Fitting the Frame: Chapter 5
Our pair has at last graduated! Onto expanding their horizons now that the world is their oyster.
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Maz © & Artwork:
Clyde ©, Riley © & Writing:
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The two had done it. Finally, after four years, more than a few added pounds, changes to habits and lifestyles, and countless sleepless nights… They had graduated from NSU. Clyde and Maz had survived the gauntlet of buffets, insomnia, studying, and tests to get their degrees, and right now? Nothing could bring them down. The two had just finished getting their diplomas, a grand ceremony where both were honored by name for being amongst the top of their respective classes, and were riding a high they hadn’t felt in a long time. Maz was feeling that he had finally done something meaningful with his life, and couldn’t be toppled. Clyde was overjoyed that he was now finally free from the thumb of his family, and could not only access his immensely sizable trust fund, but had done it all on his own. Neither was going to be brought down by anything; this was a high that would last for days most likely. Weeks if they were able to make it. The last four years of rough times, of endless binges of books and diagrams and classes… They had been worth it. The pair had survived, and now were about to go out into the world and thrive.
“We did it Clyde, damn… We made it.”
“That we did Maz, that we did. Riley too, surprisingly.”
“Hey, I was a good studier roo or whatever!” Riley cut in, accompanying the pair back to their room as the trio went through the dorms. Riley had not been at the top of his class, but the roo had also graduated right on time with them too. The colorful explosion of extrovert and hyperactivity had maintained a solid set of grades, but he had slipped for senior year, leaving him somewhere in the middle of the pack. Clyde and Maz? The two had basically just let the year be a blur of studying, eating, and tests which neither could even remember much of. The two had barely seen one another, let alone Riley, over that year. It was just class, bedroom, then sleep and repeat. Only mealtimes were they seeing one another, and really during that time there was a lot more eating desperately to get back to studying than talking. Riley had not gone that route and paid for it with a degree that didn’t come with distinction, but the roo’s extroverted nature had still landed him an internship before graduation anyways. Maz and Clyde hadn’t tried for that… But, they got degrees with honors, so it wouldn’t matter, right?
“Of course Riley, I’m sure that you were.” Clyde replied with a bit of a shrug, getting a chuckle from Maz. The roo beside them just huffed in annoyance and continued on with them. It wasn’t hard to keep up with Maz and Clyde at this point after all; the two were both forced into a bit of a waddle by this point from just how much they had grown over their four years of schooling. What had been a quick walk back to the suite at the start of their time in college had become a slow, ambling waddle now thanks to Maz’s ever-widening thighs and Clyde’s ball of a stomach that seemed to be giving beach balls a run for their money. Riley… He had thickened out a little bit, looking less lanky and more healthy, but that was it. This left him having to keep his pace slow to match with the two expanding friends he had become attached to after his time at NSU.
“Yeah, yeah… At least I still have some bounce in my step.”
“Hey, classes are over now though right? Like, me an’ Clyde can diet now,” Maz said, his voice bright and cheery at the prospect. “I mean, if we want to…”
“I want to Maz, desperately,” Clyde replied with a light sigh, wiping his brow as he reached the door to their suite and pulled out his key to unlock it. “I’m tired of having to reach around this thing for anything.” The llama pat one paw on the side of his bloated ball of a gut, having to turn to his side to unlock the door because reaching in front of it had become nigh impossible in recent months. “My designer lines don’t come in this size too.”
“Yeah, I guess…” Maz replied, the musky dragon shrugging a little as he stood there. His own form, a doughy collection of sweaty rolls that always smelled lightly of, well, him now, was unwieldly like Clyde’s. “I dunno, I don’t mind how soft this is.”
“You’ve always been odd Maz, so I’m not surprised,” Clyde said with a shrug, pushing open the door and letting the wave of BO, old pizza, and other smells out into the hallway. Their dorm suite, once a place of light sandalwood scent and pristine furniture… Well, it had changed.
“Damn, you two let this place go…” Riley said, stepping in after Maz and looking around with his eyes almost wide in surprise. “Like, seriously… How did you not explode with this Clyde?”
“I have not had the time to explode with this,” Clyde said with a shrug, moving over towards his room while starting to pull off the gown he had worn to graduation. Maz was doing the same, also shrugging and tugging at the gown that had left little to the imagination of his gains. Stupid school rules, making them order three months in advance so that the size was just about too small for graduation… “Give us a minute, please?”
Riley just nodded, still shocked as he looked around at the mess of a room that the pair had shared for the last four years. Gone was any sense of organization or cleanliness which had been there before. Left instead was boxes of old pizza, containers of soda from wall to wall, clothes strewn all over the floors and furniture, old dishes and cups placed on every surface that had room, and a whole mess of other bits of trash wherever there was room. The place looked like a dump and a laundromat had both vomited into the room and not held back! It was a sty, and it stank of Maz and his BO, as well as Clyde and his now-legendary belches… The llama had become a bit known for that in his senior year thanks to one run-in with the football team and their ritual for all seniors. There wasn’t any mold or anything like that, thankfully, or Riley might had just run for the hills then and there. He wasn’t the cleanest roo by any stretch, but even he was a bit stunned that the two who had even made rules for cleaning four short years ago had fallen this far. Sure senior year was stressful, but this? Leaving empty food containers and clothes and everything like it all around in a mess like this? It was just shocking to him, and he couldn’t help but slowly turn around and drink it all in. “How the hell did you two do this?”
“Uhm… I guess we just got busy?” Maz said, emerging from his room with just a pair of tight, straining dress pants casing his legs like sausage skins. His slip-ons, which he had worn under his gown, were also gone, leaving a pair of holey socks on his feet and nothing else. The light sheen of sweat showed on his scaled stomach and chest, looking a bit darker around his lovehandles and under his chest; a pair of breasts that would make some women blush bouncing atop his freed, wobbling stomach. The dragon was pulling on a tank top as he came out, struggling to get his meaty arms in through the holes in the shirt as he quaked and jiggled like jello in an earthquake during his battle with clothing. “Kind of lazy too. I mean, I like sleeping a lot more than doing laundry.”
“I can second that.” Clyde replied, coming out of his room with the same dress on. His pants fit a lot better, loose around his calves and looking much more pressed and proper than the painted on ones Maz was wearing. Of course, that was because his stomach as covering the top of them entirely, that balloon of a belly sagging low over his crotch and obscuring the belt he needed to wear to keep those pants from falling down. He too was tugging on a tank-top, the sleeveless shirt stopping well above his navel despite having an embarrassing amount of X’s on the tag that Clyde was actively choosing to ignore. “We just haven’t had the time to take care of it.”
“Yeah, but… Wow you two are fat.” Riley said, his staring eyes darting between Maz and Clyde as the two moved over towards one another and started to finish their dressing up. The pair moved as though this was normal for them, Maz helping to tug down Clyde’s tank top around the grandiose curve of his stomach while Clyde moved to adjust Maz’s chest into the shirt to keep his moobs from spilling out of either arm hole. It was a showing that the roo just gaped at; how had the two gone this far?! And how was this bit of dressing normal?!
“Maz… You need to get wiped down again.”
“Nuh uh, I’m fine!”
“You reek again,” Clyde said, making a face as he looked at the dragon. “Seriously… Go get a wet rag. You’re going to sweat through this shirt in minutes.”
“I showered twice today though…” The dragon said, sounding dejected as he moved to waddle off to his bathroom, not objecting this time to Clyde. Normally, this argument when their day started and the two helped each other get dressed was more of a fight, but today? Today was a rare one, and Maz was listening to Clyde like the llama actually knew what he was talking about. He did too, but Maz… Well, the dragon had gotten used to smelling like he did, and feeling like he did, so why would he try and change that?
“Seriously… Damn, you two have changed…” Riley said, still staring at Clyde as Maz was off in his bathroom getting a wet towel. “Like… Clyde, how are you okay with that?”
“With what Riley?”
“With like, having to give Maz a bath like that? And having to have someone put on a shirt for you? Like… That’s seriously not normal.”
“Maybe not for you, but have you looked around the school?” Clyde asked, shrugging again as Maz returned and the llama began to wipe the sweat and grease off Maz for the third time that day. “We’re not even in the top half of the biggest students here at NSU. Maz and I just do this because it’s easier than trying to do it alone. We have to live together, we’ve gotten to know each other, so why would we not help one another?” Clyde said, and then continued on after getting under Maz’s chins cleaned up. “You resisted the call of food here, we didn’t. This is just a price to pay for that… And we’re alright paying for it. I shan’t argue with Maz and say that all of the weight is a bad thing. I’m going to lose it of course, but getting to eat as I liked? Getting to just enjoy food rather than worry about it, and not worrying about cleaning and all of that? It was pleasant.”
“Yeah, plus like… I mean, being fat does have some up sides.” Maz said, getting a light smirk from Clyde in reply. Riley just gaped… And then his eyes widened at the implications of that smirk.
“No… You two?”
“A couple times, yes.” Clyde said matter-of-factly, shrugging. “Why not?”
“I know we haven’t kept up in the last year, but seriously? You two?”
“Yes Riley, us two,” Clyde said, sounding exasperated now as Maz just blushed in silence, still being wiped down by the llama. “Again, why not?”
“Because you two hated each other when all this started! You two were like… Enemies!”
“Just made things better,” Clyde replied without missing a beat, shrugging again as Maz turned deeper red. The llama had never had a problem admitting to their… Relations, but Maz? Maz was never one to talk about what happened behind closed doors. “Don’t go spreading it around, will you?”
“No one would believe me if I did…” Riley replied, still gaping, and then shaking his head to try and get some of the sense back into himself. “Seriously, wow… Things have changed.”
“The world always does Riley. Nothing stays the same forever after all,” Clyde said, finishing up on Maz and tossing the towel into one of the piles of clothes around the apartment. “There, all done. Do you have your shirt?” Maz nodded and pulled out two shirts, one for himself and one for Clyde. Both were more akin to tents in their size, but that would be what it took to fit onto them… Neither was their former, svelte selves after all. Clyde nodded and took his shirt, leaving Maz to pull on his own button-up over the tank top undershirt that each was wearing. “Oh and Riley? We were kidding.”
“What?!” Riley exclaimed, getting a loud and boisterous laugh out of Maz and Clyde as the pair doubled over. Both were wheezing and cackling as they laughed, Riley beet red with embarrassment and annoyance as the two laughed at his expense.
“I almost couldn’t hold that in…” Maz said between bouts of laughter, Clyde just holding his paws on his hips as he laughed hard. “Wow, I can’t believe you bought that.”
“I told you he would,” Clyde said through tears of laughter, reaching up a paw to wipe his eyes as he began to calm back down. “Oh that was funny.”
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up… I totally… Damn you two.”
“Oh that was too good Clyde… Oh man…” Maz wheezed out as he too started to simmer, still chuckling as he began to pull on his shirt.
“Whew… I needed that laugh,” Clyde said, starting to pull on his shirt too with a laugh few giggles. “Sorry Riley, it was just too easy since we haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Yeah, I know… You two got me. Fiiiiine.” Riley said, and then just sighed and shook his head. “I can’t believe I fell for that.”
“Four years of you being a paparazzi and only one prank? I think you got the good end of the deal Riley,” Clyde replied, still giggling a little as he returned to his usual, composed self. “We got a whole bunch of candids, and you got tricked into thinking we were… Well, doing something actually worth candids.”
“Oh don’t even joke about that Clyde,” Maz said with a hint of embarrassment in his quaking voice. “I couldn’t even imagine that…”
“Neither could I, so I won’t.”
“Ugh, me neither… I do have a line you know,” Riley said, frowning a little. “And I did stop… Eventually…”
“Last week doesn’t count as eventually Riley,” Clyde said, a grin on his face.
“B-But!” More chuckles and giggles… But not like before, as the three were laughed or embarrassed out. As the room quieted down from the laughter at last, Riley looked around some more as the two finished getting dressed, both tugging on their button-ups and then buttoning them for one another. Spinning around to have the other tuck their shirts in, both were dressed neatly in just a couple of minutes. Neither could reach to put their shoes on… Explained the slip-ons they’d been wearing for months now… And both had to help the other put on dress shoes to complete their outfits. Clip-on bowties were pulled from pockets, put on with a bit of help and adjusting from their opposite, and then their looks were complete. They matched too, both looking like overly bloated waiters or very rotund groomsmen as they stood there in the room, each lightly panting from all the movement it had taken to get dressed as they had. Sure, it had been a bit of a show for Riley, but by the time they were done? The roo was almost numb to it. Watching them get dressed had shut the roo up for a whole few minutes; something that never, ever, ever happened. Never. Riley was just that stunned to see the changes in Maz and Clyde that senior year had brought about.
“Hey, Riley… Think you can get a picture of us?” Clyde asked once he was done, facing the roo with a bit of a smile. “Something to remember today by?”
“Wait, wait… You want a picture? Seriously?” Riley said, looking shocked as he stood there holding the camera that never once left his side. “Like, seriously?”
“Yes Riley, we do,” Maz said, his smile soft but confident. “We took one when we moved in right, so we should take one when we leave.”
“You’re leaving soon?”
“Tomorrow, yes.” Clyde replied, nodding. “There’s a maid coming to clean in… About 40 minutes from now. She’ll be taking care of the mess, getting things in order, and then right after her the movers will be coming.”
“You’re paying for the movers still, right? And the maid?” Maz asked, looking a bit concerned at the cost of those two services.
“Yes Maz, I am… I told you this yesterday.”
“Oh, yeah…” Maz said, and then sighed in relief.
“You’re buying dinner for the next week though.” Clyde said, getting a bit of a groan from Maz as the dragon remembered that part of the deal.
“Wow, okay… That was fast. Well, I guess you have to since you’re not going to school here. I’m out at the end of the week after all.” Riley said, and then shrugged. “We’ll stay in touch though, right?”
“Yeah!” Maz said with an emphatic nod, making his prominent double-chin bounce as he did so. “You have my number and stuff.”
“You have mine as well, so I suppose we can keep in contact,” Clyde said, though his tone wasn’t as annoyed as it usually was with Riley. Maybe the roo had finally gotten through...
“Okay, good. Well… Pose on up then.” Riley said, holding up his camera. The roo then waved his paw to adjust the two, moving them closer together and making them turn so that they showed off their good sides. Well… Their best sides that they could with how good they both looked in those outfits. Even Riley had to admit, fat as they had gotten, they did clean up well when they tried. Or at least, their bodies cleaned up. Getting the least amount of the pigsty the suite had become into frame was a whole different challenge… But the roo managed it with some waves of his paw.
“Okay, I guess that works… Smile!”
[i[CLICK![/i]
“Whew… That one looked good. Sucks the background looks like a tornado went through, but you can crop those for headshots if you need to.” Riley said, pulling out the polaroid and waving it in his paw to try and get it to dry so that he could show it to Maz and Clyde. “You two do have headshots, right?”
“Took them last week, yes,” Clyde said, with Maz nodding in agreement. “Resumes are all polished and already floated out there too.”
“I already got a few bites actually!” Maz said, sounding a bit gleeful as he spoke. “Haven’t really looked yet because, ya know, all this graduation stuff… But I’m moving back with my brother and I should be good to move out on my own in a couple months!”
“Good for you,” Clyde said, smiling broadly as he spoke. “I too have a few offers. Nothing certain, however I have been busy just like you with graduation.”
“Nice!” Maz said, and then gave the llama a clap on the back. “Looks like we’re all gonna be all set.”
“Yeah, my internship starts in a few weeks too,” Riley said, grinning proudly. “I can’t believe I got in with Stackers, or that they had a video game team in the works. I mean, I know they do fast food and stuff, but like… Getting in on the ground floor with them for photography and stuff was awesome.”
“Yes, congratulations on that again Riley. It sounds like it will be a good fit for you,” Clyde said, still smiling and giving a nod to the roo. “Make sure you don’t overdo it on the free food… Or do, and see what it’s like to have some ounce in your bounce, as I’ve been told.”
“Heh, wait… Clyde, did you just make a joke?”
“Is that odd?” Clyde asked, looking at Riley.
“Uhm… Yeah, it is,” Riley said, looking at Maz who was also staring at Clyde with a bit of shock on his face. “Wow… Our little llama is finally starting to show he’s an anthro and not a robot.”
“I know, I’m so proud,” Maz said, giggling lightly to himself as Clyde glared at the two of them. “I’ve trained him so well.”
“Only training I got from you, Maz, is how to make a mess and eat a whole pizza in one sitting.” Clyde replied with a bit of a frown.
“Hey, you took to that training well too from the looks of it,” Riley cut in, getting a laugh from both Clyde and Maz as they looked around the room.
“Fair, fair…” Clyde replied, and then shrugged. “I suppose I have loosened up someone over the years. Thank you Maz, Riley, for letting me do that.”
“Awww…” Maz said, grinning like an idiot for a moment before launching in to hug Clyde nice and tight. Riley went right in and did the same, getting an embrace in return from the taller llama. The trio stayed like that for a very long moment, all hugging one another nice and tight in the truest show of their camaraderie they’d shared their entire time at school. “Means a lot to hear you say that Clyde.”
“Yeah Clyde… I always thought you hated me, honestly,” Riley said, moving in to hug a little tighter.
“I did, but you’ve grown on me Riley. You too Maz. I’m sorry for my… Well, being an asshole.” Clyde said, then sighed and continued on. “I didn’t know who I was, just that I was a product of my environment when I came here. I didn’t want to change, I resisted, but you two wore me down and let me find myself. I still am working on that, but thanks to you two, I have a start. So thank you, and I am sorry. I know I’m not exactly the… Friendly, cuddly type. Maz made sure I’m at least softening up in more ways than one, and Riley had made sure I know how to handle paparazzi.”
“Hey now, don’t push it,” Riley said, getting a laugh from the three of them as the long group hug came to an end.
“I suppose this is it, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it is… The end of an era.” Maz said, looking around the room and sighing to himself. “We did it. We survived NSU and made it out of the whole college thing.”
“That we did, that we did…” Clyde said, and then looked around the room. “I might miss all this.”
“Really?”
“Gods no.” Clyde said, shaking his head fervently. “Studying till 3AM and then stress-eating til it hurts to try and make it through a test? No, nothing to miss about that.”
“Well… I mean… The stress eating part wasn’t all bad.” Maz put in, getting a look from both Clyde and Riley. “What?! It wasn’t… The food here was amazing.”
“Yeah, I don’t think I can argue with that,” Clyde replied in agreement, his stomach gurgling with hunger in response as well. The llama blushed at that noise and hoped the other two hadn’t heard it.
They had.
“Sounds like it… But I like my real salads. This school doesn’t do them right,” Riley said, shrugging.
“Me too. I miss a good salad,” Clyde said, getting a look from Maz.
“Sure, sure… Your salads drenched in dressing and with more meat than greens.” Maz joked, getting a chuckle from Riley and a glare from Clyde.
“Shut up Maz, I mean it! I like spinach salads and stuff, and I wanna have one.”
“So get one tonight then,” Maz cut back with a smirk, getting another glare from Clyde in response. “This whole faculty thing we’re going to is made to order, so you can get what you want. I’m gonna get like, every kind of meat I can. The chef catering the whole thing is known throughout New SaggingTon for his meats and stuff, and I want to see what he can do. Plus, I mean, it’s free for us doing so well… So celebrate, right? Don’t just hold back and stuff?”
“Oh, I forgot that Spikes was catering… Uhm… Yeah, I may do that too. Can’t pass up that chance to eat Spikes’ signature dishes.”
“What about your salads?”
“…Shut up Riley.”
Clyde didn’t wind up getting a salad that night.
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Maz © & Artwork:
Clyde ©, Riley © & Writing:
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The two had done it. Finally, after four years, more than a few added pounds, changes to habits and lifestyles, and countless sleepless nights… They had graduated from NSU. Clyde and Maz had survived the gauntlet of buffets, insomnia, studying, and tests to get their degrees, and right now? Nothing could bring them down. The two had just finished getting their diplomas, a grand ceremony where both were honored by name for being amongst the top of their respective classes, and were riding a high they hadn’t felt in a long time. Maz was feeling that he had finally done something meaningful with his life, and couldn’t be toppled. Clyde was overjoyed that he was now finally free from the thumb of his family, and could not only access his immensely sizable trust fund, but had done it all on his own. Neither was going to be brought down by anything; this was a high that would last for days most likely. Weeks if they were able to make it. The last four years of rough times, of endless binges of books and diagrams and classes… They had been worth it. The pair had survived, and now were about to go out into the world and thrive.
“We did it Clyde, damn… We made it.”
“That we did Maz, that we did. Riley too, surprisingly.”
“Hey, I was a good studier roo or whatever!” Riley cut in, accompanying the pair back to their room as the trio went through the dorms. Riley had not been at the top of his class, but the roo had also graduated right on time with them too. The colorful explosion of extrovert and hyperactivity had maintained a solid set of grades, but he had slipped for senior year, leaving him somewhere in the middle of the pack. Clyde and Maz? The two had basically just let the year be a blur of studying, eating, and tests which neither could even remember much of. The two had barely seen one another, let alone Riley, over that year. It was just class, bedroom, then sleep and repeat. Only mealtimes were they seeing one another, and really during that time there was a lot more eating desperately to get back to studying than talking. Riley had not gone that route and paid for it with a degree that didn’t come with distinction, but the roo’s extroverted nature had still landed him an internship before graduation anyways. Maz and Clyde hadn’t tried for that… But, they got degrees with honors, so it wouldn’t matter, right?
“Of course Riley, I’m sure that you were.” Clyde replied with a bit of a shrug, getting a chuckle from Maz. The roo beside them just huffed in annoyance and continued on with them. It wasn’t hard to keep up with Maz and Clyde at this point after all; the two were both forced into a bit of a waddle by this point from just how much they had grown over their four years of schooling. What had been a quick walk back to the suite at the start of their time in college had become a slow, ambling waddle now thanks to Maz’s ever-widening thighs and Clyde’s ball of a stomach that seemed to be giving beach balls a run for their money. Riley… He had thickened out a little bit, looking less lanky and more healthy, but that was it. This left him having to keep his pace slow to match with the two expanding friends he had become attached to after his time at NSU.
“Yeah, yeah… At least I still have some bounce in my step.”
“Hey, classes are over now though right? Like, me an’ Clyde can diet now,” Maz said, his voice bright and cheery at the prospect. “I mean, if we want to…”
“I want to Maz, desperately,” Clyde replied with a light sigh, wiping his brow as he reached the door to their suite and pulled out his key to unlock it. “I’m tired of having to reach around this thing for anything.” The llama pat one paw on the side of his bloated ball of a gut, having to turn to his side to unlock the door because reaching in front of it had become nigh impossible in recent months. “My designer lines don’t come in this size too.”
“Yeah, I guess…” Maz replied, the musky dragon shrugging a little as he stood there. His own form, a doughy collection of sweaty rolls that always smelled lightly of, well, him now, was unwieldly like Clyde’s. “I dunno, I don’t mind how soft this is.”
“You’ve always been odd Maz, so I’m not surprised,” Clyde said with a shrug, pushing open the door and letting the wave of BO, old pizza, and other smells out into the hallway. Their dorm suite, once a place of light sandalwood scent and pristine furniture… Well, it had changed.
“Damn, you two let this place go…” Riley said, stepping in after Maz and looking around with his eyes almost wide in surprise. “Like, seriously… How did you not explode with this Clyde?”
“I have not had the time to explode with this,” Clyde said with a shrug, moving over towards his room while starting to pull off the gown he had worn to graduation. Maz was doing the same, also shrugging and tugging at the gown that had left little to the imagination of his gains. Stupid school rules, making them order three months in advance so that the size was just about too small for graduation… “Give us a minute, please?”
Riley just nodded, still shocked as he looked around at the mess of a room that the pair had shared for the last four years. Gone was any sense of organization or cleanliness which had been there before. Left instead was boxes of old pizza, containers of soda from wall to wall, clothes strewn all over the floors and furniture, old dishes and cups placed on every surface that had room, and a whole mess of other bits of trash wherever there was room. The place looked like a dump and a laundromat had both vomited into the room and not held back! It was a sty, and it stank of Maz and his BO, as well as Clyde and his now-legendary belches… The llama had become a bit known for that in his senior year thanks to one run-in with the football team and their ritual for all seniors. There wasn’t any mold or anything like that, thankfully, or Riley might had just run for the hills then and there. He wasn’t the cleanest roo by any stretch, but even he was a bit stunned that the two who had even made rules for cleaning four short years ago had fallen this far. Sure senior year was stressful, but this? Leaving empty food containers and clothes and everything like it all around in a mess like this? It was just shocking to him, and he couldn’t help but slowly turn around and drink it all in. “How the hell did you two do this?”
“Uhm… I guess we just got busy?” Maz said, emerging from his room with just a pair of tight, straining dress pants casing his legs like sausage skins. His slip-ons, which he had worn under his gown, were also gone, leaving a pair of holey socks on his feet and nothing else. The light sheen of sweat showed on his scaled stomach and chest, looking a bit darker around his lovehandles and under his chest; a pair of breasts that would make some women blush bouncing atop his freed, wobbling stomach. The dragon was pulling on a tank top as he came out, struggling to get his meaty arms in through the holes in the shirt as he quaked and jiggled like jello in an earthquake during his battle with clothing. “Kind of lazy too. I mean, I like sleeping a lot more than doing laundry.”
“I can second that.” Clyde replied, coming out of his room with the same dress on. His pants fit a lot better, loose around his calves and looking much more pressed and proper than the painted on ones Maz was wearing. Of course, that was because his stomach as covering the top of them entirely, that balloon of a belly sagging low over his crotch and obscuring the belt he needed to wear to keep those pants from falling down. He too was tugging on a tank-top, the sleeveless shirt stopping well above his navel despite having an embarrassing amount of X’s on the tag that Clyde was actively choosing to ignore. “We just haven’t had the time to take care of it.”
“Yeah, but… Wow you two are fat.” Riley said, his staring eyes darting between Maz and Clyde as the two moved over towards one another and started to finish their dressing up. The pair moved as though this was normal for them, Maz helping to tug down Clyde’s tank top around the grandiose curve of his stomach while Clyde moved to adjust Maz’s chest into the shirt to keep his moobs from spilling out of either arm hole. It was a showing that the roo just gaped at; how had the two gone this far?! And how was this bit of dressing normal?!
“Maz… You need to get wiped down again.”
“Nuh uh, I’m fine!”
“You reek again,” Clyde said, making a face as he looked at the dragon. “Seriously… Go get a wet rag. You’re going to sweat through this shirt in minutes.”
“I showered twice today though…” The dragon said, sounding dejected as he moved to waddle off to his bathroom, not objecting this time to Clyde. Normally, this argument when their day started and the two helped each other get dressed was more of a fight, but today? Today was a rare one, and Maz was listening to Clyde like the llama actually knew what he was talking about. He did too, but Maz… Well, the dragon had gotten used to smelling like he did, and feeling like he did, so why would he try and change that?
“Seriously… Damn, you two have changed…” Riley said, still staring at Clyde as Maz was off in his bathroom getting a wet towel. “Like… Clyde, how are you okay with that?”
“With what Riley?”
“With like, having to give Maz a bath like that? And having to have someone put on a shirt for you? Like… That’s seriously not normal.”
“Maybe not for you, but have you looked around the school?” Clyde asked, shrugging again as Maz returned and the llama began to wipe the sweat and grease off Maz for the third time that day. “We’re not even in the top half of the biggest students here at NSU. Maz and I just do this because it’s easier than trying to do it alone. We have to live together, we’ve gotten to know each other, so why would we not help one another?” Clyde said, and then continued on after getting under Maz’s chins cleaned up. “You resisted the call of food here, we didn’t. This is just a price to pay for that… And we’re alright paying for it. I shan’t argue with Maz and say that all of the weight is a bad thing. I’m going to lose it of course, but getting to eat as I liked? Getting to just enjoy food rather than worry about it, and not worrying about cleaning and all of that? It was pleasant.”
“Yeah, plus like… I mean, being fat does have some up sides.” Maz said, getting a light smirk from Clyde in reply. Riley just gaped… And then his eyes widened at the implications of that smirk.
“No… You two?”
“A couple times, yes.” Clyde said matter-of-factly, shrugging. “Why not?”
“I know we haven’t kept up in the last year, but seriously? You two?”
“Yes Riley, us two,” Clyde said, sounding exasperated now as Maz just blushed in silence, still being wiped down by the llama. “Again, why not?”
“Because you two hated each other when all this started! You two were like… Enemies!”
“Just made things better,” Clyde replied without missing a beat, shrugging again as Maz turned deeper red. The llama had never had a problem admitting to their… Relations, but Maz? Maz was never one to talk about what happened behind closed doors. “Don’t go spreading it around, will you?”
“No one would believe me if I did…” Riley replied, still gaping, and then shaking his head to try and get some of the sense back into himself. “Seriously, wow… Things have changed.”
“The world always does Riley. Nothing stays the same forever after all,” Clyde said, finishing up on Maz and tossing the towel into one of the piles of clothes around the apartment. “There, all done. Do you have your shirt?” Maz nodded and pulled out two shirts, one for himself and one for Clyde. Both were more akin to tents in their size, but that would be what it took to fit onto them… Neither was their former, svelte selves after all. Clyde nodded and took his shirt, leaving Maz to pull on his own button-up over the tank top undershirt that each was wearing. “Oh and Riley? We were kidding.”
“What?!” Riley exclaimed, getting a loud and boisterous laugh out of Maz and Clyde as the pair doubled over. Both were wheezing and cackling as they laughed, Riley beet red with embarrassment and annoyance as the two laughed at his expense.
“I almost couldn’t hold that in…” Maz said between bouts of laughter, Clyde just holding his paws on his hips as he laughed hard. “Wow, I can’t believe you bought that.”
“I told you he would,” Clyde said through tears of laughter, reaching up a paw to wipe his eyes as he began to calm back down. “Oh that was funny.”
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up… I totally… Damn you two.”
“Oh that was too good Clyde… Oh man…” Maz wheezed out as he too started to simmer, still chuckling as he began to pull on his shirt.
“Whew… I needed that laugh,” Clyde said, starting to pull on his shirt too with a laugh few giggles. “Sorry Riley, it was just too easy since we haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Yeah, I know… You two got me. Fiiiiine.” Riley said, and then just sighed and shook his head. “I can’t believe I fell for that.”
“Four years of you being a paparazzi and only one prank? I think you got the good end of the deal Riley,” Clyde replied, still giggling a little as he returned to his usual, composed self. “We got a whole bunch of candids, and you got tricked into thinking we were… Well, doing something actually worth candids.”
“Oh don’t even joke about that Clyde,” Maz said with a hint of embarrassment in his quaking voice. “I couldn’t even imagine that…”
“Neither could I, so I won’t.”
“Ugh, me neither… I do have a line you know,” Riley said, frowning a little. “And I did stop… Eventually…”
“Last week doesn’t count as eventually Riley,” Clyde said, a grin on his face.
“B-But!” More chuckles and giggles… But not like before, as the three were laughed or embarrassed out. As the room quieted down from the laughter at last, Riley looked around some more as the two finished getting dressed, both tugging on their button-ups and then buttoning them for one another. Spinning around to have the other tuck their shirts in, both were dressed neatly in just a couple of minutes. Neither could reach to put their shoes on… Explained the slip-ons they’d been wearing for months now… And both had to help the other put on dress shoes to complete their outfits. Clip-on bowties were pulled from pockets, put on with a bit of help and adjusting from their opposite, and then their looks were complete. They matched too, both looking like overly bloated waiters or very rotund groomsmen as they stood there in the room, each lightly panting from all the movement it had taken to get dressed as they had. Sure, it had been a bit of a show for Riley, but by the time they were done? The roo was almost numb to it. Watching them get dressed had shut the roo up for a whole few minutes; something that never, ever, ever happened. Never. Riley was just that stunned to see the changes in Maz and Clyde that senior year had brought about.
“Hey, Riley… Think you can get a picture of us?” Clyde asked once he was done, facing the roo with a bit of a smile. “Something to remember today by?”
“Wait, wait… You want a picture? Seriously?” Riley said, looking shocked as he stood there holding the camera that never once left his side. “Like, seriously?”
“Yes Riley, we do,” Maz said, his smile soft but confident. “We took one when we moved in right, so we should take one when we leave.”
“You’re leaving soon?”
“Tomorrow, yes.” Clyde replied, nodding. “There’s a maid coming to clean in… About 40 minutes from now. She’ll be taking care of the mess, getting things in order, and then right after her the movers will be coming.”
“You’re paying for the movers still, right? And the maid?” Maz asked, looking a bit concerned at the cost of those two services.
“Yes Maz, I am… I told you this yesterday.”
“Oh, yeah…” Maz said, and then sighed in relief.
“You’re buying dinner for the next week though.” Clyde said, getting a bit of a groan from Maz as the dragon remembered that part of the deal.
“Wow, okay… That was fast. Well, I guess you have to since you’re not going to school here. I’m out at the end of the week after all.” Riley said, and then shrugged. “We’ll stay in touch though, right?”
“Yeah!” Maz said with an emphatic nod, making his prominent double-chin bounce as he did so. “You have my number and stuff.”
“You have mine as well, so I suppose we can keep in contact,” Clyde said, though his tone wasn’t as annoyed as it usually was with Riley. Maybe the roo had finally gotten through...
“Okay, good. Well… Pose on up then.” Riley said, holding up his camera. The roo then waved his paw to adjust the two, moving them closer together and making them turn so that they showed off their good sides. Well… Their best sides that they could with how good they both looked in those outfits. Even Riley had to admit, fat as they had gotten, they did clean up well when they tried. Or at least, their bodies cleaned up. Getting the least amount of the pigsty the suite had become into frame was a whole different challenge… But the roo managed it with some waves of his paw.
“Okay, I guess that works… Smile!”
[i[CLICK![/i]
“Whew… That one looked good. Sucks the background looks like a tornado went through, but you can crop those for headshots if you need to.” Riley said, pulling out the polaroid and waving it in his paw to try and get it to dry so that he could show it to Maz and Clyde. “You two do have headshots, right?”
“Took them last week, yes,” Clyde said, with Maz nodding in agreement. “Resumes are all polished and already floated out there too.”
“I already got a few bites actually!” Maz said, sounding a bit gleeful as he spoke. “Haven’t really looked yet because, ya know, all this graduation stuff… But I’m moving back with my brother and I should be good to move out on my own in a couple months!”
“Good for you,” Clyde said, smiling broadly as he spoke. “I too have a few offers. Nothing certain, however I have been busy just like you with graduation.”
“Nice!” Maz said, and then gave the llama a clap on the back. “Looks like we’re all gonna be all set.”
“Yeah, my internship starts in a few weeks too,” Riley said, grinning proudly. “I can’t believe I got in with Stackers, or that they had a video game team in the works. I mean, I know they do fast food and stuff, but like… Getting in on the ground floor with them for photography and stuff was awesome.”
“Yes, congratulations on that again Riley. It sounds like it will be a good fit for you,” Clyde said, still smiling and giving a nod to the roo. “Make sure you don’t overdo it on the free food… Or do, and see what it’s like to have some ounce in your bounce, as I’ve been told.”
“Heh, wait… Clyde, did you just make a joke?”
“Is that odd?” Clyde asked, looking at Riley.
“Uhm… Yeah, it is,” Riley said, looking at Maz who was also staring at Clyde with a bit of shock on his face. “Wow… Our little llama is finally starting to show he’s an anthro and not a robot.”
“I know, I’m so proud,” Maz said, giggling lightly to himself as Clyde glared at the two of them. “I’ve trained him so well.”
“Only training I got from you, Maz, is how to make a mess and eat a whole pizza in one sitting.” Clyde replied with a bit of a frown.
“Hey, you took to that training well too from the looks of it,” Riley cut in, getting a laugh from both Clyde and Maz as they looked around the room.
“Fair, fair…” Clyde replied, and then shrugged. “I suppose I have loosened up someone over the years. Thank you Maz, Riley, for letting me do that.”
“Awww…” Maz said, grinning like an idiot for a moment before launching in to hug Clyde nice and tight. Riley went right in and did the same, getting an embrace in return from the taller llama. The trio stayed like that for a very long moment, all hugging one another nice and tight in the truest show of their camaraderie they’d shared their entire time at school. “Means a lot to hear you say that Clyde.”
“Yeah Clyde… I always thought you hated me, honestly,” Riley said, moving in to hug a little tighter.
“I did, but you’ve grown on me Riley. You too Maz. I’m sorry for my… Well, being an asshole.” Clyde said, then sighed and continued on. “I didn’t know who I was, just that I was a product of my environment when I came here. I didn’t want to change, I resisted, but you two wore me down and let me find myself. I still am working on that, but thanks to you two, I have a start. So thank you, and I am sorry. I know I’m not exactly the… Friendly, cuddly type. Maz made sure I’m at least softening up in more ways than one, and Riley had made sure I know how to handle paparazzi.”
“Hey now, don’t push it,” Riley said, getting a laugh from the three of them as the long group hug came to an end.
“I suppose this is it, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it is… The end of an era.” Maz said, looking around the room and sighing to himself. “We did it. We survived NSU and made it out of the whole college thing.”
“That we did, that we did…” Clyde said, and then looked around the room. “I might miss all this.”
“Really?”
“Gods no.” Clyde said, shaking his head fervently. “Studying till 3AM and then stress-eating til it hurts to try and make it through a test? No, nothing to miss about that.”
“Well… I mean… The stress eating part wasn’t all bad.” Maz put in, getting a look from both Clyde and Riley. “What?! It wasn’t… The food here was amazing.”
“Yeah, I don’t think I can argue with that,” Clyde replied in agreement, his stomach gurgling with hunger in response as well. The llama blushed at that noise and hoped the other two hadn’t heard it.
They had.
“Sounds like it… But I like my real salads. This school doesn’t do them right,” Riley said, shrugging.
“Me too. I miss a good salad,” Clyde said, getting a look from Maz.
“Sure, sure… Your salads drenched in dressing and with more meat than greens.” Maz joked, getting a chuckle from Riley and a glare from Clyde.
“Shut up Maz, I mean it! I like spinach salads and stuff, and I wanna have one.”
“So get one tonight then,” Maz cut back with a smirk, getting another glare from Clyde in response. “This whole faculty thing we’re going to is made to order, so you can get what you want. I’m gonna get like, every kind of meat I can. The chef catering the whole thing is known throughout New SaggingTon for his meats and stuff, and I want to see what he can do. Plus, I mean, it’s free for us doing so well… So celebrate, right? Don’t just hold back and stuff?”
“Oh, I forgot that Spikes was catering… Uhm… Yeah, I may do that too. Can’t pass up that chance to eat Spikes’ signature dishes.”
“What about your salads?”
“…Shut up Riley.”
Clyde didn’t wind up getting a salad that night.
Category Artwork (Digital) / Fat Furs
Species Unspecified / Any
Gender Multiple characters
Size 2560 x 1440px
I'm happy to hear that they've made up together and became close. Kinda nice seeing the two smile for once together. 😊 I do wonder what they'll do next now that they've graduated. Maybe they'll play some games together, play some Frisbee golf, of course, probably eat lots and lots together too
Glad to see them finish such a big milestone as well! They have so much they can do now! We will see <3
They finally made it!! They’ve come so far since they first met, wonder where things for them are gonna go from here?
Glad to see they made it through alright! I wonder what happens from here?
If anything, I hope Maz showers more often now!
If anything, I hope Maz showers more often now!
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