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It was the beginning of another evening at home, and Dave was resting beside his owner's lap. The small Papillon dog had been looking forward to seeing his human all day, and he was happy that they were finally together again. Dave always loved it when they spent time together, whether it was playing together, going for walks, or simply resting at the end of a long day like today. Mostly, though, he just liked having his owner pay attention to him. Ever since he was a puppy, Dave had always strived to be the center of attention around both his siblings and the humans who took care of him. And he was no different around his owner, often barking and demanding attention when he felt starved for affection. Even now, despite the attention he was getting, he knew he would have preferred something a bit more... invigorating. Something like going for a run or playing in the yard, rather than simply sitting there and getting pet. Still, it was good enough for now. There would be plenty of time for those things later, after all.

Of course, Dave wasn't completely alone when his human left. Lifting his head slightly, Dave got a good look at the one sitting on the other side of his owner's lap: Opal the Siamese cat. She was curled up into a ball, purring as the human ran his other hand across her fur. Even since Opal had been adopted into the house, Dave had gotten to know her quite a bit while the human was away. She was friendly enough, albeit a bit vain, and she seemed to love having the human's attention almost more than Dave did. She would often approach the human, meowing at him and rubbing against his legs in hopes that he would stop whatever he was doing to pet her. And when she wasn't doing that, she had a tendency to strut around the apartment stretching and showing off her lean feline physique. Dave found this annoying for the most part, but their mutual personalities and interest in attention had eventually led to sort of a friendly rivalry between them. They often found themselves competing to see who could score the most attention in a given day, whether from the human or any of the guests he happened to have in his apartment.

"Alright, you two," said the human, getting up from his seat. "I need to go into the kitchen for a little bit to make some dinner for myself. You stay here and behave yourselves, okay?" With that, the human got up and disappeared into the kitchen, leaving the two pets alone in the family room.

As soon as the human was gone, Opal immediately jumped down from the couch and began to stretch. "Mrowrrrr..." she said, happily purring to herself as she dug her claws into the carpet and arched her back.

Dave looked down at her with a disapproving glare. "Grrrrroff," he said.

Opal looked back at him, tilting her head. "Mrow?" she said, slightly confused.

"Growrrrrr a shorrrrr off." Dave frowned, then shook his head. "I said you're a show off, Opal."

"Mrroh? Me, a show off?" Opal stared up at him with an oddly human-like grin. "Can I help it if my body is this gorgeous?" She gave another stretch, holding her front legs out in front of her. "And so flexible, too! I'll bet I could do things with myself that you could only dream of!"

"Oh really?" Dave hopped down off the couch, which now appeared to be a good deal shorter than it was before. Though it was once much larger than either of the two animals, it now appeared to about eye-level with them, and still getting smaller. In fact, the entire room seemed to be shrinking, everything in it becoming closer to the pets in size. Yet neither of them noticed, seemingly too focused on their conversation to pay any mind. "And what sort of things would those be?" asked Dave, returning Opal's grin. "I'm very interested in finding out."

"Well..." As Opal continued digging her front claws into the carpet, her legs suddenly began to alter themselves. The joints in her front legs shifted and changed position, giving them more flexibility and allowing them to move more freely from the rest of her body. Her hind legs also began shifting, becoming strong enough to support the rest of her body completely. Yet she noticed none of this, lost in thought about the best way to show off to the Papillon in front of her. "I could do a backflip!" she finally said with a smirk. "Would you be impressed by that?"

Dave chuckled. "I most certainly would be," he said. His own body was starting to become slightly slimmer, bones shrinking and rearranging themselves as his proportions began to alter slightly. "You really think you can pull it off?"

"You have such little faith in me," said Opal with a sigh. "Watch!" She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and launched herself into the air. Dave's eyes widened as her body rotated, her head almost touching the ground before spinning around to the top again. It happened in the blink of an eye, but it was almost like it was happening in slow motion to Dave. As Opal spun around, her torso began reforming itself much like Dave's had. Her body righted itself and she landed upright on her back paws, which now appeared much shorter than before. She quickly adjusted to this new position, her heels touching the ground as her feet shifted to a plantigrade stance. "Ta-da!" she said with a chuckle. "Impressed?"

Dave just stared for a moment. "...Actually, I am," he said. "That was really impressive!" Now all four of his legs were starting to shift as well to match Opal's, his front paws leaving the ground as his body lifted into an upright position. Slowly, he lifted himself up onto his back paws, which had grown shorter and more stable to support him. His stance had also changed to plantigrade, just as Opal's had. "Of course, it doesn't change what I said about you earlier," he added, seemingly oblivious to the changes both he and Opal were going through. "You're still quite the attention hog, you know."

Opal shook her head as it repositioned itself upon her neck, allowing her to look forward more easily. "Oh, you're one to talk," she said with a huff. "Don't act like you're any different. You've always craved attention from everyone around you."

Dave frowned, the joints in his shoulders and forelegs rearranging themselves to allow for more motion range. "Maybe, but at least I don't flaunt myself constantly like you do," he said, stretching his new arms above his head. "I'd like to think I'm a bit more subtle about that sort of thing, you know."

Opal laughed, her shoulders adjusting in the same way. "Well, I'd think you'd have to be," she said. "Your job isn't exactly a 'show-off' type of job, if you know what I mean." She waved her front paws in the air as she spoke, which were starting to go through some changes of their own. The digits were separating from each other and lengthening, growing out into thick paw-esque fingers. Her dew claws were starting to grow out as well, forming into thumbs. Within seconds, both her front paws had reformed into hands, though they still retained some paw-like qualities to them.

"Well, that's true," said Dave, his own front paws going through the same changes. "But at least It still gets me plenty of attention. And anyway, I've always enjoyed working with kids." As he spoke, a set of clothes began materializing on his now anthropomorphized body, consisting of a plaid button-down shirt and a pair of blue jeans. He grinned, running his hand-paws down his new shirt to smooth it out. "And hey, they enjoy working with me too, so that's a bonus."

"Okay, fine," said Opal, rolling her eyes. "So you've got the attention of the kids, but what about the general public? I'd think in terms of that, I've definitely got the longer end of the stick." Clothing was starting to form upon Opal's body as well now, this time simply consisting of black t-shirt and a pair of shorts. "I mean, an athlete is bound to get a lot more attention from people in general than a freaking kindergarten teacher."

"An athlete, maybe," replied Dave. "But a gymnast? That's not exactly the most popular sport in the world. Besides, you're still in training, aren't you? It's not like you're getting any kind of attention from anyone at the moment." With a smile, he sat back down on the couch, which by this point had shrunk down enough to allow him to do so. In fact, the entire room was now small to the point of appearing the same size to Dave and Opal as it had to their human just a few minutes earlier. "Meanwhile, I'm getting plenty of attention from everyone involved in my job. The kids, their parents... hell, the school board's even considering giving me an award because of how well I work with my students! How's that for being well-liked?"

Opal growled, her tail swishing back and forth. Dave had clearly struck a nerve with her. "Well... that's only temporary!" she said. "Yeah, gymnastics may not be that popular, and yeah, I may still be in training, but do you know what I have? I have potential! I have star potential, that's what! If I get really good, I can start competing and winning competitions, and then I'll be bringing home awards myself. And if I continue out-performing everyone around me, I could go all the way to the Olympics! And then I'll have the attention of the entire world on me! Can you say that about your stupid teaching job?"

"Okay, okay, calm down! I was just teasing you." With a sigh, Dave got up off the couch and walked over to his roommate, giving her a playful scratch behind the ears. "To be honest, I would love to see you in the olympics if you ever got to that level. I think that would be really cool!"

Opal's expression softened. "Really?" she said. "You wouldn't be... I don't know, jealous? Overwhelmed by your own competitiveness?"

"Hey, you're one to talk," said Dave, giving another chuckle. "And yeah, I'd be really happy if you made it! If for no other reason than being able to watch the event with my buddies and saying to them 'Hey, see that Siamese doing the gymnastics routine? I used to room with her!'" He laughed, running a paw through his head fur. "I just think that would be cool, you know?"

"Of course you would," sighed Opal, crossing her arms. "That's the Dave I know. Always looking to get ahead of everyone around him."

"Okay, but in all seriousness, I actually do think that what you're doing is really cool," said Dave with a smile. "I mean, I've seen people do gymnastics on TV before, and I know I could never pull off that kind of stuff. The fact that you're able to do even a fraction of that kind of stuff is pretty impressive to me."

"Well, being an animal known for its agility does kinda help," said Opal, shrugging. "But to be honest, I kinda feel the same way about your thing too. I mean, you're about to get an award for being good at working with kids! If I had to work with those little brats for as long as you do, I think my head would explode."

Dave nodded, giving his ear a flick. "Well, I've always been good with kids," he said. "Just like you've always been super agile and in tune with your body. And we've both always been good at drawing attention to ourselves, apparently. We just have different ways of doing it, I guess."

"Well, that's true," said Opal. "But we'll still never stop competing with each other about it, will we?"

"Never," said Dave, playfully wagging his tail. "And that's just the way I like it. Now, what do you say we both head over to the kitchen and have dinner? I think there should be some food in the fridge we can heat up."

"Sounds like a plan," said Opal, smiling. "Lead the way, puppy!"

With one final chuckle, Dave made his way over to the kitchen with Opal following closely behind him. By the time they got there, the kitchen had changed as well: their human owner had disappeared completely, and the room had shrunk to the same size as the sitting room now was, and by extension the rest of the apartment. Not that either of them noticed, of course: as far as they were concerned, things had always been this way. It was just Dave the Papillon kindergarten teacher and Opal, his gymnastics-loving Siamese roommate. Yet their friendly rivalry and mutual desire for attention lived on. Dave couldn't speak for Opal of course, but spending the day interacting with and getting attention from the kids in his class made him feel like he'd found the perfect invigorating job for himself. And despite his rivalry with Opal, he knew deep down that he wanted her to feel the same way. Even if she never made it all the way to the Olympics, he could only hope that she felt similarly invigorated and happy doing what she loved. That was all either of them could hope for, really.