Lily liked being in charge.

The drive to the restaurant was quiet, save for the low hum of the engine. She’d always hated driving; cars were just one more thing that weren’t made for people as small as she used to be. She’d have to have the seat pushed up as far as it would go, and even then scoot forward to reach the pedals, while also maintaining back-achingly perfect posture to see over the dashboard. A smaller car might’ve worked a little better… but Tom drove way more than she did, and so it had made sense to prioritize his comfort.

Now, she could casually lean back against the seat, and her head actually reached the headrest! The seatbelt didn’t dig into her neck, and she felt far more confident now that she didn’t have to strain so hard to take in her surroundings. Ever since she’d broken the five foot barrier, she’d been feeling more and more like the world around her was actually built to accommodate her.

Clothes shopping was an exception to that rule, however. Her upscaled proportions, coupled with her expanding bust and hips, made it hard to find things off-the-rack that fit her well. The forest-green cocktail dress she was wearing had taken her hours to find, and it was tight, constricting her chest and limiting how deeply she could breathe.

Then again, Tom certainly seemed to like how it fit her; from the corner of her eye, she could see him staring at her the entire drive.

Tom’s own suit had the opposite problem: Lily just couldn’t find something small enough to fit his slender frame while still having enough length. She’d done her best… but it was a little baggier on him then it really should be. He looked like a teenager borrowing his dad’s suit for prom. Though to be fair, that just made him look cuter in her eyes.

We’re gonna need custom-tailored clothes soon. That’ll get pricey fast.

As they arrived at the restaurant, Lily pulled into a space and stopped the car.

“Wait right there,” she said to Tom. She climbed out of the driver’s side, then came over to the passenger’s, opening Tom’s door and offering him a hand.

After all, she was taking him out to dinner.

As he stepped out of the car and rose to his full height, Lily gazed down at him and heaved a heavy sigh of affection (or tried to, anyway—stupid dress). Tom was just so cute now! Every single time he rose to his full height, she was taken by surprise by just how low he came up on her. She wanted to push him back down and tear that silly oversized suit off of him… but she fought off the impulse as she remembered that they weren’t alone in the parking lot. Instead, she offered him her arm, giggling as he blushed and hooked his hand around it.

Lily was so glad that Tom had come around on things. Up until now, the magic had been exciting, but it had been tempered by murky feelings of guilt and shame. Now, they were free to embrace it fully. She didn’t have to worry that she was taking advantage of him, and could instead fully revel in the joy of growing bigger, of watching him shrink, and of exerting more and more control over him. Indulging Tom’s submissive side was fun, bordering on addictive. The more he shrank, the easier it got to make him feel small. Lily could assert her dominance with only the subtlest gestures now.

“No no, let me get it,” she said as she opened the restaurant’s front door for Tom.

Lily stepped through the doorway behind him, and the host’s eyes immediately shot to her prodigious bust before darting up to meet her gaze. She gave him a mildly disapproving look, just to make sure he knew she’d caught him. In reality, she didn’t mind; getting leered at like that was certainly going to get old fast, but for now, the attention was novel and appreciated.

“Um—Hello! Welcome. How many in your party?”

“Just the two of us,” Lily answered, throwing an arm around Tom. The motion sent a bounce through her entire body, and she stifled a laugh as the host looked like he was going to pull a muscle trying not to steal another glance.

“Certainly! Right this way.” Fumbling to grab two menus, he stepped out in front of them and turned toward the dining room, clearly relieved that he no longer had to contend with the temptation of looking at Lily directly. He led them to a small table with two chairs, and Lily made a point of pulling Tom’s seat out for him before sitting down herself, shooting her husband a wink. As she rested her chin atop her interlaced fingers.

* * *

Tom couldn’t stop fidgeting.

Every move Lily made, every word she spoke, asserted her position above him. Her maneuvers were subtle, nothing as overt as the way she’d commanded him at home. No, her attitude now was much more relaxed. She wasn’t exercising her dominance, she was just… taking it as given. The way she moved, the way she spoke to him, everything about the way she presented herself just assumed that he was the subservient partner. And he couldn’t bring himself to challenge that assumption. 

At home, he’d been self-conscious about how badly the suit Lily had bought fit him. Now, he was grateful for the extra space in the pants.

He was well past the point of pretending like this kind of thing didn’t turn him on. But, experiencing it in public, in front of other people, this was something different. Something more. It was one thing to get off on being submissive in the bedroom, but suddenly that role was spilling over into other aspects of their relationship. Was Tom really comfortable with that? With Lily being, completely… in control? It’s not like he was used to being “in charge” in their marriage; he’d just always thought of them as, well, equals. And now, by doing nothing more than opening a few doors for him and pulling out his chair, Lily was silently asserting that they were equals no more.

Then again, the bigger she got—the more he shrank—the more he had to admit that there was less and less that was “equal” about them every day.

She glanced up from her menu to smile at him, and he felt his heart flutter. Though she said nothing, he could almost hear her voice offering rejoinders in his head. Just let go! Stop trying to make yourself feel the way you think you’re supposed to, and embrace the way you actually feel! There’s nothing to be ashamed of!

Easy for her to say. She wasn’t the one with a hard-on in the middle of a crowded restaurant.

“Hi there!” said the waitress that suddenly appeared beside them, a blonde woman with an average build who looked to be in her early 20s. Tom reflexively wondered how he’d measure up to her if he stood up, and tried to shake off the thought by fixating on a stray thread in the tablecloth.

“Have you decided what we can get you this evening?”

Lily tapped a painted fingernail on a line on the menu. “Yes, I’ll have the twelve ounce ribeye, with the baked potato and a side of broccoli.” The waitress nodded along as she scribbled in a notepad.

“And for you, sweetie?” The waitress asked as she turned to Tom. The compliment caught him off-guard, and Lily pounced on the split-second of silence. 

“My husband here never has much of an appetite, I think he’ll be good with just the house salad.”

“Wh-...? No, Lily, I’m hungry, I want to get a steak, too.”

Lily cocked an eyebrow, and Tom instantly felt a pang of… guilt? Did challenging her on even something as small as this actually make him feel guilty?

“I don’t think you realize how little you eat these days, hon. I really don’t think you’ve got the stomach for much more than the salad.”

“I… I want the steak!” Tom could feel the blood rushing to his face, fully realizing just how petulant he sounded. His cheeks turned a hue darker still when he caught the eye of the waitress, who was clearly feeling a bit awkward caught between the two of them.

Lily’s jaw shifted from one side to the other before her lips curled into a smile. “Fine then. My husband will have the six ounce cut. Same sides. And if he doesn’t clean his plate, he’s going to have to answer to me.”

“Uh… great, okay,” the waitress answered. “We will, get those right out to you.” She grabbed the couple’s menus and quickly excused herself, not knowing how else to handle the strange energy at the table.

* * *

Lily couldn’t help but feel smug.

“I tried to tell you.”

Tom was staring forlornly at his plate. It still had half a steak and an untouched baked potato, along with most of his broccoli.

Lily, meanwhile, was leaning back in her chair, an empty plate in front of her as she crossed her arms. She wasn’t actually mad; honestly, she thought the whole thing was pretty funny. But playing up her disappointment was getting Tom flustered, and getting Tom flustered was rapidly becoming her favorite pastime. 

“We can’t stay here all night, Tom. You told me you were hungry, so what’s the holdup?” 

“I… I don’t think I can finish this.” Poor little thing; Lily could tell from his labored speech that he’d already forced himself to eat more than he should’ve.

Too bad for him that she was enjoying this too much to let him off the hook.

“I don’t understand, Tom. You were so whiny about wanting a steak, so I got you a little one. Only half as big as the one I ordered for myself.” Lily pointedly looked at her own plate, a few streaks of juice the only remnant of her meal. “I finished mine, why couldn’t you finish yours?”

“I-... Look, I’m sorry, I’m just… you were right, I got full faster than I thought I would.”

“Oh I know I was right, Tom. But now I’m more curious about why. How on earth did you get so full so fast? Did you eat at home or something?”

“...Come on, Lily. You know why.” Lily remained silent, forcing him to say it himself. “It’s, it’s because I’m smaller.”

Lily theatrically slapped her forehead. “Ohhh! Right, of course! You’re smaller. You’re just a short, scrawny little guy now. You’re too little to stomach a full meal, aren’t you?”

She couldn’t help but laugh as she watched her husband turn a deep shade of crimson. “C-c’mon, Lily. Stop it.”

Lily immediately made herself stop laughing, and affected the sternest glare she could as she leaned in toward him. “Did you just tell me what to do, Tom?” He squirmed under her disapproval, and her scowl immediately broke into a grin; he was too cute to even pretend to be mad at.

“N-no, just, I… we’re in public…” his eyes darted around to other tables, paranoid that someone was listening to them.

“I know we are! That’s why I was so shocked by how fussy you were earlier, embarrassing me in front of the waiter. I thought you were better-behaved than that.” He withdrew away from her reproach, looking smaller than ever. God, was he really still 5’3”? It was hard for her to imagine that as small as he looked, he was still bigger than she used to be by a fair margin.

 Well, she’d fix that in due time.

“We have a problem now, Tom. Because I took us somewhere nice, somewhere that’s a little pricey, and right now I’m seeing about forty dollars of wasted food on your plate. What are we going to do about that?”

“It’s, it’s fine, I’ll just ask them for a to-go box. I can eat it tomorrow for lunch.”

“Absolutely not. Not after you made such a scene.”

“I didn’t… I didn’t make a scene,” Tom argued back. “I just said I wanted a steak.”

“You directly contradicted me in front of someone else.”

“Yeah, but…”

“No buts.” Lily leaned forward and gently nudged his plate toward him. “You wanted a full meal, you got a full meal. Eat it.”

To be honest, Lily was surprised he was putting up this much of a fight. She could’ve finished that much food back when she was 4’9”. She’d be pretty full after, but it wouldn’t have been an issue. Was his appetite already smaller than hers used to be? She was taken by surprise by just how hot that was. She’d discovered yet another way that he was just… less than her, and she could feel the heat building between her legs as she thought about it. She wondered if there was some corner of the parking lot that was dark enough for them to fuck in the car, instead of having to wait to get home.

Tom looked at the food, then gave a long, pleading look at Lily. He seemed for a moment like he might try to keep arguing, but then he shifted in his seat, picked up his knife, and began cutting another forkful of beef.

“Oh, excuse me!” Lily called out to their waiter as she passed by. “Could I look at your dessert menu?” She’d gotten a pretty hefty cut of meat herself and was honestly feeling pretty full, but she could force down a slice of cheesecake to further accentuate the difference between her and Tom.

The waitress smiled and nodded at her, heading off to fulfill her request. While she waited, Lily refocused her attention on her husband, who was now making himself eat a piece of broccoli.

“That’s right, Tom. Good boys clean their plate, don’t they?”

He nearly choked.

* * *

Tom felt sick.

He was laying in the backseat of the car, breathing slowly as he tried to work through the pain of his bursting stomach. If he didn’t feel so miserable, he’d feel ridiculous; it was a six ounce steak. He could hardly believe it had done this to him.

“Did we learn anything tonight, Tom?” Lily asked as she drove.

He let out a low moan of discomfort before answering. “I learned that I can’t eat very much anymore.”

Lily laughed softly. “I guess that’s true. Your stomach’s a lot smaller than it used to be, you know. Just like mine’s bigger. It’s funny, I’m kind of tall for a woman now, but I’m not really all that big, but there’s all these little things that really make me feel the growth if I pay attention to them. Utensils are smaller and lighter than I’m used to, and a forkful of food doesn’t fill my mouth up in the same way. It’s even easier to chew. I guess all of that’s the opposite for you, right?”

Tom let out a low moan that sounded vaguely like agreement.

“It probably felt like you were trying to eat with a serving fork, and that meat must have seemed tougher than you expected, since even your jaw is littler and weaker than it used to be. I bet your shrunken stomach is having a harder time digesting, too, which means the food piles up for longer. Combine that with your stomach also being smaller, and, well… I guess that explains why you’re feeling so bad, huh?”

“Uh-huh…” Intellectually, Tom recognized that Lily going on about all the little ways that his shrinking was affecting him was hot, but he was in too much pain for it to really turn him on.

“That’s not really the lesson I was thinking about, though. Did you learn anything else tonight, Tom?”

He knew the kind of reply she was fishing for, but he felt too sick to find the right words. After he stayed silent for a beat, Lily answered her own question.

“I think you learned a very valuable lesson about listening to your wife. If you’d just done what I told you, you wouldn’t be sick.”

“Yeah…” he trailed off into a burp.

“Are you going to do as you’re told from now on?”

“Yes…”

“You promise?”

“Lily, come on.” He wasn’t feeling well enough to play this game right now, but he caught her disapproving glare in the rearview mirror and sighed. “Yes, I promise.”

“Good. Then we’ll consider it a lesson learned, and say this stomach ache is punishment enough.”

Punishment? She was planning to start punishing him if he disobeyed her? He wanted to say something, to argue, but he felt too sick. Instead, he just laid back and closed his eyes. Before long, the soft motion of the car lulled him to sleep.