A Very Tall Order, Part 2
I haven't written in a *while* and I've had the itch recently. When that usually happens I use these three idiots as a kind of warm-up so we'll see what happens. Your guess is as good as mine.
CW: Adult themes, language, and lots of g/t stuff.
Word Count: 3500
***
Zoey couldn't stop pacing back and forth across the roof. Or fidgeting. Her hands were a frenzied blur as she fiddled with her rings, touched her face or hair, or really did anything other than be still.
She was so nervous. She asked herself why she was so nervous. It was just Tyler. She'd waited for him like this countless times when he was doing deliveries.
Over the years their friendliness turned into outright flirting. She had looked forward to every time Tyler made a delivery. And he did too.
The last time she saw him in his truck on his way to his next stop after hers, she climbed up onto the side and gave him a lingering peck on the cheek as she thanked him. Then Zoey casually went into her sandwich shop as if she had given him a wave to unpack his delivery.
She wanted to play it cool, but she didn't go to unpack right away.
Instead, she watched him from a spot he couldn't see her while he sat in his truck for a few minutes after she had kissed him, processing what had just happened with a satisfied grin.
But Tyler had never made her nervous. And she couldn't remember ever being this nervous. Actually she could remember.
She hadn't been this nervous since the first time she'd laid eyes on someone who had turned giant. It was seared into her permanent memory with crystal clarity. Even now as she waited for giant Tyler, she replayed the moment in her head like a looping film clip.
But it was more than just seeing the giant. It was the feeling of it. She remembered that too.
When she saw Tyler the other week, it was like that first time but a thousand times stronger.
She should hear him at any moment. Or rather, feel him at any moment.
Being just over 150 feet tall meant small tremors accompanied Tyler's every step. He must have weighed hundreds of thousands of pounds, maybe more. None of it was physically possible.
Science certainly couldn't explain it. In fact, it was scientifically impossible, but it still kept happening.
After Tyler turned, he was at the very upper limit that the government would allow for without shipping him away to far less inhabited spaces out west. Tyler was greatly relieved to know he wasn't going to have to move to a desert or something. He had grown up in and around the city. He couldn't imagine being anywhere else.
Even if the city had become a miniature version of him now. He'd miss out on a lot now, like the subway, but he was glad he didn't have to leave.
Zoey was relieved that Tyler got to stay too, but for what she suspected were very different reasons. She shook out her hands as she waited for that first tell-tale shake of the earth.
She couldn't stand it anymore. She stood a safe distance from the edge of the roof, gravel crunching under her high heels. High heels. It seemed ridiculous to wear high heels. Zoey was only 5'6" on a good day, and the heels added a couple of inches.
Tyler was way taller than she was before he turned, even though she was in heels. And now...
Zoey pulled a pack of cigarettes from her jacket pocket and lit one as she thought about it. She had hoped that pacing might keep her from chainsmoking as she waited. She was wrong.
She started smoking while pacing, regretting the heels. Just as she exhaled a second drag, she felt it.
The shake. A pause. Then another shake like distant thunder.
It didn't take Tyler long to get anywhere around the city anymore. But being extra careful with every step did slow him down a bit. There was a longer pause between each step than when she heard Jennifer nearby.
Considering his size, the government didn't rely on a promise from Tyler to be careful. Instead, the government made Giant No. 979 alert them, three days in advance, anytime he intended to travel farther than his specially designated zone so they could clear a path for him. It was annoying, limiting, and time-consuming.
The government didn't trust giants despite the uneasy accommodations they had decided upon once it was clear this would be a recurring problem.
Zoey took another long drag and flicked it off into the distance on the roof, letting it land somewhere amongst the gravel. Even at the top of the 12-story building, she felt the rhythmic vibrations go through her body from his approaching steps. They got stronger and stronger each time. Tyler was getting closer. "Hey! You're excited! BIG night!" Zoey clapped a hand to the earpiece wrapped around her left ear. It was the voice of her friend Jennifer, Giant No. 783. She said the word "big" in a teasing way that made Zoey's brow furrow in annoyance.
But the way she said it also made Zoey's heart skip a beat. Big was an understatement when it came to Tyler after he turned.
The specialized earpiece Jennifer's voice came through was something the government created. It was hooked into a reserved network, like a private cell phone service that operated separately from normal telecommunications. Besides the exclusivity, it was also intended to make it easier for turned giants to communicate with regular-sized humans.
It used bone conduction to keep the giant's voice volume down. Some could be deafeningly dangerous if they yelled.
Zoey only had the earpiece version because she was a licensed government vendor to supply meals for giants. She had to have another license just for that because the network was highly regulated. It was far easier to take orders with the earpiece than other alternatives.
Zoey spent as much time around turned giants as she possibly could. Unlike the government, she never worried about her safety with them. She was always in wonder and awe of them, despite the real risk.
In quiet moments since it had happened, her thoughts returned to how amazing it was just to sit in Jennifer's hand the other week. She did it without warning, with good intentions, but it was one of the biggest shocks of Zoey's life. She kept thinking of the slight translucence of the skin on Jennifer's palm, the lined patterns raised enough that they looked like someone had taken a rake through dirt, the warmth, and every other brain-melting detail.
She couldn't stop imagining how different that would be with a giant Tyler's size. "Yes! Yes! Yes! Don't make me more nervous than I already am, for god's sake!" Zoey whined at Jennifer through the earpiece. Being only 70 feet tall, Jennifer was allowed to live at the city's giant dormitory on the repurposed government facilities on Plum Island off the coast of Long Island. When Jennifer had an assignment in the city, almost always construction but sometimes emergency first response, she had to commute.
Traffic seemed to be an inescapable part of living in the metro area regardless of one's size.
Tyler was too big for the Plum Island facilities and had been parked over in Eerie Basin, where the NYPD had an impound lot. The cars had all been moved to make space for Tyler.
It was supposed to be temporary until the government figured out what to do with him, but it was very likely going to be permanent. "Why are you nervous? It's just Tyler. You told me you've known him for years! Just pretend you're talking to him through a big magnifying glass or something, you know?"
Zoey frowned. If anyone needed to pretend like they were talking through a big magnifying glass in this situation, it was Tyler.
After she saw him turned for the first time, Zoey had accessed a special government website only for licensed vendors to use for planning purposes. It had a database of every turned giant with some basic information about it, including their height and weight. But it didn't have what she was looking for, so she went to one of the many turned giant fan sites.
From there, Zoey figured out she was the same height as Tyler's thumb. His thumb...
Zoey looked down at her thumb for a lingering moment as the thundering footsteps got closer and deeper.
"I don't know if I can do this..." Zoey wondered to herself, not really considering that her earpiece was still active.
"What?! What do you mean?!" Shit, Zoey thought.
"I-I don't...I don't know. This is silly. What is the point? How could he possibly...I'm the size of his fucking thumb, Jenn. HIS THUMB!"
"You can do a lot with just a thumb in my experience."
Zoey gasped and Jennifer giggled.
Then Zoey heard a helicopter. It came whooshing up the street with a large spotlight shining downwards. It was lighting up the path for Tyler. She'd see him any moment.
"You're going to be fine, Zee! He's into you. He was into you before, right? I don't know why that'd change now. He just got bigger. Well, way, way, WAY bigger, but still..." "Thanks, Jenn. I'll call you later."
Zoey ended the call with Jennifer. She couldn't handle the way that she was saying "bigger" right now.
Zoey pulled out her phone, went into the special app for the device in her ear, and dialed Tyler's number.
It didn't even ring once completely before it stopped.
"Zoey?"
Zoey didn't need the earpiece to hear his voice. It filled the air from afar.
She looked past the hovering helicopter to see Tyler step around the corner, coming out from behind a skyscraper.
Her breath stopped. It had only been a week since she'd first seen him. But it felt like she'd stepped in front of an oncoming bus.
Thinking about him being just Tyler didn't help. He was enormous. All she could see was the size of him. Her heart beat was pounding between her ears.
"Zoey? You there?"
Flustered, Zoey scrambled to make sure her earpiece was activated.
"Oh-uh-uh... Yeah! I'm here!"
Zoey raised her hands above her head and waved them, thinking that might help him spot her from amongst the rooftops. Then she was blinded by the spotlight from the hovering helicopter as it swept over and stopped on her like she was on a stage.
Zoey covered her eyes with her forearm until the light went away after a few seconds. She felt a couple of huge thumps before they stopped. She lowered her arm and looked ahead.
She was eye level with the top of Tyler's chest.
She watched it rise and fall with his slow, steady breaths. Her neck and face craned up and up, taking in every single detail.
She could feel him. She could feel him even though he must have been a good thirty or forty feet from the side of the building.
She looked up at his face and locked eyes with him, wondering if he could even make hers out.
Zoey swallowed, staring up at him in stunned silence.
"Hey."
Zoey raised up a hand and gave him a slow wave in return.
"Hi..." she stuttered back.
He could hear her almost perfectly through the device around his neck.
"So...nice to see you, Iā"
Tyler got interrupted by the harsh shriek of a speaker turning on from the hovering helicopter near his head.
"You have two hours, 979."
Tyler waved them off, annoyed, but he nodded.
The helicopter tilted and veered away, speeding off into the distance.
"They're so annoying. It's not like I'm going to destroy my hometown, right?"
Zoey nodded, oblivious to how unlikely it was for him to notice. It wasn't just because of how small she was compared to him now, but it was also night.
They were only illuminated by the ambient light of the city around them. It made him seem even bigger somehow, to be only partially lit this way by the various-sized buildings all around him.
He didn't look real, but he was, and it was making it hard for Zoey to even breathe.
"Zoey? Is your earpiece working okay?"
Zoey clenched her jaw in embarrassment.
"Yes! Sorry! Sorry, I...it's...I...uh...how are you?"
Tyler shifted his weight from one foot to another, staying in place.
"Good! Good, you know, not a big fan of camping, but it's not too bad. At least it hasn't rained lately. I'm hoping they give me a tarp or something. We've been going back and forth about it. I'm not really a logistics guy. That's more Dave's jam."
Zoey nodded again as she listened. Dave was Tyler's manager at the delivery company. Tyler talked about him all of the time over the years. Zoey had never met him, only heard him over the radio in Tyler's truck complaining about how long his delivery to Zoey's shop was taking compared to other stops.
"What about you?"
Zoey froze at his question.
How am I? I was nervous, but now I'm a little...what? No...a little...a lot... Oh God. What am I? "I'māI'm...overwhelmed...so huge...Oh my god..." Zoey thought to herself.
After an awkward silence, Tyler raised his eyebrow, waiting before Zoey finally managed to stutter something out.
"Fine! Good. Good. Yeah...good..."
Zoey's voice trailed off as she stared up at him in slack-jawed wonder. Tyler smiled. He was being so casual. He carried himself like he wasn't the size of a building now. If anything, he seemed way more confident than he used to be. It was a big shift for Zoey.
"Maybe next time they'll let us, well me, go watch a game or something instead of just getting to stand here next time."
Tyler meant going to watch a Mets game in Queens. It was a bit of a trek, not really for him distance-wise, but in terms of clearing a path, it'd be like having to block traffic for a parade.
Now that she thought of it, Zoey realized she had rarely ever seen him without the same Mets cap on. She doubted they made one his size now. Then she thought about getting to watch the game from Tyler's shoulder...or maybe even his hand.
"Zoey?"
"W-What? What'd you say?"
Tyler looked confused that she didn't hear him. She seemed off.
"I said I like your heels. They make you look a lot taller."
Tyler grinned. Zoey balked. He did notice.
There was another long, pregnant silence between them. Tyler played with his lips and then scratched the back of his head, running his hand through his long hair. Zoey liked his long hair.
Tyler let out an exasperated sigh.
"It's too weird now, isn't it?"
"What?"
"Me. It's too weird now. I'm too weird. I'm like a monster now? Is that why you're acting weird?"
Zoey froze and swallowed. She wasn't acting weird. Well, she wasn't acting normal, and it was because of his new size but not for why he thought.
Tyler crossed his massive arms across his chest and looked away, his expression turned.
"I get it. But I was hoping...I thought you couldā"
He paused, choosing his words carefully.
"I thought you were my friend and could look past this and just talk to me like I'm Tyler, not Giant Number 979 or whatever. I thought that maybe... never mind. It doesn't matter, I guess. I'll call them so I can go."
He shrugged his shoulders as he spoke, and Zoey's nervousness was replaced with an even worse feeling.
"I'm sorry! You are! Tyler! You're Tyler. I know. Jenn said the same thing, and she's right. It's just you. It's just...I..."
There was another long, silent pause between the two of them that seemed to last for more than one hour. Tyler turned his attention back towards her. It made her shiver to be his complete center of attention.
"Are you scared of me?"
"No!"
"Honest?"
"No! No! Of course not. That's not it. At all! I see giants all the time. I'm not afraid of them, of you."
"Then what's going on?"
Zoey dug deep and swallowed through her clenched jaw. She'd never get a better chance than this. She'd waited her whole life for an opportunity like this.
"I HAVE A THING FOR GIANTS!"
She blurted it out quick and bit her lip. She screwed it up.
"You have a thing for giants?"
Tyler uncrossed his arms. He lowered his head to bring his face closer to the edge of the building towards Zoey. She wanted to take a step back, but she stayed in place.
Tyler was smirking. His one eyebrow was suddenly raised up a bit the way it always was when he said hello or goodbye during his deliveries, checking her out from the driver's seat. She hadn't noticed it before, but there was a faint scar that made his eyebrow look more pronounced when he did. It was a detail she couldn't see before until he was over twenty times larger.
Zoey's cheeks were burning red from the scrutiny and confession.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out another cigarette, struggling to light it. Her hands were shaking. Just standing in front of him like this as he looked at her was making her hands shake. It wasn't just her hands. Her whole body was shaking.
It wasn't bad, just overwhelming. She'd never admitted it to anyone before, and now she'd told a friend. Not just a friend, but the biggest friend she'd ever had. One of the biggest giants on the planet.
She took a deep breath, sucking down the cigarette quickly. She exhaled and dragged her thumb across the bottom of her front teeth.
"Yes! Okay?! I always have! Even before all of the turnings started! I've been obsessed with them since I was a kid. I don't know why, and then people started turning into them, and I was so excited and even more obsessed than before. And I never..."
"You never what?"
Tyler's smirk had turned into a full, toothy grin, peering down at her. She was mortified, but it was too late now.
"I never knew anyone...before they turned. No one I knew before then became a...a..."
"Giant?"
Tyler purred the word out like he knew what it would do to her. His voice was purposefully louder than before when he said it. It made her shiver. Then she shivered again on her own. Just hearing the word from someone his size was too much.
She rubbed her face and took another deep drag from the cigarette.
"Yes..."
"Cool!"
Zoey looked up at his grinning face the size of a highway billboard. He looked so pleased with himself. Like he had just won the biggest stuffed animal at Coney Island. But he was taller than the Astro Tower now. She swallowed at the realization.
"Can you do me a favor?"
"Yeah? Of course."
Zoey groaned, rubbing her face again. This was worse than any nightmare of being naked in front of the whole school during a cheer rally in the auditorium.
"Can you try to just blow some my way? I've been dying for a cigarette since I turned, and they won't make me any my size. I think it's worth a try."
Tyler came even closer and opened his mouth a little bit, waiting.
Zoey swallowed and made a strange sound as he did. His open mouth was right in front of her. She could have leapt inside of it like a cave.
Zoey steadied herself and took as deep of an inhale as she could. Then she leaned forward a little and blew the smoke out and into his mouth as best as she could.
He closed his mouth and his lips shifted right in front of her. She was shaking again.
She wanted to touch his lips. She wanted to feel how they felt against her hand. Against her lips. Could he even feel it if she kissed him?
"Anything?" She asked genuinely, curiously.
Tyler shook his head and then whispered.
"No, but thanks for trying. Worth a shot. Plus, it gave me an excuse to get closer so I could do this."
"Do this?"
Before she could process what he meant, Tyler's lips came forward and pressed into hers. Not really her lips, but her whole face and upper body.
Zoey felt a bolt surge through her body, and she went stiff. Tyler kept them there for a beat and then pulled his face back.
"I've wanted to do that back for a while. I didn't think it'd be like this, though. Was that okay? Too much?"
Zoey's cheeks were burning again, and she brought a hand up to fix her messed-up hair. She shook her head no.
"No...not too much...It's...uh..."
"So are you into taller guys in general or only giants?"
Tyler grinned, saying the word again in a way that made Zoey's heart skip again.
"Do it again and find out..." She whispered into her earpiece, making him grin.
On Plum Island, Jennifer was lying down on the poor excuse for bedding. It was on the floor of a hastily constructed, massive hangar on one side of the island that was a little better than a cheap tent would have been when she was regular-sized.
She stared up at the rafters that her head almost scraped when she stood straight up.
"I wonder how it's going between those two..."
***
