Moontouched 4

Duncan crept into the bedroom, trying not to wake Sidney.  It was a doomed effort of course, she had never slept well on the nights he’d gone to the Blue Vixen club as Donna.  Four months’ hiatus hadn’t changed anything.

“Is that you?” came the tired voice from the bed.

Duncan sighed, and nodded in the dimly lit room.  Sidney kept a nightlight on whenever he wasn’t home.  “Sorry.  I hope you’ve gotten some sleep.”

Sidney sat up to get a look at him.  “What’s that you’re carrying?”

Duncan shook it out with a grin.  “A Hallowe’en costume for me to wear.  Not while out with the kids, but here, afterward.”

“Oh.  It looks cute.  You’ll have to show it off for me tomorrow.  Wait...  Hallowe’en is over a week away, won’t it change back?”

Duncan tilted his head to one side and consulted the lunar calendar in his head.  “Oh!  You’re right.  The third quarter falls early on the 30th.  It’ll be a quarter of the way back to being a shirt.  Can’t have that...”   He dug around on his chest of drawers to find the box of silvered safety pins Rowan had once given him.  A tiny flick of power made a ‘Designs by Donna’ tag appear near the tip of the tail.  He picked up a pin with a handkerchief so he wouldn’t accidentally touch silver himself, and pinned it through the tag.

“There.  It’ll stay as long as I want, now.”

“Good.  You can model it for me tomorrow.  Come to bed.”

Duncan carefully hung his new costume up in the closet, and then stripped, and joined his wife in bed.  She turned out her nightlight, and soon she was snoring against him.  Duncan stared into the dark and traced the course of the Moon with his mind.  It wouldn’t set for hours yet.  He looked at his hand in the dark, and could sense its contours without being able to see it at all.  It slipped from hand, to paw, to tentacle, to nothing at all and back with the slightest of nudges.  He’d drawn on the Moon so much at the club, he could feel the difference it had made in his susceptibility to its power.

Then Duncan thought of just how happy Gwen had been at all the changes.  And Kate.  And Vanessa.  All those changes, all that channeling had made him even more malleable.  It seemed to be on an asymptotic curve, he mused.  It didn’t feel like he’d go infinitely malleable.

Duncan shrugged and gave himself a pair of breasts to fondle as a distraction from so many thoughts.  He teased them until his wife stirred, then he guiltily changed himself back to normal.  Mostly normal, anyway.

* * *

The next day was a Saturday, so Duncan got up when he heard Courtney stirring, and let Sidney sleep in.  He spent as much of the day as he could playing with his kids, revelling in the normality of it after the last night’s chaos.  They spent part of the afternoon at the park, until a rain-shower chased them home.

Running after two year old Victor while trying to keep an eagle eye on his four and a half year old sister wore Duncan to a frazzle.  So he let the TV keep them quiet while he puttered on his computer until dinnertime.

After dinner, Duncan could feel the presence of the Moon return.  He mentioned it to his wife, then noted that he should probably burn off his reserve of power before he changed something accidentally.

“What about their costumes?” Sidney asked.  “Could you change them like you changed yours?”

Duncan grinned. “That’s a great idea.  Let’s get them dressed up and see what we can do.”

Soon Courtney was looking cute in the same ladybug costume she’d worn last year, and Victor was (with some protest) dressed up as a little tiger.

“Oh, he looks so cute like that,” cooed Sidney.

“Almost like a little plush tiger,” mused Duncan.

Sidney spun and glared at her husband.  “No!  I know what you’re thinking, and just... don’t.”

Duncan raised his hands defensively.  “I have more control than that.  Well, a little more, anyway.”

“What do you mean, Daddy?” asked Courtney.  Duncan crouched in front of her and tried his best to explain about how the magic he used sometimes jumped out when he didn’t really want it to.

“But that sounds like fun,” she protested, looking puzzled.

Duncan chuckled softly.  “It can be.  When I can get more.  But... now that the full Moon is gone, I only have so much left.  If I turned your brother into a toy, I wouldn’t be able to make your costume prettier.”

“Oh!” she exclaimed, eyes going wide.  “That would be bad.”

“Exactly.  So.  What shall we do to make your costume prettier.”

“Pink!  It has to be pink, not red and black.”

Duncan nodded sagely.  “Of course.  And sparkly, too?”

Courtney nodded eagerly.  “Can you make the wings really work?”

“Uh... enough to flutter, but not enough so you can fly.”

“Oh,” she said disappointedly.  “Why not?”

“You’re too heavy, and the wings would be too little.  They’ll still be really pretty.”

That was enough for Courtney.  She clapped her hands together happily and said, “Do it!”

Before Duncan could change his mind, Courtney’s demand started the magic spiralling about her.  He managed to keep most of it from affecting her directly, so she didn’t end up with extra arms.  Just some extra glitter in her hair.  And...

“Why does my daughter have antennae?”

“Um... I can fix that.  Really I can.”

Courtney reached up and felt the wiggly things poking up from her hair.  “Can I see them?”

Duncan scooped her up, getting a giggle for his efforts.  He set her down on the stool in the bathroom, so she could see herself in the mirror.

“Ooh!  They’re pretty and pink! Can I keep them?  Pleeeease?”

“I...  I don’t think that’s a good idea,” fretted Sidney.  “You won’t be able to go outside like that.”

“Well, she could wear a hat.  I can change her back tomorrow night...”

“Please, Mommy?”

Sidney sighed, and smiled at her daughter’s excitement.  “I guess.  One day.  And you’d better be able to change them back, mister.”

“Maybe I should just change them into a hairband right now, in case I slip and run out.  Would that be OK, sweetie?”

“Aww,” pouted Courtney.  But when Duncan lifted the headband off and the pink antennae were still wiggling, Courtney brightened, and wanted it put back on right away.  She bounced around the house in her costume, pretending to be a ladybug.

“See?” said Duncan.  “No harm done.  I’ll go drain off the rest of my power, so there are no further accidents.”

“You do that,” Sidney said frostily.

Duncan sighed, then turned away to watch his daughter run laps about the house, giggling.  How could he be cross with that?  Still, to be safe he went into the master bedroom and changed an old T-shirt into a cute dancing top, then used a silver pin to keep it like that until next month.  He could still feel that there was a crumb of power left.  It wasn’t enough to change another shirt, so he wondered what to do.

Curious, Duncan tugged at one of the hairs on his head, and held it up in his palm.  Would it still change so easily?  A tiny breath of power turned it into another top.  He changed the style three more times before he was fully drained.

After Courtney and Victor were in bed, Duncan set their costumes aside, pinning Courtney’s ladybug outfit and headband with silver so they wouldn’t change back too soon.  “There,” he said as he hung them up beside his own costume.  “All set for Hallowe’en.”

“Are you really going to wear that outfit?”  Sidney asked.

Duncan grinned and nodded.  “Yeah!  It’ll look great.  Want to see?”

Sidney looked at the stripy outfit curiously, then nodded.  “Sure, this should be amusing.”

Sidney snickered as Duncan struggled into the leggings, and couldn’t help but laugh as he grunted and groaned to get the torso with its integrated corset settled in place.  “Are you sure it fits?”

Duncan stuck his tongue out at her once he finally had the torso in place, and took a strained breath.  “It fits.  Just.”  He slid his arms into the sleeves, and wiggled his fingers into the paws.  Getting the mask and hood over his head took a struggle, then he turned his back to Sidney.  “Zip me up, please?”

Sidney laughed again as she did so, sliding the zip up from just under Duncan’s shoulder blades, to hide in the shoulder-length mane of stripy hair.  “That’s not something I thought I’d ever hear you... say.”

Sidney stared at Duncan once he turned around to face her, her eyes wide.  “Oh my.  You’re... you’re beautiful!”

Duncan grin was echoed by the muzzle of the mask curving slightly.  He turned to look in the mirror and gasped, a paw tracing the contours of his face.  “Oh... wow.  This is going to be a great Hallowe’en.”

“You can’t wear that!  Your parents are coming over for the trick or treating.  Hallowe’en is on Sunday, and we usually have dinner over there.  But there are never any kids in their neighbourhood, so the said they’d come here...”

“Crap.”  Duncan sighed, and brushed his pawpads over the fur on his forearm.  “Maybe I can wear this after they go home.  For you, if nobody else.”

“I...”  Sidney looked at her husband.  He didn’t look male at all with the corsetry and padding.  “You look...  Why a cat woman?”

“Catgirl,” corrected Duncan idly, staring at himself in the mirror.  “I just...  I don’t remember.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.  Of course, I was Donna then.  But... if I can’t use my power to change myself... this is the next best thing.”  Duncan panted for breath for a few moments, it was still hard to fight against the corset.

“Should I be worried you like being a wom... a catgirl more than being a man?”

Duncan snorted.  “No.  I just like to visit.”

“You’re sure?  I mean, you jumped at the chance to be Donna again last night,” Sidney pointed out bitterly.

“I missed it, I’ll admit.  Not so much being female, as being around people who like what I can do when the Moon is full.  It’s only one night a month.”

Duncan prowled over to his dresser, and picked up a stack of bills.  He held them out to Sidney.  “Does this help any?”

Sidney looked from the bills to her husband’s pretty feline face and back again.  “I... yeah.  They really like that you can change them?”

“I didn’t believe it either, not after...  But yeah.  They do.  Most of this is tips from the dancers I changed.”

“Most of it?”  Sidney asked.

Duncan did a twirl to show off his feline outfit.  The tail swished out and paffed against Sidney’s legs.  “Some of it’s from dancing.  Not much, they keep me busy making people’s fantasies come to life.  You would not believe what some people will pay for fifteen minutes alone with a dancer who looks like their favourite actress or singer.”

“That sounds unethical.”

“It’s sold as a fantasy, not reality.  They know what they’re getting, and they’re all very happy with it.  We make people happy, sweetie.  You should see them.”

“You mean come to the club?  But who’d watch the kids?”

Duncan’s eyes widened.  “I... eef, I’m not sure if I’m ready for that.”

Sidney chuckled softly.  “I’m not sure that I’m ready to see my husband dance topless, either.”

Duncan turned and waggled his bottom at her, tail swishing back and forth.  “Help me get this off and I’ll dance bottomless for you.”

Sidney laughed and did so.  Duncan was true to his word.

* * *

“What’s up, Doc?”  Duncan asked as he sat in the overstuffed leather couch.

Arwen shook his head, but he did crack a grin.  “That joke’s getting old, Doc.”

“I’ll show up with bunny ears one day to sell it.”  That got a snicker.  “How have you been managing as the opposite gender?”

Arwen sighed.  “It has been... more annoying, than anything.  I have to shave my face!  That’s not right.  I hope my skin will recover.  Still, I’ve learned a lot about the practicalities of passing as a woman when you have the wrong equipment.  A few of my clients have guessed something was up, especially one that’s almost ready for your treatment.  He’s really looking forward to being properly male, and... well, after this I don’t think I’ll be able to put him off any longer.”

Duncan nodded.  “Fair enough.  The moon rises really early next time, and it’s on a Saturday to boot.  I could be here a bit before four, if you like.”

“That would be nice.”  Arwen smiled.  “I won’t need to skip dinner with my sweetie.”

“How is Josephine taking the change?”

Arwen pouted.  “Not well.  She’s being a big sissy about sex like this.  She hasn’t accepted that she’s a woman now, that it’s OK to...”

“Try getting her to wear some silver, that’ll change her mind.”

Arwen looked shocked.  “That would be unethical.  But maybe if she puts it on willingly...”

“You haven’t tried it?”

“He hasn’t.  I’ve used silver a few times.  It’s really unnerving being so totally caught up in the role.  It feels normal at the time, but afterward I feel... awkward about what I was thinking.”  Arwen actually blushed.  It was something Duncan had never seen before.

“You’ve only got a few days left, you know.  You should try it.”

“Have you?”

“Have I what?”

“Made love as a woman.”

Duncan sighed softly, and shook his head.  “Not with a man, no.  My wife is very much opposed to that idea.  I’d like to try, but to do it with anyone else would be a betrayal.”

They talked about that for some time, but unless Duncan could persuade Sidney to come in for some counselling of her own, it seemed unlikely that Arwen could help.

“And you’d never change her and her mind without her agreeing, right?”

“Not intentionally, no.  I kind of did so accidentally once... though not into a guy.”

Arwen was of course curious about that, and teased out the tales of how Sidney had almost ended up stuck as a naga, and of how she’d been turned into an eclair by an ill-worded wish.

“I have to say, it sounds like Sidney’s concern regarding your power is well founded,” Arwen noted at last.

Duncan sighed, and hung his head.  “It gets worse.  Last week when working on their costumes, I accidentally gave my daughter cute pink antennae.  She surprised me by demanding a change, and it triggered the image I had in mind at that moment.  I was lucky I didn’t turn her into a bug, to be frank.  I redirected what I could, but I missed the antennae.”

“You need more practice at not doing what people tell you to.  You need to get control of this gift, Duncan, or it surely will control you.”

Duncan nodded his agreement.  “I know!  But the thing is... how?”

“Perhaps you could get your friend Gwen to ambush you with it at the Blue Vixen?  Recruit others there who wouldn’t mind the results. That’s the logical time to practice, when you will have the power to fix whatever goes wrong.”

Duncan’s eyes glazed as he stared into the distance, and Arwen eventually prompted him on it.  “Oh,” he said. “I’m sorry.  I was trying to remember something that was on the tip of my brain...  But it’s gone now.  I guess it wasn’t important.”

Arwen studied him intently.  “I suspect you’re wrong.  You may want to try to chase that down before our next session.  I’ll see you next week, same time.”

Duncan levered himself out of the couch, and nodded to Arwen.  “Next week, then.”

* * *

The next weekend was frantically busy.  In addition to keeping the kids busy, Duncan and Sidney had to get the house tidy enough to be presentable to his parents.  Sidney also went shopping for more decorations to put around the house.  Her favourite were a series of ghost-shaped tea-lights to be put out on the front walk.

Courtney wasn’t old enough to carve a pumpkin, but she did have very definite ideas on what her jack’o’lantern should look like.  The finishing touches got put on shortly before dinner-time, just in time to put it out to greet her grandparents.

As soon as they arrived, Courtney insisted on dressing up in her costume to show it off.  Grandma and Grandpa oohed and aahed at the delicate lacework of the wings, and the glittery carapace that covered them.  Duncan fielded more than a few curious looks, and shrugged off questions about the source of the outfit.  More fun were Courtney’s demands to lift her up and ‘really fly her’ around the room, wings fluttering.

The actual trick-or-treating was anticlimactic.  Duncan went out in his normal clothes and a heavy winter jacket.  Courtney’s wings refused to make a public appearance, so her costume just looked like an extra-glittery pink version of the one from the year before.

Duncan made sure to prompt both kids to say thank-you at each house.  His son even needed a bit of prompting on the ‘trick or treat’ part. Victor only made it to a handful of houses before fussing about being tired and getting carried back home.  Courtney of course wanted to go further, but her own stamina soon flagged as well.  Once her candy bucket was too heavy for her thin arms to carry, she handed it to her father and followed him home.

Sidney fretted over the kids’ candy, inspecting each and every piece to make sure it hadn’t been tampered with.  Duncan protested that their neighbours wouldn’t do anything, but it fell on deaf ears.  Of course, no problems were found, and the kids were allowed to eat as much of the candy as they could stand.

Duncan’s parents shook their heads at that, watching with knowing expressions as Victor and Courtney ran around the house on a sugar high.  They crashed out soon enough, and went to bed with little protest.

By that time the irregular stream of neighbourhood kids arriving at the door had come to an end, so Duncan’s parents took their leave.  Once they were gone, Duncan breathed a sigh of relief, extinguished the candles on the walk, and turned out the lights that could be seen from the road.

“There.  Alone at last.”  He grinned.  “Time to break out the costume.”

Sidney chuckled.  “I wish I had a costume as nice as that.”

“Oh sure, now you wish for that.  If you’d done so at the time, I could have made one for you.  Well... I did keep the naga-tail.  Want me to fetch that up from the basement?”

“Ugh,” Sidney shuddered.  “No, I’d rather not revisit that night.  Why would you keep such a thing?”

“Because it looked cool?  You made a very pretty snake-woman.”

Sidney looked at him curiously.  “You really thought so?”

Duncan nodded.  “Scales look lovely on you.”

“Oh... Still, I think I’ll pass, tonight.”

Duncan shrugged, and went into the bedroom to fetch his costume.  The urge to wear it wasn’t as strong as it had been earlier in the week, but it was still Hallowe’en, after all.  When he lifted it free of the hangar and clutched it against his chest, he got a sudden image in his mind.  A memory unfolded, of watching Gwen dwindle from a woman to a...

“Oh crap.”

Sidney was standing in the bedroom door.  “What?”

“I um...  I just remembered something really important about this costume.”

“And?”  Sidney arched an eyebrow curiously.

“I didn’t use an old shirt to make the costume.”

“So?”

“I... I used a person.  Gwen.”

“WHAT?”

“Shh!  You’ll wake the kids.”

Sidney stormed right up to Duncan, and pointed at the tiger-striped costume.  “You’re telling me that this is a person?” she hissed.  “Another woman?”

Duncan sighed.  “Yeah.  It wasn’t my idea!  Gwen wanted to come home with me... with Donna, really.  She made it sound like a good idea.”

“This is SO not a good idea.  What the hell were you thinking?”  Sidney’s volume was starting to rise again, and Duncan winced.

“She wished that I thought it was a good idea.”  Duncan sighed ruefully.  “You remember how I am with wishes.  The only way it would be a good idea was if the costume wasn’t Gwen.  So I kind of made myself forget that the costume was...”

“And then you WORE her.  In front of me.  I don’t BELIEVE this.”

“Mommy?” asked a sleepy voice from their bedroom door.

Sidney glared at her husband then turned to Courtney and reassured her that everything was OK.  Duncan led her back to bed, and sung her off to sleep once more.

Sidney was perched on the bed, holding the costume when he returned.  She shook the outfit, but kept her voice soft.  “You wore her.”

“I didn’t know.  Honestly.  Besides, with the silver pin, she’s really just a costume in mind as well as body.  Bet she didn’t see that coming.”

Sidney stared down at the costume in her lap in amazement.  “She’s stuck?  If you leave the pin, she’s trapped like this forever?”

“Basically, yes.  But that wouldn’t be very nice.”

Sidney sighed. “I guess.  I suppose you should take the pin out, then.”

“Not just yet.”

“You just said...”

“I know.  But if I pull the pin now, she’ll take days to change back.  She’ll be helpless for most of that time, and likely to get kind of hungry by the end of the first day or so.  If I leave her a few more days, she’ll change back in a few hours, instead.”

“Oh.  I guess...”  Sidney shoved the costume at her husband.  “Put her somewhere that I won’t see her, then.  So I’m not tempted to box her up and hide her from you.”

“Sidney!”  Duncan clutched the tiger-girl costume to his chest.  “You wouldn’t really do that, would you?”

“I see the way you look at that costume, and...  I worry.  Go, put her away.”

Duncan nodded, and went downstairs to the guest room.  He found a padded hanger that had been forgotten in the closet, and hung Gwen up on that.  “Sorry about this, but you’re going to have to wait a little longer.”  He chuckled softly to himself.  “I bet you’re just thinking ‘why won’t he wear me’, aren’t you?  Sorry.  Not tonight.”

Duncan was about to head upstairs when he heard some rustling noises coming from the overflow pantry.  He flung the door open, and there was a bit of frantic skittering then silence.  He sighed, and investigated more closely.  There, a bag of almonds they’d forgotten about.  There was a hole in the bottom, and chewed bits near it.  Not far away, there were some mouse droppings.

“Oh great, that’s just what I need,” muttered Duncan.  “More unwelcome guests.”   He resolved to deal with them before Sidney found out.

The next night, Duncan bought two different kinds of no-kill traps on the way home, and set them out.  While he was downstairs, he brought Gwen out of the closet, and brushed his fingertips over the costume longingly.  Would it hurt to put it on, just for a bit?  He sighed, and put it back.

Tuesday night when Duncan got home, he went to check on the traps, only to find they had been ignored.  There were new crumbs around the almond bag, though.  He’d left it in place as a sacrificial target, figuring that if he removed it, the mice would just chew into something else.

Once he was done with the traps, Duncan turned to the guest bedroom, and the costume hanging in the closet.  He sighed regretfully, then laid her out on the bed.  Wrapping his hand in a tissue, he pulled the pin free.  “There.  You’ll be normal by morning.”  He patted Gwen on the arm.  “I’ll come check on you later.”

A few hours later, when Duncan returned to check on her, Gwen struggled to sit up.  He rushed over to her side, and laid her back down.  “Just rest.  I’ll get you home in a bit, OK?”

“OK,” she whispered in a fluffy, weak voice.  Then after a moment. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?  I’m the one who put a silver pin in you.  Sidney threatened to box you up and hide you, so you’d be stuck forever.  I... don’t think she meant it.”

Gwen chuckled softly.  “But you did wear me, once.  Worth the risk.”

“Really?  Was it that much fun?”

Gwen’s furry face curved into a slight smile.  “Yeah.  Plus... I have faith in you,” she breathed.  “No matter what happens, you’ll rescue me.”

Duncan smiled affectionately at her.  “I will.  Except maybe from my wife.  She was really ticked that I’d worn another woman.”

“Oh.”  Gwen hesitated before asking, “Can I meet her?”

Duncan snorted, then scooped her up.  “If you’re sure... I don’t know how she’ll take it, but... here we go.”

Once they were upstairs, Duncan found Sidney at her computer.  “Hey sweetie.  There’s... uh, someone I’d like you to meet.  Sidney, meet Gwen.  Gwen, Sidney.”  

Duncan held up Gwen.  Her costume body was still hollow, but it was looking thicker than before.  She even managed to wave a paw at Sidney.  “Hello.”

Sidney yelped, then recovered her manners.  “Hello Gwen, pleased to meet you at last.”  She took Gwen’s paw, and gave it a brief, weak shake.  “Um... how are you feeling?”

“A bit flat.”  Gwen crooked her muzzle into a half-smile.

Sidney snickered.  “I can see that.  Does it... hurt?”

“Oh, no, not at all.  I’m fine, just...”  Gwen gestured vaguely with a paw that quickly fell back to her side, “weak as a kitten.”

“Ah.”  Sidney studied the flattened woman for a time.  “What’s it like, being worn?”

“I... well, it’s a bit fuzzy.  You know about silver?”  Sidney nodded, so Gwen carried on in her soft voice.  “I was really just the costume.  And costumes are made to be worn.  So there was this sense of fulfillment, of ... I don’t know... purpose, I guess.  Like I was doing what I was made to do.”

Sidney nodded slowly.  “I think I know what you mean.  When I was an eclair... being eaten felt like that.  Except it was all tied up with the sex, too.”  Her voice hardened.  “Was that why you did it?”

“No!” protested Gwen weakly.  “I was lonely, and I’d missed Donna dreadfully.  I didn’t want to go home alone.  I would have been happy as a ring, or a pen.”

“Speaking of going home,” interrupted Duncan. “I should probably get Gwen back to hers.”

Sidney shook her head emphatically.  “You can’t send her home like that!  She can barely move.  How’s she going to take care of herself?  What if someone breaks in?”

“Then what?”

“She’ll sleep in the guest room.  Leave her on the couch while you go make up the bed, and be sure to clean the washroom.”

When Duncan returned upstairs, Gwen and Sidney were both sitting on the couch chatting away.  He stared at them in surprise, until Sidney noticed he was there.  “Sweetie!  You didn’t say that the Gwen you healed was Gwen Welles.”

“I didn’t... wait, what?  You two know each other?”

“I went to school with Gwen’s older sister, Sharon.  It was tragic what happened to her...”

“I... what?”

“She was driving me home the night I got wiped out by a drunk,” Gwen said with a sigh.  “She didn’t make it.”

“Oh.  I’m sorry... I didn’t know.”

“That’s ‘cause I didn’t tell you.  I don’t like talking about it.”

“Sweetie, could you put some tea on for us?  All this talking is drying out my throat.”

“Mine’s still made of fabric,” added Gwen.  “But tea might be nice even so.”

Duncan just nodded, and went to the kitchen to put the kettle on.  “There’s no way this ends well for me,” he muttered.

“What was that?” called Sidney from the other room.

“Just talking to myself.”

When Duncan went to bed, they were still talking.