“Hm. That’s gonna tear first, for sure...”

Running her fingers over the degrading seam from inside of her hanging outfit, Trucy Wright sighed. She’d only been using this show outfit for a handful of weeks, but it was already starting to show some signs of wear. She supposed that was on her – her magic acts weren’t exactly gentle on her costumes. She would have to get a new one on order soon, just in case.

Since a couple of months after her eighteenth birthday, Trucy had been using a new primary costume for her increasingly-spectacular magic shows. It wasn’t to say that she didn’t still adore her original costume, of course – it was just so familiar and consistent throughout her earlier stage career that it had started to feel a bit... ordinary. With a bit of further urging from a certain wonderful someone, Trucy had decided to splurge a bit, designing and custom-ordering a brand-new stage outfit for herself. A nicer set of white boots with black trim, a long set of dark pants, a reimagining of her original dress with a gold trim and a second layer of fabric pinned down her chest and covering her shoulders – it was aesthetically a match for her previous main costume, but with added intricacies to make the design pop without becoming too distracting. Quite frankly, she loved it.

Unfortunately, this affection of hers was not enough to prevent the costume being damaged by her performances in it. She stepped back from where it was hanging up, grabbing her phone to jot down a reminder for herself to put in the order for a backup as soon as she had the chance. When she set the phone down again, her eyes fell on the framed photograph resting on her desk.

Most people her age didn’t go around printing their photos to frame in their rooms. This was one situation in which Trucy was totally willing to make an exception. She’d looked at this photo probably a hundred times already, but the sight of it still made her feel as warm and contented as ever.

She was in the photo, of course, cheerfully smiling into the camera, but more importantly, Athena Cykes was there as well, an arm slung around the back of Trucy’s neck and pulling her in close, an infectious grin spread across her face as her hugging motion pressed her cheek to Trucy’s. They were standing on a boardwalk down by the beach, the sun setting in the background. She couldn’t possibly have planned for a better first date.

She had already been seeing the redheaded attorney at the Wright Anything Agency five days a week and spending time with her as friends most weekends for a couple of years, but for the last four months, things had been so different.

It was still a bit embarrassing to remember how difficult it had been for her to work up the courage to ask Athena out. She spent one or two evenings a week onstage in front of hundreds if not thousands of people, and yet asking a pretty girl she was already close with out on a date had been one of the hardest things she’d ever done. Athena had been no help, first turning as pale as anything and then quickly shifting to a blush before stumbling her way over a reply until Widget chirped several affirmatives in a row, his display flashing between a shocked yellow and a bright, warm green from down on Athena’s chest.

Trucy had liked Athena for quite a long while now. Like liked her, specifically. Aside from just being a great and dependable friend, Athena was incredibly smart, funny, bold, pretty, and if Trucy was totally honest with herself, out of her league. She hadn’t ever expected to fall head-over-heels for the redheaded lawyer her dad had hired on two years ago, but here she was, gazing with a sappy smile at her favourite photo of her girlfriend and already losing track of the time in the midst of her reverie.

The incident months ago with Ema’s size-changing device had really been the final catalyst her feelings had needed to compel her to ask her friend out. When their brainy detective friend had allowed them to borrow her invention and mess around with its size-altering abilities for a day, and Trucy had allowed Athena to shrink her down to a tiny size for a while, events conspired to find Trucy in the embarrassing situation of being stuffed down Athena’s shirt to conceal her from view. Spending a while in the soft, overwhelming company of Athena’s breasts and body heat, the magician had been completely blindsided, and afterward she had spent quite a few evenings in her room with her mind running wild as she wondered what Athena might say if she ever admitted how she felt.

So, she had asked Athena out on a Friday, and they’d spent most of the following Saturday on a very prolonged first date. At times it hadn’t even felt like a date – they already spent so much time together outside of the office anyway that she almost could’ve forgotten the day was different at all. The main reminder was how she no longer needed to hide her affectionate looks in Athena’s direction or her blushes at the redhead’s dazzling smile.

Of course, now that she thought on it, there was something else about that first day messing around with Ema’s size-changing device that was less pleasant to remember. For Trucy, the evening following had simply been a trip to the movie theatre spent wondering why her two lawyer friends weren’t showing up. They’d all agreed on the showtime, but neither Athena nor Apollo had arrived nor even texted her to explain their absence. She’d enjoyed the movie on her own, at least, eventually getting a response from Athena afterward.

The explanation Athena gave had been terrifying to hear. An hours-long ordeal in the Cosmos Space Centre resulting from Athena accidentally triggering the Skye Device and shrinking not only herself, but Apollo as well. By the sound of it, they’d only narrowly escaped at least a few near-death situations as they struggled to eventually draw the attention of Aura Blackquill, the space centre’s robotics engineer, in hope of a rescue. Trucy was particularly alarmed at the idea of Ms. Blackquill being her two friends’ only hope for a rescue, given that Aura was the very same person who had taken her and eleven other people hostage out of desperation to see a certain case solved just a couple of years ago. Just thinking about Athena and Apollo being in life-threatening danger like that was enough to make her feel sick, even more so now that her relationship with Athena had evolved so much in the time since.

The one untouched upside Trucy could see from that day was the way it had planted the seed of a very... appealing idea in her head. It had been quite a while now since she and her girlfriend had experimented with Ema’s size-changing device. Athena hadn’t even been her girlfriend yet the last time, in fact. In the time since, Trucy had become rather attached to the idea of shrinking Athena down to a tiny, adorable size. They had tried it a couple of times on that very first day playing around with the device, but never again in the time since they had begun dating. The idea was... exciting, to say the least. Still, she had figured that Athena deserved a good, long break from anything to do with shrinking after the harrowing evening she and Apollo had been through. By now, though...

Trucy heard her bedroom door easing open, and turned to see Athena stepping inside.

“Hey!” she said, finally moving away from the photo on her desk that had sent her into such a lengthy bout of reminiscences.

Athena’s work day had ended a couple of hours ago at 5, but she had stuck around to have dinner with Trucy and her father and to help Trucy prepare for the other major activity awaiting in her evening.

“Ready to knock that crowd out cold?” Athena prompted her, joining Trucy in the middle of the room.

Trucy grinned, striking one of her well-worn poses. “I think some of the regulars are getting a little too comfortable with my repertoire, so I might need to punch it up a couple of notches tonight.” she said.

“Oh, c’mon, you’ll knock their socks off.” Athena laughed. “You’re like a magical force of sock destruction onstage.” She leaned down the tiny bit that was necessary and kissed Trucy on the cheek.

Though it still made her face feel very warm, Trucy had gotten over openly blushing at every kiss from her girlfriend. “Hmm...” She tapped a fingertip against her chin in thought. “I’ll need to workshop that before I can think about using it in any of the ads, but maybe it’s got potential. What d’you think of ‘no socks shall survive’?”

Athena laughed again. She dropped onto the edge of Trucy’s bed, sitting down. “So,” she prompted, “you about ready to get going? We can’t risk traffic making us late.”

“Just about!” Trucy said. She grabbed her show outfit, dusting it off one final time. “First, though, I wanted to ask you something...”

Athena was biting her lip a little. Trucy bobbed up on down on her feet, awaiting a response to her request.

“... Shrinking again.” Athena said. Her blue eyes darted around. “I mean... it could be fun, for sure, but...”

“I don’t want to make you agree.” Trucy assured her. “I heard enough about what happened to you and Polly at the space centre, but...” She gave a little laugh. “Can you blame a girl for wanting to play around with a tiny version of her girlfriend for a little while...?”

Athena’s uncertain expression shifted back to a tentative smile. “Well, okay. The time at Aura’s place was so scary because we didn’t have any control over it. With you? I know I can trust you to keep things totally safe.”

Trucy couldn’t help but laugh, thinking back to some of the earliest magic practices she’d ever asked Athena to assist her in. The redhead certainly hadn’t trusted her with her safety back then.

“Thanks!” she said, flashing an appreciative grin. “Well, if that’s settled, we can be out the door!”

Their drive over to the theatre was uneventful. So far, none of the paparazzi crowd all too happy to hound Trucy had figured out her preferred means of arriving at performance venues. A plain hoodie to conceal her appearance and a ride to the theatre in her girlfriend’s unimpressive car had consistently been proving sufficient. They arrived without issue, and Athena followed Trucy into the back entrance to the venue.

They spent the short walk to Trucy’s dressing room in silence. Once inside, Trucy wriggled out of her hoodie and balled it up to toss it aside.

“Hat,” Athena said, producing Trucy’s familiar top hat from inside her bag, “and stage dress!”

Trucy grinned, gathering up the components for her performance outfit. “Be right back.” she said.

Athena took a seat in front of the large mirror at the side of the room while Trucy darted off to change behind a small section of wall opposite the dressing room door. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen her girlfriend in her underwear before, but still, giving her a bit of privacy was fair, seeing as Trucy appeared to want it.

She would never say no to attending one of Trucy’s magic shows, even if she already knew the whole performance down to the finest detail from so many previews at work and so much time spent helping Trucy practice and improve her ideas. At just eighteen years old, Trucy Wright really was an amazingly talented illusionist, and Athena got a warm feeling inside at just the thought of how much further she would get the chance to see her girlfriend’s career go. Getting warm feelings inside was a regular fixture of her time with Trucy, actually – it seemed so strange now to think back to the first year they’d known each other, when she’d just seen Trucy as her boss’s quirky daughter, and someone to keep her distance from whenever magic practice was involved. Coming to understand just how much of Trucy’s behaviour was a mask meant to keep her actual feelings hidden had completely changed Athena’s outlook on her, and once it had come around to Trucy asking her out on a date... well, she hesitated to use the word “love” after just a few months of dating, and it wasn’t as if she had any prior romantic relationship experience, but she doubted there was anyone else she would be happier to spend her life with.

Athena looked up when Trucy stepped back out from behind the wall. She was fairly sure that there was a light blush tinting her cheeks, but that was alright. Showing her emotions loudly was something she had long-since accepted about herself.

“Looking great!” she said, flashing a thumbs-up. Trucy’s reimagined show outfit looked excellent on her, and it was even better in motion on the stage. Athena hopped to her feet, gesturing to the chair she’d just vacated. She worked her single glove off of her right hand while Trucy approached to sit down. “Get comfy, and I’ll go to work!”

Athena’s part in preparing for Trucy’s magic shows went beyond just driving her girlfriend to the venue. Trucy’s brown hair had grown out to a not inconsiderable degree in the last year, and styling it was something the two loved to work on together.

Trucy was unusually quiet as Athena’s hands ran through the practiced procedure. They had tried quite a few wildly different hairstyles by now. For quite a while, Athena had hoped to talk Trucy into letting her try a large, fluffy ponytail taking up most of her hair, but every time the topic came up, Trucy insisted that her top hat was too important to her look to leave it out simply to try a hairstyle that wouldn’t permit it. “It would be so cute” was a regrettably unconvincing argument.

The look they settled upon for this performance wasn’t too different from the hairstyle Trucy casually wore most of the time, but the added length she’d grown it out allowed Athena to figure out a couple of extra stylish loops framing Trucy’s face.

“You’ve gotten good at this! If Daddy and I didn’t already have you doing so much work at the Agency, I’d start adding hairdressing to our flyers!”

Athena smiled. Even when they were dating, it was hard to tell how serious Trucy was being sometimes.

[Overworked already!]

She jumped slightly, embarrassed at the unwanted comment from Widget, the device dangling from around her neck. Trucy gave an impish giggle.

“A-anyway, your hat...!” Athena cut in, sweeping the top hat off the counter to set it back on Trucy’s head. “Aaand I’d better get to my seat!”

Turning on the spot, she made to head for the dressing room door. Suddenly, her sensitive ears pricked at the sound of a soft, machine-like hum coming from behind her. For the first second, she didn’t think anything of it, but then its familiarity struck all at once.

The room seemed to expand all around her, the wall drawing further away and the ceiling shooting off into the sky.

“H-huh...!? Wait, Trucy...!!”

She was shrinking. In barely a few seconds, Athena had been reduced to a puny size on the dressing room floor, Trucy’s chair and all of the other furnishings suddenly towering dozens of feet at minimum over her head. Her heart thudding in her chest, Athena turned around.

The fact that it was her girlfriend didn’t really reduce how imposing a normally-sized human was when standing over her like this. Exasperated, Athena stammered, “T-Trucy!? I didn’t say you could shrink me right now!!”

Trucy was towering over her, holding the familiar size-changing device their detective friend Ema had built in her left hand and smiling in a rather self-satisfied-looking way.

“Well, we didn’t agree on anything specific in the way of ‘when’, so I decided to take the initiative!” the magician said, setting the Skye Device aside on the counter. She stooped toward Athena; the motion was rather nerve-wracking. She was just so big...

Athena didn’t try to escape, but she squirmed a little once Trucy’s gloved fingers had circled around her small body and lifted her gently off the floor. Being picked up like this was still a strange sensation. Trucy was gentler than Aura, at least. Hazarding a guess based on the size of Trucy’s hand surrounding her, Athena placed herself at around two or three inches tall.

“When did you even get your hands on that thing?” she inquired once she was hovering in front of Trucy’s grinning face.

“Oh, maybe this morning? That might’ve been it.”

“What d’you mean ‘might’? I didn’t even notice you leaving the office today!”

Athena waited for an answer, but Trucy just rolled her eyes in a teasing fashion. “So many questions! We can’t hang around here and chat forever, Athena. The show’s starting soon!”

Athena blinked, the question of why Trucy would choose to shrink her right here and now occurring to her.

“Trucy...”

“Sorry, time’s up, Athena! I’ve gotta get backstage!”

There was a pause, and Trucy giggled again. It wasn’t encouraging.

“Don’t worry, you’ve got a VIP seat for the show tonight.” she said. Trucy’s hand began to move, bringing Athena downward again. She couldn’t be going back on the floor, so where was Trucy planning to move her? She found herself disappearing beneath Trucy’s cape, the light around her dimming.

Her eyes shot open wide. Trucy’s other hand was slipping a few fingers into the back of her costume pants. Athena thought to shout a confused protest, but her throat suddenly felt constricted. She stared in disbelief at the partially-visible sight of her girlfriend’s panties for just a second before Trucy let her go. Finally finding her voice, Athena let out a startled shriek. Gravity brought her tumbling straight into the opening at the back of Trucy’s underwear in barely a second.

“Ack-!!”

Her back came down against a soft slope of fabric, and Athena slid to a stop in the shadow of two soft, pale hillsides, barely managing to get her hands up in time to prevent a faceplant.

A faceplant against Trucy’s butt...

She coughed, still taken aback by what had just happened. The first response out of her mouth was a strangled mix of at least two languages. “T-Trucy, what the heck am I doing in here...!?” was her second effort.

Her legs were being pushed together, the soft, pale cheeks of Trucy’s rear lightly hugging at her sides. Her face was burning up already – they’d been dating for while now, but even just being in their underwear in the same room together was still a rarity for her and Trucy, and yet now her girlfriend had dropped her right down the back of her panties...?

“No time to talk, Athena! Just get comfy - not just anyone gets a ‘backstage’ seat for one of my shows!”

With that, the slope of fabric at Athena’s back snapped forcefully against her, and her entire front was buried instantly in the plush hold of Trucy’s cheeks.

Mortified, Athena squirmed helplessly, Widget’s display lighting up a dim yellow in the very limited space available to her. She couldn’t escape to anywhere, and Trucy was beginning to move. The soft mass of her magician girlfriend’s rear began to sway with her movements, shifting her redheaded captive back and forth with every step.

“Trucy...!!” Athena yelled, totally unable to tell if her voice was escaping her cushy, warm prison. “TRUCY!!”

All of her fitness training and physical strength suddenly felt worthless, her muscular arms and legs unable to do any more than wriggle helplessly against the plush walls pressing at her sides.

Trucy smiled quite often, but her grin was even wider than usual right now. Keeping from laughing was a challenge as she made her way to the main backstage area of the theatre. Athena was tickling her quite a bit already...

“Hi, Trucy!” said a blue-haired stagehand woman she recognized. “The place is absolutely packed!”

“I’ll have to stay on my game!” Trucy replied. “You guys didn’t have too much trouble with the new props, did you?”

“Oh, nothing we couldn’t handle.” said the stagehand modestly. I’ve got no idea what you’re gonna use it all for, but we’ll be sure it’s in place, guaranteed!”

Trucy gave a thumbs-up. “The show’s nothing without its support crew!” she said.

(And I’ve got even more “support” than usual tonight!)

Even now, Athena was still struggling to get her mind around the fact that she really was wedged down the back of her girlfriend’s panties after having been shrunk yet again, and that by all appearances, Trucy really was about to head out onto the stage with her still trapped in place. This idea had to have been something Trucy was scheming up in that evil little head of hers since yesterday at least, if not even longer.

The redheaded attorney had spent a couple of minutes already wearing herself out by pointlessly squirming in place without making so much as an inch of headway against the hold of Trucy’s cheeks, and now she was just holding in place, her arms and legs forced together and her whole body still being made to sway back and forth with every movement made by Trucy’s legs below her.

Trucy had to realize how awkward and uncomfortable this was, didn’t she? Athena felt like she was sitting in the back of a moving vehicle with every other inch of space filled by two massive cushions. The light scent of sweat wasn’t helping her, either. Trucy used a body wash with a very nice scent to it, but there wasn’t much left at this point in the evening.

Several minutes later found Trucy poised to head out onto the stage. The crew had been scurrying around and triple-checking all of the show’s equipment. Nothing seemed amiss.

(Let’s give ‘em a good show, Athena, you and me!)

Bobbing on her feet, Trucy suppressed a giggle at the latest squirming sensation Athena produced from the back of her pants. She was tough enough to hold out in there just fine, but there was no way she could escape.

Finally, it was time to hit the stage. The speakers high above began their music, and Trucy’s spotlight arrived. With practiced grace from years of experience, she made her entrance. A ripple of cheers and applause made its way across the wide expanse of the theatre.

Going from performing her shows in front of dozens, and then hundreds, and now thousands of people – every step upward had been a new adjustment for her, but at last Trucy felt totally confident and collected even in front of such a sea of onlookers that she couldn’t even hope to estimate their number.

The first trick was downright paltry – she grabbed a bouquet of colourful flowers from its place on a table before making her way to a large barrier sitting in the centre of the stage. Moving in twirling motions, she passed by the barrier once.

From the audience’s perspective, her bouquet seemed to have suddenly been diminished by half. Just a moment later, she reversed her motion, passing out of view behind the barrier and then emerging back on its left again. This time, the audience would see that every flower in her grip had changed to the same colour: a vibrant blue not too different from her cape and hat. Another pass behind the barrier and the applause from the crowd grew; the flowers were all red now. One more pass, and she was carrying a positively massive bundle of purple flowers. She stopped on her mark, made a show of holding up the bouquet to admire it, and then hurled it into the air, where it broke apart and scattered three dozen flowers all throughout the air. Finally, she ended the first trick by gently pushing the barrier down to the floor, where it came down with a heavy thud and revealed absolutely no trace of any of the other flowers she had been carrying. The applause grew to a tumultuous level.

Going through the motions of her first offering almost made Trucy forget about Athena. As she prepared for the next trick, she grinned to herself, focusing on the feeling of the puny figure down the back of her pants. Athena had stopped moving for a while, probably after tiring herself out, but now she was wriggling all around again. All of her little movements tickled, but her long ponytail was the biggest cause. A few times in the past, Trucy had tried to convince Athena to actually join her onstage for some special parts of her shows, but Athena had always talked her way out of it. There was no way she could do that tonight, of course; she was part of this performance whether she wanted it or not.

(And you’re doing great!)

What Athena was feeling was several nautical miles away from “great”. Once Trucy had gotten fully into motion, the awkward movements of the whole space around the trapped lawyer had more than doubled in intensity. Athena was squeezed, pushed one way and then the other, shaken up and down, smothered bodily into the soft mass of Trucy’s rear, and all around subjected to a level of abuse that she was sure would’ve left her injured if her place of confinement hadn’t been so very soft and snug.

(Listen, Trucy, you’ve got a nice butt, but that doesn’t mean I want it for a roommate...!)

She felt incredibly warm and more than a little sweaty. The worst part was the difficulty of guessing how much of the sweat on her body and clothes was her own, and how much was Trucy’s. This was going to be a long show...

Sometimes, Trucy included underwater escapes in her routines, but given the nature of the guest star she’d brought along this evening, the idea had been out of the question. When she planned this show out, she had chosen to instead work in a couple of extra tricks from a special selection she normally reserved for particularly important occasions. For one of these tricks, she had fired a prop gun directly at the ceiling over her head, with a series of seven confetti-filled balloons opposite her position onstage bursting one at a time; a trick which always made her wonder what sorts of guesses the audience members would have as to the way she pulled it off. The gun only had a capacity of six rounds, after all, and yet she very clearly fired it off seven times and scored herself seven popped balloons for the effort. This trick had given Athena a little break, as it kept her firmly in place, but now it was time to get moving again.

What the hell was Trucy even doing...? Athena knew her girlfriend’s performances quite well, but even she couldn’t hope to guess which trick Trucy was going through now.

“Ack-...!!”

The whole world had suddenly been upended. Athena’s eyes widened, Widget’s display bathing her cramped surroundings in yellow light in reaction to her state of alarm. A handstand? A position hanging from something by her ankles? What could Trucy have possibly needed to be upside-down for? Athena was getting to be dizzy now, on top of the warmth and embarrassment enveloping her.

The show went on for longer than Athena could believe. Tracking the passage of time while trapped in her current predicament was impossible, but even her most generous estimates in her head ended up severely undershooting just how long ultimately Trucy spent onstage. After what felt like well over an hour, the dazed, red-faced, and exhausted little lawyer wedged up against Trucy’s rear heard the muffled sound of the familiar musical tones that marked the end of her girlfriend’s show for the evening. She let out a lengthy, weary sigh, her sore body twitching with relief.

The relief was rather short-lived, however; Trucy made a motion Athena could only assume was a bow, and as her towering body tilted forward, Athena felt her own trapped body shifting downward slightly in her soft prison.

“N-not down...!” she squeaked in alarm. She was already firmly wedged between Trucy’s plush cheeks – moving downward would only send her to an even more unpleasant spot. Her heart rate picked up as Trucy took a second bow and then a third, each and every one causing her puny passenger to shift southward just a little again.

Mercifully, and with the crushing weight of Trucy’s cheeks squeezing in on her helplessly outmatched frame even more extremely than ever before, Athena felt her girlfriend and captor making her way offstage again. The curtains were drawing shut.

Outside of the two fabric layers containing her, Athena heard muffled voices from the support crew involved with Trucy’s performance. Congratulations, compliments, everything. There was nothing for her, of course, despite her monumental effort just to survive taking part in Trucy’s act...

She kept herself composed until she was totally out of sight of any of the crew or other theatre staff, but Trucy let her exuberance bubble up to the surface the moment she was back inside her private dressing room.

This had been a wonderful, special experience for her. Sure, on one hand, she’d been teasing Athena and playing around with her shrunken state, but on another, they’d never been so physically intimate before. Some light kisses here and there, some lingering touches and hugs – neither of them was embarrassed to show their affection for one another, but having Athena spend so much time up close with her body had been a step up over anything Trucy had experienced in their relationship to date.

(Hopefully you’re not too mad!)

Removing her cape, gloves, and hat, Trucy gingerly tugged the back of her pants open to slip Athena safely back out of the spot she’d spent the whole show in with her other hand. The moment she had lifted Athena free, she brought her up to her face, flashing an appreciative grin.

“Fun time?” she prompted Athena. Sitting in her gentle grip, Athena frowned, staying silent. “Oh, c’mon, we were a great double act, like I’ve always told you! Sure, the whole thing looked like a solo act from where the crowd was sitting, but you were a huge help!”

More silence.

Trucy glanced to the side, biting her lower lip a little. “... OK, you’re mad at me. Makes sense.”

[Not a cushion!]

Even at a shrunken size, the synthesized voice produced by Widget from his spot against Athena’s chest could be heard. Trucy giggled.

“I’ve got a top-shelf reward lined up for you, anyway!” she promised. “First, let’s get you back to normal...”

Once Athena had been restored to full size – itself not her original height, as she had already given herself a permanent boost with the Skye Device the very first day she’d been introduced to it – and Trucy had set the device aside on the counter, the magician stood up on her toes to give her girlfriend a kiss on the cheek.

“... You’re kinda sweaty now, huh?” she remarked. “Sorry...”

Athena still didn’t say anything. Keeping quiet for this long was unusual for her.

“... I was thinking you could take a turn shrinking me again once we’re out of here!” Trucy tried next. Athena only made very brief eye contact, a scowl still etched across her face. “Uh, well... I’ll get changed again, and we can hit the road! Your place, right?”

She made her way past Athena, heading for where she’d left her street clothes. A few steps away from the corner, she thought she heard a humming sound.

... A rather familiar humming sound. Trucy froze.

“Oh, you’re really mad...”

She didn’t even finish getting the words out before she found herself rapidly shrinking right down to the floor of the room. A rumbling footstep approached, then another, and she was abruptly swept off the floor into Athena’s hand.

“Oh, I forgive you, Truce.” Athena said, finally breaking her silence as she lifted the now-puny magician up to her face. “I mean, what kind of girlfriend would I be if I stayed that ticked off at you over one little thing?”

Trucy tastefully chose to clam up, reasoning that pretty much any joke or response coming to mind would be severely pushing her luck. She could see Athena still holding the Skye Device in her other hand.

“I think we should get over to my place.” Athena went on. “I can think of a few favours I might like you to do for me to make up for what you just made me do...”

With that, Athena’s face retreated from Trucy’s view as she was whisked sideways and set gently down on top of the counter. Athena placed the Skye Device next to her, perfectly aware that Trucy was currently too small to use it. They’d effectively swapped sizes in the last two minutes. Athena busied herself with gathering up Trucy’s things and stuffing them into the magician’s shoulder bag, which was hanging off the edge of her chair. At one point, she paused.

“Hey, Truce? Since you’re not doing anything, how about you try out that super-cute ponytail look we were talking about? You should have the time while I’m getting all your stuff away.”

Trucy blinked in surprise. Had she overestimated how angry this evening had made Athena after all? Sure, she still had no idea of what Athena was planning to do with her once they got to her apartment, but she’d sounded surprisingly even-tempered with that request.

“S-sure...” she said quietly. There was no way Athena heard her. Getting her hands up to her head, she set about undoing the loops Athena had tied up. Before long, she had all of her brown hair hanging down again and could pull as generous a portion of it as she could manage into a single grip. “Hmm...” She didn’t know if she had anything she could use to tie off the ponytail, but then her eyes fell upon a single hair clip lying on the counter near her. Sure, the clip was barely an inch wide and wasn’t made for someone her size, but it would do. Moving over to grab it with one hand still fixed to her hair, Trucy hefted it off the ground and tried her best to get it around to her back. She dropped it, frowning. When she tried to gather it up again, she nearly toppled over backwards and had to let go of her grip on her hair to stabilize herself. “Darn it...” How was she going to do this?

Athena suddenly appeared, her huge figure looming over the counter.

“What are you-... Wait.” Athena’s beautiful blue eyes shifted between Trucy and the hair clip. “Oh my gosh, Trucy, do you even know how cute you are...?”

Athena’s huge hands swept across the counter, and she pinched up the hair clip between two fingertips.

“You make it really hard to stay mad at you, y’know.” Athena said. “I just spent like an hour stuck up against your butt. I should have you begging me not to break up with you and leave the Agency for good.”

Trucy chanced a little laugh. She knew Athena Cykes very well, and it sounded like her girlfriend had genuinely gotten over any annoyance toward her already.

“Here, get your hair all pulled together.” Athena instructed her. Trucy fixed her grip back onto the huge mass of hair she’d been trying to work into a ponytail. Athena brought the overlarge hair clip back down toward her, and with a noisy click, it snapped into place at the back of her head. Trucy couldn’t help flinching just a little. The hair clip was nearly the size of her head at this scale. When she looked up again, she found Athena staring down at her with an expression that made it look as if she was struggling not to grin.

[Not fair! Way too cute!]

Athena groaned, giving up now that Widget had sabotaged her effort.

“I told you that look would be great, Truce. Now c’mon, let’s get home.” she said, smiling and offering an open palm for Trucy to hop into.

Trucy was moved toward Athena’s side and deposited into a pocket on her jacket. She made herself comfortable. Just about the instant Athena got moving, she found herself thinking back to the very first day she’d tried shrinking. It hadn’t been all that different from what they were doing right now. Her face flushed slightly red, her memories catching up again with the moment that Athena had stuffed her down her shirt.

Athena made sure Trucy was secure in her pocket, then slung her girlfriend’s shoulder bag over her own side. She’d gathered up all of Trucy’s things, so it was time to go.