“Fuck…” 

Ryan Miller stared blankly at the screen as he lazily gripped his controller. The ominous text “You’re Dead!” pulsed on screen, reminding him of his failure. He let out a long sigh and carelessly tossed the controller onto the coffee table, letting it loudly bounce across the wooden surface as he picked up a half empty bottle of beer and raised it to his lips. After polishing off the last few swigs of bland tasteless beer, Ryan tossed the bottle down on the floor with the others. 

“So fucking dumb.” He said, his voice bathed in exhaustion. As the young man sat back on the couch, the sound of his cell phone vibrating caught hold of his attention. Ryan picked up his phone and scrolled down the two dozen messages polluting his lock screen. With a tired frown, he shook his head and tossed the device down onto the coffee table, where it landed on top of the large hand towel that he had been using as a napkin ever since he started his breakup bender. 

Buuuuurrrrppp

Ryan heaved himself off of the couch and slowly meandered his way towards the kitchen, being careful not to kick over any of the half dozen empties littered around the base of the couch. He stumbled into the kitchen, selecting a slightly below room temp slice of pizza from the open box on the countertop and munching on it loudly as he dove into the fridge to retrieve another couple of beers. Tearing off a big chunk of greasy pizza, Ryan tossed the crust back into the box and began walking back into the living room to dive back into his video games in an effort to silence all of the other bullshit going on in his life. 

“Woah…” Ryan stumbled slightly as he walked before catching himself. Suddenly his head was beginning to feel light as the room started to spin. “What the fuck?” Were the last words that escaped his lips before he blacked out.

“Ohhhh my fucking head!” Ryan said as he finally began to regain consciousness. He couldn’t believe that less than a twelve pack of light beer was enough to put him on his ass like that. Guess it’s been a little while since college, maybe he was a bit out of practice. Rising to a seated position, Ryan cracked his neck and began searching for his phone. No doubt he had a few missed calls and few hundred angry texts from Laura by now. 

“What the fuck? What the actual fuck?!” Ryan screamed, his eyes going wide as he looked around and beheld the immense majesty that was once his apartment. Stretching out for what now seemed like miles, Ryan’s leather couch was now the size of a small mountain and he was standing in the center of the seat, no bigger than a few inches tall. 

“No… no, no, no, no! This is a dream. This is a goddamn dream.” Ryan began to slap himself across the face, desperately trying to free himself from what was surely some sort of nightmare. He was supposed to be immune. This shit was supposed to be genetic. Mom, Amanda, Livvy, they were all immune, so how the fuck could he not be? Ryan didn’t know a single person who was vulnerable while their family was immune. So how the fuck was this happening? If he had known that this was even a possibility, he would’ve made the effort to take that stupid fucking nasal swab and start on a steroid cycle. 

“Okay… alright. So, I’m small. Okay… no big deal.” The shrunken man began to pace back and forth nervously. His mind raced at a million miles per minute as he tried to figure out his next steps. “I’ve gotta call someone. An ambulance or something. Shit! Where’s my phone?”

Ryan began smacking his legs, instinctively searching his pockets for his phone. It was at that moment that he realized his clothing hadn’t shrunk with him. His t-shirt was lying on the adjacent couch cushion and his pants and boxers were nowhere to be seen. Things were still a bit hazy, but he figured he must have fallen over the couch armrest when he passed out and that his jeans were most likely piled up on the floor beyond the vast brown mountain range of the armrest. Thankfully, Ryan noticed that instead of being buried beneath a hundred metric tons of denim fabric, his phone was still sitting on the coffee table where he had left it. 

The tiny man strode across the seat of his couch and began working out a plan to make his way across the wide canyon between the seat and the coffee table. Thankfully he had a habit of keeping it annoying close to the couch to minimize the distance he had to reach for his drink. Even still, the span that Ryan was going to have to cross in order to reach his phone seemed like something that Evel Knievel would want to jump on a motorcycle. 

“Goddammit.” Ryan muttered, slowly leaning forward to peer down towards the floor.  He figured it had to be at least a couple stories down to the floor and though he had no idea if a fall from the couch would actually hurt him in his new compact body, he didn’t have any desire to test that theory right this moment. But if he didn’t do something, then he was certainly going to starve to death in his own goddamn apartment.

Ryan began to search for something he could use to help him safely cross the gap. Maybe he could find some string between the cushions that he could lasso across and make some sort of rope bridge. Not that he knew how to tie or throw a lasso. But maybe he could find like a couple of fast food straws that he could use to make a walkway across. Although logistically, that didn’t make a whole lot of sense either. No, for all intents and purposes, he was stuck here until someone decided to come and check up on him. 

“Fuck me. Fucking fuck me!” He wanted to scream with frustration, confused by what was happening to him and terrified about what he was going to do next. Suddenly he noticed his hoodie casually draped across the other end of the sofa with one arm flopped down onto the seat and the hood of the garment hanging halfway between the couch and the table. Finally the first bit of good fortune he had since waking up! Ryan raced over to the arm of his sweatshirt and began crawling his way up the sleeve. Thankfully the interior of the garment was a coarse cotton material that offered decent hand and footholds as he began to ascend into the body of the sweatshirt. The experience was remarkable. While it was admittedly maybe just a half a size too large for him yesterday, the light gray canvas now stretched across the entire sky. 

After a few more minutes of walking and climbing, Ryan eventually made it to the hood where he was able to finally emerge back into open air. He took a brief moment to catch his breath before getting to work on the task at hand. Thanks to nothing but sheer luck, he had been wearing his ratty old school hoodie from highschool, the one about which he often received comments about the overly long drawstrings. Being a “measure twice, cut once” sort of guy, Ryan took the time to adjust the length of one side of the drawstring, ensuring that it had enough slack to reach a short way below the surface of the table. This allowed him to tie a small loop around his waist as well as keep a small loop of slack that he could release when he was ready to make his jump.

Once he was fully prepped, Ryan took a deep breath and slowly began to rappel down the face of the sheer leather cliff. It had been a couple of years since Ryan had been rock climbing, but he recalled the feeling of nervousness that he had felt when he had first attempted abseiling in college. It was an exhilarating experience to be sure, but here, in his own apartment, with no safety partner, no climbing gear, and no idea what had happened to his body, the young man was understandably nervous about this terrifying undertaking. 

It took about another six minutes before Ryan finally reached the point where he had no remaining slack outside of his jump coil. Nervously he looked back over his shoulder and saw the edge of the coffee table not too far below him. Thankfully, this corner of the table was tilted a bit closer to the couch than the other. From his perspective, it looked like he had maybe ten feet or so to push out laterally, in addition to what must have been about a fifteen foot drop. Obviously it wasn't an ideal situation and he was firmly aware that either he was going to make it and it would hurt like a motherfucker; or he was going to completely miss and it would only hurt for a second. 

“Alright. You can do this. It’s just one short drop. One… measly… ten story drop.” His eyes dropped down beyond the edge of the table, all the way down to the hardwood floor below. Vertigo began to set in and he could feel a harrowing drop in his stomach as the very real potential for bodily harm began to set it. Ryan could feel his heart beginning to race as panic began to set in.

“ONE TWO THREE GO!” He screamed at the top of his lungs, pressing his legs as hard as he possibly could as he released his grip on the last loop of drawstring slack in his hands. The shrunken man’s tiny body went careening through the air for what felt like an eternity. Time seemed to slow as he fell, but as soon as Ryan blinked, he landed painfully on his back with a heavy thud. 

“Uuuggggghhhhhhhh” A low, pained groan escaped Ryan’s lips as he began to roll around on his back, racked with the dull pain of having the wind knocked from his lungs. Though surprisingly, he felt like he was in far less pain than he would’ve thought given the height from which he plummeted directly onto his back. Still, the miniature man took a few minutes to come to terms with his aching body before he slowly rose to his feet and untied himself from the drawstring of his hoodie. He noticed the elongated shadow of the window stretching across the table before him and turned to find the sun was already beginning to set. Figuring his chances of reaching someone to help would start to dwindle as the evening drew to a close, Ryan decided to hightail it over to the far end of the table where his phone was currently sitting. Thankfully, while still the relative size of a pool table, his phone wasn't so large that he couldn't operate it anymore. 

Ryan climbed up onto his dishrag napkin, grimacing at how filthy and disgusting the rag had become during his drunRyan video game binge. Stepping up onto the face of the smartphone, his bare feet and hands touching the screen caused the device to spring to life, showing him in a bright bluish white light. A massive wall of missed text messages and phone calls informed Ryan that Laura had not yet come to grips with getting dumped. As he stepped forward, his foot clicked on the missed call banner which prompted the phone to launch a return phone call to his ex-girlfriend. 

“SHITSHITSHITSHIT” Ryan began stomping as hard as he could on the end call button as it appeared under his feet. RIght now, Laura was the absolute last person that he needed to be talking to. This realization stemmed into a deeper train of thought as Ryan managed to open up the contact list on his phone. 

“Who the fuck do I call?” He said softly to himself. His first thought was to just call 911 and get himself to a hospital or something like that, but a few things gave him pause. What if they just assumed he was being a smartass? Or if he did get someone to come and investigate, did he really want a stranger to be the one to find him? Not that he had any reason to be distrustful of first responders, but he was a very peculiar kind of vulnerable at the moment. So perhaps someone he knew personally would be more appropriate. Obviously not Laura, since she had plenty of reasons to want to find him underfoot at the moment. But surely he could have someone else in town come over and give him a hand. For the next few minutes, Ryan continued to laboriously swipe through his phone’s contact list, trying to make a determination on who should come and get him. Mike? No. Hailey? Bad idea. Mom… Ugh…

Ryan let out a heavy sigh and finally settled on his choice, pressing his palm into the warm screen and watching as it shifted into the call animation he was accustomed to. He quickly paced towards the bottom of the phone where he would be closest to the speaker. The phone rang for an agonizingly long time as Ryan nervously waited for the call to pick up. He nervously kicked away some of the crumbs he had left behind on the hand towel as he thought about what he wanted to say. 

“Sup?” The cavalier voice of Ryan’s sister, Amanda, could be heard emanating from the speakers at the top of the device. Immediately the shrunken man cursed himself for not putting the device on speaker. He cleared his throat and began to speak, trying his best to project, but not sound like he was shouting. 

“Hey… Amanda?” He said. There was a long beat of silence that hung in the air as he awaited a response. 

“Yeah, duh. Who did you think you called?” She asked, her voice sounding semi annoyed, though he couldn’t tell if she was actually irritated or this was just her normal level of flippant attitude. “What’s up?”

“Hey, so… I sort of need your help with-”

“Where are you? You sound weird… like you’re super far from your phone.” Amanda replied, cutting him off. Ryan began to speak even louder, not wanting to have to resort to texting at this miniscule size. 

“AMANDA. CAN YOU HEAR ME?” He shouted. 

“Barely, you sound so weird. Where are you?” She asked again. 

“LOOK, AMANDA. I NEED YOU TO COME TO MY APARTMENT. I NEED HELP. BADLY.” Ryan replied. He was unsure what exactly he could tell her. SHould he just come out and say that he’s shrunken? Would she even believe him or just blow it off as some stupid prank?

“What? Come to you? For what? What’s going on?” She asked. He knew it was a big ask. Amanda’s apartment was just over an hour from his place and that was a decent journey for a college student to make on a random Tuesday night. 

“AMANDA, IT’S SERIOUS. IT’S HARD TO EXPLAIN BUT I NEED YOUR HELP. IT’S AN EMERGENCY.” There was a sudden lurch in Ryan’s footing as the cloth he was standing on began to slide. In the blink of an eye, Ryan found himself and the cell phone beginning to slide towards the edge of the table. “OOOOHHH FUCK!!”

Before he could react, Ryan found himself fully flung from the edge of the table, with his now massive cell phone barreling right along after him. He managed to scream out one final message to his sister before he bounced off of the side of the couch and onto the hard floor below. 

“DAFFODIL!” He screeched, praying that Amanda would hear him. But before he could confirm that, he landed with a loud thud on the floor, causing him to instantly black out again. 

Ryan awoke groggily lying on the floor at the foot of his couch. As he sat up, immediately his head began to pound painfully, though if a headache was the worst injury he could complain about after surviving that fall, then he would count himself incredibly lucky. Slowly he began to climb to his feet, gently flexing his muscles and moving his joints to verify that he could still move his limbs without issue. Thankfully, everything seemed to be in order, despite a bit of soreness and so Ryan was now prepared to begin focusing on the much more pressing concern; still being three inches tall. 

“Goddammit…” Ryan mumbled softly, stretching out a small knot in his back as he walked across the hardwood towards where his phone was currently lying face down on the floor. It figured the damn thing would land screen down. The damn thing was probably shattered to hell knowing how notoriously goddamn fragile uPhones were. But even if it was working, there was another problem. 

Reaching down to grip the bottom edge of the large metal frame, Ryan squatted and tried to begin raising one side of the device into the air. Surprisingly, he managed to get a small bit of lift going before his fingers started to lose their grip. While he was a bit shocked and impressed by how much it felt like he was lifting, it was still very clear to the tiny man that he wasn’t ever going to flip the phone over so he could use it again. 

“Fuck me. Goddammit, Amanda, please don’t let me down.” He pleaded hopefully, staring out the massive window through the thin curtains. There was a very noticeable lack of daylight streaming into the room at this point. If Amanda didn’t come to find him soon, then he was going to need to make it through the night and see if anyone reached out to him tomorrow. He started pacing across the vast expanse of the living room floor, his eyes trained on the still open pizza box sitting on the kitchen counter. If he was going to be in this situation for the long haul,getting his hands on food and water was going to be a huge priority. 

“Hmmmmm, maybe I could fashion some sort of grapple system using threads from the bathmat. Then I could use the cardboard of the pizza box to reach the water in the kitchen sink.” Ryan’s mind was racing with a million different ideas on how to start up his shrunken survival program, either remarkably concussed, or just vastly overconfident about his ability to climb the several miles it would take to get on top of the kitchen counter. Either way, Ryan’s  string of luck continued when the front door to his apartment was suddenly and loudly thrown open.

“Ryan? Ryan, you here?” Ryan’s eyes nearly bulged from his head as he laid eyes on the very first normal sized person he had seen since shrinking down. The giantess swung the door shut behind her and began crossing further into the apartment, walking directly towards where Ryan was standing in the middle of the room. Dressed in a loose cotton t-shirt, tight black workout shorts and brightly colored pair of custom running shoes, Amanda had clearly dropped everything and rushed her way to meet him here. 

“Jesus fucking Christ…” Ryan said, his jaw falling slack as he stared up at the titanic form of his little sister. It was like nothing he ever could have imagined in his wildest dreams. The massive woman proceeded into the apartment, turning very briefly to slam the door shut behind her. From his new vantage point, Ryan was afforded a strange new perspective of the immense woman. Her movements seemed oddly majestic, almost as if he was watching her move in slow motion. Though perhaps his mind was simply struggling to cope with this new reality. 

Similarly, her arms and legs seemed so insanely powerful from down here. And truthfully they were. Amanda was an athlete, so he had always known her to be fit, but from where he was now standing, it was much more akin to watching a lion or a tiger stalk across the jungle. Perhaps it was simply the knowledge that she could utterly destroy him without a second thought, but Ryan was unable to stop staring at her muscles as she began to walk farther into the apartment. He felt his breath catch in his chest as she finally turned her head and began to look around the room. However, his new prey instincts were quickly overridden by the realization that his survival was dependent on getting the giantess’ attention. 

“Oh thank Christ. Amanda! AMANDA!” He shouted, waiting for her enormous eyes to finally rest on him. However, Amanda’s focus was much higher than the floor, as such, Ryan began to panic as her gargantuan feet drew closer and closer to where he was standing.

“AMANDA! AMANDAAAAAAA! LOOK OUT!!!” Ryan screeched, stumbling backwards as the gargantuan sole of Amanda’s foot descended directly towards him. Tripping backwards over his own feet, Ryan threw his hands up in a vain effort to defend himself from being pulverized beneath his little sister’s massive rubber sole. Mercifully, fate did not deem it necessary for Ryan to test his strange new durability against the undoubtable might of the giantess’ foot. Crashing to a halt just a few feet before him, Amanda’s foot squeaked softly as the rubber sole twisted against the waxy coating on the floorboards before a second step sent it floating above Ryan’s tiny body and landing several dozen yards away. 

“Jesus Christ…” Ryan mumbled softly, his heart beating through his chest. Amanda continued to stride into his apartment, her lumbering frame peering down the hallway as she began to call out for him some more. When she received no answer, Amanda raised her phone up to her face and began typing into it, undoubtedly about to call his phone in an effort to reach him. Ryan quickly clambered to his feet just as his suspicions were confirmed. His phone started to loudly vibrate on the floor near the coffee table, immediately catching the attention of his giantess sister. 

“Shit.” Ryan screeched, sprinting towards his phone as the towering form of his sister began to move similarly behind him. Though he ran as fast as his tiny legs could carry him, Ryan simply could not compete with the effortless gate of Amanda’s normal sized body and the giantess once again stepped over him, putting her massive feet between him and the phone. Suddenly, Ryan watched as Amanda knelt down to pick up his phone off the floor, her massive rear end sticking out as she crouched into a squatting pose. A slight squeal escaped from Ryan’s throat as he quickly grappled with the notion that he was about to be squashed like a grape underneath the immense buttcheek of his little sister. “AMANDA NOOOOO!”

“What the fuck?” Amanda muttered. Was she going crazy? She could’ve sworn she just heard her name coming from somewhere. The giantess looked back over her shoulder, curious where the noise had just come from. From his position beneath her, Ryan watched in nervous awe as Amanda’s muscular glutes twisted above him, more of her shorts getting swallowed up into the depths of her crack as she contorted her body mid-squat. Even the smallest twitches in her muscles sent noticeable jiggles cascading through her toned, yet bubbly butt. “Ryan? That you?”

The sound of her voice quickly snapped Ryan from his stupor. Immediately he began to race between her legs, trying to put himself in her line of sight. As the giantess turned back in his direction, Ryan took a deep breath and bellowed as loudly as he could muster. “AMANDA!!!”

The fit, young brunette turned her gaze towards the floor as she followed the sound of her name. As her eyes finally locked onto the tiny form of her big brother, the giantess had to lower herself closer to the floor so that she was lying flat on her stomach. Ryan did his best not to cower in fear as his baby sister’s face loomed above him, completely dominating the sky around him. Her breath began to wash over him like a warm, humid wave, nearly knocking him flat onto his back as her immense eyes studied his tiny frame.

“Ryan? Holy fucking shit, is that you?” Her voice boomed, shaking Ryan to his very core and causing his ears to ring as she spoke to him directly for the first time. Without warning, the giantess began to extend a hand in his direction, aiming to pluck him from the floor. Instinctively Ryan fell back on his butt, throwing his hands up in front of him, as if it would help save him from whatever fate this titanness decided was appropriate for him. Fear dominated his mind as he began to curl into a tiny ball beneath her grasp.

“NOOOOO!” He cried, no longer in control of his own reactions.

Amanda’s titanic fingers shot around and wrapped the miniature brother in her grip before she lifted him into the air as she rose to her full height. “Jesus Christ, what the fuck happened? You said you were immune? How the hell did this happen?” She asked curiously. Honestly, Ryan was just as confused as she was. Obviously he misunderstood the science behind this pandemic, but right now the how wasn’t really relevant. They needed to be more concerned with what to do now.

“Yes, Amanda, it’s me.” Ryan said, trying to adjust himself in her vice-like grip. He squirmed uncomfortably with her thumb and index finger clenched around his chest while the rest of his body floundered against her massive palm. The two siblings stared at each other for a few long moments, before Ryan started to become oddly uncomfortable. He was reminded of the fact that he was currently naked, sitting in his sister’s hand flashing his dick right at her. And as soon as he made that realization, it started to feel like she wasn’t actually looking at him, rather she was just staring at his junk. Desperate to move on, Ryan decided to break the silence. “I wasn’t sure you were going to come.” Amanda looked a bit taken aback by what he said.

“Seriously? You said the safeword. Obviously I was going to take it seriously. Although you could’ve given me a bit more info. I had no fucking clue what I was walking into here.” Ryan smiled softly. It was an important dynamic from their childhood where they needed a way to create a space of complete and total honesty and safety between one another. Had it not been for that inherent trust in each other, Ryan may very well be stranded in his apartment right now. 

“Yeah sorry. I was trying to figure out what to say when the phone slid off the table.” He replied, gesturing down towards the coffee table. Amanda looked down, finally noticing the several beer bottles lying around the table and floor. The gears began to turn in Amanda’s head as she looked around the apartment. Cold pizza on the counter, empty beers all over the place and he called her instead of his girlfriend for help? It didn’t take a rocket scientist to connect the dots. The massive woman upturned her brother’s phone, causing the screen to wake, revealing a long list of missed calls and text messages from Laura. Amanda looked down at her tiny brother, giving him a soft, understanding frown. 

“Do you wanna talk about it?” She asked, but Ryan simply shook his head. 

“Honestly, it's kind of low on my list of problems.” He replied, gesturing toward his tiny body. “I think for the time being I just need someone to help keep an eye on me.”

Amanda smiled and gave her brother a curt nod. “I gotchu.” She said assertively, looking around the apartment. “Uhhhh, the thing is… you’re gonna have to come back to school with me.” Ryan considered this for a moment. He hadn’t really put too much thought into it, but obviously she was right. He couldn’t really expect her to stay here in his apartment and forgo her classes. 

“Hmmm, right. That makes sense.”

“Are you… like cool to just leave town for a little bit? Do you need to like, call work or something?” She asked. 

“Nahh, I’ll be fine. I took the rest of this week off already and I’ll just give Dan a shout and let him know I’m gonna have to start burning some sick time.” Thankfully Ryan had a fairly decent software engineering job that offered some pretty good benefits. He might even be able to start working again if he could find a small enough keyboard, though he hoped that he’d be beach to normal size before too long. 

“Cool, cool. Well… is there anything you need?” Amanda asked, collecting the beer bottles from the living room floor and taking them into the kitchen sink before she also began to clean up the cold, hard pizza on the counter. “I mean… we could pack you a bag or something, but you probably don’t have anything that’ll fit.” She teased. Ryan just shook his head, waving off her dumb joke. However, she did get him thinking about making preparations. All of this craziness was completely unknown to him. He would obviously need to see a doctor or a scientist or something about his condition, but he had no idea how long it would be until he was back to normal again. 

“Actually, yeah. I need you to grab my wallet out of my pants pocket.” Ryan instructed. Amanda was all too happy to oblige, retrieving the large leather wallet and spreading it open, fanning out a fold of ones and twenties. 

“Ohhhh yea. Drinks on me tonight.” She joked, tucking the cash back into the wallet. Ryan just chuckled and shook his head. He knew she was kidding around, but honestly he wasn’t going to try to stop her. If this was going to take any serious length of time, he was going to be damn sure that he was carrying his own weight. 

“Yea yea yea. Now I need you to go into the hallway closet and grab the safe off the top shelf. The code is 5282.” Amanda nodded and plodded along slowly towards the closet at the end of the hall. She retrieved the small metal safe and pulled it down, entering the code into the digital lock. Inside the simple metal box there was a small yellow envelope which Amanda removed, shooting her brother a quizzical look. “Go ahead.” Ryan replied plainly. The giantess began to unroll the top of the envelope, but as soon as she was able to peek inside, a look of complete and utter shock crossed onto her face. 

“Twenty three hundred bucks.” Ryan said incredibly matter-of-factly. Amanda nearly had to scoop her jaw off the floor as she held the brick of cash in her fist. The tiny man in the young woman’s fist allowed her to sit with her shock for a few moments before he finally snapped her back to reality. “Alright, listen up you dork. This isn’t a goddamn party fund. I don’t know how long this is going to last, and you’re going out of your way to put me up so this is just for emergencies.”

“Yeah, alright. It’s a party fund, I got it..” Amanda replied, excitedly tucking the wad of cash back into the envelope. Ryan rolled his eyes as he sat in her palm and began looking around the rest of the room. He knew she was just being a smartass and he didn’t have to worry about giving his broke college student sister a couple thousand bucks. He instructed his sister to gather up some of the rest of his belongings that he figured might come in handy, like his laptop, chargers and some clothes that he could wear on the off chance that he did finally grow back to normal. 

Once Amanda had all of his requests packed up into a bag, she took some time to clean up some of the mess around the apartment before she proceeded towards the door. Ryan had to huddle closely against the warm skin of his sister’s palm to protect himself from the cool air of the autumn night. Thankfully the giantess moved quickly into her small, beat up sedan. She threw Ryan’s bag into the passenger footwell and began to crawl into the vehicle, but she paused before setting Ryan down.

“Uhhhh, are you fine if I just put you on the seat?” She asked. It wasn’t like he could buckle up or anything, so she was a bit nervous for his safety.

“Yea, as long as it’s the passenger seat.” He said playfully, already having been nearly butt crushed by his sister once tonight.  It took Amanda an extra couple seconds to pick up what he was saying, but when she did, she burst into a fit of giggles. 

“Oh, no I thought we were gonna share…” She joked, sliding fully into her seat before leaning to the side, giving Ryan a nice long look at her round ass. He tried to look elsewhere, but the bit seemed to last just a moment too long and he couldn’t help but take a long look at the curves of her titanic ass.

“Yeah, yeah, very funny. An unoccupied seat will be fine, thanks.” Ryan reiterated. Amanda obliged, setting him down on the passenger seat while she continued to laugh about the idea of squishing her brother with her butt. 

“Alright, MHU, here we come!” The giantess declared, putting the vehicle in drive and pulling away from Ryan’s apartment. The brother-sister duo started a bit of small talk for a short while, but it very quickly became obvious that Ryan was a bit too tired to entertain a conversation at the moment. Thankfully, Amanda was understanding of his situation and decided to just turn on the radio, letting the air fill with music and allowing Ryan some time to think while they drove. 

For the next hour, the pair rode in contented silence back towards Amanda’s college apartment. On the way they stopped off for some greasy fast food tacos for a bit of self care. Amanda greedily housed three chicken quesadillas while Ryan was given a small chunk torn from the end of one of her cheesy tortillas. Though even that proved to be too much food for the newly tiny man who would’ve traditionally put away twice as much food as his little sister. 

“So…. Do you wanna talk about it?” Amanda asked, finishing off her last quesadilla and tucking the wrapper back into the bag. She kept her eyes focused on the road ahead, but just from the sound of her voice, Ryan could tell she was feeling nervous; like she was trying to be overly delicate with him.

“I mean, if you’ve got some insight on sudden onset shrinking disease, then I’m all ears.” He joked, but Amanda turned to look at him, her face sporting a deep frown.

“I mean about Laura.” She clarified. Immediately a feeling of dejection washed over Ryan as he was reminded of the other world shattering mess in his life. He let out a heavy sigh and shook his head.

“Not tonight Amanda… not tonight.” 

The young giantess wanted to press the issue, but she respected her brother and understood that he had a lot on his plate at the moment. The long silence resumed, this time without the aid of music to cut the tension as they made the last leg of the journey back towards campus. Once they finally made it back, Amanda leaned over to pick up Ryan’s bug-out bag, leaving Ryan staring up into the sky as his sister’s heavy chest looked over him like the spaceship from Independence Day. 

“Alright dude, you should probably get inside the bag, just until I can get into my suite. It’s late, but you never know who is gonna be walking around the building.” Amanda said. It wasn’t as though they were breaking any sort of rules, but the both of them had heard enough horror stories about shrunken people that she figured it was probably best to keep him under wraps for the time being. 

Ryan agreed and climbed into the black mesh pocket on the end of the bag. Amanda took some time to gather up the garbage from their late night snacking before she quickly zipped up the pocket, leaving her shrunken brother effectively trapped. She looked at him for a moment, her brow furrowing slightly as she stared at him.

“I can still see you. Scooch down.” She said, her voice making it sound more like an order than a request. For a moment, Ryan’s older brother genes kicked in and began screaming at him to remind Amanda that she was still his little sister, despite any recent changes in his physique. 

“I’m down as low as I can get Amanda, it’s fine.” He replied, slightly annoyed. 

“Come on, you can scrunch down so you’re not looking through the mesh.” She reiterated, becoming a bit defensive in return. 

“Jesus Amanda, I’m literally down as low as I can go.” He snapped back, causing Amanda to raise an eyebrow in shocked annoyance.

“Really, well maybe I should just stuff my socks in there so no one can see you then.” The giantess paused, not bothering to remove her shoe to reinforce her threat. Ryan immediately backed down, suddenly remembering the reality of the situation and forgetting about his stupid desire to be the “alpha” sibling. It was going to be an adjustment getting into the mindset that ultimately he needed her help and he couldn’t just pick fights with her for no reason. And while he hoped that it was just an empty threat, he certainly didn’t need to find out.

“Ahhhh, found some room. Just in time.” Amanda said, watching as Ryan began to shimmy his tiny body lower until he could no longer be seen from outside. Satisfied, the giantess picked up the duffel bag and made her way inside the building, walking quickly and avoiding eye contact with the only other person she saw in the lobby. After a few minutes of quiet, Ryan heard the sound of the apartment door swinging open and then slamming shut again. Moments later, the zipper raced open and light began to pour into Ryan’s pocket, revealing that he was now on top of the kitchen table. Amanda pulled out a chair and took a seat as she pulled her miniature brother out and set him on the table before her. 

Once again Ryan found himself staring up at the gargantuan visage of his kid sister as she stared down at him with a look of genuine awe and curiosity in her eyes. She again reached out a finger in his direction, causing Ryan to flinch as the massive appendage approached. This time, however, Amanda noticed this and paused, lowering her hand back to the table.

“Jesus, I can’t friggin believe it. This is insane.” She said. Ryan scoffed and nodded his head in agreement.

“Yeah, tell me about it. I can’t believe that this is my fucking life now.” He said somberly. This brought a frown to Amanda’s face. They were both well aware that there wasn’t a single reported case of a shrunken person returning to their normal size. Still though, the giant woman wanted only to protect her big brother, even if he was right.

“Hey… you don’t know. They’re working towards a cure every single day.” She offered, trying her best to sound like she believed it. 

“Maybe… but who knows when that might happen?” He asked, letting out a heavy sigh. “If it even happens at all.”

Another tense moment of silence followed, neither of them certain about what to say. Now that he was effectively safe, Ryan was able to confront the horrifying truth that the life he once knew was now gone. Similarly, Amanda had no idea what they were supposed to do now. She had only ever known one person who had caught the shrinking virus and pretty much as soon as it happened, she was pulled out of school and no one ever heard from her anymore. She wanted to tell Ryan that everything was going to be alright, but the simple truth of the matter was that she had no fucking clue what was coming next. 

“Hey, so… how come you didn’t call mom?” Amanda asked. “Not that I mind or whatever. I’m glad you called me and obviously you can stay with me forever if you want, but like…. How come?” Ryan looked up incredulously at his sister, almost as if she should’ve already known the answer to that question. 

“Seriously?” Was all that he said, but it was enough for Amanda to get the picture.

“Oh come on. You’re her son. She wouldn’t… you know it’d be different.” Amanda argued, but Ryan simply waved her off. The giantess let out a sigh. It was pointless to start an argument now. They could broach the concept of telling their mother some other day.

“Well, what about a doctor? Should we like, get you to a hospital or something?”

“Tomorrow… let's just talk about it tomorrow.” Ryan said softly. He was speaking so quietly that Amanda was struggling to hear him speak, but even then she could hear the despair in his voice. Her heart broke for her tiny brother. She wished she could just make everything better for him, to just turn back the clock and make it so none of this insanity ever happened. But unfortunately she simply couldn’t. So the only thing she could do now was try to be the most supportive sister she could possibly be.

“Okay. Well, it's getting pretty late so… you wanna sleep in my room? I can find something for you to sleep on.”

“No, if it’s alright with you, I’ll just sleep here on the table.” For a moment, Amanda thought about arguing, insisting that he would be better served being close to her in case he needed something in the night. But she gave it another thought and decided that a little bit of feeling independent might be good for the tiny man. Amanda just nodded her head, leaving the table to go and retrieve something from her room so that Ryan could sleep comfortably. She returned a minute later, now dressed in her pajama shorts and a loose fitting t-shirt, holding several soft looking items as well as a small stuffed gerbil that Ryan had given her years ago after her first ever breakup. 

“Here, this should make a comfy bed.” Amanda cooed, lying out a small, folded up blanket across the table and setting a single, fuzzy pink glove on top that she figured he could use as a sleeping bag. She then placed the stuffed gerbil near the glove so he could have something to prop his head against.

“Alright. Need anything else?” She asked sweetly. Ryan simply shook his head no, running his hand along the remarkably soft blanket that was going to serve as his mattress for the night. Amanda gave him a curt nod before leaning down to gently place her gargantuan lips against his head. “Okay. I’ll see you in the morning then. Love you Ry.” She said sweetly before turning and walking back towards her own bedroom. Ryan watched his gigantic sister walk away, fighting back some tears as he sat quietly on her kitchen table.

Despite the sweet moment of familial bonding between the two siblings, Ryan’s eyes were pulled downward as he watched Amanda leave. The pajama shorts she was wearing were doing a poor job containing the immensity of her round, bubbly butt and with each heavy footfall, her massive cheeks jiggled, hypnotizing Ryan until she finally turned the corner and broke the spell. 

“Jesus Christ.” He sighed heavily to himself, crawling into the glove and staring up at the ceiling as a million thoughts raced through his mind. He could only pray that sleep would come easily to him tonight.