29th October 2020
Dayton smiled as the curtains rose, she spotted Nicole on the stage, in her beautiful leotard and tutu adorned with feathers to match her headdress, she mourned for a moment, seeing another dancer in the position that once was hers, the envy inside her released as the familiar sounds of Swan Lake’s opening number, instinctively she tensed her muscles and fixed her posture. Dayton took a breath, remembering that music que wasn’t for her anymore and began to get comfortable once again relaxing on Sara’s thigh.
Sara was beginning to succumb to the mind-numbing boredom of the Ballet, performed live by middle schoolers, her only solace was to look down at her beloved Little on her lap, Dayton’s eyes lit up with excitement seeing the dancers on stage, Sara rubbed Dayton’s back, she wanted to pet her more thoroughly, but it was important to Dayton to see this, and Sara didn’t want to distract her. Sara squeezed her other hand, which was being held by Chloe.
Chloe squeezed Sara’s hand, but didn’t turn to Sara, she was engrossed in the performance, she’s seen this piece before, performed by well paid professionals on a much fancier stage, yet she found a certain charm to this, the songs were on a CD and not a live orchestra, the costumes seemed cheap even homemade in some cases, the makeup was amateurly applied, and several girls were slightly off beat. Yet the imperfections made the performance better for her.
In her lap was a young little named Mandy. Mandy was the younger sister of Nicole, a girl on stage, Apparently she’d asked Sara to hold Mandy in the little section of the audience, but Sara had handed Mandy to Chloe so the two could sit together, Mandy watched passively, she’s been in the studio as they trained, watching from a refurbished bird cage the teacher had set up so littles would be safe during rehearsal. Mandy had seen this all before, she saw it without costumes, she saw single sequences repeated for almost an hour until the dancers got it right, but this is her first time viewing it from start to finish in full.
Sara took a sigh of relief as the performance drew to an end, Siegfried had killed Rothbart and Odette was human once again, the curtains fell and rose again, and the performers bowed, the crowd finger clapped for the girls instead of the traditional applause, a practice that was becoming more common as littles were being brought to more things. Sara scooped up Mandy from Chloe, as they made their way backstage with the doting parents of the various girls.
After much of the crowd had cleared out Sara stepped into the dressing room closely followed by Chloe, who was texting on her phone at this point, Mandy was able to guide her to where Nicole was finishing changing.
“Did you like it?” asked Nicole, standing up after tightening her shoelaces, and taking Mandy from Sara, who shrugged at Nicole’s question.
“It was great,” Sara lied convincingly.
“Thanks, but I was asking Dayton,” Nicole clarified leaning into Sara’s hand, “How was it?”
“It was alright,” Dayton answered her, “You must be glad I caught Smallara, without me you’re the best dancer.”
Nicole was hesitant to respond but was cut off by another girl’s excited question.
“Is that Dayton Harris?” her voice was excited as she approached, “Oh my goodness, you really did shrink, and you’re soo cute!”
Sara’s guard raised slightly seeing this oddly familiar girl in front of her, “yeah, she’s Dayton, but it’s Dayton Reeves now.” Sara was drawing a blank where she’d seen her before.
“Can I hold you?” the girl asked, thrusting her hand forward expectantly.
“Absolutely not” Dayton said, recoiling away from her.
“Aw, but, please,” the girl whined, “I’m trained for holding littles.”
“You’re such a liar,” Dayton snapped, “you aren’t even old enough to be a guardian.”
“I’m not a liar,” the girl yelled, “I am too trained.”
“She said ‘No’” Chloe said, her voice barely concealing an edge rarely seen from Chloe, being the tallest in the room by far aiding her intimidation, “Now leave her alone.”
“I- um- My dad’s waiting,” the girl mumbled as she nervously ran off, Chloe’s scowl following her as she did.
“You ok, Babe?” Sara asked, reaching out and resting her hand on Chloe’s shoulder.
“I’m fine,” Chole grumbled, her eye’s fixed on the door.
“Babe, I love you, and love seeing you defend Dayton,” Sara said, “but staring daggers at Kenny, an eleven-year-old, isn’t the best look.”
“What?” Chloe asked, confusion snapping her back to reality, “that girl’s name isn’t ‘Kenny’, it’s Maddison Wessen, as in Cindy Wessen’s daughter.”
“Oh, as in the Cindy Wessen doing the Guardianist rally today?” Sara asked, “the rally I invited you here to distract you from?”
“Yep,” Chloe said, regaining her typical level head, “Why’d you think her name was Kenny?”
“Kenny must’ve been the older sister,” Sara said.
“Kenzie is her older sister’s name” Nicole corrected Sara.
“Whatever,” Sara said.
“You know the Wessens?” Chloe asked.
“Yeah, they were at Guardian training I didn’t learn their last name though.” Sara answered. “I met Cindy too, she didn’t seem that bad in person, a bit strict though, I couldn’t imagine making Dayton call me ‘Miss Reeves, it’s not nearly cute enough.”
“So, Maddie really is a Guardian?” Nicole asked.
“Well, she was trained, she can’t get licenced until at least next year,” Sara explained what she remembered.
“Then she’ll need to get retrained, the course will be altered next year.” Chloe said, slightly smug.
“What do you guys wanna eat,” Sara asked the group, trying to change the subject, “I told Nicole’s mom I’d bring her back fed.”
“Genriburger,” Nicole answered excitedly, “It’ll be like old times.”
“Old times?” Chloe asked.
“Mum – I mean – Mrs Harris used to take us to Genriburger after all our recitals.” Dayton answered solemnly, before forming a weak smile, “Sounds good.”
“Dayton, we don’t have to-”
“No, I’ve been wanting Genriburger,” Dayton backed up her decision to agree with Nicole.
“Kiss-ass,” Mandy yelled.
“Amanda, shut-it,” Nicole hissed.
“I’ve ordered a car,” Chloe said, “We can go whenever.”
—–
The group sat at their table watching the server put the food tray on their table, the tray had been topped with a Little sized table and chair, and on that Little table was a Little tray that held the pellets for Dayton and Mandy. The girls ate and talked amongst themselves.
“Can I go in the play place?” Mandy asked Nicole excitedly finishing her last bite.
“You’re too small,” Sara answered her, looking out at the human children on the playground running ragged, “It’s too dangerous for you.”
“I think she means the little playground,” Chloe explained, pointing to a table in a function room.
“We can take her,” Sara offered Nicole seizing the opportunity, “If you can watch Dayton while we’re there.”
“Thanks,” Nicole said with a wide smile.
Sara took Chloe and Mandy to the function room. There was a proportionally larger fenced playground on a table with a few people, who Sara assumed were guardians, sitting on the chairs around it. The fence had no gate and Sara had to reach over it to put Mandy in, she then ran off to play excitedly. As Sara and Chloe took their seats.
—
“So, how have you been?” asked Nicole.
“I wish you were my guardian,” Dayton whined.
“I know, but we can barely afford Mandy,” Nicole explained “I can’t have a second little.”
“I miss you.” Dayton said, looking up at Nicole with her best puppy-dog eyes.
“Can I see your hand?” Nicole asked, holding her hand out.
“Why?” asked Dayton but still offered Nicole her hand.
“Because I wanna bond with you,” Nicole explained, “It’s easiest for a Little to form a second bond if the second person focuses on neglected pressure points.”
“Sara doesn’t neglect me,” said Dayton bluntly.
“Not that kind of neglect,” Nicole explained, “when she’s petting you, where does she focus?”
“On my head, and my back, sometimes my belly.” Dayton explained.
“That’s where most guardians do it, it means the pressure points in your arms and legs would be less bonded,” Nicole happily told Dayton, “So it’ll be easier to bond to you through them.”
“How do you know this?”
“I was watching a YouTube video of these twin boys who share their older Little cousin,” Nicole explained, “They divide her body on where each one can pet her so they can share the bond.”
“That’s weird,” said Dayton, but kept letting Nicole pet and massage her arms.
“Mom say’s lots of this stuff will be weird while littles are still new.” Nicole retorted.
“Whatever” Dayton said, starting to relax from the arm rubbing, though nowhere near Sara’s level, it still felt nice.
“I started watching Sarandipity streams,” Nicole said, “Mum won’t let me donate or even comment, but I like watching you, you seem to be having fun.”
“Yeah, my favourite game is Guardian Simulator,” Dayton said excitedly.
“That game was so fun when I was allowed to play it,” Nicole agreed
“Why aren’t you allowed to play it?” asked Dayton.
“I called one of my Littles ‘Better Mandy’ and Mom made me delete the game.” Nicole explained.
Dayton’s laughter was music to Nicole’s ears, it was higher pitched now, and much quieter, but still unmistakable to her, she felt good spending time with her best friend.
—–
Mandy tried to peak through the fence periodically, she wanted to catch a glimpse of her sisters conversation.
“If you aren’t going to play I’ll take you out of there,” Sara’s voice boomed above Mandy.
“I am gonna play,” Mandy said, “ Just wanna see what they’re doing.”
“They’re having a private chat,” Chloe explained, “Nicole hasn’t seen Dayton in a while.”
“But she’s trying to get Nicole to ditch me!” Mandy yelled.
“Mandy don’t talk to us like that,” Sara commanded, “Dayton won’t do that, she’s happy where she is.”
“Yes, she will do that,” Mandy yelled, “She asked Nicole if she could send me to a facility to be resold and she could be Nicole’s little instead.”
“She wouldn’t do that” Chloe explained.
“That actually did happen,” Sara whispered in Chloe’s ear, before changing seats and blocking Mandy’s view, “Look, you can either go play on the playground while they’re chatting, or spend that time in my pocket, but I’m not letting you interrupt them.”
Mandy kicked the fence before running back to the playground.
Sara tried to sneakily put something in her mouth, most would mistake it for candy, but Chloe knew it to be her anti-depressant.
“She’s just a kid; she doesn’t know Nicole can’t give her up that easily.” Chloe reassured her.
“It’s not that,” Sara said with a calm mask, “I hate being reminded that I was Dayton’s fourth choice.”
“Fourth?” Chloe asked.
“First was Nicole, second some chick named Chrissy who lives up near her dad, and third was some boy she’d been crushing on named Angelo,” Sara listed, “Nicole was only trained for Mandy, a bit like Kelli and Kayla, but Nicole was trained before Mandy’s infection. Chrissy isn’t trained, though apparently wants to be. and Angelo apparently started Guardian training but dropped out immediately.”
“Most people don’t drop out of that course,” Chloe said, “especially not so quickly, do you know why?”
“It’s because he’s allergic to Littles,” Many called out. “To our hair and sweat, Nicki once high-fived him after holding me and his whole hand got a rash and swelled up.”
“Go play,” Chloe told her, not impressed to find out Mandy was eavesdropping.
“I didn’t know underbreds were an allergen,” Sara mentioned.
“It’s rare, but not unheard of,” responded Chloe.
After half an hour Sara received a text from Nicole and Mandy’s mom, collected the now very tired Mandy from the playground and headed towards Nicole. Dayton was now dancing on the table, showing Nicole her pirouettes were still as well disciplined as ever. Sara stopped for a moment, enjoying the sight of Dayton dancing, she hadn’t been doing so in a while.
“You’re such a good dancer,” Sara encouraged as she approached the table, “But we’re leaving now.”
“Can I hold Dayton?” Nicole asked, “just until we get home?”
“Of course you can,” Sara answered, “I’ll hold Mandy.”
The group then left the restaurant, to the car Chloe had requested, Mandy mentioned that it’s weird getting the same Uber driver twice, Chloe elected not to inform her that this wasn’t an uber, just one of Genritech’s cars and Drivers.
Nicole hugged Sara as they got out of the car at her house, thinking her for the time she got to spend with Dayton, Sara handed the now sleeping Mandy to Nicole and took Dayton back, before getting back in the car with Chloe.
it was nice to see Dayton getting a physical bond with her old friend. I think the physical contact bond between little and their big’s are not talked about enough. It is such a important part of a human’s mental state. Some people I read even hire people to cuddle with them. I would think it would be twice as important for littles because of their heighten senses and need to feel safe in a world to big for them. I liked the chapter, good job bud =)
I’m glad you liked it. Nicole trying to bond with Dayton was actually the first part I wrote, adding the rest around it later.
I as I wrote before I think that aspect is underused and I think your thinking like I am on that, I look forward to you writing more about it.
(1) It was Nice to meet Mandy. She seems like a fun character. Now, I might write a story where she interacts with Smallara Prime Dayton, which could be fun.
(2) Everyone hates Cindy and it is glorious.
(3) Chrissy, as in Chrissy Watson? She and Dayton could have been an interesting pairing. I also didn’t know that Littles could choose who gets to be their guardian.
(4) Be nice Sara.
(5) Unless she’s a little in this AU I’m shocked Dayton didn’t put down Hailey Bishop as an option to be her guardian.
2) Cindy deserves everything she is getting and I look forward to her girls teaching her a new way of thinking like good parents to a naughty child because she still has those she is better then a normal little thought process. I have faith her girls with a loving hand will teach her a more respect everyone mindset.
4) yes please be nice to sara, even with her flaws, she seems to be a loving guardian in all timelines which I apricate that kind of kindness and love to people she has complete power over and doesn’t have to be, a great sign of a kind soul.
1) Mandy was fun to write and is the youngest little shown yet. She’s a bit clingy with Nicole and jealous of her and Dayton’s friendship, combined with knowing Dayton asked Nicole to abandon her, she’s got a bit going on.
2) Most certainly, but this is special. Chloe is the in-universe character with the furthest views from Cindy’s meaning she’s uniquely positioned to oppose her.
3) Yep, Dayton mentioned knowing Chrissy in Dayton 4, and honestly, Chrissy seems like a good guardian, a solid choice from Dayton.
Most littles don’t get to choose their guardians; however, Tiff put in a little extra effort to contact the people Dayton wanted because she loves Dayton more than most underbreds.
4) What is this in response to?
5) First, Hailey is currently 10, two years too young to be a guardian.
Second, Dayton doesn’t know Hailey; she’s just a fan of hers and has no means of contacting her. Littles can’t just pick random celebrities they want to be with.
(4) Was a response to Sara’s some chick named Chrissy line. I wasn’t about to let that Chrissy slander stand.
Lol, to be honest, I didn’t think that was that rude, certainly not the meanest she’s been in this chapter. But she could have been nicer, I agree.
Yeah, I guess I got a little heated because Chrissy is one of my favorite characters.
I was wondering since Dayton was rejected by her mother and cant call her mom, I would think she would ask Sara if she can call her mom. Being rejected by a parent like Dalton has been has got to be a major Phycological trauma.
It’d be odd for Dayton to call Sara mom because she sees Sara as a big sister than a mother. She’d likely refer to Sara’s parents as Mom and Dad
that makes more sense. I was just thinking she needs parental anchors to fill the trauma void of being rejected. All the fun chapters everyone is putting out on this site and the great talks on everyone’s views on them have my wife complaining my rehab work outs have slowed lol.
Correct
Tiffany is Mom to Dayton now, she’s not overtly thrilled about it, but not resisting either.
1) Sara’s disdain for a middle school performance is completely understandable. That is how most people would feel. It was fun to see the contrast in how enamored Dayton was in the performance.
It would also probably be a bit hard to see someone else basically doing your role.
2) I had wondered if you would include Nicole’s sister. I felt like you would as you always have seemed like a big proponent of her. Dayton having animosity towards her in this alternate timeline would make sense.
Although in a lot of ways it would probably be harder for her being NIcole’s little as she’d have to face all the people she saw interacted with before. Where with sara she doesn’t.
3) Good to see Chloe and Sara still going strong.
4) I wasn’t expecting to see Madison in this chapter. That was interesting. Once I saw her I was a bit surprised not to then also see Brooklyn.
5) I laughed when I read that Sara was Dayton’s fourth choice. Some random guy she liked was put above Sara.
6) the little allergy is a unique twist. It makes sense though. But is still a wild allergy. Im sure there are levels of allergy some to discomfort all the way to deadly.
1) Unless it’s your kid or sibling, They totally do suck, but she was there for Dayton, and to babysit Nicole and Mandy.
Dayton wasn’t having the easiest time, but she’s glad she went.
2) I was hesitant, as I had to basically create the character from scratch, but I like who she became. Dayton is jealous of Mandy because they both want Nicole as their guardian. I’d imagine in the main timeline their relationship would mirror that of Talisa and Kelli, but instead of “friend’s big sister” Dayton would be “Big sister’s friend”.
There would be hardships Dayton would face as Nicole’s little, but she’s not really focused on that right now.
3) I like working with Chloe, she’s a good influence for Sara. (though she gets a bit heated in this chapter, and almost snaps at a child because she doesn’t like her mother.)
4) Madison was meant to be a surprise, It’s a bit of a coincidence that she’s in the same dance class as Dayton and Nicole, But fictional worlds are full of stuff like that. Brooklyn would have been their, (she was almost the girl who took Dayton’s place but I thought that’d spoil the Maddison reveal) but she cleared out before Sara and Chloe walked in.
5) Well, from Dayton’s perspective he’s not random, She’s known him her entire schooling life, and had a crush on him for half of it.
6) I thought you’d like that, Angello does have a much stronger than-average allergy. I would also say that littles can be allergic to Humans too.
It makes me wonder how Mandy acts in Smallara Prime with Dayton being immune.
We know nothing about Nicole’s sister in the canon timeline, for all we know she’s older than Nicole with a different name.
But if Mandy is in the main timeline (Which Asuka is welcome to do if he wants) I’d want her to have admired Dayton, a bit like how Talisa admired pre-infection Kelli, But for her now to be weary of Dayton since she’s now seen how Conon Dayton treats Littles.
That makes sense.