HTTYD - Day 5, Part 4 (Patreon)

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Monday, October 19 (cont.)

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The front door opened, alerting Marcus to the fact that Jessie was home from school. He had been lying on his couch, but he quickly sat up upon hearing her arrive, switching screens on his miniature laptop to make it look like he was being productive. He sighed and scolded himself internally, It’s just like when I was a kid and my mom came home from the store and I rushed to start working on her chores. Except in this situation he was the parent. Jess probably wouldn’t have even cared if she came home to see me on YouTube. She knows the odds of me finding a new career that’ll allow me to work from home, and she’s been nothing but supportive of me this past week. Hell, she’s the one who’s been telling me to relax more than I’ve wanted to. “Hey Daddy,” Jessie said cheerily as she came into the living room. Marcus smiled back at her, about to greet her, but was startled as he saw another girl enter behind his daughter. She was a slightly chubby, short hispanic girl from Jessie’s class that had been friends with Marcus’ daughter since last school year. Jessie herself wasn’t even very tall, but this new girl was only about as tall as his daughter’s chin, likely several inches under 5 feet by his guess. She had a timid expression on her face as she entered the room, but her eyes grew wide and she froze when she saw Marcus on the couch.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were bringing someone over,” he said nervously, fidgeting in his seat as he saw the young girl’s reaction to his shrunken size. This was the first person who wasn’t family who’d been in their home since he shrunk. "Is she one of your teammates?" Normally Marcus would’ve greeted his daughter’s friends, but since mobility wasn’t as easy for a 9 inch human, he didn’t really greet people; they were the ones to greet him. Besides, getting off the couch to go up and meet here would make him feel even smaller. At least up here he was around waist level to a normal person.

The girl had never seen someone with his condition in person before, or at least not as small as he was. “Hi, I’m Camila,” she quietly said, still looking Marcus’ body up and down. The only people shorter than her were usually children, and while Jessie had mentioned to Camila that her dad had DSD, Camila was still shocked to see him. Finally she could enter a room and not be the smallest person there. She didn’t look excited, or mischievous, but curious more than anything. And that bothered him almost as much as the other two reactions, because it made him feel subhuman. Jessie was the only person who looked at him the same way she always had.

“She doesn't play volleyball, we just have some homework we’re gonna work on together for a class project,” Jessie explained. “We can stay in my room and be out of your way, she has to be home in a few hours anyways.”

Marcus was still surprised to see the newcomer. He’d let his guard down a bit in the past few days, but knowing that Jessie was gonna go back to bringing friends over—aka, being a normal teenager—made him feel defensive again. “Oh, OK. Yeah, that’s fine. Can you uh, text me when you have people coming over though? It’s just good to know.” I could’ve hidden in my room if I had known someone else would be here. Or maybe covered myself with my blanket and pretended to be asleep.

“I did,” Jessie replied, not missing a beat. “It’s from our last period class though, so I guess you didn’t see it yet. But Camila’s parents are both still at work right now so I figured it would be better if we came here, in case we needed help with something. What can I help her out with at my size? he thought, a bit cynical about the whole situation. Oh, she probably just means questions.

“Alright, I guess that’s fine,” he said, sighing as he got more comfortable in his seat.

“OK, thanks Daddy,” Jessie said, turning to head towards her room.

Camila smiled again. “Bye Mr. Tilden,” she said, politely waving as she followed Jessie. He had never met Camila before, or heard Jessie talk about her, but from the looks of it she was a bit of a shy girl. I suppose if someone has to be the first friend Jessie brings over now that I’m shrunken, it’s better for it to be someone who’s a bit shy instead of some of Jess’ other friend’s. As he closed out his impromptu “productive” tab and went back to wasting time on YouTube and checking emails, he reflected on some of Jessie’s other friends that she had brought over throughout the past few years. Wonder when I’ll feel comfortable with Jess hosting sleepovers again or having a bunch of people over for parties, I can’t restrict her from having a proper childhood just because of my new size anxiety.

Unfortunately for Marcus, those days were a lot closer than he was expecting.

*    *    *    *    *    *

Shortly after the three of them finished up dinner, during which Marcus got to know Camila a bit better, the young girl left to go home, and Jessie retired to her room while Marcus watched his nightly news show. But after it had finished and he started browsing what else was on, he started to feel lethargic just sitting like a drone in front of his TV mindlessly watching stuff. Here I am all by myself, doing nothing important. This’d be a great chance to spend time with Jess, and I’m just sitting here. She fills my with energy and joy and pride, and I always love spending time with her even if we’re not doing anything… so what the hell am I just sitting around doing nothing for? With a huff that signaled the start to what would hopefully be a changed attitude around the house, he hopped off the couch and headed to his daughter’s room to see what she was up to.

Her door was open, and soft, melancholy music got progressively louder as he turned the corner into her room to see what she was up to. His daughter was on the ground in front of him, her hands flat on the ground and with arms and elbows straightened, while her torso curved to point towards the sky with her legs extending behind her, the tops of her feet facing the floor. It looked like she was doing yoga. Before he could say anything, her heels rotated away from her til she was perched on her toes, as her butt raised into the air. Eventually her soles were able to stand flat on the ground, and her legs lifted higher into the air, her torso and head moving to face the ground this time. He had never been into yoga, but he at least knew which one this was called: downward facing dog. He glanced between her legs towards her upside-down face, but her eyes were closed. “Hey, just came to see what you were doing” he said, and her eyes popped open, looking at the small man between her legs.

“Just some yoga,” she smiled.

“Oh, I didn’t know you liked to do that. Is it for volleyball?”

“Uh, kinda. Ms. Johnson never told us we had to do it but she suggested it, I just figured it’d help with my flexibility. I only started doing it last week.”

“Well it’s about time, I’ve bought how many pairs of yoga pants for you since you were little, and you’re just starting now?” Jessie couldn’t help but giggle and roll her eyes at his dad joke. She couldn’t punch him from her position, so she lifted one of her feet off the ground instead to give him a playful jab. “Whoah,” he laughed, bumbling backwards as he dodged to get out of the way. “So how many positions have you learned then?”

“Ummm… like five I think? I haven’t really learned any new ones since I started, I’ve just been doing the ones I already knew about. This is downward facing dog, and before that I did upward facing dog, and before that I did a butterfly… Actually I don’t know if that one’s technically a yoga position but it’s still stretching. And then I know there’s the one where like your hands are stretched out on both sides and you turn your body and bend one of your knees, and the one where you stand up straight and have to put your foot on your inner thigh and hold your hands up above you. So that’s… yeah, five.”

“You don’t even know all the names? What if you’re doing them wrong?”

“Uhhhh…” she took a few seconds to think about an answer. She hadn’t actually considered that, but they were pretty simple, she didn’t think she was messing them up. “What do you mean?”

“Do you have to do push-ups when you have practice?”

“Yeah, sometimes.”

“OK, so has Ms. Johnson ever explained the right way and the wrong way to do push-ups?”

“Ohhh…” She understood now where he was going with this. “Yeah.”

“Right. You’d think that you’d be working out your arms either way, you’re just moving up and down, but if they’re too far apart or too close together, you can actually hurt your muscles.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get what you mean now,” she said, and stood up now, turning her torso to the side but still looking towards her dad. Then she held her arms out flat behind and in front of her, while straightening her legs with them facing the same direction. And then she slowly leaned towards her dad, bending her front knee and holding the pose there. “But I’m not lifting any weights or anything, so why’s it matter?” she continued.

“Well, you were lifting your body weight just before, on your arms and legs. And with this one, you have more of your weight concentrated on your front legs instead of your back ones.” He looked up at her bent knee, then glanced at the straight one behind her. “I mean this one’s pretty simple and I can’t imagine how you’d be messing it up, but if you learned a new one and then started doing it at practice around everyone else, some of the other kids might know better and make fun of you for doing it wrong.” He narrowed his eyebrows, as if he just made a concerning realization. “Actually, I know you’re doing this one wrong.”

She seemed surprised, and looking down to make sure her feet were straight. She’d seen this move a hundred times before, and couldn’t imagine how she could be messing up something so simple. “Are you sure?”

“Definitely,” he replied, squatting down in front of her while peering at her ankles. “It’s mostly right, but the only problem is…” he said, reached his hands out towards her bare feet. “You’ve left yourself vulnerable!” he grinned, and then his fingers dove down and tickled the cracks between her toes.

She squealed in surprise and curled her toes shut as tightly as possible, rushing them towards her with a laugh. But Marcus persisted and leapt towards her, causing her to back up carefully into the corner of her room. She didn’t want to run around or jump over him though, because she was worried she might accidentally kick him or something since he was so much smaller than her. “Stay back!” she yelled after realizing she couldn’t back up any further. “Or I’ll kick you!”

But Marcus looked up and saw she was smiling; besides, he knew she’d never do anything like that that could hurt him. He just paused, and then gave her a smirk; “No you won’t.” And then he charged forward, jumping up just as she was raising her foot, and landed on his butt in the top middle of her foot, right next to her ankle. He quickly latched his legs around her ankle and hooked one his arms around too, then used his free hand to tickle all around her lower shin.

“AHHHHH!” She hopped on her unburdened leg into the center of the room, trying to shake her dad off from her foot, but he held on tight and wouldn’t stop making her laugh involuntarily. And called her bluff correctly too: she was too scared of shaking so hard that he’d get punted across the room. “Stop!” she giggled, falling to the carpet. She twisted onto her back, and then maneuvered her other foot to her knee. Marcus had been using both hands to tickle her by that point, until he was interrupted as her sole started pushing against him, breaking apart his arms and legs from the hold they had as she shoved him off her body. Before he could respond, she pounced forward and reached out with her arm, forcing him to the ground with her hand on his torso. She was about to relax when he tried wiggling out from under her hand, and she yelped with a laugh, outstretching her other arm to double her hand’s weight on top of him.

She sighed with relief, and he sighed from defeat, as they both calmed down their laughing. She sat up and sat criss cross in front of him, keeping her hands on him so he couldn’t attack her again. “After so many years, finally it’s an even playing field,” she smirked.

“Um, I hardly think this should be considered fair,” he rolled his eyes, not even trying to get out from under his daughter’s giant hand. It wasn’t very heavy, but with only a little bit of force from her part, it could certainly feel like it.

She lifted her top hand off of him and dug her pointer finger into his armpit. But nothing happened. Even Marcus had expected that it’d tickle him, but instead if was just a weird rubbing sensation, since the tip of her finger was about the same size as the inward curve of his armpit. “Well that’s no fun,” she complained. “I’m too big to even get you back! And I can’t think of any body parts that are smaller than finger tips.” She gazed at him for a few moments, keeping her hand on him, but trying to think of another way to get him back. And as soon as her eyes lit up, he knew she’d thought of something.

Marcus was lifted up and carried close to the smiling face that was pretty much as tall as he was, but she continued lifting him a few inches higher than she normally did whenever talking to him up close. He found himself looking into her forehead as she leaned towards him and lifted the bottom of his shirt with her thumb, and then he felt a light, spider-like sensation all along his stomach. He looked down and realized she was fluttering her eyelashes against him—and it was working! He started laughing as she blinked as fast as she could, over and over against his bare stomach. But his further laughs just caused her to blink even faster, slightly shaking her head just enough to move the flittering around. “OK OK, you can stop,” he chuckled, and she giggled too, slowing down a bit.

“Are you laughing cuz you think it’s like a funny method?” she asked, lowering him back down in front of her face. “Or because it actually worked?”

“Both, I think,” he replied, but then yelled out in surprised laughter as she grinned mischievously and raised him back up to finish her payback.