Moonheart

Note: This takes place three years after the events of Moontouched, on the night of the Valentine’s Day full Moon in 2014.

The children were sleeping in their beds, watched over by Sidney’s mother.  Duncan and Sidney hadn’t had a night out together in a long time, and Duncan wanted to make this one extra special.  After a lovely meal at Sidney’s favourite restaurant, Duncan drove them to their next destination.

“It’s doesn’t take this long to get home, even on the scenic route,” noted Sidney.  “Where are we going?”

“It’s not far now.  See, here’s the driveway.”  Duncan pulled up in front of a quaint cabin on a private, wooded lot.

“Is this your idea of a perfect love nest?” Sidney wondered.

Duncan opened the door with a flourish, revealing an interior that was as rustic as the outside.  He set down a polished wooden box on the table just inside the door, then closed the door behind them to shut out the wintry air.  “No.  This is just the canvas.”

“Canvas?  What are you...”  Sidney’s hands flew to her mouth as the room began to change.  Silk draperies spread across the walls and ceiling, converting the open space into a bright, cheerful one.  A brazier sprung up in the middle of the room, with a crackling fire already burning.  Jewel-toned pillows sprouted into existence all over the floor, turning the entire space into something out of an Arabian Nights harem.

Sidney felt her own body change, becoming thin, lithe, and draped in gauzy blue fabric.  She turned to make an acerbic comment to her husband, only to find a woman standing in his place, just as thin and lithe as herself, and dressed in the same harem outfit, except in green.

Donna grinned at her wife.  “Sorry, I got a bit carried away there.  Now you see why I suggested you wear white gold instead of silver tonight.”

Sidney stared at Donna, open-mouthed.  “It’s the night of the full moon?  On Valentine’s Day?”

Donna nodded.  “And anything you wish for is possible tonight.  I am yours for the entire night of the full Moon.”

Sidney smiled gratefully at that last.  “That would be the first time in I have no idea how long...”

She explored the room, pacing its perimeter and tracing her hand over the sumptuous fabrics.  Sidney glanced at the woman she’d grown to know as her husband’s frequent alter ego and commented idly, “What if I wished to be the Sultan of this harem?”  

Donna added genie-bracers to her outfit.  A brass lamp formed out thin air and dropped into Sidney’s hands.  “Wish and it shall be so.”

“Wouldn’t that be... strange?”

“I am comfortable being many things.  For you, I will make myself comfortable being anything you wish.”

“I still find it freaky that you can change people’s minds like that.”

Donna sighed and explained, not for the first time, “I can only changes others in a limited way.  I can make them content with their form.  Or happy.  Or ecstatic.”

“That’s plenty, I should think.”

Donna shrugged.  “What do you wish to be?”

“This is just for tonight, right?”  Sidney fretted.  “Everything will be normal in the morning?”

“Yes.  Even if I pass out or lose track of time, we’ll still be normal by next weekend.  Your Mum has emergency instructions to open if we don’t return tomorrow.  I’ve arranged things so I can disappear for a week or two without issues.  The only way it can go wrong is if you wrap me in silver.”

“Doesn’t that worry you?”

“I trust you.  You might use silver on me, but you would free me, too.”

Sidney chuckled.  “Don’t sound so eager about it.”

Donna smiled again, and pointed to the inlaid wooden box he’d brought in from the car.  “There’s a gift for you in there.  For us, perhaps.”

Sidney opened the box, and whispered, “Oh my.”  Inside it were five silver collars, of five different sizes, nested concentrically.  In the center was a heart-handled key and a silver padlock.  Looking to the collars, she saw hoops where the padlock could go.  She picked up the lock, and looked at it more closely.  It was engraved, “D+S”.

“What do you wish me to be for you?”

Sidney stared through her wife.  Husband.  Did it matter?  “Truly anything?”

“I would love to be anything at all for you.  I will love being whatever you wish.”

“I wish you were Duncan again, just Duncan, happy to be a normal human male.”  

Donna nodded.  “As you wish.”  The changes washed over her, too quickly for the eye to follow their path.  “Done.”  He shuddered delicately, and the Moon-mark vanished.  “And done.”  He smiled at her, peacefully.  His smile didn’t waver in the slightest as Sidney placed a silver collar about his neck, and locked it in place.

He didn’t even ask “how long” as Sidney tied the key to a silken cord, and dangled it around her neck.

Sidney danced for her husband, using the gauzy veils she was wearing to tease him, enjoying the freedom of the lithe harem-dancer’s body she’d been graced with.  He rose to the occasion, and they made love in the middle of the silk and pillow-strewn room.

Much later, drenched in sweat and lit only by the embers of the brazier fire, they lay together and talked about things great and small.  But not about them, or the shape of their future.

Eventually Sidney prodded Duncan.  “You’re dying to ask a question.  Out with it.”

Duncan laughed.  “Not the one you think.  I just want to know... is this truly it?  Your ultimate fantasy?”

“Yes.”

“Ah.”  Duncan tried not to sound disappointed.

“For the past few years, anyway.  I never get you to myself, as Duncan.  You’re... part of you belongs to the Moon.  I’m a little jealous of that, and I’m really enjoying having you to myself for a while.”

“I hear a ‘but’ in there.”

“But, I can see this isn’t you, I can’t keep you in a box.”  She held up a finger to forestall Duncan’s quip.  “But... now that itch has been scratched, and I want something more.”

She unlocked Duncan’s collar, and put it and the lock carefully away in the box.  Then she slipped the key off her neck, and put that in the box as well.  Sidney closed the box slowly and almost reverently, then walked away with it, putting it in the cabin’s tiny kitchen, out of sight.

She returned, and kneeled before her husband.  “I had my wish.  What is yours?”

“Oh, so many choices.”

“Pick one.  One I’d like?”

Duncan sat up, kneeled in front of his wife.  He took her hands in his.  “Then I know which one.  Youth.”  With that word, changes washed over both of them.  Sidney’s harem-dancer body relaxed and thickened, but not so far as to show her forty-plus years.  Duncan’s body lost a bit of silver at the temples, lost wrinkles.

Sidney looked down at herself, puzzled.  “I don’t feel young.  Younger, perhaps... thirty?”

“And how old were you when we first met?”  Duncan smiled.

“Thirty.  Oh!”

Duncan traced a finger down his wife’s toned leg.  “As best I remember it, anyway.  I always fancied myself a breast man, but your legs...  Ah, they very nearly changed my mind.”

Sidney smiled, reminiscing.  “The coffee house.  You couldn’t keep your eyes off them.”

Duncan raised his hand, brought it close to her chest, but not touching.  “May I?”

Sidney laughed then.  “And you asked that, too.  Yes.  Always.  I wish you could hold them all night long.”

“As do I.  But I’ll save that wish for another night.”  Duncan cupped her breast gently, leaned down, and kissed it.

Much later that night, Duncan gently woke Sidney.  “It’s time, sweetie.  The Moon sets in a few minutes.  Do you wish to stay young, or return to normal?”

Sidney smiled at him, and got out of the ornate four-poster bed to stand beside him at the window.  The sky was overcast, but she knew he was looking at the moon even so.  “How long can we stay like this?”

“There’s a weekend ahead of us.  If I’m careful, I should have the power to change you back on Monday.  We’ll change back by the following Monday regardless.  A bit of makeup and misdirection, nobody will notice.”

“Is that all?  I... I don’t want to go back to being... old.”

Duncan smiled and it lit up the room.  “I can’t change you permanently tonight, I tranced when the Moon rose.  But next month, if you are still willing...”

“Aw...”

Duncan pulled out the box of silver collars.  “Wear one of these for the month, and you’ll stay young.  Or just your regular jewelry will do.  If you put silver away after that, I would be grateful.”

Sidney considered that for a time, then slowly nodded.  “You didn’t change me at all, through all of that.”

“Well, there was the once with the... never mind.  I changed you back as soon as I felt it.”

Sidney grinned.  “I wouldn’t mind if that happened again.  It felt really good.  If you promise I’ll always end up normal in the morning, I’ll stop wearing silver.”

Duncan hugged her tight.  “Thank you, love.”

“Now c’mon, let’s get back to bed and make use of these young bodies once more.”

Duncan grinned, and scooped her up to much squealing and giggling.