone’s coming over, remember?”

“Everything’s going to be just fine.  It sets in about an hour, and won’t rise until eleven at night, long after everyone’s gone home and the kids are in bed.”

As Duncan showered, he had to struggle not to let his mind drift.  The shower was his favourite place for letting his imagination wander, and...  He sighed, then shrugged, and finished soaping up his six new breasts before putting things back to normal.  The tentacles were handy for washing his back, he had to admit.

By the time he was dry, Duncan figured he only had to hold out for another handful of minutes until the Moon set and he’d be safe from random...  He felt his ears twitch, and looked at himself in the mirror.  Cat ears.  He sighed once more, and changed himself back to normal again.  He pulled on his shorts and robe with a sense of relief.  They’d help him keep more or less normal.

When he returned to the bedroom, Sidney was digging out clothes for the day.  “Have you seen my new bra, sweetie?”

“The shiny black one with the padded cups?”

Sidney nodded.  “Yeah.  I want to wear it today.”

“It’s still down in the laundry room, hanging on the drying rack.”

“Could you be a sweetie and fetch it up for me?”

“Of course.”

As Duncan bounced down the stairs to the basement, he felt the Moon finally set.  At first he was slightly puzzled, it was earlier than he’d figured, though not by much.  He’d never figured out just why Moonset was always about half an hour before the ephemeris predicted.

Duncan shrugged at the mystery, then grinned.  He imagined his arms turning into snakes.  Nothing happened.  He had never before felt so happy to not change shape.

When he picked up his wife’s bra, Duncan paused to admire it.  It wasn’t as showy as the ones that Pauline made for the club.  It was black, smooth, and hadn’t been washed so many times that it had lost its satiny shine.  As he walked back up the stairs with it, Duncan wondered what the bra’s existence was like, what it would feel like to hold his wife’s breasts all day.

Three steps from the top of the stairs Duncan had a blinding insight.  The Moon had not, in fact set.  And the reason he was blind was that he was now a duplicate of his wife’s pretty black bra, falling to the stairs.

As Duncan fell the Moon set once more, or so it seemed.  He finally understood why the Moon always set early.  The hill west of the house blocked the Moon, altering the effective horizon.  Now that he was lying on the stairs under his robe, he was once again out of its view.  His only hope was to climb faster than the Moon was setting.

The first step was to figure out which way was up.  With his terry robe lying on top of him, and the carpet of the stairs beneath, it was hard to tell.  Once he’d wriggled across the stair and out from under the robe, Duncan could lift his straps and feel which way they would fall.  Between that and his unwavering knowledge of the direction of the Moon, Duncan managed to orient himself and move to the base of the next step.  After a few false starts, he got his bands hooked over the top of the step, and pulled his cups up behind him.

He lost track of how many steps he’d climbed.  Eventually when he reached for the next step, he wavered about uncertainly, then collapsed in a heap.  Apparently he was already at the top.  He explored along the edge of the top stair until his right strap touched the newel post.  Past that were spindles that supported the railing between the hallway and the stairs, providing an easy guide to follow.  Scooping each cup forward in turn, he walked his way down the hallway, past the hall closet, then straight on to the master bedroom door.

Duncan pushed against the door with all the force he could muster.  It wasn’t latched, feeling along to the left edge he could tell that it was only mostly closed, not all closed.  Like many doors in the house, it was somewhat sticky in the jamb, and he’d never gotten around to sanding it down.  Normally, he could push it open without effort.  But as a bra, he just didn’t have the mass or the muscle.  He slumped in defeat against the door.

A few moments later, Sidney flung the door open, and nearly stepped on the bra that had been lying against it. “Thanks for fetching my bra, honey!” she called.

Before Duncan could orient himself, he felt warm, wonderful masses pressing into his cups.  The sensation of his band being snugged tight, and his straps taking up their intended weight made him feel so content that he barely noticed that he could contact the Moon once more.  As Sidney had stood up he’d been lifted just high enough to...

Sidney’s silver pendant on its long chain fell against her bra, and it was suddenly just a bra.  It was content with its role in life and unable to imagine that it could ever have been a man.

Sidney started to wonder where Duncan had gone.  He should have finished shaving, it was almost time for him to leave for work.  With that thought, she went to peek out of the window over the carport.  Duncan’s car was still there, so he had to be around somewhere.

It was then that his robe on the stairs caught her eye.  He never left it there in the morning.  It was either on him, or on the hanger in the closet.  She picked it up, curiously, and her eyes widened when she saw a bra underneath it.  An identical bra to the one she was wearing, and that was now wiggling oddly against her chest.

Sidney straightened up, alarmed at the feeling of being groped by a ghostly hand.  The movement stopped.  She looked at the bra in her hand.  “If this is my bra, then I’m wearing...”  She peered down at her chest.  “Duncan?”

Then she noticed the silver pendant resting against the bra.  “Oops.”

She lifted it away, then called out again.  “Duncan, is that you?”

The bra squeezed her once, gently.

“I’ll take that as a yes, then.”  She felt another single squeeze.

“Can you change back?”

Two squeezes, this time.  They were starting to have an effect, her nipples were poking into the bra.

“Is that no?”  Squeeze.  “Damn.  You can change back tonight, though, right?”  Another squeeze.

After a series of questions and answers that left Sidney’s nipples pointy and aching, she understood the basics of Duncan’s predicament.  And that he wouldn’t be able to turn back until eleven at night.

“Great.  So not only do I have to make excuses to your boss, you’ll miss dinner.  If I didn’t know you liked my mom, I’d think you’d done this deliberately.”

The three squeezes that followed that had been established as meaning “I’m sorry.”  Duncan had used that one a lot.

“Just stop it.  If you keep groping like that my nipples will never go down.”

Duncan started squeezing her even more.

“Seriously.  Stop it or I’m going to drop the necklace on you again.”

Duncan squeezed even more vigorously.

“Seriously?  You’d be OK spending the day as just a bra, unable to think?”

There was a hesitation, then one firm squeeze.

“I...  No.  I don’t know how or why, but you’d enjoy that far too much.  You messed up, and I’m going to have to deal with it.”

Sidney walked to the bedroom, took off her husband the bra, and dropped him into his own sock drawer.  “Enjoy.”  She slammed the drawer shut.

Duncan found himself wishing she’d dropped some silver on him after all.  He was stuck with his own thoughts, and only the painfully slowly moving Moon as an anchor to keep time.  Trying to program in his head without a keyboard was distracting for a half an hour or so, but ultimately futile.  Beating himself up over how stupid he’d been got tiresome after about an hour.

Reviewing all the things he’d done with the Moonstone, kept Duncan busy for a long time.  After a while, he realized what he was doing.  It was time to let go.

A little after eleven at night, Duncan felt the Moon rise.  He changed himself into a sturdy tentacle to push the drawer open, then slithered to the floor.  As soon as he brushed against his discarded pants the Moonstone changed him back to human once more.

Duncan dressed in some nice clothes, then found his wife in the living room, watching some sort of home renovation show.  “Hey sweetie.  I’m sorry about the mess.”

Sidney sighed.  “It wasn’t deliberate, was it?”

“No, just stupid.  When I went downstairs, the Moon ‘set’ behind the hill.  But when I came back upstairs...”

“It rose again?”

“Yeah.  And I was thinking about your bra, and then I was too short.  My only hope was that you’d pick me up.”

“Which I did.”

“Yup.  And you were so distracting that I didn’t think to change back before the silver hit me.”

Sidney reached up and touched her pendant.  “I wanted to be pretty.”

Duncan leaned over and kissed her.  “You are.  Always.”

Sidney flashed him a quick smile, but he could see she was still annoyed.

“And I have a present for you.  You were right, the Moonstone is becoming a problem.”

“Becoming?” she snarked.

“Yes, yes.  The point is, I’m going to get rid of it, however I can.  Hopefully Corrie will take it back.”

Sidney gasped, “Really?”

Duncan hugged her tight.  “Really.  I’ll go to her shop first thing in the morning, and won’t leave until I’ve gotten rid of the Moonstone.”

“Thank you.  You know... there’s still an hour left in my birthday.  Maybe we could... one last time.”

“As you wish.”

Sidney kept her silver on, but they still found some creative things to do.

* * *

In the morning, Duncan was true to his word.  He showered, shaved, and as soon as the Moon had set for good, he set out for Corrie’s shop, where he’d first found the Moonstone.  The last time he’d tried to talk to her, she’d been impossible to find.  This time, the door to her shop was open, and the elderly-seeming shopkeeper smiled when she saw him approach.

“I thought you’d be back about now,” she said with a twinkle in her eye.

Duncan shook his head.  “I didn’t even know until last night.  But I... need to not have this any more.”  He set the Moonstone on the counter.

“Not trying to sell it?”  Corrie asked, but it was clear she already knew the answer.

“No.  I was, at one point... and that’s why I couldn’t find you.  Figures.”

“You do catch on.”

Duncan gave the box one last pat, then turned to leave.  “I hope you find it a good home.”

“Oh, don’t worry.  I have a couple coming in this afternoon, who desperately want a child, but she always miscarries.”

Duncan turned back, curious.  “Oh?  I thought magic couldn’t fix medical problems like that.”

Corrie looked at him as if he was a child.  “The Moonstone can’t, no.  But he’s quite healthy, so there’s every reason to think he could carry to term.”

Duncan chuckled softly.  “Ah.  I’m actually a little jealous.  I do hope they do well, then.”

Corrie nodded.  “I’m sure of it.”

Duncan smiled, waved, and left the Moonstone behind.

That night, Sidney asked him if he had any regrets.

“Not really.  I had a lot of fun, though.  Maybe a bit too much.  Well, I do have one tiny regret - I wish you’d worn me for longer.  That felt really nice.”

Sidney laughed, and shook her head. “You should have said.  After what you did for me last night, I’d have been happy to wear you as my nightie.”

“Mmm.  Ah well.  I’ll just have to snuggle up to you as plain, boring old me.”

“You’re not boring.”

“I wish I believed that.  With the Moonstone, I was... something special.”

Sidney pulled him close.  “We have a lovely family, a lovely house... that could use a few bits of work, but never mind that now.  You are special to me, and to the kids.”

* * *

The night of the next full Moon was the clearest, most cloudless night Duncan had seen in months.  His birthday party had ended an hour or so prior, and he was waiting on the deck for the Moon to rise.  He doubted he’d lose that habit any time soon.

He didn’t even need to look to know when the Moon had risen, he could feel its presence.  “Happy Birthday to me,” he sighed.  “Well, old friend, I hope I made the right choice.”

He looked at the harvest Moon, hovering on the horizon, fat and gold.  “Oh!” was all he could say before the trance took him away.

Later, he snuggled into bed beside his wife.  As he spooned with his wife, small but still distinctly female breasts pressed into her back.  They were barely a half-cup larger than he normally was as Duncan, and had larger, sensitive nipples.  Nobody else would notice, but he knew what they were.  Duncan kissed the nape of his wife’s neck softly, then rolled over to sleep with a smile on his face.

THE END