Who We Were; Who We Are – Chapter 2

One thing that is probably obvious to those who’ve read more than one of my stories is that I thoroughly enjoy when characters enjoy themselves or at least have thoughts and opinions on their circumstances. While we are all subject to various outside factors, I try to be an agent in my own life or at least an active participant. Likewise, I seek to reflect this in writing.

Characters who want, characters who act, and characters who talk are some of my favorite characters. They don’t need to develop in my opinion, as static but exciting characters can tell a fine story, but if they take an active role in their story that’s my ideal.

Someone with a more concise style could probably have unveiled this chapter with a quarter less of the words, but, and this might came as a surprise to some, I’m often indulgent when writing. I’ve already cut out a fair amount of unnecessary fluff here. That said, this was fun to write from start to finish.

In this, we get a couple more glimpses into their relationship, along with a healthy heaping of domination.

You don’t necessarily need to read the first chapter, as I tried to make this one as standalone as possible for the enjoyment of those who pursue erotic Size fiction for, well, the erotica.

Previous Chapter ||||| Next Chapter — In Progress

General Story Warnings: giant couple, NSFW, MF/f, MF/m, MF/mf, growth, shrink, cruel, insertion, oral sex, humiliation, domination, noncon, clothes ripping, sexist slurs, former bullying and harassment, language, alcohol use, pain, established relationship.

Chapter Specific Warnings: shrunken woman, domination, language, MF/f, humiliation, insertion, penis, mouthplay, minigiant, oral sex, some pain

Estimated Reading Time: 20 minutes


The library was almost pitch dark. Natural moonlight filtered through wide windows ad provided the only illumination, but cast the room in eerie shadows. Bookcases, cubicles, and tables with ancient computers decorated the layout, interspersed with racks of faded magazines. A large round table was tucked away behind a semicircular bookcase with bowing shelves loaded with knowledge. It reminded Hazel of a hidden glade, sequestered away even from the solitude of the rest of the library.

Maya navigated and led him there without second-guessing her footsteps, and he guessed this was a favorite spot of hers. She stretched her arms out to both sides upon reaching the table and let out a satisfied sighed, as if more relieved to be here with the weight of memories around to keep her safe. She walked over shelf, examining the laminated spines of various books.

He almost asked her why there specifically, when his foot—sluggish and crammed into a suede Oxford shoe more befitting a man than the behemoth he was—jammed into a wheeling cart stacked with a tower of books. Hazel grunted and bit back a curse, bracing himself against the bookcase while Chloe struggled in his other palm.

“Let me go!” Chloe yelled. Maya had handed her off to him so she could pick the lock to the library. “Let me go, you fucker! You can’t do this to me!”

Hazel dangled her by a foot, upturning her. Chloe shrieked at the sudden swaying movement, but didn’t relent in her verbal assault. “She’s loud,” he said, scrutinizing her. Her face was blotchy with makeup and exertion. On a whim, he puffed air onto her, eliciting a fresh round of screaming as she clutched her ears. “Not very smart either.”

She started, “Fuck you, you overgrown—”

Hazel switched hands and pressed her down with his thumb. All she could do was let out a weak gasp as his finger passed over her face, her chest, and parted her legs without resistance. He let his thumb rest there, enjoying her whine. “She’s fun to play with though, even if she’s mouthy.”

Even with their difference in size, the warmth in Chloe’s body’s exuded through her skin to his like a tactile signal flare. Her miniature whimper was crystal in the low whiskey silence of the library, and he just knew she was horrified and wretched at being so easily manhandled.

“Yeah, she’s always been like that.” Maya stopped her inspection of the books and turned to him. “Always with an opinion. Always sharing that opinion. Always running to her daddy if something didn’t go her way.”

Shared history there, but he didn’t press. “Sounds like a lot,” he said instead.

“She is.” Maya nodded. She stuck her hand out to him, expectant. “Now hand her over. We’re going to have a long overdue conversation.”

Considering library sex was on the bucket list she mentioned earlier, he doubted it.

“Ruin my fun, will you?” Hazel said, but complied anyway. Chloe tumbled from his hand into Maya’s open palm. She looked dazed and exhausted, and it took her a few seconds to rise.

“Don’t worry, there’ll be more fun for you.” Maya blew him a kiss and then closed her fingers around Chloe, leaving just her head exposed. “Heya, girlfriend,” she said, sounding far too cheerful to be anything but trouble.

Chloe wheezed, her chest too compressed to speak words.

“God, how long has it been? Ten years, right? Ever think you’d see me again?” Maya said. She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, and continued, “What was it you said, ‘everyone gets what they deserve’?” She shook her fist, drawing a nonsensical gasp from the shrunken woman. “Well, Chlo, think you deserve this?”

Hazel pulled a chair out for himself a couple seats down and draped his blazer along the back of another. He’d heard several ominous tears along the seams of his outfit and he needed to burn off some size before he outgrew their little nook, if not the library wing itself. Without prompt, he unzipped his pants and released the absurd pressure in his crotch.

At his sigh of relief, Maya’s glanced at him, eyes widening as she took in his magnified appearance. One cheshire grin and a wink later and before Hazel knew it she stood before him, glowing in the moonlight. Her chest rose and fell with a heavy pause between each electric breath while she looked him up and down. She brought Chloe up to her face and let loose a throaty laugh. “Well? Everyone get’s what’s coming to them, right?” she said.

Chloe was helpless to reply. Even when Maya loosened her hold and let the woman scrabble on, over, and under her fingers like a spider, it looked like it took everything she had just to hold on without falling.

Hazel tracked the way Maya’s eyes followed the tiny woman, never wavering as Chloe slid, clung to, and grappled with fingers the size of tree logs. It was less what she deserved, he mused, and more what he and Maya wanted. He had no quarrel with anyone at the reunion short of the assholes who’d singled her out earlier, and even then, it wasn’t his call. Maya needed this, despite her earlier assurances of wanting a night to just ‘show him off’.

He let out a pleased hum as he extricated his cock from the confines of his boxers and slid his pants down, watching his wife dominate her old acquaintance. A low drone lilted in his ears, telling him to grow, to shrink, to take, to give, but he focused on Maya instead. He centered her in his mind, focused on her presence and slowly wrestled his volatile power and growth to a stall. He even reversed some of it. His shirt, stretched taut across his chest and belly, loosened its stranglehold and he released the tension building in his body. Sore muscles grumbled their discontent, but at least claustrophobia stopped clawing at his extremities. Just to be on the safe side, he unbuttoned his shirt, exposing a gray undershirt damp with sweat.

After shrinking back to a higher-than-average NBA player’s height, he was still level with Maya while sitting down. His brain was even happier to remind him of just how much smaller Chloe was.

Hazel closed his eyes and remembered Paris, when he and Maya spent their honeymoon week with a young couple in their grasp: Julius and Jean, tucked into recesses and bouncing between the size of gnats to action figures, had been far more enthused about the arrangements than Chloe. They even had an open invitation to come visit whenever they wanted, provided they didn’t mind experimenting with the opposite end of things. When he opened his eyes, Maya was tossing Chloe up and down like a toy. “Having fun?” he said.

“Something like that,” she replied. Her lips turned up with curious glee.

The little blonde’s dress had torn in the meantime, a single strap of cloth trailing in the air like a gilded streamer. Suddenly, Maya pinched the end of it and began dangling Chloe out over one hand like a yo-yo. Incoherent squeaks and obscenities echoed through the air, and Maya stopped. She brought the shrunken woman to her ear, paused, and snorted with derision.

Without further ado, Maya grabbed Hazel’s erect dick with the hand holding Chloe, earning a harsh gasp from him. Like a hungry beast, his power prowled at the edge of his attention, wanting more. Grow, shrink, give, take. Power like his was less servant and more belligerent copilot, and he wasn’t in the habit of giving in to anything except Maya, who pushed and challenged him with every word.

“Speaking of fun, someone’s enjoying himself.” Maya formed a ring with her thumb and index fingers, and started stroking him, sweet, sensual, and slow. “Was this your plan all along?”

He kissed her, before biting her lower lip and earning a sharp inhale from her. He let her go. A tempting pink tinged Maya’s cheeks. “Can’t say it didn’t cross my mind,” he murmured.

“Terrible influence,” she said, quoting him earlier. Her breath steamed against his face, and Hazel shivered at her dulcet tone. “Yeah, that sounds about right. Before I met you, I used to be pretty vanilla.”

He quirked an eyebrow at that. “Tell me, which one of us thought tucking herself into my cock would be an appropriate way to join me on my morning run after two weeks of dating?”

Maya’s blush was luminescent. “Shut up. It’s only because you dared me to come up with something exciting.”

“Mm-hmm. Sure.” He leaned back in his seat, a rumble building in his chest the longer she touched him. He felt Chloe struggling against his shaft, her tiny body working magic on his cock, smearing herself with his precum the longer she fought. Maya leaned over him in his seat, one hand on his chest while she stroked and teased him with her shrunken former classmate. He reached up, cupped her face, and nibbled her lower lip once more as she squeezed and released, squeezed and released. “You’re still the one calling the shots tonight.”

“Putting all the work on me then?” Maya asked, grinning wickedly even as he trembled at her touch. In one motion, she let Chloe go, dropping her between his legs, trailing her fingers to his base. “What a lazy husband you are. Not even going to help me out?” The inflection in her words was clear.

“Now, I didn’t say that.” Hazel kept one eye on Chloe, who recuperated well enough and stumbled to the edge of the chair where a multi-story drop awaited her. One of her shoes was missing. She looked up at them, some combination of exhausted and terror visible in her stance even in the dim light. “I’m just saying, I’m keeping my mouth shut. Unless you’re looking for ideas.”

“Ideas.” Maya’s fingers trailed down his chest as she knelt before the chair. Chloe recoiled at the sight of her immense face looming over her. “Like what?”

“Oh, you know—” he waved airily, “—ideas.”

Chloe scrambled back, running toward his balls, only to come to a full stop as she realized her predicament.

Ravenous power flooded through Hazel. The wooden chair creaked with a sudden increase in weight as his thighs filled each leg of his boxers to the point of bursting. His breathing heavy, Hazel adjusted himself, all his progress in reversing himself undone in an instant.

Chloe cried out at the sight his towering cock, now many times larger than her. He wasn’t as large as he could get, but still he felt extraordinarily powerful.

Smirking, he winked at Maya and with one hand started guiding his erect cock down. Chloe fell back, turned on her stomach and tried crawling away.

“Look at him,” Maya voice was clipped and demanding. “Fucking look at him, Chloe.”

Chloe looked up from her belly crawl and flinched. Something in the Maya’s voice tone must have sunk in though, because she flipped onto her back. Hazel hovered his cock over her, delighting in the way Chloe struggled to look anywhere but at him. Her hair was in disarray and still she covered her eyes.

With surgical precision, Maya knocked her hands out of her way and pinned them to the sides with one finger each. Chloe wrenched herself, trying to free her arms with all her strength, failing in the face of undeniable mass.

“Chloe, meet my husband, Hazel. Hazel, meet the bitch who got me suspended because I told her her boyfriend was cheating on her. Tell me honestly, Chlo,” Maya said, her brown locks hanging over the side of her face like some portentous storm, “He’s got a nice dick, right?”

Chloe blinked and gaped up at her, while Hazel enjoyed himself with the scene. A tiny shrunken woman completely at their mercy, despite her fighting, all while Maya coaxed and talked and worked her way round to demonstrating this former classmate her new reality.

“Wha?” Chloe said. She sounded breathless, even with how quiet her small voice was.

“His dick.” Maya snuck a glance at him and he nodded. She dabbed a finger against the tip of his cock, soaking it in precum, and Hazel let out an animalistic grunt in response. “Here you go. Remember what you used to say, girlfriends share everything?”

“No! No!” Chloe turned her head, even as she kicked and kicked and tried to free her pinned arms. “This is bullshit!”

“We can always make you smaller,” Maya said, nonchalant, even as she waved her cum-soaked finger above the woman. “Small enough I wouldn’t be able to see you. Small enough… to lose. How long do you think you’d last if I just left you here?”

Chloe paled, and it was several seconds of her starting and failing to sound out words before she said, “You wouldn’t. You can’t.”

“Can’t?” Maya’s smirk was evil and everything he could ever want. “Nah. We definitely can. Wouldn’t? Well, that’s up to you.”

Sparkling, glittery tears sprung up in Chloe’s eyes.

Without prompt Maya smeared his pre in her face. She rubbed the shrunken woman’s face, turning it back and forth, covering her in his juices. Despite rubbing her earlier along his cock, this was much more personal.

“There we go,” Maya cooed, admiring her handiwork. “Much better. You’re much better like this. So much more likable.” Her voice gained a dangerous edge. “Do you it, Chloe?”

“L-like what?” Chloe hiccuped. Her legs pressed tight as her chest heaved, desperate for her nightmare to end.

“Do you like being a slutty little toy.”

Maya nodded at Haze, and before Chloe could react, he covered her entire body with his cock. A surprised wail pierced the air before getting muffled by a mountain of dick.

“Fuck this is hot,” Hazel growled. Soft pats against his cock hooked right into the pleasure center of his brain and he groaned. Temptation begged him to follow through on Maya’s promise: shrink her smaller, so small she’d stick to him.

After a minute of rubbing himself on her, Hazel lifted his cock to admire the results of their work. Chloe’s dress was unrecognizable, ripped in many places, including her chest. A miniature pale breast poked out of her dress, while tears, makeup, and precum smeared her face. She swallowed three heavy breaths, helpless as she stared up at both him and Maya.

A second of contemplation later and Chloe sneered. She spat out one word, “Bitch.”

Maya snorted and then broke out into uncontrollable giggles.

“Bitch. Whore. Skank. Slut.” Chloe tried many words and seemed to grow more and more hysterical with the futility of each one. Finally she said, “When daddy hears about this you’ll regret it you stupid c—”

Maya didn’t give her the chance to finish. She slammed her hand atop Chloe—with all her break-a-bitches-face-in-half strength—and silenced the woman. Hazel didn’t worry though, because as Chloe found out, her new size came with some benefits. All the energy and pressure applied in that instant dissipated throughout her body, lightning quick and painful, leaving Chloe keening like a whelp even as Maya brought the woman up to her face again, pinched between two ruby-tipped fingers. She sounded dismayed that that hadn’t ended it.

“I was being nice, y’know, for old times sake,” she said, observing the way Chloe’s head lolled around with disorientation. “But I guess the kid gloves have to come off for you.”

She opened her mouth wide and angled the tiny woman towards it. Chloe fought against the fingers, voice turning nonsensical, wheedling, and panicky the closer the gaping maw got. Maya’s gaze was flinty and uncaring as she reached out with her tongue, suffocating Chloe’s whines and eneveloping the smaller woman in one gulp.

Maya moaned as her lips closed around the woman’s legs. One hand came down between her legs and Hazel smiled, delighting in her enthusiastic participation.

“What’s the plan?” he asked, eyes roving every inch of her. He could grow her, right here, right now. Grow her big enough to fit even a normal person in her mouth, and god if he didn’t want to, but this was her night, and he promised her this. Like hell was he giving into his baser urges.

Winking at him, Maya climbed onto the desk. She kicked off her footwear, slid the hem of her dress up, and shot him a sultry, inviting look. She closed her eyes and hummed, rolling Chloe around in her mouth. After a few seconds, she spat the woman out into her hand. Saliva coated the woman, even as she groaned from the thrashing she’d received via Maya’s tongue.

“You taste disgusting,” Maya said, one sliding her dress up and pulling the lining of her panties aside. “Not even good enough for that, Chlo? At least I know you can’t fuck up this next part too much. Hazel, if you’d be so kind?” She offered the shrunken woman out to him.

“Thought you’d never ask,” he said and accepted the tiny. His visceral delight in handling her was palpable after her last ditch barrage of insults.

He scooted the chair closer to the table and leaned close, lining his face up with Maya’s crotch. Chloe righted herself and scrambled to toss herself off the edge of his hand, now content to try her luck with a fall. He caught her just as she leapt, pinching her around her midsection and rolling her between two fingers like a marble. “She’s still got some fight in her,” he noted.

“Not for long.”

On seeing where she was going, Chloe started biting, kicking, punching his palm, harping about No and Stop. All of which drowned as he traced her upper body against his wife’s inner folds. Maya was wet and inviting, and her breathing turned pitched as he rubbed the little blonde against her labia much like a vibrating toy.

He smiled softly as he elicited a keen wanting noise from his wife. “So impatient,” he chided, humor in his tone.

“Bastard,” she breathed, and then gasped as he pressed Chloe’s entire body against her lips. Thigh muscles on both sides tightened as he held the fidgeting tiny against her most sensitive spot. “Tease,” she followed up with.

Chloe was tiring. She’d tried covering her head with her arms, but even the mild gentle force of Hazel guiding her against his wife’s vagina made it pointless. Her hair was matted and askew with both his juices and Maya’s, but still she resisted. It was almost admirable.

Hazel hummed with satisfaction and continued his ministrations, pausing now and then to appreciate every soft noise, including Chloe’s fruitless panting and desperate squeaks. He propped his other hand on the table and parted Maya’s labia, exposing the hooded pearl of her clit. She squirmed, herself growing impatient with his continued abeyance, at least until he brushed Chloe against her and she jerked at the sudden influx.

“She’s so small,” he crooned, twirling Chloe in his hand like a paintbrush, earning cries from both women. “And she’s all yours.”

Maya’s hand clamped down on his wrist, and he looked up to see her, radiant with a flush he’d never tire of, and with a silent, demanding face. Her nostrils flared, even as a vein in her neck pulsed with every minute twitch in his fingers.

“Please,” she whispered.

“Please,” Chloe said, in between sputtering coughs.

Satisfied he’d frustrated them both, Hazel carefully but purposefully parted Maya’s pussy lips and slid the thrashing diminutive woman in his hand up his wife headfirst. She fought him, bracing her twig arms against skin, but he and Maya were inexorable and soon her strength gave out, the last sight of her being a pair of feet kicking uselessly as he pushed her inside.

Maya shook, laughing drunkenly as her eyes rolled back and her body turned languid.

Not happy with leaving it as is, Hazel dove in, tongue eager and mouth hungry for a taste since he could remember.

Maya grabbed the back of his head, urging him closer.

“Not yet,” he chuckled, voice hushed even in the library’s placidity. “Slow down. Enjoy yourself.”

“Your fault.” Gasping, she released her grip and brought her hand back to support herself.

He brushed his mouth against her inner thigh, eliciting goosebumps where lips met skin. He moved his hands to her legs, both propped up on both sides of his head. If he strained he could almost hear Chloe yelling to be let out, her voice muffled to near indistinct.

Maya trembled and slid forward along the desk, but he kept her stable, stopping her from going over the edge.

“F-fuck,” she swore. “She’s still going.”

He continued his journey. For every minor twitch of her body, Hazel savored the reaction, a virtual vista that he’d seen both large and small and he never tired of. His lips moved ever inward. His mouth, tongue, and teeth mapped every step of the way, kissing, licking, nipping lightly the closer he got.

“Tease,” she repeated, growling the word like a curse. “I swear next time I’m— oh!”

His tongue darted out, reaching for her core. His mouth found her bush, and like the addict he was he inhaled, burying his face against the soft pubic hair inviting him to stay.

He heard Chloe even clearer now. She was panting, raging at this indignity. He wondered if she even appreciated this, how lucky she was to be with them? How small she was, to be at their mercy?

“She’s quite energetic,” he mused, trailing kisses around Maya’s mound. Each one earned him a shudder that did wonders for his ego until he reached his goal: the delicious-looking pink nub that made him hunger for her so much it hurt. Before she could react, he darted in, quick as a thief, tracing his tongue along her folds.

Maya bucked her hips again—cursing or praising, he couldn’t tell—moving into his face. Hazel luxuriated in the sounds she made as he continued his dance, licking her, rolling the flat of his tongue against her in time and in various ways to his wife’s pleas.

“Yes.” She rolled her head back, relaxing against the desk. “God yes.”

Hazel started humming, a low, even noise that moved from the back of his throat into Maya’s body. Soft pants decorated the relative stillness, punctuated now and then with a mewl that did things to his hindbrain that should be illegal.

More. He wanted more.

A meek cry for help reached him. Chloe.

“Oh, she’s moving. She’s— fuck! Fuck—she’s trying to get out.” Maya bit her lip. Her face was awash with pleasure. “She’s so small and she’s— she’s stuck!” Giggles turned to gasps. “Oh god, she feels so good.”

His face was covered in her juices but still he heard her want in her every inelegant sigh and whisper that left her lips. Despite taking the time to shrink down to normal earlier, he was once again fit to burst in his outfit even with the loosened constraints. Maya, whose base height was almost a foot shorter than him, was petite to him now. Despite that, his tongue moved, flicking her clit with the tip of his tongue, driving ever more desperate sounds from his wife with every instance.

He heard Chloe again. Stuck inside his wife, she must have felt like she struggling against a force of nature, surrounded by Maya in a way so absolute it was a wonder she hadn’t given up yet. It was forcing Maya to tense and clench to hold her in, which only ramped up the intensity as Chloe’s resistance stimulated Maya past the brink.

“She’s strong!” Maya gasped. “Oh fuck— oh yes, right there you little bitch!”

Hazel smiled against her crotch. Maya had a vindictive streak a mile wide and he loved her for it.

Not finished, Hazel brought up a hand and gently dabbed Maya’s entrance, jolting and interrupting Chloe’s desperate bid for escape. Tiny limbs prodded against his finger and with no hesitation he pushed their owner back inside. Maya’s vaginal walls throbbed as he shoved the tiny prisoner deeper, and the trembling in her body turned anticipatory.

“No!” Chloe’s muted yell reached him. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry, Maya please get me out please please—”

“Yes, yes, yes!” Maya interrupted. She rose on her elbows and met his own eyes. “Keep going. Keep going, please keep going Hazel, or I swear to god I’ll—”

Her sentence cut off into a pleased moan as he slid a second finger inside her. He curled both finger, and enjoyed the visceral tightening and throb of her walls as pulled back and repeated the motion.

“Fuck. Fuck.” She smacked her palm against the tabletop to brace herself from sliding. “Did you… grow again?”

“I did. Sue me.” He kissed her clit once more, earning another pleased mewl from his wife, all while he explored her inside, massaging Chloe into her soft, wet walls. He was well in the realm of the abnormal now, and he had half a mind to discard his outfit for the evening and find out just how quiet they could be at twenty, thirty, fifty feet tall and growing. “You can’t be the only one having fun.”

Just one finger and he’d pushed Chloe so deep inside his wife she had no choice but to sink into the motions. She was such a little nothing now. Did she realize this yet?

He nipped the pink nub before him as softly as he dared. Maya swore.

It was then someone entered the library, rapped their knuckles against the receptionist’s desk in four symmetrically spaced knocks, and called out, in a loud and inquisitive voice, “Maya? Are you in here?”


Previous Chapter ||||| Next Chapter — In Progress

Who We Were; Who We Are – Chapter 1

One of the biggest struggles with writing people in a romantic relationship is also finding the pieces that make up both of them and figuring out what slots with what and what particular faults and virtues they each have. How do you stop characters from blending into each other and becoming indistinct?

The aim of this particular story, from a writing perspective, is to write the perspective of two people who probably aren’t considered good necessarily in the regular sense, but are still protagonists and can get the audience to root for them. I enjoy a good story where my protagonists’ morality align with my own and all, but I also yearn for more from my stories.

Too often a narrative tries to justify a character or reframe them as something they are not. This one isn’t really an attempt to do that. It’s more to say that this is what happens when two people don’t let the world push them around, and instead push the world together. That, if anything, is the driving force behind the ‘Cruel’ tag.

I’m expecting this one to be 4-5 chapters and already have the second chapter written. It merely needs to undergo editing and betaing. This post will be updated with a link to it once it is uploaded.

(I say this knowing I have another WIP I’ve neglected and fully acknowledge needing to get right back to)

As always, constructive criticism is welcome. Queries and observations as well.

Next Chapter

General Story Warnings: giant couple, NSFW, MF/f, MF/m, MF/mf, growth, shrink, cruel, insertion, oral sex, humiliation, domination, noncon, clothes ripping, sexist slurs, former bullying and harassment, language, alcohol use, pain, established relationship.

Chapter Specific Warnings: established relationship, instant shrinking, shrunken woman, domination, sexist slurs, F/f, former bullying and harassment, slight cruelty.

Estimated Reading Time: 17 minutes


Maya never said much about her high school experience. Judging by the growing coil of tension in her shoulders as they passed a balloon archway there was a reason for that.

The gym was like any other out there: azure painted walls, high ceilings full of trapped discards balls, the sour tang of fear that followed every dodgeball class, and worn beige rubber flooring reeking of dried sweat. White track lines circled the various courts and someone had opened the windows along the upper perimeter to air out the inside. If nothing else, Hazel appreciated the fresh air. Bleachers pushed back against the wall opened up the reception area even more.

Hazel didn’t look up, despite his instincts. Tall ceilings called to his senses with silent challenges, and he already had a hard time staying within the realm of heights on a normal outing.

“You all right there?” Maya said, coming to his side after escaping conversation with the event’s photographer. “If this is too much, we can head back.”

Hazel exhaled, releasing the power he’d gathered with an effort of will. He focused on her instead.

She wore a simple strapless navy dress that showed off her pale calves and she’d done something with her chestnut hair to catch his attention every time her curls bounced. Light makeup drew attention to eyes the color of rain clouds and cheekbones he loved to trace whenever she was small.

Maya noticed his staring. “What? Is there something in my teeth?”

“Nah, just in love.” He grinned.

She pushed him, her small hand strong against his chest in his cinder gray suit. A delightful curl of pink sprouted up her neckline. It was Hazel’s favorite color in the world.

“Jerk,” she said, avoiding his eyes. “Don’t drop stuff like that on me out of the blue. You know I’ve been stressing about tonight.”

All he thought was ‘cute’, even as he answered, “Yes, dear.”

“I’m serious.” Maya looked at the already sizable crowd. People were still filtering in through the gold and silver balloon arch over the entrance, all of them stopping to pose for the photographer. Forecast predicted a cramped dance floor for the night. “I don’t even know why we came to this thing.”

“Because you wanted to show off to your old high school friends how well you’re doing?”

“I wanted to show you off.” She scrunched her nose. “Sorry, that sounds like I’m using you.”

“Don’t be,” he assured, before leaning in and whispering in her ear, “After this morning, I’d say you using me would be completely fair.”

Maya shivered and took a purposeful step back from him. “You’re incorrigible.”

Hazel chuckled and gave a showy bow. “At your service.”

The tension lining her shoulders faded.

A raucous set of high-pitched squeals and giggles pierced the early event hush, prompting everyone with a working set of ears to look over. A group of women hovered around the entrance, jumping up and down, clutching each other tight enough to leave bruises.

“Nope.” Maya muttered, “I am not dealing with her. Not tonight.”

“Friend of yours?” The thrum and pulse from the deejay’s selection rose and reverberated through the reception, but he still heard the women talking. Well, yelling.

“Ten years was too short,” Maya continued from earlier, to herself. “Twenty year reunion would’ve been better. Maybe thirty. Fuck, might as well even do fifty.” She was getting too deep in her own head again.

“Hey hun?”

“Yeah?”

Hazel pulled her into a hug, his broad arms wrapping around her and pinning her movements. She tensed and then relaxed, falling into the embrace after a second. She was a bird, small in every sense compared to him, awkward and petite, but still free in his arms.

He let her go, but not before squeezing more reassurances into her shoulders.

“Thanks.” She’d added purple highlights, and that combined with the dimmer lighting of the gym made her ethereal.

“Anytime. Want to talk about it?”

“Not a chance.” She resumed her rubbernecking, looking over at the gaggle of women with a sullen focus.

Hazel nearly asked her who she was looking for when she jerked and did an about-face.

“Come on,” she said, ushering him away and toward the drinks table.

“O… kay?” Maya was a hair above five two, almost a foot shorter than him, but Hazel let her drag him away. “Want to tell me what’s going on?”

“Not a chance,” she said tersely. “Just someone I haven’t talked to in a while. I want to keep it that way.”

Hazel thought the point of a high school reunion was to talk to people you hadn’t seen in years, but who was he to judge? He’d skipped out on his own last year. “Maya?”

She didn’t respond and kept pulling him away.

They passed a group of loud hooting men, who Hazel could only assign the roles of former football team members in his head. They had the same stances and overall shape. Some wore suits, but most just sported their nicest pants and what Hazel could only call car salesmen ties. Boisterous, arrogant, each of them looked like extras for B-list action movies.

One took notice and pointed at Maya. “Hey, ain’t that Slutty Mary’s girl?”

Maya froze in her tracks. War drums burst to life in Hazel’s ears, but he’d promised he wouldn’t do anything without her say so. Tonight was her night.

“The fuck?”

“Shit man, no way.”

“Can’t be she’s way too—”

“Hot?”

“No!” said the idiot. This one had a neck like a Mack pickup, and a sunburnt balding pate. “She’s too clean. You guys remember her, yeah? She always had really oily hair and looked fuckin’ gross, like she was sick or something. And she was blonde.”

One of his buddies elbowed him, grinning like a sleaze. “You would know wouldn’t ya? South stairwell, right? How was she?”

The two men engaged in a shoving match more akin to something from Animal Planet.

Maya’s shoulders bunched up. Her face lowered so her bangs shadowed her face and she let go of Hazel’s hand. The war drums in his ears faded to make way for explosions.

“—sides, you remember what happened to her, right? She got sent up to St. Carson’s after that shit with Mr. Tannen—”

Hazel side-eyed them, a not-human snarl rising his throat. His power waited, drifting just below the surface of his skin, ready to answer his call if he so wished. One snap of his fingers and the former football star would lose at least six inches after tonight. If Hazel was generous.

But Mr. Stereotype wasn’t a priority.

“Maya,” Hazel whispered, coming up beside her and putting a hand on her shoulder. “What gives? Come on, talk to me, love.”

“It’s nothing,” she said, not facing him. He could hear the tears building up.

“Don’t sound like nothing.” He stepped in front of her, grabbed her hands, and opted for a tactic that never failed to garner a reaction. “Come on, you and me. On top of the world, remember?”

It wasn’t just a cheesy line. It was an invitation.

She snorted. “We’re in public.”

He grinned and lifted her chin. “Never stepped us before.”

“Those were empty fields and forests. Far away from others.” She still looked to the side, ashamed.

“I mean, yeah, at the start.” Hazel conceded her point with a nod. “Not sure how anything can be far when we get to that size though. Are you saying you haven’t thought about it tonight?” His eyes cut over to the group of simpletons engaging in another verbal dick-measuring contest. “Or what about the opposite? Anyone you feel could be more humble?”

She choked out a laugh and stopped averting his gaze.

There were tears in her eyes. The Jackass over there just got promoted to Supreme Jackass. His power bristled, irritated at the leash holding it back, but Hazel held on. There were benefits to patience.

“Not tonight,” Maya said, seeing his expression. She looked over at the group of men, who’d moved on in topic, heedless of her actual state after being called out. “We’re not doing that tonight, not yet anyway. I wanted to bring you here, dance with you, and maybe catch up with some old friends.”

He wondered if she caught the ‘yet’ she added in the middle there.

“So I’m guessing not mister football captain over there?”

“No, god no.” Maya gave him a curious look. “How’d you know Tyler was captain?”

“Too much of a cliché,” Hazel answered wryly. “That and they’re all wearing their team rings. Not to mention… ”

“Not to mention?” she pressed.

“It’s not a nice answer.”

Maya stepped in close, wrapping her arms around his midsection. Despite their different statures, Hazel got weak-kneed response every time she did this. Clearly, her mood had improved.

“I didn’t marry you because you’re nice,” Maya said. The tightness in her face slackened. “I married you because you’re mine.”

He saw the echoes of her laughter from earlier that day, when she’d spent it in his boxers being a brat, all while he tossed her around with ease. Despite their difference in power, he would have no one else at his side. From the second she walked into his life, he was completely and utterly fucked. In more ways than one.

“Fine, fine.” He rolled his neck and shrugged. If his suit was more snug along the shoulders, well, who would believe it other than Maya? “They just look like they peaked in high school.”

Maya slapped his arm, as if scolding him, but he didn’t miss the way her lips quirked upwards in the ghost of a smile.

“You’re going to be like this all night, aren’t you?” she mused. They found a solitary standing table already covered with the crumbs of cheap hors d’oeuvres. They stood on the outskirts, observing the gathering, apart and still within the growing throng of people. “Just being a complete nuisance. Hiding your little growth spurts whenever you think I won’t notice.”

His response was to put his hands on her waist and lift her. Maya yelped, squeaking at him to put her down. He spun her in the air, conscious of the eyes of every bystander, guest and organizer there. The music was now loud enough to drown out regular conversation, but a man spinning a woman like she was lighter than air attracted attention, music or not.

He put her down, having drifted several feet to the side, in the middle of the dance floor. Maya was laughing, breathless, that tantalizing, gorgeous pink blooming across her cheeks, asking him, daring him to do more.

“Guilty.” He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Every time I see you getting down, I’ll be there, being a terrible influence.” He smirked. “Such as now, see anyone that ever pissed you off?”

“Of course.“ Maya raised a brow and grabbed him by the elbow, dragging him back to their spot on the outskirts. “There’s this guy: tall, dark-haired, lean, kind of scruffy, standing right next to me.”

“I like him already.”

“He’d be cute too, if he didn’t open his mouth.”

“Love you too, dear, but seriously—”

“Oh! My! God~! Maya?” cut in a voice. “Is that Maya Mendoza I see? C’mere girlfriend!”

Maya looked pained. Before he could react a willowy blonde wearing a peach, strapless dress weaved through the burgeoning crowd of alumni and all but yanked her into one of those hugs made to hurt.

“Oh sweetie!” said the woman, pulling back. She had the plastic smile Hazel would expect from a wax mannequin. “How ya been, you poor thing? Goodness me, when I heard you got sent up with the sisters at St. Carson’s I could not believe it! Y’know I was all for marching right on up there and givin’ ‘em a piece of my mind and—”

“Hi Chloe,” Maya said, interrupting her and extricating herself from the woman’s claws. “Good to see you too. Yeah, no, I didn’t get sent to Carson’s. I actually got into Corrain, funny enough. You remember, your first choice? Oh wait, you knew about that. I won that scholarship, after all.”

Chloe face twitched. It was an experience to watch, all nerves and muscles responding artificially to incorrect stimulus and somehow scrambling to form a response other than a sneer.

“How’s your mother, dear?” Chloe tried this time, her voice still sweet enough to give him diabetes. “Is she still trying to sleep her way onto City Council over in Clearwater Falls? You know no one’s going to vote for her after daddy exposed her business like that. After all, whores don’t know how to be anything but whores.”

Maya stared at the woman with a blank expression for a good thirty seconds. It was thirty seconds too long in Hazel’s opinion but it gave him plenty of time to unlock the mental seals and unlatch the door to his power. If someone had thought to, they’d notice the dry and static taste of a storm on the horizon.

“Hey Hazel?” Maya said, addressing him while staring Chloe down. “I change my mind. This one.”

For all that she reigned him in, Maya was the one who often jumped off that cliff first.

Hazel cracked his neck and took off his blazer. Stupid thing was expensive, and he didn’t want to chance mystical splashback. “How small?”

“Remember Paris?”

His raised his eyebrows, surprised despite the flint and matchstick nature of the situation. “Not sure if I should feel jealous or horny. She’s gonna be a yapper, judging by the bitchy chic dress.”

Maya’s smile sent shivers up his spine. “Good.”

“Excuse me, I am right here,” Chloe interjected. She sounded more irritated with being ignored than the insult. “Who the hell do you think you are, you little hussy, you can’t just—”

Hazel snapped his fingers. At the same time a thunderous boom coincidentally exploded from the speakers set up around the building, drawing everyone’s attention away from the sudden ‘pop’ of air rushing to fill a person-shaped vacuum.

A smaller ‘pop’ followed and there on the table in front of them stood a miniaturized version of Chloe. The woman stumbled as if drunk from the sudden displacement and now struggled to find her balance in a world much more unaccommodating of her than before.

“Wha… ?” Chloe looked around, supporting herself against an electric candle in the center of the table. It was about the size of a solo cup, but more than twice her height. “What’s going on?”

The pitch of her voice had risen. She was larger than he’d left Maya most of the day, but Maya was fond of nestling into his boxers when she was stressing out about something. She enjoyed it when he overwhelmed her body with the most casual of motions, mere breaths or unconscious twitches. It soothed her to be so close and so small.

Maya slammed her hand down on the table next to Chloe. The impact shook the surface and sent the tiny woman sprawling.

“Hey Chloe,” Maya drawled. “How’s it going, girlfriend?”

With one hand blocking any interloper’s view, she finger-walked her other hand over to the tiny woman. Chloe scrabbled back, squeaking, kicking uselessly with a set of heels whose material to cost ratio had just gone through the roof.

Hazel clenched and released a fist, feeling the cuff of his dress shirt pull at his wrist. He still wasn’t used to precision: his shirt was no longer snug, but painful, cutting into his circulation along his neck. Carefully, he released his cuffs, rolling the sleeves up his now bulging forearms and almost popping the top button from his shirt as he fiddled with it for some air.

“Careful,” Maya said, shooting his arms an appreciative glance before rounding back on the shrunken Chloe. “Any more of that and I’m not responsible for what I do to you.”

Without missing a beat she poked Chloe, knocking her down, and then pinning her to the tablecloth with a pinky. She rolled the woman around, back and forth, like a cat toying with its prey. It was a small action, but he saw from Chloe’s disheveled expression that this was most she’d ever been tossed around.

Fuck, he was getting hard just watching them.

The bottom of Chloe’s dress—a tight peach-colored sheath that looked good on her—ripped. It rode up her thigh as she continued a useless struggle against Maya’s hands. She took a breath during a break in the tussle, filled her lungs, and arched her back, readying for a scream fit for a final girl.

“Hush now.” Maya said, smirking, sapping little Chloe’s strength with just her words. She leaned her elbow on the table, hovering over Chloe like a gorgeous kaiju. One hand twirled a stray purple-tipped lock while the other came down again, pressing the tiny woman’s stomach with a finger. “For once in your life, you’re going to listen. Listen and behave.”

Chloe fought even harder. She couldn’t budge Maya’s finger.

“Is there anywhere we can go for a moment of privacy?” he asked Maya. The gym was almost full, and people were spreading out, joining up with old cliques and rediscovering how much or how little everyone moved with their lives. “I’m gonna need a moment to shrink down, and it’s getting kind of, uh, hard to focus watching you toy with her.”

Maya scooped Chloe into her palm.

“There’s always the southern stairwell.” Maya mused. She pinched Chloe around the middle between two fingers, squinting at the expression the little woman was making. “Bet you’d know all about it, wouldn’t you, Chlo? It’s kind of gross, though. Most schools are. How about the library?”

It was taking everything he had not to burst out of his clothes and that was only because he liked this outfit.

“Honey, we can go to a custodial closet for all I care. I just need to get out of here before I—” power surged and his shoes, once comfortable, encroached in on his feet like a bear trap. He groaned and failed to think small thoughts.

Maya blinked, as if waking from a trance, and looked at him properly. “Holy crap, Hazel, how are you still fitting into that?”

“Hard work and determination,” he gritted out. He’d altered his clothing to allow personal growth, but there was only so much before fabric tore and he got blisters because his shoes were cutting into his ankles. “Small or big as you want her to be, I swear, but we need to leave. Library. Now.”

“Alright, alright, but I want some time with you mister before you come down and join the rest of us mortals.”

“Are you talking about—”

“What can I say?” Maya shrugged, tossed Chloe up in the air and caught her. A brief shriek punctuated the shrunken woman’s fall, before disappearing into an inescapable fist. “It’s on my bucket list.”


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