Tom couldn't pinpoint exactly when it started. He knew how it started; he'd always been fascinated with bellies. Pregnant ones. There was something about a woman with child that caught his attention and kept it, to the point where it got to be embarrassing. When he was younger, he would become so distracted when he spotted one that he would often stop mid-sentence, and if he was unlucky enough to be with friends, be teased relentlessly.

His friends were all clueless though. He formed a reputation for hating "fat people" in elementary and middle school. Everyone made fun of fat people in those early years. But everyone was also too young to understand the whole concept of pregnancy before sixth grade, and after that they were too immature to care.

Tom didn't really understand that he stared because he liked looking until high school. By then, he'd learned to limit his fascination to peripheral glances and then google searches online in his room at home. The false reputation he had unwittingly won himself in his adolescence had faded away for everyone else, but he hadn't forgotten.

Tom liked pregnant bellies, but his interest stayed in the closet.

College opened up a whole other world of possibilities. With college came adulthood and responsibility, but freedom also came with it. He found himself with a private computer, password protected and no parental supervision. His fetish stayed in the closet, but it also expanded. He found communities online, like-minded people who not only shared his desires but also the desire to not share it as well.

Tom essentially became two people, the one in the closet who was fascinated with pregnancy, and the well adjusted young man who studied art and computer programming in college and played video games for income. Both of his personas became somewhat prominent in their respective communities; he was fairly well known and respected on YouTube, but under different channel names.

Mainstream Tom made Minecraft and Garry's Mod let' plays. Closet Tom made simulation videos for male pregnancy.

It was not a huge transition for Tom really. One of his online community friends sent him a link to some content posted up on a website dedicated to "mpreg" and he instantly found a whole other world of bellies he could admire. It had never occurred to him before; most of the male bellies he'd seen were posted on inflation sites, which didn't interest him at all. There was no comparing babies to air and water, at least in his mind.

But here was a place dedicated to all things pregnancy, not just for women. And somewhere along the line, as he was admiring all of those taut male bellies, he began to wonder why it couldn't happen to him. Why couldn't he have both, the full belly and the fact that it was always with him?

That thought became more prominent as the years went by. It became an unhealthy obsession of sorts and crept into his life in weird ways. He'd gone into a Kids'R'Us more than once, looking at infant clothes and even buying a pair of baby booties that he kept in a drawer at home. The booties kept him from going back; a young guy, shopping alone for infant clothes, and he's not a pedophile? He'd only have to look at them and imagine that they were for his child, a child he'd carried all himself. Sometimes, he put them in a video or pictures he posted on the mpreg website, and never failed to earn an "Awww!" or two.

It affected his sex life too. When he was with a girl, sometimes she wasn't enough for him. He started out fantasizing that he was getting his partner pregnant, but eventually his mind flipped and began thinking that she was the one depositing a baby in him. The fantasy only got more intense when he was the one on the bottom, his partner in the dominant position straddling his hips, and it got harder and harder to finish missionary style as time went on.

By himself, there was no other way. Either he was thinking about being pregnant or jacking off to someone else's pregnant picture. Somewhere along the way, he'd forgotten what it was like to masturbate without one of those two things. He wasn't sure he could.

Eventually, the magic of the booties faded away, and he couldn't look at them anymore. When he did, he felt an urge that he couldn't fulfill. He didn't want to be a woman, but he also wanted desperately to feel what it was like to grow life inside of him. It was an ache that made him deeply sad and depressed, and it only got worse as he watched his friends have kids. He knew getting a girl pregnant, even one who he managed to hang onto for more than a few weeks, would not be enough. The envy would kill him, or he was sure would get him landed in jail.

Tom's spiral downward lasted until a year after he'd graduated college. By then, Mainstream Tom had a stable, sizable income from his gaming videos online. He was in an apartment, but looking for a house to buy. The only thing that was missing was the girl to go with it.

Closet Tom was a wreck.

It was another link that gave him hope. Someone had posted an article about demon pregnancy and how there were rumors that it happened to guys as well as girls in certain cases. Tom knew that demons existed in his world, but they were incredibly rare. They existed in the places where men did not go, and when they ventured into populated areas, they were dealt with swiftly. Demons who were brave enough to walk among man were not nice ones to have around.

Despite the stigma, Closet Tom latched onto the possibility with a fever that Mainstream Tom knew wasn't exactly healthy. But he also knew that eventually Closet Tom would break Mainstream Tom's life to pieces. So a compromise—if this didn't pan out, then Tom would get some help for his obsession before it could ruin everything he'd built. He was still young enough that he could learn to deal with it before it was too late.

Research online was scarce. Demon pregnancies were not really talked about, and when they were, it was almost exclusively about women being impregnated. It took a whole lot of digging and more than a few trips to sites like the WayBack Machine, but Tom finally found the tiniest bit of evidence. Everything on the subject pointed to water demons.

He finally had his answer. And after some more digging, he finally had a plan.

Tom stood on his back porch, looking out over the dark water of the lake by his house. It had been almost nineteen months since he'd found the place and moved in, and although his time here hadn't been exactly what he had expected, he still couldn't find a reason to regret it. The view over the lake was amazing, especially this time of evening, when the sun was setting over the tree line.

His new residence was in a small town up in the mountains with just enough people that he didn't have to pay through the nose for internet, which was vital to his income. The town itself was a few miles up the road through the trees, but there were scattered residences all around the lake edge like his own. The house had been relatively cheap and the real estate agent had given him a good deal on top of it, grateful that he wasn't put off by the rumors that surrounded the town. He didn't tell her that those rumors were what had drawn him to the place.

Most of the town's folk were lifers, born and raised here. They got a modest amount of tourists who came during the warm months to check out the craftsmen who lived in the town. There were some old world glassblowers and smithies that were still around. Every summer, the town threw a renaissance faire that drew most of their business for the whole year.

None of that included the lake. The lake was off limits, especially to ignorant tourists.

That meant Tom had the lake to himself. No one was strictly forbidden to enter it, per say, but everyone steered clear. The rumors surrounding it were not openly talked about, but everyone knew why the lake was not to be fished or swam in.

Tom made his way down his small dock, stripping naked in the evening light. The real estate agent had explained that the dock itself had been put by the previous owner before he had moved his family away again. When Tom asked why, she only said that he found living so far away from his job was too stressful.

The real reason was that there was a water demon in the lake.

That was the rumor anyway, and up until a year ago, Tom had been inclined to believe that it was only a rumor. There had been no evidence to the contrary except for the sparse stories he had uncovered online and the fact that no one here would swim in the water. No one had mentioned demon pregnancies to him since he'd moved in, and no one was suffering from any abnormal anything, and he'd almost given up hope. Six or seven months of swimming in the lake had left him thinking that he had been chasing ghosts.

He was just about to give in and finally start seeking help for his obsession when he realized that his body was changing. It was subtle and he half wondered if he was going crazy, but he recognized soon enough that what he was experiencing was real. He went back to the original article and similar articles about the reported male demon pregnancies, and looked them over again. It took some reading between the vague passages, but Tom eventually concluded that his body was being altered by the demon. The reason he wasn't pregnant right away wasn't because the demon wasn't there, but because he wasn't able to get pregnant as he was.

So Tom continued to swim in the lake almost every night, and although he wasn't necessarily happy with what was happening, the end goal would hopefully be worth it.

Swimming in the lake was the key to his conversion. From all that he had read online about water demons and similar situations, he guessed that the demon was releasing something in the water that was generating the changes in his body. Certain kinds of fish did the same thing when they changed from one sex to the other, except that they released hormones to prevent the other fish from changing too. In Tom's case, the demon was giving him the parts to carry offspring, or so he hoped. He knew something was happening, but he hadn't been to a doctor to see what exactly.

All he knew for sure was what was happening on the outside. His upper body remained the same, but his groin was changed irreversibly. His penis was untouched but his testicles had sunken into his skin, leaving only slightly protruding mounds. In between them, an opening had appeared, one that sunk deeper into his body than he dared explore. His hips had widened by an inch or two.

These changes were things of which only he was aware. With clothes on, he barely looked any different from the man he was when he had first arrived in town. Without them, Tom knew he wasn't the same. He just hoped he was different enough.

Tom also hoped that the changes were going to be finished soon. His birth canal (that had to be what the opening was) had been tender when it had first started opening, but he hadn't felt any pain in over a month. More than that, it was getting later and later in the year, and soon it would be impossible to swim due to the cold weather. He had gone swimming only once in October of last year—never again.

Already the water felt almost too cold on his skin. He lowered himself down slowly and then let himself go, sinking in. The lake here was deep enough that he couldn't touch the bottom, but he contemplated doggy paddling for a while to keep his head dry before finally giving up and diving under the water so that he was completely wet. He resurfaced and turned on his back, letting himself drift and float. He stared up at the darkening sky, still awed by how many stars he could already see. The only light pollution here was the sun, the moon, and the light from his house. He had never known that there were so many stars until he had moved here.

It didn't take him long to give up and make his way back to the dock. The water was just too cold and his brain was starting to go numb. He was just lifting himself out of the water when something grabbed at his ankle and tossed him back in.

Tom sank for just a moment before kicking and breaking the surface again. It had all happened so fast that he hadn't even had time to recognize what had grabbed him. He looked around but didn't see anyone or anything swimming with him in the lake.

He managed one stroke back toward the dock when he saw it. The water rippled as something beneath the surface moved, but it didn't break and it was too dark for Tom to see what was causing all the movement. All at once, he realized it was coming towards him and he panicked, quickly trying to make his way to safety.

His hands were on the wood again when it caught him a second time, this time tugging him as he tried to pull himself onto the dock. He sank down, but didn't submerge, desperately trying to fight whatever it was. He could feel something long and thick wrapped around his ankle. As he struggled, another slid itself around his naked waist, tugging him even harder now.

Tom reached down to claw at it when he suddenly realized that the things wrapped around him were tentacles. Only one thing in the lake would have tentacles, and that was the water demon. He froze as the thought passed through him. Once he stopped struggling, the water demon stopped tugging, and simply settled for wrapping more of its appendages around him.

He slowly pulled himself along the dock and wrapping his arms around a piling, securing himself there. The wood gave him some much needed physical and emotional support. Although this was what he had been waiting for, he was terrified about what was about to happen. The demon was going to impregnate him. He was finally going to know what it was like. Yet all he felt was fear.

Still, the support of the piling was enough to get his body to relax a tiny bit, and that was what the demon seemed to be waiting for. It wrapped itself more securely around him and began probing, sliding the tip of a tentacle between his legs.

Tom felt himself go hard as he was touched, despite the cold water and despite the fact that he was going to shit himself out of fear. This was one of his darkest fantasies coming true, and he was slowly becoming anxiously excited. The demon continued its inspection, dipping the tip into his birth canal.

Up until then, Tom had only stuck a finger up there, intent on exploring his new part, but that was as far as it went. Now he was getting a taste of what it was like to be filled and it wasn't unpleasant. He couldn't say it was exactly pleasurable—he wasn't sure if what he was feeling was due to finally being entered by something that wasn't his own finger or if it was the other tentacles that had begun undulating on his skin. The sensitive parts of his entire lower body were being rubbed, and as the probing tentacle pushed further in, another brushed against his cock. None of the tentacles except the one in his canal rubbed him with any sort of purpose except to create friction on his skin, but there was enough that he grew even harder and began to moan against the wood.

The tentacle pulled out and he let out a whimper before he caught himself. It hadn't felt as good as he wanted it to, but now that it was gone, he felt empty. As strange as it had felt to have something alien inside of him, he was worked up enough now that having nothing up there was even worse.

He didn't have long to wait. The water demon shoved another tentacle (or was it the same one) back up inside of him. This time, there was no probing, only pushing, and suddenly he was being stretched more than he ever thought possible. There was an enormous amount of pressure and with it came unexpected pain. Tom cried out as the tentacle wriggled, not allowing him time to adjust. He could feel something gushing into him, and the other tentacles stopped rubbing him, simply holding him tightly, preventing him from struggling or escaping. How long it went on, he didn't know. All he knew for sure was the waves of pain being sent through him. He clung to the wood, teeth gritted as he waited for the demon to finish. Eventually, the cold water caused his body to go numb, or he simply got used to the sensations in between his legs, but the pleasure never came back.

Finally, all at once, the demon let him go. He was so surprised that he let go of the wood and plunged into the water. His body floated for a moment, dazed and reveling in the cold, until his lungs protested and his legs kicked in response, pushing him back up into the air. Tom grabbed ahold of the dock once again and turned to look behind him, but there was nothing. Only black water, barely visible under the night sky. The sun had gone down and he hadn't even noticed.

After a few tries, his shaking arms finally pulled his body out of the water and onto the solid wood of the dock. He lay there for a minute or two, shivering but too worn out to move.

Tom didn't remember getting himself to bed that evening, but he must have because he woke up the next morning in it. His entire body ached as he sat up, especially his pelvic area, and it took him almost five minutes to muster up the will to get out of bed. He felt grimy and wet, and as he stood, he saw blood on the sheets. Not a lot, but he had a distinct idea of where it came from.

His eyes looked up from the bed and out the window where he had a clear view of the dock. From here, he could clearly see the blurry, colorful blobs of the clothes he had been wearing last night still out there. He must have simply walked past them when he made his way inside.

He would get them later. For now, all he wanted was a bath.

Once the pain in his abdomen began to fade, so did the trauma of what had happened. He had nightmares the first couple of nights but they were exaggerated versions of his memories rather than the reality he had experienced. It took him a little bit longer to start eating properly though, but slowly he started to feel like his normal self again.

Blogging helped. One of the things he planned to do if this whole pregnancy thing had worked out was blog on the mpreg website he frequented. He wanted to document and record every step of the way in case this was his only shot. Even if it turned out badly, he wanted to say that he had done it and had proof. Judging by all the responses that he received on his first few posts, Tom could tell that none of his mpreg friends believed that it had really happened. They all thought it was a story that he had made up for entertainment. In a way, it helped. Their attitude helped his memory fade away to just a distant bad story.

None of them were here, however. No one else but Tom saw firsthand the changes in his body and lifestyle as the days past his impregnation turned to weeks and then into months.

The first month was uneventful. Aside from the pain of the first week and a slight decrease in appetite, Tom felt almost completely normal. By the end of it though and well into the second month, he began to notice that his pants were getting tighter.

Six weeks after that night with the water demon, Tom stripped off his clothes and studied himself in the mirror. He ran his hands lightly up his belly, where the tiniest of curves had appeared. It was so barely noticeable that he could have dismissed it entirely except for the fact that the mass that caused his belly to swell outward was firm, firmer than fat or even muscle if he'd had any. His belly button was the same but shifted slightly upward, its position skewed by the small swell below it.

Oh god, he was pregnant! He didn't exactly feel pregnant, but he had to be! There was no other explanation! He cupped his miniscule belly in his hands, rubbing his skin gently with his thumbs. He wished he was bigger.

The thought of growing his belly made his cock harden slightly, and he sighed a little before sitting down on his bed. For the first time in what seemed like forever, he slowly stroked himself, imagining that each one caused him to grow slightly until he was finally full term and even overdue. He couldn't wait. Just the thought that this was actually going to happen and not just in his mind made him even hornier than he'd ever been, and he eventually wasted the entire afternoon, fantasizing about what was going to happen.

Weeks went by and as he grew, so did his appetite. He wouldn't say that he was ravenous, but he wanted different things and in different quantities than he was used to. He wanted fish. Lots of it. And greens. He began craving spinach and kale, collard greens, anything leafy.

What was really different was his thirst. It seemed like he couldn't get enough water. Not the bottled stuff from the store either or even from the tap either. He bought a gallon from the store and drank it all in one day, feeling dissatisfied. The next day, he took the jug and filled it up with water from the lake and drank half of it in one meal. That was what he wanted. It wasn't as clean as the tap water, but it tasted like heaven. Soon he was drinking at least a gallon of it per day, if not more.

All the while, his belly grew in size. By ten weeks, he was a full two pant sizes up from his original size. The womb beneath his skin was taut and round, giving his abdomen a puffy, swollen look. He didn't exactly look distinctly pregnant yet, but he did look bigger than his normal skinny frame.

His friends on YouTube and the mpreg website went gaga over his belly. All of them wanted to know how he was doing it; air, food, or water? Tom continued to tell the truth even if they didn't believe him. He was actually pregnant. It wasn't a human baby, but he was pregnant. He had a living thing developing inside of him in a natural womb that he had grown due to hormone therapy given to him by the baby's father, the water demon. He blogged at least once a week and sometimes twice, giving updates and pictures and the occasional video. This wasn't just for them but also himself, his personal documentation. He left out very little details, wanting everything preserved.

In the meantime, he continued to live his life as he always did, doing game commentaries on YouTube and making money off the merchandise. The only thing different about this year was that he couldn't go to his usual conventions to meet his fans. He posted up a video citing health issues.

Well, some people would call a man with a growing demon baby in his abdomen a health issue. Tom called it a miracle. A hole had finally been filled in his life. For once, both Mainstream Tom and Closet Tom were getting what they wanted at the same time. He had finally made it work without sacrificing too much.

It wasn't all smooth sailing though. Tom's appetite had increased enough that he was worried that he would have to continue food shopping right up until the week he delivered. There was just no way he could keep enough food for that long in the house without eating it.

And he was in a seemingly constant state of arousal. He was living his ultimate fantasy (it could only be better if it was a human baby in his belly) and the thought of that was enough to keep him worked up. Just touching his belly was enough to set him off. As much as he knew that this was something most people wouldn't understand, he wished he had someone to share this experience with. Someone physical and not on the other side of a computer.

The best times were late at night though. Tom loved to sit on the couch with the TV on and veg, one hand caressing his belly and the life within it. As his pregnancy progressed, he began to feel little flutters within his womb. It was cliché, but that was the only way he could describe it; little flutters from the baby's limbs moving.

Sometimes if he was feeling adventurous, he would go out onto the dock on a lawn chair and just sit with a mug of coffee or hot cocoa, staring at the stars or across the water. Somewhere beneath, the father of the baby within him circled, waiting for its offspring to be born. Tom would sit there, mug in one hand, the other beneath his jacket on his belly, contemplating that. The baby inside him would move and he would imagine that it knew where it was, outside and close to the place it had been conceived.

At fourteen weeks, he was a little over halfway done his pregnancy. Water demon pregnancies only lasted about twenty five weeks or so, not the full forty like a human pregnancy. Disappointing, but Tom took what he could get. He was lucky that this was even possible, no matter how long it lasted.

By this time, he was far enough along that he finally looked pregnant. He wasn't just round, his womb stuck out beneath his skin, obviously not just a layer of fat causing his belly to bulge. His belly button was shallower too, distorted by the growth beneath it but trying hard to hold onto its original shape. The skin around it was pulled tight and occasionally itchy. He knew he would have to start buying some lotion or cocoa butter to put on it to prevent stretch marks.

His water cravings had slowly gotten slightly more intense as he grew in size. One day, he was recording a video for his gaming channel when he was struck by one so bad that he finished off the rest of his gallon and still felt thirsty. He got up from his chair and made his way to the door with the empty jug, putting on his coat before going outside.

Tom slowly made his way out onto the dock and then eased himself down to fill up the jug. It was harder now that he was so big, but walking directly into the water was not an option this time of year. He filled up the jug and instantly brought it to his lips, taking a deep swig. The water felt refreshing and extra cold on his throat, and he found himself gulping as much as he could. Once he was done, he looked down and realized that he had finished the whole thing in one go. He leaned over, filled the jug again, and then slowly pulled himself upright.

His belly felt even heavier and unbelievably taut. He stood still for a moment, rubbing himself through the coat, trying to adjust. His craving had been satisfied, but he wasn't sure it was worth it. As he made his way back to the house, his stomach sloshed slightly, and the baby in his womb shifted restlessly, obviously annoyed that its space had been taken up.

It ended up being totally worth the hours of discomfort and the many trips to the bathroom he faced later. After that day, his water craving abated somewhat, and he was back down to about a gallon a day instead of the two he had been up to. As time passed, his food cravings became more manageable too.

Life was good.

Eighteen weeks, and Tom was sitting on his couch, his shirt pulled up, exposing his belly in all its glory. It took up his entire lap, but he still had almost two months left of growing to do and he wondered just how big he was going to get.

But that wasn't why Tom was where he was. As much as he loved to sit there and stroke his pregnancy, today his hands were taken up by the camera in his hands. He had it focused on the belly in front of him, which had a black Xbox controller sitting just above his belly button. It rose and fell as he breathed in and out slowly, set there on purpose.

Finally, what he had been waiting for happened. In the view screen of the camera, the controller moved from side to side, rather than just up and down. Inside of Tom, the baby water demon moved again, shifting its tentacles around in its confines. The controller bobbed and wobbled on the tight, shiny skin, and Tom bit back a groan. The movement looked slight on the screen, just barely enough to move the controller visibly, but Tom could feel a whole flurry of unseen activity happening inside of him. The demon baby had grown more active in the past few weeks, growing stronger, and it would only continue to do so.

Inside of him, it rolled and twisted its many tentacles, as if testing the womb around it for weaknesses. The baby grew more restless at certain times a day, especially after meals when it had energy to spare, and sometimes only quieted when he rubbed back or walked around. The movement of his hands or his hips seemed to lull it to sleep.

He put the camera and the controller aside and put his hands on his belly. In between them, his belly button stood out, finally popped after giving up the battle to stay in its original position. He watched it shift slightly as a tentacle swirled beneath it, and this time he did moan at the sensation.

Tom moved his hands along his belly, pressing the heels of his palms down slightly, and the tentacles beneath this skin started following his movements as if trying to catch his hands. They both kept it up for a few moments until he felt the baby's wriggling start to slow down to a point where he knew it was asleep. The movement almost never stopped totally, but it sometimes abated to a sluggish pace that was enough to lull Tom himself to sleep if he was relaxed enough.

Right now, he had work to do. Slowly so as not to wake the sleeping offspring inside him, he pushed himself upright and off the couch. He had a video to edit and post.

Shopping for food turned out to be less of a hassle than he thought. Getting to and from the store was the hardest part; there was so much snow that it was almost not worth it except for the demands of the growing life inside him that required all the extra calories. Once he was there though, he found that most of the brave people like himself who were also food shopping also stocked up on as much food as they could. For them, it was so they wouldn't have to make another trip so soon.

It meant that the only thing that made Tom stand out was the fact that he looked bigger in the midsection, but even then, everyone looked a little marshmallowish with all the layers they were wearing. No one seemed to suspect that Tom was wearing fewer layers and had more body mass than any of them.

Even the amount that he bought didn't seem to trouble people. Anyone who said something to him only pointed out that if he didn't eat so many leafy veggies and fish, he could stock up on more carbs and red meat and not have to eat so much so quickly. He would always smile and thank them, but continue buying what he wanted. He knew they called him that California Boy or a hippie, despite the fact that he was neither.

No, it was the baby in his belly that dictated his diet now. He wondered what water demons ate exactly. They had to eat fish, but did they also eat seaweed? Was that why he wanted so much spinach? His mouth watered as he wandered through the produce section. There was nothing he wanted more than to stuff his face, but he knew he'd have to wait until later.

The worst part about going into public, other than the fact that he had to drive through snow to get there, was the fact that he had to watch himself. So far, no one seemed to really notice that he was any different under his coat than he had been just over four months ago and he wanted to keep it that way. However, that meant he couldn't do the things he did privately in his own home, such as walk around with his hands rubbing his belly. He also had to watch his gait, which had started to transform into the classic pregnancy waddle. That part was difficult since his body protested; his hips just didn't want to move that way anymore. Waddling was more comfortable, but it was a dead giveaway.

It also meant that he couldn't talk to the baby he carried with him at all times. This pregnancy had isolated him in his house more than the snow had, and when he was not chatting online or on Skype, the silence was sometimes deafening. Holding a one sided conversation with his only living companion was a natural thing, especially once it had begun moving and he could pretend that it was answering. Here, he couldn't do that, as much as he wanted to tell the baby what he was buying for it and what they would have for dinner when they get home.

Eventually though, his ordeal would end and he would pile everything into the car and take it back to the house. There he would bring everything in and peel off the layers of clothing, finally letting his guard down. His belly would relax, settling into a lower position against his hips as if it had crawled its way up closer to his ribs from the tension of being somewhere other than the concealed confines of his home. The baby would move and he would finally be able to explain all of the things he had bought as he put them in their proper places. Then he'd make them something to eat and both of them would settle happily on the couch.

Three weeks away from his due date, and Tom was filming himself again, this time without the controller. His belly was huge, definitely full term, swelling proudly out from beneath his ribs and down to his groin. His skin was shiny and smooth, not just from the pressure beneath his skin but also the lotion he had taken to smoothing on every morning and night. He had done a good job preventing stretch marks so far, but he wasn't sure how long that would last. He was still growing; sometimes it felt like he could almost feel his skin stretching to accommodate the overfull womb beneath.

Topping it all off was his belly button. It stood out like the cherry on top of an ice cream sundae or the timer on a roast. It was sensitive to the touch, but not in the good way like he had expected. Everyone he talked to online always thought that belly buttons became a turn on during pregnancy, but his felt sore, especially when he touched it. He finally realized that he should probably lurk around forums for actual pregnant women instead of the fetish ones he was used to, and realized that what he was feeling was normal. No belly button play for him, it seemed. He also didn't develop a linea nigra like he had expected. His belly stayed smooth and round everywhere except for the slight shelf he had developed where his womb curved back into his body below his ribs.

Tom was filming the baby move again, and this time it was easier to see the frenzy of activity that was happening inside of his abdomen. Each swirl of a tentacle was a bulge on the surface of his skin, and sometimes the baby would roll its whole body, causing the dome around it to contract in odd angles before settling back to swollen and round. It didn't hurt exactly, but his skin was sensitive, so every movement felt massive, even if the baby was only shifting a tentacle a couple of inches.

This was not something rare for Tom or the baby. The infant within him moved like this every day, sometimes multiple times, but he had grown used to it, even learning to value it. Such strong shifting meant that the baby was healthy and active, preparing for birth. Tom took comfort in that even when the movements were distracting him from doing chores or videos. It meant he was doing his job right, growing ideal offspring inside of him.

He filmed as much as he thought appropriate, and then worked his way off the couch, groaning with the effort. Walking or even standing was getting more and more difficult, not just because of his weight but because his hips were starting to feel like they were made of jelly. There was no hiding his waddle now; his legs refused to work the way they would if he was not pregnant.

But the exercise felt good, and it was becoming harder and harder to calm the baby down without moving his whole body. Tom slowly paced his way up and down his living room, rubbing his huge belly with one hand and supporting his back with the other. The infant inside him continued to wriggle, refusing his silent command to settle down.

He couldn't help but smile. His baby was so active. He had done a good job of taking care of it.

Who knew that a demon baby could be overdue? Tom sure hadn't. He was almost twenty seven weeks pregnant, and although he'd been having regular bouts of false labor, it seemed the baby within him was content to stay where it was. His belly hadn't dropped, but he wasn't entirely sure that was due to the fact that he wasn't prepared yet for labor or the inhuman shape of infant within him. Could water demons even drop? He sure as hell didn't know.

The water demon within him continued its frenzy of activity up until this point, but its movements had been growing more and more restricted. His belly just refused to stretch any more for it, and it pressed against all sides of his womb at once with nowhere to shift to make the most of the little space it had left. On the outside, Tom's skin would occasionally ripple if the baby managed to pull off a particularly strong movement, but all in all, his belly looked overripe and ready to burst at any moment.

He hoped today was the day. The contractions he had been regularly feeling were different this morning, seemingly coming from a deeper place. Once he realized that he was experiencing them at regular intervals instead of the random times of the past few weeks, he began timing the distance between them.

Tom watched the gap close between each contraction, slowly but surely, and he realized that this was indeed it. He was finally in labor for real.

The contractions weren't as bad as he thought they would be. The pain was bearable, but it came in chronic waves. As they got closer and closer together, it slowly escalated, but it wasn't what he had been expecting. He also hadn't expected it to take so long. Tom had always thought he would start labor, his water would break, and BAM! Baby!

The entire day passed, and although his contractions were steadily getting closer and closer together, it was happening so slowly that he was sure he was not nearly close enough to start pushing. The urge wasn't there, only the pain of his body preparing itself on the inside. For once, the baby was quiet, only moving occasionally as if it was waiting as well.

Tom finally took to the internet, reading as many labor stories as he could. He sat at his computer, uncomfortable in his seat, rubbing the vast expanse of his belly. Beneath his hand, the skin would occasionally harden and then relax, then wobble as the baby shifted in response.

All this time and his water still hadn't broken. He wasn't sure he even had water to break. There was next to nothing about the physiology of demon pregnancies on the internet and none of it was about males pregnant with demon babies. Finally, Tom sat back in his chair, defeated. His belly filled his lap, almost overflowing and all baby, jutting out from beneath his ribs in a glorious mountain filled with living treasure.

He had learned one thing while he was surfing though. His labor could last into the night and even into the next day. All he could do was wait.

Tom spent the night in his living room, restless. Sometimes he dozed, only to be awoken by a strong contraction or the water demon writhing within his abdomen. By the time morning came around, he was half delirious from the lack of sleep and fatigue from enduring the chronic pain.

With the morning came something new though. He got up from his seat in a daze, letting his body adjust to standing position. His belly jutted out in front of him as if it was pointing in the direction he should go. His legs started to walk and soon he was making his way across the room to where the door to the lake was. As he went, he pulled off his clothes until he was completely naked, then pulled open the door and stepped outside.

The morning air was cold, even for early spring, but Tom's body stepped further into it, intent on getting to the lake. His body craved the water, but a gallon of it wouldn't do. He waddled out to the dock, supporting his belly with both hands, feeling instinct drive him to the water.

He stopped only once, feeling something wet run down his leg, but he couldn't actually look at it. His belly had long ago obstructed his view of his feet and his hips would no longer allow him to twist to look at his legs. Tom could guess what had happened though; his water must have finally broken.

He never made onto the dock though. Once he reached it, he instead turned and walked directly into the lake next to it, hissing as the cold water hit his skin. It was barely above freezing, but Tom felt an urgent need to be in the water, and the rational part of his mind hoped his labor progressed quick enough that he would give birth before hypothermia set in. He waddled in far enough that he belly was completely submerged, then changed his mind and waddled back in, just close enough to shore that he could sit down.

It could have been hours or minutes for all he knew. The contractions in his belly were even more painful and deep now that his water had broken. They were getting rapidly closer and closer together too, the pain no longer chronic but constant. The cold of the water helped, but he couldn't help shivering, holding his stiffening belly in his hands.

Finally, he began to feel the urge to push. He wished that he had something to grab onto, but instinct told him that leaving the water at this point was a no-no. His baby couldn't survive in the open air, it needed the water. He didn't want to risk it being born out of the lake for the sake of his own comfort.

After long moments of struggling and pushing, it felt like nothing was happening. Inside of him, the water demon infant wriggled, trying to enter his birth canal, but both of them were having trouble. Tom was beginning to feel desperate. He had come so far and endured so much, and now to have it fail… He knew it was the pain that was making him over anxious but he wanted to see this through.

His head rolled from side to side in frustration until his eyes landed on the dock. Of course!

Tom slowly made his way over to it, struggling to move even as his body struggled to release the infant within his womb. He reached out and grabbed onto the wood, using it to pull himself onto his knees. He spread himself wide, using the dock for support, his belly still more than halfway submerged beneath the cold water.

Once his body shifted position, he felt the urge to push again and gave in, gripping the dock for support. Inside of him, the baby shifted, finally moving down, and he felt tears of relief roll down his cheeks. He was finally going to be able to birth the demon and they would both survive him doing it.

Despite his new found leverage, the birth still seemed to take forever. Each push inched the baby closer and closer to his entrance, but he wished it would go faster! Finally, he felt the space between his legs bulge. He reached down with one hand and felt around. It hadn't exactly crowed yet, but Tom could feel the infant's body close to the entrance once he dipped a finger inside of him.

A few more pushes and he felt a great shifting inside his canal. The baby had managed to pull a tentacle free and was waving it wildly. Tom reached down again, grabbing it and feeling it wrap around his wrist in response. He held his arm out, giving the baby its own leverage and felt it begin to tug itself out of the canal. Tom bore down and gave a long push, giving it all he could, and finally felt all the pressure in him abate at once.

He sagged to the ground, wincing as his sore body protested. After a moment, he turned and looked behind him at water demon he had just birthed. It floated motionless in the water, a mass of fat tentacles. Somewhere within, the demon had a head and body, but Tom couldn't see it.

He reached for the baby, but it came to life all at once, splashing wildly and causing the water to foam. Then the movement was gone and Tom was left alone again, shivering in the water.

The next few hours were a blur. There was a bath to warm his almost frozen body up and a nap in multitude of blankets. He woke up later feeling sore, just like the day after he was impregnated, but with it came a feeling of glorious emptiness. His belly was still distended but devoid of the life it had nurtured for so long.

Tom spent the month recovering and blogging about his experience. He took pictures of his post-partum belly and marveled at how quickly he seemed to shrink back to something similar to his pre-pregnancy size. He also enjoyed how flexible and mobile he felt without something obstructing the movement of his gut.

Spring progressed and went and summer returned. Tom settled even further into his home, feeling more relaxed than he had before. All the anxiety was gone; both halves of his life felt finally satisfied with where he was. He made friends with his new neighbors and enjoyed himself at the summer faire. He took vacations to the east coast and had meet ups with his gaming channel fans at conventions. Life got even better when he felt inspired to start developing an indie game of his own. He had dreams of it taking off on Steam and spawning sequels or spin offs.

But Tom still swam in the lake whenever he felt like he needed to cool off. And as the weather turned cold, the emptiness he had felt after giving birth went from being a pleasant bliss to a chronic ache. He wanted to feel full again. He wasn't as desperate as before, but the urge began slowly building.

This time, when he felt the tentacles on his leg, there was no fear.