#kortney

Bran took another gulp out of his can of cider and put it down beside him next to his cards. Around him at his card table in his apartment were three of his friends: Kortney, Ren, and Dan.

Kortney was a chubby trans woman, a Korean American adoptee, who he met in his ceramics class in college. Ren was a tall, thin, dark-skinned nonbinary artist he'd made friends with at an art show. And Dan was the token white het cis man Bran had stayed close friends with all throughout high school, one of his oldest friends.

Dan also knew, after a particularly drunken night with Bran when they were high school seniors at a house-party they'd both crashed, about Bran's 'thing' with hiccups. Though he tended to forget until Bran actually got the hiccups.

The card game was new to all of them. Bran had just picked it up from a local book shop. The artwork on each of the cards was adorable. The rules, however, were a little harder to grasp.

"Wait," Dan was saying rubbing his tawny-toned beard. The rest of Dan's hair was completely lacking in any gingery shade. Rather, he had light brown hair. But his beard was only a shade darker than Bran's bright orange one.

"So, I can't switch with one of the cards I took from someone else?" Dan continued. "Do I have to just switch two other player's cards?"

"Uh..." Bran said with a squint. "Wait a second."

"I'm so confused..." Kortney admitted as her eyes darted around to everyone else's spreads and narrowed to read the score indicators on her own cards.

"I'm pretty sure I'm losing," Ren interjected. They touched each picture on the cards in front of them. "But I really don't care, because these are so fucking cute."

Bran chuckled in response as he read from the rules. He absently took another drink from his can.

"Okay," the ginger started, "it looks like ER'RAAAUUUP! Oh gawd! Excuse me!"

Dan gave a guffaw and laugh. "Oh, is that all? Well, why didn't you say that in the first place?"

Bran giggled and shook his head, bemused. That belch had come out of nowhere! He didn't even have time to muffle it!

"Makes sense you'd be fluent in burps, Dan," Kortney said with a smile.

"You are kind of full of hot air," Ren added. They blinked lazily at him, though not unkindly.

"Okay! I get it! Gang up on the straight white guy!" he said as he held up his hands.

"You know the rules, Danny. Errp!-'scuse me, no playing the minority card in my home." Bran grinned. He suppressed yet another belch and patted his chest with a look of surprise.

Dan's grinned back. "Okay, okay. But I honestly think you're winning the whole hot air thing."

"Ugh! I know! UUUURRRP! Shit! I don't know where these things are coming from. Augh. Sorry for being so gross guys!" If he kept burping like this, Bran knew he'd get the hiccups. It was only a matter of time.

Cider didn't usually give Bran this much gas. But this was a new brand he hadn't tried, yet. He side-eyed the can wondering if there was something in it that was encouraging more of a reaction than normal.

"Okay! The rules say...yeah, when you play Mischief you can only switch two ERRUH!-sorry, ugh, two players cards, not your own," Bran said.

The artist could feel a tremor start to form in the center of his chest. He tried to swallow it down and take a deep breath. Bran liked having hiccups a lot, but he hadn't planned on being aroused during a nice card game with his friends.

"Ah, crap. Okay," Dan said, a little disappointed. He made a decision on what cards to switch between Bran and Kortney a little sullenly.

"That would make me way more upset if I knew exactly what you did by switching our cards, Dan," Kortney informed him.

"Honestly," he replied, "I'm not exactly sure what I did, either, if it makes you feel any better!"

Bran chuckled, "Okay Urp! now pass your cards Mmrrrp!-dammit, to the left, dears! Aaarup!-guh!"

Branson covered his mouth then flapped his hands dramatically, more than a little flustered as he felt the flutter in his chest get more intense. He slapped his chest a few times for good measure, though it did little to help the situation.

"Ha! You gonna be alright, B?" Ren asked.

"Yeah-no, I'm fine! Ur-up! Just exploding on the insi—Urp!-inside!" Bran's face immediately heated up with that last word. A silent hiccup had prefaced the burp. He'd broken the seal. His diaphragm was now activated.

Dan looked up at Bran's expression and his eyebrows went up when he caught his friend bounce again, another airy burp following. The ginger caught the look from his friend for a moment to confirm the reaction and looked down. The nonverbal exchange was fortunately not caught by the other two.

"It's very considerate to explode on the inside, dear," Kortney said as she pulled a card from the two that had been passed her way and put it face down in decision.

"Bran's such a people pleaser," Ren added, "that he's very tidy about exploding so he doesn't offend anyone."

The snark was completely on par with Ren's personality. Dan still mouthed 'WOW' at the deep cut.

"Okay, you Hih!URP! I did not ask Hmp!Murp! to be attacked," he paused to cover his mouth with the back of his hand as his body defied him and another diaphragm spasm brought up another airy burp, "ugh, excuse me, in my own ho-Her!Up!-ugh! Home!"

Ren was outright giggling now. Dan was staring at Bran with high brows and an amused grin. Kortney, however, was studying her cards again.

"Wait, does that mean I need two more of these ones?" she asked. No one was paying attention to the cards, though. "Aw, did you get the hiccups?"

"Hiccup-burps," Ren corrected.

"Uh...hicca-burps?" Dan asked.

"Mmm...hicburps?" Ren suggested.

"Burp-ups!" he blurted excitedly with a point to Bran.

"Ew, no," Kortney protested with a wrinkle of her nose. "That sounds too much like throwing up."

"Yeah," Ren agreed, "it kinda does."

No matter what his friends decided they were called, they were flustering the hell out of Bran as he tried holding his breath while they discussed the creation of a new word for his current condition. He'd laid a hand on his belly and now felt it bouncing under the table. Holding his breath, he discovered, didn't work when there was gas involved, apparently.

"Ugh, gawd," Bran muttered between more gassy spasms he tried to keep behind his lips, but that needed to be expelled for comfort. "I'm gonna HIP!Urk! get some water!"

"You good, man?" Dan said in sudden concern and sensitivity to Bran's situation.

"Yeah Huh!Urr! just gonna try to drown these fu-Huh!Urrup!-uh, fuckers!" Bran said. "Jeezus!"

Bran stood at his kitchen sink for a moment as he slowly drank water from a glass. Slowly, the gas started to dissipate, but the hiccups nestled in deeper. By the time Dan came over to check on him, laying a hand on his shoulder, he was all hiccups without the burps.

"Seriously, you okay?" Dan asked. Bran had to look up at him as he was about 3 inches taller.

"Yeah, ye-HUP!-yeah! The burps stopped. HU'UP!-uh, but these things are HRMP! here to stay, it seems," Bran said with an exaggerated eyeroll and shake of his head as his belly pushed into the sink in front of him again as he grunted.

"You need a moment?" the other man asked with only a hint of knowing mirth in his eyes.

Bran huffed, hiccuping, and shook his head.

"No HULP! I'm good." Bran lowered his voice to a low murmur. "Not li—ike I'm gonna HMPH'UH! start humping the ch-HIP!-chair or anything. HMP! I know you're disappointed. HU'ULP!"

Dan laughed, maybe a little too loudly.

"Eh, well, I guess I'll still hang around anyway," he said with a shrug and a smirk.

The token straight guy rubbed Bran's back again and patted it.

Speechless

Truth be told, Bran hadn't intended to induce hiccups this afternoon. His arousal ebbed and flowed and right now it was in a bit of an ebb state. That was not to say Bran wouldn't have gotten aroused had he had the hiccups, just that he wasn't looking to get them on purpose.

Bran hiccuped pretty easily. Even on days he wasn't trying, he was pretty prone to getting them. He figured he got hiccups a few times a week (more because he would intentionally induce). If he wasn't looking to induce, it tended to be a small case. They didn't bother him. He could cure them easily enough. They always made him a little hot under the collar, but he was rarely in any discomfort unless it was his day-long bouts that defied any attempts to rid himself of them and would start hurting after a few bouts.

But today, as he sat back in a camping chair at an outdoor concert next to a friend who loved this modern swing band as much as he did, he had no intention of giving himself the hiccups even out of curiosity as to how his friend would react. Besides, he rarely liked hiccuping in front of friends anyway. He much preferred to do it with strangers.

Kortney was a Korean-American who he'd met in college. She was trans, an adoptee, short, and round. She had been in his ceramics class where they'd bonded over shit-talking the professor. Being that their professor was a misogynist and was fired for coming onto several younger female student later that year, they had reason to target their vitriol at him. It sucked especially because he was actually a very talented ceramicist.

One might wonder the reason Bran chose to have purchased a soda with his meal at the food truck earlier if he hadn't intended on inducing. Bran would, much later, wonder about that decision as well.

The ginger had already eaten his food as he and Kortney watched the band set up after the openers had departed after clearing their instruments.

It was hot. He was only wearing a thin t-shirt, and he was sweating even through that. He'd already reapplied sunscreen in addition, though he could feel the sun beaming into his skin and he knew that he was probably going to get a little pink despite the protection. At the very least his multitudes of freckles would become even more visible than they already were.

Kortney had been describing a ceramics piece she'd made. It was inspired by something Bran had created earlier that year. She'd made a cake plate with a cake cover that looked like a giant boob. On the nipple she'd placed a metal ring, so it was easy to lift. When it was lifted, the plate had been sculpted to look like labia with implied vaginal opening complete with a red jewel of a clit at the top. It wasn't meant to be used but displayed.

Bran had created a set of teacups and saucers with a similar motif except that when the cups were lifted by the nipple rings (nipples on the side of the bulbous cups and rings as handles) there were surgery scars underneath on the saucers. He'd labelled them "T" cups. "But the best part," Kortney was saying, "is that I made the cake cutter look like a penis."

Bran snorted before taking a long sip from the ice-cold soda from the straw.

"It kind of feels like I stole your idea, though. Everyone was comparing it to the T-cups they saw last year," Kortney finished a little sadly. "I didn't mean to steal it, Bran. I just loved the idea so much I wanted to make it my own. It was so good!"

"Mm," Bran said shaking his head and swallowed the sip of soda in his mouth. "You didn't steal, sweetie. You were inspired. You made that shit your own. I didn't even think to have a dick in mine. And the labia plate? Perfect! I love it. I'm sorry I couldn't be there to see it."

He had been at another show at the time, something he'd committed to weeks before.

"Oh, the life of a highly desired artist. Wonder what that's like..." Kortney said dramatically as she put the back of her hand over her forehead with a sigh.

"Mmm, nope. I'm not being bated that easily," he said sternly.

"Aw, c'mon! Just a little?" Kortney said with a pout.

Bran smiled as he shook his head now and sucked more soda through the straw. He swallowed it, perhaps too fast, and felt the first spasm punch into his gut. Uh-oh. He frowned as more followed getting less and less subtle.

"I hate that you're not more of an enabler to my ego and neediness," Kortney grumped beside him as she crossed her arms under her small breasts which her push-up bra was hard work in making look visible above her chubby belly.

"Mm-Mgk!" Bran started to reply as his hiccups kept a steady, though not overwhelming, pace. He was trying desperately for her to not pay attention to them. He was here to enjoy a concert, not get off on hiccups! "I love Hmp! you too Hmpk! much to gi--give into your Hmph! baser tra--auma responses. Hmgk'l!"

That one brought up a small internal belch and he rubbed his chest. This case was rough, made rougher by him suppressing them.

"So, what you're saying," she said as she looked straight into his eyes, dark brown to green-hazel, "is that you love me?"

Bran strangled his hiccups as he stared at her, incredulous. His head jerked back and the hand he had sat on his belly jumped in his periphery. Eventually she cackled at the face with a sort of glee that made Bran smile despite his battle to keep his face straight.

"Aw, I love messing with youuu!" she cooed. "You're just so adorable!"

He smiled at that.

"And those hiccups make you even more adorable. You have the cutest damn hiccups, sweetie. Seriously," Kortney added.

Bran's eyebrows raised in shock, and he felt his cheeks darken in a blush.

Of course, Kortney had noticed, how could she not have? The thin shirt he wore stuck to his belly even though it was a larger size because of the moisture on his skin. No matter how much he clamped down on the hiccups, the sound they made was unmistakable. Still, he felt like he had gotten caught.

"Hmk'm! Thanks," he said. "I ge-Hip'm!-get them al--lot."

"Oh yeah? Huh," she responded as she tilted her head in thought. "I think...didn't you have them a week ago at that party we went to?"

"I di-Himp!-I did!" Bran said as calmly as he could. He'd gotten them intentionally then. There were a lot of people he didn't know in addition to his own friends. He had started to notice that, for some reason, he'd want to induce more if he didn't know the people he was meeting for the first time. Perhaps it was a perpetual icebreaker? A bid for control of a situation he felt out of control in? He wasn't sure.

"Have you always gotten them a lot? Cause, I get them too. Read somewhere it was the estrogen. I just thought it was because I'm fat," she said as she patted her belly.

Kortney mentioned her size a lot, but it was never in a overtly negative way, just factual. Still, Bran frowned in confusion.

"Why wou--ould that Hup! matter?" he asked genuinely.

"I dunno," she said as she shrugged her round shoulder into her curled hair. "Like, the fat rolls getting all up in your diaphragm area?"

Bran laughed, then, outright, hiccups be damned.

"Stop laughing! I'm an artist not a...an anatomy...person. You're so mean!" she said as she hit him lightly in the stomach.

Bran's laughter dissolved into giggles until he had trouble getting his breath back through the giggling and the laughing. His hiccups had sped up.

"Sorr-Heep!" he said and covered his mouth with the back of his hand as his other hand moved up his belly to right below his chest as the rapid hiccups.

"You deserved that," she snarked as she watched Bran convulse beside her, his belly tightening his shirt with each spasm, and his shoulders pushing against the back of the camping chair repeatedly.

"Hmp'mk!-Hup!-Hu'ulp!-Hmp!-Ulp! Shi-Hip!H'up!HUP!" Bran had given up trying to keep them all muffled because it was starting to hurt to keep them in and when they were this fast, he wasn't able to predict them.

"You good, hon?" Kortney said as she looked over at him with concern.

Bran closed his eyes as his arousal crept back in. Not only was Kortney paying attention to him, but she was concerned. It certainly wasn't helping his hiccups calm down.

He nodded as he tried to breathe through the spasms. They started to slow a little, so he attempted to speak.

"Ye-Hmpk! I Hup!" he stopped and breathed as slowly as he could and tried again, "I'm-Hmp! g-Hup'k!-g-Ulp!-oo-Umpk!-d."

Dammit, he thought. They only sped up when he tried to speak. When he paused, they'd slow down again. He was beginning to think he really was being punished for laughing at his friend.

Bran heard the sound check and became even more annoyed. He definitely didn't want to be hiccuping while watching this amazing band in front of him!

"Yeah, hon, you sound real good," Kortney answered with sarcasm. But she rubbed his arm lightly.

Bran turned to look at her knowing his face was flushed.

"I-Himpk!" he tried to say again. "Uh-HUP!" He couldn't even groan.

It was so unusual for him to actually feel legitimately embarrassed about hiccuping. But him not really being in the mood, him being so close to the stage with Kortney so he was sure his hiccups would be heard by others in the audience (maybe even the band members), and him having his ability to talk taken away was absolutely mortifying. He covered his face.

Bran heard Kortney giggle and felt her arms around him as she drew his head under her chin. It was a feat being that he was so much taller than her, but her thighs did give her extra height while sitting and she'd pulled one leg under the other to achieve the embrace.

"Aww. I'm sure they'll stop eventually, hon. Aw, my unflappable ginger bear so embarrassed is so cute," she said.

Bran tried to grumble but his hiccups wouldn't let him.

"I do-Himp!-I d-Hup!-o-Hu'up!-ugh-HILP!" he tried to say in frustration.

Bran lightly untangled himself from Kortney and she allowed it as he brought out his phone and pulled up his notes. He typed furiously as his hiccups coyly slowed again without him talking.

I DON'T WANT TO INTERRUPT THE CONCERT. MAYBE I SHOULD MOVE.

Kortney read the message and shook her head.

"One, the music is gonna be way too loud to hear you," she said pointedly. She could have a point there, but she continued, "And two, even if it isn't you have every right to exist as you are no matter what. If you had Tourette's, it would be wrong of anyone to judge you for it. You love this band just as much as I do. Maybe you'll start hiccuping in beat or something. I dunno. But, you know, if you need to go because you're hurting or something I get that. But don't go just because you think you'll bother someone."

Bran looked up at her from having ducked his head and sighed. When he'd first met Kortney, it was him having to encourage her to take up space and be unapologetic for who she was. Now, he was getting a lot of the same message back and it was aggravatingly sensible.

"Th-Hup!" he tried and grunted as the hiccups sped back up. He bent over his phone again eventually holding up the message.

THEY DON'T HURT. THANKS FOR REMINDING ME TO NOT FEEL BAD FOR SHIT I CAN'T CONTROL. I HATE YOU.

"Aww," Kortney said as she hugged him again, "I love you too, boo!"

As it turned out, Bran's hiccups really couldn't be heard over the instruments even though the outdoor-ness of the concert dispersed the sound of the band. That was the good thing about brass instruments. They were made to be played outdoors as much as indoors. The sound carried naturally loud and big.

After the first couple of songs Bran's hiccups finally gave him respite.