Forgot this from my last review but this really is one of the best gentle teasing stories on the site. Amanda is such a playful and loving companion to her now shrunken brother and that is great to see expressed in a story like this, but it is also great that she can crack jokes and goof around with him. 

@EchoofZen, I think you might be declaring judgment a bit prematurely here. There's nothing wrong with some tension and things getting heated in a good story, even a gentle one. And I know the commissioner will decide what happens next, but I'd be stunned if the next chapter doesn't include the two siblings having a heart to heart about the whole fight and apologies all around (unless the commissioner is reading this and going, "Oh, prepare to be shocked" and decides to go a different direction for the hell of it). With everything we've read up until now, this chapter reads more like setup before a big payoff than any sort of decent into true cruelty.

I mean, she was already feeling like shit for how she treated him before Laura's text put her back in a dark place. She's surely going to agonize over her actions once she's alone in her room.

As for why things got so serious, I think there's a particular reason why Laura sets Amanda off. Reading the chapters before this, I was starting to think that Amanda herself had been in a manipulative, possibly abusive relationship, one she didn't even tell her dear brother about. After seeing her reaction each time Laura texted Ryan here, as well as how she reacted to some of Ryan's actions, I feel pretty strongly that this is the case.

Now, she got upset each time Ryan tried to get physical or called her a name, demanding respect. However, she only outright banned hitting and the word cunt, with the latter seeming to upset her more than anything. I came away feeling as though she has an ex who either hit her or at least threatened to and that he was pretty liberal with his use of the c-word when talking to her. She probably convinced herself that he really loved her and put up with this shit for a lot longer than she should, and, if this is in fact the case, she was likely too embarrassed to reach out for help, even from her brother, who she clearly respects, despite what happened in this chapter.

I think her getting physical with Ryan had a lot to do with seeing those traits that she saw in her ex in her brother's actions, even if the situation was radically different. But she wasn't the helpless one this time and acted accordingly. So her "abusing" Ryan was her reaction to, in some small way, reliving some traumatic memories of that toxic relationship and taking control this time. That's why she stressed respect so much, I think; that asshole (who may or may not exist) never respected her, and she deserved to be respected, damnit!

However, I think her frustration with Ryan over wanting to text and possibly get back with Laura is a different sort of projection. She sees her brother's relationship with her as the same as the one she had with this guy I could very well be completely wrong about. Maybe he cheated on her and she took him back. Maybe she did this several times. So when she sees her brother falling into the same trap as she did (we don't know enough to know that this is true yet, but we certainly can't blame Amanda for thinking this based on what we do know), she sees how dumb she believes she was for doing the same thing before. So when she calls him an idiot for believing whatever Laura is saying or she talks about how crazy Ryan is driving her about this whole thing, she's really talking about herself and the regret she has over letting herself go through that in the first place.

Of course, she also cares about her brother and wants to save him from going through the same thing she did, but I don't think that alone accounts for the anger and frustration she directs at him over it. There has to be something deeper there, which is why I feel so confident that my theory is at least partially right.

Of course, Ryan's not totally an innocent victim in all this, either. While his anger was justified and he was the one who was initially wronged here, I think he went a bit too far with the name calling. I get why he got so worked up, but shit, that's your sister and she truly didn't have any ill intent. The physical stuff I'm a bit more iffy on. Like biting her wasn't a good decision, but she got physical first by pinning him to the arm of the couch with her foot. And trying to punch her finger off of him was stupid, but it's an understandable reaction. And Ryan is obviously going through some serious adjustments in his life, as Amanda even started to acknowledge in the first part of the chapter, so it makes sense why her taking his phone and violating is privacy is such a big thing for him.

Ultimately, though, being in the right doesn't give you license to just act however you please without consequence. And like Amanda not realizing how big a deal taking his phone was to him, he had no idea how some of those actions on his part would trigger something in his sister.

I could see her talking about her deeper issues if/when she apologizes next chapter, and that explanation (whether I came close to hitting the mark or it's something else entirely) could help Ryan see things in a new light and make it easier to forgive her, as well as make it easier for him to understand how he fucked up here as well and apologize himself.

Back to Amanda taking Ryan's phone, I love the delightful irony that all the things that Amanda does that Ryan finds so dehumanizing are also the same sort of things that I think she would do if he was normal sized. I truly believe that she's not treating him any differently than she would if he hadn't shrunk and that her size advantage is simply something that she isn't considering enough.

Her taking the phone read less like "Hmm, I need to read your texts because you're too small to ..." and more like standard little sister shit, like, "Ooh, let's look at all of your secrets, tee-hee." Likewise, when she put him in her pocket to get him outside the apartment, it came off to me as though she would have just drug him out by the arm if he was normal sized; in her mind, he just needed to get out there and she was going to do it for his own good. Hell, even when she collapsed on the couch and nearly flattened him when he refused to move in an earlier chapter, that seemed to me more like silly, playful little sister nonsense than anything. She's just struggling to realize how treating him the same is having such a negative impact on his mental health, although, again, she's starting to, as the start of this chapter shows.

It's just so interesting to me how Amanda can think no differently of him yet accidentally make him think so differently of himself.

I also have to say that, while I can understand Amanda's frustration over Ryan wanting nothing to do with his mother, I think Ryan is exactly right to want to stay away. It sounds like Amanda has wanted to put her family back together for a long time now, and that's clouding her judgment regarding how the family matriarch is going to view her son now that he's a reduced person. I have a hard time believing that seeing him like this is going to change her view on them or even have her make an exception for him regarding that view. She wants to see her son now because she doesn't know he's tiny. Once she does, that's going to change things.

And it's true that we don't know exactly what their mother's view on tinies is, but if it was bad enough for Ryan to sever the relationship before he even shrank, it had to be pretty bad.

As a side note, I love that Ryan cared enough about RPs to be willing to fight even his own mother over them. It says a lot about him, and it says a lot about Amanda that she seems to have taken Ryan's view on them rather than their mother's. I'm curious to see where Brooke stands on the issue.

Suffice to say, it should be an interesting dinner when the time comes (there's no way he doesn't go now that it was mentioned in the story, right?).

Anyway, I've really enjoyed this story so far, and I especially appreciate all of the seeds you've planted in the earlier chapters. There's a lot of ways this story could go and a lot of avenues to explore. Now that I've caught up, I look forward to seeing where the two of you take it!

I like this story a lot. I think the pacing of the plot is fantastic I like how much of each chapter we get to immerse ourselves in Ryan’s story. I really like the characterization of their sibling relationship, how amanda is kind of assuming the role of older sister now and how ryan is adjusting to that. I love the gentle and teasing element of their relationship. I like how comfortable amanda is becoming with the new small presence in her life and I hope we see more encounters with her either messing with ryan playfully or unknowingly. My favorite chapter was 3 I believe thats the one where ryan is walking around her as she sleeps. The accidental fart trap was amazing. I absolutely love that ryan is consistently in the wrong place at the wrong time around amanda, hope to see more of that! Keep up the amazing story!

Love this story, cant wait to see where it goes

Awww! I feel really bad for Amanda. She just wanted to help her brother. Ryan, you idiot!

Really loving this series, mate! Love the part where she's massaging Ryan’s tiny body outside her pocket. It was a very short scene but I really love the idea

Are you planning on posting this on yojr DA as well?

can't wait till he is introduced to mom

VERY nice so far, and I like where this is going.

Please tell me it won't devolve into random abuse at the hands of his sister or his ex...

This story rules, if I’m understanding correctly, are the siblings off to meet Laura to get his stuff or something? I’m a bit confused. (Perhaps a tiny Laura awaits the siblings later in the story:p) 

Great story so far! Can't wait to see where things go from here, with Amanda seeming to becoming more comfortable and a little absent minded of Ryan, oh the troubles he may find himself in, especially if she struts around in her towel and forgets to look where she is sitting.

Great so far! Love how, she's already accepted him as a little pet but he hasn't really realized it yet