Leon woke to find Jean busily emptying her closet. “What are you doing? Why are you packing this early in the morning?”
Jean shrugged. “I was full of energy, and the movers are coming in less than a week. We have to pack!”
“Fine, fine. Did you pack up the breakfast dishes yet?”
“Nah, I figured I’d start in here.”
Leon nodded dazedly, then headed out to the kitchen. Once he’d finished eating, he unfolded more of the boxes they’d bought the previous week, and started figuring out what they’d need for the rest of the week, and what he should pack. He’d already filled a box when the gears started turning in his head.
He stormed back into the bedroom, and asked Jean point blank. “Where is the ring? Where is Carrie-Lee?”
“What makes you think she’s here?” asked Jean innocently.
“Her shoes are still by the door.”
“Damn. Knew I forgot something.”
Leon opened the wardrobe box standing beside the bed. “And she’s right here, tucked in with... what are you doing?” His hand shot to the collar as it closed around his neck.
“No taking the collar off, mister,” ordered Jean.
Leon’s hand fell away from the collar. “Jean! What are you doing?”
“Taking over. You won’t let me keep Carrie-Lee, she wants to be kept, this is the only answer. Don’t try to stop me.”
Leon sighed, all his fire gone out. “Fine. You win. But you should at least tell her work she’s not coming back.”
“Right! Right. Give me the phone, I’ll call them.”
Leon handed over the phone, and listened as Jean called.
Jean dialed, then waited for an answer. “Hi! Um, this is an odd question, but can you tell me when Carrie-Lee is supposed to work next?”
Leon sighed in relief.
“Yes, this is that Jean. I... wait, really? Okay. So it’s all set then? Awesome.”
Leon stared at her. “What? What did she say?”
“Carrie-Lee told her I might call. All I had to do was say the word. I can keep her as long as I want.”
“WHAT?”
“Believe me, I was surprised too when they told me I could just... take her. She’s mine now.”
“Wow. Okay. She’s yours. But what about her apartment, her stuff?”
“That doesn’t matter.”
Leon staggered, stumbling against Jean. He shook his head to clear it. “Sorry. Got a bit disoriented there. Of course it doesn’t matter, she’s a thing now. Will anyone else miss her, though?”
Jean snapped her fingers. “Right! She lived with a roommate. I should talk to her, too.”
That call went much like the first. Once Jean had identified herself as “that Jean” there were a series of monosyllabic answers.
“All set?”
“Yep. She’d told her roommate this could happen, too. Nobody’s going to miss her.”
“Okay then. I guess I should get back to packing.”
“You go do that.”
Leon packed boxes non-stop except for when Jean told him to take a break to eat. The collar would not let him do otherwise, and Jean did her best to keep up with him. As a result, by Monday afternoon there was nothing left to do but wait for the movers.
Jean pulled out her pretty new coat, and put it on. “What do you think?”
“It looks great on you,” said Leon. “You shouldn’t leave it in a box.”
Jean spun around, flaring out the open coat, then snuggling it tight against her. “You’re right! It feels so lovely. I really should keep it out so I can wear it.”
“Shouldn’t that be ‘wear her’?”
“No. This is just a coat now. Don’t think of it as a person.”
Leon nodded mechanically. “Of course, love. I don’t know what came over me.”
Jean giggled, and patted his cheek. “Don’t worry about it.”
Leon brightened. “Okay!”
The next few days were quiet ones, spent walking together. Their imminent departure lead Jean to look for out of the way places they hadn’t explored yet. The last two days before their departure were especially quiet because Jean had shushed Leon while they were in an art museum, and he’d been unable to speak since then.
Finally the big day arrived. A large truck pulled up, and a moving team quickly and efficiently loaded up all of their belongings. Jean and Leon put a few boxes of fragile treasures in the trunk of Leon’s car, along with a suitcase each. Jean’s car was being driven to their new home by one of the movers.
When it was time to leave, Leon hopped into the passenger seat as he’d done for the past few days. Jean slipped into the driver’s seat, then sighed. “It’s an awfully long drive. Can’t you do it?”
Leon shook his head mutely.
Jean frowned. “Why not?”
Leon pointed to the collar.
“Have I given you orders that I’m not aware of?” asked Jean, half to herself. That earned her an emphatic nod.
Jean sighed. “Why do we have to play charades like this. Your silence has been nice, but it’s starting to get on my nerves. Why won’t you speak? Was it something I did?”
Leon nodded and pointed to the collar again.
“I’m not taking it off. Forget about it.”
Leon slumped back in his seat and stared out at the road ahead. The moving truck was pulling out. Jean whined wordlessly, then started the car and followed it.
Three hours later they turned up the driveway of the pretty house from the pictures Leon’s Dad had sent. A realtor met them at the door, shook their hands, and handed over the keys. “All yours kids, have fun!”
Jean supervised the movers, while Leon mechanically unpacked and set up their bedroom. Long after the movers were gone, he was still unpacking. Jean busied herself in the kitchen, making sure everything was where she needed it to be. Leon’s father had even arranged to have the fridge stocked with food, so she started on dinner, singing to herself happily as she cooked for the first time in her fancy new kitchen.
Leon stumbled to the table when called, looking haggard, and ate like a starving man. Jean watched him with alarm. “Slow down, honey. What’s the matter with you?”
Leon ate the rest of his meal slowly and silently, then held out his plate mutely.
“More?”
Leon nodded eagerly.
“I won’t unless you ask nicely. You’ve been very rude these last few days. I don’t understand it.”
Leon’s stomach growled, but he said nothing. After a time, he set down his plate, and went back to unpacking. He was still at it, flattening the last of the empty boxes, when Jean called him to bed. He collapsed into it and was immediately asleep. Nothing Jean did or said could rouse him.
In the morning, Jean yawned and stretched, then looked around her new huge bedroom with an enormous grin. “We’re here! We’re really here. It wasn’t a dream.”
She looked over at her husband, and saw the terror on his face. “What? What is it? Oh why can’t you tell me what’s wrong?”
A tear leaked from Leon’s eyes, further wetting an already damp pillow.
“Can you tell me what’s wrong?” Jean asked desperately.
Leon shook his head.
“But something is terribly, terribly wrong.”
Leon nodded as emphatically as he could.
“WHAT IS IT?” screamed Jean, causing Leon to flinch then start crying in earnest.
“Oh God, I’m so sorry,” whimpered Jean, and she pulled her unresisting husband into an embrace. He trembled against her body, tears wetting her shoulder. She petted him and soothed him until her hand brushed against the hard buckle of the collar.
“Oh, fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. It was the collar.” Jean’s fingers were suddenly shaking, and it took her three tries to open the buckle.
Leon ripped the collar from her hands, then stormed out of the room. Jean got dressed, then went looking for her husband. She found him in the kitchen, working on his third bowl of cereal.
“Hungry?” she asked timidly.
“Starving. You worked me like a slave, forgot to feed me lunch, and shorted me on dinner.”
Jean started to cry. “I didn’t mean to!”
Leon snarled wordlessly, then glared angrily down at his now-empty bowl. “That’s the hell of it. I’m pissed at you, at what you put me through... And you don’t even know, do you?”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Leon’s laugh was mirthless. “You told me to shut up when we were at the museum. You... you don’t even remember doing it, do you?”
Jean shook her head. “I assumed you were mad at me, giving me the silent treatment. I’m sorry!”
“Sorry isn’t nearly enough.”
Jean reached for the collar on the table beside Leon’s bowl, but he snatched it away before she could touch it. “Oh hell no. This thing’s done enough harm. I don’t even trust myself with it right now.”
“I trust you,” said Jean hopefully.
Leon blinked in surprise. “After all this?”
Jean moved to his side, knelt beside him. “Please. I know I fucked up, even if I’m fuzzy on the specifics. Please don’t hate me.”
Leon rested a hand on Jean’s head, then leaned down to kiss her brow. “I don’t hate you. I just need some time to get my head on straight. You’d layered on so many commands I could barely think.”
“Sorry.”
Leon stood up, and headed toward the door. “As I said, sorry isn’t enough. If you ever get to use the collar again, be very, very careful with how you say things.”
“Would ‘cancel all commands’ have worked instead?”
Leon shrugged into his parka, and stuffed the collar into a pocket. “Beats me. Maybe I’ll try it on you, later. For now, I’m going for a walk.”
Jean looked guiltily at her own coat, but didn’t say anything as Leon headed out the door.
Two hours later Leon returned to the smell of fresh baked goods wafting through the house. “You’re back!” cried Jean.
Leon stomped the accumulated snow off his boots, and shook out his coat. His cheeks were ruddy from the cold. He gratefully accepted his wife’s offer of hot chocolate, and retired to a chair by the fire.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” Jean asked softly after the silence had gone on much too long.
“No. I did find the borders of our property. One of them’s a creek.”
“We have a creek?”
“Half a creek, anyway. And better yet, a cleared area that’s been planted up in fir trees, of varying sizes.”
Jean smiled with delight. “We have our own Christmas trees? That we can just go out and cut down? Can we go get one now? We’ve got ten foot ceilings in here, and no stupid landlord saying no real trees. I want one that touches the roof!”
Leon chuckled softly at his wife’s excitement, a smile curving his lips for the first time in days. “Let me warm up a little longer first. And... well, it’s over three weeks until Christmas. The tree would be dry as tinder by Christmas Day if we got it now.”
“Aww. I’m just so excited! Can we at least go look at them? I’ll bring a ribbon to tie around the one I pick.”
Leon raised an eyebrow. “That you pick? And who’s going to be doing all the work of cutting it down and hauling it back to the house?”
“If you cut it I’ll haul it back,” said Jean confidently.
Leon stared at her openly. “How on earth do you propose to haul a ten foot tall tree back to the house?”
“As a draft horse, of course,” Jean replied, as if the answer was obvious.
“Right, the ring. I don’t think you can get as big as a draft horse, though. Maybe a donkey?”
Jean grimaced at the idea. “I’d freeze. What lives in cold climates?”
“Polar bears? Wolves, caribou, deer...”
“Reindeer!” shouted Jean, leaping up from her chair and cavorting in front of the fire. “Oh please oh please oh please can I be a reindeer and bring the tree back like that? I don’t care if we can’t manage the glowing red nose.”
Leon laughed out loud at the image, big bellowing peals of laughter. “How could I possibly say no?”
Jean hugged him tight, and Leon set his mug down and returned the hug warmly. “There’s just one teensy little detail.”
“Oh?”
“Your coat.”
“My coat?”
“Your spottycat fur coat that used to be a person.”
“Oh, that!” laughed Jean dismissively, drawing a frown from Leon. “I was never going to keep her. I just wanted the two of you to think I was. Once I found out C-L had arranged for up to two weeks off work at my say-so, I just had to play it out.”
“You... lied? Why did I not even consider that? Wait, what about the roommate, was that a lie too?”
“We played twenty questions so you wouldn’t rumble to what I was planning.”
Leon stared at the mudroom where the coats were hanging. “The whole collar thing, that was just about maintaining the lie?”
“Yeah. Well, it started like that, then I fucked up and gave you orders without realizing what I’d done or how horribly I was screwing up your mind. I really am sorry about that, I had no idea.”
“I know, dear. I know. And I am going to pay you back for that in spades.”
“With the collar?” asked Jean meekly but with a hopeful lilt to her voice.
Leon got up and walked to the mudroom. He pulled the collar out of his jacket pocket, and turned it in his hands. “I... Shit. The things I’d do if I put this on you now.”
Jean’s eyes were shining as she looked up at him. “Yes?”
“No. If I do this to you from anger... I’d hate myself afterward.” Leon plucked the leopard-fur coat off its hook, and handed it to his wife. “Free her.”
Loosing the ring was a matter of untying a knot and slipping it off the laces at the jacket’s wrist. Carrie-Lee purred softly as she flowed back into human form. A very naked human form, which they quickly bundled up in Leon’s coat. Leon rushed her through the great hall and down the corridor to the master bedroom.
Jean giggled when he slammed the door behind the three of them. “You do realize we live on a totally private lot. Nobody can see in the windows until they’ve made it up our driveway.”
“And my parents live five miles away,” noted Leon. “They could show up any time.”
“Oh. Right.”
Carrie-Lee dropped the parka, standing before them naked. “So... I missed a lot of what went on, but I think I got the gist of it. Jean collared you, and made you think I was going to be a coat forever, then... you got muddled up?”
Leon sighed. “She didn’t realize she’d given me dozens of orders. To believe her. Not to speak. Worst was the one to forget about the collar. I was so horribly confused after that, I couldn’t understand what was happening to me.”
Carrie-Lee licked her lips. “Would it offend you if I said that last one sounded... cool? That Jean convincing us that I was going to be a coat forever turned me on? Well, that was partly due to being so goddamn sensitive that being worn was...” She shuddered, hands going to her breasts. “Sooooo good. I didn’t want to change back.”
Leon started laughing again. “Really? I was at least still human, if confused. You’d like to go back to being her coat?”
Carrie-Lee nodded eagerly.
“And you’re not furious with her?” asked Leon, suddenly serious.
“Not in the least. You are?”
Leon chuckled weakly. “Less than I was, now that I know how you felt. Honestly, that’s a huge weight off my heart. But I’m still...” He held up the collar, then offered it out to Carrie-Lee. “You do it.”
Carrie-Lee’s face broke out in a huge grin. “You want me to use this on your wife.”
“And the ring.”
Jean squeaked, but remained otherwise silent, tensely watching her husband and her best friend and hopefully lover debate her fate.
“And the ring,” Carrie-Lee agreed. “To... punish her?”
“She needs to atone. I choose you as the instrument.”
Carrie-Lee stepped closer to Jean, and held the collar up to her neck. Jean nodded, and closed her eyes until the collar was in place. Then she sighed happily as she slumped in relief. “Thank you.”
“For?” asked Carrie-Lee softly.
“I need the collar. I forgot just how much. Do anything to me. Anything at all. Just let me keep it.”
Carrie-Lee held out her hand for the ring, and Leon gave it over. She slid it onto Jean’s finger. “Absorb the ring, so it can’t come off. You can’t take the collar off.”
Jean giggled. “That doesn’t even count as an order. I was never going to anyway.”
“Now,” said Carrie-Lee. “To work. Did I see some gardening stuff in the garage?”
Leon nodded. “Wait, you could see?”
“From the gem of the ring, I think. I could see and hear as well as I do now. Better, I think.”
“Handy. What did you want to do with the gardening stuff?”
“Lead us to it.”
Carrie-Lee and Jean followed Leon back down the hallway, through the kitchen and pantry into the garage. Among the other things left behind by the previous owners was a large galvanized tub embossed with stars, and several bags of potting soil. Carrie-Lee made Jean carry the tub into the great hall, and asked Leon to fetch an old blanket to set under it and protect the floor. Then Jean was sent back for the bags of soil and ordered to fill the basin with them. After she’d swept up the bits she’d spilled, Carrie-Lee had her add water to the soil until it was properly moist.
“Excellent work, Jean. Now strip,” commanded Carrie-Lee.
Jean did so, grinning. “I guess we’re not worrying about the windows any more.”
Carrie-Lee laughed at the reminder of her own nudity. “Nope. Would your folks really show up unannounced, Leon?”
“They might call first. If they show up and see this, they sure as heck will the next time.”
Carrie-Lee and Jean both laughed, and after a bit Leon joined in as well.
“OK sweetie, up into the bin.”
Jean hopped into it, her feet squelching into the damp soil. “Eeee, it’s cold!” She made no move to get out, however.
“Your toes are growing longer, wriggling and squirming their way deep into the dirt.”
Jean squirmed in place. “Ooooh! That feels so bizarre.”
“They’re spreading and multiplying, securing you in the ground.”
Jean’s eyes closed. “So many...”
“Done? Good. They stop moving, holding you in place as your ankles slide together and start to merge.”
“Yeep!” Jean windmilled her arms as her balance became precarious.
“Your knees and hips lock, becoming solid bone,” barked Carrie-Lee quickly.
Jean sighed in relief as her legs stabilized. “Better.”
Carrie-Lee grinned. “Good. Merge your legs together into a single one. It’s the thickness of your thigh at the base, tapering slightly as it rises to your waist.”
Jean grinned, wriggling the rest of her body. “I think I know where this is going.”
“I doubt that very much. Slim your torso out, so it tapers to match your leg. Erase your pussy, your bellybutton, your breasts and your left arm.”
Jean boggled as she craned her neck to peer down at the slim pole supporting her head and remaining arm. “Woah. I’m just a head.”
“Not quite. Lift your arm up, stretching up until it nears the ceiling. Now lock it in place, becoming of a piece with the rest of the column. Splay your fingers like a star with the ring’s stone facing us. Good, now fuse the bones.”
“A star on a pole with a face?” asked Leon.
“Shush, Leon. He’s right, though. The face ruins it. Get rid of it, and your head.”
Jean’s coos cut off as her face melted back into the column of her body. The collar thumped to the ground at her base. Leon picked it up and unbuckled it, then handed it to Carrie-Lee. “She may still be able to hear, but you’ll need this to make her change further.”
Carrie-Lee nodded, and buckled the collar snug around the base of the fleshy pole. “Right. Last step. Grow tentacles, lots of them. Longer at the base, shorter and shorter as you go higher up.”
Leon stared in wonder at the writhing mass of tentacles that Carrie-Lee coaxed forth. She urged Jean to grow and grow until the mass was wider than Leon’s outstretched arms. “And... Freeze! All your tentacles grow stiff bony masses holding them in this shape.”
Carrie-Lee stepped back to admire her handiwork. “There. Possibly the kinkiest Christmas Tree ever.”
Leon moved to stand beside her, studying the result. “Not quite my thing, but... it is certainly striking. Though... I think it really should be green.”
“Oh! You’re absolutely right. Jean, you’re green.”
And in the blink of an eye, she was. If one squinted really hard, she almost looked like a tree. Almost. Leon opened his eyes wide again, and shook his head. “Nope, still not doing it. I know! Decorations. We need garland, and lights. Maybe some ribbons to wind through it, that’d look cool.”
“Do you have any?” asked Carrie-Lee.
“Nah. We just had a crappy little bottle-brush tree with all the decorations built in. We pitched it when we were packing to move.”
“Then it’s time to go shopping!” Carrie-Lee headed toward the door.
Leon coughed significantly, and Carrie-Lee turned back to face him. “What?”
“Clothes. Walking around here naked is all well and fine, but it’s freezing out there. And I don’t think the locals would approve of you streaking the shopping mall.”
“Jean destroyed my clothes.”
“So borrow some of hers.”
Carrie-Lee looked at him as if he’d grown two heads. “We’re not remotely the same size. I’m two inches taller, and two dress sizes larger.”
“So it’ll be a little snug. She has some loose stuff. It’s not like my shirts will fit you any better, they’ll hang like tents.”
After half an hour in the walk-in closet – which Carrie-Lee declared was bigger than her bedroom – they emerged with her wearing one of Leon’s older shirts, a very stretchy pair of Jean’s exercise pants, and a belt to keep the shirt from billowing like a balloon.
“First order of business is some clothes shopping,” declared Carrie-Lee as they headed out the door. “Then decorations.”
Once the house was quiet Jean was left alone with her thoughts. She could see her reflection in one of the windows by the door, and had had plenty of time to come to grips with her new form. The idea of being done up as a proper Christmas tree excited her, but after a time the anticipation wore down to a simple thought circling in her head. “I love them both so much.”
* * *
A few hours later there was a knocking at the door, then an older couple peered in the window. Jean would have covered herself up, but she couldn’t move. Instead she had to watch in horror as Leon’s parents stared and pointed at her twisted, kinky form. She was glad that she wasn’t recognizably human, but from their startled reactions she knew they’d hear about it...
Jean had mostly calmed down by the time Leon and Carrie-Lee returned. Her friend looked stunning in a sparkly red dress, and they were chatting away like old friends. Three large bags of decorations were set by her basin, and Leon started stringing lights up all over Jean’s body. Jean tried not to squirm too much, but every touch made her tentacle-branches rustle. When the lights went on, their glow warmed her heart.
Then there were the ribbons. Satin ribbons, red and gold, slithering between her tentacles as Leon and Carrie-Lee tugged them into place. Carrie-Lee whispered more changes to Jean, making her even more sensitive, and she trembled like a tree in a storm.
When they were done with the ribbons, tinsel, and garlands, Leon and Carrie-Lee stood in front of their tree once more, admiring it. “It’s perfect,” declared Leon.
“Almost perfect. One last thing. Jean, forget ever being human. You are our tree, and always have been.”
Leon stared at Carrie-Lee, then started to laugh. “Oh! Yes, that is perfect.”
They worked together in the kitchen where the tree could see them, ate at a table just out of reach of its “branches”. Then Carrie-Lee got Leon to bring the duvet from the bed, and they curled up in front of the fireplace. The tree watched in delight as its owner teased Leon out of his clothes and got him to lay down for a massage. After a time, Leon returned the favour.
“Mmmm. You have talented hands,” moaned Carrie-Lee. “If you were a woman I’d...”
Leon laughed warmly. “What if I claimed I was a woman trapped in a man’s body?”
Carrie-Lee rolled to her side, smirking at how her breasts drew Leon’s eyes. “You don’t act like one, unless that woman is a lesbian.”
“I spent a week as Leona. Jean and I had more sex like that than in the previous month.”
Carrie-Lee studied his face. “You’d rather be a woman than a man?”
“Right now, right here, beside you? Yes. Monday at work? Definitely a man. In between...”
“In between me and Jean, as a living tentacle-toy?”
Leon’s eyes went wide. “Hell yes.” He moved to get up.
Carrie-Lee pulled him back down. “Let her have tonight, watching the two of us together in the firelight.” She kissed him, then made a little moue of distaste. “Bleh. Go shave, then we’ll see if I can overlook your hairy body and lack of breasts.”
Carrie-Lee and Leon put on quite the show for their lovely tree. In the end, Carrie-Lee couldn’t get past the hair and they faked it as best they could. Leon scooped her up, swaddled in the duvet, and carried her to the master bedroom.
* * *
The next morning, Leon woke to the sound of his phone ringing. He fumbled around on the bedside table for it, and answered blearily.
“Mom!” he exclaimed, suddenly awake. “I’m sorry we missed you. We went out to get some Christmas decorations, Jean was eager... Oh! You... you saw the tree. Um... yes. It is different. It was a... I mean that is... We’re going to put up a proper tree later.”
Carrie-Lee woke and rolled toward Leon, eyebrow raised curiously as she listened to his side of the conversation. He made a squeak of alarm at the realization that he was in bed with a woman who wasn’t his wife, but gamely carried on with the telephone conversation.
“Sorry, Mom. Getting a slow start to the day, the move was a lot of... Yes, we’re all unpacked. Yes, including our clothes... Oh sh...oot, it’s Sunday?” He winced. “Yes, fine, we’ll be there.”
Leon ended the call then cursed.
“What’s wrong?”
“Mom expects me and Jean at church. In two hours.”