[$20] An Unthinkable Present (Beta Copy) (Patreon)

Rem awoke to the sound of birds chirping at her window.

She hated being awoken by the birds, who chirped and squawked ‘fore the sun had yet risen. Was work never finished? Always before daybreak, she’d awake to the birds stirring around Roswaal Manor. She’d struggle out of bed, change out of her pajamas and into her service uniform, trudge out of her room, and hope that the smile she wore might be real by the time her sister awoke three hours later.

Rem would then set about her daily chores, something she’d begun to lament in this early darkness. First would be sweeping the entrance hall, tending the stairway, fixing her sister’s hedge-work, and it would be hours before the sisters could assemble breakfast. Hours she did not want to wait, especially on days like today… her tummy felt hollow, almost as hollow as the life she’d been living.

She owed this place everything. The people here cared for her, but in the private moments of this early darkness, with a void in her belly and the piercing chirps of birds in her ears, Rem wondered if her work had no true return.

She blinked, finding the darkness still over her eyes. A slight blue shine through a light fabric. Had she pulled the blankets over her eyes? Rem normally slept so softly.

The chirping was dull through the blanket and dawn slowly crested over Rem. The light through the blanket was morning. The sun had already risen.

She needed to get up. To get moving, to get working.

But Rem stayed in bed.

She lay there, blinking slowly at the light like a lethargic bovine. Just five more minutes. One slow start. One day without endless menial tasks. Ram would be here soon. With her bright pink hair and brighter confidence, Ram would summon her to stand ready and dress to the approval of their betters. Then they’d do their tasks together, making up for Rem’s slacking start by working double time!

Today, she simply wanted to remain in bed.

A door opened, but Rem lay still. Her body shifted beneath the blankets, her eyes squeezed tight beneath her shelter. She felt hot, too warm, too different, and was beginning to feel as if she might have gotten sick. Go away, she wanted to whisper. Please, just let me sleep. Haven’t I done enough? Haven’t I earned just one day of rest?

Then Rem heard it. Not the sound of the bird, not the boost from her sister.

It was the low, haunting song of the great White Whale.

Rem snapped up, her hand snatching the blanket off of her face and tossing it aside. Her heart in her throat, her body reacting before she could even see rightly, Rem tried to summon her will.

“Whoa! Hey there,” said a man’s calm voice.

Rem froze. She blinked, vision still fuzzed by sleep, her hand gripping the edge of her bed. Something was wrong, something was so very wrong. Her body, her eyes, her head. It was all so fuzzy, why was it all-

She realized that she wasn’t in her room. The white walls and regal colors of the manor had been replaced by wooden logs stacked up high with animal furs hanging from them. She rubbed at her left eye, sure that sleep had corrupted her mind.

Rem knew she’d heard it. The song of the whale trembled through her, a low piercing groan as it descended from the sky. Through her closed eye, Rem could even still see the black of the fog. She could even feel the tension in her muscles as she leapt from the carriage.

Only then did Rem see what was there. Where she was, and who she was with. Through her right eye, Rem saw what was right in front of her, and her mind forgot all about the tension, the anxiety, and that haunting whale song.

From her open eye, she watched the man approach her. Not the boy, not the teenager. He was older, somehow, his short dark hair still slicked back in its doggish style. Playfully messy, like he’d combed it with his hands. His body was taller, more muscular under his black jacket and white undershirt. He needed to shave, which couldn’t be right, but his eyes were the same. Soft, friendly.

Kind. Loving.

She felt her muscles tighten, pulling the blanket to her chin and he stopped mid-step. His eyebrow dipped, his face falling into concern. He raised a hand, balancing it upon a wooden chair at an oaken desk.

“Rem?” he asked. His voice was deeper, but it was his voice.

She tried to keep her own voice from shaking as she asked, “Subaru?”

Subaru’s face softened as he approached the bed. “Hey, you feeling okay? I was just coming to wake you, breakfast is simmering.”

Her nose twitched, her empty stomach tightening around her wanting hunger. She could smell pork, then recognized the crackling of fire coming from the other room.

Subaru put a hand on his hip. “Aww come on now,” he grinned boyishly, “don’t you’ve any faith? You look like I set the house on fire again.”

She heard his words, but they made no sense. House? Fire? Where were th-

Again, she stopped thinking as her eyes took in the world.  Over Subaru’s shoulder, next to a mirror that was set on the wall over the desk, a painting was hung in a frame that looked handmade. It had been poorly centered and hung from the wall with a nail and twine, but the artwork itself looked almost real.

It was of her. Rem’s own face smiled out from the painting, her arm intertwined with Subaru’s touch. Together, they held a bouquet of blue flowers in touching hands. However, it seemed like the painter had used some easier paints on her face, because it looked like she… No, she was.

She was crying, the smile so big that it filled her whole face while she held onto the man that she loved.

Subaru reached the side of the bed and reached for her. “I can bring it to you in here, if you’d like. Today’s looking to be pretty relaxing.” Rem felt him stroke his hand through her hair, petting her head.

In that moment, Rem understood the portrait. The white dress, the black suit, the bright bouquet. It nearly caused her to fall backwards had her head not been intent on feeling his touch. Desire bubbled through her, a wanting she didn’t even understand that she had possessed.

With quavering hands, Rem reached out suddenly and firmly locking them on either side of Subaru’s chest. She stared at his shirt, the wrinkled fabric and the slight marks of time. It was cotton. It was real. It had to be…

Rem kept her eyes locked, desperate not to see into his eyes as she opened her mouth to speak, but felt her voice failing her. All that came out where fractions. “Wh… Wha-”

Subaru’s hands moved and without a moment’s hesitation, Rem felt herself being guided forwards. Her body responded to his naturally, as if she’d done it a thousand times. She leaned into him, wrapped around his waist, gripping him tight. Heat billowed from her heart, filling her cheeks while he just stood there, petting her head. “Why don’t you lay back down?” he asked. “I’ll close the window and put the blackout blanket over it. I’ll bring breakfast in a few minutes, okay?”

Rem’s hands gripped him tighter, and she could hear the air in his chest. The beating of his heart. She was breathing heavily now, trying to keep the air in her lungs and the water from her eyes. “Don’t leave me,” she whispered. “Please, don’t leave me.”

Subaru’s hand lowered around her, the golden glimmer of a ring catching the light as it passed by her face. Her thumb instantly descended while he circled her shoulders, feeling the matching band of soft gold that decorated her own finger, and making her heart feel as if it might burst.

His touch lightly lifted to the nape of her neck. She felt his long fingers lift into her, massaging the worries that flooded into her soul, and she couldn’t keep herself from looking up.

His brown eyes were worried, but when they stared into one another, she saw them relax. He bent forwards, a planted a soft and easy kiss on the center of her forehead. “Okay,” he said.

Rem could not stop the tears, nor could she stop the grin stretching her cheeks till they were sore.

She didn’t understand, but she didn’t care to understand.

Subaru, the one who had melted her frozen heart, was kissing her. He was tending to her, loving her, married to her.

He was hers.

She buried her face in his chest, squeezing herself to him as tight as she could. He smelled fresh, like pinecones and flowers. He must have just washed, or maybe his laundry might have been done recently. Maybe she’d done it? If not, she’d do it next time.

She’d do it every day, every hour, if she could spend another minute holding him to her like a husband with his wife.

Then, she smelled another smell. Something was burning.

“Ahh, crap!” Subaru said, and he pulled free of her grip. “The bacon! How the hell did I forget?!? I was just… Gaaaah!” he rushed from the room.

Her mind was spinning, watching him scamper out the small bedroom door, her eyes fluttering and the blush on her face burning even brighter. She had to get up.

Rem shifted, messily tossing the bed covers off of her. She twisted her legs, bare feet plodding as they pressed to the chilled wooden floor. Gripping the edge of her bed and feeling as light as a feather, Rem lifted herself from the bed.

Then she felt the strain of the movement, heard the ominous creak that caused her pause. She looked down to herself, wrapped in an unfamiliar garment that was not her cotton pajamas, and again her mind failed to understand what she saw.

It had to be the sleep. In a desperate attempt to rationalize it, Rem’s mind clamped onto that singular thought. She was dreaming, that’s what it was. Dreaming about being with Subaru, dreaming about being married to him. Dreaming about… being…

She turned to the mirror above the oak desk, moving into its frame. Her heart was hammering in her chest. She raised a hand to it, and in the mirror, her plump reflection did the same.

The nightgown Rem wore, a soft dark blue, was flowy, shiny, and unlike anything Rem had ever owned at the manor.

That was it. That was the big difference.

It was just this unfamiliar garment. Of course. That made sense.

She didn’t actually look as if she were over four hundred pounds.

Rem squeezed her left breast. In the mirror, her reflection was doing the same. That’s when she saw her legs beneath the nightgown, spotted her round belly button through the sheer fabric. She felt the air in that stomach drop into a huge, fatty pit, and her soft chest lifted as she gasped a deep breath.

Subaru reappeared in the doorway. “Hey, uhh, how well done do you like your bacon?” he asked, nervously laughing.

The mention of food returned the scent to her mind, and she realized how hungry she felt when her fat belly caused the shiny fabric to dance in a wave of motion and light.

Subaru pointed a finger to her offending stomach. “Atta girl! I knew you’d be on my side. Let’s hope your taste buds are too,” he said with a smirk and a wink.

She blinked at him. “My… stomach just growled.”

His smirk grew sharper and he leaned on the threshold. “Awe, come on. I was just getting used to you calling it your tummy. It’s way more cute than ‘stomach.’”

Rem’s heart pounded as heavily as her footsteps, her face tickled pink. She didn’t know what to say, what to do. She was… was she really…?

Subaru folded his hands across his chest and Rem focused again on what was different about him. Taller, stronger, his chin was sharper and his voice was deeper. He was older.

She turned to herself, saw her belly, saw her hips, and then Rem finally saw her hair.

Long blue locks cascaded around her shoulders, falling down her back like a bright waterfall. It was mostly straight, but too long to stay that way, turning wavy as it passed her smooth shoulders and resting on her soft pale skin. Rem was older.

Rem was fat.

“If you’re feeling better, come on and join me at the table?” Subaru motioned with his head, towards where the delicious scent of pork was now wafting from. “I’d like to go for a walk into the village today too, and if you’d like to come with, we can stop at the ice cream shop.”

It took her a little bit to answer. Her heartrate had calmed, yet its beat was still strong. She felt as if she could hear it. She’d no idea what he was saying, had no idea how to place his words so they would make any sense.

But it was he who said them. There was breakfast in the other room, and Subaru asking her to join him.

Rem then understood what she truly was.

She was happy.

“Okay,” she said, and she walked to him. She felt her stomach… her tummy, shifting against her legs when she walked. Her thighs, thick with fat, slid over one another in a way she couldn’t help noticing, but she paid them no attention when Subaru lent forwards and kissed her on the cheek.

“Good morning,” he whispered to her, and extended his arm.

She walked into it, wrapping her left arm around his waist and raising her right to his chest. “Good morning,” she whispered back. Then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, Rem raised herself up on her tubby tiptoes and kissed her husband on the lips, before letting him guide her to their shared breakfast.