Giantess World
Lexi stirred her pasta in circles with her fork, watching the cheese smear from one edge of the plate to the other.
It wasn’t that she had no appetite. She’d gotten over that phase during the first few days of self-imposed isolation, once the hunger pangs finally trumped the hollowing misery of her family breakup. Still, there was a learning curve to these mealtimes back in her “real” home with Evelyn: the place where Lexi had eaten half the meals of her life thus far, usually flanked on either side by a pair of golden-haired spitting image titanesses. That was the old norm, and Lexi decided she probably could’ve slipped right back into that routine without skipping a beat.
Something was amiss, though. The past five days after her quiet homecoming, there was only one hundred-fifty-foot-tall guardian sitting at this wooden isle of a dinner table, pretending to quietly eat but, Lexi knew, in fact cautiously monitoring her every move.
After all, Evelyn was mature and wise enough to hide her concern and regular furtive glances, but when spying on an average-sized girl who comparatively stood around three inches tall on the tabletop, it was impossible to conceal everything. Each twitch of those luminous green eyes far above, like searchlights blinking on and off, signified the Omega’s burdensome cares. By Lexi’s count, her foster mother’s anxious peeks were down to a couple dozen per meal, which was an improvement. She didn’t blame Evelyn, either, even if the Alpha was still feeling slightly on edge, due not only to the increasing feeling that she was made of fine china, but the unbalanced atmosphere of the cavernous room missing one of its massive occupants. This was a table meant for three, not two.
“Alexandra?”
“Yes?” It was only yesterday that Lexi had re-trained herself not to be startled when addressed by an Omega’s booming whisper. Life while away had been decidedly quieter, and yet louder at the same time.
“How does everything taste? I could make you something else, if that’s not done well enough, or if you’re just in the mood for-”
“No, no, don’t be silly. It’s good. I mean, it’s great…” Lexi sighed.
This wasn’t a lie. If anything, she felt bad for underselling it. Evelyn made a mean macaroni dish, and the Alpha had craved the stuff since she first tried it at age ten. Still, after five days back here, it was obvious to Lexi that her foster mother was exclusively making meals she knew the girl loved best as a child. It successfully made Lexi feel at home, but also stranded her between aching nostalgia for the past and bizarre guilt over Evelyn’s obvious 24/7 efforts at apology.
“You’re sure?” the Omega asked.
“Totally. Sorry, I was just thinking. But it’s your mac and cheese. I’m definitely eating everything on this plate and maybe seconds.”
“Good,” Evelyn murmured, her worries sated for the moment. She cleared her throat as softly as possible. “There was something else I wanted to ask you, dear.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. And before I ask it, I just want to emphasize, there’s absolutely no pressure to accept, either in the future or at all. Everything is in your time. Your decision.”
“Sure. What… is it?”
“Well, now that you’re back, and getting settled in again, there are some people who’d love to see you. The question is, would you allow them to come by and visit you? Not willy-nilly without warning, of course. We would plan a time when you’d feel most comfortable,” Evelyn continued. She set her utensil down on the edge of the plate and steepled her long fingers together, resting her chin atop the created bridge. “I know, I know, it hasn’t even been a week. They’ve just been… waiting, I think, for the chance to see you again at the earliest time allowed but, like I said, only when you permit it.”
Lexi nodded. She wasn’t surprised in the least to know there were people itching to come see her and, whether they intended to or not, likely shower her with silent pity until she was submerged. Specifically the residents of this particular jumbo-sized neighborhood who also happened to run the government. It was probably no coincidence Evelyn had been filling Lexi in on what she’d missed in this neighborhood during her time away: who’d gone abroad, who’d built a new city district, who’d married a Beta…
Frankly, Lexi half-expected to awaken after her first night home to find a crowd of well-wishers milling around the living room, feigning like they weren’t there exclusively for her. Omegas had many gifts but, the girl knew, subtlety in their empathy wasn’t generally one of them. Bridget was her lifelong proof of that.
The Alpha assumed her caregiver had already fiercely defended her against any visit requests during the first few days, no matter how benevolently-intentioned, which Lexi sincerely appreciated.
“You mean people from Aegis?” Lexi said at length.
“Mostly, yes,” Evelyn replied after a studious pause. “But it’s by no means mandated by Aegis, if that’s what you were thinking. I wouldn’t allow such a cheap gesture into this house, I promise you, Alexandra. Nor would any of them want it that way. In fact, this was initiated by junior officers. Every person who would step through that door is someone who just desperately wishes to see you again.”
“I know,” Lexi said. Junior officers meant Aegis workers roughly her same age. That idea was at least less intimidating than facing the ancient senior enforcers. Right away, the Alpha had a good guess which young Omegas in particular had spoken to Evelyn.
Certainly, too, she understood that her foster mother would never set her up for some obligatory amends-giving party. The volume of discomfort on both sides at such an event would probably squelch what remained of Lexi’s psyche. Even so, she felt a knot stringing in her gut.
“How… um, how many would come?”
“There’s… a dozen or so,” Evelyn said, bracing herself with a soothing smile. “We could limit that down, if you wanted.”
Lexi mulled. That sure seemed like the right way to reintegrate with society: by playing favorites with her mile-high peers right off the bat. She’d never been, strictly speaking, “close” with any Omegas, other than the Cades, one of whom at this moment was furthest away from home. Bridget had always served as the buffer between Lexi and Aegis’s newest generation when social situations were required. Without her here, the thought of facing them alone was daunting.
“A dozen’s not so many,” Lexi said, only half-fibbing.
Now resolved that she wasn’t eating anything else until the matter was decided, she rose from her miniature table and commenced shuffling the distance to Evelyn’s place setting. She averted her gaze until her foster mother’s gargantuan hand resting by the plate entered her peripheral. The Omega’s long pale fingers retracted on approach.
“Maybe you’d just like to take some time to think about it,” Evelyn said.
The towering woman’s palm sedately overturned until its creased platform faced up, her digits unfurling one at a time so they were laid at Lexi’s feet. Her invitations for the Alpha to board her hand had been less insistent these past five days, but the choice was available near-constantly. It reminded Lexi of the months immediately following her escape from her birth mother twelve years ago. Yet another time in her life that epitomized bitter-sweetness. The girl contemplated the ringed patterns in the flesh of her foster parent’s soft fingertips like the inside of a tree.
Lexi drew breath through gritted teeth. She clambered up and over the malleable plank of Evelyn’s fingers, only feeling the woman’s steady hand ascending when she was fully secured in the warm basin of her palm. The knotting in Lexi’s stomach persisted, but she bit her tongue.
“No, that’s okay,” the Alpha said. “I don’t need time.”
“Are you sure?” Diplomatic as Evelyn had been in her questions, she couldn’t stop a tremor of hope from shading her tone.
“Yes,” Lexi affirmed. The longer she talked, she could feel genuine confidence rising to match her blind gumption. “I think it might be nice. You know, to see people again. I was by myself for so long… without seeing anyone I recognized. It’s probably time.”