“Let’s check out the snackage situation downstairs,” Dayton said as she lowered her hand for Ezra to climb onto.
“You shouldn’t be eating snacks this late,” Ezra said from Dayton’s desk.
Dayton made a little scoff. “Okay, Dad.” She rolled her eyes and wiggled her fingers. “C’mon. Hand.”
Dayton laughed under her breath, like Ezra honestly thought he still got to veto snacks in her own house.
He climbed onto her palm anyway, reluctant and careful.
Dayton’s eyes flicked down.
“You should probably get used to this,” she said, tilting her hand just enough to make the point. “This is basically your Uber now.”
Ezra didn’t look up right away. He just adjusted his stance on her palm, slow and deliberate, like he could make dignity out of posture.
“I’m aware,” he said finally, voice dry. “You don’t have to announce it like you invented walking.
Dayton rolled her eyes so hard it was almost athletic. “Okay, wow, sorry. Next time I’ll send a syllabus.”
She grinned down at him, already standing and shifting her grip to keep him steady. “Uber rules: no backseat driving.”
Dayton stepped out of her room with Ezra in hand. The hallway outside felt colder, quieter, the house settling into its nighttime bones. Her steps were soft on the runner, the light from the stairwell throwing long shadows down the corridor.
As she walked, she lifted her hand higher and higher, like she was adjusting a camera angle.
Ezra watched the ceiling drift closer. His stomach did that small, stupid flip of scale and height, his balance tightening without permission.
“Dayton,” he started, and it came out sharper than he meant, “what are you—”
Then her fingers pinched gently around his ribs and he was gone from her palm.
For half a heartbeat there was nothing under his feet. Air. The little sick swoop of weightlessness.
And then he landed on fabric.
Her shoulder.
The seam of her hoodie rose like a ridge beneath him. He grabbed automatically, hands finding the thick drawstring and the edge of the collar like they were handholds on a cliff. Dayton didn’t even wobble. She just kept walking like she’d done this a hundred times.
Ezra froze, breath shallow, every instinct screaming that this was not a place designed for him.
“You could’ve,” he said, voice clipped, “mentioned that.”
Dayton’s head turned just enough that her cheek and ear filled his whole world. He could hear her breathing, the quiet little sound of it, and the faint rustle of hair near his face. Her warmth rose off her skin through the hoodie fabric, steady and unavoidable.
“I did,” Dayton said lightly. “I upgraded your ride. You’re welcome.”
“This is not an upgrade,” Ezra muttered, shifting his feet. The shoulder moved under him with her stride, a slow rolling motion he had to match. Dayton, annoyingly, adjusted her posture like she could feel exactly how to keep him stable.
He swallowed. From here, the hallway stretched out in a long, slanted view. The stairs ahead looked steeper. Bigger. More real.
“You understand,” Ezra said, carefully, like he was building a sentence he could survive, “that if I fall from here, I’m not… bouncing.”
Dayton’s voice stayed breezy, but it wasn’t careless. “You’re not falling. I’ve got you.”
“That’s not the same thing as me having me,” Ezra said.
Dayton gave a small shrug on purpose, just enough to make him clutch tighter.
He shot her a look, offended. She smiled like she hadn’t done anything.
“Okay,” she said. “No shrugging. Relax.”
Ezra didn’t relax. He adjusted his grip instead, fingers tight around her hoodie string, his shoulder blades rigid as he rode the subtle sway of her walk.
“It’s… efficient,” he admitted reluctantly, like the word physically hurt.
“I know,” Dayton said, smug in the way only a thirteen-year-old could be. “Hands-free. Plus you can see where we’re going. It’s basically first class.”
Ezra stared ahead, jaw tight, the house enormous around them, and hated that a part of him did register the truth: it was steadier than her palm. Warmer. Less exposed to sudden tilts.
Which made it worse.
Because it felt almost normal.
And he could feel himself adapting to it in real time, his body learning the rhythm of her gait like it was a lesson he hadn’t chosen.
His voice came out low. “Don’t make a habit of surprising me.”
Dayton’s laugh was soft. “Then stop acting surprised.”
She approached the stairs and, without thinking too hard about it, made the tiny adjustments that mattered. She hadn’t practiced shoulder riding like this since Thomas. Her hands stayed half-raised, ready to catch, but she kept the rest of her body loose. No sudden jerks. No show off moves.
She took the steps at her normal pace, quick and confident, only now she was calibrating for someone who weighed practically nothing.
She knew she wasn’t Sara Reeves-level smooth, but she was better than most. Nicole barely ever let Kinsley ride shoulder, and Dayton still thought that was kind of cowardly.
As she went down, her hair shifted and framed Ezra, the warm curtain of it brushing his side. When she glanced up at him, she saw his grip loosen just a little. His posture eased, almost against his will.
For the first time since she’d taken him, he wasn’t looking up at a towering world from her palm. He was… closer to eye level. Close enough that the house didn’t feel like a planet.
And Dayton noticed, because she was watching for every change.
She could tell he hated how much easier it was to breathe up here.
From the living room came the soft blare of her mom’s TV, laugh track and commercials bleeding into the hallway like background radiation. Dayton turned the corner toward the kitchen and Ezra’s head moved constantly, darting, tracking, trying to take in everything from this new height. Shoulder-level was quickly becoming the view he’d have to learn whether he wanted to or not.
Dayton walked into the kitchen like it was any other night. Her phone chirped in her pocket. She pulled it out and saw a meme from Hayden.
Dayton snorted, thumbs flying as she typed a reply.
She didn’t bother angling the screen away from him. She didn’t even think about it. In class, she would’ve hidden it out of reflex, like students did around teachers. Here, that reflex was gone.
Ezra noticed the absence like a missing tooth.
Dayton opened the pantry and stepped closer, rummaging through boxes and bags. From Ezra’s shoulder, the shelves looked absurd, a wall of everyday objects scaled into monuments: cereal boxes like billboards, chip bags like crinkly tarps, the glossy plastic of snack packaging catching the overhead light.
Dayton didn’t find what she wanted. She shut the pantry and went to the fridge instead.
Cold air spilled out. She reached in, plucked a few grapes from the bowl, and popped them into her mouth.
Ezra could hear her chewing. Not because she was being gross, not because she had bad manners. Just because he was close enough that normal sounds became… loud.
She grabbed a piece of cheese, tore off a few chunks of summer sausage, then opened a bottle of water and took two quick drinks before setting it back in the fridge, slightly apart from the others like she’d marked it as hers.
Then she closed the door and turned away, already moving.
Ezra stayed perched on her shoulder, helplessly in the front row for the whole teenage snack ritual, as if this was simply another part of his new job to witness every moment of Dayton’s life.
“Okay,” Dayton said, pivoting back toward the pantry. “Now we just grab those Cheez-Its we saw.”
She stepped inside, grabbed the big box, and shook a few into her palm. Five or six. Maybe more. She popped them into her mouth one by one like it was nothing.
She glanced up at him, smug. “See? Hands-free snacking. This is why shoulder-riding is elite.”
“I’m thrilled,” Ezra said dryly, “that my demotion has improved your snack efficiency.”
“I got you s’mores pellets upstairs,” Dayton said, super casual, like she was announcing she bought lip gloss. “And oh my god, Kinsley was so jealous. We were at the store and she literally made Nicole get her a whole box because Nicole wouldn’t do it at first. Like, it was a whole thing.”
She popped another Cheez-It, chewing like a commentator.
“So yeah,” she added, tilting her head a little like she was letting him in on a secret, “just saying… you kinda lucked out. S’mores pellets on day one. Some guardians make you earn that.”
Ezra adjusted his footing on her shoulder, eyes forward like he refused to be cast as a gossip accessory.
“How reassuring,” he said. “I’m glad my… welfare is being measured in s’mores pellets and sibling jealousy.”
Silence hung for a second, quieter.
“And for the record, Dayton ‘lucked out’ is an interesting way to describe becoming someone’s property.”
“Well, you were already somebody’s property,” Dayton said, like she was reminding him of a rule everyone knew. “Before me, you belonged to the district, so don’t act like I personally invented this.”
She popped another Cheez-It. “I just… acquired you. Like when schools sell off old desks they don’t want anymore.”
Dayton glanced up at him, smug. “So yeah. Now you’re my property. Huge W for you, honestly.”
Then she added, softer but still bratty, “And no, you don’t have to thank me. I know we didn’t exactly get along. You were kind of a jerk.”
Her shoulders lifted in a tiny shrug under him. “But I’m not, like, a grudge person. Unless it’s deserved. So… whatever. Water under the bridge. Isn’t that what your old-timey generation says?”
Dayton took the stairs at her normal pace, quick and light, and Ezra had to match his balance to the rise and fall of her shoulder like he was learning a new kind of walking.
He kept one hand hooked in her hoodie seam, the other braced against the warm curve near her neck, and spoke without looking up at her face.
“Your generation really does think slang makes something true,” he said, voice low and dry. “Calling it a ‘W’ doesn’t make it one.”
Dayton kept climbing, unbothered.
“And ‘water under the bridge’ is what people say when both sides agreed to move on,” he added. “Not when one side… acquired the other.”
He swallowed, jaw tight as the landing came into view.
“Mercy doesn’t count,” Ezra said quietly, “when the person giving it owns the person receiving it.”
Dayton’s foot hit the landing. She didn’t stop walking, but her head tipped a little like she was side-eyeing him without actually turning.
“Okay,” she said, voice light, almost amused. “Then what is it called, Professor?” Making the last word a bit extra purpose.
“If it’s not mercy, and it’s not a ‘W,’ and it’s not ‘water under the bridge’…” She lifted her hand like she was counting points. “What do you want me to call it. Because I’m not calling it ‘Dayton’s Evil Villain Era.’ That’s Hayden’s brand.”
He steadied himself on her shoulder as she reached the top step.
“Call it what it is,” he said quietly. “Ownership.”
A few seconds passed between them before Ezra continued
“If you want something prettier for it, you can call it guardianship.” His mouth tightened. “But don’t pretend the word changes the power.”
He glanced up at her, eyes sharp.
“And if you’re asking what you’re doing right now?” he added. “You’re calling it mercy so you don’t have to feel what it costs.”
Dayton paused at the top step, just long enough that Ezra felt it in his balance.
“And what does it cost?” she asked, voice lighter than the question deserved. Like she was asking about shipping fees.
Ezra didn’t answer right away. He adjusted his footing on the seam of her hoodie, eyes flicking over the hallway, the closed doors, the strip of light under her mom’s room. He kept his voice low.
“It costs me being able to say no,” he said finally.
Another movement. A tiny metallic tick.
“It costs privacy. It costs dignity, in ways you don’t notice because you’re not the one shrinking yourself into corners.” His jaw tightened. “It costs time. My career. My name.”
He swallowed, and the collar shifted.
“And it costs you,” Ezra added, quieter, “the part of you that still knows I’m not a desk you ‘acquired.’ The part that has to work harder every day to forget that.”
He glanced up at her, just once.
“That’s why calling it mercy is convenient.”
Dayton’s mouth twisted like she’d been holding that thought in her pocket all day.
“Okay, but you’re not gonna sit there and act like you had some noble, independent plan,” she said, keeping her steps steady. “Your great idea was literally… ‘let the district take me.’”
Ezra’s shoulders tightened.
Dayton kept going anyway, words coming faster now because she was on a roll. “Like, congrats, you chose a government corporation to ‘care’ for you. You basically signed up to be free labor in exchange for room and board and then acted shocked when it was… exactly that.”
She glanced sideways at him, eyebrows up. “You could’ve asked family. A friend. Someone you actually trust. You could’ve even asked a student you didn’t hate.” Her tone sharpened on that last part. “Instead you picked the district because you didn’t want to owe anyone and you thought you’d outsmart the system.”
Her shoulders lifted in a small shrug under him. “And you didn’t. You got screwed.”
Ezra inhaled like he was about to correct her phrasing.
Dayton cut in, still bratty, but not wrong. “And don’t do the ‘if you didn’t claim me, I’d be fine’ thing. If we pretend I never said anything, someone else would have. Someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing, or someone who actually would treat you like a desk they acquired.”
She looked forward again, voice going casual like she’d just ended the argument with a period. “At least I’m honest about what this is.”
“Nicole barely ever let Kinsley ride shoulder, and Dayton still thought that was kind of cowardly.”
personally i think Nicole’s a tad over protective and restrictive. it seems like Kinsley’s wanting more adventure in her life that Nicole doesn’t seem to want to give her. at least that’s how some of their interactions and conversations have come across.
for the rest, I’m glad they’re talking it out, and again, both make solid points. Ezra’s right that this isn’t really a mercy and I think he has every right to not have it labeled in some kind of initializing way. and Dayton isn’t wrong that he could have planned to have someone care for him vs just giving himself to the district under the idea that it was protection, though i have a feeling he was led to believe it was legit and probably thought they did things right before he was even reduced.
the only thing i disagree with dayton on in this chapter is why he picked it. I don’t think he didn’t want to owe anyone anything, I think he wanted to keep his life as best he could, and he more or less had. I mean there is a world where the district did this correctly and there is a guardian that sits in the room with him while he’s delivering his lectures, albeit the SEA would still show up for what he was saying if said guardian reported it
A) I agree with you. I think Nicole’s over protectiveness of Kinsley is a good thing and is why i am guessing it was a no brainer to let Nicole control Kinsley’s life like a kid that never grows up forever because she loves her and seems like the level headed one out of the twins. I think Nicole seems like a old soul and Kinsley would make a horrible guardian lol.
B) I will be interesting how the dynamics in all the Guardian/little relationships change when the littles want to date or marry another little. I am guessing the guardians would have them share time together or have set up visitation of their littles. It seems little relationships and kids is a no brainer thing that is hardwired into all animals because all creatures are driven to keep their kind healthy an thriving’s .
I dont think Kinsley would be any worse then dayton as a guardian personally.
the guardian owns the little they own. They wouldnt have to do anything. They wouldnt be required to do anything. Any arrangements or visitations would need to be worked out between guardians.
Nicole’s character is definitely more over protective then Kinsley. Nicole is more of a safety first person then kinsley is.
Nicole takes being a guardian seriously though so she views being kinsley’s keeper so to speak with a level of seriousness.
Part of daytons point is even if you remove whether it was legitimate or not. Whether you think they are going to everything right. He is intrusting himself to a government and corporate entity to do right and forever hold his best interests at heart when making decisions.
So the idea that he looked at that scenario and thought that is the best choice to make is what she is getting at. As his employer isnt his friend.
But his motiviations and decisons are his own. Regardless of what dayton thinks the choice good, bad, or misguided was his to make. Hindsight is normally 20/20
I enjoyed this chapter, I love their banter and I like Dayton letting him travel in a more up close and personal way so he has a better view, can talk easily with her and he is surround buy all all of his senses being over loaded with her closeness.
This is a video of what I hope they move to down the road in their banter lol
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1barPPw3vpL8LUd7ox8xfWVKb0BdwYtAs/view?usp=drivesdk
She wanted her hands free. I will checkout the video when i get home.
For some reason this relationship between the two kinda reminds me of Shrek and donkey in the first movie where Ezra is Shrek and Dayton is donkey at in terms of how they are starting out together where Ezra dislikes Dayton and doesn’t want to be friends while Dayton kinda want to bond with him and understand him more.
Obviously it’s not all the way the same but it has some similarities and elements that remind me of that and maybe get a moment similar to Shrek and donkey looking at the mom scene.
Great chapter as always
I can see the parallel but I dont think Dayton is trying all that hard to bond as she doesnt like Ezra anymore then he likes her. But she does take her role as guardian seriously. So she considers her guardian role seperate from her personal feelings about him.
Obviously being 13 there is some cross contamination of the two ideals.
True very true
Asuka, seems episode 69 posted twice and now there are 2 sets of comments started.
Unfortunately the comments aren’t easily migrated. So i’m just kind of leaving it.
2) “Dayton laughed under her breath, like Ezra honestly thought he still got to veto snacks in her own house.” How could her Little dare to offer health advice
4) “Okay, wow, sorry. Next time I’ll send a syllabus.” Well, we know he does like syllabuses
6) “I upgraded your ride. You’re welcome.” – “This is not an upgrade.” It’s an upgrade for Dayton, because now she can use both hands
8.1) ““You’re not falling. I’ve got you.” Dayton is demanding trust she hasn’t earned; she truly is Sara’s pretend sister
8,2) “Dayton gave a small shrug on purpose, just enough to make him clutch tighter.” Typical Dayton behaviour
10) “Nicole barely ever let Kinsley ride shoulder, and Dayton still thought that was kind of cowardly.” Dayton criticising another guardian for prioritising their Little’s safety is not a surprise whatsoever.
12) “That my demotion has improved your snack efficiency.” It’s kinda shitty that she’s brought him down here just to eat in front of him without offering any
14) “And for the record, Dayton ‘lucked out’ is an interesting way to describe becoming someone’s property.” That’s just her ego, (and the egos of most guardians.)
16.1) “I just… acquired you. Like when schools sell off old desks they don’t want anymore.” Comparing him to a desk, literally objectifying him
16.2) “So yeah. Now you’re my property. Huge W for you, honestly.” No Satan, It’s a W for you, and only you.
18) “But I’m not, like, a grudge person. Unless it’s deserved.” Me neither, which is why my grudges against certain characters aren’t going anywhere yet.
20) “Your generation really does think slang makes something true, calling it a ‘W’ doesn’t make it one.” No, she thinks the fact that she’s in charge and calling it a W makes it one.
22) “Because I’m not calling it ‘Dayton’s Evil Villain Era.” Yeah, it can’t be called that, because Dayton’s Evil Villain Era didn’t actually start with Ezra, it’s just been going this whole time.
24) “You’re calling it mercy so you don’t have to feel what it costs.” Give her hell, Ezra, make her regret claiming you.
26) “And it costs you, the part of you that still knows I’m not a desk you ‘acquired.’ The part that has to work harder every day to forget that.” Now don;t say he never empathises with Dayton, lol
28) “Like, congrats, you chose a government corporation to ‘care’ for you. You basically signed up to be free labour in exchange for room and board and then acted shocked when it was… exactly that.” Isn’t that where millions of Littles end up anyway? At least he was with friends.
30) “And don’t do the ‘if you didn’t claim me, I’d be fine’ thing. If we pretend I never said anything, someone else would have. Someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing, or someone who actually would treat you like a desk they acquired.” Or he could have wound up with someone much better than you. Do not think for a second you are his or anyLittles best possible outcome!
2) It seemed less like a advice and more like parenting though the way he said it.
4) he does like a good syllabus. I do kind of like there back and forth though.
6) He would get a higher vantage point so it woudl be an upgrade to ezra as well in theory. But he may not like being up higher i suppose. Dayton can use two hands which is clearlyhelpful to her.
8) She isnt demanding she was more just letting him know.
8.2) He kind of earned that for his general treatement of her.
10) Well dayton is more talking about how nicole never does it. Even in the privacy of their home. SHe isnt saying do it in crowded area’s if you arent comfortable.
12) She probably assumed that since he was criticizing her snacking he didnt want anything. Thats what I would think atleast. If your complaining about late snacks and then in the next breath saying but i want some. What is ezra even complaining about.
14) She was doing that purpose though because of hteir relationship. SHe was being a bit feceatious
16) Well he was district property and it was sold to her basically as she had to pay money. He is the one who allowed himself ot become district property.
16.2) Well he is in legal standing now according to the US government so that would be a W for him as well. As he is no longer operating in violation of the law.
18) What i hear is you and dayton are alike. Noted.
20) She thinks the fact she brought a little who was operating illegally, violating the laws, a criminal, who she has brought into a good legal standing a W. Whether he likes the laws or wanted to follow them isnt really the discusison poitn dayton was getting at. HE was illegal based on the rules and laws of this world and now he is not. Thats a victory no matter how you slice it.
22) lol, its effective thoguh.
24) She wont. As worse case she can let hte SEA have him and he tossed in a hole he can’t get out of and in situation they wont allow himself to unalive himself. So he would be trapped fo the rest of his existence alone, in a deep dark hole, forgotten as she just lives her life. And she can just say i tried to help him but he didnt want my help. Which would be true.
26) Bold to assume dayton cares if he is considered a desk. They aren’t friends of his own admission. SHe has little reason to think of him as more then he is.
28) Well most littles in the US atleast end up at generitech in which they have bought them from the government. The ones generitech doesnt buy go to other companies. But generitech then performs its testing and classifcations that ahve been discussed before where they are put in store little, research little, or little city.
Govenrment originally ran the operation at the start when jordan first became a little. Ezra however due to his choice has no possibiltiy of becoming a genereitch little. he can be daytons little or he would be taken by the SEA and reside with them at this point. As they woudl have no reason to put him back in circulation. HE would just be the example of what happens when you step out of line. And they would ensure he woudlnt be allowed something as merciful as death for his sins. Thats not how it works. The full brunt of the US government would fall down upon him. HE would be worked into the course lectures and teachings of what not to do and what happens when you violate the law and if you want to join him then go ahead. Room can be made.
30) If he had chosen someone and not gone into district care he could have had a better guardian. However the route he took the person who is reporting the problem and making the claim. Is not likely to be any better then dayton. I would never say never but the chances are she would be one of the better options given the path he took.
3) It’s u to Ezra what’s worthy of his acknowledgement/
5) Three was repeating a standard action, 5 was trying something new, different situation.
9) It’s a typical bully ideology.
11) With Dayton, benefit of the doubt is foolish.
13) Dayton’s unfortunately done that to herself, her decisions have made even her doing the “right thing” suspicious,
15) He didn’t choose to get into that situation, Smallara was thrust upon him. He was deceived into thinking the district was his best option, chose not to do research himself because he trusted the wrong people. Even if Dayton isn’t solely responsible for his loss, she would likely, at least to Ezra, be the figure head of it. He made a bad choice, but Dayton’s also made several bad choices, but only he suffers for his.
17) I think it doesn’t help that the only motivation we’ve gotten to why he disliked Dayton was because she was “too confident”. There has to be more than that to it. I can write off how he treated Dayton as karma for how she treated Jordan, because nothing Ezra did to Dayton comes close to what she did to Jordan. And no amount of “she was only 12” will lessen her guilt for false accusations.
19) Fitting that she’s besties with Nicole and Kinsley, who have the smallest age gap between Little and Guardian, at only a few minutes/hours.
21) That Is fair, but when he calls out Dayton for not calling a spade a spade, he’s certainly got a point. (And man does it irk me that the Little how finally says the things that I’ve been wanting a Little to say is depicted as a bully and villain. Well, written)
23) Even guardian instead of owner/master. But it is a lie, deception & manipulation in all cases
25) No, but he lost it because of a system Dayton supports and agrees with, a system Dayton uses to justify her actions. He tried and failed to get himself into a safe position, which whule that is his fault, it’s also something I sympathise with.
27) Her plan is more legal, more submissive to the dominant view, but better is a stretch (though in honesty we don’t really know the extent of either plan)
29) True enough, friends was a stretch.
31) “fairly forthcoming” in not the same as true honesty.