thinking about shane retiring after an injury and having to go on prednisone for the inflammation. the prednisone helps his injury but also makes him gain a lot of weight in a rapid period of time, and shane’s suddenly confronted with a round-faced, round-tummied version of himself that he barely recognizes. meanwhile ilya’s still trim as can be and shane feels horribly insecure in comparison, embarrassed of the way his new belly fat jiggles and shakes when ilya fucks him, and eventually he starts avoiding sex altogether. ilya confronts him and makes shane tell him what’s wrong, and when he does ilya of course assures him that he loves shane’s new plumper body and finds him just as sexy. but shane still isn’t comforted, because there’s the rest of the world to worry about too, and finally shane admits that he hates how mismatched they look in public, how he hates imagining what strangers think when they see lean, beautiful ilya walking beside his chubby husband. ilya is quiet for a moment and then asks, “Would it help if I were fatter than you?” and shane kinda laughs him off and rolls his eyes like yeah, of course it would be nice if ilya could be the one people gaped at instead of shane, but ilya would have to gain so much to get there that it’s not realistic. And Ilya is like, “I don’t care what is realistic. It will make my husband feel better if I am fatter than him, so I will become fatter than him.” and shane realizes he means it. so he starts helping ilya gain weight, cooking rich meals and baking treats and ordering from their favorite restaurants. it’s honestly fun, ilya has always loved to eat, and both of them enjoy it more than they’d thought, shane sitting on ilya’s lap to press bite after bite in his husbands mouth. they both watch eagerly as ilya’s stomach starts to soften, his abs disappearing under a soft cushion of luscious, squeezable fat, and the more shane admires and plays with ilya’s growing tummy, the more he realizes how sexy the belly is on his own body. he still wants ilya to get fatter than him, but now less for insecurity reasons and more for how horny it makes him to see all of ilya’s fat jiggling when they fuck, to squeeze and pinch and play with all the extra pounds and have ilya play with shane’s in return. in the end, ilya does get fatter than shane, but not by much - shane had started letting himself indulge in everything he’d been feeding ilya, no longer ashamed of his chub when it looks so goddamn good on his husband, and now he’s secretly trying to catch up :)