Comfy As Houses

Nathan stepped through the front door, jacket folded over his arm. "I'm home!"

No response.

"Hello?  Maria?" He strained his ears, hearing someone talking in the distance.  Passing through the entryway he entered the living room.  There, seated on the couch with a blanket wrapped around her, morosely watching the news, was Maria.  Approaching, he leaned in, gently resting a hand on her shoulder. "Hey.  Is everything okay?"

Maria let out an unhappy note.

"Bad day?"

She nodded.

"Want to talk about it?"

She shook her head.

"Okay." He stood up, nodding worriedly to himself. "Okay."


*****


With a grunt, Nathan picked up Maria's pump, carrying it out of the garage's back door.  Maria wasn't the sort of person to let things get her down, so something serious must have happened to leave her like this.  It was a little early to be ordering a pizza and picking up some ice cream, though there were still other things he could do.

He set down the pump, making sure to avoid dropping it on his bare feet and wondering if maybe he should have brough it outside before stripping.  Unrolling the cord, he plugged it into the outlet on the wall, checking to see that it was easily accessible and not stuck on anything before returning to the pump and opening a plastic container on the side.  Inside were several nozzles of various esoteric shapes and sizes, and he removed one, turning it over in his hands to ensure it was the correct one.  Unspooling the hose, he attached the nozzle, reaching behind him and, wincing, sliding it firmly into place. "Yep," he said to himself, "that definitely feels like the right one."

With a tap Nathan activated the pump, and he immediately felt air blow into him, swirling and eddying.  His belly bulged, his pecs rose, and his backside grew, giving him a pneumatic fatness that looked comically out of proportion with his thinner limbs.  As his back filled out, giving his torso more of a spherical look, he wondered if he didn't have the wrong nozzle after all.

As he was contemplating turning the pump off and double-checking, he felt a tension in his skin as the growth of his body suddenly stopped, the pressure rising inside of him.  A second later the pressure receded, and his limbs swelled out, gaining a thickness that wouldn't have looked out of place with his earlier look.  His body grew out a few more inches and again the pressure rose, then abated, his limbs widening, bulging out before tapering back in ever so slightly at the joints.

He now felt the air flowing throughout his entire figure, filling him evenly through some means he didn't understand and Maria never explained, short of "magic" and a mischievous smile.  He flexed his puffy fingers, testing their mobility as he rose higher on thick, trunk-like legs, watching his line of sight rise past the awning over the door and steadily creep towards the upper floor windows.

He glanced down to the side, checking to see that he was out of view of Maria, before peeking around the corner of the building.  It was times like this that he was grateful for living in a two-story home.  Even if the street was some distance away, the height of the building still kept goings-on obscured from private eyes, as well as... certain other things.

As Nathan's view rose over the roof he crouched down as far as he could go, pulling the pump's electric cord free from the wall before gently removing the nozzle and hose.  Kneeling, he leaned down and tapped on the living room window.

Maria did a slow-double take, gaping at him in stunned disbelief before throwing the blanket off and running out of view.  He leaned back and sat down on the ground as the door opened and she came out, slowing to a stop, now so comparatively small - or him being so comparatively large, he supposed - that she would only come up to below his knees.

Nathan cupped his hands, holding them near the ground. "Climb in."

Maria's expression brightened a bit as she scaled his fingers, taking a seat in his palms.  Nathan carefully leaned back, lying down on the ground as he held his hands near to his belly.  After he came to rest, Maria climbed out onto the air-filled curve of his stomach and laid down on top of him.

Nathan gently covered her with one of his hands. "Feel better?"

She snuggled up against him. "Much.  Thank you."