Michael Clifford Shorts

BGM - Perfection

I'M SO BEHIND ON MICHAEL SHORTS

AHHH

WIIIINGING IIIIT

🎹Michael🎹  
You groaned as you flung the flimsy paper bags stuffed full of clothes onto your shared bed. Shopping had been a bust.

You had found, when trying on skinny jeans, that you had gone up two sizes and that you were now much squishier than you had been previously. Perhaps your gradual weight gain was a fact that you had subconsciously acknowledged, but it sure was a shock to you in the dimly lit fitting rooms of the mall. You stared at your own reflection with shock and horror when trying to suck in your expanded stomach and force the jeans to zip and snap together. They just weren't big enough. Your flesh expanded outward like an overstuffed sausage whenever you tried, no matter how valiantly, and it was your unwillingness to break and pay for jeans to small for you that ultimately led you to return the jeans to where they belonged and leave with what you had already bought.

Your day had been ruined and you felt awful about yourself. Clearly you were getting fat and fat meant ugly and ugly meant that Michael wouldn't love you anymore and then where would you be? Alone, fat, and ugly.

The thought alone terrified you.

You couldn't let that happen. It was time to take action. Your workout clothes, that had admittedly not seen a lot of use of late, were pulled out from the far corners of your wardrobe, and you decided to go run sprints on the treadmill like you used to at practice. Not fun, but certainly a calorie burner.

Your earbuds were crammed into your ears, and your music was blasted as you began your grueling program. Half a mile sprint, half walk, repeat.

Even your first jogging leg began to steal your breath. You became acutely aware of each desperately required inhale and exhale as your lungs felt like they had been set alight. A quarter mile in your feet began to grow sore and heavy, weighing you down with each heavy step. Your brow and body were crying with sweat, leaving you sticky and wet.

It was all so unpleasant and every part of you screamed to take it down a notch, but then the treadmill beeped and it was time to sprint.

It only took ten seconds for your mind to go blank. You were desperately trying to gulp down air your legs only just barely kept you upright without your knees collapsing or feet becoming so heavy that they were just absorbed into the Earth.

That's when Michael came home. He could hear the treadmill downstairs and the loud thud of footsteps pounding away on it. How peculiar, he would've sworn you had said you were going shopping today not exerci- oh.

His heart sunk as he slowly began to comprehend why you were downstairs.

But he still moved quickly himself, running down and slipping beside you to slowly wind the machine down to a walk so that you could warm down and finish. It was clear you needed to be done anyway, you were breathing like an elephant and looked like you had just gone swimming in your clothes.

You didn't even have the breath to argue, just slowly walk along with the pace Michael had left you at. He was silent, lurking somewhere behind you probably, just waiting.

He ended up giving you about five minutes before moving forward again and turning it off completely. You were left exhausted and sweaty on the outside, and rather insecure on the inside.

He knew it too. He had seen you come home from shopping and do something similar before. You had gone up in size and promptly panicked because it was always whispered into your ears and mind that men loved thin women only.

But he thought you were perfection.

Since there was no way you were walking, Michael gently picked you up bridal style and carried you up the stairs to your room. He walked straight into the ensuite before carefully lowering you to your feet. You were expecting him to make you shower before talking, but only flipped you around to face the full-body mirror.

Your breathing hitched as you looked at your complexion. You were flushed and your skin glimmered with old sweat. Your exercise clothes were a little tight and it again felt like your slight expansion had caused you to look morbidly obese.

"Y/N, whatever you're thinking of right now, stop it," Michael growled into your ear from just behind you.

His warm hands slipped under your shirt and moved around to your front so that your stomach was fully visible to the mirror. You looked away without thinking about it.

"No! Look! Look at how beautiful you are! Baby I love how you look right now, and I don't care about the number on your waistband. You're totally hot and all I could ask for in a girlfriend." He spoke with a strangely fierce tenderness that both struck your insecurities while striking your heart.

Michael's hands slid down your hips as he came to a kneel face to face with your abdomen and looked up at you from your reflection, "so gorgeous, I love you."

And that just couldn't go unanswered, "I love you too Michael."

"If you love me, then you have to love you because I love you and you deserve to hear it all the time. I won't let you forget or ever doubt that you're talented, beautiful, or unique because you are and I love you." He stood slowly, letting his hands trail up the backs of your thighs and over your butt appreciatively.

"You don't have to work out to impress me, and if you do you have to be safe." He settled on wrapping his arms around your torso. "Please be careful. I love every inch of you and wouldn't want to see it hurt."

A light kiss was given to your jawline and Michael let his lips linger against the skin as he held you tight. "Promise me that you'll take care of yourself because I love you and I want you to be safe and healthy."

It took you a moment and deep breath to answer, "I promise."

Your head tilted back to stare into his eyes was the perfect opening for him to kiss you again, this time on the lips. It started slow but soon your mouthes were open and Michael was pressing you into the bathroom door.

"Now about your shower, I was just reading this compelling piece on conserving water..." he panted as you broke apart.

You snorted.

"Feel free to join me in the name of the Earth then."

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