Growing pains - Chapter 1

Nataly crouched in the corner, next to the rest of the sports equipment. She sobbed in the tight storage corridor, back turned to the door. It wasn’t easy for the gangly kid to even squeeze her way in there, next to the vaulting box… but it was private - and she didn’t want the others to see her crying. It wasn’t just that she was the tallest person in the class by a large margin at the early age of 13, taller than some of the adult teachers… they made it clear to her that she looked WEIRD. Her knobby knees, the awkward arms, the elongated neck. They still were workshopping nicknames like Mommy Longlegs, Bamboo Girl, Marionette… and they all pierced her like knives. Kids could be incredibly cruel, and she found out the hardest way possible.

But at least there she wasn’t called any names. Nataly just wanted to disappear. But she knew she would have to go back to the awkwardly small school desk - they offered to get a bigger one from the high school, but she knew it would only incentivize more taunting. No, she would have to just brave this storm.

Nataly bumped the door to the apartment open with her butt, carrying the box with her stuff in her arms. She had to be careful with her head, these old buildings had really low doors - which weren’t quite friendly for people over 6’10” tall. Her friend, Michael, brought the other two suitcases right behind her, sweating buckets and having some trouble breathing.

“Wow… huff... that is a nice place. Might need some elbow… puff... grease… but BOY, is it spacious!”

“Yeah, I wish it had an elevator, but because it’s old, the rent is pretty low. And it was the only place I found with a decent kitchen,” Nataly explained, as she leaned down uncomfortably to put the box on the sink (one of the downsides of being much taller than average, especially on older apartments - it always made her wonder, were people really that much shorter just some decades ago?), on her way down to get the last few items left in Michael’s car. As she passed him by on the stairs on her way down, the difference in height was made more obvious, which only accentuated her feelings of awkwardness. 

“Still… pretty nice to be able to afford an apartment like this while you are just starting college. I’m still stuck at the dorm, and it’s not pleasant. A lot of fun, though.”

“Yeah, they didn’t have any vacancies in the female dorm anymore when I requested one,” Nataly lied. She couldn’t bear having to be so close to the other students - the trauma of school lingered, so she got a job at a fast food restaurant and bit the bullet with this cheap apartment, “though, it’s eating every last cent of my paycheck. It’s going to be rough.”

“Well, this place is huge AND it has two bedrooms?!? Why don’t you look for a roommate to share the cost?” Nataly knew exactly why - the same reason she avoided the dorm.

“I mean, I think everyone else managed to make it into the dorms… and anyone who decided to get their own place probably could afford something better anyway, right?”

“I suppose. Still… kind of a pity. I think I would go crazy by myself in a place like this… though… you COULD host our party nights, right?” Michael had a way with words, and he certainly knew how to flatter anyone into doing his bidding.

“Actually, that might be fun. I’d love to whip up some food for the crew.”

“Awesome… so… saturday?”

That caught her by surprise. It was true she didn’t have much to unpack… but so early? Classes wouldn’t even have started by next week. She wanted free time to make sure everything was ready before committing to having people over and…

“OK, I already checked with Gina and Lara, and I know Britt is available, so we are good. I’ll bring the board games!”

“Alright, I guess there’s no stopping that train!”, Nataly thought to herself with a resigned shrug.

They continued to unpack the basics, prioritizing the kitchen. Not that Nataly had that many cooking implements quite yet - she would have to figure a way to maximize every piece and still go out to get some if she was to host game night. It did not help her anxiety.

They were interrupted by an old lady clearing her throat at the door, bringing a tray of cookies.

“Oh, hi, deary. I’m your next door neighbor. I just came to leave some cookies as a welcome gift! Hope you fit well into our little community.”

Nataly accepted the tray with gratitude and a shy smile, nodding but having a hard time to start a proper conversation. The old lady seemed like she wanted to continue talking (gossiping, more like it), but Michael intervened, taking the cookies and explaining they wanted to hurry and finish the move before the cutoff time to bring stuff as per the building’s rules.

“Ah, nice to see your husband cares about rules.”

“Uh, Mike’s not my husband. Or my boyfriend. He’s just helping me with the heavy boxes.”

“Oh. I see.” Nataly felt judged and scrutinized in ways that made her feel very nervous. But the old lady gave one last look inside the apartment and bid her farewell.

“I swear, every building has one of these old ladies…” Michael vented.

“Well, she seemed nice enough, I guess…” she mused, trying to start her mental list of what she would need to host game night.

Nataly whipped up her famous deviled eggs, still working in the kitchen with her apron hanging loosely from her bony shoulders, and despite being a rather long one, barely getting to her knees. The crew was already deep into a match of their railway building game, but she decided to skip that one as she finished the snacks and drinks.

“Well, FUCK YOU, Britt! I wanted to make a station there!” Lara, in her usual outspoken way, got a bit carried away.

“Oh, my bad. But you still have the longest railroad so far. I’m sure you are going to do great!” Britt was so cheery it almost made Lara sick.

“Come on, Lara, at least until I wipe the floor with you before you go all sore loser on us, that’s the deal.” Michael knew how to push her buttons. Hell, he knew how to push EVERYONE’s buttons and get away with it.

Then the confusion was interrupted by a knock on the door. Nataly, still wearing her oven mitts and apron, rushed to the door,

“Hello, deary,” the old lady said, already peeking into the apartment from outside as the door was opened, “everything all right here? Sounded like a ruckus, you aren’t throwing a party at this hour, are you?”

Nataly was confused. There was no loud music, and they certainly weren’t being THAT rowdy, especially for college students. She even looked at her watch, to double-check that it wasn’t incredibly late. It wasn’t. “No, just having some friends over for board games.” She tried to peek inside a bit more while Nataly spoke.

“Ah. Glad to see you and your friends don’t seem to be the type that do drugs. Just keep it at a decent volume, please. Some of us need their rest.”

“No worries! Have a good night!” Nataly said, rushing back to the kitchen. Hopefully her neighbor wasn’t going to be the building police - it made her very anxious to imagine that kind of scrutiny on a regular basis.

Nataly placed the tray with the beautifully arranged deviled eggs on the table, along a pitcher of lemonade. Pulling a chair, she sat to watch the rest of the match, waiting to join in on the next game they decided to play.

“So, this place is amazing, Nataly,” Lara’s girlfriend, Gina, interjected in an attempt to stop the tussle. “I wish we could have gotten such a large apartment for ourselves.”

“Yeah, I’d fuck on a different room each day!” Lara completed, before stealing a kiss.

“I’m still working on it, but I do like it a lot,” Nataly responded, “but they are decreasing my hours at Burger Emperor after… the accident.” She blushed. “So it’s going to be an issue to pay for next month’s rent.

“Oh, why don’t you get a roommate? Sure this place could fit someone else - you don’t need that second room as an office, right?” Gina suggested.

“But where am I going to find some other student now that classes are starting in two days? Everyone should be settled already at this point…” Nataly sounded defeated.

“Wellllll, actually, remember Alexandre, from our class in third grade? She had to switch here last minute - I heard she’s looking for a place to stay.” Lara said casually.

Did she remember Alexandre? Of course she did.

“STOP RIGHT NOW!”

Alexandre threw rocks at the kids, who ran away… probably going to tattle on her to some teacher. But she didn’t care.

“You okay, Nat?”

Nat was curled down by the tree, shaking. Alexandre offered her a hand, and she took it tentatively.

“These boys, I hate them so much. You have no idea how much fun they made of my name. And my haircut. Well, if they think I’m a boy, I am CERTAINLY going to show them how to put up a fight. Hmph!”

Nataly got up, towering over Ale.

“Though… you know you could probably wipe the floor with them? I know you are skinny and all, but they are a bunch of wimps. And hey, you got the reach, right?”

Nataly wiped her tears, and showed a weak smile. Ale was the one person who stood up against the bullies.

“I haven’t spoken to her in ages!” Nataly replied, “Not since her parents moved… what was it, in fourth grade?”

“Yeah, that’s the one. We dated for a bit, during summer camp. Boy, she got REALLY HOT!” Lara said, and made Gina scowl. “Not as hot as you, though, babe.” (“her huge boobs, though, woweee!”, she mumbled under her breath). Still, after I DUMPED HER”, Lara emphasized for her current girlfriend, “she got really serious about working out. I heard she’s got abs and everything these days.” “Yeah, I’ll get you her contact, she called me last week, saying she had to transfer and was looking for a place around these parts. She would probably be really grateful. And she’s not too hard to deal with, unlike SOME people who are neat freaks!” Lara elbowed Gina in a friendly but provocative way.

“Hey! There’s a difference between being a neat freak and not wanting to live in a pigsty!” Gina replied.

Wow, Nataly hadn’t seen Alexandre in forever. Things got even harder when she moved away… not only was she one of the rare kids that never teased her about her height and gangly build, but also went out of her way to defend her. She would not have to worry about being teased. Right?

Nataly’s heart was beating out of her chest. While she tended to be overly verbose on text messages, Alexandre clearly was the opposite - half the conversation had been replied only with “k” or a thumbs up or other random emoji. It made her extremely nervous. How much had she changed in all these years? And how she was already coming with her stuff to move in? Was this a really bad idea after all? Nataly fell into one of her mental spirals as she waited anxiously by the door, munching on a large cup of cucumber and carrot sticks - it was a bad habit to just binge eat whenever she got stressed, and as it was she was quite the eater since a young age - it kept making her think of all the times her mom refilled her plate and talked about her being a growing girl and reminding her of her unusual height, which was a constant source of strife for the poor girl. // perfect place to add a short line of ‘ and her height also dind’t help there.

“Knock knock!” She heard the excited voice, opening the door she stood patiently in front of. As she opened the door, she could barely recognize Alexandre - sure, she still sported the same tomboyish haircut and was still shorter than her… now MUCH shorter, in fact, given Nataly’s growth spurt since… but MAN, did she fill up!

“Hey, Nat! Whoa, the tall girl got even taller! Way to make us shorties feel more self-conscious! Ha! Still… long time no see, huh? Whoa, Lara wasn’t kidding about the apartment. This is a fucking mansion here! And I get my own room? Jackpot!!!”

While Alexandre tried very hard not to dwell on her new roommate’s astronomical height (which she always found quite alluring even when the delta between them wasn’t nearly as huge), Nataly stared at Ale’s breasts, which hadn’t even begun developing back then… but now… DAMN!

“If you will excuse me…” Ale stepped around Nat, who was frozen in place, bringing in two large suitcases. That was the second thing Nataly noticed. Alexandre’s breasts had not only dominated her figure… but her entire body thickened considerably. And not fat, either… she looked rounded and firm all over.

“Here, let me help!” Alexandre followed her, and offered to grab one of the suitcases.

“Sure, your funeral!” She handed over the suitcase with a smirk… and as Nataly tried to grab the handle, she let it fall to the ground, unable to hold its weight.

“Whoa, this is heavy!” Nataly said, concerned she might have let something break.

“Yup, sure is. These aren’t just for show, after all!” Alexandre said, rolling her sleeve and flexing, a nice lemon-sized ball popping up on her upper arm. Nataly’s jaw almost fell to the floor - it never crossed her mind that girls could have muscles like this, despite Lara’s earlier comments. But more importantly, something clicked in her brain, neurons firing in ways that made her stomach drop and her mouth salivate. It was an entirely alien response, as she had never experienced lust in that way before in her life. 

“Heh. Yeah, I became a bit of a gym rat these last couple of years. Really paying off too!” She slapped her own ass, which protruded nicely from her waist. “So, no worries, I got the suitcase. Thanks for offering, though!”

And with that she continued making her way to her new room. It would take a few minutes for Nataly to move again, still processing everything.

It had been a crazy first week, getting used to the new schedule, but Nataly was doing her best. Even with the shorter shift at the burger joint, she still found herself studying most of her free time. Not that was anything new for her - her entire life, Nataly felt insecure about herself, and over studying was a coping mechanism - despite always knowing the content well, her nervous nature meant she constantly did terrible in tests… though she could probably teach some of the classes due to her enormous dedication.  All that studying, however, was made a bit harder… because Alexandre wasn’t really helping, even if it wasn’t her fault.

“... nine… ten… twelve!”

She finished her concentration curls, the 25 pound weight not quite enough to distract Nataly’s eyes from watching the pumped biceps between sentences, not really absorbing the theory. It only got worse as her roommate, in little more than a sports bra and shorts, grabbed a second dumbbell and started doing some bulgarian squats.

“How are you finding enough time to study, Ale… you know, with all this working out you’ve been doing?”

“Nat, it’s like the first week. You seriously are already studying? You need to chill. College is the time to have fun!”

Nataly was doubly impressed - firstly, because Alexandre seemed to have little interest in studying, but learned she came in with great grades, which allowed her to get a scholarship, even transferring at the last minute. But secondly, because she was doing all that exercise and was barely winded at all!

“Though… you are right about the workout. Using these weights sucks. There’s gotta be a gym somewhere near here, right? It would make it so much simpler and more efficient.”

“Uh… I think they have a pretty good one on campus, didn’t they tell you?”

Ale put her weights down. She had that devious look again, that Nataly had learned pretty quickly that meant she was up to no good. “Say, why don’t we both join the gym? You could use some filling up that frame, I bet you’d look smoking hot!”

“Me? Weights? Don’t you remember what a wimp I am?”

“So was I, not that long ago. But this stuff? It’s addictive, Nat. And I really think it would suit you. Actually, doubly so - you would look great with some meat on those bones, but I see how you commit to stuff. I bet you’d love the grind.”

Nataly was somewhat reluctant to indulge her roommate. Part of her felt like she would just be setting herself up for failure - especially with someone as good as Ale. But… maybe it would be nice, not only to share a hobby, but perhaps she COULD benefit from it?

“It’s decided, we are doing this, even if I have to drag you.” Alexandre wiped her forehead, that contagious smile making it harder to say no to.

“But where am I going to find the time?” She looked at the mess Ale contributed to in the apartment, as well as her pile of books she intended on studying. It all generated a background noise of anxiety in her head.

“You know what? I’ll take one for the team. I bet they open early, we could get up at like 5am, jog there… that will get us warmed up… then we can hit the weights and be ready for class by 7am.”

“Wow, you must really mean it if you are willing to wake up this early for me!”

“What can I say, Nat, I’m the coolest roommate ever. And don’t you forget it!”

After making the arrangements, that Tuesday was going to be their first day to hit the campus gym. Ale came out of her room, still groggy, only to find Nataly already almost done making breakfast.

“Sorry, I had to make bacon and eggs for today because we need to use them up, but I did some research over the weekend, and I found some amazing keto protein pancakes, which I’ll make starting tomorrow.”

“Damn, girl, how are you not married already? I think I’m in love!”

They both laughed.

Nataly wished she had grabbed her camera to film Alexandre’s reaction to the gym. It really was a huge, state of the art facility (not that she could tell the difference, but her roommate sure could, given her face). She felt slightly bad for not sharing her excitement… it really looked like any other modern adaptation of a medieval torture dungeon for her. No, she told herself, she wasn’t going to be negative about this - not that she could, because Ale would surely beat it out of her.

Nataly was quite embarrassed, wearing her full sweatshirt and sweatpants ensemble, a far cry from Ale’s revealing sports bra and shorts. It was a shocking sight: Nataly’s brain couldn’t quite wrap around the idea that a woman could, well, have MUSCLES. They weren’t huge exactly, but large and defined enough that could be glimpsed even at rest. But even more impressive, she would soon learn, they somehow GREW when contracted, creating these amazing sculptured curves that blew her mind. All Nataly could do is compare her own skinny and shapeless limbs and feel somewhat inadequate… she certainly would never get to that level, but perhaps she could improve things a bit?

Still, Ale could not be nicer, as she had already come up with a beginner’s workout routine for her friend. She walked Nat through each exercise, explaining in simple terms how they worked, which muscles were being exercised and correcting her form. For once in her lifetime, she seemed to be patient - which only increased Nat’s admiration. That, and the fact that whenever Ale would do a similar exercise, she would load anything between three and four times the load she had prepared for her starting equivalent.

That first workout was a bit gruesome. It’s not that Nataly was out of shape, but this was all so new, so strange and different. But it was still quite hard. She found herself sweating and pushing through the pain… which she had been dreading over the weekend, but now that it was actually happening, she couldn’t quite explain why or how…

… but it was cathartic. There was no frustration. Instead, she felt exciting, especially during the rare exercise she actually had to increase the weights from the almost minimal load Ale had set up for her. She saw the pile of metal, the pin being inserted on the first ring, and it kinda tempted her to challenge herself to get to that bottom rung someday. “Yeah, right!”, she told herself, “like that would ever happen. Still…”

It was almost instinctual, but Nataly daydreamed about filling up with muscles like Ale’s. She envision her long limbs not as the awkward spindly and bony appendages that gave her a weird look, but as a curvy and powerful woman… and that same sensation she felt when Ale first flexed her arm when she arrived at the apartment travelled through her spine like a shock, making her brain and loins react. It was a dangerous rabbit hole she started getting sucked into, and before she knew it, she was scanning the gym, looking at other people’s beefy legs and cobbled abs, and adding all of those to her montage of a hypothetical buff Nataly. It just kept building from there, as she imagined herself capable of incredible feats like lifting other people in the air…  

“Wow, Ale, you were right… it DOES feel like a high!”

“Wait to thank me until tomorrow. You are probably going to be quite sore. But it’s totally worth it. And the first one is the worst, believe me. It gets better after that.”

Nataly felt strangely giddy. It was like the gym was the one thing that brought them closer, they seemed like opposites otherwise. That, and she couldn’t quite bring herself to admit just how hot Ale looked at the gym - she didn’t want to make things awkward between them.

It started hitting Nataly in the afternoon of the following day. It did hurt to move, like a little burning squeeze every time her body did some specific twists and turns. It made carrying her bag to class quite the awkward affair. But she wasn’t about to give up. Not by a longshot. In fact, Nataly went into a bit of a spiral - now she divided her study time between her academics… and her newfound passion for nutrition and exercise. Sure, Alexandre was a great instructor… but her mind was curious, almost to the point of obsession. Part of her was already trying to rationalize how big she could potentially get - at first more modestly, thinking of curvy girls, but eventually venturing into the size of a serious athlete. And before she knew, she was already looking up how big female bodybuilders got. But it wasn’t only a matter of size. No. Nataly imagined this parallel life in which she was confident and self-assured. A reality in which she not only didn’t have to feel ashamed, but was actively admired… no, VENERATED for her shapely body. Intrusive thoughts mixed together, in which she was both seen as an object of lustful thirst, but also as a feared force of nature of unimaginable strength. This quantic conversion of fantasy, desire and hope coalesced into an idealized image of an impossible Nataly. She had officially opened Pandora’s Weightlifting Box.

Still, they were back on Thursday, and Nataly begged Ale not to go easy on her, which was music to her ears. Soon, they were already going to the gym Monday through Saturday, and it was the highlight of their day.

That, until Alexandre got sick.

“ARGH! MONO SUCKS!!!”

“Well, you like taking it easy - aren’t you glad you have me to take care of you? You can just stay in your room, and I’ll bring your books and food to your door and take care of it all. Plus, now you have an excuse to cram for your tests!”

Part of Nataly was actually a bit giddy about it, not only because there was some schadenfreude of watching the feisty Ale having to chill and study… but also… she got quite a kick from taking care of her. She got to get her studying materials, cook meals, she wasn’t sure what it was, but it just got her all excited. The only downside was, she would have to hit the gym alone for the next month.

And what a month it was! Without Alexandre around, Nataly delved deeper into her workouts than ever before. She had just started one month before, but now it was like she got in a trance. She used the earbuds Ale had given her as a gift, and it was like she wasn’t even human anymore - just a machine to crank out reps. And since there was no one to suggest the load, she just kept pushing harder and harder. And she got addicted to that burn. She needed it, more and more. She sought it, and couldn’t rest until she pushed herself to her absolute limit.

Not only was she cranking out more exercise while she was there since she had zero distractions, but without Ale to slow her down in the mornings, she started waking up an hour earlier, and staying an extra 90 minutes at the gym for each session. And all that studying she did really paid off, as she had been tweaking and improving her routine.

Her eating habits had started to change dramatically as well. While she mostly made soup and sandwiches for Ale, she started getting slightly (yeah, right) obsessed with her own diet. She went hardcore into the world of macros, prepared meals and counting every bit of each type of nutrient going into her body - all of which, she quickly found out, started increasing in amount very fast.

Somehow, those weeks passed by in a blur. Ale grumbled all the way through, feeling pretty shitty due to the mononucleosis. Stuck in her room, she occasionally joked about Nataly “better not overtaking her at the gym,” as well as fantasizing about the dishes that she would have her cook when she was feeling better. That, and the fact that if she had to read one more book, she would commit an act of terrorism. She would rarely leave the room, mostly to use the bathroom, and other than meal prep time, Nataly would mostly study in her own room as well to diminish the risk of contagion.

But there was one day, in the very middle of the night, that Ale woke up from a bad nightmare, still woozy. She was probably at the tail end of the sickness, but she really needed to go to the bathroom. And so she got up, still feeling dizzy, and walked out of her room and down the corridor to the bathroom.

As she came back, she saw a figure in the kitchen. It was a massive person, making something in the dark of the kitchen. Her vision was a bit fuzzy and it was pretty dark, but it didn’t seem like an intruder. Mostly likely, she figured, Nataly had hooked up with some bodybuilder from the gym. Well, Ale couldn’t really blame her… though she felt a pang of regret and jealousy. Still, she didn’t want to bother her roommate, so she went back to her room.

When she woke up the next day, she was actually feeling much better. Maybe the worst was behind her! So she jumped out of bed, put some skimpy underwear on, and slammed her door open with her foot.

“GOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING, VIETNAAAAAAAAM!!!” She enjoyed a little bit of drama every now and then, and she had kept it bottled up for waaaaaay too long. And as she looked, she saw Nataly, wearing an oversized (even for her) T-shirt.

“So, you got lucky last night, huh? Wink wink, nudge nudge!” she said, as she elbowed her roommate. Wow, really solid. Alexandre knew she had lost a ton of muscle while sick, but still…

“What?” Nataly seemed absolutely confused.

“I saw the fucking bodybuilder you brought home yesterday. Hey, it’s okay, I don’t judge. I like ‘em big, boys and girls alike. No shame!”

Nataly was beyond befuddled. She put a hand on Ale’s forehead, concerned she had a high fever and was hallucinating. “Are you sure you should be up? I think you might be as good as you think…”

“Are you shitting me? I need to hit that gym, PRONTO! I can’t let my guns melt into oblivion!” And as she said that, she flexed her arms into a double-biceps pose, still showing somewhat respectable biceps, perhaps a bit smaller than when they met again, but she gained some decent mass in that month they trained together… all gone now, though, and then a bit.

“Cool!” Nataly said, and instinctively did the same. Alexandre, however, was not quite ready for what she witnessed: two HUMONGOUS SLABS OF MEAT, stretching the oversize tee to breaking limit, as shoulders like boulders lifted the entire piece of fabric up, enough to easily pass for a guy who was very serious about developing muscle.

Ale audibly gasped, blinking rapidly as she could not even get a single word out. She just pointed, confused, at her roommate, who looked like someone who’d been training for years and ready to sweep a bikini contest with ease.

“WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED WHILE I WAS SICK?!?” Ale screamed, her hands flying like guided missiles to Nat’s guns, her hands barely able to wrap around the mountains of muscle that materialized in front of her.

“Oh, yeah,” Nat blushed, “I hope you don’t mind, I’ve been tweaking your routine, I think I’m progressing quite nicely, don’t you think?”

Ale pulled her hands away, squeezing her hands open and closed repeatedly, jaw still partially down. She pinched herself, but no, that was no dream. That was reality. Her hot roommate had become a fucking Greek statue while she was sick. How was that even possible?

“I’ve made some of the high-protein pancakes, I know you don’t love those, but I have some blueberries and syrup you can add, I’m sure they’ll be great. I’m glad you seem to be feeling more energetic.” 

Ale put her hands together in front of her mouth, doing something she rarely did: she thought long and hard for the right words to say next.

“You motherfucker. You are some kind of genetic bodybuilding freak.”

Nataly felt horrible at that comment, and her face made that clear.

“No, no, that’s not a bad thing, Nat! That is like fucking winning the freaking lottery. And you got the Super Mega Mother of All Jackpots. If this is where we got you…”

“Well, you helped a lot, but I feel like lately it’s been mostly me…”, Nataly interjected, shyly.

“... now, I can’t even IMAGINE where we’ll get you in the next 10 months. Holy shit!!!”

Nataly let out a smile, finally being able to feel proud of herself. She had gotten so lost into working towards the next goal that she never stopped to take stock of what she had accomplished. She pulled her shirt off, and Ale literally fell down backwards on the sofa.

Nataly had morphed into a muscle goddess, her body filling up from the gangly teen into a powerful looking woman, every inch of muscle giving her a very feminine figure… perhaps except for the powerful yet extremely lean chest.

“I don’t care if it kills me, we are hitting that gym tomorrow, I need to see these muscles in action with my own eyes.”

“Shouldn’t you take it slow and recover properly…” she couldn’t finish the thought.

“SHHHHH! I’ve spent far too long in that room. And you fucking held out on me all these weeks, have you no shame?!?”

They indeed hit the gym that next day. Alexandre hit the weights like a woman possessed, knowing she would pay a much higher price than just the momentary burning she felt as she pushed herself harder than ever before. But that was far from being the highlight. No, she had been there to watch Nataly. And watch Nataly she did. “Watch” was perhaps not the correct word. She stared. Nataly, usually quite absorbed in her workout, felt almost violated - certainly very self-conscious, and most definitely embarrassed. But Ale could do little more than gawp at the amazing display of strength and form in front of her. Nataly was not only lifting twice as much as she had at her peak, powering through in her own messy way, but still more than respectable. Who was she kidding? It was damn impressive - and really put on display as Nataly’s ragged and oversized workout tank top kept her ripped and veiny shoulders, arms, part of her pecs and even her midsection on full display. The outfit ironically made her look like a stereotypical gymbro, which frankly someone glancing at her from behind could easily confuse her for. It was quite a far cry from pretty much every woman in the gym, who tended to wear sporty body-hugging spandex - and also not sport even a small percentage of that insane muscularity.   

“Wah! This was a nice warm-up!”

Ale just stared, looking pissed at her friend.

“Warm… up?”

“Yeah…” Nataly added another 50% to the load, now looking like the exercise was an actual challenge, but still keeping the same slightly-off form, except for the very last two reps, in which she struggled and swung quite a bit… but finished anyway.

“I hate you…” Ale mumbled, as she got back to her own exercise, feeling like a powerless ant.

It took some two months, but Ale was finally getting back to her previous shape. Having Nataly around made her try extra-hard… and her cooking had also been an amazing nutritional blessing, as she tended to be a bit too irresponsible to plan and make proper meals.

“Come on, you can do it, Ale! That’s impressive” Nataly cheered, as her roommate did her second set of incline leg presses. She knew it wasn’t meant to be condescending, but it did feel a bit like it. Even Ale could outlift a lot of the guys, her max was still a smidge under Nat’s warm-up load. Still, she knew her friend meant well.

They had really come together at the gym - while their idiosyncrasies at home put them at odds, they totally transformed when they were working out with each other: it was constantly elevating and pushing their partner to the absolute limit, positive reinforcement, and just a great positive feedback loop.

But as they wrapped up their cardio that day, Nataly looked anxiously at her watch.

“Shit! I’m going to be late!” Alexandre looked at her, confused. There was plenty of time till her first class.

“I thought your first class was after lunch today.”

“No, I have a job interview. I didn’t really do well at the burger place - I kept trying to adjust the level of salt, and my manager was none too happy. I tried walking dogs for a while, but a lot of them were a bit afraid of me, so that didn’t last long…” She slowed down the treadmill as she explained, “So I got this interview with this online moving company… yay for the gig economy, I guess?”

Ale felt bad, she knew Nataly was capable of so much more - but just like she didn’t test well, she was really bad at interviews… despite putting in so much effort. It almost made her feel guilty at her natural talent for acing both consistently without even trying.

Ale was lying down on the sofa, toned calves hanging in the air, reading a book to relax. Nataly came in, wearing the weird overalls that she needed to put on for the moving jobs she got sent online, this time covered in dust. She kept getting those at the weirdest hours because that’s what she could fit in her schedule - and the fact she had gotten consistent 5-star reviews because she tried to please a little too much and kept getting abused by clients to do more or harder work than she was being paid for. It really nagged Alexandre.

Ale got up from the sofa: “All yours, Nataly!” Her large friend fell like a tree, shaking the apartment a bit, as she sighed. “How did it go?”

“Old lady wanted to get a piano moved out of her attic. I have no idea how it got there in the first place, but the room looked like it hadn’t seen a human soul in a century. It was so dusty I had to clean it up first to make sure it wouldn’t slip. And I had to bring it down, with no equipment, down two floors. She wouldn’t stop nagging me to be careful not to scratch it, because it belonged to her husband.”

“Nataly, I thought you weren’t supposed to do dangerous stuff that requires special equipment. A piano seems to fit that description.”

“Well, it was one of those upright pianos, so it wasn’t THAT bad.” Alexandre only tapped her foot, arms crossed, as she looked disapprovingly.

“That’s it. You are done with this. I can’t in good conscience allow you to do this. Grab your laptop, we are giving your resume a glow-up and putting it out, because I can’t handle you doing this menial work. It’s below you.”

“It really isn’t, you know?” Nataly tried to argue, but Alexandre had already grabbed her laptop, opened it, and input the passcode that she knew by heart by now. Before Nataly could say where she kept her resumes, Alexandre had used the search tool and opened it.

“Nope. Nuh-huh. Oh, interesting. Okay, THAT I can use. We are cutting these. You can TOTALLY bullshit that you are better at this.”

Nataly tried, unsuccessfully, to participate in the process, but only managed to respond to a few questions as her resume was souped up by her roommate. Ale’s overbearing personality was still a bit of a challenge for Nataly, but her own insecurity kept her from standing up to her. It was quite impressive, really, how effortlessly Ale worked her magic, like some kind of professional maestro conducting her work experience into an impressive document… even if it wasn’t entirely truthful. Alexandre insisted that’s just how these things go.

“And now, let’s put you into a bunch of these sites… we can send some manually to places you are interested in. Say, what DO you want to work with, Nataly?”

The taller woman looked at her roommate like a deer under headlights, eyes open wide and avoiding her gaze. “I mean, I’m SURE you have some stuff you like… or are interested in, right?”

“Well, uh, sure, I guess? I love cooking…”

“That is nice, but I don’t think you have the free time and/or the experience to make a culinary career your first option right now, unless you are thinking of opening your own business. I suppose we could try making an online store for you to sell baked goods? Though… it would probably require an initial investment you are probably not quite ready for right now…”

“I guess I am okay with doing anything that uses my abilities. And I did enjoy helping people…”

“Great, maybe a position in retail…”

“... except, I’m not much of a people person. I am not sure I could convince someone to buy something. Not even certain I’d approach someone on my own. And lately, people have been a bit… intimidated… by me.”

“I guess that’s true. Maybe we lean on that? Bouncer?”

“I don’t know that I want to hurt anybody…”

“Girl, who needs to hurt when you can literally scare people into being orderly?”

“I suppose…”

After looking for some job postings and sending some resumes around, Nataly went to take a shower. Alexandre felt proud of herself, feeling like she had actually helped her friend. Now it was just a matter of waiting.

As midterms approached, Nataly had been stuck studying, while Alexandre seemed mostly concerned about her Halloween costume. Without asking, Ale just removed the earbuds she gave Nataly, the buzz of power metal still blaring as she asked:

“So, what do you think? Sexy Gumball Machine or Sexy Traffic Light?”

“I am really confused how these two things are supposed to be sexy,” Nataly replied, nose still stuck in the economy book.

“Well, I really wanted a costume I could highlight my best ‘assets’,” she said, cupping her voluptuous breasts and shaking each up and down in an alternating motion, “so I started from concepts that would allow me to paint them each a different color as part of the costume.”

“Yeah, great idea. Go with that.”

“Which one?”

“The one that you paint them.”

“That’s both of them, though. You aren’t really paying attention, are you?”

“Yeah, sure. Good idea.”

Ale groaned and rolled her eyes. “You are no fun sometimes, you know that?”

“Uh huh. Yeah.”

“I am going to post your picture in underwear on the campus message board, you looked really cute in your frilly underwear.”

“Great, sure.”

Alexandre kinda wanted to go ahead with that out of spite, but the truth is, she really treated that candid she took like her biggest treasure. She sighed, and went back to look at the options for her costume.

“Aren’t you going to make your own costume?” Ale asked, actually curious about how Nataly planned to go to the party.

“Oh. I’m not much for Halloween parties. But you have fun and tell me all about it later. Now I really need to get back to studying, though.”

Alexandre threw her arms to the air, indignant. “YOU ARE FUCKING COMING TO THE PARTY, AND THAT’S NON-NEGOTIABLE! You’d better have SOME plan for your costume, babe.”

“I really don’t do Halloween, never did.” Nataly realized how weird that was, but the very social aspect of dressing up and going out to stranger’s houses had always made her overly self-conscious. Before she knew it, Halloween had become triggering for her, and by her late teens she already avoided parties to begin with - Halloween parties, doubly so.

“Oh, baby, I don’t know if I should feel pity or anger right now.” Ale took her book away, holding it behind her back. Nataly looked at her, half exasperated, half tired. “We are planning your costume, then you can get back to your book.”

“But I suck at sewing, and I can’t really afford buying one.” Nataly whined, trying to reach for the book behind Ale without getting off her chair, still slumping.

“It doesn’t need to be something super elaborate. Maybe we can theme it around something you already have. Like, we can use that funky 80s neon leotard you have, get a headband, and you could go as Jane Fonda. You know, let you… ahem display your assets.” Alexandre had this way of enunciating words that made anything she said sounding sexual. She could probably say ‘tertiary interest rates’ in that voice and it would sound lewd, Nataly thought to herself.

“Assuming I were to do that, you really think I would leave the apartment in swimwear, and just go to a party? What would people think?”

“Well, I can tell from personal experience. ‘HOT!’; ‘SEXY!’; ‘WHOA, THAT’S A BUFF BABE!’; ‘CHOO CHOO’... I could go on.”

Nataly sighed, looking at herself. “You really think so?”

“Girl, don’t mean to sound rude, but you are the finest piece of ass this side of the equator.”

“But don’t people get intimidated by my size?”

“Literally best of both world, Nataly! You got a bunch of people lusting after you, minus the creeps who think they can just have their way. I’m kinda jelly, really.”

Nataly had a confused smile, happy to hear the affirmation, but still really weirded out by the idea of going to a party.

“Listen, how about… we go, and if you aren’t comfortable, it’s not like you can’t just leave and come back here at any point. How’s that for a plan?”

Nataly, not the best one at handling peer pressure, buckled at that proposal, even though she had this nasty feeling on the back of her mind saying she was going to regret that…

“Are you sure it’s safe for me to leave the house like this?” Nataly shouted from her bedroom.

“One, there have been no incidents on campus for almost a whole semester - and they had that parade where a fourth of the people protested in the nude. Two… I pity the fool who tries to mess up with Xenataly, Warrior Princess.”

Nataly tentatively came out of the room in her aerobics throwback outfit, which made Alexandre laugh nervously - causing Nataly to blush and cover herself unsuccessfully - it would take a circus tent to even TRY to cover those tree trunk legs, cobbled abs, jutted pecs and beefy arms. The swimsuit hugged her midsection very much like a second skin, weirdly sagging on her chest because it expected round mammaries where her pectoralis instead stretched it across instead of forward. But even with the weird fit, it was hard to deny she looked incredibly hot.

“Forgive my reaction, it’s just… WOW! I knew you were going to look good, but you look so hot it made my brain go ZOINK for a second there.”

Nataly uncovered herself, that weak smile driving Ale even crazier. It was so cute how awkward she got. And so Ale grabbed her hand, and dragged her towards the party.

Ale was a social butterfly, and had already interacted with half of the dozens of people at the party. It did help that her elaborate Sexy Railroad Crossing Light (complete with blinking LEDs over her nipples and a working gate) made a lot of people come in to congratulate her. Nataly had installed herself in a corner, having the non-alcoholic punch and sticking to herself mostly. Alexandre brought a few people towards her, talking up her incredible skills in making the mechanical gate that allowed her to raise and lower it from a mount on her hips.

“This girl here, boy, I bet she could fix a car with her eyes blindfolded. Can you believe she rigged this little baby here?”

People tried to strike up a conversation, but Nataly still felt awkward. A lot of men and women came up to her, both to compliment her physique as well as try to guess who she was supposed to be dressed as. So far, no one had managed, though she lost count of the amount of people raving about her visible abs through the spandex leotard. She would smile and nod, but otherwise, the conversation went nowhere fast… and people would disengage.

“Hey, are you okay, Nataly?”

“Ah, sure. I’m good, yeah.”

“You don’t seem to be having a lot of fun…”

Nataly shrugged. “Not really my beat, I guess?”

Alexandre’s mouth scrunched, her lips moving left and right. She wanted her friend to enjoy herself, but how?

And as if the gods themselves listened to her inner plea, Todd, the captain of the school’s football team (dressed as Pikachu, it was actually quite adorable, given his huge frame), shouted that the armwrestling competition was about to start.

When Ale turned her head back to look at Nataly, she could see her ears had perked up, her eyes widened, and a hint of a smile came through her partially opened lips.

“Can we, Alexandre? Please, can we?!?” She pleaded like a kid begging for a puppy to her parents.

“Babe, not sure if you got this, but I’m not your chaperone. You don’t need my permission. Go get them, tiger!”

“You are joining is as well, though, right?”

“Well,” Ale started rotating her shoulder, bringing her elbow back as if warming up for a baseball pitch, “I guess I can’t let my girl got at it alone, even if she’s going to humiliate half the football team.”

“All.”

“What?”

“I’m going to humiliate ALL of the football team!” She had the smile of a cat who was about to eat the bird. Her childish innocence was so adorable Ale wanted to squeeze her cheeks right there and then.

Todd handled everyone who wanted to participate, putting every name into a bracket on the whiteboard. Nataly and Alexandre were on opposite sides.

“Guess I won’t be facing you unless we both make it to the finals…” Nataly said, slightly disappointed.

“Well, that means I don’t get knocked off too soon. Besides, not like you can’t wipe the floor with me at home at any time. I’ll indulge your thirst for armwrestling any second there. But now… we need to get our mind in THIS game.”

Nataly was so giddy, it was actually making Alexandre slightly apprehensive. She just didn’t want her to get TOO disappointed if she lost. Having arm wrestled A LOT during that summer camp, she learned a lot of technique and knew it was just as important, perhaps even more so, than raw strength. So she hurried as she tried to coach Nataly - but her name got called early on, stopping her plans almost immediately.

Alexandre took off her gate-belt contraption, sat across some bimbo, clearly some sorority girl that wanted to do it in order to look dainty… she could see through her so obviously it wasn’t even funny. But that didn’t keep her from plotting, as she was known to do.

They grabbed hands, Alexandre’s biceps revealing a curve through the sleeve of her metallic bodysuit, but probably would not notice, seeing as the bimbo had so much cleavage out hardly anyone would be paying attention to arms. The devious smile on Alexandre’s face slightly confused the bimbo, but she was so busy trying to force her boobs up and look ditzy that she didn’t have enough brainpower to deal with that.

Todd himself put his hand over the grappled fingers, and gave the GO sign. The bimbo gave a soft moan and made a fake sexy face of effort… but Ale wasn’t about to play along. She squeezed her hand hard, making her stop and wince, and pulled the bimbo’s hand BACKWARDS, as if she was losing. Alexandre also faked looking like she was scared, being pushed by the bimbo… when she was actually PULLING her.

Completely taken off guard, the bimbo was equally hurt and confused, trying to process what was going on as everyone was cheering for her. Alexandre couldn’t hide it anymore, her smirk growing as she pulled it to the point she was about to lose… and then SLAMMED her opponent all the way in a second.

The crowd went WILD! Nataly was actually confused, but that was the normal effect Ale had on her on a daily basis. Alexandre proceeded to emulate the bimbo’s pouty face, mimicking a boo-hoo by wiping inexisting tears off her cheeks with closed fists, while her opponent looked quite pissed and rubbed her hurting hand.

After a couple of matches, Nataly was up. She was going to face another girl, but this time it was someone from the basketball team, and she looked quite strong, despite her zombie costume. They had seen her many times at the gym, and knew she was quite strong… but not really Nataly strong.

They clasped hands, and Todd once again officiated. When he let go, both women looked fierce, like predators out for the hunt. They looked each other in the eye as their arms exploded, contracting into huge lumps of muscle - except, one of them was a mountain compared to a little ridge.

Alexandre looked at the match, mesmerized. The basketball girl had impressive arms, rivaling her own, but she was struggling, clearly putting all her effort into the match, her upper lip slightly curving as she tried to leverage her shoulder against Nataly.

The giant girl, however, was a completely different story. Her eyes sparkled like it was Christmas instead of Halloween, and she just received a pony. She was barely putting any effort in, but realized how superior she was to the star athlete. She wasn’t even smug about it, just… sort of enchanted by the realization of her own strength, as her arms might have been slightly smaller than Todd’s, but somehow looked more defined and peaked, which was arguably even more impressive - let alone in a woman.

Without changing that satisfied look, Nataly slowly brought her opponent down, almost lost in thought - less interested in the match than her own realization of how strong she had become. The room came down with cheer, but Nataly was there, living in her own world, looking at her hand like it had just come out of a magician’s hand.

Ale jumped on her shoulders, hugging her from behind, while loudly professing for everyone: “That is MY CHAMPION right here, REPRESENT! WOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

Nataly got up, carrying Ale with her - though her face made it clear she was still in another dimension, her grin showcasing her oversized canines that made it look like she was dressed as vampire Jane Fonda - or a very sexy Bela Lugosi. It was nothing new, but it made a shiver run down her spine… and she was getting even more turned on (which she tried her hardest not to let show, despite feeling her nipples hardening and slightly showing through her thin costume). Part of her wanted to just pounce and undress that statue of a woman, but she had to keep her eye on the prize - and didn’t want to make things weird between them. As the matches restarted, Ale first got her priorities straight, and started snapping her fingers to try to wake her roommate up, so she could resume her crash course in armwrestling.

Ale was up again, this time against a guy dressed as Tom Cruise in the singing sliding scene from Risky Business. “I like the cut of your jib, old man! Cult classic… ancient, sure, but good taste. I can get behind that,” she said in a mocking tone (one could argue that most of her tones fell in that category, though).

“Haha. Joke all you want, you are about to get RAILROADED!”

Silence.

“Hey, it was a good joke. You guys have no sense of humor.”

Todd once again got them started… and this time Ale wasn’t playing around. She put all her strength in, and leveraged herself immediately, pulling the guy’s wrist - he tried to put on a fight, but Alexandre’s technique got her an almost immediate victory.

“BOOM! Where’s that Tom Cruise smile now?!? SHOW ME THE MONEY, BABY!”

“But we aren’t playing for money…”

“Dude, own your own references… sheesh!!!”

And Alexandre got up, arms raised, looking serious as the crowd cheered on her. She snuck a little flex with a wink, as they cleared the table for the next match.

It didn’t take long for Nataly to be called again. This time, however, she was going against one of the quarterbacks from the football team. Not a small guy by any measure - almost as tall as herself, but muscular even for a guy his size. Though his creativity was debatable, as he came dressed as a football player. He removed his helmet and his jersey, and the girls (as well as some guys) swooned when, despite the lack of padding, he revealed impressive shoulders and an enormous and muscular arm, which he placed confidently on the table.

“Don’t worry, I swear I will go easy on you, girl.”

“If you do that, I’ll make you eat your helmet!” Nataly snapped back. Holy shit, Ale thought, who was that woman on the table?!?

And one more time, Todd put his palm over their hands, nodding at his teammate, before saying go.

Nataly was absolutely concentrated on this, her eyes trained on her hand. A vein bulged menacingly on her biceps, and the guy was immediately taken by surprise by the force being exerted against him. But he held firmly as Nataly seemed to just keep putting more and more effort. Ale knew how strong her roommate was, but she was still amazed that Nataly seemed to be holding her own… but also knew that it was a bad strategy to push so hard from the get go - he could tire her by just holding her back, and then take her out after she tired herself - he just advanced his hand slowly but surely, making steady progress as he smiled through gritted teeth.

The crowd was already going wild at the fact that a woman was somehow holding “Buster”, as his team called him, with random people shouting both the athlete’s callsign and “Rosie”, as they had nicknamed her after the feminist icon riveter.

“Knock her out, Buster!”

“Come on, Rosie, you can do it!”

“Buster, stop toying with her and just slam her down!”

“Rosie, don’t let me down!”

“Buster! Buster! Buster! YOOOOOOO!”

“FUCK YOU ALL, MY GIRL GOT THIS!” Ale’s voice was as unmistakable as her attitude.

Nataly pushed her, the determination on her face growing by the second, but she was well aware her stamina would eventually be her downfall… that’s when she looked to the side, and her eyes met Ale’s. Her roommate was mid-jump, but she just stopped dead in her tracks, looked seriously back and gave a confirming nod. Nataly could not tell what that did, but it made something snap inside her. She turned her head back towards Buster, and grinning, pushed harder. You could see Buster’s smugness disappear as his eyes widened, and his arm, which had already gained a third of its way to victory, started pulling back.

And so Nataly pushed, taking one last deep breath as she slammed Buster back, letting out a primal roar as she did. The crowd went NUTS! People were hugging all around, other football players were falling to their knees or mocking poor Buster… but it was INSANE! It took two whole minutes for Todd to be able to calm the room down to continue the match.

Nataly, on the other hand, hadn’t stopped jumping for joy. She rubbed her tired arm, but Alexandre would need a tranquilizer dart to stop her hype woman routine as she was still mocking Buster non-stop even as the next match had started.

But eventually it would be Ale’s match again. And she was going after Todd “The Train”, the football captain himself. This did not bode well for her - this giant of a man was actually TALLER than Nataly, and an absolute wall of muscles. His ebony shaved head shone across the table, making Alexandre gulp audibly.

“It’s okay if you want to forfeit. No one’s gonna blame you.”

“You think this girl is going down without a fight?!?” Ale almost regretted saying that, as her hand could barely reach her opponent’s, who had to pull his elbow back to match the height of her forearm. Not that it mattered much - despite being very toned herself, Todd’s forearm seemed thicker than Ale’s upper arm. No amount of technique was going to help her now.

Laughing nervously, Ale kept a brave face as Buster officiated the start of the match. She looked briefly at Nat, who had her balled fists near her chin and that same look of determination, but this time with pouty lips. Nataly nodded, and Ale couldn’t help but think she was the cutest muscle monster she had ever witnessed in her entire life, and that she was so lucky to be going back with her to the apartment after this. Well, assuming she survived this match.

“Three… two… one… GO!”

Alexandre tried to flip her wrist, tried to leverage her shoulder (which, with the height difference, ended up working against her)... heck, she even put her free hand under the table for that little extra push, which was technically cheating. None of it mattered, she was immediately brought down with a slam. It was no surprise, really, Todd had basically slammed everyone with different degrees of expediency so far… though this had been one of the fastest ones, and Alexandre felt a bit humiliated.

Nataly, however, was immediately hugging Ale, and telling how amazing she was. In a very rare display, the shorter girl actually blushed as she was enveloped in a wave of muscle.

“Huh, Nt? I chnt brf”

“What?”

“Can’t… breathe…”

Nataly stepped back, apologetic. It actually made Alexandre let out a snort of a laugh. “S’okay, babe. I had it coming.”

While they consoled each other, it didn’t take long for the anxiously awaited finals to come upon them…

“HERE IT IS, GUYS AND GIRLS… THE FINAL SHOWDOWN! THE UNSTOPPABLE TRAIN AGAINST THE UPSET OF THE NIGHT, THE RIVETER HERSELF!!!”

Nataly was shocked for a second. It hadn’t occurred to her that she would have to face Todd (even if there was no other alternative, really). Ale, on the other hand, was already placing her hands on Nataly’s shoulders like a stereotypical movie boxing coach, only missing the towel.

“OK, babe, you are now going to avenge me. Wipe the floor with that asshole.”

“I mean, he’s actually been pretty nice so far…”

“NO! HE’S THE ENEMY. AND YOU ARE GOING TO TROUNCE HIM!”

“Oh, no worries, that was my plan. But no need to be rude, just saying…”

The two locked hands. It was actually quite a sight to behold, as the two tall and muscular specimens faced each other. The entire room went completely silent - only Buster’s voice heard as he got the match going.

Nataly’s stare looked like it might cut right through Todd’s scarred brow. But the captain of the football team kept his confident smile. Both their hands shook, and anyone looking at them could see occasional involuntary lip movements as each seemed to probe each other’s reserves. Arms ballooned with contracted muscle, Todd’s dark skin in complete contrast with Nataly’s pale complexion - but both looking like they could bring down a fucking bull with their gigantic upper arms.

“YOU GOT THIS, NATALY!”

Alexandre’s voice broke through the tense silence, and Nataly gritted her teeth, giving it a huge push! Todd’s arm was pushed back a good fourth of the way, and you could hear almost every single person in the room gasp. But Todd’s face suddenly grew serious, almost to the point of anger - it was his game face, the same one he had used to intimidate many an opposing football player. And it was FIERCE. It got to Nataly, who hesitated for a second, making her tremble… and that was all he needed. With redoubled strength, he shouted as he slammed her down.

The crowd erupted in festivities immediately, with drinks being poured (both into glasses as well as over other people), it was cheering all across the room, loud shouting… everyone was ecstatic and in a frenzy, except for two girls.

Nataly got up in silence, shaking Todd’s hand. The football player gave a serious but silent acknowledgement nod, followed by a quick wink. With pursed lips, Nataly nodded back, before turning around in silence.

Ale looked demolished, like her entire world had crumbled before her eyes. She was holding a sob, stuck in her throat, as she found herself unable to close her lips as she approached her friend, trying awkwardly to wrap her arm around the much wider and taller friend.

“Oh, Nataly… I am soooo sorry, I…”

“I almost had him.”

“I know. We’ll keep training, you are still…”

“I almost beat the captain of the football team.”

“... making good progress at the gym and…”

“I literally had him. Ale, I’m basically as strong as Todd.”

Alexandre froze.

“He used mindgames, but I had him. Ale, I think I might already be as strong as the strongest guy on campus.”

Her brain was literally fried. Nataly wasn’t sad she had lost, she was processing the fact she was actually stronger than she realized. Her head was figuratively exploding as she watched the smile widen in her roommate’s face, eyes twinkling, as she looked her in the eyes and babbled:

“I’m the fucking strongest.”

Ale was typing up her paper, groaning and moaning at all the work she had to do, when she was interrupted by a knock on the door, with Nataly rushing to answer. At this point, she’d take any distraction to stop thinking about her academic work.

Opening the door, that same elderly lady from before greeted Nataly with a huge smile. She started explaining she was trying to collect signatures to talk to the landlord about creating a new rule for the building to close the laundry room after 10pm, to avoid commotion and noise late at night. To Nataly it sounded good, except that due to her late work she often needed it at that time.

“But… we actually use the laundry late at night, I even study there sometimes while my clothes are drying.”

“Sure, dearie, but you’ve seen the kids from 203B who listen to loud music and drink there, it’s bothering some of the tenants.”

“Then why don’t we ask for an ordinance so you can’t listen to loud music and drink there?” It came out as more of a snarl than she intended. The heavy sigh also didn’t help. It was just so frustrating, people barely listening to her. 

The conversation started going in circles really fast, with both parties clearly getting more worked up with each retort. What started like a fun little distraction for Ale was quickly escalating into an incident she might have to intervene on.

“Aren’t you worried about the well-being of the elderly? What is wrong with youth these days?”

“Well, I would care more about the elderly if they actually treated younger people like… well, PEOPLE!” The loud voice was heard through the building. Her lungs were big, her voice loud, and the woman took a few steps back.

At this point Alexandre was getting up to come between the two of them, but it was a bit too late: Nataly had raised her voice, and so did the old lady, and before Ale made it to the door, it got slammed shut mid-conversation.

“Well, that could have been handled better…” Ale chimed in.

“Not YOU too?!?” Nataly grunted.

“Hey, she was totally being an asshole, but she was polite doing it. You didn’t need to lose it. You can just say you aren’t comfortable doing it, thank her and say she can have a nice day.”

The whole process was very confusing for Nataly, whose personality had been morphing as much as her body over the course of the last few weeks. Little by little, she was standing up for herself - something which was entirely new for her. And given that suddenly everyone could tell at a glance how strong she was, and her increasingly forceful nature… becoming so intimidating overnight wasn’t quite clicking in her head, which only really processed the fact that she didn’t want to be stepped on anymore. Truth was, Nataly had always had a temper, but it was mostly targeted inwards before. As she grew, both as a person as physically, this was now manifesting outwardly, and it would take some time to properly calibrate that.

“Yeah, you can probably tell me I’m not a people person…”

“I kind of got that idea when Lara told me about the incident at the burger joint…”

Nataly’s eyes opened wide as her face blushed. She knew about THAT?

“Hey, don’t get me wrong, I know how hard it is to work in the food industry, but I bet there are probably still legends about you at that store… given what you did.”

Nataly’s face went purple as she covered it with her oversized hands.

“I mean, it certainly was a stupid person who thought you could have a deep-fried pie instead of a baked one despite the menu changing years before, but asking them who’s wearing the stupid uniform in front of your manager? Ohhhh, I wish I had been there!”

“Yeah, I’m going to my bedroom kill myself now. Good night.”

“Make sure to grab the silly red tie, I bet it’s long enough to hang yourself!” Ale shouted as she slammed the other door.

“Never a dull day…”

Alexandre slammed the laptop lid, and sighed with relief - she had turned in the last paper, now all she had to do is make sure she got a good enough grade at midterms - shouldn’t be too hard. Which meant, it was time for her to grab her tablet and watch an old movie to relax.

She was barely done with act one of Scarface when Nataly came in through the door, looking extremely excited.

“What’s up, girlie?” Alexandre asked, curious about that cheery mood.

“I just quit my job, found an amazing new opportunity!”

“Oh, congratulations. Where are you going to be working?”

“That’s the best part, Ale! I’m going to be self-employed!”

“Oh,” her roommate replied, with some concern in her voice, “is that so?”

“Yeah! I’m going to be making a fortune!”

Ale’s intuition was ringing all bells possible, but she wanted to be supportive, so she just went back to her movie. It had just been a couple of weeks since they were talking about how badly Nataly was at dealing with customers, so maybe this might actually be for the best after all?

Alexandre’s intuition would be proven correct just another week later, as a pile of boxes materialized in front of their door. Nataly came running with the knock, as a delivery man leaned his cart down - eager to get the clipboard from his hand and sign it. Before he could offer to bring the stuff in, Nataly had already crouched and lifted all five boxes in her arms - the guy tried to warn her those were heavy, and was completely surprised as the large girl just raised them like they weighted next to nothing, large arms stretching sleeves so much the fabric was starting to reveal the skin below. Well, his job was done, so he shrugged and went back to his truck.

“YES! It is here! Finally!”

“What is?” Ale wondered.

“The products I will be selling. I was recruited by this girl in my class, they have this line of health products… and who’s not going to trust me when it comes to health, right?”

“Oh… what kind of health products?” She was getting more worried by the minute.

“It’s these supplements, they seem pretty amazing. They have a whole line that covers a bunch of concerns - like this one for hair loss, and this one of celiac disease…”

Alexandre’s mouth crooked with disgust, which she really didn’t want to get across, and thankfully Nataly wasn’t that great at reading these social cues, so it slipped unnoticed. But the nagging feeling at the pit of her stomach would not be going anywhere anytime soon.

Ever since she beat him at the Halloween party, Todd had been helping spot Nataly at the gym - a task that Alexandre could no longer properly accomplish as the gulf between their strength became bigger and bigger. The smaller girl knew well that it was nothing personal, but it did not mean that she didn’t feel a sting in her chest whenever the two started to work out together. She felt left out - forgotten, almost - and now he was offering suggestions about workouts. There was little solace as they still went together every day, but it just wasn’t that same energy from when they started it, and everything was new and exciting… and Nataly depended a lot more on her.

As Ale worked on her squats, the other two were pushing themselves on the bench, and she tried to just distract herself. But it was like a bug, biting her every time she thought she forgot about it.

As she was wrapping up, Nataly came with a big smile. Uh oh, Alexandre thought.

“Hey, I invited Todd to go home with us so I can show him some of those health products.”

“K…?” Ale wished she could get her displeasure across more clearly.

So Todd came along with them, and Ale tried to make herself scarce while she made a peanut butter sandwich for herself. Todd went into Nataly’s bedroom, where she was keeping the large boxes of products she had ordered. Despite trying very hard, Ale kept listening in to their conversation.

“So, these are great for insomnia…”

But it was obvious, even just listening, that Todd wasn’t particularly interested in the pills - which was not entirely surprising, these were pseudo-scientific snake oil as far as Ale could tell - but it didn’t take long for her suspicions to be confirmed.

“Hey, Nataly, do you want to go out, I don’t know, grab some dinner tonight?”

“Me? Oh, you do know I eat a lot, right?”

“It’s okay, I don’t mind - it’s on me!”

“Whoa, for real? That would be super nice! It certainly helps my finances!”

“Well, we wanna fuel your gains, right? And besides, it’s nice to have someone who can keep up with me!”

“Yeah, I don’t have to be embarrassed about all I eat. Not that I care much, but I get some looks… some of the waiters ask me several times if I’m sure I want so much!”

“Oh, I can do the ordering too, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

“It’s like a dream come true, Todd, thanks!”

Alexandre groaned and rolled her eyes, shouting from the kitchen:

“Nataly, he’s inviting you for a romantic date. You got that, right?”

Her roommate didn’t hear that.

“It’s not everyday that I get to hang out with sexy, strong woman. I’d say it’s also a dream for me. Heck, you look like you came out of a dream.”

“Oh, nobody ever told me something this nice, Todd… thanks!”

So Todd placed one hand on Nataly’s shoulder, which she thought a bit weird, but assumed he was checking her gains or something.

“Oh, it’s only the truth. And I’m all the luckier for it.”

Closing his eyes, Todd puckered his lips and started approaching Nataly, who was very confused. She popped one of the insomnia pills in his lips, which he swallowed and almost choked, coughing violently. Nataly started panicking, giving him very forceful slaps on his back.

Ale just casually came into the room, not hiding she was eavesdropping anymore, bringing him a cup of water.

“You did get he was asking you out on a romantic date, right, Nataly?”

She handed the cup of water to Todd, who drank it and coughed one last time. “Wait, is that right, Todd?” Nataly asked, about to panic.

In between coughs, he nodded, reaching his hand to rest on her arm. Nataly swung away, and Ale looked at him smugly before leaving the room.

“Sorry, Todd, I think you are a cool guy and all, but, uh, we’re just gym buddies. I just thought you might want some supplements. I never meant to give you the wrong impression.”

“It’s okay…” Todd mumbled, his voice still strained, “... I guess I misread the signals too.”

“So, do you want any of the supplements?” Nataly said, hopeful.

“Uh, not really my style, Nataly. Cough! But thanks for explaining it all to me.”

So he got up, waved goodbye and left.

“Please close the door on your way out!” Ale chimed, triumphantly.

As the new semester started, however, Alexandre could see how stressed Nataly was getting, not having sold many supplements as more boxes arrived, now piled in their living room since she could barely get around in her room anymore. Nataly seemed to take it in stride (or at least pretend to), but it was obvious to Ale that this was getting out of hand - and she had to pay all of that month’s rent by herself as her roommate started getting into debt with this “incredible opportunity”.

Ale tried to wake up early to make breakfast as a small way of helping, but she really wasn’t a morning person - which resulted in her semi-zombified state for the rest of the morning, especially on a saturday. She scrambled some eggs with bacon, while Nataly tried to pitch her sales on her laptop. And then someone knocked on the door.

With Ale in the kitchen, Nataly went to answer the door, only to find her nemesis, the old lady, armed with her dissimulated smile and weaponized clipboard.

“Hello, dearie. I stopped by to say I talked to the landlord and we have a regulation in this building that you aren’t allowed to receive boxes larger than a certain size. We’ve noticed you’ve been receiving several lately, and they’ve been left in the corridor at times…”

Nataly groaned.

“Look, I know, it’s part of the business I’m running, I promise it’s not going to be a common occurrence.”

“Oh, I know it won’t, turns out, there’s a fine for every time it happens. I couldn’t convince the landlord to apply it retroactively, but I’ll be keeping an eye out to inform him of further transgressions.”

Nataly’s fists tightened so much her arms trembled, veins bulging with the pumping of blood, which only helped those muscles look even more intimidating than they already were. Ale watched from the kitchen, starting to fully wake up as she worried about how her friend might react.

“Thank you for your time. Oh! And just so you know, this is a strictly residential building. If you are running a business from here, it should better be within the regulations of what you are allowed to do, or you might get evicted. No one would want that, right?”

Nataly just hit her hand against the door frame, which resulted in a loud cracking noise as a fracture spread through the wood.

“Oh, no. That is some unsightly damage there. You’ll have to get that fixed or I’m afraid there’s a fine for keeping your apartment in a state of disrepair.”

Ale rushed, pulling Nataly out of the doorway awkwardly.

“Thanks! We’ll take care of it. Buh-bye”. And shut the door on her face.

“Nataly, are you alright?” Ale’s voice was thick with concern.

She sighed. “Yeah. It’s just things feel like they are running out of control.”

Ale stretched her arms up to put her hands on Nataly’s broad shoulders: “Listen, I know you, how hard working you are, and I just know you are going to be fine. But… I’m not going to lie to you, is your ‘business’ asking you to recruit other people with promises of increased revenue?”

Nataly was surprised. “How did you know?”

It was Ale’s turn to give an exasperated sigh. “Oh, baby, you fell for a scam as old as time. You never heard of multi-level marketing?”

Nataly responded with embarrassed silence.

“You probably know them as pyramid schemes. It’s not good news. I am also willing to bet these are probably not even real supplements, if I had to guess.”

“What? But the person who recruited me swore they were amazing and sold a ton of them!”

“Do you know that for a fact? Or could they just be saying that to recruit you?”

Nataly fell speechless once again, as the cogs in her brain tried to process everything. Alexandre could see a litany of emotions take turns on her face, and it broke her heart. But even more worrying, she seemed to be transitioning into frustration and anger towards the end of the process.

“No! You don’t know what you are talking about! You are just jealous that I got this gig while you chill with your old movies!”

That comment stung more than Ale would care to admit. Her concern was genuine, and she knew just how bad this MLM road was. She grabbed Nataly by the arms, trying to shake her - though quite unsuccessfully, due to her absurd mass - as she pleaded:

“Nataly, listen: these are not just a scam - they are the kind of thing that can destroy a person’s financial life. I am not exaggerating in the least here! You need to cut your losses, and possibly contact a regulatory agency, because this can actually be illegal!”

But it was too late. Between confirmation bias and sunken cost fallacy, Nataly wasn’t about to let this go. Not after all the affirmation she received from the girl who recruited her in class - it was one of the rare people who even knew her by name, let alone the fact she treated Nataly like a smart person. And since she lacked the tools to deal with conflict, she did what she used to do - lash out.

“Just stop, Alexandre! Even if you knew what you were talking about, you could be supportive of me instead of just acting like you know everything!”

“Well, it would help if you didn’t act like a little kid whenever things don’t go your way!”

Nataly’s grimace turned into a growl as she showed her long teeth, not unlike a wounded animal getting aggressive to stand its territory. In frustration, Ale tossed her hands into the air and shouted: “FINE! Have it your way! Enjoy living in a fort of boxed fake supplements!” And she went to her room, slamming the door.

Nataly huffed, still taking deep breaths, as she heard her neighbor hitting her broom against the wall, complaining about the noise.

The next couple of months were terrible for the two. They started avoiding each other as much as possible, with Ale switching her gym time to the evening. She would mostly stick to her bedroom, and took in a couple of the boxes that littered the now-cramped apartment in secret so Nataly wouldn’t have to navigate the place like it was a minefield. Which was bad enough because the two had to share one bathroom while trying to avoid each other. The shaking handle (never knocking) became a bit of a trigger for both of them, though neither would admit it).

On the rare occasion that Ale passed and saw Nataly in the kitchen or living room, she always looked miserable and/or worried. She would almost invariably be cooking or studying, and it was clear that she skimped on her own meal as money got tighter - Alexandre was handling rent by herself, without saying a word (she knew Nataly was way too proud to ask, given the situation).

Alexandre was having a harder time concentrating in her classes, as she kept worrying about her roommate, and it was during one of her advanced economy classes that she decided to confer with her professor about her dilemma. That’s when the plan started taking shape.

For the next couple of weeks, Alexandre was like a true spy - she had to sneak into Nataly’s unattended laptop (which she luckily knew the passcode to), which was just the first step. But she had high hopes that, even if it was a lot of work, this would pay off big time.

Alexandre laid down on the sofa with her coffee, her legs spread as much as possible like she used to do before the fight. She was having a hard time hiding her grin as she knew Nataly would be back soon, as per the text message on her phone screen.

Nataly opened the door, with the same bags under her eyes she had developed for the last few weeks, and her jaw almost dropped to the floor once she saw that the boxes that had littered the apartment for months were… gone?

“Hey, Nataly!” Alexandre feigned a casual greeting.

“Alexandre… where are the boxes of supplements? What happened?”

“Oh, you know, turns out that what they were doing? VERY illegal. Pity that one of my professors had a very good contact at the FTC. It’s kind of wonderful what a little blackmail can do. They bought back your stock, at a 10% markup - came in this morning to pick it up. The money is on the kitchen sink.”

Nataly was beyond shocked. She pinched herself, certain that this was all a dream. How did Ale know that Todd, of all days, would keep her longer at the gym… unless…

“Alexandre… is this why Todd kept me at the gym so long? How… why… for how long…”

Ale stood up, grabbed the stack of bills and walking very slowly toward Nataly, placing a finger on her lips.

“Never mind all that. Here’s your money back. Just promise me you won’t try any more harebrained schemes from the Internet… at least not without conferring with me or someone else you can trust.”

Nataly grabbed the money, on the verge of tears.

“T-thank you.”

She sobbed, still holding back the tears.

“... and… uh… I… I’m sorry for the stupid shit I said.”

“Hey, water under the bridge. You were under a lot of stress, I get it.”

Nataly hugged the diminutive Alexandre off the ground, to the point you could hear some light cracking. Ale felt like a small doll in those powerful arms - even though all that bodybuilding had made the smaller girl feel bigger and heavier than ever before, all it took was to lifted like she was made of rags to undo all of that. The hard sinew almost crushing her, the warm flesh making her self-perceived firm muscles feel puny and squishy. It was such a reversal… and weirder yet, it made her feel like never before. It felt… good. Really good.

“Uh, go easy on that squeezing, I think you might actually be able to break something.”

Nataly dropped her roommate, slightly embarrassed.

“Besides, it’s not I did it only for you,” she whispered the only, “I need my space, you know? I may be small, but I am SPACIOUS!” She spun around, arms outstretched, before falling on the sofa, and once again covering as much terrain as she could with her legs.

Nataly bit her lip, looking down to the ground.

“I don’t deserve a friend like you…”

“Oh, come on, I’m surely gonna need something heavy moved at some point, or worse, heaven forbid, to reach something on top of a tall shelf… then you’ll make yourself useful.”

Nataly started counting the money, grabbing more than half of it, and handing it to Ale.

“Here, for the late rent I owe you.”

“Pffft! Keep it. You can pay next month’s rent and we’ll call it even.”

“But this is a lot of money! I… this is weird.”

“Tell you what, why don’t you treat me to dinner tonight, someplace fancy where both of us can eat a lot?”

And that brought that joyous spark back to Nataly’s face. It’s what she had done all of this for.

They came back to the apartment completely STUFFED. Nataly looked like she was about to get into a food coma, and Ale tapped her tummy happily, still surprised at how much her colleague had eaten.

“That was expensive, but worthy it,” Nataly said, with a small burp.

“I thought you would need an excavator instead of utensils. Next time, I’m taking you to this place that has a challenge that if you finish their biggest dish, you don’t need to pay. Supposedly only one person ever finished the challenge, but you clearly could do it without breaking a sweat!”

“Not paying would be nice!” Nataly smiled. And how Alexandre missed that smile!

“Besides, we gotta fuel growth for that body - you can’t go slacking in the gym anymore! Especially with my bringing my whip to watch over you again!”

Neither had to say anything, and both knew how great it would be to start training together once again. While both were okay focusing on each exercise with their music, there was a huge emptiness they both felt during these weeks they trained apart.

And so they said goodnight to each other, dreaming of what the next morning would bring.

And so they did hit the gym the next morning, and the one after that… and every day after that. While Nataly’s growth was stunted by her poor eating while she was squeezed for money, things were getting better. She managed to get a job handling storage at a local supermarket - she was really good at moving heavy stuff, and had gotten extremely trained in stacking them due to her temporary business disaster. And in her spare time, they’d have her help stock the shelves and do other assorted tasks. The hours were nice and the pay wasn’t terrible. Alexandre, on the other hand, was getting some basic accounting gigs she could do from the apartment, but that took a chunk of her spare time - she didn’t love it, but it paid well and was a low effort and had very flexible hours.

Before they knew it, they had fallen into a routine. Gym together in the morning, they would go to their respective classes and meet for lunch at the cafeteria. Nataly worked in the afternoon while Ale would divide her afternoons between chilling, studying and work. They would take turns making dinner (though Ale would repeatedly skirt off the responsibility, but Nataly didn’t care that much. Ale ended up doing the dishes, though, since Nataly used nights for studying. 

But as their second year started, school became more demanding of both of them. While Ale excelled at doing the bare minimum and getting away with passing grades, Nataly started to struggle more and more with every class. The time she spent reading materials and working on assignments started increasing, and eating into her leisure time and work hours. Ale was glad to pick up whatever slack she could, but it bothered her to see her roommate stressed. So she tried to figure out a way to help… well, one that wasn’t too hard or time consuming, that is.

So Ale looked around on the web and found someone on campus who taught a massage course. And so, in secret, she spent a couple nights a week for the next month learning how to give a proper massage, and waited for her chance. It was more of a torture than she realized, as every time she looked at Nataly’s body, all she could think of was digging (or attempting to, at any rate) her fingers on that marvellous firm physique.

It did not take long. Nataly had a gruesome workout the day before, and Alexandre could tell just by looking that her lower back was all tense - it felt like you could stick a pipe behind her spine and it would be squeezed between her muscles. She got exciting just thinking about it.

“Down!” Alexandre commanded, as she tried to futilely push Nataly onto the sofa.

“Whaaaaaaaaat?” Nataly said in a tired voice.

“Lay down on the sofa, facing down!”

“Do I have to? I guess a nap would be nice…”

She kept pushing, but it was really Nataly slowly dragging herself, until she fell with a loud thud, making the floor vibrate. Ale bit her lips as she cracked her knuckles, and quickly grabbed the massage oil she had purchased for the occasion as she commanded Nataly to take off her T-shirt.

While mumbling with her lips pressed against the sofa, Ale dabbed the oil in her hands and started kneading Nataly’s lower back. Holy shit, she wasn’t wrong, she could fit her entire forearm in the crevice formed by the muscles surrounding her friend’s spinal column. And even more impressive, the tight muscle felt like a steel cable going up her back, which she used all techniques she was told to squeeze and relieve.

Nataly started moaning, and the combination of the firm and voluminous muscle with that pleasurable vocalization literally got her nether region drenched instantly. It was good that her friend had her eyes towards the sofa, because she didn’t have to disguise how turned on she got working that incredible sinew. Nataly barely squirmed, but she could feel the giant under her relaxing with every push of her talented fingers.

Given her subject’s size, Ale was quite glad when she realized she would have to straddle Nataly’s waist to properly access her wide back. She almost warned Nataly beforehand, but noticing how relaxed she had already gotten, she just went for it, placing her thighs around that glorious waistline. It allowed her to leverage her own weight and use here elbows to REALLY squeeze each spot on that back - which she did for efficiency, but was really eager to bring her own fingertips so she could feel every cell of that marvelous physique. It was hard to say what element of this process was more pleasurable for her - feeling the muscles, watching them untense with her touch, hearing the pleasurable moans, or just being allowed this degree of intimacy.

After some good fifteen minutes working her back, Alexandre twisted herself around, giving Nataly’s glutes the exact same treatment. It was amazing how bulbous those two pieces of meat were - firm, certainly, but also incredibly kneadable under the touch. Whatever she was doing, however, made Nataly squirm quite a bit, and Ale found herself having to make sure she held on like a cowboy atop a mechanical bull. She was biting her own lips so hard, she feared she might draw blood.

Eventually she started working her way down Nataly’s legs, which were so large, Ale realized they probably were thicker than her own waist. There wasn’t much she could do for her hamstrings, but she quickly worked her way to the heart-shaped calves - and for the first time, Nataly winced and grunted. Those were incredibly tight. And so Alexandre tried to be careful but still forceful enough to release that tension. It was a weird realization to her, like knowing all the hidden power inside the atom once you release its bonds. Those legs were like that - compressed coils, containing incredible hidden power, waiting to be unleashed.

But as finished working on the lower legs, Ale realized she would have to get up to continue.

“Alright, I’m going to do some reflexology on your feet next…” she said, as she pulled a chair to sit by the end of the sofa. Making herself comfortable, she proceeded to slowly work over every pressure point - sure, Nataly’s feet weren’t as meticulously cared for as her own, and she realized that maybe she should take her out for a pedicure, have a girl’s day out on saturday. It tugged at her heart, as she realized that her poor roommate probably never lived through so many experiences most women take for granted…

But as she distractedly finished with the second foot, she heard a loud snore. With a content sigh, Ale figured she could skip dinner that night, as she went to bring Nataly’s comforter from her room and cover her. Part of her wished she had the strength to carry her to bed, but the other part of her realized that she would never want to give up on that awe of having such a gigantic force of nature around, and she selfishly realized she would never have it any other way. Truth be told, it had been nagging her for a while now - her roommate’s growth wasn’t just spectacular… it was downright unnatural.

There was something she could not describe every time she looked at Nataly, her girth was unsettling - as if no one was supposed to have legs that thick, or shoulders that wide. You immediately got a sense of her mass just looking at her, the way she moved. And the fact that her transformation happened so fast just made the entire ordeal more surreal - and not only that, it was somewhat disconcerting whenever she realized that there were no signs that the growth was slowing down.

At first, it was a surprise, even a reason to be a bit jealous, but now it was messing with her head, like a weird twisted fantasy coming true. It drove her crazy with lust, even if she would never admit that to Nataly. But for now… she had to call it a night. With a kiss to Nataly’s forehead, she returned to her own room… and her toys. They would keep her company that night.

The next day Nataly was peppier than usual, twirling in the kitchen as she prepared breakfast. Alexandre noticed it immediately.

“Gooooood morning, sleepyhead! Ready to go to the gym?” Nataly chirped, as she finished making a bowl of oatmeal for each of them.

“Always. You seem to be in a good mood.”

“Oh, I ended up sleeping on the sofa, but even though I was pretty sore yesterday, I woke up feeling like a million bucks!”

It seemed like Nataly didn’t remember the massage. She did look pretty beat - Alexandre considered telling her about it, but she figured it would be a good ace to keep in her sleeve for the future… even though she really wanted to brag about it. And so they went to the gym, with Alexandre keeping that smile of a cat who had eaten the canary.

As the year came to an end, and the next semester started, the cold became very harsh - and required some really warm clothes. Nataly, who came from the south, didn’t bring any heavy winter clothes. Not that her burgeoning physique wasn’t another issue - some of her clothes literally had to have the sleeves ripped off (on purpose or accidentally), and her widening back was quickly becoming an issue. And that was the tops… the pants at this point? Anything that wasn’t stretchy was a lost cause.

Alexandre peeped into Nataly’s room as she went through her closet, a bunch of clothes piled on her bed.

“Yeah, this will also have to go…” Nataly said quite disappointed, throwing the summer dress onto the now considerably tall pile.

“Wassup?” Alexandre mumbled, her mouth filled with a bite of her PB&J.

“Oh, hey, Ale. Trying to clean up my closet. I needed to get my winter gear, but I realized, I have nothing for this kind of cold. Actually, I had only seen snow once, when visiting my grandparents in Kansas. But I was just a little kid. The warmest thing I have is this sweater.”

Ale inspected the pile and the closet, with an expression that made it seem like she was Sherlock Holmes. And while Nataly waited anxiously for her to find some incredible insight, she just casually blurted: “Yeah, you are pretty fucked.”

Nataly’s concern just got worse, as she sighed and continued to clean her closet. Alexandre just calmly finished her sandwich as she watched her friend fretting, wiped her mouth, and with the most casual expression waved her hand as she tipped her head, eyes closed:

“Nataly, do you know what this means?”

“No, what?”

Ale then exploded into a jump, arms stretched, and shouted:

“MAKEOVER TIME!!!”

Ale could hear Nataly fidgeting inside the changing room, while she waited browsing on her phone. “Are you sure this is a good idea? Shouldn’t we start with the winter clothes first?”

You kidding me? And miss the chance to see you with sexy revealing outfits? That’s what Alexandre thought before replying, never taking her eyes from the phone screen: “You will layer them OVER the other clothes, so we better start here. Besides, I offered to pay for your makeover, and clearly you need someone with SOME fashion sense… what was with your closet? It was almost all T-shirts, jeans and sweats, with the odd summer dress. You are in college now, we need to dress you like an adult.”

And as she was finishing her rant, Nataly opened the door to the dressing room, coming out wearing the tube top with spaghetti straps and a short floral print skirt. 

“This feels so weird. It was hard enough to squeeze into it, and I can’t wear a bra with this - so my nipples are really showing… and it makes it kind of obvious that I lost what little breasts I had.”

“Okay, fair point. But… counterpoint?”

Alexandre approached and ran her index finger sideways over Nataly’s bare midriff, jumping over the cobbled abdominal bricks like she was twanging the teeth of a comb.

“Abs, Nataly! ABS!!!” It was no exaggeration, she had seen deeply photoshopped abdominals in fitness magazines that looked less impressives on a guy - not only did they protrude into blocky bunches, but the deep indentations were hard to look away from.

Nataly sighed, and went back in to try another outfit. At least the skirt looked really good, she figured she’d keep that. 

“Here, try this!” Ale handed something over the door.

She came out wearing an oversized cropped tan blazer over the previous top.

“Hey, this kinda works. I love how it really makes my shoulders stand out, and it takes attention away from my flat chest.”

“It does look amazing on you. I say that outfit is a keeper, even if we’ll need to get some pants to go with it. NEXT!”

Nataly came out wearing a sleeveless button up shirt, with a long see-through black skirt. “Wow, I really like this one. It feels super nice, and I think I look great.”

“AND it’s on sale. I love these discount department stores. Put it in the bag, we need to check the dresses. Back you go.”

“Uh, Ale, I think we have a small problem.”

“What is it?”

“So, huh, I think none of these dresses is going to work.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t think I can get my arm into the sleeves of any of them.”

“Uh… I suppose that IS a problem. Yeah, I don’t think we’ll find anything of this kind that is going to work. Give me a second, leave those there, I’m going to look for more oversized and sleeveless options. Hang tight.”

“Alexandre! WAIT!”

But it was too late, she was gone.

Nataly sat in the booth, looking at the mirror. It was a strange situation. She had grown a dislike for them growing up, a constant reminder of her weird gangly body. But now, in just her underwear, she was actually looking at herself outside of the gym, where she concentrated on her not-so-great execution of exercises. But now she actually took a good hard look at herself. She was still the same tall woman… but having filled out with muscle, gone were the knobbly knees, the wiry arms, the awkward posture. Instead, she had curves all over (well, ALMOST all over, as she cupped her non-existent breasts, replaced by a shelf of powerful yet distinctly non-round pectoral muscles) and stood proud of herself. Not only did she actually feel attractive, but there was a hard to describe satisfaction in knowing the hard work that led to this transformation. It made her want more, to keep pushing herself. To prove to herself she deserved to feel pretty and desirable.

“Here!”

And Nataly’s line of thought was interrupted by an avalanche of dresses that fell over the door.

“I think we have a winner…”

Nataly came out in a long striped black and white dress with spaghetti straps, which really made her figure stand out as the stripes outlined her every contour.

“Whoa, you are right, babe. And again, great price. Onto the pile it goes.”

“Can we PLEASE start looking into coats now?”

Ale sighed.

“I guess…” she said, defeated, as she started handing over some puffy jackets to her roommate.

“Wow, I can’t believe we got so many clothes this cheap!” Nataly said, before adding, “Still, that was incredibly generous of you. I will pay you back, as soon as I can!”

“No worries, babe. Besides, I get to see you in those clothes around the house - which is reward enough for me!”

Nataly laughed. Ale also laughed, nervously. It really wasn’t a joke.

As the snowy season progressed, Ale started getting a bit resentful of that puffy jacket Nataly got. Sure, it was a proper fit, but it hid the wonderful physique her friend had developed. She at least enjoyed the marked size difference between the two, as Alexandre’s own track jacket was more than enough to warm her up - having been used to cold climates - and despite being one of the strongest women on campus, she still looked absolutely TINY compared to her friend.

So one night, when they were both at a local pub for trivia night with Todd, Michael and Britt. Much to everyone’s surprise, Todd was incredibly good and was carrying the team, which made Britt make fun of Michael, who fashioned himself “The King of Trivia”.

“Gotta be careful, Mike. Todd has the brains AND the brawn. I might have to upgrade at some point.”

Mike knew it was a joke, but it made him even more aggressive when trying to answer the questions. Todd took it in good spirits, but kept making a point of showing off his beefy arms even more than usual - which made him get a lot of attention from other tables.

Nataly, on the other hand, was feeling a bit insecure, since she had contributed one single correct answer - her only attempt being wrong. Her latent insecurity kept a few correct answers from being shared, or hesitating and second-guessing herself… it only contributed to her stress, which snowballed and made her feel more uneasy with each new question. But Ale kept cheerleading for her, saying that it was just bad luck with the selection of questions. To Nataly’s own surprise, her roommate’s support was incredibly refreshing, and made her feel much better… perhaps to the point of avoiding a spiral of despair she was used to in situations like this.

As the night went on, their table was tied at the top of the leaderboard with a rowdy crowd from one of the college fraternities. With so many competitive people in one table, however, Nataly’s group was quickly getting even rowdier - much to Britt’s dismay.

“I’ve never seen so much testosterone and macho bravado in one table… and I’d like to point out that more than half of us are women here!” Britt complained, ordering herself another beer to relax.

“Shhhh! I need to hear the question!” Michael snapped, desperate to outdo Todd, who had answered one more question than he did.

 “What is the name of the evil deity that served as the antagonist in the 1984 movie Ghostbusters?”

“OOOOOOH! I GOT THIS!” Alexandre shouted, buzzing in desperately. “GOZER THE GOZERIAN, A.K.A. GOZER THE DESTRUCTOR, A.K.A. VOLGUUS ZILDROHAR, THE TRAVELER!”

“Gozer would suffice, but yes, the answer is correct.”

“It sure is nice to have a movie buff on our table,” Nataly praised her friend before taking another sip of her milkshake.

“Well, we sure are well served when it comes to buff!” Ale retorted with a quick flex, her track jacket stretching to reveal a nice bump. Michael rolled his eyes, already quite done with the talk about muscles and strength that had dominated the night. At least he was relieved that Britt had only felt the girls biceps, but not Todd’s, despite him being the only sleeveless person on the table.

“Alright, the next question is quite hard,” the host announced, “so it’s worth twice the points!” Everyone on the table, except for Britt, hunched over their buzzers, squinting as they waited for it.

“This tourist attraction in Thailand is a great place to go shopping… assuming you are okay with the fact you won’t be walking around!” The host asked with a sly smile, and everyone on their table looked at each other, confused.

The buzzer rang from the fraternity table. A rather large blonde guy, who looked like a stereotypical surfer with a tan despite it being midwinter, shouted rather savagely: “BANGKOK’S FLOATING MARKETS!”

“That is correct, giving The Theta Gamma Deltas the lead before the last question! So unless The Untouchables get this last one right, we may already have our winner!”

“Guys, we can’t lose this one!” Michael said, nervously. “Everyone, we need to be at the top of our game here!” There was quite the tension in the entire bar, and Nataly still felt bad she was the only one yet to contribute.

“We got this!” Ale proclaimed, stretching her arms and taking another sip of her moscow mule, her usual confidence overflowing. Nataly envied that.

“Alright, ladies and gentlemen. Here is the final question of the night: the Italian dessert Tiramisu is based on the phrase tira mi sù, based on the Treviso dialect, tireme su, which can be translated into English as…?”

Everyone looked stumped everywhere, but Nataly’s heart skipped a beat. She had heard this story when she was taught the recipe. It was on the tip of her tongue… what was it?

While everyone else panicked, the put her hands on her temples, looking down, and trying to remember - it was something like… taking it out? Fuck, what was it?

She could feel her heart racing, and started to hyperventilate under the thick jacket. She can’t fail them, not now. Her anxiety was piling up fast, and Nataly got into a loop of nerves instead of thinking of the answer.

Until she felt a soft hand against her shoulders.

“Hey, Nat. It’s okay. You got this. And if you don’t, it’s no big deal, you know? Everyone knows you tried.”

She looked into Alexandre’s eyes. There was an unexpected softness in them. Instead of the usual edge, her smile felt reassuring and calmed her down. Nataly wasn’t used to people trusting her. And just like that, a ball of warmth started inside her. It was a guiding light that led her back to her train of thought.

Her mother had brought her to an Italian restaurant, where they taught her how to make several desserts. The old Italian lady joked about cannolis, and then when they talked about the tiramisu…

“It has coffee… which is fortuitous, since it literally means ‘pick me up’, and what’s a better pick me up than some caffeine, am I right?”

“PICK ME UP!” Nataly shouted, before slamming the buzzer and repeating the answer, “IT MEANS PICK ME UP!” She slammed the buzzer so hard the top cracked, and it got stuck buzzing, which slowly faded away before completely giving up the ghost.

The host lowered his cue card, looking at the table with a very serious expression.

“That answer is 100%...”

Everyone seemed to hold their breath.

“... CORRECT, MAKING THE UNTOUCHABLES THE WINNERS OF THE NIGHT!”

The house came down, and everyone hugged Nataly. She felt like she was glowing. This was different from the armwrestling match - sure, that felt amazing, but it was much more introspective. This was different. She felt like she had helped others, that she was worth something. She started to cry.

But the feeling wouldn’t last long. The fraternity boys were quite unhappy with the results, and surfer boy decided to throw a wrench into their hard earned but completely legitimate victory.

“Hey, they cheated! I saw that woman look down on her phone to find the answer!”

 The diminutive Ale got up, shouting back quite angrily: “Hey, Beach Boy, how about you GET AROUND and look for GOOD VIBRATIONS somewhere else? Because GOD ONLY KNOWS I’m going to come over there and kick your ass if you keep pushing your luck. WOULDN’T IT BE NICE if you just shut up right now?”

The guy got up, and he was quite big, making Ale look even smaller. He raised his chin smugly: “Hah! Quite brave for someone who’s got the captain of the football team to back her up. Bet you wouldn’t be so brave if Todd wasn’t there, pipsqueak.”

That sent Ale in a flurry, and she flew towards the guy. Nataly was ready, however, and wrapped her arms under her armpits, keeping her from attacking the provocateur.

“Listen, this is only a misunderstanding. My phone is in my purse, see? I was just concentrating on remembering the answer. We won fair and square!”

Surfer boy scoffed. “Wow, they are professional cheaters, ready with excuses and everything. And this little theater, hilarious. You aren’t even a proper good cop, lady. And as for the bad cop, Todd certainly would be more intimidating. Not that I am afraid, I could beat his ass too.” 

Todd had a naughty smile on his face. “Tell you what, you are so confident, how about we resolve this with a little armwrestling match?”

Surfer boy’s confidence vanished. “That ain’t fair. I might kick your ass because I’m nimble as fuck and a great fighter - but I’m no meathead like you.”

“Oh, no, not me. Why don’t you arm wrestle Nataly, since she’s the one you are accusing?”

“Fatso over there? Sure, your funeral.” Todd winked at Nataly, who smiled with such devilish delight that it was almost scary.  But if that wasn’t enough, taking her jacket off certainly did the trick, and Surfer boy’s smile disappeared almost instantly. The entire bar seemed to see the scene in slow motion in their head, each arm coming off the jacket at a time, revealing an extremely thick and beefy arm, each muscle group visible as Nataly waved her head and her hair waved away from the jacket - a smile etched on her face as she handed the jacket to Alexandre and cracked her neck.

“Oh, there’s going to be a funeral, alright.” Nataly said confidently, almost to the point of sounding dismissive. She rubbed her right upper arm, asking with an almost pitiful expression:

“Which arm is your good one? Heck, you can use both for all I care.”

Surfer boy certainly had toned arms, however, Nataly’s could not be described as anything less than huge. Pretty much everyone could see he was way out of his league, and Nataly just wanted to cherish that moment as the entire crowd seemed more amused than anything else.

Todd quickly got behind Nataly, acting as a coach, which really rubbed Alexandre the wrong way. He massaged her shoulders, which was easier for him since he had the height to reach them much easier than her roommate. Still, not to be outdone, Ale started massaging her hand and giving her a pep talk.

“No worries, Ale,” Nataly said, not even looking at her. “This is going to be a walk in the park.”

She had seen Fierce Nataly before, but there was a new level of confidence there now. She had no doubt she had this - which was kind of obvious, but anyone could see just how much it excited her.

The two stood across the raised bar table, and Nataly twisted her wrist to make her biceps dance - much like the little mouse from Latin that gave name to the word muscle. That little mouse was about to show what it was capable of as she grabbed Surfer Boy’s palm, making him gulp.

Britt officiated the match, bringing down her hand in a karate chop motion as she shouted GO! Surfer Boy started pouring in pressure, his own arm tensing and expanding, but Nataly remained looking thoroughly unimpressed.

“Is that the best you can do, surfer boy? That surfboard must be really light, I think you need to start drinking your milk if you wanna grow up big and strong…”

And as she said that, she fully tensed her arm, causing it to grow so much it made many there go “Oooooh!” and “Aaaaah!”. Surfer Boy, however, just went white in the face, once again surprised by the sheer mass of his opponent.

“I wasn’t kidding. Put that other hand in there, I need a bit of a challenge. Heck, ask your friend to help.”

But Surfer Boy’s pride was too big, he just grimaced and poured more effort, and his white face quickly became a vivid red even under all that tanning.

“Hey, bring me a lemonade, please? I feel like we could be here all night at this rate!” Nataly said, mocking the poor guy. The waiter actually brought her a mug, though. “On the house!” Seems like he really appreciated Nataly’s physique, as he stared at her arm quite obviously as he handed her the large mug - which she casually and slowly drunk as she just held her opponent immobile there.

“Aaaaaah! That really hit the spot!” she announced, slamming the large container down, and squeezing her hand a bit for a fraction of a second. Surfer Boy’s grimace went into a face of clear pain. “Oh, sorry, I guess I don’t know my own strength at times!”

She looked around for a bit, before continuing in the most innocent tone she could muster: “I guess everyone else here has things to get to, so maybe we cut this short, how about that?” And with that, Nataly slammed his arm so hard he fell out of the chair.

The entire bar was filled with laughter at the scene.

“Maybe next time don’t be an asshole? Just a suggestion.” Nataly taunted, shrugging. “Another lemonade, please?” 

“HOLY SHIT, NATALY, THAT WAS AWESOME!” Britt raved, having a hard time carrying the large trophy. “You REALLY been working out, huh? The guy was scared, but I almost fell back from my chair when I saw your guns!”

“Heh, yeah, I’ve been putting on some muscle over the last few months, thanks to Ale and Todd. They have been helping a lot at the gym, and I’d never join if it wasn’t for her.”

“Yeah, not to take too much credit, but she really owes it all to me,” Ale half-joked.

“No kidding, I started to help with the training, but now she’s basically outlifting me all around,” Todd confirmed, “and that’s in less than one year of training, with no signs of stopping. Your friend is a freak! Well, in a good way, you know.”

Nataly blushed and smiled, feeling giddy. The validation was nice, even if it wasn’t the reason she was doing it for. But for so long her body had been a reason for her to be embarrassed and mocked - and now she was praised and respected. It created this amazing virtuous cycle, and she just wanted to go back to the gym right that instant.

“Hey, Nat?” Ale poked her.

“What, sorry, I was kind of lost in thought.”

“Thanks for holding me. I really was going to punch that douche’s face, that wasn’t an act.”

“Oh, I know. I certainly know you well enough to see when you are in goblin mode. And even though I think you could have kicked his ass, I’d rather we avoid assault charges.”

“Of course, I wasn’t thinking straight. Besides, you did the kicking ass on my behalf. I think they already have a new nickname for him at the fraternity - Wimp Arm. That’s better than giving him a bloody nose… and it will stick longer. I wonder who faked a male voice and shouted that during the match… hehe.”

“You are evil, you know that?”

“Oh, you bet I do.”