Equivalent exchange

As I stared at the mirror like every single morning in my life I felt the need to go back in bed and hide there for the rest of the day, maybe the rest of the week, or the month, probably the month, definitely the month. I couldn’t be bothered to go to school today, well, every single day I said that to myself and yet I still went. I wonder if teachers feel the same way…

“Neil! Get down for breakfast!” There we go, perfect as a clock: mom and her damn breakfast. Could I get one day without that wake up call for once? Probably not. “Neil? Do I need to come and wake you up?” Oh, gods please no…

“Coming!” I never quite understood if she says that just because she knows I don’t like to have her in my room in the morning, or at any time really. “Coming right now!” I wasn’t but it gave the illusion I was getting ready or out of bed at the very least.

I looked at my reflection again before closing the door that held the tall mirror in the closet, patting the belly that had grown a little since the last week. I knew mom would be annoyed if I didn’t really come down in seconds but I had to check on something and took out the scale from underneath the bed with no little amount of worry in my heart. The white platform with the small led screen just stood there lifeless until I stepped on it and calculated my weight, giving the response I dreaded to see: again I had gained weight. I was tempted to slap myself awake but I knew already it wouldn’t work, not after a hundred mornings in which I indeed tried that and far more days in which I did far worse things to lose the weight I seemed to put on simply by breathing… and eating junk food. Yeah… might be my fault. Mom was once more calling for me and as such I had to get down or hell would break loose. I dragged myself down the stairs with little joy in my steps, finding almost all of the family already at the table eating.

“Hello darling, pancakes or cereals?” A somewhat rounded face attached to an equally rounded body welcomed me and presented two options: either a large stack of soft pancakes or a larger bowl filled with brightly coloured flakes in every shape imaginable. Mom was just like me: not that tall and maybe a little plumper than I was, reason for my own condition in all likelihood. She loved to cook and loved to eat as we all did in the family and as such we didn’t really escape the mounting calories, well, all but a few of us. “Or maybe some fruits?” There it was: the third option. Today though the mirror had done its job and shamed me enough to make me willing to shy away from the sugary mess that was in the plate in front of me. Too bad someone else had a different plan.

“Mom, those are mine...” Before I was able to even touch the apples the one weirdly fit member of the family, well the two weirdly fit. Natasha was the first to steal the fruits and then Bryce came and stole the rest. “Sorry bro.” She was honest at least… better than nothing.

I gave the perky teen, only a year younger than me a good look before moving to the other teen who was the spitting image only in male form of said female: each was close to six feet in height, well-built and decent looking, thanks to dad’s side of the family. In contrast I was shorter and I apparently had a strong disposition for obesity and knee issues thanks to a few handy genes from mom who also had the same issues I had, but with three kids in the house and her old job before she was fired when the company failed, she never managed to put as much weight, never enough time to eat. Until she was fired and began trying to cope with the situation by learning how to cook properly. No one really understood how did the two of them get blondish hair and the rest of us had black, but DNA tests do not lie and apparently we had a Swedish great-grandad or something. Ok, I’ll admit that I was envious of the ‘I can eat a million burgers and still be thin’ ability. I wasn’t really that jealous but hey, I could still dream that one day genetics would come and save my fat ass and take me out of this pit I was thrown into after a few years of depression. I had managed to get out of that curse eventually, but it was just my brain, the rest of me lagged behind. As much as my sister told me she loved me, she never quite wanted to help me lose weight. Mom made big meals for dad because he liked them whereas Natasha with her sports required a more controlled diet and mom did all she could to help her stay in the boundaries set by her coach, maybe putting too much effort towards her and forgetting I was there, eating whatever was left.

“If I skip breakfast it’s going to kill me at PE.” There goes my ‘meal’… great.

“You could eat the pancakes and let your brother get something.” I felt a little bit hurt by the reaction of my sister, no, really hurt.

“He never eats fruit mom and the one day he decides to do that I suddenly have to roll over?” That might have been nice, you know? Nat rolled her eyes and defiantly bit into the apple she had stolen from me barely a second before. Mom gave her the look that she reserved for the not so rare occasions in which Nat behaved that way and as always she cared little about mom’s authority. Teens these days…

“Doesn’t matter, it’s not like an apple can make me lose any weight just by itself.” Mom and looked at the stack of pancakes and syrup she had just put right under my nose and frowned. I loved her but, let’s be honest, it was just as much her fault as it was mine. “I’m not that hungry anyways.” With a silent sigh I stood up and took my bag from the pile I had left it the day before. After a few long minute of thinking and a few more to get completely dressed, I made the insane choice to not get on the bus that was passing to pick us up in that moment. Sometimes I wondered if my parents chose this house because it was so close to the bus stop… “I’ll walk to school.” Not that it mattered: the bus had already left and I wasn’t in the mood for running behind it in the hope of catching it at the next stop. I had the time to walk anyways…

“I could take you to school with the car Neil…” Dad finally came out of the Ipad-induced trance and absentmindedly spoke a few words that should have been nice but that only made me feel worse for some reason. What was wrong with me today? Was I coming down on a fever or something?

“Nah, I might as well walk.” Weirdly enough dad nodded and muttered something that might have been a soft ‘good idea’ or something on that line, adding to the already peculiar feeling I had in my chest.

“For once in your life…” Oh, fuck off, please. Natasha didn’t miss the chance this time and hit me in the back, both figuratively and practically. The slap hurt a little but I didn’t say anything, there was no reason to and it was just a minor poke, she had said way worse things to me in these years since I had started gaining weight. “Come on Neil, I’ll walk with you.” Well, colour me impressed. “What? Can’t I be nice every now and then?” How about just letting me alone for a change.

“Sure…” I was ready and so I waited for the three to twenty minutes it took her to get her bearings together and come out.

We didn’t really talk for a good half of the way to the school: she was texting or listening to music and I was, well, being me and kept my thoughts to myself. It’s not like I had something interesting to say after all. A few minutes down the line she got a call from a friend and talked for a long while with her or him, I didn’t quite catch who it was but apparently it was about some sports event that was going to happen in a while, maybe in a month and she promised to get ready for it and go to it together. After the call ended she put her phone away and stopped for a second before resuming her walk with me.

“Hey, Neil… I was wondering, maybe you can come and join that run I mentioned with me and my friend? It’s… it’s just a simple run, almost ten miles but maybe you could try?”

“Nat, I appreciate the effort… really, but, ehm…” I didn’t quite know how to put it so I went with the most direct route. “I’m out of shape if you didn’t see it, I can barely run a mile and even that it’s like I’m dying. I-I am not like you and Bryce.” Speaking of the devil, Bryce whooshed past us on his bike. “See? You should just focus on yourself…”

“Oh, shut up you idiot.” Another slap, this one really strong. “You’re my brother and I don’t care if you’re fat or not.” It doesn’t really show that you do. A finger was jabbed at my chest and, very embarrassingly, sank a little into the mass of fat and flesh that was between the skin and what little I had in matter of bones and self-respect. “You need to stop brooding and lazing around. In a month you can do a lot if you put your mind to it, I know that for experience. It doesn’t matter if you get to the end but I want you to participate and at least try, ok?” She was staring at me with the most serious of expressions she could muster. “Mom might be a little soft, I know she forgets about you and that you need her support and dad doesn’t really care, but I do and Bryce does as well so… either you can wait to get like those folks on tv or you can get off that couch and start working out.”

“But…” Why now all of a sudden? She never offered to do for years, always making fun of me, always being a thorn in my side and today she suddenly loves me so much and wants me to come with her and work out? What the hell is with today?

“’But’ my ass! You and the gym will have a nice meeting today, no way around it.”

“Jeez, fine… did you wake on the wrong side of the bed today or something? You never cared before or, at least you didn’t seem to care all that much. What happened?”

“It’s nothing… I just had a… a bad dream.” I was tempted to ask her about it but I held my words for the moment: what kind of dream made her get so… worried? Was she worried? Or maybe it was just concern for me? Still, it was kind of nice that she cared a little, even if just a little and in her own messy way. “I expect you to really come to the gym today and if you do, prepare to suffer until you actually step foot inside that place.” I nodded. She might have been joking but I knew my sister and if anything, she was going easy. “Good.”

Once again silence fell between us and we didn’t talk at all, each busy doing our own thing until we arrived at school, just in time to get to class. The bell rang right when I had sat down in the last row of chairs in the room, near a bunch of guys that chatted about sports and movies and a couple of girls that were more interested in gossiping about… stuff I guess, I didn’t really understand what they were talking about and I didn’t really care.

The teacher arrived a moment after the bell and put a few stacks of papers on the desk, thick stacks and all of them were tests from the looks of it, mostly because of the insane amount of red marks and highlights all over the otherwise black and white paper. Many drew sharp breaths, hoping that none of those red marks were theirs but the air of anxiety and worry in the class was quickly shaken by another late arrival.

“Sorry, I’m late… Damn my alarm clock.” Not one person, me included, was able to take their eyes off the deep blue gem that was Tyler as she huffed and shuffled her backpack around. Her chest was heaving up and down and I bet not a single male would ever be able to forget that sight, as common as it was, especially during PE. “Sorry.” Even the teacher had to shake himself back to reality with a quiet pinch on his arm.

“Oh, it’s… it’s nothing, just sit down.” She nodded and sighed in relief. Guess even the stars of the school forget to set the alarm, huh… Interesting. “I’ve got your grades from last week’s test by the way.” Again, the mood of the class shifted completely and many forgot to stare at the piece of art that she was as she sat in a desk and not any desk but one that was right next to mine.

She had been coming to this class for weeks and this was the first time I had been so close to her, ever and so were the three guys next to me. Normally she’d sit somewhere at the front or far in the back but today was special and weird so, here she was, barely two feet away from me and looking as stunning as always. I will admit I was looking at her tits, I mean, they were right there and she clearly didn’t have a problem in showing them, but I may have been staring a bit too much. A poke in my shoulder woke me up from my daze and the teacher eyed me with a lot of contempt and a paper in his hand while the class laughed or chuckled. I did the only thing I could do and blushed heavily as I walked to the desk to get my test and then back, a makeshift persona walk of shame. Ah, high school… what should be the best years of my life according to mom… as if…

On the other hand, Tyler didn’t even seem to mind and got up to get her own tests. If mine was decent and leaning on the higher side average, hers was planted firmly around the top, proving once more to whoever had seen it that she had the beauty and the brains. It was almost as if she wasn’t one of us, wait, yeah she wasn’t: the closest anyone had gotten to describe Tyler was a goddess descended upon mankind. Sure there was also Angel but the guy catered to muscle fans and only those that had a kink for huge dicks, the literature teacher sent everyone into a mix of emotions since one could never quite understand which head to talk to nor if they were male, female or a curious mix of both. From the rumours they were both nice but it was damn confusing and they tended to argue a lot. Then there was the odd couple, Vincent and Cameron: the two were something of an item and barely moved away from each other if they did at all. Due to the giant furred dragon’s size he couldn’t attend classes normally and it seemed that he took online classes so by all means Cameron should have little time to be with him and yet they were almost always together like peanut butter and jelly. Cam was also one of the hottest guys in school, just a little bit under Angel and the captain of the football team according to a lot of polls among the student population whereas Tyler was perpetually at the top of the female side of the contest. All of them were gods in their own right and I was but an ant.

“Hey, you…” my brooding was interrupted by a soft voice and another tap on my shoulder, given the angle and position only one person could have could have done it. I turned my head and saw that a pair of eyes that could hold an entire world inside were staring at me. “You ok?” I may have blurted out something that only made me look more stupid than I already was. “Calm down, I won’t eat you.”

“S-sorry…”

“Oh, don’t be.” She wrote something that the teacher said on her notebook and then returned her attention to me. “So, don’t worry and watch all you can.” I didn’t say anything and just looked at her smiling muzzle. “My chest I mean… you were staring, right?”

“I, ehm, I-I, m-maybe? I don’t… I don’t know…” The smile crept wider and I could only fall in love with it: it was perfect.

“Why do you think I go around naked? Stare all you want, it’s only natural…” As if to put me in a worse spot she stretched her arms backwards and my stupid brain could only lock onto those mounds of pure heaven and marvel at how soft and springy they were, gravity bowing to her grace and not even daring to let them sag under their weight. If I hadn’t already had a crush on her like… half of the school, teachers included, I might have fallen in love for real. “You see something you like?” God… that was so unfair… yes I could watch and I bet I could even ask her to let me watch her tits as I jerked off but they were oh so far from my grasp. It was painfully beautiful, like a rose under a thick dome, one that I could never ever hope to touch. Unfair was the right word but I guess for her it was normal.

The rest of the lesson was over in a heartbeat and seconds after the bell rang, Tyler disappeared just as quickly as she had come earlier, leaving behind only the faint scent that followed after her steps. Some gave me dirty looks as if looking at her could somehow take away their share or wear down her scales if I did it too much. I didn’t care, I was nobody and the fact that she had even acknowledged my existence was a miracle.

The rest of the lessons until lunch went by normally with the only interesting event that a teacher forgot that they had given us homework and saved many people the hassle of making up excuses for forgetting them. Then, as per my usual I headed for the canteen where half of the school was waiting in line to get food from the ladies behind the glass panels that had been put in place. I waited for my turn, chose what I wanted to eat, paid, got a seat and sighed as per usual, alone.

Out of my backpack I took one of the many comics I owned and munched on the frankly below-par meal of the canteen, while flipping through the pages of the vintage issue. One hand to eat, one hand to read, one person alone and nobody cared. The highlight of my lunch was a guy that almost spilled his coke onto my shirt. I barely managed to save my comic, scooting back on the bench until I bumped into a massive wall of white stuff behind me. I froze and waited to wake up or something, but instead I was forcefully turned around and faced with a massive white muzzle at which center was a big black nose. One moment I was alone, the next I was face to face with the one and only Angel. I stared at him, waiting for him to growl at me. To my surprise he didn’t, no, he grabbed my comic and began reading it in silence.

“Ehm…” I turned my head a fraction of an inch and recognised who the owner of the whiteness was: Angel. “C-can I help?”

“No just wanted to have a look at the comic. It’s a very vintage issue right?” I gave him a weak nod and he gingerly flipped through it again. What was with me and meeting the popular kids today? Was it god smiling to me from above? Was this… some kind of ‘make a wish’ type of present? An ill omen for my death? First Tyler, then Angel, my sister actually trying to be nice to me for a change. Man, this is actually ominous. “Nice choice.”

“Th-thanks.”

“Hey, calm down man, I’m not a monster…” With those abs and pecs and well, balls sure you are… fucking hell, what are those? Melons? Watermelons? How can he even walk? “So, did you buy it at the Hyperion or online?”

“It was the last issue I could find, in a, ehm, comic convention a couple towns south so I don’t think you can find it here… probably.” Angel snorted, annoyed, and that simple snort made me shiver from head to toe. If being faced with a real werewolf wasn’t enough, being near an angry werewolf was a thousand times worse. “I could… give it to you, if, if you want it.” Angel moved his head just enough to look at me and once more I was staring back at an abyss that stared back at me. God… I could see myself in those eyes and I didn’t like what I saw at all. Again I was compared to something that came out of the mould an artist had made and I felt so…. Inferior. “It’s yours if you want it…”

“You know what? I’ll exchange it for something I found at the Hyperion, how about it?” I thought for a second and then nodded. “Cool, so, here is what I have on me.” He pulled up his backpack, oversized just as he was and took out books and a few other things among them, namely comic books and a few other nerdy things that I would have never imagined a buff guy like him could have ever owned. “Yes I’m a big nerd even if I don’t look like it.” I had to agree. “Many just look at me from afar and sort of settle with what they see, reason for which I always hang with Tyler, she’s the same as me and well, you I guess.”

“M-me? How, ehm, how so?”

“Well, there was a time when I wasn’t what I am now, when everyone didn’t pay attention to me and only thought I was weird because I wasn’t exactly like all the others. I think you are the same: most people look at you and think that you are what they see and don’t bother to find the person beneath all the, muscle and fur in my case and….”

“Fat in mine.” He was about to say something but by an instant I beat him. “There is no way around it, I’m fat and I have been for a while, but that’s… ok I guess. I’m trying to get in shape but I don’t really have the motivation.” The self-deprecating moment was cut short by a strong paw placed on my shoulder. Even if he didn’t move it, it was still far heavier than I would have thought. Just how heavy was he? And not the kind of heavy I was but the kind that came from sheer size and muscle and bone.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of you know, it’s just who you are not something you need to hate.” I would have rolled my eyes or even, god forbid, scoffed if he weren’t who and what he was. A couple of seconds later I realized that I may have also stopped at the appearances. “It’s ok not to be fit sometimes.”

“It’s not ok for me. I wake up and I see myself in the mirror in the morning and I don’t like what I see. I got through a few bad patches of depression a while ago, never really stepped out of them completely I think. My sister wants to take me to the gym today to get some movement, help me out a little which is weird because she never cared before.” Angel silently looked at me without making a move or a sound. I looked away with embarrassment during another pause and gave a look at the many things he had piled up on the table: a few new comics which I had, some old ones, a replica of a character from a recent tv series and a small box that wasn’t labelled in any way. “You’ve, uhm, you’ve got some really nice stuff here.”

“Oh, yes, and you can take whatever, I read them all anyways.” Anything? Nice… the problem was that I had also read them all, though a couple I kind of stole online from one of those websites that scans comics and publishes them without a ‘real permission’. I mean, I had to, it’s not like I was loaded with money or anything. But between all of the comics only one thing caught my attention and that was the small box. “That’s… something.” He scratched his head, ruffling the fur. “I don’t really know what’s inside, it was on sale at the Hyperion and I just sort of took it for a couple of bucks. Take it and… I’ll add this to sweeten the deal.” He handed me a couple of other issues along with the box. “How about it?”

“Sure.” Angel smiled and flashed me with a smile that I bet could blind people if seen in the right light or something… damn those fangs were white as snow. “Thanks.”

“Don’t thank me, I only saw the cover while you were eating.” I smiled as well, though it was not as impressive and far less attractive. Guess that being a loner and reading at lunch sometimes had a few advantages. “So, I’ll be seeing you at the gym today?”

“M-maybe…” The image of my angry sister popped up in my mind. “No I’ll definitely be there or I’ll get a beating from my sister.” Angel chuckled lightly but I still felt the vibrations run though the bench and through my body, echoing as he left and joined a group of other popular kids.

I stared at his back and saw him disappear in the hall that led to the canteen, not before hitting his head on the wall that suddenly got lower and causing most of the guys with him to burst out laughing. After he was gone I looked at all the stuff he had given me and then I put it in my own backpack along with my books, heading to my next class which, and I noticed only now, was going to begin in a few minutes and I was on the other side of the school. I did my best to get there in time, running through the halls and bumping in quite a few people and somehow made it just as the bell rang, again. As I sat down I felt like my body was burning a little and my lungs ached to get enough oxygen around my cells. Normally I’d have felt bad but after seeing Angel and with the angry image of my sister etched in my brain I only felt more pushed to work out and get rid of this uncomfortable feeling.

For the rest of the day I sat through a bunch of classes I gave little fucks about but still had to attend for grades and whatnot, it didn’t really matter, I would pass anyways and once the last bell told the school was over, I didn’t wait long before going out and head home, with a bus this time. A message from Nat told me that she’d be at the gym in two hours and I’d have to be there ‘or else’, her words not mine, so I’d have to fish out from my wardrobe what little I had in regards to gym clothes, namely, a pair of grey pants and an old shirt that probably would make me look stupid.

Mom wasn’t home, probably gone with her friends somewhere and dad was in his office working on some project from the comfort of his house instead of at his actual workplace a couple of miles downtown.

Once in my room I was tempted to slump on my bed and rest there, watch some tv and play but a small and insistent voice nagged me to get the stuff I’d use at the gym later. Finding it took a little longer than expected, especially the duffel bag to put it in, but even that didn’t take the two hours I had to get ready, leaving me with one and a half of actual ‘me’ time, which in this case meant checking out the things Angel had given me.

Reading the comics took about twenty minutes at best since the stories were good but not overly so, decent so to speak and then my curiosity took me to the mystery box that came with the rest of the package: it was a small thing, a few inches long and one high, light and without anything that helped make out what was inside. Opening it also required a little bit of work since there was no clear way to understand how so I kind of felt proud, stupid I know, when I slid the top off and revealed what was an instruction paper and a series of smaller boxes.

“Weird…” I took the sheet and read the instructions. “Professional cosplay contact lenses. Lenses?” I put the box on the bed and picked out one of the smaller containers and opened it: true enough, inside there were two brightly coloured contact lenses that seemed to shimmer under the light of the lamp above me. “See the world through the eyes of a panda, a tanuki or a fox! From japan to you, the mystical realm awaits! Let the others love your new look and you’ll love it even more!” The description was as cheesy as it could get but the lenses themselves were downright amazing at a closer look: perfect unlike many I had seen before. The Hyperion never failed to meet up to the expectations… “Three sets, huh? So I can wear them like, twice each at best? No wonder they were cheap as hell. Still, they are nice.” I wasn’t one for cosplay but I had them, might as well try them once, right? Maybe Angel would get angry if I did though… “He did say they were super cheap and that he didn’t know what was inside so… maybe he won’t notice. He doesn’t even need lenses with the eyes he has anyways.” I really wanted to try them on now that I was staring at them from up close. “Damn they are nice.” I hesitated for a couple of minutes until the curiosity took hold of me and I rushed to the bathroom, closing the door behind me.

The white tiles welcomed me along with the dirty laundry and a scale tossed in the corner that immediately mocked me with its silent stare and its… measuring self. I looked away and grabbed the tanuki set from its compartment. I was a little bit nervous: it had been a long time since I had tried to put on lenses because a few years ago I had switched to glasses when I really needed them but I still had it in me despite my somewhat pudgy fingers. In a minute or so and a couple of curses thrown at god I was finally donned with a pair of shining yellow eyes that glittered under the light when I moved my head.

“Nice… very nice. Too bad I can’t keep them or I’d try them all.” I stared at myself for a few more minutes until I felt that I had enough fun. “Let’s get you guys off.” I held open my right eye with my left hand and used the other to pry out the lens. However, I moved my hand a little too fast and I kind of… jabbed my finger in my eye. “Fuck!” The pain made me flinch and bend forwards, slamming my head into the sink with a little too much speed. The ‘bonk’ from the hit probably reached my father and the curses surely did.

“Language!” As per usual he limited himself to a sentence or less but that was enough to shut me up for the moment. Still holding my head where I had hit it I slowly got on my feet. As I opened my eyes the light almost blinded me with its intensity. I blinked a few times and waited for the pain to go away.

“Jesus fuck… that hurt.” A couple of minutes later I could stop rubbing the offended area and I could see somewhat better but even then I felt like I was hallucinating: the reflection in the mirror didn’t show me but something else, something big and covered in what must have been brownish fur. “I really hit my head hard… I’m hallucinating.” For an hallucination it was incredibly amusing since the furred creature in the mirror moved with me and made the same movements as I did. A moment later a flash of enlightenment hit me and I slapped my head in realization at first and then regretting ever doing that in the next instant. “Tanuki, of course.” I had read that the lenses were for a tanuki cosplay, weird as it may sound, and as such when I hit my head my brain fritzed them into making me believe I was actually seeing myself as one like the instruction said. Interesting. “Well, for an illusion I look nice I guess.” I looked at ‘myself’ and posed around a little, the illusion mimicking me from behind the glass.

I had to give it to my imagination: as a fictional being I was pretty cool, with all the brown fur and the cream coloured stripes here and there on my arms and stomach and the marks on my face. Even the big belly I had looked good like that, not flabby and disgusting but almost toned in its weirdness and soft looking. Too bad that when I looked down I saw the real me and what I felt when I rubbed my skin wasn’t fur but only skin. Another cruel illusion that life was making me see.

Just to make myself feel worse, my reflection had muscles I didn’t even dream to have on my arms, turning the flaccid skin and weak limbs into tree trunks worthy of a bodybuilder, giving ‘me’ the air of a cuddly but strong bear. A peek down in the mirror and I saw that even my legs and my back were like my upper limbs: strong muscles keeping what was my giant belly up and straight instead of leaning down thanks to gravity but the biggest surprise was what I saw between my legs. Instead of the mere four inches I had, there was a monster that looked more like a foot, soft and thick already, resting atop a pair of soccer balls. I was really going wild with my hallucination: all of my secret dreams were coming together into a perfect and furry picture.

I sighed and held my eyes open again, being extra careful not to gouge my eyeball out this time but something was wrong: no matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to get the lenses out and after a couple of minutes of useless tries and a little bit of extra pain, I gave up. The lenses were… gone. Just like that. I stared at myself in the mirror and saw that the reflection wasn’t worried or leaning against the sink: it was standing proud, arms crossed and smiling with a wide grin.

“What in the…” I tried taking off the lenses, again, and again there was nothing to be taken off. I breathed deeply and did my best to calm myself down, with little to no effort. The tanuki in the mirror was still smiling and didn’t move at all when I inched back and sat on the toilet: the illusion was separate from me. “OK, I… I hit my head and now… now I’m hall-hallucinating, yes… I’m asleep on the floor.” I slapped myself where I had hit myself, hard. “Fuck!!” It hurt a lot.

“Language young man!” Dad wasn’t helping and once more said just a few words. I muttered a quieter and more angry ‘fuck’ and looked back at the reflection that now mirrored my movements.

“Guess I really hit my head hard…” I couldn’t understand what was happening and I wasn’t really inclined in finding out. “Well… I guess I can’t go to the gym looking like this.” I had to call Nat and tell her I wasn’t going to come. It’d spell doom for me and I’d be treated like the idiot I was but I wasn’t going to risk it until I found out what was going on.

I had left my phone on the bed so I’d have to get out of the bathroom to get it and tell her I’d stay home, maybe faking an injury or an illness would do the trick for the moment, I had hit my head after all and it did hurt a lot. If I bandaged myself I could make it pass for something more serious until I got these lenses off, I could get them off at all…

I didn’t even make a step in the direction of the door when I felt something weird run through my body like a wave of sickness or nausea that lasted but a fraction of second, leaving me confused until it came back again. I leaned on the sink again and saw that the reflection wasn’t following my movements once more, watching me with an expression that might have been contempt or happiness. My entire body seemed to get heavier as my breathing accelerated until it didn’t feel like just a feeling anymore. I rushed to get on the scale in the corner, just to convince myself that it was just an illusion, that I was really coming down on a fever or something, that I wasn’t actually getting heavier but the scale, as always, didn’t lie to me to make me feel better and with the same surgical precision told me my weight. Five pounds heavier than this morning, then six, seven, ten, fifteen… I could feel my legs getting weaker and weaker under the strain of the increasing weight that was still growing for no reason at all, with no cause or no physical explanation.

Don’t worry, it’s not going to last long… a voice reached my ears, one that I had never heard before but I didn’t really listen to it, the words entering one ear and going out of the other in milliseconds. I was well over fifty pounds heavier than this morning now, more than two hundred and panting just to stay still and not crash on the floor. The scale also seemed to struggle a little and the arm that indicated the weight was dangerously close to the physical limit of the machine itself. Relax… the voice came again and this time I did pay attention to it: it was low, vibrating through my skin and bones like a drum, soothing and a little charming, like a lullaby. Breathe and feel what you’re going to be.

“Wh-what?” I didn’t understand what the voice meant, hell, I didn’t even know where it came from and still I listened to it. My breathing slowed ever so slightly and I felt a little bit better, as much as someone well over the obesity line could feel without lying to themselves. “Oh, fuck…”

And now, shall we begin? I stood motionless for a second until I felt that nauseous sensation wash over me again, much stronger and much faster than before. I fell on my knee and the impact cracked a tile with ease as the scale reached two hundred and fifty pounds and climbed higher. Don’t worry, _I just need more of you to work with, it’s going to be ok…_What in the seven hells was going to be ok? Not me…. Fucking…

The creature in the mirror sneered and stared at me, arms still crossed over his chest and resting on a belly that was exactly my size plus a coat of brown fur. He chuckled and his eyes shone brightly like a star had just been born inside it and locked on my position. Under the eerie light I felt my skin wriggle and squirm, thousands of needles poking through it each second, forcing me to scratch an endless body-wide itch that didn’t want to go away. After a few minutes the sensation seemed to dull a little, just as I felt something sharp dig into my skin: somehow, at some point, my nails had turned black and grew out a little, half of them retreated inside my finger as they grew thicker and stubbier with each second. I stared in horror and some amazement when from the tip a soft fuzzy layer of hairs began to grow out, creeping over to my hand and my arm, reaching my chest and the rest of my body in waves like an army sprouting from my skin.

I clutched an arm in an attempt to stop the advance and instead of a soft and slightly sweaty palm I felt something soft and delicate. I tried to resist the urge to look and I lost to it: pads not unlike an animal’s had taken place of my palm, pink among a darkening brown. I looked at my hands and saw the thick pelt that covered them spread to my belly and then reach my waist, unstoppable. The ‘reflection’ smiled even wider now.

“Who… what are you?” It didn’t move or say anything.

All will be explained but you need to reach the end before I can tell you anything.

“The end of what?” The reflection was silent once more, grinning and flexing those logs that it had instead of arms, muscle fibres ballooning like steel cables. I swallowed all the saliva I had and flexed my arms ever so slightly: all the fat that I had melted in seconds as more and more muscle built up under the skin and fur, thickening and getting stronger.

I flexed again, more muscle, more power. I may have laughed at the sight and flexed some more until my arms looked more like the ones in the mirror. The tanuki smiled yet again and looked down at his legs. I spread them and clenched my thighs and buttocks. For a second everything became white as something took hold of me and the feeling of crushing weight disappeared into a feeling of lightness and bliss. Once I opened my eyes again, I felt… better, much better: the flabby skin I had to deal with had disappeared into a mass of pure muscle and brown fur lined with cream streaks, my legs held all my weight like it was nothing and I could feel the taut muscles in my back working with ease to keep me up. I turned around and my reflection did the same, showing me the results of whatever had happened to me. I flexed, putting all of my energy in my muscles and saw each bundle balloon out and stretch what had become my hide and it was all so… so hilariously weird and fantastic I laughed.

We’re still not done Neil, there are a couple of things we need to deal with before you can be ready. The tanuki sat on the toilet in the mirror and spread his legs, revealing what had been hidden by the massive gut it had, the same one I had now, though still a mix of skin and growing fur. I scratched the more fuzzy areas and instead of feeling pain from the exceedingly sharp nails I only felt a light tickle. Digging more only resulted into a more intense feeling, no blood drawn and no pain at all.

“What now?”

Sit, you need to sit. At this point I wasn’t going to shy away anymore: if what I would end up looking like was that creature in the mirror, then I’d do anything to get to that point, anything. I sat as per his instructions and saw him stroke his cock with one paw, a little bit shocked that even such a large hand failed to encircle all of that meat. You like this? I nodded, a bit hesitant. Good. His eyes shone again and I felt my arms move on their own, as if they were not mine at all, following his movements this time around. His paws roamed on his body and massaged the strong muscle and taut skin and I felt it all on mine like someone else was touching me. Was this what people meant with out of body experiences? Relax and enjoy what I have in store for you…

I felt my arm go lower and lower, patting my gut until it reached what was lying beneath and grab it. I hissed as my entire package was engulfed in a mass of softness, pads and fur cradling my sensitive skin and squeezing ever so slightly, just enough to make my back arch as it grew longer and slam against the tiles behind me, cracking them. My hands felt so delightful I could resist and I grew aroused in my palm, a disgustingly small erection compared to what I had become but not for long.

What was once six inches hard slowly grew to be seven and then ten, more length added to my member with each beat of my heart and each stroke from a hand that was mine and yet wasn’t. The pleasure was great and I felt that I could only grow more aroused as time passed, the lust in my body mounting to heights I wouldn’t have thought possible. I spread my legs to better allow the reflection to manipulate me and he immediately began to work harder on my package, now actually long enough to be stroked but still too small for my tastes. My left arm joined the other down there but instead of focusing on my cock, it reached for what was underneath, cradling my sack. I let out another hiss as that grew as well, swelling, filling my palm and then growing again until it spilled to the sides. From a thickened tip, pre was being shot in amounts that made my previous loads look pathetic and more was being added, more was shot and landed on the floor in front of me. Soon the hand that was stroking my member wasn’t enough anymore and the same could be said for the one trying to cup my swelling sack, both clearly not suited to tend to the massive organs alone.

“More… please.” It was a whisper but the reflection heard it just fine and picked up the pace, squeezing tighter and letting my left hand tend to my cock as well, both meeting halfway if just barely. I threw my head back and cracked the tiles a few inches above where I was resting it a minute before but I couldn’t care less now. “More! Fuck…” Again, my arms moved faster and more length was added to my already sizeable tool, once four inches, now more like fifteen and growing. “God… yes!” I looked down and saw that a puddle had formed from all the pre I had shot and felt my legs being spread apart from the sheer size of what was being packed between them, my balls having surpassed the ones of the reflection forcing them farther and farther from each other.

Suddenly I felt my arms slow down as control was returned to me and once I was sure I was their owner once more, I immediately resumed what they were doing, pumping what had become two feet of cock with more strength than I ever dreamt of having in my wildest dreams.

Between the ecstatic feeling of having grown into a massive bear thing and the sensitive flesh under my pads, I didn’t last much longer. Minutes later, when the puddle under my feet had spread enough to let my toes and the pads underneath them bathe in it, I felt a jolt run through my entire body once more and every muscle I now had try to pull my sack close to my body. The giant watermelons that were hidden beneath the creamy fur resisted thanks to the help of gravity but even that didn’t last much longer. Just as the second foot had been added to my member, I felt the flesh under my pads swell, trying to accommodate the massive shot that ran through it.

The first load hit the mirror in front of me and cracked it, the following loads ruining it more and more, pooling in the sink, clogging the drain until it started to overflow on the floor. I never stopped stroking, squeezing to make each load stronger and larger, barely noticing the destruction of the mirror. I lost count of the seconds and of how much I had shot, only focused on stroking more and coming more until my balls were drained. The pool of seed grew and grew, covering the bathroom floor in stickiness and then began to rise in level, each shot adding a little to it.

After god knows how long, I seemed to stop coming but didn’t open my eyes for a little more, basking in the afterglow of the best orgasm of my life, feeling the warm seed I spent slosh as I moved my feet in two inch deep pool of spunk. Still with my eyes closed, I ran a hand over my softening length, collecting handfuls of come and licking it off, memorizing each feature of my new tool in case this was the most realistic dream ever. More time passed and I was still covered in fur and still with my feet in seed.

I opened my eyes and saw the destruction: not one surface had been saved from my climax, everything was coated in either an inch or two of pearly white stuff, be it the floor, the fractured mirror or the cabinets. The sink bubbled and gurgled with a few gallons worth of it, dripping on the floor in thick blobs. As I looked down I saw a soft foot-long tool with the head partially covered in foreskin, drooling out the last dribbles of seed. Sexy.

“Jesus… that was…”

Just the beginning. The voice startled me and prompted me to search for it around me: inside the sink and submerged in inches of spunk was a shard of glass that only showed a glowing yellow eye that stared at me with an indecipherable expression. Now that you are a new person, it’s up to you to choose your path.

“I… I understand but, why me? What did I have that made…”

Made me choose you? I don’t know, I guess you were just the right person for me to change. If the rest of the mirror was intact he’d have probably shrugged. I just acted based on what I thought it was best for you, though destiny might have had something to say. Had you chosen my brothers, the other two sets you saw in the container, who knows what would have happened to you… I looked for the box and failed to find it. It’s no use, Neil, once you chose me, they returned to our creator and so will I in a moment.

“Why?”

Because that’s how it works: fate brought us together, I worked what little magic I had and now you’re free to do whatever you want. I raised my eyebrows. Maybe now you’ll have a little more confidence in yourself. Having a little bit of fat is not that bad. I rolled my eyes. What? It’s true. Muscleguts are all the rage these days: more to love and all the power to lift a car. It’s the best thing ever!

“Yeah, sure.”

Fine, just wait and you’ll see… The eye disappeared from the shard and a moment later it exploded with a bright blue flash that sent me on my back, hurting all over and dazed for a few seconds. When I came to, my head was ringing a little and the bathroom was… fine: no signs of me destroying it and no pool of jizz at my feet either gone into thin air or into one of the many drains that appeared from nowhere. I was almost disappointed all that oozing spunk was gone.

“Damn… that’s convenient…” I scratched my head and got out of the bath just as dad got up the stairs. I stared at him, realizing only now that I was, well not human anymore and very much naked but he didn’t seem to be bothered by any of these things at all. “H-hi dad.” I waved at him and he sort of eyed me from the side.

“Did you make a mess in the bathroom again?” Again? I shook my head and he peeked inside to make sure I wasn’t lying. “Good, after last week’s incident we had to call the plumber to unclog the drains. One would think that with all that you’d stop flooding the house… Just… please never stop jerking off for too long, ok? I don’t think we can handle another refit of the house.”

“O-ok dad, I’ll… do it as often as possible…” He gave me another side glance and then got in the bath, locking the door. “What in the fuck…” I turned around, confused and a little bit out of it, opening the door to my room only to be assaulted by the scent of spunk and lots of it: everything in my room was now much bigger than before, bed, wardrobe, desk and a few other things. Right where the walls met the floor, more drains appeared and on the ceiling I could see faint marks of what can only be past jerk-off sessions, many, many sessions. My nethers twitched a little just by being there and breathing so I opened the windows that looked right where the road was. On my bed there were the pants I brought for the gym, only three sizes bigger and instead of a shirt there was a tank top. “The gym… fuck.” I looked at the clock on my phone and saw that I only had twenty minutes before the appointment with Nat. “Oh, I’ll be in trouble if I don’t show up.” Something told me that even if I looked like this, more than a hundred pound heavier and well over six feet, she’d still kick my ass or die trying.

I put on my pants, noticing with some unhappiness that even though I still sported an impressive, no, more than impressive package, it was still far too small for what I had become: my balls had shrunk to a pair of large melons and that wouldn’t do at all. I imagined then swell and fill up and reality followed suit: with every passing second the melons turned into soccer balls and then watermelons, resting cosily between my legs and stretching the cotton of my pants far too much for them to still be intact. After making sure I’d shock everyone I put on the tank top and my ‘new’ pair of shoes, again, roughly four numbers bigger than before and rushed down only to catch the bus headed for the gym in the nick of time. Quite a few people stared at me as I got in but paid no mind for what I was now in any way, merely annoyed that I took over two spaces instead of just one and that I had to spread my legs to allow my sack to breathe a little bit. If this was my new reality, I was going to enjoy it to the fullest.

The bus got to the gym a couple of minutes later than expected and as I got down I saw a very angry Natasha searching for me. As soon as she saw me she marched towards my position and punched me in the gut. The pain that I thought would come well, didn’t and instead I only felt a small pinch where her fist had connected and my belly wobbled a little and that was it.

“You’re late.”

“Two minutes late…”

“Still late.” She huffed and took my hand, more annoyed for that than glad I had come at all and clearly unaware of any change in my appearance like the rest of the world. “Come.” Her hand was so small compared to mine just like the rest of her and yet she still managed to drag me inside the gym, skipping the showers as I was already dressed and pushed me, or tried to, on a treadmill. “Now, I want you to run until you start feeling the muscle burn a little.”

“But…”

“No buts, I told you that already. At least try because if you do not there will be consequences… am I clear?”

I nodded and hopped on the mill where she had set the speed and time already. The machine somehow managed to not crush under my weight as I began running and gradually picked up the pace each minute that passed. By the five minute mark I was panting and sweating a lot and my knees hurt but I still reached the goal several minutes later. It had been the longest distance I had ever run since I started gaining weight and even then I wasn’t such a good runner so, by all means, this was a great victory for me and thanks to another miracle, even Nat acknowledged it. At the same time, my balls had been slapping against my legs for the entire duration of the run and after a minute or so I was already sporting another erection, though still a little soft, one that tore my pants apart for good and allowed my trapped member to dangle freely from my crotch, dripping pre every now and then when the machine turned or lowered the pace and forced me to adapt. In the five minutes I had been running, the treadmill had gotten a good shower of pre and right after I was done I had to throw my pants in the trash bin next to the entrance, so, for all intents and purposes, I was buck naked and with a foot and a half boner that was thicker than most people’s wrists all around and I didn’t care one bit.

Once I had thrown my pants away, I sat on a bench, one of the ones not attached to another machine, just to rest a little. I pressed my back against the wall and let all of my assets rest or dangle as free as they could get, drawing even more attention to myself than I already had done before. After a few minutes or rest I noticed I smelled a little, but not the acrid smell of an unwashed body, a more earthy one, deep and musky like a perfume though much more raw and real than artificial chemicals and whatnot. I gave my armpits a good whiff and, weirdly enough, caught quite a few ladies and guys stare at me, each with a different reason, be it my junk, now presented to them like a sweet prize, or passing by with evident boners or wet crotches and all of them sniffing the air for my scent. The sight and knowledge turned me on immensely and not only because I had never received so much as a side glance even from girls my age… no, it was the power that came with being… ‘me’ but what I didn’t expect was for someone else to pick up on my scent as well.

“Hey, look who showed up…” I turned around and saw a wall of white in front of me just like at lunch. “You really want to make your sister happy then…”

“Huh, oh, yeah… she’s scary even if she’s small.” He nodded, almost as if he knew what I was talking about and then his muzzle turned into a wide and somewhat nasty grin that unsettled me a little bit.

“So, how did this happen?” The ‘this’ was accentuated by a sharp fang pointed at my entire body. I stared at him, confused. “Come on dude, I know what it means to change, you can tell me…” Angel whispered that sentence almost as if it were a secret. It took me a couple of long seconds to understand what he meant and then a minute to actually realize his words.

“So… you too?”

“Oh, yeah, totally. I was like… a matchstick before, lanky, weak and now, well…” He flexed, a full body pose like in the competitions on tv, every fibre of his being was pulled taut beneath his skin and ready to tear apart metal like paper. More than a few people whistled and commented on his form and ogled his assets just as they did with mine. He smiled and gave his sheath a tug just to please the crowd and then leaned in to smell me. “That’s some nice scent you got there.”

“Ehm, thanks? I guess.” I took a deep breath and found his scent: raw, deep, pure male ready to show his worth, like an endless forest. “You too.” He smiled again.

“So how about we take these bad boys for a tour?” A hand rested on my shoulder, feeling my muscles, testing them with light grips and the other rested on my sack, massaging the soft and springy flesh of my cock, drawing more blood to it. “The one who loses gets to bottom.” I may have blushed a little, not sure whether to accept or not but another part of me was far less indecisive and stood to attention. “I’ll take that as a yes…”

He helped me get up and led me to a specific spot that seemed to have been tailored specifically for him: weights far heavier than normal coupled with a bar twice the size and well, an audience ready to watch the ‘match’. Angel strolled casually and just as casually bent over, tail lifted, giving me the sight of a black ring in between a mound of whiteness. I wasn’t gay, maybe, just maybe bi, and that would be a stretch but that ass was just so… perfect I had to have it.

We put ourselves next to each other and loaded the weights onto the bar, each side roughly two hundred pounds or more, close to the world record. I felt a little nervous but once I grabbed the metal pole, all the worries just whooshed away, there was just me and my body weight held up by my arms. Angel though wasn’t done and began pumping the bar up and down, grinning and huffing. I couldn’t do any less than him and what should have been just lifting weights turned into who could do more squats with hundreds of pounds on their backs. Be it me or him, thanks to whatever happened to us, we could do this and then some more so halfway through we asked to put more and then more until we actually felt the straining muscles work overtime.

The goal of getting under that tail and the workout was giving me one hell of a hard-on and Angel was much the same, though his was far longer and narrow. If he had a knot, it was still inside his sheath but the meat pole jutting from it was already enough to make me worry about what would happen if that monster went under my tail… He’d not get the chance. Aroused and tired, a little aching here and there, I kept pumping and squatting, realizing a few minutes late that every time I went down I could feel something soft against my buttocks: a quick glance told me my sack had somehow grown during that period and was now the size of a small beanbag chair, practically resting on the ground so big it had swollen. Angel stared at it with a hungry look and but a few seconds later he dropped the weights onto the rubber mattress we were standing on. He looked like he was still able to get work done and yet he had willingly given up the challenge.

“Well, looks like I lost.” I raised an eyebrow. “Come on, we’ll go to the showers. No peepers.” A chorus rose to complain but I knew, somehow, that no one would disobey. Next thing I knew, we were sitting on one of the benches in the shower room, or at least he was, I used my own sack as chair, which was both arousing and weird. “That’s… a lot of balls you got there.”

“Dude, I’m a tanuki now, apparently, it’s like a trademark having big balls.”

“Neil, I’ve got big balls, you got… a chair. Doesn’t it hurt?” I smothered my ass on them and the only thing I felt was the pressure of my body on them, maybe some excitement. I shook my head “Damn, can I touch them?” I nodded and an instant later he was pressing his nose against my fur, inhaling as hard as he could. Underneath his belly I could see his cock throb and spray pre in large thick globs. The sound of him snorting my musk was surely something and when he started moving upwards, following the trail of dampest fur and muskiest crevices, I couldn’t do much more than moan and stroke myself, sending my own pre on his back and clotting his otherwise perfect fur. “Fuck… you smell good. I might only want to sniff your balls if you hadn’t won.” He unwillingly parted from my sack and got on his knees in front of me, tail raised once more and legs spread. “Come get it. Take this as a… present from your senior in transformation.” Well, I didn’t let him wait long: in less than ten seconds, five of which I needed just to get on my feet and push two orbs three feet in diameter back, I was pressing the head of my cock against his pucker.

“Ready?” He nodded, a little nervous but still refusing to back away. “Fine, take it then!” I just needed one push and I suddenly felt myself almost balls deep inside the best thing ever. I won’t lie, I was a virgin before this but who cares anymore. “Hot damn…”

“Shut up and get fucking already.” He downright growled and I had no choice but to obey.

I pulled back and then slammed myself back in with all the strength I still had from before, making him wince in pain and dig his claws into the not so clean tiles of the floor to get traction and not slide forwards under my thrusts. His entire body seemed to massage me like a glove tailored for cocks, almost as if he did that with others regularly. One day I’d find out though by the moans and whines he sure was having a good time.

He was warm, wet and silky all over and he could take all of me with relative ease. But by bit his gut was starting to bloat just by the pre I had pumped inside him but a quick flex of his abs and my legs got a shower of slimy stuff before I even noticed. The pre that had been washed out was quickly replaced by more and more until he gave up and patted his growing belly and jacked off with one free hand every now and then. Minutes went by and the air in the showers got steamy, wet and smelled like wet dog and wet fur but not one shower was actually working. Just the mere rutting was enough to make us sweat and said sweat stuck to our fur and pooled along the pre at our feet.

I could hear my balls churn with the biggest load the world had ever seen and his weren’t doing any less, though they were still so much smaller than mine. I a fit of pride, I gave myself a good boost and in seconds I felt my sack press against the wall five feet behind and threatened to crack the tiles. Angel saw this and began to slam his ass backwards to get me to blow the hundreds of gallons I had packed in there and eventually that I did.

He howled as the first shot hit his bowels and got pushed further inside by a second and then one more, until his stomach started bloating even more, his abs losing any definition against the tide of spunk. Two minutes of endless orgasms in and he sprayed his load all over his fur and the floor, rope after rope in a climax that would have been downright impressive if I weren’t there to make it like a drop in the ocean. More time went by and he had to seal his mouth shut so that what I shot inside would be forced out by the sheer pressure. Now he was getting worried, especially since I hadn’t even began to empty myself.

Eventually he couldn’t take it anymore and let a flood of white spray from his mouth and onto the floor, wave after wave or pearly stuff, thick and goopy like tar. I felt his nuts shudder and slosh into making another orgasm that was lost in the middle of mine. I slumped back, still lodged inside him and using him like a warm condom, feeling the untold gallons in my sack slosh and race each other to the exit. Maybe I could, accelerate the process? If I could expand my nuts, surely I could do something more, right?

Again, reality followed suit on my perverse imagination and I saw Angel visibly shiver and get worried as I felt my cock spread his ring more and more, reaching deeper and actually pushing him away. Soon he had to get himself off my cock and stare as five or more feet or pure meat bathed him in a different kind of white. I just spread my legs and relaxed so that the unbearable pressure behind me could find an easier path to the exit. The drains in the gym failed to even begin to get all my spunk down the plumbing and I kind of got the idea of why dad mentioned that to me. The shower room was getting more and more coated in seed and the floor was lost in a sea of warm whiteness among which was a kneeling figure that was once a wolf and now more like a totem to my downright insane virility.

Again I lost count of the time but by the end of my climax, the both of us were knee deep in spunk, making waves as we moved around. Angel had added more than one or two of his load in there, somewhere, mixing wolf to tanuki but at this point it’d be hard to even make what was inside save for, well, me. I caught him drinking with a blissful expression that didn’t even change when I made him notice what he was doing.

“Well, now who’s going to clean?”