What felt like an hour later, Sarge was roused from his lull. Charlie had finished the massage by this point. Sarge realized he had started drooling and his tongue was hanging lazily out of his mouth. Coughing, he sat back up and wiped the drool from his chin. “Wow that was… incredible,” Sarge looked up, seeing Charlie was still there. “Where did you learn to do that?”

“Do you feel bloated?” Charlie asked, ignoring Sarge’s question.

“Huh? Oh…” Sarge looked down at his belly. He could see it was still distended, but strangely enough, he felt his stomach growl in hunger. “Wha…? How does that even work?” He pressed his hand against where his stomach was, expecting to feel a large bulge from all the food he’d eaten. To his confusion, the area felt soft.

“It’s almost magical, you could say,” Charlie chuckled. “Now, the Fat Man’s Eating Challenge is where you eat as much as you can. If you make it past twelve pounds of food, then you get our ‘Free-Meals-For-Life’ coupon, allowing you two free visits to our restaurant per week for one year per pound of food you’ve eaten.”

“Twelve pounds?” Sarge gasped, standing up. “What if I can’t do that? You saw me barely shovel away three and a half pounds!”

“I can give you that massage whenever you’d like,” Charlie suggested, leaning forward and placing a hand on Sarge’s belly. He shook his hand a bit, causing the belly to jostle with it for a few moments.

It was odd. Normally Sarge would be against having someone touch his belly without permission, but he couldn’t seem to refuse this unsolicited belly rub. He opened his mouth to protest, but no sound came out. He figured he needed to back away from the hand instead, but he felt his body leaning into the rub… as if it had a mind of its own.

“If you can’t reach twelve pounds, however, then we’ll keep you here until you do,” Charlie’s devious smile returned as he continued to rub Sarge’s belly. “Welcome to Grand Surprises.”

Sarge, again, tried to open his mouth in protest, but he found only a whimper came out.

“Now, run along, big guy. Seems you’ve got some plates to fill… and a plate to finish!” Charlie removed his hand from Sarge’s belly. Sarge found he could move again. He turned to face Charlie but found the man was already walking away.

“Wait, Charlie!” He called, causing Charlie to turn around. “What… what was all that about?”

Charlie tilted their head, seeming a bit confused. “What do you mean?”

“You had a devious smile and… and I couldn’t talk. And your belly rub made me all-”

“Oh!” Charlie’s eyes widened. “Where are my manners? I’m so sorry!” Hastily, Charlie walked back over to Sarge. “I apologize. Grand Surprises has a special each week for the buffet. This week, though, has been a bit slow. You’re the first customer we’ve had in all day.” Charlie patted Sarge’s shoulder. “You’re going to feel a little… dazed. That would be why you may have had trouble talking when I was rubbing your belly.”

As an example, Charlie placed his hand on Sarge’s belly again. Sarge felt that same inability to talk appear. When Charlie took his hand off Sarge’s belly, Sarge could talk again.

“That is… weird,” Sarge said, putting a hand to his throat. “Is that permanent?”

“Temporary. Should be over when you finish the Fat Man’s Eating Challenge!” Charlie patted Sarge’s shoulder before giving a dismissive wave. “Now, go eat your food! Since no one’s been around, feel free to take seconds, or thirds, or even more!”

“If I can even eat that much,” Sarge rolled his eyes before walking past Charlie and grabbing a few plates. Periodically, he looked down at his belly, wondering if he was still actually full or not. He wanted to say he was, but the smell of food was too tantalizing for him to think otherwise. Getting past his hesitation, Sarge decided to hit the world-wide cuisine again. He figured he could fill up the plates with more food and come back to finish his half-eaten plate as well. If he did this correctly… and if he could somehow stomach all the food, he could reach the twelve-pound goal… but why did he want it again?

Sarge thought about this as he sat down and ate. The food, again, made his mouth water. He easily finished the first plate and immediately began on the second plate. Thoughtfully, he spoke aloud, “I suppose it would be cool to have two free meals a week. I might not use it all, though. I want to keep my figure the way it is… but knowing there’s an interesting gimick every week sounds good. Plus, that would be twelve whole years if I DO hit that twelve pound mark.”

Sarge nodded as he finished his thought. He was ready to take another bite but stopped himself when he noticed his plates were… empty. If he was measuring his fullness in plates, this was around the time he’d be full – two and a half plates. Staring down at his belly, he could see it was distended out a little more than before. A whine came to his throat. Was his stomach size getting bigger? How?

He gritted his teeth and got to his feet again. A few prods into his belly let him know that there was food in it now. He could feel it. It felt heftier than it was before. Was the previous food still in there? How was that massage even working anyway? Did it cause the food to digest instantly? Sarge had so many questions, but he knew he wouldn’t get answers by standing around. If he wanted to find out the truth, he needed to get back to eating.

Sarge decided to head to the meat section. Though he wasn’t overly-fond of meat, he knew it would be rather weighty and help with that twelve-pound goal. Much like with the worldwide cuisine, Sarge took sample sizes of each food. There were steaks, chicken, ribs, meaty soups, even vegetarian meat options.

By the time Sarge got back to the table, he saw his previous plates were gone. This was good, as it gave him room to place down his three new plates of meat… there was a lot.

Taking a deep breath, Sarge began eating again. With each bite, he felt his mouth water. He felt he could fall in love with the savory tang of the ribs. But as he took a final bite, he stopped… feeling the all-too-familiar bloat from before.

“What? Seriously?” Sarge gasped out, pushing his chair back a bit so the table wouldn’t restrict his belly. He groaned, leaning back in his chair. His belly felt absolutely stuffed. Though there was that strange softness he felt from earlier, he could feel the firmness of an overstuffed stomach. He was just surprised how much food he could shovel down now. That massage was insanely good.

“Was it like… this?” Sarge asked himself, trying to mimic the motions he could remember feeling on his belly.

“It was more like this,” the sudden voice of Charlie chimed in. Sarge felt his hairs stand on end as his body tried to instinctively jerk away… but the hand on his belly left him paralyzed. He wanted to blurt out his disdains again, but he couldn’t say anything as the hands swept up and down his belly, slower now than before. The motions left that same mesmerizing sensation as they had previously done… and again, the sensations lasted for an hour before Sarge felt himself coming to again.

(Part 2 of 6)

Artwork/Story/Characters ©  pikminpedia

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