Suited for Success
By John Shorten
Lifting a yellow-colored talon to the door, the bird knocked on it. His brown eyes were wide with awe and wonder at the small size of this home he was visiting. He looked down at the paper in his hand, reading the house number. He tilted his head back to see the house number printed on the side. With confirmation he was at the right house, the bird gulped.

“Sergeant Wolf… for such a big guy, you certainly live in a small… house.” The bird muttered to himself, still unable to believe the werewolf had invited him over to try out some sort of special “contraption” – the werewolf failed to mention any details.

Several moments passed before the front door opened, revealing a tall werewolf with grey fur and cream on his muzzle. The ears atop his head were brown, and the fur on top of his head was a blackish hue. The markings were certainly recognizeable as Sergeant Wolf’s. Not to mention the wolf’s large belly was slightly sticking out from the bottom of his green shirt, showing a small patch of brown fur.

“Chalur!” The werewolf chimed in a honeyed voice as he stepped backward to let the bird in. “Ain’t seen your brown hawk feathers for a while! So glad you could make it!”

“This ain’t something to fatten me up again, is it?” The bird squinted one eye shut as he walked in cautiously inside. He at least knew he was in the right place since the werewolf knew his name. “I just finished getting off the last few pounds you put on me, so you better not get any bright ideas!”

“Camera’s in for repairs.” The werewolf shrugged, turning around and walking a few feet into the living room. A chair sat tightly against the wall, allowing a small bit of walking space between it and the coffee table on the other side of the room…. It truly was a miserably small house, and seemed smaller on the inside than the outside.

Chalur frowned, remembering his earlier statement about the large werewolf and small living conditions. “Isn’t this place… cramped?”

The werewolf gave a jovial laugh. “Yes. It is very small, I know. But I don’t mind! It costs very little, and aside from the leaky roof and a few insulation problems, it is certainly better than sleeping out in the rain!”

Chalur scratched the back of his head as he sidled his way over to the chair and sat down in it. He laughed nervously, as he realized he could have been a bit abrupt or rude in his remark. “Oh… uh… sorry.”

“For what?” Sergeant Wolf craned turned his head to stare at Chalur from his kitchen… which was a mere six feet away.

“I shouldn’t be so inconsiderate of your living conditions.” Chalur shook his head, wanting to change the subject. “So, what’s the thing you wanted to show me?”

“Oh!” The werewolf slid past his fridge as he shut it. The werewolf had great difficulty doing so as his belly seemed to brush right against the closing door. “I just wanted to try out a zipper thing.”

“Zipper?” Chalur cocked his head. “You need me to try out a zipper?”

“Yeah!” The werewolf scooted past Chalur, making the bird have to lift up his legs to allow the large man to pass. “Magic zipper. Slap it on anything and it unzips!” The werewolf sat down next to Chalur and placed his arm on Chalur’s back.

“I… don’t know if I like where this is going, Sarge.” Chalur rubbed one of his arms sheepishly. “You want to unzip me?”

“Just wanna see what it does!” The werewolf chided with a scowl. “C’mon! You owe me that much!”

Chalur folded his arms indignantly. “I owe you nothing. You made me put on one hundred frickin’ pounds that I had to get off!”

“Well, I can always take more p ictures of yo-“

“Why do I even hang out with you?” Chalur put a talon under his cheek and rolled his eyes, hoping his teasing tone made it through. He admitted, though, he wasn’t very fond of how the werewolf would use him and other people for his ‘experiments’. Being anything but normal, an ‘experiment’ could leave these people with lasting impacts… most of which pertained to growing bellies and stomachs. It was like an obsession for the wolf, and it was becoming grating, to say the least. He just wanted to show his disdain for it in a light-hearted manner.

“O…oh.” The defeated tone was a surprise to Chalur. He lifted his head from his talon and looked over at the werewolf. He knew the werewolf was a sensitive person, but usually the man would just speak back with tongue-in-cheek. That tone was not what Chalur was expecting, nor what Chalur was wanting.

To the bird’s chagrin, he saw that the werewolf was looking away with ears bent backward.

“Uh… this is the part where you’d usually retort or somethin’, Sarge!” Chalur spoke in a panic. “I’m just not wanting to be a part of this whole thing is all!”

The werewolf turned his attention back to Chalur, and a flash of green could be seen in his eye. “But I already put the zipper on you.”

“W…what?” Chalur jumpd to his feet. He soon realized that pat on the back he got from Sergeant Wolf wasn’t a benign thing. He lifted his hand to his back and felt… metal. “Agh! No!” He reached up at the zipper, wanting to pull it off before anything happened. He strained to reach at the part of the back he needed to get to.

“Chalur! Don’t!” The werewolf got to his feet as well, approaching the bird hastily. “Let me take it o-“

Chalur’s eyes lit with fury. The werewolf had done something without Chalur’s permission… again. He did not want this to keep happening every time he saw the werewolf. If he was gonna do something, now was the time to do it. “Don’t you DARE touch me!” Whipping his head to the werewolf, the bird glared into the sunken, greene yes.

The werewolf’s eyes widened as his outstretched hand retracted to his chest. His lips contorted into a frown and he stared at Chalur in silence.

Chalur fumed as he got a grasp on the zipper, beginning to tug. “I’ve put up with your stuff, Sarge… and you’re a great guy, but you keep doing things without permission! I don’t want to be made fat! I don’t want to be turned into a pig! I don’t want to be unzipped!” Chalur felt his eyes watering. “Gosh, Sarge, am I even your friend… or just some sorta… tool for you to use?”

The werewolf stayed silent. His arms lowered to his sides and he sighed. “Sorry.” Tears welled in his eyes. “I get… excited about new discoveries.”

“That’s GREAT and all…” Chalur glowered over at the werewolf again. “But, next time you do, PLEASE at least TELL me what you’re going to do and let me decide for myself… not… force me to-“

Chalur’s hand dropped right as one of his talons latched onto the divet in the zipper. To his horror, he could hear a zipping noise as the zipper was dragged down his back. Wherever it touched, he felt stiff.

“Wha-?” Chalur tried to lift his arm back to the zipper, but found it wouldn’t fully respond to his movements. It lifted slightly, then dropped down to his side as it was feeling too heavy to properly use. “F…fix me, Sarge.”

“B-but….” The werewolf gulped.

“Please. You can touch me! Just… just get this thing off me! It’s doin’ something weird! I can’t move my arms.” To emphasize, Chalur tried to lift his arms, but he could not get them to move at all now. They just hung limply by his sides.

“Oh! Okay!” The werewolf rushed the few feet over to Chalur and placed a hand on the bird’s back. Within a few moments, Chalur felt the zipper zip back up… but his arms still wouldn’t move.

“Take it oooooooo-“ Chalur’s mouth gaped open as he could not seem to close it anymore. He lost all control to do so… but he could feel his lips beginning to curl upward in a smile of some sort.

“It’s… it’s not gonna come off!” Sarge lifted the zipper again… then unzipped it, seeing if that method would work at the removal.

Chalur felt his body shudder with each downward motion of the zipper. His eyes widened and the world around him seemed to grow larger as his stuck eyes could no longer close or move. His mouth opened wider… and his body started to bend over. He felt his chest deflate. This wasn’t a feeling he was familiar with at all, but he could hear the sound of a puff of air as his head slumped into his chest, causing his mouth to be filled with feathers… or were they feathers? They used to be – very fluffy feathers, in fact! Yet, it felt shorter… and more like some sort of fabric than anything. He knew he wasn’t wearing a shirt, so where was this fabric coming from?

“Gah! Chalur you’re….” The werewolf stopped for a moment. In that moment, Chalur felt the werewolf grasp the zipper. He could feel it like a part of his body as the werewolf immediately shoved it down all the way. The bird’s back unzipped completely and he fell to the floor. His limbs, once holding weight and shape to them buckled and folded in on themselves as they dropped into a pile of brown and cream colored fabrics. The bird’s head plopped on top, nothing more than a foam creation with fleece for feathers. The beak and eyes showed a happy expression as the new suit sat on the ground.

“You’re a… something?.” The werewolf leaned over at the suit. He smiled wryly as he picked up the head. To his surprise, it came off of the body easily. He tilted it down and saw a hole for one to put their head through. “You’re a fursuit?!”

The werewolf looked down at the body and scratched his chin. “Though I do wonder….”

With curiosity taking the better of him, Sergeant Wolf lifted the suit and pulled apart the back to reveal an empty costume. Lifting a paw up, he shoved it into the suit, watching as the fabric on the bird’s belly stretched to make room for his paw.

“Oh my.” He placed his other paw in and adjusted them so they were in the bird’s legs. It felt strange to him. The suit was so comfortable… but very shape-fitting.

Jostling the fabric a bit, he managed to get his arms into the bird’s arms, stretching them out as far as they would go to make room for his arms. He was unfortunately too big for this suit… but he at least wanted to see if he could fit.

Grunting, the werewolf tried to grab the back and fold it around his belly. Despite knowing Chalur was comparatively a skinny bird, the werewolf seemed to easily fit his body into the suit. With a bit of effort, he managed to fasten up the zipper, getting it all the way to the back of his neck.

Whistling, he looked down at his figure, seeing that it was tremendously smaller and skinnier than he was before. His body fit inside a small suit like this? Either that or his body was now this small because of it….

The werewolf grabbed the head and, taking a deep breath, shoved it over his own. He felt the small hole in the neck mold over his muzzle, pushing it down and in. He knew this was unnatural, but aside from his nose touching his adam’s apple, he didn’t seem to feel anything painful about it as he shoved the mask on.

It was dark for a moment before his eyes seemed to adjust. He could see now, but it wasn’t the inside of the suit he was seeing…. He was just seeing his living room.

“Oh?” Walking ten feet to the bathroom, the werewolf looked in the mirror and saw the face of his friend, Chalur, staring at him. Unlike the lifeless suit he had seen before, the face was now full of life and looked completely real. “Huh. I’ll be darned!” He looked at his belly and saw it was skinny, like Chalur’s was. “Guess I’m skinny and small, huh?”

The werewolf… bird… put his hands to his hips and smiled. “This feels really comfy….” Puffing his chest out, Sergeant Wolf suddenly felt his belly expand rapidly. Surprised, he looked down at it to see it was starting to grow and bulge out, becoming more reminiscent to his actual body. Within a few moments, he was fat as he was before, but a bit shorter.

“Huh…. Guess I’m just too fat for the suit.” The werewolf rubbed the back of his neck, frowning. “I hope this doesn’t make Chalur fat when I take him off….” The werewolf looked up thought for a moment. He grinned. “Maybe I do hope it makes him fat….”

Laughing, he shook his head and reached back to find the zipper and unzip it. He stretched and stretched but no matter how hard he stretched, he couldn’t get a talon on the zipper. In all his excitement, he forgot that he was too fat to properly reach his back.

“Oh….” He looked in the mirror again, staring at the pudgy-cheeked hawk before him. “Oh no.”

~~~~~

Commission for  chalur! It was quite a bit of fun to write!

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Story/ Sergeant Wolf ©  pikminpedia Me
Chalur ©  chalur