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Dave's pulse practically thundered in his ears as he ran through the alleyway.


He couldn't believe that he had actually managed to sleep in. He couldn't remember the last time that had even been possible, but that amazement had only lasted long enough for him to realize how late it was.


With each step and huffing breath, he could almost hear the second hand of a clock ticking in his head. As he neared the mouth of the alleyway, the strong smell of coffee slammed into his nose and he started to slow his pace, moving toward the shadowed side of the alley. Sucking in deep breaths, his heart rate began to lower while his muscles started to tense up. Carefully, he put one sandal clad foot in front of the other as he pressed himself against the cool brick of the building's exterior wall. He halted at the alley's entrance and then cautiously leaned his head around the corner.


Even after nearly three months, the sight of the sidewalk outside the coffee shop took his breath away. The sheer scale of the sidewalk boggled his mind, what once he would have considered a narrow strip of space barely big enough to fit two people abreast was now a massive plain of concrete with a sheer cliff where a high curb met the street. Then there were the people, the gigantic people, that walked down it.


A shadow passed over him and he fought every instinct to flinch back, knowing how such a quick movement could attract the eyes of the immense being. Even the asphalt beneath his feet started to tremble as the woman, seeming to be hundreds of feet tall, passed him by while slurping on an iced coffee. The thin sandals she wore sent out quick gusts of wind that ruffled Dave's hair and beard. He looked skyward at the light summer dress she wore, taking full advantage of what nice weather was left in the season. The fabric billowed about her huge body, hugging only at her wide hips and ample bust, but then she was gone.


And no crumbs fell in her wake.


Dave's stomach grumbled in response.


The true downside of finally having enough safety in his little haven to sleep in meant that he had sacrificed the morning rush at the nearby coffee shop. As people rushed in and out to grab coffee and a donut or croissant or whatever they ate, countless crumbs and chunks would hit the ground in the area immediately outside the front door. While they were easily shrugged off by the giants who dropped them, to Dave they were a literal treasure trove of food. A quick dusting off, and he'd have a few fistful sized chunks of bread to start the day, and maybe some to save for later. Without them though, his stomach rumbled again, he wasn't sure if he would be up for the larger challenge of foraging later in the day.


Shutting his eyes tight and leaning back against the brick, Dave struggled not to cry. Not only over the lost bits of fluffy buttery croissant that he had missed out on, but over the fact that this was what his life had literally been reduced to. A blatantly absurd disease, one that he never would have believed existed until it started striking people down, had turned him into a scavenging nomad in the heart of a city built for people dozens of times his size. Biting his lip, he scrunched up his face, and did his best to tamp his emotions down. Dave let himself have one dissatisfied grunt and single slam of his fist against the wall before he took a deep breath, and crept back to the corner to have another look.


His eyes widened and he fought back the urge to smile as he spotted a thick chunk of croissant slam into the ground.


“Dam-” the booming voice of a gigantic woman was cut short as she caught herself from cursing. Dave looked up to see an infant hanging in a babybjorn on her chest, clapping with glee before reaching for its mother's morning croissant once more. The gigantic blonde, whose split ends and crow's feet made her look far more exhausted than anyone else he had seen since shrinking, pulled it out of her child's reach as she walked on her way. She alked down to her child in a cute tone that masked the sheer frustration of her words as she described watching a chunk of the overpriced pastry become inedible by hitting the sidewalk.


To the tiny man hiding at the mouth of the alley though, her child's antics were something deserving a publically funded monument in the center of the city. The chunk of fluffy bread alone would be enough to feed him for days, but woven into those buttery folds was something he hadn't tasted in months; chocolate.


A chunk of chocolate croissant had been thrown into his path.


Dave could feel his mouth watering as he crept around the corner and into the shadows cast by the coffee shop's rarely used bench. He tip toed along the bench's back side, where it directly butted against the coffee shop's external wall. All Dave needed to do was get to the far side, then dart out and grab it. As long as no one spotted him, he'd easily be able to drag it back to his haven and feast like a king.


Then he heard the loud jingle of the coffee shop's door being swung open, and the cement sidewalk shook as a forest of legs stepped out, each one covered in knee high navy socks and ending in identical black leather mary janes. Dave, terrified of being spotted, crouched down as the trio of teenage titans stepped out of the shop, while their voices sounded like a feminine hurricane roaring above him. Finally, the hurricane stopped as one giant schoolgirl said, “You guys go on, I'll catch up.”


“Better not be late,” one of her friends called as the other two started walking away.


Dave felt his body swaying back and forth as the other girl called back, clearly mocking some authority figure, “Tardiness is a demerit, young lady!”


All three girls laughed at the impression, but only one of their voices rang out high above Dave, keeping him pinned and cowering beneath the bench.


Whump!


A gust of wind rushed over him as the giant teen dropped her backpack down in front of the bench, completely smushing the chocolate croissant he coveted without a care in the world. The giantess's drink, something milky but dark and iced, slammed down next to her left foot as she settled in to enjoy her last few minutes of freedom before she would have to rush to her school.


Since shrinking early in the summer, Dave had managed to avoid anyone too young to buy beer but now that the warm weather was fading, he had quickly discovered that somewhere near his tiny haven was a private school. He had no idea if it was Catholic or some other religion, but he had seen its massive students prowling about, their huge feet stomping about even more carelessly than the other gigantic people that surrounded him, all while they laughed without a care in the world. The sound of the giant girl's bag unzipping drew his attention and he watched as her huge hand descended into the buidling sized backpack's depths.


A shriek emanated out of the bag, and Dave's whole body tensed up in response.


“There you are,” the giant girl announced with a snicker.


The tiny man watched as a woman his age or maybe a year or two younger was yanked up from the depths of the bag, flailing in terror as she was brought back down to the ground and set between the huge teen's feet. Dave realized that she was an inch taller than him as she pushed herself up onto her hands and knees, choking back sobs the whole time.


The right mary jane lifted up and then crashed down with terrifying speed.


BOOM!


“What is with you today?” The giantess sneered as she nudged the woman with the toe of her shoe, “I've had you long enough that you should know crying isn't allowed anymore.”


“S-sor-sorry, Mistress Haley,” the little woman replied with a sniffle, wiping her eyes as she started to crawl toward the girl's left shoe.


“Just get to work,” the giantess boomed, the same hand that had just manhandled the woman now wrapping around the sweet coffee concoction at her feet. “You know damn well that scuffed up shoes could get me a uniform related demerit.”


The shrunken woman simply nodded as she clambered over the toe of the girl's shoe, dragging her tongue across a barely noticable scuff mark, while reaching out to buff out another with her bare hands.


High above, Dave listened as the girl took a long slurp of her iced drink before letting out a low contented sigh. “You do remember how much I hate getting demerits, right?” She taunted, the toe of the other shoe knocking against the woman's bare backside.


“Yes, Mistress Haley.”


“How many did you give me when I was a freshman?”


“I don't know, Mistress.”


The right shoe lifted up, and the girl began to gently grind the ball of her foot onto the woman's back. Dave could do nothing but watch as the shrunken woman's body shook and then buckled, sending her sprawling with half her body on the left foot, the other half spread across the sidewalk beneath the girl's sole. “Twenty-fucking-six,” the teen practically growled, “You gave me enough for skirt length in one semester that I was in detention the moment I got back from winter break. God, how much did you love being such a stupid prudish bitch?”


The woman's pained scream turned into a heart-wrenching sob as the ball of the giantess's foot practically ground into her.


Then the foot lifted and settled back down on the ground, “I bet it's cause no one would ever have even thought about touching you back when you were person sized, right?”


Dave stared at the lean fit woman who propped herself back up using a teenage girl's shoes, and couldn't help but look down at his own body. A few months of surviving at his new height had carved his dad-bod into something cut enough to earn him a starring role on a CW show. Looking back at the grueling work the teenager was putting this woman through, he found himself wondering how much she had changed.


“That's right, Mistress Ha-” the tiny woman's voice caught in her throat as her eyes met Dave's.


Dave felt his heart start to hammer in his chest as he watched her jaw drop and her eyes widen to the size of dinner plates. Dave shook his head back and forth as he raised a finger to his lips, praying the tiny woman didn't scream in shock.


“That's right, what?” Boomed Haley, her de facto owner.


The shrunken woman gave him a nod that would be imperceptible to her teenage taskmistress before saying, “That's right, Mistress Haley.”


“Mhm,” the girl replied taking another long slurping sip of her iced drink as she crossed her legs and inspected her recently buffed shoe. “I suppose this is a good enough job not to earn you a demerit, slave,” the girl clearly savored calling the tiny being at her feet 'slave' practically purring it as she spoke. “Hurry up with the other one, I don't want to be tardy.”


Dave had already started creeping back toward the alleyway, but he couldn't help but feel his heart break as the tiny woman crawled to Haley's right foot and set to work licking at a scuff. The whole time her eyes were on him as he moved cautiously but quickly back througu the shadow's of the bench.


As he pressed his back against the brick and carefully sidled around the corner, Haley decided that she was ready to go. Her huge hand snatched up what Dave could only assume was her former teacher with no preamble, eliciting a yelp from the tiny woman as she was shoved back into the bag, which was zipped shut and thrown over the girl's shoulder like it didn't contain a tiny human life inside of it. Standing stock still, one foot in the shadow of the alley, the other in the warm morning sun, Dave watched the girl smooth out her plaid skirt.


She couldn't be older than seventeen, with a round almost cherubic face framed by long dark hair kept out of her eyes by a simple plaid headband that matched a skirt just short enough to catch the attention of hundreds of teenage boys. Watching her button a complementary blazer over a clean white blouse, Dave tried to imagine what he would have thought of the cruel titaness standing before him had he walked by her at his old height.


If he had noticed the girl at all, he probably would have thought she looked perfectly nice. The kind of girl who babysat her neighbor's kids and never got into any trouble at school. Still, as he watched her big friendly brown eyes admire the toes of her hand-buffed mary janes, he couldn't help but notice the smug superiority in her smile. The knowledge that the fate that had befallen the teacher that had just licked her shoes clean, would never happen to her. A look Dave knew all too well as the self-congratulatory self-importance of the Immune.


The ground quaked, and even though he knew they didn't, Dave swore the bricks of the coffee shop trembled at the titanic teen's passage. He turned his gaze skyward and saw the smushed bit of chocolate croissant clinging to the underside of her backpack. His stomach rumbled and sent a pang of pain through his abdomen, but the tiny man crept back into the shadows of the alley.


Dave knew there were far worse things than going hungry at his size.

Chapter End Notes:

Hello again!

Per usual, sorry it's been a while!  I know a few have asked when I was going to churn out some more size content, well hopefully keep your eyes peeled for this updates to this story.

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