Edward had been living with his "condition" for a few years now, spending much of his time testing theories as to what went wrong back on the day of the big experiment. He sat back in his reclining chair and thought about that day. Perhaps he had missed something; some small detail? He had done this many times before, but now days, he found there was little else to do.

It had been going so well. The government was deeply invested, funding his lab to the tune of millions. There was a slew of private backers, all well-funded. The day came to show the progress they had been making, the proof-of-concept that had been promised to them: a man-made short distance stable wormhole, allowing near instant travel from one location to another. They had done the experiment numerous time before with various objects and lab animals, each successful and each providing valuable information to improve the process further.

That day was the first human trial. The whole project was his concept and he was damned if someone else was going to take the risk, and the glory, of being the first human to use a man-made wormhole. He recalled how excited his staff were, barely containing themselves in front of the formal and serious-faced board.
Everything was going smoothly, the readings were all stable and correct, just like every time they'd run this exact experiment. As he stepped into the wormhole entrance the power being fed to the wormhole generator cut off, the exit point started to collapse, shrinking down over about a second to nothing. No one was sure what caused the fluctuation in the power. In retrospect he had been very lucky, the failure should really have killed him. He had exited the wormhole about a tenth of a second before it completely vanished. However it was little more than four inches tall at the time, and rather surprisingly, so was he.

He stretched on the reclined chair, staring at the ceiling above. In the end, there was nothing, no detail or fault, that he'd missed. The general consensus was that the system was fundamentally flawed and too dangerous to use commercially. Funding had been pulled and everything in the lab packed into storage containers and shipped off to a warehouse somewhere. He told himself he was working to fix the problem, to reverse the process, to get his life back. Honestly, now days, he was resigned to his fate and only used the work as a distraction. Over the years he had concluded that there really wasn't anything wrong with the experiment, that the fault was more than likely deliberate.

He let out a long sigh. Nothing good came by following that train of thought, no matter how much truth there was in it. There wasn't anything he could do about it now, not in his current state.

The sound of a door sliding shut indicated his friend and guardian, Rachel, was home . She was a fellow scientist who had worked on the project with him. Leaning forward in the chair, pulling the reclined back upright, he called out to her.
"Hey, how was the traffic? I know how much you hate Sunday shopping."

She glanced up from the bags she had just deposited on the kitchen table and smiled.
"It was exactly the hell I expected, but you know, it was worth it. Some quality wine and all the ingredients for a good lasagna this evening."

She stepped over to he was sitting, various small items of furniture spread around giving him a work space at his size, all on a high white desk where she also sat and worked at time. She leaned down closer to see him properly.
"Hmm you've got that look again, the 'I've given up' look. You've been sitting here wondering who sabotaged your experiment haven't you?"

Edward managed a small grin, breaking his sour mood. "Guilty as usual! You know it's true though. We both know it wasn't an accident, we've both seen the logs and the readings at the time. I just..." he trailed off for a moment, looking distracted, before continuing. "I just can't keep pretending I'm going to fix this. Without my lab, my notes and especially my hardware. It’s just… without that I don’t have an awful lot to live for. Not like I am now."

Rachel sat down on the full sized office chair next to the desk and let out a long breath before speaking. "Do you remember the day it happened? How I noticed you before the others, kept you hidden? God know what they’d be doing with your now if they knew. I promised to look after you from that day, to keep you with me and help you fix this. Not just because someone had to, because I wanted to. I worry that if you don't have this to work on... well? I've seen how you get when you have too much time on your hands, how dark your mood becomes."

Edward looked up at this friends face. "You're right. I know it, and I know I should just get on with life and forget about fixing this." He pushed himself up out of the chair and stepped towards Rachel, putting a tiny hand on her arm. "I tell you what, let’s forget about all that, make some lasagne and drink some of that quality wine you brought back with you. Maybe work out together what I can do instead."

Rachel smiled down at him, her eyes bright, a mischievous glint to them. "You're on! I'll prepare the food and you can put all this…" she waved a hand at the tiny notes and papers strewn over his workspace "…away and forget about it for a while". She stood and walked away to the kitchen, only a few paces away in the small open-plan flat they stayed in, and started unpacking the ingredients.

*******************

Rachel closed the oven and twisted the timer around until the display read 30 minutes, glancing through the glass front briefly at the lasagne she'd just finished preparing. She turned to the bottle of wine and glass next to her, picked them up and headed back to the main living space. She placed the bottle and the glass on a small table in front of a large cushioned chair. Turning to the desk, she asked "Are you all done over there? Everything packed away?"

Edward’s voice came from behind her making her jump slightly. "Yep, all done and dusted."

Rachel turned to find him sitting cross legged on the arm of the chair behind her.

"Oh! I didn't see you there. Good thing I didn't throw myself down on the chair before checking!" she ended with a slightly silly giggle. She stepped back to the chair and carefully sat down so as not to dislodge Edward as she did so.

Edward looked up at her, noticing her slightly rosy complexion, then glanced at the wine seeing how it was now half empty. "Wow, half the bottle already? You HAVE been busy! I better have some before you finish the lot."

"Yes yes, come on, I'm sure you can finish at least a glass yourself..." she joked, bringing her glass over to him and tilting it enough to let him sip from the edge.
"This IS good wine, I thought you were joking. What's the occasion?" he asked.

Rachel looked down at him, then smiled slightly as if remembering something funny. "I just... well you see... nothing really, I just wanted something nicer and perhaps a little stronger than the usual cheap red we get".

"Uh huh, I see." though he'd clearly picked up on her skirting around something. "Let's have some more then, before you go draining that glass".
She looked down at him a moment, again smiling to herself. Then instead of bringing the glass to him, she brought her hand around and scooped him up, bring him to the glass edge.

"Careful! You know I don't like being whisked around without warning." Edward complained, though he didn't sound too serious about it, having become quite used to Rachel’s silliness and teasing over the years, specially how hands-on she got when drinking wine.

Rachel laughed back "Oh you're fine, you're not that fragile! Now, I thought we could make things a lot simpler, if we could maybe share the wine together, instead of all this..." she waved the glass around in front of her "... back and forth."

Edward thought for a moment, sitting in her cupped hand, then looked up to see a look he well recognised "Oooh no, you have that glint in your eye. The 'I’m about to do something silly' look you get when you drink expensive and strong red wine!".

"Hah, you know me so well. Come one, relax, let me have my fun and perhaps you’ll learn to enjoy yourself a bit!” she said teasingly. He held his hands up in resignation “Ok ok, I did say I would didn’t I?“

“Yes, yes you did. " and she tilted her hand at the edge of the glass and let him slide off. He plunged into the deep glass of wine, briefly ducking under the surface, before surfacing with a look of surprise on his face.

Rachel lifted the glass up to her eyes and looked into it, watching his legs kicking slowly as he kept himself above the surface. "Now see, we can both drink." she said as she brought the glass to her lips, tilting it just enough to let her sip at it, then pulled it away.

“Feel free to have as much as you want” she teased, swirling the glass very slightly.

The swirling motion caused Edward to duck under the surface again, swallowing before surfacing a second time, wine dripping off his hair and down his face. He found it hard to get genuinely annoyed with Rachel since she basically looked after him all the time, but he also didn’t like being teased like this.

“Ok, enough! You’ve had your fun and my legs are tired, I can’t keep this up all evening, and you’re clearly getting drunk!”

Rachel briefly looked concerned before relaxing again. “I may have drunk… a liiitle bit much while cooking, but I’m really not drunk. No yet anyway!” She brought the glass up close again “You’re right though, there’s way too much wine in there, lets sort that out first”.

This time she tipped the glass much further and opened her mouth to let it poor in, swallowing it in gulps. The flow of wine pulled Edward towards her lips.

“Hey!” he protested briefly as he tried to use his arms to keep his position in the glass. Rachel though was really going for it, almost pouring the wine directly down her throat. A moment later he found himself pressed up against her lips, holding himself back with his arms. As the glass tilted further, Rachel drained the last of the wine around him, the angle becoming too much, and his hands slipped over her wet lips, making him fall forward, his arms entering her mouth with the last drips of wine.

Muffled sounds of complaint came from Edward, his face pressed against her upper lip. As she pulled the glass away, she sucked on his arms while holding them firmly between her lips, leaving him dangling briefly from her mouth, before supporting him with her other hand. Inside her mouth, she licked his hands and arms briefly, then relaxed her grip and let them slide out, letting him fall back into her hand.
She smiled down at him in her hand. “There we go, wine problem solved. Though…” she brought him closer then giggled slightly “… though it appears the wine maaaay have left its mark.”

Edward looked down at his arms and hands, which were now stained a slightly red-pink from the wine, never mind his cloths, now also stained and soaked through.

The surprise at what she had done left him partly annoyed and partly confused. It wasn’t a random accident that she’d sucked his arms and licked his hands. She may be a little tipsy, but this was planned, from the moment she sat down with that large wine glass. Edward sighed to himself ‘Was this her idea of flirting? I guess with such a size difference… it was never going to be normal, right?’. He didn’t have the heart to be angry with her, and after all, they had become quite close over the years, he’d just never considered that it could ever be more than friends.

“Yes, I suppose it is solved” he glanced at the bottle which still had at least a glass full left in it “for now anyway. Are you ok though? You’re acting… a little strange.” He laughed though and added “Stranger than usual I mean!”

Rachel put on a mock look of surprise “Than usual? Are you implying that I am normally strange?” she laughed and continued “Maybe, just a bit more than usual. I just…” but she trailed off and sighed to herself.

“Are you really ok? I’m pretty sure you just drank half a bottle wine over about 20 minutes, on an empty stomach no less!”

Her eyes seemed to light up, her face bright with a moment of interest, tilting her head to look at Edward side-on. She held the look a moment, contemplating her words carefully, then brought her hand to her belly and tipped him off gently, where he stood a moment before losing his balance on the soft surface and fell down to a sitting position.

“I see.” She said, mock concern in her voice. “It was quite a lot of wine, and as you say, on an empty stomach.” She paused again, and a look of conflict crossed her face, as if trying to make a hard decision. “Maybe… maybe that’s something… you could help with?” Though the question sounded strangely pleading to Edward.

“Hah! You know I’d do anything for you, but I doubt you want me to try and make any food, I’m a terrible cook. Anyway, it’d be too small to count as ‘filling’”

She laughed at this, then looked serious a moment as she spoke. “You’re right, you are a terrible cook, but that isn’t what I had in mind. I want YOU to help…”

Edward thought a moment but still couldn’t get what she meant. “I don’t…”

She cut him off with a sigh. “I..I..I..” she stammered at first, then her words tumbled out too quickly “… want you inside me!” She looked away, her face turning bright red.

Edward’s eye’s grew wide and he rocked backwards where he sat. ‘So I was right, she was flirting with me’ he thought. “OH! Well I mean… I suppose we have known each other a while and … I guess… it could work… I mean… I’m far too small to do it normally, obviously, but…” now Rachel looked back at him, her eyes wide and her face looking like a rosy red apple.

“OH! No! I mean, no… I didn’t mean… THAT.” Though she realised she may have protested a little too much. “I mean, maybe… one day… I don’t mean I don’t like you… like that… but… well… that is…” she brought a hand next to where he sat and rubbed small circular motions on her belly. “I..I…” the stammering returned a moment “… want you INSIDE me”.

“Oh, wow, um…” Edwards was lost for words.

“I mean… you said too much wine… empty stomach… and you’d do anything for me… and…” though she realised how silly she sounded now, trying to justify it. There was no way to justify what she wanted, she know that very well. She had played this conversation out many times in her head, and it never ended that well. ‘It’s a silly desire that got the better of me, damn I’m a fool…’ she thought to her self.
Looking up at her, Edward could see she was both excited and scared at what he may say next. Her hand, now resting next to him, was shaking ever so slightly.

“So, you are saying that, and I want to make sure I understand this properly, that you want to EAT me?!” he couldn’t help raising his tone slightly when he said it out loud.

“No! I mean, yes, but …” she struggled for the right words, then resigned herself to just being direct. “I want you inside me. I want to swallow you. I you into my stomach. It’s hard to explain.” She cast her eyes down, avoiding eye contact.

“That sounds a lot like eating to me! I mean, does that mean you want to digest me?” though he couldn’t believe he was having to ask such a question.

She thought about it perhaps longer than she should, catching herself she replied “No! Of course not.” Though she guiltily added more quietly, almost to herself “As long as you don’t want me to.”
She looked back at Edward, hope and fear in her eyes.

Edward considered his words carefully. She had just revealed what can only be described as her deepest darkest secret. “I just don’t know how to respond. How long have you wanted to eat, I mean, swallow me?” He decided it was definitely worth making that distinction.

She looked out of the window, into the dark night, not wanting to look him in the fact she described how it started. “A few months ago, I had a dream. A silly dream. I won’t go into it all, but in the end I ate… um swallowed you, and it was the most amazing experience. Then I woke up and forgot about it for a while. Later though I found myself thinking about it and day dreaming about it. Coming up with scenarios when I was idly thinking about nothing much. I realised that I wanted it, more than that, I needed it. I needed to feel you inside me… I realise how it sounds. You think I’m crazy, don’t you.”

Edward wasn’t sure what to think. It was a pretty crazy thing to ask someone, and yet, he couldn’t honestly blame her. The situation they lived in was already pretty surreal, it was no surprise her imagination had taken such a leap. But now she was asking to make her dream a reality, for him to willingly end up in her stomach. He looked down, considering what she had asked. Was he just as crazy to be even entertaining the idea? To be inside her, likely just an inch or two below the skin where he now sat? After all, she had pretty much given up her life to be his guardian. He owed her so much. He just wasn’t sure if he owed her THAT much.

“No, not crazy. Maybe a little strange though, but there’s nothing wrong with that.” He looked up at her, seeing her eyes large and focussed on him. She looked like she was almost holding her breath, her eyes slightly wet as if about to cry, waiting on what he would say next. ‘No pressure’ he thought to himself.

“I think perhaps I’m a little strange myself. It’s hard not be when having to live life like this. I’m even considering what you’ve asked me to do, which even surprises myself. Perhaps I drank a little too much wine” He grinned up at her, trying to defuse the tension a little. She smiled back, though her face was still flushed red and her hand was still trembling next to him. ‘I can’t believe I’m thinking about going through with this’ he thought ‘She’s so excited by it and… I guess it IS sort of exciting. After all I AM a scientist, all about exploring the limits of reality and whatnot’.

“Really?! You’re really considering it? I mean… I thought…” she blurted out. “I thought you’d hate me, or at least see me in bad light, if I dared ask.”

“Oh come on, I couldn’t hate you if I tried! And yes, I really am considering it.” Though his thoughts were conflicting still ‘Am I really? Should I? We’re talking about her stomach here.’ but then a clear thought rang out to him ‘Yes, we’re talking about HER stomach. Your friend, and possibly more.’ and felt the decision was made.

“How can I pass up the opportunity to be inside such a nice woman?” he joked, covering his own nervousness. He fixed his look to make the best eye contact he could “Seriously though, I want to ask a lot, to double check you’ve thought of things, you know what I’m like. But, I know you well. You’ve thought of everything, you’ve considered everything, so instead…” and he paused to look clearly into her eyes “… I will trust you. I will, and I can’t believe this is something I could ever say, let you swallow me.” Though he now realised his own hands were shaking, through either fear or excitement, he wasn’t entirely sure.

Rachel’s face lit up, her mouth open slightly as she made a soft oohing noise, before breaking into a wide grin. “Really? REALLY! Oh thank you, thank you for not calling me crazy.” She brought her hand to Edward and carefully scooped him up, bringing him closer to her face.

“I’m really going to do this!” though she quickly forced calm on herself. “Ok… ok… yes I’ve thought about it quite a lot. It’s probably best to remove most of your cloths, but, um, maybe not all?” She blushed a bit more.

Edward was taken aback a moment “Wait we’re doing this now? Right now?”

Giggling again she replied “Of course! No time like the present, as they say. You said so yourself, drinking wine on an empty stomach is a bad idea, so I’d like you to help me fix that”

‘Wow ok, now. Right now. Into her stomach. Along with two large glasses of wine. Am I really ok with this?’ Edward thought. ‘Too late now, she’d be devastated if I tried to change my mind.’ So he pulled his shirt, covered in red wine, over his head and threw it aside where it slapped soggily onto the chair arm. Rolling onto his back, he unbuttoned his trousers and wriggled out of them, throwing them aside to follow his shirt. He now sat on her hand, in only his boxer-shorts. “Ok, cloths gone.” He shivered slightly as the air in the flat moved over his wet skin.
Rachel noticed the little shiver. “Don’t worry, you’ll be VERY warm soon enough, inside me.” She chuckled to herself and continued “Sorry, I just love being able to say that out loud now. Inside me. You, my little Edward, inside me.”

“I can tell. I’m ‘your’ Edward now am I?” he raised an eyebrow at her.

She smiled widely “If we’re going to do this, then I’d say so yes!” She shuffled forward in the chair, making herself sit upright. “Ok, honestly there isn’t much else to do, other than… get you down. I think it best if you go down feet first, just in case something goes wrong or… you change your mind, I want to be able to hear you.” She giggled again “I still can’t believe I’m doing this!” then forced herself to calm down again. “Just lie down and I’ll do the rest.”

“Heh, just lie down and let you eat me. Simple!” Though he went ahead and did so, feeling her hand tremble slightly against his back.

“Right. While you are small, you’re not *that* small, so it may take a bit of effort on my part to finish swallowing. I um… may have practiced with some similar sized food before” she admitted guiltily.
Edward rolled his eyes at her “Of course you have. And I’m food now am I?”

Rachel pouted at him “Oh you know what I meant!” but then her pout turned into a grin “Though, given you’re about to be in my stomach, you sort of are!” With that she brought her hand to her mouth and opened her lips wide, forming a big circle of pink around Edward’s feet.

Lifting his head he looked down his body toward her mouth. Her tongue extended out to him, glistening wet, and slipping under his feet.