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Filling the Role - Part 2

Stepping out of the car, Benjamin noted how it seemed to be riding rather low to the ground as of late. He made a mental note to check on the suspension later to ensure nothing was amiss. Or was it the shocks he needed to look at? The rabbit kicked the front driver-side tire while he pondered this riddle, then he made a mental note to take his car into the shop to have it looked at.

"Are you ready to steal the spotlight, Sir?" Tim inquired, as he pulled out a small handbag from the trunk of the car.

Benjamin smiled inwardly. He wasn't sure when it had started, maybe around pound number two hundred and twenty five, but the fox had taken to calling him 'Sir,' whenever possible, sometimes even in public. "I don't know, this costume isn't very flashy, if you catch my meaning."

"Oh, hush! You look amazing! And you've definitely committed to the character." Tim patted the brown rabbit's ample belly, which was now so large that the buttons on the vest appeared to strain every-so-slightly around his thickest part.

Still a little self-conscious, Benjamin felt over his enlarged frame and recalled over the past month every pound he had purposefully gained in an effort to bring to life the image his partner had for him. He was pushing about two-forty-six as of this evening, and that scrumptious cinnamon roll Tim had practically force-fed him before the party was sure to bring it up a little more.

Sensing his partner's unease, Tim reached up and adjusted the red bow tie around the rabbit's neck, seeming to know that this somehow gave Benjamin more confidence. "Worry not, Sir, we'll have the best couple's costume at the party." Then he rose up and gave him a little kiss on the cheek.

Benjamin blushed slightly. "Careful, or you'll rub off the makeup."

The fox laughed lightly. "Don't worry, you still look like a proper and dignified gentleman."

The rabbit would never verbally admit this, but he quite enjoyed the gray dye Tim had added to his muzzle, chin, and temples. It definitely seemed to add a few years to him, and when he saw himself fully dressed up for tonight's Halloween party, part of him wished he could look like this every day. But, gathering up the confidence that the role commanded, Benjamin straightened up, adjusted the gold-rimmed glasses seated on the bridge of his muzzle, then grabbed each side of his unbuttoned tweed jacket and pulled them downward so there were no wrinkles, and with the best diction he could muster, simply answered "Quite."

"Mmmm, save some of that for the party, big boy!" The fox swished his tail and kissed him full on the mouth.

He maintained his composure, though he wanted to laugh at how a simple adjustment in his tone always seemed to excite his fox.

"Oh, before we head in..." Tim rummaged around in his bag for a moment, then pulled out a lovely chestnut colored straight-stemmed billiard pipe, and popped it into the rabbit's muzzle.

Benjamin closed his teeth so that it was firmly seated in his jaw, and sticking straight out to the side, and grinned slyly. He wasn't sure, but he thought he saw the fox get a little wobbly in the legs.

"Perfect!" Was all the fox was able to say. Then he eagerly gathered up his bag and bounded off to the front door of the house.

Preferring to keep in character, Benjamin simply strolled to the front door. Halfway up the driveway, he thought to himself, 'This is going to be a fun night.'

They could hear a ruckus behind the door as they waited for someone to come and let them in. "Maybe you should knock again?" Tim offered to his boyfriend.

Benjamin cocked his head slightly and looked down towards Tim. "Patience, my dear fox. Someone will be along shorty, I'm sure." He then returned to a more dignified posture, and hoped that this was having the desired effect on his boyfriend. He got his answer as Tim made an audible whine. It was his 'come and get me' whine, that mostly meant he wanted the rabbit to follow him to their bedroom. But Benjamin knew better than to react, and patiently stood there, as he thought a gentleman likely would, waiting for the door to open. He smiled slightly around the pipe clenched in the corner of his mouth as the front door was opened just a few moments later.

"Happy Halloween!" Came a boisterous roar from the resident lion, Charley, as he opened the door. "I was wondering where..." The lion stopped mid-sentence as he looked Benjamin up and down, obviously taking in his new look. "Wow! Domestic life has been kind to you, Benny!" The lion roared again, but this time with laughter, as he poked playfully at the rabbit's well-rounded belly.

Benjamin did his best not to blush and to stay in character. "Mm, yes, it would seem that I have put on a few pounds. But my dear fox does seem to enjoy it, don't you dear?"

They both looked at Tim and the fox became uncharacteristically shy, hugging his bag to his chest and visibly blushing. "What can I say? I love a man with a little meat on him."

Charley grinned wide, and then struck a pose reminiscent of an ancient Greek athlete that had been immortalized in stone. His muscled body was clearly on display, and the short toga he was wearing for his costume was obviously chosen so that the lion could show off his impressive form. "Don't you mean this kind of meat?" Charley teased.

Tim giggled and then snuggled up to Benjamin. "Very nice, Charley. But I think I'll keep my chubby bunny, here. Besides, yours and my costumes don't match."

The lion returned to standing and stepped aside so that the pair could enter. "Speaking of which, where is your costume?"

Benjamin let Tim enter first, then followed suit and closed the door behind him. "I have been wondering the same thing for a few weeks now." The rabbit spoke loudly so that the pair could hear him over the general din of the party.

Tim smiled and replied. "You'll see!" He looked around the home quickly. "Do you have a place for me to change?" He asked Charley.

"Down the stairs to the basement, first door on the right." The lion instructed.

Tim nodded his understanding, then turning quickly to his rabbit and winked. "I'll be back in a minute, Sir!" Then the fox quickly entered the party, making his way to the stairs after stopping here and there to briefly visit with a friend or two.

Charley turned back to to Benjamin, and the rabbit had a feeling he was going to get teased a bit more for the weight he'd put on over the past month. But, the lion gently prodded the rabbit's tweed-covered belly, and nodded in approval. "You know, Tim is right, you don't look half bad with this." Charley stopped his feeling and smiled. "Though maybe it's just the outfit that sells it, eh?"

Benjamin removed the pipe from his muzzle and held it a short distance away from himself at chest height. "Clothes do make the man, as they say."

The lion was visibly amused and gave a hearty laugh. "Too true! Too true!" He gave his friend a pat on the back and nodded towards the crowd. "Go enjoy the party, my good gentleman."

Benjamin weaved through the crowd, assessing the smaller groups of people as they visited with each other, and looking for a familiar face. He wasn't quite the social butterfly that Tim was, but he could hold his own in a social setting if he knew a person or two in a group. As he visited and chatted, he did his best to remain dignified, and thus in character. Usually standing and listening to others talk while he held onto the bowl of the pipe resting in his muzzle. Halfway through a colorful joke a peacock was telling, Benjamin felt a slight tug on the back of his tweed jacket. He turned around expecting to find a friend seeking his attention, but instead was greeted by his fox, who had finally revealed his costume for the year.

"So, what do you think, Professor?" Time blushed cutely as he stood there in an English schoolboy uniform, with knee-high socks and short gray shorts, matching gray jacket and vest, with a blue and gold stripped neck tie hidden mostly under the vest, and topped of with a gray and blue schoolboy cap.

Benjamin was a bit stunned, though he wasn't sure why. He knew Tim usually went all-out for his Halloween costumes, and this year was no exception. Maybe it was because he'd never seen his fox in a role like this. Or maybe it was that the nature of his own costume had now become clear to him, and he was feeling foolish for not guessing at it sooner. Still, he should definitely keep up appearances. "Why, Timmy, I'm glad you showed up. We need to discuss your performance on this last exam."

The fox simply grinned and hugged Benjamin around his ample waist.

The rabbit leaned down and stage whispered. "We've talked about this, young man, no displays of affection around others." Then he stood back upright and made a mock show of someone who was trying, poorly, to keep a secret.

"Come on, Professor, let's go and mingle!" Tim tugged at the rabbit's arm, indicating the direction he wanted to go.

Sighing heavily, and hoping he was selling the role of an adult that is humoring a young child, Benjamin followed along. "If we must."

Through the rest of the party, Benjamin and Tim remained close by each other so that they could help sell their couples costume. Often Benjamin would stand close by his schoolboy and rest a hand paternally on the fox's shoulder. When he'd do this, he was always rewarded by Tim closing the distance between their bodies so that the fox was pressing up against him. This made the rabbit smile around his pipe, and he'd gently squeeze his boyfriend's shoulder in response.

In the times where they would split up, Benjamin often found himself looking across the party for his pupil, making sure the fox was alright. The rabbit knew this was silly, but something about their respective outfits made him feel like he should be keeping a close eye on Tim. When he'd spot him, Benjamin would smile warmly and rest his hands on his chubby belly, often intertwining his fingers, and then return his attention back to the person he had been talking to.

Near the peak of the celebration, Charley stood up on a chair near the end of the large family room where most of the people had gathered, and cleared his throat. "Alright, everyone, the moment you have been waiting for is finally here! It's time for the costume contest!"

Benjamin looked over the crowd again, searching for his boyfriend, and was surprised as a pair of black, furry hands hugged him around the waist. "Ah, there you are, Timmy!" The rabbit chuckled, and simply put his own brown furry hands over his boyfriend's.

The pair stood there and listed to the awards as they were handed out, though Tim affectionately rubbed the rabbit's belly and played gently with the strained buttons on his tweed vest.

For cutest costume, Benjamin half-expected Tim to be called up for his schoolboy outfit, since the fox looked absolutely adorable. But it went to a cat in a pink ballerina outfit, instead, and the rabbit clapped politely as the feline made off with the plastic trophy.

"Scariest costume goes to..." a slight pause for theatrics and suspense, "Gerald, for his Big Baby costume!" A lumbering bear with a belly that put Benjamin's to shame, waddled up to the front of the crowd wearing nothing but a large cloth diaper and bonnet and claimed the trophy. The crowd laughed as he held it high in the air in triumph, and then waddled off to the side of the room so that the event could progress.

"Next, we have best couples, slash, group costume." Not pausing too long, Charley looked at his sheet of paper for the winner. Benjamin felt Tim squeeze his belly tightly, obviously anxious to win this award. The rabbit chuckled and reached around to pat the fox on top of his head, liking the feel of the gray and blue cap situated there. "The winners are Beth, Merry, and Tom, for their Macbeth witches group costume!" A trio of witches made their way to the front of the party, and Benjamin had to admit that they were impressively done up. He couldn't distinguish the male from the two females, until one of the witches raised the trophy into the air and shouted, in a very deep baritone voice, "It was worth it!"

The crowd clapped their approval, though Benjamin felt a little saddened by the results. He looked down at his impressive belly hanging over his tweed trousers, and wondered inwardly if gaining all this weight had been worth it.

Feeling a small paw slide into his own hand, the rabbit turned and found his fox smiling slyly at him, a look in his eyes that said 'follow me.' Tim led him through the mass of people to the stairway that led down to the basement.

As they descended, the fox spoke quietly, yet clearly. "I think we should have won best couple's costume, or you at least should have won best costume."

The rabbit gave his boyfriend's hand a small squeeze. "I don't know, you look quite adorable in that uniform."

Stopping in front of a partially closed door, Tim turned to his partner and started tracing a black-furred finger around the rabbit's pudgy abdomen. "Well, I still think you deserve a reward, Professor. After all, you did work very hard to pull this outfit off."

Smiling once more around his pipe, Benjamin looked down at his schoolboy and gently took his fox's fuzzy white chin in his hand. "I didn't have to work as hard as you think." He winked, and then added, "What kind of reward did you have in mind, son?" At this he moved his thumb up to the fox's lips and traced around them lightly.

Blushing horribly, Tim quickly ducked into the dark room and came back with his bag. Almost quivering with excitement, the normally cool fox fumbled with a small sign that he held up to the rabbit. Tim was grinning so widely that all his shiny, white teeth were visible.

Chuckling, Benjamin took the sign and remarked to the excited fox. "My my, you are quite prepared." He patted the top of the fox's schoolboy cap. "Are you sure you shouldn't have been a boyscout?"

Slowly backing into the dark room, Tim giggled. "Well, I have already been thinking about costumes for next year."

Benjamin hung the sign on the doorknob, and then posed so that one paw was grabbing his pipe as it rested in his muzzle, and the other paw hugged the underside of his gut. "Now then, Timmy, let's discuss the proper use of dangling participles."

Tim gave his 'come and get me whine,' and Benjamin was inclined to do just that. He closed the door behind him, one hand still gently caressing his own chubby belly in the dark, and decided that gaining this weight had definitely been worth it.

A small click indicated that the door had been locked, but it was doubtful that anyone would bother them. After all, the sign read "Private Tutoring In Progress," and education is something to be taken very seriously.