Originally posted on  RemyMorph.

a little idea by  5T3V3N that I drew and wrote a short story about because I’m a very impressionable racc and Steven and I apparently share a brain cell so uh yeah. A curse that gums your mouth up and the only way to get rid of it is to pass it on with a lil smooch! Hopefully the gum losing its flavour doesn’t mean anything for whoever ends up with it last.

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People had conjured some strange curses over the past few centuries, but this one was weirder than any curse Steven had encountered, or been subject to, before.

The fox’s maw had been filled with bubblegum. Pink, sticky gum that adhered itself to all corners of the inside of his mouth, sticking to the roof of it, holding his tongue down, shoving itself between and in front of his teeth. There was so much gum in his mouth that he was almost unable to close it - he could stretch his jaw open, but once he relaxed his jaw muscles, it clamped shut again, a big wad of smooth pink trying to jut slightly out of his mouth, and his cheeks expanding in either direction. And all because he missed the garbage bin when he threw a gum wrapper towards it! He was about to go pick it up, too! It’s not like he did it on purpose.

Three whole days he’d spent with this curse, with his mouth completely blocked and filled, with no way to get anything through. He hadn’t eaten in over 72 hours, and his tummy grumbled all the while, but he had no idea how to get rid of this silly curse so he was able to stuff himself again. Not to mention the gum had, of course, lost most of its flavour by this point, so now the inside of his jaw was a big, flavourless glob of nothing. The fox cursed himself… not an actual curse, of course, unlike his current predicament.

While out and about one day, Steven saw a grey and orange little figure in the distance waving at him. Of course it was Remy, and as they approached, Steven remembered something. One of the most most common methods of dispelling curses was with a kiss; it was cliche, it was kinda embarrassing, but it was also surprising how often it seemed to work. The fox’s eyes lowered and a cheeky grin spread across his filled maw as he waved back.

“Hey, Steven, what’s u-“

The fox held out a paw, gesturing the raccoon to shush for a moment, before he pointed to his lips, which he puckered as best he could.

“…You want a… kiss?”

Steven nodded excitedly.

“Uh… sure?” Remy tilted their head to one side like a confused puppy. “I mean I guess I have been saying that we should normalise platonic smooching, so time to put my money where my mouth i-“

Before Remy could finish that thought, Steven leaned down and planted his lips against the raccoon’s, and their eyes went wide with surprise. He sure was eager, they thought! They made a happy little squeak from the back of their throat.

A second later, they went to pull away… only to find that they couldn’t. Ugh! Did Steven glue his lips again? …No, they didn’t feel particularly sticky this time… Remy gave another tug that ended up yanking Steven forward with them before both sets of lips came apart with a quiet schlop!

“Hrm… whmt whhss thht hll- hfffnnhh?” Remy tried to speak, only to find that their mouth was held shut somehow. All the while, a strange feeling was growing inside, like some sort of substance had entered their mouth and was rapidly expanding. It clung to the roof of their mouth, worked its way around their fangs, and even seemed to hold their tongue in place, held rigidly in the middle. The substance kept growing and growing until eventually it was parting their lips open while pushing its way out of their mouth, and their cheeks were filled with the stuff too - it looked like Remy was holding a mouthful of water with how puffed up their cheeks were. They raised a finger to it and ran it across their mouth, and it felt like… bubblegum? And it sure tasted like it, too, or at least it kinda did, if it had been in their mouth for an hour and lost all its flavour.

A minute passed, and Steven’s jaw was completely bubblegum-free. He stretched and relaxed it, still a little stiff from being held in place for so long, but that would soon pass. “Yeah! Much better! Glad I’m out of that sticky situation.”

“Mrrnnff!!” Remy clawed at the gum in their mouth, but it was simply too tough and thick for them to dig their claws into. They stretched their jaw open as far as they could, and the gum started to split into thick strands, but then their jaw snapped shut again, or at least as far shut as it would go, forcing a little of the gum out of their mouth and puffing their cheeks out again. It was stuck fast. They furrowed their brow at their newly acquired predicament, and slightly less at the fact that this gum had been in Steven’s mouth for god knows how long. “…Hht yhh, Pfthvn.”

“Haha, thanks bud!” Steven gave the gummed-up raccoon a pat on the shoulder. “At least we know you can kiss someone else to get rid of it, right? Have fun with th-“

The fox was interrupted, much like before, as Remy grabbed him by the shoulders and planted their lips on his. Once more, Steven felt the sticky gum touch his lips, but unlike last time, the gum didn’t move. Remy reeled back and planted another smooch on Steven, then a third, and a desperate fourth, before realising that it wasn’t working.

Steven wiped his mouth. “Huh. I guess… you’re stuck with it? Or, no backsies. Probably no backsies. Sorry, Rem.” He rubbed the back of his neck as he turned tail, darting off before anything else could happen, which, knowing his luck, it certainly could have. Heaven forbid that somehow another smooch would get the gum stuck in both their mouths… but that was probably just being pessimistic. “Anyway, see ya!”

Remy started to give chase, arm outstretched, but figured it was probably useless. For now, they were stuck with their mouth gummed shut, and assuming the curse wasn’t stuck with them proper, they’d have to find someone else to transfer it to.

They wondered how their desert drake boyfriend would react to getting a sticky smooch…?