Week 1

Sergeant Wolf was surprised to see Rus at his doorstep. He wasn't expecting anyone today, let alone the blue bear. Rus's grizzled and greyed muzzle denoted he was quite well off in his years. Sergeant Wolf had to assume the bear was around sixty.

"Heya, Sarge! I heard your birthday was soon!" Rus said cheerily. Holding up a bag he closed his eyes in a genuinely kind-looking smile.

Sergeant Wolf returned the smile and backed up, opening the door for Rus to come in. "Yeah, in like... a month... But I appreciate the thought anyway!"

Rus's eyes widened with an odd excitement as he walked in. He already began fishing his hand through the bag he carried. Pulling out a box, he handed it to Sergeant Wolf as he passed the werewolf toward the couch. He then dropped onto the cushions and let out a deep sigh. "Well, I was too excited to get you your gift to wait another month! I figured, why not now?!"

Opening the box, Sergeant Wolf could see, on the inside lid, the words "Grandest Dad Cigars". He then noticed four thick cigars sitting inside the box. Confusedly, he picked up one of them and stared at it. "Cigars? But... Rus, I don't smoke. You KNOW that!"

Rus scratched his snout, giving a shrug. "Course I did. You said so yourself, 'I've never smoked a cigar, but I admit I wanna try one.'" Rus placed his arms behind his head and leaned back. He propped his paws on the coffee table and smirked. "I figured... since you wouldn't buy them, I'll just cut out the middle man and get 'em for ya! All YOU have to do is try one out or I can return 'em!"

Sergeant Wolf sighed. With the cigar in hand, he walked over to the couch and sat next to Rus. "It's a great gift, Rus. Didja bring a-"

Sergeant Wolf saw a quick flash of green as Rus thrust a lighter in front of Sergeant Wolf's snout. "I do, big guy! I can do you the honor of the first light, too!"

Reluctantly, Sergeant Wolf put the cigar in his mouth, contemplating how addicting it would be to actually smoke one of these. He'd always been curious, and he liked the idea of it... "Honestly, I was gonna try 'em out, but I was thinking when I was older... and probably married to someone who's cigar enthusiast."

"Well, if you happened to be fiftyish right now, would you have bought some?" Rus asked as he lit the cigar.

Breathing deeply, Sergeant Wolf felt the smoke wafting into his mouth and down his throat. The sudden inhalation of smoke made him have to cough. He grabbed the cigar out of his mouth and turned his head to clear his airways... but then something clicked in his mind as he did. He admittedly liked this... a lot more than he thought he would. It started to feel as if this was something he'd been doing for years now. The next puff from the cigar felt almost natural to him. Clenching it in his mouth, he began to talk. His voice was a bit raspy from the earlier cough, but he didn't mind. "Okay... not gonna lie, I kinda like this."

"That's how I felt after my first cigar." Rus smiled. Lifting an arm he placed it behind Sergeant Wolf and gave him a pat on the back. "How old didja say you were again?"

"Turning twenty-seven." Sergeant Wolf said, taking in another puff and exhaling the smoke. "Again, thought I'd do this later, but I guess now's not a bad time to try one out."

The two sat in silence as Rus tried to think of something to say. After a good several minutes, and when the cigar was finished, Rus looked at Sergeant Wolf and smiled. "You'd be surprised how fast time flies. You'll be fifty before you know it!"

Sergeant Wolf laughed and pulled the butt of the cigar from his mouth, breathing out one last puff of smoke. "Yeah... I've heard."
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Week 2

Sergeant Wolf grimaced as he fumbled with the lighter in front of his bathroom mirror. He had gone without a cigar for over a day, and it started to weigh on him. His hands started to shake, his vision became blurry, and all he could think about was getting another puff in. Once the cigar was lit and Sergeant Wolf took a deep breath, he cursed under his breath. "Shoot... It's only been a week but already I'm addicted to these things!"

Looking down at his midriff, Sergeant Wolf frowned. "One... week." Poking at his belly, he felt an immediate sense of chagrin, having gotten the need to have another cigar. He heard many things about cigars. They were very bad for you, they were addicting, they made you crave food more if you tried to quit them. Then there was that infamous phrase of "One cigar takes a year off your life."

Sergeant Wolf looked back up at the mirror, seeing his reflection. His eyes were deep and sunken and a large amount of brown fur started to grow on his chin. He noted a few grey hairs on his chest but couldn't see anything below that, as he found his belly was... fatter. He'd gotten a new pair of pants only two days ago, and already they were feeling tight. He didn't think he'd get so big in such a short amount of time, but here he was... Even worse was how he looked now. He grumbled to himself. "I look like a forty-year-old, retired, gym teacher who let himself go and took up smoking! I knew cigars aged you, but I didn't think it would be THAT fast!"

Sergeant Wolf looked over at the counter, seeing two unopened boxes of cigars. Rus had gotten him four boxes in total... and he just finished the second one with the cigar he had in his mouth. He took a breath and started to heft up his belly. "I tried stoppin', but I dunno if I'll be able to fully stop myself from finishing off these cigars." Sergeant Wolf thought about it for a moment and shrugged. "Well, waste not want not. At least these'll be done and over with I can cut the cravings after that!" Sergeant Wolf gave a nod to try and affirm his verbal thoughts, but he knew this wasn't going to be the case... He actually did enjoy the cigars... He just hoped he wouldn't look like he was fifty years old after all this.
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Week 3

Rus had come over to visit. The bear wanted to check up on Sergeant Wolf to see if he had finished off all his cigars. When Sergeant Wolf opened the door, Rus was pleasantly surprised to see the grizzled face of a werewolf staring back at him. From only two weeks ago, Sergeant Wolf looked rather young, spry, and in shape. But now as the two stood there, Rus could only giggle at the old man standing before him. "Well, old-timer, you gonna let me in?"

"I hate you, Rus...." Sergeant Wolf snarled as he opened up the door.

Rus recognized the tone as an indignant one. Whenever Sergeant Wolf gets tricked by someone, he becomes indignant, realizing that someone managed to see past his tact and plan for it. "Not spry enough to hate me too badly, I hope?" Rus snickered as he walked inside.

Sergeant Wolf folded his arms as he chomped down on his cigar. He then grumbled. "So I looked online-"

Rus interrupted Sergeant Wolf. "Did you have trouble finding out what the mouse and keyboard were? Don't worry, I have friends who are like that t-"

"Nooooo!" Sergeant Wolf hissed. "Turns out 'Grandest Dad Cigars' are a magical brand of cigar that literally takes two years off your life by aging you by TWO YEARS." Sergeant Wolf rolled his eyes. "Since I finished off the last cigar a few days ago, I had to get MORE... But I got REGULAR cigars... Do you know WHY I got more?"

"Because you're now heavily addicted to cigars?"

"Because I'm heavily addicted to cigars!" Sergeant Wolf lifted his hands in the air. "I'm heavily addicted to cigars because you got me hooked on these magical age-changing cigars that are apparently a hundred times more addicting than a regular cigar and I thought about getting regular cigars.... AS IT TURNS OUT, the addiction to the magical cigars only lasts for three days before the craving is gone, but I didn't READ THAT until I was three days into a regular cigar! Now, I'm addicted to regular cigars which are NOT MAGICALLY CAPABLE OF STOPPING THE ADDICTION AFTER THREE DAYS OF NOT SMOKING!"

"But aren't you a fifty-eight-year-old man now? I thought you said you were gonna get cigars when you turned fifty!" Rus said in a tongue-in-cheek fashion.

Sergeant Wolf lifted a finger to retort then stopped. ".... I hate you, Rus."

Rus stuck his tongue out. "But the dilf look fits you. Personally, I think you look BETTER looking more like a grizzled old man than you did being so young and..." Rus looked down at Sergeant Wolf's belly, "not having a belly."

Sergeant Wolf turned away and snorted angrily.

"Look at the bright side, Sarge! At least now, with how old you've gotten... and how much you let yourself go, the two of us actually look like an old married couple now!"

"Oh, be quiet, Rus! We're not a married couple!" Sergeant Wolf folded his arms back up again and growled. "I'm still angry at you for getting me addicted to cigars and aging me up by thirty-two years in the first place."

"How long will it take you to not be angry at me?" Rus asked, cocking his head to the side.

"However long it takes for you to fix this so I'm twenty-six... erm... twenty-seven again!"

"A bit drained up in the brain, I see? Don't worry, the older you get the less you remember your age!"

"I'm serious! I'm supposed to be at a Young Single Adult event next week! I volunteered to cater it!" Sergeant Wolf's eyes widened. "No one's gonna believe I'm twenty-seven years old if I've got a giant potbelly, have greyed fur everywhere, and am smoking a cigar!"

Rus lifted a finger and smirked. "But Sarge, you AREN'T twenty-seven. You're fifty-eight.
~~~~~

This is "Bigger Belly Project -- Age Progression"

Cameo by  rusbane

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Rus ©  rusbane

Sergeant Wolf/ Art / Story ©  pikminpedia Me