Padraig
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More Than Anything, Part 1
🕑 Added 2021-12-14 01:04:30 +0000 UTCThis story idea got the most votes in my December poll, so I'm posting Part 1 today. I'm still working on Parts 2 and 3, so if you have suggestions for where you want it to go, please leave them in the comments section.
It was 2:00pm on Christmas Day. The decorations were all out, the tree was up, and Alexa was playing a steady stream of holiday songs. Hale Hardy sighed, knowing what was about to happen.
Any minute now, his relatives would be arriving at his parent’s house, where he was currently living since he couldn’t yet afford a place of his own. Aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and even some family friends would be showing up for the annual Christmas dinner. The sigh wasn’t for most of them…Hale did enjoy being around his extended family, as they were generally kind and loving and supportive. The sigh was just for one: his cousin Kirk.
Hale actually had quite a few cousins, but most were still children ranging from ages 1 to 7 (thanks to his dad being much older than all of his siblings). But he did have one on his mother’s side who was the same age as him, 25, and that was the aforementioned Kirk. They had been close as kids, both had gone to the same high school, and they both came out when they were 18. But during college Kirk had gotten heavy into rugby and lifting weights, and Hale preferred more sedentary activities like reading and video games. They spent less time together, and more importantly, stopped looking so similar. Hale and Kirk still both had brown hair and brown eyes and were 6 feet tall, but Kirk turned into a 220-pound jock and Hale grew into into a 240-pound pear-shaped blob. His job as a McDonald’s Assistant Manager didn’t help…all those burgers ended up right on his belly and ass.
Even worse, egged on by his always-trying-to-be-macho teammates, Kirk had turned into a real jerk. He liked to make fun on anyone who didn’t conform to his version of masculinity, and Hale became an easy target. Anytime they were together at family functions, the fat cousin could count on some form of verbal torture from the fit cousin.
And today was going to be one of those days, which is why Hale sighed.
Soon, the relatives began arriving, and there were lots of friendly hellos, kisses, and hugs all around. Kirk showed up at 2:15 in his typical outfit – tank top and midthigh shorts that showed off his muscular physique – which was possible at Christmastime in always-warm Los Angeles, and eventually made his way over to his favorite target. “Hey, if it isn’t Fail Farty. How they hangin’, bud?” Kirk asked as he nut-tapped Hale.
Hale had been standing by the snack table and was about to stuff a handful of cookies into his mouth when Kirk showed up. He attempted to back up to avoid the blow, but ended up tripping on the table leg, dropping the cookies, and falling to the floor. This got a huge laugh from Kirk, of course, who pretended that he was not the cause of the misfortune. “You gotta be more careful, Fail. You might cause an earthquake when that giant butt of yours hits the ground.”
He wanted to respond with an insult, but Hale couldn’t think of one as he stared up at his very fit and very tan cousin, so he just played along as usual. “You’re right, Kirk.”
“I always am,” Kirk responded with a smile, not bothering to help Hale up. He then pointed to the broken cookies on the floor with his left hand and pulled up the bottom of his tank top with his right hand to reveal his shredded abs. “You know, if you keep eatin’ all the shit, you’re just gonna keep getting fatter. You’ll never have abs like these.”
Hale wished it had been colder and he could have worn a sweater to cover up, but the 90-degree weather had forced him to wear a t-shirt to keep from sweating all day. Unfortunately, the shirt he had picked was a little too small (it had fit until he gained so much weight recently), and the outline of his pudgy belly and saggy pecs were quite evident, especially once they started quivering as he stood up. “Maybe that’s not important to me, Kirk. Maybe I don’t want a perfect body.”
“Bullshit, man,” said Kirk, now flexing his softball-sized biceps right in front of his cousin’s chubby face. “Every guy wants a body like mine. Men crave big muscles. Especially gay men. We want them more than anything. It’s in our DNA. I know you secretly envy me, Fail, just like every other fatty and wimp around. Can you honestly say you would rather look like you instead of me?”
“Um, I guess not.” It was true; Hale would have given anything at that moment to look as good as his cousin. Even though he was rotten on the inside, Kirk’s outside positively glowed with its perfectly sculpted muscles.
“Exactly. This body has gotten me everything I need…a great job, great friends, and sex with 5 different studs this week. How many times has your fat ass scored lately?” asked Kirk.
Hale hung his head. “Well…not at all.”
Kirk laughed and pulled up the bottom of Hale’s shirt, just as he did his own a few moments earlier, and grabbed a handful of the jiggly flab resting there. “It’s probably because the guys can’t find your cock under all this lard.”
Thankfully, Kirk didn’t wait around any longer, as he got pulled into a conversation with another set of relatives. Hale, frustrated at not knowing how to stand up to his cousin (or not having the guts to just do so), decided he was going to head outside away from everyone for some alone time. He grabbed two more cookies from the table, waddled to the front door, and opened it, only to find his neighbor, Don, standing on the porch.
“Um, hi. Merry Christmas, Don. Is our party bothering you?”
“Merry Christmas, Hale, and no, you’re not bothering us. The reason I came over here is because I found this strange object out on the sidewalk, and I thought it might be yours. Or one of your relatives.”
Don showed Hale the item he had found. It looked like a small thin vase, was jade in color, and although it appeared like it might be delicate, it was rather rigid and sturdy when held. The top (or perhaps the bottom) was bejeweled and button-shaped, and although it looked like a lid or a stopper, Don said had been unable to remove it to open the item.
"Curious little thing, ain't it?" asked Don. "Do you know what it is?"
Hale looked over the vase-like object and shook his head. "No, I have seen it before. But I’ll ask around to see if it belongs to one of my family members.”
Don thanked Hale, and then headed back home. Hale went back inside and was going to start asking everyone, but he saw Kirk again and went to his room for a while instead. He set the object down on his bed and soon forgot about it.
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Thankfully, the family get-together ended a few hours later and Hale managed to avoid Kirk the rest of the time. He helped his parents to clean up the house, and then retreated back to his bedroom. He didn’t see the vase he had put on the bed earlier, and when he flopped down from exhaustion, it was crushed under the weight of his belly.
“Fuck,” Hale said as he remembered the vase. He rolled over to see it was broken in several pieces and emitting a wisp of smoke. The smoke swirled up into the air, hovered over the bed for a few seconds, and then formed an image of a powerful-looking man…not solid, more like a reflection.
Hale heard a voice say, "Thank you for releasing me. What is your command?"
He wasn't sure how to respond, so he just stared at the man in the image for about 10 seconds before saying anything. "Um, are you asking if I want to make a wish?"
"No, I do not have exactly that kind of power. My command must take the form of a curse, not a wish. Tell me who you would like to curse, and to which type of curse you would like to subject them."
Hale was very confused, thinking it might be some sort of weird prank he had stumbled into. "Um, that's OK, I don't need to curse anybody today, mister."
Suddenly, Hale began to feel pain throbbing across his chest and radiating into his flabby arms. "Silly mortal," said the image. "You either must curse someone right now, or you will suffer the consequences."
"Consequences?" asked Hale, as his whole body started to shake. "Like this pain?"
The man shook his head. "Much worse."
Hale was trying to think of what to say when he heard recalled what Kirk had said to him earlier in the day: “Men crave big muscles. Especially gay men. We want them more than anything.”
The pain began to grow inside of Hale and the shaking became much worse, as if he was being torn apart from the inside. He then spoke to the mysterious image, "OK, I curse Kirk...and I want to always be more muscular and stronger than him, no matter how big he gets."
The apparition nodded. "So you have spoken, so it shall be done!"
And then, just as quickly as he appeared, the mysterious man dissolved back into a few wisps of smoke, and then floated away
Hale sat on his bed stunned, wondering what would happen next.
