Madison sat awkwardly in my yard. Her giant frame fit almost all the way from the sidewalk to the porch, and the narrow space made her ever more uneasy before the presence of my father.

My dad drove us back; by us, I meant just me. Madison followed a cautious twenty feet behind, each step planted nervously in front of her, as if stepping too close would anger my dad. She wore her white sandals now, out of respect for him, I guessed. When I looked back with the rear view mirror, I could see a slight, trembling pause before her foot came down.

I didn't dare lean out to look up at her; any large movements might set my dad off beside me. So I just sat in my seat stiffly, stealing cursory glances at the mirror on occasion to check on Madison. Looking directly at my dad felt like suicide; that aura of gruffness of his I could feel from his deafening silence. The only time he's said anything to me so far was back at the base of the hill, and only a short but curt sentence. “Come with me.”

And so he drove us back home. He was content to sit on the porch's steps, and I just stood a good distance away. Madison squeezed herself into the yard, finding space only enough for a Japanese-style kneel parallel to the house. We just kept still for a while, still maintaining that uncomfortable silence.

“Introduce to me the girl,” my dad finally said. His face was blank; unreadable. He had a naturally intimidating face with how gruff his thick eyebrows and beard made him, and his eyes were naturally slanted into a glare. It was hard to tell what he was feeling right now; to most people, he just looked angry all the time.

“Oh, uh. Right.” I looked up to Madison, who looked back at me just as nervously. “This is Madison, my...uh...”

I shuffled my feet, unsure of what I should say. What should I tell him? Honestly that I have a giantess for a girlfriend? Or that she was merely an acquaintance? One was definitely getting me in trouble, and the other would be an ill-lived lie if I had any plans to continue dating Madison. Which I did.

Thankfully, or rather unfortunately, my dad decided to speak.

“I've been hearing rumors, Eliot,” Dad said, leaning an arm against his knee. His steely gaze was still focused on me as he continued, “That a giantess has been meeting a boy in your school recently now. And more recently, I found that that boy was you.”

He didn't sound happy. I gulped down a huge breath of air, unable to say anything. I could feel the ground moving behind me as Madison shifted uneasily along with me.

“Um...” Madison said as quietly as she could manage, “I do owe Eliot so much, so I wished to repay him...”

“Then conclude your business quickly,” my dad interrupted. For such a tiny man to a giantess, even Madison shrinked back instinctively. “If you've no further obligations to my son, then you've no reason to see him.”

I clenched my fists. Of course we still had a reason to see each other. At this point, there was no point in hiding it, so-

“I'm going out with her!” I yelled. There, I said it. I could feel sweat pouring down me from the effort it took to muster the courage to say it. But once I did, I felt a rush of adrenaline, and my nervousness was replaced with a blinding sense of conviction. “I asked her out!” I continued shouting, “SO WE'RE OBLIGATED TO EACH OTHER!”

Madison appeared to be the most surprised, and a blush fell over her quickly, which she tried to hide behind her hands, but in stark contrast, my dad remained stoic to my outburst. Not a change in his goddamn face.

At least, that's what I thought. A small grin broke out briefly from his face, before he rose to his feet. “Finally being honest, eh, Eliot?” He said with a gruff snort.

“Huh?”

My dad walked past me, and came up close to Madison's thigh. “So you're Madison?” My dad asked her. Madison became extremely fidgety, still unsure of how to react.

“Um...yes, sir,” Madison said clumsily. She was unconsciously knitting and unknitting her fingers together in her awkwardness, and her eyes darted down to my dad and away constantly, her embarrassment evident.

“And are you my son's girlfriend?” My dad continued mercilessly. He was the straightforward type, and didn't bother beating around the bush.

“I...um...” Madison was juggling her words, trying to form a coherent sentence to speak. She eventually found some encouragement by looking at me, and gave herself a confident little nod, “Yes, I am, actually!”

The words didn't quite come out right, but it was just right coming from Madison.

My dad gave an uncharacteristic guffaw, laughing to himself into the sky. “So the rumors are true? The two of you really are dating?”

“Er, dad,” I asked skeptically, “You're not...against it?”

“Oh, make no mistake, Eliot,” my dad said, his head tilted back to me with that inscrutable face again, “I've my own reasons as a parent for being against the two of you dating. But I bet you were worried that I'd be against you dating,” he jabbed a thumb up at Madison, “a giantess.”

“Madison,” my dad said, turning back to the enormous thigh, “If you're living in this tiny town, you'd know what rights you have against tinies. Tell Eliot about them, specifically the discrimination bit.”

“Umm...” Madison mouthed the words in her head, trying to remember the exact lines in her memory, “While living in a town governed by tinies, I'm not to be discriminated against, and any violation of this right shall be viewed as an ethnic attack on my entire heritage...” She held her cheek with a hand, gazing distantly in thought, “At least, that's what I think it was...”

“So,” my dad continued, “Not only would judging your relationship be racist in the government's eyes, but also criminal.” He threw his hands up in the air, “Even if I felt that way, I wouldn't not let you date based on that alone.”

“So-” I started, but my dad cut me off immediately.

“However,” my dad said sternly, “There are problems you're not yet aware of, Eliot.”

Problems? If it's about her size, I suppose I could just move in with Madison. I was being a bit naïve, though. Deep down, I knew there had to be other problems.

“Firstly, how old are you, Madison?” My dad asked.

“Um...exactly twenty, sir,” Madison replied. Two years older than me, but I don't care. I don't choose who I fall in love with.

“And how old is your mother?” My dad continued his line of inquiry. There was a glint in his eye, like a predator eying his prey.

“...Three hundred years old, just about, sir,” Madison said, looking slightly downcast after saying so.

“So there you are, Eliot,” my dad turned back to me, with his gruff face glaring at me again, “Giantesses are long-lived, much longer than what a normal man expects to live past. It's inevitable that your relationship ends in sorrow. I say this for Madison's sake, not yours.”

“Secondly,” my dad continued before I could retort, “I'm sure you know how much money a giantess needs to survive in our cities. So if you're planning on supporting her, your only other option is to move into the giantess cities,” the menacing glare intensified now at the mention of this, “and that is one place I will not let you go, Eliot.”

“Huh...how come?” I asked sheepishly. Truth be told, I've never really been interested in life outside of the city, much less the giantess lands. So my knowledge about giantesses other than the urban ones were zilch.

“Ask Madison,” was all my dad said.

I turned to Madison, who looked away with a bothered look. It was obviously a touchy subject for her.

“Just as we have rights in the cities of tinies,” Madison said softly, “Tinies have certain rights in our lands. But our cultures...” she mentally groped for an appropriate expression, “Are too foreign to one another...”

Madison offered me a hand, and I got up into it obediently. She put me on her lap and held onto me gently with both hands.

“Most giantesses view individual tinies as helpless beings,” Madison continued, a small sadness creeping into her voice, “So they never regard you in any capacity other than a group. It isn't uncommon giantesses back home taking in ten tinies at a time. The food we produce and the room we have is more than enough to accommodate an entire apartment's worth of people.”

“But because of this, they've treated the tinies more as pets or children, and never take your kind seriously. Tinies became a scapegoat for our more maternal instincts, and thus a real relationship with a tiny never surfaces,” Madison sighed at this, and shook her head in disapproval, “That wasn't what I wanted, so I got my license as soon as I could to come here.”

I felt Madison tighten her grip on me every so slightly. I guess coming here wasn't as smooth as I thought it would have been.

“Um, if you don't mind me asking,” I said, still sheepish about my ignorance, “But then why would a tiny want to go live in the giantess lands?”

“Most of them couldn't support themselves,” I heard my father speak up from below, “And turned to the giantesses for aid. To be taken care of by them in exchange for their companionship. Not much in job opportunities for us; most people are only able to pick up menial jobs, like tiny pedicure services or small massage parlors. Lucky ones got to be a giantess's personal liaison to tinies,” My dad gave a grunt before saying his next piece, “And the desperate sell themselves wholesale.”

I must have been really dense to have done so, but I asked, “What do you mean, sell themselves wholesale?”

Madison's hands gripped me tightly. It wasn't a crushing force, but the sudden movement knocked the wind out of me. I could feel her skin getting warmer from the blood rushing to her digits, and a slight tremble rocked throughout her body.

“I don't know if you could call them hookers,” my dad said rather blandly, “But at their size, their more like fun toys for giantesses. Maybe even footwear for some.”

“I'd never treat you like that, Eliot!” Madison burst out of nowhere. She lifted me up from her lap, laying me on her palms at eye level to her, “I'll never think of you or the people of the city as less than human.”

“Yeah...” I said, slowly gaining my breath back, “I know you won't.” I petted her thumb reassuringly, and this seemed to have satisfied her. “Thank you, Eliot,” Madison said with a smile. She put me back down onto her lap, and resumed her gentle hold on me.

“And that's why I won't let you date her,” I heard my dad say, “She's too expensive, she'll outlive you, and her city's not a place you should be living in.”

I wanted to protest, but before I could do anything, I felt myself being swept from Madison's lap and placed unceremoniously on the ground nearby. “Even so!” I heard Madison speak in louder tones than her usual voice, “I want to be given a chance. I want to make this work for once...”

Madison shifted herself and let her legs into the street, all so that she could sit facing in front of my dad. With a great bow, she prostrated herself before my dad, flinging her hat off into the street and lowering her forehead all the way to the ground. “Please let me go out with Eliot!”

I was dazzled. Madison would do this much for me; for us. She really was serious about pursuing our relationship. A feeling of pride swelled in my chest; maybe we were meant for one another.

But my dad remained unmoved. He simply stood there with his arms crossed, and said, “I've already made my decision. You can't.”

“Please!” Madison said, driving her head further into the ground.

This time, it was my dad who was interrupted. Before he could refuse Madison again, another voice boomed from a distance away.

“So I thought I heard a voice I knew, and who do I find?” The voice was getting closer, accompanied by the growing tremors of footsteps. As the shaking grew, a shadow cast over my house, obscuring the setting sun.

“Hello, sweetie,” The voice said to me.

“Sylvie!” Madison and I cried out together.

The giantess walked around the corner and stood next to Madison, picking her up and brushing off the bits of my yard stuck to her head. “You're a mess, hon,” Sylvie cooed, picking off the grass and dirt from her hair, “That's no way to look in front of your guy's parents.”

I just gaped up at the view. I've already seen more than two giantesses together in one location before, but every time never failed to make me amazed. From my perspective, it was like two giant pillars reaching up to the sky, their actions above like a distant scene out of my reach. Sylvie was considerably taller than Madison, but from where I stood, they were equally gigantic. The bits Sylvie picked off of Madison were huge, basketball-sized clumps of dirt which threatened to fall hard on my head from the distance they were dropped. Sylvie made sure they landed away from me and my dad, though. At least, I think she did.

“There, all better,” Sylvie said with a last brush of her fingers. “Now, I believe I heard the gist of what your father said, sweetie,” She turned to me, raising her foot to me, brushing me down with her big toe, and landing her foot directly in front of me. She was teasing again, but now with the audacity of doing it in front of my dad, “And he has every right to be worried for you on those counts.”

I wasn't sure where she was going with this, but I didn't think I needed to protest this time. Sylvie turned to my father now, her feet held a more respectable distance away from him than she did with me. “But maybe I could convince you otherwise, sweetie's father?”

She beckoned my dad to follow her feet, and she brought my dad behind the house. I wasn't able to see what happened, but what I heard only made me more confused. It began with light, mumbled chatter, with words I couldn't make out. It grew into louder noises, with my dad occasionally shouting, “WHAT?” and followed by unintelligible screams by my dad. They didn't sound like they were made out of fear...quite the opposite, in fact; it sounded like he was exuberant. There was a brief silence, a short mumble, and finally, Sylvie lead my dad back around to the front.

My dad was a mess, his hair had been messed up, his glasses were tilted at an odd angle, and his shirt was tugged roughly to one side. He was walking giddily from side to side with a big grin on his face.

“W-what happened?!” I demanded from my dad.

“Oh, Eliot!” My dad said with a stupid grin on his face, “You're interested in Madison, right? She's all yours!”

“What?!” I cried out, “Sylvie, what did you do to him?”

“I convinced him, sweetie,” Sylvie said with a sly grin, “Just like I said I would.”

It was Madison's turn to be worried now. “What did you do Sylvie?” She cried out with a perplexed expression, “How did you convince him?”

Sylvie just shrugged, laughing as she turned her back on us.

“You love birds enjoy the rest of the evening,” she said, walking briskly around the corner, and out of sight.

“What did she do?” I repeated to my dad, “What did you do?!” I shouted out to Sylvie.

“What did you do?!”