As soon as Paul had shrunken down, Stella wasted no time in helping her brother become acclimated to a life under her stewardship. For starters, he slept in her room near her bed every night. Or more accurately, he slept under her bed (as cramped as it sounds, his new, smaller size meant that he actually had a decent amount of room now—as long as he didn’t sit up straight). When she woke up, so did he, and when she went to bed, it was lights out for him too. She also dictated his meals. Normal food, of course; she didn’t abuse her control over him. But he still ate whenever she ate, and had to ask her for permission to have snacks if he got hungry throughout the day.
Stella didn’t want to wear the Alice costume every day, and Paul had never expected her to forgo her fashion for him. But she did put it on every once in awhile. She laughed at him over how giddy he’d get, but he didn’t care. She’d also laughed at him a lot just in general, since she considered her little brother very tauntable and teasable. Now, at 1’8, he was easier to tease than ever before.
One day, several weeks into shrinkage, Paul was sitting at the end of Stella’s bed and had just finished painting her toenails for her. For whatever reason, he’d seemed particularly obedient that day, so she wanted to put his loyalty to the test. He said he was fine with her “toying with him” in exchange for shrinking him, but would he still put up with her once it became more than just teasing?
“Hey Pauuuuuul?” she cooed, and bent over to grab the nail kit from him. “You can be done with that now. I had another idea for something I wanted you to do.” She spoke softly, already sweetening her proposal just from the sound of her voice. “I was thinking the other day about how Alice might’ve treated the white rabbit in the movie if she’d stayed big instead of shrinking back to her normal size. And how he would treat her back. Then I thought about how for the past few weeks, you’ve kinda become like my white rabbit, you know what I mean? I mean, you’re literally the size of like, if I had a little pet…” She giggled at the notion, and Paul blushed, but remained attentive to what she had to say.
“Like would he develop Stockholm Syndrome,” Stella continued, “and become infatuated with Alice, even though she literally just busted up his house? And then what would that look like, I wondered.” Upon finishing her musings, she lifted her feet up so that her soles faced Paul, and wiggled her toes in anticipation for the request that she already knew her gullible little brother would heed. “So since you said you’d play with me however I wanted, I think it’d be funny if you kissed my feet and showed me all the adoration of a frightened little bunny who doesn’t want to anger the giant girl in his life. What do you say?” She smirked as she asked it, since the question was effectively rhetorical.
“Um… yeah, okay!” Paul replied, somewhat anxious about the idea, but wanting to please his sister nonetheless. He knelt down on his knees and reached his hands out to grab ahold of Stella’s foot. Her feet were a normal size, but to someone as small as Paul, he needed only to bend down a little bit to reach the top of her toes with his mouth, and began pecking them with a forcibly eager look on his face, despite the nervousness he felt deep down. But Stella immediately responded with sighs of satisfaction, leaning back and crossing her arms with a smile on her face that would’ve looked smug to anyone except Paul. And her clearly positive reception gave him the encouragement needed to deepen his efforts, planting longer kisses made up of sloppier smooches.
It didn’t take long for Paul’s feetly praises of his sister to become routine between the two of them. For Stella, it was important right away to establish a “pattern of respect” (as she called it) as a thanks to her for shrinking him. Every day that he woke up under her bed as a 20-inch-tall boy was a gift from her, since she supposedly had the ability to regrow him at any moment, but allowed him to perpetually live out his dreams as a shrunken person living with a giant Alice. So every night before bed, he’d serenade his sister with a flurry of soft kisses, cosplaying a show of reverence to her feet.
It didn’t even take a week for others in their family to find out—which was a purposeful move on Stella’s part. She came home one day and beckoned Paul to come over, as she took her shoes and socks off right by the door before nodding down to her feet with a gentle smile. “Aren’t you happy to see me?” she asked, as if that was reason enough for the small boy to practically worship his elder sis. Paul’s other sister Evelyn had been in the living room, but turned her attention to the foyer to see what Stella was talking about.
Paul nodded up at Stella and got down on his hands and knees, planting kisses on her soft feet, even though he knew his other sister was watching. “Awww, look at you go!” Stella exclaimed, laughing at Paul and taking a picture on her phone to remember the moment by. “You look sooooo small when you’re down on the ground like that,” she teased, and this time Evelyn couldn’t help by snicker from how pitiful their brother looked.
After a few moments, Stella lifted one of her feet up, splayed her toes apart, and grabbed ahold of Paul’s arm before tightly clenching them shut and securing a grip on him. She lifted him up with a grin, giggling at his look of shock as he was raised into the air. “Remember what it was like to be tall?” she asked, bending her knee upwards so that he could have a higher vantage point, eye level with her stomach now. “You wanna grow back?” she asked, and he shook his head. “Not even a few inches?” Without hesitating, another shake of his head. “Alright, just wanted to be nice and check in on you,” she shrugged, before dropping him back down to the ground.
“Thanks, that’s really sweet of you,” Paul told her with full acceptance, and then hugged her shin.
“Can you kiss my feet too Paulie?” Evelyn eagerly asked, hopping off the couch and rushing over to her siblings.
Paul looked up to Stella, unsure of how to proceed, and she nodded with approval. “Go ahead! Alice or not, I’m not your only sister,” she laughed, and headed into the kitchen to grab something to eat. Glad to be included, Evelyn got down onto the floor and leaned back on her elbows while lifting her feet up into the air. His other sister might not have been a part of the original plan, but Paul was committed to attending Stella’s every word no matter what it was, so with a faint smile to Evelyn, he stepped forward and leaned in to start kissing her feet too.