Story commissioned by  RomanProphet and featuring his characters.

Shortly after being roused from his sleep by the insistent beeping of his alarm, Conall reached out for his phone, swiping its screen to turn the alarm off without even looking at it. Sighing, he forced his eyes open and waited a moment as they readjusted to the waking world. It was darker than usual this morning, he saw. Was it cloudy outside?

After sitting up, he swung his legs off the mattress and stood up, yawning as he walked over to the window. He pulled open the curtain... and jumped in surprise as he was met with a giant golden eye just outside his window.

“Yoiryu!” he shouted angrily once he'd recovered from the mild fright.

“So you're finally up, huh? I was wondering how long it would take you this time, lazybones. I'm pretty sure your alarm was going off for three minutes before you got around to it,” the giant kitsune god outside his window said, pulling back enough to let Conall see that his another, much bigger version of his room outside. Anyone else might have been left awestruck at the sight, but Conall had been around Yoiryu's nigh-omnipotence long enough that little surprised him anymore. For him, the only thing that really called for a double-take was that suit the giant silver-furred kitsune was wearing—usually the kitsune avoided anything so formal as that. “Come on, hurry up. Or do you want to be late for work?”

“You wait just one goddamn minute, Yoiryu,” Conall said, opening the window to better address his boyfriend. “I'm not doing anything until you let me know what's going on here. Did you shrink me this time? Or grow yourself? And what's with the suit?”

“Shrink? Grow? Why, my dear Conall, you sound confused. We're exactly the same sizes that we've always been,” Yoiryu said with an almost patronizing grin. “Now come on, you know our boss doesn't like to be kept waiting.”

“Our? What do you mean 'our' boss? You don't work with me. I swear, if you don't explain yourself right this second...”

Yoiryu sighed. “I can see you're going to be difficult today. Well, if you're not planning on getting dressed, I suppose we can leave like this. I'm sure the boss won't mind you showing up in your pajamas.” The giant extended his arm and reached out towards him. Conall ducked back inside and closed the window as it approached, only for everything to start moving as he and his room were picked up and manipulated. The bedroom door was pulled open by a giant pair of furred fingers, and then the room was rotated so that he was sent falling through the open door to land on the padded palm waiting outside for him. “Oh, and good morning, sweetie,” Yoiryu said, bringing Conall to his lips for a quick peck before closing his hand around him and leaving the room.

Conall struggled in the kitsune's furry grasp until he was suddenly dropped onto a large surface. “Go on, eat up,” Yoiryu said, pushing a tiny table and chair over to him. Muttering under his breath, Conall stood and saw a plate with a sandwich on it waiting for him on the table. Beyond it was a much bigger sandwich on a much bigger plate. With his stomach growling, Conall figured he'd leave the questions for later and bit into his sandwich, with Yoiryu soon joining him with the bigger one.

Pushing his plate aside once he'd finished, Conall prepared to ask Yoiryu for an explanation again. But Yoiryu interrupted him before he could even speak, saying, “If you're done then let's get going; we're already running late enough as it is.” He quickly picked Conall up and dropped him into his shirt pocket before taking their plates to the sink.

Groaning, Conall struggled to right himself in the cloth prison and pulled himself up by the edge just in time to see him and Yoiryu leave the apartment. Now he saw that it was definitely he who had been shrunk, as everyone else was every bit as big compared to him as Yoiryu was. After seeing a few other people outside, he ducked back into the pocket, uncomfortable with being seen by other people at this size.

Figuring he might as well take it easy since Yoiryu obviously didn't intend to explain anything to him right then, Conall stretched out and awaited their arrival at what he could only assume would be his usual workplace, as indeed it turned out to be. Once there he sat at attention and listened on as Yoiryu and his coworkers conversed as if they'd been working together for years. Evidently, Yoiryu had changed things so that it was as if he had always been working here.

“Yoiryu! Good morning!” Conall heard his boss's voice. “Is Conall with you?”

“Morning, boss. He sure is; I have him right here,” Yoiryu replied, patting Conall where he sat in his pocket.

“Good, good. You be sure to tell him that I need him to respond to some e-mails from our overseas offices that arrived last night. They're kinda urgent so the sooner he does, the better.”

“Will do, chief.”

“Excellent! Well, don't let me keep you two! I'll see you later.”

“See ya,” Yoiryu said, and continued on his way. Relaxing as his boss's footsteps faded out of hearing, Conall looked out through the fibers of Yoiryu's shirt, watching as the trickster god walked through the offices until he arrived at Conall's desk, where he took a seat and plucked Conall out of his pocket, setting him down on the wooden surface.

As Conall got to his feet, he saw that there was a smaller replica of his desk in front of him, complete with a small computer and everything, the perfect size for him to use. “Well, you know what to do. I'm sure you heard the boss when he mentioned those e-mails that need to be sent out, yes?” Yoiryu said

“Yes, I do know how to do my job, thank you very much,” Conall said with a glance back at Yoiryu before marching over to his tiny desk and booting up the computer. He sat still as it turned on, painfully aware of Yoiryu's presence behind him. The giant kitsune didn't make any noise, but Conall could tell he was watching him closely even before he turned around to address him. “Well? Don't you have a job of your own to do? Or are you going to keep looking over my shoulder all day?”

“Conall, looking over you IS my job. How else would you get around the offices in a timely manner if not with my help?”

“You really gave yourself a job where all you do is breathe down my neck all day? What kind of position is that, even?”

“Micromanagement,” Yoiryu smiled.

“Whatever. I guess it doesn't hurt, as long as I can work in peace,” Conall said, turning back to his computer. Yoiryu didn't respond, but he could still feel the smugness radiating from the trickster god.

Opening up his inbox, he looked over the new e-mails he had received overnight from the overseas offices. He opened the one that seemed most urgent, read it over, and began typing out a response to it.

Only a few minutes into his work he had already managed to forget his much-reduced size and immerse himself in the task of replying to the e-mails... until Yoiryu opened his big mouth again.

“You misspelled 'equivocate',” he said, making Conall clench up and grit his teeth.

“Yes. This is the first draft. There are often typos on the first draft. I'll get around to fixing it in a minute.”

“Hey, if that's how you want to do things, it's your call,” Yoiryu said with a tone that implied he knew better.

“Don't let it get to you, Conall. You know that's what he wants,” Conall muttered to himself as he fixed up the typo and tried to remember what he had been about to write before he had been interrupted. Soon he had started writing again and had been at it for another few minutes when he heard Yoiryu sigh behind him and immediately afterwards saw the kitsune's paws thump down onto the bigger desk's surface, one after the other, rattling his smaller desk so much that he had to grab his computer monitor so it wouldn't fall over. He turned around to glare at Yoiryu, who was leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed and didn't so much as acknowledge him, before turning back to his computer.

He tried to immerse himself in his work again, but after the last two interruptions he was quite upset at Yoiryu and it was hard to focus on anything other than his annoyance. Even worse, his eyes were often drawn away from the screen by the frequent stretching and flexing of Yoiryu's feet some yards from him, which also made him still more annoyed and unfocused even when they weren't moving.

“You know, I think that e-mail you're writing comes off as a bit too aggressive; I don't know how well it will be received. Maybe you should consider rewriting it,” Yoiryu said after more than half an hour.

“Yoiryu, you're not my boss and I don't need you telling me how to do my job, okay?” Conall finally snapped. “Now please, if you aren't going to do anything other than annoy me all day with this little prank of yours, could you kindly put me back to normal and let me work in peace?”

Yoiryu opened his mouth for a second but seemed to reconsider his answer before replying. “Alright. Whatever you say, Conall. I only wanted to spend some time with my boyfriend at his job, but if I'm not wanted, I guess there's nothing left to do but leave. See you later,” he said, then snapped his fingers and disappeared.

Just like that, everything was normal again, with Conall back to his regular-sized self sitting at his regular-sized desk. The only thing out of the ordinary was that he was still wearing his pajamas. Giving a look at his surroundings to make sure that nothing else had been changed, he sighed and finally got to do his job in peace, with the only worry on his mind being how he was going to explain the whole pajamas thing.

That didn't last long, however, as a brief moment later his boss burst into his office, calling his name belatedly. “Conall! Didn't you hear him calling your name? Come on, kid, you're wanted upstairs,” he said, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him out of his chair with an urgency that Conall had never seen from him before.

“What do you mean? Who called for me?” Conall asked.

“The big guy—who else? I don't know what he wants you for, but you remember to be nice and respectful to him this time; we don't need any incidents like what happened last time,” Conall's boss said as he led him past the third floor, up the stairs towards the roof of the building.

“Wait, what incident? And who do you mean? Boss?” Conall asked just before he was pushed through the door so insistently that he stumbled and nearly fell. Looking back, he saw his boss hurriedly closing the door behind him and heard him hurrying back down the stairs. Confused, he turned forward...

And felt his heart skip a beat as he was met with a row of clawed toes before him, each as big as a skyscraper. He didn't need to look up to know who those black-furred toes belonged to, but he looked up all the same and saw Yoiryu, one leg crossed over the other, looking down at him with a dead-serious expression. He was sitting on an armchair in some big fancy office, with Conall and the whole building he worked in on the floor in front of him.

“Mr. Conall, how nice you could finally make it,” Yoiryu said, glancing down at a paper he held in his hands. He was still wearing a suit, though this one was more befitting a CO than an office worker. “Was there any reason you took so long in coming?”

Conall sighed. “Yoiryu, please, can we not do this right now? I thought you weren't going to bother me anymore today. And couldn't you at least put me somewhere higher up so I don't have to crane my neck back to talk to you?”

“Bother you?” Yoiryu scoffed, lifting his toes overhead before letting them come crashing back down, their impact shaking the building fearfully. Conall yelped, falling to his knees from the shaking. “Mr. Conall, I suggest you moderate your tone with me. I would hate to have to discipline you and your offices again.”

Despite knowing it was all an act and that Yoiryu would never hurt him, the whole thing was still convincing enough that Conall felt a twinge of fear at the threatening tone of Yoiryu's voice. He didn't usually think about how scary the kitsune god could be when angry, but getting a taste of it now, he was glad to not find himself on the deity's bad side. Still, just to be safe, he figured he should play along with him.

“Erm, my apologies, sir. It won't happen again,” he said, getting back to his feet.

“Much better. Now, I ask again, what made you take so long to get here? And more importantly, why haven't you replied to the e-mails sent out last night? It's been, what, an hour since you came in and you still haven't finished them? For that matter, I've been told you arrived some ten minutes late this morning. If you could also explain why that is, that would be very welcome.”

“Well, you see, sir, all those questions have one very simple answer and it's that my rather annoying boyfriend wouldn't leave me alone all morning and even came along into the office to distract me,” Conall said very matter-of-factly.

“A boyfriend, you say?” Yoiryu mused with a glint in his eye. “Why, Mr. Conall, I never knew you had one. And tell me, is this boyfriend of yours easy on the eyes, as they say?”

“I suppose some might think that. Me? I've seen better.”

“Hmph,” Yoiryu muttered, suddenly sliding his paw forward such that one of his claws came right at Conall, casually scooping him up onto its tip. Conall clung to the claw as Yoiryu swung his legs up, leaving them resting on one of the armrests while he sat sideways on his chair. “Well, Mr. Conall, be that as it may, it sounds like you really need to get this boyfriend of yours under control,” Yoiryu continued, idly rocking his feet back and forth. “I wouldn't want to see your performance negatively affected by him. Perhaps you ought to look into making him happy so he won't follow you to work anymore.”

“Yeah? Or maybe I should look into finding a new boyfriend.”

“Come now, Mr. Conall, I'm sure there's no need for that. If you need some advice on how to handle a lover, I'm sure I can contribute something. When was the last time you took him out for dinner?”

“It must have been... ah!” he yelled, having nearly fallen off Yoiryu's claw when he suddenly curled his toes. “Yoiryu, or sir, or whatever, could you please stop moving your foot?”

“Oh, alright, Yoiryu said, keeping his foot still while Conall carefully got back to his feet, looking out across the huge distance to Yoiryu's face. “But answer the question, now—how long has it been?”

“Well, the last time was in March so... goodness, was it really more than a month ago?”

“A month? Mr. Conall, it sounds like you've been slacking on more than just your job.”

“Yeah, well... I really don't think that's any of my boss's business.”

“Oh? Well then, why don't we go back to talking about something that is my business, like your lack of compliance with our dress code. Why on Earth did you come to work with those ridiculous pajamas?”

Ridiculous? Just a week ago Yoiryu had said they were cute. “You see, my boyfriend...”

“And here I thought you didn't want to talk about your boyfriend with me. Are you going to blame him for everything, now?”

“I assure you he earned it, sir.”

“Maybe he did. I suppose it's not my place to judge. But you need to start taking some responsibility for yourself, Mr. Conall. Hold still a moment,” Yoiryu said, leaning over to pluck Conall from his toe claw and dropping him onto his padded palm, now big enough to hold a city park. Then he rose to his feet and started pacing about the room, stepping over the little building on the floor. “I'm sure you can understand that I'm a very busy person. People like me, we have a lot of responsibilities, and a lot of people depend on us. Not everyone can manage it, but I try to do good by all the people who depend on me. It can feel like there's quite a weight on my shoulders, but thankfully I have a boyfriend of my own to help me stay sane through all this. By comparison, you have far fewer responsibilities, but even so it doesn't sound like you're doing all you could be doing to meet them. If it really is all because of your boyfriend, then that's the first thing you have to take responsibility for. Make him happy. Show him you care. Go along with his games. If you can do that, maybe then he won't be such a hassle to deal with. Assuming you do want to keep him around, that is.”

“Of course I do. He might be a bother sometimes, but I still like him, usually,” Conall said, blushing as Yoiryu looked at him and smiled.

“Good to hear! Now if only you can show the same dedication to your work, I'm sure you can make me proud of you.”

Conall shifted uneasily. He hadn't expected the conversation to take such a serious turn all of a sudden. “Um, is that all, sir?”

“Can you promise me that you'll get those e-mails done as soon as possible?”

“I suppose I can do that much.”

“Good! Then we're done here. Come on, let's send you guys back planetside.”

“Planetside?”

“Oh, you'll figure it out later. See you tonight, Mr. Conall. Enjoy the rest of your day,” Yoiryu said, dropping him back on the roof of the building. He walked back to the armchair, his many tails moving out of the way as he sat down, and then pressed a button on the armrest, sending him and the building back to the city in a flash. Conall blinked as his eyes adjusted to the new sunlight, then walked over to the edge of the roof and peered into the streets below, where some people seemed to be eyeing the building warily for a moment while going on their way. Whatever Yoiryu had changed, evidently this was now a “normal” part of peoples' lives.

Shrugging, he went back inside to get to work, only to learn learn, much to his chagrin, that everyone in the building had overheard his conversation with Yoiryu, or at least everything the kitsune had said. And here he'd thought the most embarrassing thing he'd have to deal with would be people making fun of him for his pajamas.

The rest of the day went by uneventfully, though he couldn't shake the feeling that there was someone watching him all the while. Something to do with Yoiryu, maybe? But even looking out the window he couldn't see any sign of the big guy. Eventually he pushed it out of his head, along with his curiosity about what Yoiryu had meant by sending them “planetside”; he'd just have to ask about it the next time he saw him.

At last closing time arrived and, bracing himself for the weird looks for his pajamas, he went out and drove back to his apartment. He was actually pretty eager to see Yoiryu tonight, as he'd said. But as it was getting dark during his drive back, he started to feel as if something was wrong, something he couldn't quite put his finger on. It wasn't until he got out of the car and happened to glance up that he figured out what it was.

Instead of the moon or any stars, even the few that were normally visible in a big city like this, it was Yoiryu's gargantuan visage that filled the night sky, with eyes like a pair of moons beaming down on everyone. The sight was awe inspiring, and while Conall wasn't sure how big Yoiryu w|as right now, even at the smallest possibility it was still one of the biggest sizes he'd ever seen Yoiryu at. Wondering if anyone else could see this, he looked around and saw a few people looking up to wave at Yoiryu before continuing on their day.

Yoiryu smiled as Conall finally noticed him. “Took you long enough,” he muttered, turning the little glass bubble in his hands. Though it held the whole solar system, the little sphere was no more than an inch wide, hanging from the end of his necklace like a piece of jewelry. In this changed reality, every last soul down there was his employee, working according to his designs to keep the planet running properly. It was a tight little enterprise, and though in a sense it had only been this way for a few hours at most, in another sense it had been this way for years, and he was quite proud of what the planet had accomplished after he'd taken charge of it, and glad that he could give all those people a better life, if only for a little while. He would have liked to keep his changes in place for some days longer, if not months, but really, it was better for everyone if he reverted everything sooner rather than later.

The god extended his awareness to the billions of people living in that little blue dot that contrasted so brilliantly against the dark skin of his finger pads. Such a frail little thing it was, and still more frail was his little lover staring back at him from the surface of that tiny speck of light, and the other countless souls that shared the Earth with him. Slipping them and their little world back under his shirt, Yoiryu placed a hand over his chest, holding them softly against his heart.

Conall wasn't sure, but he thought he could hear his boyfriend's heartbeat reverberating in the world around him, somehow reaching him even through the vast stretch of empty space between the two of them. There was something very soothing about it, and with his attention resting on it, he went up to his apartment, feeling Yoiryu's presence as if he was in the room with him.

Later, when he was about to go to sleep, he looked out the window at the night sky and said, knowing that Yoiryu was somewhere out there, “Good night,” before climbing into bed and dozing off.

Once Conall was asleep, Yoiryu focused only for a moment to undo all the changes he had made to reality, suddenly appearing next to Conall in bed, his arms wrapped around his partner in tender embrace. With one last sigh, he snuggled against Conall, closed his eyes, and joined his lover in dreamland.