“Ugh, like, my sister is the absolute worst,” Brittany groaned into her phone as she shoved her foot down against the mattress. Ned found himself stumbling forward as the teenager's slight shift almost sent him sprawling against the sheets. The huge blonde titan took the phone away from her face before shouting down at him, “I swear to God, if you spill nail polish on my new sheets I will crush every bone in your tiny body.”

No matter how empty he knew Brittany's threats were, Ned clutched the thick brush closer to himself while a few flecks of green polish splashed against his skin. Trembling as he approached the girl's thick toes, he found himself looking from them to her massive face high above.

Brittany had changed into her pajamas shortly after dinner, scrubbed her make-up from her face, and piled her hair atop her head in a messy bun. He had seen her dressed down plenty of times, but the tiny man found something about it far more terrifying than anything else she wore. Pressing the phone back to her cheek, she giggled, “No, just reminding my little walking shit stain what will happen if he screws up.”

Carefully adding a fresh green coat to the toenails he had diligently cleaned with a cotton ball, Ned cringed as Brittany laughed above him. Leaning against her knees, her big brown eyes followed him as he cautiously skirted around the toe separator to the next digit. “He's just painting my nails, I've taken dozens of pictures of him doing that,” her voice was lazy and bored, “Oh, school colors. Figured they should match my fingers.”

Shadows danced around Ned as she inspected her fingers and wiggled them in the light.

“I mean, I'll have to go tights tomorrow because it's going to be too cold but maybe I'll go with something sheer so the color will pop through,” she mused, chewing her lip as she watched him work, “I do have those white ones and the green would look so good with that but I normally wear my booties with those.” Brittany let out a light aggravated noise, and errant strands of her long blonde hair whipped about her face, “No, you're right, I'll probably just do that.” She sighed, and the massive mattress shuddered as she leaned back against it, “Uh, he better be coming over tomorrow night. Why what have you heard?”

The brush ran out of polish as he finished applying a single smooth coat to her big toe. Taking a deep breath, he flipped the brush so he carried it against his shoulder like a rifle, the thin plastic stem hitting him hard enough that he actually stepped back. Turning around, he listened as Brittany continued to prattle on about her teenage life.

“I mean, that sounds pretty cool. Like, is everybody going to be there?” He could feel the girl nodding her head as he waddled toward the bottle of nail polish. “Ok, then, maybe we'll swing by. It'll depend on when I can get away from my grandmother's, cause that always takes forever. Anyway, I'll talk to you later, Steph.” Despite her clear dislike for her sister, Ned was amused when Brittany loudly went 'mwah' as she said goodbye to her friend, the noise almost a pitch perfect imitation of the same one Lana had used.

Dunking the brush back into the polish, the amusement immediately left Ned's body as the reality surrounding that insight flooded his mind. Tomorrow was Thanksgiving, and he was painting a seventeen year old's toenails rather than baking pies with his wife and son. He wondered if they were even still spending the holidays in Illinois with him being gone. Wiping away a tear, Ned hoped that Joanne would take Jeremy away to visit her family down south, if only for a couple of days.

The whole world shook, and Ned latched onto the bottle, terrified that it would tip over and spill across his giant captor's new sheets. Looking back over his shoulder, the tiny man fought back a shout as Brittany's huge toes barreled down on him before stopping short. Sucking in deep breaths, Ned felt himself become flush with embarrassment when he heard the loud click of Brittany's camera app.

“I haven't posted a picture like that before,” she teased, her fingers already playing against the screen. “Now, what filter should I use? Maybe Gotham?”

Ned shut his eyes tight as he heard her finger tap loudly against her phone, trying his best to steady himself and try to forget just how easily her foot could have slipped and barreled over him. Opening his eyes, he stared up at her while taking shaky breaths, wondering if Brittany actually understood just how much power she had over him.

“Uh, you got a whole other foot that needs painting, little dude,” she announced, her dark eyes looking out over her phone as the recently cleaned toenails wiggled in the air. Brittany lifted her fingers high into the air and snapped them loudly, the shrunken man cringing at the sound, “Get to it.”

Shaking from a mixture of fear and exhaustion, Ned dipped the brush back into the deep emerald liquid before cautiously walking back to her huge feet. Looking down at the nail beds, he noticed that they still seemed to gleam from the nail polish remover he had scrubbed against them, the light bright catching on their glossy surface.

Leaning over her big toe, Ned found his own frowning distorted face staring back at him.

His eyes were sunken, his thinning hair was an uneven mess, and thick stubble had spread across his chin. The rest of his body hadn't faired much better, with fat and skin sagging off of his torso and his limbs little more than toothpicks. Biting his lip, Ned dragged the green polish across the big nail, thankful that the goop momentarily prevented him from seeing his strange funhouse reflection.

As he went down the rest of her toes, taking great care to paint each one while leaving the very edge free for the complimentary silver coat, Ned wondered if anyone would even recognize him. It would explain how Lana could treat him with such indifference after being his son's babysitter. After all, he hadn't changed much in the intervening years, a little less hair and maybe a little bigger around the middle but he had was essentially the same. He nodded firmly to himself as Brittany's warm breath rushed over his naked body, the girl blowing on her drying nail polish, Lana simply didn't recognize him because of her family's horrible mistreatment of him.

“You can add the silver now, loser,” Brittany ordered, an earbud twisting about between her fingers. Her phone had been replaced by her huge iPad, and he could hear the sounds of garbled television coming out of the tiny headphone. The giant girl's eyebrows shot up and her head jerked forward, sending the shrunken man stumbling back. As Brittany shoved the bud back into her ear, she giggled, “So pathetic.”

Turning to the second bottle, Ned grunted and yanked it open, before holding it tight against himself to ensure that nothing was spilled. Doing the edge of her nail took more concentration, but no matter how hard Ned tried, he actually found it harder to ignore Brittany's immense presence. Leaning down over the nail to ensure it would pass the giant girl's exacting standards, he could smell nothing else besides her fruity skin lotion and the underlying scent of her sweat. Every tiny movement of hers shook his world, forcing him to stop what he was doing to avoid screwing up the toenails no one would be able to see, all while her occasional laugh or gasp of shock at whatever she was watching provided the only sound.

When he finally finished, Ned stepped back, screwed the nail polish shut and collapsed against the giant bed. His tiny body didn't sink into the huge mattress, he was too small to make a dent, but the soft sheets felt good against his bare skin. Staring up at the far off ceiling, Ned let his mind float away, like he would when he was trying to go to sleep in his own bed, Joanne cuddled up close, the sound of Jeremy's video games drifting through the house. He could feel his eyelids start to grow heavy, and his exhausted muscles relax.

Then the door crashed open, and Jennifer's hulking form walked in. Each one of her footsteps shook the bed, causing Ned to bounce between two bottles of nail polish, and the temperature to drop further as he was plunged into her shadow. She was still in her scrubs, but her short hair was down and her minimalist makeup had been washed away.

Cowering, Ned watched as her immense butt loomed high in the sky before crashing down on the edge of the bed, her hands running up Brittany's calf and giving it a light squeeze. Only after her daughter had taken out her headphones did Jennifer speak, “Hey, I just wanted to make sure you remembered to get to bed at a reasonable time tonight.”

“Mom, it's not that late,” Brittany said, her toes drumming impatiently against the bed, ensuring that Ned remained pinned to the sheets nearby.

“I know that,” her mother replied, her hand going up from the girl's knee to her hair, smoothing out the flyaways in her daughter's messy bun. “I just wanted to remind you because we have to get up early to go to your Grandmother's. And you know how bad your father and sister are with getting up on time.”

“Yeah, I know,” the giant girl trailed off, “I'll probably go to bed when I'm done with this episode.”

Ned watched as Jennifer's lips curled up into a smile, “Alright. Nighty night, sweetheart.” The huge woman leaned forward, the bed groaning beneath her as she stood up and kissed Brittany on her forehead. Ned tumbled forward, smashing into Brittany's thankfully dry toes as the giant girl pulled her mom into an embrace.

They parted, though Brittany's fingers were still wrapped around her mother's when she said, “Oh and my slave got your shoes clean for tomorrow.”

Jennifer let out a small delighted noise, and the world shook as she crossed to Ned's fish tank to appraise the black heels. “I was so worried that they'd be completely ruined but they are just perfect,” she announced, walking back to her daughter with the heels in hand, “You know, I was skeptical at first, but now I am so happy you decided to keep that little thing. He's a lifesaver.”

Ned cringed as both Sachs women turned to look down at him, smiles on their faces and light in their big brown eyes. “If it wasn't for him, I'd probably had to have replaced those booties by now. Plus, look at how well he does my toenails,” the digits wiggled and the colors caught the light as Brittany beamed up at her mother.

“They're so cute,” Jennifer replied, her eyes jumping back to her daughter's hand, spreading out the fingers so she could look at them, “Oh and they match.”

“Yeah, I had him do it special.”

Both women laughed, while Ned fought the urge to curl up into a ball.

“God, it would be so nice if we had another one or two of these things around,” Jennifer said, her arm now wrapped around Brittany's shoulders as they watched the tiny man cower.

Brittany giggled, leaning against her mother's body, as she said, “Wouldn't it? Like, our lives would be so much easier.” The giant women continued to laugh before Brittany added, “Still, I don't know if we'll ever get this lucky again. I mean, he walked right up to me after I almost squished him.”

Jennifer nodded, her fingers still playing with her daughter's long blonde hair, “I don't know about that, your sister was telling me that guys have walked up to her in the street and offered to empty their bank accounts for her if she'll take care of them after they shrink.”

The girl's laughter rang across the room, while Ned felt his whole stomach drop out as he wondered how bad things had actually gotten. Were people really so terrified of what might happen to them that they were paying other people to take care of them? To make sure that they didn't end up like he was? He tried to imagine just how much he would pay to avoid this fate, and his pulse started to quicken as he realized that he and Joanne probably didn't have that kind of money.

“Mom,” Brittany said with a shake of her head, “They're probably all old perverts.”

“So?” Jennifer laughed, “Her tuition's expensive, and besides maybe she can just mail them out to us. I'm sure your father could set any little perverts straight.” Her eyes flickered down to Ned, and he found himself practically bowing beneath her gaze.

“Sure, Mom,” Brittany gave her mother one last squeeze before they pulled apart.

“Night, sweetie,” Jennifer said, kissing her again before she walked out.

Shaking her head, Brittany rose up from the bed, and Ned found himself being jostled about by the sudden change in the landscape. Snatching his tiny body up in one hand, the girl chuckled as she dropped him down into his tank. Leaning down over his world, her huge fingernail ran over his back again and again, like she was petting him.

All Ned did was shake, each new passing graze making him more and more terrified.

“Would you like a few roommates, little dude?” She asked lazily as she sprawled out against the fish tank, just like her sister had. “They'd probably be your age, I guess. I don't think hot young millionaires are asking Lana to take care of them,” she made a disgusted face at the thought, “God, they might even be older than you. So gross.”

Her index finger rested on his head, rubbing his hair back and forth and forcing him to brace himself against the plastic floor to avoid being crushed.

“Hey,” her voice perked up instantly, “Didn't you say that you had a wife, little guy?” She giggled, “I wonder if she has the disease. Wouldn't that be great for you two? Reunited again at my feet.” She poked Ned, the force of it knocking him down, “Kind of romantic, right?” Ned found himself sucking in deep panicked breaths as he tried to imagine Joanne trapped in here with him, Brittany lording her size and immunity over them both. “Well, I guess you can dream about that tonight, little guy. Just remember, we got an early day tomorrow.”

Brittany laughed as she crossed back to her bed and turned off the light. For a while, Ned lay there, his world lit up by the blue glow of the giant girl's iPad until as promised she went to bed after finishing the episode she was watching. The tiny man however found himself curling up into a ball, unable to muster the strength to crawl to his makeshift bed. Every time he thought about it, all he could imagine was Joanne underneath it, terrified of the gigantic teenager who ruled their lives or being stuffed into the crotch of her adulterous father.