Joey had stopped crying for a moment and pulled away from Roni’s embrace.
“What…what did you say, Roni” Joey asked, wiping his nose as he slowly stopped crying.
“I said I’ll be your guardian, Joey,” Roni said through her own stifled tears. “I’ll take you in and care for you. You’re my best friend, you mean so much to me, andI refuse to let you go…to sit by and let you be shipped off to someone that, well, doesn’t have your best interest at heart”
Joey looks deep into her hazel eyes, still red from the emotional moment both of them just shared, and then turns away to stare off into the distance in quiet contemplation, hunched over with his elbows on his knees and head in his hands. “I know she’s serious about that,” Joey thinks to himself as he sighs, “but she’s just not thinking it through right now. It’s too much. Even if she tried…it just won’t happen. I can’t let her…I’m not worth her throwing away her future stability.”
Concerned by the silence, Roni starts to ask “Joey, is everything—” but Joey sits back up and looks at her with a decisive look.
“Roni, I can’t let you do that. There is so much more about this that you aren’t considering right now,” Joey says, with a firm resignation that Roni is familiar with. After all, much like herself, when Joey decides something is one way, it’s an uphill battle to convince him otherwise.
“How can you say that, Joey?” Roni says defensively, hurt by the idea that Joey, despite everything that is occurring, is putting her needs before his own. “I’d be a great guardian. I’d keep you safe, you’d be loved, you wouldn’t be subjected to any of those horror stories that you told me about.”
“I don’t doubt that Roni but it’s such a huge responsibility to take care of a little…even if it’s me”
“Oh come on! You know i’m responsible! I practically raised Checkers on my own!”
“I”m not a dog, Roni!” stated Joey, giving her a slight glare of annoyance
Roni rolled her eyes and glared back at him, “I know you aren’t, Joey! I’m just saying I can handle this! I want to do this! I don’t want a little, I just want my best friend!” she cried.
“Roni, I’m telling you it’s so much more than you think it is” argued Joey, “I’m trying to keep you from making a lifelong commitment! What if you grow bored of me?”
“Joey! I would never and you know that!” retorted Roni with more hurt in her heart, “How could you even say that! God, why are you so damn stubborn!”
Joey takes a deep breath and faces her, pinching the bridge of his nose in mild frustration “I’m not being stubborn, I’m being realistic, Roni. There is so much more that goes into being a guardian than just caring for a little. You need roughly 50,000 dollars just to cover the costs of registration and training. And on top of that, your family isn’t necessarily the most progressive when it comes to littles. Sure, they aren’t nearly half as bad as my parents–almost no one is–but still, they don’t see littles as people like you and I do.”
“But Joey, it’s you! It will be different I–”
“You don’t know that, Roni” Joey fires back in a more authoritative tone, “Being a little changes everything. Families treat children like animals, like they’re less. Friends abandon their friends. Siblings become more emboldened and controlling. Children seek retribution on how their parents cared for them. Even if your parents and sisters love me now, the moment they know I’m not immune, that goes out the door!”
“But not my family, Joey!” cries Roni with a bit more force, “My parents have always loved you like a son, and my sisters practically think you are their brother! They wouldn’t turn their backs on you like that! Just because your parents are awful doesn’t mean you should expect the worst from everyone” She says with fiery passion.
Joey winces at this. Part of him knows she’s right, that her parents aren’t his own, but the other part of him knows too many stories regarding littles, how the dynamic changes, and the fear of being betrayed like that weighs heavy in his mind. Even now, looking at Roni, Joey considers how their dynamic would change. She isn’t thinking about it now in the moment, but could Roni really look at Joey when he’s a little, hear everything he says, and then allow him to make his own choice, or would she defer to her own judgment in instances where medical treatment or even something as trivial as what he eats are involved. Would she even really consider him an equal to her? After all, she really had a firm hold on him as her best friend, constantly dragging him to social outings and school events when he would rather stay home, but as a little? He’d have no chance at avoiding that in favor of peace. It’d be as simple as picking him up and stuffing her in a pocket or her purse. The whole idea of being completely hers and having no control just didn’t sit right with Joey. Even the idea of looking up at the 5’ 3” woman just seems so foreign to him.
“Roni, even if your parents agreed and wanted to take me in, there’s more wrong with your plan that you still aren’t considering” Joey says finally, pushing the idea of being a few inches tall out of his head for the time being, “You’d still need the money, plus you’re banking on the fact that you can complete the training and pass the test for guardianship before I shrink”
“I…” Roni bites her lip on that last remark. It’s true, the metamorphosis of going from human sized to little is, more or less, completely random. Even if she started the training, who’s to say that she’d be done before Joey was sent off to a facility.
“What…what if I beg your parents to keep you long enough for a transfer to my care?” Roni purposes.
“There is a snowball’s chance in hell of that happening. My parents would never get the training, and they would definitely not harbor me if I was a little. They are completely out of the question”
“If we told Johnny, couldn’t he–”
“We are absolutely not telling Johnny about this, Roni” Joey says in a resolute tone, “Regardless of him knowing, my parents won’t let me stay. It’ll just drive a rift between them. I’m sure they’ll tell him, but not until long after I’m gone. I can’t go to a facility knowing Johnny will be in trouble with my mom and dad. Just because they hate me doesn’t mean I want them fighting with Johnny, he doesn’t deserve that.”
With a long sigh, Roni nods her head in agreement. “Well, what do we do?”
Joey pauses before wrapping an arm around her. “We make the most of the time we have left I guess”
Roni remains silent, enjoying the moment with Joey, but her mind races with ideas still.”I’m not giving up, Joey. Even if I have to do it without you knowing, I will take care of you. I promise” She thinks to herself.
1) Roni stepping up to the plate is a good move.
2) Joey’s reservations are reasonable, but I agree with Roni
3.1) Roni’s family being less progressive would be an issue, Love how you’ve listed the ways it’d go wrong both that we’ve seen in other stories and not
3.2) The dynamic changes would also be nearly impossible to predict ahead of time which would be scary
4) He’s worried about the loss of autonomy, even now she’s disregarding him and planning to get what she wants anyway, but he’d get that regardless, so it’d still make sense to go with Roni
5) “You’re banking on the fact that you can complete the training and pass the test for guardianship before I shrink” That’s not true, it’s canonically established that littles can be put on reserve while guardians are completing the training, Like what happened with Kelli and Kayla, or Syd
1 and 4) it’s all from a place of love. Roni’s historically done things that would go against what Joey wants but mostly, like Kelli did for Kayla, because she wants him to have fun and get the most out of life. now in this position, she doesn’t really want his own perspective to cloud his judgement and doesn’t want to really give up on the idea that she can save him somehow.
3.1) Yeah, I’d put the Hales probably below what I’d consider the average viewpoint of littles, seeing them more as pets\animals than high functioning animals, but there’s reasoning behind that in the upcoming chapters.
and yeah I thought that’d be a cool nod to the current stories lol plus I imagine that there would be posts on things like Reddit and X about peoples littles and peoples family members becoming littles that could help depict what’s going on in those environments.
3.2) exactly. It’s not like he doesn’t trust her, it’s just realistically, from everything he’s read, he just knows better. You can only hope in a situation like this that it isn’t too drastic. Like I would think Sara and Gavins dynamic would change a bit, but Gavin would still be his normal self from a personality standpoint and be given a bit more leeway on things
5) lol i don’t want to reveal too much too fast. You are right though that littles can be put on reserve. You’ll see more as to why he brings this up probably in the next two chapters.
3.1) although I would rate Chrissy above the hales but she also sees littles as pets. She pretty much considers her little a indoor pet with limited outside interactions.Mainly her own backyard.
for sure. I think she’s probably above the average viewpoint on littles in general. She’s really respectful and caring of them and sees them as being higher than the station they’ve been assigned to from what I can tell. The pet part works against her a little, but I haven’t really seen anyone outside of probably Kayla, Sara, steph, and sorta Ellie that view them as more person than pet, and Steph seems to be a really good example of being above that bar as in that chapter you posted with Lisa, she didn’t ever come across as seeing her as a pet, just family, which is really nice
I assume you will be posting all the chapters proper before the new stuff is posted?
Its what I would do. I was just clarifying my understanding so I can set expectations on when new content will be posted.
Yeah. I like your idea of doing it that way. gives me the ability to revise as I go and work on new stuff. the new stuff will end up being slower in postings as i’m not very fast at writing lol