"Charlene, lets go to the fair."
Charlene gave a giddy squeak at his answer, "Believe me Templeton, you wont regret it."
"If it really has enough food to feed an army of rats, I'm sure I wont." Finally, after all the waiting, he would finally get his chance at becoming the fattest rat in the world, with Charlene by his side. "Charlene."
"Yes Tempy?"
He already loved it when she called him that. "Could you tell me what kind of food we'd find there?"
"Hmhmhm, well certainly," she began giving him a belly rub, "you'll find melon rinds, and bits of hotdogs, cookie crumbs, and rotten cotton candy."
At the sound of food, Templeton's belly rumbled. The pleasuring rubs of her soft paws across his furry flesh, added with his belly growling, Templeton nestled further into the garbage with a large smiled smack across his face.
"Melted ice cream," Charlene continued, "mustard drippings, moldy goodies everywhere. Lots of popcorn…apple cores, banana peels, soggy sandwiches--."
"That's enough," Templeton whipped his mouth of drool, "I'm going for sure now."
"Well you'll have to wait till morning," she patted his belly again, "by then we'll be fit to travel. It'll probably take a couple days."
"But it'll be worth it," Templeton licked his lips. Chatting a little while longer, it wasn't long before they dug deeper into the trash to snooze until morning came. During which Templeton dreamed of all the food he'd eat at the fair. Everything Charlene mentioned and more, Templeton quickly disposed of, continuously getting fatter by the mouthful. Such mirthful ecstasy had never been enjoyed by a rat (well, perhaps Charlene) until now. By the end of the dream he received a blue ribbon at the fair judging, and as a prize, yet more to glut on. Officially, this was the best sleep Templeton ever had in his life.
===
"Rise and shine fat rat."
Wrestled out of his sleep, Templeton found a plump but thinner Charlene standing beside him. Looking down, he noticed his own loss of tummy. "What's going on?"
"Time to go, you hear that?"
Perking up his ears, he heard what sounded like a truck, backing up, along with humans speaking. "Sounds like a truck."
"It is a truck, but more importantly the van is here."
"The van?"
"Yes, the van to take us to the fair."
At the sound of this, Templeton sat up, "Well come on, what are we waiting for."
"I was waiting for you," Charlene playfully pushed him.
Following her lead as before, the two rats crawled out the trash can, and scurried under a car in the parking lot. Across from them were humans unloading the dinners food for the day into the storage room, and across from that, was a van with a large ice cream label on the side. Stealthily, they moved under the truck while the humans entered the store room, waited for them to open the ice cream van, then once it was clear, crawled up the tires, and hopped into the back, hiding at the very edge behind a stack of box's. It took Charlene yanking Templeton by the tail just to restrain him from feasting on the buckets of ice cream he smelled, which annoyed him slightly, but what could he do. Gluttonous impulses didn't seem to bother the female rat as much as it did him. Probably because she had already gorged herself on more than Templeton probably would in his life. Of course, once they entered the fair, he'd be sure to beat her record. Right now it was just a waiting game, waiting for the humans to finish their job, and for the van to get moving.
Once it did Charlene allowed Templeton to enjoy himself. "Just be sure not to eat too much," which was like asking a hungry lion to be gentle with it's meal.
"I know what I'm doing," replied the gluttonous rat, who had ripped open a bucket of vanilla ice cream. "I handle stuff like this all the time."
"You have," she cocked an eyebrow, opening up her own bucket.
"Er…no, but I wish."
Sitting on top of a box, Charlene ran a paw through the cold desert, taking her time with each pawful she ate. Which Templeton did the opposite of, leaning his whole body into the bucket, stuffing his face with as much he could fit in his mouth as possible. It worried Charlene. At the rate he was eating he'd probably be too fat to leave the van. Guiltily though, she found his gluttonous abandon cute, and further grew anxious of how happy he'd be at the fair. Thinking of it herself, she allowed some of her own gluttonous impulses give way, and dug her own face into the bucket.
It soon ended up becoming her undoing however, as the cold desert enthralled her in a web of bliss, causing her to open further boxes, and consume a chocolate pie, and a box of fudge bars. To her surprise, Templeton stopped eating after a second bucket of ice cream and fell asleep in a box he'd just open. Charlene's now much more bloated belly jiggled as she delightfully chuckled at her companion.
"Oh Tempy," she sighed, her now burbling belly taking up most of the space in the box, "you poor thing. You really never got the chance to be a rat have you."
Her stomach groaned in compliance. "Though your stomach hasn't had the time to really get full, you certainly have the makings of the fattest rat in the world."
Suddenly, the truck came to a stop. Snapped out of her musing, Charlene's ears picked up heavy footsteps coming to the back. Luckily she was behind a ton of boxes shielding her from view of the humans, but by some idiotic impulse, Templeton climbed further to the doors in search for different types of goodies.
"Templeton," Charlene shouted, "Templeton! Wake up!" But to no avail, the rat's soft snoozing continued.
Attempting to shift her bloated body into a sitting position to stand up, the process proved difficult inside the cramped fudge box, which her lower body occupied most of. Not even the eruption of burbles and sloshes woke the rat up, and as the humans drew closer, she felt more helpless.
"Templeton please wake up," she shouted once more, but it was too late.
As the van doors opened, light entered the room, and the silhouette of the van driver was seen picking up the exact box Templeton occupied. Then and there, Charlene felt like bursting into tears, but didn't, as the human casually took the box with him, not noticing an engorged gray fur ball within. The man wore a headpiece, which played loud music, and also wore sunglasses. The music must've distracted him, and the sunglasses darkened Templeton's appearance. The box was halfway closed as, so he mustn't of noticed. Charlene breathed a sigh of relief, and using her new weight to tip the box over, she crawled up the rest of the boxes, hopped out of the van, and followed the driver carrying Templeton.
Thankfully the garage was empty, with no one to notice an overfeed rat wobbling around. Sticking to the corners was more difficult at her current size than when she was thinner. The accursed ice cream sent waves of regret through her mind. If she had more self control they could've been safe, and continue to the fair. Well, beating herself up wasn't going to make this go away. So long as Templeton was fine, there still might be a fair to go to.
Finally, the man placed the box beside others on a metal rack within a dark room. Hiding behind a box, she waited until she was alone in the room. Once the door closed, she hefted herself to Templeton's rack, and ran to the box.
"Templeton, Templeton are you okay?"
Opening the box, she was taken aback by what she saw. The loveable rat was awake, untouched and unnoticed by the man. But more surprising, he was under the dome of what was once a large ice cream cake, looking at Charlene with a sloppy grin, licking a paw, and resting the other on an enormously bloated belly distended high into the air.
"*Hic*,High Charlene," he said, stroking up some of the cream staining his fur and eating it, "my goodness, you've*Hic*, gotten fat, hehehe."
Charlene was not amused. "Fat yourself you fat rat, you had me worried sick. But here you were just eating this whole time."
"Sorry*Hic*, must've dozed off," Templeton patted his sloshing belly, "all that ice cream made me, *Hic*, drowsy, so I took a nap. Must've, *Hic*, eaten it pretty fast since I, *Hic*, got these hiccups. Are we at the fair yet?"
"No, we're not, no thanks to you getting off the van." Ironically, they wouldn't need to go to the fair if they kept eating like this. "We'll have to walk the rest of the way now."
The rat yawned. "Well, I hope you don't mind me taking a nap again. At least until you find out where we are."
Despite how it was his napping that put them in this situation in the first place. She needed time to discover their location anyway. By sniffing the room she knew it was filled with pastries. Looking at one of the box's shipping address, she immediately realized where she was.
"St. Margret's Bakery." They were on the right track, halfway there infact. Though by walking it might take a day or two. So long as they don't get sidetracked by too many gorging opportunities. She wanted to save the best for Templeton, before he gorged himself to an obscene extent.
Climbing higher onto the rack, she peeped through a small window showing the next room. The counter was empty, along with the rest of the room. At the door she spotted a small sign, which from her side read open, meaning only one thing. "The bakery's closed, what luck."
It was nice to feel safe again, for the time being. But most of all, Templeton would be able to sleep in peace. Although he was tired from glutting on two ice cream buckets and an ice cream cake, Charlene still felt rather peckish. Placing her dainty paws on her robust belly, she pressed the cushiony surface and felt there was still plenty of room left, despite what she gorged upon earlier. The temptation continued to grow, as she struggled to keep her thoughts on maintaining a travelable size. Looking to the box Templeton slept within, she giggled.
"I think you're starting to rub off on me fat rat." So, sticking out her gut and sloshing it about through a series of gentle patting, she made her move.
