When you have your own room, you can customize it however you see fit. When it came to Lori’s room, there were posters of her favorite bands, piles of board games, and also boxes of machinery her lab let her take home. The dollhouse I had been staying in was out of place because it had been purchased only because of our situation.

It was because I was temporarily relocated to a dollhouse that I didn’t do anything to my room outside of exchanging some doll house furniture with more comfortable and properly sized shrunken furniture like my mattress, desk, and chair. Most of my other belongings had been crammed into the closet so that Alice could move in.

It was certainly weird to come into the room I used to sleep in to find it so empty. Alice didn’t have too much furniture. Outside of her simple twin sized bed and a foldable desk, she had a full length mirror and a plastic storage box. She didn’t seem to have unpacked anything outside of her clothes and bedsheets. There were only a few other things in the room that let me know that Alice lived there and not some stranger.

Alice was hugging the first one while sitting on the second. She gripped onto the large plush whale tightly while seated on a giant bean bag chair shaped like a seal. If there was anything about Alice, that was made obvious upon entering her room, it was that she liked marine life. Certainly, that would mean marine biology would be her major, right? Sadly, she was stuck studying the more physical sciences because of her mother. 

“Wait! I’m really ticklish, Remy!” my cousin still in her jellyfish pajamas squeaked, reflexively pulling her bare foot away from me.

“I haven’t even started yet, Alice.”

“I’m… I’m not used to physical contact…”

Fulfilling my end of the deal from when I lost the competition between Alice, Lori, and me, I was massaging Alice’s feet. Initially Alice declined because she didn’t want to cause me any trouble, but Lori and I made her accept because we didn’t want her to ever think she was a bother. She then tried to avoid me to prevent it altogether - an easy task considering our height difference, but Lori quickly realized and forced us to adhere to a schedule.

“Hey, just let me do this, alright? If I don’t get twenty minutes of this in with you, Lori’s going to make me do hers for even longer, remember?” was how Lori managed to convince Alice. If Alice didn’t want to inconvenience me, my sister was going to make herself an even bigger inconvenience to get Alice to agree.

“O-Okay… I’ll try to hold it in,” Alice mumbled. She brought her foot back down onto the carpet where I was. She brought it down a bit too much, though. Her foot tilted forward and fell onto me like a collapsing ceiling.

“Uwoh!” I fell over to avoid getting hit.

“Huh?” Alice tilted her foot to the left and saw me on my back. She hadn’t actually hit me, so she didn’t realize what had happened. “Um… Did something happen, Remy?”

“Not really. I just tripped,” I lied, picking myself up. I looked up at her for a second but turned my head away from her after. Alice’s frilly pajama shorts were riding up to the point where, even though she was seated so high up above me on the bean bag chair, I could see her underwear and crotch through the gaps. She really shied away from showing her bare skin to others, even Lori. She usually wore long sleeved shirts and pants, but because she didn’t have classes today, she was in her comfortable sleepwear.

I wondered whether or not she realized that she was showing her skin to me. I may have been family, but I was also a guy she usually had trouble interacting with. It took me a while to realize that, because of my miniscule size, the thought likely never crossed Alice’s mind at all.

I got back to massaging Alice’s left foot. Considering I was 6 feet tall, Alice’s foot was an 18 foot wall to me. I couldn’t actually reach any part of her foot other than her heel so she had still had to tilt it forward over me so that I could reach it. Rubbing a foot as wide as I was tall and many times longer was a difficult task.  I tried to keep my eyes, nose, and mouth closed whenever possible to avoid any dirt and dust clinging to Alice’s feet flaking off onto me. Even then, the smell of sweat entered my nose and carpet lint fell onto my face as I grabbed onto the peach colored ceiling, pushing, rubbing, and pressing into it.

To my dismay, my efforts went unnoticed. 

“O-Okay, Remy. You can start now…” Alice said, trying to mentally prepare herself. I had already started for a good minute, but she didn’t feel a thing. I should’ve realized this. Back when we played monopoly, the dice were extremely heavy to me. That meant that, in reality, it was the reverse - I was incredibly light. 24 times lighter would’ve still been noticeable, but 24-CUBED times lighter must’ve put me in at less than an ounce. I may have been the size of a toy but a raisin was heavier than me.

“I’m… trying… Hwah!” I gave up on rubbing and pushing and chose punching instead. I used the punching bag on occasion at the gym. According to some of the trainers there, I was capable of making quick and strong jabs. I gave the ball of Alice’s foot above me my fastest and hardest hit. “Can you feel that Alice?”

“... A little?” Alice’s response was a bit emasculating, but there was no point in making a fuss about it when it was true that my hits had to be weaker than an insect bite.

“Then I guess I’ll have to go all out,” I was going to get my exercise in for the day. Moving around while shrunken was exercise enough, but I wasn’t going to need to go to the gym after this. Motivating myself, I got into a boxing stance and began swinging and punching. “Let’s go!”

Smack! Smack! Smack!

I quickly learned that hitting Alice’s foot was far rougher than striking a punching bag. It wasn’t as hard as hitting concrete, but punching bags at least had a little ‘give’ to them whenever I punched them. I considered buying a pair of boxing gloves to help my knuckles out in the future, but for the moment, I just kept hitting and hitting all over Alice’s foot.

“A-Ah… That feels kind of nice…” If there was anything I had to appreciate, it was Alice’s sensitivity. She actually did feel my strikes. Hearing her response made it seem like all of my efforts in holding my breath to endure her foot smell and in exhausting myself punching her foot felt worth it. “It’s… tingly…”

“Ngnn… If it works, it works…. ” I tried to talk to Alice between punches. My cousin wasn’t the type to initiate conversations on her own, but she did answer when spoken to. “You’ve been working hard on campus right? … Are you remembering to relax?”

“... R-Relax?” Alice repeated. “Actually Remy… it feels like I have way too much time to relax… I don’t know what to do.”

“Heh! Guess your courses must be pretty easy!” I laughed after grunting. She was experiencing a college student’s first real glimpse of free time. “But that explains why you’re always at home… You should… Do whatever you want… Alice!”

“... That’s easier said than done, Remy…” Alice couldn’t handle me hitting her left foot anymore so she pulled it back onto the beanbag chair, but she brought down her right foot soon after for me to continue. “I don’t really have any hobbies…”

That was certainly the issue. I didn’t start punching Alice’s right foot immediately as I pondered over my cousin’s conundrum. I would’ve mentioned Alice’s love of marine life, but I stopped myself. While Alice liked sea creatures just like her room showed, she couldn’t exactly turn that into a hobby to pass the time where our college was. We were several hours of driving from any aquarium or ocean.

“Well, that’s why you should try things out,” as the older one out of the both of us, I felt obligated to give Alice some advice. “I wasn’t a gym goer back in high school and Lori wasn’t a board game collector either. We both did these sorts of things because our classmates and friends were into them.”

“... Eh? Really?” Alice was surprised. “You both seemed like the type to always like those.”

“Heh. I’ll be sure to tell Lori that you thought she was always a board game nerd then,” I laughed while simultaneously trying to recall what clubs and programs we had on campus. “You could always try whatever your friends are trying. Clubs should be starting up again soon too, so maybe there’ll be something that catches your eye.”

“Um… Remy… I don’t have any friends… ” Alice caught me off guard with her immediate and confident self-deprecation. “I’m not good at talking to people… It’s scary…”

“... You’re talking to me, aren’t you? I know you’re bad with people, guys especially, but you’ve been making progress.”

“...” Alice stopped for a second. She seemed to be deep in thought before she tilted her foot to the side so she could see me who was being blocked by it. She must’ve been comparing me to her foot because after she was done, she said, “Sorry, Remy… I didn’t want to say it, but you’re not exactly as intimidating as other people like this.”

“Ouch,” my laughter this time was forced. I knew from the start that this was the case, but I didn’t think Alice would outright say it. I had to admit though, I was impressed that she was willing to say it aloud.

“I-I’m sorry!” Alice stuttered, realizing what she had finally said. “I- I just meant that it’s easier to talk to you when you’re like this… The normal you is just… way too… Um…”

My flustered cousin was struggling to find the right words to say without digging the hole deeper. I didn’t mind, honestly. Just seeing her open up to me was progress in my eyes. I wonder if she realized just how comfortable she was talking to me like this if she was able to say something so harsh so easily.

“Don’t worry. I don’t really mind you saying that,” I told Alice before winding up my fist again to get started on her right foot. I had to walk a few steps because Alice had shifted her foot ever so slightly unconsciously while trying to think of a way to answer me.

Smack!

“H-Hya!”

Rumble!

“Huh? Whoa!” I must have hit a very ticklish spot or something because the moment I hit the center of Alice’s right foot, it started to lower until her heel hit the ground. It then rapidly shot towards me as she reflexively kicked. I couldn’t react in time before I was actually hit and was sent flying through the air.

“A-Ah! Remy!” Alice realized that she had jerked her leg due to being ticklish. She saw that she had kicked me “A-Are you alright?”

Was I fine after being knocked fifteen feet away from my perspective? Surprisingly, yes. Lori had mentioned it before to me and Alice - I was a bit more durable at this size… though not completely invincible. It took me a moment to get the strength to pick myself up off the carpet, “Yeah… That sure was a surprise, though… Oh...!”

I looked up to find myself under the shadow of my cousin’s chest. She had hopped off of the bean bag chair to check up on me but had overshot the distance. While her boobs weren’t as large as Lori’s, my short cousin wasn’t petite in other places. I actively ducked to avoid the swinging masses that were not being held back by a bra.

Not having realized this, Alice crawled backwards until she could properly lie down on the carpet and see me face-to-body.  Her lip was quivering and her voice was even shakier than usual. She sounded like she was on the verge of crying. “I-I’m sorry… I got ticklish and my leg just… Did I hurt you?”

“No. Like I said, I’m fine,” I tried to calmly reassure her. Jumping around like a monkey to show her that I was perfectly healthy and uninjured. “This ‘compression’ type shrinking is supposed to make me more durable, remember? ”

“A-Are you sure…?” Alice sat upright and hugged her knees. The toes of both of her feet wriggled as she curled up into a ball. “I-I’m sorry… It’s my fault…. I knew it was a bad idea to agree with the massage…”  

“Alice?” I was concerned that my cousin was withdrawing away from me again. She was literally turtling up with how she was trying to hide her face behind her knees.

“... Let’s stop for today,” she told me.

There was no way I was going to accept that. I wasn’t going to hear the end of it from Lori when she got wind of this, so I definitely wanted to get Alice to smile. There weren’t many ways for me to do that when she was curling up into a massive fortress, but there was one idea that popped into my mind immediately. 

“No, let’s try this instead…” I mumbled as I forcefully slammed into Alice’s bare foot and swung my arm so that my fist brushed over more of it.

“H-Hyah!” Alice squeaked. “...R-Remy?!”

“You’re not getting out of this massage, Alice! I sure as hell am NOT doing the same thing to Lori later just because you wanted to stop!”

“Ahahaha! Stop! That tickles!”

It wasn’t the smartest plan but it was all I had available. The brute force method of getting her to open up by hitting her weak points was all my 3 inch self could do. Massaging was difficult, but tickling her was definitely simpler. I ran my full body into my cousin’s feet, brushing my entire body haphazardly all over both to trigger her nerves. Her laughing told me I succeeded.

“Haha! …. W-Wait! Gyah! Re-Haha! Remy! Stop!”

This was something I recalled Lori doing to Alice when we were kids. She’d grab Alice tight and start tickling her to get her to laugh so hard, she HAD to fight back. That had always been successful in getting Alice to follow along with us when we were children.  My big sister could be a bully at times, and, as her kid brother, I had received the same bullying. Of course, that also meant I knew how to do it too. Tickling a foot so much bigger than me was new, though. Alice’s sensitivity was a blessing in disguise.

“... I said stop!”

“Mgffk!”

Sadly, there was one issue with trying to tickle someone while only 3 inches tall.  I couldn’t stop her when she worked up the strength to resist.

There was no need for Alice to use her hands. In order to stop me, all she had to do was put her foot down - literally. Her right foot landed right onto me, pinning me down. My head was the only part that was free but it was stuck in the gap between her big toe and her second toe. 

“... Remy, you bully!” she cried.

Unfortunately framed by the toes that were clamping my head, I could see a pout on Alice’s face high above me. That was a rare sight that I was sure Lori would be jealous over me for being able to see.

“Heh… Sorry?” I tried to keep things lighthearted and added a very sarcastic tone to my apology to make it sound like I was joking around. Inwardly I was a bit worried what would happen if Alice had actually gotten mad at me. I could tell she wasn’t actually using any strength and was actually restraining herself from putting down any weight from her foot onto the floor. She had complete power over me without needing to exert any effort, so if she ever chose to use it, I’d be in for it.

Alice demonstrated this power once more. She didn’t keep me there under the weight of her foot for too long, likely because she was afraid of pressing down on me, but she didn’t want me to keep tickling her. To prevent me from continuing moving while still getting her foot off me, Alice tilted her foot ever so slightly off the floor. The reason why was for her to slip her right foot underneath. My body was pulled off the carpet and pinned in place by both of them - effectively sandwiched between the soles of her feet.

“Hmph…,” my cousin huffed, narrowing her eyes. She was doing her best to glare, but, due to her cute face, any ordinary person would certainly say she looked like a child pouting. Well, that was to any ordinary person. I honestly felt a chill run up my spine because her feet shifted around me. Even if she wasn’t intending for it, I could actually feel her muscles flex and tense as the hydraulic press of her feet twitched. It made me concerned about whether or not I’d be flattened by the sheer mass that was sandwiching me.

“Hey, come on… Now you know I’m perfectly fine, right?” I dared to speak up, though I was talking a little too quickly for my own taste. “I am going to need a bath after this, though. I probably reek of feet right now.”

“You deserve that then…” Alice frowned, but it seemed like my attitude really weirded her out. She asked me a serious question. “Remy… how are you so accepting of this?”

“You mean the foot massage stuff? I mean, Lori orders me around all the time. Sure, I can say no, but sometimes it’s easier to just let it happen because of how much of a pain Big Sis can get.”

“Yes, I mean, no… Um… I mean everything… This massage is one thing, but it’s my fault you’re shrunken,” Alice voiced out what had been weighing on her mind for ages now. “I’m just causing you all kinds of problems, aren’t I…?”

As touched as I was that my cousin was so concerned about me, especially because I was the one who took the full force of our deal to get Alice to move in with us, this was something Lori and I had known she’d be worried about from the start. As such, I already had my answer prepared.

“You’re the one who took the first step and asked us. We’re just meeting you halfway there and accepting it.”

“But you didn’t have to. Mom’s condition was too crazy… I don’t want to trouble you so much, Remy.”

“Trouble’s trouble. Lori and I would totally do anything for our cute little cousin,” I replied honestly. “Besides, Lori does similar stuff in her lab, so I probably would’ve been shrunken down like this by her eventually anyways.”

“... She would…” Alice couldn’t deny that.

“See? Told you,” I laughed. “That’s why it’s no problem at all.”

“... I just can’t figure you out, Remy,” The cockiness I threw into my laughter got my cousin to giggle. She slowly spread her feet apart, letting me peel myself off of her sole and drop to the carpet safely. 

It sounded like I had gotten through to Alice. Some brute force and a lot of rolling around and being knocked around by feet was not how I expected to get my cousin to warm up to me, but this was certainly the progress I was looking for. Hopefully, that meant she’d be capable of speaking to me more while we were living together. For now, that was probably only going to be while I was shrunken down, but perhaps one day, she wouldn’t shy away from speaking to me at regular size either.