#belaame

“I swear!! Didn't you hear her giggling!? It's just like from the scary movies!! It's so freaky, oh my god!!” Alfred hides his face behind the blanket, hoping it'll protect him from the ghost.

“Hey, you're on my side,” Natalia pouts, displeased that his who-knows-where-they’ve-been clothes were touching her freshly washed sheets. She yanks the blanket from him.

“AHH!! NAT!! Give that back. I'm so scared, holy shit. She's like right there. What if she possesses me?!”

Nat angrily turns around to look at the corridor to inspect it's presumed inhabitants and finds it void of anything or anyone.

“You should really stop watching those movies, Al. They're just messing with your brain. You need to- Hey! Let me go!”

Alfred had wrapped his arms around her legs and looked at her pleadingly.

“Naaaat,” he whines.

“You're being a baby again. Why can't you just be a man,” she says with a fist on her hip, looking down at his pathetic whimpering.

“I saw it, Nat. She had like these bloody eyes and a little stuffed toy and it was FREAKYYY.”

“Well, what do you want me to do about it?”

“Something!! Perform an exorcism! Send her back to hell! Kill her, oh my god, I don't know!!! She's too scary for me, man.”

“I can't do any of that. I can't even see her!”

Alfred shrieks suddenly and makes a bolt for the bathroom, hiding behind the door and peeking over to see if she's still there.

“What now?” Natalia turns sharply to see what the hell he did that for and he points with a shaky finger beside Natalia.

"S-She's..."

Natalia looks around and even walks around, showing the scaredy cat that there's nothing there.

“Al. There. Is. No. Ghost. Now, would you stop being like that and get ready for bed already? My god, when will we ever have a normal night?” She gets under the covers on the clean side of the bed and fluffs her pillows as she relaxes.

“Nat?” Alfred’s voice cracks. “S-She disappeared..”

“Good.”

Feeling something cold beside him, Alfred's body fills with dread. He slowly turns and sees the phantom’s curls from the corner of his eye and immediately makes a run for it, slamming into the door before opening it again, and running out of the room completely.

“Al!”

“NOPE! Screw this!! I’m not staying here, Nat!! I’m sleeping in the truck!!”

Natalia sighs, shakes her head, and gets out from under covers to investigate what scared him. She puts on her slippers and walks over to the bathroom, hearing Alfred slam the front door on his way out.

Confirming that he was gone, Natalia squats down to the little ghost girl to meet at her eye level.

“You did a good job scaring him,” Natalia says.

“My first haunt!!” The little ghoul giggles, hugging her torn bunny.

“It was really good for a first time.” Nat holds up her hand for the girl to high-five her back. She happily returns the gesture.

“Can I do it again?”

Natalia tilts her head in thought, then smiles a bit. “Sure, why not?”

With another giggle, the girl disappeared momentarily. Nat returned to the bed with a chuckle on her breath and an estimate of 10 seconds before Alfred would discover his passenger princess.

A series of shrill and desperate screams coming nine seconds later confirmed it for her that the second haunting was undoubtedly a success.

“Gah! Yeah. Right…,” Alfred grunted, feeling gravity entice him and his extra weight to the ground. His arms wobbled and trembled and wanted to move in every which way, but he held strong hoping that his core, made up of primarily of gummy worms and family-sized Oreos, would keep him from collapsing and losing his bet. He could not show any signs of weakness. He had to prove Natalia wrong that he was not getting “flabby”.

“You know, Nat,” Alfred started, looking at her over his shoulder. “It’d be much easier if you got off of me.”

“Focus. You're losing form,” Natalia dryly motivated him as she filed her nails, sitting on his back with one leg crossed over the other.

The once muscly man dropped his head as he felt defeated by her. Couldn't she appreciate that there was more of him to love? And that twenty five was the new hundred???? He watched his sweat roll off his forehead and onto the parquet floors.

He pushed off again, slowly. Almost there. Almost back at the top. Almos- AH!

Just like his sweat, Alfred fell onto the shiny floor, making Natalia fumble backwards at the unexpected break down of her seat.

“GODDDD!” Alfred exhaled as he felt the sweet, sweet relief of a cold, flat surface beneath him.

“You dropped me!” she whined.

“Yeah, man! You’ve gotten heavier too, you know that, Nat?!” He looked sharply in her direction, aiming her own energy back at her.

Which… was probably a bad idea.

“Did you just call me fat?” Natalia frowned, her blood beginning to boil as witnessed by the rapidly reddening cheeks.

“Uhhhh. Actually, you know what? Never mind. I didn't say anything.”

“What are you implying, Alfred F. Jones??”

“Ahh!!” Alfred whimpered as she shoved his face into her perfectly laid out floors, courtesy of the man being pinned into said floors.

His lips puffed out, making it harder to say anything other than “U hu hu”. Why was she being so mean?! She probably definitely gained some girlfriend weight too, right? There was no way she was this heavy before. Wasn’t she happier with him?

“You’re so dead, Jones,” Natalia seethed, watching him attempt to push himself off the floor. He certainly didn't have anymore energy in him; every fiber of his body was shaking from the workout, but she was being too tough on him.

He had to find a way out. The sooner, the better. And, well, if he didn't have the strength to push up, he could always push away… right?

Alfred swiftly rolled over, grabbing the hand that was making his face the body of a hand/floor sandwich, and pinned Natalia to the ground as he sat atop of her.

“Heh,” Alfred smirked and breathed heavily, “Still got it in me.”

Natalia glared at him, her cheeks ablaze, her arms pinned by the sides of her head, and her chest rising and falling with every angry breath. He lost his own bet and he was still smiling that stupid, arrogant smile of a winner. It drove her mad, insane even.

“The other 75 pushups, you mean?”

“Nah, I'm over that. I mean the way I can make you all flustered like that.”

“You-!!” Nat attempted to escape his grip as she thrashed from under him. She could not get him off of her and, to make things worse, he started laughing. What the hell could he be possibly laughing about??

“You’re going to stop and get off of me at once, Alfred! I'm not playing around anymore,” the princess demanded.

“It's your turn now, Nat.“

“My turn for what?”

Alfred smiles and sits down on her lap, placing all of his weight onto her. She groans from the hefty force of his thick derriere onto her body and continues to glare at him.

“Your happy weight is showing, babe. Looks like you need to do 100 sit ups,” he says lovingly.

Natalia’s jaw tightened, and her cheeks flamed with irritation, her body stiffening under his words.

“So, you were calling me fat, you jerk.”

"Not fat, babe. Just saying, you’ve got a little more of you to love now,” Alfred teased. He smirked, leaning back slightly. “Now get to those sit ups. I’m expecting a kiss with every one.”

Natalia’s harsh glare softened with his words. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad to call this a happy weight.

“100 situps?”

“And a 100 kisses.”

“You’re so greedy,” Natalia scoffed, sitting up to greet him with a kiss.