That's Not a Mint...

Contains: Internal air inflation, burping, panic, slime girl, kinda non-con frenching, tiiiiny bit of BE and AE (not enough to tag as BE, tho).

Not my best work, imo, but still a fun little fic. If the writing starts feeling different towards the end, it's because a solid year or two went in-between me starting this fic and finishing it, so my style may have changed just a tiny bit during that interlude.

Also, it's the return of my fun girl Gelica! Kinda. Really need to do more stuff with her. I love my wordless gremlin. Also-also, my first fic featuring Gelica's guardian Belle since ZZZ came out. So, just to clarify from the start... NOT the same Belle as best proxy Belle. It's average human social worker OC Belle. Ok, now go have fun, you little scamps! Love you~!

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It had been a long day. Shirlene the ogre had to be convinced to spit up a pixie she had eaten, Spitz the cyclops needed help filing discrimination paperwork against a glasses shop that had refused to fulfill his subscription, and Terry the mermaid had blown up another university lab. All of this, of course, had been Belle’s job to fix. 

She. Was. Exhausted.

Belle collapsed on her couch and just lay there for a while. The quiet sound of bare feet padding on carpet didn’t even get her to open her eyes. It wasn’t until a soft, warm, and squishy finger poked into her cheek that Belle finally opened an eye to acknowledge her roommate. “Yes, hello Gelica. I’m home.”

The transparent purple slime woman blinked in response. A few bubbles ran up her body. It took entirely too long before Belle’s brain caught up to the situation at hand. She raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you supposed to still be with Cass downstairs? Why are you back here?”

In response, Gelica held up Belle’s Wintendon’t Swatch. She then turned around and sat down on the floor, leaning against the couch. Cheerful beeps and jingles sounded out as Gelica went back to playing her game. Belle sighed and rolled her eyes. It would be pointless to try and get mad at the squicky demihuman for coming back home to play a game. At this point, Belle was just thankful that Gelica hadn’t gone on any more adventures to more apartments - or even worse, outside. She had actually been surprisingly obedient since her tussle with Cass where half of her body had gotten eaten. Even slimes could get scared straight, Belle supposed.

The tired social worker lay on the couch for a while, decompressing while Gelica had her fun. Then she made herself get up. She tussled Gelica’s hair - or, rather, she squished the hair-like strands of slime on her head. It felt nicer than it sounded - really! “Alright, it’s time for dinner. What are you feeling tonight? Orange juice? Sparkling water? Health shake? Or something else?”

Gelica paused her game and looked up at Belle. She wobbled a little and held one finger up. Belle nodded. “Orange juice it is. Now, what do I want… oh, right. Is Bran home yet?”

The pale purple woman shook her head, then went back to her game. Belle gave her ‘hair’ one more ‘tussle’ and stood up. Today was Bran’s early day, Tuesday, so she’d be back at some point soon instead of working until late at night like the rest of the week. They had a little unspoken tradition going on that whoever got home first every Tuesday would cook dinner for the other. That was usually Bran, but Belle guessed it was her turn today. What should she make, then…?

The tired woman stood up and shuffled into the kitchen. She didn’t cook very often - not for lack of talent though. She was just tired all the time. She loved her job as a social service worker for demis. It was just… draining. Still, it was good for her to force herself to make a decent meal every now and then instead of nuking a microwave meal. Ok, so what was in the fridge that she could make…

After a few minutes of looking through the random groceries they had left in the kitchen, Belle settled on a hearty lamb and potato stew. She got the lamb out to start defrosting it in the microwave (blasphemy, yes, but she was tired, damnit). With that started, she went to get more comfortable. Pockets were emptied onto the bed, pants were yeeted, bra was forsaken, and comfy home-only clothes were donned. Then Belle went back to the kitchen to continue her meal prep.

After a little while, while Belle was in a groove, she felt another squishy poke in her side. She glanced over at the poker (Gelica, naturally), and asked, “What’s up? You feel like trying to help again?”

Gelica shivered and shook her head. Belle didn’t blame her. She wasn’t sure how it felt to reabsorb your fingers after accidentally cutting them off while trying to slice bread, but it couldn’t be pleasant. Gelica then held up some small and white objects. Belle furrowed her brow and took them from her. “What is… oh! These are experimental tablets from Terry’s lab! I totally forgot she gave these to me as thanks today… for some reason.”

A gentle gurgle, a tilted head, and an outstretched hand from Gelica was met with a firm head shake from Belle. “Sorry, Gels. These aren’t food or candy. They’re some kind of compressed air tablets or something for divers. I know they look a little like Mentos, but they’re not.”

The slime woman seemed to deflate a little but still nodded her head. She slouched out of the room and Belle soon heard the sound of her game again. She set the tablets down on a small plate to deal with later. Now, back to food prep…

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Bran had a little bounce in her step as she left her apartment’s elevator. She was feeling great! Her early shifts on Tuesdays were usually a drag, but today had gone fantastic! She didn’t get picked on by any customers, she didn’t mess up a single time, and she’d even gotten a compliment from boss on how much faster she’d gotten at mixing drinks! She felt like she was on cloud nine!

Then, to add to everything else great, she could smell the rich scent of stew the moment she cracked open the front door. Her mouth started to water and her stomach rumbled. That was… lamb and potato stew! She’d been planning on making that tonight if she got home first like usual, so for her roommate Belle to have made it first was amazing! Could tonight get any better?

The answer was yes by technicality. I could get better by not getting worse. Which it had. Bran’s happiness took a small hit when she stepped inside and was greeted by a small nod from… Gelica. Bran had agreed that it’d be fun to have a little slime as a pet. She had NOT agreed to getting a full damn slime woman mooch! If she didn’t owe Belle so much for being her roommate despite her… condition, then she would never have agreed to keep the purple menace a secret.

Why was Gelica a menace, exactly? Oh, who knows - maybe it was because she drank all of Bran’s shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and lotion? Or maybe it was because she insisted on sleeping with Bran whenever Belle was mad at her? Or maybe it was because she’d had a spat with the terrifying lamia woman downstairs and now she knew how to mimic hissing? Yes, Gelica refused to speak, but she could make noises - and hissing was now one of them. Still, Bran supposed she could be worse. At least she didn’t make messes around the house. She was cheap to feed, too. Plus, Bran couldn’t lie… she was fun to look at. 

Look, she was only a little bisexual, ok? It’s just that… well, Gelica looked like a full adult woman. Sure, she was see-through and purple, and her expressions were vacant sometimes, but… she was hot. She was naked all the time (without the fine details - think Barbie doll naked), she had a good figure, and she was soft and squishy and great to cuddle!

…Ok, maybe Bran was more than a little bisexual, and maybe she didn’t actually hate when Gelica slept with her. Maybe. It didn’t change that the little squirp still creeped her out - and this was coming from someone with a detached head.

Bran returned Gelcia’s welcome nod with a curt nod of her own, then scooted around the living room to go into the kitchen. She sucked in a deep breath and savored it. “Aaah! How did you know this was exactly what I wanted tonight?”

“Hmm? Oh, hey. Welcome home,” Belle responded, completely ignoring what Bran said. Oof, she looked worn out. Belle usually looked at least a little tired, but tonight she seemed especially frazzled. Her short auburn hair was messy, her whole face was a little droopy, and she seemed to be moving and acting like she was buffering.

“Uhh… do you want me to take over? You look… not great?”

Belle scowled. “Love to hear that. Thanks.” Then she shook her head and sighed. “Sorry, it was a rough day. Don’t worry about it - I’m almost done anyway.”

Bran pursed her lips. She adjusted the shoulder straps for the harness strapping her head to her chest and continued, “Well… if you say so. I’ll take care of the dishes after, though.”

“Sure, sure.”

With that, Belle went back to what she was doing. Bran held back a little sigh. Well, she had offered. She couldn’t do more than that. She turned to leave, and as she did, she noticed a plate with a couple of mints on it. Another growl shook Bran’s head, which was strapped tight to her stomach. Hmm… a little snack before dinner wouldn’t hurt, right? She picked up one of the mints and popped it into her mouth while leaving the kitchen. She bit into it and immediately frowned. Was this some kind of off-brand mint or something? It only tasted faintly of salt! There was no mint at all! What gives? She swallowed and brushed it off. Who cares about an off mint? Dinner would be ready soon and she couldn’t wait!

Bran made her way back to her room and shut the door before starting to undress. First came her head harness. She undid the straps around her shoulders and bust, sighing in relief as she finally got to hold her head in her hands for the first time in too long. She just didn’t feel right being suspended in the air like that without a pair of sturdy hands holding her up, but she needed both of her hands for work, so there wasn’t much of a choice.

She set her head down on her bed, planting herself upright in a small nest of blankets, and kept undressing. In case it wasn’t apparent yet, Bran wasn’t an ordinary human. She was a dullahan - a type of Irish demihuman that had a head separate from her body. Truthfully, she wasn’t that different from a human in any way other than that. The only other things were a long, pale blue flame rising up from her neck and that she was slightly stronger than the average person. Oh, and she was ageless, but she was only twenty-eight anyway, so that didn’t really matter yet.

While Bran watched, her body peeled off the nice black pants and white dress shirt she wore to work at the bar. She had a plain figure, with hips that wouldn’t be missed and a bust that was just big enough to stop her from wearing a chest harness instead of a stomach one. It didn’t help that most of any weight she put on went straight to her muscles. Sure, maybe it was crude to complain about not getting fat, but since she was only five-two, she was practically stout! If her head was where it was supposed to be, she might get called a dwarf. She wasn’t a dwarf! They were from Scotland and were at least a foot shorter than her on average!

Without warning, an airy belch rumbled up and out of Branwen’s mouth. Her eyes scanned the room quickly to see if anyone noticed… then she remembered that she was in her room. She blushed, then belched again. And again. And again.

Lords above, what was going on? Bran kept hiccupping and belching while her body fumbled with a pair of worn shorts, tugging them up her meaty thighs and over her less-than-meaty hips. She tied the strings in front, and as she did, she noticed that her middle seemed a little… poochier than usual. She always had a small pooch on her lower middle from all those pesky organs that liked to hang out inside of her, but now it seemed like it was more than just a small pooch.

Actually, now that Bran had noticed, her whole belly looked like it was a little puffier than usual. Another belch shot out of her mouth and she started to freak out a little. What was happening? She couldn’t stop burping! Her belly looked like it was getting bigger too. What was going on with her?

Bran’s body leaned against her far wall while belches kept escaping from her head. No matter how much air passed by the gassy dullahan’s lips, there always seemed to be more rumbling inside of her belly. Right before her eyes, her stomach started to puff up and swell. There was far more than just a pooch on her belly now. She was genuinely bloated - and was only getting bigger with each passing moment.

Panic was starting to settle in now. Bran stumbled across the room to pick up her head, then she scurried out of her room. “B-BEEE- UUUOOOOOORRrrrRRRP - BEEEEELLE!”

“What, what is-” Came Belle’s exasperated voice from the kitchen. Her voice cut out as Bran made it into the kitchen. Her eyes instantly went down to Bran’s bare stomach, which was plainly distended, then they flicked up to Bran’s eyes. “What is this? What’s going on?”

Tears started to dot the corner of Bran’s eyes. “I-I don’t knoooouuUUURROOOrr-*”

Belle turned off the stove and quickly went over to Bran. The startled dullahan had never been more thankful than now that she lived with someone who had to have basic medical knowledge for her job. She nervously held her head above Belle and stared down at her as she knelt and inspected Bran’s belly. She put her hands on it and felt it, pushing down in various spots. Each push forced out a sizable belch from Bran. Her belly had gained another several centimeters since entering the kitchen, now looking like she’d eaten the whole pot of stew Belle had made. “W-Well? What is it? Am I gonna *HUORP* die? I’m gonna die, aren’t I? Wha-”

“Shush! No dying talk!” Belle cut her off. She leaned in and put her ear to Bran’s stomach, listening for… something. Then her eyes flicked up to the counter. She stood up, still looking at the counter, then looked back to Bran. “Hey, weird question - did you eat one of the tablets on this plate?”

“What? Why does THAT matter? I’m dying!”

Belle sighed and rolled her eyes. “You’re not dying. You’re just bloated. Extremely bloated.”

“Wh-What? But look at me- *uuuOOooouuuuuuRRRRRR-*”

“Yes, you’re still growing. That’s because what you ate - without asking, by the way-” She shot a judgmental glance at Bran, who shrank back. “-was some kind of compressed air tablet from a mad scientist mermaid who I pay regular visits to.”

Bran stared blankly at Belle. “...S-So… what does that…?”

Belle stared back at her. “So, that means… uh…” The smallest flash of concern passed over Belle’s face. “It shouldn’t mean anything, I guess? I think I’ll give that mermaid a call though - just in case! You should be fine, but still, just in case, right?”

“R-Right… h-haha…” Bran laughed uncomfortably while Belle went to get her phone. She swallowed hard, then burped twice as hard as she’d swallowed. She held her head tight to her chest and took a few deep breaths to try and calm down. Lords, her belly was starting to feel a little tight. She could feel the smooth surface of her stomach pressing into the bottom of her neck, which was not supposed to happen. What if she never stopped growing? Was she going to pop? Ooooh, Bran didn’t want to pop…

Meanwhile, as Bran was having a minor breakdown, the plapping of slime on tile announced Gelica entering the kitchen. She walked around Bran and gave her a once over, her semi-soulless eyes lingering on her ever-growing middle for a second. Then she plopped in a dining table chair and started tapping her jelly fingers on the table.

After a few minutes of nerve-racking waiting, Belle came back. She looked… apprehensive. “Ok, so the good news is that the air tablet isn’t poisonous and it really is just filling you with air. It’s just doing it faster than intended since you’re supposed to hold it under your tongue to slowly dissolve into breathable air.”

Bran’s heart did a little skip. “If that’s good news, then there’s bad news too, right? What is it? Am I gonna die?”

“No! No, no no!” Belle assured her, shaking her head. Then she paused. She gave a weak smile and held up a hand, pinching her finger and thumb close together without touching. “Ok, so there’s a tiiiiiny chance you might, uh… pop. Just a tiny one!”

Forget the skip - Bran’s heart full-on froze. “P… POP!?”

“That’s ONLY if your body isn’t elastic enough to withstand the quantity of air being released!” Bran said quickly, though the worried note in her voice wasn’t reassuring. “Terry said that, at the very least, one other person had swallowed one of the tablets and made it out perfectly fine, though quite… bloated.”

A bead of sweat ran down Bran’s face, dripping onto the curved dome of her belly below. “H-How bloated are we talking here?”

“She, uh, didn’t say specifics. She just said that your odds are good, but that if you’re that worried about it, you should try expelling as much of the air as possible.”

Bran belched.

“Yes, just like that!”

Bran felt sick. She turned her head around to look at herself. Her belly had already swollen past the peaks of her chest and, from the constantly ramping pressure she was feeling, it wouldn’t be stopping anytime soon. She belched again and whimpered. “I’m gonna POOOOP!”

A gentle hand patted her head. “No, I’m sure you’ll be fine! Terry’s kind of… unhinged, but she’s a genuine genius. If she says you’ve got good odds, then I believe her.”

“...I’m gonna pooooooooop…”

Belle sighed deeply. “Do you, uh… do you still want dinner?”

Bran slowly turned her head back around in her hands to stare incredulously at her roommate. “My stomach is already full to the max with air and… you want me to add in more?”

Her blonde roommate, looking equally worried and exhausted, just shrugged. “I mean, food can help to calm people down. I solve two out of every three problems my cases have with food.”

“Well, I don't want foo- *HuUUUoooO-UUUrp*! I feel like I’m gonna explode just thinking about putting more inside of me…”

“It was just a suggestion,” Belle said. She glanced down below Bran’s head and grimaced. “Say, weird question: I don’t suppose you have any, uh… experience with bloating before?”

Bran blanked for a second. Actually, yes. The time at work when she’d needed to stop the sink. The ‘sink incident’, as her boss had taken to calling it. Bran could feel her face warming up. “Uuuh… wh-why do you- *HUUuuUURp* ask?”

“Just… because,” Belle said off-handedly, though she was notably avoiding eye-contact with Bran now. “S-Some people seem to, uh, enjoy being bloated like this, so… w-well, just thinking that you’d have an easy time making it through this if you were, uh… one of them. Yeah.”

“People enjoy filling themselves until they feel like they’re gonna pop?”

“Or watching other people do it.” Belle coughed and glanced away. “Or so I’m told.”

Bran frowned. “Weird. Just… weird.” She turned her head back around, letting out a long, low belch as she did. Lords below, she’d gotten even bigger while they’d been talking! Just how long were these tablets going to last? Ugh, now that she wasn’t talking anymore, her brain was focusing on how taut her belly felt. So tiiiight… uuuuugh, she felt like she had swallowed a harpy egg… She needed to distract herself from this. Just trust that Belle’s crazy scientist woman was right and that she’d be fine. The best way to distract herself right now was… “Is it, uh… a common thing?”

“Huh?”

Bran cleared her throat, though it turned into a rumbling belch halfway through. “Enjoying… this. Is it common?”

“Oh. Uh… s-sure? I-I’m not really supposed to talk about my clients’ interests, but… I can say that there’s more than a few of them that like… this.”

“...Huh.” Conversation was kind of working. At least, while she was focusing on processing words and making responses, the growing tension in her belly seemed just a little further away. She sat down at the kitchen table, setting her head down on a small pillow she kept there so she didn’t have her bare stump on the cold wood. “Ok, so, uh… what about it do people like?”

Now that she could see Belle again, Bran could tell something was off. She could already kinda tell before, but now it was more blatant. The moment Belle came into view, she quickly whipped around, returning to making the stew. Belle’s voice sounded shaky as she responded, “You’re certainly asking a lot of questions about this.”

“Just making conversation to keep my mind off the discomfort.” With her head resting on the table, Bran’s hands were free to massage her belly. Holy spirits, her skin felt so taut! Her fingers slid across the surface of her gut easily, as if she were rubbing a soaped-up bowl in the sink instead of a belly. It was just as warm as a bowl being washed, too - her body must be working overtime to hold itself together. Despite only wearing shorts, she was starting to feel rather hot. She absently belched while a bead of sweat ran down her back. She glanced back to Belle after staring at herself for a minute. “So? What do people like about it?”

“G-eep!” the undignified noise was accompanied by another quick whipping away of her head. Belle started fiddling with something in front of her as she choked out, “W-Well, uh.. I d-don’t exactly go asking around for what my clients like about… this, but… uh… j-just from what I’ve pieced together… anything from the size to how it feels?”

Bran raised an eyebrow. She glanced back to herself. Her upper belly was just barely visible past the table’s edge. It was normally mostly flat with a hint of abs, but now it was the top of a sizable dome. It looked vaguely similar to how a pregnant woman’s belly would look. “Ok, I can see the size thing. Pregnancy is attractive. I don’t get the feeling though. I just feel big and bloated and tired and hot and bleeech.”

“S-Some people seem to like those feelings.” Belle tried to sneak a peek back at Bran, but the dullahan was watching this time. Her head quickly snapped away again. She laughed nervously. “I-I’m surprised you want to talk about this kind of stuff, though. You always blush when things like kissing and sex come up on TV, so to mention you like p-pregnant bellies is… y’know?”

Bran’s cheeks flushed. “I-I’ve lived with you for four years! I’m literally sitting topless right next to you! Saying that pregnant bellies are hot is nothing! It’s way more weird how weird YOU’RE being right now!”

“I-I’M not being weird! YOU’RE being weird!”

“Oh, real mature clap back! I’m sure that’ll convince me!”

“...Will it?”

“NO!”

A huge, roiling belch forced its way up Bran’s throat. The ramping pressure in her belly was reaching a point where it was impossible to ignore. Her body had to push back in its chair to avoid the airy globe pressing into the table’s edge. She groaned and clutched her belly. She felt like air was going to start rushing out of her body’s neck at any time now, feeding the coiling blue flame there so it becomes a roaring inferno. She glared at Belle, who had once again tried to peek back at her. “Y-YOU’RE one of the people that like it! Don’t push that onto your cases!”

Belle flinched. “M-M-Maybe I am! So what!?”

“So, you’re getting turned on by my pain! That is NOT appropriate roommate behaviour!”

“F-Fine! You can do something to me later to make it even!”

“THAT- In WHAT world does THAT make things even!?”

“The one that gets us to stop yelling at each other!”

“I’M yelling because I’m PANICKING ‘cause I’m gonna EXPLODE!”

“YOU’RE NOT GONNA EXPLODE!”

“YES I AM!”

“AAAAAAAH!”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAH”

“*HSSSSSSSSS*”

Both women stopped screaming at the angry hissing. They turned to look at Gelica, who was looking crossly between the two of them. Her arms were folded over her chest and she started just shaking her head. Then she stretched out an arm. Before Bran could react, she’d grabbed ahold of her head. The dullahan started freaking out again, trying to get her body to react, but the spasming of her belly kept her immobile. She could hardly think from the extreme pressure in her middle, and now some creepy gremlin had her head! She was gonna die! She was SO gonna die! She was belching like crazy and her tummy hurt and her roommate was horny and she was gonna DIE-

“MMMPH!” Bran’s cry was muffled by Gelica firmly planting her lips on Bran’s mouth. Her tongue forced open Bran’s lips. She tasted like grapes. WHY did she taste like GRAPES!? Despite the circumstances, Bran still couldn’t stop belching. As a particularly loud one rumbled up her throat, the slimy woman’s tongue suddenly shot down her throat, making Bran gag. Through teary eyes, she could see her body flailing in distress. Gods, her belly looked so taut and painful! It was the size of a yoga ball and pink from being stretched so thin. Then, as she watched, her belly started to… shrink? 

Th-That couldn’t be right. She couldn’t even burp anymore with this degenerate menace’s tongue down her throat. Air shouldn’t be leaving her body, and yet… sure enough, her engorged gut was shrinking. She could feel the pressure inside her tummy dropping rapidly. Sh-She was SAVED! By some miracle, she WASN’T going to pop! She was just being inhumanly frenched by her hot and creepy slime girl roommate! Hoo-RAY!

After a minute, and after Bran started to panic again from not being able to breathe, she felt Gelica’s tongue slip back up her throat. Another round of gagging preceded the slimy menace exiting her mouth- right after Bran’s belly was completely flat and her body no longer immobilized. It shot to its feet and darted for her head, yanking her from Gelica’s grubby mitts. She caressed her head, shakily taking stock of herself. No more pressure in her belly… she could breathe again… no more need to burp… she… she was ok! She was totally ok! No imminent threat to life!

She turned her head in her hands to give Gelica the tongue lashing of a lifetime, but stopped before she could. It was a little embarrassing that it took looking at the girl to realize where all that air had been going, really. Gelica was completely swollen, her stomach a transparent boulder-sized sphere with a faint lavender hue to it. Even her breasts and butt had become inflated with air, going from D-cups to H-cups and… whatever the cheek equivalent of H-cups was. She looked to be on the verge of bursting- all from Bran’s air-headed mistake…

As Bran watched, guilt building up inside her, the glutted slime let out a loud, high-pitched hiss. She rapidly deflated, her belly and assets resetting to their default size within a handful of seconds. Her face screwed up for a second, a swath of bubbles rushed from her middle to her mouth, and then she spat something out onto the table. A half-chewed, half-dissolved white tablet.

Bran gulped. If there had been that much of the white tablet, and she had already been fit to burst, then… she really MIGHT have popped. “Uh… th-thank you, Gelica. Really. I, uh… appreciate it.”

The wobbly woman gave Bran a thumbs up, stuck her tongue out at Belle, then got up. She grabbed a carton of orange juice from the fridge and left the room.

Right. Belle. Bran turned around to look at her roommate. Belle was not looking at her. She was staring at a wall, face completely scarlet and a very conflicted expression on her face. “I-I, uh- I- L-Look, th-this is- I- no, I- uuuuh-”

Bran blinked. Then she sighed. “Belle… at least buy me dinner first before you fetishize me.”

Belle froze. She glanced at Bran, then at the stove, then back at the wall. “I-I, uh- I m-made dinner?”

“That works.” Bran’s body sat back down in its seat, replacing her head on her cushion. Then she teased, a grin slowly spreading across her face, “So… bellies, huh?”

“I hate life so much right now…” Belle groaned. She ladled a bowl full of stew while Bran started to giggle. She was going to have SO much fun with this information~. Also, she would have to actually thank Gelica for literally saving her life later- even if she’d done so in the freakiest way possible. Maybe a few gallons of soda? Or a new game? 

Regardless, Bran was seeing both her roommates in a whole new light. And to optimally tease her roommate… she might have to do a little research…