Elevators can be a bit small. That won't stop a rather pudgy dragon from trying to squeeze in with his friend, but they might be regretting their choice when the overweight dragon puts the elevator over-weight-limit.

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The number lit up at the top of the elevator door indicated that it was stopped at the second floor.

It was not.

With a growl, the slender, dark gray dragon jabbed his finger against the glowing button again. The elevator had paused somewhere between the first and second floor, opening to neither. Rangavar flexed his black claws, readjusting the angle at which he insistently pushed the plastic circle.

“How’s that working for you?” asked the much taller, pale-red dragon watching.

Rangavar drew in a long breath through his nose, and sighed. “Let’s try your much better idea then, Arro.”

Arro put up his paws. “I mean, I’m just saying, we should wait for someone to come help.” He looked at the panel of buttons, including the emergency light that they’d already pressed glowing red at the bottom. “You know if we break anything, they’ll blame us for the elevator stopping.”

That could very well be true. Still, Rangavar had a feeling they might be blamed anyway. Although he wouldn’t point it out to the other dragon, they’d somewhat ignored the weight-limit warning stamped into the metal. Or, well, blatantly ignored.

Arro was rather on the large size. In addition to being tall, he was also abundantly wide, with a pudgy, overhanging gut that rested against his thighs even when standing. His sides were covered in sprawling rolls that eventually blended into his chunky hips and thighs, sturdy but soft with lard. Even his pale wings and chubby tail were thick with adipose. The hefty dragon was also fairly strong, with thick arms and broad shoulders, but any muscle definition he might have had was swaddled in soft, doughy blubber.

Despite the obvious way that Arro filled the elevator after checking into the hotel, Rangavar had simply squeezed in with him. The building was old, and the elevator was small; in hindsight, it was probably obvious that it wouldn’t hold as much weight as something newer. Other modern elevators tended to be fine for multiple overweight occupants, but after the squealing and grinding noises of this one, it had unfortunately drawn to a stop.

“I feel like we’ve been waiting forever.” Rangavar glared at the panel of buttons. “It’s been at least ten minutes since pressing the emergency button. Doesn’t the hotel have any staff to send?”

“It is the middle of the night,” Arro pointed out. “And they seemed pretty annoyed that we showed up for an emergency stay when our flight got delayed. They’re probably not in a hurry.”

It was a good point. It also made sense that no one else would need the elevator either at this time of night, meaning no complaints, meaning no one had to fix it very urgently. Rangavar wanted to bang on head on the wall. To do so, he would have had to back up though, which was difficult with Arro’s bulk filling the space. A step back would have Rangavar sinking into the soft lard of Arro’s front side.

He looked up and down the seam of the closed doors, wondering if they could simply force them apart. Arro’s claws were too thick, but his own were much smaller.

“Don’t most old elevators usually have a removable panel on top?” the larger dragon suddenly interrupted his thoughts. “Maybe we could climb out through there.”

Rangavar finally, carefully turned to look at him, although in the confined space, the shorter dragon found himself face-to-face with the pillowy rolls of Arro’s chest. He glanced at the ceiling over Arro’s head, his eyes landing on what did appear to be a square outline. It was notably small, however. “I’m not sure…” Rangavar felt warm suddenly as he stumbled over how to point out the problem.

Fortunately, Arro interrupted again. He sighed. “I know, I’m a little big. Or, uh, a lot big.”

“Maybe I can get out through there and demand the front desk come back to fix this,” Rangavar suggested.

“Didn’t we already determine it’s more than likely there’s no one around?” Arro steepled his pudgy fingers under his chin, thinking. Both dragons knew the alternative would be having Arro wait until morning, which neither of them wanted. The more rotund dragon finally reached up and shoved the panel aside, fortunately with little effort. The square hole didn’t look any bigger than they’d imagined.

Rangavar stared doubtfully. “I guess if you push me up there, I can go through and pull—wait, what are you doing?” He watched in alarm as Arro slipped his arms through, getting ready to push his own body upward. The large dragon’s powerful arms worked to lift him, the doughy flab under each bicep flattening against the surface. The lower half of Arro’s tubby body hung beneath the opening as he squeezed himself into it, the edges of the square slowly tightening around the soft adipose on his chest. He kicked several times against nothing, although Rangavar was forced to flatten himself to one of the walls to stay out of the way. The shifting of Arro’s body did help him pull himself up slightly more, squeezing rolls of pudge up to the other side. Eventually, though, his momentum slowed, and the extra thrashing became useless. When Arro heaved with his arms on the top of the elevator, his heavy paunch continuously flattened against the opening, pulling him back after each tug.

Rangavar crossed his arms. “Now what?” He couldn’t reach the ceiling on his own like Arro, but he’d still been sort of hoping to go first. He could have tried pulling on the large dragon to help him up. Or, at worst, he would have been free to look for help. Now, with Arro plugging the opening like a cork, it was no longer a means of escape.

He heard embarrassment creep into the other dragon’s voice. “I… I hoped that would work.”

Rangavar slapped his forehead. He would have punched the elevator panel, except for Arro’s reminder about breaking it.

The other dragon suddenly spoke. “Can you hold my feet?” His voice sounded echo-y in the empty elevator shaft. “Maybe if you help push, I can squirm out?”

Looking at the lower half of Arro’s hanging potbelly, Rangavar had his doubts, but it was true they were out of ideas. “I guess.” He went to the area beneath Arro’s feet and guided them to his shoulders. Usually the full, crushing force of Arro’s weight would have probably been too much, but with Arro suspended by the ceiling, a lot of his weight was resting over the square hole to hold him up. It also brought the realization that Arro couldn’t have squeezed his pudge backward into the elevator even if he’d tried.

“Ready?” Rangavar strained as Arro pushed down without giving an answer. Rangavar heard him grunt as he worked his powerful arms to shove against the other side of the opening, while Rangavar also began to push up from below. At first, nothing much happened, as Arro’s chub bounced around without moving forward or back. Then, the tiniest budge happened after a particularly strong shove. The red dragon’s drooping belly continued to squish up around the edges and obscure it from view, but more was definitely pulled through as the pushing and shoving continued. Arro squirmed harder, swinging his flab with each twist and turn. Rangavar glanced up to see the way the largest roll of his belly flattened against the ceiling, refusing to pass through. They’d made good progress, but were at the hardest part. Rangavar gave another powerful shove just as Arro pushed at the edges of the opening again, buried somewhere beneath all his blubber, but they finally had to take a break.

“How’s it going up there?” Rangavar panted.

“The weather’s great.”

“Ha.” Rangavar rolled his eyes. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired,” Arro admitted.

“Me too.” Rangavar knew it was too late to back out, though. Even if someone did check the elevator, at this point, Arro was too stuck to move back inside; they could only push him the rest of the way up, or he’d be a permanent ceiling decoration.

“Once I’m up here, I can reach down and pull you out,” Arro said. Probably to fill the silence while they rested. “And then we can force the doors to the second floor open, and escape that way.”

Rangavar snorted. “If we both bounce really hard at the same time, we can reach the first floor instead.”

“Shut up, Rangavar.” He could picture the hefty dragon rolling his eyes. “We’ll get out of here.”

Rangavar tried not to feel discouraged, but Arro wasn’t the one staring at the largest part of his midsection plugging the opening. The layers of blubber hanging on this side of the square, waiting to be squeezed through a space half its size, were daunting. He suddenly reached up to push his paws into the underside of the overhang, lifting it slightly, feeling the poundage piling on his arms. The sudden touch made Arro jolt and kick.

“Ow!”

“That took me by surprise,” Arro apologized. Well, it wasn’t really an apology, but Rangavar did accept that it was his own fault for startling him. The much larger dragon swung his feet uselessly a few times. “Ready to get back to pushing?”

They started up again. This time, Rangavar tried supplementing the shoves by pressing his paws into the overhang while he could reach. The layers of pudge drooped around his more slender paws, encompassing them, weighing down on them with a lifetime of calories and binging. It was another good while before Arro managed to slide upward another inch; it took them almost by surprise. They’d pretty much given up expecting any progress.

“Keep doing… whatever you just did,” Rangavar grunted as he gave another push to the underside of Arro’s belly. He heard Arro grunt a reply, but couldn’t make it out over the sound of his own panting. He shoved again, feeling encouraged when more of Arro’s chub seemed to slide through. Then, the ceiling made a groaning noise. That didn’t sound good.

Above, Arro cleared his throat. “Um, I’m not sure that these narrow steel brackets and thin ceiling tiles are going to hold—“

He was suddenly cut off as a section of the ceiling crumbled around him and he came crashing back down. Rangavar let out a brief yelp as Arro smashed into him, the blubber fully encompassing his body for a moment in scaly dragon-pudge. It was soft but heavy, effectively knocking the breath out of him and coating him in warm, squishy layers. It only lasted a moment, though, as he felt the elevator lurch, and with several snapping sounds, plunge downward. He and Arro were thrown up into the air briefly, tumbling before crashing back down. Fortunately, Rangavar was on top this time, or he was certain he wouldn’t have survived the larger dragon’s weight. Instead, the tubby dragon was padded enough to act like a soft bed when he landed clumsily on his front side, Rangavar bouncing off his jiggling rolls.

Both dragons lay still for a moment, catching their breath as the shock wore off. The elevator around them didn’t give any indication of what happened, except for pieces of ceiling dust scattered around. Finally, Arro groaned, trying to roll over in the confined space.

Rangavar sat up and rubbed his head, wincing. “You know, I said if we bounced hard enough, we’d reach the first floor.”

The two dragons startled as they suddenly heard knocking outside the elevator door. “Hello?” A moment later, what looked like a crowbar appeared through the tightly squeezed doors to pry them open from outside. A confused hotel employee stood there holding it, looking in at the mess around the duo on the floor. “What are you doing in here?”

“The elevator was stuck,” Arro said vaguely, sitting up straight and refusing to react as dust and debris slid off his wobbling tum. Rangavar pushed himself to his feet, although he had nothing to say himself.

The employee frowned, looking up at the ceiling—or what was left of it—and then back at the pair in the elevator. “I’m going to ask you two to leave,” he said, less confused and more annoyed this time.

Quietly, Arro and Rangavar nodded. Rangavar moved to go out through the pried opening of the elevator doors, easily passing through, although Arro had to exit a moment later and found the experience less simple. He turned to the side, his layers of pudge squishing up against the inside of the half-closed door, and he sucked in to squeeze the rest of the way. It took another few shoves, but the remainder of his pudge finally spilled out into the hallway, his chunky rolls jiggling at the force of plowing through. The two dragons didn’t look back as they meekly felt the employee’s scowling glare follow them down the hall.

“Well, that could have gone better,” Rangavar sighed when they finally exited the lobby into the cool night air. “I have no idea where we’re going to go now.”

“We’ll look for a different hotel.” Arro threw one of his large, chubby arms around Rangavar’s shoulder. “Maybe one with only one floor this time.”