Ingrid's face was resigned knowing she was about to regret every second from the time they departed to the mall and back.

“ Do you want me to go in with you?” Blake offered if for nothing else but moral support.

Ingrid shook her head, her mom's fuse will be short enough as is without Blake testing her patience.“ She won't be in the mood, just go home.”

“ I hope you don't get chewed out too badly, text me when it's all set and done.”

The front door was still open leading Ingrid to think Ivory didn't beat them by long. That added an extra dose of irritation in the back of her mind towards Marcelle. Dealing with her nonsense in taking Tanner was a major factor to them being late.

To no surprise Ivory was sitting on the love-seat awaiting there arrival with her arms crossed and flanked by Rick who warily twiddled with his thumbs knowing something was about to go down. Ingrid made sure to have Tanner in hand and visible as she entered so Ivory could at least know he was in tact.

. “ Hey girls . .and Tanner.” Rick said, continuing his streak of fruitless attempts at levity.

Maybe it was paranoia on Tanner's part, but though Rick's eyes appeared aimed in the general direction of the girls, he was sure they were focused on him specifically.

Ivory leaned over and whispered something in Rick's ear.

“ Oh . .right. Okay.. I'll see you later.” He said, trying to not to sound disappointed. Tanner figured she told him to leave so he wouldn't witness a more unsavory side of her. Rick walked past the girls to the door though he was sure to steal a last glimpse at Tanner before exiting.

“ Hand him over here.” Ivory ordered once she heard the door shut after Rick's exit.

It took a great deal of restraint on her part to wait for Ingrid to cautiously transfer Tanner into her hands and not snatch him away.

A pin drop would be audible in the current atmosphere while Ivory's eyes scanned his body with meticulous precision to make sure he wasn't hurt in any capacity. Though undetected by the other girls, Tanner heard her sigh of relief when she concluded he was unharmed. She upped her hands into a barrier for the teen and held him down at her lap.

Ivory had nothing more to say and sat there waiting, practically inviting her daughter to say something in hopes that by some obscure chance she had a valid explanation. That made things all the more difficult for Ingrid who knew nothing she says would make the situation any better. The only thing to do now was to face it head on.

“ Sorry Auntie Ivory, I thought it'd be a good idea to go out for some fresh air to the mall.” Both Ingrid and Tanner had the desire to check there ears to make sure they didn't mishear Marcelle's sultry voice. Ingrid thought she'd be content to sit back and let her dig her grave, but here she was actually interfering on her behalf? What's the catch?

That didn't appear to phase Ivory in the least and her ire was still honed in on her daughter. “ And you didn't stop her!? I hardly even know where to begin!?” Ivory appeared at a loss for words already, struggling to grasp what possessed her daughter to go along with it. Ingrid to a point could understand where she was coming from, but Christ her mother may as well have heard “ I left Tanner to fend for himself in the wilderness.”

“ I just don't get it, Please tell me you had a lapse of sanity! Did you hit your head on a soccer ball?! Or on a dumbbell!?”

That was far from the end of Ivory's rhetorical tirade on Ingrid. The latter was smart enough to stay quiet and take it until her mother burned herself out, however long that may take. It was tough for Tanner to sit back and watch Ingrid get rundown and tried to tune out his stepmother which was none too easy being softly clutched near her stomach and hearing the force generated from the bellows of her voice reminded him of an erupting volcano. Even if Marcelle was the true instigator here, the underlying point of her speaking out came full circle as Ingrid took the brunt of Ivory's wrath, much like she said at the mall, for that reason Tanner felt the horrible pangs of guilt biting away at him. If he were mentally strong enough to not fall for Marcelle's coercion Ingrid wouldn't be in the mess, not to mention who knows what kind of reprimand Ivory may give her in the aftermath. He can't sit back and watch. .

“ Think about what could have happened! What if someone saw him!”

“ Ivory. .”

“ What if someone took him!”

“ Ivory!”

“ What if you dropped him and someone stepped on him!

“ IVORY! “

The third time Tanner was lucky to shout at the end of one of Ivory's sentences which allowed him to get his giant stepmother's attention. It was borderline amazing and unsettling to him how she instantly reverted back to a gentle motherly tone as she lifted him to her face.

“ Yes, sweetie?”

“ It's fine.”

“ I'm sorry, what?”

“ It's fine it was my idea.”

“ . . . . ” Again Ivory's air changed, before it was from seething to maternal and now maternal to speechless.

“ Go upstairs both of you. We'll talk later Ingrid.” Marcelle turned and left without a word, but Ingrid gave a concerned glance to Tanner before following her cousin.

“ What are you talking about Tanner?”

Tanner knew he was stretching the truth, but doing nothing was the worse of two evils.

“ Julie came by and after talking she said it was a good idea for me to go out for some sunshine, but she wanted to talk it over with you first. But I thought you'd say no for sure so..”

“ So you just go behind my back-!” Ivory was still apoplectic and barely managed to catch herself before her voice rose too loud in volume. People were imposing enough for Tanner without them doing anything, shouting at the tiny child would've been plain cruel.“ So you did it behind my back? Tanner you know that was a very unwise decision.”

“ I know, I know. Ingrid was very careful about it all.” He made sure to include to try and take some of the heat off of her.

“ I'm sure she was.” Ivory said almost begrudgingly like she didn't want to acknowledge the fact. “ You must've been pretty scared though.”

“ Scared of what?”

“ Scared of what!?” Ivory repeated.. “ Who knows what may have happened at the smallest mishaps.”

“ Like getting stuck under someone's ass.” Tanner thought in his head. Ivory wasn't wrong in that regard, but there's no way that Ingrid or anyone for that matter could be cognizant of everything all the time.

“ I guess, but all in all, everything went fine.” Tanner fibbed. He wish the conversation didn't have to occur under these circumstances, it was still a prime opportunity that he couldn't pass up. If he convinced Ivory that the trip to the mall went without incident he stood a fighting chance of her being tad more lenient in the future.

Tanner stopped to wait if Ivory had any retort for that. Instead she had the worst response imaginable, nothing. It was the same ploy she used on Ingrid, luring him into speaking. That's where the comparison ended though, Ingrid had the luxury of standing waiting from a few feet away as Ivory stared daggers into her eyes, it was a different beast altogether to be in the palm of her hand while she peered down at him with a taciturn and undecipherable face.

Tanner was growing more nervous by the moment and was drawing a blank at his next words. The way her immense face loomed over him transformed the setting from him having a conversation with his stepmother to him thinking he was pleading his case to a judge. . “ . .I mean, I was wondering. . With your permission I . or we could . .go out again sometime?”

A low grunt escaped from Ivory's mouth from the laugh she managed to stifle, she still couldn't stop her luscious pink lips from curling into an almost patronizing smile and giving him a quick peck on the top of his head. “ Of course not.”

It was an act that would normally leave him mildly embarrassed but for now he was too was flabbergasted at how easily she shot him down. She didn't look like she considered the idea at all, in fact it seemed she already knew what he was going to ask, he'd even take it a step further and believe she was merely entertaining him.

That seriously can't be the end of it, there must be something he can say to change her mind. “ B-but, I mean, what if you're there to supervise or .um if-”

“ Ssh.” She whispered, rubbing the top his head with her nail. “ You don't have to worry about anything, it's way too dangerous.”

Throw flabbergasted out the window, he couldn't stand being talked to in this manner. Like his input or opinion didn't matter at all, it wasn't only demeaning it was infuriating.

“ Would you listen to me Ivory!” Tanner exclaimed. He needed to clear his throat from straining his vocal capacities for the second time today. It was worth it though, since for the first time Ivory was not only quiet, but also staring at him intently with her full attention and that bit of progress helped him rediscover his conviction.

“ . .I really enjoyed myself today, even if it was for only a little while and I could only watch from Ingrid's pocket. It made me feel-”

“ Normal?” Ivory completed.

“ Yeah.”

“ . . .” Ivory didn't say a word for the next several seconds and the next thing Tanner knew he was slowly being lowered to the ground as his stepmother leaned over. Again he was too perplexed to say anything, if there was one thing that Ivory was rightfully overprotective about it was Tanner being on the floor. Not that it mattered there wasn't a word in his vocabulary that would've accurately conveyed his emotions as he watched his step-mother stand up before him.

It would be insulting to compare it on any level to him being on a table or some other elevated surface where he sometimes mentally fooled himself into thinking he was taller than he was. There was nothing to hide it at this moment while she soared over him like a skyscraper, she was simply gigantic.

It was a difference so staggering it'd be laughable to call them both human beings; if Ivory didn't know any better and took a quick glance she'd easily mistake the boy at her feet for a bug that needed to be squashed.

The images that Tanner looked up yesterday started to flood into his mind and how he certainly wouldn't look out of place in those photos now. Given that they were the closest thing to him, his eyes were locked particularly on her feet and every minuscule motion they made almost disassociating them with the rest of her body. Even her largest toe would be sufficient to subdue him let alone any other part of her anatomy. He knew Ivory would never hurt him, but that didn't stop the intrinsic sense of vulnerability he felt inside from being in such a precarious spot nearby a being so much bigger than him that with one simple motion of her foot could end his existence.

“ Tanner.”

Her voice drew him out of his trance, and though still dismayed he managed to bring his eyes upward (though he had to crane his neck to it's maximum limit) to meet the glare of his gargantuan guardian.

“ You're not normal.”

“ . . . .” How to even take that? Being grinded into dust by her soles wouldn't have hurt as much as those words. Was she trying to prove a point right now?

“ You're much safer here with me. You're small and the world is too big and dangerous for you. Do you understand?”

What could Tanner even say to rebuke that? The answer was nothing. Were her words insensitive and crossing the line? Maybe, but the worst part of it was that she wasn't wrong. Tanner nodded slowly, defeated.

Ivory gave her obedient stepson at her feet a beaming smile. “You had a pretty eventful afternoon, lets get you back to your house so you can take a nap.” She chirped, back to her maternal tone.