Apple Fields

This took me around 3 months to finish and share it, because I did end up working an English translation immediately as I finished the original, and I was forced to change a few things here and there to improve the flow as I was translating to make it more... delicious? Hence I was going back and forth and so and so. I always try to keep a certain... "voice" when writing, so I wanted to keep it in both versions.

It blew from 15-16 pages in LibreOffice Writer... to 20 (with a difference of 500 words between both versions, but that's the nature of how Spanish -> English kind of works).

(Also some other IRL issues came in - and, I feel this hasn't been my year so far, I swear)

I would have post it sooner, maybe. Only maybe sharing it in Spanish and calling it a day and let anyone interested into basic Google TL or similar... or doing the whole thing from scratch in English... but... I feel there's a lack of wg kink fics (and/or original works) in AO3 in Spanish, and I wanted to do something of my own, as well, in my actual language AND also doing a translation for wider reach... somehow, as an exercise (both kind of exercises - writing smth sm*utty in Spanish is HELL :) ) . But, man, translating is hard work :'3

I'm not going to say that I am not going to do TLs or simply be posting in one language or the other.

Who knows, I might have some other ideas on my mind :'3

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Also another thing I was working back in October for the Feedist Kinktober event, but. You know. Originally, I kinda wanted this idea to be independent from my OCs... but, suuuure... let's get Marshall and Gail on here 👀🫠.

Masks: Marshall uses a bear mask, while Gail uses a fox one.

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A thing that I started doing back in October for Feedist Kintober, but October came and went and I was (kinda still :'3) quite stressed to focus on it.

She eventually had the chance to make a comment and passing it up as a joke to Marshall.

“You know, even going to the prom once wouldn’t be so bad…” She nudged him. “If there was a chance, wouldn’t you want to join me?”

Marshall took a few seconds to reply.

“Pffft. As if.” He answered, dryly. “You probably would have to put me under a spell for it to happen. So, no.”

Of course, Gail knew how he would respond. She knew there were other girls interested in him, and she was… perhaps, never on his sight. At all.

Shrugging it off, she could only laugh. Perhaps… it was just a fantasy she wanted to have, going to the prom with the boy she liked… even if the interest didn’t seem to be mutual.

But then… of course. Ethan passed away. Marshall stopped coming to school. And she also walked away from him, not wanting to make him feel attached to her, all because of the grief he was going through back then.

Needless to say, neither Marshall or Gail went to their high school prom dance. And wouldn’t talk to each other until a fateful day, ten or so years later…

----

“Ugh… This isn’t fitting…” Marshall groaned, attempting to hold his breath as he tried to button the shirt he was trying on. “Nope, not at all…!”

“When was the last time you even used it?” Gail asked, as she heard his loud groaning coming from the room next to where she was at the moment.

A pause was made between the two.

“It’s… kind of embarrassing.” He mentioned, frowning and passing his hand over his neck. “I had to ask my dad to lend me one of his…”

“No way, you did?!”

“I thought… ugh. My dad has a more square built body. Broad shoulders, soft arms... and all of that. And I thought, ‘well, his shirts would fit me, surely, probably, right?’” He said as he attempted to grab more of the shirt’s fabric and force it to button it on his belly’s curve area. “But, let’s say I miscalculated it just a bit.”

Gail couldn’t help but giggle.

“Why on Earth would you ask him to lend you a shirt? I told you it was so much more easier to go and buy one!” She came close to him, so she could hug him by behind. Her hands roaming and making their way towards his pudgy belly. “And by that, by the way… I also mean your entire wardrobe, just judging on how much this is growing…”

Marshall simply rolled his eyes, even though he loved whenever Gail paid attention to his girth. The way she held his paunch, just to squeeze it and tease him, was making him feel things he shouldn’t be feeling in a moment like that, while trying on clothes he needed to wear soon. But, he also thought, what’s better than giving her a taste of the same medicine?

“I also tried a suit on, by the way. But, there’s no chance that jacket is going to close with this shirt not fitting as it is, either. The pants, however? I feel they are fine in its majority. A little too tight on the butt, though…”

“Oho, don’t give me ideas…” She glanced at his face from his shoulder, before kissing it.

He groaned before snorting.

“You sound that you might be way into that. What a devilish woman you turned out to be…”

“Well, I’m not the only indecent around here, Marshmallow” She foxily smiled at him. “I imagine that’s pretty much why you haven’t bought new clothes, stubbornly so. Right, sweetheart?”

Marshall was, undoubtedly, turning red at her teasing. He didn’t like when Gail remarked him how stubborn he was. But it was true (or, partly, at least). He had been delaying the need to buy more newer clothes that actually fit him. He was happy with sweatshirts, sweatpants, and a couple of old tees and pair of jeans. Sure, he had to get new jeans or shirts, but he knew they weren’t enough as he was already outgrowing some of his old clothes, as he was actively gaining (some) weight since he got together with Gail.

It had been two months since they both confessed their feelings to each other. 

Of course, the couple had to arrange some things up to make everything much more fluid, especially in regards to their feedism kink exploration. Marshall, being the logical/no-nonsense guy he was, pointed out that food expenses could put a dent on their wallets if they weren’t careful. And Gail fully agreed. Besides, it was ‘fun to get into it at a slow pace, too’.

“Maybe we do need to get a couple of shirts.” She got away from her boyfriend, giving him a full look from head to toes. “You don’t want to pop a few of those buttons at the wedding, do you?”

He laughed as he was getting rid of the shirt.

“Maybe if it was our wedding...?” He side-eyed her, smugly.

And it was Gail, now, the one who was flushing pink, trying to not say anything about his reply. Every single day since they got together, they constantly teased each other, even if the context didn’t seem to matter.

“We… well!” She attempted to change the topic, as she was shaking her hair off, to wave off his teasing comments. “I just thought we could do this today, because…”

“Because...?” He chuckled, loving every single second of how nervous and embarrassed Gail was looking.

“Because I got it.” She mentioned, as she reached her smartphone to show him a message she just got minutes ago. “I got… I got the publishing job!”

Marshall was caught off guard as his partner shared him the good news. Smiling from cheek to cheek, he hugged her.

“See?! I told you you shouldn’t have had to give up. You are amazing. If your first choice wasn’t going to get you in, someone else would pick you up! Eventually, but, still!”

“I mean, it’s what they say, right? ‘Third time’s a charm’? Isn’t it?!” She hid her face in his softening chest.

“Yeah, that’s exactly what they say…” Realizing she was nuzzling in his also growing cleavage, Marshall just sighed, knowing how obvious she was. He cleared his throat out. “Eyes here, Gail.” He pointed out his sight.

She simply chuckled, mumbling that she was ‘sorry, but couldn’t resist’.

“Okay, you win. Let’s get that couple of new shirts. I really don’t want to get too much attention in an event that’s not even mine… at least not like this, yet.”

“Besides Sam, I suppose that... Natalie suspects a little, does she?” Gail asked.

“Ugh, I don’t want to think about Sammy right now. He might be being oblivious at best, but I feel he is the one that suspects there is something more about my gainings. Natalie, on the other hand… would you believe me that she connected the dots that day at the burger place? I mean, come on, a growing appetite? Me getting chubbier months after we didn’t see each other?”

“That’s true, haha.” She laughed it off. “It’s definitely not hard to ignore. And Sam can get a little…”

“Yeah, he…” He waved it off. “I should talk things out with him about it. Maybe. I don’t know. I don’t want to think about it right now.”

“So, let’s get this clear, again. We need to get a couple of new shirts… and maybe getting a suit more fitting to your figure?”

“Sure. I just want to be and feel comfortable in the whole ceremony.” He leaned in to get closer to her right ear. “The reception is another whole story, though. You could sneak a hand under the table to grab this gut of mine getting filled with the delicious plates of food and/or cake they will serve.”

“Pffft. You are so mean!” She tried to push him away. “Don’t tease me like that!”

Marshall grabbed her cheek to kiss it.

“I mean, you are welcome if you want to humor me there. It’s not like I have enough of those eyes of yours stripping me when I stuff myself...”

“Wow, now who is the one getting naughtier now?” Gail laughed.

He foxily grinned as he was sitting down on the bed.

“So, tell me, Gail… what exactly you want to wear for the wedding?”

“Hmm…” She got thoughtful for a brief moment. “I’m still deciding if wearing dressing pants or this very skin-tight dress I have in the depths of my closet…”

“Perhaps you could impress more with that dress?”

“Do you want me to wear a dress so much, huh?”

“I’m just saying that you could.” He inclined his head to a side. “I want to brag about my beautiful partner to everyone. Although, I love how fine you look in those pants… let’s say, we can get a little… mischievous later.”

“Too tempting.” She closed her eyes considering it, with a foxy grin on her face.

Natalie’s wedding was still a week away. 

Although Marshall had the habit of doing everything with time without pressure,, he definitely was late in trying on the suit and shirt he got lent by his father. After all, his mind had been quite busy since he and Gail were dating for real.

On one hand, he had been feeling better. True. On the other, he was well aware that he hadn’t been magically mentally recovered. Nightmares still came and went, he might get anxious from time to time, and his grief may never disappear. But… he had been feeling better and happier with himself. In words of his therapist, she was relieved on how Marshall was choosing other coping mechanisms, and how he had been fixing his relationship with his body and self-image, at least.

And, Marshall was happy that Gail was at his side, despite everything, as much as Gail was happy with him at hers.

Grabbing a pair of pants and a tee to change into, Marshall sat down again on his bed, which gave him a brief moment to express something he had been considering but haven’t expressed it, yet.

“I have been thinking about this for a little while… but, what if I move and we live together?”

Gail froze.

“What…? Living… together? Us?” She pointed him out and back to herself.

“Yes.” He closed his eyes, removing his glasses to clean them off. “I have been feeling, like... I ask you a lot to come here. I live far away from your apartment, and also far from your current workplace… And, well… Think about it, I have a car, and I could drop you off, even at your new workplace. And maybe our expenses wouldn’t be as much if we cooperate on them together.”

“Ugh…” She groaned, fidgeting her fingers, lowering her head, her sight pointing the ground. “I don’t know… isn’t it too soon? It’s been two months since we started dating and...”

“Gail, whenever I see you, all I see is the person I want to be with. Sure, we have been going out for months, dating for less, clearly. But, I am quite convinced that this could be fantastic for both of us.”

“Marshall…” He grabbed her hands.

“Look… I… I’m serious when I talk or tease you about ‘our wedding’. I do want to get married with you.” He said, looking at her, whose eyes were tearing up. “Maybe not now, obviously, haha. But, perhaps once we get stable... Maybe we might do the things you may want to do over mine. We might need to brainstorm this when the moment arrives, haha. Until then, the only thing I do know is that I want to be with you, much more than just a boyfriend, a lover, or a spouse.”

Gail scrubbed her eyes, thinking in how to reply to him.

“I know… I perfectly know this isn’t a proposal… but, why are you making me cry like this?” She teared up more, clenching her teeth.

“Because you love me as much as I do love you?” He smiled in a delicate manner, looking at her eyes.

She slowly nodded.

“Why not… do we take small steps? Let’s try this idea out. Let’s live together, and see where that take us.” He rubbed her hand with his fingers carefully.

She looked away for a second, just to look back at him, nodding.

“Yeah, let’s.”

“Yeah. I’m glad we are in the same frequency, then.”

With that, he pulled her in so he could kiss her, also pushing him to fall back into the bed.

“How should we celebrate these news?” Marshall asked as he reached her hand to intertwine their fingers.

“Isn’t it enough if we just go and buy your clothes, first?”

“Well, you know…” He leaned in to whisper to her ear. “I’m getting hungry myself…”

“Oh, ho…” Gail replied with a flirty tone of voice. “Do you want to get stuffed first so you can try them out like that?”

“Well, you tell me~.”

“What if we start with a make out session first?” She proposed, tightening her hand grip with his.

“Oh, so you want to get all worked up before shopping, huh.”

“I’m a very simple woman, you know?” She added.

Marshall poked her nose.

“Not so simple if it took me a long time to get you…”

The comment made Gail giggle. She knew he was joking, but it still made her sigh if just a little bit. Even so, Marshall couldn’t not look at her with endearment and affection.

“If I have to guess… you still can’t believe it, huh?” He started to rub her back with care. “Although… I do admit I am rushing some things out, haha…”

“No, no… it’s fine…” She responded. “It’s… still hard to believe, I think. Regardless, I know this is all real.” Her hand roamed all over his torso, making him close his eyes, getting goosebumps as he appreciated her light touch… 

“It is.” He inclined his head just a bit. “‘All has been aligned, the stars, the skies… all so we could be together’, you could say, I guess. And I’m glad we are. There’s plenty of things I would have done differently back then, but…”

Gail kissed him first, her lips getting warm as he responded with another push back from his mouth. It made him chuckle.

“Hmmm. Have I told you your kisses are very soft?” He muttered while getting some air.

“Plenty of times, actually.” She chuckled, as she grabbed his cheeks. “You have been getting very soft as well, right… here… Like, where are your cheekbones? These are clearly very squeezable, now…” She gave Marshall a few light slaps, which made him blush all of sudden, but not as much as Gail’s hands started to move towards his mushy sides.

And then he rolled around to trap her below his widening body. Gail couldn’t not groan when feeling his weight over her. 

As such, she roamed her hands, rubbing his love handles, slightly squeezing where she could. Marshall whimpered at her touch, feeling as sensitive as he could, since his skin was starting to show red small stretchmarks covering his sides. He even wasn’t that fat yet, and yet…

“It’s the idea of getting too fat making you feel… like this?” Gail murmured in his ears, as if casting a spell onto them. “Or, is it, maybe the thought of you covering me even more with a wider body? Squashing me even with its weight?”

That teasing left Marshall all embarrassed.

“Would you pick one… or both, my sweet marshmallow?”

Marshall moaned, as her hands sunk onto his back.

“Both… fuck, I really want both…” He breathed in so he would kiss her with so much intensity. “I’m getting so… so hungry…”

“And I will feed you… you have my word”. She replied, as one of her legs started to wrap around him.

Marshall’s face leaned in, his lips roaming her cheeks, to slide down towards her neck, nuzzling slowly and surely. Gail relaxed and moaned with delight at his moves, as they were making her all weak, as if he was knowing exactly where to go and what to do. Not to mention his hands were going all the way through her thighs and torso.

“Order whatever you want, I…” She gulped, as he reached her collarbones and started to lick and nib on her soft skin, letting her moan. “I already have appetizers waiting for you in the kitchen.”

“You sure you aren’t my appetizer?” He chuckled, teasing her with a lower voice, just before licking his lips and showing his teeth.

“Haha. Maybe…? Just a bit?” Her voice was trembling as he looked at her, like a beast looking at his prey. “We could go to the kitchen if you…”

“No.” Marshall replied. “Let me finish first with you, my dear Gail…”

“Mhmmm…” She moaned. “You are becoming so, so greedy.” She teased, as one of his hands was getting under her shirt, reaching her breasts, while she immediately understood to unbutton it, as well.

“I wonder whom I can blame that for?” He smiled back, leaning in back to kiss her. “Would you keep at my pace?”

“Haha.” She pushed her lips into his, her hands grabbing onto his head. "Always."

----

Christmas-like lights decorated the entire ballroom, while a sappy romantic 90s song was sounding in the background. The main stars of the event dressed in their best suit and dress at the front tables, surrounded by their families and friends. The couple exchanged looks and smiles, before hugging each other, and sharing their first kiss to everyone, as a married couple.

This scene of Natalie and her now-spouse kissing sparked something inside Gail as she looked at the couple. She was sitting down in one of the guest tables alongside Marshall, as she was invited as his “plus one”. But that something was a warm feeling, she was sure about it, but she wasn’t sure at what or why she felt so entranced by the entire moment. Was it the dress? Or maybe it was a desire, a thought of her, imagining herself and her boyfriend doing a similar “proclamation” of love towards their families and friends?

It had to be the latter. There was definitely something about weddings and receptions like that one.

Didn’t help that the way that Marshall almost proposed to her had been on her head since, as well. To tell the truth, she wasn’t sure about “marriage” as a concept. After all, she remembered being front-seat on how her parents’ relationship deteriorated over time, leaving her scars of expectations and falling outs that she might never recover from. As long as her dad was happy as a divorced man, she was fine with it.

She knew her parents’ relationship was anything but, and that she shouldn’t have to take it as an “example” of how things might go if she got married with Marshall. All she knew was that she loved Marshall and, the idea of them being spouses… was exciting, to say the least. 

Marshall suddenly caught her distracted look.

“Hey, how are you doing?” He took her hand and put it on the table, as he murmured to her ear.

“I’m doing fine. Thanks for asking.” She lowered her head, wanting to not think too much about it at that moment. “I’m in awe at how... Natalie looks beautiful in that dress.”

“I noticed, yeah.” He fixed his glasses and gave a glimpse towards his childhood friend, before looking back at Gail. “But, you sure look much more beautiful right now.”

She was wearing the skin-tight black dress she talked about... if only because Marshall was wooing her all the past few days after she tried it on.

“Stop…” She rested her opposite hand on her forehead, laughing. “I knew I shouldn’t have given in!” 

“Regardless, I think I know what were you doing earlier.” He said. “I can’t stop thinking that, one day, those could be us, as well.”

“Yeah, that would be such an idea, right?” Gail mentioned as she looked at how the groom was cutting the wedding cake, offering a slice to Natalie, before stuffing it into his mouth. “Although, who knows, maybe by then, that belly of yours would become such an issue~.”

She raised her brow as a way to tease him.

“Ah, but you would end loving it, I bet~.” Marshall was quick to respond and tease back. “You would love to show off how well fed is your wide and fat husband. And imagine, just like that, stuffing him even more with cake!”

“Shush…” She blushed, while taking her glass of wine to give it a sip. “By the way, how does it feel? The suit, I mean?”

“Well… It’s right. Exact. Fitting. Especially right now after we just ate.” Marshall took his jacket and pulled it up to show off exactly what he was talking about. His shirt was looking tight, and so did his pants, as he pulled his thighs apart on the chair to let her see a bit of the way his belly was taking space off over his lap. “I even robbed some looks earlier back when I went to salute Natalie’s family”.

“You really are something… wider, I mean.” She mumbled taking a slight glimpse at him. Of course he was robbing some looks if some of the guests vaguely remembered a thinner teenage Marshall. His suit’s jacket closed up fine, and so did his shirt… at least when they bought them, but they certainly… remarked his newly gained curvatures that past week.

“As soon as those slices of cake come by… you can stuff me as much as you want to… if you like the idea, of course.” He took his glass of wine, and smugly drunk from it.

Gail gave another look at his growing belly, before slipping her hand under the table to give it a few slaps.

“Haha. If guests in the closer tables leave more cake, maybe I would.” She raised her eyebrows with a teasing smile. “Maybe we could do that when they are too distracted taking pictures and the like. Maybe we can sneak elsewhere, as well~.”

“Well, knowing how are these… it’s highly possible all that might happen.” Marshall pointed the air as another romantic song was making its entrance by the way the DJ introduced it to the guests. “But, before all of that…  I wouldn’t mind a dance with you.”

Gail’s face turned red, taken off guard by his suggestion. Chuckling, she shyly wanted to tell him she didn’t want to do so, even though he was standing up already.

“Come on, Gail.” He went behind her back, grabbing her shoulders. “Let this also serve us for practice. Wouldn’t it be nice if we do so?”

“Sure, it’s just…”

“You aren’t a good dancer?” He robbed the words out of her mouth. “I’m not good either, you know?”

“Yeah, I’m… gosh, I don’t want to get so much attention and…”

“You have been working that fine since I met you again at the coffee shop” Marshall replied as he rested his hands over her chair. “Besides, I kind of owe it to you.”

“Owe me, what exactly?”

“Ah, this is embarrassing… but, high school’s graduation prom?” He said, scratching his neck. “‘Maybe, going once wouldn’t be so bad’?”

“OH. That???” She briefly flashbacked when she made him that suggestion, ages ago. “Ugh, I kind of hate your good memory. Why do you even remember that?” Looking him up, she finally stood up. “It’s been so long since and…”

“I know. I know it’s been so long, and yet…” Marshall told her. Shrugging it off, he looked away from her. “I didn’t go, and I am assuming you didn’t, by the way you are reacting. There’s a small chance I even thought about it, okay? Chilling out or something at the prom. Or maybe skipping it all together with you, while we bickered about something you watched on TV, convincing me to watch it as well. There’s a lot we could have done that day.”

“Maybe even making out each other?”

“Maybe.” He snickered. “That would have been possible, too.”

“Yeah, right…” Gail looked at the floor, thinking about the possibilities, a little nostalgic. Although she was conscious that they both were different people at that moment than they were in the past.

Marshall took her hands, and raised them to his chest. “Let’s think about today, and live through it. Let’s dance a bit and have our own fun later. We both deserve it.”

Gail closed her eyes, thinking about it more clearly: the beautiful today and wonderful tomorrow that would wait for them.

“Yeah, we kinda do, right?” She finally responded, taking his lead. “Let’s go then, Marshall.”

Although they weren’t the married couple, they liked to act like it. As the next couple of songs were flowing in the air, they looked at each other with endearing eyes. Gail’s arms were locked in Marshall’s neck, and his were hugging her waist, dancing at a slow pace rhythm. Their bodies were as close as possible given the space that his belly was taking on the front, obviously, but it’s clear that, for other guests, they looked quite in love with each other. As they did, actually.

There were some chuckles coming from their lips as they tried to talk to each other, murmuring into their respective ears about stuff, even though the music wouldn’t let them talk with each other. They also wondered about other things, other past possibilities (they admitted it was impossible to not think about it, though), but the couple clearly loved where they were at that moment.

At one moment, Gail rested her head on his chest, quite relieved about everything, really.

Maybe they would sneak out later to enjoy some kisses, making out, and other kinky naughty stuff, sure. But they were really enjoying the moment.

Maybe, it wasn’t so bad that they missed the prom. Maybe it wasn’t so bad for Gail and Marshall meeting again after ten years or so despite everything that happened in between, really. They got reconnected, and became part of each other lives’ again… realizing they liked each other more than they originally imagined.

They were both under the same spell, being in love with each other, and enjoying every minute of it.

After all, it wasn’t so bad to take small steps together.

---------

And so, this is the finale. It took me around three months to finally put a ribbon on this but, in the meantime, I had to destress myself working on smth else (iykyk), and my inspiration for that smth else also took me away (also, summer being summer, ugh).

For reasons beyond me, I dunno why I like writing this kind of important scenes at weddings (or parties, esentially), lol. But I wanted to finish the story in something nice and somehow I even managed to cycle back to the introductory paragraphs of the chapter in the past, :).

I want to be clear this isn't the end for Gail and Marshall and their stories together. I want to keep doing sweet stuff around them in the near future, but this story was more of an introduction about them as a couple and how things work out with them (although I'm sure you might have read the Possession one-shot I did last year? I hope I still got the vibes from it, lol).

“Eh? No, no… no!” Gail responded as she wasn’t too happy at that giggling scene with her co-workers and Marshall. “What are you doing here? Right now?”

“Oh,” interrupted Gina, “Marshall was telling us funny stories about you two when you were classmates in high school”.

Marshall smugly grinned at Gail. “Come on, they are truly fun.”

“I’m not sure why would you think they are…”

“Gail, Gail. Your stories are really good, trust me.” Gina told her. “Besides, it’s not like… we all were so different in high school.” She added, inviting her to sit down. “Like, I used braces back then… and GOD, my life was hell.”

“For real?” Asked Fran, the other co-worker, with amusement. “I didn’t have that bad of an experience… then again, it’s probably because I used them in college.”

“Pffft! Of course, you don’t get the stares and the jokes once you are there. Everyone’s busy with their life stuff.” Gina replied with a humorous and sarcastic tone, as she crossed her arms.

“I don’t think you could have looked bad with them…”

“You will catch me dead if I ever share pictures with you, Fran.”

“You also don’t have to be mean to me like that!” The guy responded, making the others laugh.

“Hey,” Marshall made a signal to Gail, grabbing her jacket’s sleeve, so she wouldn’t be lost. “I was telling them about a few things, like the DND campaign we made that one time at Henry’s, you know the one.”

“(The costume incident?!)” She nervously remembered.

“...And that one Literature project we did in which we almost submitted a stage play for the class and I was so done with it, because I refused to act it out…” Marshall continued, as he took a sip of his decaffeinated vanilla latte.

Gail groaned as she started rubbing her temple, remembering more specifics about those events her ex-classmate was sharing with her friends, and unfortunately for her, all of them were fully embarrassing: all her antics… her persistence to do some things… her writing scenarios… her weirdness… and also, dragging Marshall to all of those (if possible).

“Oh! And also about that revenge prank you both did!” The pink-haired young woman threw in. “WOW! It’s just… unbelievable! The bullying you went through, or the fact that you two weren’t really friendly at each other.”

“Ye...yeah…” Gail responded as Gina smacked her on the back.

“And then both of you taking those bullies with one epic prank? GOSH, why didn’t I go with you two in high school?!”

“We are actually a couple of years younger than them, Gina.” Fran remarked, grasping her shoulder.

“I don’t think it was as huge as that...” Gail responded back, shyly.

“I wouldn’t minimize it.” Marshall said. “It was epic.” He smugly smiled at her back, while also patting her shoulder.

Gail couldn’t not notice how soft Marshall’s profile was looking as he was smiling. And she... simply grinned back, despite how embarrassing and also slightly worried she was feeling at that moment, but she didn’t want to ruin the moment they were having at all.

However, she wasn’t the only one looking at Marshall. In the meantime, Gina was trading stares between this pair as they were sharing smiles and giggles with each other. She surely knew about the guy’s frequent visits to the coffee shop, so what she was looking were the small details that didn’t seem to coincide with how her friend firstly pointed her out about his presence, months ago. Sure, he had shaggy dark-hair, some stubble, and those thick glasses… but the man was definitely not as slender as he used to be. It didn’t take long for her to put one and two together, with how Gail was exchanging gazes with Marshall. She was well aware about what her friend found attractive in a guy, so she wondered if she… or he… well, if someone took a step forward in their ambiguous relationship as he was obviously getting bigger.

Gina proceeded to incline her head towards Gail and murmured, in a teasing tone:

“Your guy has gotten soft…”

The comment just made Gail bump her head with Gina’s, gritting her teeth, faking a grin.

“Ouch…” But she continued to tease her. “So, did you...”

“No!” She whispered.

The thing going on between those two made Gina smile with devilish intentions. It was obvious to her what might have been going on, even if her friend was denying it. Although they weren’t as modest to point it all out in front of them. Also, there was something of that ‘old saying’ (with quotations, this wasn’t sourced) of “it isn’t your business… but you want to know all the gossip.”

“What about your interview, Gail?” Fran asked to the dark-haired woman. “How did it go?”

Gail’s eyes suddenly fell onto the table they were all sitting in. She closed them and breathed in deeply.

“Hopefully good!” She smiled, as she fixed her hair, putting her bangs behind her ears. “They said they were going to call me in a few couple of days, so…” She crossed her fingers, finishing with a nervous laugh, not sure what to actually tell them.

The small movements, the way her voice went highly optimistic, and the nervous smile. Perhaps Gina and Fran wouldn’t notice it as much, but Marshall did. Something wasn’t right with what she mentioned.

“Oh, you know…” She tried to change the topic. “There was this another time where Marshall and I…”

“Gosh, why did you have to wait for me in the coffee shop?!” Gail covered her eyes, not wanting to rub them because of the contact lenses she was using that day. She was walking (once again, how many times they have had walked back together? She has lost the count) at Marshall’s side around the neighborhood.

“Wasn’t that the best place I could have waited for you?” He argued. “We discussed this before.”

“Well, yes!” She exclaimed, as she crossed her arms “It’s just… geez, why did you tell them all of that?”

“To be honest. Gina seemed to be very curious about us… about me… so she kept insisting. I couldn’t turn her down.”

“Of course she did.” She mumbled, sighing. “I’m sorry if she was too nosey.”

“Nah. Not at all. I realized that you are in good company., after all. I was curious about your current friends, too. I only know them by sight or from whatever you have told me about them.”

“I guess that’s valid. How is it that you still go from time to time there and haven’t had the chance to talk to them?”

“Hmmm… I wonder.” He glanced at her, from head to toes. “They are not the ones that take my orders to my usual table often.”

Gail mumbled a silent “I see”, as she kept walking.

“Maybe I should have arrived earlier…”

“Well, I don’t think you could have avoided the questions of your friend, regardless. I’m impressed, however, as it seemed you were still running out of air as you arrived there. I sent you a message as soon as I dropped off my therapist’s place”.

“By the way, how did you do in your appointment?” She asked, genuinely interested. “I didn’t have the chance to ask you back in the text message.”

“It was… fine. The usual, I think?” Marshall rolled his eyes, and put his hands inside the hoodie’s pockets, as if it was hugging his gut. “According to her, I have been looking quite well these days, so there’s that. We talked about a bunch of things that I have been doing lately. We even managed to arrange a schedule so I can organize my working times more… oh, and I finally told her about how well the herbal teas have been working with my sleep. Unbelievably so, she now wants to try that specific tea recipe and wanted me to share the recipes with her. Looks like your heirloom recipe book is a success.” He nudged her with his shoulder.

“Of course, I shouldn’t doubt what my grandmother trusted me the most.”

“You aren’t taking enough credit, Gail.” He said. “I have talked about you with her. And she agrees that mending my relationship with you has been very helpful, as well.” He adds, while side-eyeying her and grinning.

“Heh.” She chuckled, although she nervously rubbed her arm. “I’m… happy that it happened, too. Glad that we are still hanging out, after all.”

“Yeah.” Marshall paused, as he thought it was probably the moment to ask her about something that he had noticed moments ago at the café. “How about you? How did the job interview really go?”

Gail stopped her walking.

“What… what do you mean?”

“It’s my sixth sense.” He gestured with his hand close to his forehead, fidgeting his fingers, as the answer caught Gail by surprise. “Okay, no, really. As if. I did, however, looked at how rather nervous you were when your friends asked you about it. Remember how observant I have been about your quirky habits since we were teens.” He fixed his glasses, as he put his hands over his waist.

Gail pouted. He can still read her that much, huh.

“To be honest…” She let out a sigh. “I don’t think it… It didn’t went well. I did try my best, you know? I talked about why I wanted to work in that publisher, about how it didn’t even matter if I could start with the basics.” She then inclined her head to the side, growing frustrated. “But, I don’t know why the latter part of the interview focused about my face appearance. They thought I was too pale, even if I did my make-up correctly, or that my eye-bags were too noticeable, despite trying to explain them that they were pretty natural at this point of my life. Then they added that I should have been looking much more… feminine! And friendlier! And, I mean! Tell me, Marshall, does this expression inspire you ‘trust’ in talking with me?”

She even pointed out a small smile, while putting her palm hands to frame her face.

“I mean, I suppose it does…? But, that’s just me...”

“Ugh, you know? Maybe I should have used my glasses…” She relaxed her forced smiling expression.

“You do look fine with your contacts lenses.” He interrupted her. “Your sight shouldn’t be always framed by your glasses.”

Gail blinked as he said what sounded like a compliment.

“Well… Thanks?” She stroke her hair. “Although, I only used them because…”

“Because you asked me for tips to make a better impression for the HR recruiters, days ago.” Marshall sighed now, before scratching the stubble around his soft chin. “They truly underestimate the work you put with your presentation, if that’s what they are looking for. It’s not like you are going to work face to face with potential clients?. You would supposedly be doing heavy text work in a publishing house...”

“Exactly!” She pointed out. “I was just hoping my credentials are enough. I didn’t waste my time to get my major in Classic Literature and learning about editing and text correction. It’s just… unbelievably discouraging and…”

“Stop.” Marshall took Gail’s arm, making her gasp. “You will be fine, Gail. You are and look fine. Amazing, even. That suit you are wearing fits you incredibly and your eyes…”

“Wh… what about my eyes?”

The man bit his tongue as he realized that he was very close to confess further how much he liked her. But he suddenly shook his head, basically saying, “screw it”.

“I think… your eyes look beautiful the way they do… even when they aren’t framed by your glasses.” He briefly paused to add, shaking his hand. “Ah, of course, that doesn’t mean that you should use contact lenses all the time. I know, perfectly well, they aren’t for everyone! They can be bothersome, and… annoying and...”

“Oh… oh! Right! Right…” Gail was caught in a loop of disbelief with what she was hearing and what she was understanding from the comment her old classmate gave… or even the intentions behind it.

Suddenly, Gail was also caught in another kind of moment. She took a deeper glance on Marshall’s body. He definitely has been getting chubbier now. His old baggy clothes were less baggier and more snug now, as he was filling them in places. How much did he weigh now? Holy shit… even his hoodie was letting her peek a bit of his subtle stomach, he had a hair trail right up towards his belly button, as well, huh… He was chubby, still not as fat as she would expect, but he was getting there…

She got lost in words.

“Gail?”

“Ah… sorry…” She got called out and even giggled to hide her sudden embarrassment. “Was… was I staring too much?”

The way she worded it made him boil like a teapot. His neck got hot, enough to reach his ears. He (very obviously) knew she was staring longer than she should have… but somehow? He wanted her to take his current appearance… aaallll in…

“No… no! It was... fine…” He scratched his left ear, around the small two moles he had in that area. “Where… where do you want to go now?”

“Ah, right…” Gail paused, thinking for a bit. “Do you mind if we get some burgers as a meal? Honestly, I feel like I want to drown my frustrations with some junk food.”

“Pffft. I didn’t expect you were one of those people that drown their frustrations with greasy food.” He sarcastically mentioned. “This wouldn’t be a first time”.

“Hey. Careful.” She nudged him back.

“No, no. I completely get it. It’s nice, isn’t it?” He scratched the back of his head. “Perhaps I should be a sympathetic eater and share your frustrations. Would that mean I can order all what I want?”

“A ‘sympathetic what’??” She laughed. “Order as much as you can if you want to, then…” She answered again getting caught off guard. “Wait, no, no! You know I’m on a budget! We are on a budget! What…”

“Haha, I’m just playing with you.” He poked her nose before walking faster. “Come on, don’t stay behind!”

Gail was quite... perplexed. Was Marshall this playful before? When was the last time that he… he even poked her nose…?

“(What has gotten into him? It’s like…)” She spent some seconds thinking, until she came to a realization. “(Is he teasing me about… that…? Wait. Wait, wait, wait… does he already know?!)”

The burger joint they decided to go to had become their regular for a bit too much in the past four months and a half. It was certainly becoming one of Marshall’s favorites as he seemed to appreciate how varied their specials were, and he was curious to taste new combos to find exactly what he would like the most. The first time they both went there, Marshall was truly hesitant because the portions they served were very big, of those “my eyes were bigger than my stomach” kind of servings. But given the encouragement from his companion, for so many times, he started to don’t mind as much.

The thing, of course, was that Marshall’s appetite was growing. No doubt about it. Gail was always taking mental notes for him. This time he went to order one of their big juicy grilled burgers prepared in a “hawaiian” style (it had pineapple and ham with a sweet sauce to complement it), with a side of fried potato slices and onion rings, with some of the house’ dressings and sauces. As for her, she ordered a special burger with mushrooms, with onion rings as a side-dish. Even though she knew her appetite was smaller and more measured than Marshall, she thought that watching him to feast was her main dish in that particular meal outing.

From how much time Gail has spent with Marshall during these kind of meals, she knew he used to have a very reserved kind of character when eating in front of others, but as of lately, it was like he was relaxing it much more than the usual. His burger’s bites grew bigger, stronger, and quicker, as so did his swallowing… he then could grab a few of the potato slices or the onion rings to dip them in the sauce or the dressing, and shove them in his mouth. It was like he had the need to satisfy his hunger. And whenever he was satisfied, he didn’t mind to let out a couple of few belches which, obviously, made Gail flinch for how sudden they were becoming.

Another aspect from him, she observed, was that he didn’t hide his pleasure moans, either.

*Sigh*. If only Gail knew this all was mostly because Marshall was also doing this all on purpose, recently – to get her watching him, to make her indulge into his actions. To make her react much more than just a single blush to make her pale skin get a rose-tinted color. To make her squirm below the table. He wanted much more than that. He all really wanted was for her to reach under the table, and touch his soft body and his growing belly… to help him continue in growing his waistline in no time, to be fed by her… to be pampered by her…

All of this train of thoughts turned him on at that instant. Maybe that was also why he was so eager in pigging out like he was doing, to get Gail’s attention and perhaps take the first step to do something about it.

Except, Gail was trapped in a trance just by watching Marshall indulging as much as he was. She was growing hotter at the mere scene, second by second, feeding herself on the sight of him feasting out. Gail didn’t want to make it obvious, sure, but as much as she tried, she couldn’t match his eating speed, as she barely had half of her burger done. And she was still busy in licking her finger and biting her nail.

She was right about one thing, though. The greasy junk food helped in drowning all of her worries and frustrations over her interview, but she wasn’t going to deny that the worries were still in her mind. She had been wanting a change in her working life in the past few months, and she took her time to discuss it with her friends and with Marshall. She felt it was time to turn a new leaf from her current job and do what she had been wanting to do since she graduated, and she had unanimously support. But she had a hunch that she may not be getting it, and then she would return to search for similar job gigs… and… -ah, it was so tiring. Precisely why she didn’t pursue it from the start after graduating (besides all the debts she had to pay back).

Gail let out a sigh as she caught a glimpse Marshall shuffling in his seat, letting her wonder...

Under the table, the man was subtly lifting up his shirt and hoodie, and even attempting to zip down his pants so he could let his belly bloat freely. That particular day, he chose to wear an old pair of jeans that he was already outgrowing, but, perhaps, there was a possibility that he could have miscalculated his meal a tiny bit, as they felt tight. That being said… he felt turned on, hotter…

“Marshall…” Gail pronounced, almost absentminded. She was noticing him.

“What is it…” he mumbled as he stuffed a couple of onion rings that were dipped with dressing and sauce into his mouth. With a mere exchange of glances, he felt his neck getting hotter. Her eyes were focusing on him.

“Would you mind if I would fee-” Her hand reaching towards her bunch of onion rings.

It was a simple action that caught him very off guard, in the middle of biting his hamburger. Maybe it was the way she said it (was she going to actually make him the question? Nonetheless, her voice was charming him a lot), or the action itself... but he was growing confused in a manner of seconds.

“Marshall…” Another feminine voice was calling him from behind his seat. “Is that you, Marshall?”

He recognized the voice. He knew the woman whom it was from.

The timing wouldn’t have been the worst.

The couple (?) kept looking at the woman. Her light brown and wavy hair was tied up with a ponytail. Her big, and hazel-colored eyes giving them a confused look. And both Marshall and Gail were catching up with embarrassment as they were realizing what kind of scene they were making in front of this woman.

“Natalie?” Marshall mumbled in response.

Gail was definitely ‘brought back to Earth’ as she was vaguely recognizing that woman. And the more she looked at her, she started to realize who was her. Natalie was the same woman that sometimes accompanied Marshall way back when she realized he was visiting the coffee shop frequently. The same pretty and cute woman Gail knew she shouldn’t be comparing herself to, but it was unavoidable due to the current of thoughts coming back into her mind.

“Oh, so… it was really you, Marsh…” She held her purse closed to her arms.

Natalie was (understandably) uncomfortable, as she was attempting to put everything together in the scene she interrupted. She even put attention at the subtle details, like Marshall showing off his belly under his hoodie, or Gail slowly putting her hand back from her onion rings. Gulping, she cleared off her voice.

“Was I interrupting something?”

Marshall left his burger back on his plate. He lifted a finger to let him grab a couple of seconds, so he could gulp down a gas that was menacing to come out from his mouth, as he covered it with his other hand.

“Urp…” he still briefly pronounced (while unknowingly making both women flinch). “No… it’s fine.” He corrected, processing everything that was going on. He was scratching his left ear, feeling very awkward. “But… maybe you did…? I don’t know. Not sure...”

“I’m sorry.” Natalie apologized, taking her hands over her mouth. “I just wanted to make sure it was you. I haven’t seen you for a little while and, I suppose I did recognize your voice but…”

Gail abruptly stood up, nervous and very uncomfortable, at the presence of Natalie. Deep down it was like she felt very intimidated by her.

“S… say! I think I will go to the restroom.” She said, as she tried to smile as much as she could, pointing to the direction where the bathrooms were. “Perhaps, in the meantime, you could talk with each other. Is that... okay with you two?”

Marshall immediately understood what was happening with her and wanted to stop her as she walked away.

“Gail! Wait!” He stood up as he covered his belly back, but her steps were quicker than him taking initiative in following her. Marshall simply stopped as he lost sight of her, and sighed. Taking his glasses out, he rubbed his temples. “That woman, I swear…”

“I am not entirely sure what is going on?” Natalie expressed with confusion. “Are you two dating or something? I’m… really sorry for whatever I was interrupting earlier.”

“No, you are not the problem, Nat. It’s her.” Marshall responded feeling defeated. “And about both of us…? I’m not really sure, even. I want to say we are… but… I’m pretty sure now that she misunderstood something here.”

Natalie blinked.

“She misunderstood something…? Oh… I see.” She finally realized, as she was holding her chin with one of her hands. She was starting to understand what was going on. “Anyway. I’m actually waiting my order go through, so perhaps I could use some minutes to talk with you a bit.”

“Sure, of course.” He invited her to sit down.

“You know, I’m happy in seeing you like this, though.” She sat down, putting her purse on the table.

“Like what?”

“Dunno. Seeing you enjoying yourself, I guess.” She replied. “Happier, at the company of your significant other.” Natalie smiled.

“You wouldn’t be the first one in telling me all that.”

She reached her purse. “Actually, now that I’m here… I wanted to give you this before I forget.”

----

At the bathroom, Gail was feeling incredibly childish at that moment. She was alone, fortunately. So it was her and all her feelings and thoughts running wild in her head.

Why would she be running away like that, again? She perfectly knew that Marshall wasn’t seeing any other woman besides her, and hell, they weren’t even dating like that to feel… to feel… jealous? The truth was that she didn’t need something like this to be added to an already bad day after her earlier work interview, one that fueled her self-esteem issues and insecurities, at the presence of a beautiful-looking woman like Marshall’s friend.

Looking at the mirror, Gail saw herself – she looked elegant, professional, and pretty. She wasn’t a kid or a teenager anymore, as she was now much closer to her 30s. However, despite growing up… there were leftovers of a shy kid that barely could handle face-to-face interactions without thinking that these people would think she was weird or even ugly.

Why did she have to keep comparing herself to “prettier” women she didn’t really know about? Plenty of times? Even if she knew it was stupid? It was always the same thing, the same issues. Over and over. She usually tended to avoid it, and she had tried many times. But… the voice of her controlling mother still echoed through her mind.

Her mother always wanted her to conform to her values. If it wasn’t about her hobbies, it was about her studies, if it wasn’t about her clothes, it was about her appearance. And Gail struggled a lot to conform to whatever her mother wanted of her, until she was done with it, until her father was done with it. Once she didn’t have her mother over her (once the woman left their house for good), Gail decided to give it a try: to be feminine her own way. But she knew that the shy kid, the shy teenager that was often called a “ghoul” or a “witch” by her classmates, was still hidden somewhere inside her.

Gail had been trying to improve her self-esteem and insecurities since her mother left. Some days were good, others were bad. Or really bad, as that specific one day.

Marshall’s friend was cute. From the way Gail remembered their interactions at the coffee shop, she always suspected they were quiet close, from afar. The way she called him in, the way she addressed him as ‘Marsh’… it all confirmed to her how close they were actually. Of course, she knew Marshall had other female friends before her, she wasn’t the only one. He may have dated plenty more, as well. But Gail always liked him more than just a friend (or, again, whatever they used to be in high school, or whatever they were as adults). And as much as she didn’t want to devolve her thoughts into jealousy, to dive deep into her self-esteem issues… she couldn’t not do so.

She groaned at her reflection, in front of the hand washer.

To top an already messy day, with the interview, Natalie, there was this one outing… fuck, this specific meal outing. What was she doing before?! Why did she had to be all absentminded to ask Marshall if he wanted her to feed him?!

“GYAAAA! Fuck, I’m losing it!!” She screamed and expressed, covering her face. “It has to be that, right?! I’m totally losing it over HIM!” She slowly moved her hands down her face, before biting her thumb nail off.

Of course, she knew, she couldn’t back off now. The past four months and a half have been quite illuminating to her, about herself, about Marshall, and about their relationship. But lately, she felt that Marshall had gotten more playful? He had been teasing her more, there was no way whatsoever that whatever he implied wasn’t intentional at that point. The way he was exhibiting himself, eating as such with so much delight, noisier… and all in front of her? That was making her entire being boil as a coffee water pot. And then… and then...

Gail decided to stop overthinking it.

She started to breath in and out to start calming herself. That HAD to be it: she had been overthinking everything. She wished to be more… honest. She had to. If anything, she had a hunch, and maybe it was already time to be sincere with Marshall, about her and her feelings towards him.

----

Once Gail got out from the restrooms, she peeked from a corner and saw that Marshall was sitting alone at their table, picking up the last few potato slices that were left, with Natalie being nowhere to be seen.

Marshall, noticing her presence, stood up, making his belly jiggle, if only a bit.

“Gail, hey! Are you… okay?” He asked her. “Your food is getting cold.”

“Yeah…” She rubbed her arm before coming back to their table. “I... don’t think I am going to finish it, though… If you want to, I can give you the rest…”

He half-smiled at her. “Nonsense. You need it better than me. Weren’t you the one drowning your frustrations?”

“I know. It’s fine, really.” She took her seat, thinking about it for a couple of seconds. “Okay, maybe just a few more bites, and I will give you the rest, okay?”

As Gail picked up her burger to give it another bite, she noticed an envelope under Marshall’s wallet on the table. “Has your friend…?”

“Oh, yeah. Natalie left minutes ago. She wanted…” he saw her eyes focusing on his wallet, “to talk with me a little bit and to give me something.”

“Right…” Gail, cleaned a bit of her lip, and took a sip from her soda can. “Can I ask what was it?”

“Oh, sure.” He responded. “We can talk about it once you finish, of course.”

She nodded, slightly doubtful. As soon as she returned to eat, her heart was beating loudly under her chest. Half of it was dread, she was sure about it, and the other was simple excitement about whatever was coming after they left the hamburger joint. Catching a few glances of Marshall, at least he looked very calmed while finishing his meal’s leftovers.

“Natalie is getting married soon.” Marshall showed Gail the envelope. “She gave me the invitation of her wedding.”

“A… wedding invitation?” Gail said as she took it and opened to check it out.

Marshall nodded, before sighing.

“You see… Natalie and I go way back.” He gestured. “She used to be my neighbor when we were kids. We even tried to date each other while we were 15, although we never had a chance to become a couple back then. She moved out all of sudden, and I’m still not even sure why we never gave that step forward, maybe it was because we were good as friends, or I simply started to get interested in other girls.”

Gail kept looking at the invitation, with curiosity. It had cute flowers colored in pastel tones and there were written the names of Natalie and her partner with a lovely cursive font with gold ink. She kept listening.

“Some things weren’t meant to be, you know?” He continued. “She moved back a few years ago. You already can imagine how hard it was with me pushing away people with my anxiety and my poor mental health, so it was kinda hard maintaining our relationship in a friendly manner. Even so, she never seemed to mind that I was too grumpy. It was nice keeping contact with an old friend like her.”

“I suppose so.” She replied.

“Besides, that’s when I found out about her boyfriend of over five years. And I even met him! Such a polite guy, but if I’m honest with you, he is such a dork. I feel it was time they would already tie the knot…” He chuckled.

As soon as Marshall finished, Gail felt like a weight was lift from her shoulders. And he, noticing it as well, grinned.

“So, that’s more or less my relationship with Natalie. Since she is as busy as I am, we often met up at the coffee shop where you work to talk about stuff. And now, as you see, she is getting married.” He concluded, stretching himself to relax. “Did this stress you out? That she and I could have had a thing?”

Gail flinched and gasped, as it felt like he was reading her thoughts.

“What...?” She answered. “No, I wasn’t stressed...!”

“Gail, please. You just relaxed your shoulders and even look calmer than before.” He got his glasses off to clean them a bit with the sleeve of his hoodie.

“You… you don’t know what you are talking about…” She kept stammering, as she averted her gaze to the other side of the restaurant.

“No, I do.” He replied back. “Gail, I have told you before that you are fine the way you are. I have told you plenty of times already that...”

“Do… d-do you think I was jealous of your friend?!” She snapped at him. “Give me a break!”

“Then why did you run away to the restroom in the first place if you weren’t?! Come on, Gail. I understand why you acted like that and-”

“No, you fucking don’t!” She abruptly interrupted, in a defensive mode. “I simply wanted to go to the bathroom!”

“Gail. Please. It’s very obvious you misunderstood what was going on in the first place between me and Natalie!” He sighed, facepalming. “If you didn’t jump into conclusions…”

She was getting out of her patience, clenching her fists with anger. If there was something that she disliked the most in the world, that was Marshall being absolutely right in a discussion and her having to admit it as such.

And so, she exploded.

“Okay, fine! I might have misunderstood all of that as you say! However, you don’t have to act too sympathetic with me, Mr. Vain and Superficial!” She pointed him out with her long and thin pale index finger. “You don’t fucking understand how is it growing up and being made fun of you behind your back or others mocking you with awful nicknames because of how you looked or how you acted around with others! Or…” She tried hard to hold tears back, but her voice was starting to break up. “Or having the voice of your actual bitch of a mother echoing in your head reminding you similar things over and over…”

“Wha-” Marshall was astonished at what he just listened. Gail told him that her relationship with her mother wasn’t good, but, was it really that ba-?

“Or even having this bad habit of comparing yourself with other women because they look better, more feminine or more fashionable than you…” She covered her crying face with her hands. “And, although, your mother or those pricks are not part of your fucking life anymore… the wounds remain, they haven’t been fully cured… and I hate this with all my fucking being…!”

Marshall sighed out of frustration, taking all what she was putting on the table.

“Okay. You win. I was a vain and superficial asshole. Are you happy?” He held her hands to pull them apart from her face as a way to force her see him to his eyes. “And yeah, I find faces like Natalie’s quite cute and attractive. Is that wrong?!” He reclaimed her back, while letting her hands go, and making his own to fall over his lap, making a solid sound on his thick thighs. “But, don’t you dare to tell me that I’m just acting as sympathetic, because you don’t believe me enough, thinking that I do not understand you. Because I fucking do.”

“Then, how? TELL ME!”

Marshall’s gaze was full of cold anger.

“Do you think it was fucking easy to be constantly reminded by others about how skinny I had been looking in the past few years?!” He bit his inner cheek, his eyes getting teary. “Or that I wasn’t smiling as much as I did when I was younger?! For fuck’s sake, Gail! I was pitied a LOT of how awfully bad I had it after I lost my older brother! How do you… ugh… how do you not seem to believe someone would grow self-conscious about stuff like all of that when others often remarked you they ‘miss the old you’?!”

“That is not the same, Marshall!” Gail was gritting her teeth.

“Of course it is the same!” Exasperated, he rubbed his nose bridge and temple. He got nervous about telling her the following., but it was now or never.

“I… I have been getting fatter, Gail. I am probably… between 50 and 55 lbs heavier than I used to be in high school. And, you don’t have any idea how… how good it makes me feel as of lately.” Marshall was sobbing. “Of course, I still receive unnecessary comments about this, and I also feel a small voice in my head that wants to make me feel bad… but trust me when I say that I like this. I really, really like this change on me.”

He held her hand dearly, grasping it with certain strength. Marshall couldn’t stop looking at Gail, who was dumbfounded about the whole ordeal. Carefully, and hesitant, he put his other hand over her hair, and started stroking it with his fingers. His eyes full of warmth.

“I like you, Gail. I always felt attracted to you, you know? But… perhaps, I never agreed on how to interpret my attraction towards you up until very recently.” He kept stroking her hair, while her face was flushing pink, as she finally looked directly at his eyes. “I enjoyed a lot of the things we did back then… those that we still do together and these are many more than those that I didn’t. I realized that is quite easier to be with you than others, because it’s fun and very comfortable being accompanied by you. You bring me a lot of peace, as well, heh. So, how can I not like you?”

Gail took his hand with hers, and she closed her eyes. She liked the way he stroke her hair with so much care and love. It was easy to perceive his sincerity on his voice, his actions. It all matched.

She inhaled and exhaled.

“I’m… I am so sorry for reacting the way that I did, Marshall. I… I was childish. Unbelievably, so.”

“It’s alright.” He responded, still not letting her go. “You jumped into conclusions…”

“And I ran away like a scared child.” She laughed. “It’s ridiculous admitting how jealous I was of you and your friend. And I wanted to be honest and all that…! But when you become a smartass, I… don’t like you being right.”

“Ho, ho. That might be a problem, then.” His grin was a smug one.

“Marshall. Please.” She begged him. “It’s just… I hate… being this childish in front of the one guy I had a crush on since we were teenagers…”

And there it was.

Marshall put a more sincere grin on his face.

“I know.”

“Wait… what do you mean ‘you know’?” She winced.

“I just… knew. Well, more like I had a hunch.” He rolled his eyes as he chuckled. “Several, actually.”

“But, I mean-”

“You weren’t very subtle. Sometimes, it was very obvious, but I think your reaction with Natalie’s presence hit the last nail…” He rubbed her hand.

“No, no, no… backtrack, backtrack.” She gestured to go back a few minutes ago, as she grabbed his hand harder. “I don’t get it. No… I don’t get you. You… like me? Since when? Why? I thought you didn’t like me beyond… being a ‘friendly rival’...”

“Hey, why do you assume I couldn’t like you back then?” He genuinely asked her.

“Because I wasn’t cute and I was a weirdo?” Embarrassed, she lowered her gaze, attempting to cover her eyes with her free hand. “And a stubborn rival on top of that?”

“Well.” He scratched his neck. “You may have been weird, Gail. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t like you. Didn’t you pay attention to what I said before? I used to be a vain asshole, so... after that prank we did, I… became conscious about how you were actually cute below your weirdness. And, although my feelings at the time were messy… I always thought you deserved someone much more better than me.” His gaze went to the opposite direction of Gail’s, embarrassed of admitting and phrasing his feelings for her like that.

Gail spent seconds processing how to take his confession.

“Did… I…” She groaned, as she was trying to figure out what she wanted to ask. “Were you even considering it?”

Marshall’s gaze got back to Gail’s small gray eyes. And, embarrassingly so, he nods.

“It was a thought that crossed my mind.” He swallowed saliva. “Once… twice, maybe. But that was then… and this is now, and, like I have told you already – I have been reevaluating my feelings and our relationship and I recently came to the conclusion that I really like you, Gail… Hell, why not? Let’s call it what it is, ‘love’. I love you.”

Gail was feeling warm as she heard him say the word ‘love’. She even bit her lips towards the thought of her former ‘friendly’ rival, feeling ‘love’ towards her.

“Love, huh.” She repeated, slowly grinning back. “I like that.”

And then, Marshall took the opportunity to hold her face with both of his hands, so he could look at her directly.

“I honestly think you look beautiful today, Gail. Yesterday, today, tomorrow…” He leaned his head as he got closer, his lips reaching to hers.

“You look quite fine and handsome, as well, Marshall.” She blushed, while smiling at each second she took in to respond him: “I love you.”

Gail’s words were sealed by a warm kiss, something that perhaps she only imagined in her dreams. It happened that Marshall kissed so much better than she would have thought, however. As their lips touched, his hands were still holding her face, not wanting to let her go, once again.

They stopped for a few seconds as they were breathless but very excited at seeing each other being a complete mess, which, it was a first for Gail. She just wanted more of that breathless and hungry image that Marshall had at that instant, so she kissed him back with so much desire than before.

This obviously caught Marshall with a certain degree of surprise, but then he became a little more adventurous, as their wet lips touched again. He went to get his tongue deep into her mouth, making Gail wince, but her answer was holding him closer to her. Her arms and hands sliding around his shoulders to hug his neck. Once she grabbed him, she let her hands slip and roam down at his thicker torso, while her mind was hazy and busy when making out. Little by little, she started to notice how softer her ex-classmate was getting, as she recognized the closer she got to his waist, his sides were clearly becoming love handles.

Ah. Was it true, right? Wasn’t there something he said about liking ‘getting fatter’…?

Marshall was frowning (if just a little) as he realized Gail was touching and feeling his softer sides. Her small hands slowly… carefully… sliding into his overgrown tee, holding on them as much as she could do. He let out a moan, panting, growing excited as if he was asking for more. He did his part, though, as he was starting to unbutton Gail’s blouse, wanting to slide her jacket off so he could also grab to her, which she also responded with her hands holding harder, squeezing…

“Isn’t this…” Gail exclaimed, huffing, under their breaths. “Isn’t this getting too... steamy?”

“I guess…” Marshall nodded as he let out another moan, before returning to kiss her one more time. “I guess someone was too excited that she couldn’t just wait to get all over me.” He teased her.

As the embarrassment and consciousness started to kick in, Gail closed her eyes for a few seconds, watching around them to see if they weren’t getting a public. They were still sitting at a side of the restaurant and anyone could see them, afterall.

“We shouldn’t be… doing all of this, so in the open… gosh…” She added while fixing her hair, and recovering certain sitting posture.

“As if that couldn’t make you stop.” He teased, ending with a chuckle. His hand holding her jacket, wanting to take her hand. “Besides, I also have been desiring to touch you as of lately…”

The comment just made her get all red as a tomato.

“Desiring…? Ahhhh… I can’t believe my ears…” Gail groaned, and he got closer to give her a kiss on her nose.

“Heh. What’s wrong with it? I do desire you…”

“It’s just, hearing you saying it like that…” She shyly covered her face, her hands slowly sliding down from it, giving it a thought. “I think… I think we should calm down just a bit and talk about everything of, well... this…”

“Now that you mention it,” Marshall commented, “I’m curious about something that has been bothering me for a bit.”

“Ok. Shoot, what is it?” She was fixing her blouse and jacket, attempting to make her presentable again.

“So, tell me, miss Gail.” He started, his cold-gazing almond-colored eyes looking at her with curiosity. “Was it fun seeing me, with those prying eyes of yours, when I shoved food into my mouth?” He raised his brow. “I mean, all this gained weight wasn’t entirely ‘accidental’, if you catch my drift.”

Gail was very caught on the spot, her ears feeling as they were boiling in hot water. She tried to speak, but no sound was coming from her mouth.

“And you were quite nonchalant inviting me to get some food. I suppose I get it. And how couldn’t you? We were hanging out, and it was fair since I invited you to do other things, and you wanted to pay for the food… but I also was quite skinny, don’t you think? Scrawny, even...”

She was sighing.

“I suppose... you aren’t very wrong.” She started confessing, her hand rubbing her arm. “When we first talked to each other, again, that day at the cash register, I wouldn’t exaggerate that it threw me off looking how skinny you were. I was suspecting why, of course. But, deeply in my mind, it felt like a voice was telling me ‘wow, I would love to feed this guy and, who knows, maybe he would feel better?’”.

“To feed me?” He asked as he was getting the catch of it.

Gail nodded.

“That’s… yeah. That’s right.” She bit her nail. “Uhm, it’s a little weird to describe. I always liked seeing you eat… like a fixation, maybe? And I told you before that I like big men… so, I guess something made a connection in my head and…” She suddenly stopped talking as she realized how it was all sounding. “I mean, it truly wasn’t my intention to fatten you up while inviting you to get some dinner or when I cooked desserts for you… and I’m quite glad that you aren’t ‘scrawny’ anymore, don’t get me wrong!… But…! I...” She tried to hold her tears back, again, her contact lenses starting to hurt her. “Maybe I’m getting selfish or greedier… But, I would love to see you getting fatter thanks to my food and getting to feed you by my hand…”

“Would you… make me fatter thanks to your food and your hand?” Marshall flinched. He closed his eyes to evaluate the situation in front of him. That was exactly what he wanted to listen from her, to understand that they might have been in the same page.

Gail was looking defeated, however.

“I… I’m so so-”

Marshall interrupted her with a gasp.

“Oh, Ms. Gail! Are you saying that all of this… it was you who have been encouraging me to gain weight and fatten me up?!” He sounded very fake, but there was clearly a teasing intention behind his accusation.

At first confused, Gail looked away, slightly covering her face.

“God… when you put it like that…” She closed her eyes, reclining her head to a side to get a glimpse of his rounder face. “It sounds quite dirtier than it should be??”

With a cocky smile on his face, he also got a better look of her.

“Well, tell me – isn’t it dirty? I find this explanation quite impressive. You always find yourself a way with words, even if you end up rambling like that. I knew you were a little persuasive, but this…?”

“Whoa, whoa, Marshall… Are you flirting with me?!” She laughed and raised her eyebrow as she caught him teasing her, as always.

“Shouldn’t I?” He took her hands. “We just made out… and you confessed something that is, dare I say, making me feel all throbbed… I guess I can flirt with the woman I love and tease her a little just like that.”

“Gooosh! Stop that!” Gail, nervous, slipped one of her hands out so she could scratch the back of her ear. She was loving the fact he described her as ‘the woman I love’. She ended up laughing at the thought.

“I really don’t want to.” His face got closer to hers. “Don’t test me out.” He chuckled as well, fixing his glasses.

“So… Marshall. I…” She exhaled, wanting to find the exact words she wanted to use. “Would you like it? Do you want me to do it? Letting me,” she gestured her hand and put it against his chest, sliding it down to his small gut, grabbing as much as she could with it. “Fatten you up by my hand, with my food?”

He smugly grinned back. It felt like they were going to make a pact. He finally answered.

“So glad you dared to ask.” He hold her from the back, pushing her towards him. “I would love you to get me fatter…” Keeping Gail closer, he leaned in to kiss her, sealing the whole deal.

----

Marshall and Gail went to wander through the grocery store nearby, giving themselves some time to talk out things about them in a more streamlined way, while also buying some things.

Although they just became a couple, Gail was acting a little bit shyer than usual as Marshall wouldn’t let go of her hand. They would even whisper to each other as a way to tease each other on things they could do later whenever they stopped in the store’s aisles. As such, they decided to go to Gail’s apartment, since it wasn’t too far away from there.

An hour later, the couple arrived to Gail’s apartment, a modest sized one-floor place which happened to be decorated in a very cozy cottagecore-like vibes.

Marshall whistled as he entered the apartment, taking a look around.

“I don’t know why I never thought you would be into this trend. The few couple of times I did go to your house back then it was so…”

“Oh, shush. I know…” She nervously laughed, as she reached the switch to turn on the entrance and living room’s lights. “Most of this decoration was from my grandma. Moving out… gave me the perfect chance to make use of all of her stuff.”

“Well, it looks better than my place, to be honest.” He left the grocery bags he was carrying on the ground. “But I suppose that’s what poor mental health and a single life plus a busy work field can do as much to give order to your space.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Marshall.” Gail reached the table to leave her groceries there, as well. “It’s possible your place can be better than mine on some things”

“Oh, sure?” He raised a brow. “Like, what? Tell me one thing and I would consider it.”

“Like…” She turned to him, eyeing his soft torso, from top to bottom. “I dunno…” She took a few steps forward so she could make small circles over his chest with her fingers, not being subtle about her intentions for that evening.

“Maybe… it could be much more spacious… or perhaps, soundproofed…?”

“Naughty.” He responded with a cocky smile on his face. “Honestly, though… your place is nice and comfortable. I like it.” He leaned his face down to whisper to her ear. “You should bring me more often…”

“May… maybe I should.” Gail’s face was turning red, again.

“I really want to know this ‘you’ so much better.” He caressed her face. “Even the more intimate parts of you.”

Gail was biting her lower lip, obviously not very used to all of that attention from him, yet. She nervously backed off a bit, until he caught her waist. She definitely liked all of that. But she had to admit it was still a bit weird given all of that relationship progress had been happening during the same day. She felt nervous to not fulfill expectations that Marshall might have had of her.

And Marshall also noticed it.

“I’m sorry…”

“No… it’s just that I am not very used to this, haha…” She replied.

“It’s fine, Gail. We can take it slowly. I’m not going to leave.” He kissed her on her forehead, before wrapping his arms around her, hugging her. “I don’t plan to leave. I don’t want to.”

“I feel I should be the one saying this, you know?”

“Perhaps.” He looked at her, brushing her hair. “Although I admit I do feel slightly weird, as well. I need to get used to this.”

Gail laughed. “There’s plenty of time for that.” She gave a look at the grocery bags she put in the table. “Speaking of which, do you still want to try this feeding thing today? We could still just relax and watch a movie or something else.” She replied with a rather nervous tone of voice.

“Oho, are you backtracking?” Marshall answered, with a teasing voice. “Weren’t you the one that wanted to try to get a feel in how all of this was? The one who convinced me to do it when we were at the store?”

“Well, I did… it’s just…”

“Look, Gail. It’s okay. I’m not going to break.” He held his small gut and made it jiggle. “I have been practicing a bit myself. I didn’t gain this much in the past few months just because. If it took me around three months to be at an ‘average weight’, imagine how it would be if you help… me…” He leaned close to her ear again and lowered his voice to get her attention.

At that moment, Gail was feeling like an electric shock was going through her body.

“Do you want to take it slowly and relax just for today, or perhaps, would you like to try feeding me?” He proposed.

“So… what should I do?” She softly asked. “How... can we try this…?” She was embarrassed, but her eyes glowed with excitement.

Looking around, Marshall got his sight on the sofa. He walked towards it, and then let himself sit on it, making him sink if only a bit onto the cushions.

“We could make use of the chocopies we bought.” He pointed the grocery bags out, the ones he left on the floor. “And then…” He later pointed out towards his mouth. His gaze was reflecting desire, inviting her to indulge in it, as well. He shifted in his seat to let her sit down as well.

Looking the way Marshall was sitting on the sofa, Gail could easily see how his belly was just starting to take space onto his lap. He simply looked different when sitting down… and so, she was thinking how long it would take if he looked bigger… rounder… on the same spot.

Gail quickly got the box of chocopies, and gave a look at the contents. The box was full of 12 packages of small chocolate-covered soft cookie sandwiches filled with marshmallows. Although she could be exaggerating with thinking the chocopies were “small”, as they were actually the size of her hands.

She sat at his side, and he lifted his shirt, showing her the pudgy yet still small belly he was able to get mostly on his own. There were not subtleties anymore. It was all for show to her.

“This is thanks to you. I got this because of you.” He told her, taking her hand to touch him. Gail caressed his belly with delicacy, until she squeezed it. Letting a moan come out from his mouth, Marshall bit his lips. He was growing sensitive, sure. But, her touch? That was not part of his fantasies anymore.

“It’s soft… pudgy…” Gail let out. “I feel like I should be proud… if you decided to get this chubby, to let go… because of me. It’s still small, but we can make sure in making it bigger, don’t you think?”

Her smile was hypnotizing. She took one of the packages, opened it, and offered the chocopie to him, slowly getting it closer to his face. He was delightful at her response, of course, as she was sliding it carefully into his lips.

Marshall wouldn’t say no, slowly biting it and swallowing it all down. He could taste the chocolate in his lips, as much as the soft cookie crumbling inside his mouth, and the soft, very soft marshmallow filling.

“Is it good?” Gail asked. “Did I do good?”

He quickly nodded, leaning his face onto her hand so he could grab another bite of it. He was eager, very clearly into it. His free hand could rub his belly, wanting much more of the feeling he was soaking himself into.

For Gail, it was captivating seeing her old rival being… so docile. He used to have a stronger personality whenever they were deep into their discussions. He once told her he was mellowing, but even so… she couldn’t believe how docile he was being at that moment… or how pleased he looked as she continued feeding him the pastry, until he finished it and she went to open a new one. It was so strange… exciting, but also… provocative. She was growing hot and wet.

Little by little, Gail went to undress herself, piece by piece of the suit she was wearing. The jacket went off first, then she unbuttoned her blouse, leaving her with just her bra. If he was exhibiting himself for her, she wanted to reciprocate and do the same. To make the moment so much more intimate between them. Which, of course, Marshall couldn’t not stare at.

“Atta girl.” He licked his lips, as he saw her barely covered torso. He also took his hoodie and shirt off.

On the other hand, and perhaps I'm just overthinking this, I feel slightly weird about this 🤔.

Like... I know live action characters are still fictional at the end of the day and I know that actors just portray them, and... you know. I never have explored wg kink stuff like this on live action properties (despite what my reblogs in my main-kink blog suggest), so.

I don't really watch too many live action TV nowadays or follow live action movie franchises, so, I mean. I think most of what I watch of "live action" are korean dramas and, maybe I do have a few kink headcanons that indulge that itch in regards to these characters, until I forget about them because I tend to watch a lot, lol, (although, honestly I do tend to think 'let this character be FAT' as my usual :') when I think about 'glow ups' and the like), lol.

The thing is... this itch is the usual. But presencing it on my screen clearly didn't help me in noticing it. Noticing my blorbo (and his actor, btw!) is actually bulking out if only a bit? (I put "bulk" out in the more general sense here?) and I'm... hmmm 🥴. Oh, especially (AND VERY especially), blorbo is in his mid to late 30s this late into the game (very much the last 2-3 seasons), and with the way the character is in the series, doesn't give me vibes of "this dude stays thin in canon (I'm ignoring a bit the extra material canon atm, so give me a break on this, lol)", you know? the writer of that fic puts it in the best way about "these characters on a shitty college diet that would be against them as 30-smth or potential 40s", so. And there's bits here and there in actual tv show adding fuel to my indulging desires to write something...