Three reverberating taps from a finger hitting glass finally woke me up, with Akane’s smooth, warm body still wrapped around me.  I tried to lift her arm off me, but found that while I could move again I was incredibly weak, and the slightest resistance caused pain to shoot up the length of my arm.  Akane must have felt my feeble push, however, and shifted so that her arm was draped along my side.  “Don’t make me get up,” she mumbled.  “I wanna snuggle with my teddy bear.”

Gina’s voice boomed down at us from outside, her words somehow even more intense in the glass, while she conducted her morning teasing.  I had no clue why Akane was not out there with the rest of the shrunken population, but could not complain too much about it.  This was a refreshing break from giant women trying to stomp on me or grind me under their thumbs.  It was almost as though Akane really did not want to hurt me, or at least felt bad about the unending train of misery she had put me on yesterday.

The incessant rumble of Gina’s voice finally faded away, leaving us in peace.  Not long after the tremendous thud of Gina’s door closing, though, there was a loud knock on Akane’s door.  She groaned and began to slide her arm off me, in no hurry to move until there was a louder, much more urgent trio of knocks.  “Akane, open the damn door,” Liz shouted from the other side before pounding several more times.  “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”

Finally, Akane uncurled herself from around me, letting her fingers linger on my shoulder as she got up.  “Try not to get too cold without me,” she said with a wink, “I’ll be right back.”  Her footsteps on the wooden floor were distinct as she walked to the door.  Carefully she opened it a crack and peeked through, then asked “What’s up, Liz?”

A loud thud from Liz trying to force the door inward, but Akane managed to hold it fast.  “First of all, where the hell were you this morning?” she demanded.  “You couldn’t even be bothered to spend thirty seconds walking outside to venerate our Goddesses?”

“I had some trouble getting out of bed this morning,” Akane explained.  “See, it’s so warm and comfortable, and I can hear them from inside anyway.  If it’s such a big deal I’ll venerate them twice as hard this evening, okay?”

Liz grunted.  Clearly she was not pleased with the answer, but there was nothing she could do about it.  “Well, try not to miss any more, okay?  I don’t want to pay the price for you being lazy.  And where’s the little guy?  You were supposed to bring him to my room last night.”

“Well, uh, about that…”

Liz scoffed.  “Please tell me you didn’t actually lose him yesterday.  You know he was in your stockings all day, right?”

“Yeah…” Akane had suddenly become very quiet.  “It’s just…”

“Just what?” Liz demanded impatiently.  “He’s still in one piece, right?”

“Yeah…” Akane repeated.  “He’s in bad shape, though.  Whatever you’re going to do to him might actually break him.”

“Are you fucking…” Liz trailed off, so frustrated she could barely think straight.  “Look, I don’t give one Gina damn that you were so rough with him he almost died, I need a fucking foot stool today, got it?”

“Why you-“ Akane began, suddenly filled with energy again.  She took a deep breath to calm herself before continuing.  “I’ll make you a deal: he stays with me until he’s better, and then you can keep him for however many days that is, plus one.”

“I have a counter-offer,” Liz growled.  “I knock you over and grab him because it’s my fucking day to have him, like we all agreed.”

“Come on, give me a week,” Akane bargained.  “Then you can have him for a week, I promise.  Trust me, he won’t be any fun to play with if he’s paralyzed.”

In the silence I could hear the door shaking in Liz’s grip.  “Fine!” she finally spat.  “A week!  But I’m going to spend that week thinking of the most demeaning, humiliating things to do with him, got it?  When you get him back he won’t be the same, I swear.”

“Okay, that’s fine, seeya later,” Akane cheerily replied.  I got the strong impression she was not really listening to her after Liz agreed, simply glad to be rid of her for a bit.  The door clicked shut, and I heard her footsteps thumping on the wood again.  Carefully she crawled back into bed, noticeably slumping the mattress.

I felt a soft hand on my shoulder, and with a gentle tug she rolled me toward her.  When I forced my eyes open I saw that I was looking right at Akane’s breasts, her cleavage enhanced by the lacy black bra cupping them so that her modest chest looked even more impressive to someone my size.  My feet only reached about halfway down her thighs, I noticed.  She still dwarfed me in every conceivable sense, but for now at least she seemed set on using her size for good.

She slid the hand off my shoulder and onto my back, looking down at me admiring her body.  “I know your time being tiny hasn’t been very easy,” she cooed, “but I want you to see that it’s not all bad, my little teddy bear.”  With her arm she pulled me into her, shoving my face in between her breasts.  At first panic flushed my mind as I was certain she was going to smother me, or shrink and crush me between them.  When I realized that she was not using her breasts to torment me, however, I allowed myself to relax and nuzzled my face between them.

Gina and her friends sat around after finishing their lunches, chatting jovially.  With their sudden and sharp increases in height they had to requisition another table so that they could all sit together, propping their feet up in chairs opposite them so that their knees would not bang against the table.  Someone had started to say something when they grabbed it, but quickly thought better of the idea when they saw Gina was involved.

“I can’t believe I’m so much taller than you now,” Ashley teased Julie.  “You better not make me mad or I’ll step on you!”

Julie scoffed.  Ashley had been at this all morning, and her patience for it was already wearing thin.  “You’re an inch taller,” she said, deadpan.  “An inch.  We’re both over ten feet tall now.  I doubt anyone but us even notices who’s taller.”  It was all she could do to stop from yanking out a lock of Ashley’s platinum hair by the roots.

“Yeah, but I notice,” Ashley retorted.  “How can I not?  You’re sooo short compared to me now.”  Julie rolled her eyes while Ashley rambled on.  “Sometimes I look at you all the way down there and feel sorry.  I almost want to crush you just to spare you the misery of being so tiny.”

“Gina, will you knock her down an inch so she’ll shut the fuck up?” Julie asked, exasperated.  “She’s never going to stop teasing me about this one inch.”

“Both of you shut the fuck up,” Gina demanded, completely uninterested in getting involved in their petty squabbles.  “I have a surprise for all of you.”  She reached into her purse, and when she pulled her hand back out it was clenched in a loose fist.  “This should get your minds off a stupid inch.”

Gina went around the table and dropped a tiny person in front of each Julie and Ashley.  The shrunken people gawked up at the giantesses in terror, unused to not having a wall of glass between them and their towering tormentors.  For their part the girls were shocked too, but out of elation at their gifts.  Neither seemed to know what to do, only capable of beaming down at their tiny people.

Ashley was the first to recover.  She leaned in close enough to her tiny person that she bumped him with her nose, knocking him over.  “Wow you’re tiny,” she said, blasting the person with a wave of her hot breath.  “You’re even smaller than Julie, and I didn’t think that was possible!”  Julie rolled her eyes, and Ashley swiped her shrunken man from the table and held him in her fist with just his head poking out.  She kept him there, staring at him struggling to get free, with the biggest smile she’d ever had.

Julie’s reaction was much more subdued.  As opposed to Ashley’s instinct to rush in and terrify her tiny man, she calmly plucked him up from the table.  Slowly she raised him up to her face, where she set him in the middle of her waiting palm.  She looked down at him, grinning, while he stood in awe of her face looming over him.  “You’re mine now,” she whispered, and was ecstatic while his tiny face dropped.

“Uh, Gina?” Shelby spoke up.  “Where’s mine?”

Gina held her fist in front of Shelby, fingers upturned.  “I have a special surprise for you,” she said, and unfolded her fingers.  Shelby immediately recognized the tiny form of Kristie standing in Gina’s hand, quivering from fear.

“Oh, you shouldn’t have!” she exclaimed, overwhelmed with joy to see how puny Kristie was.  “It’s perfect!”

“I knew you’d like it,” Gina replied.  “Go on, pick her up, she’s yours now.  You can do whatever you want with her.”

Barely able to contain herself Shelby reached into Gina’s hand and clasped her fingers around Kristie, pinching her around the waist.  She lifted the tiny woman to her face, holding her about six inches away so she could bask in the power exuding from her.  “Hi Kristie,” she boomed.  “Guess you won’t be playing basketball anymore, huh?”

Kristie struggled to get free of Shelby’s grip, but found herself solidly pinned between her thumb and forefinger.  “Put me down, you giant bitch!” she shouted, impotently slapping Shelby’s thumb.  “This isn’t funny!”

Shelby laughed, throwing flecks of spittle onto the tiny woman in her grasp.  “You’re hilarious!” she said, finally stopping her laughter.  “Like I would take orders from a bug.”  She remained still for a moment, enjoying the feeling of Kristie thrashing between her fingers.  Never before had she felt so powerful.  She could scarcely believe there was an actual, tiny person in her hand, unable to free herself from the lightest of grips.

“I bet you’re wondering where your little ex is, aren’t you?” she asked coyly.  “I’m sorry to tell you this, but you won’t be getting back together with him.  We were talking last night, and he likes his women to be a lot taller than him.  You just don’t measure up anymore.”

“Where is he?” Kristie demanded.  “You better not have hurt him!”

“Oh, he’s fine.  Couldn’t be happier!”  Shelby chuckled.  “He was playing under my feet yesterday, so I put him in my shoe before leaving today.  I haven’t felt any wetness in there, so he must be having the time of his life.”

“Let me see him!” Kristie shouted, then regretted it when she got hit with another wave of laughter from Shelby.

“What did I say about taking orders from bugs?” she asked.  Shelby faked a yawn, showcasing her maw for Kristie.  “You’re boring me now.  You’re so boring, Kristie!  I think it’s time for dessert.”

Shelby parted her lips and began moving Kristie toward them.  “Shelby, no!  No, don’t do this!  Please, I’ll do anything you ask, just don’t eat me, please!” she pleaded, in tears by the end of it, but her protests only got her closer to Shelby’s open mouth.  Kristie was unable to do anything more than blubber incoherently as she passed between Shelby’s lips and teeth, and fully gave herself to despair when the lips closed behind her.  After a couple quick bats of the tongue against her shrunken former friend Shelby swallowed, relishing the feeling of Kristie squirming inside her throat.

“Next time savor it a little more, will you?” Gina scolded.  “Anyway, meet me after school.  The freshman boys team is practicing and some of them haven’t hit their growth spurts left, it’s the perfect chance for you to practice shrinking your own tiny people.”  The other three agreed, then the group dispersed to attend their afternoon classes.

Akane slid her hands beneath my armpits and lifted me out of bed.  I winced and cried out in pain as my spine was forcibly straightened, but she continued lowering me to the floor.  “I know it hurts, my little booboo,” she said, rustling my hair, “but you need to get better.  Come on, take a walk with me and get some blood back to your legs, it’ll do you good.”

I wrapped my arms around Akane’s thigh and leaned heavily against her leg, thankful for the support.  She had eschewed the clothes Gina gave her, saying they made her feel uncomfortable and she felt much more at home in her schoolgirl uniform.  Akane certainly did not hear any complaints from me.  The plaid felt better against my face, and the feel of nylon triggered bad memories that the smooth, supple skin of her thigh did not.

We walked together, very slowly, with me shuffling along each time she dragged the long, ponderous leg I clung to forward.  Every time I looked up at her to get my mind off the pain of walking she was looking back down with a mysterious grin on her face.  She must have really felt bad about what she did to me to be going through this much trouble.  Either that or she really did think I was cute, which could only lead to problems in the future.

When we reached the stairs I balked.  Even clinging to her leg there was no way I would make it down without falling and injuring myself even worse when I took a tumble down the stairs.  Luckily, Akane had a solution.  She lunged from the top step to the bottom, forming a bridge with her legs.  Slowly I crawled up her leg as if it were a rope strung across a chasm until I reached the top, fighting through the pain spasming through my arms.  Then she carefully rotated her leg forward, making sure I had a secure grip on her thigh before setting it back on the ground.  After I felt her loafer touch down I waited a second then slid down her leg, taking it slow until I reached the floor.

We continued our walk, Akane heavily supporting me the whole time, even though we heard the front door slam downstairs.  It was much too early for Gina to be home: the hands of her wall clock were nowhere near what had been outlined and colored by marker as “Gina Time.”  After a couple more shuffling steps we heard pounding footfalls coming up the stairs.  I began to get scared.  What if someone had come to rob the place?  Would they steal us, and if they did would that actually be worse?  With a turn of the knob the door swung inward, and my questions were answered.

Two black and white low-top Converse slapped their way in, heralding the advance of black yoga pants straining against the bulging calves and watermelon-sized thighs of her legs.  She wore a blue sports bra as a top, showing off her broad shoulders, strong arms, and ripped abs and complementing a golden tan.  Her long auburn hair was braided twice in the front and pulled around so it could be worked into a single braid running down her back and secured with a blue ribbon, and her icy blue eyes confidently surveyed the room.

Fulda had returned.