"So what should I be expecting when I open this, Nick?"
Kuai had just answered the door to a delivery man who had a package for him to sign for. As soon as he saw the return address, 'Nick Chadwell, San Francisco, CA', he smiled, flipping open his phone and giving his best friend a call.
Nick's groggy voice answered on the other end of the line. "C'mon, Kuai, I don't even get a 'Hello', 'Good Morning, Nick', 'Sorry to wake you so early'?"
"Early?" Kuai scoffed. "Someone needs to check their alarm clock. It's two forty five in the afternoon here, so I know it's almost noon where you are. I think it's time to get up."
Kuai could hear Nick's feet hit the floor. "Hey, some of us don't get the whole summer off," Nick said. "I think I've earned a little beauty sleep."
Laughing, Kuai shook his head. Nick had been his best friend for four years now. They had met online at a community for giant fetishists, "macrophiles", as Kuai had learned to call himself. He remembered feeling so relieved when he started talking to MegaKing484, who turned out to be Nick. Finally, here was someone who got him, who felt the same way he did. The dream of longing for other guys to grow on a massive scale, to play with him like a little toy, to cause havoc and destruction - well, it was a desire Kuai had since he was a little boy, one that he had hidden away and become incredibly ashamed of. It didn't help that, being nearly a foot taller than his classmates all his life, and bigger than his parents since he was 11, he thought he never would be able to experience someone tower over him like that. But finding there were others like him, guys and girls who were as fascinated with and turned on by giants as he was - well, it was a life-changing discovery.
He and Nick had talked for two years, becoming closer and closer, before finally planning to meet each other at MegaCon, a sci-fi convention in Orlando. That weekend was the best of Kuai's life. Online, Nick had hinted at, but not explicitly stated, that he was interested in Kuai, flirting casually and innocently, but that interest exploded into an all-out sexual desire when they met in person, and they had ended up spending most of the convention in their hotel room. Kuai had never slept with a better, more intense lover before, and he hadn't since, even counting his current boyfriend, Sean. Nick seemed to be in heaven making love to a tall beast of a man like Kuai, and though Kuai would've preferred things the other way around, he enjoyed his lover's enthusiasm and vigor, making the experience something he would never forget. At the end of the weekend, Kuai had seriously considered moving back to San Francisco with Nick and living together forever with him, but they each ultimately realized that, while they were more than compatible with each other, their relationship would be better served remaining close friends, and they each moved on with their lives, Kuai returning to Massachusetts and taking a job as a middle school math teacher at a smaller, private academy, while Nick returned to California to be close to Silicon Valley, a games journalist by day, but at night working on a secret project that he could tell Kuai very little about but had something to do with nanotechnology, which Kuai jokingly referred to as 'Fairy Dust.'
"Okay, Nick, sleep while you can," Kuai smiled, amused by his friend's laziness. "But tell me, what's in this mystery box you sent?"
Nick chuckled slightly, pausing before answering. "Well... Why don't you open her up and find out?"
"Fine, hold on a second." Kuai grabbed a box cutter from the kitchen counter and ripped open the tape. The box was small and lightweight, filled mostly with packing peanuts, but inside was a small rectangular brick, rounded on the edges, looking almost exactly like...
"Aw, how sweet, Nick," Kuai said sarcastically, "you sent me a phone. You do know that I already have a phone, right? In fact, I'm using it to call you right now."
"It's not a phone, big guy," Nick responded. "Though I admit I did, um, 'borrow' parts for the chassis from some of my friends down in Cupertino. And I don't think you'll find anything like it at any store in the country."
Kuai scoffed playfully and picked up the object out of the box, examining it closer. While it did look like a smartphone on the outside, with a large black pane of glass on the front, Kuai couldn't see any kind of speaker or microphone anywhere on it. The material felt like extremely smooth and polished glass, almost onyx-like in a way, and Kuai only saw one small rectangular button sticking out of the bottom, while a small hole had been drilled through the top, a thin gold chain running through it. The object was even more light outside of the box, and Kuai gently tossed it in one hand, testing it's weight.
"Okay," Kuai asked, "so if it's not a phone, what is it?" Kuai turned it over, unable to make out writing or markings of any kind on it. "Is this some sort of new iPod competitor? Nick, didn't the Zune teach you anything?"
"Just put the damn thing around your neck, Kuai."
Kuai obliged, draping the chain around his neck, the object resting against his black sleeveless shirt in the middle of his muscled chest. Even while wearing it, it hardly felt like it weighed anything to him, as if it were barely there. He gently swung his neck back and forth, the object swaying but the chain staying firmly in place.
"Okay, done," Kuai said into the phone. "Now what?"
"Is Sean home?"
Kuai looked out the window and saw his boyfriend Sean outside, lying down and reading a book on the porch swing. Sean was only average height, being 5'9" with a skinny build, and attended Suffolk University, where Kuai had graduated from. The two had met at the on-campus gym during Kuai's senior year, Sean an incoming freshman who just couldn't take his eyes off of the athletic Chinese giant, his stares (and cute body) eventually driving Kuai to introduce himself, and things took off from there. Though they had lived together for the past few years, Kuai still wasn't sure if he saw himself staying with Sean the rest of his life, as the younger man didn't always quite get Kuai intellectually, but Sean was definitely a caring and compassionate guy, and Kuai appreciated that.
"Yeah, what about him?"
"Are you looking at him?" Nick asked.
"Yes, Nick," Kuai was beginning to grow impatient. "He's outside the window."
"Good," Nick's voice got a little lower, "Now, listen carefully. I want you to look at him, focusing hard on his body. Got it?"
Kuai rolled his eyes but did as his friend instructed. "Okay, got it."
"As you look at him," Nick continued, "I want you to concentrate on his height, imagining him getting bigger."
"What? Why--"
"Please, Kuai," Nick interrupted, deadly serious, "just do it once. Trust me."
It sounded like a crazy waste of time to Kuai, but if there was one person in the world that he trusted, it had to be Nick, so he did as his friend asked. He stared at Sean, making sure to focus on his height, imagining him growing upward, inch by inch. Something he had done several times before in his head, with no success.
Only, this time, it worked.
Sean's body began to slowly expand, growing bigger right on the porch swing. It took Kuai a few seconds to recognize what was happening, but once he saw Sean's normally-loose shorts begin to tighten, and the buttons fastening his shirt stretching open and outward, revealing Sean's pale white chest and stomach, Kuai knew that something had happened. Something had changed. The idea that he had only fantasized about before was now, seemingly, a reality.
"Holy Fuck," Kuai whispered into the phone.
"Did it happen?" Nick asked, his voice now getting excited.
"How the hell did you do this?" Kuai said, nearly at a loss for words. "I mean -- what -- how --"
"Relax, Kuai. Just try to focus back on Sean and take him back to his normal height. Can you do that?"
"I -- I think so," Kuai answered, and looked back at his boyfriend. He focused his thoughts once more on Sean's body, but this time looked to shrink him back down to his normal height. Sean's tight clothes began to loosen again, and his legs and torso seemed to suck inward somehow, finally stopping when he was back the way he had been a few minutes ago. During the entire experience, Sean continued to read his book, oblivious to what was happening with his body and his sudden gain (and loss) of five inches in height.
Kuai started pacing back and forth in his kitchen, unable to keep still. "Nick, that was incredible!" He started to speak faster, full of wonder and excitement. "How in the world could something like that happen? I mean, I just looked at him and thought about him getting bigger like you said, and WHAM! he started to grow!"
On the other end of the line, Nick chuckled. "That's the power of the pendant," Nick said.