A cute lil thing I wrote for Warm Hotcakes a while back.
It's got wholesome himbo/frat bro energy, big toys, BIG toys, and true friendship. Enjoy!

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Gator Bro
By The Foxmates

Connor raised the gator toy to his mouth, pinched the nozzle open, and blew.

It was the last pooltoy for the spring break party he and his housemates were throwing. The home they rented together had a pool, and it was finally warm enough to use it. Connor was in his swim trunks already.

Breath after breath. Why did his friend Jack have to take the air pump now, of all times? He was probably going to attempt some stupid stunt with it and fail in spectacular fashion. Connor had told him he only had one toy left to blow up when Jack asked. He didn’t get a chance to mention it was by far the biggest.

Breath after breath. Connor was at least glad they didn’t laugh off his idea to throw in some pooltoys. A swan float, an orca, a couple of beach balls… and this huge, inflatable gator. He worried they’d dismiss him as childish, or something, but they all immediately backed him up.

Huffing and puffing. This was going to take a while. Eventually his thoughts strayed to the real reason he wanted all these toys. He… Well, he just really liked them! So soft and cute and brightly colored. In his younger days he’d cuddle with family pool toys all summer long, but now that he’s all grown up, that just… wasn’t something a man like him was supposed to do.

Pooltoys had it easy, he thought. No one expected them to be anything other than cute, playful things. Connor… sorta wished… he was a pooltoy, if he was being totally honest with himself. He wished he could be cute and playful, and for that to just be normal.

The crinkling sound of plastic folds stretching out. The hollow rush of warm air blowing into a growing gator. The—

The woosh of the pooltoy rapidly deflating, as the apparently faulty nozzle just fell right off. Connor groaned; all that time wasted, and he got lightheaded from all the blowing anyway. He was left holding the intact nozzle as a pile of green and yellow slumped pathetically to the floor in front of him.

There was a metaphor in there somewhere, probably.

He took a moment to just sit and reminisce, turning the nozzle over in his hand. Maybe pooltoys didn’t have it so easy, just plastic bags for someone else to use and throw away when they broke.

He… still wanted to be one. Just without the breaking and throwing away part.

Kinda.

He put the nozzle against his belly button, and tried to imagine what it’d be like to have no care in the world, just some big, happy gator toy. And then he felt stupid. Become a pooltoy? What kind of wish was that? Now that was something his friends would laugh at him for, if they found out. Stupid, dumb, childish, pathetic, lazy—

Wow, that nozzle was stuck tight. Connor couldn’t pull it off; there must have been glue on it, attaching it to the gator in the first place. He gritted his teeth. He’d have to rip it off. Only fair, he thought darkly, for being so immature.

He braced himself, then yanked—

—Pulling his whole stomach forward. The nozzle was still firmly attached to him; he couldn’t peel even a bit off. Connor raised an eyebrow, then leaned down to try and scratch it off but… Wow, he couldn’t even feel the edge of where the nozzle ended and his skin began. He bent over more, trying to get a good look at it.

The skin around the nozzle had turned yellow— vibrantly yellow, the same shade as the…

...No, that couldn’t be possible. But the yellow patch around his navel was spreading, and expanding to form those same long ridges as on the pooltoy… He was feeling bloated. Really bloated. He had to be dreaming! He pinched himself hard, gritting his teeth again at the sharp pain, but he was still here, and his belly was… really, really big.

He could hardly see his lap over it anymore. After a moment of hesitation, he tapped it; it was the same hollow taut sensation as any other toy, but this time he really felt it, and the echoing sensation sent a shudder up his spine.

Connor was becoming a pooltoy.

The spreading yellow sharply turned green as it spread to his sides and thighs, and flat, cartoony patterns of a darker green, reminiscent of scales, emerged in their wake. This time his legs started to get full, bloating to strain his swim trunks. He gasped again, at the strangeness of feeling the strain of fabric against his vinyl legs.

Then the door swung open. “So Connor, uh, funny story about the pump, I—Bro, what’s that costume?”

Connor froze, staring at Jack. Well, he tried to freeze; his body continued to slowly transform anyway.

Jack stepped closer and jabbed a finger into Connor’s belly, making the latter yelp. “Chill, dude, I won’t break it.”

“It’s not that,” Connor stammered. “It’s. Uh, it’s, uhhh…”

Jack’s eyes finally wandered to the edge of the vinyl where skin was being steadily transformed, and the gator toy that looked all too familiar. His gaze narrowed, then went wide. “Wait, that’s you?”

Connor winced, blushing like an idiot, but nodded.

“Dude, you okay? You’re like a giant balloon!” Jack didn’t seem to notice Connor’s expression, just continuing to press his hand into Connor’s yielding, airy vinyl. “Does it hurt? Shit, I can drive you to the hospital if I need to.”

“It doesn’t hurt,” Connor replied. He didn’t mention how nice it felt to be smushed like that. “And like, what can the hospital even do for…” He gestured to the vinyl that was creeping across his puffing-up chest and glossy shoulders. His hips were getting incredibly wide, forcing his body into a pear-shape that stretched his trunks to their limit.

“I dunno man, doctors just know stuff!” Jack said, scratching his head. “But yeah, I guess you’re right. You say it doesn’t hurt?”

Connor shook his head.

Jack shrugged. “Maybe we just let it happen? I mean, shit, you’d get to be a cool gator or something! How did this happen, anyway?”

The half-toy paused. Jack was taking this… way too well. Didn’t he think Connor looked stupid like this? And he especially didn’t want to admit— Ah. Of course. Jack was taking out his phone.

“Just a sec, Connor, texting the boys about this.”

Yep. Should have known. Connor bowed his head, helpless to his transformation and his humiliation.

“I know we’ve got like two brain cells between us, but I’m sure we can figure something out for ya,” Jack mentioned.

The rest of Connor’s housemates trickled in over the next few minutes. All of them had a similar reaction: Shock at Connor’s transformation, an offer to help, and then… a compliment.

“Are those claws? …Well, I don’t care if they’re fake balloon claws, they’re still sick,” Alex grinned.

Jason came in just after Connor’s swim trunks were destroyed by a long, bulky tail exploding from his backside. “Aw, sweet, bro; you even get a tail!” To Connor’s relief (and surprise), there was nothing at all between his legs.

“Bet you’d be unforgettable with the ladies— right, sorry, the guys, dammit— you could definitely get any guy you want, hell I’d pick up a pooltoy like you— I mean, I’m not gay, and like, I wouldn’t pick up an inanimate one, but also nothing against your hotness…” Mark just continued to dig himself deeper for over a minute; it only got interrupted when Connor’s face began to distort and turn green, his jaws pushing forward into an alligator snout while his hair became slick, then rubbery, then puffed up with air.

“Hey, hey, woah!” Jack cried, jumping up to Connor’s side. “You’re getting a gator face too! Can you still talk? Say something!”

“Uhh…“ Connor hazarded. “I… think I’m fine?” He felt… weirdly calm about talking with a pooltoy mouth, with smooth jaws filled with white inflatable teeth and tongue. Or maybe he was just that stunned, as all of his guy friends were crowded around in his room, excitedly cheering on his transformation into a dumb kiddy toy.

He rubbed his plastic snout with puffy alligator claws, then ran them down his airy sides, feeling his lower half finish bloating into an enormously full belly and legs. He found himself with a rather bottom-heavy pear shape, complemented by a bulky tail that slowly waved behind him.

“I think it’s done,” Connor muttered. All his friends cheered, nearly startling him. “Why are you cheering? I…” He should just say it. “I look stupid!”

“Not to me, dude,” Jason shrugged.

“You’re still Connor,” Mark affirmed.

“You guys can’t be serious,” Connor insisted. He refused to admit how natural it felt to talk with a long balloon snout. “Look at me! It’s like I’m some dumb living mascot costume!”

“Oh, shut up bro, you look fuggin’ awesome!” Alex gave a thumbs-up.

“No, you don’t understand, I wanted to turn into a pooltoy—”

“Then what are you complaining about?” Jack cut in.

Connor paused. What was he complaining about? He looked at all his friends, who were all still some measure of surprised, but also just… being bros, like normal. Slung over various parts of the room, idly checking their phones between looks at him…

He looked down at his massively blimpy self. He had grown (blown?) two feet taller from the transformation. He barely fit on his bed anymore. His body was made of bright green and yellow vinyl that reflected the lights of the room. He felt so lightweight, yet so bulky as well, from his wide, stompy gator feet to his long, thick tail and the rounded tip of his snout. He… liked it. ...No. Being totally honest with himself, he loved it. He felt like… himself.

He looked around at his friends again. Jack gave him a thumbs-up. He still felt normal. Giant, inflatable, pear-shaped gator or not, he was still Connor and they were still his friends.

“Aw, you guys,” Connor sniffed. He spread his arms out. “C’mere!”

“That’s what I’m talkin’ about!” Jack exclaimed as he jumped into the embrace.

It felt… right to have all his friends pressed into his soft, balloony belly, pressing air out into the rest of him. It felt even better to squeeze them more against himself in a big hug, the guys all laughing and cheering together.

The hug was short, but satisfying. Connor got more than one friendly slap on the belly or shoulder or back, eliciting a hollow drum-like thump for each one. “Party time!” Mark declared.

A half dozen guys filtered out of the room, Connor bounding along among them. Every step felt like he was on a trampoline for how high and how light his gait had become; he even bumped his head on the ceiling once before reaching the door. And the door was its own issue; Connor’s cartoonish body had become too wide to fit through.

“Need some help there?” Alex called from behind.

“Uh. Yeah, maybe,” Connor replied. His body squeaked in protest as he tried to twist and turn his way through. But then, two hands collided with his back a moment before he launched through the bedroom door with a rubbery creak. The gator tumbled through the air for a long moment, bounced on his taut tail against the carpet, then finally came to rest on his reptilian feet again.

“Huh, you really are a balloon,” Alex blankly noted. Without another word, he went down the stairs, Connor close behind. Stairs were their own challenge with a body so airy, and the living pooltoy eventually just jumped down all of them, drifting slowly down to the ground floor; this time, he landed on his feet… not gracefully, but as gracefully as a toy balloon gator could be.

Connor had to shove himself through the back door as well, but with a little help from Alex, he stumbled his way across the patio and to the yellowish stone surrounding a glimmering blue pool. The smell of chlorine (apparently he could still smell) was light in the air, dominated by the aromas of grilling; Jason was flipping burgers, while the others were laughing and swimming. Caught up in the fun of it, Connor jumped right into the pool, gripping his feet from around his bulky belly. “Cannonball!”

...There was no splash. Connor was stuck on the surface of the water; only the bumpy panels from his belly to the underside of his tail were even wet. The new gator flailed a bit, trying to dive, then tread water, then stand; the pool felt more slippery than an ice rink. Eventually he found that by lying on his back, waving his tail and pushing just his hands across the surface of the water, he could lazily get around.

“Welcome to the pool, pooltoy,” Mark said, treading up to Connor to slap his side with a hollow thump.

Someone splashed into the water behind Connor, sending water into the air to cascade against him with the sound of a dozen tiny drum beats. “Actually, yeah, how does it feel?” It was Alex, who was now swimming around to face the gator.

“I guess, it’s weird, it’s like… I don’t feel that wet? Water is just kinda rolling off me.” It was just the first thing that came to Connor’s mind.

“Does it feel right? Like this is where you belong?”

“Yeah, have you got an instinct for how to swim like an inflata-gator now?”

“Can you—”

“Guys, guys, I literally just, uh. Transformed.” It felt so weird to say. None of it felt real, still. “I have no idea what I’m doing at all. I’m still exactly the same person; I’m just some big toy now.”

“Sounds about right to me,” said Jack, piping up as he swam closer. Then he gripped Connor’s side, trying to drag him down into the water. Connor yelped and squirmed, but he couldn’t get enough traction on the water’s surface to pull away. “Hey, hey, chill, dude!” Jack said, letting go. “I just wanted to get on your belly or something. Float on you, y’know? Or are you, like, not that kind of pooltoy?”

Connor paused for a moment. Then his painted-on eyes went wide as he considered the implications. “I, uh, I… I… I guess…” He really was a pooltoy. Inflatable vinyl, shaped like an animal, designed to be floated on in the water. “You… can! You can all ride me, yeah.”

“Hell, yeah!” Jack cheered, getting atop Connor’s belly with the gator’s help. Connor felt himself fall a little deeper into the water, though most of him still bobbed above the rippling surface; he was far too big for Jack to sink with his weight. This felt so very, very right, having someone use him to float atop the water. Connor allowed himself a dreamy smile.

To the side, Mark snickered about riding Connor, and got a shoulder punch from Alex telling him to knock it off.

“Uh, how’s the view?” Connor said, watching Jack find his balance atop the springy, hollow surface of his belly.

“Pretty great,” Jack replied. Eventually he sank down, squeezing Connor’s stretchy body with his outstretched arms. “Really nice to bro-hug too.” Connor wasted no time in hugging back. “Bro-hugs were the best hugs,” their friend group had resolved some months ago. So no one was ever shy to get cuddly.

“Burgers!” shouted Jason, far more loudly than he needed to. “Come get your burgers, y’all!” Mark and Alex swam right for the edge.

“Hell yeah, burgers,” Jack mumbled, paddling towards the pool stairs atop Connor. “Can you get out on your own, dude?”

“Of course I can,” Connor snorted. It took a little more flailing and stumbling than he wanted to admit, but he was able to heft himself out of the water to stand on the sun-heated rocks again. The return to stability was momentarily disorienting. Still, he happily bounded around the water’s edge to line up for burgers. But then it hit him.

Connor furrowed his painted-on brows. “I’m… not hungry.”

Alex laughed at that, slapping the pooltoy on the back. Thump. “Hah! Yeah, right! I’ve seen you eat four burgers in a row; you’re always hungry!”

“No, I mean it!” Connor insisted, partly just to himself. “I’m not hungry at all. I.. I don’t think I can eat anymore. Like, what would I even do with food? It’d just… fall into my tail, and then get moldy and gross.”

“...Huh.” Alex replied.

“I mean, up until like twenty minutes ago I would have said my bro becoming a living pooltoy was impossible,” Jack mused. “Why wouldn’t said pooltoy eating also be possible?”

Connor could only shrug. “I’m as lost as you all about this. But I don’t think I want or need food anymore.”

“More for us, then!” Mark cheered, getting a snicker out of Jason. “So what do living balloons eat? Air? S’what you’re filled with, right?” A finger pressed against Connor’s belly nozzle.

“No, I don’t think…” Then Connor thought about it. He pressed his soft claws into his softer belly, feeling himself stretch as air shifted around his hollow body. “Well…”

“Yeah? Do we need to get ya on a diet of bike pumps and scuba tanks?”

“Oh, right! You’re already filled with air, but what if we filled you with even more?” Jack chimed in. “ ‘cause like, when I got that bike pump from you earlier—”

“He does not need to hear about that,” Jason groaned.

Jack just grinned more. “Okay, fine. Point is, let’s try blowing you up!” He skipped over to the bike pump leaning against the fence, gesturing for Connor to follow.

The inflatable gator turned the idea over in his mind. “...Yeah!” He grinned. “I think that could be fun!” And then he bounced over to Jack, who offered him the hose. Connor dropped that in his mouth, and yelped at the feeling of air rushing down his throat.

Jack paused. “You good there?”

Connor took the hose out for a moment to reply. “Yes! That… actually felt kinda good! Pump some more!”

So Jack pumped some more. He could feel himself slowly growing. It was a lot like how it felt to transform initially, as he occupied more space with his gator self with every passing moment. But at the same time, it was a different sensation; he wasn’t becoming more gator, he was the same amount of gator, just… more bulky. More round.

Jack stopped, patting the pooltoy’s broad belly. “How’s that feeling, bro?”

“I really like it,” Connor gushed, pressing his hands into his own airy stomach. He felt like he was meant to stretch and fill with air. “Keep going! This time, I’ll tell you when to stop!”

And Jack kept going. Connor’s pear-shaped body became swollen, with a belly that wasn’t just big, but enormously round, filling most of his field of view alone. The inflation broadened his thighs, puffed up his tail; before long, he was sitting on that featureless patch of plastic scales between his legs, which were pushed off the ground by the combination of gator belly and gator tail filling with air.

After a few blissful minutes, he had gained another foot in height but several in girth; from a distance, he might have looked like a giant, green and yellow beach ball. It was just so intoxicating to inflate; he couldn’t explain it, he just wanted to be bigger!

But finally, the effort it took to keep forcing air into his pressurized body became too much, and Jack sighed in defeat. “Can’t stuff any more air in ya, bro,” he explained. “You’re too big and tight!”

“Holy shit,” Jason commented. “And I thought you were huge before!”

“Huh?” Connor said, slowly coming out of his inflation daze. He glanced to his side, noticing that his friends crowding around him looked smaller than ever. “W… woah. Did I really blow up that much?”

Jack stepped forward, gripped the gator’s taut body, and lifted him into the air. “And you’re still light as a feather; wild!”

“H-h-hey!” Connor stammered, flailing what little his puffed-up body allowed. Jack began to bounce him from hand to hand with remarkable ease. “Wh-what are you doing?”

“Treating you like a pooltoy?” Jack caught and set Connor down again. “Like you wanted?”

“I-I mean… At least ask first!” Connor huffed.

“Right, yeah, sorry about that. In that case, considering you’re so round and bouncy now, I thought it’d be fun to play water polo with ya.”

“...With me?”

“Come on, doesn’t it sound fun? We’ll be careful! But you’d be like, by far the best ball we’ve ever had for that.”

That got Connor giggling; he felt all shy and goofy. “Oh, al— alright! Go ahead, you guys!”

Jack grabbed the overblown gator again, threw him straight up, then batted him up and across the pool. Connor tumbled through the air, laughing, just catching a glimpse of Alex diving in after the “ball” before Connor gently touched down on the water. Then Alex came up from below, launching him up again. This time Mark was quick to slap him back, and all the boys jumped into the water to toss Connor around.

There was laughing and taunting, hilarious and stupid challenges, and more than one apology to Connor when an especially enthusiastic toss sent him over the pool fence and rolling through the grass. Connor for his part cheered as he soared through the air, congratulated good batting and good catching, and suggested several of the dumb challenges that kept the pool party interesting all the way past sunset.

The bouncing and tossing slowly petered out, leaving the guys just floating on the water; one a lot more than the rest. Eventually, Jack spoke up. “So, this is the new you, huh?”

“Huh?” Connor replied, glancing over to see Jack looking up at him. “Uhh, yeah. Well, I’m not always gonna be this overinflated, but yeah, I guess so. If there’s a way to turn back to normal… I mean, being honest? I don’t want to. This is the most fun I’ve ever had!”

“I mean, yeah, this is the happiest I think I’ve ever seen you,” Mark added. “I think I like you better this way, Connor!”

“Aw, Mark!” Connor sniffed. “You guys are gonna make me cry!”

“Crying is manly!” Alex declared immediately. “Remember? We voted on it and everything. You can cry, bro, we’re here for you.”

Apparently, living pooltoys cried by painted-on tears welling up in their eyes and appearing to drip down their cheeks before vanishing. “I’d… I’d hug you all right now, but…” Connor flexed his arms what little his blimpy body allowed.

“Well, shoot, we gotta get you deflated somehow,” Jason brought up.

“Pop open the valve on his belly,” Jack suggested. “If that’s good with you, bro?”

“Yeah, go for it,” Connor assented. He was rolled in the water to bring his belly within reach of Jason, who tugged open his valve, filling the air with hissing. If inflation was oddly blissful for Connor, deflation was oddly relaxing. He couldn’t keep a dreamy smile off his face as his whole body lost more and more tension.

“It’s sure taking a while,” Mark noted.

“It’d go faster if we squeezed him!” Jack said, already swimming forward to hug Connor around his tail.

Jason called out the charge. “Everyone hug the gator!”

All of them crowded around Connor after that, eight hands pressing firmly into tight vinyl to make the air rush right out. Connor couldn’t help but laugh along with them as they got fired up about the “greatest bro-hug yet”, but most of his mind was lost in that easy tranquility of being deflated.

All the same, he of course hugged them all back once he was back to normal, crowding them all around his belly atop the moonlit water. He even carried them all back inside single-handed, as Jack put in a movie— Toy Story, of course— to conclude the pool party they’d remember forever.