Several days later I was back on the floor, hopping between the boards while I explored the corner of Fulda’s condo farthest away from my little house.  It had taken me a couple hours to reach it, but it was one of the few places I hadn’t explored yet.  There wasn’t anything too fascinating there, just the large, round base of a bronze lamp that was too smooth for me to climb well, but that was what I had expected.  Fulda kept her floors immaculately clean and uncluttered, and in all my time exploring I hadn’t found anything exceptionally interesting aside from a quarter.  I simply needed something to keep me busy while she was gone.

A thud from the door grabbed my attention, followed by keys jingling.  It was only around noon, and Fulda always took a lunch with her so she wouldn’t have to deal with a mid-day commute.  The sound of a key sliding into the lock and click of tumblers sliding into place confirmed that it was her.  With a groan the door opened inward and Fulda stepped through the doorway, slightly modified to fit her enormous frame.  Her heels clicked with her steps on the floor, and I could feel the tremors from her feet even where I was.

She took a moment to look around her feet before raising her head.  “Where are you, my tiny fiancé?” she called out in a sing-song voice.  Despite how deep and powerful it was, her voice was remarkably gentle.  “I’ve got a big surprise for you!”

I dashed toward her, scurrying around the leg of the couch.  “I’m over here, Fulda!” I called out, hoping my voice could reach her.  Somehow, she’d never had any trouble hearing me before, but I was usually within her arm’s reach.  This was like shouting at someone almost a quarter mile away, and I was rather quiet even before shrinking.

Despite my hopes, it was still a surprise when she looked right at me.  Fulda’s eyes lit up, and she exclaimed, “There you are!”  She was still wearing her clothes from work, which I understood was a fairly upscale design firm.  Her black knee-length skirt was immaculate, and her white blouse was smooth despite billowing above the waist.  The dress code requiring high heels was surely not implemented with her in mind, but I got to see her happy little smirk every day when she slid her gigantic, stockinged feet into a pair of three-inch pumps.

Fulda stepped quickly, crossing the distance between us in only a dozen steps.  The rumbling double-taps from her footfalls grew louder and more intense as she came closer until her toe struck the ground beside me, sending a tremor up my body so powerful it made my teeth rattle.  She knelt, making a loud thud when her knee hit the floor, then reached a hand down for me.  Her warm, tender fingers pinched around my body, and she gently plucked me off the floor when she stood back up.

Slowly Fulda lifted me to her face so I would stay comfortable, carrying me past her smiling pink lips and stopping when I was between her sparkling blue eyes.  Her skin was radiant; she hadn’t stopped beaming since the first time we had sex.  “I guess it’s two surprises, really,” she said in a bubbly tone.  “But I know you’re going to like them.”

“More than getting to see you in the middle of the day?” I asked, brushing her index finger with my hand.

“Cheeky,” she replied, and the skin around her eyes wrinkled when she smiled.  “Three surprises, then.  Here’s the… second one, I guess.”  Fulda held the middle finger of her free hand in front of me, presenting a small black rectangle balancing on the tip.  She moved it within my reach so I could grab it, and declared, “It’s a phone!  Your phone, now.  I was thinking about what we were talking about at dinner the other night, and how you don’t really have anything while I’m out, so here you go!  And you can take really high-res pictures of me, of course.  I’ll help you get it set up when we get back.”

“Is where we’re going the third surprise?”

“See, that’s why I like you,” Fulda answered, stroking me with her free hand.  “Sexy and smart, in one tiny little package.  I’m taking you along for some wedding planning – specifically, the certificate.  I’ve been handling a lot of the stuff myself since, frankly, most of the guests will be mine and they’ll be the ones enjoying the ceremony.  But for the certificate, it might be a little difficult to do alone because…”

“I’m still technically missing and presumed dead?” I offered. 

“There’s that, yeah,” she said, sounding like that had taken her off-guard, “and they’ll need your signature on it, even if it’s a little too small for them to read.  I suppose we should resolve the whole ‘missing person’ thing while we’re out too, seeing as how you’re going to be online and everything soon.”

“Well then, when did you want to go do it?”

“Since I took a half-day at work for this, I was thinking now if that’s not too inconvenient for you.”  She nuzzled me with the tip of her nose and turned her hand over before dropping me into her palm.  Her fingers curled around me in a loose fist and she lowered it down to her side, keeping me snug and secure against her while she walked.

While she traveled Fulda played with me in her grip, nudging me with a finger or giving me a light squeeze every couple of minutes to keep me engaged.  I appreciated that she was keeping me on her mind and did what I could to return the favor, nipping at her fingers as they pulled away.  The early spring air’s warmth was intensified by her body heat, but I liked her carrying me more than riding in her purse.  Being surrounded by her skin was much more intimate than a small leather pouch.

Vibrations from her voice reached me before the muffled sound of her words filtered through her fingers.  “Excuse me, I’m here to apply for a marriage license,” she declared, and I surmised we had arrived.

I heard some soft rustling coming from outside that concluded with some paper being slapped onto wood.  “Here’s the form and pen,” a voice somewhat higher than Fulda’s succinctly replied.  “Is your partner going to be joining you soon?”

“He’s already here,” Fulda responded, and the rush of movement overwhelmed my body.  Tremors ran through her fingers accompanied by a bang from her knuckles hitting wood, and the floor fell out from beneath me.  I landed on a sheet of white paper and Fulda withdrew her hand back to her side.  On the other side was a thin, towering woman wearing a yellow jacket, her blue eyes magnified by large, round glasses.  Her dirty blond hair was clipped against the back of her head, and her lips were covered with bright red lipstick.

“Ma’am, please remove your toy from my desk,” she said, looking down at me in front of her.  Her expression was impassive, as though she dealt with this sort of thing every day.

“He’s not a toy,” Fulda began, doing her best not to sound offended, “he’s my fiancé!”

“A government office is no place for practical jokes, ma’am,” the clerk replied, gripping a pencil by the sharpened end.  “If you truly believe you’re engaged to this I suggest you leave my line and seek mental help.”  She jabbed the pencil’s eraser at me, and I just barely dodged to the side before it shoved me off.  Her thumb still hit me and pushed me along with her thrust, sending me careening away when it stopped.

“Hey!” Fulda protested, placing a hand on the desk’s edge behind me as a backstop in case I needed it.  “I’ll thank you to not shove my fiancé, and I doubt he appreciates it either!”

Before the clerk could say anything else, I decided to speak up.  “I’m not a toy, a doll, or anything else!” I shouted at her when I regained my footing.  “I’m a man who just happens to be an inch or so tall, and I just happen to love the woman behind me!”

The clerk’s mouth opened in a small, quiet gasp, and she quickly covered it with a hand.  “That really is a tiny man!” she exclaimed, slowly lowering her hand.  “And you,” she pointed at Fulda, exaggerating how much she had to look up, “are getting married to him.”  She pointed directly down at me with a hand looming right overhead.  Apparently, the whole situation as a bit of a shock for her, and she was trying to talk her way through it.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Fulda replied confidently.  She leaned forward, emphasizing how much she towered over the clerk, and looked at the dainty hand over me.  “If there’s nothing wrong with that, I’d like it if you moved your hand away from him.”

“Oh, yes, of course.”  She jerked her hand away like she had just touched a hot stove and shoved it below the desk.  “I deeply apologize ma’am, I meant no disrespect, it’s just more than a little unusual for…”

“I realize that some aspects of our relationship are non-traditional,” Fulda interrupted, practically hissing through her teeth, “but I assure you that our relationship is no less real or valid than any other couple you’ve stamped the certificate for.”  She was doing an amiable job of hiding her rage, but I could tell the only thing keeping her from leaping over the counter was the risk of hurting me in the process.  “If you could just show us where to sign so we can move on, please?”

Not wanting to put her foot in her mouth anymore, the clerk simply pointed to the lines where we should sign.  Fulda briefly picked me up and carried me to my field before setting her hand down on the page to draw her long, swooping signature.  An instant later the pen vanished from her hand, then she was holding it out to me, suddenly appropriate for my size.  I took it from between her fingers and made my own tiny scribble just above the line and handed it back to her.

“And what date will your ceremony be on?” asked the clerk, nervously adjusting her glasses.

“Hm.  You know, we hadn’t really talked about it.  Any preference, little guy?”

Looking up into her beautiful, crystal-clear eyes, I could only think of one day.  “Let’s have it on the anniversary of the most important day of my life.”

“Are you sure?” she asked.  “That’s barely a month away.”

“Positive.  We want a small ceremony, a little subdued, just through it quickly, right?  I’d marry you right now if that’s what I thought you wanted.”

Fulda smiled broadly enough to show her large, white teeth behind her lips.  “It’s settled, then.”  She told the clerk the date we had just decided upon – six years to the day after she had shrunk me – who dutifully scribbled it down.  Before she could snatch the certificate away Fulda announced, “Before we go, we have one more issue to resolve.”

The clerk stopped in the middle of snatching the sheet away from under me.  “And what else can I help you with?”

“My fiancé is officially a missing person and has been for years,” Fulda began.  “I guess if people can’t easily see you, they write you off as missing or dead.  Think you could get that cleared up for us?”

“Well, it’s not normally what I do,” the clerk started, “but as a way of making amends, I’ll get that resolved for you.”  She looked down at me, a little uneasy with the situation still, and asked, “Can I get your name, social security number, and last registered address?”  I gave her the information, and she dutifully typed it in before piping up, “You’re all set!  Your fiancé exists again, and you’re officially registered to be married.  Is there anything else?”

“No, you’ve been a great help to us already,” Fulda answered, plucking me up from the counter.  While she settled me back into her hand the clerk pulled the certificate away for filing.  Fulda gave me a light, encouraging squeeze before dropping me back to her side.  The steady, smooth swing of her gait comforted me on the long walk home.

Later that day, we were finalizing the guest list and making invitations.  Just as we expected it was a very short list, only about ten people, populated by members of Fulda’s family and sorority who hadn’t consciously tried to murder me along with Mia and her newly-shrunken boyfriend.  She wrote her name in wide, elegant loops before I scribbled mine, barely even legible to someone of a more common size.  Fulda helpfully had the instruction to use a magnifying glass printed below where I was signing.

When we were done there were a couple of invitations left over.  “Is there anyone you want to invite?” Fulda asked.  “I know you haven’t really talked to anyone outside of that horrible tank for years aside from me, but is there anyone you really want to be there?”

I thought it over for a second.  Most of my friends must have forgotten I existed by now, and my family would be shocked to suddenly find out I had resurfaced and spend days demanding to know where I had been, why I hadn’t contacted them, etcetera.  “There’s one,” I declared at last.  “Akane.  We wouldn’t be here now if it weren’t for her, right?”

Fulda smiled broadly and exclaimed, “Wow, yeah!  That’s a good one!  Okay, I’ll put her down.  Anyone else?”

Everyone I wanted to invite who wasn’t already going to be there was dead.  “No, that’s it,” I answered.  “Unless you want to invite Gina.”  Fulda simply shook her head with that same amused smile and filled out the last invitation.