With Chloe’s job requiring her to get out of the house more often than not, and his job mostly requiring his computer and phone, Zack was the one who was more frequently at home when he was normal sized. Although he was now shrunken down to one-fourth of his size, how often he left the house didn’t really change.

What did change, though, was how well he was able to navigate around the apartment.

“Jeez… Chloe! I told you to leave the door open!”

Finding it impossible to reach the doorknob was probably the greatest challenge Zack ended up facing since becoming a Mini. Being twice his height above him, there was no possible way he could physically reach the one to their bedroom if he stretched his arms, got on his tiptoes, or even jumped up.

“Whoops. Sorry,” he heard from the bathroom. He could see Chloe through the open door putting on makeup. “Just hold on while I finish here. I’ll get it.”

“Oh, right. You’re meeting your client soon. Don’t worry, I’ll just grab a chair,” he didn’t want to hassle his Chloe, so he did not wait to walk off.

“Eh? You sure? Aren’t those too heavy for you though? Damn, now that I think about it, we didn’t buy something to help you when we went to that store.”

Despite all of the purchases made at the store to help him out while a quarter of his size, there were some things that the two of them did end up forgetting. Zack learned that they really should have gotten something to help him use the doors in their apartment, or at least furniture that was more suitable for Minis.

Chairs weren’t exactly the best solution for a quarter-sized Mini to use. One of the unexpected things about being shrunken down was how muscle strength did not scale linearly with size. Though he was four times smaller, he would have been happy to have gotten four times weaker. Dragging one of the chairs to the hallway was actually an Herculean task for him now. The bar stools in the kitchen and the wooden chairs at the dining table all felt like they weighed a ton to him. Climbing one was already a trial for him, but moving one of the towering structures was now impossible for his teddy-bear sized body.

There was one chair, however, that he could use.

“Alright… Three… Two… One… Grk…! Hngggh…! Go...!” he grunted as he pushed the computer chair from the second bedroom they turned into their office. The 30 pound black seat that had once been his throne for work was enormous and as many times his own weight, but its wheels moved smoothly on the polished floors. He could actually move it, though only a little at a time. “And again…! Hngggh...! And once more…!”

It was a sight to see a 1’6” man trying to push the chair many times his size out into the hallway. For a moment, Chloe was worried and discouraged to see how hard of a time her husband was having, but the man was actually smiling.

“You’re pretty resourceful, Zack. I forgot about that chair of yours,” she crossed her arms while watching from the bathroom door.

“I didn’t want an early workout but whatever. At least being this short makes me exercise more in my own home,” he was optimistic about his condition as he climbed onto the legs of the computer chair. He had to put his arms out to the side to balance himself for a moment before he could then jump up to the actual seat. He kicked his legs as they dangled in the air, trying to force his body up more so he could actually climb on top. “Haaah… Phew… Made it.” 

“Just in time for me to finish,” Chloe chuckled as she walked out into the hallway. She put her hand on the door knob that Zack had finally gotten the chair next to. She could see that even with himself standing on the leather computer chair, he would still have to jump off of it to actually get to the bronze knob. She opened the door to his destination for him.

“Way to take a guy’s achievement away from him,” the frown on Zack’s face was as clear as day, but he quickly shrugged it off. He treated the whole thing like a challenge. “So I was too slow by just a sliver, huh? I almost had it.”

“You were close, but you took too long catching your breath,” giggled his wife. “Maybe next time, you’ll be fast enough to actually beat me to it.”

“You just wait,” he laughed with her. “Man, I should put this in my training regimen. Once I change back, I’ll be the buffest, fastest guy out there.”

“Oh, so you’re saying I should close the doors more often.”

“No, I’m saying I won’t mind if you don’t do it on purpose. I will mind if you actually try to mess with me.”

If there was one thing about Zack that Chloe appreciated, it was how hard it was to make him see the downside in anything. The man was a ball of positive energy, and that didn’t shrink in the slightest with the marriage. In fact, it seemed he had gotten even more spirited, probably because he now had more room to let loose while he took up less space.

And it was clear that his enthusiasm was rubbing off on her too because she couldn’t hide her smile as she replied to him.

“I look forward to seeing a more fit you then.”