“Tonight was fun, wasn’t it?” Marlon said.
He was focused on the road, but even in the half-light of a city evening and having to crane her neck to see it, Veronica could make out the happy smile on his face.
“It really was!” She let out a satisfying sigh. “We should do this again sometime.”
Veronica congratulated herself on the fake smile and tried not to feel too shriveled up inside. Marlon didn’t need her being weepy right now.
The night had gone terribly. Shunted off the side away from everyone else, in the special box built for Dots, she’d had nothing but her thoughts to occupy her time.
Some junior colleagues tried flimsy overtures at conversation early on, but she knew enough to know they were only fishing for weaknesses or favors from her, now that she’d Descended. She’d sent them on their way.
It had left her clenching her jaw as she stared out the viewing glass as all the sharks and minnows circled around her husband Marlon. He stood a comfortable six foot three - a Mountain - and towered over most people; and he could dominate a room simply by walking into it. It burned to see everyone ogle him like that, and it burned even more to see how they laid their hands on his shoulders, how easily they could hold his weighty stare.
She watched as everyone tried to cozy up to her husband and felt the heat of something ugly slither through her as the hours dragged on.
No other Dots came. Veronica hadn’t expected them to. A few Littles and a smattering of Dolls, but mostly it had been Miners and Shorties. The firm wasn’t as size-friendly as they advertised at these charity balls, regardless of their benefits package.
“Honey?” Marlon’s deep voice pierced through her brooding cloud. “We’re almost there. Hold on to your strap.”
From her seat on the dashboard - built in for her to give her the illusion of normalcy - Veronica held on to her handhold, a small threaded grip that tethered her in place. It was a grip she could barely close her hand around, but she knew, objectively, that it was little more than a rubber band.
Watching the lights outside the car flash by reminded her of those old sci-fi movies involving time travel. Bright lights, loud noise, a young and funny sidekick to get the kids in the theatres... as if all you needed to fix your life was a Delorean, some plutonium, and a gutsy punch. Sitting there, in the dashboard, holding on to a rubber band, Veronica could almost believe that she could fix her life so easily.
Tears blurred her vision, and Veronica bit down on the whimper that threatened to escape her.
Marlon had just had a good night. He’d gone out, interacted with normal people for the first time in months, and he was finally smiling again. So what if the cost had been the final nail in the coffin for her hopes of a normal life? He’d already done so much, putting up with her through the whole Descension; it was the least she could do.
As the car slowed and pulled into the parking spot, Veronica counted herself lucky. At least she still had Marlon, in some fashion. Sure they hadn’t touched in months for her own safety, but she knew the stories. She’d read the studies. Intersize relationships weren’t uncommon, but most lasting ones were formed after one or both parties Descended.
At least Marlon still talked to her. She’d represented enough people at the firm to see what it was like when one spouse ignored the other because of size incompatibility.
Marlon killed the engine and started working on releasing her seat. Veronica longed to reach out and touch him, even brush her hand against his massive fingers. The doctors told her not to touch anyone larger than a Little or a Doll without warning, lest she end up hurting her in surprise.
Something unlatched in her seat, and the next thing Veronica knew she was being pulled, pulled, pulled back. It was like being on a roller coaster, except there was no track and the only thing keeping her from shrieking in terror was the warm, enormous presence of Marlon’s hand, holding her little cubby in his palm.
“Gonna’ have to work on that,” Marlon said, looking down at her in his palm. Salt and pepper hair shone under the moonlight. “Can’t be taking too long to get you strapped in if we‘ll be going out again sometime.”
Veronica felt it then while cupped in his hand. The vast difference between them now. A huge gulf she’d never cross, not in her Dot-sized body.
Marlon’s brow lowered in concern. “Vee? Honey? Is everything all right?”
He had a nice, sun-kissed skin tone. Years in a milder climate and under a kinder sun had left him with crow’s feet and a stare that could stop a man’s heartbeat from across the room. Full lips, great for kissing. Slender cheekbones. A dark and heavy shade of chocolate to his eyes. She remembered enjoying the height difference between them when they’d started dating.
Now it was the death knell of the best thing in her life.
“Vee?”
They’d met at a work function. She’d been representing Descended teachers and other staff in a case against a drunken Miner who’d fallen into the Dot and Little-sized pond and ruined the local ecosystem they’d been using for classes. Marlon had been one of the few people involved who hadn’t looked at the situation and laughed. That had been twenty years ago.
“I can’t,” Veronica whispered. “I just... I can’t.”
Her husband craned an ear. “I’m sorry. I didn’t catch that.”
Of course he didn’t, Veronica cursed. Her size was getting in the way of having a proper breakdown.
“Mar, I can’t do this. I can’t go out again like that. I-I’ll keep working for them, but honey, maybe I- if you want to we can-” Veronica floundered for the right words, the ones that stuck to her throat as she tried to voice unthinkable thoughts. “I know you enjoyed going out again and talking with people and I know you missed date night and I...I...”
Marlon held up a hand, the size of a billboard to her. Veronica stopped trying to utter those dreadful words.
“But it’s not over! There’s still something left,” he said, grinning. How could he still be grinning after what she’d just said?
“Marlon I don’t think-”
“Hush now,” he shushed. The tenor of his tone came out strong and commanding, and Veronica found herself suddenly complying. It was a tone that used to send shivers up her spine when she’d been full-sized, and now, it seemed to thread through her, reverberating. “I have one more thing to show you.”
Whatever protest she was going to make died in her throat as he placed his index finger against her face. Heat and warmth like nothing she’d experienced in months radiated from him down her body, and she shivered against the skin of his finger pad.
“Good girl,” he said. He plucked Veronica from her seat, pinching the ugly thermal shirt by the collar and dangling her above the open floor. Veronica yelped, and shut her eyes, trying not to get vertigo as she swung in his grip.
Ba-dump.
She opened her eyes. Something large was pressing against her back, pushing her into a finely threaded fabric that smelled like sweat and pine.
Ba-dump.
“Hold steady there,” Marlon chuckled, voice booming above her like a megaphone. She could tell he was moving through the house. “Don’t want to lose you in this mess.”
She shouldn’t be blushing. She shouldn’t be blushing!
“I’ve got you, Vee.” His breath was a brush of wind in her ears. “I’m not letting you go.”
... dammit.
It’d been so long since he’d held her in any way and something about the thrum under the surface she was trapped against was making her heady and getting her drunk. Was that his heartbeat? Had it always been so loud?
“... you can’t be holding me like this.” It killed her to say it. The law was strict. If someone found out, Marlon was looking at -
“I got my handler’s license this morning.”
- zero years because holy hell her husband was amazing.
Something clinched her throat and Veronica ducked and hid her face against the fabric of his shirt, which seemed like a living field of silk against her cheeks. Her eyes stung, and she clung to him, luxuriating in the feel of his impossibly large body as he walked through the house.
“Here we go.”
A light like a miniature sun flared into existence. Veronica pushed off Marlon’s body and tried to get a look, squinting. When her eyesight adjusted, her heart leapt up to her throat.
It was a restaurant.
A scaled to size replica of the restaurant where they’d had their first date. It had been a dinky pizza shop with a low ceiling, but a wide selection of sizes and talented chefs capable of whipping up dishes for people of every size.
Marlon cupped her and guided her to the edge of the table where the miniature restaurant stood. Veronica walked across his palm in a daze, still in shock over dream come to life.
He came around the other side, sitting in his chair with a sigh of satisfaction. He saw her staring and nodded to the restaurant. “Took some time,” he murmured. “I had to get you out of the house while they set things up. Didn’t want to spoil the surprise.”
Veronica walked through the set. It was missing two walls and a ceiling, probably to allow larger hands to fasten down tables and furniture with microscrews. The chair was a little heavier than expected, but she could still pull it out and sit in it, with no fear of it being blown over by a stray gust or passing rustle.
“Bagel pizzas are in the freezer by the way. It’s not the same but...” he shrugged. Then, he reached down and tried to pull up a booth two tables over from where Veronica sat at. The booth stuck and the floor jerked but didn’t break at his casual display of strength and size. “They weren’t keen on letting me just photograph everything, but once I explained everything. Then they even let me take a chair and chop it down to size for seating.”
Veronica took in a deep breath, inhaling through the nose. He was right. She could smell the pizza sauce seeped into the wood in her miniature table. It was like being back in time, back when she’d been young, tall, and happy, butterflies in her belly on her first date with her future husband.
What was that? Twenty years ago?
Rounding the wall separating them, she looked up at him. Whereas before Marlon’s expression after the party had been giddy (in anticipation, she realized), now he looked contemplative, almost nervous.
She could still smell him on her. Pine and sweat. A scent she’d devoured many an evening.
She and Marlon still had work to do, things to discuss. But this? This was hope.
“So, what do you say, Vee?” Marlon asked. The tightness around his eyes faded, and a spark of youth returned. “Still don’t to keep me around now that you’re a Dot? Because you see, I’m curious about something.”
“Oh?” Veronica smiled coquettishly, despite her nerves. “About what?”
A hungry look crossed his face. It was the look of a husband who desired his wife.
“I’m curious to see,” he rumbled. “If I can still make you mine.”
It was a mountain coming to life. A thrill unlike any other. Veronica’s mouth went dry, and her heart skipped a beat.
And it was all for her.
Veronica crossed her arms, swallowed, and faced down her giant. Challenging. “Why don’t we find out?”