Despite being the older one out of the two of us, my big sister had a childish side to her.

“... Do you think we should put this here?”

“It’s not a bad spot. Maybe a little more to the left, Alice!”

“Yeah, that’s perfect, Alice.”

Her game collecting hobby also included kids’ toys like the lego set she was building with Alice at this very moment. While legos were more than just a children’s toy and could also be an adult’s hobby, there was a sparkle of joy in her eyes whenever she played with anything that she bought. It was more subdued joy than Alice’s who was having her first-time experience with the lego set, but she was fully enjoying her playtime.

“Oh, where’s the lego men?”

“There’s one right here next to me, Sis!”

“... Lori, I found a few…. Here you go. Also can I have a bunch of square blocks…?”

“Yeah, here.”

“They're not listening to me at all there, are they?”

As Lori and Alice set about arranging the lego blocks into a toy city, I watched from an open apartment lego set while leaning on a lego man. Despite the set having a very open design, I had known from the start that I wouldn’t be heard. I was already too small for them to hear normally unless they were actively paying attention to me. With the rattling of plastic blocks caused by their shuffling around, my squeaks went complete unnoticed.

“Hey, squirt, I’m the big guy here, so you’re coming with me, okay? I need someone to talk to.”

I must have sounded insane talking to the inch and a half tall lego man, but it was a good way to pass the time. At half my height, it felt like I was talking to a kid despite it being an inanimate object. The toy lego was the closest I could get to normal sized companionship at my dismal height.

My sister and cousin had built the apartment’s structure and left me in it while they started building around it. Lori and Alice had both joked that since I couldn’t do much, I could at least be the interior designer. It made sense at least. The lego structures they were putting together were literal buildings to me, so all I could do was move things around the area they had placed me.

… Even that was pretty difficult though.

“Uwoah… How the hell are you so heavy?” Because of my diminished size, the tiny lego man was actually the weight of a child. I was making an effort to lift it off the floor so that it wouldn’t slam into the bumps as I moved it around. The lego man was one of the lighter pieces I had access to as well, so the arrangement of the lego apartment set was still very unfinished. “Well, whatever. Come on. You’re coming to the sofa. It’s hard as heck, but I need someone to talk to.”

I gave up pretty early and started messing around with the lego-man. I got very ‘buddy-buddy’ with it as I waited for Lori and Alice to turn their attention to me again.

Rumble…

“Ugh… Of course, this is how she pays attention to me,” I groaned as I looked up to see the roof piece above me get removed. The sudden pouring in of light blinded me for a second, but it wasn’t long before a different shadow fell over me. Looking up, I saw the wall of my sister’s left foot rising high above the walls of the lego apartment. She had pulled herself back from what she had been building so she could stretch her legs. And although she had put her foot so close by, she could still see me.

“Doesn’t look like you’re making much progress there, Bro.”

“You told me to arrange the inside of this set. I’m not that good at decorating,” I shouted up at her so she could hear me, not wanting to admit how tough it was to lug around the lego pieces. I could only put a few lego blocks together because that was my limit. 

“I’m pretty sure there’s a heavier reason,” Lori already knew that reason. She could see me struggling the entire time she was with Alice after all. “If you’re done in there, though. Why don’t you take at how far we’ve gotten? You’re not a toy, so you should move around, Bro.”

“You say that, but you put me in this place too.”

“Sorry,” my sister apologized. “I mean, legos are pretty physical so leaving the interior decorating to you was the only way you could join in.”

“I’m just messing with you,” I knew Lori didn’t intend to treat me like a toy. She just didn’t want to leave me out. “I don’t mind getting a first hand look at what you made. There’s some things you don’t get to see unless you’re 3 inches tall after all.”

“You sure are optimistic,” Lori laughed as I walked out of the apartment set.

Whoosh!

The wind blew as my sister swung her leg over the lego set’s walls. I was small enough that I didn’t have to duck, but I did so reflexively anyway. My sister’s spread bare legs formed an even taller wall, spanning a portion of the lego ‘city’ she and Alice had made.

“Whoa…,” I whistled, hopping off the baseplate of the apartment set and trudged through the carpet for three inches.

Lori had several large baseplates for her and Alice to place whatever legos they wanted on top of the carpet. She had arranged them in such a way that the carpet resembled streets that surrounded the ‘city blocks’ that held the structures they had built. Well-built buildings were set up to my left while the towers of the partially built medieval castle set were to my right. In front of me was a towering skyscraper of multi-colored blocks that looked a lot less intricately built than everything else.

“You girls sure have been busy,” I remarked. “... You’ve always been quick to assemble one of these sets, Sis.”

“What can I say, I like these sorts of things,” my sister appreciated the compliment. “You like the city we’re building?”

“Well, half of it looks professionally made. The other half on the other hand…”

“Hey… That’s mean, Remy,” Alice entered the conversation, standing up from behind the lego skyscraper. I reflexively backed away when she, still on her knees, hunched over to peek over the structure. “I’ve been working hard…”

“Yeah, I know you have,” I tried to remain composed, but my body language was probably betraying me. With the structures they had built mildly resembling actual city buildings, it was like I had she had actually grown gigantic. “But you definitely need to work on your design skills. The colors are all over the place, and you’re using so many different sized blocks where it should be uniform.”

“Wow, you sure are a critic, Bro,” my sister laughed at how blunt I was.

I didn’t earn any favors from Alice with my statement, sadly. She huffed and got on all fours, crawling around the structure with jumbo sized lego blocks in hand. “I’d like to see you do any better, Remy…”

Thud!

“Woah!”

Thud! Thud!

“Hey, wait, Alice!”

Thud!

With a huff, Alice got back at me by surrounding me with lego blocks. I was walled off on all four sides, as my cousin immediately made a prison around me. I was trapped, only able to look up to see my cousin’s pouting face.

“... See? I’m super fast at building… I can make things perfectly like this, right…?” my cousin’s voice reverberated down the tall walls that only got higher as Alice added more and more blocks to them.

“Speed isn’t the important thing. If it’s this hollow, there’s not much to your design, is there?” Even though I was getting shown my place, I still dared to provoke my cousin.

“... What?”

“Remy, you sure don’t know any fear. You really should be taught that at some point,” I heard Lori’s voice. After she spoke, I felt everything shake. One of the thick walls was lifting up as my sister pulled it out to free me.

“Guh!”

Well, although I said free me, there was still no light pouring in after she removed one wall. That was because, in its place, was a foot. Lori had pulled her legs back so she could put her foot right behind the wall before she took it out. Now, I was trapped on three sides by legos while my sister’s barefoot threatened to press inwards. The enclosed space collected the heat pouring from her foot as well as its stench, so I immediately started sweating and was forced to cover my mouth.

“Wow. It’s not quite a perfect fit, but I really can just block you in like this, huh?”

“Lori, what the heck!?”

“Hehe. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. I didn’t think it’d be that easy to trap you,” My sister’s toes wriggled high above me. She lingered in place for a solid minute before she pulled her leg back so I could see her smug smile.

I groaned and ran out as soon as I could. The musty stench of my sister’s foot was too much for me.

“Gah… Finally… Fresh air,” I was finally able to exhale after I ran out. Of course, after I fled, Lori and Alice removed the remaining walls.

“Serves you right, Remy…” Alice was still pouting before she retreated behind the lego skyscraper again.

“I hate to say it, but you brought this on yourself. Don’t be so nit-picky about someone else’s design. These are just toys,” Lori chose not to defend me from Alice’s wrath. She had taken part in messing with me because she agreed too that I shouldn’t have poked fun at Alice’s construction.

It was my own fault, I knew that. I was going to have to do something in exchange for appeasing them.

“Hey, nothing’s toy sized to me,” I sighed as I tried thinking of an idea. “If you want me to praise your building, at least give me a better view than this low angle or than the dark inside you trapped me in earlier.” 

“Hmph, then come up here where you can see…,” Alice told me casually, knowing full well that there was clearly no way for me to do so.

I figured that this was a good way to get into Alice’s good graces again. “Well, if you were to build me some stairs, Miss City Planner, I’d be happy to climb up them.”

“City planner…?” Upon hearing the title I gave her, Alice visibly stiffened. 

“You’re building this city, right? Doesn’t that make you a city planner, Alice? You’re the capable one - doing what I can’t after all.”

“Me? Capable…?”

Despite having to shout up at her, I was still capable of putting in my most flattering tone of voice as I could into my voice. It took a moment for Alice to process what I had called her, but she didn’t dislike it. In fact, she took it as a compliment. Her smile widened as I piled on the praise.

“... Okay! I’ll make one real quick…!”

Rumble.

“Haha- Woah!”

I had wanted to chuckle at how Alice was so easily sweet-talked into doing the heavy lifting for me, but that thought quickly left my mind when she stood up to get some more pieces. Her foot thankfully did not land on the base I was standing on, but weight and size made themselves clear when she braced herself to stand up. I actually felt her flex her leg muscles as her foot pushed into the carpet, causing the lego baseplate right by her toes to shift a few millimeters. It felt like the earth suddenly shifted as my cousin rose up to her full height, her bare legs dwarfing the lego skyscraper.

“Alice, you’re way too easy…” Lori was dumbfounded at how quickly our cousin cheered up. “Pretty sly with the flattery there, Bro.”

“Jeez… Well, if it works, then it works,” It took me a moment to recover from feeling Alice’s strength, but when I saw that she wasn’t nearby anymore, I felt safe enough to laugh. “Don’t tell me I have to do something for you too, though, Lori.”

“No, that dumb look you had on your face when she stood up was enough for me,” Lori was satisfied as long as I had been flustered. “But really, you shouldn’t mess with someone 24 times your size. I can’t believe you managed to convince Alice to build for you after insulting her work so much.”

“Hey, I’m nothing but a citizen of this tiny town. You two are its creators, so I have no choice but to rely on both of you, right?” I exaggerated my movements to both show Lori that I was being sarcastic and to hide my legs that were still shaking from Alice’s unaware show of force.

“I mean, you’re not wrong,” Lori couldn’t deny my reasoning and was amused at how I phrased things.  “Well, I do want you to actually see what we built from above. If you’re climbing on your own and we don’t have to carry you, that sounds good to me.”

“Carry? Oh, right, that was an option too.”

Thud! Thud! Thud!

“Huh?”

“... Remy, here you go.”

“Oh boy. Those are the stairs, Alice?”

In the end, it was too late for me to change what I had said after Lori pointed out the easier way of seeing the town. The heavy thuds behind me came from Alice connecting several lego pieces she had quickly put together to the baseplate. Rather than a straight staircase, it looked like she placed the lego pieces haphazardly so that I would have to turn left and then right and then left again as I ascended them. In fact, she used multiple different sets of varying heights to create the staircase that snaked up to the top of the lego skyscraper.

“Ooh. Pretty artistic there, Alice. Looks like one of those Escher paintings,” Lori whistled, not wanting to insult her design in any obvious way.

“I just grabbed what I could to make it tall enough to reach the top…” Alice explained why she had built it the way it was, but she also had another reason. “... Also, this should be fun for Remy to climb up, right?”

Fun was relative the same way size was relative. It seemed being able to watch me climb her playfully built staircase was entertaining for her while it was going to be a tough exercise for me.

“Fun, huh? Sorry to burst your bubble, Alice, but I don’t think I’d call this fun,” I walked up to the staircase to find myself tilting my head up to try to see the first step. The lowest section of her staircase used the jumbo lego pieces meant for little children. They were 4” high so they were 8 feet tall to me. If I wanted to get to the first step, I’d have to jump and try to climb on to the block as if it were a ledge.  “Nghh! Ungargh!”

“... Remy?” Alice heard my grunts. Both she and Lori leaned in to see what I was doing.

“Ngh! You made the first step too tall, Alice. I can’t reach,” I told her as I tried to grab the ledge. “Do you mind adding a few smaller steps for me?”

…

………..

…………….... 

“Pfft…!!!” “Snrk!”

As I strained to jump to climb up the lego block, I heard Alice’s stifled laughter. My need for another handicap even after she had built something for me amused her. She wasn’t the only one either. Even Lori wasn’t immune to the laughter.

“Heheh, wow, you said you’d climb her stairs if she built them, but even then, you still need help, huh?” my sister smirked. 

“I-I can’t… I can’t…” Alice was clenching her sides from trying so hard to hold in her laughter. “...I can’t be mad at Remy anymore…! Tha… That’s so funny…!”

“Well, if this was all I had to do to cheer her up, maybe I don’t have to climb up this after all,” I wondered if I could get out of this without having to do any extra work.

Of course, that wasn’t going to happen. Lori had an idea at that very moment. “Hold on. Now, I really want to see him climb up. Here. I’ve got the best solution. Ahaha~!”

Rumble…

“Uwoah!” I jumped away from the stairs as Lori swung her leg through the air. Her barefoot landed next to me so that her right foot, while flat on the ground, was in front of the first step. “Hey, that’s not a step, Sis.” 

“Well, I took a step, so that counts, right? Anyways, it should be easier to climb up to like this,” Lori chuckled at her own joke.

I groaned. My sister’s bad pun just made things more unbearable. Even so, I did tell Alice that I’d climb her stairs. If I said I’d do something, I was going to have to do it.

“Well, fine. This is at least more entertaining than just sitting around watching you girls build.”

“That’s the spirit, Bro- Whoa! Hang on. That tickles!”

Lori had to force herself to stiffen up and not jerk around as I pulled myself up onto her foot. My sister’s toes were indeed easier to get up than the 4 inch tall jumbo lego block. I felt like an insect crawling up her foot until I was high enough to jump over to the top of the first big piece.

“Urgh… Phew…” It was more exhausting of a start than I had expected.

“Ehehe… One down, Remy… Many more to go!” Alice giggled, cheering me on with one of the worst possible ways to phrase it.

“At least the rest of the steps look pretty level.”

Indeed, the first step was the hardest of them all. After that, It was just a matter of carefully making my way up the stairs from the edge of the city to the center skyscraper. It certainly felt like I was climbing a stairway to heaven. If that was the case, though, the two giant girls staring down at me would be the goddesses residing in that heaven, and I did not want to think of my sister and cousin in that way.

Sadly, they were clearly in control of my ascent as well.

“Fooo~”

Whoooosh!

“Gwoah! Hey, Alice!” I braced myself when Alice pursed her lips. My cousin had pulled her face close to blow wind on me. I had to hold on tight to the block I was on to avoid stumbling.

“Ehehe… Hurry up, Remy. You’re taking too long….”

“Then can you at least fix the next step?”

“Oh, oops… I guess that’s too tall for you too…”

“I got him. Here, Bro. Another ‘step’ for you.”

“Real funny, Lori,” I sighed as my sister raised her foot and tried to gently lower it onto the wall of legos that made one of Alice’s staircases. She let me climb up it again to get to the next level of legos.

In the end, I got played with by my sister and cousin way more like a toy than I thought Lori would ever treat me. She was having too much fun the same way Alice was. It was like they were kids again.

At the very least, when I finally made it to the top, I earned my time to rest and catch my breath.

“... So, how does it look from up here, Remy…?” Alice asked now that I finished my climb.

I had said that I needed a better view of their construction to praise them. The skyscraper wasn’t even that high when compared to my cousin and sister. At best, when they were standing, I was a bit above their knees. Even so, looking down, I felt a sense of vertigo - probably because Lori did end up making their play area very city-like in layout. It really did look like I was peering down from the top of a building.

A thought came to my mind that I couldn’t stop myself from voicing despite having been higher up before and despite both girls being even taller than the building.

“Um, this is a bit too high, girls. Can you put me back down?”

“…”

“.......”

“Pffft!” “Snrk!”

There was another pause before, of course, the two of them laughed again. The two of them were having a lot of fun at my own expense today with the lego playsets.