By the next morning Van still hadn't got a reply from Paul. He dressed for work, just as Abaltis had promised all his clothes had resized to fit him, except they seemed to hug his new body, showing off his assets instead of just clothing them. Everything seemed to be just a little on the small or snug side. He was self-conscious as he walked into the office building and up to his cubicle, though no one looked at him twice. Well, some did, but it wasn't from shock. He was simply turning a few heads, and the realization made him both giddy and annoyed. So he was scowling by the time he got to his desk, only for Greg to pop up a moment later.
Greg had helped get him this job after he got downsized from his last one, put in a good word for him and everything. "Are all your friends hot?" Came a voice, and Van looked over to see his little tormentor back down to six inches, sitting on top of his monitor. At least he wasn't naked this time, instead he was wearing a pair of slacks and a necktie, nothing else. Van guessed the fairy was right. Greg had always kept himself fit, though not as much as Paul, dark skinned with his neatly trimmed goatee and shaved head he never had a problem with women. Though, since he married and became a father he had put on some weight but that just gave him one of those dad bods and his wife seemed to like it.
"Have you heard from Paul?" Greg asked, resting a hand on a wall of Van's cubicle.
"He stopped by yesterday, but, uh.. not since then." Van replied, moving his eyes away from Greg and taking his chair.
"Huh, guess he just needs some alone time." Greg said with a shrug. "Lunch later?"
Van just nodded and waited until Greg was out of ear shot before looking right at Abaltis. "No. Leave him out of it."
The fairy just snorted. "Wouldn't work. All his desires are centered on his wife and a red Porsche." Abaltis rubbed his chin, head turning. "Though he would be interested in a threesome if his wife was." Van fixed the fairy with a glare. "Don't give me that look, pet. I'm a creature of desire and wishes, I can't help myself. It's like you needing to eat and drink."
"Stop calling me that. I'm not your pet." Van hissed, turning his computer on.
"You are. You just don't know it yet." Abaltis adjusted the tie around his neck, smoothing it down over his furry, exposed pecs. "Maybe I'll make you wear a tie when we play, give me something to hold on to, I mean, donkey ears are the classic choice but that takes magic. Oh!" He snapped his fingers. "Might be a slow burn today, don't stress yourself out too much." And then he vanished.
"Donkey ears?" Van hissed under his breath, his fingers going to his ears quickly. His heart pounding faster. They didn't feel too long did they? No. That would be way too obvious. No way to get around that one. After a moment he shook his head and got to work. He pulled up his code from last week and got back to it.
An hour later his head was swimming. Reading the code was giving him a headache. It had to be all the stress from the weekend. It seemed like gibberish as he tried to even sort out his own notes on the code. He rubbed the sides of his head with the heels of his palms, muttering a curse under his breath. "I just need some fresh air." He stood and left his cubicle, intending to go for a quick walk only to run into his boss coming the other way.
Strangely, his boss reminded him of Abaltis if the fairy was six inches taller, twentyish years older, and with a gut. Mr. Henderson was not a man who anyone would call a people person, and his glare fixed right on Van. "There you are. The sink in the men's room is leaking, go fix it."
"Um, should we call cust.." Van started, only to have his boss cut him off.
"No, you're here. Go handle it." Mr. Henderson stomped off leaving Van dumbfounded. He had learned a while ago that if his boss was that direct, to just do it. This was an odd request sure, and Van didn't know the next thing about plumbing, but maybe if he took a look before reporting it to the custodial team he'd get a pass.
Heading right for the bathroom he found the offending sink. It looked just like a loose pipe, something a plumber might charge a fortune for but was really an easy fix. The solution just popping into his head. Leaving the bathroom he went right to the broom closet and started digging around for the tool he needed and a few other things, then it was back to the bathroom. He took off his tie and tucked it in his back pocket, not noticing as it suddenly vanished, or when his glossy black dress shoes became a duller pair of black work boots.
He quickly fixed the leak and mopped up the mess. After returning the supplies to the closet he felt pretty good, pleased with a job well done. No need for that walk. He headed back to his cubicle and sat down. He looked as his screen and that headache started right up again. The stuff on his screen was making even less sense than before. He rubbed his eyes but that only made everything blurry. He started trying to speak the code, as if that would help, but it only sounded like gibberish.
His phone gave a buzz in his pocket, and he pulled it out. There was a message from Clark, the head custodian for the building that a light was out in the fourth floor printer room. What was Van supposed to do about it? But he found himself getting to his feet and heading to the elevator. That was how he spent the next few hours, every time he tried to return to his cubicle someone would come along and send him off to fix some little maintenance issue. He didn't notice as his grey slacks turned into thick dark blue work pants as he checked the AC unit on 12, or as his rolled up sleeves shrunk back to short sleeves, exposing a few inches of his upper arms as his dress shirt turned a slightly paler shade of blue than his pants, becoming a slightly denser cotton cleaning up a spill on 7. Or as the embroidered name tag appeared over his pocket as he replaced another burnt bulb on 10.
By the time he was unclogging a toilet on the second floor he wasn't even questioning it anymore. Not until he walked to the sink to wash his hands and caught sight of himself in the mirror. Finally he noticed the full custodial uniform he was wearing, and the couple of buttons he seemed to have left undone at the top of his shirt to expose a bit of his fuzzy pectorals. He quickly walked over and looked the door to the bathroom. Luckily the out of service sign was already on the door. He stepped back over to the mirror, took a breath and said, "Abaltis."
"Yeah?" Came the husky voice from beside Van, and he turned to look at the fairy. He was full sized this time and back in jeans, boots, and a tank top.
"The fuck is this, dude?" Van said, pointing at his outfit.
"Looks like a uniform." The fairy said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Looks good on you. Should undo another button."
"Don't act like that, you did this." Van accused, though he barely noticed as his hands did go up to undo another button.
"No, this is the ripple." Abaltis said with a shake of his head. As Van stared at him he sighed. "The side effect. I changed something else, obviously you couldn't work your current job anymore so it gave you a new one. Greg still got it for you, and you're still good at it. It's just more suited for your new.. self. Get it?"
Van frowned, looking down. "I think so.." And he did have to think on it a little, but it did seem to make sense. "Wait.. what did you do then?"
"I dimmed you down a little bit. Okay, more than a little bit." Abaltis said with a chuckle, then sighed as Van gave him another clueless look. "I took away your smarts. Though it seems fate decided you needed some skills. Guess you're good with your hands and fixing things," The fairy's eyes carressed Van's body. "And working out, but probably not much else."
"But I..." Van started, thinking back to trying to read the code. "No, I'm good with computers."
"Were." Abaltis interjected. "Though I think you could still manage to do some things on one, like a webcam. But you couldn't code a computer to add 2 and 2 if your life depended on it. Don't worry, you'll have the memories to get by. They'll filter in over the day, too."
"So you made me an idiot? Why?" Van said, anger and heat rising in his voice.
"Not an idiot. Your just a bit behind the curve. Intelligent enough to work and live, dumb enough to be adorably thick. Who doesn't like a sexy, slightly dim himbo?" Abaltis flicked one of Van's nipples through his shirt the way the fairy always seemed to do when messing with him, and as always Van's dick twitched in response, at least fabric wasn't setting him off with every little movement anymore. Van was trying to piece things together. His mind was moving slower, it felt a bit like thinking through cotton to how it used to be. "You know, they say people are a bit happier when they don't have so many thoughts. Just go with it, pet."
Before Van could react, Abaltis grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him forward, locking their lips together in a kiss that still tasted of the lingering smoke from the cigars the fairy sometimes puffed away on. And in the middle of the kiss, he vanished. Van hissed a curse and wiped his mouth off on the back of his arm, though his traitorous cock has responded by chubbing up slightly. "Paul's a better kisser anyway." He said to the empty air.
The rest of the day was like the morning, he even had to blow off lunch with Greg who still wanted to see him despite his new role. Van soon remembered this was because Clark the head custodian never left their team's join office in the basement unless he absolutely had to, claiming he needed to be there to take calls, and the other of their three person team Rider, was out sick, leaving Van to do all the heavy lifting. He still swung by the gym for a workout afterwards, something he had never done before but felt right. He even had a membership card in his pocket.
So by the time he got home he was beat. He stripped out of his gym clothes down to his boxers, allowing his monster of a cock to flop around a bit more freely, grabbed a beer, and collapsed in the chair in front of his TV. It took him a moment to even notice his apartment was different. Less books on the bookshelf, boxes of compute parts replaced by exercise equipment and tools. His computer was still nice, but was a prebuilt instead of his old custom rig. He stared at the webcam on top, narrowing his eyes. That was new, too.
His phone dinged, distracting him from that thought as he flipped the screen to look at it. "Need some time. We'll talk later." It was Paul. He sent back a short, "Ok" and grabbed the remote to spend the rest of the night vegging out on TV.