Naomi returned home, and found she couldn't look Lorelei in the face. 

She had lied to her. Thrown her under the bus. And all because she had felt impatient proposing to her.

She had sent Gloria to her hotel room with the rings- she didn't want to look at them right now. Besides, she wasn't ready to propose. Who would be, when they realized they simply didn't measure up?

She had to ask Lucy. Lucy's advice never steered her wrong before. She didn't know how the six-inch girl had so much good advice in her, especially considering that she'd lived every day since Naomi's own thirteenth birthday relative to Naomi, but she did.

She walked into the bedroom, and found Lucy waking up from a nap.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" Naomi asked, her voice filled with her current, self-loathing state of mind.

*** *** ***

Lucy was unnerved. Naomi hadn't been this broken since Sammi had broken her heart seven years ago. 

No. It couldn't be.

Lorelei needed Naomi too much to hurt her like this, didn't she? Unless the new shrink gun meant that she could satisfy her own desire to pick on people, and Naomi was simply too nice to keep around. 

Which meant that the only reason Naomi was standing before her at full size was that she was immune to Unbound abilities. 

"Talk to me, I've got you," Lucy was ready to soothe her big friend's worries away. "What's the problem?"

"Do you think Lorelei and I are a good match?" Naomi asked, bluntly and on the verge of tears.

Lucy internally let out a sigh of relief. Naomi was thinking about breaking up with Lorelei, but was too nice to do it. If this conversation went well, Lucy might be able to convince Naomi to get a new pet. Then Lucy would pay back Lorelei in full for the torment she'd had to endure since Naomi had begun dating her.

"Sexually, yes," Lucy admitted- no one besides Lorelei had ever let Naomi take the role she wanted. In fact, one girl had tried to force Naomi to take a position of power in the relationship, and had broken it off when Naomi just couldn't do it. The girl needed, on some level, to feel inferior. It was the only thing keeping her from flipping out and declaring herself a monster. So long as Naomi had someone who ground her down in some way, she was happy. "However, in pretty much everything else . . . there's no comparison. I mean, when you have perfection in one corner, and insanity in the other . . . you've gotta wonder who fixed the fight."

Naomi gave Lucy a few soft strokes down her back, causing the tiny girl to purr in pleasure. Nothing was so calming as the knowledge that Naomi was nearby and capable of shrinking whatever the problem was. Lucy felt safe in Naomi's arms, and loved her role as the dark-skinned girl's pet- Naomi fed her, cared for her, played with her, put up with her when she was sick, and occasionally got her involved in sex- and all Lucy had to do was be cute and playful so Naomi never had a day without a bright spot. She had the easiest and most rewarding job in the world. 

Naomi eventually put her down and walked away, and Lucy, satisfied that everything was okay, tried to find where Ryan had gotten off to. He had escaped being Lorelei's toy all week, where Lucy had had to put up with her every day. Something had to be up.

*** *** ***

Sammi was ready to cry, for the first time in the past day in joy. Naomi had sought her out, and was making it all better. She had had to endure being jostled in a purse, flicked across a countertop, stomped on, shoved inside a pussy, and dying, and it nearly broke her.

Naomi ran her smallest finger over Sammi's back highly softly, and cradled her against her breast. "I'm sorry this had to happen to you," Naomi whispered, starting to cry. "It just seems like I'm making everyone's life worse."

"No you're not!" Sammi yelled. "You're making it better! Save me! Get me away from Lorelei, she's a psychotic bitch!"

Naomi looked sadly at Sammi. "I'm sorry, did that hurt? I can't be any gentler with you. I'm just so useless . . . so worthless . . . I don't deserve Lorelei."

Sammi had just been reminded that Naomi didn't understand her, but she had to try. "You deserve better than Lorelei! I'm not exactly about to say that's me- not anymore- but you can do better than that bitch!"

Naomi began sobbing in earnest. "The one thing I had going for me was my power as an Unbound. I can talk to the people I hurt, so I can try to make amends. But now there's something bothering you, and I can't understand what it is." She gently shifted to the side, giving Sammi a gentle slide to the floor. "Go ask Lucy for help. I'm . . . I'm gonna just take a nap. I just don't know what to do."

Sammi watched (and felt) Naomi leave down the hall, watching tears the size of softballs impact the ground in her wake. However, another set of earthquakes came from behind Sammi, who reflexively gulped. "Please be Gloria, please be Gloria, PLEASE be Gloria," she chanted.

"Yeah, no," Lorelei said cruelly.