As the idiots grilled me with questions, Rachel asked Chloe to go fetch some groceries for dinner, and then asked her sister and Alexis to speak.

The three girls sat down at the table, and Rachel sighed.

Then she murmured “Mike knows”.

At first the other two looked puzzled, then, as they understood what she meant, astonished.

As Laura was still processing the implication of what she had just heard, Alexis spoke “H-how? Did he see you? But he acted so normal before?”

Then she jumped up from her chair, turning pale “Oh god, he’s alone with them. He’s going to tell Rob”.

Her mind rushed to come up with a hasty plan: go to the bathroom to do… something, probably come up with a bullshit excuse to pick up Mike from the bath, and then… talk to him not to say anything? Beg him? Threaten him? Whatever, she would think about it later.

Before she could run away, Rachel had already grabbed her wrist “Relax, he’s not going to say anything to anyone. He promised me”

Alexis was confused, but slowly sat down, still worried but willing to listen what Rachel had to say.

The golden-brown haired girl sighed again, then continued “He told me he knows. What we, we humans, do to tiny folk like them. But he didn’t reject us, even though he was scared. He said he doesn’t consider me a monster. He promised he would help me”

Tears threatened to come out again, but she sniffled and dried her eyes before that.

Although even more confused, her sister and Alexis relaxed a bit. It was nice to see how the one who was suffering of her… condition the most, had seemingly found someone capable of moving her this much with his actions.

Laura took the hand of her sister and caressed it gently, smiling warmly.

Rachel took a moment to nod sadly, then continued “He also explained to me some more things about this program. This is all a farce, the adults knew the dangers and did it anyway. They sent them knowing we would eventually… dispose of them. They really are helpless in our hands”

She paused for a second

“I promised him i would do anything in my power to grant their safety, and i would also convince you to do the same”
Then she turned to Alexis “You’re not… feeling something for Rob, are you?”

The tall black haired girl looked away, and said “No, no i don’t think so… but to say there isn’t anything either wouldn’t be true either”.

She realized her feelings exactly as she spoke.

Rachel looked shocked “you don’t mean to…”

Alexis gritted her teeth “I won’t do it! This time is different!” she exclaimed

*No, it's not* something at the back of her mind whispered to her.

Rachel didn’t seem to buy it “It’s not the first time i hear that. Listen, i just don’t want anybody to die, and neither you do. I think you should switch him for someone else’s tiny, it’s clearly too dangerous to keep him with you”

“NO!” Alexis exclaimed, raising the voice a little bit more than she intended to, surprising even herself at how vehemently she refused.

“I-I’ll make sure to bottle up my feelings. I won’t fall in love with him, so Ryan won’t come for sure. There”

Rachel looked at her with pained eyes. She didn’t like to be forced to do this either.

“…Very well. I don’t really have the right to treat you as a ticking bomb, it would be hypocritical coming from me. But if you feel like you won’t be able to hold it, you must tell us before you do something you can’t undo. This stands for me as well, naturally.”

Then she turned to Laura “Now that you know that there wouldn’t be consequences if something happened to them, what are you going to do? You did suggest to get rid of them before”

Laura fidgeted a bit, looking down, ashamed.

“Yeah, you’re right. But now i’m not so sure. They’re different”
“Laura, answer me honestly. Do you still think we would be better off without them?” Rachel asked, with a serious look.

Laura gulped, holding her sister’s gaze, and answered “No”.

“If something happened to Will, what would you do?” she pressed on.

A flash of a memory sparked in Laura’s mind. A cloudy vision over a tiny corpse laying on the palms of a very young girl, while some clear droplets fell on his body.

“I… i think i would be very sad” Laura answered, looking down.

Rachel suddenly stood up and circled the table and immediately pulled Laura in a tight embrace

“I’m so relieved, Laura. Really, i’m so, so happy to hear you say that” She said, sniffling and hugging her even more tightly.

Alexis stood up and joined the hug, which lasted for a while, the silence only broken by quiet sniffling.

Dinner was quieter than usual, but the mood was pretty relaxed. Unbeknownst to some of us, it had been quite a hectic and eventful day in the house, especially for Mike and Rachel.

Everyone chatted as if nothing was out of the ordinary, although most of our female roommates still had their minds in turmoil, some more than others.

Nonetheless, the rest of the evening was quite uneventful, and we all agreed to go to bed early. 

After all, tomorrow was the first day at college.

——

That night i slept like a log for some reason. 

The next morning, a slight breeze tickling my neck woke me up. As my eyes fluttered open, i started to feel a presence behind me.

It wasn’t an ominous feeling, more like when you feel you’re being watched, and it made me slightly uncomfortable, so i stayed still for a few seconds, still groggy and unsure of what to do.

The rythmic pattern of the breeze confirmed my suspicion: either a human was breathing in the close proximity, or one of my friends had slipped in my bed and was literally breathing on my neck. I hoped it was not the latter case.

Slowly, i turned around and i was greeted with two giant green irises observing me lazily. Laura had her head nestled on top of her arms, which were laying on the nightstand where my bed was. For how long did she keep that cat-like pose?

“Good morning” she muttered groggily, before casually yawning, without minding to cover her mouth. 

A sleepy Laura was a welcome sight which added plenty cute points to her already overflowing score, but in such proximity that a gesture lost quite a lot of appeal:

her lips parted and her cavernous maw opened wide, giving me full view of most of her immaculate teeth and her dark throat, sucking a great deal of air in the process and then exhaling it basically right onto me. Warm, humid air blasted my face, smelling of a not so fresh morning breath. 

Oblivious of the bewildering show she had just given me, she resumed her resting position, her head still cocked and her eyes still idly fixated on me.

After spending a few moments flabbergasted, coming to terms of just how vast her maw was, i babbled “g-good morning Laura. Did you sleep well?”

“Hhmm-hmm“ she nodded, her eyelids looking heavier by the second.

“And.. if you don’t mind me asking… why are you… you know… here? I mean it’s your room but, you know…”

“I woke up early because i was excited for the first day of college, so i wanted to wake you up, but then you looked kinda cute sleeping peacefully like that and i felt bad disturbing you, so i decided to wait here” she slurred, gravity finally winning the struggle against her eyelids.

I had barely recovered from the shock after realizing that my room could easily fit in Laura’s mouth, her calling me -cute- was a critical hit for me.

Kinda too much excitement for someone that had just woken up.

Luckily, Laura didn’t quite notice my thousand-mile stare as my brain struggled for a few moments to process the information it had been fed. 

Instead, she abruptly shot up, exclaiming “Oh, that’s right! It’s the first day of college! Hurry up and change, or we’ll be late! Bathroom is mine!” before zooming to her destination.

Still confused as hell, i hurriedly obliged, and in a few minutes we were both ready and raring to go. After i had climbed on Laura’s palm, she excitedly opened the door and got out, expecting the others waiting for us.

The living room was empty. We both glanced at the clock. We were almost an hour early.

We looked at each other, quizzically, then giggled at our own silliness. In all the hurry we didn’t even check the time.

Thus, we could do nothing but wait until everyone else woke up and got ready as well. She deposited me on the table and sat down on chair.

“We were a little too excited there” Laura commented, amused.

“Yeah, you’re right” i said

*This is nice* i thought, enjoying the light mood *It’s really nice*. The day had started splendidly, i was spending time with Laura, the mood was great, and i was feeling a little emboldened compared to the day before, so i tried to talk with her a little more.

“You know, i didn’t expect to find you looking at me while i was sleeping. You kinda surprised me” i said

“Is that a problem?” she asked. Aaaaaand she put her guard up again, good job me. Actually, isn’t it common sense that staring at sleeping people is pretty rude, if not creepy? Not that it bothers me, especially if the voyeur is a gorgeous young woman a hundred meters tall.

“No no no, it’s not a problem at all, I just didn’t expect that. You can really do whatever you want to me, i don’t mind at all” i replied hurriedly.

As she stared at me with her usual hard to read expression, i mentally kicked myself again. Great, i must have a gift to make any sentence sound weird and put off people.

“You mean like this?” She asked, before suddenly pinching my leg and lifting me up in the air. then she threw me up in the air for a few meters (my scale) before catching me in her fist.

It caught me so off guard that i didn’t even utter a yelp, and now i was in the dark, constrained by the soft warmth of her skin. After a few seconds, her long slender fingers unfolded, revealing Laura with a playful smirk on her face.

“…l-let’s not do that again, please” i stuttered, shaking a bit from the rush of adrenaline.

“Then don’t offer if you can’t resist even a little handling” she giggled.

Man, i will never understand this girl. But it’s fine. It’s enough for me to know that i love her.