~

Brian took deep breaths while Allison stroked the side of his face with her finger. A few hours had passed since Elizabeth left, and he had jolted awake from yet another nightmare. Due to the fact that Brian had opted to go to sleep early that day, it was still relatively early in the night. As such, Allison had already been awake to comfort him.

“W-Why… Fuck!” Brian exclaimed, rare tears of frustration in his eyes. “Why does this keep happening? I’m at the point where I’m afraid to fall asleep.”

“I don’t know, baby…” Allison sighed. “I’m sure that it will get better, we just have to give it time.”

Brian looked at her with a skeptical eye, his heart rate returning to normal.

“I hope so. More importantly, though, when did you start calling me ‘baby?’” he asked. Allison lightly blushed.

“I thought I could slip it in without you noticing,” she muttered. “I just thought… isn’t it appropriate for a couple to share nicknames? You’ve got ‘Allie,’ but what do I have?”

“I see, I see… So, what, are you not a fan of ‘darling,’ ‘beloved,’ ‘honey-bunches,’ ‘snookums,’ ‘sugar-butt,’ or ‘boyfriend-chan?’” Brian responded teasingly.

“You’re forgetting ‘asshole,’” Allison replied, with a poke to his cheek. At that, they shared a laugh.

“For real, though, I see your point. You can call me anything you want, Allie. Makes me feel special,” Brian continued. Allison beamed.

“Got it, snookums.”

“That makes me think, I’ve only ever had one other nickname in my life,” Brian said after a moment of silence.

“Yeah? What and by whom?” Allison asked. She always pounced on any opportunity to learn about Brian’s past, as they did not come often. After a moment, though, his face ever-so-slightly saddened.

“It was by my sister, Jennifer,” he said softly. Allison’s heart quickened, as it was an even rarer occasion when Brian talked about his family.

“When she was little, she had a hard time saying ‘Brian,’ so she called me ‘Bean,’” he explained with a soft chuckle. “Even when she grew up, it just kinda stuck.”

Brian’s eyes were distant, as if he was gazing into the starscape of another universe, trying not to be blinded by the light. Allison noticed this, and she smiled sympathetically.

“I see,” she replied quietly. “That’s a cute nickname. I’m afraid that one belongs to her, though, so I can’t use it.”

“Yeah.”

“What was your relationship with her like?” Allison asked. Brian looked up at her in surprise at the unexpected question.

“With Jen? Well…” he said, clearly conflicted. 

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Allison replied gently.

“It’s fine. We were pretty close. Well… it was more than that. She really relied on me, probably a bit too much,” Brian started.

“Why was that?”

“I’m sure this will not come as a shock to you, but we didn’t exactly have the greatest mother. Our dad left shortly after Jen was born, and our mom was always busy. She was working to support us and everything, but even when she was home… she just wasn’t there, you know?” he continued. Allison nodded thoughtfully.

“As such, I was always the one who looked out for Jen. Even though I’m not that much older than her, I just felt like I had to grow up really quickly so I could take care of her.”

“I see. Why haven’t you talked about her before?” Allison asked. Brian turned his eyes downwards.

“It’s hard. I don’t like to think about what she went through after I was convicted,” he replied. The room was overtaken by silence for a few moments.

“The day I realized I was never going home was when my mom told me that she didn’t believe me,” Brian said quietly. “After I calmed down, and was able to form coherent thoughts again, you know what my first one was?”

Allison shook her head.

“I thought ‘what does Jen think of me? Is she going to be okay without me?’ After that… that’s when I cried for the first time.”

Allison scooted closer to Brian’s position on her pillow and gently nuzzled him with her cheek. She then cupped him in one of her palms, holding him close to her face as he leaned into her skin.

“Brian… if she loved you that much, then there’s no way she believed that you had done it. I’m sure that she knew in her heart that you were innocent,” she said.

“I don’t know. She didn’t come to see me before I was permanently moved, and she probably followed her mother’s lead when it came to publicly distancing herself from me,” he replied.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Allison said. “For the most part, your sister was kept out of the public sphere. For what it’s worth, your mom worked hard to shield her from the spotlight.”

“Really?” Brian said, his eyes slightly lighting up. “Well, I’m glad she actually did her job for once. Still, I’m not holding out hope for Jen. She was only 14, and the whole world was shouting at her that the evidence was overwhelming. There’s only so much a kid can take.”

“Wow, I forgot that she was only 14…” Allison muttered. 

“Yeah. Wait, come to think of it…” Brian said, a realization forming. “Her birthday should actually be coming up pretty soon. That means that she’ll be… Jesus, she’ll be 18. My baby sister is all grown up. What the fuck?”

Allison giggled at his bewilderment. After a moment, though, he turned contemplative.

“I hope she’s doing okay. I hope she found peace after what happened. I hope she forgave me,” he said quietly.

“Well… maybe you’ll get to ask her yourself, one day?” Allison asked, her voice laced with optimism. Suddenly, though, Brian’s eyes turned deadly serious.

“No,” he said firmly. “Allie, let me be clear on this: keep my family away from me. I don’t want them to see me like this, and all it would do is reopen old wounds. I’m afraid there’s no room for discussion on this.”

Allison was stunned at his stern insistence. Brian had never adopted such a tone before.

“N-Not even if we proved your innocence?” she asked. Brian let out a dry chuckle.

“That’ll never happen,” he said. At that, Allison sensed an opportunity to direct the conversation towards what Elizabeth had said prior to leaving.

“That reminds me, would you be okay with Elizabeth coming back tomorrow?” she asked. Brian raised an eyebrow.

“She wants to come back so soon?” he responded. Allison giggled.

“Yeah, I can tell that she already adores you. I didn’t get to ask before you fell asleep, but how do you think the meeting went? Do you like her?” she asked.

“Um… yeah, I guess so. I think the meeting went well. I could tell she was trying really hard to put me at ease,” he answered. Allison smiled.

“Yeah, she has a way of doing that. I also thought that the meeting went well, since you opened up to her way quicker than I thought you would. I really, really appreciated you doing that, by the way. I know it can’t have been easy, and I’m sure it meant the world to her as well,” she said.

“It’s fine. If nothing else, it was obvious that she wasn’t planning on hurting me. I also loved when she called you a nerd,” Brian replied with a grin

“Oh, I could tell,” Allison replied sarcastically. “For the record, though, she did not call me a nerd.”

“She was implying it.”

“…that’s fair. What can I say, I was an excellent student.”

“I’m just messing with you, I definitely prefer an excellent student to a party animal. It makes me feel better about not attending parties myself,” Brian said slyly. “Also, it just makes it more special when they finally do go crazy.”

“Oh, you definitely don’t want to see me go crazy, Bentley,” Allison replied with a dangerous grin. “Don’t make me bust out the Chevalier handbook.”

Brian laughed out loud.

“Yeah, I certainly wouldn’t want you to take on that sadistic persona again,” he replied jovially. He then motioned Allison to move closer, and she leaned in so her ear was right before her tiny boyfriend.

“Or would I?” he whispered. At that, they both cracked up. Allison flopped back onto her side, causing Brian to lightly bounce on the pillow as she tried to calm down from her giggle fit.

“I feel like we’ve drifted away from the point,” Allison said with a laugh. “I was trying to ask if you would be fine with Elizabeth coming back for dinner again!”

“Right, right,” Brian replied. “Alright, I’ll say yes if you tell me what you two were talking about in private.”

“Oh yeah, I was gonna tell you about that anyway,” Allison said. “Well, this is actually kinda funny, she covertly motioned for me to follow her, right? So I obviously think it must be for something important. When I meet her in the bedroom, though, the first thing she asks me is if you had enough to eat.”

Brian looked up at her in surprise.

“If I had enough to eat?” he repeated. Allison nodded with a grin.

“What she was really asking was if you were still nervous around her, but she manifested that as concern for your eating habits,” she replied.

“You don’t say. Does she think I’m in the market for moms or something?” Brian asked, which caused Allison to giggle.

“I don’t know, she did seem to get pretty attached to you pretty quick. Who knows, though, maybe you need one.”

Brian’s eyes softened for a moment, his heart wrestling with conflicting emotions.

“Yeah…” he muttered. “Anyway, what about after that?”

Allison’s face darkened slightly.

“Uh… I kind of let it slip that somebody else knows about you,” she answered sheepishly. Brian looked up at her, his eyes narrowed.

“And?” he asked.

“And that she’s a Chevalier.”

“And?”

“And that we lied about why I kept you, but I agreed to let her torture you to prove it.”

“And?”

“And that I tortured you as well.”

“And?”

“And that she realized afterwards that I think you’re innocent.”

“And?”

“And that she agreed to keep it a secret, although Elizabeth doesn’t believe her.”

“And?”

“That’s it.”

“You sure?”

“Pretty sure.”

“Well, shit,” Brian said with a sigh. “How did she react?”

“Not… super well,” Allison said, remembering Elizabeth’s fury. “She also forced me to tell her Cathy’s name. She said that she wants to look into her, whatever that means.”

“Huh. Well, don’t worry about it, Allie. She was going to find out at some point, so it’s probably better to get it out of the way. Also, let me just remind you that I’m still not angry about what happened. It was an honest mistake, and we got through it,” he replied. Allison grinned widely.

“Oh, Brian, you really are the bestest,” she gushed, before drawing her lips closer to him. “It just makes me want to…”

“Forget it!” Brian shouted. Allison retracted her lips with a fake pout.

“Anyway, thanks for telling me. Yeah, she can come over tomorrow,” he said.

“Excellent, I’ll let her know. She said she wants to get to know you better, so I think it’ll be fun,” Allison replied.

“Good to know. Alright, let’s get some sleep.”

“And also to go over my plan to clear your name…” she whispered.

“Huh?”

“Nothing. Let’s go to bed. Do you… do you want to sleep in my hand again?” she asked shyly. Brian averted his eyes, trying not to show his embarrassment. 

“Er… yeah, if you don’t mind. It’s really comfortable,” he replied.

“I’m so glad to hear that. Alright, here you go, darling,” she said, holding out her palm as Brian rolled his eyes. Once he was secure, Allison turned off the light and rolled onto her back. Brian soon found himself once again wrapped up in a cocoon of warm, soft skin, and he was instantly lulled into sleepiness. As had become standard, they wrapped up the day with their favorite set of words.

“Goodnight, Brian. I love you,” Allison said.

“Goodnight, Allie. I love you too,” Brian replied.

At that, they both drifted off into a peaceful sleep. This time, it was untouched by nightmares.

~

“Hey, Elizabeth, welcome back!” Allison said with a knowing grin. Elizabeth beamed.

“Thank you very much, Allie, I’m glad to be back,” she said, before she was welcomed inside. As promised, Elizabeth had provided the food this time, and Allison graciously received the bags while Elizabeth removed her coat. Underneath was an extremely fuzzy sweater, and Allison quickly realized that she was probably wearing it in the hopes that Brian might want to rest on her body at some point. A small pang of possessiveness shot throughout her body, but she quickly got it under control. After all, it had been her idea to let Elizabeth know in the first place.

Despite her best attempts to be sneaky, Elizabeth kept glancing in the general direction of the living room. 

“He’s on the couch,” Allison said with a teasing grin. Elizabeth’s eyes widened.

“Found out, huh?” she said with a sigh. “What can I say, I’ve been thinking about this all day. I had to nearly cancel my classes.”

Allison giggled at her eagerness, and motioned for her to follow.

They approached the sofa, and Elizabeth soon laid eyes on the miniature man that she was there to see. Unlike last time, where Brian was at his most robotic, he was showing a gentle smile as he waited with great anticipation for his new ally to arrive. At the sight of him, her face lit up.

“Hi, Brian!” she said warmly. “I’m so happy to see you again. Thank you so much for letting me come back so soon.”

“Of course, Elizabeth,” Brian replied calmly. “I was too tired to say so last night, but it was a pleasure to meet you yesterday. I was skeptical about the whole situation, naturally, but I think we made a good call in telling you.”

Allison and Elizabeth were stunned into silence for a moment. Compared to how taciturn Brian was the previous evening, he might as well have given an entire speech just then. Noticing this, Brian raised an eyebrow.

“What? I was nervous yesterday. I’m over it,” he said plainly. At that, they got themselves under control.

“W-Well, the feeling is mutual, honey. It means a lot to hear you say that,” she replied. At that, she and Allison made their way over to the couch. Allison scooped Brian up and held him in her lap, while Elizabeth sat down a small distance away. Allison ruffled his hair affectionately, which Elizabeth took note of with a raised eyebrow. After a moment, though, she remembered something.

“Oh! I keep meaning to ask, Allie, but when did you start wearing your hair down? Sometimes I almost don’t recognize you without your classic ponytail,” she asked. Allison instinctively grabbed a few strands of her auburn hair and twirled them around. Indeed, her medium-long hair was hanging freely, despite the fact that she usually wore it in a neat ponytail.

“Oh, about a week ago…” she said, slightly self conscious.

“Don’t be embarrassed, it looks great!” Elizabeth said. “What inspired the change?”

“It was me,” Brian piped up. “Allie, you want to show her?”

She nodded, and gently plucked him up with her free hand and transferred him to her shoulder. Then, when he was secure, she maneuvered her hair so it was hanging down over her shoulders and down to the top of her chest. As a result, Brian was completely hidden to the outside world.

“It was just something fun we thought of, in case I ever need to hide him quickly,” she explained. Elizabeth nodded, clearly impressed.

“Is it comfortable in there, Brian?” she called into the mess of hair covering Allison’s shoulder.

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool,” replied an unseen small voice. “It’s like being in a weird forest.”

Elizabeth giggled, and Allison transferred Brian back to one of her palms.

“So, with that out of the way, I was thinking that we could eat before getting into business, okay?” Elizabeth asked. Brian cocked his head at the word “business,” but nonetheless agreed to Elizabeth’s proposal. With that, they moved into the kitchen to plate up the food that she had brought.

~

After dinner, the trio were still seated at the dining table. Any traces of food were cleared off the table, though, and in their place was a legal notepad and a pen- both of which belonged to Elizabeth. Allison was sitting with her hands neatly folded on the table, in a manner that brought back memories of a certain metal room. Brian was seated directly in front of them, comfortably leaning into her soft skin. He was perplexed as to the nature of the two items, and was patiently waiting for an explanation. Allison, on the other hand, was trying not to fidget.

“So, tell me, you two,” Elizabeth started, putting her glasses on as she adopted a serious expression, “what have you been able to come up with so far?”

“What do you mean?” Brian asked, before Allison could reply.

“I mean, how has the plan to clear your name been coming along? I want to help,” she answered. For once, Brian was the one stunned into silence.

“Uh… about that, Elizabeth…” Allison started. Before she could continue, though, Brian regained himself.

“We’re not trying to clear my name,” he replied firmly. “There is no plan.”

Elizabeth went quiet for a moment. Her eyes darted between them a few times, before coming to a stop on Allison.

“Well, this is a surprise…” she said softly. “You probably should have mentioned that earlier, Allie.”

“You caught me off-guard!” Allison exclaimed, causing Brian to flinch. “You were practically walking out the door when you said that you wanted to help with my ‘plan,’ and I just didn’t know how to bring it up!”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Brian cut in, “you knew that she thought we had a plan? Why didn’t you say so?”

Facing the pressure of two sets of questioning eyes, Allison deflated.

“I’m the worst,” she said. “I crumbled under the pressure. I’m sorry.”

“Eh, it’s whatever, Allie,” Brian soothed, giving her skin a few comforting pats. She instantly perked back up.

“Anyway, like I said, we aren’t planning on trying to prove my innocence. Sorry if we misled you, Elizabeth,” he continued.

“Well, I’m confused. Why did you two decide to let me in on your secret, then?” Elizabeth asked.

“Uh… I just kinda thought that Brian could use a new friend, you know?” Allison answered unsuredly. Brian gave a thumbs-up in affirmation.

Elizabeth removed her glasses.

“That’s… it? Well, then… what have you both been doing for the last two weeks?” she continued, her tone slightly rising. Allison and Brian exchanged a few glances.

“We’ve been, just, you know, kinda been taking it easy, right Allie?” Brian answered, while Allison vigorously nodded. Elizabeth was thoroughly flabbergasted by their casual attitude.

“Wait… Allison, does that mean you rescued Brian without a plan for the future?” she asked.

“Uh… no?” Allison answered, although it came out more as a question.

“It was a spur-of-the-moment type thing,” Brian elaborated. Elizabeth held her head in her hands as the nature of Brian’s rescue became clear to her. She let out an enormous sigh, and then raised her head. Brian looked slightly bemused, while Allison looked terrified. 

“Alright, there are a lot of things I want to say about all this,” Elizabeth started sternly. Before she could continue, though, Brian cut in.

“Well, before you’re too hard on Allie, let me just say a few things,” he said. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.

“When Allie told me that she wanted to rescue me, she was upfront about how she didn’t know what to do afterwards. The truth is that we only had so much time before the session ended, and she needed to figure out how to smuggle me out in the first place. Also… it’s not like I was exactly being cooperative, since I kinda sorta maybe thought she was trying to torture me,” he started. Both Allison and Elizabeth’s eyes softened in the face of Brian’s candid defense.

“The most important bit is that she decided to rescue me from death. Her main concern was getting me away from any immediate danger, and she did that flawlessly. That took a lot of courage, so please don’t fault her for that,” he continued. At that moment, Allison was feeling a typhoon of love and adoration inside her chest. She wanted nothing more than to express her gratitude, but she was afraid that she might physically hurt him in doing so, if her trembling hands were anything to go by. Elizabeth let out a smaller sigh.

“Brian, you’re right. I apologize for getting upset. Regardless, though, that doesn’t explain why you still don’t have a plan. Have you both seriously been doing nothing for the past couple weeks?” she asked exasperatedly. Once more, Brian came to Allison’s defense. This time, though, his voice was slightly firmer.

“No, what she’s been doing is making me feel happy and loved for the first time in three years,” he said, trying not to get angry. “She’s helped me watch my favorite movies again, get caught up on world events, eat delicious foods, and feel completely safe. These are all things that I thought would never happen again, so just… just cut her some slack, okay? I think she’s been doing a great job.”

With that, he looked up at Allison and gave her a wink. Her heart promptly exploded.

“…Professor, we’ll be right back,” she said calmly, before unexpectedly scooping Brian up and leaving the room. Once they were gone, Elizabeth could hear the sounds of repeated smooches, along with the occasional squeak of mock-protest. At that, she suddenly had a realization as to the nature of their relationship. After a few more moments of this, where she clearly heard Brian say “Unhand me, she-devil!” at one point, Allison came strolling back into the room. In her hand was a frazzled one-inch man with beet red cheeks, while she herself looked positively pleased. She calmly placed Brian back on the table before taking a seat. She then turned her attention back to Elizabeth, looking as if nothing in the universe could bring her down from her good mood. Brian, on the other hand, had returned to a blank expression as he tried to repress his embarrassment. 

After a moment, Elizabeth broke out in jovial laughter. Any traces of her imminent scolding had vanished, and she returned to a warm and comforting demeanor. 

“Alright, Brian Bentley, you’ve defeated me. You really are a sweetie-pie, aren’t you?” she said. Brian gave a thumbs-up in affirmation, which only caused her to smile wider.

“Allie, I truly apologize. I should have given you the benefit of the doubt. Brian is absolutely right, all that matters is that you had the courage to save him. I also think it’s simply wonderful that you’ve spent this time trying to make Brian happy. It sounds like you’ve done a fabulous job, so I hope you’ll forgive me,” she continued.

“No worries at all, Elizabeth,” Allison replied with a smile. Just like that, the mood had reset.

“So, in that case, why don’t we come up with a plan now? What I would need is a detailed account of what really happened with Timmy Osment, and then we can move forward from there. How does that sound?” Elizabeth asked. Brian adopted a troubled expression.

“I don’t think you understand. It’s not just that we don’t have a plan, it’s that we aren’t ever planning on trying to prove my innocence. We don’t want to come up with a plan,” he said. Once more, Elizabeth was shocked.

“I’m sorry, what? You don’t want to try? But… why not?” she replied.

“I just don’t think it’s possible,” answered Brian. “It’s been three years since the murder, and nobody tried to actually find out what happened, since they already had someone to blame. As far as I know, the only thing that would actually prove my innocence is if we found the actual murderer, which is totally not gonna happen. Sure, we could try and expose the shady way in which they handled my case, but that wouldn’t definitively prove that I didn’t do it. That would just inspire doubt.”

“But doubt would be enough!” Elizabeth exclaimed. “My hunch is that the evidence they covered up is pretty damning for them, so I’m sure that uncovering it would bring the right people over to your side, Brian!”

“Would it be enough to protect Allie, though?” Brian asked. 

“Protect… huh?” Elizabeth replied.

“If we try to prove my innocence, that means exposing me to the world at some point. That would also reveal that Allie broke the law in saving me. I’m sorry, but there’s no situation in which I’m comfortable pursuing this path if it puts Allie in harm’s way,” he continued. Elizabeth leaned back in her chair, while Allison gazed at him with all the love in the world.

“I… I see your point,” Elizabeth replied quietly, before her face twisted in contemplation. “I wouldn’t want to do that either. But… it might not be a concern.”

“What do you mean?” asked Allison.

“Well, as you two know, the power of public opinion is incredible. Let’s say we convinced the public of your innocence, for a moment. In that case, Allie doesn’t become somebody who broke the law, but a brave young woman who risked everything to do what was right. You think the public would sit still if she was punished for that? No, I think that would be a perfect repellent to any repercussions. Does that make sense?” she elaborated.

“I understand the concept, but that is in no way guaranteed. I can’t risk Allie’s life on a hypothetical. Look, the truth is that the risks are too great, and the reward just isn’t worth it. We agreed on this together,” Brian replied. Allison nodded.

“Yeah, we’ve talked about this for a long time. Obviously, I want nothing more for the world to know, but we just don’t know how to make that happen in a way that is safe for both of us,” she said.

“How can you both be so cavalier about this?” Elizabeth asked incredulously. “Brian, you say that the reward isn’t worth it? This is an opportunity to regain everything you’ve lost!”

Brian shook his head.

“What’s gone is gone, Elizabeth. My family walked away from me, and that’s not something that can ever be undone. As for the rest of the world, I don’t care what they think. My future is with Allie, and coming to accept what I’ve lost,” he responded. Allison nodded once more.

“But… what about your size?! Don’t you ever want to return to normal?!” Elizabeth exclaimed.

Allison and Brian stared at her in silence.

“…come again?”

“Your size! This is your chance to undo the shrinking! Tell him, Allie!” she continued. 

“Wait, me? Tell… him, what? Wait wait wait, what the fuck are you talking about, Elizabeth?! The shrinking is permanent!” Allison cried. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.

“No it isn’t,” she replied plainly.