Prompt of the Week - Week 14

In almost every single way, Ruth had everything she could ever possibly want. A stable job as the guardian of the underworld, a spacious house to live in thanks to said job paying her a hefty salary, a social circle that included more than just the damned, and a loving boyfriend of, by then, three months. Life was perfect for her in just about every way, and the cerberus dog was so immensely grateful for it that, at times, she felt like crying from how great everything turned out. There was, however, one thing that hadn’t yet come to fruition, one single aspect of her life that was still, unfortunately, lacking.

It was a well-kept secret, one that had never once slipped out from between her lips and into the outside world, nor had it ever been shared with anyone or anything outside of her computer’s browsing history: Ruth loved to eat. Be it the simplest of reheated noodles or the most sumptuous of feasts on occasion of a big-shot manager downstairs having their retirement party, she took it all and consumed it with such gusto as to, on occasion, scare people around her. Her love for food and gorging herself was so immense, not because of the three heads she carried around, but something deeper, something far more intrinsic to her personality: pure and simply, it aroused her. She would often daydream of some fantasy world in which she could throw away everything and just eat to her heart’s content, until her whole body was nothing but a jiggling tower of fat rolls and pudge that refused to hold still when slapped and had to be rolled from place to place if she wanted to move around. In fact, most of her private time browsing was spent looking for those exact same scenarios, and in her many years of indulging that particular kink, Ruth had amassed a truly spectacular gallery, acquired both perfectly legally and… not.

Unfortunately, she’d never had anyone who shared in that particular fetish. Plenty of boyfriends had come and gone over the years, but all of them had run the gamut between not even being told the kink was there to being informed and promptly shutting her down, with everything in between. Not a one had gone the extra mile to even as much as understand it or try to empathize with her, and plenty of seemingly stable relationships she’d had were broken up precisely because of this. Not a single one… until Clark. She first met him some five months prior during a work get-together celebrating one hundred years without a single escapee, and despite the two seemingly having nothing in common, they hit it off in a way neither could have predicted, with the relationship moving fast enough that, two months later, he was moving in with her and awkwardly asking his new partner to help bring things up the stairs; the perks of having a girlfriend that was five times larger than himself.

The couple was subject to a lot of workplace gossip, mostly related to the size difference and how much that would affect their bedroom hours; little did they know the diminutive Clark was more than able to hold his own and sometimes even lead the two! Despite being the smaller one, his nature as a tailor-made security guard in the lower rings made it so his unassuming physique belied a much higher power level than would immediately be evident; besides, he didn’t like to brag about what he did, so most people were somehow convinced he was a mid-level manager rather than one of the very few entrusted with protecting the worst of sinners imaginable. This alone accounted for most of the surprise Ruth felt when she began noticing a certain… pattern. A love for food and eating that the cerberus had never seen in anyone but herself, a couple of jokes and comments the big dog was convinced she’d heard before in a few select places and nowhere else, as well as what she swore were familiar visual pieces off the corner of her eyes before Clark changed whatever window he was currently browsing on his laptop. 

All of it helped to embolden her towards breaking the question; she was utterly terrified of it regardless of any evidence she could find, given that her current boyfriend was an absolute jewel. She could see herself settling down and finally getting serious with him, so much so that, on occasion, the thought of starting a family glanced the edges of her mind just strongly enough that she blushed while shoving the idea away. For her to open up to him and receive yet another rejection would ruin her, enough that the cerberus doubted she’d ever be ready to love again; if Clark said no to her in the same way everyone else did, what hope did she have of ever finding anyone who would accept her for who she was?

Therefore, she thought, the best way to resolve that would be to start poking back and seeing how the smaller canine reacted. A couple of in-jokes here and there, bigger meals and obvious enjoyment, not-so-subtle comments on how this person or that was looking chubbier and how good they looked now, that sort of thing; it wasn’t the best, but then again, Ruth’s entire job was to sit in front of the underworld’s door and scare people off by snarling at them, so subtlety wasn’t really part of her repertoire. To his credit, though it was evidently clear that Clark caught on almost immediately, he kept playing the part and giving his partner room to work in comfortably, even going so far as to ask the questions that his role demanded that he pose, just so the cerberus could pretend things were going according to plan. This led to a rather odd situation whereby they both knew they were effectively propping up a facade that neither of them were even looking at, all while pretending it wasn’t there to begin with; Ruth in particular found this to be an immense relief, proof that at least Clark would try to understand her.

It all came to a head during one night where the three-headed dog spent a good hour preparing an extra-large dinner. The door to the kitchen was kept closed so that her boyfriend wouldn’t hear her three heads arguing amongst themselves over what the best way to approach the subject would be; while being able to draw on a trio of brains to resolve tasks was usually a boon, being beset by doubt and anxiety on all three only helped to heighten the stress and nervousness she was feeling, especially given how none of her heads seemed to have any real answer to her problem. Debating didn’t work either, and by the end, she was left with one way out: blurting it out in the middle of a period of silence.

It was inelegant, it was horribly out of place, and yet it was the only way it would ever happen. The two of them were happily chewing down on some pot roast and enjoying what was, by all means, some very wonderful cooking, when all three of Ruth’s mouths opened at the same time and let loose the fateful question:

“So what do you think about weight gain?”

Clark’s forked stopped halfway to his mouth for a few seconds, before the smaller canine put it down and looked straight up. That smile on his face was so wide it threatened to leave his head completely, and while it was nothing if not warm and genuine, Ruth couldn’t help but feel her cheeks burning up from embarrassment. His answer didn’t help either.

“What do you mean, weight gain?”

He knew exactly what she meant. He knew it from the very start and had strung her along, knowing it would come down to that, knowing the cerberus wouldn’t be able to formulate the question properly and would fumble the revelation so hard that it would turn into some sort of performance art. That grin quickly went from inviting to teasing, with the true marvel being how much a simple gesture such as that could cow a massive, towering hellhound like Ruth so much that she couldn’t even bring herself to look at him. So many ways to answer, and yet none of them would help dig her out of that mess.

“Y-you know, that thing where…” she tried to explain, her central and left head going silent while the right one (as usual) was left to do the talking, “W-where one person, like, eats a lot and then they get fat. You know, like, right there, not over time, like if I was… y-you know what I mean, right?”

She wasn’t asking. She was pleading. And as much of a sweetheart as Clark was, they both knew he relished the few opportunities he had to tease her far too much to let go of one like that. At least it made her feel a lot more relieved; her partner was fine with her kink… perhaps a bit too fine if that smirk was any indication. The two remained silent, sizing one another up while Ruth tried to hold on to whatever was left of her own decency just to avoid breaking down completely and making her desires explicit; Clark, meanwhile, was having far too much fun with it all, and would’ve leaned back on his chair and crossed his arms if he didn’t know that would come off as too callous and manipulative even for him. Thus, the two engaged in a continuous staring contest, with the large cerberus slowly, but surely, seeing her resistance falter.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was when the smaller canine brought a hand to his plate and, with a single finger, pushed it forwards towards his partner before declaring “You can have it, I’m sure you’d love it”, triggering something in between a panic attack and a moaning fit in the larger dog, who had to bring both hands to her mouth just to stop herself from sounding even more undignified than she already did; a difficult accomplishment, seeing as they were both very much aware of what she was all about. Clark began chuckling, Ruth began whining quietly, and it all ended when her boyfriend got up and walked around the table, offering a tight hug on one of her legs.

“Honey, I’ve known for weeks now,” he stated, “you do realize that your internet search history affects autocompletion, right?”

And there it was. In an instant, the cerberus’ cheeks were somewhere beyond crimson and right past neon red, even her low squeaking vanishing into the pit growing inside of her. If Ruth could curl up in a corner and pretend that day didn’t happen, she would’ve done just that and not looked back even once… right after raiding the fridge and taking whatever she could hold in her arms along with her. As it stood though, the initial shock and embarrassment were quick to melt away underneath the soft embrace of her smaller partner, who refused to let go until he was certain that his three-headed girlfriend had recovered from what he could only assume was a very difficult confession. It made her feel oddly comfortable, even if the gesture didn’t do much at all; the size difference ensured that she could very easily throw him off just by shaking her leg once… but she didn’t want to. Not after being accepted like that.

It still took a few minutes before Ruth calmed down enough to be able to think coherent thoughts again, and even then a couple more before she was ready to start forming sentences in any meaningful way. Trying to do so still resulted in her voice being so shaky that it was barely understandable, but a few gestures towards the fridge and the food on the table made it obvious what she wanted to tell her partner, who nodded along and pretended to understand every malformed word and stuttered expression, sometimes offering a “Mhmm” down the middle. Once they both agreed Ruth was done, he spoke up again, only deepening the shade of red on the cerberus’ face.

“You know, if you wanted to binge a little, all you had to do was ask; I knew a couple of people who work for the logistics department, I can help you buy some food in bulk if you’d like!”

Ruth wanted to say yes so much that only the first letter came out before it degenerated into a squeal, resulting in a very embarrassed big dog trying her best to keep her composure while fanning an increasingly sweaty set of faces. It was almost impressive how all three of her heads failed to get any words out, but at least her thoughts were obvious to anyone watching; so much so that Clark, still holding back laughter, told her he’d “handle it” and she needn’t worry about it. All that was required of her was to keep going to work and act like everything was normal, and “soon enough” she’d be coming home to a big surprise.

The days that followed were filled with equal parts excitement and paranoia, as Ruth saw just about everything as a sign that her soon-to-be-hubby was about to drop something onto her lap, only to be disappointed right afterwards. She couldn’t help but feel at least some of those occasions were deliberate fake-outs, meant to keep her on edge and waiting for when this surprise would spring itself out of nowhere. The cerberus made sure to check whenever her and Clark’s days off didn’t coincide, just so she could spend her whole shift giggling and fantasizing about what would be waiting for her back home; every time she came out of it empty-handed, apart from her partner giving her a sly little smile and a guarantee that “it” was arriving “soon”. Truth be told, Ruth had all but given up on that “it”, whatever it was, showing its ugly face any time in the near future, until roughly a month after her confession she came back home to a rather odd and somewhat alarming sight.

There was a throng of sharply dressed individuals entering and leaving her apartment building, so many of them in the same colours and design that it had to be some sort of uniform. A group of vans were parked outside, filled with cardboard boxes and metal containers that were being transported into the building proper by groups of workers at a time. The smell of delicious food wafted through the air, Ruth’s three sharp noses detecting everything from entrées to multitudes of main dishes and even dozens of different desserts; the possibilities were not endless there, it was incredibly obvious what was going on, and the cerberus could barely contain her enthusiasm when she excused herself after wading into the crowd, hoping to catch Clark somewhere where she could give him three big slobbery kisses.

She would find him in their living room, and while normally the next thing to happen would’ve been her leaping onto him and spending a good hour or so letting him do whatever he wanted to her, his environs made that a risky proposition. The room itself was stuffed full of tables, neatly arranged in a grid pattern, all of them covered in white tablecloths; these were only visible as they were draped off the sides, for there wasn’t even a single inch of their surface left empty. Instead, what she saw was an endless sea of dishes of all shapes, sizes and tastes, any and every meal she could possibly ever imagine displayed in a beautiful arrangement that combined visual art and gastronomy in ways Ruth had never thought possible. It’d be an understatement to say she was salivating; more appropriate would be to point out that anyone foolish enough to be caught underneath her would end up getting showered in drool from the extremely happy pupper, whose tail was wagging so quickly it threatened to throw several people onto their ass just from the wind alone!

“Oh my god, Claaaaaaark!” she shouted, having to fight against herself not to run forward anyway, “I can’t believe this, you bitch, why?!”

“Because I love you and you deserve everything here and a lot more,” he replied, his words enough to bring tears to Ruth’s eyes, “which is why the catering company is holding most of the stuff downstairs still, they’re waiting for me to give the go-ahead.”

“... w-wait, are you saying…”

“This is all for you, hun. Every last bite.”

The cerberus wanted to shout at the top of her lungs, and indeed a sound did escape, though it was far closer to a squeak than anything. Having to curb her enthusiasm at every step of the way, Ruth squeezed in between the tables and grabbed her boyfriend with a single hand, bringing him to her chest and absolutely covering his face with as many smooches as physically possible. If, by some miracle, she was still mobile after the feast she was about to partake, then the two of them were going to spend several sleeping hours doing everything but sleeping; hell, even if she wasn’t able to move then they could still do so anyway. In fact, just the thought of getting frisky with Clark after turning into the pudgy ball of fat of her dreams was enough to get her legs quivering and knees shaking, not to mention her nethers all hot and slippery.

But that was for later, after she was done cleaning out all of those tables. In that moment, she was one with her inner glutton, and nothing else mattered. Clark had arranged for that banquet just for her, therefore it wouldn’t only be a waste not to eat everything, it’d be an insult to him! And if there was one thing Ruth wasn’t about to do, it was insult the love of her life.

Another series of smooches were provided before Ruth put him back on the ground, right before sitting right there in the middle herself.

It was time to eat.