Chapter one: Calling a Bluff

“You're fucking with me.” Korey eyed the vial on the table in front of him.

Joel smiled, his chin resting between his hands, steepled on the table. “If I'm fucking with you then there's even less harm in taking it, yeah?”

“Oh I'm not telling you that I believe you've put water in this thing,” Korey said, leaning back in his chair and eyeing Joel across the table. “I fully believe that if I drink this I'm going to be a mess tonight. I just don't think I'll be a mess that you can carry home in your backpack.”

“Oh honey, you're not going home in my backpack.”

Joel was still smiling, his ridiculous playful mood infecting Korey even as he contemplated the decision before him. His last words had awakened a thirst that had led him to this dinner date in the first place. He felt himself becoming turned on just at Joel's words, at the implication that he was setting on the table, nevermind the promises that he was making.

Joel was Korey's type: shining brown eyes, a prominent nose, full lips, soft shaggy hair, a slender build that promised quiet, coiled strength. Checking these boxes hadn't been what dragged Korey out of the sleepy warmth of his apartment on this freezing Friday night, though. He had swiped right, seen the match, and pocketed his phone, determined to wrap up his workday before even considering weekend plans. Joel was quick, though, and Korey felt something ignite in him at the opening words he found in his DMs. Referencing a joke in Korey's profile (“Actually only six inches tall,”) Joel had messaged: “thank god, finally someone I don't have to shrink first before taking home.”

The joke was a throwaway line, almost universally ignored by his matches save for a small cohort of people who thought that it was some sort of thinly veiled dick joke. Korey hadn't ever met someone on a dating app that immediately wanted to play with his shrinking fantasies. He bought in immediately. “About that...I may have catfished you. Some shrinking required.”

Joel's reply was almost instantaneous. “that can be arranged. I'll host? Tiny men make for shitty hosts tbh.”

One teasing “Wine and dine me first, who do you think I am?” response from Korey had sealed the deal. They had met at a bar not far from Joel's place, and had hit it off quickly. Joel was charming, had an adorable laugh, and was a resident at a nearby hospital. Korey caught himself swooning. It wasn't until Joel had presented him with the vial as they waited for the check that he had realized how far Joel wanted to keep this roleplay alive.

Korey reached for the vial. It was an innocuous thing: an unadorned glass tube, about as long as the tip of his pinky and half as wide. It looked like it was filled with water, the fluid inside stopped with a black plastic screw-on lid. Korey closed his palm around it, feeling its cool roundness press into his palm.

“Say I drink this,” he started, leaning back in mock defiance again, eyes catching the sparkling joy in Joel's gaze. “What is actually going to happen to me?”

The waiter returned with their check. Joel already had his card out, and handed it to him with a warm “Thanks,” settling his attention back on Korey.

“You'll shrink. Not all at once, and not right away. It shouldn't take long, maybe twenty minutes? But once it starts it'll be a steady process and should barely take ten minutes. You'll be about six inches tall, give or take, for about twelve hours. Then you'll grow back to your usual size and be your cute lumberjack self again. No side effects whatsoever.”

Korey caught himself smiling, though a voice of concern had woken up in his mind. He was not going to just ingest some random fluid on a first date before stumbling back to Joel's place for the night. He let his left hand fall back to the table gently, the glass vial still locked in his grip. “Seriously though, what happens to me? Do I get really high? Do I pass out? Is it just Capri Sun? I'm having fun and I'm felling like I'm along for the ride at this point, but I need to know what you're planning.”

Joel was unphased. “I told you, you'll shrink. My sister's a geneticist. She and her boyfriend have been doing research into cell-scale manipulation for years now, and they've finally had a breakthrough that is stable and safe for human consumption. There's all sorts of amazing and life-altering medical implications to this technology, obviously, and I'm sure she'll be richer than God and win ten thousand Nobel prizes or whatever, but in the meantime it means we get to have kickass sex and I get to watch you ride my dick like a mechanical bull.”

Joel's words were getting to Korey. The confidence with which he spoke them, something stirred inside of him and a pressure began building in his groin. A warm pressure began to build in him as he felt himself getting hard. This was going to be a fun night, whatever Joel had planned; Korey had never found someone this committed to roleplaying before. He was both exhilarated and nervous, but he needed to know that what he was about to drink would be safe. “Joel, I-”

“Look,” Joel started, signing the bill that the waiter had brought back to him and dropping some cash into the billfold. “I'm a doctor. I'm not going to feed you some random ass drugs and let you OD in my bed. Either I'm telling you the truth and I'm really excited to explore this space with you, or I'm just trying to get you in the mood and I want you to swig some water in my magic vial and then come back to my place. Either way I swear to you that there's nothing shady in that vial.”

Korey smiled, his anticipation of the night ahead building in pulsing, pressing waves in his jeans. “That's all I needed to hear.”

He unstopped the vial, drained it, and swallowed. His mind lurched at the sweetness of the sip – this definitely wasn't water. He felt a tingling sensation explode in his limbs, tracing their way through his extremities in cascading lines. He suddenly felt incredibly awake and aware.

He put his hand out to Joel, handing the vial over.

“Let's go, then.”

--

They crashed through Joel's door together in a giggling heap. Korey had mistakenly used the word “ticklish” to describe his experience with the vial's contents so far, which had prompted Joel to begin tickling Korey's side. They erupted into the house together, Korey taking in the pristine simplicity of the space: it was a rowhouse, the steep steps leading up from street level into a living room with original dark wood floors. Joel flipped the lights on, exposing a narrow and cozy space, the living room yielding to kitchen at the opposite end of the floor, the space separated by a marble countertop.

Joel kicked his shoes off to the side of the couch as he stepped into the living room. “Throw your shoes wherever,” he laughed, taking his breath back in heavy draws. He turned to smile up at Korey, closer to five five now that he had lost the padding of his shoes.

Korey peeled his shoes away, placing them gently next to Joel's. He could tell from Joel's smile that he was feeling the whiskeys he had ordered at the pub. He couldn't quite tell if he was buzzed himself; he certainly felt the tingling from the bar growing stronger, more present in his fingers and toes, but he had dismissed that as placebo.

Joel stepped into the kitchen, stooping to retrieve some glasses from a bar installed in the island, and setting them with ringing clinks on the marble countertop. “What're you drinking?”

“Rum and ginger?” Korey asked hopefully. Joel frowned, and then turned rightward to throw open the refrigerator. “I don't think I have any ginger beer at the moment,” he admitted, searching the back corners of the bright box. “I could do ginger ale?”

“Ginger ale works too,” Korey said, admiring a bookshelf against the wall. The expected collection of medical texts were present, but it seemed that Joel was also a fan of horror. “Big Shirley Jackson fan?”

Joel was at his side suddenly, offering him a tumbler full of his drink. “Late to the party, but absolutely,” he said, sipping his own. “Have you read her? I hadn't even heard of her until the Haunting of Hill House show, but oh my God, her stuff is incredible.” He drank deeply, draining half of the tumbler in one drag, letting out an “aaah,” as he drew the tumbler from his lips. Korey sipped gently, testing the drink for its potency. It was strong.
“I've only read We've Always Lived in the Castle,” Korey admitted, taking a second sip of his drink. “I haven't actually seen the show, either. I've heard good things.”

Joel groaned as he sipped, an impatient “mmm” as he readied himself to speak and swallowed his drink. “You have to see it, it's amazing,” he started. “We can watch an episode tomorrow, if you'd like. I was kind of thinking we could just throw some Netflix on when we woke up anyway, while we wait for you to grow back to normal.”

Korey eyed Joel playfully, failing to hide a laugh. “You're serious about this, huh? I've never been out with someone so committed to the bit. For sure though, we can watch it together while we wait, but only if you let me hide in your lap when I get too scared.” He stooped slightly, and Joel rose on his tiptoes to meet him in a kiss. Korey was just over six feet tall, and they had to work to reach one another's lips, but the soft joining of their kiss spread warmth in heavy waves through Korey. He reached his right arm around Joel's shoulder and down his back, pressing him in close as their mouths opened for one another. Korey could taste vodka on Joel's tongue, the heat of his mouth spilling over his cheeks and fluttering at his eyes. Joel worked his mouth eagerly, his tongue flitting pressure across Korey's, guiding him inwards.

Joel broke first, easing away gently, running his hand up to Korey's temple and knotting in the hair there. “We should get you upstairs,” he murmured. “You've only got another five minutes or so before the mix kicks in.”

Korey's head was swimming, and he was eager to get upstairs and return to Joel's hungry kiss. “Lead the way.”

Joel approached the wooden stairs, throwing the light above on as he began his climb. He eyed Joel's legs as he climbed, wondering at the solid strength of them, the steady grace of his light steps. He was feeling a bit lightheaded, and an anxious joy was settling over him. The tingling sensations in his arms had settled into a frenetic sensation, his core contracting and jumping in tangible skips as he considered the trajectory of his night.

The old wood of the steps squeaked as they climbed. Joel broke the momentary silence between them as he threw the door at the wall beyond the top of the stairs. “Sorry it's a bit messy.” He switched the light on as he passed inside.

Korey stepped in after him and surveyed the space. It was a warm room, small and somewhat spartan, but modern in its sparseness. A hastily-made bed greeted him, centered on the far wall from the doorway. The wall across from it was bare save for a mounted television, its dark glass surface reflecting a distorted view of the room. Opposite each other on either side of the room from the bed was a simple desk, adorned with a laptop and nothing else, and a dresser. Korey wondered what Joel could possibly have meant by messy: he wasn't sure he could have made a mess of this room's limited contents if he had tried. He cataloged the sentence, noting the compulsive tidiness that it likely betrayed, and smiled towards Joel. “If this is messy to you I'm glad I didn't host. You'd have died.”

Joel crossed the room and cracked the window. Korey felt the bitter air reach him an instant later, and shut the door gently behind him. Joel was sitting in a half-lean against the windowsill, loading a cartridge into an expensive looking vape pen. “I wouldn't have judged, I'm only anal about my own space.” He lifted the pen to his mouth and drew, lifting it questioningly in Korey's direction after a soft click had cued his draw. His voice came in a strained hic as he let the smoke escape through his nostrils. “Smoke?”

Korey strode towards him, but stopped short, sitting down on the mattress. He sank deeply into it, thrown off guard by the lush softness of the foam beneath him. “I'm good,” he started, shaking his head. “Normally I'd take you up, but I suppose I shouldn't,” he paused for a second, searching for the words, “mix?”

Joel had begun a second drag at Korey's initial decline, and a chuffing laugh emptied his lungs early. “Oh, yeah, fair. I mean I don't think it'll impact the experience much – it's going to be a hell of a ride either way, but it makes sense to go into it for the first time with a sober mind.” He drew a third drag, held his breath for a moment as he searched Korey's eyes, and then exhaled deeply, turning his head towards the window to vent the narrow column of smoke from his mouth into the freezing night. He closed the window with a sliding slam. “You have any lingering questions, by the way? We're probably seconds away from showtime at this point.”

Korey settled back on his hands, finding easing into a relaxed lean on the gray-striped comforter. He searched for something witty and came up empty: he was shocked that Joel had kept this game up for long enough that he'd have to actually call a bluff. “We're really sticking with this game, then? You've actually got me kind of excited here, I'm going to be more than a little disappointed if this miracle doesn't happen.”

Joel set the pen back on the windowsill and cast a brooding glance towards Korey. He worried his lip, standing still along the windowframe, and then stepped forward. He reached for the hem of his shirt and drew upwards, lifting his shirt off as he crossed towards the bed. The motion exposed the tight cording of muscle across his slender form. He had a light dusting of dark hair on his chest, some more peeking under his arms as the shirt came over his head. His stomach drew in as he lifted, the faintest hint of his ribs visible at the nadir of his draw, the soft paleness of him reaching out and demanding Korey's focus.

Joel let his shirt fall to the floor as he stepped into the bed, straddling Korey. He leaned down to find his kips, kissing with a firm, deep press. Korey returned the effort enthusiastically, his arms reaching out to encircle Joel's bare back. He let his palms fall flat across Joel's back, felt the punching flare of shoulderblade in his right palm, the tightening tension of the muscles in Joel's back under his left fingertips.

Korey tried to draw Joel downwards to him. He was awakening in aching need to explore the rest of him, to remove the rest of the clothing that separated them. He was already hard, his cock raising a firm, even column down his left pantleg. He lifted his hips, grinding gently towards Joel, feeling the arousal that matched his own. He clumsily dragged his own shirt off of himself, wriggling under Joel to free himself from the confines of his shirt and fling it towards the floor at the foot of the bed in a practiced motion.

Joel placed his hands in arresting firmness on Korey's chest, pressing him to the mattress as he sat upright, still straddling his hips. He was staring down, searching deeply in Korey's eyes, the browns of his eyes almost their own light source in their joyous smile. “Slow down, hun.” He stepped backwards, letting his feet find the wood of the floor and rising – slowly – off of Korey. He let his hands slide down him, running through the forest of hair that covered Korey's chest and stomach. Korey's stomach flittered at his tickling touch, the intake of his breath sweeping a valley at his beltline.

Joel tugged playfully at the waist of Korey's pants as he stood over him. “Lose these,” he said breathlessly. “The shirt too, and your socks. They're going to be too heavy and cumbersome for you in a moment, and I want to meet your friend either way.” His right hand detached from Korey's belt to swirl down over his erection, teasing a firm swipe across the tense denim.

Korey propped himself back up on his elbows, rising to a seated position on the edge of the bed. He scooted forward to place his feet on the hardwood, rising in front of Joel. He reached for his belt with his right hand, tugging it free of the beltloop and freeing the buckle in a single motion, while his left popped the button of his jeans. He drew his pants down, catching his socks with his thumbs as he stepped out of the pool of denim, kicking it aside. He lifted his arms out expectantly in front of Joel, presenting himself in a mocking ta-da pose. “Here I am, ready for shrinking.”

Korey watched Joel's eyes sweep slowly over his mostly-naked form. His hand reached out and slipped into Korey's boxers, delicate fingers closing tightly over his erection. Korey pulsed in Joel's hands, felt his hips give slightly towards him. Joel smirked. “It's starting, do you feel it yet?”

Korey did feel something, some sensation in addendum to the burning need that had been sweeping through him. The tingling pressure and twitching anticipation had settled into a thrumming, almost akin to a vibrating, under his chest. It reached warm waves in arcing pulses through his body, passing down his arms and into his fingertips, falling the length of his legs in quickening crests and pooling at his feet. His vision swam briefly, his head light as if in dehydration. His smile faded for a moment as concern washed over him. Had Joel actually drugged him? He reached for his face, pinching the bridge of his nose, and felt the lightheadedness resolve. He opened his eyes and considered Joel, who held his gaze expectantly. “I think I do, holy shit.” He felt a skip in his perception, his senses trending downards and inwards, aware of a sensation of gentle motion in his body despite knowing that he stood still. “You weren't messing with me you – you weren't just roleplaying,” Korey stuttered, curiosity stumbling over fear and finding ecstasy along the way. The warm waves that were coursing through him surged in twisting arcs down his torso, arcing towards his groin, his arousal redoubling with every conscious acknowledgment of what seemed to be happening.

Joel stood smiling at Korey, eyes lit in hungry glee. “Would I lie to you? You're going to feel a bit drunk while this starts, it's all a bit trippy as it starts to play with your senses. That'll all settle, and it starts to feel really good.” He placed the palm of his right hand flat on Korey's stomach, lifting his hand to ease a tickling trace over his midsection. Korey noticed an extra sense in the echoes of his touch, some touch-memory trailing just half a second behind Joel's fingers, accentuating the depths of the pleasures of his touch.

Korey was speechless as his mind raced over what was taking place. He had dreamed of an encounter like this for too long to remember, had dismissed it as the stuff of fantasy, and was – for the first time in his adult life – considering that it might yet be possible. That he might yet begin to dwindle down to the size of a doll, and serve as the plaything of his hungry lover.

He reached with his gaze for Joel's eyes. He was unable to perceive a change in their height differential, and for just a moment he began to doubt. Reason crept back into his mind: of course Joel is messing with you. Of course he dosed you with some sort of mild hallucinogen and fed you full of this fantasy to get you all horned up. Of course-”

He shrank. He felt the downward sensation shift into something more tangible, something that carried his vision down an inch as it pulsed downwards towards the floor. Joel's face lit up as it happened, confirming wordlessly what Korey suspected he had felt. Their gaze shifted towards something more level – Korey was still four, maybe five inches above Joel, but that had perceptibly shifted. Was perceptibly shifting.

“Oh my God. Oh my God.” It was all he could manage. His vision was shifting slowly, but fluidly. He was riding the downward pulsing now, his awareness of his transition taking root. There was a deep, hungering pressure awakening in him, centered on the shaft that Joel still held tight. Joel, seemingly waking up from his own daydream, began working Korey slowly, letting his firm grip travel the length of his cock in a slow, deliberate rhythm.

“Sssh,” Joel started, his right hand continuing its aching, crawling pumping inside of Korey's boxers. His right hand found the back of Korey's head, his fingers knotting in a grip of his hair. “Just enjoy the ride. I've got you.”

Korey felt Joel's grips shifting in a steady melt as their eyes met in a parallel gaze. Korey had lost six inches, at least, to be staring face to face with Joel now. Joel had shifted his grip on his cock, his grip on his hair easing as he passed through. The motion in his shorts had not stopped, but it had not accelerated either, the churning intentionality of Joel's even pulls stoking the pressure immensely inside of Korey. He felt like he could explode already, utterly overwhelmed by the sensations that were washing over him.

They continued their shared gaze as Korey continued downward, slowly but steadily trending towards the wooden floor beneath them. Joel shifted his grip again as Korey's hips shrank away from his reach, his posture stooping slightly.

“Come here, now,” Joel sighed, working his hand in a farewell pull at Korey's cock, paying palming attention to his aching head as he let his hand slip from his underwear. Korey broke Joel's gaze at the shift in rhythm in his shorts, watched Joel's hand slip from the fly of his boxers. He hadn't noticed the pooling bagginess of the underwear as he had dwindled, and marveled as the shorts simply fell to the floor in a puddle around his ankles when Joel's supporting arm departed.

Korey considered his erection for a moment, lonely in the absence of Joel's touch, head beginning to tell the story of the aching pressure within at the reddening pulse that grew around it. He let his gaze walk back up Joel, registering that he was almost a full head shorter than Joel now.

Joel stepped forward suddenly, stooping slightly over and around Korey. It was overwhelming from this perspective: Joel suddenly conquering his perception of the room. He felt Joel's fingers slide in around the backs of his thighs, his awareness of the size of his grip surprising Korey, before awareness over what was happening overwhelmed him. Joel locked his grip tight, buckling Korey into a sitting-squat around his hands, and lifted upwards, hoisting Korey bodily to his torso. Korey's senses swam with the trip, but he locked his legs as best he could around the tight column of Joel's midsection, the two inhaling sharply as the space between their bodies vanished.

Korey became acutely more aware of the pace of his shrinking with this added reference, feeling his skin traveling gently but surely over Joel, his limbs seeming to almost retreat inwards and his perception downwards as he continued to shrink mid-straddle.

Joel kissed him then, his face dwarfing Korey's own. His first reach was clumsy, Joel taking Korey's whole mouth into his own, part of Korey's nose moistening at the touch of Joel's lips, the two wordlessly breathing laughter as they compensated for this new, shifting scale. The second pass found one another's lips hungry for the other, Corey grappling upwards for a more secure hold in Joel's hair, pulling Joel's face towards his own to ride momentum into the kiss.

Korey was aware of the motion around him as their tongues met, lips locking and parting. Joel's grip on Korey had eased considerably, presumably as Korey's weight vanished out from under him. What had started as an awkward pull upwards and into his own center of gravity had become an easy hold, Korey sitting with his ass wholly in the cupped hands of his lover. His hands disappeared into the waves of hair at Joel's temple, and he felt the swirling motion around him as Joel turned to face away from the bed. He settled into a sitting position slowly, careful not to jostle Korey, still kissing one another deeply. Korey felt himself vanishing in Joel's hands, felt Joel's grip shifting yet again as he required less and less of his conscious effort to keep Korey aloft.

Joel lifted Korey then, raising his cupped palms upwards towards his chin. Korey splayed slightly with the motion, the security of his holds on Joel's hair suddenly vanishing from him, entering the confusing vacuum of the open air of the room. Joel was shifting into a lying position, his back still propped against his headboard, and he let Korey settle slowly into a seat around his chin.

Korey noted the radical new perspective that suddenly washed over him. He had missed the last couple stages of his dwindling, and he marveled as he took stock of his situation. He was astride Joel's face, hardly a foot tall by now he'd imagine, still shrinking downward, still overwhelmed with pulsing warmth and desperate pressure. His hips hugged the sharp lines of Joel's jaw, his feet tickling at the prickling fuzz at his throat. He fell forward at the piercing light of those brown eyes, swirling pools in front of him, as Joel's chin moved under him. Splayed across Joel's face, Korey steadied himself by taking a new grasp of the hair at Joel's temples, this time taking handfuls of a few strands each. Joel's mouth had been opening, smiling and shifting Korey's weight towards the humid warmth of his soft lips. He felt his dick vanish past those lips, the firm pressure redoubling the pressure building inside of him, almost overwhelming him as Joel's tongue rose to meet the desperate head of his cock. His lips parted slightly, letting his tongue probe Korey's cock and balls in a flat press.

A soft moan escaped Korey at this, and he realized how desperately close to climax he had drifted. “Fuuck,” he sighed, “Joel. This is amazing. How is this, are you-” Joel's tongue was at him again, lifting him in a wet press by the balls. The flat pressure against the wet softness of Joel's tongue was unlike anything Korey had experienced before. He let another breathy moan escape him, “Fuck, Joel. I'm gonna-”

Another sentence failed him as Joel rolled his bottom lip upwards, claiming more of Korey's diminishing back. The roll lifted Korey in a puckering wave, and Korey's tongue ran flat against his bottom lip. It was suddenly giving that same pressing attention to his ass, the firm weight and probing tip of his tongue wriggling at Korey's asshole. Korey tried to work his hips, twisting his palms flat against Joel's temples as he rode his mouth bodily.

Korey exploded in his mouth as Joel suckled at him, dragging a weighty tide at his shaft while his tongue pressed flicking kisses against his ass. Korey shuttered clumsily as he spent himself in the yawning warmth of Joel's mouth, the suckling only deepening as Joel felt the tiny waves of cum splash against the broad bulk of his tongue. Korey felt his toes curling almost painfully, his hips locking at the side of Joel's mouth, his core rippling in uncontrollable waves of intense pleasure as his entire body gave itself to Joel's hungry churning. Joel drank of him, taking gulping swallows, working Korey's writhing body in agonizing pleasure as he gave Joel everything he had.

Korey fell to Joel, collapsing fully along the bridge of Joel's nose as he exhaled almost to the point of collapse. He had never experienced an orgasm as such a whole-body experience before.

“That,” Korey heaved, taking his breath back to him in gulping mouthfuls, “was fucking incredible. Holy shit, Joel.”

A crisp coldness locked around his groin as air escaped Joel in a knowing laugh. Korey took stock of his senses, and found he had stopped shrinking. His face was flat towards the top of the bridge of Joel's nose, his feet clumsily swaying over his chin, so much of his midsection oriented over the soft plush of Joel's sticky lips. He imagined he must have stopped around six inches, just as Joel had said.
Korey pushed himself upwards slightly, looking into Joel's left eye when he realized he could not hold the gaze of both at this proximity. He could see that upturned light of a smile in that huge iris, felt a grin forming at the tender aches of his cock as Joel's mouth swirled around him. He heard the gentle click and swish of Joel's belt far behind him, and rode the quaking shifts as Joel unbuckled his pants.

“You're welcome, little man,” Joel mused, his voice raising thunderously despite his heady whisper, carrying hot wind up and around Korey. “My turn.”