Six months in space didn’t seem like a particularly long voyage, really.
Once upon a time such a voyage could’ve taken years – a cross-system haul from Mars to the outer Kuiper, delivering heavy equipment and open-vacuum lubricants to a mining installation on Makemake – but new realspace drive tech made it trivial, if… boring.
So, as Cai yawned, reclining on a few of the crates as dockside drones loaded the rest, they were surprised to find someone else was walking over.
“Oh! Hey West,” Cai offered, sitting up a little.
“Hey!” West replied, the demon smirking about… something. Pre-voyage jitters, maybe? “I took the liberty of picking up some replacement rations here in New Paris, something about being “better suited for deep space nutrition”, whatever that means.”
“…Nutrient paste?”
“Nah, real stuff! Well. Tube stuff, but not paste, I think.”
On cue, the demon tugged a small tube of the stuff out of their pocket, offering it. Garishly yellow and white, the tube was around the size of a standard ration – and obnoxiously loud visually, with “Upsize Travel Ration” printed in huge red letters. The flavor was, apparently, “Turkey Dinner.”
Hm.
It…
The bunny’s eyes lit up as they squeezed some into their mouth, wiggling a little in place. It was incredible!
“Good find!” Cai cheerily exclaimed through a mouth full of ration, hopping up and grabbing a box.
“Mind helping me load? And bring those, too – might have to find extra room, for them…”
West and Cai settled in easily enough, and soon the ship was underway. The days passed slowly as the cargo ship crawled out of Martian space into the open system, but Cai began to notice… a problem.
West had been spending much, much more time around them than usual – and, as the bunny realized for the first time their flight suit was beginning to get a bit snug, fluffy tummy peeking out ever so slightly over the waistband.
“Hey, uh,” Cai mentioned to West in the ship’s mess one day, sitting their empty ration tube down. “Where did you get these, again…?”
“Dock quartermaster,” West replied quickly, giving the bunny’s tummy a pat. Or two.
“Which one? I think they might be a bit… uh, bad for me?”
For emphasis, Cai hefted their belly slightly, visibly a bit bigger than ever before. Even Cai’s face was softer, rounder, clearly at the very least well-fed.
“Oh, nonsense. It’s all the intake in zero-g, it’ll burn off when we’re done.” West grinned, walking out of the room… after, naturally, leaving a few more on the counter. For later, of course.
By the third month, the freighter had arrived at Makemake, dropping the supplies off – and embarrassing Cai as they found they didn’t.. quite fit in the usual crawlspaces they’d started the voyage off frequenting, working on engine conduits and power wires. West, helpfully, offered to take on some of the work for them – giving their tummy a rub, off-handedly mentioning they’d already prepped a few rations, why not have some?
Cai had agreed – even a little work had been working up appetites, lately.
Soon enough, they’d outgrown their poor flight suit despite trying to cut back – the rations apparently having been swapped out for even richer, larger-portioned versions! When had West even brought those aboard? What happened to their original journey supplies?
Still, Cai had bigger clothes – backups for the stranger situations they’d encountered in their many voyages across the stars, which… this was beginning to count as.
“West,” Cai asked, squeezing between two of the chairs in the ship’s lounge one evening on the return journey, plopping down on a couch next to West with a quiet groan. “I… think I need to go back to the old rations. Something’s wrong with those.”
“Wrong?” West asked absently, barely looking up from their tablet.
“They’re making me…” Cai prodded their tummy. “Big.”
“Well, yes,” The demon shrugged. “I know.”
“You… know?” The bunny frowned.
“Yes?”
“…You did this on purpose.”
West grinned, sliding down the couch slightly and leaning over to lay on the bunny. “Maybe.”
Grumpy, the bunny stood up, going off to find something to do – and the rest of the trip passed relatively quickly, the freighter eventually returning to Mars in the sixth month, empty and awaiting a hefty payout.
Unfortunately, hefty was the word of choice for Cai, as well – nearly double West’s weight, and twice as wide. As the ship touched down, Cai began to disembark – their tummy wedging itself firmly into the narrow gangway door just as West rounded the corner, flushing a bright red.
The bunny sighed, holding up a paw.
“Next time I get the supplies, okay?”