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"Planning another visit to Earth?"
Michael comes out of nowhere, just a moment before Gabriel leaves. She knows how to make an ambush, and during the war, this skill was incredibly useful. Nowadays, it can rather be called annoying.
"Yes. I should check one more thing and-"
"Should you?" Michael raises her eyebrow.
It's not a question Gabriel wants to hear. He was mostly sure that he had taken all the necessary precautions and that his dates with Beelzebub remained a secret. But Michael asks not for no reason. She guesses about something and clearly wants to discover more. Gabriel knows this move and knows it's hard to dodge.
"I hope the meetings I'm holding with the loyal contingent will help us implement the Plan. I'm sure you're working on it, too." She's most likely not - and if Michael wants to avoid this discussion, she'll stop this conversation.
"I mean, these visits on Earth are taking a toll on you. Lower-rank angels already gossip. You don't look like a firm leader anymore, and some of them find it bothering."
"I don't understand-"
"I'm just saying you are letting yourself go a little, Gabriel, and it could be challenging to go back in shape." With her gentlest smile, Michael steps even closer to Gabriel, lowers her hand, and suddenly grabs his belly, violently sticking her fingers into the soft pudge.
Gabriel gasps.
First, everyone respects his personal space. It's one of the main unspoken rules in Heaven.
Second, till this moment, Gabriel didn't realize, that he had enough pudge to grab like this.
He could have guessed this, but he chose to ignore all the signs. Even when Uriel casually noticed that Gabriel's turtleneck looked slightly tight - Gabriel paid no attention to these words, and, to be honest, that day he was bloated after meeting with Beelzebub. These meetings have a tendency to end up like this. At least, since the moment when meetings turned into dates.
And maybe Sandalphon said something, but he was always jealous of Gabriel's looks, so his comments were never worth attention as well. At least Gabriel was sure about it.
Keeping her smile, Michael squeezes him a little more for a moment and then steps back. Gabriel instinctively tries to suck in his belly and suddenly feels that this attempt gives such negligible results that it may count as absolutely failed. His belly still sticks out, fleshy and round.
"It's not a time to get loose. We all need to be at our best. Take care of you, brother." Michael nods a little and leaves before Gabriel finds words to answer. He doesn't even look after her, keeping his flustered look and his own middle.
His corporation can't grow on its own. So why does it look like this now?
It's not like Gabriel doesn't know the real answer. He's been indulging a little, and it could have consequences, but there is no way things could go that far.
With a sigh, Gabriel relaxes his abs, refusing this ineffective measure to hide changes.
Only to see that it was, actually, quite effective.
Seems to him all this time unconsciously holding his middle tense to keep his belly sucked in. Probably, because his clothes fit better that way, but Gabriel can't focus on this guess right now, watching in surprise as his round middle expands even further, straining the buttons of his shirt and slacks. The waistband digs uncomfortably into a flab.
He pats himself, stroking the crest of his belly, as if checking to see if it is real, still feeling the echoes of the rough squeeze, that Michael gave him.
Damit, she's right: dating Beelzebub is taking a toll on him. So far, Michael has only noticed the consequences, but if Gabriel doesn't do anything about it, she will find the reason.
Gabriel takes a deep breath. Now he sees the problem and knows what to do: he must stop any gossip and not give Michael a motive to continue her investigation. It's not a complicated issue. He just needs to be more careful. And lose that weight - as a first step in that way, Gabriel should not allow himself to overeat on today's date. For which he is already late.
It's a simple plan.
***
He fails his plan.
Everything starts just perfectly - except for the fact that Gabriel can't stop focusing on the discomfort from the tight waistband digging into his soft belly. But in some way, it's even helpful. The constant reminder of how fat he's gotten helps Gabriel politely decline when Beelzebub offers to order food. They's not pushy - they always lets him say "no", and he appreciates it.
But then Beelzebub orders appetizers - just in case Gabriel changes his mind, and to avoid looking suspicious: in places like this, humans are always ordering food and eating it. They both need to order something to look natural here. So Gabriel gives in and takes food that Beelzebub suggests to him - he doesn't even know what these things are, but everything tastes great, and with any bite, he feels more and more uncomfortably empty inside. It's as if the discomfort from the pressure of the waistband and the echo of insulting squeeze that Michael gave to his middle turned into a feeling with which his stomach cries for more food.
Into a hunger.
Gabriel takes a small step, and everything lands down like an avalanche.
Besides, it's not just about the food, even if Gabriel developed a craving for it. From the beginning, he wouldn't even try to eat anything if it weren't for Beelzebub's loving gaze. This gaze proved better than anything, that inside the demon could still live a disillusioned angel - or something even better than an angel, if possible.
These are dangerous thoughts, so Gabriel chooses to focus on the sensations instead.
He chews and swallows and chews again to swallow more. His stomach gradually fills up, and the waistband cuts into his flesh more and more painfully, punishing Gabriel for gluttony. But then Beelzebub leans closer and in a fast movement unbuttons his slacks. And the pain disappears. All that remains is a pleasant feeling of warmth and growing fullness.
Beelzebub gently cleans his face and tenderly massages his rounded middle.
And, of course, they orders more food to let Gabriel enjoy a full palette of flavors, salty, sweet, and spicy.
It keeps going to the moment when Gabriel feels that he's too full to take another bite. He leans back, realizing that his slacks are not only unbuttoned but completely unzipped and his belly, round like a fully blown-up balloon, bulging shamelessly.
He should do something with it.
But he just can't.
"You still have a little chance to fasten it, but not right now. Let it go."
"Why did you even do this?" Gabriel gasps, hopelessly trying to put together flaps of his slacks. It feels like they are at least feet apart - the reality is less impressive, yet there is no way that Gabriel can push the button through the buttonhole. He flexes his abs, but it is so stretched by the amount of food inside his stomach that the attempt ends with a spasm and doesn't change anything.
"Sorry, I didn't know you planning to pop your button in a public place."
Gabriel can't say clearly if Beelzebub is sarcastic, but these words go through his body and mind like another spasm but with a strange sweetness afterward.
No, there is no way that Gabriel wanted to expose his gluttony in such a shameful way.
"I can't button it up again without a miracle."
"So? Use a miracle." They shrugs.
"And how will I explain this waste? Supreme archangel is not supposed to go on dates with a demon and let them feed him until it becomes obscene." Gabriel addresses this speech not only to Beelzebub but to himself as well.
He's not supposed to be here.
He's not supposed to feel more comfortable here, on the Earth, next to the demon, than in the pure clear emptiness of Heaven.
But Gabriel is here, and it feels better than he is ready to admit. Even being painfully stuffed feels better than being hollow, metaphorically and physically.
"Well, there is a way to solve this problem without any miracles. Humans doing it sometimes." Beelzebub takes a rubber band out of their pocket. "Just thread it through the buttonhole and put the button into the loop. This little thing will give more space for your gut."
His gut. Gabriel places both hands on his swollen belly and feels a blush bloom on his neck and cheeks.
What a proper word.
Beelzebub playfully pokes him, and for a moment Gabriel imagines that he follows this tip and goes to Heaven like this: with his gut hanging on full display and his pants holding only with a stretched rubber. Burning the wave of shame washes over him, when Gabriel almost hears the voice of Michael, asking him how exactly he's helping to implement the Plan, wallowing in the gluttony so deep? He could try to come up with an appropriate lie, and it even may work - at least if the rubber band won't give up, putting him in an even worse situation.
But a lie is still a lie. And it would be foolish to claim that these meetings were ever actually work on implementing the Plan.
His corporation can't grow on its own. But if Gabriel himself actually wanted it to grow, even unthinkingly, it could. And probably this is exactly what happened.
"I'll better wait until everything settles down. May you stay here, but don't feed me anymore?"
Beelzebub pokes him again, and their fingertip sinks into the sensitive pudge of his lower belly. This place always was his softest spot - and Beelzebub doing a great job finding Gabriel's soft spots.
"Watching you freeing up space without even a chance to fill it again? It's a more than burdensome task, angel. But I'll try."
Laying back, Beelzebub takes him by the hand, and Gabriel closes his eyes, giving up in a food coma.