I'm a bit out of practice so it's not my best work, but I wanted to get another chapter out after neglecting my favorite couple for so long. <3 Hope you enjoy!

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Richard’s new bedroom was a spacious room on the ground floor, which had previously been a neglected granny flat. The walls were painted a mellow purple, the same as his old room, but were blotched paler shades in the places where Richard had tried too hard to help the repaint. His tail had been stained for a week, his clothing unrecoverable.
Gina had brought all the ceiling stars down for him to scatter across his new night sky.

It was comfortable and had enough room for his upsized, low bed to fit with room to spare for a floor-to-ceiling wardrobe, a wide television, and afternoon yoga.

Yoga hurt more and more every day, but Richard believed that without it, he wouldn’t be able to walk at all. It made him stronger. It kept the inevitable at bay a while longer.

Besides, it was an almost therapeutic experience. It wasn’t quite like a massage, certainly less intimate, but it spread the same pleasant purr over his form. It exposed the underbelly and folds to fresh air as every crevice on his body was rolled, rearranged, and breathed to life for at least an instant. All the smooth movements engaged every heavy morsel of his corpulence and his shifting weight became less of an anchor, and more like a free-moving sea.

It was its own kind of massage. A very heavy massage.

“Tree pose?” Gina asked, balancing on one leg with her arms out in a ‘Y’.

Richard never said no anymore. He did what he could as best as he could. Tree pose.

His love handles resisted his attempt to raise his leg, spilling over his thigh, thick as tar. Richard grimaced, wobbling, holding his broad heel just above his other pudgy cankle. He raised his arms, and like minute hands, they gradually ticked downwards. His gut pulled on his spine with a sickening force comparable to an undertow.

“Hold it...” Gina murmured. “You’re doing really well. Hold it!”

Richard blushed furiously and focused hard. /Hold it, hold it, hold it./

His knee gave way and he fell forward, coming to a kneel on his own underbelly. It stung. He slapped a paw to his face. At this rate, with all the heavy tumbles, he could see his boxers giving out. Even elastic could only take so much.

Gina quickly came to pat his shoulder and squeeze his arm. “You’ve done a lot today. Should we stop? You’re wheezing.”

Richard wiped his sweaty hair out of his face and waved his paw. Breaths screamed in and out, scaling his compressed windpipes. “What’s one more? Let’s do one more.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah!” Richard wheezed. He lifted his thumb to her and forced a smile over his panting. “For sure. One more.”

Gina got down on the carpet. “Alright. Well, how about downward dog? Since you’re halfway there already.”

Richard nodded and nodded and gulped for air. “Downward dog,” he repeated, unfolding his arms.

He put one handpaw on the floor and his breast billowed around it. Then, he carefully forced his other paw down, too, fighting against his own chest.

Richard straightened his legs and all his weight poured into his front, belly and arms, and plunged against the carpet. His muzzle disappeared into rolls of neck and peck and he held the pose for as long as he could hold his breath against the squish.

After short moments, he spilled outwards, flattening on the floor, lying unceremoniously on his stomach as he strained to catch his breath. His diaphragm took a punch every time he inhaled. Air simply was not reaching his lungs. The pressure was suffocating.

“No more, Rich.” Gina’s paws were on his face in an instant, stroking the curve of his muzzle. “We’re done. We are done.”

Richard squeaked meekly and tried to push himself up. His moobs had turned hostile, strangling him with his own fur and flesh. It took a few frantic attempts before he could roll himself over, muscles exhausted from the exercises he had endured.

Gina’s handpaws sunk into his back rolls as she tried to help out. It was cute and distracting, though didn’t weigh nearly enough to have any impact on moving him.

When he was upright and breathing again, he leaned back against the low mattress of his bed and threw his head over it to look up at the plastic stars. He took long and deep breaths in, and still, each seemed to spread a bruise across his chest. But, it was air.

Gina punched his arm and his whole form rippled.

Richard blinked at her. At the sight of tears, his heart swelled and he rolled to grasp her and pull her into him.

The fur of his upper belly dampened with her face, and quaked with her weak punches.

“Hey,” Richard breathed, wide-eyed, handpaws fumbling to stay upon her spindly form in his vastness. “Hey, Gina–hey–you’re okay, I’m okay. We’re okay! What are you hitting me for?”

Gina hit him once more, then withdrew both hands to clench her small, round ears and slither through her bright red hair.

Richard bit his lip, then panted heavily as he was reminded of his seemingly never-ending bout of breathlessness. He shook his head from the irritation, as if a few shakes would make his lungs respond better.

“I–I think I…” Richard pressed his chubby fingers against the small of her back. “I’m too heavy for yoga, Gina. I just… didn’t want to face it. I’m sorry I scared you.”

“You were turning blue, Rich!” Gina cried, lifting her face from his paunch to glare up at him. “You could have died.”

It certainly felt that way. Richard grimaced and took a deep breath before he answered. “Sorry. I’m sorry.”

She squeezed him tightly and moaned and kicked her footpaws against his lower belly in a way that was almost friendly, but still told she was upset. “You’re too–too selfless!”

“Selfless? I wouldn’t say–”

“You almost died because you didn’t want to say no to me, you absolutely gargantuan doofus.” Gina groaned dramatically and slammed her head into his breast. “I hate you.”

Richard bit back a smile, but within moments it escaped the bars of his teeth. He patted her on the head. “Yeah, okay, otter.”
She huffed and pushed herself up to frown down at him, balancing her handpaws on either moob. “Yeah, okay, wolf,” she mimicked. She stuck out her tongue, then glanced off to the window. “Do you feel like a burger?”

Richard poked his overflowing midsection and stirred a queasy rumble. “I feel like three.”

Gina slid off of him and took out her phone. “Five it is. I’ll be back in twenty, and you’d better be in the same spot, getting rested.” She started walking to the open doorway and threw a meaningful paw behind her as she went. “Seriously, Rich, I mean it. Don’t move a muscle. We’re going to have dinner right here.”

“Okay, Gina.” Richard sighed and relaxed into himself as she left the room. Twenty minutes was the perfect amount of time for a nap, he mused. With the overwhelming resolution to take the rest he deserved, Rich laid his clammy palms over his bulging upper belly and wriggled his form just enough to press his neckrolls comfortably against the mattress behind him. His head sunk into the warmth of his own neck like a luxury pillow, and in moments, Richard was dreaming of ice cream in the park, and Gina.