The deep grumble coming from her belly was what woke Flare up from her deep sleep. Her nose crinkled as she yawned, blinking away the tiredness from her eyes as she slowly adjusted to her surroundings. Looking up towards the ceiling, her mind wandered for a moment as she laid in bed, thinking about what she’d do today.
She faintly recalled Polka asking her for another chance to collaborate together. Between her recordings for her “Legend” series and Flare’s own tight schedule recently, it felt like it had been a while since the two of them last did anything together. Knowing the overly hyper fennec girl though, she’d probably be fine with almost anything as long as the two of them were able to play together. The two of them could spend the entire stream talking with each other and it’d still make for a good time. If nothing else, there were always projects and plans for Shiranui Kensetsu in the Minecraft server to be done. She would have to send a Line message over and find the time later to hash out the details.
A cool breeze blowing from a slightly cracked open window crested the half elf’s middle, prompting it to squelch in discomfort before emitting another growl. She had gotten used to waking up per her stomach’s orders rather than her typical alarm clock these days, but it wasn’t as if she particularly minded it. Waking up because she was hungry was a lot better than having to listen to the constant droning of a loud, annoying noise.
Craning her neck downwards, her gaze settled on her midsection, the tanned dome rising and falling with each breath she took. To anyone else it’d seem as if she were quite bloated, but as she pressed her hand into it, the smooth skin gave way as easily as melted butter, her fingers sinking into soft flesh. A slight frown could be seen on Flare’s face as she took a deep breath, trying but ultimately failing to smooth her stomach out. A stubborn layer of pudge covered what had once been a lightly toned middle, and, as if to taunt her further, she watched as it quickly began to quiver before exhaling, rounding out once more.
The half elf wanted to say that she had no idea how this had happened, but she would only be lying to herself. She knew better than anyone that she only had herself to blame.
The lack of any concerts or 3D events lately meant that she didn’t have to head into the studio as often as she used to, save for recording any voicework that she couldn’t immediately do at home. Not having to participate in any concerts also meant that she didn’t have to practice any dancing or set routines, effectively cutting off one of the main sources of physical activity Flare actively engaged in. This left her with no other choice but to stay tucked away in her home, bored out of her mind whenever she wasn’t streaming.
It didn’t help that she had little reason to leave her house, other than for necessities like food and other essentials. The seasons were changing and Fall had finally come, with Winter arriving not too soon after, making it hard to go outside when it was much more comfortable to simply stay warm and cozy indoors. Given her nature as a streamer, a good chunk of her time was spent sitting in front of a computer screen for most of the day anyway, playing games and interacting with her viewers. It was only every once in a while that Flare had a chance to meet up with and talk with her genmates or the other Holo girls, but with how full everyone’s schedules were quickly becoming, she’d ended up resorting to keeping in contact with them online rather than in person. The only exception was Noel, a fellow member of her generation and someone she considered much more than a friend, who made it a point to visit and check in on the half elf every once in a while. To fill in the void and ease some of her burdens left by these circumstances, Flare had taken to ordering out her meals through mobile delivery apps.
It was a small comfort at first. Time that was spent prepping her own meals was now used for planning future streams. Most of her hobbies could be done at home whenever she wasn’t streaming, and the food helped to keep herself occupied when she found herself with nothing else to do. It was only a matter of time before things started to spiral out of control, however, and the problems first started when it soon became apparent that it wasn’t enough for her. Portions started to feel too small, leaving her dissatisfied with meals that once kept her full throughout the day, and idly munching on snacks was becoming much more frequent.
The remedy to this had been easy enough, ordering more and more food to keep herself fuller longer, but with it also came the slowly but surely rising numbers on her scale. Once the habit was formed, it became hard to break, and Flare was reaping the consequences.
The half elf stretched as she sat up, a quiet yawn escaping her mouth as she shrugged off her drowsiness. She’d come to realize that clothing issues were also another problem added onto the pile as the graphic tee she was wearing rose up along with her, exposing the lower half of her navel and a dollop of coffee-colored flesh. It pinched at her waist as she got out from under the covers, love handles bunched up at her sides while her belly sat comfortably in her lap before getting up and heading towards her bedroom door. Although she knew that this could easily be reversed if she set her mind to it, the growing hunger looming in her belly prompted Flare to push it to the back of her mind. It’s not like there was any harm in indulging herself just a little bit longer, then she could get back on track to the trim and fit half-elf she used to be.
*** ***
“Flare? Fu~re~a, wake up…”
Her mind was still a haze as Flare was woken up, being gently shaken by a soft, comforting voice. It took her a few moments as she rubbed her eyes before her vision cleared, staring up towards a woman with silver colored hair.
“Noel?” Flare groggily spoke, squinting her eyes to get a better look at her friend, “What are you doing here? How did you even get in?”
“The spare key you left me, remember?” Chuckling as she shook her head at the lack of recognition on Flare’s face, Noel fished a small key out of one of her pockets, “I tried calling to let you know I’d be visiting today, but it looks like you were a little too busy napping to notice.”
“Sorry about that Noel, I must have been more tired than I… thought…” Flare had reached for her phone to confirm that she’d missed a few calls, all from the same number, but trailed off as she looked around her.
It looked like she’d been in the living room, laid back on her couch with a pillow propped up behind her. Why she was sleeping here she had no idea, but bits and pieces of evidence that lay around her quickly filled the gaps in her mind. An array of food containers and plastic cups lay demolished on a small table in front of her, the various logos depicted on each one indicating that she’d ordered from at least a small handful of fast food spots around her area. A small pile of wrappers sat at her side, surprisingly left untouched and kept neat and tidy.
Memories from the day before came crashing down back to her as Flare’s face took on a red tint, heat radiating off of her cheeks. Her attempt at dieting was… something that “could have been” considered an “effort,” but ultimately a complete and utter failure. She’d gotten too lazy, too comfortable just lounging around at home in sweats and loose clothing. Going out for a run was a no go, so her next best option was to try to exercise at home. Her willpower was strong, and the sets and routines she followed made her all the more confident that as long as she stuck to it, she’d be lithe and trim in no time.
Flare made it only a few days in before she broke. Despite all of her exercising, it was pointless if she was going to just give in to her hunger at a moment’s notice. Cutting back on her portions only caused the poor half-elf discomfort as her stomach demanded food, angrily growling and noisily begging to be fed constantly, and it was only made worse after each workout session. The tipping point had been when she’d received an email from one of the services she was subscribed to, letting her know that there were several high quality deals going on for the next few months and to “Join in Today!” to take full advantage of them. She knew it was against her better judgement, but the exhaustion, the hunger, the desire to just eat—The only thing on her mind was food, and with how hard she was working, she could afford to indulge herself this one time…
Then it turned into another. And another. And another, and it kept going, an endless cycle of one last big meal or taking a “break” day, until she arrived at this exact moment.
Flare had eaten herself into a food coma, and the thought replaying in her mind only furthered her mortification as she realized that she’d not only made a complete fatty out of herself, but that Noel had found her this way. She’d all but shriveled up inside out of sheer embarrassment and wanted nothing more than to find a hole to climb into and never see the light of day again.
“Did you want me to help you clean this up?” The sound of her knight friend’s voice had broken Flare out of her self-deprecating thoughts as she turned her head towards Noel, though she focused her gaze on the large bag in one of her hands instead of her face.
“...If you don’t mind.” The faintest of murmurs left Flare’s mouth as she watched Noel move, using her free hand to pick up the pile of leftover boxes with ease before going to dispose of them. Grabbing the pile of wrappers with her hands, Flare looked down at herself to see if anything else was amiss, only to find a plentiful amount of plush to greet her back.
The light-grey top she was currently wearing was being stretched out by a blanket of flab, even moreso with the binge she’d had previously. There were plenty of creases that bunched up around her armpits, pinching at Flare’s sides and bulging out a bit when she was relaxed. The modest bust she usually sported had gone up a size or two with her recent gains, stretching out the face of the poor character displayed on her shirt, and even her arms were looking a little pudgier than usual, but the biggest eyecatcher had to be her belly. It stuck out just far enough that she could barely see it past her own chest. It was, thankfully, fully covered by her top, but with how strained it was against its confinement it was like an overstuffed pillow spilling out of its casing.
No amount of excuses could cover up what had been done to her body—What Flare had allowed to happen. Somewhere within these past few weeks a small part of her had suddenly changed, and it grew, and grew, and continued to grow until it had turned her into something entirely new. She couldn’t for the life of her figure out what that “thing” was, but there was no use dwelling on the past. All she could focus on now was what she planned to do next.
“Flare?” Noel’s voice called out, “Could you help me unload some groceries? I was planning on making the two of us lunch!”
*** ***
“Say ah, Flare!”
“Ahh…”
Closing her mouth once the spoon had entered it, Flare sighed in satisfaction as the cool sensation of frozen sweets hit her taste buds.
Snuggled up comfortably against each other on her bed, Flare and Noel were each enjoying some frozen desserts together while watching a movie, though the flick itself had long since been forgotten about by the two viewers. Holding a moderately sized bowl in her hands, Noel watched with amusement as Flare dug into the pint she’d gotten herself. It was easier to just have the whole thing with her instead of getting up and heading towards the kitchen whenever she wanted more, and she’d ended up almost cleaning out the whole container by the time they had reached the main conflict of the film.
The frequency of the silver-haired woman’s visits had grown as quickly as Flare’s expanding waistline. It was a welcome change that Flare felt that she needed. Having someone else around made things feel a bit more lively, and it was nice to talk with someone face to face rather than through a computer screen. The opportunity for off-collaborations was something the two of them took full advantage of whenever Noel visited, and it had made for some really fun streams for the both of them.
The amount of online ordering Flare had been doing for her meals had actually gone down as a result, but that was only because Noel was always insistent on cooking for the two of them whenever she stopped by. It wasn’t as if Noel hadn’t cooked for Flare before, so she didn’t mind it all that much, but she would always overdo it and end up cooking more than a proper meal’s worth of food whenever they ate together. The half-elf figured that it must have been normal for Noel to eat as much as she did, with how big of an appetite she had being a knight and all, but as she tried to match those eating habits, the weight had only continued to pile on.
“So delicious…” Noel smiled as she held a hand to the side of her face, content now that she’d finished her little snack. With all of this eating between the two of them Noel had actively encouraged lately, it ended up as no surprise that she’d found herself just a tiny bit softer as well. The two melon-sized orbs that made up her bust were still her most prominent feature, but hiding just below it was a small paunch of a belly, joined by a plush rear and a set of thicker thighs whose gap was getting smaller and smaller with each passing day. Noel had settled nicely into a fuller hourglass shape, giving her just a bit more of a motherly charm.
The girl sitting next to her easily dwarfed her in comparison.
The word “thin” was like a memory from a distant past for Flare. Calling her chubby would have just been being kind. From head to toe, it was undeniable just how fat Flare had gotten. The half-elf’s face was fuller, her soft cheeks and the beginnings of what looked like a forming double chin giving her a much more gentle appearance. Her chest, while nowhere near the size of Noel’s, was still impressive in its own right, sticking out from under the sweater she was currently wearing. Weeks upon weeks of moving food to her and from her mouth were about the only sort of exercise her arms had received, any sort of muscle or definition in them now replaced by pure pudge, two bingo wings that would jiggle even when she was barely moving.
Heading even further down was where the brunt of most of the half elf’s weight went. The smoothness of her dark-skinned orb of a middle had finally given way to a more roll-like appearance, with a very slight upper roll and a lower paunch that made her look wider than she actually was, peaking out just beneath the bottom of her sweater. Her sides had swelled up to where she had a constant muffin top no matter what she was wearing, and her legs, arguably the first thing people thought of when they looked at her, were like two pillars of soft, velvet fat. The gap that once existed between them had left long ago, nowadays the two tree trunks were constantly rubbing against each other while trying to fight for space. Spreading them apart did little to help either, as they still met each other just a bit further up in a squishy embrace. The pair of sweatpants she was wearing—tight enough even with the drawstring fully loose—were constantly pushed to their limit by the two wobbling balls of fat that was the half-elf’s rear. Even while sitting, Flare rose up a few inches, her pudgy bottom having grown so round that it acted as a makeshift cushion. They constantly wobbled, jiggled, and easily overflowed from Flare’s hands whenever she tried to cup them, and served as one of the main reasons that she only wore sweatpants nowadays.
By the time the credits had finished and the streaming program went back to the main menu, Flare had polished off the last few spoonfuls of her dessert, placing the empty container on a small table next to her. She tried to readjust the waistband of her sweats in a vain attempt to alleviate some of the pressure building within her stomach, but it barely budged an inch as it wrapped around her like a vice.
“Ngh!” Letting out a small grunt of pain, Flare leaned back as an aching sensation took place in her gut. She hadn’t realized how quickly she was eating, she was so focused on the flavor and simply getting food into her mouth that it was just now hitting her how much she had actually consumed.
“Flare, are you alright?” Concern was evident on Noel’s face as she readjusted her position on the bed. “Do you need me to get you something?”
“N-No, I’m fine, just…,” she huffed, the pressure in her bloated midsection rising. “I think I ate more than I should have, hah...”
Noel remained unconvinced. She watched as Flare’s labored breathing slowed, and the discomfort on her face soon turned to wide-eyed surprise as heat flared on the half-elf’s cheeks. Before she could say another word, a loud groan came from Flare’s middle, the pressure within it causing her to wince. It rose up within her chest, into her throat until eventually…
“Buu-ooorp~”
“Hahh…” Relief washed over Flare’s features as the discomfort within her belly died down slightly. It was short lived, however, as her head zipped over to Noel, who looked at her with an equal amount of red on her face.
The half-elf’s hands practically flew to cover her face as she turned an even darker shade of red. She sat there in silence, but internally she was screaming her head off.
Aghhh, so embarrassing! Why did that have to happen in front of Noel?!
It felt like she was going to evaporate into nothingness out of sheer embarrassment, but Flare’s ears picked up the sound of a giggle, prompting her to take a small peak at the girl sitting next to her.
Noel had a hand over her mouth in an attempt to hide it, but a few stray giggles escaped her throat before it turned into light, airy laughter. The corners of her mouth were pointed up into a smile once she’d stopped, taking both of Flare’s hands into her own. “So even someone as composed as you can act like this, Flare.”
“You don’t have to try to put on a face for me, you know,” Noel gently guided their hands down to the half-elf’s stomach, placing them on top of Flare’s as she did, “I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable and try to hide it from me, Flare. If something’s wrong, just tell me, alright?”
“Noel…” The sound of her own heartbeat thumped in her ears as she finally returned Noel’s gaze, meeting her with a small, albeit shy, smile of her own. The tenderness being shown by her friend was what made her feel truly glad to have someone like her in her life.
The moment between them was broken by another grumble coming from Flare’s marshmallow of a belly. The half-elf let out an annoyed huff as she pulled down on her sweater, trying to cover up the sliver of coffee-colored skin that poked through.
“Flare… what if I…” Noel trailed off, her eyes settled on Flare’s distended middle. She took a glance upwards, noting the confusion on Flare’s face, before taking her hands and placing them at her sides.
Gently, Noel lifted up the hem of Flare’s sweater, fully exposing her puffball of a belly to the open air. She stared at it for a moment, seemingly transfixed by its appearance, before placing her hand on top of it and moving in circular motions. Despite how packed it was, the chocolate mound of lard was still soft to the touch as Noel’s fingers glided across the half-elf’s belly, taking note of how warm it was. The heat radiating off of it felt like a furnace, covering her middle in a light layer of sweat, and Noel could feel the vibrations coming from it as Flare breathed.
“It’s so soft, Flare…” Ignoring the surprised noises coming out of Flare’s mouth, Noel continued her massage, pinching and poking pieces of flab in between motions. More grumbling came from the smooth sphere before eventually—
“—Uuoorp~”
More and more pressure was being relieved from her middle as Flare begrudgingly accepted what was happening, turning her face away slightly. “Noel, this is embarrassing…”
“Shhh. It’s just the two of us here, Flare. Let me take care of you for now, OK?”
The silver-haired woman was met with another small “Bworp~” in response. Noel chuckled as she continued, more burps filling the silence as she was finding herself growing more enamored with how Flare’s stomach felt like pudding in her hands. She had only ever seen larger sized people on the internet, but seeing someone as big as those pictures up close, and it being Flare of all people—curious thoughts entered her mind that she quickly dismissed out of sheepishness.
“Uurrp~ Ugh, I think you can stop now, Noel.” Flare could feel the noticeable relief within her gut as she sighed, pulling her top back over it. It still stuck out a good distance in front of her, but at least it was fully covered again. “Thank you for that. It… helped.”
“O-Of course!” A bit of awkward laughter left Noel’s mouth as she swiftly took her hands off of Flare’s belly. She nudged herself a bit closer to the half-elf, leaning her head down on her shoulder. “Flare…”
“Hmm?”
“Do you… If you want, I could…”
Watching Noel stumble over her words elicited a small chuckle out of Flare.
“I think you should be following your own words, right, Noel?”
It was silent for a moment before the silver-haired woman breathed out a laugh of her own. “That’s true, it’s only fair after all.”
“It’s just that… I can’t help but feel like some of this is my fault. I’ve never seen you so happy while eating before, and it made me want to spoil you so much! I may have ended up overdoing it though…”
“If you want, I can help you lose all of this weight, Flare.” Turning her head slightly, Noel locked her eyes onto Flare’s. “Since I was the one that ended up making you gain it all—it’s the least I could do.”
Grabbing her hand, Flare squeezed it softly as she shook her head. “I appreciate it, Noel, really. Honestly, I’d have to end up facing this problem sooner or later. I’ve made too many excuses for myself to let it go on for this long. And besides, we’re idols, remember?”
“But that doesn’t mean we have to deal with it at this moment, right?” She took Noel’s hand, placing it back on top of her belly. “It’s only another month before Christmas after all, don’t you think we could use a bit of a break?”
Noel’s hand twitched for a moment, looking up at Flare with wide eyes, before a knowing smile settled on her face. “When you put it that way, that does sound nice. It definitely isn’t an excuse to have more of my cooking, right?”
“Those are your words, not mine.” A genuine, hearty laugh left Flare’s mouth as the two of them laid there, taking in each other’s embrace. She obviously couldn’t stay like this forever, but since she’d already come this far, why not see the whole thing through? Her mind began to wander as she thought about what her next meal would be, and how much she and Noel could really push how much the half-elf could truly eat.