After Megan's display it seemed like we were headed home, and the moment Chloe closed her apartment's front door behind us I was instantly more relaxed than I'd been all week. Chloe seemed to have some invisible weight lifted from her as well. I watched as she dropped her bag on the table by her couch and shed her jacket, laying it across her purse. I enjoyed watching her movements as always until she started to pull off her necklace as well.  I sailed through the air at the end of the long chain, seemingly forgotten as my Ball noisily crashed into the table's glass surface. The impact rattled me, and I was sure I'd have a few bruises, but the real suffering set in as I continued watching her move around the room, seeming to wholly forget that I existed.

It may have been because I'd spent so much time in my Ball, dangling so close to Chloe’s  chest with her regal neck and angelic countenance serving as my sky, her voice surrounding me every time she spoke and my own body swaying along with every movement she'd made for the last several days...

She just seemed so far away.  I watched, totally consumed with longing for her as she poured a glass of dark wine, slipped off her shoes and settled onto the couch, and that was when she finally seemed to notice that something was missing. I nearly leapt for joy when her outstretched fingers plucked me from her table, slipping my Ball free of its chain, but when she held me up to her face and looked me over through the translucent plastic there was this trace of mischief in her smile.

She stretched out along the length of her couch with her knees drawn up slightly towards her chest, and she started to move me away from her body, letting me watch as inch after inch of her alluring, silken red stockings passed beneath me until she set me down on her knees. I stayed there for a moment, just happy to be in her hands once more, but then her hands pulled away.

I went rolling down the slope of her legs, tumbling end over end along the curve of her shins and screaming for all I was worth while she softly chuckled under her breath. I went careening past the slope of her ankles and smashed into the arm of the her couch and my body bounced off the unforgiving plastic of my Ball, leaving me in an aching heap at the bottom as the Ball slowly rolled to a stop on the couch's cushion.

I groaned, even whimpering a little as I tried to pull myself together. I heard Chloe gently sigh and was pretty sure I glimpsed her picking up her tablet computer, but my view of her was quickly cut off by her crimson covered toes slowly sliding over me, enveloping me in almost complete darkness beneath her feet.

I was nearly whining in frustration to be trapped beneath her beautiful silky soles, mere inches away from them but completely cut off at the same time. In some part of me I knew that Chloe was deriving some sort of pleasure from slowly rolling me back and forth underfoot and I tried to take some comfort in that, but the agony of my situation was almost overwhelming. They were fresh from a long day in her shoes and I knew heavenly feet would be so wonderfully warm, and as they started to faintly fog the plastic of my Ball I grew even more desperate and excited.

I don't know how much time passed, but I started climbing the side of my Ball as it rolled, doing my best to press closely to the plastic on the other side of her stockinged soles, wanting to feel their warmth and even at some points, whether it was real or imagined, I thought I could discern their familiar fantastic fragrance.  Even though I knew my position must have been pleasing been to her, I hated being toyed with like this and was certain it was going to drive me mad. A few moments before I was sure that I'd start pressing my lips to the plastic, though, her toes slipped over the button that unlatched my plastic prison.

It took a moment for me to process what had happened, but after that moment quickly passed I was scrambling towards the open crack in the Ball, pushing my way through and landing on the couch cushion.  I turned to try and get a glimpse of my beloved Chloe through the gap between her arches, but I could only see part of her face at the end of the tunnel formed by her mile-long legs.  She wasn’t looking back at me, still staring down and from the reflected glow I could only assume she was still busy with her tablet.  That didn’t keep her from finding me, though.  One of her feet rolled my Ball away, and then her majestic toes were lowering towards my tiny body but I didn’t mind, I didn’t mind one bit.  I stretched out my arms, ready and eager to embrace them.

I moaned softly as I was swiftly forced flat on my back, so much of my longing fulfilled as I could finally touch her again, finally feel her and smell her and love her… her stocking was somewhat cool to the touch, but I could feel the warmth of her sole behind it when I gave it the first of innumerable long and loving kisses, and its fragrance was still rich and intoxicating, the leather of her designer heels mingling with the aromas emanating from beneath her toes.

I pressed myself against her superior silken stocking even as she started to smash me into the forgiving surface of the couch, slowly and idly sliding the ball of her foot back and forth across my entire little body.  I gave myself fully to her fantastic foot, so tremendously thankful to be surrounded by something I’d missed and longed for far more than I realized, and it was even better because I knew Chloe could feel me beneath her and the way she was using me and grinding me into the couch told me that she was definitely enjoying my presence as well.  Sure, there was some discomfort, especially with all the freshly forming bruises that my little roller coaster ride down her legs had left me with, but I barely noticed as I kissed her sole again and again and again.

Eventually, though, her movement above me came to a stop and left me just pinned beneath her foot, helpless and wholly immobilized.  I wasn’t sure what to do at first, just reflexively continuing to give my little kisses to the limitless expanse of stocking above me.  I was surprised how sore and exhausted I seemed, but during my excitement I must not have noticed the toll that my feverish adoration and the incredible force of Chloe’s foot had taken on me.

After a few more minutes I started to worry.  Could she even feel my tiny lips?  Had she gotten bored with me?  I started to struggle, squirming uselessly beneath the unstoppable power of her foot’s casual weight, but I quickly realized there was no way I could wriggle out from under her sole.  Hopefully she had at least felt and appreciated my efforts beneath her.

I didn’t have to wonder for long.  Suddenly her stockinged sole was sliding across my body again, but this time it slid completely off of me, leaving me bathed in a rush of cool air.  I hadn’t even realized how stale and humid the air had been beneath Chloe’s foot, just accepting it as reality since I’d been so happy to be there, but now she was reaching for me and I took a deep breath as her immense fingertips covered my body and plucked me up from the little impression I’d made on her couch.

She dropped me in her lap without so much as looking at me, and I tumbled along the folds and wrinkles of her dress until I came to rest in a spot just a little ways below her waist.  Much as I loved the warmth of Chloe’s spectacular soles, I was surprised at the exceptional and enjoyable warmth radiating through the thin material of her dress.  After resting and appreciating my situation for a moment, I gathered myself up and dug my fingers into the spectacularly smooth fabric, pulling myself upright.  I found myself staring up at her for a moment, but her own stare was so intense that I had to follow it towards her tablet’s screen myself before long.

It took a while, but I finally figured out what had her so fascinated.  Various reports were popping up along the sides of the screen here and there, but the primary display was the same software that had been running on what Trevor had called the Peopledexes.  With every passing second more tiny digital Flare Balls popped up alongside the extensive, scrolling list of names, and at the bottom there was a sort of progress bar that was slowly and somewhat irregularly filling towards the top.

I watched the percentage alongside it, calculated out to the second decimal and continuously ticking upwards.  It was already in the seventies, and looked like it would have no issues with climbing significantly higher at the rate it was progressing.  I was pretty sure that I understood what this meant, though I was having some difficulty wrapping my head around it.

Unexpectedly I felt her touch, a fingertip almost as large as me running gently along my back, stroking me like some tiny little pet in her lap, and when Chloe’s voice broke the evening’s long silence I had my suspicions confirmed.

“You’re going to have so many new little friends, Lucy,” she softly breathed, her eyes dancing with utter delight.