(Chapter originally written by PhoenixStriker)
The bag check employee bit her lip with clear hesitation. "Um...miss...I hate to tell you this, but there was an issue trying to process your ticket." The employee looked crestfallen, and turned her eyes to you. "Or, more specifically, with his ticket."
Mari frowned, upbeat but slightly concerned. "What do you mean?"
The employee bit her lip even harder. "Um...it says that there was some sort of error processing a ticket due to the user's status as a tiny. It was...uh...canceled."
You stiffened at that news, but more so out of fear of the sheer negative aura your girlfriend was now exuding. An issue with your ticket was an annoyance, sure, but you could just tell it was about to be the straw to break the camels back with your girlfriend. Mari was a chill girl, but if you pushed her (particularly by insulting or demeaning her tiny boyfriend), she'd snap back with a righteous temper inherited from her mother.
Mari smiled, in that disconcertingly cheery way. "Oh? Well, reinstate it please. I'd hate for our free tickets that we won and were assured were all paid for and taken care of to have been some scam. There would surely be legal issues to raise with that!"
The employee withered under Mari's gaze. "Miss...it's not that simple. We've already re-booked the seat, and the flight is full. I can't just--"
"Can't what?" Mari's anger finally seeped through. "Can't own up to your own stupid mistakes?" She jabbed a finger at the poor girl behind the baggage check counter. "Fix this, right now!"
The girl held up her hands. "Please, miss! It's only my second day, I-I-I don't know what t-to do!"
"Then find someone who does!" Mari exclaimed, furious. The employee practically choked back a sob in response.
Hating to see your girlfriend angry, the poor employee berated, and the awkward scene it was creating for everyone around you, you gently rubbed Mari's shoulder to get her attention. "Mari, hey. Why don't you just stash me in your luggage for the trip? It'll be alright."
Mari looked down at you incredulously. "You shouldn't have to do that just because the damn airline messed up, Matt."
"I know." You admitted. "But it's honestly not so bad. It'll be a bumpy ride, but I'll live! Let's look on the bright side of all of this, please?"
Mari stared at you a moment longer, before heaving a huge sigh. With reluctance, she brought you up to her lips for a quick kiss, and then unzipped the corner of her bright blue suitcase. Dropping you inside, she zipped the suitcase back up and returned her cold gaze to the employee.
"Fine. One suitcase for one unaffected passenger, plus her forced stowaway." Mari hefted her suitcase onto the scale and crossed her arms.
The employee, not wanting to risk incurring further anger by saying anything (even though technically only tinies licensed for clothing usage could be stowed in checked luggage), kept silent and processed Mari's ticket. Before she could even finish printing the luggage tag, Mari pried the ticket from the employee's hands, gave her another scowl, and stalked off to security.
As Mari stomped off, she spared one last look at her blue suitcase that now held her boyfriend. She also, out of the corner of her eye, happened to glance at the surprisingly beautiful dark-haired woman who had been behind her in line, and subconsciously noticed that said woman's own suitcase was a nearly identical shade of blue.
*****
Haruki Shouto was almost, in a weird way, glad for the minor distraction of the woman in front of her causing a scene and yelling at the baggage check employee. Sure, it was awkward, but it helped her take her own mind off of her rather disastrous American vacation. She still mentally cringed at how badly this vacation had gone, and all the opportunities she'd bungled up through a combination of her own inexperience, flighty nature, and an unending stroke of bad luck.
Haruki had, originally, been over the moon to finally have a chance to visit America. She'd lived her whole life in Kyoto Prefecture, and had the naivety and crippling lack of worldly wisdom to prove it. While she'd loved growing up in Japan, and cherished her close friendships there and her relationship with her mother, Sumire, Haruki had always wanted to branch out, especially with regards to romantic ventures. And especially especially with regards to romantic ventures focused around the ever adorable tiny population.
Kyoto had a low density of tiny population, and it seemed to Haruki that most of the tinies she ever encountered were either already taken, or licensed in some way for usage. Not that she couldn't see the appeal in a living pair of comfy panties (the very idea of which made her blush like mad), but Haruki was really concerned more with free tinies. The ones she could sweep up into her arms, shower with kisses and affection, and find true love to last a lifetime with.
Or, at least, that's how Haruki's frequent daydreams went. In truth, she was an absolute fool when it came to trying to seduce her way into a tiny's heart.
Certainly it wasn't for lack of physical appearance. Haruki was quite clearly her mother's daughter, and she'd inherited her mother's standout curves and proportions wonderfully. Though only twenty-two, Haruki was well on her way to the coveted hourglass-figured beauty her mother so gracefully possessed. Haruki's chest was ample, her posterior pleasantly plump, her thighs supple, her legs shapely, her stomach lean, and her face soft, rounded, and pretty. She was also quite fond of her silky-smooth light skin, long dark hair (with a single crimson-red streak down the left side), and bright eyes.
Haruki also liked to think that her bad luck with love was also not because of her other non-physical traits. She tried to act as nice and compassionate towards others as possible, considering herself fairly soft-spoken but smart as a whip. Sure, she was a nervous wreck around cute tinies, and her embarrassment frequently led to her acting clumsy and causing...accidents. Was that why tinies ran from her so much? She couldn't help that they were so irresistibly adorable! So what if she got a bit frantic in chasing them down?
God...how did her mother make it look so easy?
Even at forty-two, Sumire Shouto was a gorgeous vision who hadn't lost a bit of her overbearing magnetism. One look would woo you over to her side, and tinies practically threw themselves at (or even under) her feet. Not that the power had gotten to her head or anything, as Sumire was a down-to-earth and easygoing woman, which only made her effortless charm and beauty more appealing and enviable. A bachelorette, Sumire spent her time working as a masseuse at her own self-owned spa, and frequently went on dates with, as she put it, 'those cute little adorable tiny darlings'. Haruki wished her mom would just go ahead and spill her flirting secrets already!
Said secrets had been enough to bag Haruki's own birth father, a tiny man named Asa, but fate had stoeln him away when Haruki was still a toddler. He'd been in the basement of their house when a flash flood had seeped through some shoddy woodwork, flooding the basement. When the waters were cleared days later, Asa was nowhere to be found, presumably having been dragged outside and probably lost in some sewer drain somewhere. It was a cruel reminder of how horrible life could be for tinies left on their own...
...which was only more reason to propel Haruki to find, cherish, and forever snuggle with a tiny of her own, who would never leave her side!
Except, she'd failed to do that at all on this vacation, and was beginning to think she'd never find love. When one of her online gaming friends had offered to fly her over to America to stay for a few months at her house, Haruki had leapt at the chance. While she did enjoy her friend's company, searching for tinies in the country they were easily the most prevalent in had been Haruki's true goal...and she'd utterly failed. Five tinies stepped on here, ten sat on there, one almost eaten (and one actually eaten), and twin tiny brothers mistakenly used as nothing but insoles for three weeks, and Haruki had managed to chase away each and every potential adorable suitor.
Perhaps it didn't help that Haruki didn't speak a word of English, as her mother hadn't deigned to teach her any. Still, the vacation was an unmitigated disaster, and the poor girl was eager to get back home and just forget it had ever happened.
*****
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