The New Normal by omanahan88

“Ryan…. Ryan!”

“Hmmm?” Ryan snapped back to reality, only hearing his mother call his name as Amanda gently flexed her quad, though not hard enough to rock him off of her thigh. “What?”

“Before you shrink, how much did you weigh?” Natalie asked, her eyes still transfixed on the clipboard in her own lap. Ryan pondered the question. He wasn’t exactly sure how much he weighed, either then or now. It wasn’t as though he was some sort of fitness enthusiast who made a habit out of tracking his bodily statistics, nor was he rotund enough to warrant tracking his weight loss efforts. 

“I’m not sure…” He replied, eliciting another exhausted sigh from his tremendous mother. 

“Christ, Ryan. Just give me your best guess.” 

“Uhhh, one ninety, maybe?” Natalie just rolled her eyes and began writing his response in the appropriate box while shifting all of her focus away from the tiny man. Ryan’s stomach felt like it was in knots. He couldn’t get his mind off of the callous manner in which his mother had injured that complete stranger. It wasn’t simply the nature of the interaction; after all, Ryan had experienced his fair share of titanic butts already. But rather, it was the way that his mother seemed to be irritated by the poor man’s gall to be underneath her while she sat down. He knew that she possessed some backwards political views and he was all too aware of how little she seemed to care about shrunkenkind or the progression of RP civil liberties, but he had no idea that she was going to hate them so much.

Once again lost in thought, Amanda’s massive hand began to move, forming a wall between Ryan and his mother. Breaking out of yet another trance, Ryan looked up at the weak half-smile that Amanda shot down in his direction. Ryan returned the gesture, smiling a bit more warmly back in her direction while gently placing his hand on her palm for a moment. Turning his back to Amanda, Ryan peered out into the inexplicably vast waiting room around him. In the roughly fifteen minutes since arriving here, more and more people flooded into the space. A young woman, probably even younger than Brooke, cradled a tiny man in her hands while taking a seat across the room from Ryan and his family. She looked nervous, being so overly cautious as she set her miniature companion down in her lap before they began to sort through the intake documentation together. A slight smile came to Ryan’s face as he watched the tiny man begin to instruct the young woman on how to fill out the form. 

“Must be her father.” Ryan thought to himself. It was impossible not to entertain the idea of applying those circumstances to his own life. What if his mother had been the one to shrink that fateful evening? Would Ryan have to drop everything to come and care for her? It wasn’t like they could leave Brooke with that sort of responsibility. A sudden, wry smile crept onto the miniature man’s face as he entertained that particular scenario in his mind. He thought back to the humiliating, muggy stench of the gas that Brooke had passed over him and then imagined his arrogant, narcissistic mother being subjected to a similar treatment at the hands, or rather, rearend, of his devious little sister. However, the amusement quickly wore off as reality settled in around him. Natalie was large, or rather, she was normal; and as she had so clearly demonstrated last night, he was helplessly small. 

The previous evening…

Ryan’s knees trembled, threatening to buckle at any given second as he sat in the shadow of his looming mother. It was tremendously difficult to maintain his composure in the face of such an imposing figure. Natalie’s toes wiggled against the tightly woven fabric of her bedroom carpet, grinding loudly in the shrunken man’s ears. He had no idea if she was doing it on purpose, but regardless, it was unsettling all the same. Was this a threat? Get in line or get stepped on? No… she had some shitty political views, but his mother wasn’t a monster. Suddenly Natalie’s hand swung low, racing towards Ryan with terrifying speed.

“HEY! HOLD ON A SE-”

The giantess’ massive hand effortlessly collected Ryan off the floor, compacting him into the fetal position as her fleshy palm closed around him. Ryan attempted to free himself from his mother’s grasp, pushing with all of his strength against the iron curtain of her all encompassing flesh, however Natalie’s grip remained immutable. Only once she had settled back onto her bed did the enormous blonde finally unveil her precious tiny son, unable to contain the self-satisfied smirk on her face as she watched him frantically scramble to his feet and pose in protest against her. 

“MOM! You can’t just go picking me up like that without-”

Natalie laughed loudly to herself, her warm breath rolling down over her helpless son as she gently tilted her hand, forcing him to crouch down in her palm to avoid tumbling over the edge. He could still smell the strong stink of wine on her breath as she shook her head, seeming to laugh at his meager form. 

“I absolutely can pick you up like that.” She argued. “In fact it’s never been easier. Even when you were a baby, you were never this light. This fragile.” Ryan took note of the slight scowl on her face as she made that last remark. It was as if she were blaming him for this. Like he had somehow chosen to lead a life at only three fucking inches tall. 

“Jesus Christ Mom, I’m still a human being. I deserve to be treated like a goddamn equal! With respect! You don’t get to just do whatever you want with me now that I’m small!” Ryan shouted, trying not to lose his nerve as it seemed like Natalie’s hand was beginning to tilt more and more. The ornery giantess simply laughed once again. 

“No, you don’t get to keep on acting like nothing is different.” She refuted calmly, rotating her grip so that she was able to press her thumb into Ryan’s back. “If you were my equal… I couldn’t pick you up. But you’re not… and you can’t do anything about it.” Natalie reached over to the nightstand, raising the glass to her lips and taking another long draught. 

“Just because-” Ryan began to argue, but as the pressure increased around him, the air was forced from his lungs. Natalie kept her grip tightened until she finished off her drink, setting the glass back down on the nightstand before slowly shifting her gaze back over to her son. 

“And watch your tone young man. I am your mother and I will not have you speaking to me like that.” She declared loudly, her words now beginning to take on the slight drawl of an exhausted, intoxicated mind. With no more wine left, Natalie began to shift herself into a more comfortable position, hiking her legs up onto the mattress and scooching her ample rear towards the headboard in an effort to tuck herself underneath the covers. However, what she either failed to realize or failed to concern herself with, was that with Ryan still trapped in her fist, the poor boy was being mashed against the mattress as she shifted nearly all of her weight onto that arm. Struggling to catch his breath, Ryan squirmed helplessly in his mother’s grip as she continued to move into position, but found himself unable to free himself from the ironlike vice of her imprisoning grip. Only once the giantess was comfortably in place, pushing her legs underneath the duvet cover and resting her back against the sturdy wooden headboard, did Natalie finally unfurl her fingers, revealing an enraged Ryan. 

“MOM! What the hell? You could’ve killed me!” He screeched, though her reaction to this complaint only served to frustrate him even more. Natalie scoffed and rolled her eyes, gently using her thumb to knock him off of his feet in her palm. 

“Oh pshhhh, you’re fine. Don’t be so dramatic.” It was clear from the drawl in her speech that Natalie’s rational mind was contributing very little to this interaction. She was operating almost entirely off of emotion and red wine at this point, which only made things that much more perilous for Ryan. Clearly, if he wanted to get through to her, he was going to need to be less combative and try to appeal to her maternal instincts to tend to her children’s needs. Though, he was going to need to find some way to convince her that he knew what his own needs were, moreso than she did. 

“Mom, can we just talk for a second?” He asked, using both hands to try to prevent her massive thumb from descending onto his tiny head. Surprisingly, Natalie moved the massive digit, cocking her head slightly as she proceeded to simply stare at him for several long, tense seconds. Ryan breathed a sigh of relief, feeling like he could finally start some sort of dialogue with his titanic drunken mother. “Thank you… I know that-”

“I thought it was going to be so freaky when I first picked you up. I’ve never held a shrinky before…” Natalie interjected, her loud, powerful voice rolling over Ryan’s comparatively paltry speech. The small man’s shoulders slumped a bit as his mother talked about how repulsed she was. He wondered if she would regret those words if she were to hear herself speak them with the benefit of sobriety. “I thought it was going to be like holding an insect, feeling like you were going to skitter away any second.” She said with a shudder, a slight smirk on her face as she continued to inspect her tiny son in her palm. “But it’s less strange than I thought. It’s just like when you were a baby, only even smaller now.” The giantess laughed before tilting her hand and causing Ryan to go tumbling down into his mother’s lap. 

Landing with a soft thump on the top side of her plump thigh, Ryan looked up to meet Natalie’s gaze just over the curve of her bust, unsure of how to even proceed at this point. All around him the bunched up folds of his mother’s bedspread formed a wall around the perimeter of her lap, leaving him with truly nowhere to go. Well… nowhere that he was willing to go. Against his better judgement, Ryan’s eyes flicked towards his gargantuan mother’s crotch. In shuffling around on the bed, Natalie’s nightie had ridden up higher than the shrunken man was comfortable with. And from his vantage on the giantess’ soft, bare thigh, Ryan could feel an uncomfortable warmth radiating out from Natalie’s groin. Suddenly a massive finger came cruising down towards Ryan, causing him to stumble backwards slightly before he realized that there was only one place he could go if he lost his balance now. Peering down into the dark crevice between her meaty thighs, Ryan decided that literally anything would be preferable to sliding down between his mother’s legs and so he fell onto his back, grabbing onto Natalies finger as she began to press him firmly into her thigh. 

“Careful now. You need to be careful where you step.” Natalie teased. Ryan couldn’t see her face past the curvature of her chest, but he could basically see the arrogant smirk on her face as she began to gently slide him around her thigh. 

“We’re not allowed to touch the tinies at work. So many stupid, pointless protection laws.” Natalie said, almost disappointedly as she released the pressure on her tiny son’s chest. Ryan had to wonder why that bothered her so much. What was she looking to do with her coworkers? A shiver ran down his spine as he considered the potential. If she was acting this way with her own flesh and blood, what the hell would she do if she got her hands on a complete stranger?

“Every goddamn month we have to sit through another damn ‘Sensitivity Training.’ As if it's somehow our responsibility to walk around on our damn tip toes just because there might be a bug on the floor.” Ryan winced. There was that word again. Whether it was the wine talking or not, there was undoubtedly some part of his mother that no longer considered him to be a human being. But Natalie was far from finished with her rant. “And they’re always on the floor. All goddamn day. It’s like they spend six hours of every day just walking through the halls, trying to get wherever they’re actually supposed to be. And then the rest of the day gets spent crying to HR about whatever new injustice they’ve suffered underfoot of the actually hardworking people who get their fucking jobs done.”

By this point in the ranting, Natalie’s voice had picked up a significant amount of volume and no  small amount of incandescence, as though she were finally able to release months or maybe even years of pent up frustration at her captive audience. 

“I can’t even tell you how many good fucking employees I’ve seen let go, just because some fragile little insect felt intimidated by a normal person who was trying to do their fucking job in peace!” Ryan remained quiet in his mother’s lap, too terrified to interject with his opinions about what information she was likely leaving out of this story. But was that the root of all of this anger? She had some friends get fired because the company didn’t like the way that they were treating people like him? Hardly what he would consider a problem, but obviously he and Natalie were operating on different wavelengths these days. 

“Why are you telling me this?” Ryan asked finally, the presence of his voice seeming to stun his mother momentarily. “Why all of this hate and rage all of a sudden?” The giantess scoffed and shook her head. 

“All of a sudden? I’ve always felt this way. It’s you who’s lost your perspective.” She sneered, though her dig failed to cut her son the way that she might’ve intended. 

“But why? What the hell bothers you so much about RP’s?” He pressed, hoping to understand what was the source of this vitriol in his mother’s heart. And for a moment, it looked as though she was about to tell him. Natalie’s face twisted and contorted into a look of aggravated rage, her fists clenched at the comforter and the muscles in her neck flared , as though she were gripped by some primal spirit of anger. 

“BECAUSE-” But before the words could escape her lips, Natalie paused, the terrifying and overwhelming rage seeming to subside in a single second, replaced by an odd serenity that seemed to set Ryan on edge. The shrunken boy was confused and intimidated by what had just happened. It seemed like there was some sort of secret hiding in there that he had nearly contacted, something that Natalie seemed to be guarding quite fiercely. With her flash of rage now passed, Natalie simply lowered her finger down to Ryan, pressing him into the soft fabric of her duvet as she leaned overtop of him. “Because they’re just so fragile and pathetic. Because they can’t be relied on. Because they’re selfish and greedy and because no one else seems to recognize that fact.”

“Mom… what do you mean?” He asked, pushing away her index finger with both hands, hoping to maneuver his way back towards that little bit of truth that she was hiding inside her. 

“Why did you call Amanda?” Natalie asked, completely ignoring his question and drifting further and further away from the conversation that he was truly desperate to have. 

“I’ve already told you, I didn’t want to see how you were going to react to my condition. And based on the conversation we just had, I think that was the right instinct.” Ryan shot back. But Natalie just shook her head. 

“And what was your plan then? Just hide from me for the rest of your life? Act like nothing had changed?” Natalie asked condescendingly. 

“Well, I could’ve at least lived in relative peace. Maybe waited for a cure to come along without having to worry about being held hos-” Natalie suddenly laughed so loudly that her whole body shook, threatening to send Ryan tumbling down between her thighs. 

“A cure?” She asked incredulously. “You can’t possibly be that naive.” Ryan looked up at the giantess, confused. What the hell was she talking about? 

“There no cure… there’s never going to be a cure. Once you’re small, you’re small forever.” Natalie said with a chuckle. “One of our subsidiaries is a pharmaceutical company and they’ve all but given up on a cure. It's just not possible… like, physiologically. Those fifteen percent chance preventative measures don’t seem so silly now, do they?” She taunted. But Ryan didn’t know how to react. Was she telling the truth? Did they really give up on looking for a cure? And why the hell did it seem like she was reveling in breaking that news to him? If she hated tinies so much, then why was she so satisfied in telling him that he’d be stuck as one forever. Natalie took another quick sip off her wine glass before smacking her lips loudly. 

“No, what I meant was, why was Amanda your first call? What about that nice girl you were seeing? Laura? I like her. She seems to have a good head about her. But I guess I can’t blame her for wanting to not tie her future to a tiny.” Natalie remarked, causing a surge of rage within Ryan’s heart. Was it too much to ask for his own parent to take his side over that of his ex-girlfriend? Evidently when it came to Natalie, it was. 

“No, Laura and I broke up before I shrank. A few days before in fact.” Ryan snapped back, but this only made Natalie smirk even more. 

“Heh, talk about instinct.” The giantess quipped. 

“I broke up with her!” He shouted, growing increasingly emotional as this incredibly sore subject was broached against his will. 

“Well that was a decision wasn’t it?” Natalie joked. “Maybe you could’ve lived with her and retained some dignity, instead of having to move back in with your mother.”

“I’m not moving in with you.” Ryan sneered, adrenaline coursing through his body as the subject of his shattered relationship left him feeling raw and vulnerable.

“I already told you that you’re not living with your sister.” Natalie replied firmly. “And you certainly can’t go back to that little apartment of yours like this.”

Ryan puffed out his chest as he spoke. “And I told you that it's not your call. And I’m not going to live with her forever. I’ll be moving into an RP community and then neither of us will have to see each other again.” There was a long tense silence that followed as Natalie seemed shocked by the notion that Ryan would threaten to cut contact with her completely. But her look of surprise was quickly removed and replaced by that same dismissive arrogance that she had been showcasing all evening. 

“You most certainly will not. Do you have any idea how laughable those places are? I won’t have my only son living in a goddamn rodent colony.” 

“It's not like you’ll have any say in the matter.” Ryan spat. “Once I’m inside, you’ll never get to bully me around again.” He asserted confidently, but Natalie just laughed. 

“Oh please. Sparrow Lake Gables was ransacked by a bunch of highschoolers just a few months ago. They still haven't found some of the missing tinies.” Ryan felt his confidence die out as he was reminded of that story. It was major news, and it happened not all that far from where they were. He remembered seeing the way that the girls smiled in their mugshots. They were so cocky, so arrogant. Their lawyers tried arguing that they should be tried as minors, since they were only barely eighteen and that they were still in highschool. That technically the remaining victims were just missing, not confirmed dead. However, the judge made it clear that he intended to make an example out of the two young ladies, trying them as adults and pushing the prosecution to throw the book at them. God how he wanted to see those girls suffer the consequences of their actions. 

“Unbelievable that they want to send those girls to prison for the rest of their lives. They’re just babies.” Natalie scoffed. Of course she felt sympathy for them. “So no. You won’t be going off to live with the other little buggies, just waiting to wind up inside of some brat’s sneaker for the rest of your life.” Ryan sulked. When news broke that a suspicious bloodstain had been found inside one of the girl’s sneakers, there was a tidal wave of people making light of the humiliating way in which a human being likely spent his final moments, suffocating underneath the toes of some entitled brat. Even before shrinking, Ryan couldn’t stop himself from thinking about what a horrendous death that would be. And now the potential of finding himself in a similar sort of predicament was the only thing that the hapless RP was capable of thinking about at this moment. 

Failing to hear any sort of spirited retort from her son, Natalie considered the argument “won” and began to prepare herself for bed. The giantess’ massive fingers swept down from on high, scooping Ryan off the blanket and whisking him over to the nightstand where she carelessly deposited him onto the cool wooden surface. Feeling desolate and heartbroken by the events of this evening, the tiny boy sat silently on the nightstand as Natalie lifted her massive wine glass and drained the last of her drink into her powerful throat. The wine glass returned to the table with a solid *clink* before Natalie began lowering herself underneath the covers. She turned her head to the side, seeing her miniature son pouting quietly on the nightstand where she had left him. 

“Better get into bed, mister. I’m turning off the light and I don’t want you stumbling around in the dark, making a bunch of noise.” Natalie said, reaching up to grip the switch on her bedside lamp. Not having the energy to argue with his mother anymore, Ryan quietly rose to his feet and crawled into his miniature bed, the sheets feeling especially cold as he slid underneath the comforter and pulled it up over his shoulders, keeping his back turned to the titanic form of his mother as she similarly began sliding underneath the covers. 

“Get some sleep.” Natalie’s voice cut through the darkness, her cadence slowing to a drawl as she quickly began to slip into unconsciousness. “We’ve got an early… start… tomorrow…” Ryan listened to the sound of his mother’s soft, rhythmic breathing as he struggled not to think about the horrifying reality of living a shrunken life with someone who held so much unadulterated disdain for people like him. 

Back in the clinic…

“Ryan Miller?”

Ryan snapped back to reality with a start, spinning to find a human sized nurse standing at the edge of the hallway out of the waiting room. Lowering her hand down to her thigh, Amanda allowed her brother to climb into her palm, eliciting a subtle eye roll from Natalie who was out of her seat and standing before the nurse several seconds before her children finally made their way over. 

“Hi there, I’m Nate. Great to meet you all. If you’ll just follow me.” The man said, giving each of the Millers a warm smile before spinning on his heels and directing them down the long hallway. He moved swiftly, striding down the hall like a man with purpose as he pointed towards a door that was a few meters up on the left. “And we’re just headed into room four on the left here. And just watch the crossing…” Nate paused for a moment, effortlessly using his large stature to bring the procession to a brief halt just before they reached another of the red striped “RP Crossing” bars that stretched across the hall. Natalie watched with unamused irritation as the man took several seconds to, in her opinion, dramatically scan the space on the floor for any tiny occupants, before continuing. As Nate resumed walking, both Amanda and Ryan noticed that his long gait allowed the nurse to cross completely over the colored bar on the floor without setting foot in the area. Amanda endeavored to do the same, taking a second to ensure the area was clear, stepping just a bit closer to the bar before finally taking a long second step across. 

“Ugh.” Natalie couldn’t contain her contempt as she proceeded, refusing to believe that this was anything more than some faux display of care in order to build up some sort of reputation for going the extra mile on behalf of little bugs. Not that she could blame them of course. The whole goddamn world was obsessed with keeping up this goddamn charade. But that didn’t mean that she had to as well. 

Ryan couldn’t see behind his sister’s body as she carried him forward, but he had to assume that his mother was probably stepping directly on the crossing path. Acting like a petulant fucking child just because she harbored some bizarre fucking vendetta. 

“Ma’am, please stay outside of the RP Only areas.” Nate said firmly, his confident reprisal of the Miller matriarch stunning all three of them. Amanda turned to find that her mom was standing with one foot fully across the red line, causing her to shoot Natalie and unamused glare. Natalie gave the man a stunned look of disbelief. There weren’t even any tiny people around to accidentally step on. So what the hell was his problem?

“There’s no one here.” Natalie replied flatly, expecting this to bring a succinct end to the conversation. However, Nate fully turned around to stop them from proceeding as he explained the clinic’s strict policy of respect and care for reduced personnel. 

“That’s irrelevant ma’am. The policy helps reinforce good habits that promote safety and provide a pleasant experience for staff and clientele alike. So please, keep an eye on the clearly marked areas and make sure to stay clear.” Natalie had to fight the urge to roll her eyes, but when Nate failed to turn around and start walking again, it became clear that he was waiting for a response. 

“Right. I’ll be more careful.” Natalie replied, failing to convince either of her children, though this seemed to be a sufficient response for Nate as he gave a curt nod and continued to lead the Millers towards patient room #4. 

Pushing open the heavy wooden door, Nate ushered Amanda, Natalie and Ryan into the room before slipping in behind them. Once in private, Nate took a seat at the small desk in the corner of the room and gestured for Amanda to set her brother down on top of a small metallic plate of what looked like some sort of strange hotplate. The blonde giantess did as she was bid, gently setting her hand down beside the apparatus so that Ryan could climb off and stand awkwardly in the center of the plate. 

“Perfect…” Nate said, giving Ryan another kind smile as he began tapping away on the keyboard in front of him. As the computer screen lit up, Nate turned his attention back to the full sized Miller women. “And I’m just going to need to see Ryan’s ID.” 

“Oh, right.” Amanda began to dig through her purse, quickly retrieving Ryan’s wallet and sliding out his driver’s license which she promptly handed over to the nurse. 

“Excellent, thank you very much.” Nate said, the gentle tone of his voice doing quite a bit to help put Ryan at ease as he watched the massive titan begin to input his info into the computer. Once he was finished, Nate removed a large zip-lock bag from the desk and slipped Ryan’s ID inside before reaching down to press a button on the front of the apparatus that Ryan was standing on. “Alrighty, so Ryan you’re clocking in at three point two four inches and it looks like three hundred and forty two grams.” 

“Psh Jesus Christ.” Natalie muttered under her breath, reflexively shaking her head and rolling her eyes before she was able to realize that everyone else could hear her. Amanda turned and shot her a glare laced with an extraordinary amount of disgust and Nate gave her a long, judgemental stare before turning around to give Ryan a knowing, empathetic glance. 

“Right, well. Now I’m going to need his phone.” Nate said, pushing past Natalie’s rude interruption. 

“Oh, alright.” Amanda was a bit surprised that he was asking for Ryan’s phone, but thankfully she had the foresight to pack all of his important belongings in her purse before they had left so she produced the device and handed it over. Nate took the phone and held the screen in such a way that only Ryan could see it. 

“Alright Ryan, if you don’t mind. Go ahead and put in your passcode. We’ll get the Redux app downloaded so we can clone all your data onto something that’ll be a bit easier for you to use.” 

“Wait, I’m going to be able to use my phone again?” Ryan asked, feeling excited for the first time in a little while. Nate chuckled and nodded his head as he reached into the desk and pulled out a small box that he handed over to Ryan. 

“Yup, we’ll get this one all set up for you to use. It’s a bit basic, but it's yours to keep. If you want to upgrade to something a bit fancier, it's pretty easy to transfer everything onto a new device. We can do computers and tablets and pretty much anything that’s capable of downloading the app. But the phone is the only thing that’s free. Everything else is another charge.”

“Shoot, we don’t have my laptop with me.” Ryan said disappointedly.

“No worries, we can always do it later. And frankly, between you and me, for something like a laptop, you’re better off buying a nice one that you’ll be happy with rather than buying our generic out of the box clunkers.” Nate grinned as he shot Ryan a wink. “Now, let me show you where you’ll be staying for the weekend.”

The tall nurse gestured for Amanda to pick Ryan back up as he wheeled his chair to the far side of the room. Ryan was hoisted back up towards Amanda’s chest where he watched Nate unlock a metal door that looked like a safety deposit box on the rear wall of the exam room. Nate swung open the door and gestured broadly to what looked like one of ten segments built into the wall. 

“This here is Unit Four, ‘The Meadows’ as we like to call it here.” Nate said with a smile. “One of ten fully furnished suites that all connect to this exam room. Each of the other rooms has a similar set up, but on the far side of the wall there are some fun social accommodations that all of the units can access to help kill some downtime. So, your initial intake appointment with Dr. Dryier is at 9:45, so you’ll just have to be here waiting in the access port by 9:30. Same with all of your other appointments this weekend, just make sure that you’re ready to go a bit early, otherwise, feel free to relax and unwind or explore and maybe meet some of our other patients.” 

Natalie and Amanda had a few questions of their own to ask Nate regarding some of the procedures and the parts they had to play in all that, but Ryan couldn’t take his mind off of everything that was going on. It was all happening so fast. He was finally going to be “alone” for the first time since Amanda had first found him a week ago. And he had no clue if that was going to be a good thing or a bad thing at this point. But regardless, it was happening and he was going to have to deal with it. 

“Ryan, I'm gonna store your belongings here in the drawer. Only the staff has access to it. If you need something out of here while you're staying, just call the front desk anytime, okay?” Nate picked up the plastic bag with Ryan’s wallet, phone and car keys inside it, before unlocking a drawer that was attached to the bottom of Ryan’s suite. “Alright, well, I’ll have to make sure Ryan is secure in his suite before I leave the room so if you’d like, please say your goodbyes now and we’ll give Ryan some time to get settled.” 

Amanda raised her hands up to her face, gently nuzzling her nose against her tiny brother as she shut her eyes and spoke softly so that only he could hear her. “I love you Ry.” She said sweetly, clearly trying to keep her emotions in check. 

“Love you too Mands, thanks so much for everything.” Ryan hugged his sister’s tree sized nose before she pulled it away, replacing it with a pair of plump lips that bore down on him with a large kiss that flattened him into her palm. 

“Text me when you get your phone all settled. And give me a call sometime. I want to hear from you a couple times a day.” She asked. Normally Ryan would’ve felt emasculated by this request. Like his kid sister was treating him like a child. But given everything that had happened thus far, he was more than grateful for the additional care she was showing.”

“Will do.” He replied, smiling warmly back at her before looking over towards where Natalie was positioned near the door. 

“Goodbye Mom.” He said, not sure what to expect from her at this point. 

“I’ll be back to pick you up Monday morning.” She said, not bothering with something so frivolous as actually saying goodbye to her son. Natalie exited the room, earning Ryan one last sympathetic nod from Nate before he was squared away inside of his miniature hotel suite. As the cool, stainless steel door to his suite was closing, Ryan watched as Amanda’s face shifted into a deep scowl before she spun on her heels and began stomping off behind their mother. 

“Jesus Christ…” Ryan said, looking down at his new tiny cell phone. With a heavy sigh he looked towards the more appropriately sized doorway that led off towards his new accommodations. “Is it too early for a drink?”

Later that evening…

“What can I get ya?” Ryan had saddled up to the very sparsely packed bar, setting down on stool moments before the bartender approached with a smile. Ryan nodded and set his phone down on the bar, along with a pamphlet he had found inside his temporary bedroom.

“Yeah, I’d love a beer. Just a lager or something if you’ve got it.” Ryan replied. “And a menu too. I’m starved.” Today had been a bit more taxing than Ryan had imagined. He had an early morning appointment with Dr. Dryier, the full sized Reduction Specialist who went over some initial intake information and took some preliminary tests before sending him off to meet with a series of shrunken medical staff who proceeded to poke and prod him with needles for literal hours on end. Evidently shrinking had the possibility to completely reset a person’s allergies, potential curing existing allergies or afflicting someone with completely new ones. So, with an aching arm and painfully empty stomach, Ryan decided to spend the rest of his evening unwinding with a bit of food and drink. One upside to all of this was that restaurants were able to accommodate shrunken customers for extremely low cost, since a little bit went such a long way for shrunkenkind. So for the low price of a dollar fifty, Ryan could reasonably enjoy a nice steak dinner and really dull the senses as he spent his first night completely alone. 

“Holy shit, Ryan Miller? Is that you?”

Ryan turned away from the bar to find a familiar face smirking at him as one of his close friends from college began approaching from a nearby table. Ryan spun around, putting his arms out in an expression of shock and confusion as this seemingly unnatural coincidence played out.

“Curt? Holy fucking shit, what the hell are you doing here?” Ryan asked incredulously. The dark haired, clean cut man shook his head as he embraced Ryan with a firm hug. 

“Same thing as you dumbass, I shrunk.” Curt said, smacking Ryan on the back a few times as he took a seat beside his friend. Curt then turned his attention to the bartender. “Hey, could I have them move my tab up here to the bar. I want to catch up with this guy.” 

“Of course.” The bartender nodded, taking Ryan’s drink order before disappearing to leave the two some time to catch up. Curt spent the next half hour filling in Ryan about the details of his life after graduating from HYU. 

“Wow, that sounds sick. Mr-Fancy-Pants-Fly-To-Italy-For-A-Conference over here.” Ryan said with a chuckle. 

“Yeah, it was fucking great. I was making money hand over fucking fist, all the travelling every month, getting to bang a new chick in each city, leaving bastards all over the globe. It was fucking sweet.” Curt said, playing the part of the macho asshole that he always did back in college. In truth, while he did have a pretty legitimate track record with the ladies, Ryan knew Curt to be a pretty genuinely nice guy. He said some pretty out of pocket shit to get a laugh, but he was also pretty cognisant of the people around him and never hesitated to apologize if he had accidentally crossed a line. Curt let out a heavy sigh, picking up his beer off the bartop and gently swirling it around. 

“Then a few days ago I get drunk, pass out on the couch and when I wake up… BOOM. Tiny Town, population me.” Ryan could practically feel the disappointment radiating off of his friend. And he could empathize. He might not have been living as exciting a life as Curt, but he understood the frustration of feeling like your future was totally fucking shot. 

“I feel you man. Same shit happened to me.” Ryan commiserated, raising his glass to clink the rim against Curt’s.

“To us, God was so scared that he had to cut us down in our prime.” Curt said enthusiastically, polishing off his saison and raising the glass to signal his need for a refill to the bartender. 

“Gotta say though, I’m surprised to find you here, not out at some clinic in California.” Ryan commented, not sure why anyone would want to come back to this little backwater mountain metropolis. Curt shrugged his shoulders. 

“Ehhh, no one to look out for me out there.” He said, sounding more than a bit dejected. “Work was good enough to pay have me transported back home to my family and help me break my lease, but they don’t have a position for someone like me at the firm, so I didn’t really have any reason to stay. At least back here my folks can help keep an eye on me.”

“Shit man, sorry to hear that.” Ryan replied, but Curt just shrugged again.

“Ehh, thanks, but it's for the best. I had a chick that I was hooking up with pretty casually out there, but she definitely isn’t someone I would’ve trusted to watch me for the rest of my life.” He said with a chuckle. “I probably would’ve wound up as more of a sextoy than a fuckbuddy haha.” 

“I’m surprised you left.” Ryan quipped back, earning a quick punch on the arm from Curt. 

“Speaking of sex with a giant, are you still with that Laura chick from college? You guys get freaky at all yet?” Curt asked with a wide smirk on his face. However, seeing Ryan’s smile immediately melt away, he immediately realized his fuck up. “Ah shit. Sorry man.”

“No, no, it’s fine.We uhh, yeah, we broke up just a couple days before I shrunk.” 

“Fuck, sorry to hear that man. So, did you move back home then?”

“Yeah, I moved in with my sister for the last week and then we went over to my mom’s house last night, all hell broke loose and now I’m here.” Ryan shrugged, not wanting to get into the gritty details of his confrontation with his mom. Thankfully for him, Curt didn’t seem overly focused on that portion of his comment.

“Oh, your sister. Is that the one that you’re super close with?” Curt asked.

“Yeah, Amanda, the twenty year old.” Ryan clarified. Curt nodded his head, struggling to contain his smirk as the bartender set a fresh beer in front of him. The dark haired financier raised the drink to his lips, pausing for a moment to mutter something before taking another sip.

“Right, right… Amanda. She’s twenty now? So I can tell you that she’s fucking hot?”

Ryan remained silent, just staring at Curt for a moment before flagging down the bartender. His college buddy remained silent as they waited for the bartender comes over. 

“Yeah, what can I do for ya?” The bartender asked, noticing Ryan’s still mostly full beer. 

“Uhh, yeah. Can I get another beer, something in a really thick, heavy bottle? Like, the sort of bottle that might actually kill someone when you hit them over the head with it.” Ryan asked, finally turning to look at Curt with a smirk. The pair chuckled lightly before they both realized that the bartender was still standing there, looking unamused to have been used like a prop in Ryan’s bit. 

“How about a couple of shots instead. Whisky please.” Curt said, earning an unamused but satisfied nod from the bartender who proceeded to pour the shots and walk elsewhere along the bar.

“Jeesh, tough crowd.” Ryan said, lifting the shot to sheers with Curt. 

“So… living with the hot sister, how’d that happen?” Curt asked. Ryan shook his head, choosing to ignore his friend’s remark. 

“Uhhh, well. I mean… It's pretty much the same story. I got a job out of school as a software engineer for Balex, which has been great. But I took some time off to relax after Laura and I broke up. And I was getting drunk playing video games on the couch when I blacked out and woke up toy sized.” Ryan explained. “I had to think of someone to call and Amanda was the first person I thought of. She drove like an hour and half to come and get me that night and then took me back to campus with her. She’s been looking out for me ever since.”

“Huh, nice. That's super cool of her.” Curt commented. “I wonder if she’d take me in too.” 

“Careful man, she likes me… you’d probably wind up as a stain on her foot.” Ryan quipped, thinking about a couple of the times that he had been staring up at the underside of his sister’s foot. But this only made Curt laugh and shrug once more. 

“Eh, not the worst way to go.” He said with a laugh. Ryan couldn’t necessarily disagree with that sentiment. Of all the ways that existed for a tiny to go, being stepped on by his titanic sister wasn’t necessarily the worst. At least getting stepped on would be quick. He thought back to those missing folks from Sparrow Lake Gables; spending their final moments in the sweltering heat inside of someone’s shoe. His mind went to the idea of winding up inside of Amanda’s sneaker, watching a massive grungy sock block out the light as it rolled overtop of you like a stormcloud. Thinking about the other night when he had been sneaking around inside of her bedroom, the memory of Amanda’s oppressive sweaty foot funk cascaded back to the forefront of his mind. He couldn’t imagine winding up trapped inside of that hellish prison, joining Amanda for her waitressing shift, choking down the acrid stench of cavity, cheesy feet as she slid through the restaurant. No… stepped on wouldn’t be so bad.

“Well, you’ll have to let me say hello when she comes to pick you up. That way I can give her my number. You know… so you and I can stay in touch better.” Curt said with a wide grin, really leaning into this whole “I’m gonna fuck your giant sister schtick.” 

“Ooooh, sorry bud. Amanda won’t be here to pick me up. Clinic’s too far from campus. Staying with my mom and youngest sister for the next couple weeks.” Ryan looked up at Chad as soon as he made mention of Brooke, lifting his glass off the bartop. “And if you start talking about my baby sister, I’m genuinely going to hit you with this fucking glass.” Curt recoiled in faux shock, putting a hand on his own chest as though he were surprised by this sudden accusation.

“What? No! I would never!” He said defensively, before raising his own beer to his lips and taking another drink. As soon as the beer left his lips, Curt let out a satisfied sigh, not even looking at Ryan as he replied. “I was going to hit on your mom.” While Curt was bust chuckling, expecting another irritated sigh or playful punch on the arm, Ryan remained oddly somber at the mention of his titanic mother. 

“I’m not kidding man. You do not want to be anywhere near her.” Ryan replied, staring quietly into his own drink. Curt noticed this strange reaction and immediately fell victim to the awkward silence of recognizing that something was wrong, but not knowing what to say. He began to stammer, searching for something to say before Ryan noticed his mistake and quickly tried to rectify it. 

“I just mean, she will not tolerate your particular brand of bullshit.” Ryan lied. “You’d be lucky if you just got stepped on.”

“Heh, right. I’ll keep that in mind.” Curt said awkwardly, trying his best to change the subject. Suddenly his face lit up as he turned and smacked Ryan on the arm. “Oh shit, you know who else is tiny already? Joey.”

“Flipper got shrunk?!” Ryan asked incredulously, immediately recalling one of their mutual friends from College. 

“Heh, yeah, him and Megan Peters both shrunk.” 

“Wait, my Megan Peters?” Ryan asked, wondering if his old highschool girlfriend had also somehow contracted this nasty condition. 

“Yupp.” Curt replied succinctly. “I never personally knew a single fucking RP. Now that I’m small, I know a shit load. It’s crazy.”

“Jesus… I guess so.” Ryan replied flatly, leaving a long moment of silence to hang in the air as he thought about all the different relationships he had formed over the years; wondering who else he knew that would one day inevitably shrink and how those he knew would react to the news of his own unfortunate reduction.”

“Maybe we oughta start a band.” Curt said sarcastically, looking over to Ryan with a wide grin that the blonde quickly returned. They raised their glasses, clinking them together gently before each chugging their respective beverages. 

At least now he wasn’t feeling quite so alone.