"Ugh." Brooke flopped onto her bed and laid on her back. She placed her left arm over her stomach, which was in knots. Over the last month, she had worked with Justin and had developed a lot of respect for him professionally. Moreover, they had begun to get to know each other on a personal level through nightly calls. She had even started to develop romantic feelings for the man… until she found out he was only a few millimeters tall. Her stomach turned at the thought.

What did this mean for their professional, personal, and romantic relationship going forward? Could she look at him in the same light, knowing he was smaller than her thumbnail? She wondered while examining her manicured fingernails. If they did pursue a romantic relationship how would they… get intimate?

Sure, he could grow back to normal, but that would take about a week and then another week to shrink back. She knew it was difficult to get two weeks off in a row at their company, especially for someone so new to the company. Even if he did grow back, they'd be full-sized together for a day at most. She could move to Micropolis and meet him at his size instead–she shuddered at the thought of being so tiny and vulnerable.

Brooke rolled onto her stomach and grabbed her phone, scrolling through her contacts. She desperately needed another woman's advice. She had tried talking to one of her best friends from college, but spent most of the time trying to explain how they shrink people, to begin with!

Suddenly, a name jumped out at Brooke. "That's it!" she said to the empty room. Claire gave her a tour of the different Micro Cities when Brooke started with the company. She seemed friendly and would likely be able to offer insights that others could not.

"Hey, Claire!" Brooke said eagerly, "I was wondering if you had time to chat–don't worry it's nothing about work."

"Girl you gave me a heart attack! I thought something had gone seriously wrong if you're calling me!" Claire said with a laugh. "I'm actually on my way to lunch with Jazmin at that new cafe near the office, want to meet us there?"

"Sure!" Brooke quickly hung up to get ready. This was too perfect–she'd be able to get the perspectives of not just one–but two women that worked with shrunken people every day.

_______________

Shortly after meeting up at the cafe, the girls sat down and ordered their food. Claire and Jazmin both appeared a little worse for the wear–likely a result of their previous night's activities.

"So what was it you wanted to talk about?" Claire asked Brooke moments after the waiter left their table.

"Oh, well… you see…" Brooke stumbled over her words, caught off guard by Claire's sudden segue to the topic. With a deep breath to focus, she continued. "Have either of you ever dated one of the residents?"

Claire and Jazmin both raised an eyebrow, "You know like one of the residents of a Micro City." Brooke explained.

Claire shook her head, "No, but I think Jazmin has. I caught her sneaking a 'boyfriend' out one night."

Jazmin was briefly confused, but suddenly remembered what Claire was talking about. Jazmin had spotted a guy going through the shrinking process that was really cute. When he was done shrinking, she decided to take him home and add him to her collection. Jazmin had lied to Claire about the whole boyfriend thing to avoid any trouble.

"Eh, he turned out to be more of a boy toy than a boyfriend," Jazmin said with a shrug. It was true after all. He currently lived with her other tinies and was frequently used as a toy.

"How did you meet?" Brooke asked, hanging off every word.

"Uh well… we met before he shrunk." This part was true, he was full-sized when she had handed him his shrinking kit.

Jazmin continued, "During the shrinking process he flirted with me a bit." truthfully, he had denied her advances, but that didn't bother her. With each passing minute, he had become easier to overpower.

"Then after he was all moved in he called me. Wouldn't you know it? He wanted to come over to… spend the night. If you know what I mean." Jazmin lied with a wink. In all actuality, he had never seen the inside of his new apartment. She had snatched him up before he was done shrinking and stuffed him in her purse–which was when Claire had caught her.

"Wow! That's pretty forward for someone so small." Claire raised an eyebrow, not buying Jazmin's story.

"Wait–how small was he?" Brooke quickly asked. Jazmin was grateful for the quick change of subject before Claire could pry.

"Oh, he was from Toy Town." Jazmin said, referring to the 1:25 scale city, "So less than three inches, I guess?"

Brooke frowned, realizing that Justin was significantly smaller than that.

"So let me get this straight." Claire interjected, "A man, who is less than three inches tall, asked YOU to get intimate? That's super dangerous!"

"H-how would you even… You know?" Brooke blushed, ignoring Claire's line of questioning. "I mean you could so easily…"

"Crush him? Swallow him whole–in more than one way?" Jazmin grinned, "Yes, you're right. However, sometimes you have to get creative." she ended with a wink.

Brooke still wasn't sure what she meant, but continued her line of questioning anyways, "So why didn't it work out?"

"Do you really want to know?" Jazmin raised an eyebrow. Brooke nodded emphatically while Claire listened with intense curiosity.

"As it turns out, he was an exceptional clit massager." Jazmin started simply. Claire and Brooke blushed, not expecting her to get so explicit right away. They leaned in closer, so Jazmin didn't have to speak so loudly.

"One time he had me this close to orgasm," she pinched her index and thumb less than an inch apart, "but couldn't quite do the job, you know? So I grabbed my favorite toy and… helped." Jazmin bit her lip.

"You didn't!" Claire interrupted a look of shock on her face.

"I did." Jazmin grinned devilishly, "The look on his face was priceless as a toy several times his size did the job he couldn't." Jazmin paused, soaking in the memory, a dampness growing between her legs.

"Anyways, after that, I put him and my toy on the nightstand and left to get a rag to clean up. When I returned, my dildo had tipped over and he was helplessly pinned beneath it!" she giggled, "No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move it. Of course, I had to rescue the tiny dude, but only after I was done laughing my ass off." Jazmin bit her lip, relishing in the other girls' expressions, "Once you've seen a tiny get pinned under one of your sex toys… It's hard to see them as anything more than that–a toy."

"I guess he got more than he bargained for." Claire quipped, "You know, it's etiquette to ask a guy before you start using toys in the bedroom."

Jazmin rolled her eyes.

"So who's the lucky guy?" Claire asked Brooke.

"Wh-what do you mean?" Brooke stumbled, wondering if she had already mentioned Justin.

"Come on. You wouldn't be asking this if you didn't have the hots for one of the residents." Claire winked. "So who is it? Which city is he in? You've gotta give us all the details."

Brooke blushed, not realizing she had been that obvious, "His name is Justin. He's a Microengineer like me."

Claire and Jazmin's eyes lit up with recognition. Claire turned to Jazmin, "Isn't that the guy…"

"Yeah, I moved his couch into his new place." Jazmin finished.

"I guess she likes 'em really tiny!" Claire nudged Jazmin jokingly.

"W-we didn't know!" Brooke tried to defend herself, "I thought he was normal-sized like us and he thought I was tiny like him!"

Jazmin and Claire laughed even harder, "That must've been a BIG surprise." Claire's pun enhanced Jazmin's laughter.

Brooke fumed, "Come on! I'm serious!"

After their giggling fit subsided, Brooke continued, "After we found out, I said something that really upset him and now I don't know what to do." she frowned.

After a moment, Jazmin said, "I could sneak him out and bring him to you," she paused, forming an evil grin, "Then you could teach him a lesson or two. It's very easy, I can even show you how." she winked.

"You know that's against the rules," Claire lightly punched Jazmin in the arm. "Besides, I think she wants to salvage the relationship. Some people pick partners on things like personality, not body type." she teased Jazmin, who rolled her eyes.

She looked at Brooke, "I think you should just tell him how you feel. Maybe talking it through with him will resolve your conflicted feelings. If it works out, you could always treat it like a long-distance relationship. You just have to pretend he lives far away and it takes a week to travel!"

"Or you could move in with him," Jazmin chimed in, "Claire and I would take extra good care of you!"

"No way! I couldn't! Being that tiny sounds so… scary!" Brooke said emphatically. Being shrunk was already a scary thought to her, but the way Jazmin said that sent a chill down her spine.

Their waiter suddenly appeared, to deliver their food. As they ate, the conversation moved onto more mundane topics. Despite this, Brooke continued to think about what the girls had said. It seemed the path forward would be difficult, but she had never had such strong feelings for another person before. She had decided it was time to call him.

_______________

Justin lay on top of his makeshift bed, the bra of his former coworker. Ally and Natasha had left him alone in the bedroom while they hopped in the shower. From the sounds of it, it seemed they were enjoying part two of last night's fun. This time with Ally as the shrunken partner.

Justin lazily sat up and quickly realized he was still naked from the previous night's escapades. He looked around the room and spotted his clothes–they were by the door where he had stripped before joining the two giant women last night.

With a sigh, he stood up and looked over the edge of the nightstand–it was around 15' to the ground from his perspective. Instead, he opted to jump onto the bed and use the sheets to climb down safely. With a running start, Justin lept from the nightstand and barely managed to grab onto the sheets of the bed. He pulled himself up to safety and, once he had caught his breath, looked down at the gap between the bed and the nightstand where he had nearly met his demise. Perhaps he should've waited for the ladies to return–he wondered.

He shrugged and made his way to the foot of the bed where the flat sheet draped over the side to the floor. Justin grabbed the sheet and carefully used it to scale his way down to the floor. Standing on the floor, a relative 9" tall to the scale of Natasha's house, gave him a dizzying sense of scale. Seeing her furniture tower over him always felt surreal. Her discarded shoes and garments were strewn across the floor, large obstacles for his diminutive size. His eyes finally locked onto his clothes, and he quickly jogged toward them.

As Justin finished getting dressed he heard the bathroom door open, followed by the thundering footsteps of Natasha.

"Sorry I don't have anything your size, you may just have to wear your clothes from yesterday," Natasha said, her attention focused on the tiny woman at her feet, Ally. Natasha wore nothing but a towel, while Ally was wrapped in a dry washcloth in the same fashion.

Natasha's ground-shaking footsteps unerringly moved toward Justin. Justin looked behind him–he was standing in front of Natasha's dresser. She was likely about to grab clothes for herself. Unfortunately for Justin, she hadn't so much as looked in his direction as she talked with Ally.

Justin froze as Natasha's tree-trunk-sized legs moved toward him. She was closing in fast–leaving Justin very little time to react. Within three steps her left foot slammed inches away from him, quickly followed by the right foot on the other side. Justin looked up at Natasha and realized he was looking straight up her towel to her naked labia. Natasha started to squat over him and Justin quickly fell to his back to avoid getting hit by her rear-end.

"Hey, where's Justin?" Ally asked from atop the bed.

"Huh?" Natasha pivoted while squatting over Justin, unknowingly swinging her ass in his face. The arch of her feet twisted as she pivoted.

"Don't move!" Ally suddenly said, spotting Justin. "He's right under you."

Natasha suddenly shot up and stepped back, "Why you little perv–" She snatched him up and brought him to her face. Justin flinched as the giant woman gripped his body. Natasha saw that Justin's hair was slightly matted from her and Ally's dried juices and felt bad for not getting him cleaned up as well. 

"How about you get a shower while we get dressed. I'll put you in the sink and check on you in 10 minutes?" she asked, already carrying him to the bathroom.

After preparing the sink for him, she left and closed the door to the bathroom. Justin stripped, then slid down the basin of the sink to get under the running water. As he stood under the running water he realized he had no soap. He glanced up and saw a hand soap dispenser sitting on the rim of the sink. Justin carefully made his way out of the sink–which proved very difficult now that he was soaking wet.

Justin sized up the soap dispenser, which stood about chest high to him. It was a standard pump soap dispenser, so he opted to use one hand to push down the pump and the other to catch the soap. The pump wouldn't budge. Next, he tried using both hands to push down the pump–again to no avail. Determined not to let a soap dispenser get the best of him, he climbed on top of it. He would use all of his weight by jumping on it. Justin stood on top of the pump of the soap dispenser, balancing precariously. As he prepared to jump, the door suddenly opened up.

"All done?" Natasha asked as she walked in, "Wh-what are you doing? You're going to hurt yourself!" On cue, Justin lost his balance and Natasha caught him.

"Thanks…" Justin said but was unheard by Natasha.

"If you needed help with the soap, you should've just asked," Natasha said. She pressed down on the pump with her index and middle finger, easily releasing the soap into her waiting hand. She accomplished with two fingers something he couldn't do with all of his strength.

"I've still got stuff to do today after I drop you guys off." Natasha chided, rubbing the soap between her hands, she then proceeded to completely coat Justin in soap. "I don't have all day for you to take a shower." she smiled as she picked him up and gently washed him in the sink, rinsing the soap off.

"There. All done," she said, dropping a dry washcloth for him to use as a towel. She then picked him up once again and set him on the floor with his clothes nearby.

"We'll be waiting by the front door! Don't keep us waiting–or I guess you'll have to live with me," she teased.

Justin watched the giantess walk away casually. Being so easily manhandled by his former coworker was a stark reminder of how weak he was.

_______________

Justin and Ally were each sitting on one of Natasha's shoulders as she walked them home. This kept her hand free, while Justin and Ally used her tank top strap and hair to keep them steady.

"I'm sorry, Natasha." Justin said with a heavy sigh, "It's my fault you were shrunk and trapped here against your will."

"Eh," she shrugged, threatening to knock Justin and Ally from their perch, "It's not so bad now that I know you're okay. Plus, I've met someone new." she winked at Ally.

"I'm going to find a way to fix this," Justin said. Although his confidence was wavering. He couldn't even operate Natasha's soap dispenser, how was he supposed to get all of them back to full size?

"I know." Natasha said simply, "You're the smartest guy I know. You've figured out way more difficult problems than this. So I'll just enjoy the ride until you figure it all out."

Natasha's confidence in him made Justin feel much better. Still, he was quickly running out of ideas–and his insignificant stature made options limited. He pondered in silence for a bit as they walked.

His thoughts were interrupted when Natasha suddenly came to a complete stop. A leg–nearly as wide as her–blocked her path, then quickly disappeared. The appendage belonged to a resident of the Little Villas, a 1:6-scale city.

"Watch your step!" Natasha started to yell at the giantess, who just gave a half-hearted wave. The giant woman's footsteps had already taken her far away from the three of them. Natasha turned her attention to her tiny passengers.

Ally had managed to successfully hang on to Natasha's tank top strap, however, Justin wasn't so lucky. Natasha's sudden stop had caused him to fumble forward. He had briefly bounced against her breast before grabbing onto her shirt. His relative weight pulled the shirt down, fully revealing Natasha's cleavage. Justin looked down, thankful he hadn't fallen the additional 30' to the ground. 

"As for you," Natasha said, wrapping her hand around him. "You're way too big to ride in my cleavage." she teased.

She set him back onto her shoulder, "Maybe next time I'll get one of those resizer bands and grow as big as her!" she motioned to the woman that had nearly stepped on them, "Then you'd both easily fit." she winked.

"That sounds fun!" Ally chimed in, "But I'd be careful with him. Brooke may not appreciate you stuffing him in your cleavage."

"True…" Natasha pouted briefly, "Then again…"

Ally waited a few moments before prompting Natasha, "Then again… what?"

"I was just thinking about last night," Natasha explained, "and I started to wonder what it would be like if there was a giant person there–say like Brooke…" She paused before asking Justin, "Do you think she'd be into that?"

"I don't know." Justin shrugged. He realized it was difficult enough last night when both women were nearly 50' tall relative to him. How could that possibly work with Brooke–who was over 1000' tall to him?

"You should totally ask!" Natasha said excitedly.

Justin rolled his eyes, "Yes, that's the first thing I'm going to ask her the next time we talk." his response dripped with sarcasm.

_______________

When Justin finally arrived home, he immediately went to his computer to call Brooke. He was surprised to see two missed calls from her already. He hit the 'call' button and was surprised at how quickly Brooke answered.

"Hi," he said nervously. Seeing her on his screen felt so surreal now knowing she was on the same scale as Claire of Jazmin. Despite being the same girl he had talked to over and over again, he still felt that their dynamic had somehow changed.

"Hey," Brooke said, unsure of where to start.

"I'm–" they both started to say at the same time.

After a brief awkward pause, Brooke continued, "I'm sorry, Justin. I didn't mean to make light of your… situation. I really respect you as a fellow engineer." she paused, taking a deep breath to steady herself, "I also really like you."

Justin sat in stunned silence–not because of what she said, but because of how direct she was. "I'm sorry for overreacting and–I really like you too." He decided being equally direct would be the best response,

Brooke sighed with relief. Justin could see her entire body relax.

"So I guess this means I have a giant girlfriend?" Justin teased.

"Hey! You're the tiny one!" she huffed, and they shared a laugh.

They quickly started to talk like they always had as if no time had passed at all. Things were definitely different now, more natural and relaxed. It was easy to forget the size difference as they talked.

"So what did you end up doing this weekend? I tried calling you a couple times earlier." Brooke asked.

"Oh, I was on my way home from Natasha's house." Justin explained, "It turns out my old coworker lives in the 1:25 scale city. Ally and I were there… um hanging out." Justin skipped on the details.

Brooke raised an eyebrow, "Should I be jealous?"

"N-no way!" he stuttered.

"Geez with a reaction like that… what'd you do, have a threesome?" Brooke laughed.

Justin tried to say something but had a frog in his throat.

"No way!" Brooke looked at him with eyes wide. "What? How? I mean, Ally's your size, right? So you like, had sex with her while Natasha watched or something?" Brooke was genuinely curious–yet baffled.

"Oh, actually Ally used one of the temporary growth bands to be the same height as Natasha," Justin explained.

"Then how did you…" Brooke asked with one eyebrow raised.

Justin struggled to make eye contact with Brooke as he said, "You see, I was probably about 9 inches tall relative to them… And they… um…" Justin tried to avoid going into explicit detail.

"Oh?" Brooke raised an eyebrow, "OH!" her eyes went wide, "So they… used you like a toy?"

Justin nodded, still afraid of how his new girlfriend would react. This was about to be the shortest relationship of his life.

"That… actually sounds kinda fun." she mused, "but now that we're dating, I expect there will be no more of that… unless I'm involved." she winked.

Justin's jaw dropped–he was not expecting that kind of response. "Don't forget you're a lot bigger than all three of us!" Justin said after gathering his composure, "It'll probably be a combined effort."

Brooke bit her lip, somehow the thought of three people working tirelessly to please her was a huge turn-on. Even long after they had hung up, her mind was consumed with thoughts of how she might interact with her tiny boyfriend.

_______________

"It looks like everything is in place," Justin said. It was Monday and he and Brooke were having their weekly meeting to discuss the progress of the project.

"Awesome! Now we just need to schedule the installation." Brooke said excitedly.

"I'll reach out to Claire and Jazmin to see when they're available to set everything up," Justin said.

Brooke shook her head, "Hold on. I don't think either of them has the technical know-how to hook everything up correctly. This isn't like prior building installations they've done. The last thing we need is a whole keg's worth of beer flooding Micropolis because they miscalculated something…"

Justin knew she was right–and not just because of the calibration of the beer, liquor, and wine dispensers. There was a lot of custom electrical work that could fry the whole city block if done incorrectly.

"So what do you suggest?" he asked.

"I-I think it'll have to be me," she said. In truth, Brooke was still nervous about seeing Justin in person. Seeing his tiny body face-to-face or… face-to-toe. Might change her perspective.

"That makes sense." Justin agreed, "I'll be on-site to help with installation from the ground then."

They'd both be handling installation 'from the ground', Brooke giggled to herself.

"That reminds me! I've actually got the final product right here." She briefly shuffled some papers around on her desk, then picked up the tiny building. "Ta-da! Here it is!" She held the building in both hands, it barely spanned the width of both of her palms.

Justin swallowed hard. Occasionally Brooke did things like this that unintentionally reminded him that they were not of equal size. Within the next few weeks, he'd be a patron at that bar. The bar his girlfriend held literally in the palm of her hands and kept as a desk ornament.

"I guess this means I'll need to finish that resident handling class. They won't give me access to Micropolis until I do." Brooke remembered, "Shoot I better get on that, especially now that my boyfriend is a resident."

Justin laughed, "Yes, please do. We both know I can't install it by myself!"

_______________

That night, Justin and Brooke resumed their nightly calls. However, shortly into the conversation the internet cut off. Justin suddenly had a sick feeling in his stomach and rushed to the window. It was about the time that Claire or Jazmin would show up to handle the nightly restocking.

The door creaked open, revealing Jazmin. His heart sank.

"Good evening, microbes! It's that time of the week when you lucky little specks get to paint my toenails!" Jazmin said excitedly, grabbing her chair and setting it in the middle of the park as usual.

"Before we get started though, I need to have a little talk with you, Justin." The towering giantess took the two steps required to stand near his building. "I know you're in there. So you can either come up to the roof, or I'll have to reach in to grab you."

"Oh, and if you try hiding from me. There." she tapped her foot hard against the ground, causing it to rumble. "Will." she tapped again, harder this time. "Consequences." This time her foot crushed a set of bicycles sitting near the building.

"Shit," Justin said to himself, quickly running out the door and up the stairs to the room.

"Be careful!" Ally peeked out from her apartment.

With a nod, Justin rushed to the rooftop. The giantess above was growing increasingly impatient.

Justin reached the top, completely out of breath. Even standing on top of the 20-story building, he had to look another 20' into the air to see her knees. He looked higher, attempting to make eye contact with the giant woman. She was wearing a skirt and stood so close to the building, her face was completely obscured by the material.

"There you are!" she squatted down, her flowing skirt spreading out all over the street below. With her knees to her chest, her bright red panties were at eye-level with him.

"Tsk. tsk. I should tell your girlfriend you were looking up my skirt!" she chided him, knowing that her body took up most of his horizon. Jazmin pinched the tiny man between her fingers and dropped him in her palm, returning to her seat.

"I'm sure you're wondering how I knew about Brooke, aren't you?" she said to the man in her palm while the other resident got to work on her feet.

"You see, she came to me for advice." Jazmin purposely omitted the part where Claire was involved as well. "She thinks she can have a real relationship with a tiny little speck like you. What will she think when she sees you for real?" she paused letting her words soak in.

"See, I'm in charge of her Resident Handling Training. Which means I'm going to be spending a lot of time with her this week. Plenty of time to convince her you're a toy at best." she grinned evilly, bringing him close to her mouth. Her pearly white teeth were at least as tall as him.

She then pinched him in her fingers again and gently set him on the big toe of her right foot. "I want you to lie perfectly still there." Justin reluctantly obeyed. "As for everyone else? I want you to paint around him."

"Brooke will be in the office tomorrow for some hands-on training." Jazmin explained, "I'm going to show her my pedicure, the one featuring a YOU-shaped pattern. She'll have no idea that her boyfriend spent the better part of his night laying on my toe." she giggled sadistically.

Justin obediently lay on Jazmin's toe as the other residents carefully painted around him. After everything was dry, his fellow residents helped him up as Jazmin finished her duties, then left.

_______________

During working hours, Justin busied himself with prep work for their next project. Meanwhile, Brooke spent her days in the office training with Jazmin and Claire. Justin was relieved to hear that Claire would be helping with the training as well.

"They gave me a pack of scale-model figures to train with!" Brooke said during one of their nightly calls. She held up a baggie filled with at least 50 human-shaped plastic pieces. The label on the bag read '1:200 scale figures'. She opened it up and held one of them to the camera.

"I couldn't believe how tiny they are!" she said excitedly.

"Hey! Careful who you call tiny! He's probably at least my height!" Justin teased.

Brooke was suddenly reminded of why she was taking the training, to begin with–her boyfriend was currently about this size.

"You're right." she bit her lip, making eye contact with Justin as she gently dropped the tiny figurine into her deep cleavage. She then gently gyrated her breasts.

Justin just stared, completely mesmerized.

"I bet my tits look amazing to him right now." she winked seductively, "Are you jealous?"

"Y-yes." he stammered. Being manhandled by Jazmin brought back terrifying memories. Yet doing those same things with someone he trusted–like Brooke seemed… exciting.

She suddenly pressed her tits tightly together, completely consuming the tiny plastic toy. "How about now?"

Justin laughed nervously, "I don't think I'd survive that! But that's a hell of a way to go." Maybe he shouldn't be so quick to trust her, he wondered.

"Hey! Do you know who's doing the nightly restocking tonight?" Justin asked, changing the subject.

"Hmm…" Brooke said, looking it up on her computer, "It seems it's Jazmin."

"Shit," Justin said under his breath.

"Why? Is everything okay?" Brooke asked, growing concerned.

"It's nothing. It's just that–" Justin started, but was interrupted.

NETWORK CONNECTION LOST. The error appeared on Brooke's screen.

"That's the third time this week…" Brooke said to herself. She then double-checked the schedule, "And it's always when Jazmin is working."

_______________

"Damn it," Justin said to himself as he lost his internet connection. On cue, Jazmin strolled through the door. She always made certain that Justin was present at her little pedicure parties. Instead of waiting for her to drag him out, he made his way to the park.

He sighed as he wondered–how do you tell your girlfriend that you have to paint another woman's toes a few times a week or else she punishes everyone in your city? 

He chuckled to himself. Brooke would probably kick Jazmin's ass if she knew. So why didn't he just tell her? Truly his experience with HR had scarred him. Despite growing so close with Brooke, he needed to be 100% sure she wasn't in on it like the others.

In the meantime, he grabbed a brush and got to work.

_______________

The next morning, Brooke arrived early. She was hoping to talk to Claire alone before the workday started. She waited patiently in the training room.

"Hey Brooke, you're here early!" Claire said as she walked in.

"Can I talk to you real quick?" Brooke looked around to be sure Jazmin hadn't shown up yet. "Alone?"

With a nod, Claire closed the training room door.

"I noticed something weird about Micropolis," Brooke began, testing the waters. "When Justin and I are talking, the internet seems to cut off on certain nights."

"I can double-check all the connections, but I don't think internet problems are exactly a new thing," Claire said.

Brooke shook her head, "I thought it might just be a bad connection, but it always seems to happen when Jazmin has the night shift. It seems like more than a coincidence."

Claire thought for a moment. Truthfully she suspected foul play on Jazmin's part. She had seen tiny glittering drops of what appeared to be toenail polish in the park. Of course, there was that whole debacle with the cameras not working when that complaint was filed.

"Also, he asked me who was working the restock shift last night." Brooke's eyes were welling up with tears, "When I told him it was Jazmin he looked terrified! Defeated! It was awful!"

Claire looked over her shoulder and quickly hushed Brooke, reassuring her. "Okay, I'll look into it," she promised. "Just don't mention this to anyone else–she's got a lot of political power in the company. She can't find out we're investigating her."

Brooke nodded, wiping away her tears. Claire knew that if this was true–network problems were just the tip of the iceberg.

_______________

As the week progressed, Brooke continued to complete her Resident Handling Training. Like clockwork, the network connection would fail on nights when Jazmin worked. Brooke tried to press Justin for an answer, but he always changed the subject or only half-answered her questions. She knew something was wrong, but also knew that Justin couldn't tell her.

"Tomorrow's the big day!" Justin said, nervously excited. He'd meet his girlfriend for the first time in person.

"Yup! I'm all certified and ready to go." Brooke smiled.

"Speaking of which, while you've been busy getting certified… I built this!" Justin revealed a headset. "This baby uses long-range Bluetooth and can get crystal clear communication up to 600 feet! I just have to pair it with any Bluetooth headset you own!"

Brooke's jaw dropped. That headset had to be extremely tiny if it fit on his head!

"Wow, babe. That's really impressive! I'll be able to talk to you from anywhere in the city!"

Justin was confused then quickly realized his error. "Er… I mean 600 feet to me." he sheepishly clarified.

"Oh… so like 3 feet total?" she estimated.

Justin's accomplishment sounded a lot less impressive when she put it to her scale. He realized that even with this device, she'd have to sit down to be in range.

"I could bring my Bluetooth speaker," she suggested.

Justin shook his head. "Even if you did, it'd be way too loud for us."

Brooke realized how loud her speaker might be to the tiny ears of the residents and quickly agreed with Justin.

"So I guess I'll just bring my wireless earbuds… and stay low to the ground." she smiled.

This time, Justin chuckled at the relative perspective. 'Low to the ground' still meant hundreds of feet in the air to him.

"You know I've been thinking," Brooke paused, ensuring she had Justin's attention, "I don't get to visit Micropolis very often. We have a rare opportunity to… well… what if–after the installation of course–you came over to my place? Maybe… stay the night?"

"Oh?" Justin's interest peaked, "And what would we do at your place?"

"Well," Brooke carefully picked up one of the practice scale-model people, "I'm sure we can find something to do… something we'll both like." She gently kissed the model, then slowly moved it down her body, stopping at her breasts.

Justin swallowed hard as she moved the toy sensually down her body. Brooke was right–who knows when she'd be granted access to visit Micropolis again. This may be their best opportunity to meet in person.

"Plus, I can bring you back in the morning. I can say I'm following up on the installation and bringing you home." she winked, "No one has to know that I'm bringing my tiny little boyfriend home."

"O-okay." Justin struggled to speak.

"Good." she smiled, "Oh, and if you're really good maybe I'll…" She stood up, revealing her pajama-pant-clad lower half. With her left hand she opened the waistband and with her right dropped the tiny toy inside. She released her left hand with a snap, sealing the toy between her legs.

She finally sat back down, "Jealous?"

Justin nodded. The prospect of doing this with a woman 500 times his size was daunting, yet exhilarating.

"Don't worry you'll get your turn." she winked.

Later that night, long after they had hung up, Brooke lay in bed. Thoughts of seeing Justin in person had her excited in more than one way. She felt a peculiar itch between her legs. She reached one hand down between her legs and quickly found the source. A small plastic model–the one she pretended was Justin earlier. He had been left in her panties for several hours now–long forgotten.

She pulled the toy out from her underwear, it shone with a wet sheen completely doused in her juices. The whole situation awakened a hungering lust. Her mind raced–what if that had been a real person? What if they had–against all odds–survived the last few hours in her panties? She had played with herself more than once off and on with the toy going wholly unnoticed. She bit her lip and once again started to play with herself–this time determined to finish the job.

One thing was for sure, she'd have to be far more careful with her tiny boyfriend.

_______________

Meanwhile, Claire was busy gathering all of the intel she could about the mysterious network outages. First, she compared the network outages to Jazmin's check-in and check-out times for each city and confirmed Brooke's suspicions. She also compared the recorded footage and found the minutes where Jazmin serviced the city mysteriously missing.

Claire knew that all of the 'computers' in the resident's homes were essentially dumb terminals. All of the actual computing power was on a server that spun up a Virtual Machine for each user. This meant that someone with access to the main server could easily disconnect the resident's network without causing a disturbance elsewhere in the building. There was just one snag–they were locked in a room and only IT had the keys.

When Claire questioned their main IT guy, Kyle, he was all too quick to mention the missing spare key. He had woven a fairly convincing story that may have convinced Claire–if she hadn't already known about Jazmin. Instead, his quickly crafted story only heightened Claire's suspicion.

With all of her facts lined up, Claire walked into the breakroom with quiet determination. Jazmin was sitting alone–a common occurrence since they were the only two that used this breakroom.

"We need to talk," Claire said simply.

Jazmin looked up from her coffee to Claire.

"Some of the cities appear to lose network connection on… certain nights." Claire hinted, hoping that Jazmin would simply confess.

"I guess our IT guys aren't as good as they think. You should probably lodge a ticket with them." Jazmin shrugged.

Not to be deterred Claire continued, "It only happens on nights you're working."

Jazmin locked eyes with Claire. Her eyes were daggers.

"What are you implying?" Jazmin said with cool confidence.

"It's an uncanny coincidence." Claire said, "I also noticed the camera goes out along with the network. Do you know anything about that?"

"I see what you're getting at," Jazmin glared. "If I were you, I'd drop it now. I'd hate for you to have to live with your little friends."

"Oh please," Claire rolled her eyes, "That reassignment bullshit might work to keep Alia in line, but you know it won't work on me. We both know you don't have the authority to do that."

"I didn't say anything about reassignment." Jazmin shot back, "Did you forget my dad is the CEO?" she stood up and started to pace around Claire. "He has access to premier shrinking tech–stuff that hasn't been seen in the public. Sometimes he leaves prototypes laying around… Sometimes I borrow the prototypes." she laughed evilly.

Jazmin moved in close to Claire's ear and whispered, "All I have to do is tell Daddy that you were a threat to the security of this company and–BAM! You'll be ant-sized in my hand."

Jazmin walked to the exit of the breakroom, "Look, Claire, I like having you as my friend." She turned to glare at the woman again, "But if you cross me… I'm sure you'll make a good pet, too."

Jazmin opened the door and left the breakroom.

Claire stood there in quiet silence. Never in the years she had worked with Jazmin had she seen that side of her. Part of her didn't believe Jazmin, but a chill down her spine told her to 'be careful'.