Kat flipped frantically through her spellbook. "There has to be something," she said over and over again. "There has to be something."
"Kat, I'm scared," Dan said.
"You're not the only one," Kat replied. "I'm absolutely terrified. I don't want to be your mother, and I don't want anyone thinking I put out, especially not for my brother."
"We didn't have sex," Dan protested.
"But when I turn up pregnant and you turn up missing, everyone will think you ran away because you knocked me up. You know how rumors get started. So be quiet while I find the right spell." Kat suddenly realized that, while she flipped through the spellbook with one hand, she'd started rubbing her belly again with the other. Remembering what Dan had told her, she slowed the stroking motion, but didn't stop.
"Dan?" she whispered, with a flutter in her voice.
"Yes, Kat?"
"This really feels good to you?"
"It feels like you're rubbing soft hands all over my body. It feels like sunlight, and romance, and family, all wrapped in one. It feels so good I can't describe it. And when you do that, I feel so much love for you."
"Love?"
"Yes, love."
"When you say that, do you mean you love me like... your sister?"
"No. It's stronger and more primal than that."
"Like your mother?"
"Um..." Dan sounded hesitant. "I don't love you like I love Mom, if that's what you mean?"
"Like..." Kat had to swallow deeply to be able to say it. "You love me like your girlfriend?"
"That's not it either. It's like half motherly love and half sexual. I've never wanted to make love to you before, but when you rub your hand over me like that, half of me wants to become your lover, and half of me wants you to take care of me and nurture me."
"This feels so good," Kat breathed. "I feel such love for you all of a sudden. And I know what you mean. It's like the part of me that saw you as my brother disappeared, leaving me half aroused and half maternal."
"What are we going to do?" Dan asked.
"I want... you're going to hate me for this."
"I hated you when you turned me into chocolate and ate me, but right now, Kat... Mommy... as long as you keep rubbing me like that, I don't believe I could do anything but love you."
"I want to have you as my baby."
Dan said nothing in response. Kat listened to her womb, and kept rubbing, but he said nothing back. She started to get worried. "Dan?"
"I'm still here," he said.
"Is that what you want? Do you want to be my baby?"