Phoenix nodded off at some point, the swaying movements of his position inside of Maya’s sash creating an almost hypnotic effect. Eventually, he was awoken again by something gently jabbing at his upper back. Maya was prodding at him from above.

Waking up in such a cramped, warm space was confusing for a second or so, before he recollected himself.

Pale fingertips appeared at his sides, and Maya pulled him back out into view.

They were back in the office. He felt relieved at seeing the familiar sights, even if they were presently much too big.

"Sorry I didn't have a better place to hide you, Nick. I needed my hands for this big notebook, y'know?" Maya said, checking him over. "You're OK, though?"

She let him stand up in her palm, and he stretched, testing his movements.

"... Yep. Not feeling too bad."

"Great!" Maya said with a bright grin. "So, you still hungry? I brought your sandwich home, too."

"Oh." he said, surprised. He'd entirely forgotten about his own lunch, actually. "... Sure!"

--------

For a while, Phoenix sat on the surface of the office's little table, doing his best to make a decent lunch from his incredibly oversized chicken sandwich. It was alright, though difficult to eat, given his own puny size.

Maya was sitting on one of the couches directly in front of the table. For once, she'd resisted the urge to put her feet up. He always told her not to do that, but she rarely listened. Today she'd been more agreeable, however, joking that he didn't really need to be forced to share his lunch area with her feet. He appreciated the gesture, if not the precise phrasing.

Maya was once again studying the battered notebook with interest, seeming keen on learning whatever she could about the machine that had caused Phoenix to shrink.

"So..." she said eventually, "I mentioned reading in here that you should be super-tough now. That's pretty cool! You don't have to worry about anyone stepping on you!"

He rolled his eyes.

"Great. Keep me off the ground anyway, please."

Maya laughed.

"Don't you wanna test it? I could help!" she continued. At this suggestion, she raised one of her feet into view, her sandal dangling a bit from its place on her foot.

Another eye-roll.

"... You're no fun. C'mon, Nick -- just once? We can make it a game!"

"... A game?" he repeated. It probably wasn't worth the risk of getting Maya's imagination going, but still, he felt a moment's curiosity at what sort of idea she had in mind.

"Yeah! I could put you on the floor, and, uh... ooh! You stay down there and try to run away from me, while I try and squish you!"

He immediately flinched at her words, and Maya shrugged.

"Well, you won't really get squished, obviously, if this book’s right. I'll just try and put a foot down on you, while you try to dodge!"

By now, Phoenix was finished with the portion of his sandwich that he wanted to eat, and he got to his feet, dusting off a bit. His suit didn’t feel so bad now, though it was still going to have to be replaced after the time it spent buried inside of a burger.

"Somehow, I think that's the kind of game that would only be fun for one of us." he remarked. Maya struck her familiar, cute pout.

"Aw, c'mon, Nick. You can be such a stick-in-the-mud. You just need to let yourself have fun with it, too! Run around and get some good exercise -- I'll take it easy on you!"

He managed a laugh. Maya was really set on this, despite how obviously bad an idea it was.

... Still, maybe it wasn't completely unreasonable. She would be careful, right...?

He hoped so. Maya would never want him to get seriously hurt, least of all by her. Still...

Against his better judgment, he looked up at her again, folding his arms.

"... Alright, fine. One round. Just get us a clean stretch of floor."

Maya's pout instantly vanished, replaced with a huge grin.

"Ha! You bet, Nick! This is gonna be great!"

He doubted that, though at this point, he was in too deep to change his mind and argue.

--------

They were upstairs, in the apartment over the law office now.

Maya had moved some of the furniture around, creating what was, to her, a fairly large and open space in their little living room area. To Phoenix, naturally, it was quite a substantial space, more like a sports field than just a cleared stretch of apartment floor. He had wondered if the carpet might be difficult for him to move around on, given his puny size, but it wasn't too bad, so long as he watched his footing.

Maya was in the bathroom at the moment. Phoenix had agreed to take part in her weird little idea for a game, but only on the condition that she gave her feet a wash before beginning. She'd been walking around outside in her open sandals for a pretty large chunk of the day already, and he wasn't willing to bet against the possibility of being stomped into the carpet by her unless she'd cleaned up a bit first.

She returned after a few minutes, walking barefoot toward him, her sandals left by the bathroom door. She stopped just in front of his position on the floor, smiling. Phoenix doubted that the way she placed her toes directly in front of him was a coincidence, particularly when she began to playfully wriggle the oversized digits around.

"Ready, Nick? I wanna get started!"

He shrugged. "Yeah, I guess!" he called out, wishing Maya had just crouched down so he wouldn't have to yell.

Maya looked too excited. She seemed to already be enjoying herself, just standing over him like this.

"OK! So, you can start running around. To keep it fair, I'm only gonna take one step at a time, and... y'know, kinda pivot? On one foot?"

She demonstrated the move. Phoenix nodded. That did seem fair, considering the ridiculous difference in size between them.

"I'm gonna take ten steps at you. If I don't get you in ten tries, then you win." Maya went on. "OK, get running!"

He did so, beginning at a brisk jog. His clothes finally felt dry again, making moving around more comfortable.

Maya was counting down from five.

"Now!"

-WHAM-

He let out a startled yelp, stumbling and falling to the ground. Maya had swung a foot forward, and it had slammed powerfully down just a short distance from his position. The impact was enough to make the floor rumble, knocking him off-balance.

He got up. Maya was already counting down again.

-WHAM-

He staggered, but managed to stay on his feet this time. That impact had been even closer. He was panting already.

Another countdown, and...

-WHAM-

He'd been forced to come to a very sudden stop as Maya managed to stomp her bare foot down directly in front of him. If he hadn't stopped just in time, she would've gotten him.

"Ugh! Well, good dodge, Nick..."

He wasn't going to be able to keep this up. He was feeling tired already just from the shock of her footfalls. That was something he’d failed to anticipate. Did Maya really need to stomp down with such force, just because that notebook gave her reason to believe it wouldn’t hurt him?

"I've gotcha this time...!"

Another devastating crash. Maya had missed him by a mere inch this time, the side of her foot nearly touching him. He wobbled on the spot, trying to turn.

He heard a laugh, and Maya's other foot swung into view.

The fifth dodge was somehow even closer than the last, and this time, Phoenix ended up on his back on the floor.

Exhaustion was setting in already. He groaned, looking upward as Maya began to count down yet again.

He suddenly felt a stab of embarrassment; he was on the ground, positioned directly between Maya's feet at the moment, and she was unwittingly giving him a rather spectacular view straight up into the interior of her loose-fitting channelling robes.

He closed his eyes and pushed himself up again, trying to banish the image of a long pair of pale-skinned legs and a set of purple panties from his mind. Now really wasn't the time.

"Ha!"

He had to dive right off his feet, landing on his front with an uncomfortable thump.

-WHAM-

The floor rumbled for a sixth time. He could manage four more, right...? Crawling into motion, his body feeling sore already, Phoenix got up and broke into a staggered run again. He had an idea, heading for the space behind Maya. There was no way she could get him in a single move, if he was behind her.

As he'd hoped, she had to waste her seventh step on a pivot to follow him.

"Ooh, smart move, Nick..." she said, "Buuut..."

Unexpectedly, a shadow fell over him.

"H-huh...?"

-WHUMP-

He crumpled instantly, face-first against the floor again, and with an incredible weight pushing down on him. He let out a muffled groan into the carpet.

(D-damn it...)

Maya had gotten him, surprising him with a sudden, wild step backward. She gave a victorious cheer, which sounded similarly muffled to Phoenix, given his current position under her foot.

"Ha! With two more to spare! Good try, Nick!"

(Ow...)

He didn't feel injured, so this seemed to confirm what the notebook had said about his condition. Still, being flattened to the floor with the sole of Maya's incredibly heavy foot on his back didn't feel great.

He wriggled in place, trying to signal to her that he wanted her to get off.

"Hmm... dunno, Nick, I had to work pretty hard for this..."

He groaned. Of course Maya would decide to play around a bit with the terms of the deal, last minute...

A movement caught him off-guard. Maya had somehow gotten two of her toes around his head, and the huge digits teasingly squeezed at him a bit, brushing up against his spiky hair. At least they were clean...

He heard a giggle.

"Your hair is tickling me, Nick..."

She continued to tease at him with her toes, evidently not bothered by the sensation at all.

(Ugh... c'mon, Maya, knock it off already...)

"... Actually, my feet are kinda sore.” she said thoughtfully, “That was a lot of walking we did today, y'know? I even had to carry you! Mind giving the winner a little foot rub, Nick?"

If he had space to lift his head and thump it back down against the floor, he would've done so.

--------

Phoenix was deeply regretting ever agreeing to take part in Maya's "game".

Still on the floor, he was now faced with his gigantic assistant's bare feet, her toes playfully wriggling in his direction. Between the two, he could see Maya's face a fair distance off, an expectant grin on her face.

"Well, Nick? You lost, so don't keep a girl waiting...!"

He sighed. There wasn't really a way around this. Maya would make sure of that.

Once again feeling incredibly glad that he'd convinced her to at least wash her feet first, he stepped forward. This wasn’t going to be an easy task, given his puny size. Maya’s feet were well over twice his height, even cocked slightly to her sides.

--------

Maya leaned back against the base of the couch, arms folded behind her head. Her eyes were closed, and she had a relaxed grin on her face, which twitched as she reacted to the appearance of a tickling sensation against her right foot. She giggled.

"Nick, you're supposed to be giving me a massage, not just tickling me...!"

He probably couldn't help it. He was pretty tiny. Even if he was a fairly strong guy normally, at that size, there wasn't much he could hope to do.

She shifted her feet, swapping the other into place for him.

"OK, next one!"

More tickling. She tried to suppress any further giggles, with little success. Nick’s little hands were moving all over the portion of her sole he could reach, and the sensation was driving her crazy.

Eventually, she got another idea.

Adjusting herself to a more upright position, she set both feet down around Phoenix's sides. He looked up at her nervously, but she just grinned in response.

"Let's change this up a bit, OK, Nick? Different definition of 'foot massage'."

He seemed to get the message only just in time to flash a brief look of panic before she snapped her feet together on him.

Giving up on any effort to hide her laughter, Maya teasingly squeezed at Phoenix's puny frame between her soles, watching him frantically try to fight back. His tiny arms were flailing helplessly whenever they got the chance, before winding up pinned between her soles for another few seconds at a time.

She moved her feet to position him directly against her toes next, batting at him with them while he continued his awkward efforts to resist. The poor little lawyer just didn't stand a chance. She began to notice an even greater tickling sensation, which she deduced after a moment to be the result of his signature spiky hair rubbing up between her toes.

Finally, she stopped, and when she separated her feet again, Phoenix immediately flopped to the floor.

"Ooh. Sorry, Nick, was that too rough? Here..."

She scooped her tiny friend up. He wasn't moving around quite as much now.

Maybe he deserved a break.

--------

Maya had been busy for quite a while now.

In the aftermath of her "game", Phoenix had been left feeling rather exhausted. Fortunately, Maya was observant enough to pick this up, and had brought him over to the apartment's couch, setting him down on a very comfortable pillow and leaving the room for a while, letting him rest.

... This had been a long day. It was fairly late in the afternoon at this point, but it was difficult for Phoenix to look forward to a relaxing evening with the prospect of having to go to the courthouse the next morning at this shrunken size hanging over his head.

He sighed, currently lying on his back on the pillow. He'd defended a client despite having temporary memory loss at one point in the past. He could probably handle doing so while he was about two inches tall, right...?

There was no way they could delay the trial an extra day, so he would just have to give it his best effort.

Finally, Maya returned.

She'd changed her clothes, now wearing pajama pants and a Steel Samurai promotional t-shirt she'd received from the TV studio behind the series.

"Hey, Nick! Hope you're up for that Pink Princess marathon I've been talking about!"

Still lying on his back, his expression changed to a look of sudden realization.

"Oh, dammit..." he groaned.

In all the chaos of the day, he'd totally forgotten, but yes -- Maya had been telling him about an upcoming marathon of episodes she wanted him to sit through with her. He was pretty sure that it was something like fifteen episodes of the show's most recent story arc leading up to a three-part season finale, or something like that. It wasn't as if he kept up with Steel Samurai spin-offs outside of whatever Maya talked him into watching.

That was tonight...?

His pillow bounced, launching him into the air for a moment as Maya flopped down on the couch right beside him.

He sat up once he'd landed again. Maya loomed over him, grinning. She was holding a spectacularly large bowl of popcorn. She offered a single kernel.

"Want one?" she asked, waving it in his direction in what was probably supposed to be a tantalizing manner. He paused.

With another weary sigh, he accepted the popcorn kernel, needing both hands to take it from Maya's fingertips. It was more than half the size of his whole body.

He didn't like to imagine what kind of effects it might have on his shrunken digestive system if he ate too much of it. Still, it was better than eating nothing.

Maya left the bowl behind for a moment, going to set up the TV. This was just going to be their whole evening, Phoenix supposed.

At least the Steel Samurai TV series and its many spin-offs had decent production values. He would probably be totally lost on most of the plot developments, but the action was worth a watch.

When Maya came back, with the TV ready to go, she picked Phoenix gently up from his spot on the pillow, surprising him.

"Oops..." she said, noticing that he'd dropped his piece of popcorn. She picked it up as well, turning to sit down on the pillow in his place. "Here you go, Nick, you can sit with me!"

She perched him on her right shoulder, brushing some of her long hair out of the way and handing back his popcorn.

"Thanks. ... We're really watching this entire thing, Maya...?"

"You bet!" she answered cheerfully. "C'mon, Nick -- you've gotta cool off for a while after how crazy today's been. Plus, you've totally been slacking on watching Pink Princess anyways!"

"Not by mistake..." he muttered.

"Heard that, Nick. You're tiny, but I'm not deaf!" Maya laughed.

She scooped up her popcorn bowl again. The show was minutes from starting.

--------

An hour and a half in, Phoenix's mind felt numb.

The Pink Princess wasn't a bad show. It just also wasn't the kind of thing he could watch for hours on end without feeling like he was losing his mind. Maybe it was the over-the-top performances from the cast, or the eccentric costume design. He wasn’t sure, really.

One way or another, Maya was going to make him sit through this entire marathon, just so she could get to the final three episodes.

--------

They were somewhere past the three-hour mark. Maya was gone from the room for a bathroom break.

Her popcorn bowl was long-since emptied, and Phoenix had eaten more than enough of his single piece to be satisfied. Maya had just popped it into her own mouth once he was done with it.

She was coming back. Phoenix was sitting alone on the pillow again, expecting her to pick him up.

Instead, Maya circled around the front of the couch, grabbing the TV remote.

To Phoenix's considerable alarm, she wasn't looking at him.

"Uh... Maya?" he called out. She had stopped right in front of him, still focused on the TV. "W-wait -- MAYA!!"

He scrambled to his feet, but that was all he had time for as Maya's vast body dropped toward the couch, her backside coming down toward him at a terrifying speed, patterned pajama pants filling his entire field of vision.

-WHUMP-

He let out a yell, hurtling through the air. Maya had narrowly missed sitting down on him, which was a relief, but the impact had launched him off the couch again, this time to a considerably greater height than before.

He heard Maya's voice amidst his own panicked yelling.

"Oof-!!"

He coughed, finding himself lying on his front.

He was in Maya's open palm.

"Oh, man...!” Maya was saying apologetically, “I'm really sorry, Nick! I got totally distracted... you're OK, right?"

He groaned, which seemed satisfactory to Maya.

"Good. Only a few episodes left!"

And back to her shoulder he went. At least he was wide awake again.

--------

They were finally onto one of the new episodes now. If had hadn't known already, Phoenix likely would have guessed based on the sudden difference in Maya's excitement level. She'd previously been fairly relaxed, though obviously as engaged in the show as was to be expected of such a huge fan. Now, however, she could barely manage to sit still.

"Whoa..." Phoenix wobbled a bit, trying to regain his balance after Maya had shifted forward suddenly. She was so focused on the show at this point that he wondered if she even remembered where he was.

"Uh, Maya-"

He broke off, his eyes widening. Maya had lurched back again, and this time, he wasn't ready. His body rocked forward instead, unable to keep pace with her movement, and he tumbled straight off of her shoulder.

"M-Mayaaa-!!"

Once again, his yell was cut off. He'd crash-landed somewhere, the world going a bit dark.

He blinked, finding himself upside down. Where was this...?

He heard a confused noise, and then a laugh. The laugh caused all the space around him to shudder.

His stomach flipped over, recognition settling in. He'd fallen straight into the loose neckline of Maya's t-shirt.

To his sides, he was flanked by what looked like a pair of twin landmasses, each protruding from Maya's body far enough that they would have been taller than he was, if she was lying on her back.

... Even for someone fairly close to flat-chested, Maya's breasts looked pretty impressive from this angle.

Phoenix shook his head. What the hell was he thinking about that for...?

He'd landed on Maya's chest, directly between her fairly small breasts. Below his position, the depths of her t-shirt just got darker. Could he get back out from here...?

He was a bit afraid to try and move. Craning his neck, he tried to get a look back up at Maya.

Right on time, she used a fingertip to tug her shirt open a bit.

"Heya, Nick! What, did you get bored of my shoulder?"

He was certain that he was blushing like mad. On his back, with his upper body pointed down into the lower reaches of Maya's shirt, he couldn't easily move without risk of sliding even further down.

"Guess I could help you, but... well, you didn't really wanna keep watching anyway, huh? Why don't you just get comfy in there, instead?"

"Wh-... M-Maya...!!"

Too late. With another little giggle, she'd released the opening in her shirt and returned her attention to the TV.

She was just going to leave him here, between her boobs...?

... He was still afraid to try and move.

--------

He was no longer sure of how long he’d spent in here by the time he heard a noisy yawn from Maya. Her chest shifted strangely beneath him.

His face still felt very warm any time he glanced around and saw her breasts to his sides.

She didn't even wear a bra...

Well, come to think of it, he'd never seen one in her laundry, so he supposed that made sense.

... Why was his train of thought going in that direction again...?

He took a brief glance at his lower body, still angled up from his position. A stab of shame welled up in his chest as he realized that he had a visible tent in the front of his suit pants.

(Please don't look down right now, Maya...)

He didn't need his assistant noticing that she'd casually given him a boner.

"Hey, Nick? Show's almost over. I'm gonna just crash on the couch, OK?" Maya said in a sleepy voice.

He looked up again. What did that mean for him? Why wasn’t she lifting him out…?

He got his answer barely two seconds later. Maya's whole body shifted into motion, and Phoenix yelled in alarm again as she hurtled toward the ground, carrying him straight down with her.

With a heavy impact all around him, Maya flopped down on her front, her chest coming down on top of him.