FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A persistent beeping blared through the room as the alarm clock went off. Refusing to wake up just yet, Kazan rolled over and turned his back to the noise, covering his large ears and wrapping himself tighter in his blanket. It took a few seconds, but one of the pups eventually began to stir.

Monday morning; their winter recess had finally come to an end. As the young canines slumbered in their cozy beds, their plump middles could be seen slowly rising and falling beneath their sheets. Over three weeks had passed since the cubs began their daily, almost constant, binging and it definitely started to show as their once-trim builds had expanded and softened up with a more-than-modest layer of fat: their bellies swelled out into bulging masses of fur and flesh; their cheeks puffed out like those of squirrels storing nuts; and even their limbs bloated out to the point their arms were as wide as their thighs used to be, which were now thick enough to gently press against each other as they slept.

Deklan slowly woke and sat up in his bed, squinting at the bright light coming in through the window. Glancing down, he gave his generous paunch a light pat and hopped out of bed with a thump before walking over to silence the alarm. "Kaz, get up... We have to go to school..." he mumbled as he got dressed.

He didn't get a response.

"Come on, we're gonna be late," he tried waking his brother again while struggling to button his pants around his oversized waist.

Kazan grumbled back incoherently, still refusing to budge, even as he heard the culpeo rummaging through drawers. Sighing, Deklan approached the sleeping wolf and grinned to himself as a thought popped into his head. He pressed a paw into the wolf's protruding midsection and gave it a rough shake, jostling it around under the blanket. Instead of waking up, though, Kazan gave a low murr as his belly's jiggling came to a halt. Slowly blinking his eyes open, he sleepily groaned, "Do it again..."

Smirking, the culpeo playfully smacked his older brother's flabby chest, "Get up!"

"Okay, okay!" Kazan cried, now wide-awake from the assault as Deklan left for the bathroom. Sitting up, he felt a few of his rolls bunch up and reform into a single larger one. He looked down with a smile and gave it an affectionate squeeze, reveling in the soft sensation before getting out of bed. He stumbled his way around the room and dressed himself in some of the new clothes he got for Christmas. Like his brother, Kazan had to fight in order to button his pants as well. Inspecting himself in the full-length mirror, the wolf smiled as his tummy was just hanging over his jeans and peeking out from under his t-shirt. Satisfied, he pulled a sweater over the exposed fluff and went to join Deklan.

Entering the bathroom, the wolf found the culpeo standing on the scale, leaning forward over his sagging paunch in an attempt to read the numbers. "What's it say?" Kazan asked curiously.

"Uh... Hold on, it keeps moving..."Deklan waited to get a stable reading. "121!" he exclaimed, hopping off the scale, "That's almost twenty pounds since we started!"

"Oh, let me see!" the wolf said giddily, wagging his tail as he mounted the scale. The dial spun around and teetered back and forth before it finally settled. "94!"

"Ha! I'm still bigger than you!"Deklan teased, slapping his gut to prove his point.

"Of course you're still bigger than me!" Kazan laughed, poking a claw into the culpeo's belly button hanging out of his shirt, "Just look at yourself!"

Deklan giggled and turned to face himself in the mirror. Being both shorter _and_heavier than Kazan, his stout frame only accentuated the additional weight he had over his brother. While the wolf's belly domed over his snug waistband in a soft swell, the culpeo's paunch actually sagged over his, covering his whole front with an overhang reaching halfway down his zipper and threatening to overtake his view of his thick thighs. Both the cubs'chests had grown pudgy and squishy, the fluffy mounds easily visible under their shirts. While Kazan didn't yet have much in terms of weight at his sides, Deklan's love handles spilled over his waistband enough that the rolls of pudge extended all the way around to his back, where it only drew more attention to his larger rump. He'd have to find something else to cover himself with if he wanted to hide his growth from others.

Slipping into a sweater that barely fit him, the culpeo opened his mouth to comment but was abruptly interrupted by their mother's hollering, "Kazan! Deklan! Hurry up! You're going to be late for school!"

Hearing this, the pups rushed to finish their morning routines, grabbed their backpacks, and bounded to the kitchen. With only a few minutes for breakfast, they quickly crammed what food they could into their muzzles. Two fried eggs, some hash browns, and a few strips of bacon disappeared down each of their greedy gullets before getting chased down by a glass of milk. After collecting their lunch money and giving their parents a hasty farewell, they donned their winter gear and ran outside to the bus stop, their chunky bodies bouncing up and down the whole way.

It was snowing again; winter was in full swing and only seemed to grow colder as it ran its course. Fortunately for the young canines, the result of their constant snacking helped keep them warm while they waited in the cold with a few other kids. As the school bus pulled up to the curb, Kazan couldn't help but notice that the others seemed just as thickly-padded as Deklan and he were. Unlike them, though, it was because the rest of the cubs were all wearing several layers of clothing to stay warm. While everyone else had at least three or four layers, Kazan and Deklan found that they only needed two, thanks to the natural insulation their newfound fat provided them. The wolf grinned at the observation as he stepped onto the bus and sat by his brother, their wide rears occupying an entire bench meant for three.

---

Kazan and Deklan got to class a bit early, as they usually did. Dropping their backpacks off by their desks, they briefly greeted the raccoon at the front of the room and joined a few of their classmates in sharing their holiday antics. Obviously, the brothers agreed beforehand not to bring unnecessary attention to their binging, so they just talked about their new video games instead. A few minutes of excited chattering passed before the bell rang.

"Welcome back, class!"the raccoon announced as his students settled down, "I hope you all had a wonderful break!"

Kazan and Deklan squeezed into their seats as their teacher droned on, their recent weight gain making their desks far more uncomfortable than they remembered. Sitting down and ignoring the increasingly present creaking in whatever they sat on, they couldn't help shifting around awkwardly in the school's miniscule seating accommodations as their enlarged backsides barely fit in the chairs anymore. Deklan especially had trouble with the table that pressed into his soft, malleable tummy. Even his flabby flanks were in the process of consuming the armrest on the side of his desk.

"Why are these desks so darn small?!"the culpeo muttered under his breath, too busy squirming about in his cramped enclosure to pay any attention to the raccoon's lecturing. Kazan, having found a passable seating arrangement, turned an ear to Deklan's complaints and quietly giggled at his predicament. Although the two of them sat in the back of the class, it was a wonder how some five minutes of struggling and muffled grunting went unnoticed by their teacher and peers before Deklan finally gave up. Sighing, the culpeo slumped down and felt his second chin sink into his poofy chest, wedging himself further into his desk.

Having grown accustomed to the continuous snacking the pups enjoyed over winter break, their stomachs were already growling for food by the time recess came around. Unfortunately, Kazan and Deklan forgot to pick up their morning snacks in their rush to the bus stop. To their dismay, all they could do was to wait until lunch to appease their hungry bellies.

"How could anyone expect us to wait so long to eat? I'm starving!" Kazan grumbled to his brother on their way outside to the frigid cold.

Deklan groaned in agreement. Deciding to "conserve their energy," as the fatter cub put it, they agreed to avoid the playground and spend their recess on a nearby bench instead. Some of their classmates joined them to finish their chat from before class.

Fifteen minutes later, the bell finally rang, signaling everyone to return to class. Once inside and crammed back into their desks, the pudgy pups could think of nothing but food as their middles gurgled and whined for the rest of the morning's lessons. For hours, they watched the clock impatiently, waiting for the next bell to ring and release them so they could fill their rumbling tummies.

Tapping their feet and wagging their tails in anticipation as the final seconds ticked down, Kazan and Deklan clumsily burst from their desks and made a clunky dash for the door as the bell rang and opened the floodgates to the cafeteria. Despite their impressive girth, they were deceptively fast when it came to food and were of the first furs in line for lunch. When they made it to the front, their tails suddenly fell slack when they remembered how small the portions at school were compared to what they've gotten used to. With a frown on their muzzles and their ears flat in disappointment, the tubby cubs simply grabbed as much food as their lunch money could afford, not letting a penny go unspent, and sat down at an empty table. Each with only a paltry cheeseburger, a small cup of french-fries, and a juice box, the brothers stared down disappointingly at their meager meals and figured it was better than nothing.

Recklessly cramming the greasy food into their muzzles like they hadn't eaten in days, they were lucky everyone else was too busy talking amongst each other in line to take notice of their ravenous eating - save for a certain bespectacled jackal, that is. Their chubby classmate had been curiously watching them ever since he saw them walking into school that morning.

In the time it took them to scarf down their lunch, only a few other furs had gotten their own. Longing for more, they stared back at the line with their bellies hardly even half-full. Alas, they'd spent all they had and sighed, hoping the skimpy meal would last them till they got home. A few minutes later, some of their friends from before came and sat with them, not seeming to notice the lack of food on their trays.

After finishing their own food, the rest of the pups ran off to play while Kazan and Deklan remained at the table, again deciding to stay off the playground for the rest of their lunch break. The canines sat quietly, simply enjoying each other's company, until one of their classmates approached them from behind.

"Hi!"

Kazan spun around and returned the greeting, "Hey, Koar! What's up?" he asked, wondering what the jackal wanted since they never spoke much in the past.

Their pudgy classmate sat down beside the fat dogs, "How was your break, you guys?"

"Our break was great! We had a ton of fun and got a bunch of new video games!"he exclaimed, playfully nudging his brother's middle.

Koar stared as the culpeo's elbow sunk into the wolf's gut before responding, "Oh, that's cool!"

Kazan slapped Deklan's arm away, ignoring the hint.

There was an awkward silence while the jackal mustered the courage to ask what he so desperately wanted to know. "Something seems..." he tried to word his thoughts politely, "Different...about you two..."

Staring at each other, Kazan and Deklan froze up, unsure of what to say. "Uh..." Kazan stammered, "Wh-What do you mean? I don't think anything's changed...?"

"I mean - you guys seem a bit...bigger than I remember," he asked, twiddling his paws sheepishly.

"Um..." Deklan stuttered, his tail twitching in slight agitation, "I-I think you're s-seeing things..." Suddenly the culpeo had an idea. "Maybe it's just our winter coats! Yeah, I guess they must've grown in extra thick this year or something!" he suggested with a nervous laugh.

"No, no! I don't think that's it. Did you two -" Koar was cut off by the bell.

"Oh - sorry, Koar! We gotta get back to class!" Kazan said with mock remorse as he jumped to his feet and tugged Deklan along behind him, clumsily scrambling back to their classroom.

Koar watched their hips and thighs wobble around as the two brothers ran off. Grinning to himself, he knew his suspicions were confirmed.

With their stomachs whining for more food by the end of class, Kazan and Deklan hurried home so they could finally fill themselves up properly. Stepping inside, they took their sweaters off and threw them onto the living room couch, once again exposing their soft bellies from under their shirts.

"Finally!" Deklan cried in relief as they entered the kitchen, "Let's eat!"

The cubs each made themselves a microwavable personal pizza - easily twice as big as the puny burgers they were served at school - and grabbed a large bag of chips and a can of soda from the pantry before heading back to the living room. Plopping their rears on the couch and flicking on the TV, their mouths hungrily watered from the intoxicating aromas of their afterschool snack. Each deep-dish pizza was precut into fourths and covered in a thick layer of gooey mozzarella and a generous assortment of various meats. Wiping the drool off of their muzzles, Kazan and Deklan licked their chops and picked up their first slice, their faces beaming as the cheese seemed to stretch out indefinitely on its way to their waiting maws. Their first bite easily devoured half of the slice with the rest of it disappearing down their gullets just as effortlessly. Reaching out with a greasy paw, Kazan grabbed his soda and popped it open to take a greedy swig before moving onto his second slice; Deklan promptly followed suit with his own. Cramming the remaining slices down their throats, they alternated mouthfuls of pizza with long gulps of soda to help wash down the cheesy, meaty goodness.

Kazan leaned back into the couch after slurping up the last few drops of his soda, his large ears drooping in satisfaction, and let out a loud belch before giving his protruding gut a firm pat."Ah..."the wolf sighed, "That hit the spot!"

Finishing his soda as well, Deklan hefted his bulk up and went back to the kitchen. "I'm getting another can. You want one too, Kaz?" the culpeo offered.

"Yeah, sure!" Kazan hollered back. Now that he wasn't stuffing his face with food, the wolf realized he couldn't recall a thing about the TV show they were watching. Chuckling to himself, he opened his chips and turned his attention to the cartoon, absentmindedly munching away at the salty crisps. A few moments later, Deklan returned with two new sodas and tossed one onto his brother's plush middle, the can bouncing off of his girth and landing beside him on the couch. "Thanks," he mumbled between pawfuls of chips.

Deklan flopped back onto the couch, causing his gelatinous frame to slosh around violently. Opening his chips and soda, he joined the wolf in his carefree lazing.

---

After the harrowing experience that was their first day back at school, the cubs immediately made sure to bring extra snacks to last them throughout the day. As Kazan and Deklan went about their spring semester complaining about reduced portion sizes and constant hunger pangs distracting them in class, they even managed to convince their parents to double their lunch money. In fact, the amount of food the pudgy pups devoured in school was beginning to rival their constant snacking during winter break. Although it was still slower than they would've liked, their weight gain was starting to catch the attention of some of their curious peers. A few of them even joked that they could eat another student whole if they wanted to! Fortunately, none of them dared put that rumor to the test.

Weeks turned into months as the weather warmed up, making their extra pudge more of an inconvenience than it was in the winter. Still, the brothers enjoyed it all the same and continued piling on the pounds without hesitation. Kazan began doubling his efforts to eat more than Deklan as well, yielding favorable results as he desperately tried catching up to his little brother's weight. However, now that spring had finally arrived, their winter coats started shedding and they no longer had any sweaters that could adequately hide their gigantic middles, which now stuck out several inches in front of them. With Deklan's reaching all the way down his zipper and Kazan's not far behind, the plush mounds of flesh and fur sagged well beyond their strained waistbands and had grown increasingly difficult to hide as more and more fluff exposed itself below their shirts. In addition to their bellies, everything from their thick sausage-like fingers to their large chubby cheeks had blown up with an extra layer of fat: their necks rapidly disappeared behind an extra chin; their flabby chests puffed out and began drooping down the immense curvature of the guts they sat on; their massive thighs constantly fought for space, forcing them into a wider stance and a subtle waddle; even their arms grew heavier as they drooped with excess flesh and became slightly skewed as they couldn't rest flat against their bloated sides.

With their cover blown, Kazan and Deklan worried if anyone would say something about their explosive weight gain. Lucky for them, their parents never noticed their weight double following Deklan's adoption and didn't seem to mind since they saw them every day and couldn't see through the subtle day-to-day changes in their bodies. Their classmates did notice, however, but they politely restrained themselves from commenting as best as any grade-schooler could. The tubby pups were treading on thin ice.

---

It was the Friday morning before spring break and while everyone else happily anticipated the week-long recess, Kazan and Deklan cowered in the locker room, their ears pinned flat against their heads as they froze in fear of what awaited them outside. Once they were the only ones left, they finally reached into their bags and pulled out a set of particularly ill-fitting clothes. Due to ubiquitous budget cuts, their school had stopped providing physical education to fifth and sixth graders, instead only offering it up to the fourth grade. As a result, Kazan and Deklan never had a chance to get fit for a new uniform since then. Furthermore, they didn't own any other athletic clothing, for obvious reasons, so they were stuck with their PE uniforms from last year - when they were both still slim.

Removing their shirts and pants, they stared doubtfully at the old clothes. Deklan picked up the dinky pair of shorts, unsure of what he feared more: the school's annual fitness exam or the humiliation of being wedged into the severely undersized uniform in front of all his friends. Kazan, in a similar state of distress, decided to put his shirt on first. After a minute of awkward stretching and struggling, the wolf managed to get his head and bulbous arms through the holes in his shirt and yanked it over his belly as far as it would go. Looking down at the pitiful attempt to cover his middle, the wolf sighed dejectedly and attached his nametag.

Pausing his battle against his shorts, Deklan pointed a claw at his brother and cracked into a fit of laughter as he saw him in the old shirt. It took a few moments for the culpeo to settle down enough to speak properly. "You look ridiculous, Kaz!"he cried in between giggles.

Blushing, Kazan looked himself in the mirror. He had to admit, the wolf he saw staring back was indeed a hysterical sight. Not only did his shirt fail miserably to cover his paunch, his fat neck overflowed out the top of the shirt, practically consuming its collar, and his flaccid biceps bulged out of the sleeves as if the shirt was a corset. "W-Well..."the wolf stammered for a bit as he tried tugging the shirt down further, "You're not gonna look any better!"

"Yeah, but it's still funny!"Deklan stifled one last chuckle before turning his attention back to his shorts. With the waistband only three-quarters up his enormously swollen thighs, the tortured elastic was already stretched to its intended limit. Despite sucking his colossal gut in as far as he could, the culpeo just couldn't get it passed his gargantuan hips. "Kaz, can you -" he panted, letting his belly fall back down, "Can you gimme a paw here?"

Kazan turned around to see his brother and snickered at his plight, "See? I told you!"

"Yeah, yeah... Just help me pull up my pants,"Deklan muttered.

"Fine," Kazan agreed. "But you have to help me too," he added, realizing he was having just as much trouble with his own. Leaving his shorts tightly wrapped around his thighs, the wolf wobbled over and pulled up on his brother's shorts with all his might. Meanwhile, the culpeo did his best to suck his tummy in and lift his heavy overhanging love handles out of the way. After a minute of grunting and wrenching, there was a loud snap as the elastic inside the waistband finally ripped, giving the shorts just enough slack to squeeze around Deklan's squishy waist. Luckily, the rest of his shorts were still intact and kept his lower body at least somewhat decent. "Phew!"Kazan gave a relieved sigh as Deklan dropped his spare tire, letting it flop back over the top of his shorts, "Alright, your turn."

Employing the same strategy as before, they eventually got Kazan's shorts on as well, having a slightly easier time as his taller frame made his waist marginally smaller. Once the culpeo got his shirt and nametag on, the two stood in front of the large mirror spanning one of the walls, their ears completely flat and turning pink in embarrassment. It looked like they were literally bursting from their uniforms as their chunky bodies conformed to and overflowed out of the skin-tight clothing. Their shirts, tugged down as far as they would go, still rode up the vast expanse of their bellies and easily exposed their navals and soft love handles. The school logo plastered on the front of the shirts was stretched to ridiculous proportions and comically swelled outward across their meaty chests. Their shorts clung to their thunder thighs like a second skin and seemed to make their massive stomachs look even bigger than they already were by digging into their hips; the waistbands clung so tightly to their extensive girth that they lifted and exaggerated the size of the cubs' middles. Glancing at each other, the brothers nervously gulped and walked to the door.

Peeking their heads outside, the oversized pups saw a short line of kids in front of their teacher, each still waiting to be measured and weighed for the BMI test. The rest of the students sat patiently by the track, standing by for further instruction.

"Well, we're not gonna pass anyway,"Deklan said halfheartedly, "Might as well just get this over with."Taking a deep breath, the two of them hesitantly left the safety of the locker room.

Everyone fell silent the moment Kazan and Deklan stepped out into the open, their mouths agape while their eyes watched them make their way to the back of the line.

"Next." The lithe cheetah at the front was too busy scribbling numbers onto a clipboard to notice the hulking cubs drag themselves outside.

The silence quickly turned into faint gossiping and muffled giggles. Cocking one of his large ears, Kazan even heard a few hushed whispers of "I told you so!" as well. With their rosy cheeks beginning to show through their fur, they kept their heads low and tried to avoid any eye contact with their peers. A few minutes passed as they patiently waited in line, slowly shuffling closer and closer to the front. Praying no one would start talking to them, Deklan suddenly yipped in surprise when he noticed the fur in front of them was his old roommate from the orphanage. Hiding his face, the culpeo hoped the rabbit didn't recognize him. However, remembering they lived together for most their lives, he was hard-pressed to believe the rabbit couldn't see through the drastic changes to his body.

"Deklan...? Is that you?"

Deklan winced at the voice behind him and carefully turned around to greet the skinny rabbit, "H-hi...Alex..."

"Deklan, I haven't seen you in ages! What happened to you?" he asked in shock, staring wide-eyed at the culpeo's exposed gut, "You're huge!"

The culpeo's cheeks flushed hotter while the inside of his ears felt as if they were flaring up as well. "Uh...Stuff...?" he replied sheepishly, "It's a long story... A lot has happened since... You know..."

"Next."

"Okay, but that doesn't-"

"Next!"

Alex hopped in surprise. Realizing it was his turn, he stepped over and let their teacher get his height and weight. Once finished, he gave a bewildered glance back at his old roommate before joining his friends by the track.

"Next."

The cheetah looked up from his clipboard when a round shadow suddenly blocked out the light while he was still kneeled by the scale. His jaw hung slack as he stared at the behemoth of a pup standing before him. Deklan timidly smiled back and waited for the feline to measure him. Slowly getting to his feet with his eyes trained on the boy's exposed belly, it took him some time to snap out of his stupor. He looked down the measuring tape on the wall and jotted down the culpeo's height: 4 feet 6 inches. Nervously pointing a shaky claw to the scale, the instructor knelt down and prepared to read the numbers. Deklan carefully stepped on and looked down, grinning and twitching his tail with glee as he discovered he could no longer see the numbers beneath his protruding midsection. Before the dial could stop moving, the feline swore under his breath at the numbers it whirred passed: 100, 120, 140... The scale finally settled at 152 pounds-well over doubling his weight from last year as a scrawny orphan! Watching his teacher look back and forth hysterically between him and the scale, it took the culpeo all the self-control he could muster to hide his pride and curiosity. With his muzzle still hanging open, the cheetah recorded Deklan's weight. Staring at his clipboard and comparing the absurd number with the previous year's to make sure it was correct, he didn't even notice when Deklan left and Kazan replaced his spot.

"Ne -" the feline looked up and shook his head at the similarly massive wolf, "Oh, jeez..."

Kazan smirked at the instructor's displeasure and stood with his back against the measuring tape.

Getting up with a sigh, the teacher ignored the wolf's smug look and tried to pretend that he was like the other -normal - fifty or so cubs he was responsible for. After scribbling down the wolf's height, 4 feet 8 inches, he gestured to the scale. Kazan stepped on with an identical sense of pride and excitement as his brother had. The cheetah shook his head again as he wrote the wolf's weight: 130 pounds. Hopping off with a jiggly thud, Kazan left to join his brother.

Double-checking his list of students, the instructor mumbled a few swears at the weights of the last two, not even bothering to calculate their BMIs before failing them. He turned to his students and announced the next part of the fitness exam, "Alright everyone, let's start with the shoulder stretch and the trunk lift."

He walked in front of the pups and turned around to demonstrate the first exercise. Reaching one arm behind him and the other over his shoulder, he touched his fingers behind his back. After reversing his arms and mirroring the stretch, he told his students to do the same once it was their turn and got on his knees to demonstrate the second exercise. Lowering himself flat on his chiseled abs with his arms against his sides, he lifted his chest off the ground as far as he could and bent his neck all the way back. He held the position for a few seconds, again instructing everyone to later do the same. Standing back on his feet, he began conducting the tests on each of his students.

The cheetah eventually made it to the tubby cubs and groaned, expecting them to fail every single test just as miserably as they did the first. Everyone watched as Kazan and Deklan attempted the shoulder stretch. Unfortunately, while they struggled to reach their paws as far up their backs as they could, they inadvertently pushed their already-bloated middles out even further and caused their shirts to ride up higher than they already were. Meanwhile, their shorts creaked ominously as the fabric was stretched to its limit, threatening to rip at any second. To everyone's surprise, they were still reasonably flexible, even more so than some of their fitter peers, regardless of being burdened by a layer of fat on their shoulders that bunched up into a few small rolls and impeded their thick arms. After some difficulty, they both managed to pass the shoulder stretch. Somewhat amused by this, the cheetah flicked his long tail and ticked two checkboxes on his clipboard before continuing with the next test.

The trunk lift was a joke. Getting on their knees and elbows, the brothers looked down and grinned as they felt their guts brush against the hot blacktop. Perking their ears up as they figured out they could use their bulging bellies as leverage, they lowered themselves down on top of them, eager to pass this test too. Their teacher, along with their peers, stared in horrified awe as the canines'flab swelled out from underneath their swollen forms and raised their bubbly rears a few inches into the air. Noticing the advantage it gave them, he frantically flipped through his papers, positive that there had to be some kind of rule in place to account for this, but found nothing. Defeated, the instructor sighed and knelt between them, holding a yardstick in front of their muzzles as they teetered backwards onto their squelching tummies. Lifting their puffy chests off the ground with ease, they arched their heads back, causing the abundant flesh behind their necks to scrunch up and accumulate between their shoulders. The cheetah measured 12.5 and 13 inches, respectively, from the ground to Kazan and Deklan's chins, both scores far beyond the minimum requirement. Scoffing some as he recorded the numbers, he made sure to note the leg up his fattest students had over the others before lining everyone up by a pull-up bar.

"Now, I know pull-ups are hard -even for me," the instructor lied while showing a perfect pull-up, "So just do your best and don't worry if you can only do a few. One or two is still good enough - you'll even get credit for halves."Dropping down, he let the first fur in line jump up and grasp the bar. Every single student was able to complete at least one full pull-up; many managed to do a few extra while a couple athletic showoffs did more than their teacher was willing to count.

Then, there were the two brothers at the end of the line. The culpeo hesitantly stepped forward and looked up at the bar suspended overhead. Casting a nervous glance to his brother and folding his ears at the quiet snickers from his classmates, Deklan bent his knees and jumped as high as he could. With his paws outstretched, he barely got his meaty digits to wrap around the metal beam. He hung like a deadweight for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and pulling with all his might. Clenching his teeth and flailing his chunky legs in a pathetic attempt to hoist his hefty frame high enough to clear the bar with his chin, his face started turning purple from embarrassment and the immense strain of holding up his massive girth. All the while, his futile struggling caused his protruding paunch to ripple and bounce around, only exacerbating the snide remarks behind him. Despite his best efforts, the feeble culpeo couldn't even complete half a pull-up, giving up and letting go after barely making it a quarter of the way. Landing with a wobbly thump, Deklan gave a pant and a sigh as he hung his head in shame and waddled off. Shaking his head, the cheetah wrote a fat zero on his clipboard before gesturing Kazan forward.

The wolf gulped nervously before hopping up to grab the bar. Given the extra height he had over Deklan, Kazan had an easier time getting into position but inevitably suffered the same fate as his brother. Determined to do at least half a pull-up, Kazan growled and fought to lift his considerable bulk, but to no avail. Desperately kicking and wrestling with the beam, the pudgy wolf blushed furiously as his ears were met with the same derisive jabs as Deklan's were. However, in the midst of his hopeless endeavor, he gave a quick yelp as his sweaty paws suddenly slipped and sent him crashing to the ground. Landing on his tail and cushy rump, he whimpered and looked around deliriously as his face glowed pink with humiliation. Instantly, everyone around him burst into laughter.

"Kazan? More like Fatzan!"someone jeered.

A new wave of taunts erupted from the students. Kazan glanced up at his instructor - even he was having difficulty stifling a chuckle while recording another zero. "Do you -" the cheetah stuttered and offered him a paw between a few last giggles, "Do you still think you can finish the exam?"

Turning away in disbelief and rubbing his sore tail, Kazan hauled himself to his feet and ran to Deklan on the verge of tears. Hugging the wolf tightly, the culpeo did what he could to console his brother from the sneers around them.

"Alright, alright... Settle down, everyone," the feline tried to silence the name-calling, even though he was still smirking a little himself. Unsure of what to do, he simply continued the fitness exam, letting Kazan and Deklan participate if they wanted to -not that it mattered; it was obvious they had no hope of ever passing. "Let's move on to crunches and push-ups."

For efficiency, all the children performed these two exercises at the same time. With everyone evenly spaced out into a grid, the instructor told them to lie down and get ready for the crunches. Noticing the overfed canines still sitting together, he waited for a response, feeling somewhat guilty for his unprofessionalism.

"We don't have to do this, you know,"the culpeo whispered, glaring back at their teacher.

"Yeah we do!" Kazan sniffed.

"No, we don't," Deklan argued back, "You could've gotten hurt!"

"I _did_get hurt!" Kazan retorted, grabbing his tail and lowering his ears, "Besides, everyone'll make fun of us even more if we just quit..."

Deklan thought for a moment before giving in, "Fine..."

Lying down with their knees in the air, the pudgy pups steeled themselves to test their abdominal strength, of which they clearly had none. Watching the two of them get ready, the cheetah was reminded of just how fat they were. Their tummies, pushed up slightly by their raised thighs, stuck out nearly a foot from the ground and spilled out of their shirts and down their sides, resting on the asphalt in a small radius around them. Their swollen chests, separated from their bellies by a thick fold, behaved similarly and began encroaching on their muzzles as they slid back and pressed up against their flabby chins. Clearing his head of the sight, their instructor slowly started counting off crunches as he paced between his students, keeping a watchful eye out for when anyone finished - namely Kazan and Deklan.

They managed a single repetition before wearing themselves out. Sweating and panting as he dropped his head after the first crunch, Deklan already fell behind tempo before he could start the second one. Grunting in frustration as he did his best to continue, his snout squished into his fatty torso while he barely reached his paws passed the required threshold when he should've been starting his third. The cheetah watched as Deklan flopped back down, wheezing and gasping for air. Technically, he only completed one crunch in rhythm but the feline decided to take pity on the poor thing and gave him credit for two. Figuring it wouldn't be long before the wolf also finished, the teacher turned his attention to the navy-furred cub beside the culpeo.

Sure enough, he was just about done as well. Squeezing every last ounce of strength he had from underneath the bulging mass that was his stomach, Kazan dropped back down, wincing in pain as he thumped his head on the ground. Writing a three by the wolf's name, the cheetah continued counting and watched the others. Luckily, only a few of their peers saw them fail so early on since they were all still busy with their own crunches. Not even bothering to sit up, Kazan and Deklan took full advantage of their respite to rest. Eventually dozing off to their instructor's steady counting, they started daydreaming about spring break and all the food they would finally get to stuff their chubby faces with once this whole ordeal was over...

"Okay!"

Their ears twitched and their eyes shot open before they slurped up some drool dribbling down their muzzles.

"All that's left are push-ups and the sit-and-reach before we can finish off with the mile," the feline announced.

Kazan and Deklan groaned at just the thought of running. They knew for a fact they wouldn't last more than a few seconds, if at all, before needing to stop and catch their breath. Sitting their aching bodies back up and getting down on all fours, they waited for the signal to start. Once it was given, they stumbled into position and smiled inwardly as their sagging paunches gently grazed the blacktop below. However, those smirks soon faded when they began shaking before they could even start. With their arms caked with lard and painfully sore from their pitiful attempts at a pull-up, the tubby canines were grateful for the fact that they could at least rest part of their heavy guts on the ground. Shaking his head, the cheetah once again noticed the upper hand this gave them and made another note before counting off like he did before.

Despite not having to support the entirety of their massive weights, Kazan and Deklan's weak unexercised arms trembled far more violently once they started bending them, making their entire bodies jiggle around furiously. Their vision went blurry and they grit their teeth, snarling as they slowly fought to lower themselves.

"Oof!"

Not halfway down on their first push-up, their bloated limbs suddenly buckled and gave way, dropping them on top of their plush bellies, which got squashed on the ground.

"Kaz..." Deklan muttered between labored breaths, "Kaz, I can't do this... How are we - how are we gonna run the mile?" He turned over to lie on his back, "There's no way we're running the mile!"

Kazan only gave a low exhausted whine, refusing to budge, as the two of them began nodding off again.

Their instructor walked by with a concerned expression as he wrote two more zeroes on his clipboard. Never before had he seen any pup so unbelievably out of shape and overweight. And yet, there were Kazan and Deklan, who were both perfectly healthy and fit just a year ago. In fact, Deklan used to be one of the fittest students he had! Whatever happened to them since Kazan's family adopted the culpeo was a mystery to him.

It wasn't long before everyone finished with their push-ups. After recording the last fur's impressive score of twenty-three, the cheetah left momentarily to retrieve something from the storage room. Returning with an odd-looking box, he told the cubs to line up one last time for the next test. Kazan and Deklan waited at the back as they always did, trying to avoid any more unwanted attention. Regardless, they still felt the occasional stare as some of their classmates looked back and giggled amongst each other.

Eventually making it to the front, the brothers braced themselves for further insults as all eyes fell on them once more. Deklan was up first. Taking his shoes off, he sat down in front of the sit-and-reach box and scooted forward until his feet were flat up against its side and underneath the long overhanging ledge. Across the top of the box were marks measuring distance from the user's feet. He doubtfully looked down at his stumpy legs, positive there was no way his paws could reach his stubby toes -especially not with his protruding middle in the way. He sighed and leaned forward, unknowingly lifting his shirt up and exposing his backside, which started overflowing over his waistband. A few snickers cracked out behind him but he tried to ignore them. With his paws barely touching the end of the ledge, he was already straining himself. His tummy stubbornly flattened and squeezed out from between his arms and legs, pressing it out further and overemphasizing his meaty love handles. Grimacing at an incomprehensible tightness around his waist, he stretched his arms out even more, causing the seams on his shorts to creak menacingly as they strained to their absolute capacity. He reached out as far as he could but was still over eight inches away from the zero line, giving him a negative score. Feeling the bitter tension painfully building up in his hamstrings, he made a last-ditch effort to redeem himself and fiercely jerked forward.

RRRIIIIIIP!

Deklan froze mid-lunge as everyone fell dead silent, their jaws on the floor in shock. All he could hear was a gentle breeze blowing by, sending a chill through the gaping hole in his shorts and up his spine. The tortured fabric put up a valiant fight but, in the end, couldn't contain Deklan's monumental rear -to be perfectly honest, it was a miracle they managed to stay intact for as long as they did. Carefully sitting back up and reaching his paws behind him, he felt around below his tail, pinning his ears back and blushing uncontrollably once he confirmed what happened.

Everyone but Kazan exploded with laughter as the distraught culpeo frantically scrambled to his feet and turned to face his tormenters. With his entire face burning red and tears welling up in his eyes, he took a few shaky steps back before fleeing to the locker room with his tail tucked between his legs and his paws covering his exposed underwear. To make matters worse, his awkward gait only served to intensify the ridicule.

Kazan folded his ears and furrowed his brow as he anxiously looked around at the furs he once thought were his friends. Biting his lip in concern, the wolf ran after his brother while the others continued to laugh. He barged into the locker room and found Deklan sitting on a bench, crying his eyes out. Quickly making his way over to the culpeo, Kazan took a seat beside him and gently placed a paw on his back before pulling him into a tight hug, trying to comfort his brother just as he had done for him.

For what seemed like an eternity, they sat without saying a word to each other as Deklan sobbed into Kazan's shoulder. Finally pushing away from the wolf's soft embrace, the culpeo wiped the remaining tears from his bloodshot eyes and looked down with silent gratitude.

"Come on," Kazan stood and offered him a paw, "Let's get out of here."

Deklan sniffed and nodded. Taking the paw, he heaved himself up and followed the wolf as they snuck out of school. The quiet walk home passed as a blur to the culpeo, his thoughts distracted by the memories of the fateful day his friend offered to take him in not even a year ago. Arriving at their doorstep, Deklan looked up at his brother, his eyes watering anew, and threw his arms around him. Kazan staggered back in surprise but gently returned the hug.

"Thanks... Kaz... For everything."