Awkward silence was the prevailing mood as the family power-walked home. Tanner and Blair were both embarrassed still about the predicament that ended up happening, and the latter decided to let Blake hold on to Tanner as they went home. Abel decided to leave well enough alone and not ask how Tanner ended up tagging along with them and how he ended up... where he ended up; better not to pose questions you aren't prepared to receive answers to.

Blake was the sole person who was her usual lively self; cackling and smiling it up the whole time, finding the situation to be a goldmine of hilarity. Even after allowing him a reprieve in the bathroom to wash himself of his own and predominantly Blair's bodily liquids, she still didn't let it go as she carried him back to her room.

“Could you please give it a rest already. It's not that funny” Tanner solemnly begged, as Blake continued her giddy laughs.

“It's hilarious.” Blake corrected, wiping a tear from her eye. “If I knew you wanted to get up close and personal with my Mom like that, I would've put in a good word for you.”

The hot and humid entrapment of being firmly pressed against her crotch was too fresh in Tanner's mind and halted his attempt to think of a comeback to shut her up . “Hee, hee.” He flatly responded with the fakest laugh. “Whatever, can you put me back in my house now?”

“Not yet, you still need to do your run.”

Did Tanner hear her right? “I'm sorry, do what now?”

Blake sat down Indian style and placed Tanner onto the floor. “You need to exercise too.”

“What for?” He asked.

“ What for?” Blake repeated, as baffled at Tanner's response as he was at her request for him to exercise. “Why not is the real question. Just because you're small doesn't mean you have to give up every-” It had to have been a miracle that Blake found out there was a way to filter between what you think what comes out of your mouth, it would've been helpful though if she found out a few seconds sooner. Enough of her statement came out that Tanner could pick up the general jist of her message.

“I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that.” Blake earnestly apologized before her intent became misconstrued.

Tanner sighed. “It's okay, I see what you're saying.”

“Tanner, if you don't mind me asking... what's it like being so small?” It was another one of those topics she always wanted to bring up but could never find a good segue to lead into it, given her stumbling just now it was as good a time as any.

Tanner was drawing a blank and couldn't understand why. It was the ultimate freebie question, the softball among softballs, something that he should've been able to give an adequate answer for in his sleep. Yet when the question was posed he had nothing. You'd think it was a question he's been asked several times which he did, in much more roundabout fashions where he didn't have to give a straight answer, this was his first time being asked so candidly.

“Physically speaking I feel more or less normal. It's all relative, to you I may look as tiny as kid's action figure, to me you look as big as Godzilla. If it's easier for you to wrap your head around instead of me shrinking, it's like I watched the world grow around me.”

“Doesn't it have its plus sides?”

No independence. Weak. Helpless. Incapable. It's great! Tanner shrugged indifferently.

“You never thought it was kinda cool?”

Cool in an everything outside of microscopic world is an insurmountable obstacle in your life sort of way. “Why would I think that?”

Blake scratched her head. “I dunno, seeing movies like Alice in Wonderland always made that sort of stuff look interesting.”

At the very least Tanner had a base understanding of where she was coming from. Unfortunately there's a gaping divide between fantasy, which can turn anything into a fascinating experience and real life where all the hard facts of reality come at you with full force. “Maybe, but there's no magic cake or anything that's going to make me grow back to normal. I guess if it were for a day or something it'd be a neat experience, but living your whole life like this?”

“Do you not like being small?”

Fuck no. Are you kidding me? It's the worst. I'll trade places with you in a heartbeat. I don't know how much more I can take.

“You're in an awfully inquisitive mood, will this get me out of exercise?”

“Nice try.” Blake said, suddenly remembering her original plan. Inquisitive mood she was in, but her attention span was the same as always and he'd much rather take the physical exertion than be asked more questions that he did not want to answer.

“All you need to do is run a full lap around me.” She explained to Tanner's confusion.

“Around you?”

“Mhm.” She nodded. She scooted over to make sure Tanner was out of the way before laying flat on her back, arms and legs spread wide. “Run around the whole length of my body, jump over my fingers, the top of my head will be your starting and finish point.” She explained.

“Sounds easy enough.”

“That's the spirit and the sooner you do it the faster you can go to your cute little dollhouse.” She chided.

“You're hilarious, don't go and miss your calling as a comedian.”

“Not listening, too busy being a racetrack. Now get into position.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Tanner assumed his spot where her head was lying. He wasn't going to fool himself to thinking he had an easy task, but if he gave it his all he had a good chance at completion.

“Ready, set, go!”

Tanner wanted this done with as fast as possible and took off with as much velocity as he could, her long black hair was dispersed on the floor, it wasn't a full obstacle more like a nuisance given its silky and smooth texture making for a potential trip hazard, staying light on his feet he was able to avoid a loss of balance.

That was a mere warm up for the first of his four major concerns on the horizon, her limbs, starting with the outside of her right arm. What was bad about it? Nothing besides it being long, her limbs were going to exhaust the most energy. It was a straightforward sprint and of her until he got to her fingers. He'd fall for sure if he started making the jumps while at top speed, so he was sure to slow down before the attempt.

“Here we go. 5 jumps” He thought to himself. Pinky, one jump down. Ring finger, two jumps down. Middle finger, three jumps down... Index finger, four jumps down... … Thumb, five jumps down. Now to run the length of the inside arm.

“Tired already?” Blake giggled, having a blast watching the tiny boy running the perimeter of her body. Being an athlete herself, she was too familiar with the subtleties in body language that manifest when fatigued, taking notice of his steps that were becoming more forced and him breathing out of his mouth instead of his nose.

“I'll help you stay cool.” Pursing her lips, Blake blew a gust of air Tanner's way. Despite helpful intent, she only added inconvenience to his life given that she was blowing against him in the direction he was running and impeding his momentum. The power of the air forced his eyes closed and halt his speed to get his base rooted or risk being blown away. It was supposed to be mildly funny, but Blake was taken aback to see Tanner legitimately struggle against something so meager. She never had the opportunity to interact with him like this, most of the time when she was him Ingrid or Ivory were somewhere around the periphery. She noticed Ivory especially always treating him like a one of a kind artifact made of glass, Blake thought it was excessive but after seeing such a simple action have that powerful of an effect on him, her manner of thinking had some merit. The point Tanner was making before about things being relative became clearer too. To her she blew a small breeze of wind his way, to him she blew a tropical storm level of wind his way. “Um, sorry I think I'll stop now...”

Tanner took her actions and comments in stride, she was right that he was fatiguing fast and he didn't have a modicum of energy to entertain her tomfoolery. His heart was pounding louder with each beat and his legs felt like they had balls and shackles attached to them that were getting heavier with each step. That wasn't a good sign now that the worst of his problems was upon him, her legs. He still tried his darnedest to keep strong, but there was no denying that his pace had slowed considerably since he started. The days where he considered himself an active kid were long gone, being young and having a high metabolism kept him lean, but he saw zero reason to exercise regularly as his shrinking progressed. It was different for people like Blake, the window for her to be a pro-athlete was wide open if she chose to pursue it. That venture wasn't a possibility for Tanner, with nothing to strive for he saw needless physical exertion as a pointless endeavor.

It was mesmerizing as he ran the length of her leg, it was like watching a close up slide show being able to see the tightness and muscles of the ligament up close. It never seemed end, it was so massive and unreal if he didn't have any context to it being a part of her anatomy he'd classify it as one of the wonders of the world. Tanner cut the turn at the heel of her foot and ran along the inside of her leg and it was deja vu all over again, only now that he was moving slower and her leg seemed even longer. That was becoming the running theme of this hellacious exercise, each time his speed took a dip her body seemed to become a bit bigger and the task at hand more impossible. By the time he reached her opposite leg his pace was at a hobbling walk. It dawned on him that he severely mismanaged his energy and more importantly underestimated the scale of her body.

Tanner stopped in his tracks and stared at the mountain of a young lady, just looking at the enormity of her body made him feel smaller, heck even worse than small, just plain puny. If he was stacked 10 times over he wouldn't equal half of Blake. What the hell was he even doing right now? Running around a giant woman, for what? Shits and giggles? It was impossible, he was too tired and she was too big. Compared to what he mentally prepared for it was akin to her doubling in size when he realized what he was really contending against.

“I quit.” He announced.

Blake sat up, looking at Tanner who was huffing with his hands on his knees near her ankle. She had a feeling it wouldn't be a walk in the park for him to complete, but she didn't think it'd be THIS difficult for him. An extra push maybe all he needs. “You're so close though come on keep going.”

“I don't want to.” He responded.

“You can do it.” She declared.

“I can't do it.” He replied again, his tone more irritated.

“Yes you can.” Blake declared again her voice rising an octave louder.

“No I can't...” Tanner gritted his teeth.

“You can!” Blake's voice rose to a full shout in that statement and Tanner reflexively flinched at the power of her voice that rung in his ears.

“I fucking can't! It's easy for you to talk about what is and isn't possible. I'm not like you!”

Blake was losing it and pounded her fist on the ground failing to take into account the alarmed gasp it generated from Tanner, a gentle giant she was but everyone had a limit for her she couldn't stand quitters and defeatists. It was in her blood as part of an athletic family, accepting failure so readily was a paradox to what she knew. “Would you stop being such a wimp! Stop acting smaller than what you are!”

“Fun fact, I am small!” He refuted.

Blake had it with his pessimistic talk and emotion flared in the place of reason as she rose up to her feet, “Oh yeah, well keep acting small and people are going to treat you like you're small!”

Tanner was frozen, the only movement he was capable of was the involuntary shivering of his startled body. The scene was horridly familiar to when he was on the floor nearby Ivory, as unnerving as that was he to an extent knew he wasn't in any real harm. With all 6'1 of Blake soaring above him there was nothing unnerving or alarming, it was just plain scary. To see someone as typically happy-go-lucky as her show real anger at him left him petrified to his core and paralyzed at the chance she was going to act on her anger and well... there's no scenario where that ends well for him.

He couldn't bare to look at her right now, it took all he had to manage the little motion of turning his head away from her immense body and disapproving stare. Any zeal and irritation he had in his voice was totally usurped by Blake's outrage and left him too intimidated to raise his voice past a barely audible whisper.

“I'm sorry.. I'm sorry.. please... just stop..”

“What!? Can you not even speak or look at me now!?” Blake shouted again, leaning forward to view Tanner better unaware that she made herself look even more imposing .

“ ….”

“Come on man! Speak up!-”

“Blake, ENOUGH!”

Both Tanner and Blake needed to view with their own eyes the source to believe where that voice came from. It was inconceivable that someone as diminutive and taciturn as Abigail could manage such a commanding sound that shook even Blake back to her senses.

“What are you doing?” She asked.

“I was...” Always vocal and boisterous Blake was at a rare loss for words and the epiphany dawned upon her in full what Tanner was talking about about everything being relative. It occurred to her that the intent of her actions did not translate at all to him. A pep talk was what she thought she was giving him, but in his perception that was, she didn't even want to think about how that came across to him.

Abigail sighed, there wasn't a doubt in her mind that Blake wasn't acting maliciously however her act first and think later had manifested at one of the worst times. First things, first, she crouched down and cradled the still scared out of his wits Tanner into her hands. “I think he should hang with me until the end of the day.”

“...Yeah.” Blake admitted.