Life, The Universe, & Everything

They stared at the great pregnant belly on the wall for a while. The skin stretched taut, stretch marks emphasizing the great curve, back arching out. It was hard to think what the woman might have looked like, all those weeks and months ago, in the throes of passion; almost invisible little cells coming together inside of her and...this was the result.

"So...you're here, right?" Lois said. "Like, really here. Not just a figment of my imagination."

"Yes, I'm here." Angelica Blaze told her. The reporter continued to stare at the giant belly.

"You're not human, are you?" Lois asked.

"I'm half human," Blaze admitted. "My mother was a demon."

"Right. Right. Explains all the magic then. Speed things up." The human woman nodded at the picture. "She's carrying octuplets. Eight little babies. Most I'd ever seen."

"You're carrying fourteen. You'll be even bigger." The demon told her.

Lois shuddered—whether from a thrill or out of fear, Angelica could not tell.

"Why me?" Lois asked. "Out of all the women in the world, why me?"

Blaze shrugged. "The heart wants what it wants. I...didn't exactly plan this, you know." The demon sighed. "I'm a queen of hell. I play the villain. I came up to Earth for the usual schemes—corrupt some mortals, convince them to sign away their souls. I wasn't expecting you."

"The missing women," Lois turned to Angelica.

The demon nodded. "They wanted pleasure; I obliged them. Nothing too kinky. The equivalent of a really good spring break in Cancun. You were...different."

"I was a slut," Lois said quietly.

"No. I mean, not that that would be a bad thing," Angelica licked her lips. "You...gave yourself so freely. You accepted me so freely. We..." She hesitated. "We both found something we wanted, together."

The demon reached out a hand, and Lois took it. Automatically, without thought.

"And this place?" Lois asked.

"A construct of your mind. After the...accident...with the spell, the realization sent you inside yourself. Somewhere where you could come to terms with...certain truths about yourself." Blaze waved her hand at the gallery, all the pregnant women that Lois had fetishized over the years.

"It's a kink. One I've had since I was a teenager," Lois admitted. "Reading all those terrible fanfics, all those women getting impossibly pregnant...it was a fantasy. But only a fantasy. Nothing that would ever really happen." She hung her head. "I used to stuff a pillow under my shirt and just...pretend, you know? I'd touch myself while hugging my big belly. Thinking about all the babies. How sexy it would be to be so knocked up I couldn't walk."

She sniffed. "Stupid, right?"

"Not stupid." Angelica told her. "What do you find sexy about it?"

"I...I guess...when my mother was pregnant with my sister. I was very young. I saw her body change...and that fascinated me. Her breasts, the way her skin seemed to glow and stretch...and her stomach. I used to run up and touch it. Just so fascinating, to be able to _do _that. When I got older...and I learned what sex was, the consequences of it all...then it became this sense of danger. Taboo. And that became...this."

Lois gestured at all the pregnant women in her mind. She seemed to shrink into herself. "I'm a freak. I knew girls that got pregnant as teenagers. I was so afraid that would happen to me, I never...I never let myself go like that, without protection. With anyone. Not until I met you."

"Hey..." Angelica drew Lois into a hug, the reporter's chin on her shoulder. "It's okay. This wasn't expected for either of us. But it's happening now. We need to face it...together." Blaze hugged her tighter, feeling their breasts press against one another, Lois' belly caught between them. "I need you. We need you."

"I'm scared," Lois whispered.

"So am I." Blaze admitted. "Our lives are going to change, in ways we can't even imagine. That's scary. But you know something else?"

"What's that?"

"I think you're going to look damn sexy with a pregnant belly."

They laughed, and held each other. The gallery darkened, fading out until it was just the two of them—and then Lois opened her eyes.