“Ha! I’ve got you now- agh!”
Having lost count of how many times it had happened that day, Yuffie found the wind being driven out of her, what she had thought was a masterful pivot around into her blind spot ruined by Tifa swinging around so far her boobs hadn’t even caught up by the time her iron fist was driven directly into her gut. Yuffie practically flew across the yard the two were sparring in, landing flat on her back, her attempts to pick herself back up amounting to little more than undignified twitching. No amount of shinobi conditioning could deal with sheer force, although to her credit, she bounced back far faster than your average ninja.
After a couple of minutes she broke out of her stupor and sprung back to her feet, albeit on wobbly legs as she brandished a proud, if foolish finger at her sparring partner.
“One more! I’m not going out zero to five!” Yuffie declared, sweat dripping down her face even with her headband absorbing most of it.
“I think we should call it for today.” Tifa said, her own light perspiration only making her more picturesque as it gleamed and highlighted her washboard abs, thighs glistening as Yuffie was reminded that even a SOLDIER couldn’t break out of those if put in a headlock.
“Sixth time’s the charm!” Yuffie insisted, needing to pause for a deep breath before continuing. “I’ve got you on the ropes!”
“You’ve been doing worse and worse since your second attempt.” Tifa pointed out, crossing her arms and pushing up her bust a bit. She’d chosen to wear her classic white tank top and miniskirt for their so-called training session today, a bit of nostalgia before Yuffie was due to return to Wutai for at least a year or so. “If we keep going like this I’ll just feel like a bully.”
Yuffie’s pride refused to admit it, but challenging Tifa to a serious head to head martial arts duel might not have been her brightest idea. She was covered in bruises and her colourful outfit was now so coated in dirt from just how many times she’d been driven into the dust she’d need to change before she left.
Tifa on the other hand barely had so much as a bruise, casually stretching out as if their back-and-forth duel had been nothing more than a warmup for her. Tifa might have looked like a classical busty beauty from a distance, but once you got up close that toned muscle proved that just about all the excess fat in her body had gone directly to her breasts, leaving nothing but pure power for the rest of her. Even though it had been years since Meteorfall, Tifa’s edge hadn’t dulled a bit.
It wasn’t that Yuffie was lacking in any way as a combatant, although it only made her more annoyed after her third loss when Tifa consoled her by saying that it’d be a much more even fight if she could use her shuriken and other tools when Tifa was fighting the same as always. Her skills as a shinobi were as vast and deep as a river, but she’d made the mistake of assuming that her martial skills, an important but ultimately singular piece of her overall abilities, were enough to compete with Tifa who focused exclusively on them.
“Fine.” Yuffie reluctantly conceded. It was a blow to her pride to admit defeat, but it merely sparked her competitive spirit for the rematch “There’s no point in doing this if we aren’t in our best condition. It was my mistake to wait until the last moment to challenge you, anyway. If I just had one more day to think things over, I’d have you begging for mercy!”
“That’s the spirit.” Tifa said with a kind smile, as if encouraging an energetic child. “It’ll give you something to focus on in your training while you’re away.”
Tifa paused for a minute as Yufife pouted and was clearly about to make some extra last second excuses about why she totally could have won, and then her face lit up.
“How about this?” Tifa suggested. “If you can defeat me on your first try the next time we meet, I’ll give you all of my materia.”
“All of it!?” Yuffie closed the distance between the two and grabbed Tifa’s hands so quickly Tifa could see why people thought that ninjas could teleport. “You promise?”
“I promise.”
“Really?”
“Really really.”
Yuffie let out an evil laugh, breaking away and rubbing her hands together in anticipation.
“You’ve just made a terrible mistake, Miss Lockheart!” Yuffie cackled. “You’d better be preparing your excuses to Cloud!”
“I’m sure he’ll understand.” Tifa smiled warmly, the two shaking hands as their sealed their promise. Of course, while Yuffie took the challenge seriously as a fellow martial artist, she was more interested in it as an excuse to keep Tifa in her mind as a friend. Bonds between martial artists were the strongest, Tifa often said, and Yuffie agreed.
Still, she was getting excited just thinking about it! She could spend a whole year training to fight her, but Tifa would be training specifically to fight her in return! She wondered just how seriously Tifa would take it. Perhaps she’d return and she’d be twice as deadly! Whatever Tifa had in store for her, Yuffie couldn’t wait!
–
“Alright Edge, your girl is back! You’d better have missed me” Yuffie declared a little over one year later, standing on the border of the city that had sprung up to the east of the ruined Midgar, serving as a new home for most of Midgar’s former residents. She paused for a second, then deflated a little. “You know, it just isn’t the same when it’s not ruled by an evil megacorporation…”
Stepping off the hill she’d used as her vantage and returning to the road, Yuffie continued her approach to what was ultimately now a fairly normal city.
“Guess who’s back!” Yuffie shouted as she swung open the bar doors, throwing her arms in the air in celebration! “That’s right, it’s…”
Yuffie trailed off as her mouth slowly hung open. She had expected to see Tifa Lockheart, the slender martial artist and cool older sister of their band, but instead the person who stood behind the Seventh Heaven counter was, without exaggeration, by far the fattest woman Yuffie had ever seen in her life, and as somebody who had infiltrated several Shinra fat-cat parties, that was saying something!
The woman, who Yuffie could scarcely recognise at first glance in her light green sundress, stretched seemingly from one end of the counter to the other with her vast hips, her width measured by the bar stools in front of her. Her ass could have filled one, two, perhaps even three seats on its own. She was standing back somewhat from the counter, as the sheer girth of her gut didn’t allow her to get too close without requiring her to lift it up and place it on top in order to do anything from more than arm’s length away. You could get lost in the cleavage her sundress was showing and never find your way out, each easily twice the size of her head and robbed of their once distinctive perkiness by their sheer weight, spread out and squashed by how they were laid out on an immense tray of a belly.
And what a belly it was! It seemed to stick out so far that its owner couldn’t reach her own navel, and was a curious mix of sagging blubber and taut roundness. It thrust out proudly, forming an enormous orb that had a heavy layer of fat over it giving it a certain softness that gave way to complete flat the further you got to the sides, until eventually you hit her immense muffin top that was visible even through her dress. It didn’t seem like she was just fat, but Yuffie was too overwhelmed to put her finger just on what was creating the unique shape of her gut just yet.
There was more to gawk at, but Yuffie’s eyes were finally drawn to the exceptionally obese woman’s face. It was so incredibly different, yet undeniably recognisable without a moment of doubt. A neck consumed by a bulging second chin, cheeks that were so bloated and filled with fat that they squashed and puffed out with each minute move of her fat neck. And yet the face underneath it all, coated in fat, was undeniably Tifa Lockheart. Jiggling, bloated, clearly overstuffed to the brim, but her beautiful face shone through it all.
“Yuffie, you’re back! I’ve missed you so much!” The immense woman rumbled, her whole body jiggling as her face seemingly widened even more as her lips pushed up her cherubic cheeks in a broad smile. Yuffie could practically hear the floorboards shake as she lumbered out from behind the counter, her body rocking back and forth as she turned like a battleship around the counter, nearly as wide as she was tall and with just as much breadth to her blubbery body. Now able to see the bottom half of her completely uncovered by her sundress’s barely adequate skirt length she could now appreciate her thighs thicker than her hometown’s tree trunk, each clearly requiring a huge amount of strength to lift individually. She took short steps as a result, practically waddling towards Yuffie with her arms outstretched.
Yuffie, unable to react and frozen in place, found herself buffeted by what she would from now on consider the softest thing she’d ever touched in her life, enveloped by Tifa’s bloated arms, her biceps each thicker than Yuffie was shoulder to shoulder. The only thing stopping her from being sucked into her body was beings topped by the curious firmness of her belly that served as something of a bulwark, forcing her to be bent over her belly and go head-first into the valley of her cleavage.
“I, uh, have returned as promised, Miss Lockheart.” Yuffie said once she finally excavated herself from Tifa’s fat. She had so many questions, all of which she knew were likely socially forbidden. How? Why? When? Was this some sort of curse? A new disease? Just how had the beautiful, eternally slender Tifa ended up as a total land-whale? Her head was spinning, she could hardly think straight.
“It’s Mrs. Strife now, Yuffie.” Tifa sternly reminded her, holding up her hand where a wedding ring was pinched around a sausage-like finger. “I let it go the last time you were here, but you’ve had a whole year to get used to it!”
“Alright, alright, sorry.” Yuffie apologised to the pouting wife. She knew it was normal to put on a few pounds after you got married, but this was ridiculous! “I was just so, erm, surprised to see you that I almost forgot.”
“Yes, I suppose it must be a bit surprising.” Tifa said, acting so ordinary it was driving Yuffie crazy. “Well, I suppose I should address the elephant in the room.”
“I think you should.” Yuffie nodded so fast she nearly hurt her neck.
“Well, it’s impossible to hide, I could tell it was the first thing you noticed as soon as you walked in.” Tifa said, putting her hands on her waist, where her fingers perched atop her muffin top, pushed far out by her broad figure. “Don’t worry, I can tell you’ve been distracted by it.”
“Just a little.” Yuffie felt like it was less of an elephant and more of a behemoth in the room, activating her fight or flight impulses.
“Well, there’s no need for me to say it, but if you don’t mind, I’ll announce it anyway…” Tifa looked immensely proud of herself, taking a deep breath: “I’m pregnant!”
It finally clicked for Yuffie just why her belly had been so firm and spherical when the rest of her was sagging so much, and her jaw was agape in a much happier kind of surprise than before.
“Oh my god, congratulations!” Yuffie cried, jumping into Tifa’s arms and giving her own deep hug, albeit in a very careful way. “Since when? Is it a boy or a girl?”
“Just a bit over seven months in, and the doctor says four girls, three boys.” Tifa said sheepishly, Yuffie looking even more impressed.
“Seven? In one go?” Yuffie gasped. Tifa had always been best described as obviously the fertile type, but this was beyond all explanations. “I didn’t know Cloud had it in him! That’s just… wow! No wonder you’re so big!”
“They are a bit of a burden, but more than a happy one.” Tifa said with a motherly smile. “They’re hungry too. I might have put on a little bit of weight on top of them…”
It took immense willpower for Yuffie to not retort on the spot, snapped back to reality. A little? A little? There was absolutely nothing little about Tifa Strife, not anymore!
Still, Yuffie took a deep breath and let it go. She’d never seen a woman so absurdly pregnant, so it made sense that she’d put on a corresponding amount of baby weight. Wait, did that make sense? She might have weighed a literal ton by now, even if you were eating for eight, that was just too much! Just what kind of cravings was Tifa going through?
“Well, I’ll help you get settled in, we prepared the guest room for you as usual.” Tifa said, slowly, arduously turning her immensity around. She walked forward while Yuffie paused, giving her a good look at her ass cheeks, which were less like cushions and more like the whole sofa. Her green sundress that reminded Yuffie of something she’d seen her wearing in her photos of her as a child was barely preserving her modesty, the lower ends of her ass being shown off every time it rustled even a little, as well as its theoretically loose nature ruined by how it was obviously a size or three too small for her, her flab pushing it out in every which way.
“Oh, don’t worry about me, I still remember the way. Besides, I didn’t bring much.” Yuffie pointed out, glancing at the counter. Tifa simply smiled in response and continued.
“It’s fine, my shift was almost over anyway.”
Yuffie glanced at the clock on the wall. Already? It wasn’t even lunchtime yet, and Yuffie would be surprised if she’d served a single customer that day as of yet.
“Cloud said I should be taking it easy with the babies on the way, so we’ve hired some part-timers, they’ll be here soon.” Tifa explained, which did make sense to Yuffie at least. As they left the room, she also spied a timetable with the employee schedule. Her sneaking suspicion was correct: Tifa did have shifts most days of the week, but they were almost exclusively during the dead hours of the day. Well, Yuffie supposed a pregnant woman probably shouldn’t be serving alcohol in the first place.
Just before Tifa could officially clock out, her phone went off, and Yuffie went to fetch it from where it was placed under the counter, instinctually fearing that Tifa might not be able to close the distance fast enough to pick it up. She handed it to Tifa who greeted the unknown caller.
“Yes… no, that’s fine, I’ll put you down for an extra shift later to make up for it.” Tifa said, and although her tone was understanding, her face was decidedly pouting as she hung up. She didn’t seem to notice this, and unconsciously corrected her expression as she turned to Yuffie.
“Our part-timer can’t make it.” Tifa explained. “And there’s nobody else who can fill in right now… I guess I’ll just have to do overtime.”
While her words had the usual breeziness of the Tifa Yuffie knew who wouldn’t be bothered in the slightest by this, there was a twang of annoyance to her tone. Yuffie picked up on this, and decided to cast a line to her.
“Did you have plans?” Yuffie asked, Tifa putting her hands on her hips.
“Oh, nothing important, I was just planning on visiting Marlene, since we said we were going to discuss baby names…” Tifa couldn’t help but sound ever so slightly indignant that she was stuck at work. “I suppose that finishing the nursery will have to wait until tomorrow too… ”
“If you’d like, I can take over here for you.” Yuffie offered proudly. “I can mix a mean margarita!”
“I appreciate the offer, but…” Tifa’s huffy tone quickly returned to her familiar tone of responsibility, with a hint of hurrying to shut her down. She still hadn’t forgotten what happened the last time Yuffie tried to play bartender. “I think you could use a little more training first. But if you really insist, I’ll supervise.”
Yuffie took centre stage at the bar, although for the next hour they only had a single customer, and spent most of it chatting and catching up. Yuffie told a few tales of what she’d been up to in Wutai, while Tifa unsurprisingly spoke almost exclusively about how how she’d been handling her pregnancy, how she’d been getting along, and her plans for once they were born. Yuffie was eager to hear about it and excited for her going from an older sister type to a full-blown mother, although she couldn’t help but notice that the topic of her weight didn’t come up once, save for a stray mention about cravings that resulted in her stomach loudly rumbling and sending Yuffie running for some snacks for her.
Eventually the door swung open for the first time in twenty minutes, but instead of a customer it was Tifa’s dear husband himself, Cloud Strife, who walked through the door, looking more surprised to see Tifa than Yuffie. He’d just returned from a delivery, and still had his goggles hanging from his neck.
“Well well, if it isn’t the lucky man himself.” Yuffie said, giving a wave and a grin. “Been busy, have we? Preparing for a delivery?”
Cloud gave a brief glance at Yuffie, but then immediately turned back to Tifa.
“Tifa, what’re you doing? Your shift ended an hour ago.” He said, Yuffie pouting slightly at being totally ignored.
“The part-timer had to cancel.” Tifa explained. “I figured it wouldn’t hurt if I did one more shift with Yuffie helping me-”
“That won’t do.” Cloud interrupted her, shaking his head. “It’s important for you to rest, I can’t have you overworking yourself.”
“Hey, do I not count as lightening the load? And hello to you too.” Yuffie would have stuck herself between the two had Tifa not had her belly resting on the counter in front of her, and had to settle for being well off to the side thanks to Tifa’s width.
“Definitely a heavier load.” Cloud said without hesitation. “And welcome back, Yuffie. I’ll be relying on you to help Tifa out while you’re here.”
“At least say that part first.” Yuffie folded her arms while Tifa giggled slightly...
–
Yuffie settled into her stay with the Strifes, and found herself attached at the hip to Tifa, not unexpectedly, but because she felt a natural sense of responsibility to help out such an enormously pregnant woman, let alone one who was… somewhat weighed down on the side. It was a sight that Yuffie took days to get used to, nearly jumping when she climbed out of bed and sleepily walked down the hallway to find herself completely body blocked by an enormous wall of lard, nearly demanding to know exactly who it was before her brain kicked in and reminded her that it was Tifa in her pajamas.
Were it not for Tifa being pregnant, Yuffie likely would have found herself using her ninja skills of climbing around on the walls to get around her with how often she consumed whatever hallway she was in, forcing Yuffie to experience the slow, arduous process of Tifa turning around and Yuffie squeezing past her big butt. To hear the master martial artist apologise that she had a little baby weight was surreal in more than one way.
While Yuffie had expected to be busy helping Tifa pick up the slack in her day to day life given her condition, over the next few days, she found a certain blondie seemed to be ready to swoop in to assist Tifa at the slightest hint of physical exertion. As the days passed, Yuffie began to feel like Tifa couldn’t suggest handling a single task by herself without Cloud
“Tonight I think I’ll cook-”
“I’ll handle it.”
“Before I go out, I just need to hang out this laundry”
“Go ahead of me, I’ll take care of this and catch up.”
“Let me just restock the bar-”
“Leave it to me.”
“Let me just pop over to Barret’s place and tell Marlene that I’ll be-”
“I was passing by there anyway.”
“Yuffie, can you take these drinks over to-”
“Consider it done.”
“Hey, she wasn’t even gonna do it herself this time!” Yuffie protested as she finally got sick of Cloud’s helicopter-husband behaviour, intercepting the handover and indignantly stomping over to a slightly confused customer with their drink. “Geez, Cloud, why even bother letting her get out of bed in the morning?”
Although it had been years since their adventure, Cloud still had his signature look of awkwardly avoiding eye contact as he tried to come up with something cool to say whenever he inevitably embarrassed himself.
“I’m just trying to ease the burden.” He eventually said, and Yuffie wasn’t impressed.
“What burden? There’s nothing left other than the babies!” Yuffie pointed out. Tifa rubbed her stomach sheepishly, her arms nearly fully extended trying to reach the end of her own belly. She was once again wearing a loose sundress,
“Those are a heavy enough weight for her to carry.” Cloud said, and Yuffie rolled her eyes as hard as she could. Soldier boy still thought he was smooth with lines like that! How could somebody as cool as Tifa ever fall for a guy like this? Maybe she was just into dumb tryhards. She’d said that out loud once, and for some reason Barret had said that if that was the case, she had a shot with Tifa too, whatever that meant.
Yuffie glanced over at Tifa, seeing her pudgy face, her blubbery arms, and her gentle pose as she leaned against the counter for support. Maybe, a small voice in her said, Tifa wasn’t so cool anymore anyway. Yuffie ignored it, and turned her attention back to Cloud.
“Don’t you have a delivery service to run? Go on, shoo! Shoo! At least try to make me earn my keep.” Yuffie shoved him out of the building protesting all the way, and had it not been a bar, she would have locked the door behind him.
“You know, Yuffie…” Tifa said meekly, having been too sheepish to get involved in the two fighting over the treatment of her. “I don’t mind my husband being nice to me or anything…”
“There’s such a thing as being too nice. There’s no way you enjoy him just doing everything in your life for you, right?” Yuffie said confidently, then faltered when she looked at the slightly embarrassed expression on Tifa’s face that said that perhaps she did.
“Maybe just while I’m pregnant.” Tifa said, scratching her chubby cheek with an awkward laugh. “I’m going to really have my hands full with the kids, you know? Why not think of it as making up for all of the sleepless nights I’ll be having once they’re born in advance?”
“At the rate he’s going he’ll somehow figure out how to do all that for you too.” Yuffie grumbled. “With an attitude like that, it’s no wonder you got so… relaxed.”
It wasn’t the word that Yuffie wanted to use. It was perhaps one of several, and it was an appropriate one, but it would not have been her first, as she gazed upon Tifa’s unimpeded growth and watched her fish out a cookie from a box underneath the counter, her eighth in the last ten minutes. She had piles of empty boxes of snacks under the counter, a huge breakfast followed by second breakfast followed by brunch, a sandwich so large it’d knock Yuffie out for the day for lunch, afternoon tea, and finally dinner, then dessert, then some late night snacking.
With seven babies in her belly Tifa couldn’t be blamed for having a gluttonous appetite, but she was clearly well past the nutritional or caloric intake required to feed them. Cloud could have easily been the one to tell her that and nip it in the bud, but based on the portion sizes he cooked for her, he was highly complicit in her ballooning, to the point where she was mighty suspicious of him for it. The most generous reading of Cloud was that he loved his wife so dearly that he would love her at any size, but the question was exactly which sizes he would love her the most. Evidently, the one she was at right now couldn’t be described as suboptimal…
Yuffie dispelled the mental images she was getting that were a little too vivid for her liking. Unfortunately, the images were already there, and Yuffie became desperate to get away from them, desperately sifting through her brain for a change of topic.
“So! Tifa!” Yuffie said almost breathlessly as she scurried back over to behind the counter. “You’ve been telling me about everything you’re going to be doing with the kids after they’re finally out, but how about me and you, huh? Think you’ll be up for it in the first year? The second? Third if the brats are really putting the screws on you?”
“What do you mean?” Tifa looked confused.
“You know, our duel! You and me, mano a mano! Girl on girl! Or, uh, a better way of putting it!” Yuffie said enthusiastically.
“Oh, of course, our promise! I didn’t forget.” Tifa said unconvincingly. Yuffie wasn’t upset about it or anything, she had a head full of babies and a whole future to plan out, but she did intend on giving her some friendly reminders.
“Hope you’re planning out your workout schedule for burning that baby weight.” Yuffie decided to send out an experimental probe to prod the subject. Tifa’s weight was the elephant in the room, perpetually unaddressed by anybody, and she wasn’t going to be the one to break the ceasefire, but she could test the waters by using Tifa’s own terminology.
“Oh, it won’t be that hard, I just need to find the time.” Tifa said, breaking eye contact.
“So, first year then? Or do you think you’ll need more to really get back into the swing of things?” Yuffie said hopefully. “I know what it’s like to have to shake off the rust, and you’ll have to make up for lost time too.”
“Yes, I… really will have to, won’t I?” Tifa said, and her tone wasn’t exactly bursting with excitement for the idea. “Um, does it really have to be as early as the third year? Do you think you could give me a little more time? After that, I’m sure I can start working out again…”
“I wouldn’t call the third year early…” Yuffie wanted to say, but it died in her throat when she saw the anxious look on Tifa’s face. Even without that, her words were damning. Start working out again in the third year? She didn’t plan on keeping the weight until then, did she? Not Tifa, not the slim, powerful woman she knew who never had an inch of flab on her! Three years of waddling around with a gut she couldn’t wrap her arms around, ass cheeks bigger than sofa cushions, arms bigger than a sandbag, and only, getting fatter and fatter by the day? Even in the week since Yuffie had arrived, she was pretty sure that Tifa was visibly bigger than before.
“Well… let’s talk about it again later. Maybe now’s not a good time.” Yuffie awkwardly backed out of the conversation, her heart sinking.
Already she realised what she had been doing by suspecting Cloud so strongly: shifting the blame. The way Tifa phrased it, she’d just gotten a little chunky. On the other hand, she described Cloud helping out as “just a little here and there”, when it was obvious that she didn’t even have to lift a finger around the house if she didn’t want to. It was Tifa’s behaviour that was abnormal, getting so obese purely through her own lack of self-restraint and simply dodging the subject entirely.
Eventually, Yuffie realised what her problem was. It wasn’t that Tifa was being babied by her husband: it was the fact that each and every time, she didn’t make a fuss out of it. Sometimes she said that he didn’t have to, but then handed over whatever she was doing to him immediately without complaint. If this wasn’t what somebody who was happy with the status quo looked like, then what was?
But Yuffie still couldn’t accept it. She just couldn’t accept that Tifa had truly become nothing more than an obese housewife who dreamed of nothing but domestic bliss, that the drive for her to surpass Yuffie in martial arts was truly gone, at least for a long, long time. Even running the bar seemed to be something she did out of obligation rather than interest, foisting her duties off to part-timers the majority of the time and Cloud and Yuffie whenever she was supposed to be on duty. That the real Tifa was just buried under all of that fat, and she could dig it out of her with a little reminder of how she was supposed to be… but if she tried, she feared that she’d just be harassing her.
But still, she couldn’t let the feeling go. And so, Yuffie began to come up with an idea of how to get some closure for both of them, with one final test…
–
“Goodness, we finally made it! I was starting to think we’d have to stop at a motel if it got any later.” Tifa huffed as she was slowly helped out of their vehicle by Yuffie, who patiently held her hand as she watched the entire car’s suspension lurch when she finally lifted her fat ass off the seat. She hoped that the rental company wouldn't check under Tifa’s side for any scrapes…
“I told you I could make it to Wutai in one go if we started early!” Yuffie boasted, finding the drive itself to be the easy part of Tifa’s maternity vacation, thanks to the gentle pace she’d had to take it to make sure she was as undisturbed as possible.
“I just can’t wait to sit down.” Tifa said impatiently, Yuffie nearly turned red in the face as she resisted her natural urge to yell that the only times she’d stood up all day were to get into the car then to get the greasiest burger Yuffie had ever seen at a truck stop along the way. And even then Yuffie had had to convince her that it’d be good for her to stretch her legs for a bit.
Still, Yuffie thought as she got Tifa’s luggage out of the back, she couldn’t blame her for feeling uncomfortable. They’d had to rent the biggest car they could for their trip, then get Barret to do some magic with the passenger seat to give Tifa’s belly room to breathe, which would have been an issue even if she hadn’t been so much of a marshmallow that Yuffie had to make sure she hadn’t bumped the gear stick every time she shuffled in her seat. Yuffie had placed their luggage on the other side of the car for counterbalance, but most of what they brought was Tifa’s. Yuffie always travelled light, and whatever worldly possessions she needed she could simply fetch from her home now that she was back in town. Tifa’s suitcase however was abnormally heavy, thanks to a few extra items that Yuffie had packed in…
But what had brought them all the way out to Wutai Village in the first place? the answer was simple: Yuffie had made a few calls and pulled a few strings and gotten Tifa a first-class room in the most luxurious resort hotel in Wutai, with the best food, the best service, and the best hot springs to boot. As Yuffie had phrased it, if she was going to be taking it easy in the last couple of months before her birth, she should do it in style. Naturally, she herself would be accompanying Tifa at all hours of the day, something she’d had to personally promise to Cloud to stop him from insisting on coming along, which she was intent on avoiding. Firstlyl, she felt like there was no way she could have a girls night out with him around, but also because she was already going to be flat broke by the end of this. She had no regrets though, with little need to be sitting on piles of gil and more importantly, she considered this her big gift to Tifa as congratulations.
The two entered the resort, and upon seeing the look on the receptionist’s face, Yuffie felt that perhaps describing her guest as plus-sized had underprepared them for the woman-mountain who waddled in and politely asked if their room was ready. To their credit they recomposed themselves quickly and were more understanding after Yuffie explained just how pregnant she was, and showed Tifa to their room, even if Yuffie immediately regretted picking a room on the second floor. Tifa seemed wiped out after a single flight of stairs, and collapsed onto her bed as soon as she stepped into the room, splayed out on her back and with her belly sticking up as high as Yuffie’s chest.
“Yuffie, could you order room service for us?” Tifa said a minute later after she recovered from her terrible ordeal.
“Whatever you say, milady.” Yuffie bowed. “Your personal servant will cater to any and all of your desires. However, my services are only free for this night only! Be prepared to pay the price tomorrow!”
“Mmm, whatever.” Tifa seemed too tired for her theatrics, figuring she probably just intended to take her on a tour of the village or something in exchange for helping out. Leverage was just about the only thing that was going to get her on her feet during this vacation, as Tifa fully intended to not take one step outside the resort if she could avoid it. She was just too heavy for tourism these days.
“So, what do you want me to get you?” Yuffie said, dangling the menu over Tifa’s head.
“I can’t really decide… just order everything and I’ll figure out what I like.” Tifa said without a hint of shame in her voice, too lazy to even decide for herself and taking what she thought was the path of least resistance. After all, in Wutai they gave you those little proportions, didn’t they? She could never feed her babies with something as puny as that. Yuffie winced even as she had expected an answer like that, and was very glad that she’d paid for the deluxe treatment up front. Well, she did tell her to not hold back…
–
“Oh no!” Tifa gasped, her body wobbling as she jolted upright no sooner has she placed one bloated foot into her room. She and Yuffie were wearing yukatas after a trip to the resort’s onsen, which was soon to become one of the most frequent occurrences of her trip. There was nothing better for Tifa than to sit back somewhere comfortable and zone out doing nothing, before she eventually got hungry.
“What is it? I can’t see from back here.” Yuffie asked.
“I left my wedding ring back at the hot springs! I took it off before we got in, and I just…”
“Don’t worry, I think I remember where it is, I’ll show you.” Yuffie said, and Tifa paused.
“Oh, well that’s good, there’s no need for me to come then. I’ll just order room service in the meantime…” Tifa said, only for Yuffie to put her hands on her hips.
“You don’t really expect me to walk all the way back there and make up for your mistake for free, do you?” Yuffie said. “I told you before, I’ll be charging for all of my services from now on.”
Tifa pouted. “You helped me with my suitcase earlier…”
“That was because I seriously doubted you could get that stuff out on your own.” Yuffie explained, having felt sorry for her after she’d asked Yuffie if she’d seen her suitcase while standing directly over it, the poor suitcase completely obscured by her own belly. “But there’s no reason why you can’t march over there and get it yourself.”
“But it’s so far.” Tifa whined at the idea of walking the paltry distance back.
“Then really, the price I’m offering is a bargain. You aren’t even losing a single gil!”
Tifa pursed her lips and crossed her arms, smooshing her bust upwards, the inn lacking a garment big enough to conceal her beach-ball sized cleavage. Even her arms were so fat that you could see the flab of her arms pressing into the thick fabric of the sleeves around the biceps. Eventually, she sighed and gave in.
“Alright, if you insist on being this childish, I suppose I’ll play along. Just as long as you don’t tell Cloud that I lost it!” Tifa said with a remarkable lack of self-awareness. “It’s just one orb, after all. Shall we write it down for when we get back to Midgar?”
“No need.” Yuffie gleamed, popping open Tifa’s suitcase and lifting several oversized maternity bras to reveal a glittering pile of materia just below the first layer of Tifa’s clothes, just about every one that Tifa had personally used on their journey all those years ago.
“Yuffie, you didn’t.” Tifa was unamused.
“I told you, I like to travel light.” Yuffie smirked. “I just figured I’d save myself a trip! I think I’ll start with… you!”
Yuffie plucked out a humble orb containing the power of fire, dropping it into her own cloth bag.
“If you’ve had your fun, could you please hurry and get it already?” Tifa said, rubbing her finger anxiously.
“I’ll be back before you know it.” Yuffie said, but was stopped just before she could leave.
“Actually, before you go…” Tifa said. “Could you do this up for me? It keeps getting loose, and it’s so hard to reach…”
Tifa pointed at the obi sash that was tied around her belly, already at risk of coming loose, Tifa having tied it with concern for her poor belly. With each hefty bounce on the way back it had been slowly jiggled loose, and it was on the verge of coming undone and causing Tifa’s entire bulk to flop out of her clothes.
“Whatever you say, ma’am. That’ll be one materia.” Yuffie said shamelessly, holding her hand out figuratively.
“Yuffie!” Tifa protested. “For something this simple?”
“Cloud’s not here, and I don’t work for free. And you’ve got so many lovely materia that I’m sure you won’t miss two of them.”
“Only if you agree to tie it for me for the rest of the trip.” Tifa said stubbornly, balancing her dignity vs her laziness. The obi was such a hassle, after all, despite how comfortable the yukata otherwise was.
“For the rest of the day.” Yuffie haggled. Tifa let out a long sigh of disapproval, then nodded. Yuffie quickly did it up, then scurried off back to the onsen, returning with the ring in minutes, slipping it back onto Tifa’s finger for her, then scooping up a Cure materia and giggling to herself as she dropped it into her bag, soon to resemble a robber’s sack.
Yuffie was right, Tifa thought as she spied the sparkling heap of materia and decided that it simply was not worth stressing herself over. She wouldn’t miss one or two, and Yuffie was taking the weaker ones anyway. Just for today, she’d play along and consider it paying her back for the trip…
–
Unfortunately for Tifa, what she thought was a one-time prank that Yuffie would relent over turned out to be something Yufife refused to relent on, her days at her multi-week vacation being peppered with what Tifa considered to be extortion.
“Yuffie, could you get me another cushion?” Tifa asked, casually waving for her help with one hand while her other hand worked on finishing brunch. Her ass was currently flattening two large cushions and spilling out far enough that she could feel her flab pressing into the tatami, necessitating more coverage to contain her rump. She didn’t even look away from her meal until she got no response from Yuffie, eventually turning to see Yuffie holding out her hand in return.
“That’ll be one materia, your highness.” Yuffie’s shameless grin was the first bitter taste that Tifa had experienced since her last set of particularly odd pregnancy cravings.
“Cloud would have done it for free.” Tifa grumbled, but otherwise gave in without complaint. Getting up seemed like such a pain, and would have required Yuffie’s assistance anyway. She was here to relax, and she wasn’t going to let Yuffie get to her.
The trades for materia in return for trivial tasks were both more and less frequent than Tifa expected, creeping up on her at unexpected times. Yuffie seemed to have a consistent internal code determining when and when not to request payment, ultimately boiling down to whether it was reasonable for Tifa to do it herself. If it was something that was considerably difficult considering her enormous pregnancy or the physical limitations of her bloated body at her extreme weight, Yuffie would typically do it for free. If it was simply Tifa being lazy, it was another drop in the materia bag. For Tifa herself she could hardly distinguish between the two, leading to occasional irritation that Yuffie was demanding payment for something that clearly should have been taken care of for her.
Having felt that she’d established a consistent pattern, Tifa was pouting when Yuffie asked for materia in return for helping her with her lotion.
“You can’t expect me to cover all of this by myself, can you?” Tifa gestured at herself as she undid her yukata, which came off easier than it went on.
“Oh my, lady Tifa.” Yuffie covered her mouth in an exaggerated display of surprise. “Should I take this as an admittal that you’ve put on quite a bit of weight since you became heavy with babe?”
“Only a little.” Tifa said defensively.
“A little? Then you shouldn’t have any trouble doing it yourself.”
“Alright, so maybe I’ve gotten a bit heavy.”
“A bit?”
“Alright, I’ve gotten fat! Really fat!” Tifa went red in the face and finally let it all out, her face wobbling as she ranted while trying to keep her voice down so that the employees didn’t hear them. “What did you expect? The babies are so heavy and they’re so hungry all the time and I’m hungry all the time! Of course I got fat! You’d get fat too if you were in my position! I hope that when you have kids, you have eight of them and get even fatter than me! Then I’ll be charging you for help and I’ll be charging two materia at a time!”
“Eight babies might be a big ask, but I’ll hold you to that.” Yuffie grinned, and gently removed Tifa’s yukata for her. She was surprised she finally got her to admit it only a week in, she’d thought she’d play dumb for the entire trip. “How about six? I think I can do six if I really put my mind to it.”
“Only if I get to name one of them.” Tifa was too lethargic to stay mad for long, and Yuffie kneading her puffy skin quickly calmed her down.
“And I expect a massage as well.” Tifa once again pouted, her usual expression when she received any minor pushback on being spoiled.
“That’ll be extra.”
“Whatever!”
–
Tifa eventually dozed off towards the end of her massage, giving Yuffie some time to wander around Wutai and pick out some gifts for the rest of the crew before Tifa woke up and wanted dinner.
While she was cruising Wutai she passed by a woman in her late forties who was, while respectably overweight in her own right, nowhere near Tifa’s size. Still, the woman had a large gut and thighs that rubbed together with each step, and a softness to her body that meant that you could never tell that she was once a skilled, well-renowned martial artist. Yuffie had even seen photos of her in her twenties, when she was a slim, powerful beauty. However, she’d put on a rather significant amount of weight once she had kids, and although she’d never had multiples, she’d never quite shed the weight by the time she had her next child. Her photo album went up and down as she gained weight during pregnancy, lost half of it by the time she decided to have another, then got heavier again. It hadn’t seemed like that much at the time, but it added up until she was well and truly overweight.
She’d never truly bounced back, and by the time she’d had four of them and hit thirty, gave up on the idea altogether and with it her career as a martial artist, occasionally serving as an overly plump instructor for the local children before eventually retiring when she lost the last of the flexibility it demanded. From there she’d only stagnated further after declaring that she was too busy to seriously work out anyway, ending up as the round, matronly woman Yuffie saw today.
Tifa was having so many babies off the bat that it was hard to picture her having more, and even the baby-crazy Tifa who inevitably circled back to her soon to be born children in any conversation had hardly acknowledged the possibility of getting pregnant a second time and risking putting her family in the double digits. But seeing this older woman who Yuffie had never even known in her skinny days had Yuffie thinking: even a woman who had never had a litter like Tifa had struggled to rebound. Who was to say that losing the weight would be easy, and for that matter, what if she simply went on the rebound at some point in the future?
Yuffie then had a terrible thought. Tifa’s scenario of Yuffie having as many or almost as many babies as her was a laughable thought, but the woman she’d just been thinking about had managed to get fat off of just having one at a time. What if Yuffie had kids and she found herself being unable to quite lose the weight? The idea of losing her slim figure was mortifying, and the image of a chubby ninja hanging from the roof with her pot belly sticking out was even worse. She’d never let herself go like that, right? For one thing she wasn’t even considering having kids right now, and she was certain that no matter how cute Tifa’s kids were, they wouldn’t tempt her! She’d have to find a boyfriend first for that measure. What was her type anyway? Strong, loyal, tall, kind of dumb in an endearing way, a bit of a showoff, a bit mysterious…
Wait, Yuffie scrunched up her face at the realisation. Wasn’t that just Cloud? No way she would have seriously considered it if he hadn’t been taken, right? It couldn’t just be Cloud, surely there had to be somebody else. Maybe Vincent? That guy was a total drama queen, but… no way, he was like fifty years old or something, he was in that coffin for ages! Besides, he was probably one of those brooding types who never got over his first love.
“Come on Yuffie, you’ve got to have higher standards than this! There’s plenty of fish in the sea!” Yuffie said, deciding to head back to the resort and maybe go for a swim, work on her cardio. Tifa wasn’t going to do much more than float around it and remark about how light she felt before getting out and sunbathing, so it was up to her to have a proper swim and get her money’s worth out of the facilities for her…
–
“Oh dear.” Tifa stopped halfway through the door, Yuffie accidentally walking into and bouncing off of Tifa’s enormous ass, something so wide that it felt like she could have stretched her arms out wide and been unable to wrap them around those jiggly hips. Hell,she felt like she’d have struggled to do so with a single one of Tifa’s legs, wondering if the former martial artist was stronger than she had been when she was training considering she was still able to stand at such an immense weight.
“What is it? You see something you don’t like?” Yuffie asked, self-consciously rubbing her own pert butt that she considered small and cute and had no interest in getting any bigger. She couldn’t see a thing past Tifa, who was perhaps four times Yuffie’s width at this point. Yuffie couldn’t believe how much fatter she’d gotten in the almost two months since she’d arrived in Midgar then eventually taken her on a now three week long vacation in Wutai… actually, considering that she’d gotten this fat in seven months to begin with, she really shouldn’t consider it shocking that she’d put on more than a hundred extra pounds since then, possibly more. Her belly marched on as well, and Yuffie had started tying her obi for free, as it became clear that she really couldn’t reach her navel any more in the ninth month of her pregnancy.
“No, it’s just, um…” Tifa said, her face turning red. Her neck that had been completely consumed by her second chin squashed as she tried to turn it around to face Yuffie without success, her once slender shoulders now so coated in lard that they were broader than Cloud’s, even without her pillowy biceps extending her width. They were so thick and clumsy that they were suitable for no tasks more graceful than stuffing her face, and excelled in smothering the recipients of a hug in comfortable softness. Tifa considered herself wide enough for a hug from her entire future family, as an upside of her extreme obesity. However, that wideness had finally come back to haunt her, rather than be a convenient excuse for others to do everything for her.
“What, did you get stuck?” Yuffie teased, only for Tifa to offer no response. Eventually, Yuffie was forced to say it. “You got stuck, didn’t you?”
“No! Yes! Maybe! Shut up!” Tifa seemed mortified despite how otherwise shameless she was with her weight. “I don’t know what happened, I fit through here just fine when we came here during the first week!”
“I can think of a few things that happened.” Yuffie remarked. “Man, I knew I should have brought some of that lotion with us…”
“Quit making jokes and get me through before somebody sees me!” Tifa hissed. “That’s an order! I’ll pay whatever you want, take five materia if you want, just hurry up! I just need a good push and I’m sure I can make it!”
“I have some bad news, Lady Tifa.” Yuffie said, sizing up Tifa’s furiously wriggling butt that tried and failed to dislodge her firmly squashed hips. Maybe Tifa hadn’t gotten stronger after all, or maybe she’d really lodged herself in there trying to deny reality and force her way through.. “You see, you’re all out of materia.”
“You can’t be serious right now!” Tifa exclaimed, thankful that there was a small corridor between the restaurant’s entrance and the dining room that obscured her from being seen by any other customers, but if they waited long enough somebody would either try to enter or leave and she’d be humiliatingly exposed.
“I’m quite serious. That phone call last night was your last one.” Yuffie stated. Cloud had called Tifa every night to check in on her, sometimes at odd hours thanks to his delivery job and tendency to overwork when Tifa wasn’t around to pin him down. Tifa had just gotten comfy when Cloud called, and her phone was left on the other end of the room. Too lazy to get up, she’d used Yuffie’s services despite her warnings that this might be the last one without a second thought, Yuffie having packed so many that it felt like they’d never run out. She hadn’t paid attention at all as Yuffie had scooped up rare and expensive materia that she’d considered indispensable on her journey, and finally it had come back to bite her just like her totally ignoring just how big she had gotten.
“I don’t have time for your silly materia game right now, Yuffie! Please just get me out of here!” Tifa begged, Yuffie slowly pacing around behind her, putting on what would have been a show of deciding whether or not to help her had she been able to turn around enough to see it..
“It would hurt my professional pride to work for free, Lady Tifa.” Yuffie tortured her. “If you’re out of materia, we’ll have to make do with something else… your gloves, perhaps?”
“What, you brought those too? Fine, whatever! Take them!” Tifa was confused as to why she was bringing them up, but didn’t think about it at all, merely concerned with maintaining the final shreds of her dignity.
“Are you sure? You can’t fight without those.” Yuffie warned her.
“I’m not fighting anything but this door frame right now!”
“Are you certain?” Yuffie asked strangely seriously. “First your materia, now your gloves. How do you intend to fulfil our promise?”
“Our duel? Who cares about that!? That’s never going to happen anyway! Just hurry up and get me out!” Tifa cried, and sealed her fate without realising it.
“As you wish.” Yuffie said, and with a few good shoves, finally forced Tifa through. Tifa didn’t even stumble forward thankfully, she just needed enough force to push her hips through so she could stroll through and pretend that the employees hadn’t seen her making a scene.
Yuffie helped Tifa over to her seat, or rather seats, as she put three side by side to distribute her weight and stop her from snapping the first one like a twig. Once they had ordered, Tifa finally seemed to realise the significance of what she said, and to Yuffie’s surprise, brought it up first.
“Yuffie, about what I said about her duel…” Tifa started, but was stopped by Yuffie.
“Oh, don’t worry. That might have bothered me if I was talking to Tifa Lockheart, my martial arts rival.” Yuffie said with a smile. “But coming from Tifa Strife, who has far more important things to worry about than promises made before her retirement, well, I’m not sure the gloves would even fit her. Ow!”
“You should be more sensitive about a lady’s weight.” Tifa said, leaning over and smothering a large portion of the table with her bust she reached over to give Yuffie a good bonk on the head. “Otherwise you’ll regret it when you get fat too.”
“I’m not getting fat!” Yuffie protested. “I haven’t even decided if I want to have kids either!”
“I didn’t say anything about kids.” Tifa pointed out.
“I know what you meant, I’m not stupid! You totally want me to have a bunch of kids who are even more adorable than yours so that they have somebody to play with and another mom friend!”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You were thinking it! You’re totally jealous of how cute my babies would be!”
“You don’t even have a boyfriend right now.”
“Shut up, I could totally have one if I wanted! You saw how all of the boys were looking at me whenever we were walking around!”
“I think they were looking at me instead.”
“Of course they were, it’s hard to not look at you! But they were totally checking me out too after you drew their attention!”
“Whatever you say, dear…”
–
“The trip was nice, but there’s nothing like home sweet home.” Tifa sighed, Cloud placing down her significantly lighter suitcase as Tifa sat down on the side of her bed, the frame noticeably heaving under her weight. She was out of her yukata and back into her sundress, which by now was so inadequate that Yuffie had had to rush her from the car into her house to preserve her decency.
“You don't’ have any regrets about coming home a week early?” Cloud asked cautiously, leaning in to give his wife another welcome-home big hug. “I don’t think Yuffie has left yet, I can still catch her if you don’t mind the trip back.
“Who’d want to spend another day stuffed into that tiny car just after getting out?” Tifa pointed out, although Cloud silently disputed the “tiny” part of the huge car they’d rented. “Like I said, it was nice and all, but I was getting seriously homesick towards the end. It was that or kick Yuffie out.”
“That’s not quite homesick then.” Cloud said with his usual lack of subtlety. It wasn’t Tifa’s only reason, of course. They’d planned the trip so that they wouldn’t be cutting it too close to her due date, but after Tifa hit her ninth month she’d started to grow worried that she might go into labor at any moment, and didn’t like the idea of Cloud not being there one bit.
“Well, Yuffie was insistent on getting one last girls night out, so to speak, but it’s just no fun without my special man around.” Tifa said shamelessly, lovey-dovey enough that it would have revolted Yuffie and had her declare that not bringing him along was absolutely the right pick. “Besides, I don’t think you’ll catch her. She was understanding, but she did say that she needs to get back as soon as possible so she didn’t waste her money on that last week.”
Tifa had joked to Yuffie about how now that she had a free slot she could invite her boyfriend, Yuffie huffing and puffing that Tifa knew she didn’t have one, and even she would struggle to find one she’d want to take to an expensive resort in under a week. She’d gotten very pouty when Tifa suggested that she could act on the spur of the moment and try to start a family of her own, complaining that perfect matches didn’t just grow on trees and that if she was going to have that eight babies that Tifa wanted her to have, she’d need to put in a little more prep-work than that.
Despite that Yuffie had left happy, knowing that she’d put that part of her life behind both of them.Tifa had more than deserved happiness, and it was clear that she enjoyed being pampered far more than the idea of working off all that weight. If Tifa ever decided to get back in shape, well, she’d have her gloves in perfect condition for her, with all the materia she’d ever need. But until then, she could think of a few ways to put those materia to better use than her…
“I’d better get unpacked.” Tifa said, slowly getting back onto her feet. “Then maybe I should make dinner for us for once.”
“There’s no need, I’ll get that for you. And I’ll cook, since it’s your first night back.” Cloud swiftly intervened. He wasn’t quite sure if she should get unpacked either, since she’d clearly outgrown most of what she brought with her.
Tifa was about to let him go ahead uncontested, but she couldn’t help but feel unused to being obviously pampered without Yuffie’s bratty sarcasm kicking in and demanding recompense for her so-called services. Truth be told, it was almost a little less fun that way, just having Cloud wait on her hand and foot without hesitation.
“Actually, I can’t let you do that, Cloud. Not without some payment.” Tifa said on the spur of the moment, her lips curling upwards at his cute confusion.
“What do you mean?” Cloud prompted for her to continue.
“It’s just not fair that you’re doing all of the work for me for nothing in return.”The suitcase and the cooking. That’s two things, so…”
Tifa wrapped her arms around him, pulled him tight against her taut belly covered in a layer of soft fat, and passionately kissed him, pausing for breath and then going in again. He was rosy-cheeked and trying to play it cool when she finally let him go, Tifa red in the face as well.
“Two kisses.” Tifa giggled. “Every time you do something for me that I should be doing on my own, you have to ask me for a kiss as payment, got it?”
“Got it?” Cloud seemed befuddled, but not unhappy with this turn of events.
“And you have to make me ask for it.” Tifa insisted, the idea giving her a slight tingle. This was a much more fun idea than doing it with some bratty ninja…
“Whatever you say.” Cloud said, before hurrying out of the room, unsure of how to react to his wife’s latest request. Tifa giggled again, feeling a tingle at the idea of being forced to trade favours for favours. Now she really knew what she was missing during all those weeks away from her husband…