*thud thud thud*

*thud thud thud*

*THUD THUD THUD*

Matthew jolted up in bed from the noise, completely disoriented, he looked around but saw no source for the disturbance

*THUD THUD THUD*

His bed shook and the tiny furniture moved around this time. He sprang up and threw on some clothes before rushing outside of the tiny home. He looked up to see Haven’s face looming over the habitat, her finger heading toward one of the glass walls, she tapped again

*THUD THUD THUD*

Matthew lost his footing and fell to the ground, laying on his back he saw Haven’s eyes light up noticing he had exited his home.

“Good morning sleepy head! Somebody slept pretty good huh? Told ya you would like it here” She grinned, before showing her phone to him, with what appeared to be a banking app, “and check it out,” she said, pointing her finger at a large deposit that had went through a few hours ago, “the agents finally sent your money, so I can go pick up anything you need!” She announced

Matthew forgot about his anger over the tapping when he heard he would finally be getting his power back. He gave her a list of the few other things he wanted, food, drinks, and a few house items. Before leaving Haven unplugged her phone and plugged his habitat in, restoring power while she was away. Soon she was out the door to go shopping.

Matthew sat on the couch in his home and flicked on his mini-TV. At least he had the next few hours alone, he could finally relax. All he had to do was make it to next week for the checkup, he could survive this girl’s carelessness that long, he hoped. He soon zoned out on the TV and time slipped by.

Matthew snapped back into reality when he heard the doorknob begin to turn, exiting his tiny home to see what Haven had managed to find. She walked in, struggling to hold the load of bags she had in each arm. Jesus, what had she bought him he wondered. She sat the bags down on the table before picking one up and heading over to his habitat.

“Good news! Managed to find everything you wanted little dude, even those drinks” she reported, before placing the tiny items in front of him, her face full of pride at the accomplishment.

“Wow that’s…great actually, thank you,” Matthew said, he hated to admit it but she had actually succeeded in taking care of him for the first time. “What are all those other bags then?”

“Oh those?” she said, looking behind her at the pile of bags from various shops, “Those are for me actually, just some stuff I’ve been needing, wanna see?” She asked before grabbing some of the bags and bringing them over

She proceeded to pull out a seemingly endless amount of clothes, makeup, merchandise, and other odds and ends from the various bags. Showing all of them off for him. None of it struck Matthew as a need.

“What do you do for work? I didn’t realize you were so well off… no offense” he questioned

Haven laughed at the question, “I work at the mall, and now take care of you too” She replied, “Did you not see how much they gave me? Taking care of a tiny pays way better than my shitty job”

“Wait… you mean you spent my money, meant for taking care of me, on all of this?” He questioned, getting more agitated by the second

“No… I spent my money… that the government pays me to take care of you, thank you very much” She answered, “you know Its not like I’m charging you rent, besides, what would you use it for anyway?”

“You know maybe it would be good for us to get to know each other! We haven’t talked much,” Haven suggested while laying down on her bed. Before Matthew could respond she reached over to the nightstand and snatched him up by the back of his shirt. Matthew screamed as he flew through the air before she plopped him down on her chest. He took a moment to gain his balance again, had she learned nothing from last time.

“So, what did you do for work before you were shrunk?”

Matthew explained his old life, the job, the house, the cars, the vacations, and how it had all been liquidated by the agency after his shrinking. He could see Haven was impressed by his accomplishments.

“So you still have all that money?!” Haven said, excitement dancing in her eyes, “Dude, you can move us out of here! I mean, we could just buy back your old house!”

Matthew quickly saw where this was going, “Well its not that simple, its held by the agency and it might be hard to use so soon,” he nervously explained “Plus I mean we haven’t even had our checkup so this might not even be permanent and –“

“What do you mean ‘might not be permanent’?” Haven interrupted, furrowing her brow, “why wouldn’t it be?”

“Well, it’s really up to the agency based off the checkup isn’t it” Matthew nervously responded, sensing the change in her tone

Haven began to sit up, placing Matthew on the bed in front of her

“But you’re going to tell them how good I’ve been doing, aren’t you?” she asked, now looming over him completely, the excitement in her eyes replaced with anger. Matthew had never seen her look at him like this, he felt his knees begin to weaken as he craned his neck up to look at her. “You do like it here, don’t you?”

“O-o-of course! Its just… its just, maybe they won’t like the apartment or something” He stuttered out

Haven sat for a moment before responding “It is a little messy… guess we’ll have to clean it up soon” she said, looking out over her the mess in her apartment. The anger on her face slowly disappearing, she had apparently been satisfied with his explanation. Matthew stood watching her observe the room, knees still weak from the experience.

“You need to go put your stuff up, I’m going to watch some YouTube little dude” she said before picking him up and dropping him back into his habitat. Matthew quickly gathered what she had bought him and scurried inside the miniature house. He needed to get out of here soon. Haven left him alone for the rest of the night, busy on her computer and phone. Even with the sound barrier back on her laughs still kept him up, but tonight, Matthew didn’t complain.