A rich, sweet aroma filled Drew’s nose as he floated in a mug of hot chocolate. He held himself up against a large marshmallow drifting in the center of the melting hot drink. His body was flush red, and his breath was heavy. The beverage felt like a hot tub on steroids, but it did wonders in washing away his fatigue after a long day of skiing.

            It was the middle of winter, and Jess, Drew, Sasha, and Jeff decided to take a vacation at a ski resort. Skiing and other winter sports were quite popular among tinies as all it took was a pile of snow or a frozen puddle to have sufficient sporting conditions, and the Brandybeer Ski Lodge took full advantage of this when renovating their establishment to meet the new demand. Offering slopes of varying steepness and length, both on actual mountains and small manmade mounds, Brandybeer’s owners aspired to be the premier destination for both sizes looking to have fun in the snow. Other amenities offered included: indoor and outdoor ice rinks, hotel lodging, an arcade stocked with refurbished machines and games, a spa, and several pools and hot tubs, all of which came in big and tiny models. Some areas, such as the hills and rinks, were size exclusive for safety purposes, but guests were encouraged to enjoy the rest of the resort alongside their larger or smaller companions.

            Jess and Sasha were sitting across from each other in a hot tub in their bathing suits. The mug of hot chocolate Drew was swimming in sat at the tub’s edge, just within Jess’ reach. Jeff was swimming in the water pooled in Sasha’s one piece in front of her cleavage. Jess grabbed her mug and brought it to her face, blowing on the cocoa before taking a sip. The cool gust felt refreshing on Drew’s boiling skin as it sent ripples in the cocoa surrounding the marshmallow. Taking a sip, Jess struggled to swallow the drink as it seared her tongue and cheeks.

            “Babe, how are you not melting in there?” she asked, rubbing her burned tongue with her finger.

            “It’s not so bad, like a really, really, really hot bath. I think I’m stuck, though.” Drew couldn’t move at all; the outer layer of the marshmallow softened in the hot cocoa, transfiguring into a sticky trap for the two inch man hanging over it.

            “I gotchu.” Jess plucked the marshmallow out of the mug, the edges of it sticking to her fingers, and tossed it and her boyfriend into her mouth. The malleable confection squished and deflated, molding further around Drew as Jess pressed it against her mouth’s roof with her tongue. She scraped away at the marshmallow with her teeth, swallowing the bits until only a thin layer remained plastered to Drew’s body. The warm saliva coating Drew’s body as Jess sucked off what she could was comfortably welcoming compared to the scalding beverage. With most of the marshmallow now in Jess’ stomach, the woman spat her boyfriend back into her mug where he went back to boiling as he floated on the surface.

            “I don’t know about you, but I could stay in here all night,” Jeff said, leaned up against Sasha’s breast as he soaked in the hot tub.

            “No way! We’re going to the arcade next!” Sasha replied, her eyes beaming at the thought of it.

            “You should see the pictures they put on their website,” Jess added. “It’s supposed to be one of the best arcades in the Midwest.”

…

            For a ski lodge, the arcade was surprisingly impressive, a vast chamber filled with video game cabinets, crane machines, ping-pong tables, and other game equipment.

            “Yo, they’ve got an adaptable foosball table.” Sasha pointed out as the four gathered around it. The table’s rods were detachable, so that they could be replaced with tiny players. The two playstyles involved either removing the four middle rods for tinies to play centerfield or removing the four far rods to have tinies play goalie; the former was the more popular option and the tournament standard as it allowed tiny players to interact directly with one another, thus it was the way the group decided to play.

            Drew and Jeff took to the center ring with Jess and Sasha at their goals, couple vs. couple. Jess held the ball directly over the ring and dropped it, starting the game. The ball was much softer than a normal foosball, for safety reasons, and half the size to better fit a tiny’s short legs, but it retained the speed and bounce familiar to players of the original game. Drew leaped into the center and slammed the ball with his forehead towards Sasha’s goal. Jeff attempted to intercept it, but it flew past him faster than he could react and rolled beyond his bounds. Bright yellow lines were painted on the table floor signaling the flipper’s range and where tinies were not allowed to cross. The flippers were padded to minimize injuries, but an absentminded flip was still capable of breaking bones.

            Sasha stopped the ball with one of her flippers and sent it ricocheting back to the center, successfully passing it to Jeff. With no flippers, the game the tinies played in the center was indistinguishable from an actual game of soccer, the two able to move freely within their bounds while the big’s flippers waited stoically for the ball to come their way. Drew rushed to intercept, but Jeff juked him out and sent the ball hurtling towards the other goal. Jess spun her goalie with reckless abandon, smacking the ball out of its path only to knock it off the flipper in front and send it straight back into her goal.

            “GOOOOOOOOOAAAL!” Jeff shouted, running around the field with arms stretched high. Sasha leaned in and high-fived him, Jeff’s miniscule palm slapping against the bottom of hers.

            “What the hell was that!?” Drew yelled back to Jess.

            “Oh yeah, because your defense was impeccable!” she retorted before grabbing the ball and holding it over the center. She dropped the ball and the game continued, each team volleying the ball back and forth until a winner was decided.

            With a final score of 5-3, Sasha and Jeff celebrated their win, the latter perched on the former’s shoulder as they chanted victory woots. Jess scooped Drew out of the table and carried him off to the arcade cabinets, ignoring Sash and Jeff’s hollering as she walked past.

            Browsing the rows of cabinets, Jess found a treasure trove of classic fighting games: Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Tekken 3, King of Fighters ’98, Capcom Vs. SNK 2, Project Justice, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, Virtua Fighter and Mortal Kombat II. Jess walked back and forth between each row, paralyzed by choice.

            “We’re here for a whole week,” Drew reminded her, getting dizzy on her shoulder as she paced around the cabinets. “You don’t have to play them all tonight. I’m sure we’ll back tomorrow.”

            “But where do we start?” Jess asked, her eyes snapping between each machine’s eyecatches. “Do we go by release order? By developer? 2D or 3D?”

            “Let’s start with Tekken. I kinda know how to play that one.” Jess walked up to the Tekken 3 cabinet and placed Drew onto the board. Each machine in the arcade had been refurbished to allow cross-size play. Above the regular sized joystick and buttons were a scaled down set of the controls for tiny players. There were divots in the board in front of the smaller buttons for a tiny player to stand in, letting them play as if they were standing at a traditional cabinet albeit with a much larger screen. Jess took the player one side on the left while Drew jumped into the divot on player two’s side. Once they selected their characters and the match began, Drew became aware of the disadvantage he was in. Not only was the machine’s volume too loud for a tiny so close to the speakers, but Jess’ button mashing sent a cacophony of clicks and clacks ringing in his ears. Combined with his poor footing, having to balance himself against the vibrations caused by Jess smacking her buttons, and the screen that stretched so far up he struggled to see the health bars, Drew performed poorer than he cared for. He managed to win a few rounds, but Jess otherwise beat him candidly despite her preference for 2D fighters.

            “I thought you said you played this?” Jess gloated. “C’mon babe, there’s got to be some game you can beat me in.”

            “I couldn’t concentrate with all the noise,” he claimed. “And the screen’s too big. I can barely see the health bars.” Jess picked him up and carried him to a new machine.

            “When we get home, I’m buying a tiny TV, so I can beat you on it and you won’t have any more Johns to spew at me.”

            Meanwhile, Sasha and Jeff found the Dance, Dance, Revolution machine. The floor’s center tile had been replaced by plexiglass, covering a smaller dance floor within. Sasha lifted up the plexiglass hatch and lowered Jeff inside. There was a small monitor towards the front mirroring the larger screen, and the tiny dance floor had a hand bar behind it just like the larger machine it was encased in.

            “Go easy on me, okay?” Sasha pleaded. “I’m not very good at this.” She selected the song, “Burnin’ the Floor,” and got into position. As she expected, Sasha couldn’t keep up with the arrows blitzing across the screen, awkwardly stepping in the cardinal directions as close to the beat as she could. Despite her lack of dexterity, she was faring about as well as Jeff. The tiny man was normally quite skilled at DDR, and unlike the fighting game cabinets, the DDR machine was designed to suppress noise and vibrations from the larger player using shock and sound absorbers built into the center chamber. His problem was his own fault, as he was too distracted glancing up at the sole’s of Sasha’s sneakers standing on the see-through tile above him. And when she stepped off it to press an arrow tile, her t-shirt swayed enough for Jeff to peek up at her overhanging belly and underboob. His game suffered as a result, only scoring a little bit higher than his girlfriend. “Hey, I didn’t do that bad this time!” she exclaimed.

            “Yeah, you’ve really improved,” Jeff said as he was lifted out of his chamber. “You’ll probably beat me next time if I don’t step it up.”

            After kicking Drew’s ass at a few more fighting games, Jess moved over to the crane machine. Unlike a normal crane game, there was no claw at the end of the pole, but a harness instead. A tiny would strap themself onto the harness and would be moved around by the big player before being lowered and attempt to grab onto the prizes below. Jess placed Drew in the small opening on the side of the machine where a narrow, plastic dock lead to the crane’s harness.

            “We’re going for the fox,” Jess instructed as Drew strapped on. A cartoon fox plushie had its head poking out in the center of the pile of prizes. Jess tossed in her quarter and moved Drew towards the center. The pole slowly lowered onto the fox, directly above its round head between its ears. Drew tried to grab onto the plushie, but its head was too big, and he couldn’t get a good grip on it. The fox’s body was weighed down beneath a stuffed hippo, and Drew’s arms slid off the plush exterior, unable to keep a hold on it as the pole pulled him upward.

            “More to the left!” Drew shouted through the glass. “I need to be over the ear!” Jess tossed in another quarter and followed her boyfriend’s suggestion. As he descended over the fox again, Drew hooked his arm into the fox’s pointy ear, getting a solid grip on the plushie as he was lifted back up. It took all of his stamina, but he held on to that fox for dear life as it pushed itself free from the stuffed hippopotamus and into the air above the pile of toys. The ten seconds it took for the crane to move over to the chute felt like forever to the tiny man holding a stuffed animal the size of a human child, but eventually his goal appeared below him and Drew could be free of his burden. Once it fell, Jess grabbed the prize from its hatch and ran to the side of machine where Drew was removing his harness.

            “We did it! Thank you!” She grabbed Drew and kissed him, the soft touch of her powerful lips relieving whatever weariness had remained in his body. Jess scooped him up into her palm, holding the stuffed fox beneath her other arm. As they walked away from the machine, Sasha rushed over to them, Jeff hanging tight onto her shoulder.

            “Guys, they have Mecha Battle VI!” she exclaimed, out of breath from over-excitement and how quickly she ran over to them.

            “That isn’t even out over here!” Jess shouted with equal enthusiasm. “Did they import it!?”

            “Who cares! They got two machines, so all four of us can play.” The two woman darted to the arcade machine, their boyfriends not sure what all the fuss was about. Mecha Battle VI was a Japanese-exclusive arcade mech action game in which players sat in highly detailed cockpits and piloted giant robots. The game was played in first-person and used a sophisticated series of motions, vibrations, fans, and monitors to give a realistic feeling simulation of piloting a giant robot. Each machine connected locally to other machines, and each cockpit had a control center for big and tiny players, allowing for upwards of sixteen-player matches in eight virtual mechs. The goal of the game was to defeat the other players’ machines and be the last one standing. The game had several arenas filled with destructible props and environments, and featured eight different playable mechs. Big players controlled movement and melee attacks while tinies manned artillery, turrets, and the all-important super moves. The cockpit consisted of a leather chair surrounded by monitors and a dashboard in front with the controls. Next to the dashboard was a miniature, cup-holder-esque alcove with its own swivel chair and command center for the tiny player to operate. With the two machines at the arcade, Jess and Sasha could play against each other with their boyfriends and six NPC mechs.

            The women picked the city stage because of how exhilarating smashing through buildings was with the advanced rumble features. Jess picked Double-Barrel Emperor, a close-range mech that specialized in punching and used shotguns and pile bunkers; Sasha picked the Zatto D0ZER, a mid-range mech utilizing drill arms and SAM missiles. Every battle began with the players’ mechs dropping from orbit, a blazing red countdown appeared on screen anticipating the start of the round.

            “Alright Drew, this our most serious mission yet,” Jess decreed. “The fate of the Earth rests on our shoulders. But together, our love can surpass any obstacle and topple a threat of any scale.”

            “Sure,” he replied, swiveling around in his chair, “but I don’t know how to play this, and all the labels on this controller are in Japanese.”

            “That doesn’t matter. All you need is willpower, friendship, and the inputs for the super moves, and you can do anything.”

            “Right.” Drew pulled out his phone and googled an FAQ as the match started up.

            “And I am your commanding officer, so you should address me as such.”

            “Yes, ma’am!” he saluted. As each mech landed around the city, the match began. Sasha’s Zatto D0ZER was on the opposite side of the arena, dealing with the nearby NPCs ganging up on her. Jess grabbed two massive levers and put full throttle on the engines, propelling her mech through virtual skyscrapers, crumbling them like paper-mâché. She swung the levers and mashed the buttons with reckless abandon, destroying all the NPCs in her path of carnage. Drew pressed the buttons the gameFAQs he found told him to, blowing up pieces of NPCs as well as random objects in the environment in his spray and pray approach. The Double-Barrel Emperor dashed and darted, flicker-jabbed and corkscrewed, Dempsey rolled and gazelle punched, annihilating any mech that got within range.

            In minutes, Jess and Drew had defeated three of the six NPC mechs, and as the particle effects settled and the virtual city lay in derezzed ruins, all that was left standing was their eternal rival, the Zatto D0ZER. The two mechs slow walked to the center of the arena, standing stoically before one another. In the upper left corner of the screen, a video feed of Sasha popped up as she opened communications with her opponent.

            “Sister!” Sasha shouted in a raspy impression. “For years, I have waited for this moment. We still have a score to settle!”

            “I’m not the naïve, little girl you once knew!” Jess dramatically retorted. “I’m stronger than ever before! With the power of love on my side, I will surpass you!”

            “For every mountain, there is but one peak!” Sasha asserted. “Your love cannot hope to reach the summit that is ours!” Drew was trying to piece together the intricate backstory the women apparently came up with; Jeff just went along with it.

            “Our burning love shines brighter than any star, and it soars past even the tallest mountain! Today, we decide our destiny, and manifest our dreams into reality!” Jess pointed to Drew. “Charge the super move!”

            “On it, boss.” Drew scrolled through his phone in search of the super’s input.

            “Jeff,” Sasha commanded, “don’t believe in the you that believes in me, or the me that believes in you, but believe in the you that believes in yourself!”

            “What?” he asked, dumbfounded.

            “Goddammit, charge our super!” Sasha slammed her fist against her armrest as Jeff started mashing buttons. While Drew began inputting the super command, Jess raised her clenched fist beside her face in a dramatic pose, hype theme music playing in her head.

            “This hand of mine glows with an awesome power!” she declared. Sasha sat back in her chair, arms crossed, stomping her boots into the floor.

            “Our hopes and dreams are etched into its body,” Sasha chanted, rap/opera fusion playing in her ear, “transforming the infinite darkness into light!”

            “Its burning grip tells me to defeat you!” Jess continued.

            “Unmatched in Heaven and Earth, one machine equal to the gods!”

            “Take this! My love, my anger, and all of my sorrow!”

            “My drill is the drill that will pierce the heavens!” Sasha screamed, pointing her hand skyward.

            “Shining!” The Double-Barrel Emperor’s hand glowed a brilliant green.

            “Giga! Drill!” The Zatto D0ZER’s drill revved up, growing three times the size of the rest of the mech.

            “Finger!” Jess’ mech rushed forward, its glowing fist outstretched towards the enemy.

            “Breaker!” Sasha’s drill pulled her mech along as it propelled into the enemy. The two fighting robots collided in a spectacular cross-counter. Each attack burrowed its way into the other machine, tearing metal to shreds as they atomized each other’s frames. Jess and Sasha screamed at the top of their lungs while their boyfriends mashed at their controllers to keep their supers going. The health bars drained rapidly as the mechs discharged their strongest attacks into each other. Once the attack animations finished, the two mechs pushed past each other, standing with their backs to one another, the sun setting in the west. Each mech, destroyed beyond function, stood still as if time itself froze, like a pair of trees sprouting from that patch of earth since time immemorial. Jess’ mech had one pip of health, leaving Sasha’s with zero; Drew had successfully inputted their super a split second before Jeff.

            “So, this is the power of your love,” Sasha conceded, “heh, not bad. Not bad at all.”

            “You guys are such fucking nerds,” Drew muttered, grinning to himself.

…

            The next morning, Jess and Drew put on their winter clothes in their room: thermal underwear, ski pants, sweaters, knit hats, and heavy jackets. Drew was standing on the bed with Jess’ waist beside him as she stood next to him on the floor.

            “I’m going to join Sasha on the blue square slope. I’ve decided black diamond’s too extreme, especially by myself,” Jess said.

            “So, can I join you this time?” Drew asked. He’d been begging to ski with her all trip; not actually ski beside her, of course, more like ride in her clothes while she skied. Bigs could reach far greater speeds skiing than tinies could, and Drew wanted to feel that rush.

            “No, it’s still too dangerous. If you fall out on the slope, I won’t be able to catch you, and there’s no way you can dodge an oncoming skier.”

            “I won’t fall out,” he pleaded. “I’ll hang on tight. It’ll be fine.” Jess crossed her arms and sighed.

            “You’ve never felt winds that fast, how do you know you can handle them? I don’t even roll down the windows when you’re in my car. I’d love to bring you with me, but you should stay on the tiny slopes where it’s safe.” Drew lowered his head and sulked; it wasn’t often he begged like this, making his pouting extra potent when he decided to take advantage of how small and adorable he was. Jess couldn’t stand to see him like this, especially when he just wanted to be with her. How could she say no to that? “Fine,” she decided. Drew’s face lit back up. “But I’m putting you in my underwear, so that I know you’re secure.” She grabbed her boyfriend off the bed and tugged at her shirt collar, stuffing him in her left bra cup against her breast; she decided it’d be easier for her to maneuver with him in there rather than letting him squirm around in her panties. “And don’t even think about climbing out, or I’m keeping you in my sock for the rest of the night.” Putting on her coat and grabbing her skis, Jess exited the room; Sasha was waiting for them in the hallway. She noticed Jess’ boyfriend was conspicuously absent.

            “You’re smuggling Drew to the big slope too?” she whispered as they walked through the hotel hallway.

            “Yep, his pestering finally got me,” she replied, pointing at her chest. As to be expected, Jeff was nowhere to be seen as well. “Let me guess, Jeff’s…”

            “Nope, I didn’t think it’d be warm enough in my boot, so I put him somewhere more insolated,” she smiled, patting her ass. Beneath the ski pants and thermals, and between Sasha’s globular cheeks, Jeff was already sweating profusely. Drew was warm too, layered beneath a bra, shirt, sweater, and jacket as his head pressed up against the bottom of Jess’ areola. The fact both tinies were layered in their own winter clothes didn’t help matters.

            There was some relief when the women walked into the freezing winter weather awaiting them outside. The sky was grey and the ground was white as strong winds carried thick snow across the slopes. After putting on their skis, the women boarded the blue square’s lift. Jeff was deep enough in Sasha’s crack that he didn’t even touch the hard metal bench below him. The slope was at a forty-percent gradient and groomed, perfect for intermediate skiers looking for a rush.

            At the top, Sasha looked over the edge at, what was for her, the steep drop. Yesterday, she stuck to the more moderate blue square which was already more extreme than the green circles she was used to. The only reason she was on this slope was too impress Jess, though looking down from the top, she was having second thoughts.

            “I’m going back down the lift. This is too much for me,” she said.

            “C’mon, this is nothing,” Jess reassured her. “It’s not that much steeper than what you were on yesterday.” Sasha gulped, unable to take a step forward and unwilling to take a step back. Jess leaned into her ear. “Are you gonna cower out with your boyfriend watching?” she whispered.

            “Fuck,” Sasha muttered, taking the plunge. It wasn’t graceful, but the woman made a beeline towards the bottom, managing to keep her distance from the other skiers. Jess followed shortly behind. She slalomed down the slope with considerably more finesse than her friend. The wind pelted her as she descended, snapping at her face and filling her bloodstream with adrenaline. Drew couldn’t feel much at all, trapped behind several layers of clothing. It was like riding in a car going sixty miles per hour; suffice to say, he wasn’t impressed. Though Jess had specifically warned him not to, Drew crawled out from under her breast and started climbing up the strap of her bra.

            I’ll just poke my head out, enough to feel the wind in my hair, he thought. As he climbed, he noticed Jess’ body was actually pretty slick from a light layer of sweat forming. With wind and inertia pressing down on her, Jess didn’t notice her boyfriend crawling around on her chest, maintaining her focus on maneuvering around the slope. Drew reached the collar of her jacket and poked his head out, immediately snapping back into her clavicle at the g-force thrust upon him. It was more intense than anything he’d felt before, and the little adrenaline junkie inside him was celebrating. It felt great, so great that it distracted him from his loosening grip on Jess’ bra strap. With how much she was sweating, Drew’s body grew slicker as he was coated in perspiration, and before he could react, his hands slipped free from Jess’ clothing, sending him hurtling up her wet skin and over her shoulder into the cold winter air.

“Aaaaaaauuuuuggghghh!” he screamed, his cries blocked out by the sharp winds blasting Jess’ ears. He failed helplessly as he was lifted out of the warm clothing and into the frigid sky. Light as a feather, the tiny was carried on the wind with the rest of the snow and watched his girlfriend get smaller and farther as she descended the mountain without him.

…

            Sasha was at the bottom of the slope, bent over panting while she waited for her friend. Jess slid up to her a little bit later, nonchalant like she was coming back from a brisk walk.

            “Yo, about time,” Sasha said between breaths. “I’m ready for round two.”

            “Cool. Let me just check on…” Something wasn’t right; she couldn’t feel Drew in her bra. She felt around her chest, her gloved hands pressing against her covered breasts. “Drew?” She patted herself all over, no sign of the tiny anywhere on her body. “No, oh no. No, no, no!” She unzipped her jacket and jammed her arm down her sweater, feeling all over for the missing man. Sasha cocked her neck, unsure of what was going on. Jess looked around the ground, praying he simply fell out beside her. There was nothing but snow. Looking back up the slope, there was nothing but snow. “Sasha! I lost Drew!”

            “Oh shit!” Sasha’s eyes widened. She glanced around at the ground, as if he’d be waiting there below them. Her thoughts turned to Jeff whom she fortunately could still feel in her underwear. She quickly reached in her pants and pulled him out, holding him in her hand as she continued looking aimlessly for Drew. Jess was panicking hard, going so far as to start running back up the slope. “Jess! What are you doing!?”

            “I have to find him before he gets hurt!” Tears were streaming down her cheeks, biting her skin in the harsh, frigid air. Sasha ran over to her as fast as she could in skis, grabbing onto her and holding her back while enveloping Jeff in her gloved fist.

            “You won’t reach him running uphill in skis. We need to get search and rescue.” Sasha let go and detached her skis. “I’ll run to the lodge and get help. You try calling him.” Sasha ran off. Jess fumbled through her pocket and grabbed her phone, her trembling hands gave her much difficulty calling her boyfriend.

“Pick up, pick up, pick up,” she chanted. The phone rang four times; Jess stopped breathing.

“Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system. 555-5185 is not available. At the tone, please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up or press ‘one’ for more options.” Jess kept the phone to her ear. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t see or hear. A million thoughts rushed through her head. She couldn’t breathe. All she could do was cry.

…

            Drew trudged through the snow under a canopy of pine trees. He had flown off the edge of the course into the tree line. Fortunately, this meant he didn’t have to worry about getting run over by another skier or snowboarder, but that was about the only thing going for him. Drenched in his girlfriend’s sweat in below freezing temperatures, Drew struggled to keep any semblance of warmth as he shivered down the mountain. The heavy snowfall didn’t help, with snowflakes the size of his head accumulating across his puny frame, his small body not producing enough heat to melt them.

            The first thing Drew did upon landing was attempt to call Jess, but his phone wasn’t in his pocket where he left it. Shit, it must have fallen out in the air. He saw skiers pass by a few yards away from him, but there was no chance he was going to get their attention. He couldn’t stand around either lest he be buried in the falling snow, so he started the long walk down the mountain. He could see the resort from where he was standing. If he were five feet taller, it’d take him about twenty minutes to walk to the bottom, but at his height the lodge may as well have been several miles away. At least his light weight meant he didn’t sink very deep into the snow. So, Drew walked and shivered, trying his best to avoid the falling snowflakes.

…

            “Where is he? Where is he!?” Jess screamed.

            “Calm down,” the search and rescue leader told her. “We’ve got rangers and dogs combing the mountain now.” The two women, plus Sasha and Jeff, were standing in the resort lobby. The slope they were on had been closed while the search was ongoing. “We’ll find him in no time, but I can’t make any promises regarding what condition we find him in.” Jess’ eyes were bloodshot from all the crying she had done. Her voice was raspy and hoarse, and her nose was bright red, chafed by the tissues Sasha kept handing her. “This is why we have rules against bringing tinies onto the larger slopes. Next time you should consider your partner’s well-being before…”

            “Don’t you fucking lecture me!” Jess yelled. “Get out there and find him!” She couldn’t see through the tears gushing out of her eyes. The ranger betrayed no reaction, cool under pressure and experienced in delivering bad news. Sasha rushed over and grasped her hands around Jess’ shoulders.

            “Woah, okay, let’s take it easy,” she said, trying to calm her friend down. “Just sit down and we’ll wait together for them to find him.” With a nod, the search and rescue woman left the lobby to return to her squad. Sasha brought Jess over to the circle of chairs she and Jeff were sitting at and sat her down. Sasha pulled a chair next to her; Jeff stood on the circular wicker table in front of her. Sasha rubbed Jess’ back as she cried into her hands.

            “It’s all my fault. It’s all my fault.” It was hard to listen to her as she choked out her words.

            “Quit blaming yourself,” Sasha said, “it’s not your fault.”

            “I shouldn’t… I shouldn’t have brought him. I… I lost him. He’s gone.” She burst into more tears at the thought of Drew being dead. The possibility of a future without him mortified her.

            “It’s going to be fine,” Sasha murmured. “They’re going to find him. He’s going to be okay.” It was still too early for Sasha to consider things weren’t going to be okay. It was less about faith, and more of an emotional unwillingness to accept a dour outcome.

            “He’s a tough guy,” Jeff added. “I’m sure he’s fine. He’s probably trying to climb down the mountain all by himself.”

            “He… He hasn’t… He hasn’t answered any of my calls,” Jess muttered.

            “He must’ve dropped his phone,” Sasha concluded, “or maybe the battery’s dead.” Her words did nothing to calm Jess’ despair. The uncertainty was killing her, the small shred of hope like a dagger in her skin keeping the wound fresh. All she could do was mutter to herself and cry.

…

            Through the blustering snow, Drew could see flashlights ascend the mountain and heard the barking of dogs. Despite walking for several minutes, he didn’t appear any closer to the lodge. His skin was turning a bluish-white, and his gait had slowed down considerably. He struggled to brush the piling snow off his shoulders. His best bet was to get the attention of those searching for him, not that he had any good way of doing that. He looked to the massive pine trees lined along his trail. If he were the star of a survivalist show, he’d probably tear the bark off and start a little fire. Fuck it, worth a shot. I’m not making any progress anyway.

            Drew trudged over to a tree trunk and rubbed his numb hands across the bark. Even in better conditions, there was no way he could rip anything off the tree, and there was an even lesser chance of him successfully starting a fire. Drew sighed and went back to walking, at least he tried to. Unbeknownst to him, a large clump of snow piled onto the branch above him, and after receiving the last ounce it could shoulder, it slipped off the branch and fell directly onto the tiny below, burying Drew in an inch of snow.

            Everything went dark. He couldn’t free himself from his frigid prison. He could barely move his arms or legs, and by this point, he wasn’t nearly strong enough to dig himself out. He was so cold and so tired his survival instincts gave up, his eyelids growing heavy. There was a barking sound approaching him, but he couldn’t hear it, all his senses were shutting down. The last thought to cross his mind was Jess’ smiling face from earlier that morning, perhaps the last time he’d ever see it. In seconds, he was out cold.

…

            There was a bright light and the melancholy scent of sterile air. As his eyes peeled open, Drew could feel a prick in his arm and thin sheets covering the lower half of his body. He was in a bed, the upper half tilted at an angle, and the room around him was mostly white with a large window facing a tiny cityscape. He was in a hospital, a tiny hospital judging by the fact everything in the room was to his scale. A man in blue scrubs was standing next to his bed, fiddling with the IV pole.

            “You’re awake. Good,” the nurse said. “How are you feeling?”

            “Tired,” Drew muttered.

            “That’s to be expected. Drink some water.” He pointed to a pitcher of water on the bedside tray. “The doctor will be here shortly.” The nurse left him alone. There was another bed in the room, but it was empty. From the angle Drew was at, he couldn’t see a lot out of the window, just a tiny skyline in the distance. He was on the fifth and top floor of that hospital building; The hospital campus was a fair distance from the central heart of the tiny district, surrounded on most sides by a vast parking lot. Everything was quiet as he poured himself some water and took a few sips. The last thing he remembered was passing out. There were some vague memories of a big, wet dog nose and a helicopter propellor spinning, but that was all he could recall prior to waking up. He wondered where Jess was. There was no sign he had any visitors, but he figured he probably hadn’t been out for that long and it wasn’t like Jess could fit inside the hospital and wait for him.

            “Good Morning, Mr. Richards. Sleep well?” A man in scrubs and a white lab coat jaunted into the room.

            “Morning? How long was I out?” Drew asked.

            “You arrived here in the afternoon, and slept all night.” The doctor checked his Rolex. “It’s almost 7:30am. You had some friends visit throughout the night. Your friend Chris wanted me to let you know he and his wife would be back to see you after they got off work. Oh, and there’s someone else here for you, but…” As the doctor spoke, the room fell dark. The sunlight streaming through the window was blocked out, replaced by a gigantic eyeball filling up the windowpane. It was like a scene from a horror movie, the massive brown pupil jerking around as it peered into the hospital room.

            “Sasha, I think he’s up,” a loud voice from outside the building called out. Drew recognized it and the giant eyeball as belonging to Jess. The doctor groaned and rolled his eyes, trudging over to the window and yanking it open.

            “How many times do I have to tell you not to lean on the building like that?” he yelled, facing Jess’ eyeball as he leaned out of the window. “Your causing a disturbance for the other patients!” Jess ignored him, moving her head to try and look past the doctor. Jess was crouched down next to the tiny hospital building, her right arm leaning on the roof as she peered into Drew’s room

            “Is he alright?” Sasha asked. She was standing in the parking lot a couple feet back, raising her legs up and down to let the honking cars pass under her. Jeff was perched on her shoulder; he visited Drew’s room a few times during the night to check up on him and give the girls status updates, but he spent most of the time waiting with his girlfriend.

            “I can’t tell. The doctor’s in my way again,” Jess said, still trying to peek past him.

            “I’m not telling you again, back off before I call the auth-” The doctor was nudged to the side by a pale hand on his shoulder. Drew, hanging off his IV pole, limped to the window, his body still numb and weary from the frostbite. As best he could, he leaned out the window.

            “I’m alright. I told you I’d be fine,” he weakly smirked. He was attacked by a giant pair of lips, Jess planting them against the side of the building to embrace her miniscule boyfriend. Drew leaned into her kiss, too exhausted to stand on his own, and took in the warmth enveloping him. After letting the couple have their moment, the doctor pulled Drew back from the window.

            “You need to stay in bed. We’ll have you back home sooner if you don’t move around so much.” He grasped him by the shoulders and lead him back to the bed. Once Drew was lying down again, he started back for the window. “It’ll probably be another day before we can let him go,” he said out the window. “We’ll let you know when he’s ready to be discharged. Until then, just keep your voices down and try not to cause any more of a disruption.”

            “I’m going to be right outside, honey,” Jess called out. “Let me know if you need anything. I love you!” The doctor closed the window to keep the chill winter air out, leaving the hatch unlocked so it could still be opened from either side. Wiping the tears from her eyes, Jess sat down beside the building, blocking off most of the sidewalk, a portion of the parking lot, and several patients’ views of the outside. Sasha walked over and joined her, wrapping the heavy blanket she grabbed from home around them.

            “Those two have been out there all night,” the doctor said. “Never thought I’d see a pair of giants sleeping in our parking lot. Usually, our patients’ closest friends and relatives are as small as we are; we never needed a spot for bigs to wait around in. I suppose this is a sign of the times.” Jess hadn’t left the parking lot since Drew arrived the day prior. It didn’t matter that it was cold, it didn’t matter if she was a nuisance to visitors looking for a parking spot, she was going to be there when Drew woke up. Sasha sat by her friend the whole night, boyfriend in tow, only leaving to grab blankets and warm food and beverages from outside the tiny district.

The doctor flipped through some files on his clipboard. “You were lucky, no long-lasting injuries. Had you spent a few more minutes in the snow, we’d probably have had to amputate something. We’ll keep you here while you regain your strength, and then you should be good to go.” The window suddenly nudged open, Jess pulling it up with her fingernail.

            “How’s it going?” she asked “Do you need anything?”

            “Still good. Thanks!” Drew called out.

            “Ok. I’ll be out here. Just let me know.” Jess closed the window and sat back, biding her time until she checked on him again.

            “Not everyone here is lucky enough to have someone care for them like that,” the doctor commented. “Just keep that in mind while you recover.”

            “I know,” he blushed, some warmth returning to his cheeks. “I’m as lucky as they come.”