Katie rests her head on Tazich's shoulder and puts a hand on her belly. "Eager to maintain your lead, eh?"

"I'm--you're so--" insolent, so preposterous, it's a wind-sacking blow, all the time, even to Tazich "I'm not going to keep handing you the advantage for gloating while you're utterly dependent on me for your chance!" 



Suddenly she feels empathy for every mother she's ever heard complain of having a child who was difficult, who "just wouldn't act right". Maybe they weren't all stupid petulant bitches. Maybe some children are . . . Katie.

But she puts her hand over Katie's and smiles. "For this, though?" Skewerful of wolf to Katie. And another. And another.

"But don't you wanna see your precious little girl grow up big and stro-" Mffff. Chomp. Munch. Chew. Swallow. "Huh, I guess you do. Glad I don't have to show you my ribs again to convince you. I hate to see you sad."

"Your ribs are tragic."

She shifts herself closer to Katie and slips her left hand under the hem of Katie's shirt.

"Just to be clear, it doesn't just look this way, when you're this thin you can actually feel the sensation that your skin is stretched too tightly around your bones. It's terrible."

She moans in horrified empathy and rubs her thumb over the bottom ridge of Katie's ribcage, which is cushioned still too little by her body's general effort to contain and process the first few of what Tazich thinks of as Katie's refeeding meals.

Using just her right hand and a ceramic dish as a counterweight, she rips a huge piece of sourish, dawn-colored dried fruit into quarters and feeds it to Katie.

"Can you not do that?", she says, in between bites. "It's not even sensitive in a good way. It's really terrible."

She feels a twinge of indignation. Can she demand of Katie that Katie let her enjoy this?

She pulls her thoughts together.

"Like, just the rib area is really sensitive, or--?

Sorry."

Oh fuck, now she feels bad for denying Tazich. "Just from the bottom, probably won't be as bad from like, the front."

But the edge is the most --

"the edge is the most informative part, for benchmarking your progress . .  do you think it'll stop being uncomfy once you have" she crooks her pinky finger and holds up the first two joints "about that much fat over it?"

She shudders at the thought. "I would assume so!"

Hee. Shuddering is good.

"You really didn't have any non-romance-related ambitions?" It's hard for her to believe.

"Thinking about the future stresses me out, so I tend to just avoid it entirely."

Nod of still-moderately-unsettled assent.

She will go on feeding and snuggling Katie and eating until Katie volunteers another topic or expresses a desire to stop.

"One day, you're going to be able to squeeze every single inch of my body as hard as you can and not feel a single bone."

Purrrrrrrrr.

"Just handfuls of softness and- hey, I wonder if you will be able to feel the muscle underneath it all? Can I test on you?"

She smiles and winds to arrogantly present Katie with the vast dome of her semi-exposed abdomen, as if saying 'Think you can handle it?'

"Oh. I meant on your arms and thighs. There's no way in hell I'm gonna be able to feel your undoubtedly killer abs beneath all this." She jiggles it affectionately.

She growls and boops Katie's forehead very lightly with hers, mock-pouncing on Katie's shoulders. "Sure, go ahead, feel my arms and legs."

There will be columnar structure palpable, not so much through the fat, as in it. The fat seems to gradate into some inner secret fortress of firmness, which is too well-guarded to be appraised directly.

"My gods, you're built like a castle. Strength and luxury all in one. Exactly what a princess such as myself deserves."

Squeeze. "They make a lot of noise about how Sothis has to be organized like it is because women can't push hand plows . . ." Little derisive chuff.

"Believe me, you know more about plowing than any man ever has."

Nuzzle. Silky growl into Katie's shoulder. "You're very silly.

Possibly literally yes, but there have been a lot of men."

"And they're all gross and you're a goddess."