Note: Looks like the picture didn’t upload correctly. Will get it posted when i get of work in a few hours.
The surface of Chloe’s dresser stretched out like a manicured field of dark wood beneath their feet, the soft ambient lighting of the bedroom casting elongated shadows across its polished grain. Kelli sat beside Jordan, her legs crossed beneath her, fingers loosely laced in her lap. The room around them was hushed, dimmed to a gentle glow that felt worlds apart from the earlier chaos of the party.
From behind them came the soft, unmistakable sounds of Chloe and Sara in quiet intimacy, murmurs, kisses, a shifting of sheets. Kelli looked toward the edge of the dresser, her posture stiffening. The soft hum of central air whispered from a nearby vent embedded in the wall, a smooth, even current of warm air reminding her how engineered this entire space was. Comfortable, yes. Luxurious even. But still, not her world.
“So… we just sit here and wait for them to finish?” she asked, trying to sound offhanded, but her discomfort bled through the cracks.
Jordan, leaning casually against the base of a jewelry box, nodded slightly. “Pretty much,” he said, his voice calm. He didn’t seem bothered. Then again, Jordan rarely did. He had a quiet resilience about him, something steady.
“It’s weird. I used to have an exit plan. Always. If a friend got too drunk, or met someone, or left with a hookup, I’d just order a ride, go back to my place, call it a night.” Her eyes drifted shut for a moment. “But now? I can’t even open a door without help. I’ve gone from being the one who takes care of people to the one who’s… waiting.”
There was no bitterness in her tone, just quiet resignation. She wasn’t angry. She was just tired of adapting.
Jordan didn’t interrupt. He just let the moment breathe.
There was no venom in her words. Just the quiet ache of someone realizing her autonomy had been shaved down again.
Jordan didn’t fill the silence. He just let it be.
Kelli looked at him, studying the way he fit into this strange space. Smaller than he once was, like her. But not diminished.
“You know,” she said, more softly now, “you’re not really my type.”
Jordan raised a brow. “Oh?”
“I mean that in a good way,” she added quickly, nudging him with her elbow. “I usually go for guys who are more… I don’t know. Assertive? Bold? Total disasters, mostly.”
“Should I start acting more like a disaster then?” he teased.
Kelli chuckled. “Please don’t.”
She leaned back, supporting herself with her hands, letting the silence stretch between them. But it wasn’t awkward anymore. It was… comfortable. She turned her head to look at him again, eyes scanning the gentle lines of his face.
“You listen,” she said quietly. “You don’t try to fix things or explain why I’m wrong. You just hear me.”
Jordan glanced sideways at her, his voice soft. “Sometimes people don’t need fixing. They just need a place to land.”
Kelli blinked, the truth in his words landing heavier than she expected. Her walls were still up, but thinner. She didn’t know when he’d started slipping past them.
Without another word, she leaned her shoulder gently against his. No big gestures. Just contact. Quiet, grounding contact.
They sat like that, the white-noise hum of Chloe’s air vents washing over them. The party, the noise, the pressure, it had all melted into the background. For the first time all night, Kelli didn’t feel like she had to prove anything. Or fix anything. She just… was. Small. But seen.
They sat side by side on the vast expanse of Chloe Gracewood’s dresser, two small figures dwarfed by a space not built for them, but adapted to accommodate them. It was quiet now, tranquil in a way that felt almost sacred after the night’s chaos. The sounds of distant laughter and lingering music had faded, leaving only the low hum of central air coursing through sleek, high-tech vents overhead. The steady, climate-controlled breeze had a soothing effect, gentle enough not to disturb their hair, but just enough to be felt.
To their right, a massive hairbrush lay discarded, an everyday object rendered surreal at their scale. The bristles rose like a thicket of trees, impossibly tall and tangled with thick, rope-like strands of blonde hair that had been casually left behind. The brush alone could have been a climbing frame, or a wall, or a strange monument. It reminded Kelli just how small they really were.
Jordan, however, hardly noticed it. For him, these sights had already become normal, part of the landscape of a Little’s daily life. Kayla was a “toss-on-a-cap” kind of girl, and her grooming habits were best described as ‘function over form.’ That brush, with its sleek lacquer and delicate metal detailing, would never have appeared in Kayla’s room. It was another reminder that this wasn’t home.
To Kelli, though, the brush was more than just a household item, it was a symbol of scale, of difference. Of how much her world had shifted in such a short time.
She sat with her arms lightly crossed, stealing a glance at Jordan before her voice finally broke the silence.
“Do you really like her?” she asked, keeping her tone neutral. “Sara, I mean. As your guardian.”
Jordan blinked, caught a little off-guard by the question. Kelli gave a half-shrug and motioned vaguely toward the bed behind them, where Sara and Chloe were lost in their own quiet intimacy.
“You can tell me,” she added quickly. “She’s clearly… preoccupied.”
Jordan let the question settle between them for a moment before answering.
“She’s the only guardian I’ve had, so I don’t have a lot to compare to,” he began. “But yeah… I think I got lucky. Sara and I didn’t exactly start off on the best terms. I didn’t even believe in Smallara when I got infected.”
Kelli turned to face him more directly, her brow furrowing in disbelief.
“Wait, seriously? You were one of those people?”
Jordan winced playfully. “Yeah, I know. It sounds ridiculous now, but I thought the Little zones and mini-cities were just some big political stunt. Like, Littles were born that way or it was a foreign phenomenon or something. Not some virus that could just… hit you.”
“What about the Little hospitals, the Guardianship programs? What did you think all that was for?”
“I thought it was a cover. Like, a highly funded care initiative or maybe even a weird form of luxury containment. I didn’t think real people just… shrank. And when it finally happened to me, I kept thinking the doctors would walk in with a cure. That they’d undo it, send me home with some prescription and a warning.”
He shook his head and smiled faintly.
“But then Sara showed up. And the reality hit.”
Kelli looked away for a moment, her jaw tight, as if grappling with a memory.
“I always knew it was real,” she said softly. “But I never thought it would be me. Or Kayla. When it happened, Thank God I was with my roommates. They helped, but… it could’ve gone very differently.”
She paused again, and Jordan didn’t interrupt.
“I guess what I don’t get,” Kelli continued finally, “is how you can be okay with being her… pet. I’m not judging you. I just don’t understand how you’ve made peace with it.”
Jordan tilted his head slightly, not offended, just thoughtful.
“Well, being okay with something and accepting it aren’t always the same,” he said. “I’m not thrilled that I shrank. I’m not thrilled that I lost my old life. But that life… I don’t know. I don’t think I ever really lived it fully. I took the safe route every time. I let things happen instead of chasing what I wanted.”
He looked over at Kelli now, meeting her eyes fully.
“Being with Sara, it feels like a second chance. She pushes me to engage with the world in ways I never would have. It’s not perfect, but it’s meaningful. She’s been through a lot too, and somehow… it makes her more human, not less. More real.”
Kelli studied him, her expression unreadable.
“You think all this, Smallara, shrinking, being owned, was some kind of fate?”
“I don’t know if I believe in fate,” Jordan said, with a soft laugh. “But I believe in moments. And paths. If none of this had happened, if I’d never shrunk, I wouldn’t have ended up with Sara. I wouldn’t have met you. And I can say with absolute certainty that if we met before? You never would’ve given me the time of day.”
Kelli scoffed, but there was a tiny smile at the corner of her lips. “That’s not entirely true.”
Jordan raised a brow.
“Okay, maybe eighty percent true.”
The space between them eased again, the tension diffusing into a more honest kind of quiet. Around them, the ambient lights buzzed low, and the scent of Chloe’s perfume, clean, soft, and expensive, hung faintly in the air. The brush still loomed nearby, a silent monument to the surreal normalcy of this new life.
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I don’t agree with Jordan’s views of viruses being covers for a government conspiracy, but other than that, he sounds like someone I could get along with.
Although that does make me wonder how a person or even a couple/family with a more extreme version of that viewpoint, ie, “Smallara is a hoax”, “the government is using it for population control”, etc would feel if they caught Smallara.
I agree for the most part. However, government using diseases for population control or wrong doing is a valid fear. The US government infected many African Americans in the past with syphilis, and during the days of colonization when the settlers realized the Native Americans were more susceptible to old world diseases they used it as an advantage by trading infected materials under the guise of friendship. But this is a different world so things might be much different.
good points all around
I could see governments and the like deliberately infecting vulnerable groups in this world, trying to force them to “just shrink already”
governments are just people and all over the world they do evil things to people that cost them money or don’t agree with them. I have no doubt that in the smallera universe they are or have weaponized virus. If they could shrink large amounts of even immune people, it would be perfect because they could just say their tests must have been wrong. The perfect attack.
You’re right, the government conspiracy was to cover the disease, not the other way around.
The phrase government conspiracy was made up by the FBI to get people to stop looking into President Kennedy.
Unfortunately because of many sites still allowing free information flow, there is many documents proving that most of the conspiracy’s are true. Which to me me being a data guy makes sense because if you had people that’s main goal was power or some other goal and you had the power to get your goal and didn’t think you could be caught, of course you would do said thing. People that don’t want to believe conspiracy’s are not dumb, they are like my wife and say she is checked out because she doesn’t think she can do anything but vote.
1) “So… we just sit here and wait for them to finish?” Welln not a lot of other options laying around.
2) “She wasn’t angry. She was just tired of adapting.” fair way to feel in her situation.
3) “I usually go for guys who are more… I don’t know. Assertive? Bold? Total disasters, mostly.” Are these guys disasters or do disasters tend to happen when yours and their personalities clash.
4.1) “You don’t try to fix things or explain why I’m wrong. You just hear me.” No he’s got Sara to do that
4.2) “Sometimes people don’t need fixing. They just need a place to land.” Wise words from Jordan
5) “Do you really like her? Sara, I mean. As your guardian.” Now someone’s asking the real questions.
6.1) “She’s the only guardian I’ve had, so I don’t have a lot to compare to,” I’m sure he’ll get more eventually.
6.2) “But yeah… I think I got lucky. Sara and I didn’t exactly start off on the best terms. I didn’t even believe in Smallara when I got infected.” Well, that’s kind of him holding her accountable for her treatment of him.
7) “Wait, seriously? You were one of those people?” I also question how he could be such a person.
8) “Yeah, I know. It sounds ridiculous now, but I thought the Little zones and mini-cities were just some big political stunt.” A lot of money going into a stunt, and to what end?
8.2) “Like, Littles were born that way or it was a foreign phenomenon or something. Not some virus that could just… hit you.” I could see why he or any vulnerable person would want to believe that.
9) “And when it finally happened to me, I kept thinking the doctors would walk in with a cure. That they’d undo it, send me home with some prescription and a warning.” he did hold onto hope for a while.
10) “I guess what I don’t get, is how you can be okay with being her… pet. I’m not judging you. I just don’t understand how you’ve made peace with it.” Another excellent question from Kelli.
11) “Well, being okay with something and accepting it aren’t always the same,” no, but they’re pretty bloody close.
12.1) “Being with Sara, it feels like a second chance. She pushes me to engage with the world in ways I never would have. It’s not perfect, but it’s meaningful.” interesting mindset, especially because being with Sara, anf is situation in general, have specifically closed more doors than it’s opened.
12.2) “She’s been through a lot too, and somehow… it makes her more human, not less. More real.” But that doesn’t absolve her of any wrongdoing.
13) “You think all this, Smallara, shrinking, being owned, was some kind of fate?” we know Sara thinks in Charaty’s case it’s karma, does that count?
14) “if I’d never shrunk, I wouldn’t have ended up with Sara. I wouldn’t have met you. And I can say with absolute certainty that if we met before? You never would’ve given me the time of day.” absolutely true, if not for being desperate and Forced Kelli wouldn’t have given Jordan a second thought.
15) “That’s not entirely true… Okay, maybe eighty percent true.” Good to know she can acknowledge it, even if some prompting is needed.
16) Did Steph and Ellie find another way home?
11) I agree but In this context it could be considered pretty different. If I gotta go to work and know that someone I don’t like is going to be there I may accept the fact that I’ll have to deal with them but I probably won’t be okay with it. Jordan probably accepts that he’s a little but he’s doesn’t necessarily want to be hence not ok with it. He’s shown to be a philosophical mix of Absurdism and Stoicism so in the end
One must imagine Jordan Happy.
you are more along the lines of jordan’s thinking. He can either try to live with it and make the best of it or spend the rest of his extended life miserable. He has accepted there is no cure.
The climate in the US is that littles are considered legally pets who can be sold into licensed care. The guardian acts as the advocate for the little.
so its like you said he would prefer not to be a little. But what choice does he have but to live his life with Sara which has had some bumps in the road but overall its been okay in his eyes.
1) The impatience of Kelli is showing here.
2) She has had to adapt, change, alter her views a lot.
3) Well form her perspective it would be them. The reader will have to make their own decisions based on what they know.
4) lol, Sara hasn’t been in Kelli’s business all that much and Jordan is her business. So she can’t really be faulted for being in his business.
4.2) He has those every now and then.
5) The lethal questions come into play here.
6) Well Sara would probably be his only guardian. They aren’t that far apart age wise and sara would live equally as long.
6.2) that’s as close as you will probably get from jordan.
7) We all do. Its really his worst trait or i guess belief would be a better word.
8) I mean the government wastes all kind of money. Thats not unique to American government either. I could imagine a world where they would waste millions of dollars. The US probably spends more on defense then most countries make. I can imagine a billion dollar write down.
8.2) Probably a degree of denile and disbelief as well. Especially if you hadn’t personally encountered one until the mass wave that hit the us.
9) To be fair i probably would have too. Just for sanity sake. As id want to believe there was hope.
10) she is this words lethal.
11) I think they are different though he can accept that he has smallara and live with that but still not be okay with it. He can accept Sara is his guardian and not be okay with every choice she makes. He can understand things are ultimately her decision and not be okay with it but still accept that the reality and the climate the government has created.
12) Well smallara by itself does in essence close more doors. However, Jordan was more getting at being he was so introverted and sara being such an extrovert. He has been opened to different possibilities and situations.
12.2) He didn’t say it did absolve her form anything he just acknowledged and told Kelli that sara has her own demons and problems too.
13) Karma and Fool around and find out are very similar. Sara believes whole heartedly that Charity deserves what comes her way. as she is a horrible person in sara’s eyes.
14) 100% i agree.
15) SHes not blind to hte fact that Smallara, Sara and Kayla created the opportunity where she would even consider someone like jordan.
16) Steph went with Mallory as didn’t want to third wheel Sara and Chloe. Ellie is a guest room doing her own thing.
3) It’s the clash thing to me then
4.1) I’m saying Sara’s more likely to do that then Jordan.
4.2) He deserves more.
6) She’ll likely live longer than him, but I meant as time goes on he’ll see other Little/Guardian dynamics and inevitably compare them to Sare and himself, That’s likely why Sara went out of her way to show him worse ones like Saddie and Christine.
6.2) Unfortunately
7) Most conspiracy theories have that effect on me.
8.1) Fair.
9) Anyone would do that.
10) First of many I hope, lol.
11) But he’d still need to be a certain amount of OK with something to accept it, even if he’s not 50% okay with it can accept it, but if he was 0% ok with it, he wouldn’t.
He accepted Sara as his guardian because he was OK enough with her decisions, and the barter he got.
12.1) Right, but my point was he always had the ability to open most of those doors himself he just chose not to, granted her wealth has gained a few new ones, but he’s lost more than he gained.
12.2) It sounded a little like he was absolving her, given how little accountability she’s held to a lot of things give off that impression.
13) Just like there are people who believe Sara deserves to have things go wrong in her life as recompense for her “fooling around”. Though I’n not surprised Sara believes in a might makes right mentality like Fool around and find out
15) But she was thinking of denying it.
16) So there is another option for them?
A)Without another word, she leaned her shoulder gently against his. No big gestures. Just contact. Quiet, grounding contact. I am surprised with little woman being almost twice as big and dominate by nature that Kelli who has a dominate personality is not grabbing Jordan for just a cuddle and chill with him curled into her.
B) “Being with Sara, it feels like a second chance. She pushes me to engage with the world in ways I never would have. It’s not perfect, but it’s meaningful. She’s been through a lot too, and somehow… it makes her more human, not less. More real.” This is what I have always thought, that Jordans little life is better then his regular life was. i know I always think if I would be better off being a little or injured and I think my life would be better being a healthy little. Not a injured human.
A) Just because Sara doesn’t understand how consent works doesn’t mean Kelli doesn’t.
B) that depends on the injury.
A) I agree, I was thinking she would do it in a nice way.
B) Bad one lol.