Dayton backed into her room and kicked the door shut with her heel, Ezra steady on her shoulder like he weighed nothing and somehow still changed everything.
She lifted her hand up beside her neck. “Switch.”
Ezra hesitated for half a beat, then stepped onto her palm. Dayton moved him with practiced care and set him down on her bed near the pillow, like placing something fragile that could still argue with you.
“I’m gonna put pajamas on,” she said, already turning. “I’ll be right back.”
She went to her closet, yanked out a soft set, then padded to the bathroom. When the door clicked shut behind her, she didn’t even make it to the sink. She leaned her back against the door and let the day hit her all at once.
Armed officers in the hallway.
SEA voices. Orders.
A Little acquired.
Not her dream Little. Not even close. But still… a Little. Still the thing she’d trained for, studied for, wanted.
And she hated that a tiny part of her was excited anyway. Even if it was Ezra. Even if it was him.
After she changed into her pajamas, Dayton cracked the bathroom door and peeked out.
Ezra was trying to navigate her bed like it was a terrain map. The folds of the comforter rose into soft ridges that slowed him down, and her mattress was plush, the kind she loved because it felt like sinking into a cloud.
For him, it was… too much cloud.
Each step pressed him down into the down comforter, the fabric swallowing his feet and tugging at his balance. From Dayton’s angle it looked like he was trudging through fresh snow, leaving tiny dents behind him as he fought for traction.
Dayton watched for a second longer than she meant to. It was weird, seeing Ezra of all people moving across her bed like it was actual terrain.
She could hear him in her head. Dayton. The way he used to say her name, sharp and careful, like he was placing it on the desk in front of the whole class. He’d work her into lessons just to make her the example, like he couldn’t resist it, like he knew she hated it and that was the point.
She’d never had a teacher do that before. There wasn’t a handbook for it. No right answer. Just the hot, helpless feeling of being stuck in the seat while everyone watched.
All she’d known how to do was vent to her friends and tell herself it didn’t matter.
Now he was leaving tiny dents in her comforter like footprints in snow.
Dayton stepped fully out, making sure he noticed her. She walked back to the bed and watched her shadow loom over him as he craned his head to look up.
The teacher who had made her life hell now had to tilt his face toward hers. He lived in her room now, in the habitat she’d built, eating the food she bought.
She lowered her hand onto the comforter.
“If you need to use the bathroom or whatever,” Dayton said, “you should probably come.”
Ezra stepped into her palm. Dayton carried him back into the bathroom and set him in the sink. Then she tore off a few tiny squares of toilet paper and handed them to him.
“The sink has a stopper,” she said, pointing at the drain, “so you can’t, like… fall in or anything.”
Dayton grabbed her cleanser and dotted it across her face, beginning her nightly routine.
“Just yell if you need something,” she added, turning toward the mirror and angling her body so she was focused on her own reflection. “If you don’t, I’m gonna assume you’re good.”
“You’re just going to stay here?” Ezra asked from the sink, looking up.
Dayton paused with cleanser on her fingers. “I mean… I’m doing skincare. It’s not like I’m here to supervise your bathroom experience.”
Ezra’s eyes narrowed. “You can still see.”
Dayton rolled her eyes like he was being dramatic. “No, I literally can’t.” She kept her back angled, gaze on the mirror. “You’re in the sink, I’m at the counter. Unless I’m crouching down like a weirdo, I can’t see anything.”
She went back to rubbing in the product, voice casual. “If you need something, yell. If you don’t, I’m going to keep pretending you’re not in here because that’s… normal.”
Ezra held still for a second, like he didn’t know what to do with kindness that still had rules.
The sink walls rose around Ezra on a slant, glossy porcelain curving up and away like a white canyon. At full size it would’ve been nothing, a normal basin, a place you didn’t think about. At four inches, it was architecture.
The surface wasn’t truly smooth, not up close. Fine hairline scratches crisscrossed the porcelain like pale veins, and the tiny scuffs near the drain looked like worn footpaths, as if generations of toothbrushes and rings and dropped earrings had carved a history into it. Along the lowest curve, where water always found its way, the porcelain held a faint chill and a thin dampness that clung to the air like cold breath.
The stopper sat pressed into the drain, a metal disk with a rubber ring. Dayton had pointed to it like a safety feature, and it was. Still, Ezra couldn’t stop seeing the seam around it, the narrow edge where metal met porcelain, as a boundary line. A place things could slip. A place a life could snag.
Above him, the faucet arched out like a steel bridge. The aerator at the tip looked like a grated vent, a tiny honeycomb that could turn a stream into a storm. Even the handles were enormous, their edges catching the light in hard, clinical highlights. A single water droplet clung to the underside of the spout, perfectly round, trembling with its own weight. It looked like glass. It looked like it could fall and hit like a marble.
The air smelled like soap and mint, and underneath that, the clean chemical sweetness of whatever products Dayton used. Sterile comfort. Clean-girl perfection. A space designed for someone who didn’t have to think about survival while brushing their teeth.
He shifted his feet. The porcelain was cold under him, slick in a way that made him hyper-aware of his balance. The slope wasn’t vertical, but it was relentless, always pushing him toward the center like gravity had opinions. If he really needed to, he could probably climb out. Test the incline, find the point where the curve met the counter, use the faucet base like a ledge.
But “probably” wasn’t a plan. And “not easy” was an understatement.
He hated the way his brain automatically mapped the sink like an obstacle course.
He hated even more that his brain automatically checked where Dayton was.
Relying on people had always bothered him in the abstract. Now it wasn’t abstract. Now it was physics. Now it was: if she walks away and closes a door, you become a sound no one hears.
His mind circled back, infuriatingly, to her earlier jab. The district. Room and board. The clean little lie of independence. He’d told himself it was the dignified choice, the adult choice. He’d chosen an institution because institutions didn’t come with eye contact, or obligation, or the humiliating intimacy of being cared for by someone who remembered your worst moments.
He’d chosen the district so he wouldn’t have to owe anyone.
And look how that worked out.
Dayton hummed to herself at the counter, some pop song he didn’t recognize but instantly hated because she was too comfortable. She dotted cleanser across her cheeks like she was icing a cake, then started rubbing it in with small, brisk circles.
“You’re supposed to do it for like a full minute,” she said, half to herself, half to him, voice echoing lightly off tile. “Because if you don’t, it doesn’t count. That’s what they say.”
Ezra glanced up.
He couldn’t see her face directly without tipping his head back, but he could see her hands moving in the mirror. The mirror showed a version of Dayton that looked older than thirteen for a second, lit by bathroom light and routine, then younger again when she made a little face at her own reflection like she was judging her skin for personal betrayal.
She rinsed, water rushing in the faucet with a roar that became weather at Ezra’s scale. The sound filled the sink, bounced off porcelain, turned the whole basin into a drum. The air shifted, cool and damp, and tiny mist speckled the inner walls, turning the scratches into glittering lines for a second before they vanished.
He flinched anyway. Not because it would hurt him, not exactly, but because it reminded him how quickly the world could become too loud to think.
Dayton patted her face dry with a towel, the fabric making a soft, relentless rasp. Then she reached for a toner bottle.
“You do toner after cleanser,” she announced, like she was hosting a tutorial. “It’s not… totally necessary, but it makes you feel like you have your life together.”
Ezra’s throat tightened. “You’re narrating.”
Dayton didn’t even look down. “I’m talking,” she corrected, and you could hear the smirk in it. “It’s different.”
She applied toner with a cotton pad, then leaned closer to the mirror, scanning. “Okay, and then moisturizer.” She grabbed a small jar, scooped a little, and dabbed it on. “Also, I’m making a note,” she added, tapping her phone with her elbow like it was nothing, “to look up little-safe skincare. Because you’re not gonna be crusty.”
Ezra stared at her.
“I’m not—”
“You’re a person,” Dayton said, still casual, like she’d decided that part without asking his opinion. “People do skincare. Also, you’re tiny. You probably get dry faster. That makes sense, right?”
He hated how quickly she turned his body into a checklist.
He hated that a part of his brain, traitor that it was, nodded along with the logic.
Down in the sink, reality waited with the same calm it always did. The toilet paper squares she’d handed him lay folded near the stopper like tiny white flags. One corner fluttered when the bathroom vent clicked on, a faint breath of warm air stirring the basin and making the paper lift and settle again.
Ezra looked at the squares and felt his face go hot, even though no one was looking at him. Even though Dayton was turned toward her mirror, busy with her own pores and her own normal.
This was the part no training manual for him existed for.
The part where the body still needed what bodies needed, and dignity had to be negotiated with porcelain.
He forced himself to breathe, steady.
He could either do it now, in the relative privacy Dayton had created by not watching, or he could wait and risk needing help later. That was the math. That was the new kind of adult decision-making: not what was ideal, but what was survivable.
He turned slightly away from the mirror, toward the curve of the sink, toward the smallest scrap of shadow where the faucet’s arch cut the light into a crescent. Toward the place where he could pretend, for thirty seconds, that he was alone.
Dayton, still at the counter, capped her moisturizer and smoothed her hands together. “Okay,” she said, satisfied, like she’d completed a ritual that kept the world from falling apart. “Then I do lip balm because my lips get dry and I refuse to suffer.”
She glanced down then, just briefly, not at him so much as at the sink in general.
“You good?” she asked, voice neutral. Not teasing. Not sweet. Just… procedure.
Ezra swallowed. The words came out controlled, clipped.
“I’m fine,” he said.
Dayton nodded like she believed him, or like she chose to. She went back to the mirror and reached for a sheet of pimple patches, the little circles catching the light like tiny stickers of authority. “If you’re not, yell. That’s the deal.”
Ezra stared at the stopper, the folded paper, the slanted white walls, the bridge of the faucet above.
The deal.
He hated that there was a deal at all.
He hated even more that the deal was… workable.
I can’t remember if it was mentioned in Smallara Prime, but I wonder what Dayton’s dream would look like.
I dont believe she has gone into detail what her ideal little would be like. But probably not the teacher who bullied her.
I think she wants a submissive and obetient Little, one that blindly obeys and serves her. Though they wouldn’t need to start that way, Dayton’s happy to break their will herself.
She also wanted Jordan and Thomas for a bit.
A Preema Tech little would’ve been perfect for her then.
Hmmmmm it’s interesting looking into both inner thoughts and feelings
Now again I hope this works out and clearly they still don’t like each other really which I can’t blame either side but hopefully they’ll just apologize to each other and just be friends but like Auska says time will tell and maybe heal
I have been seeing a pattern with Dayton acting like the adult and Ezra acting like a child who cant follow simple instructions in a learning curve timeline like anyone would have to do in living in a new area or house or learning a new job. Like when he was at the school, he is his own worse enemy.
I wanted to offer a rare peek into both internal thoughts even though its mostly dayton centric story sometimes breaking the rules giving little looks is a good thing.
having Sara call it out in Smallara, guardian and little seeing each other naked is not a big deal because no one would care if their cat saw them naked. Based on littles are considered pets it makes sense. I know being on the west coast and going to Maui every Christmas , there was outside showers and bathrooms everywhere for guys because its not a big deal so Ezra not being able to just do his business without her watching or do be frank, who cares it she watches because that’s her being weird not him and he is her pet.
Hearing him being a Winer as a guy gives me the creeps. Being a Gen X guy and growing up in the burbs with not a lot of rules, hearing Ezra makes me think of all the beta guys of the new generations that I see on X and you tube. I understand its not all because I have two Nef’s that hike in the woods and are Griding workers but since I’m becoming a get off my lawn guy it seems like a lot on social media lol.
I do think where and how a person grows up makes a difference. The fact dayton was till hours ago a student may make it a bit more awkward and ring bells of inappropriateness that may not be there with a different relationship.
“You’re a person,” Dayton said, still casual, like she’d decided that part without asking his opinion
probably the biggest line in the chapter, imo. guess the question is if she’s convincing herself that’s what she believes or if it’s genuine
Well between jordan and kinsley and thomas, sara and chloe Dayton has a understanding that littles are people. However, the difference comes into play that they while littles are people to her they arent afforded the same rights.
As she treats thomas and kinsley different then Ezra. But she also likes thomas and kinsley more then ezra.
Dayton from what has been depicted so far into the story provides littles rights beyond what society dictates based on her opinion of the little. The higher the opinion the more rights and freedoms.
Not saying thats right or wrong. Its just how dayton has generally operated in this season. But i feel like thats also how alot of people work. I would trust my friends more then a stranger. I would give more leeway to a friend then a guy off the street. etc. Its just warped to fit within the story.
It would make sense to give a little you trust more that understands that they are littles and not humans and cant do what humans do. Because littles like Kelli that still have not accepted they are littles and need to be given training wheels in her life. Lucky for Kayla she has not done a lot so she has not had to do a lot of baby siting because the little amount she has done stressed her out other then the shopping trip which I thought was a great balance of Kayla stepping up and lovingly making sure she was in control and not Kelli.
0) Was this the finale? You’d mentioned previously that this story would likely end around 65-70
1) “I’m gonna put pyjamas on, I’ll be right back.” Well, at least she’s not changing in front of him. I doubt either wants that.
2) “Not her dream Little. Not even close.” still closer than she deserves
3) “And she hated that a tiny part of her was excited anyway. Even if it was Ezra. Even if it was him.” she deosn’t like that she’s happy she got what she asked for? And she thinks Ezra is ungrateful
4) “You’re just going to stay here?” – “I mean… I’m doing skincare. It’s not like I’m here to supervise your bathroom experience.” There’s that privacy cost he mentioned
5) “Relying on people had always bothered him in the abstract. Now it wasn’t abstract. Now it was physics. Now it was: if she walks away and closes a door, you become a sound no one hears” Self-sufficiency is nice. Lots of disabled people go through a similar change (though they still have all their rights
6) “The district. Room and board. The clean little lie of independence. He’d told himself it was the dignified choice, the adult choice” he was living more dignified than he is now, aside from law breaking.
7.1) “You’re a person.” That’s a lie, not because it’s untrue, but because it’s not what Dayton believes.
7.2) “People do skincare. Also, you’re tiny. You probably get dry faster. That makes sense, right?” People choose whether or not they do skincare; she’s denying him that choice.
8) “He hated that a part of his brain, traitor that it was, nodded along with the logic.” Agreeing with Dayton always feels like treachery.
9) “This was the part for which no training manual existed for.” I’m sure this would be covered in Little training, not that he’d cooperate with that.
In regards to your comments on episode 69, I hope you take this in the purely loving way that I intend. Splitting your comments into odd and even and placing them on both posts, you sir are an ass. 🫏. (I wish I had thought of it!!!)
Regarding your points about Ezra being better off back at the school district, I kind of gotta agree with Asuka on the aspect of what happens to him when the district changes leadership, or some other change at the school, and he is not wanted anymore. Seeing how the district was inept and cheap, his future would not be too rosy.
Lol, glad you liked it, I live to annoy others slightly. (I’m almost glad I got to this post late, or I mightn’t have thought about it)
Better off is kinda subjective, I was just meaning it in the sense that that’s where he wanted to be. and happier for it. I agree that the situation could easily have worsened for him, but that’s also true of his time in Dayton’s thrall. A change in district leadership could also potentially lead to massive improvements for him.
it wanst all that annoying alteast to me it was more awkward because you alternated odd and even, so it broke the flow. Which made it a bit difficult at times to keep track of what part of the story you were commenting on specifically.
But it was comical.
I enjoy when the chapters have a loving vibe also lol.
0) No it would have been an awkward place to end. The end is not far off but probably some more chapters to get to a better ending point.
1) Well being her teacher that would probaby still feel weird to her. Maybe some day she when she is farther removed.
2) Well being that she could acquire a little with just a trip to the store. the barrier of getting one is not that high. Its more just shes 13 and needs her mom to buy her stuff.
3) Well its more like if you were asking for an xbox and then you got a playstation intead. Its still cool that you got a playstation and a gaming system but its not exactly what you wanted. She wanted a little and ezra wasnt exactly what she wanted but she is still glad she has a little.
4) He would have similar privacy to that of a public restroom. So its not like she was being that unreasonable. SHe was doing her own thing its not like shes watching him. I can see Ezra’s point but i also think he is being a bit uptight.
5) It would be similar to being disabled but I agree its not 1 to 1 as being a disabled person you still have your rights generally assuming you are mentally capable. Although most of the littles loss of rights is from they are no longer capable of being self sufficent. Where when you are disabled you can still be self sufficent depending on what way you are disabled.
6) I’m not sure on that one. I dont think living and selling yourself to the school district is inherently more dignified. Its just a choice that he made.
7)Dayton does consider him a person but she does not consider him equal as he hasn’t earned that. He can still be a pet while being a person as Ezra would still be something for companionship even if dayton thinks he is not hte most effective companion in his current state.
7.2) The decisons and choices he made led to the consequences of his current state where he isnt afforded the same actions and luxuries. Nothing is stopping him even from in his current state to refuse but that would also have consequences.
Ezra does still have freedom of choice he just doesnt have freedom of consequence.I also dont know if thats the hill I want to die on personally. I would rather fight for better food or entertianment or a right or something. Making a stink about basically washing my face seems just pointless.
8) It would be annoying when she is right.
9) I cant imagine being a willing participant in little training.
1) I could see that.
2) She’d definitely got easier access than she deserves too.
3) And yet doesn’t like that she’s happy about it.
4) It’s a pretty simple boundary, I don’t think it’s that uptight.
5) I did specifically mean physical disability; one acquired through injury. Disabled people have parts of the world changed to accommodate their disability, and that’s something that could also be done for Littles, if the governments weren’t hell-bent on exploiting them.
6) Me neither, but I think making choices for himself is more dignified than having a bratty child make them for him.
7.1) Dayton may consider him three-fifths of a person (probably less, but I assume you get the reference). And it’s not that he hasn’t earned being her equal; he shouldn’t have to, it’s that he had it stripped away from him.
7.2) Decisions have consequences; that’s fine, my question is, when will Dayton’s decisions finally have consequences?
And if I put a gun to someone’s head and tell them to give me all their money or I’ll shoot, they have a choice; there’ll just be consequences if they don’t. It’s not “freedom of choice” if it comes with a threat of punishment. Punishment and consequence are often linked, but are not always the same thing. It’s like following the Law, you don’t get freedom of choice in that argument, that’s why laws get protested so strongly.
9) Me neither
7.1-2) I strongly agree with that argument!
7.1 and 7.2) thats kind of thing with Karma and consequences they are metered out on a schedule or in a specific time. Sometimes the actions one person may view as grevious another can view is insignificant.
Sometimes the consequences come in ways that are different then people expect or not as life impacting or come much later in life.
Peronally, my unrelated to the story thoughts are. I dont believe anything Dayton has done is all that grevious of actions.
As the reality is as much as some people want htem to be littles arent people in this world. The actions she took and things she did werent to a person in this world never would be considered a person at any point in history.
Not that it makes it fair or right based on our standards but our standards dont align with theirs and one rule I have in this story for myself is that i can only judge actions based on the rules of htis world and I have to act like ours doesnt exist.
So I dont like doing the well this is morally unjust in thsi world because everyone and everything is equal. Because in this world the story is based on that concept is just not true. People arent equal they have the illusion of equality.
One thing both worlds do share is that if life is ladder some people start on different rungs, some people have really nice ladders and are easy to climb others are miss a step, or some have to work harder to even reahc ladder to start.
That may not be fair but thats life. Sometimes good things happen ot people we dont like or dont deserve it. Sometimes people have every advantage to do well handed to them while someone more deserving has to work twice as hard just for a break.
Dayton isn’t a good person but shes not a bad person either. Bad things happening to her are sometimes not even directly at her. Like Kinsley one of her best friends adn rivals being a little is a consequence and shaped and changed daytons outlook and view on littles. As did Thomas. Her parents splitting up is a consequence but its not like consequnce always have direct causality like a pushed this bucket of paint over now my floor covered in white paint. thats a direct consequene for pushing the paint over.
However sometimes thats not the case. The consequence can be nothing or so far out that its not directly linked.
I agree that karma and justice often miss lots of people, but that doesn’t mean I won’t advocate for it.
While intellectually, I can understand that Dayton’s actions aren’t viewed as being done to people. I also think even people who view her doing to Jordan what she did would at least get the same judgment as someone abusing a dog/
I respect that you only view your characters by the morals of the world they live in, but even in that world, it has been shown that morals aren’t absolute, and there are people in it that still view Littles as people and equals.
I do understand that life isn’t fair and people start on uneven ladders.
I understand and respect everything you’ve said here, even if I don’t agree with parts of it.
I agree with Lethal’s statements as well and I want to point out that anytime I comment about what I think is egregious is simply me applying my morals to this world story and not to any real life person (e.g. Asuka) or group. This particular aspect of this world is what makes the story so compelling.
Personally I would like to see or at least a mention about a Littles’ rights movement in the story every once in a while. It seemed like there was some mention in the very early parts of Smallara Prime, but not much since then. I gotta figure there are those that would be outspoken about this, even if they are a minority. Perhaps a passive reference to a news report about a rally or court case.
Chloe and the rest of the Gracewoods seem like they are “in the closet” regarding Littles’ rights.
The little rights movement is still around but it’s a minority of people and many are somewhere in between where the government is and the movement is.
I had a hard time making something that made fun of Ezra not being able to handle doing bathroom stuff not being alone with out it getting to creepy. This was all I came up with lol.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rerQS_XAGHM542yC90cHCQe9fkWQl-eP/view?usp=drivesdk
you have these down to a science.
I have more that the AI gets crazy on that I need to find a place to put so people can see that didn’t make prime time because they got to R rated lol