Penny woke up, as usual, to the sound of her mother's alarm. She could hear it beeping across the thin walls that separated Linda's room from hers. Seconds later it was silenced and she heard her mom yawning and stirring, climbing out of bed to get ready for another day of work. The disturbance ended, Penny snuggled into her bed sheets again, hoping to get at least a few more minutes of sleep before she had to wake up for good. She wasn't sure if she'd gotten any when, with a click, light flooded her room.
“Good morning, dear.”
Opening her eyes, Penny saw her mother's smiling face where the ceiling had once been, locks of wavy hair streaming down the sides of her head like big black curtains, swaying just beyond the walls of her room.
“Morning, mom!” Penny declared, kicking away the bed sheets and standing on her bed just as Linda's hand descended on her. Soft fingertips, almost as big as her body, pressed against her front and back, applying pressure expertly to hold her firmly yet painlessly. Then, lifted out, she was set down on an open palm and flattened to it by velvety lips while tenderly hugging them back. Once they released her, she was lifted up to a big brown eye and sat up to greet it. She smiled at reflection in her mother's inky pupil, quietly giggling at her own messy hair.
“Did you sleep well, Penny? Have a good night's sleep?” Linda's finger came down to stroke Penny's hair.
“I did! And you?”
“I slept fine, thanks for asking.” Linda moved her hand away, holding her inchling child before her chest. Her tender smile gave Penny life as always, but there was a hint of worry in her eyes. “Penny, I'm afraid you won't be coming to work with me today.”
“Is something wrong?” Penny crawled to her mom's thumb, stroking it to comfort herself as much as Linda.
“It's your sister, dear. Nadia woke up with a cough and a fever. She's too sick to go to school. I'm sorry to ask you this, but I'm going to need you to stay here and watch over her.”
“Me watch over her? Mom, you know what she's like. There's no way she'll even let me in the same room as her.”
“Don't worry about that; I've already had a word with her. She swore she won't chase you away this time. Besides, I don't think she could kick you out even if she wanted to. She's even more sick than you were last week. You don't have to try and be her friend if you don't want to. Just watch over her, okay? You're still sisters, even if she doesn't like it.”
Penny was silent for a moment, but finally she sighed. “Alright, I'll stay with her.”
“Thank you, Penny”! Linda brought her inchling daughter up for another peck, then lowered her back into her little room on Linda's dresser. “I'll take you to her one I'm about to leave. Try and be ready by then, okay? Love you.”
“You too,” Penny said a second before her roof was closed again.
-----
Penny could still remember the day she was adopted. She had been so nervous about meeting her new owner, with all manner of horror stories from the other inchlings in the shop running through her little head. It only took a minute of being in Linda's presence to ease her fears. There was such love and tenderness in the older woman's face that even the most jaded inchling would have softened in her hands. She was moved to tears by Linda's kindness, and especially when, on the drive home, she had told Penny to call her “mom”—that she would be a part of the family, not just a pet. She told Penny so much about her daughter Nadia, who was to be her new sister.
“A sister...” Penny vaguely remembered having a sister, but she had been taken from her family at such a young age that she wasn't sure how much of what she recalled was true and how much her own fabrications. To have a family again, even a human family, was a dream come true. She had been so excited to meet her new sister. But, once they got to Linda's home...
“That thing is not my sister!”
If Linda was nothing but kindness, Nadia was pure disdain. From the moment they met she had vehemently rejected the new addition to their family. “If you want her as a pet, fine—be another 'inchling mama'—but you can't make me act like that thing's the same as us.”
Penny had been heartbroken. Only an hour of being comforted and cuddled in Linda's hands could finally restore her mood, and she saw that, despite Nadia's rejection, she had still come to find herself in a wonderful new home with a loving mother. Really, it was more than she could ever have hoped for back in the orphanage.
Penny made many attempts over the next few months to get along with her new sister, but they were consistently rebuffed, sometimes quite harshly. At first she hoped that over time she might wear down Nadia's defenses, as Linda had almost suggested to her, but, finding nothing but failures, she eventually gave up on Nadia, ignoring and avoiding her to spend all day long with her mother instead. And while Linda was tried her best to encourage her daughters to get along, she slowly dropped the subject when she saw that neither of them showed any interest in it.
A year later and things were still much the same as always, with both sisters all but pretending the other didn't exist, with the only words exchanged between them being Penny's “Good morning”s and “Good night”s and Nadia's grunt of acknowledgment whenever they met in Linda's presence—not that they ever met outside of it.
They gave the same greeting today when Linda entered Nadia's room carrying Penny's miniature house one in hand.
“Now girls, I want you both on your best behavior while I'm gone. Penny, you don't have to spend all day with your sister, but be sure to check on her every now and then. And Nadia, please be nice to Penny. At the very least don't be rude. I really want you both to get along, at least for today. Think you can do that much for me?”
“Yes, mom!” said Penny.
“Yes, mom,” groaned Nadia.
“Great!” Linda set Penny's room down by the far wall and kissed her inchling daughter, then kissed Nadia on the forehead. “I'm counting on you, girls. Love you both; good-bye!”
Penny scurried out of her “dollhouse” and towards the door just as Linda was leaving, stopping at the hallway to watch her mother heading for the front door. Her heart ached with the longing to go with Linda; for as long as Penny had been her daughter, she had always followed her mother to the office in her shirt pocket, keeping her company while she worked. She had gotten so used to spending the day playing on her mother's desk, napping on her lap, or enjoying the fawning attentions of the other office workers, that she had almost come to regard that place as a second home. Now, finding herself without her mother or any of those nice ladies at the office, she felt so terribly alone.
Sighing as she heard the front door slam shut, Penny turned went back in her sister's room, figuring she might as well get some more sleep while she was here. She was halfway to her own room, which now sat next to Nadia's dresser, when she heard a raspy cough coming from the bed. It was more than ten seconds before the coughing stopped and Nadia rolled over in bed, groaning and readjusting the covers.
Penny looked from her room to Nadia's bed and back again. Then, sighing, she turned to the bed and scurried up the bed sheets with her kind's usual nimbleness, finally surfacing at the side of the bed where she found Nadia lying on her side facing Penny, with only her legs covered up.
Nadia was black-haired like Linda, though hers was styled in a bob cut that didn't quite reach her shoulders. Her skin was tan, her lips full, her nose small and cute. She looked so much like a younger Linda, and it made Penny jealous that she would never look like one of the family, even leaving aside her size.
Nadia had her eyes closed and was breathing slowly. It didn't seem like she had noticed Penny yet, nor did she notice the inchling approaching her face, climbing up her pillow and coming to stand by her forehead. Holding a hand a fraction of an inch from her sister's skin, was enough to tell her that Nadia had a fever, but, still wanting to make sure, she put her hand flat against it. Not a second later, Nadia furrowed her brow and opened her eyes, turning her head up to find Penny standing there.
“What do you think you're doing?” she demanded.
Backing up slowly, Penny tripped on a fold in pillowcase's surface and fell over, landing on her back right by the pillow. “Just taking your temperature,” she explained, quickly standing back up.
“Why?”
“Because mom asked me to keep an eye on you. I figured I could start with that.”
“Not your mom. And there's a thermometer right there,” Nadia said, nodding at her bedside table. “You're not helping anyone by feeling my forehead.”
“Well, I'm not hurting anyone either, am I?”
“Look, just let me sleep, okay?” Nadia rolled over again, turning her back to Penny and knocking the inchling over again with the movement of the covers. Penny stuck her tongue out at Nadia before hopping off the bed and heading into her own room. There she crawled back in bed, looking to get some shut-eye. She was about to fall asleep, too, when Nadia started coughing again. The next time it happened, just a few minutes later, she groaned and lay face down, putting the pillow on her head and holding it down to cover her ears. Nadia's coughing still bothered her from time to time, but for the most part she could ignore it and slowly fall asleep.
When she awoke again some time later, a glance out the window at Nadia's digital clock told her it was barely past nine in the morning.
Too well rested to go back to sleep but having nothing else to do, Penny lay staring up at the ceiling, just daydreaming about hanging out with her mom. It took her a while to realize that Nadia's coughs had been replaced by a soft snoring. She listened to it for a while, until, remembering her promise to Linda, she finally ventured to go check up on Nadia again.
Penny found her sister lying on her back now, with just one leg still under the covers. Though she slept, her face looked troubled, and every so often it moved a bit to one side or the other. She was still when Penny arrived there, though, and when the inchling put her hand on Nadia's neck, stepping over a carpet of her black hairs to reach it. Nadia's skin felt as hot as before, or at least she thought it was about the same. No better but at least no worse, either. She was just wondering what she should do about it, if anything, when she heard something stirring and looked back to find a giant hand coming for her. Too slow in reacting, she was caught by those giant fingers wrapping artlessly around her body. Then she was lifted up and readjusted until she was dangling by the legs from Nadia's thumb and forefinger.
“What are you doing back here? Didn't I tell you to let me sleep?” Nadia said, dropping the inchling on her palm.
“Like I said, I was checking your fever.”
“And like I said, I already have a thermometer for that.”
“So use it, then, or I'll have to keep checking you myself.”
Grunting, Nadia snatched the thermometer off the nightstand, turned it on, and stuck it under her arm. A minute later she pulled it back out. “Gee, whaddaya know, it says 101. Looks like I have a fever. Not that I needed the thermometer to tell me that,” she said, lobbing it back on the stand. “You happy now?”
“I guess.”
“Then leave me alone.” Nadia dropped the inchling on the bed and again turned her back to her, kicking her covers all the way off as she settled down.
-----
Why Penny kept coming back to her sister she couldn't have said. Maybe she had gotten so used to the company of humans that she was instinctively drawn to the only human around, feeling the need to hang around Nadia no matter how many times her sister sent her away. Whatever the case, after another hour or so, time she spent mostly walking around the house, she found herself once more at Nadia's side, staring at her sleeping sister's face. She avoided touching Nadia's skin this time when she took her temperature, holding her tiny hand just a fraction of an inch away; she thought it was hotter this time around, but without the thermometer she couldn't be sure. Not that she knew what good the information would do, but she felt she had to do something to watch over Nadia as she had promised and this was all she could think of.
Growing restless after a while, Penny went and started climbing on Nadia's body to entertain herself.
It wasn't long before Nadia sensed that something was crawling on her. She almost got up to swat it away, but then she realized that it must be the inchling walking all over her. She frowned, but didn't do anything to stop her this time. After this latest nap she didn't need to sleep anymore, and besides, she found she didn't entirely dislike the feeling. Actually, she might even have said it was kinda cute.
Nadia didn't have anything against inchlings. Like most people, she thought they were pretty cute—the domesticated ones, at least. What she did object to was being expected to treat Penny like she was anything more than a pet, and especially as a sister. If only her mom would just give up that silly charade. Well, Nadia thought, maybe she would be able to do something about it today. If she was going to spend the day home alone with Penny, this might be just the chance to teach the inchling her proper place.
Biding her time by pretending to be asleep while Penny walked all over her, taking in the feeling of those delicate little feet plodding along on her skin, Nadia waited until Penny was near her hands, then snatched the tiny girl before she could react.
While bringing her closer, Nadia felt Penny's tiny limbs scrabbling and twisting against her skin, trying to squeeze between her fingers or to push them apart. “Stop squirming, I'm not gonna hurt you,” she said, tightening her grip until Penny could hardly move. “If you didn't want me catching you, you shouldn't have been playing on me. Honestly, I don't know why you keep coming back.”
Penny kept trying to escape for a minute, but at last she gave up and was still. Then Nadia uncurled her fingers, save for one which she kept on the inchling to pin her down. Then held Penny between her thumb and finger, keeping her firmly in place despite her feeble escape attempts.
“Let me go!” Penny shouted.
“Maybe I will. After you apologize for waking me up again.”
“Fine, fine! I'm sorry! Now will you please let me go?”
“Hmmm...” Nadia made a big show of pondering the question while she teasingly rolled Penny between her fingers. “Actually, I think I'll keep you around a bit. Maybe do some of that 'bonding' mom keeps nagging me about. In fact, why don't you bond with the girls here while I get a bite to eat.” Sitting up, Nadia dropped Penny down her black tank top, right into her cleavage, where a little push from her finger was enough to leave the inchling trapped between her boobs.
Hopping out of bed, Nadia headed for the kitchen with Penny trying the whole time to escape her breasts. Only when she sat down with a bowl of cereal did Penny manage to escape, climbing up on her right breast and then vaulting off. When she then saw that she headed right for the bowl of cereal, Penny gave a yell that was silenced with a little plop as she fell into the bowl. Nadia was still laughing when she finally managed to climb out after splashing around and slipping back down twice. She landed on the table, crawled slowly away while leaving a streak of milk behind her, and finally collapsed after coughing out a few white droplets.
“You silly girl! Why would you go and jump off like that without even checking what you were jumping into?” Nadia grabbed a napkin and gently dragged Penny onto it, then folded it in half over her rolled Penny around inside to dry her, until Penny forced her way out and scurried across the table. “Hey, don't you want anything before you go? Some food or water?”
Penny stopped right on the edge and looked back over her shoulder, giving Nadia a thoughtful look. “Some water would be nice,” she said at last. “And a piece of cereal to eat.”
Nadia went and served some water on a small dish, setting it down on the table near her to entice Penny over, then placed down a mostly dry piece of cereal next to it. Penny hesitated for a little while before slowly walking back, eyeing Nadia warily the entire way. First she drank some water, scooping it up with her little hands and carrying it to her face, then she sat down to munch on the piece of cereal and washed it down with another drink. Finally, she lay down in the dish and splashed water onto herself, trying to wash and scrub away the sticky residues from her little swim in the bowl of milk. Meanwhile, Nadia watched it all without so much as a comment. It was really adorable how Penny tended to herself, and even the way she looked over from time to time like she was scared of Nadia doing something to her. In fact, it was so adorable, it made Nadia want to do something to see how she would react.
While Penny was washing herself, Nadia slowly moved her hand closer. With her back turned, Penny didn't notice until the hand was almost right on her, and while she tried to run away, Nadia's hand cupped over her as soon as she stepped off of the plate. Then, while a finger pinned her down, another one came over and gently stroked her head and her sides.
“What's the matter? Did you think I was going to do something awful to you?” she said once Penny had settled down a bit. “Don't worry, I'd never actually hurt you. I know how to treat my pets.”
“I'm not your pet, I'm your sister!” Penny shouted, once more trying to escape Nadia's finger.
“Tsk tsk. See, that silly idea my mother gave you is exactly why we don't get along. You should just learn to behave like a proper pet; you'll be a million times happier when you stop pretending to be something you're not.”
With Herculean effort Penny finally freed herself and scrambled to her feet, running away from Nadia and hopping right off the table. Nadia watched her leave, doing nothing to stop her, then sighed and finished her cereal. She thought about doing the dishes, but she wasn't in the mood for it at all—the energy she had woken up with after her nap was starting to disappear and all she wanted was to go lie in bed again. She left the bowl in the sink, made a quick trip to the bathroom, then served herself a small bowl of blueberries and took them to her room, snacking on them while she browsed on her phone.
She only ate a few of the berries before giving up on them, though, her hunger gone more from her illness than from having eaten too much. Bit by bit her eyelids grew heavier, as did the phone in her hands, until she couldn't keep them up any longer. Her eyes fell shut and her hands fell on her stomach, the phone caught beneath them with the muffled sounds of the last video she was watching still coming from it.
As for Penny? She was in Linda's room, curled up on her mother's pillow, where at least she was kept company by the dim remnants of Linda's scent and the memories of her warmth. Her eyes were still red but she had stopped crying now, and just lamented that she wouldn't be with Linda today—wouldn't be with her mother.
Why did Nadia have to be so awful? It wasn't like Penny had ever done anything to her—she was just hateful, hateful, hateful, for no good reason. She and Linda would be so much happier without her around, and if only she had the courage for it, she would have loved to tell Nadia as much right to her face. Still, idle fantasizing proved comfort enough for now; then Penny could turn her attention to smaller issues, like how uncomfortable her clothes were. Even after having washed them they were still a bit sticky with milk, and she couldn't bear it anymore. A change of clothes was called for, so she headed quietly into Nadia's bedroom and went unseen into her own little “dollhouse”, where she took off her clothes, dried herself up, and then slipped on her nightgown.
Finally feeling fresh, Penny was on her way out of Nadia's room, meaning to go for a little walk to pass the time, when she heard her sister start to snore. The sound gave her pause and she looked towards the bed. Eventually she decided to climb back up there, not to check on Nadia or anything but to see if she could get some payback for what happened at breakfast.
As soon as she was up there she noticed the bowl of blueberries sitting next to Nadia, tipped far enough over that Penny could see its contents from where she stood. That, coupled with Nadia's snoring, gave her a devious idea.
Penny went and grabbed a blueberry, one of the larger ones among the pile. It was hefty and bulky and awkward to hold, but she could hold it all the same, and carry it around too, though she stumbled a few times while getting the hang of it. With it in her arms she climbed the back of Nadia's pillow, and from there went around to her face. With Nadia's arm under the pillow, the cloth surface sloped upwards on that side, high enough to give Penny easy access to her sister's mouth. Then, once she stood before that gaping maw, feeling the air rumbling with Nadia's snores, Penny hoisted up the blueberry and chucked it into the gaping cavern.
Almost at once Nadia's snored were replaced by a desperate coughing. She sat up, bending her head forward hacking and gasping as she tried to deal with that thing stuck in her throat, until, with a grunt, she finally sent it down to her stomach, which it fell into with a gurgle.
A soft, squeaky giggling then caught her ear, and she looked back around at her pillow to find the inchling laughing hysterically on her back. “You little bitch!” Nadia shouted, seizing Penny in her fist before she could get away. “You think it's funny I almost choked on that thing?”
“What's the big deal? You swallowed it whole no problem.” Penny said once Nadia released her upper body.
“Yeah? Well how about I swallow you whole, then?” Nadia tossed Penny into her mouth, shutting her lips firmly behind her as soon as the inchling was securely on her tongue. Then, pinning her down, she started pushing Penny all around her mouth, bullying her with her tongue and savoring the tiny woman. Not that there was much flavor to her, but that was fine—the sensation of her feeble arms and legs scratching at every surface of her mouth, struggling in vain against her tongue, was more delicious than any meal could have been. She couldn't help but laugh at the inchling's palpable desperation.
“Ready for the drop?” she said, keeping Penny trapped under her tongue. “Hope you find that blueberry I almost choked on down there. And hey, if you bring it with you, I'll even let you out. That's fair, right? Anyway, down you go!” Penny's desperation reached a new pitch as Nadia threw back her head and made as if she was gonna swallow her. She pressed the inchling to the roof of her mouth, pushed her back, and gave a big GULP, but despite her teasing she kept Penny in her mouth and spat her back out afterwards. She was all ready to make fun of her until she saw Penny all curled up on her palm with her hands over her face.
“Hey. Hey, come on, you're fine. Don't make such a big deal about it.” Nadia nudged Penny with a fingertip, trying to get a reaction out of her, until Penny pushed it away and glared at her.
“You... you could have swallowed me!” she cried out, trembling with impotent fury.
“And you could have choked me!”
“You... you left me trapped earlier!”
“Because you were being a nuisance! Acting like you're really my sister, waking me up, hanging around me all the time. What's up with all that? Why couldn't you just have left me alone, huh?”
“Mom told me to–”
“Stop. Calling. Her. That. She's not your mom, you idiot. Can't that thought fit in that tiny little head of yours? She's my mom. I'm her daughter, and you're just a pet she's too fond of. You already have your own mom, so stop trying to take mine away, got it?”
“I'm not trying to take anything away! And I haven't seen my mom since I was three! I know she's not my real mom, but so what? She's the first human to ever be nice to me. She makes me feel safe, and I try to make her happy. Isn't that good enough? Can't you just let me be happy with her?”
Penny curled up again. This time Nadia could even hear her sobbing; it made her feel ashamed.
Ashamed? That was stupid. What did she have to be ashamed for? All she did was tell the truth. If that had upset Penny, well, that wasn't her fault. And besides, she was just an inchling; what did it matter if she was sad?
But Nadia was upset despite it all. Looking at that poor creature curled up on her palm, feeling her trembling, hearing her little sobs—it made her feel awful. She tried to stroke Penny's back with her thumb to calm her down, but that just made the poor thing cry even harder. “Hey, it's... it's fine. You can call her 'mom' if you want; it's not like it affects me or anything. I was just mad at you over that... little prank.” She was still a bit upset over it even now, but she made herself let it go; it wasn't like she hadn't done plenty of mean stuff to Penny in the past.
Nadia was stuck comforting Penny for an annoyingly long time, but she kept at it and eventually her efforts yielded fruits. Penny, still sniffling a bit, sat up and made a signal to Nadia to stop stroking her. She wiped her eyes, smoothed down her clothes, gave a shaky sigh, and stopped crying at last.
“I'm... sorry for the... prank,” she said, looking up into Nadia's eyes. “Sorry for annoying you, too. Put me back in my room. I promise I won't bother you again.”
“No, no. I'm sorry for being mean to you before,” Nadia mumbled. “You can stay here if you want. That's why you kept coming back, isn't it? Because you wanted company? Here; I hope this place is comfortable for you.” Lying down again, she lowered Penny to her stomach, where the inchling girl climbed off and looked at her. She looked nervous still, so Nadia tried patting her head, but she just ducked away from her fingers. Finally, though, she walked forward and curled up at the base of Nadia's breasts, just out of sight.
Nadia lay still, watching out for any sign of movement from the little inchling, but Penny didn't really move except to roll over. After a while she started to feel really silly for inviting the inchling to stay despite having nothing for them to do. Now she was stuck here, unable to move lest she disturb the tiny woman, and unable to ask her to leave without it being super awkward. And all for what? So she wouldn't feel so bad about having told her the truth? “Keep it up and you'll end up just like mom,” she told herself, though there was no real bite to her warning.
With nothing more to do, and not wanting to try petting the inchling again, Nadia cupped her hands around Penny, fingers intertwined to act as the roof over her head, then just... lay there, staring at the ceiling, reflecting on her actions and her feelings today. That is, until she fell into another coughing fit, trying to keep it under control so she wouldn't rattle Penny too much. It proved too much for her to handle, though, and she sat up, catching Penny in one cupped hand while fumbling around the bed with the other one until she found the packet of cough drops her mom had left her. She popped one into her mouth and slowly her cough subsided, until she felt something on her thumb and realized that Penny was gently stroking it.
“I'm fine,” she said, waving away Penny's concern, a bit annoyed at receiving sympathy from an inchling. Still, she did nothing to actually stop her, and started absentmindedly stroking her back after lying down again. She looked curiously at Penny, wondering what in the world she had done to warrant being treated so tenderly.
“Because we're sisters,” Penny said when she asked her about it. “Sisters should care for each other.”
Sisters? Nadia couldn't say she agreed, but she didn't say anything against it. Instead she held the tiny woman close and nudged her tiny figure with her thumbs, innocently examining this little thing that called itself her sister. Penny didn't try to stop her or to run away; she just lay there in her hands and allowed it to happen, caressing Nadia's thumbs and looking into her eyes. How she could do a thing like that, Nadia didn't understand. Wasn't she scared? Nadia knew she would be terrified if she was the one being held down and examined like that, even if it was her own mother doing it. Was this inchling really that much braver than her?
Her nudging slowly turned into tender strokes, thumb sliding up and down Penny's body. Then she stopped it on the tiny chest, and when Penny hugged it and nuzzled up to it, Nadia could feel her heart melting with warmth—all the more so when Penny gave it a kiss. She thought she might even shed tears, but she stilled her face until the worst of it was over, not wanting to let on that anything was happening. “Ahem. Right. Well, that's enough of that. You should go back to your room or something. I've, uh... got to get my rest, you know. Hard to fall asleep when you're here distracting me.”
“Oh, okay. Don't worry, I promise I won't disturb you this time. You go and get some sleep; I can get to my room by myself,” Penny said, giving Nadia's thumb one last kiss before hopping off her hand and scurrying off the bed. A few seconds later, Nadia thought she heard the tiny door to the “dollhouse” closing shut.
Despite what she'd said, Nadia wasn't sleepy at all, she just felt she needed time alone. She didn't understand how it had happened, but she was starting to grow fond of her so-called sister, and not just as a pet either. It surprised her to find that when she thought of Penny now there was none of that annoyance she had felt even just this morning, but instead sympathy and even a hint of respect. It hurt her to think of how she had abused this poor innocent woman who had never done anything wrong to her—well, except for that blueberry thing, but she supposed that was her just desserts for what she had done to her.
“You really are becoming just like mom,” she thought, and noticed with some annoyance that all this time she had been caressing that spot on her thumb where Penny had kissed her.
Coughing twice, Nadia rolled over and turned her back to Penny. What the hell was she doing, still thinking about that little shrimp? Yeah, okay, so she wasn't as dumb as Nadia had thought at first. That didn't mean she had to get all sappy about it. They had both apologized so that meant everything was fine now—no need to start acting like they were friends or anything.
Still, even when she closed her eyes she couldn't stop thinking of Penny. How delicate her limbs had felt under Nadia's thumb, how frail and helpless she looked, how heartbreaking her sobbing had been; and yet, how bravely she had borne it all, how lovingly she had looked at Nadia. She must have suffered so much to have turned out that way. Hadn't seen her mother since she was three? Nadia had lost her father at fifteen years old; she couldn't imagine how much it would have hurt if she had been that much younger.
And to think that she had been all but yelling at Penny for the crime of being happy about her new mom. How could she have done something like that? Just because she thought she'd been chastising a pet, not a poor orphaned girl.
The more she thought about everything, the worse she felt. She wanted to apologize again for everything she had done. “Penny,” she called after a while, her voice little more than a croak. She coughed twice, then called again. “Penny, can you come over please?” She heard scampering down below, and after a few seconds Penny climbed up on the bed with her, scampering along her body to stop by Nadia's face.
“What is it, sis? Something wrong?”
“No, I'm fine. Couldn't fall asleep so I figured you might as well come back.”
“You want me to keep you company?”
“I'm not asking you to do anything, I'm just saying you can stay if you want. I figured since you only left when I told you to leave you might want to come back now.”
“Well, if you don't mind it, I'd be glad to stay with you!” Penny said with a voice that all but melted Nadia's heart again.
“Right. By the way, I'm probably not gonna be talking much since my throat's starting to hurt.”
“That's okay, you don't have to say a thing. I'm happy just being here with you, sis.” She walked up to Nadia and placed her hands on her cheek, planting a little kiss on it. Nadia then scooped her up on her fingertips and, facing the ceiling, she eased the inchling onto her nose, where she straddled the bridge. Even crossing her eyes Nadia couldn't get a focus on her—the most she could do was close one eye and look at her with the other, though even then she was still too close to see any of her fine details. Still, she could see enough to know that Penny was smiling at her, and to see those little hands sliding up and down her nose.
Tiny feet then came to rest on the ridge, testing the ground to find a steady grip. Then, slowly, Penny stood, using her arms for balance and walking, step by step, towards the brow, delighting Nadia with the soft pitter-patter of her little feet. She had nearly made it when a sniff made her lose her balance, and she fell onto the open eye. Nadia closed it in time, and reached up to help the inchling, but she stopped when she felt Penny getting up by herself. Then she opened her eye a crack, just enough to see Penny crouched by her lower eyelid and peering down at her.
Nadia's eye was so much like Linda's—the same shade of brown, the same beautiful lashes, and the same expressiveness that revealed everything they felt. Once, Penny had found nothing but contempt in them, but now there was only tenderness and a touch of regret. It was that most of all which had convinced her that Nadia had truly changed now, and made Penny so fond of her new sister—and it didn't hurt that she wanted a family more than anything in the world, either.
She understood that Nadia was sorry for anything, but as far as she was concerned there was nothing more to be sorry about—she had already forgiven Nadia everything, and all that was left was to show her as much.
Penny stared into that eye, seeing her own image smiling back from that glimmering surface, her hair once more a total mess. She fixed it up, and then, patting Nadia's skin, she climbed back on her nose. She walked again to Nadia's brow, that loving eye following her every step of the way. Then, she lay down and combed her fingers through the bristly hairs of Nadia's eyebrows, slowly causing the tension there to disappear. She crawled all over Nadia's face doing the same thing everywhere, massaging it all over as she had learned to do for their mom.
Those little hands were miracle workers, soothing Nadia like nothing else could. By the time Penny finished, Nadia was feeling much better, and she closed her eyes to rest them. She wasn't asleep, but she was content to let Penny think she was, and after a while she felt the inchling hop off of her head to go exploring the rest of her body, trekking over her breasts, down along her belly, and all the way across her legs to her feet, even climbing up to Nadia's toes before hopping to the other foot and beginning the journey back.
Penny was in no rush, and she happily took her time crossing Nadia, getting to know her sister better just as she had come to know their mother by exploring her so many times, making of Nadia's body her playground, her shelter, her home. She thought herself lucky to have a sister as pretty as this.
As for Nadia, the sensation of Penny's footsteps crossing her body gave her a feeling of happiness she didn't think she could have explained. Really, she was just glad to be so close to Penny, and glad that Penny so enjoyed being around her that she stuck around even while Nadia “slept”. Penny's happiness was her happiness, and she would have done anything to make her happy if need be.
When Penny was exploring Nadia's hands, ducking under her fingers and squeezing through the gaps between them, then reaching up to tickle her palm, Nadia finally took the chance to surprise the inchling, lowering her hand to flatten her on the bed. Only for a moment, of course, then she turned her hand over and gestured for Penny to climb on her palm. When she did, Nadia brought her over and let her down right in front of her face, in the edge of the pillow. There Penny stood, until Nadia's finger pushed her down and returned the favor she had given Nadia by massaging her whole body at once with a fingertip, gently kneading her onto the pillow until Penny again hugged and kissed it.
That was the last push Nadia needed. “I'm sorry about before,” she whispered. “About what I said. I was wrong about you. I thought you were just a pet, but... I guess you're more than that. You can call Linda your mom if you want to, and you can call me your sister, too, if you want, or just your friend.”
“Thank you, sis,” Penny said, again kissing her sister's finger. Nadia was so moved that she snatched her sister right up and brought her to her face, first nuzzling her into her cheek, feeling the outline of that tiny body slide up and down her skin, then moving her to her lips, which pinned her with a tender kiss for a few seconds before she thought she must surely be embarrassing herself. But when she started moving her hand away, Penny pounced on her lips and hugged herself to them, nuzzling her face between them. Nadia had no choice but to grant her new sister's wishes and smother her with with a kiss for a good minute and a half. Neither of them had ever been happier.
Giantess World
Author's Chapter Notes:
An inchling woman adopted into a human family spends the day alone with her new sister.
RATING: PG
TAGS: Micro, Hand play, Eyes, Gentle, Humiliation, Mouth play, Breasts
RATING: PG
TAGS: Micro, Hand play, Eyes, Gentle, Humiliation, Mouth play, Breasts