(Heavily inspired by Complacency Kills by psychotropic)

Nathan and Emily had been dating for a few years now. Emily was 30, while Nathan was merely 27. Most people questioned why he’d date older, or why she’d date younger, but the truth for them was, age is just a number. Love doesn’t know numbers, it only knows emotions.

Something that does know numbers however, would be money. Emily had brunette hair, green eyes, stood around 6 feet tall, and she was a little chubby. Nathan was 5’9”, and he also had a little flubber. While they could work out at home, neither one of them found the motivation to exercise like that. So, they got a gym membership, or rather, Emily got a gym membership. This gym was an expensive one, and a membership for just her was around $50. Of course, it was only the best, but this didn’t justify them paying $100 a month.

So, Nathan being the resourceful man he was, bought some intriguing technology off of e-Bay. It cost him around $65, and he certainly was skeptical at first. But, Nathan tested it, and it worked. This technology was designed to shrink objects, and even people. By rearranging and resizing the molecules of whatever it was shrinking, the technology could reduce size by 99.9%. And often, that was just perfect for Nathan and Emily. Emily herself was skeptical at first too, not really wanting to go along with his crazy plan. But when she had heard and seen the incredibly enhanced durability of the shrunken items, she gave in, allowing Nathan to shrink himself.

Now, Nathan had heard of the giantess fetish, as well as many other fetishes. However, he never subscribed to them, he simply was doing what he had to do to save money. And this was very effective. What Nathan would do is, he’d shrink himself. Then, Emily would pick him up, placing him safely inside of her clean gym sock, which she’d stuff in her gym bag. She chose her socks, because he wouldn’t easily get lost, unlike how he might if she just dropped him in the gym bag. And while she could put her socks and running shoes on before hand, she chose not to, so that Nathan wouldn’t have to be subjected to her feet for too long.

Of course, at one point in their plan, Nathan would have to get a visit from her feet, but the time spent there was short, as she only took him into a hall outside of the locker room, to change him to his normal height. Then she would obviously do the reverse when it was time to leave.

Today was a particularly hot day, and neither one of them were really thrilled about the idea of exercising. They’d both rather be inside, playing video games, eating ice cream. But Nathan, being the voice of reason, had set up a strict schedule that he made them follow. He didn’t want them to lose track of their goals. However, as we’ll see, Nathan will come to regret this decision.

Following through with the procedure as normal, Emily began driving to the gym. The music in the car was loud enough for Nathan to hear inside of her gym bag, which he much appreciated. Being in the darkness, with nothing to do, really made him bored. So when one of his favorite songs came on, he’d begin belting out the tune, knowing nobody could hear him.

After about fifteen minutes, the couple finally arrived at the gym. Emily looked around for no particular reason. Part of her still feared getting caught, but she knew how illogical that fear was. Somebody would have to go through her gym bag, pick out a tiny little man, and realize that the shrinking equipment was something other than her phone. All of these elements were exactly why their plan worked so well. But cautious ol’ Emily would always be cautious.

After passing the front desk, and heading towards the locker rooms, Emily found herself sitting on a bench. She began taking her sandals off, taking her sneakers and socks out of the bag. She laid the sneakers on the ground, and her socks on the bench next to her. She then began grabbing her towel, as well as her music player. But before she could get too far, her friend Lauren walked up and sat down next to her. “Hey Emily! I didn’t realize we went to the same gym, crazy huh?” And Lily too began pulling items out of her gym bag. She however, was wearing flats instead of sandals.

Now Lauren was a natural redhead, standing at an impressive 6’3”. She was a little more chubby than either Nathan or Emily, so Lauren made sure to put in the extra effort. Placing her shoes on the ground, Lauren ended up placing her socks closer to Emily, than she intended to. Close enough, that they could mix up socks. “So, Em, do you want go on the treadmills together?” Emily was a little unsure, but she decided why not. She wouldn’t have too hard of a time explaining where Nathan was. Obviously not in the shrinking sense, but she’d have a story cooked up, somehow. “Sure, Lauren, that sounds good. Nate should be joining us too.” She smiled, and pulled on her socks.

~~~

Up above, Nathan could hear the booming voices of giants. He managed to pick out Lauren’s voice, because it was rather distinct. They were talking about working out together, which was honestly fine with him. He didn’t really have a problem with Lauren, although part of him was going to miss spending solo time with Emily. Oh well, we’ll make it up afterwards. Nathan thought to himself.

Suddenly, the sock was lifted into the air, and Nathan noticed Emily wasn’t checking the sock to see if he was in a safe place. While this was fine, because he already prepared himself, he did find it peculiar. However, he chalked it up to Emily simply not wanting to look like a weirdo in front of her friend. After all, who checks their socks before they put them on. Certainly not Lauren…

~~~

Lauren began pulling her sock on, noticing it was a little tighter than normal. Now Emily had size 12 feet, while Lauren had size 14. Emily did generally pick looser fitting socks, for the safety of Nathan, but they weren’t loose enough to support such a large foot, easily. Struggling to tug it on, Lauren then began to do the same with the other. It was only when Emily made the comment, “My socks feel a little looser than normal,” that Lauren connected the dots. Laughing it off, Lauren chuckled, “I think we accidentally mixed up our socks.”

However, despite her noticing, Lauren made no actions to remove the tight socks from her foot. They were hard to get on, and they were going to stay on. She could see Emily’s face growing pale, and she asked, “What’s wrong, Em?” Emily thought for a moment, before saying, “Nothing really. But we should probably switch socks back.” Lauren just gave a small snort, before saying, “Nah, it’ll be fine. It’s not going to throw us off that much.” And she then began slipping on her tennis shoes, which had been worn for years, before lacing them up.

Emily never did enjoy confrontation, and while she was worried for Nathan’s well being, she hoped he’d be fine, at least until she could convince Lauren to switch socks back. In a strange way, he had it lucky, because he didn’t really have to work out. At least, that’s what she thought…

~~~

Nathan felt the whole sock stretching as Lauren’s mammoth of a foot came barreling inside. It didn’t take him long to notice that something was wrong, for two reasons. One, Emily had painted her toenails purple, and these toenails were sky blue. Secondly, Emily had just washed her feet, while these feet smelt ripe, as if they’d been in the sun all day. It didn’t take much to put two and two together, and Nathan knew he was sitting with Lauren’s foot. Bracing himself, the impact was intense, as Nathan was wedged, face first, in between Lauren’s skyscraper sized big and second toes. The socks fabric pushed him inwards, and he couldn’t escape, not to mention he could hardly breathe through the noxious fumes.

Holding his composure, Nathan knew Emily wouldn’t let anything bad happen to him. She’d simply tell Lauren to switch socks. But as he listened, Nathan didn’t like what he heard. And furthermore, although the voices were muffled, Nathan could tell that Emily had backed down from trying to help him. His suspicion was confirmed, when instead of being peeled off, the sock/foot/tiny man combo was shoved into an even worse smelling tennis shoe. And everything inside felt like a sauna.

~~~

Still anxious about Nathan, Emily wasted no time in hurrying out of the locker room and into the main gym. The treadmills were in front of the window, and the suns rays were shining through hot. Lauren joked, “Looks like we’re really going to work up a sweat.” Emily gave a nervous laugh, before picking a treadmill. She started walking slowly, preferring to build up her exercise, as opposed to start off running.

Then there was Lauren. Scrunching her toes, feeling up a piece of lint, she tried crushing it before hopping on the treadmill. She the speed up high, so she’d have to start off at a run. Plugging in some headphones, Lauren began listening to music, absentmindedly playing with her little lint toy. Little did she know that the lint she was enjoying was her friend’s boyfriend.

~~~

Nathan felt exhausted from just the walk to the gym floor. If Emily was bad, Lauren was 1000 times worse. Every step felt like a building was falling on him. And while his durability was increased, Nathan knew very well he wasn’t invincible. Fear overcame him though, once she made it to the treadmill. She began scrunching him up, nearly crushing him to death. His arms were starting to break, and Nathan went into panic mode.

Meanwhile, each pounding step made Lauren sweat what felt like an ocean. If Nathan didn’t die of crushing or suffocation, he was certain he’d die of drowning. He had no choice but to drink the salty liquid as it poured out all around him. Gagging, Nathan wasn’t sure how much of this he could take exactly. He’d never been this small for this long, and had never been subjected to such brutal testing.

~~~

After about ten minutes, Emily came up with an excuse, knowing that Nathan must be going through hell. She could tell just by watching the way Lauren exercised. “Lauren.” She said, although Lauren couldn’t hear her. So she spoke a little louder, provoking Lauren to pull out her earbuds and listen. “Hey, Laur, these socks are really throwing me off. Can we please switch back now?”

To this Lauren simply looked annoyed with Emily. “Come on, I’m not bothered by your socks. In fact, if anything, I think that your socks are causing my feet to work harder in every aspect. We’ve only got fifty minutes left. You can hang in there.” She said, before putting her earbuds back in. Emily wanted to say something more, but she felt it was no point. Nathan could hold on fifty more minutes, right?

~~~

But Nathan wasn’t sure he could. As Lauren continued to run, the sweat that was pouring out from her began to act as a lubricant. So Nathan began having his face rubbed up and down the indent between Lauren’s two large digits. And to make matters worse, he kept slipping down farther and farther, not going that much up.

Twenty minutes passed, and Nathan felt his legs being pulled under the ball of Lauren’s foot. Slowly but surely, she was breaking the bones in them, and if she wasn’t careful, she’d do more than that.

Thirty minutes passed, and now it was Nathan’s waisted. His bones were breaking more and more, although luckily, he wasn’t squeezing like a meat tube.

Forty minutes passed, and finally, Nathan felt his feet give out, and with the considerable amount of pain he was in, that was almost considered a relief. He didn’t want to think about them anymore.

Fifty minutes passed, and Nathan was now chest deep under the ball of Lauren’s foot. The sweat was starting to drown him, he found sock lint also falling into his mouth. It was pretty much the worst concoction of foot related grossness ever. Not to mention the toejam as well. Nathan was almost surprised she didn’t have foot fungus.

Sixty minutes passed, and lastly, Nathan’s head had fallen under the ball of Lauren’s foot. He stared up at doom, knowing that his skull was more delicate than the rest of his body. Too many rough steps, and he’d be a dead man. His breathing was labored, and he couldn’t help but hope the girls outside were almost done. He needed out of there, and more importantly, he needed medical attention.

~~~

When the hour had finished, both girls got off of their treadmills and looked at each other. Lauren went first, saying, “That was a wonderful workout. I really got to take some stress out in my steps.” Emily gave a small laugh, before focusing on the big issue. “Alright, well, can we exchange socks now?” And Lauren looked even more annoyed than before. “What’s so important about the socks, huh? Just wait until we get to the locker room alright?” And then Lauren stomped towards it, feeling a little pissed. She’d taken the time to work out with her friend, and all Emily cared about was her stupid socks. Geez.

~~~

Each stomp slowly cracked Nathan skull. His nose was easily broken and bleeding, but at his insignificant size, the blood, or anything like that wouldn’t be noticeable. Just as he was passing out, praying for death, light filled the air, as the socked foot left the hellhole known as Lauren’s tennis shoe.

~~~

Once back at the locker room, Lauren looked irritated. She looked towards Emily, and said, “Alright, you want your socks?” Lauren had calmed down some, but she still wasn’t happy. Emily nodded thoroughly. But as Lauren began peeling the socks off, she realized how gross they were. “Em, why don’t I take your socks home with me, and wash them and return them?” Emily finally found her voice, though, and said, “No. I’ll handle that.”

Lauren thought about protesting, but decided not to. “Hope you like foot sweat then, and Lauren finished removing the socks, passing them to Emily. Emily began peering inside, which Lauren thought was completely strange. But then, something even strange happened. As Lauren was about to put her flat on, Emily noticed something sticking to the bottom of her foot. “Lauren, look at your foot.” And Lauren saw the thing, unidentifiable as a human. Lauren responded with, “Ew, I’ll go get something to clean it off.” But Emily insisted, “No, I will peel it off for you.”

Again, Lauren was going to say something, but this time, Emily just dove right in. In peeling Nathan’s dying body off of Lauren’s foot, Lauren kicked her foot out, laughing, having been tickled. “You’re strange, Emily. Love ya, but you’re strange. Also, kill Nathan for me, ditching you like that, leaving you alone, you deserve better.” And with nothing more to say, Lauren packed up and left.

Emily held her boyfriend in her hands, as he pleaded for her to kill him. She wouldn’t listen though, and she began rushing him out to her car, not even caring about her possessions. Only the shrinking device. Once she got to the hospital, she enlarged him back to his original size, before rushing a gurney out to help.

Emily never did really answer how he got so crushed. There were a lot of things she couldn’t answer. Lauren never knew what she did, but Nathan made it, making her not a murderer. However, she severely crippled him. Nathan could do nothing, left in a full body cast for years, and only ever eventually regaining function in his arms. Emily stayed with him all the way though, despite the struggles, because she put him through that. And she loved him. And she regretted that she’d never be able to make things up to him.