After the switch, Greer was thankfully able to get her papers done and get to class on time. It had been stressful since it took so long to switch. Now, Greer wanted to decompress with Dewi. She also had an odd request. "Can... I copy your power? I mean... I need to get used to it and it'd be nice to cuddle on the couch without worrying if it'll happen by accident anyway. And it's just us so if anything weird happens.... like I dunno I grow a 3rd eye or something"
"Okay. I'll help you out if things get weird..." Dewi starts to offer his hand but suddenly stops. "Oh, we should probably grab some snack first. I don't know how the sudden increase in caloric needs might affect you."
"Right..." She went and grabbed some with Dewi and got things sorted. "This is the first time I'll have done this on purpose. Well... willingly on purpose. Ma wouldn't let me keep making fireballs."
"An understandable decision, you're hot enough as it is.... So... how do you want to do this?"
“I guess on the couch. We can cuddle and stuff... it’ll be relaxing and it’ll be easier to learn if I’m relaxed, right?” She smiled a bit, her cheeks turning pink
"Probably. I mean, panicking can make your form unstable so relaxed is best..."
“And we can.. maybe have the light low... watching a nice movie... maybe something like My Neighbor Totoro...” she smiled a bit more as she sat down. “.. maybe kisses later?”
"That sounds like a lovely idea..." Dewi quickly adjusted the lights and put in the movie before sitting beside her.
She carefully touched his hand before leaning on him. She focused on just enjoying the movie. Being with Dewi. Part of her imagined him running his fingers through her hair like boyfriends do in the movies. She wondered what it'd be like, if it'd be nice. She didn't notice her hair getting long enough for him to run his fingers through and stroke. Dewi doesn't seem to take much notice of her sudden hair growth, also more focused on enjoying this time with Greer. It didn't get much longer than shoulder length. About halfway through the movie she put her head in his lap. She was feeling pretty happy. At some point, he starts lightly stroking her head absentmindedly.
She shifted, making his fingers go into her hair a bit. When they hit a tangle, his fingers got stuck for a moment and pulled. The reaction was immediate as she went into a full panic attack. Her pupils contacted and she started to flail. The good news was she at least was suddenly not as big either. Greer was smaller, she looked 7 or 8. Teeth were missing, bruises formed. She looked like she wasn’t in the living room mentally, but somewhere in the past. “Lemme go! LEMME GO!”
Dewi seems to debate for a second if it would better to give her space to calm down and risk her hurting herself in the process. Instead he scoops her into his arms carefully. "Shh... It's okay, Princess. You're safe now... I'll protect you."
After a moment she stopped moving, the bruises went away and the teeth came back but she stayed a child. She was sobbing. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I didn't... I didn't..."
"It's okay. Are you okay? That couldn't have been very pleasant to experience suddenly."
"It's stupid... it's stupid it happend years ago I shouldn't care... why can't I be normal..."
"Because we're not allowed to be normal. We go through life collecting scars while we pretend to be normal until one day we realize that our pursuit of appearing normal is just causing our wounds to fester. The reality is we're falling apart at the seams and the only thing that can mend us is the scariest thing in the world... We have to reveal that we're broken to others and allow them to help us."
She sobbed a while longer before she finally calmed down. "...Bill and his friends... they beat me when we were kids... they'd grab me and call me a freak... said I wasn't a girl. Sometimes... they.. they'd drag me by the hair and.. I just... I fought back... but the adults that saw they'd... they'd act like they saw nothing... he was the mayor's kid so no one wanted trouble I... it went on for years... till middle school. I... no one stopped them..." She looked at him. "But I’m a girl... it's not my fault I look like dad... or I'm powered... it's not..."
"Exactly. None of what happened was your fault. You're my precious, beautiful Princess and they're just a bunch of immature dicks... They were probably trying to compensate for the fact their own dicks stopped growing after age three. You're obviously better than them and it hurts their fragile ego."
She stayed curled up on his lap. "I nearly hurt you..."
"You were the one who was in pain... You wouldn't have been able to physically hurt me."
She squeezed his hand. realizing how small she was now. "I...guess I'm little now..."
"That's okay. You'll just need to go back to normal before switching powers. I mean, I don't have any problem with you staying tiny, but it might make some of your classes harder. Plus some people might think I'm a creeper on our dates, so I guess there's also that..."
"I don't want to be little forever but... maybe just for a little bit." She snuggled against him. "...I'm sorry... for panicking..."
"You don't need to apologize. It's like me saying sorry for not eating a lot..."
Her stomach growled. "....Speaking of, I feel like I could eat a whole brisket..."
"I can offer you a jumbo bag of chips or one of the half dozen other snacks we grabbed. Anything else and we'll have to get up to get it..."
"You have to get up. I'm small enough to ride on your shoulders. And I've seen Luce around kids. If he comes back early and I smile cute he'd get the ice cream." She rubbed her eyes a bit as she got the chips. "How you aren't starving all the time I'll never know..." Bee was finally coming out about now, looking like she was upset herself but calmer now.
"I used to be, once upon a time... There was a time when I tried to hide my condition. My parents obviously knew and I was myself around them, but around other people...? When you have the capability to be anything, it's hard to resist being whatever will get others to like 'you'... Eating more than everyone else gets one labeled a glutton and a pig."
She looked at Dewi and hugged him tight. “If I was with you back then I’d punch the idiots.... all of them. So you wouldn’t have to worry...”
Dewi smiles. "Thanks, Princess, but the truth is I was the idiot back then. I cared too much about what others would think about me and wouldn't show others the real me because of it."
"Then I'd smack you. I've smacked people I care about before. Be like... 'don't be stupid eat your damn cookie!'." She smiled a bit.
"Yes Ma'am." Dewi grabs an oversized cookie and starts munching on it with a grin.
Greer chuckled, looking like she was starting to feel better. "See.. woulda worked. Kick in the ass. I'm good at that." She kept on the chips and looked at him. "I wish I knew you back then..."
She reached for a drink and looked up. "Should we let Blake see me like this or will it be weird for him? I mean... I dunno if he wanted to know what I looked like as a kid or whatever."
"I don't think it would be weird... I mean, you're bound to see him as a little kid eventually and he's seen me in all kinds of forms. This isn't too different from those cases."
"Should we warn him at least?" She put her hand on her hair. "...weird having long hair again..."
"Oh, you mean like he warns us? One minute you're having a normal day, not thinking too much about it, and the next- bam. Tall, dark and handsome with a double shot of confidence shows up with his knowing looks and honey voice, acting like he doesn't know that his attention is making you melt inside. But he definitely knows, you can tell. He knows and still continues with his suave behavior because he's known you for years longer than you've known him and he knows exactly what to say and do to make you feel loved and adored. He knows and he'll use every advantage he has..."
"...ok one.... Blake has nerves and can't help that. Two, I'm a child right now and I don't think that's the same. Three, I am starting to feel jealous because I didn't get to meet future Blake properly yet cause only YOU were in the apartment with Bee and I only got to see him for like... a minute before I was given the tea and sent home." She sipped her drink. "....He was really hot tho."
"I wasn't talking about the switch. I would never fault him for not warning us about that. It's... you really don't know what I'm talking about...? There's these times where he'll say or do something seemingly by chance that gives you butterflies or warms you to the core, and he seems oblivious to the effects, but if you pay close attention... he gets this look, a spark in his eye... it was all on purpose. It's even worse when it's future him, but it happens even without him switching, like glimpses at him becoming that suave man he is in the future. Sometimes I just wish we could do something to surprise him for once... Make him as fluster as he can make us. I mean, future you was about to do it but Blake had mostly already composed himself before I got there..."
"He mighta said something to make future me change my mind. I dunno I just...I mean... I figured when he did that he was just being nice." she leaned back. "But surprising him with me as a kid... that'd worry him I'd think, Maybe. We'd have to do like... a host club thing. It's the which one is Dewi game!"
"Ooo~ I love that game. And my mom's been the only partner that could match me... I usually have to try to look like the other person to confuse others..."
"I can't promise I'll be that good... first day and all but...maybe we can try?" She looked at her empty chip bag. "...maybe after a cookie."
"Or six..."
"I'm keeping snacks for you in my backpack from now on. No arguments."
"No arguments given. I already have my secret stash for when I'm out and about, never know when I'll get munchie and it's not practical to carry around as many snack as I'd need, but it doesn't hurt to have my wonderful girlfriend watching out for me as well."
She smiled and grabbed the package of cookies, holding them where he could get them too. "We should pick out features he won't recognize..." She enjoyed spending a good part of the evening just plotting with Dewi until Blake got home.
Comments (0)
See all