02 - Coming to Terms

02 - Coming to Terms

"Oh, what do I do? She said if I didn't shrink someone before the time limit she'd take away my power." Eri thought in the shadow of an overpass early one Sunday morning. "I need this power to live, and I have less than a half hour before she checks in on me... I don't even have time to find someone this early and they'd have to be alone, I want to involve as few people as possible."

Pacing back and forth, Eri stressed over her predicament when she spotted someone approaching. "Seriously? It's one person and there's no traffic. Can I really be this lucky?" She thought hiding around the side of the structure before her possible prey noticed her. "But I have to touch them for my power to work and if I try to run up to them they might keep their distance..." Pondering for a moment, the blonde had an idea and pulled a tiny shopping cart out of her pocket. Placing it partially in the ditch for the overpass's runoff, she positioned herself to 'accidentally' stumble back onto the sidewalk at the perfect moment.

"Perfect, but should I even do this? I might actually be able to live without this power if I try." Eri thought, doubting herself. But while she doubted herself she could hear the person's footsteps drawing closer and closer as well as a man's voice singing.

"...I tried to go on like I never knew you. I'm awake but my world is half asleep. I pray for this heart to be unbroken, but without you,all I'm going to be is..." Sang the man, his voice was soft and warm.

His deep voice resonated in Eri, as she felt herself relax and lose herself in the song. "What a beautiful voice." She thought, her hands actually slipping causing her to genuinely stumble back into the passerby.

"...inco-" He sang, interrupted as Eri fell into him. He caught her quickly, holding her up.

"If I take him, maybe he could sing for me some more." She thought, brushing her hand against him and trying to use her power on him when started talking.

He asked if she was alright, which caused her to rethink shrinking him. She apologized for bumping into him. He got her cart out of the ditch for her without her asking and made a bit of small talk, introducing himself as Sirus.

"I can't believe I was about to shrink such a nice person." She thought, ashamed of herself. She asked him if he had any change he could spare for her he initially claimed he didn't but then not only gave her some money but also his own gloves. This only made her regret her earlier actions all the more and while she tried to refuse the gloves, he set them on her shoulders and and began to walk away telling her to take care of herself.

"He's right, if I work hard I'm sure I could get by without... my..." Thinking about it again, her confidence crumbled instantly as fear and uncertainty overwhelmed her. Face a winter, a Canadian winter on the streets without her power? "I don't want to freeze on the streets!" "Thank you very much, Sirus, for everything." She said, looking around to make sure there were no witnesses. "I'm not sure if many people tell you this, but you have a beautiful singing voice."

Sirus stopped and turned around blushing slightly. Taking the opportunity Eri jumped into his chest, reaching up to kiss him on the cheek and activating her power and said, "Sorry." He didn't even have time to say anything before he disappeared and his clothes fell to the sidewalk in a heap.

Realizing what she had just done, Eri couldn't help but cry. In a moment of weakness she had done something terrible, never before had she used her power on another living creature, but then again keeping her power never relied on it before either. "Why? Why did you have to be so nice?" She asked as she began to collect Sirus' belongings, finding his unconscious body amongst his clothes.

Getting a better look at the young man, Eri figured before she shrunk him he was somewhere around 6' even. He had short, dark brown hair and when they were open she could tell his eyes were blue. He wasn't exactly Hollywood handsome, but he was relatively good-looking and was moderately in shape.

"Now what do I do with him?" Eri asked aloud.

"Keep him obviously, silly." A chipper voice rang through her head. "Honestly you should get like a city's worth, but having a special tiny is also a good idea."

"Eris!" The blonde girl said. "I did what you said, so I can keep my power, right?"

"Of course!" The voice replied, laughing. "Wait, you thought I was serious? I was kidding."

"WHAT!? You mean I shrunk this nice and kind guy for nothing?" Eri exclaimed. "I have to fix him right away, I should still be able to pass this off as him fainting of something."

"Hold on a second girly, why would you do that?" Eris asked. "You already shrunk him, just keep him."

"I can't do that, he's a real person with friends and family and a life of his own to live." The blonde argued. "Plus he's a really nice guy, I never would have shrunk him if you hadn't told me you'd take it away if I didn't shrink somebody."

"Oh really? So this little guy's entire life is worth less to you than being able to manipulate the mass and size of objects?" The voiced asked, her tone heavily leading the answer.

"What? No... I mean, I didn't... say that..." Eri tried to refuse the voice, but she realized that in that one moment, that was the decision she had made. She shrunk Sirus without concern for the life he was living so she could keep her power.

"Fine, whatever. Restore him if it's that important to you." Eris said off handedly.

"Really?" Eri asked, joy building in her heart.

"Sure, but I really will take your power if you restore him, or any other human you shrink." She threatened. "I gave you that power because I didn't want to see the 'me' of this dimension suffer such a boring life, but if you're going to waste it you might as well not have it."

"No, wait!" Eri panicked, looking at Sirus sorrowfully. The poor guy wasn't even awake as she decided his fate for him. "I'll keep him, I promise."

"Good, well enjoy your new toy." The voice said, starting to fade away. "Oh, and FYI. Tinies make for great sex toys. Shove him in and you'll understand."

"I would never..." Eri began to yell back, her face red as a beet at the mere thought. "But then again, I would have never shrunk a person either..." She thought, gazing at the unconscious man in her hand. It was then that she noticed his skin was already looking a little blue.

"Oh no! He's freezing, I need to warm him up!" Desperately, Eri cupped her hands behind Sirus and brought him up to her face as she started to breathe on him, letting her warmth flow over him. "I'll have to put him somewhere, but where? My pockets aren't safe and if I don't secure him somewhere he'll fall down or out of my clothes." Pondering for a moment, the blush returned to her face as she looked down to her chest. "I'm only doing this to save his life." She told herself, undoing some buttons and pulling her sweater and shirts away to reveal her solid C-cup breasts nuzzled in quite an expensive looking bra considering the quality of the rest of her clothes. Quickly she slid Sirus between her perky mammaries and sealed him in to keep the cold air out.

"I wonder how long he'll be asleep for?" Eri thought, as she started to go through his pockets. In his pants was some more loose change, a multi-tool, pocket knife, lighter, a couple different types of permanent markers, a smart phone and his wallet. "Wouldn't this be stealing if I keep it?" She asked herself looking at his wallet. "But it's not like he can use it anymore..." Once again the gravity of what she did weighed heavily on her. "It wouldn't hurt to take a peek though... would it?"

Opening the wallet, she immediately saw Sirus' ID, his face smiling at her. She could feel her tears welling up, but continued to look its contents. Surprisingly, Sirus had a bit more than just his bank card and credit card. Inside were a variety of licences for various things like boating and firearms, but curiously not one for driving, as well as some old looking gift cards to a couple clothing stores and family restaurants; even $50 to the liquor store. Eri also found some receipts that had faded completely white in the back along with a couple business cards and $220 in twenties. "Holy, I guess he had a bit more than he was letting on." She thought, also eyeing a gift card for Walmart that indicated it had $100 on it.

Eri took what was of value from Sirus' wallet and put it in her small duffel bag in her cart. She quickly checked his jacket and found a headband in one of the pockets and his iPod in his left breast pocket, still playing through his playlist. She decided to look through his bag later and wrapped his belongings in his coat, placed it all in her cart and shrunk it down to pocket size.

"If not a thief, I most definitely did just kidnap someone." Eri thought, patting her chest. She could tell her body heat was warming him up. "I wonder how he'll react when he realizes what's happened to him..." She placed her hand on him and felt her heart tighten a bit. "Even though he seemed nice, he'll probably yell and scream at me, call me a monster. He might even cry and beg for me to let him go." She began simulating various ways his awakening might go as she went about her day, begging for change and rummaging through the trash for recyclables.

Throughout the day, due to her constant moving, bending over and stretching, Eri felt Sirus slip through her cleavage and slide down her body to her waistline where she tucked one of her shirts into her pants. To ensure he didn't slip out again, she put Sirus in the right cup of her bra and hoped that he didn't wake up any time soon. Before she knew it, the light started to fade and she found she had wandered back to the overpass where she met Sirus. Feeling groggy, Eri decided to sleep there, climbing to the top of the slope. Shifting Sirus back to her cleavage, the homeless blonde curled into a ball to go to sleep.

"Good night Sirus."