"HA! Take that, zombies!" Dani shouted as bullets from his gun pierced a small horde of the undead in front of him, the buttons on the controller clicking away as he moved the camera from left to right. One entered a zombie's stomach area, immediately killing it. It had been about a half-hour since he and Andrew had applied the tattoos, and they had spent every moment afterwards working their way through the new zombie survival game that had recently been released. Andrew was right beside him, both in the game and in real life, also firing away. For no apparent reason, though, that particular gunshot caught his attention. It just felt... wrong, somehow.
Before he could think otherwise, Andrew immediately blurted out, "Oh, come on! There's no way that bullet could have possibly killed him!" Dani smirked, moving his eyes to look at his friend.
"Well, you don't know. Maybe it hit an artery or something," he suggested. "Well, if zombies even need blood anymore, that is..." Before he could ponder that matter any further, however, Andrew shook his head.
"No, no, there aren't any major blood vessels running through that particular area of the stomach," he said dismissively, as if that fact were obvious.
"And how exactly do you know that?" Dani questioned, partly in jest and partly in genuine curiosity. Andrew opened his mouth, but he stopped short when he realized that even he didn't know where that knowledge came from, yet he still just knew that it was right.
"I...I don't know," he said, causing his friend to quirk an eyebrow. After a brief moment, though, he simply shrugged.
"Whatever, dude, it's just a game. Let's just move on, ok?" After another brief moment, Andrew shrugged as well.
"Ok," he agreed, and the two continued the game for about another half-hour until they were finally ready to eat.
"So, where do you want to go?" Andrew asked once they had shut the game console off.
"Hm, that's a good question. Let's see..." As Dani pondered their options, a sudden wave of hunger came over him, and his stomach let out a large growl. "Whoa," Dani said, slightly surprised. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm feeling really hungry all of a sudden. What do you say we go to that buffet place just down the street?" As Andrew was getting ready to respond, a wave of hunger came over him, too.
"Well, strangely enough, I'm actually feeling pretty hungry myself, too, so that sounds fine. Let's go."
Before either of them knew it, the two found themselves in the restaurant, a stack of five or six empty plates in front of each of them.
"Woo," said Andrew, "I don't remember the last time I ate this much. I'm stuffed." To emphasize his point, he lightly patted his full belly, eliciting a burp from him as well. Unbeknownst to him, though, his stomach wasn't all that he was patting, for in front of it, his abdominal muscles were beginning to grow and strengthen. A similar effect could already be seen on his arms, but one would have to look closely to see the slight bumps that were beginning to form on his upper arms from his slowly-growing biceps and triceps.
"Same here," Dani said. "What do you say we go ahead and leave?" They had already paid for the food ahead of time, so they didn't need to worry about the check. Andrew nodded.
"Yeah, that sounds good." Dani seemed to be going through similar changes as Andrew was, but they seemed to be progressing at a slightly faster rate; if you looked closely enough, you could just barely see the abs beginning to take shape on his stomach, and his arm muscles were beginning to look more like small bulges as opposed to bumps. Though they weren't enough to notice quite yet, his mind was beginning to undergoing small changes, too. He had a heightened interest in sports now, and his flirting abilities had been given a slight increase to boot. Still unaware of what was happening to them, the two friends walked out of the establishment and drove back to Andrew's house.
Back at the house, Dani and Andrew decided to go up to Andrew's room.
"So, dude, what do you want to do?" asked Andrew, his voice having suddenly taken on a slight raspy sound on the drive home.
"I don't know.... Do you just want to watch some TV for a bit?" Dani suggested. Andrew shrugged.
"Sure, that sounds fine." Before they could turn on the TV, though, Andrew, who had been looking at his phone, let out a small cry of confusion. "What the...?" Dani, who had almost reached the button to turn the device on, paused and turned around.
"What's the matter?" Completely nonplussed, Andrew turned his phone to face Dani. On it was a picture of a little girl, about five years old.
"I don't remember taking this," Andrew said, then he turned his phone back to face him. He studied the picture for a few seconds, noting how similar the girl appeared to the tattoo above his heart. He felt a sudden pang of pain at that thought, however, and decided to put his phone down before anything else weird happened.
"That's pretty weird...," Dani commented. Andrew shook his head, still slightly confused.
"Just...just forget it. It's probably just an old photo I forgot about." Dani shrugged.
"Ok, if you say so...."
A couple more hours passed before the two decided to start getting ready for bed. Dani hopped in the shower first. When he got out, he dried himself a bit and wrapped the towel loosely around his waist. He stepped in front of the mirror, observing his reflection. His light brown hair had seemed to darken a bit to medium brown. He ran his hands under some warm running water from the faucet and rubbed them across his face, taking notice neither to the fact that the dots of stubble across the lower portion of his face had seemed to shrink some nor to the fact that coarse, short, brown hairs were beginning to emerge from those dots. The only thing he took from that, in fact, is that he would need to shave the next day. Grabbing the pair of boxer briefs that were lying on the countertop and putting them on in place of the towel, he took one last look at himself--at his slightly sharper jawline, at his slightly more prominent voice box, at his more-than-slightly taller stature--he made to grab his shirt before realizing that he had forgotten to take one in with him. Cursing silently to himself, he opened the bathroom door leading back into Andrew's room.
"Hey, Andy?" He wasn't sure why he had called his friend that, but it just seemed right, somehow.
"Yeah?" the boy replied, looking back towards Dani.
"Could I borrow one of your shirts for tonight? It looks like I forgot to bring one of mine."
"Oh, yeah, sure. What kind of shirt do you want?"
"Oh, a muscle shirt, if you have one." Andrew paused in confusion at this? A muscle shirt? That didn't sound like the kind of shirt Danny--or Dani, however you spell it--would wear. Regardless, Andrew complied, grabbing an old shirt that he had lying around in his dresser drawers. Walking up to his friend, he suddenly stopped, looking at him.
"Say, Danny, have you been working out?"
"Huh?" came the boy's slightly confused reply. Indeed, his build did appear more muscular than before: the top half of his chest was just beginning to push out over the rest of his flat stomach, giving somewhat-defined pecs; the lines on his torso were a bit deeper now so that his abs were fairly visible, yet still faint; and his arms and legs had grown as well, the bulges of muscle definitely noticeable now. "Oh, yeah," he replied. "You like it?"
"Yeah, dude, nice going! Anyway, here's your shirt." Andrew tossed the shirt at him, and Dani quickly put it on. Surprisingly, though it was made for someone taller than Andrew and Dani, it still fit. In fact, it was even a bit too short, exposing just a little of his stomach. Though neither of them had realized it, Andrew had undergone similar changes, too. Whereas before, his black T-shirt had been a bit too long and its arm holes rather wide for him, now the shirt came right to the waistline of his pants; it appeared that he had grown taller as well. In addition, the bumps on his arms had grown into small bulges, and his arms now came close to filling the arm holes. In addition, his calves had become more well-defined, and underneath his shirt, his stomach had lost its excess fat, and his abs were just beginning to show. His pecs had grown as well, but they were only just beginning to push his chest out. The bones in his face had rearranged themselves slightly to look more mature, and his voice had deepened slightly also. To top it all off, his hair had darkened to an almost charcoal gray color, and his eyes had changed from blue to dark green.
Though so many changes had occurred, there were still so many more to be completed, and within the half-hour, the two lay in bed, waiting to fall asleep. What happens next is up to you.