Too fat for Heaven?!

Chapter 7 - Pancakes

About an hour later, Heather's alarm clock went off, making an annoying beeping sound that awoke the girl. She mumbled and shut the alarm off, slapping a hand on it. She nuzzled on the pillow, slowly opening her golden eyes, rubbing them a little.

Then she noticed Ezekiel was no longer there... it was understandable, she couldn't expect him to stay there until she woke up, but she still felt a bit sad, for some reason his touch was incredibly comforting, almost magically so... so warm and tender. Maybe it was because he was a lot bigger than her, but his embrace made her feel so safe...

She shook her head, what even were those thoughts?! She couldn't have been catching feelings for him, right? ... Right?!

She turned around in her bed, her back now laying on the mattress. She sighed looking at the ceiling. She already had her hands full with school and work; she couldn't be bothered by crushing on someone!

Suddenly a sweet, buttery scent made its way into her room. She breathed it in and almost immediately identified it: pancakes! But... there was also a slightly sour and fruity note to it... raspberries? Currants? She couldn't really tell, but one thing was for sure: it smelled delicious.

Heather slowly got up and out of her bed, stretching slightly before making her way to the kitchen, her bare feet making little to no noise against the cold floor.

What she saw there made her heart melt: Ezekiel was in front of the kitchen stove, he was keeping an eye on two pans containing some fluffy pancake batter. He was humming to himself, focused on the job at hand. Did he make her breakfast? That was so sweet! It had been a while since someone had done that for her.

"Aww Ezy, you shouldn't have..." she said absentmindedly, smiling kindly.

When he heard her voice, Ezekiel flinched slightly "A-ah! Heather... you're awake! Well, I just thought... a hearty breakfast would have lifted your morale a bit" he said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "I... didn't really know what you liked, I hope you're cool with these. I also made a little raspberry sauce to go with it- oh a-and whipped cream too!".

She leaned her head on his shoulder, looking at the pancakes slowly cooking "I didn't know you were so good at baking, did you make all this in an hour?".

His cheeks flushed pink at her comment "W-well... yeah? One hour is more than enough for these things... I think" he said, tapping his chin with his finger "A-anyway, these were the last two! We can have breakfast together now!" he quickly plated those last two, putting icing sugar on top, then drizzling the raspberry sauce on them and finishing with a little puff of whipped cream at the center. And finally, he gave that plate to Heather. "There we go, all done! There's... a bit more in the oven, in case you want another portion or something... I might have done too many".

Heather eagerly accepted the plate, grinning "Wow, can't wait to dig into these! Wait... aren't you going to eat some?" she asked, tilting her head a bit confused.

"I can't Heather, I'm on a d-diet, remember? No sweets for me..." he said, with a pinch of sadness in his voice. It was obvious that Ezekiel would have loved to have some of his pancakes, but he was doing his best to control himself. He didn't even understand why he'd made so much batter in the first place- almost as if he was subconsciously taking into account how many pancakes HE could have eaten. "Y-you can bring them to your university friends or something".

She looked at him "I understand what you mean, but you made them yourself! You got to try at least one. Besides, you've been doing a pretty good job in watching your calorie intake lately, nothing wrong with giving yourself a little reward".

Ezekiel looked away a bit, instinctively glancing down at his tummy "Y-you think so? Well... maybe I'll eat one later" he said, waddling over to the fridge to take out a little bowl with some white yogurt and fruit pieces in it. It was pretty colorful, but he knew the taste wasn't going to be as satisfying as those fluffy, fluffy pancakes... he shook his head and finally sat down at the table, making his chair creak a little.

Heather sat next to him and looked at his breakfast, that actually looked more like what she would normally have as the first meal of the day, but she understood that Ezekiel really wanted to drop some weight, so she didn't push the matter further and simply dug into her pancakes.

After finishing her delicious breakfast, Heather got ready and headed out for the day, but not before thanking the blonde man once more, hugging him tightly. "That really helped Ezy... thank you".

Ezekiel blushed profusely and hugged her back a bit awkwardly at first, but then instinctively pulling her closer to his soft body. "A-anytime Heather... now go, I don't want you to be late for University".

She nodded and pulled away from the hug, walking out the door "See you at 2pm!"

Ezekiel was by himself now. The house felt pretty empty whenever Heather wasn't there. He looked around "2pm huh?" he mumbled as he thought of what he could have done while waiting for her to come back.

In the end, he settled for cleaning the apartment a bit, Heather was always so busy with working and studying that she didn't really have a lot of time to keep everything squeaky clean, but once he'd started living there too, he had taken that responsibility.

He got a mop and some rags and dusters ready and got to work. Cleaning up the house at that size wasn't exactly easy, it was something that was bound to make him really tired and sweaty, but also one of the few things that he could do for Heather... until he found a job at least. After just a few minutes of mopping the floor he was already out of breath, but he didn't give in to his exhaustion and kept working; that was some good exercise for the little muscle he had after all! And also the only one. Heather had told him about gyms where he could have exercised, but he didn't have money and also... had no interest in being seen working out by other people, it would have been way too stressing for the poor angel.

After about two hours spent cleaning and dusting every nook and cranny of the apartment, Ezekiel plopped down on the couch, sighing deeply in relief. His knees were killing him, and sweat was dripping down his forehead and plump cheeks as he panted heavily, catching his breath. "O-oh goodness me... well that's done... now what?".

His stomach growled, almost as if it was answering the question. He glared at it sternly "C-come on, don't be like that... I can't just put the calories I've burnt off right back in my body-"

It growled again, making the angel sigh. He patted his tummy, watching it wobble in response, that puny breakfast wasn't nearly enough to keep him satisfied the whole morning "W-we do have those pancakes to finish..." he muttered, shifting his glance.

Heather did say that he'd been good at controlling himself so far... so maybe she was right, he could have rewarded himself a little, just for one day...

Ezekiel groaned a little and got back up from the couch, waddling over to the oven, where he was keeping the rest. He kneeled down, and took all of them, going right back to the couch and lying down on it, placing a big pillow behind his back.

As soon as he took a bite out of the first pancake, his brain got flooded by positive emotions, it was so sweet and soft; the batter was so light and fluffy that it melted in his mouth. He closed his eyes in pure bliss... god, he'd missed that taste so much... so much that he simply couldn't stop at one, he had to eat more, just a little more. One pancake followed the other and before he knew it, he'd already eaten all of them.

"Ugh... I can't believe I ate them all..." he mumbled burping softly. He subconsciously rubbed his tummy, feeling slightly nauseous, from all the sugar he'd eaten, and yet all warm and fuzzy inside as well. "I gave right into those temptations... I'm so shameful" he said, rolling on one side, his belly spilling over the couch a bit. He sighed again, glancing at the wall clock; he still had some hours before Heather came back... he'd been working the whole morning, he was so tired... so tired that as soon as he closed his eyes for more than ten seconds, he fell asleep.

When Heather returned from university, she found Ezekiel still sleeping soundly on the couch, snoring a bit. She smiled sweetly seeing him like that, with the empty plate that once contained some pancakes, still lying on top of his belly. "Awww Ezekiel...".

She looked around, noticing that the apartment seemed a lot cleaner than before, the floor was shining, no dust could be found anywhere, the stove had been thoroughly cleaned up... she slowly pieced everything together and felt even happier. He was such a sweetheart, he completely deserved all those pancakes after working so hard.

She quickly went to her bedroom and came back with a warm plaid blanket, and after taking away the empty plate, she covered him with it. "Sleep well, buddy... now off to make lunch".