A few months ago, Daria Mallory noticed a rodent problem in her house. She hadn't *seen* the rodent itself, but life experiences have taught her that there aren't many other explanations for the mysterious disappearance of food, and the pitter-patter of tiny steps she heard every night but could never quite catch the source of. She neglected to deal with the pest herself for too long so she wouldn't have to hurt any innocent creature, but eventually, she gave in and placed a couple of mouse traps around the house.

She lay in her bed that night, agonizing over the pain she must be inflicting upon the unfortunate little mouse. Daria, as most people would describe her, was a timid wallflower of a woman who could never hurt a fly. People, however, weren't so immune to being hurt by her — she often teased and shamed others with a well-placed insult or a witty comeback. Upon hearing a gut-wrenching SNAP, Daria quickly ran over to her kitchen and turned on the light so she could gaze upon her victim. However, instead of a mouse, it turned out that her kitchen was infested by much rarer vermin: a tiny, doll-sized human being.

Those miniature humans, "tinies" as they've been called, while still uncommon, weren't exactly a completely unheard-of species. Everyone seemed to know they exist but just didn't anticipate encountering them — similarly to Daria, who stared at her victim for a couple more seconds of complete silence and shock. Her piercing green eyes examined him carefully once she crouched down and positioned herself closer to him. "I'm so, so sorry, little guy," she muttered while watching him squirm and struggle against the snap-trap.

Initially, Daria was unsure if she should just break the poor thing's neck and put him out of his misery, as much as it sickened her. But upon further inspection, she realized only his leg had been caught — he was sneaky enough and small enough to be mostly unharmed. "I-I'm going to let you out, but you have to promise not to run away, okay? It'll only make your injury worse."

For a moment, she waited for a response that simply hadn't come, and so she took the silence as a sign of agreement. The woman carefully freed her victim and placed him in the palm of her other hand. "There. Now let's help you get better," she said.

She took out an icepack from her fridge and nearly used it before realizing it'd completely flatten the vulnerable creature in her hand. Settling for a small ice cube instead, she pressed it gently against the tiny's bruised and swelling ankle. When he spasmed in response to the sudden cold, his caretaker restrained him with only a pair of her delicate fingers until he relaxed.

"He's adorable," she thought to herself while her eyes stared down at the tiny's short black hair and slowly traced over the rest of his adorably limp and slender body. She thought that he seemed far too tender to live on his own in such a large and perilous world. "Does that help? It's supposed to reduce swelling and pain."

The tiny nodded back, clearly intimidated by the large unfamiliar figure he's quite literally in the hands of. The pleasant, almost cuddly warmth to him that emanated from said hand helped him get used to the situation, however.

"My name is Daria. You need not be scared of me, little one," she said in a stilted tone. "Let's try that again," she thought and sighed. "Sorry for being so official, I just didn't want to intimidate you and I don't even know your name yet."

"It's Kellen. And, uhm, thank you for saving me, Miss Daria," he said. Examining her appearance, he noticed freckles lining her cheeks, and her shoulder-length brown hair that was stylized in a sort of a bob cut. He wasn't quite sure what to make of this enormous woman, but he could not deny that she was attractive.

"’Miss Daria’. He could not be more adorable than this if he had tried," she thought.

 "You're going to have to stay with me for a few days until you get better, Kellen dear," she said and briefly stared into space while scolding herself in her thoughts, 

"’Kellen dear?’ Am I his fucking aunt? What's next, offering him some tea and biscuits? Get it together, Daria."

"D-days? I can't, what will I do about food, and shelter, and, and--"

"I'll take care of it. You could eat my food… as you've already been doing…. and you could sleep in my bed, with me. How's that sound to you?"

Kellen froze in shock. This woman didn't seem hostile— aside from laying the traps responsible for his injury — but he had 0 exposure to humans and just being in the presence of one was overwhelming to him. He was no coward, rather he preferred to see himself as cautious: in his eyes, you simply have to be when you're only about 5 inches tall.

"I'll let you think it through for a bit while I find you a place to sleep. If you're still here when I come back, I'll be taking that as a 'yes'." she said and smiled at him, leaving him on her table while quickly leaving to go to her bedroom.

"If I go with her, there's no telling what she'll do. But even just trying to walk is agonizing to me. I don't really have a choice here," he thought, deciding to remain where he was. He waited for the return of his savior… and captor — after all, that's what she was, without her he wouldn't have gotten caught in the trap, but without her, he would have died in there. Still, she didn't seem like a bad person to him. Large and powerful, sure, but not bad — a bad person wouldn't have offered him food and shelter nor would they tend to his wounds.

He lay there on the cold wooden table, longing for her warm, cream-colored hands to cup him again. He'd never had much interaction with humans before, he's spent his entire life up until that point merely observing them from a distance as a part of a small colony of tinies, but as they grew up each of them split up to find their territory. He wondered, "do all humans smell as nice as Daria? Are they all so soft to the touch? Are they all benevolent enough to care for someone who had only taken things from them without giving anything in return?"

Meanwhile, in the bedroom, Daria tried to find a solution to the logistical nightmare that is sleeping next to a tiny without posing a threat to them but still respecting them as a guest and not shoving them in a shoebox. Placing him on the nightstand might strain his back, while letting him sleep in her hands would open up the possibility of squashing him in her sleep. Suddenly, an idea came to her as she found a discarded sock of hers — not one she often wears, of course, she would never force her wounded guest to sleep while engulfed in her foot's stench — but rather, a white sock that was a bit too small for her to begin with and hadn't been worn in weeks.

When she had come back to the kitchen, she fully expected Kellen to have run away from her — much like how most men in her life have done, but instead, she found him squirming in discomfort on top of the uncomfortable wooden table, waiting for her.

"Hey," she said sweetly, "may I pick you up? I know that earlier I already did that without asking beforehand, I just figured asking for consent would be more hospitable of me."

Stunned at the fact she even asked him first, Kellen grunted out a "Yes". 

The giant woman cooled his ankle again with a bit of ice from the fridge and then carried him back to her room. Once they were there, she gave him a few doll clothes to put on his nude body, and gently tucked him into her cotton sock, where he curled up and finally looked comfortable. She gave him a good night kiss, pressing her large lips into him in a sort of all-encompassing peck, and then placed him on her nightstand. "Sleep tight, Kellen."

Unbeknownst to each other, neither of the two could fall asleep, as they were both lost in thoughts about the events of the night so far. Over the next few days, they became acclimated to each other and devised a daily routine. Daria would leave food, water, and some frozen vegetables, for his ankle, on a towel next to Kellen, and leave him on his own while she's at work, and once she returns home, they'll talk about their day, cuddle, and eventually fall asleep together. They were both content with this arrangement, growing closer every day, but slowly it began to dawn on them that they would have to return to their normal lives soon.

Kellen had almost healed completely and was now capable of walking yet again. He spent his alone-time exploring Daria's bedroom, still fascinated by anything to do with her. He found himself addicted to even her scent that lingered on her cast-off clothes that sat on the bed, a fact which he attributed both to a lack of sexual experience on his end and to how, despite their drastic size difference, she looked just like a potential mate for him. This time, he ended up napping inside her discarded bra's cup, only waking up from the padded makeshift bed when she had already arrived at the house and found him in this shameful position. Kellen looked up at her blushing face, noticing that she was too flustered to know what to say to him. "K-Kellen, dear, you shouldn't sleep there. I mean, y-you don't know where that's been before!"

"I know it's been on you, Miss Daria. That's enough for me."

Was he trying to seduce her? He must've been — he took off the doll clothes she's given him and laid in her bra, of all places. How sly. He seemed so helpless and fragile yet so eager to please her, almost as if he was begging to be dominated by her vast body.

Daria hesitated. Not long ago, she thought this creature was a mouse, and now she not only doted on him, but was also even entertaining the idea of intercourse with him. It all happened so fast, she didn't even have time to doubt it until now. After a few silent minutes that seemed like an eternity, she smiled and stared down at the tiny, as if looking for confirmation that he was ready for her. Immediately after receiving that confirmation in the form of his smile, she took off her boots and thought of how even without the extra inches of height they'd added to her she still towered over the tiny. Next, she unbuttoned her blouse, revealing a pair of supple breasts, contained by a black lacy bra.

Kellen's heart began racing as it dawned on him that this was happening. He'd never been with someone his own size before, and here he was about to lose his virginity to someone at least 50 times larger. Just a glance at the vast canyon of cleavage above him was enough to make him completely erect.

Soon, the giantess took off her bra, causing her breasts to bounce from the unrestrained weight. Her bra dropped onto her tiny, who then quickly scurried out from underneath it. She never was particularly dominant in the bedroom, but something about this situation just felt right to her.

She circled around the miniature man with two of her fingers, laughing seductively in response to his attempts to chase after her nimble digits. It was like a predator stalking her prey. When he'd grown tired and could no longer keep up, those same digits made their way toward him. His breaths became heavier as his mind was trying to decide whether he should fear the enormous woman, or if he should lunge forward and offer himself to her. When he glanced up, he saw her breasts swaying over his head, as if taunting him with the fact that he could never reach high enough to grab them. However, his attention then shifted back to her mischievous hand as it poked him with a finger, rubbing against his body up and down. He was desperate for her touch and quickly found himself kissing her fingertip over and over, pretending it was a lover his own size. 

Then, Daria withdrew her hand and guided her lover's eyes back to her body so he could witness her undressing. With her skirt now out of the way, the only thing left on her body was a pair of panties. Kellen had been so mesmerized by her swaying exposed thighs that he found himself caught off-guard by her fingers' return, allowing them to instantly press him down against the mattress.

Carefully, the woman lay down on the bed while making sure that her tiny companion was still subdued. It filled her with satisfaction to feel the ripples that were sent throughout the bed as she set her gigantic body down. If she hadn't held onto the tiny so firmly, he might've even bounced into the air from those powerful shockwaves.

When she finally let go of him and allowed him to rise back to his feet, he found himself in complete and utter awe at this woman. He was but a tiny speck by her ankle and was stunned by the way her seemingly endless legs sprawled across the bed all the way to him. His attention soon shifted to a specific destination, however, a goal: her waiting hand, laid at the distant land at the edge of her thighs. 

Daria felt a mix of uneasiness and confidence at once — on the one hand, she was trying to seduce a man the size of her finger, but on the other hand, she had never felt better about herself than now, when she saw how he admired, even gawked at, every part of her body as if she were an eighth wonder of the world.

The tiny excitedly ran toward his target, his erection being maintained by a combination of adrenaline, lust, and the sheer dread he felt from the realization that the shadow cast by her legs was enough to cover him completely.

Once he finally made it to her hand, she carefully picked him up and laid him on her stomach. Kellen was amazed at how soft it was, much like the rest of her body. As he gently caressed it, Daria found herself beaming with delight at the tiny's response to seeing such a large pair of breasts. Well, to a normal human they were fairly average, but to a man of his size, they exceeded all expectations. With just one finger, she shoved him closer to her chest, letting him take in his surroundings from up close. "Like what you see, little man?"

"Uh-huh," he muttered as he caught his breath and tried to calm down. "Here goes nothing," he thought. Carefully, he climbed up the soft breast and started planting tiny kisses on it. Slowly, he gained confidence and increased his speed, now quickly scattering kisses over Daria and squeezing her breast to the best of his ability.

She took off her panties slowly and carefully so as not to alarm her admirer, and then reached down to her increasingly wet pussy, and began masturbating. The idea of sending Kellen down to her crotch crossed her mind, but she figured that he was not yet ready to handle that much woman, so he might as well just do his best to help support her while she jerks off.

Kellen had found her nipple at the perfect time and clung to it, humping it and massaging it with all of the might that his tiny, slender frame afforded him. Without even knowing, he found the perfect rhythm — every second, waves of pleasure surged through Daria, alternating in source between the fingers deep within her damp, cavernous womanhood and between her tiny partner's humping, in perfect harmony. He climaxed a while before the titaness he was pleasing, but continued to give her his all until he was completely spent and collapsed onto the pillowy flesh of her breast. Watching her bite her lip and hearing her slight whimpering moans soar through the air gave him more satisfaction than he ever knew before in his life. Every muscle in his body tensed in response when she threw her head back and finally finished.

"Wow," he said.

"Maybe I really did underestimate you, finger-boy," she teased, still breathing heavily.

"This has been… incredible. Thank you so much for honoring me with this experience, Miss Daria, I–"

"You can just call me Daria. The 'Miss' is cute, but I don't want you to feel like you have to say it. Seeing how you just came on my tits; I'd say we're on a first-name basis."

"Daria, then," he smiled and kissed her breast yet again. "I'm going to miss you once I've healed."

The giantess' expression turned into a confused sort of frown. "Miss me? Why? You're not going to stay with me?"

"Well, you're amazing, but this isn't really my lifestyle. Tinies move between different houses, we rarely ever mate for life, we scavenge food and resources for ourselves, etc., none of these aspects are compatible with you, I'm afraid."

Something within Daria broke upon hearing those words. Whatever it was that had just died in her, in its place there was now a feeling of a woman who'd been deeply scorned. One thing was clear to her: she would not let Kellen leave. Even if he didn't know it yet, he loved her enough to adjust to her lifestyle. He needed her, and if not then she was going to make sure that he will. Even if he denied it, she knew that he would love worshipping her every day till the end of their lives.

"Daria? You haven't said anything. Are you feeling well?"

"Scum. Adorable, oblivious, scum. Of course I'm unwell, I've just been rejected by a creature small enough to fit in my shoe!" She thought. "Oh, I'm fine. Don't worry about it."

"Well, if you say so."

A twisted smile formed across her lips as a plan hatched in her mind. "Well, I'm not completely fine. I'm just concerned about you."

"Concerned? Why so?"

"You haven't been around humans much, have you?"

"Afraid not. Certainly not as much as I've been around you, at least. Why?"

Daria put on a facade of benevolence and pity, "well, most of us aren't as welcoming to your sort as I am. The things I've heard of people doing to tinies… Oh, it sickens me just to think about it."

"Like what?" asked the tiny, looking puzzled by what she was insinuating.

"Like picking a tiny up," she said and demonstrated by unceremoniously lifting him up to her face, "then, licking their own large, human lips," she demonstrated again, "and then, biting the poor tiny's head off," she said, suddenly closing her mouth with such force that had tricked Kellen into thinking the worst has just happened to him. Fortunately, he was still held at a distance from her mouth. Daria felt guilty when she saw her tiny plaything tremble before her, but she convinced herself that this was for a good cause. "Did I scare you?"

"N-not at all!"

"Good! Then you're more prepared than I thought. But there's still so much worse than that!" 

An unfamiliar feeling stirred at the pit of Kellen's stomach. This was his first true encounter with fear. "How could anything be worse than that…?"

"Well, I know some girls get off to doing this—," she dropped the tiny into the space between her breasts. The fear in his eyes said it all, her plan was already starting to work. "And then, they squeeze the frail little thing between their boobs, like this," she once again demonstrated ever so dutifully and closed in on Kellen, nearly suffocating him between the plush hills to his sides until she decided to let go. "I'm not going to demonstrate the last part, but those girls would press harder and harder until you *POP* into gore."

"I… I've had enough demonstrations for tonight, I think," he muttered, his face as pale as if he had just seen a ghost.

Daria rested two of her fingers against his back gently, "would it make you feel better if I let you sleep with me tonight?"

The miniature's deathly-pale face instantly turned beet-red at those words. He shyly nodded and allowed his captor to grab him and place him in her sock as usual, except that for tonight instead of sleeping atop the nightstand, he got to enjoy the warm embrace of a loving woman, pinned to her chest.

For the next few days, Daria continued scheming, thinking of ways to become her beloved's sole focus in life. The stories of her days at work had become more dramatic, and full of lies, as she used them to sow even more terror in the tiny's mind. They were now tales of her coworkers dropping tinies in their food and relishing the squirming sensation as they slid down their throats, of tinies being turned into unwilling sex toys until their owners grow bored with them, and so many other horrors. Still, none of these stories seemed to push resilient Kellen far enough. The many cuddles and kisses the two shared weren't enough either, although they succeeded in getting him to stay some more even after his injury had healed.

Every day that passed without Kellen pledging his loyalty solely to her, filled Daria with dread over the thought of him fleeing while she was away at work. It wouldn't be the first time someone walked out on her so suddenly, and for a man his size, it'd be even easier than a normal human.

Meanwhile, on one such day, in her absence, the tiny lay in her discarded panties and thought about her almost as much as she had him. It didn't feel right to him to leave her, she had taken care of nearly all of his needs, even ones he had no idea he even had — washed him, fed him, dressed him in doll clothes fitting to his size, kept him company, and showered him in affection the likes of which he had never experienced before. 

Their internal struggles only intensified once the duo reunited on that day's evening, as with every evening. Kellen awoke to the warm inviting smell of home-cooked dinner, his mouth watering as he made his way toward the kitchen. "What did you make today, Daria? It smells amazing."

He could still remember the days when a few dry breadcrumbs and half a slice of cheese were what he considered a delicacy, not like now where he'd grown accustomed to Daria's cooking. Whenever he sat down next to her, he noticed a new detail about her that entranced him — tonight it was her smile. When she beamed at him after he made a particularly funny comment, he felt like the sun itself shone on him. He loved seeing her happy and similarly hated to see a frown on her face.

Fortunately for him, today seemed to be a smiling day. "Oh, don't flatter me too much, it's just a chicken breast and some vegetables," she said. Kellen then asked her how she had made it — not because her answer made any sense to him, but because she loved to talk about it, and he wanted to indulge her by nodding his head as though he was actively listening. Once they sat down to eat, she gave the tiny a small piece of meat, and 3 peas and left them on a paper towel for him to eat from. As a human, she really could not fathom just how awe-inspiring it was to her tiny companion to watch her eat. He could barely finish his portion, but the giantess in front of him ate what seemed like an endless amount to someone as small as him. No doubt she could inhale him with just as much ease if she ever wanted. 

"You're beautiful," he said, tracing his eyes from her face all the way to the cleavage visible thanks to her low neckline.

She blushed, giggling in response to the compliment. "Thanks. You don't look so bad yourself, short, pale, and handsome," she said with a smile as she finished eating and boxed up her leftovers. 

"I don't know how I could settle for someone my own size after getting used to you. Maybe I'll just have to find another human just like you," he said, forgetting that humans, as a general rule, dislike when their beloved talks about leaving them as if it were a fact of life.

"You don't have to go. We've been over that, sweetie," she lifted him in the air and laid him on her open palm.

"We've talked about it enough that you should already know that I have to go. It's just how life is like for us."

Daria sighed in despair as she made her way toward the bathtub and began undressing. Within moments, her nude body was in the water, accompanied by her tiny as he rode on a rubber duck she had bought for him. She refused to give up and decided to flick the dark-haired tiny off his mount and onto her breasts. "Are you aware of how few women would let you do this?" she teased after seeing her companion run towards her nipple to caress it — he'd learned how to best pleasure it by now. "Maybe I'll change their mind once I show them my recommendations," he replied.

She cherished the feeling of his nimble little hands as they pampered her, causing her to bite her lip and throw her head back in delight. Her eyes shut as she felt her minute admirer travel to her lower body, sprinting and swimming from one point of her to another. "You sure you want to have to re-learn how to pleasure a woman? I know Lindsey from work rarely enjoys anything that doesn't come with batteries."

"I like a challenge," he stated as he arrived before her nether lips. "You could introduce us to each other if you wanted, I don't think I'd mind a blonde."

Both amused and upset by his retort, the giantess reached for Kellen just as he was about to dive into her, and instead lifted him in the air. "Not here, my little ladies' man. Trust me, it's not very comfortable in the tub."

By the time they dried up and returned to her bedroom, their desire had already faded and they were content simply laying together in bed. Daria figured that the tiny's independence was a vital part of the reason he'd managed to resist her for so long, and therefore, in order for her to break his resolve, she had to make him dependent on her. "I still worry about you, you know. I feel like you don't understand just how horrible most humans are."

"Well, all I have to go off of is some stories," he shrugged, "it's frightening, sure, but it's not enough to convince me."

Hopeless, Daria decided it was time to bring out the big guns. "I-I want you to see something, dear. I'm sorry, but I think it's the only thing that'll show you just how right I am," she pulled out her phone and looked into one particularly shady site. It made her sick to even look at what she was doing, but in her mind, she felt it was necessary for her righteous goal.

Kellen was already scared just from the way the giantess talked about what she was about to show him, but truly seeing what she meant caused him to experience every sort of unpleasant feeling all at once. One by one, clips of snuff films involving the abduction, abuse, and mutilation of tinies played before him, and he could tell Daria still skipped over the most horrible parts whenever she could. He'd now seen tinies battered to death after careless humans used them for sexual pleasure, recipes for food made out of tinies — sometimes still living, tinies crushed beneath shoes and even bare feet as if they were insects, and so many more depraved, violent incidents captured on film. He'd begun crying and shaking, unable to look away from the horrors on the screen, until the screen abruptly turned black.

"Had enough? I could let it play again if you want me to," Daria said quietly, hoping she would never have to see those things again. When Kellen failed to respond and merely continued to weep, she began stroking his head gently with her fingertip and hummed a soothing tune. "I know. Let it out. It's okay."

"D-d-daria…" he coughed out between tears. The brunette woman shed a few tears herself too, "he didn't deserve to see that. He's too fragile and tender, it broke him. But it was necessary, otherwise he would've learned the hard way that he couldn't last without me," she thought. "I would NEVER do that to you, my love," she paused to check his response to the abrupt use of "my love", a term she had never used until now, before resuming her words, "no matter what, as long as I'm here, I'll make sure that nothing EVER happens to you. You'll be safe, you'll be loved, but you'll have to stay with me."

With a few fingers, she gently turned him around so he now faced her, "do you accept that condition?"

Kellen looked at her and thought deeply about what to say. His mind was a mess, still flashing between images of those horrible acts, but he tried his best to focus. On the one hand, he could stay with her for a few more days and then leave and survive just like he did before he met her. But on the other, he now gravely feared the prospect of leaving her side. And then of course — there was the love he still felt toward her, the way he cherished every moment with her and treated her as though she were his beloved queen, his savior. He decided he couldn't even decide on an official answer and instead simply ran towards her and pressed into her soft hand while hugging one of her fingers tightly.

Daria lowered her head and kissed him over and over, feeling him quiver less and less every time her soft lips pressed against him. "I love you, Kellen," she said sweetly. "Would you like to sleep now?"

"... I'd love to. I'm j-just… scared," he said somberly.

"I know, sweetie, it's okay. You don't need to be. I'm here."

The giantess gently lowered him to her breasts and prepared to sleep — though in truth she only fell asleep once she felt his breathing return to normal and his shivering end.

In his sleeping mind, he encountered one of the humans from the videos he was shown. Their face was censored, but Kellen could make out the body frame of a young blonde woman, who seemingly wore the bones of other tinies as a necklace, reducing them to mere jewelry. "Please, let me go!" he begged, trembling in fear in front of the unfamiliar figure.

The woman disregarded his pleading and chuckled, swiftly lowering her boot onto him. The heel grinded against him, and with a horrible unsettling CRUNCH it shattered his spine. "Kiss it and I might let you live, bug," the figure taunted. Though he knew how futile it was, the desperate tiny repeatedly kissed the filthy sole of the woman's leather boot until it lifted off of him. "Actually, I changed my mind," she said. Then, she pulled out a lighter and used it to set him on fire. The searing heat that ate at his body, mixed with the villainous cackling of his killer up above was enough to wake Kellen up from his nightmare.

Daria unexpectedly awoke soon afterward, to the sound of sobbing from the poor tiny that clung to her cheek. "It's alright. You're safe, my love," she cooed. To calm him down, she tenderly stroked his back with her finger until he drifted into sleep once more.

In the morning, they both agreed that he'd no longer stay home without her, and instead would now accompany her to work. Kellen was still uncharacteristically silent, but he felt safe now that he was tucked between the warm cream-colored mountains that were Daria's breasts. He thought she looked beautiful in every way — especially in her business attire, with a dark blue jacket and a white blouse standing between him and the big, scary world.

Her coworkers noticed that Daria was far, far more joyful than usual, and when she entered the break room, some began to inquire as to why. 

"You seem far more lively than usual today, I almost didn't recognize you. Guessing you had a particularly great day yesterday? Went out with anyone special?" asked one such coworker, a tall blonde woman by the name of Lindsey. With her standing at 5"8, Daria imagined just how enormous Lindsey would look to Kellen compared to her height of 5"4.

"Well, you could say that," Daria replied to her friend and giggled.

"Was it that tall guy from accounting? I knew he had a thing for you!"

"Oh no, he's actually pretty, um, vertically challenged, so to speak. It's nice feeling like I'm the giant for once, you know?"

"Well, whoever he is, it seems like you two have something good going on," said the blonde as she walked away to a separate room.

When Daria finally sat down and began working, she freed Kellen from her green lace bra and let him explore her desk. It was rather clean and spacious, the only things of note on it were a few notes she could write on, a notebook, a coffee mug, and a small potted plant — all of which were neatly ordered. The miniature man laid down on a small towel she had placed on the desk for him and enjoyed the touch of the woman above him as her fingers lovingly stroked his back. For the next hour or so they were truly at peace, until Lindsey suddenly entered the room, forcing Kellen to hide behind the potted plant. He felt his heart pound as if it was trying to free itself from his chest and run as far away as it could — he still felt uneasy around humans besides his beloved caretaker, and especially humans taller than said caretaker. "Hey Dar, have you seen my stapler anywhere? I can't remember where I left it," she asked, drawing closer to the two lovebirds until receiving a negative answer.

Right as she was about to leave, both Lindsey and Kellen noticed a small thing skittering around on the floor — the scurry of a spider away from its web, but to the confused and vulnerable little man, it seemed like a fellow tiny. Before he could even think of taking a closer look at it, he heard the blonde woman muttering to herself, "ugh, gross," and then immediately crushing the unfortunate spider underneath her boot, barely giving it a second thought. Immediately shocked and appalled, Kellen sprinted at Daria and jumped back into her cleavage, where he fearfully remained for the whole day.

Over the next two weeks, the tiny began to get used to his beloved's work schedule and assisted where he could — mostly fetching small items for her, cleaning her keyboard, polishing her shoes, small tokens of gratitude for the way she cares for him. And then, one day, early in the morning, the duo visited a local cafe just as it opened. 

"I'm not going to hide you away this time, you HAVE to check this place out! I mean, coffee is the last thing you need, but their cheesecake is leagues above anything I made for you," said the giantess to her shoulder-mounted lover. With no one else around, she felt comfortable speaking to him in public, especially with him being hidden by the hair draped over him.

"I'll go order for us, do you want to come with me or would you prefer to wait in my purse?" she asked, posing him a simple two-options choice that reflected how much of his life was controlled by her by now.

Wordlessly, Kellen slid down from her shoulder onto her arm and from there leaped straight into her purse. She nodded and went her own way. Made curious by the pleasant smells all around the shop, the tiny climbed back out of the purse and onto their table, where his eyes made contact with those of a waitress that was about to clean the table. For a second, he examined her appearance — she was an attractive black woman with an uneasy but warm smile on her face that she hoped would put him at ease. Upon taking another glance, he noticed how her dark heather gray clothes showed off her curves even when hidden behind the familiar green apron she wore. Still, if those videos he'd seen were anything to go by, he learned that looks can easily be deceiving.

Just as he was about to flee in terror, she calmly and hopefully whispered, "Hey! Please don't run away. I'm a volunteer at a tiny shelter nearby. I would never harm one of you guys."

He didn't know why, but he found himself trusting her enough to engage her in conversation. "A tiny shelter? I'm sorry, I'm confused."

"It's a charity organization, we protect any tinies we find so they don't end up in the hands of some sickos," she explained and then paused to flash her smile at him yet again, "I'm Claire, by the way. I've seen you and that girl here a lot..."

She seemed to have a passionate spark in her eyes whenever discussing tinies, one that Kellen wasn't sure how to feel about. "Kellen," he coldly replied, "but how could you have seen us together? She always hid me until now."

"Pleased to meet you then, Kellen. And as for your question, she keeps talking to her shoulder every day and blushing at it, so it had to be either a tiny or a really flirtatious imaginary friend," she giggled, "though I gotta say, the rest of the staff and I heard some things she told you that were… concerning, to say the least."

"Concerning….?", he asked.

"Truth is my shift didn't even start for a bit longer, but I felt like I had to warn you about her."

He looked at the waitress, seemingly offended that she slighted his beloved, "Daria is sweet, caring, and all-around perfect. She's the only human that I trust not to murder me in some sick, vaguely sexual way."

"That's exactly the problem, little guy. She's bluffing. I imagine she's trying to convince you that all other humans are monsters so you'd dedicate your life to her in exchange for her 'protection.'"

Kellen thought about her words for a second. This girl may be onto something. "I-is that something you hear about a lot, Miss Claire?" he asked in a concerned tone.

"More than you'd hope. Usually, these people make the tinies call them some silly name that inflates their ego even more, like 'mistress' or 'goddess'," she paused suddenly to turn around and check if Daria was on her way back, "look, your captor is almost done ordering so I can't explain too much more right now but if you want to trust me and get your freedom back, just be here in closing hours some day and I'll take you to the Tiny Rescue Center. Just remember–"

"Am I interrupting? Were you about to tell him I kick puppies too? Or were you just trying to take away the man I love?" said Daria in a dry and intimidating tone, after surprising the waitress with her return. Kellen had never seen such an expression on her face before — it looked like she was restraining herself from letting out the fury that raged inside her.

"Oh please, 'the man I love', give me a break. You know what you're doing, you monster."

"Yes, I've alerted him to the world's dangers and kept him safe since. That's what I'm doing. I also know what you're doing — overstepping a regular's boundaries. I'm sure your boss won't be pleased if he heard about this. If you want to keep your job, leave us alone, and stop with this propaganda."

The waitress winked at the tiny and left the two without making any more comments. Daria told him to disregard the waitress' words and explained to him how these shelters usually end up just giving any rescued tinies to the volunteers' families as pets or trophies. He didn't know whom to trust anymore and found himself longing for the simpler days before he had met any human at all, even his loving caretaker.

The next day, he refused to accompany her to work. "I need to think about things, Daria. I don't know what to think anymore."

"Oh sweetie, we can talk about this when I get back home. It's all just a bunch of misunderstandings, I promise. You know how much I love you, right?"

"I do, and I love you too. But I can't promise that I'll be here when you're back. We've had a good run, but I think it might be time for me to go be on my own."

Daria began tearing up. "I suppose I can't stop you or anything. But ask yourself this, do you really prefer being a broken-boned stain on someone's shoe, over being cherished in my loving embrace?"

She received no response. "Could I at least give you a goodbye kiss? Anything?", she asked desperately.

After receiving Kellen's approval, she covered his body with her lips, pausing for as long as she could just to make this kiss special — especially if it were to be their last. A part of her told her to simply grab him anyway and claim him as her own, but she decided she was better than that. Seeing how dramatic she was made the poor tiny debate with himself even more about the believability of her story. Very few people would respond so intensely to this situation, but very few people would break into such a tearful mess without truly being broken by something.

Throughout the day, as the hours progressed, the finger-sized man found himself lost in thoughts, detached from even the flow of time itself. He'd thought back to his childhood, the first exposure he's ever had to a human. His companions warned him to stay away from the giants and only collect the food they leave behind. He tried his best to follow that advice all his life, and for months since parting with his former group, he succeeded. He wondered briefly how his life would've been if he hadn't stepped into that damned mousetrap — certainly a lot less complicated, that's for sure. Daria told him that before they met, she planned to get a cat to make up for her loneliness. She even had a name picked already, "Scruffy." A cat would've posed quite a threat to his burrowing lifestyle.

Still riding along the disorganized stream of his thoughts, he thought to himself whether to trust the waitress. If she was being honest, what good could a shelter even do for him? Would they protect him, cook for him, spoil him, treat him with half as much dignity and adoration as Daria? Sure, she might be manipulating him, but now that he knew the kinds of things certain people could do to him, gambling on how many humans truly are murderous monsters seemed like a terrible idea. If the waitress had lied to him, though, he shuddered just at the thought of what she'd do to him. And not just he would be suffering, but so would his beloved savior, Daria, who would mourn his departure for months, at the very least. 

The more he thought about things, the more he realized he was… happy with the way things were. He had traded away his freedom for protection, and love. No matter what the future with Daria held for him, the outside world was no place for a tiny. He wondered how could he have been so foolish before, so delusional, to believe that he could fend for himself. If his lover hadn't re-educated him herself, his life would have remained a meaningless existence where food was scarce and safety was an illusion. He barely had any recollection of his old self anymore, and he was happy about it — that old life seemed to him like torture the more he pondered it.

Soon, he settled on the kitchen table and awaited his queen's return, and she did not disappoint. She came back home in tears, muttering to herself all sorts of insults aimed at herself, ranging from "stupid" to "psycho", and in one hand she held a bag containing a box of tissues and a bucket of ice cream, which she slammed onto the table in frustration upon arriving at the kitchen. "Hey," called out to her a familiar voice, their tone flirtatious but their voice rather shrill.

"No way. Kellen? You, you chose…" she said, locking eyes with the minuscule object of her affection. Still at a loss for words, all that escaped her lips were three words: "I love you."

There wasn't an ounce of regret in either of them and no longer any worry about the past and the lies that may or may not have been told. He knew that he was hers, and she knew that he was everything to her. Those were the thoughts that guided them as they began their new life, together, at last.

A few weeks later, when the couple next visited the cafe, Kellen couldn't help but notice that Claire no longer worked there. He never brought her up again afterward, but he always had a suspicion as to who it was that got her fired. Not that he minded anyway.