“I do.”

Those were the words that bound them together. Despite the trials and tribulations, he and Chloe had finally been able to tie the knot and have the ceremony they desired. With a kiss sealing the deal, they were officially married that summer day. Though they already had been living together for some time, from that point on, they were husband and wife.

But the special matrimony between the two lovers who could hardly afford a single room apartment with their self-employed jobs was not going to be a simple one. Money was going to be the biggest problem for them with the wedding and the honeymoon making a heavy dent in their savings. Even so, the two of them felt the memories had been well worth the cost.

One of the reasons why they were unconcerned may have been due to the ‘special’ part about their special matrimony. Well, he was unconcerned at least. Chloe, on the other hand, was still a tad worried.

“So the government really thinks doing this will be saving space and resources? It sounds like someone wasn’t thinking things through when they passed the law.”

“Hey, if the benefits and services are good, I’m not complaining.”

“I feel like you of all people should be, Zack.”

“Hey, if all we have to do is live like this until we get things up and running, I can manage that. How long is that going to take? Maybe only a year or two at most? No problem. Now things’ll be easier to afford, so we can kick start our married life. It’s no big deal.”

“You sure? Seems like everything’d be big to you like this.”

“Eh, semantics.”

A Miniature Marriage was what he and Chloe had opted for when they filled out the marriage certificate. Ever since the advent of the technology becoming cheap and accessible, literally shrinking down was possible for anyone. In order to help those struggling with money, either the husband or the wife could be made smaller. The married couple would then be given many benefits and insurance premiums they would normally have to pay top dollar for. It reduced their cost of living on top of making sure one of them had fewer necessities. He wasn’t even the smallest size. Being reasonable, the two had decided the quarter-sized scale would give them what they needed without limiting him too much.

Though Chloe was still hesitant, he was more than willing to save a huge sum of money at the cost of Miniaturizing himself for a while.  After all the fun of their honeymoon, the two of them were now settled and moved into their new, bigger city apartment. It was a spacious apartment, and that wasn’t just because of his new size. It did contribute however, seeing as after he was driven back from city hall, he was now a quarter of his height, standing as a foot and a half tall Mini who was knee high to his 5’7” newlywed wife.

“So, Zack, you sure you’re going to be able to do anything like this?” Chloe asked him while sitting on their queen sized bed.

“I don’t need to leave the house to work unlike you, so this isn’t really a problem in my book,” he answered and pulled himself up onto the bed that was now able to fit more than 10 of him.

“Grk. Hearing that just makes me jealous. If only I didn’t love my job, then I’d be staying at home.”

“You should’ve told me months ago instead of always saying you were having second thoughts. You don’t still have them, do you?”

“A little,” Chloe stifled a soft laugh. “Well, since my big man decided to get smaller for my sake, I won’t argue. I mean, it’s a done deal now so what’s the use of complaining. Besides, we couldn’t afford this place without you doing this. We do still have to buy a few things for you to live at this size though. As cute as you looked climbing the bed, it’d be terrible if you can’t do anything in your own home.”

Zack fell back onto the mattress when his wife poked him in the forehead with a finger half the size of it.  “Thankfully, a discount’s part of the package.”

“Then let’s go shopping when I get back,” Chloe stood up from the bed. The loss of her weight pushing down on the mattress caused it to spring back up. Zack was pushed upwards and had to take a second to figure out what had happened as his wife stripped off her blue tank top to get changed. The cotton shirt landed right on top of him, covering him like a blanket would. He struggled for a moment to pull it off him to see Chloe’s back as she sashayed away topless to the bathroom.

Watching the woman he had recently married change was a comfortable and alluring sight for Zack, but the added change of her now being four times bigger than before made the sight a fresh, novel experience to him. He had already gotten used to living together with Chloe in their old apartment before they got married, but with his new height, what was once routine was new again.

Getting used to being 1’6” was going to take a bit of time, but now that he and Chloe were living in a new house celebrating their recent marriage, he felt invincible.

This is the story of a Mini-married couple and their life together.

Minis were a ‘growing’ minority in the country ever since shrinking became commonplace. Stores that sold Mini furniture and clothes had begun to pop up in strip malls and outlets.  To help provide to those who opted to become small in an effort to curb the overpopulation and overconsumption problem that was apparently going on according to the news, these stores were well equipped and well-funded by the government.  Minis who needed things their size or things that would help them in a regular sized world could find what they needed at these stores.

However, Minis weren’t often seen outside in public. People who opted to become small had to be with a trusted normal sized person like a guardian to protect them. Quarter scaled Minis like him for example were the size of if not smaller than a toddler after all. It was dangerous for someone a foot and a half tall to be wandering around alone much less in crowded city-streets.

That was why he was being cradled between Chloe’s arms when they left her car to head inside.

“I can walk, y’know,” Zack remarked. Despite his red cheeks and ears, he couldn’t hide the smile on his face. He was being pressed against Chloe’s warm bosom which fit snugly in her blue striped ¾ sleeve shirt. It was a blissful feeling to be nestled against her boobs that were now massive to his baby-like size.

“I know you can, but you were pretty slow getting into the car earlier and it’s cold out. This is faster,” Chloe gave him her reasons for carrying him inside.

“You’re cold? I keep telling you to wear thicker clothes. Why did you change back into shorts?”

“Because it’s summer!”

“It’s windy!”

The debate between the two of them ended when they finally reached the entrance and walked through the sliding doors. It was there inside the Mini-Porium that Chloe put him down. The two of them scanned across the large super-store and saw a variety of aisles and goods all made for Minis. From clothes to dishware to furniture, the store was packed with supplies. The couple could see aisle after aisle separated not by what they sold but what scale they are at. From half-sized and quarter-sized to even one-tenth sized and even one-hundredth sized, the store catered to all Minis.

“Whoa. Where do we start?” asked Chloe.

“I guess the place for my scale’s our destination, but anywhere’s fine with me,” Zack answered, happy to have his feet on the ground. He stretched his legs and then his neck before looking up at Chloe’s. His wife being the height of a telephone pole to him was something his neck was going to have to get used to. “Let’s just go around and if we see something we think I might need, let’s grab it.”

“Good idea,” Chloe nodded and moved to grab a push cart. When she did, she saw the child seat and turned back to him. He already knew what she was going to ask. “Hey, do yo-”

“Nope,” he answered and began to march forward before she could finish. He wanted to walk, and that was what he was going to do. Even if Chloe immediately closed the distance in a few steps, he didn’t want to be babied that much….

… there were still some things he couldn’t fight, however.

“This one’s cheaper, but it’s hideously pink. I don’t think either of us are into that. And there’s this one over here that’s got a bunch of bells and whistles, but the cost is a bit crazy… Which one should we get, Zack?”

A car seat was the first thing they realized they had to buy. Though Chloe had driven him in a car, this had been advised by the employees at the government office. If they wanted to comply with the driving laws, he would have to be in a car seat at all times. 

“Whichever one is less embarrassing, honestly,” he frowned, scratching the back of his head. “What’s the difference between all these seats anyways? We can’t ask my sister for one?”

“Julia only has a booster seat, not a car seat. You’re not big enough to use Abigail’s old one,” Chloe shook her head at his suggestion. He couldn’t be in a booster seat because those were designed for young children, not baby sized men. Actually, the Mini-sized car seats were even stated to be too small for babies because he was smaller than a newborn.

“What’s the difference between the two?” Zack was actually unaware of what a car seat was compared to a booster seat.

“What? Um… Jeez, that’s a good question actually,” Chloe only had superficial knowledge from what she had heard from her sister-in-law so she couldn’t answer properly. “Who’d have thought I’d be buying a car seat for my husband before we even have a kid.”

Thankfully, their confusion caught the attention of one of the employees.

“Is your husband having trouble picking, ma’am?” a young woman who looked in her college years stepped in. She wasn’t the least bit careful about keeping her distance from the couple, which perturbed both of them, especially Chloe who had to back up because she snuck up on her. 

“We both are. We don’t really have kids yet, so I never thought we’d have to buy a car seat this soon,” Chloe confessed.

“Can you help us?” Zack asked.

“What scale is he?” The shrunken man frowned when the employee didn’t glance in his direction. She simply kept her attention on his wife. 

“Quarter-scaled,” thankfully for Zack, Chloe took offense for him and added a glare and a little sassy venom to her tongue as she spoke. “You can see for yourself can’t you?”

“A-Ah, yes. I do,” the girl realized she had been caught being rude and looked over at Zack with a nervous wave. He smirked, knowing Chloe could scare plenty of folks if she ever was serious. Her goth phase back in high school was a tale he heard about from her friends. It seemed she still had the attitude in her after all of these years. “Sorry, sir. Um… Let me see...”

In a hurry to change the subject, the employee shuffled through the various car seats. She pulled one out in particular and slammed it down in front of Zack. For a moment, the man was stunned. The three foot tall box was twice his height.

“Here. I recommend this one. A rear facing car seat. Newborn children are typically recommended this type, but this is designed for quarter-scaled Minis,” the employee said. “This brand has a few different versions as well. This one’s convertible into a carry on and the black one comes with a stroller…”

A carry-on or a stroller? He thought they were shopping for him and not a baby. Sadly, as humiliating as it was to picture himself being carried or pushed around in one, their uses were actually appealing to Chloe.

“That’d make things a lot easier.”

“Chloe, if it’s cheap, we’ll buy it, but I’d like to veto you ever using those options if you can help it,” he told his wife. “We only need a car seat, nothing else.”

“A lot of Mini customers say that, but we end up seeing them in one the next time they come in,” the employee giggled at Zack’s attempt to put his foot down. Then, pretending to whisper, she added. “Actually, there’s another one that comes with a built in computer… And it costs only just a little bit more...”

At that, Zack’s eyebrows rose. “You’re serious?”

His curiosity was piqued, earning a groan from his wife up above. He looked up to see her shaking her head. “You had to mention computers to him...”

Now that his own desires were brought to light, the decision was already made. He was a sucker for technology, and while he still didn’t like having to use the child-suited things they were buying, it at least made him more open to looking around and shopping at the store. Despite Chloe’s sigh over his sudden enthusiasm, she would admit later that it made picking and buying everything far quicker.

With Chloe’s job requiring her to get out of the house more often than not, and his job mostly requiring his computer and phone, Zack was the one who was more frequently at home when he was normal sized. Although he was now shrunken down to one-fourth of his size, how often he left the house didn’t really change.

What did change, though, was how well he was able to navigate around the apartment.

“Jeez… Chloe! I told you to leave the door open!”

Finding it impossible to reach the doorknob was probably the greatest challenge Zack ended up facing since becoming a Mini. Being twice his height above him, there was no possible way he could physically reach the one to their bedroom if he stretched his arms, got on his tiptoes, or even jumped up.

“Whoops. Sorry,” he heard from the bathroom. He could see Chloe through the open door putting on makeup. “Just hold on while I finish here. I’ll get it.”

“Oh, right. You’re meeting your client soon. Don’t worry, I’ll just grab a chair,” he didn’t want to hassle his Chloe, so he did not wait to walk off.

“Eh? You sure? Aren’t those too heavy for you though? Damn, now that I think about it, we didn’t buy something to help you when we went to that store.”

Despite all of the purchases made at the store to help him out while a quarter of his size, there were some things that the two of them did end up forgetting. Zack learned that they really should have gotten something to help him use the doors in their apartment, or at least furniture that was more suitable for Minis.

Chairs weren’t exactly the best solution for a quarter-sized Mini to use. One of the unexpected things about being shrunken down was how muscle strength did not scale linearly with size. Though he was four times smaller, he would have been happy to have gotten four times weaker. Dragging one of the chairs to the hallway was actually an Herculean task for him now. The bar stools in the kitchen and the wooden chairs at the dining table all felt like they weighed a ton to him. Climbing one was already a trial for him, but moving one of the towering structures was now impossible for his teddy-bear sized body.

There was one chair, however, that he could use.

“Alright… Three… Two… One… Grk…! Hngggh…! Go...!” he grunted as he pushed the computer chair from the second bedroom they turned into their office. The 30 pound black seat that had once been his throne for work was enormous and as many times his own weight, but its wheels moved smoothly on the polished floors. He could actually move it, though only a little at a time. “And again…! Hngggh...! And once more…!”

It was a sight to see a 1’6” man trying to push the chair many times his size out into the hallway. For a moment, Chloe was worried and discouraged to see how hard of a time her husband was having, but the man was actually smiling.

“You’re pretty resourceful, Zack. I forgot about that chair of yours,” she crossed her arms while watching from the bathroom door.

“I didn’t want an early workout but whatever. At least being this short makes me exercise more in my own home,” he was optimistic about his condition as he climbed onto the legs of the computer chair. He had to put his arms out to the side to balance himself for a moment before he could then jump up to the actual seat. He kicked his legs as they dangled in the air, trying to force his body up more so he could actually climb on top. “Haaah… Phew… Made it.” 

“Just in time for me to finish,” Chloe chuckled as she walked out into the hallway. She put her hand on the door knob that Zack had finally gotten the chair next to. She could see that even with himself standing on the leather computer chair, he would still have to jump off of it to actually get to the bronze knob. She opened the door to his destination for him.

“Way to take a guy’s achievement away from him,” the frown on Zack’s face was as clear as day, but he quickly shrugged it off. He treated the whole thing like a challenge. “So I was too slow by just a sliver, huh? I almost had it.”

“You were close, but you took too long catching your breath,” giggled his wife. “Maybe next time, you’ll be fast enough to actually beat me to it.”

“You just wait,” he laughed with her. “Man, I should put this in my training regimen. Once I change back, I’ll be the buffest, fastest guy out there.”

“Oh, so you’re saying I should close the doors more often.”

“No, I’m saying I won’t mind if you don’t do it on purpose. I will mind if you actually try to mess with me.”

If there was one thing about Zack that Chloe appreciated, it was how hard it was to make him see the downside in anything. The man was a ball of positive energy, and that didn’t shrink in the slightest with the marriage. In fact, it seemed he had gotten even more spirited, probably because he now had more room to let loose while he took up less space.

And it was clear that his enthusiasm was rubbing off on her too because she couldn’t hide her smile as she replied to him.

“I look forward to seeing a more fit you then.”  

Being a house husband was something Zack knew he would eventually end up doing. Besides the fact that he was at home a lot more than her due to what their jobs entailed, he was usually the cleaner of the two of them. He wasn’t a neat freak, but he did like to make sure the floors were clean, the trash was taken out, the dishes were done, and laundry was done. Chloe and he usually had a rather unfair split of the chores where Zack did all of that and Chloe did the one thing he had no ability to do - cooking. Now that he was a standing knee high to his wife, they took the opportunity to rebalance the chores to be more fair,

He honestly felt it was unfair to Chloe who had opted to do more for his sake.

“I could do the dishes too, you know,” he said while seated atop a moving robot vacuum. He was enjoying a calming ride as the autonomous machine sucked up the dust and dirt off the floor. He could see from his perspective that Chloe was struggling with figuring out how to work the dishwasher.

“No. I can handle it. This is just the first time we’ve ever had a dishwasher. It’s supposed to be easier than all the handwashing you used to do, right? Just leave it to me,” she strained her eyes to read the manual to find the instructions on how to get the appliance running.

“Cooking, trash, cleaning the bath, and even the dishes… You sure you aren’t taking too much?” Zack jumped off the moving robot and dashed in the opposite direction it was moving to avoid getting knocked over by it. He had arrived at his destination, the white rug in the middle of the living area of their apartment. He glanced over to the kitchen where he had a clear view of his wife’s confusion as she hesitantly hit the wrong button on the dishwasher. “It feels wrong making you do all of this.”

Chloe still refused his offer. “Well, you can’t exactly lift the trash bags or climb in and out of the bathtub on your own. I told you, don’t worry. You’ve done everything when we were living together before the wedding. I can handle the chores while your small.”

She had a point. He couldn’t even physically do the chores anymore at his size. Or at the very least, he couldn’t do them easily. Even the dishes, which were over half his size, were something he couldn’t lift in and out of the sink without risk of breaking them and hurting himself. The only chores she left him with were cleaning the floors and folding the laundry. He couldn’t even use the washing machine and dryer because lugging the laundry basket over to the machine was a heavy task given its weight, and getting things out of the machine was impossible given how the washer loaded from the top.

Zack relented. He appreciated his wife’s proactiveness and kindness. He wanted to make it up to her despite the fact that she felt like she was doing this to make it up to him.

At the very least, he still had one chore he knew Chloe never didn’t like to bother with.

“Oof… Hup! It’s like folding a bunch of blankets,” he chuckled as he folded his wife’s V-neck shirts. Each one was twice as long as he was tall and many times wider. Rather than clothes, they really did seem like blankets. He could wrap himself in any one of them and take a comfy nap if he wanted. It almost made him wish the weather got colder so Chloe could bring out the warmer and fluffier sweaters she had for him to see for himself how good they would be for sleeping.

Beside Zack was a mountain of clothes that was actually a few inches taller than he was. Chloe’s laundry that she had left piling up had finally been washed and dried, so he had managed to convince her to let him fold them.

“I swear, all I need are my business clothes, and I use the dry cleaners for those. You really don’t have to fold my clothes for me,” she told him from the kitchen. Still, he could hear the appreciation in her voice. “Don’t overwork yourself over there, alright?”

That was what he was trying to tell her. The two of them clicked so well together that both of them knew their words went in one ear and out the other when it came to their decision.

“Oh, there’s no issue. Actually, I feel like I’m enjoying this more now than ever before,” smirked Zack as he lifted up one of Chloe’s bras. The purple flowery design was one he remembered from their college years. He couldn’t stop himself from grinning as his brain processed that these things were capable of holding breasts that were as big as him if not bigger…

… Definitely bigger, he confirmed. He remembered being able to grab and caress them in his hands before. Now, he wouldn’t even be able to wrap both of his arms around a single one.

He was so lost in his thoughts, he didn’t notice Chloe had finally gotten the dishwasher running until her body blocked the sunlight from the window. The shadow blocking his light caught his attention while he was still holding her bras.

“Heheh,” his wife had caught him. There was a bemused smile on her face. “I see what you meant now by enjoying this more. You can be such a horn dog. That’s not even my favorite bra too.”

He didn’t deny it. “Wait until I get to your panties. I know you’ve still got that lovely number from last year.”

“Well someone’s a cheeky perv,” Chloe got down just so she could pinch his butt. Considering how small he was, her fingers pinched his entire waist instead. “Just don’t make a mess on my clean clothes if you actually do end up getting too excited.”

He’d consider it. The fact that Chloe had given him her permission showed just how open the two of them were in their relationship. He was sure normal married couples wouldn’t act like them, but they weren’t an ordinary pair anyways. And it wasn’t just him.

“I’d say the same to you. I saw what you did to my old shirt the other night...”

“I’m busted?” she laughed as she handed the next bra over to him. She didn’t put it in her hands though. She casually released it above his head so that it fell over him, blinding him for a moment. “Well, you’re not using it right now, so my point still stands. Don’t dirty up my clothes. And I’ll clean that dress shirt later, I promise.”

She’d take it through dry cleaning, no doubt about it.