“Happy Birthday to me,” sang Jess, then blew out the candles on her cake.  Sitting at the table were two great balloons.  “Come on, Lya, sing along.”

The balloon sat there stubbornly, saying nothing.

Jess rolled her eyes.  “I know the spell is weak enough for you to untie the string if you want.  If you’re this serious about staying a balloon... then give me your power, and I’ll reinforce the spell.”

Still nothing happened, until Jess hugged the big red Lya-balloon.  Then she felt the power trickle into her.  With a sigh, she nodded.  “As you wish.”  The string became even more stringlike, glossy and white.

Jess untied the string from the green balloon, and once again it jetted around the room.  It fell to the floor before it had half-deflated, as it was swiftly becoming Revan once more.  He sat up and gave off an enormous belch to get rid of the last of the air.

Both Jess and Revan laughed at that.  “Polite as always, I see.”

Revan snickered.  “Are you seriously going to keep my wife like that?”

Jess nodded.  “She gave me her power, and she was clear on what she wanted.  I have enough to change you back...”

Revan shook his head.  “A week as a balloon was fun, but I think that’s quite enough for me.  For now, anyway.”

“I’ve still got all her power for the next couple hours.  Anything else you’d like to be?”

“It’s your birthday.  Have fun.”

Jess nodded sharply, then gathered her hands together, building up power between them.  She thrust them toward Revan, and his chest started to tingle then rapidly expand.  Two breasts grew as his torso slimmed down, then the changes radiated out through his limbs, slimming them to familiar proportions.  Revan clutched his new breasts with diminshed hands, staring downward for some time.  Then he looked up to Jess.  “These are Lya’s hands.  And her voice!”

Jess smiled.  “Lya is my birthday balloon.  So once again, someone else has to take her place while she watches, helplessly.”  She prowled toward Revan.  “Now, tell me just how far this infidelity clause of yours can be stretched...”

Revan spared a glance toward his balloon-wife, then smiled.  “I’m pretty sure she’ll be OK with anything you want to do.”

“Will you?” asked Jess, walking fingers from Revan’s shoulder down onto his burgeoning chest, then cupping one of his pert little breasts.

Revan shuddered, and nodded.  He pulled Jess in for a kiss, and it went on and on and on.  Jess stumbled away with a gasp, looking wild-eyed.  Once she got her breath back, she panted, “What was that?”

Revan’s frown creased Lya’s pretty face.  “A kiss.  Lya says I’m very good at kissing.”

“Lya never ever kissed me like that.  Even when we were...”  Jess looked away.

Revan laughed warmly, and reached out to take Jess’ chin, turning her face back his way.  “She told me about your relationship.  I can’t fault you for loving her.”

Jess melted up against him for another kiss, and this time when they broke her eyes looked even more lost.  “God.  I love you so much.”

Revan shuddered as a tingle went through her body.  “What did you do?”

Jess’ eyes went even more frantic.  “Oh.  I... uh...  You might be like this for a while.  Maybe a really long while.”

“Forever?”

Jess shook her head, eyes closed to hide her tears.  “Just a few weeks...  I could change you back while I still have Lya’s magic, but...  God, I’d rather smash a stained glass window.  I’m sorry.”

Revan kissed away Jess’ worries.  Once they’d both gotten their breath back, Jess fanned herself frantically.  “How?  How can you get even sexier?”

“I’m really very good at kissing,” chuckled Revan.  “And you love this body.”

Jess bit her lip and nodded.  “I meant it, earlier.  That kiss...  I wish we could stay like this.  Lya wants to be our balloon, and we are technically married.”

“We do have the next week as a trial run,” husked Revan, tugging Jess toward the bedroom.  Jess followed eagerly.  A minute later she ran back out, grabbed her balloon, and brought it to bed with her.

They stayed that way for a week.  Revan learned many things about Lya’s body in that time, and about Jess’.  And when it came time to offer Lya the chance to stretch her transformation out for yet another week, Jess’ body filled with their shared power once more.  Once the string was reinforced, she turned to Revan.  “I could change you back.”

Revan shook her head.  “You don’t want to do that.”

Jess sighed, and nodded. “I’d rather blow you up.”

“I’ll pass on being a balloon, but... can you blow up parts of me?”

Jess giggled, and nodded, and soon Revan’s breasts were the size and consistency of beach-balls.  They stayed that way the full week, both of them having great fun with them.

After yet another week, Jess and Revan sat down with their favourite bed-balloon.  “Lya,” started Revan.  “I know you love this, or you’d not have stayed so long.  But this is the big one.  If Jess reinforces the string once more, you’ll end up stuck as a balloon.  Maybe you’ll still be a witch.  Maybe you’ll be able to think like a human... but maybe not.  Last call, love.  If you do this, you may never be human again.”

Jess hugged the balloon tight.  “I’ll love you as much as a balloon as I do as a woman, I promise.  Give me a sign.”  She waited, and waited, then shook her head.  “She’s not giving me her power.  I think she’s trying to undo the knot?  But it’s still too strong for her.”

“Give her your power,” suggested Revan.

Jess brushed tingling hands over the balloon, then smiled as the string tying the balloon into its shape came undone.  “She did it!  Yes!  Thank you for...”  Jess frowned.  “She’s still a balloon.”

Revan studied his wife’s bloated form carefully.  “She’s looking a little less red.  Maybe it’ll take a while.  It has been three weeks...”

Jess moved away from the pinkening balloon, finding solace in Revan’s arms as they watched it change.  Before long, it was clear that the balloon’s colour was fading.  As it slowly returned to Lya’s skin tone, a faint outline of a face appeared at the top of the balloon.  Slowly, slowly, more features emerged.  Simple lines filled in with colour, and soon Lya’s eyes were staring back at them.  Her nose appeared next, followed by lips the same colour as the balloon had been.  They opened in a gasp, and suddenly air was rushing out of the balloon.

As the air fled, Lya’s balloon compacted rather than just collapsing.  Her head pressed further out of the rubber, followed by her neck and arms.  The rush of air slowed, and trickled to a stop as the spheres of Lya’s feet returned to normal shape.

Lya hopped up and rushed to her lovers, giving them both a squeaky hug.  Revan was the first to notice.  “Um, sweetie?  I don’t think you changed all the way back.”

Lya wormed her way to sit in between Jess and Revan, then plucked at the skin of her forearm. “Oh!  I’m made of rubber.  Neat.”

“Neat?  I thought you were supposed to go back to normal.  Did you stop the transformation?”

Lya closed her eyes, then shook her head.  “Nope.  No magic on me any more.  This is the real me.”

“Can you become human?” asked Jess.

Lya wiggled her fingers and the sheen on her skin receded.  She settled more heavily between her sweeties.  “Yep.  But... this is magic.  Take it away, and I’ll go rubbery again.  I wonder...”

Lya wiggled her fingers again, and started to expand.  With an abrupt pop that sent her sweeties skittering away she was replaced by a large pink balloon.  Moments later, she was a rubber-skinned human once more.  “That was easy!” she crowed.  “I bet I can do that without Jess’s power, now.”

“And all you had to do was stay as a balloon for three weeks,” chuckled Jess.  “A bargain.”

Lya looked from Jess to her still-feminine husband, and made a tugging motion.  Revan’s body grew back into its familiar masculine curves.  “And I’ve missed three weeks of honeymooning with my sweetie.  We still have a week, right?”

“Yep,” agreed Revan.  “And a lot of missed sex to make up for.”

Jess sighed.  “I can take the hint.  I’ll head...”

“No,” interrupted Lya softly, but firmly.  “I need something extra sexy to wear.”

Jess’ eyes lit up and she practically jumped into Lya’s arms.  Their kiss was intense, so much so that Jess started to melt.  Literally.  She slumped and flowed over Lya’s body, her skin paling as she did so.  Flesh became latex, flowing like water and clinging to Lya’s every curve.  When Lya’s spell was done, she opened her eyes once more, then stood up to pose for her husband.  She was covered from neck to knees in shimmering white latex.  “See something you like?”

Revan nodded mutely, and followed his wife to the bedroom.

***  *** ***

Much, much later, Revan lay tiredly beside his wife, humming contentedly as he stroked his hand across her rubbery skin.

“Do you like it?” Lya asked after the silence grew too much for her.  “I could try staying human for three weeks, see if I go back to normal.”

“You don’t want to.  You’d rather become all balloon than all human.”

Lya nodded slowly.  “Yes.”

“Stuck as rubber forever, or sometimes human?”

Lya exhaled slowly but heavily, her body dwindling as she did so until she was flat on the bed.  Revan kept up his stroking.  “That’s not an answer.  Don’t run away from it.”  He leaned down to kiss her on rubbery lips, and blew a lungful of air into her.

Lya let her head reinflate long enough to answer, “forever”, then went flat once more.  Her body compacted and simplified, until a deflated balloon was lying in the bed beside Revan.  He chuckled at her softly, then folded the balloon up into a neat pile, and tucked it into a drawer.

When he turned back to the bed, Lya’s latex outfit was swelling and growing back into a real woman.  Jess lay on the bed, staring at him with curious eyes.  “Now what?”

“Sleep.  Then we’ll figure something out.  Her birthday is next month, that seems like the right time for it.”

Jess smiled at him.  “Good plan.  She’ll love it.”  She slithered out of bed.  “Sleep well.”

“Where are you going?”

“The couch looks comfortable.”

Revan shook his head.  “We’ve slept together for the past two weeks.  Why stop now?”

“You were female then.”

“And I’m exhausted now.  Besides, aren’t you the woman I married?  It seems the position of human wife is being vacated by Lya.”

Jess slowly returned to the bed.  “Are you serious?”

“Let’s sleep on it, and figure it out in the morning. Okay?”

Jess crawled into the bed, and gave Revan a peck on the cheek.  “Okay.”  She curled up as far away from him as she could manage, and eventually both drifted to sleep.

In the morning, Jess used her limited magic to pull apart the spell on Lya, returning her to rubbery-human.  The three sat and talked for hours, and eventually settled on a deal.  Lya would stay human until her birthday, and Jess would wrap up her affairs so that “Jess” could go away indefinitely.  Then Jess would become Lya once more, and Lya a balloon.

Lya smiled when Jess finally agreed to it.  “It’ll be the best birthday gift ever.”

Jess smirked.  “Better than me getting you as a balloon?  I guess...  I’ll get to bounce on you as much as I want!”

“There’s just one problem,” said Revan.  “How?”

Jess patted his hand.  “I bet your Aunt Talia will have a suggestion.  We’ll call on her when we get home.”

They stayed another four days at the cabin, with Lya spending as much time as she could as a balloon.  Jess would tease her back to normal from time to time, but Revan was more willing to indulge her.

They headed for home a few days early, and took a side trip to Aunt Talia’s place along the way.  The emerald-eyed woman greeted them warmly at the door, and studied Lya with great curiosity once they’d all sat down to tea.

“What have you done to yourself, hmm?  You’re not human any more.”

“I want to be a balloon.  Is there some way I can give Jess my power permanently?”

Talia pursed her lips in thought.  “You could become her familiar, but... I think familiars have to be animals, not balloons.  Oh!  There is one way.  You could bind your power into an object.  It has to be an object of great significance to you.”

Lya pulled off her wedding band and held it out.  “Will this do?”

Talia smiled and nodded.  “It’s perfect.  Rings make excellent vessels for power.  Are you sure?  It is possible to reverse this, but only if you have the ring.  If it falls into another’s hands, they can keep your power indefinitely.”

Lya smiled over at Jess.  “That’s exactly what I want.  I’ve never liked my power, and Jess seems to love it.  This way, when I become a balloon, I’ll be truly helpless.”

“You’ve thought about this for some time,” agreed Talia.  “Well then.  The ritual requires three witches, which we have here right now.  Shall we?”

Lya nodded eagerly.  The ritual was almost anticlimactic, it mostly entailed her holding her power in the ring while the other two focussed on binding it there.

“There,” murmured Talia at last.  “It is done.  Hand the ring to Jess, and see.”

Lya eagerly handed over the ring, and smiled happily.  “It’s gone!  Can you feel it, Jess?”

Jess grinned, and snapped her fingers.  Lya’s rubbery skin suddenly became normal flesh.  “And now you’re a helpless human.  Until your birthday.”

Lya pouted.  “Meanie.”

Jess kissed her, and Lya’s head puffed into a balloon.  “And you love it.”

Lya’s head deflated into limp rubber with a happy sigh.  Talia shook her head in amusement.  “You three are going to have a very interesting life.”

Revan grinned over at Jess and what was left of Lya.  “Indeed.”

*** *** ***

A month sped by.  Jess and Lya moved in to Revan’s townhouse.  Lya spent her days fully human to her disappointment, but her evenings as rubber.  Jess spent her days learning to be Lya, studying the people she knew, practicing the skills needed for Lya’s job.  The week before Lya’s birthday, Jess took over Lya’s job, integrating into the office seamlessly.  The last day, she wore Lya as a scarf so that Lya could have a final farewell.

Lya giggled as she turned back to human once Jess returned home.  “I won’t miss that place, but thanks for giving me a farewell tour.”

“Ready?” asked Revan.  “Tonight is your special night...  I took the day off work to make your favourite dinner.”

Lya ate and ate until she was stuffed.  Then Revan brought out a small chocolate cake with three candles on it, and they sung “Happy Birthday”.

“Make a wish,” said Revan.

“I wish to become a balloon forever,” said Lya firmly, then blew all the candles out.

Jess smiled, and wiggled her fingers.  “Wish granted.”

Jess and Revan hugged the big red balloon between them, then carried it off to the bedroom, where they made Lya the happiest balloon ever.