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His ears flickered with each ponderous, booming word, the distant thunder roaring to greet him even as the familiar fog muddied his senses. As his vision grew dim and his head grew heavy, he turned his eyes back up, up towards the immense smile that beamed like a radiant sun, fangs shining with their own magnificent gleam. He stumbled and fell back into the platform of pawpad that held him aloft, and his gaze fell off the edge of that mighty palm, hauling itself back up to the waiting grin past thick, broad feline paws and a striped orange-and-black figure both masculine and jovially soft, rising up to tower nearly past the limits of his sight. Little green eyes stared into their massive golden counterparts, and his jaw tumbled open as he was given one last piece of awe-striking news from the gargantuan God, watching the tiger's lips flex around each earthshattering word that rattled him to the core.

"You falter, little one...is your slumber at an end already?"

Mark managed a soft, breathless little giggle from his seat, his tail curled around his thigh in a telltale signal of slight embarrassment. He scooted upright on the warm, pliable padding, nodding up towards the feline sky, his expression a tiny mirror of the panoramic grin that filled his vision.

"I think so, my love. I've been trying to get to bed earlier, but there's only so many hours in the night." He added with a tinge of longing, "I'm sorry I have to go so soon, Pub." His slender-fingered hand gently patted the palm beneath his rump, eliciting a deep, bass purr from the chest of the behemoth.

"It's all right, Mark. You've plenty of work to do on the mortal plane, I'm sure." Publius boomed gently in reply, and from above a massive, padded fingertip curled inwards, lightly patting the puny panther on the head. For a moment, the tiger's lips contorted from their smile, darkening his vision with a frown that set the feline's spine shivering. Those massive golden eyes fell from his for a moment, and Mark had to swallow to stifle a whimper in his throat. Publius was a God, and very rarely was he troubled, especially not by anything Mark could comprehend.

"What's wrong?" He asked, reaching up to still the god's fingertip with his minuscule strength. He nearly sighed in relief when Pub's golden gaze returned, his lush lips curling back up into a smile, albeit a lesser one than had graced his majestic visage.

"Nothing, little one..." He paused for a moment, his thunderous voice softening to a gentle, ever-present vibration. "Tell me, Mark, are you happy with me?"

Mark balked visibly below, head cocked in confusion from beneath the tiger's fingertip, "H-happy? Of course! Pub, of course I'm happy with you."

Publius' smile widened momentarily. "Of course you are." A great, bushy brow raised, and the massive feline's brow clenched, "But you and I can only meet here, in your dreams when we commune." His thunderous voice gained a tinge of melancholy, and just a hint of shame. "We are mates only in my realm, where I can cling to immortality."

Mark's smile clambered back onto his lips, and he shook his head, hugging the fingertip he embraced tightly as a purr rekindled itself in his throat. "Honey, that's never been a problem. I know you can't just visit the Earth without losing your immortality; otherwise I'm sure every deity would! I'm just happy you chose me." He chuckled, flickering his tail up gently against the titan's fingertip. "I remember when these first started..."

Publius laughed, a deep, jovial eruption that visibly bounced his tiny, mortal boyfriend in his palm. "You mean when you used to scream and wail in my presence, begging for me to release you?" His laughter slowed to a chuffing, though his toothy, fanged grin remained while he gently tousled Mark's headfur, "My frightened little kitten, barely a man..."

"Hey! It's not my fault I was scared of you, Chubzilla!" Mark giggled and growled playfully, gently slapping at the tiger's fingertip, "You were the one who chose to stomp in all "Glory and Honor"-like! Snatching me off the ground, thundering on about how you were "gracing my existence with your benevolent power"!"

The feline deity chuckled, patting his rotund gut and padded chest at the mention of Mark's pet name for him, "Pff, as I recall I had you literally eating out of my palm within the week! All of my other followers responded well to my magnanimous announcements." He teased, sticking his massive, wide tongue out in a remarkably juvenile expression.

Mark snickered and smirked upwards with just a hint of smugness. "Yeah, well, I'm the only one who's your mate, big fella." He leaned up to kiss the tiny patch of flesh he had swatted. "And I always will be."

Publius sighed contently, ruffling his lover's fur with a humid, warm wind from his jaws. "This is the truth, little one...and I wish I could be there for you."

For a moment, the great titan was silent, merely cradling Mark in his palm while the great white canvas of his realm lay untouched by his will, savoring his last few minutes admiring the tiny, slender feline he held in his grasp. He had been so trusting, so willing to allow a forgotten god into his thoughts, the last and most devoted follower of what had once been thousands and thousands, centuries ago. He'd warmed up so fast, shared every facet of his strange new world with him. He'd given up his very dreams to spend time with the godly intruder in his head, both during sleep and while he lay awake. He'd given all his love to Publius, and yet the supposedly all-powerful feline could only return that gift here, in the communion of dreams, chained up in his own plane during his lover's waking hours.

Then, his golden eyes widened, and a sly smile tugged upon his gargantuan lips.

"Mark, before you wake, hear me."

Mark perked up from his curled state around Publius' massive digit, ears flickering to attention, "Yes, hun? What is it?"

Publius flashed his fangs, his expression blossoming into an utterly devious grin. "Listen carefully, little one. Tonight, before you sleep, you are going to receive a little gift from me. But," He added, raising his other hand and waggling a finger down at the mortal feline, "There is something I must have of you."

The little panther practically hopped to attention, stumbling on unsteady legs, his form already beginning to give way to its conscious state as he braced himself upon his lover's digit. "Y-yes Pub! A-anything you want! What's gonna happen?" Though his eyelids drooped, the green spheres beneath them were lit with delight, and behind his rounded little rump his slender tail swished to and fro.

"Let's just say you'll be getting a more...tangible form of my love." The tiger winked downwards, and Mark's ears rang with his instructions. "It requires a small offering ritual the mortals who once worshiped me used to perform. A simple formality, but a significant gesture, especially for a prospective mate. First, upon your dwelling, create an offering circle in my name, one that faces the skies, so that I make look upon it. Second, it must be lit with the most beautiful of light, so that I might see it shining from the heavens. And third, it must contain all manner of offerings, testaments to our love, and what we have shared." The godly feline waggled his eyebrows down at the drifting panther, "Do you understand?"

Mark shook his head of the ringing from the gigantic tiger's voice, his world beginning to blur as his senses dimmed and faded. Though the instructions still baffled him, he called up to the smile still occupying his vision, "Y-yes! I-I'll be ready, my love!" He watched as Pub beamed down upon him with just a hint of smugness, his final words echoing in his head as he fell from his dreams. "Then go forth and prepare for tonight, my mate...and make ready by seven!"

7:01.

Mark leaped from the bed, his sheets billowing off his skinny frame as he burst from his slumber, slapping his alarm clock in a preemptive strike towards its vapid buzzing. He kicked his blankets aside and stumbled into the bathroom down the hall, belatedly thankful no one was awake to see his manhood at attention and his fuzzy sack swaying in the morning draft. He didn't dare skip his hygiene, of course; though his deadline lay before him in less than half a day, looking anything less than his best would have been an affront to Publius.

With firm hands he lathered all manner of shampoos and conditioners into his dark fur, slathering his whole body in sweet-smelling cleansing suds that would send his coat to new heights of lushness and sheen, leaving it soft to the touch once it had dried. A few minutes' tousling with a towel and a poof of fuzz later and he was tending to his fangs, scrubbing each and every last inch of himself brilliantly clean, pausing only to trim odd ends of headfur that threatened to launch themselves out of place. He didn't know precisely what Pub had meant

He stumbled back into his bedroom, yanking on a pair of jeans and an old T-shirt. His nicest set of clothes, a suit he kept in pristine condition in the back of his closet, would come out later, only when the time was right. While he braced himself against his bookshelf of old sci-fi novels, his eyes were drawn around his childhood room, a piece of his life that had survived before and during Publius' presence. It was a disheartening fact that he still lived in his mother's apartment, on the tenth floor of a sprawling complex whose only claim to fame was a decent view of the cityscape from his window.

Still, he managed to find a moment to glance up at the tacky old film posters and the dusty bedside table he'd long since considered a portal to his lover. He glanced at the bed, the place he'd long regarded as a lottery for pleasant dreams, a place where nightmares were common and where blankness had been a sigh of relief. And then Pub had spoken to him, and for all the years since the nightmares and even the blankness of unconsciousness had ceased. What remains was nothing less than night after night of pure, unadulterated bliss, a delight to the senses and soul. And if Pub was granting him even a fraction of that joy during his waking hours, Mark would have brought Pub every last treasure he had. His head rushed with the thought of all the preparations that still awaited, and with a yank of his belt and a hop to his paws, he left the room behind.

He rushed down the hall, murmuring to himself his instructions feverishly, committing ever last word to memory as if they would be his last. He slipped past the kitchen table in a flash, giving his startled mother a simple "Hi Mom gotta go!" in greeting before his paw hit the door. The elder feline glanced up from her mug of French Vanilla-creamed coffee, her call halting her son long enough for him to savor the familiar scent, another small comfort of his waking hours.

"Mark? What're you leaving so early for? Your shift's not 'till nine! And what was all that murmuring about?" The faded old jaguar cocked her head as she drew her gaze up and down his frame, "Those aren't exactly slacks. I know that lab of yours keeps quite a dress code!"

Mark turned his gaze just enough to see the worry in her eyes, though he shrugged it off in the blink of an eye. He couldn't tell her, of course, not about the visions. But then again, as another guess in the back of his mind postulated, perhaps she would understand soon enough. "Relax, Mom, don't worry about it! Just gotta pick up some things, that's all." The young man waved away her concerns, tossing her a quick wave and a grin. The door creaked open and shut, and he was gone in a flutter of paws on carpet, leaving the middle-aged feline to merely shake her head, sip her coffee, and hope her son wasn't nearly as odd as he seemed.

9:45.

With fist clenched around his car keys, Mark slipped his way through the morning sidewalk traffic, forced into a crawl until a brief gap in the queues of furs allowed him to lurch up to a jog. It had been such foul luck, but the starter in his pride and joy had finally croaked, leaving him sputtering and slow when time was at a premium. He huffed once to clear the irritation from his lungs, taking a moment at the crosswalk while he was wedged between a stout elephant in a suit and a meek little mouse-woman. Publius was counting on him, and getting flustered wouldn't help anything. With a gentle sigh he ran slender fingers through his headfur, shaking his head to call up the first of his instructions:

"First, upon your dwelling, create an offering circle in my name, one that faces the skies, so that I make look upon it."

"An offering circle...that ought to be easy enough, right?" Mark had seen them enough times to gather the general idea, at least. They had been one of the first things Pub had shown off, back during their very first nights. The structure of one was simple enough, of course; the circle itself was carved upon the earth, large enough to hold the offerer and the offerings themselves. The real show, however, was inside those lines. The tiger god had shown him some of his favorite examples of offering patterns, brilliant interwoven paths and imagery that circled around each offer.

Mark bit his lip as he took another sharp left, slipping through the doorway of a quaint little art-supply store. He was no artist, and the only reason he even gave the corner shop more than a passing glance was for the lovely sets of model paints he would sometimes fumble with in his off hours, carefully adding mediocre paint jobs to starships and airplanes that always looked more beautiful in his mind's eye than they ever did in reality. This would be no model, though. This would require all his effort, all his thought, and the best supplies he could find.

The young panther slipped quietly into the shop, giving a quick wave and a nod to the fox behind the front counter before he disappeared between the shelves. His gaze darted through row upon row of paints, brushes, and pastels. But these couldn't help him; he needed something bigger, something grander! The offering circles Publius knew from his followers weren't even drawn, but carved into the earth, consisting of massive, great swaths pointed skywards towards the tiger god, great landscapes of art he had only been able to see in his dreams and in the few documented relics he'd tracked down in museums and on the internet. How foolish was it to even think what he could offer would be anything close to satisfactory? He could no more carve the concrete of his complex's roof than he could reshape a hill, or carve up a field. He could only manage a pathetic shadow of what his lover was even used to, a grim reminder of the deity's glory days.

With a volatile sigh of frustration he ground to a halt, bracing himself against a shelf of plastic model kits. Rubbing his temples he shook his head, folding his ears and catching a second gusty exhale before it leaped from his lungs. There had to be a way to make something memorable, something that would at least convey the effort he was putting in, even on such a sorely-limited timetable. He closed his eyes...and from the depths of his foggy memory, a brief snippet surfaced.

"Woah...this is an offering circle?" Mark peered down from Pub's vast palm, down past the clouds, eyes traveling over the small, winding rivers and canyons that decorated the pristine hill, encircling it from base to peak in swirling patterns, "It's beautiful! And huge!" He looked back up towards the god, cocking his head, "Jeez, how much of an offering did you need?" Publius merely chuffed, effortlessly floating above the surface of the world, admiring the work of art himself as he strode upon the wind. "As much as they desired to give me! Do not worry; I repayed them each time, though not always in the most obvious of ways." He winked, eliciting a chuckle from the puny panther as he turned his head back towards the earth. "It must have taken hundreds of people to make use of all that space, never mind working and maintaining that whole hill...what about the villages with smaller populations?" Publius grinned, snapping his fingers, and Mark nearly yelped as a massive stone tablet landed with a WHUMP right behind him. "Oh, the offering circle was never about size, little one! In the past even a single follower could construct their own...here, take a look!" Mark stumbled to his paws, stumbling over to the slab of stone which, though immensely heavy, was barely large than he across. His jaw dropped as his gaze fell upon an array of brilliant colors, ground and swirled into a series of fantastic gradients that curved inwards towards the very center, around a single blank circle of stone no larger than his own palm. "This was a personal favorite of mine." Publius lowered a massive fingertip just above the swirling, multicolored maelstrom, gesturing for his tiny, mortal mate. "Even with only the pigments of berries and plants this hunter rendered something lovely...as I recall he had survived one of the nastier cyclones from off the coast, and in gratitude he gave me a rather interesting take on the spectacle, along with a prized cut from his next kill." He chuckled and shook his head, "A rather colorful interpretation of a hurricane, but I rather like it!" "It's beautiful!" The panther lifted his slender fingers, ever-so-gently brushing them across the textured, multicolored surface, green eyes drinking in the rainbow hues. He paused, grinning back up to the tiger deity, "I guess being a deity had its perks, eh?" Pub chuffed a little more, glancing from the patterned earth to the smile of his boyfriend, returning it with a warm, tender one of his own. "It certainly did, little one. And it still does."

Mark's eyes fluttered open, and he lurched back to his paws, briskly navigating his way back through the maze of cramped shelves. It wasn't much, but it was just enough to go on. And, if he put in enough time, effort, and thought, maybe, just maybe, Pub would enjoy it, as he had that stone tablet from eons past. He made his way to the very back of the store, to an old, dusty aisle that probably hadn't seen a customer in weeks. He smiled gently as he eyed the spread of chalks, the sorts that folks used to grab in abundance during his childhood to cover the sidewalks in all manner of wonderful depictions. Grabbing the largest set he could find off the shelves, he made his way back to the front of the store, where the fox still waited at the counter.

"Hey there, Mark! Heh, you getting out of minis already?" Troy raised a bushy brow at the short feline, taking the set of chalk to scan it, "I thought you'd only gotten a few of your new ships painted?"

"Hey! Nah, nothing like that. Just getting these to make something for someone special." Mark smiled, barely catching himself from saying 'my mate'. Few folks were judgmental these days, but having a boyfriend that didn't exist on the physical plane probably wouldn't sit well with most people. Troy cocked his head, smirking.

"Oh yeah? Little sidewalk confession of love outside the lucky party's place? I dig it." He frowned when his eyes hit the clock, his auburn fur rippling in mild alarm. "Hey Mark, shouldn't you be at work? It's quarter-past-nine. Isn't your boss some kinda hardass?"

"What? Oh, n-no, it's fine!" Mark sputtered and fumbled before his eventual recovery, leaning against the counter to hide the nervous twitching in his tail. "Got the day off today. New experiment's not gonna be ready to start till tomorrow and all."

Troy paused for a moment at the register, brown eyes giving the slender little feline the once-over, like an artist scouring his work for defects. After a moment, however, the fox yielded, pushing the set of chalks back across the counter with a small smile, "All right then. Forty-three-oh-eight?"

Mark winced a little at the price, but he obliged and pulled forth his wallet, withdrawing the necessary bills. It was more than worth it, after all. The fox gently poured his change back into his waiting palms, and with a smile and a nod the panther gathered up his merchandise, briskly making his way back out onto the streets, "Thanks Troy! I'll catch ya soon!"

"Take care of yourself, Mark!" The fox called after him, just a drop of worry tinging his tone before the feline disappeared from his little shop. He sighed, glancing up at the clock and shaking his head, murmuring, "Hope the kid's not too wrapped up in it all...maybe I pushed too hard when I sold him on miniatures..."

11:59.

"Mark, what the hell? Where have you been? I haven't seen you at your bench all morning!"

The panther flinched visibly in the high-class grocery store, noticeably weirding out a brittle old badger woman in the aisle with him. As she skittered aside he shifted his phone to his shoulder, mashing it against his folded ear, his boss' voice tinny and crackling, sharp as a razor in his eardrum. His fur rippled in a flush as he fumbled for a few boxes of noodles, dumping them into the cart before him haphazardly as he stammered into the mouthpiece.

"I-I'm sorry, Chris! I-I meant to call in sick this morning, b-but I got sidetracked-"

"Sidetracked? With what? You're supposed to be home sick! I oughta write you off right now..."

"N-no! Please, Chris, I-I'm not asking for pay. I-I meant to call you, I swear! I'll work overtime this weekend to make up for it!" The panther's tone dipped into a plea, a tentative whimper at the back of his throat as his tail puffed out. If he wasn't careful, he'd lose his job, and what little security he had in his life, not to mention the only source of income keeping his apartment afloat. All because of a dream...

"I don't buy it, Mark! I've got a dozen kids waiting for this position behind you."

Mark swallowed as he hastily pushed his squeaking, stuffed-full shopping cart out of the aisle, past a husky woman dragging a babbling pup by his arm, trying to hold back the tears that were rushing for his eyes. "Chris, please, I'll do anything, just-"

"I don't wanna here it! Consider yourself fired." The call dropped, and the phone slipped from the panther's ear, returned to its owner's pocket in defeat. His fingers trembled as the plastic slipped from his pads, tiny strands of fur disintegrating from his coat as they tumbled to the supermarket floor. He closed his eyes, a silent whine within his throat as he wiped away the first wave of tears.

He'd fucked up. He'd fucked up badly. He'd just leaped out of bed, on the whim of some goddamned dream. He hadn't given a damn about work, his home, his life...and for what? For a bunch of ridiculous dreams, visions loosely strung together by mere figments of his imagination? He'd thrown away his best opportunity he'd ever had for a childish fantasy!

The feline tightened his grip on the cart, shoving a hard swallow back down his throat as he wiped at the flow of his cheeks. Fighting the urge to kick himself, he stumbled out of the flow of shoppers, the small crowd oblivious to the sorrowful knife shoved into the panther's heart. With shaky breaths he leaned against his load of groceries, his legs quivering as guilt and distress swirled about his brain like a rampaging cyclone, taunting him with desolate, despairing futures. But as the storm raged on, his thoughts were torn from nightmarish scenarios, tumbling farther back than that morning, back weeks and months, into one of the dreams that had captivated him so fully...

"Now this is a proper meal, little one!"

As the warm winds wafted into his nostrils from below, Mark nearly swooned as a wave of exotic, electric delight flowed from his nostrils, all the way down to his toes. Clinging to a titanic thumb, the panther's gaze swept over a mighty grass circle, lined with all manner of colorful, incense-laden lamps and candles. And within its several-meter confines, hills of food rose and fell, covering the land in dishes and treats of all kinds. Great pastries loaded with sweet, sugary fruits rose towards clear blue skies, leading further into fields of meats drenched in tasty sauces, fruits and vegetables fresh off the plant, and great jugs of cream and milk fit for ten grown felines, to say nothing of the barrels of wine and beer beyond, brewed and fermented to perfection. More food than he could have eaten in years stretched up for him, and the black-furred cat was rendered speechless, save for a single sentence:

"Pub, this is incredible...you used to get offered all this?"

The titanic tiger's palm rocked and bobbed gently with the deafening chuckle that erupted behind him. Mark's neck was forced back into an impressive bend to stare up at the mountain of orange and black fluff towering above it all, his form lowering towards the earth as distant, enormous joints creaked and groaned the impossible bulk into a crouch. The gigantic God boomed forth as his thighs quaked and jiggled around their anchor of muscle, his gleaming smile ever-present where the harsh burn of a midday sun might have been.

"Oh, not usually, and certainly not this fresh!" Publius' guffaws were nearly drowned out by the earth-shattering BOOM of the tiger's wide, plump rear against the surrounding earth, the landscape surrounding the massive mounds of food filled with the stout feline God's thighs as they rippled and towered high like great walls. The palm Mark clung to dropped just below the towering piles, between the tiger's enormous, flaccid length that tumbled forth like a mountain path down from his belly to the earth and the offering circle just beyond the resting place of his massive, bulbous head. "But then again, I figured my love deserved an appropriately-sized offering of his own...go on, eat, little one!" Up above, Pub's golden gaze winked down on him, his warmth radiating down onto the panther as he hopped down, Mark's little giggles barely rising above the rumbling purr that rolled down from his throat like an avalanche.

"I love you, so damn much, Pub...this really is so sweet of you!" A contented sigh left the mortal as he took a seat in the grasp, inhaling the sweet, gentle musk that cascaded down from the tiger's softened, titanic penis. Reaching into the pile, he pulled forth a single roll, biting in with gusto. He moaned when the sweet, fresh raspberry jelly burst onto his tongue from its glazed, sweetened shell, and with delight he took a second bite, and then a third, before finally popping the last bite of roll into his jaws, purring softly in pure delight. Overhead, the mirth of Publius was not lost upon him, thundering low as a shadow was draped over the entire area.

"Having your dessert first, I see? Such a novel concept...I think I'd enjoy that, myself!"

From above, massive fingers reached down, digging deep into the mound of pastries, hauling them into the air like a crane. Mark's jaw dropped as Publius' thick, lush lips parted wide, a mighty pink tongue rolling forth like a mighty platform. Drool and pastries rained down around the panther in mighty drops, splashing all around. With a thunderous SCHLURP, the tiger's tongue carried its jellied treasures back into that cavernous maw, and Mark was forced into delighted giggles as Publius' handsome visage shifted into delighted grins, moans erupting from his furry throat. With a final, rhythmic GL-LK, a great lump traveled downwards, deep into the tiger's stomach.

The giant was silent for a moment, save for the gurgling within his pudgy stomach, his smile plastered onto his muzzle. His lips parted, and a deep, bassy belch exploded into the atmosphere, rippling and nigh-deafening in the mortal panther's ears. A giggle followed in the wake of the mighty eructation from both tiny mortal and monstrous God, and with a warm smile one of those mighty fingerpads stretched back down, gently gliding over the top of Mark's head.

"Ahhh...such a wondrous treat...let this be a lesson to you, my little one. The best way to the heart - or, at least, this deity's heart! - is through his stomach!" A thunderclap erupted as his other hand slapped his mighty, rotund gut, and Pub added, winking and letting his fingertip rub down the mortal's slender, delicate frame, gently letting Mark's back arch against his supportive grasp.

"I love you, my little Mark...I love your company, your laughter, your joy...and though this is only a dream," He added, waving his arm overhead at the mighty, wondrously-scented array of food, "know that I will sustain you through anything." He smiled, just a hint of sorrow mixed with his gentle warmth. "I haven't felt this loved since the days when I still had followers,back before they lost their faith, discarded their visions...and know that your trust in me will see you through anything...

Mark's eyes opened again, his lips twitching into a smile. Wiping at the last of the tears trickling from his green eyes, the panther let out a gentle, soothing sigh. Everything would be all right. Pub had given his word, and dreams or no, against everything else screaming otherwise, he had faith. He would be fine, and to hell with everything else. The apartment would work itself out, his life would work itself out. And so, he turned his cart full of meats and desserts and ingredients towards the checkout lines, smiling as he swiped away the last of his credit line, ignoring the total confusion of the cashier as she rang up a dozen colored candles, thighs of chicken and racks of ribs, and several full-sized cakes before making his way home, hauling his offerings all the way back to his apartment complex.

6:57.

It was all there. He'd set it all up perfectly, down to the last cut of meat and the last line of chalk. The pile was pitifully small compared to what Publius was used to, a dim, puny flickering amid the bright sunset on the horizon and the lights of the cityscape as they cascaded on, block by block in a dazzling array.

The circle itself he'd spent two hours on, etching in the great disc before carving in each defined segment of the offering, isolating every fraction in a series of paths that branched forth towards the center in a vague, winding spiral. Mark wasn't an artist, not by a long shot, but even his limited ability found itself sprawled across the concrete rooftop.

A deep basalt formed the main ring and the central dividing lines, as opaque and full as the shade of his fur. In between each piece of the rounded construct he piled his prizes: the candles encircling the outside within their own tiny corrals, ringing around the massive towers of food. Each mound of the edible mini-landscape was divided between each type of cake and meat, from oven-roasted chicken to red-velvet, stacked towards the centerpiece layer-cake that towered nearly three feet off the platter that served as its foundation.

The panther exhaled in a huff as he stood back, legs quivering slightly as he examined his handiwork against the reddening skies, a weary, small smile upon his lips. His mother had already retired to her room earlier in the afternoon, having thrown up her paws in exasperation at her son's bizarre behavior. She must have thought him out of his mind as he cooked and drew and dashed from the apartment to the rooftop and back again. And if he'd been her, he'd have said she was right. What he'd done since that morning had been insane, absurd...and completely, totally worth it. If there was a chance, even a glimmer of bringing the perfection he held in his sleep into reality, he would be a fool not to take it. His job, his money, his life, none of it mattered next to Publius. He was his perfect match, his only match. Compared to the chubby, world-dominating deity of a feline, nothing else mattered.

And if he was right, none of it would ever matter.

His fingers, worn and sore from his work, reached down to clasp his watch. 6:59. The scratched steel encircling the glassy timepiece glinted back up at his viridian gaze. The second hand began to leap past each marking, hopping them as the panther might've hopped over a fence. Within his willowy breast his heart began to thump, throttling forth into a pounding rhythm as his eyes fervently rose back towards the skyline. The distant, blazing sphere of the sun dwindled past the skyscrapers lining the street, down towards the traffic still raising its clamor, falling softly to the horizon. The feline stumbled towards the rooftop's edge, limbs trembling as they amplified each tick of his wristwatch a hundredfold, a gasp caught in his throat as the sun met the earth. His watch quietly announced the time.

7:00.

For a moment, the world was silent; the blaring traffic and the pound rush of blood in his veins ceased to exist, replaced only by the blinding light of the sun that burst past the skyscrapers. The sun laid upon the earth, and Mark was left with a breath still burning in his lungs, his chest beginning to tremble. His eyes watered under the blazing glare of the sunset, staring behind an unbroken squint that threatened to collapse with every slight twitch and itch that wracked the poor, spent feline's face. Yet still, the seconds filling seven o'clock did not yield, ticking forwards past the black-furred, hopeful bystander. They did not care for the tumble of his lips from what had been a hopeful smile, nor for the tears that had begun to assemble even as the remaining seconds quietly dispersed from their minute as riders might an evening train.

Then, as his gaze grew watery, and his eyelids fell upon themselves, Mark was rocked by a great tremor. BOOM!

He yelped and fell to his knees, fingers scrabbling as the concrete rooftop beneath him swayed unsteadily, rocking side to side as if it might topple over. His blurry-eyed vision fell to the quaking ground, his ears folding as the whole area below erupted in a cacophony of surprised shrieks and frantic honks and crashes. As quickly as it began, the tremor then vanished, leaving the panther gasping wordlessly for breath, eyes shut fearfully, anticipating what would still be a monstrous aftershock. The very air shook as the next thunderous rumble sounded, though the ground merely vibrated, rattling the apartment complex to the core as a near-deafening sound hit the trembling feline's ears. It took a moment for his mind to make sense of the rhythmic, deepened chuffs echoing over the rooftops, but Mark's head lurched back skywards immediately upon recognition. His green eyes widened, his fanged jaw hit the ground, and what air remained in his lungs left without a sound as he stared up, up, up at a gargantuan wall of orange and black, fleshy and furry and rocking along with the mirthful thunder high above.

It was Publius, in the flesh. He stood twenty stories high, easily twice the height of the building the baffled little panther stood upon, and nearly twice as wide. With his chest pounding under the battering ram of his fluttering heart, Mark trembled beneath that familiar visage, amplified a thousand fold as the clarity of reality sharpened his lover for the first time. With each gasping inhale he could smell the sweet-spice scent of feline masculinity, quivering in wordless awe as a smell he'd only dreamed of filled his lungs. His wide-eyed gaze drank in every soft, vibrant strand of fur, every inch of the mountainous belly and chest that still rippled like an ocean in the wake of the deity's laughter. Somewhere behind that monstrous frame, a fuzzy tail curled for the denizens trapped in their homes in the building across the street, idly flickering left and right mere feet from their terrified faces. All of that, however, paled in comparison to the grinning, ivory-fanged visage high above, casting him in shadow as a thick, lush set of lips curled upwards, letting loose another thunderous barrage upon his tiny form.

"Right on time, little one...and well-prepared, I see!"

Mark's jaw lurched in an attempt at speech, but all that emerged from his quivering lips was a whimpering stammer as the wind from Publius' warm breath ruffled his fur in the wake of those mighty words, "O-Oh God...y-you're here...y-you're actually here-" The panther choked on a cross between a whimper and a laugh, blinking rapidly as tears surged ahead in his eyes.

Somehow, dozens of feet in the air, Publius' ears flicked once, and his golden eyes fell into warm almonds. He spoke, and again, the air was filled with a voice warmer and deeper and richer than any sound Mark had ever known, those soft lips upon that massive muzzle booming words he'd only been able to savor in his mind.

"It's all right, Mark...I'm here." From behind, a great, thick shape brushed against the black-furred mortal, the tiger's fingertip gently rising and falling upon his back. Publius' chuckle rattled windows for blocks around when Mark flinched at the touch, his tiny, slender hands lurching back against a pad nearly as wide as his torso. "Ha, easy little one! Come now...honestly, it's as if you thought I wouldn't come!" The striped, gargantuan feline winked downwards, his furry frame rippling as he began to crouch, his throat rumbling with a mighty purr. The audible ripples of body fat and the creak of bones far larger than nature ever intended echoed into the streets far below, where Mark could only imagine the chaos erupting around the wide, heavy paws he'd come to know.

"I-I did! I-It's just...I-I mean it's...it's impossible..." The little male clutched at the fingerpad behind him, every sink of his fingers into the soft, warm flesh, savoring every new millisecond of contact. He could feel the blood rushing beneath the thick surface, sense the distant pulsations of the gigantic heart high above. It was real. He was real. And it had all been worth it.

"Not anymore, love." Publius' coo reverberated through his entire body. The finger he'd been bracing himself against curled about his torso, another pair of the thick, titanic digits coming from behind to gently encase him in a firm fist. Mark's heart fluttered into the air, his body hauled with it, high above the rooftops, past tens of feet of rounded, towering tiger, past stories of brilliant orange and layers of blackened stripes, until he hung before the tiger's massive grin.

Hundreds of feet in the air, with the shattered streets and thousands of onlookers below, the puny feline could only giggle amid the waves of hot breath that ebbed and flowed from the tiger's jaws, whooping with delight when the fingers cradling his slender frame released him, sending him into a roll upon the thick, wide palm of the titan. Publius' chuckles gently bounced the panther onto his back, leaving the blissfully-giggling young man staring up past his lover's muzzle, into the golden eyes that shone in the light of the setting sun.

"Look at you...in the flesh, just as adorable as you've always been to me..." The titanic feline's gaze slid down those gentle curves, his smile turning to a grin of bemusement, lips curling upon his fangs, "Though a tad too modest! I must fix that, Mark." That muzzle leaned low, the god's hot breath coating the trembling, awestruck little male. Mark felt something snag his jeans, and with a yelp, the garment left his lower half, exposing smooth, curved thighs to the open winds, a snug and bulging pair of briefs the only defense to his decency. The titanic tiger eyed these, and with a thunderous growl, the behemoth boomed upon him, blue jeans dangling from his fangs, "Remove those, little one, unless you'd like me to use my teeth on them too?"

Mark's little hands flew to his waistband, tearing the underwear from his frame, the slap of a sizable erection gently rippling his small belly. Claws ripped at his shirt, splitting it upon his heaving, gasping chest, his breaths deep and rapid as Publius' exhales ruffled his dark fur. He shivered in pure delight as the vast muzzle again descended, thick lips parting and puckering. The moment they landed he gasped and mewled, thrusting involuntarily upwards as his legs were smothered in soft, wet warmth, his member swallowed up in the gentlest of sucklings, pumping and slathering his length in warm saliva, each droplet of precum coaxed from his tip vanishing into the pitch-black ocean.

The mighty tiger god chuckled around the little shaft. "I thought this might break you from your stupor, little one...now show me your devotion..." He rumbled, a thick, rippling purr rattling the very air as his lips opened wide, "Let me taste your delight, your love...and let me reward you for your dedication to me..."

Mark's breathless gasps turned to long, passionate roars, his ears flat against his skull as he writhed mercilessly beneath the jaws of the titan. From those lush lips, a wide, flat wall of pink fell down upon him, blanketing him in the thick, drooling flesh. The titanic feline tongue lapped up his groin, massaging his member beneath an endless tidal wave of warm, wet flesh. The mighty mass slurped his soft-furred belly, curling upwards only after it had wet his slim chest. Floods of sensation synchronized with the waves of saliva and flesh, sending the young feline into spasms beneath the heavy smothering. Sparks of delight arced through excited nerves as his shaft throbbed and engorged, filling the pucker of the grand tiger's lips as it was drained of precum, his balls churning tirelessly within his fuzzy sack as they eagerly replaced the lost fluids with the load to cum.

"Mmm...just as sweet a treat as I predicted, love..." Publius swallowed once, his panther's tiny gasps lost as his throat audibly lurched and expanded with a sloshing GL-LK! "But it's not enough...I need a real morsel." The suckling swelled upon his shaft as the tiger leaned downwards, smooshing the tiny feline into his vast, soft palm. Mark wordlessly meowed and roared in reply, his tiny thighs pumping with every last ounce of strength as he pounded back against those lush, massive lips. Then, with a final cry that rose above the forgotten din and shouts so far below, he thrust forth, and the tiger's sea of tongue was splashed with a spattering of white, strings of hot, sticky feline seed arcing and falling like cannonfire before the panther finally collapsed, gasping and mewling in the titan's palm, heart still aflutter.

Publius rose, lips smacking twice as he savored the tiny treat, a low moan of approval exiting his throat before a second GL-LK! sent the puny load down into the plump belly below. "Mmm...I've been waiting so long for the real thing...a perfect taste, little one..." He beamed down upon his spent little feline, raising a single fingertip to rub the puny panther's chest, "I trust reality exceeded your expectations as well, love?"

Mark, still heaving and limp in his afterglow, laughed and sighed in the same ragging breath, nodding his little head as his vision was filled with naught but Publius' grin in the setting sunlight, "Th-that was wonderful...better than any dream..." He reached up to weakly hug the massive fingertip, giggling up at the titan as the rest of the world began to filter back in through his senses, vaguely aware of the chaos still reigning at the tiger's feet, "But what'll you do now, big guy? You're stuck in my world, now."

Publius chuffed and rippled with laughter, smirking as he reached back down to the rooftop, scooping up what lay in the offering circle in a single, massive handful, "I'll go about making it ours soon enough, Mark. But," He added with a wink, turning on a single paw, crowds below shrieking and scattering as his other foot rose high above the streets, smashing into the empty space as the god lurched into motion, "that can wait until later. You've made me a lovely offering, little one...and your reward has only just begun."