The Day’s Work 3 (Peter)
My name is Jill Tiny
chapter 18
by
copier
· original author:
bask25456
Back at the Store, things have changed: there are Tinies now. Where before there were empty tables, there is now row upon row of naked Tinies, each inch-class lying on the appropriately labeled table. As Peter walks in and makes for the "2s" table, Jill can see that they're the last to arrive. Everyone is out making their selections: Chloe's friends are wandering among the tables, eyeing each Tiny in 8-10 sizes, sizing them up and judging their worth, ready to start their own satellite Tinyvilles. Tom is also wandering among the tables, but he isn't picky about size. His preference is quite obvious, with him fondling the breasts of each Tiny girl that catches his eye, occasionally getting an opinion from one of his Harem at the same time as a kiss or rub. Richard and Alexandra are being a bit more discriminating, and less obvious, Richard is moving carefully, judging by his own arcane standards the fitness of a girl for his coterie of maids. Alexandra is grabbing the cutest boys she finds with coos of delight, occasionally grabbing a particularly cute looking couple who were intertwined even in sleep. Jill notes without surprise that Phil is one of her selection: he was perfectly cute, exactly what Peter's mom was looking for. Peter drops her with the nerds, who surprisingly aren't wandering among the Tinies like kids in a candy store. She approaches from the edge of the "7s" table, where they are holding a whispered conversation. She catches the drift from Dan's impassioned comment:
"But how are we supposed to choose when they're asleep, with nothing to go on but what they look like?” David nods agreement:
“Yeah. I want a pet like Jill. She’s the best pet Tiny ever!” The others nod sagely, apparently oblivious to Jill’s approach. They nearly jump out of their skins when she speaks up from that able:
"Like me? What, pray tell, does that mean?" She calls, a smile on her face: that first comment of Dan’s had made her very, very proud. They all jump and look at her guiltily:
"Jill!" They exclaim. They quickly crowd around. It's a gesture of affection and enthusiasm, but Jill could wish that they would stay farther back. She's done a lot of looking up today, and her neck is starting to ache fiercely.
"Dan, you were saying you were hoping that they'd be like me? That I’m the “best pet ever”. What do you mean?" She asks again. The nerds all look at each other over her head, than hesitantly start speaking.
"Funny." "Smart." "Fun." "Affectionate." “Kind.” "Assertive." "Empathetic." They all stop and stare at Matt, who shrugs, and they keep going: "Chipper." "Happy." "Secret Agent!" "Cheerful." “Insightful”. Again, they all look at Matt, who shrugs once more. "Hot!" Chris suddenly finds himself at the center of four cold, angry gazes. Matt cracks his knuckles slowly. Chris stammers. "I meant C-Cute! Yeah, Cute!" They nod, that's much better. They turn their attention to Jill, who's staring down at the table, with very red ears. “I’m not sure if I deserve to be called all that…” The nerds firmly disagree with her:
“Of course you do!” She traces a pattern on the table with a foot, shyly, than looks up with shining eyes: "Thank you, boys." They all shrug, or look away awkwardly, feeling a bit embarrassed themselves. Matt, however, looks back:
"What are you thanking us for? It's the truth!"
"Well, it's nice to hear it said." Searching for a way to change the subject, Jill looks around at the peacefully sleeping Tinies strewn in endless rows around her. There certainly is no end to choice: there were almost three thousand Tinies rescued, in total. Many of the others were grabbing Tinies by the handful, without any fear that they’d deplete the stock. When she looks back up, David is looking at her:
"Jill, you agree, don't you, that it's hard to judge anything except, uh, attractiveness," Jill conceals a grin at the euphemism, "When they're all naked and asleep like this, right?" Jill nods slowly. Dan breaks in:
"Jill, You know them from school, don't you?" He asks. Jill is taken aback.
"Uh, I guess I do, it’s been awhile…”
"That’s great! You can help us choose."
“Wait, I don’t know about this.” Jill says slowly, a bit dismayed at their faith in her. Dan, smelling a refusal, gets on his knees, to bring his head down to Jill's level. The other guys quickly do the same, a set of five heads with chins on the table, looking at her pleadingly, chorusing the request.
"Peter's right." She tells them finally, after a lengthy pause. "Puppy dog eyes are the worst. I give up, I'll do it." The nerds whoop, and she has to beat a hasty retreat in order to not get swept up in their victory dance. Not that she minds the sentiment, but she would rather not get thrown up in the air or something. When they calm down, she takes charge:
"Okay. Tell me, did you guys rescue any Tinies, particularly girls?" The nerds all look at her nervously, looking guilty. "Don't worry, I'm not mad." She adds belatedly. They all look at each other, then each nods reluctantly. Michael hastily reassures you:
"Don't worry, we did like you'n Peter said, gentle, respectful, put'em to sleep, let the girls undress'em."
"Dude, shut up." Matt elbows Michael in the ribs. Jill raises her eyes at the last one:
"Someone tell you that last one when I wasn't looking?" She holds up a hand as they start to look shifty, a clear indication of a forthcoming evasion:
"Never mind, off topic. It was a good instruction anyways. What I was going to say, is those are your first choices. Bring them here." Now the boys are really looking uncomfortable. Chris articulates this discomfort:
'But Jill, we were careful and all, but they all ran, and we had to net them. They were screaming so loud! I'm sure they'll remember us." Jill nods:
"This is one of the conditions to my help. There are quite a few, so be ready. You're going to have to own up to your rescue, yes, but you'll deal with it, if you're good masters." They look at one another, than slowly drift apart. Coming back a few moments later, they lay a double handful of Tinies, all 7-10 and all female, at Jill's feet. She looks at their naked bodies, all ‘coincidentally’ lying upwards with breasts exposed to all the worlds, and purses her lips. She turns to the boys:
“Next condition: Tissues. Now." They don't question, they come back with a large number of white, thin sheets. She directs them to lay one over each girl, and she personally turns them all over under the tissues. She looks at her handiwork, satisfied for the moment:
“Now, Dan.” She asks he comes over and kneels down, than stands back up, grabbing a chair. Pulling up to the table in it, he’ somewhat taller than Jill, still, but still much closer than standing. Jill backs up a bit so as to not have to crane her neck so much, “Which ones are yours?” Dan gingerly picks up a trio of 10s, an 8 and a 7, moving them over in front of him. Jill gives each one careful consideration, than points at one. It’s the 8, a 16 year old brunette.
“Her.” She says firmly.” the other nerds quickly take away the rejects (gently, she notices, and letting them keep the tissues). Dan stares wide-eyed at her pick, his new pet. He’s a bit stunned, Jill notices. Being told that you can have a Tiny (actually, more than one, but Jill wouldn’t allow that), and spending time with one’s friend’s Tiny and actually seeing one’s own little pet girl lying on the table in front of you are very different things. Jill helps him out:
“Go on, pick her up.” Her voice is encouraging, but as he picks her up, tissue falling on either side of her, she calls out hastily: “Wrap the tissue around her!” Jill complies and Jill breathes a sigh of relief: Dan had been about to turn the girl over, which would have left her naked on top of the tissue. Now, however, she watches with quiet pleasure as Dan looks down at the tissue-wrapped girl in his hand with extremely large eyes, barely breathing. At length, he looks at her:
“What’s her name?” He asks softly, as if afraid to wake the sleeping Tiny up. He needn’t have worried: the Tinies who were gassed (practically all of them) would stay deeply asleep for at least sixteen hours, and wouldn’t wake up even is put next to an amplifier (a Normal amplifier) cranked up to maximum. Jill shakes her head:
“I’m not telling.”
“Why not?” At another time he might have been annoyed by her refusal, but now he just can’t stop looking at the girl in his hand.
“You’re going to have to ask her for her name yourself, when she wakes up. Now, let Michael have the chair.” She watches Dan go with quiet contentment. Jill is pairing up each boy with a Tiny according to her own judgment of both: the girl she had picked to be Dan’s pet was known to be kindly and “have a thing for” younger guys. Dan, in her opinion, was definitely the ‘youngest’ of the bunch, regardless of their actual ages (which she didn’t know for certain). For Michael and Chris, they too luckily had very appropriate matches in their own batch of Tinies. For Michael, she picks a very young (but still developed) 8, a blue-haired dreamer with a “thing” for older guys: she doesn’t think that Michael was really “older” than Dan, but she feels that his own imagination would mesh well with his new pets. Also, she was fairly certain that he was chronologically the oldest: the badly-shaved stubble on his pimply chin and cheeks was more extensive than even Matt’s, the true “oldest” of the bunch in Jill’s opinion.
Chris, the horniest of the bunch, as his occasional slip-ups have revealed, however polite he attempts to be, gets a 10 who was both quite shy and quite ashamed of her body, for no good reason as far as Jill can tell. The shyness, which could reach legendary proportions and cause physical violence (as a few particularly stupid boy-Tinies could attest), would make her give tell Chris the what-for if he got too excited, but his own sincere appreciation would in time, Jill hoped, make his pet gain more confidence in herself. When it comes time to do David, however, Jill runs into trouble: his pitifully spread of Tinies simply doesn’t have anyone Jill would consider a good match. She sighs:
“Well, I guess we’ll have to start looking at the others,” She says reluctantly, but suddenly, Matt steps in: “Wait.” He quickly starts gathering a truly astounding Pile of Tinies, around 20.
“What’s this?” Asks Jill. Matt looks at her:
“Well, me and Matt kind of worked collaboratively to get this lot, and it was most of the Tinies left in his area.”
“I thought you were working the cameras.”
“I was, but on those cameras I just saw this opportunity that was way too good to pass up, so I quickly arranged to work together with David to catch them. I did the actual catching, but I thought” Jill nodded slowly:
“Okay, I guess that’s appropriate enough.” Looking at David, Jill sees he’s looking a bit queasy:
“These Tinies will definitely remember me.” He says. Jill looks at Matt:
“What exactly do you mean by ‘working together’?” Matt gives her a wry look:
“We did a dog and hunter routine.” Seeing her blank look, he went on, “David played to dog, barking loudly, stomping around and scaring the Tinies into panicking and running down a main space between two buildings. I then played the hunter and caught them. There were so many that I had to use one of the drop-down cages.” Jill winces: it’s a simple wire-mesh box, with one side missing, that is dropped on a group of Tinies. “Of course, those things don’t come pre-equipped with sleeping gas and someone fumbled their last gas canister, so I had to run- carefully- back to the van and grab another. They were awake for quite a while.”
“They’ll definitely remember me.” David repeats, glumly. Jill absorbs and processes the information, but doesn’t comment, quickly moving through the now-greater selection of Tinies. She thinks thoughts about making beds and lying in them, but doesn’t say anything. She’s fairly sure that the two comprehend her attitude anyways. At length, she picks a blond 9, about his age. He’s difficult to pick for: David us, in Jill’s opinion, aggressive with Tinies, and horny as well. He’s not horny like Chris, whose faults lie along the lines of inadvertent remarks and gaffes as well as eyes that stray just a little too often, even for Jill. Instead, Jill has a feeling that David, more than any other of the nerds, is inclined towards a dominating (and sexual, obviously) master position: it is, thankfully, just an inclination for now: he seems to like, and respect, Jill as much as any other nerd, as well as be protective. But every so often Jill catches the smallest little hint that he wanted to treat her more like a pet. He is, Jill realizes, quite a lot like Marcy.
For that reason she almost picks someone like Jackie: aggressive, proud, and super anti-Normal, quite unwilling to take any crap from anyone. But the she hesitates, remembering how Jackie is now: Marcy’s perfectly obedient pet Doll. Jackie’s attitude had simply earned her glasses of apple juice until her entire personality transformed, permanently, Marcy certainly hadn’t changed one bit. When Tinies went up against people like Marcy, Jill realizes, the Tiny gets broken in and changed by the Master, not the other way around. So instead, she goes in the complete opposite direction, choosing a famously over-diffident girl. It’s a risk: if David is interested only in the physical and cares nothing at all for his pet, he’ll simply get satisfied all the more quickly with her. But Jill, remembering how much he had blushed when she gave him a peck and his “Bitch” comment when she was on her mission, was fairly sure he wasn’t: he’d feel so guilty being so easily obeyed at first that he’d insist that his pet start acting for herself and asserting herself. Or so Jill hoped.
Leaving David as a problem for another day, potentially, she considers Matt, who in his own way is even more difficult than David. Matt’s problem, Jill thinks, is that he feels that he’s jaded, that he’s seen it all and knows a lot. This also meant that he often gets quiet and cynical. He’s such a know-it-all downer! Jill thinks to herself crossly. Feeling a little guilty about thinking so negatively about him, Jill also makes herself remember his kindness and concern as well. Thos traits, however, aren’t what are making problems for her. She shakes her head, If her were My master I wouldn’t let him… Jill’s dark train of thought is interrupted by Matt himself:
“Jill? I was thinking perhaps I’d take two.” Jill heads snaps up as the rest of the nerds draw in breath apprehensively. Matt blanches at the look on her face, a reflection of her earlier negativity. She notices it and uses it, although before she tears into him she does make her expression a bit more challenging and cocky, rather than nasty:
“Two Tinies, who I’m choosing to be like myself? Tell me Matt, do you think you’re man enough to handle two of me?” The group gasps:
“Ooh, double burrrn.” Laughs David, and the rest chuckle. Matt shakes his head no apprehensively:
“Well, I was just thinking.. he reaches towards the table as Jill prattles on a bit about how there are other problems associated with Multiple pets as well, Matt goes on over her “I was just thinking that these two kind of caught my eye, and that they probably should stay together…” Jill abruptly ceases talking as she sees what Matt has. In each hands he holds one of a pair of identical redheaded 7s, limbs and tissue dangling gently from his very loose downward hold on their stomachs. Jill looks at the twin Tinies considering while Matt waits patiently. Finally, she nods grudgingly:
“Well, I suppose I could make an exception just this once.” Mat smiles, with just a hint of smugness, and thanks her politely. Jill almost stamps her foot: Ooh, he did it again Matt had gotten around Jill, neatly acting calm, collected and reasonable and getting his way in the end. Jill really hates it when he does that: it’s the biggest manifestation of his problem. Looking at the two Tinies as Matt carefully sets them side by side in his palm, a different thought comes to mind: He might be able to do it to one of me, but let’s see him do it to two of them! The girls Matt had chosen were just what he needed: they had a reputation as being some of the most fiery, aggressive Tinies in school. They weren’t crazily anti-Normal, like Jackie, but they were passionate, and they worked well together. Matt wouldn’t know what hit him. Matt looks up from staring with great complacency at his two (very attractive) prizes in time to catch the last of Jill’s evil grin:
“What?” He demands. Jill just shakes his head, and indicates that he should pick her up. Suddenly troubled, he does so.
“Come along guys.” She calls to the others. They follow with contentedly as well: at first they had looked mutinous when she let Matt have two Tinies. However, they had seen the full extent of Jill’s evil smile and their expressions turned to knowing grins, elbowing each other and shaking their heads at Matt behind his back. Jill reaches her destination and Matt sets her down: the pet store is fully equipped to house their own stock, and the buyer of a Tiny gets to take this same housing with them. Jill’s standing on the top of very large stack of rooms for 10s. The boys assemble around her on her soapbox and she starts laying down the law:
“As I said, there are a few conditions to my assistance. First, the tattooing. Get a girl to do it. Why don’t you do that now?” They look at each other, but there’s no objection to what clearly isn’t a question from Jill. After a whispered consultation, Michael walks over to one of Chloe’s friends, who’s methodically tattooing the table of 4s on their right shoulder. He approaches, and she ignores him pointedly. They can’t hear what he said, but the group can easily make out that he’s stammering, but forging ahead. After a moment, the girl looks at him, clearly surprised. She considers for a while after he finishes, than agrees, coming over to them. Michael introduces her as Lizzy:
“So, you want me to tattoo your Tinies? Alright then.” She gives all the nerds a looking over, clearly repelled by their acne, but still showing signs of new consideration. She indicates for them to dump their Tinies on the nearby table, showing more surprise at how few there are and positive astonishment at their tissue-wrappings. The Nerds come back and Jill prepares to go on, but then Lizzy walks over to Dan with the needle gun. He holds out a hand, and she presses it to his skin. He winces, but doesn’t move, and after a moment Lizzy goes back to the table, leaving Dan with a small drop of blood on his otherwise delicate hand.
“What was that?’ Jill asks.
“She was getting my DNA, to link it to the DNA of my Tiny already in the database and both our names.” Jill nods: that makes sense. Than she frowns:
“Wait, DNA of your pet, “Both” of your names?” How do you have those.” Dan looks surprised at the question:
“Didn’t you know? The semi-government, semi-private guys who were in charge of you Tinies kept a database with all your DNA in it, for experimental purposes.”
“Those bastards! How dare they!” Matt interjected, shaking his head:
“What did you expect? They had power, and no real supervision. In fact, you should be grateful that it was just DNA and a few blood tests during check-ups: when we hacked their systems, we found some archived files with some proposals to do some really crazy shit with you guys. Fortunately for you, those proposals were defeated.” Matt sounds reasonable, but Jill isn’t buying it. She shoots him a venomous look and he raises his hands in defeat:
“Fine fine, they’re bastards. Anyway, when we hacked the system we grabbed all their files, including the DNA database, copied them for ourselves and deleted them. The info won’t be used for anything but registration of pets, now.” Jill is somewhat mollified, but she still has a concern:
“Well, leaving that aside, I want you guys to hold off on looking at their tattoos until you get their names.”
“Why?” asks David, “We’re going to have to look anyways, it’s required. Why wait?” Jill stamps her tiny foot, frustrated:
“Please just do it! It’s important, trust me.”
“I trust you, Jill.” Michael says., Chris and Dan agree. Matt and David, seeing the way the wind is blowing, agree as well. Jill gets back to distance:
“Now, that’s it for tattoos. Now, housing: no cages. Not ever.” The nerds all assure her that they would never put their pets in a cage, under any circumstances. Each grabs a room from the appropriate stack (there are 10). Jill makes Matt grab two:
“Why? They’re twins: I think they’d be used to sharing a room.” Jill shakes her head:
“If that’s the case, it will be a point in your favor to let them have their own space. Trust me, there’s nothing that will make them happier than to not be treated as half a Tiny. You might want to modify their rooms with a connecting door, though.” Matt nods agreement:
“I hear, and I obey.” The other nerds laugh: clearly it’s a quotation. Jill feels a smile coming on herself when he gallantly bows to the stack of rooms she’s standing on.
“Let’s see: tattoos, names, rooms… oh yeah. Clothes!” All at once, Jill’s face lights up, and her evil smile returns. The nerds all take a reflexive step back; it might’ve been ten times smaller than any smile on a Normal’s face, but somehow it managed to be ten times more evil than any they had ever seen anyway. Jill turns to Matt:
“Matt, remember your comment earlier?” Matt nods with extreme apprehension. The other nerds wouldn’t have been surprised if he had thrown himself on the ground and begged Jill’s forgiveness. That’s not what Jill has in mind, however: “Well, I finally figured out how to get even: you’re going to find, this instant, a number of sets of clothes which fit for your pets: they’re not going to be revealing or sexy, they’re going to be comfortable, they’re going to be designed for different situations (PJ’s, swimsuits, etc.), and most importantly, at least some of them are going to match! If you don’t do this for me,” she warns as Matt starts contemplating the amount of work this will involve, “well, I might just have to get… creative. We wouldn’t want that, would we?” No power of earth could’ve made any of the nerds fail to obey Jill at that moment: the other four simply give thanks that it’s only Matt she’s addressing. Matt nods, practically prostrating himself, and nearly runs over to the sacks of clothes “Don’t forget underwear, and shoes!” She yells after them. Jill turns to the rest of the nerds, smile fading. She looks at them seriously:
“As for the rest of you, I’m not going to tell you what clothes to give your pets. I’m not even going to tell you to give clothes to your pets.” They all look startled at this sudden change of attitude:
“Why not?” Jill sighs and sits down, legs dangling, at once looking smaller and more vulnerable:
“I’m a pet: you guys are masters. In a way, I’m kind of your pet, considering that you and Peter are friends.” She looks fierce for a second, as they look at each other in wonder, Chris, Michael and Dan’s glasses gleaming, and her fire returns for a second: “Don’t get any ideas though. I’m Peter’s pet first, and no other’s.” They hastily nod, looking chastised. “But after Peter, I’m both his family’s pet and the group of his friend’s pet. That means I’m at least partially the Tiny of all five of you. It’s my job to obey you, after Peter of course, and it’s most certainly not my place to tell you how, or whether, to clothe your own Tinies.” They all nod, seeing the sense of her words.
Jill leans back, looking at the ceiling, continuing: “However, it is my place, if you guys let me, to relate to you how your Tinies will feel when they wake up. They’ll be naked, they’ll be in a strange room, if thankfully not in a cage, they’ll feel a bit of soreness coming from their butts, and they’ll be scared. My memory was hazy when I woke up the first time I got the gas, but I still retained a bit, general impressions and especially emotions. So will they. Considering all that, not having any clothes to put on, or only having a bunny suit, or only underwear, or whatever turns you guys on.” They all start blushing at her blunt words, but Jill is still looking at the ceiling: “That will simply make them even more frightened. It would be best if you gave them something to wear that’s like what they were wearing. I know the shop has a few acceptable things, if you don’t feel like searching through the sacks. Please leave that other stuff in the closet, hopefully with lots of other modest outfits and some comfortable PJs. You shouldn’t give them they’re own clothes, though: it’s an unwritten rule of Tinies. We can wear stuff like our own clothes, but not the clothes themselves.” She pauses for a moment, speech done, than stands and looks down from the ceiling. She smiles up at the group, which is at varying degrees of reflection. Chris is clearly reflecting on something other than the rest, they all clearly hear him mutter:
“Whatever I like, eh? Maybe a leotard, I’ve always liked watching gymnasts.” Jill looks at him sadly, but says nothing. To everyone’s surprise, including his own, David elbows Chris and gives him a disgusted look:
“That’s so not cool, man.” Seeing Jill’s mournful eyes watching him, Chris looks down, ashamed. Jill turns to Michael, feeling a trifle more hopeful about David’s chances of becoming a nice master:
“Hey, could you take me to Peter? I think he’s done.” This entire time he and Chloe had been arguing in low, furious voices next to the Lilliputians and 3s capture box, which Peter had kept a grip on. There are some Tinies sprawled around it, naked and unconscious, but clearly not all the box contained. Now, as Michael carefully puts his own tiny in his shirt pocket, a tissue-wrapped lump clearly visible against his breast, they’re engaged in a silent battle of wills, eyes flashing and mouths pursed in exactly the same angry expression. At that moment, it could not have been more obvious that they were twins. Michael prudently sets Jill down on the table well away from the silently battling pair. Before he can go, Jill calls up to him:
“Don’t forget the special session. Peter said it was okay, so whenever you two are ready I’ll perform for you guys. Don’t forget to invite the others.” Michael nods absently: something is clearly bothering him. Jill waits patiently. Finally, he looks down at her with confusion and says (very quietly):
“Jill, you said you were mine and the others’ semi-pet, right? Doesn’t that include Matt? Can’t he do whatever he wants with his Tinies in the matter of clothing?” Jill slowly breaks out into an evil smile once more, eyes pure mischief:
“Why, of course he is! You should tell him that. But,” She leans forward conspiratorially, and Michael leans down so she can whisper: “you might consider waiting until after he finishes getting all those things I mentioned.” Michael slowly breaks into an evil grin himself, chuckling softly as he nods agreement.
“Bye Jill.” He says, and to her surprise quickly steals a quick hair-rub, without much embarrassment. She nearly opens her mouth to speak, but reconsiders and leans into it for a moment. It’s not the same quivering feeling she gets when Peter pets her, but it’s still nice. Michael walks back to the group clustered around the clothes, that evil grins quickly reasserting itself.
Jill watches him go, heart glowing quietly, then turns to her Master as Chloe finally gives in, kind of:
“We won’t display them out here, and we won’t advertise them, but if the customer wants them, they’ll get’em. Now go away, I’ve got work to do.” Peter holds on for a moment longer, than lets it go and steps back. Chloe immediately starts doing things with the box.
“Don’t think we’re through here.” Peter says warningly, voice cold and eyes grim. Chloe ignores him. Peter makes a disgusted noise and turns on his heel, walking away. Jill is about to call out, but apparently without even looking at her Peter reaches out and grabs her as she goes by. She gives an “eep”, surprised. His grip isn’t gentle. For a few strides he keeps going, swinging her around like a doll in his fist, but then he stops. He looks at her shamefaced, and releases his death-grip, cradling Jill much more gently:
“Sorry, I promised not to take my mood out on you. I’ll try harder.” Jill doesn’t ask what he and Chloe were fighting about: she had a fair inkling anyway, and didn’t want him getting upset again. Peter looked around the shop for his friends, than stops and stares. All of them, including Chris, are searching industriously through immense mounds of clothes dumped out of the sacks. Around the table they’re using, piles of cages of all descriptions lay on the floor, none-to-gently removed from the table to create space. Peter looks at Jill, eyes narrow:
“Did you tell my friends how to dress their pets?” He asks accusingly, although his lips refuse to stop quirking into a smile, no matter how he tries to suppress it. Jill looks at him, innocent as a newborn lamb:
“Would I do that?” She asks.
“Yes.” Peter replies bluntly but there’s laughter in his voice. He calls out a farewell: the nerds all pause for a moment to wave farewell, than resume their search, looking for jeans, tee-shirts and shoes of the right size with the same intensity that they had earlier displayed when wiring up great gads of electronic gear. Peter laughs despite himself:
“Seriously, you’ve got to tell me what you said to them. Your master commands it!” He says the last in a joking, self-deprecating voice. Jill smiles up at him:
“I hear, and I obey.” While he blinks and tries to process that, Jill asks: “Can I tell you on the way home, though? I’m” she pauses to give a jaw-creaking yawn, “kind of tired.” The day’s exertions are catching up to him. Peter smiles and starts petting her hair:
“Okay, home it is then.” He carries his tired little pet out of the shop and down the sidewalk.
With that, the day’s work ends.
"But how are we supposed to choose when they're asleep, with nothing to go on but what they look like?” David nods agreement:
“Yeah. I want a pet like Jill. She’s the best pet Tiny ever!” The others nod sagely, apparently oblivious to Jill’s approach. They nearly jump out of their skins when she speaks up from that able:
"Like me? What, pray tell, does that mean?" She calls, a smile on her face: that first comment of Dan’s had made her very, very proud. They all jump and look at her guiltily:
"Jill!" They exclaim. They quickly crowd around. It's a gesture of affection and enthusiasm, but Jill could wish that they would stay farther back. She's done a lot of looking up today, and her neck is starting to ache fiercely.
"Dan, you were saying you were hoping that they'd be like me? That I’m the “best pet ever”. What do you mean?" She asks again. The nerds all look at each other over her head, than hesitantly start speaking.
"Funny." "Smart." "Fun." "Affectionate." “Kind.” "Assertive." "Empathetic." They all stop and stare at Matt, who shrugs, and they keep going: "Chipper." "Happy." "Secret Agent!" "Cheerful." “Insightful”. Again, they all look at Matt, who shrugs once more. "Hot!" Chris suddenly finds himself at the center of four cold, angry gazes. Matt cracks his knuckles slowly. Chris stammers. "I meant C-Cute! Yeah, Cute!" They nod, that's much better. They turn their attention to Jill, who's staring down at the table, with very red ears. “I’m not sure if I deserve to be called all that…” The nerds firmly disagree with her:
“Of course you do!” She traces a pattern on the table with a foot, shyly, than looks up with shining eyes: "Thank you, boys." They all shrug, or look away awkwardly, feeling a bit embarrassed themselves. Matt, however, looks back:
"What are you thanking us for? It's the truth!"
"Well, it's nice to hear it said." Searching for a way to change the subject, Jill looks around at the peacefully sleeping Tinies strewn in endless rows around her. There certainly is no end to choice: there were almost three thousand Tinies rescued, in total. Many of the others were grabbing Tinies by the handful, without any fear that they’d deplete the stock. When she looks back up, David is looking at her:
"Jill, you agree, don't you, that it's hard to judge anything except, uh, attractiveness," Jill conceals a grin at the euphemism, "When they're all naked and asleep like this, right?" Jill nods slowly. Dan breaks in:
"Jill, You know them from school, don't you?" He asks. Jill is taken aback.
"Uh, I guess I do, it’s been awhile…”
"That’s great! You can help us choose."
“Wait, I don’t know about this.” Jill says slowly, a bit dismayed at their faith in her. Dan, smelling a refusal, gets on his knees, to bring his head down to Jill's level. The other guys quickly do the same, a set of five heads with chins on the table, looking at her pleadingly, chorusing the request.
"Peter's right." She tells them finally, after a lengthy pause. "Puppy dog eyes are the worst. I give up, I'll do it." The nerds whoop, and she has to beat a hasty retreat in order to not get swept up in their victory dance. Not that she minds the sentiment, but she would rather not get thrown up in the air or something. When they calm down, she takes charge:
"Okay. Tell me, did you guys rescue any Tinies, particularly girls?" The nerds all look at her nervously, looking guilty. "Don't worry, I'm not mad." She adds belatedly. They all look at each other, then each nods reluctantly. Michael hastily reassures you:
"Don't worry, we did like you'n Peter said, gentle, respectful, put'em to sleep, let the girls undress'em."
"Dude, shut up." Matt elbows Michael in the ribs. Jill raises her eyes at the last one:
"Someone tell you that last one when I wasn't looking?" She holds up a hand as they start to look shifty, a clear indication of a forthcoming evasion:
"Never mind, off topic. It was a good instruction anyways. What I was going to say, is those are your first choices. Bring them here." Now the boys are really looking uncomfortable. Chris articulates this discomfort:
'But Jill, we were careful and all, but they all ran, and we had to net them. They were screaming so loud! I'm sure they'll remember us." Jill nods:
"This is one of the conditions to my help. There are quite a few, so be ready. You're going to have to own up to your rescue, yes, but you'll deal with it, if you're good masters." They look at one another, than slowly drift apart. Coming back a few moments later, they lay a double handful of Tinies, all 7-10 and all female, at Jill's feet. She looks at their naked bodies, all ‘coincidentally’ lying upwards with breasts exposed to all the worlds, and purses her lips. She turns to the boys:
“Next condition: Tissues. Now." They don't question, they come back with a large number of white, thin sheets. She directs them to lay one over each girl, and she personally turns them all over under the tissues. She looks at her handiwork, satisfied for the moment:
“Now, Dan.” She asks he comes over and kneels down, than stands back up, grabbing a chair. Pulling up to the table in it, he’ somewhat taller than Jill, still, but still much closer than standing. Jill backs up a bit so as to not have to crane her neck so much, “Which ones are yours?” Dan gingerly picks up a trio of 10s, an 8 and a 7, moving them over in front of him. Jill gives each one careful consideration, than points at one. It’s the 8, a 16 year old brunette.
“Her.” She says firmly.” the other nerds quickly take away the rejects (gently, she notices, and letting them keep the tissues). Dan stares wide-eyed at her pick, his new pet. He’s a bit stunned, Jill notices. Being told that you can have a Tiny (actually, more than one, but Jill wouldn’t allow that), and spending time with one’s friend’s Tiny and actually seeing one’s own little pet girl lying on the table in front of you are very different things. Jill helps him out:
“Go on, pick her up.” Her voice is encouraging, but as he picks her up, tissue falling on either side of her, she calls out hastily: “Wrap the tissue around her!” Jill complies and Jill breathes a sigh of relief: Dan had been about to turn the girl over, which would have left her naked on top of the tissue. Now, however, she watches with quiet pleasure as Dan looks down at the tissue-wrapped girl in his hand with extremely large eyes, barely breathing. At length, he looks at her:
“What’s her name?” He asks softly, as if afraid to wake the sleeping Tiny up. He needn’t have worried: the Tinies who were gassed (practically all of them) would stay deeply asleep for at least sixteen hours, and wouldn’t wake up even is put next to an amplifier (a Normal amplifier) cranked up to maximum. Jill shakes her head:
“I’m not telling.”
“Why not?” At another time he might have been annoyed by her refusal, but now he just can’t stop looking at the girl in his hand.
“You’re going to have to ask her for her name yourself, when she wakes up. Now, let Michael have the chair.” She watches Dan go with quiet contentment. Jill is pairing up each boy with a Tiny according to her own judgment of both: the girl she had picked to be Dan’s pet was known to be kindly and “have a thing for” younger guys. Dan, in her opinion, was definitely the ‘youngest’ of the bunch, regardless of their actual ages (which she didn’t know for certain). For Michael and Chris, they too luckily had very appropriate matches in their own batch of Tinies. For Michael, she picks a very young (but still developed) 8, a blue-haired dreamer with a “thing” for older guys: she doesn’t think that Michael was really “older” than Dan, but she feels that his own imagination would mesh well with his new pets. Also, she was fairly certain that he was chronologically the oldest: the badly-shaved stubble on his pimply chin and cheeks was more extensive than even Matt’s, the true “oldest” of the bunch in Jill’s opinion.
Chris, the horniest of the bunch, as his occasional slip-ups have revealed, however polite he attempts to be, gets a 10 who was both quite shy and quite ashamed of her body, for no good reason as far as Jill can tell. The shyness, which could reach legendary proportions and cause physical violence (as a few particularly stupid boy-Tinies could attest), would make her give tell Chris the what-for if he got too excited, but his own sincere appreciation would in time, Jill hoped, make his pet gain more confidence in herself. When it comes time to do David, however, Jill runs into trouble: his pitifully spread of Tinies simply doesn’t have anyone Jill would consider a good match. She sighs:
“Well, I guess we’ll have to start looking at the others,” She says reluctantly, but suddenly, Matt steps in: “Wait.” He quickly starts gathering a truly astounding Pile of Tinies, around 20.
“What’s this?” Asks Jill. Matt looks at her:
“Well, me and Matt kind of worked collaboratively to get this lot, and it was most of the Tinies left in his area.”
“I thought you were working the cameras.”
“I was, but on those cameras I just saw this opportunity that was way too good to pass up, so I quickly arranged to work together with David to catch them. I did the actual catching, but I thought” Jill nodded slowly:
“Okay, I guess that’s appropriate enough.” Looking at David, Jill sees he’s looking a bit queasy:
“These Tinies will definitely remember me.” He says. Jill looks at Matt:
“What exactly do you mean by ‘working together’?” Matt gives her a wry look:
“We did a dog and hunter routine.” Seeing her blank look, he went on, “David played to dog, barking loudly, stomping around and scaring the Tinies into panicking and running down a main space between two buildings. I then played the hunter and caught them. There were so many that I had to use one of the drop-down cages.” Jill winces: it’s a simple wire-mesh box, with one side missing, that is dropped on a group of Tinies. “Of course, those things don’t come pre-equipped with sleeping gas and someone fumbled their last gas canister, so I had to run- carefully- back to the van and grab another. They were awake for quite a while.”
“They’ll definitely remember me.” David repeats, glumly. Jill absorbs and processes the information, but doesn’t comment, quickly moving through the now-greater selection of Tinies. She thinks thoughts about making beds and lying in them, but doesn’t say anything. She’s fairly sure that the two comprehend her attitude anyways. At length, she picks a blond 9, about his age. He’s difficult to pick for: David us, in Jill’s opinion, aggressive with Tinies, and horny as well. He’s not horny like Chris, whose faults lie along the lines of inadvertent remarks and gaffes as well as eyes that stray just a little too often, even for Jill. Instead, Jill has a feeling that David, more than any other of the nerds, is inclined towards a dominating (and sexual, obviously) master position: it is, thankfully, just an inclination for now: he seems to like, and respect, Jill as much as any other nerd, as well as be protective. But every so often Jill catches the smallest little hint that he wanted to treat her more like a pet. He is, Jill realizes, quite a lot like Marcy.
For that reason she almost picks someone like Jackie: aggressive, proud, and super anti-Normal, quite unwilling to take any crap from anyone. But the she hesitates, remembering how Jackie is now: Marcy’s perfectly obedient pet Doll. Jackie’s attitude had simply earned her glasses of apple juice until her entire personality transformed, permanently, Marcy certainly hadn’t changed one bit. When Tinies went up against people like Marcy, Jill realizes, the Tiny gets broken in and changed by the Master, not the other way around. So instead, she goes in the complete opposite direction, choosing a famously over-diffident girl. It’s a risk: if David is interested only in the physical and cares nothing at all for his pet, he’ll simply get satisfied all the more quickly with her. But Jill, remembering how much he had blushed when she gave him a peck and his “Bitch” comment when she was on her mission, was fairly sure he wasn’t: he’d feel so guilty being so easily obeyed at first that he’d insist that his pet start acting for herself and asserting herself. Or so Jill hoped.
Leaving David as a problem for another day, potentially, she considers Matt, who in his own way is even more difficult than David. Matt’s problem, Jill thinks, is that he feels that he’s jaded, that he’s seen it all and knows a lot. This also meant that he often gets quiet and cynical. He’s such a know-it-all downer! Jill thinks to herself crossly. Feeling a little guilty about thinking so negatively about him, Jill also makes herself remember his kindness and concern as well. Thos traits, however, aren’t what are making problems for her. She shakes her head, If her were My master I wouldn’t let him… Jill’s dark train of thought is interrupted by Matt himself:
“Jill? I was thinking perhaps I’d take two.” Jill heads snaps up as the rest of the nerds draw in breath apprehensively. Matt blanches at the look on her face, a reflection of her earlier negativity. She notices it and uses it, although before she tears into him she does make her expression a bit more challenging and cocky, rather than nasty:
“Two Tinies, who I’m choosing to be like myself? Tell me Matt, do you think you’re man enough to handle two of me?” The group gasps:
“Ooh, double burrrn.” Laughs David, and the rest chuckle. Matt shakes his head no apprehensively:
“Well, I was just thinking.. he reaches towards the table as Jill prattles on a bit about how there are other problems associated with Multiple pets as well, Matt goes on over her “I was just thinking that these two kind of caught my eye, and that they probably should stay together…” Jill abruptly ceases talking as she sees what Matt has. In each hands he holds one of a pair of identical redheaded 7s, limbs and tissue dangling gently from his very loose downward hold on their stomachs. Jill looks at the twin Tinies considering while Matt waits patiently. Finally, she nods grudgingly:
“Well, I suppose I could make an exception just this once.” Mat smiles, with just a hint of smugness, and thanks her politely. Jill almost stamps her foot: Ooh, he did it again Matt had gotten around Jill, neatly acting calm, collected and reasonable and getting his way in the end. Jill really hates it when he does that: it’s the biggest manifestation of his problem. Looking at the two Tinies as Matt carefully sets them side by side in his palm, a different thought comes to mind: He might be able to do it to one of me, but let’s see him do it to two of them! The girls Matt had chosen were just what he needed: they had a reputation as being some of the most fiery, aggressive Tinies in school. They weren’t crazily anti-Normal, like Jackie, but they were passionate, and they worked well together. Matt wouldn’t know what hit him. Matt looks up from staring with great complacency at his two (very attractive) prizes in time to catch the last of Jill’s evil grin:
“What?” He demands. Jill just shakes his head, and indicates that he should pick her up. Suddenly troubled, he does so.
“Come along guys.” She calls to the others. They follow with contentedly as well: at first they had looked mutinous when she let Matt have two Tinies. However, they had seen the full extent of Jill’s evil smile and their expressions turned to knowing grins, elbowing each other and shaking their heads at Matt behind his back. Jill reaches her destination and Matt sets her down: the pet store is fully equipped to house their own stock, and the buyer of a Tiny gets to take this same housing with them. Jill’s standing on the top of very large stack of rooms for 10s. The boys assemble around her on her soapbox and she starts laying down the law:
“As I said, there are a few conditions to my assistance. First, the tattooing. Get a girl to do it. Why don’t you do that now?” They look at each other, but there’s no objection to what clearly isn’t a question from Jill. After a whispered consultation, Michael walks over to one of Chloe’s friends, who’s methodically tattooing the table of 4s on their right shoulder. He approaches, and she ignores him pointedly. They can’t hear what he said, but the group can easily make out that he’s stammering, but forging ahead. After a moment, the girl looks at him, clearly surprised. She considers for a while after he finishes, than agrees, coming over to them. Michael introduces her as Lizzy:
“So, you want me to tattoo your Tinies? Alright then.” She gives all the nerds a looking over, clearly repelled by their acne, but still showing signs of new consideration. She indicates for them to dump their Tinies on the nearby table, showing more surprise at how few there are and positive astonishment at their tissue-wrappings. The Nerds come back and Jill prepares to go on, but then Lizzy walks over to Dan with the needle gun. He holds out a hand, and she presses it to his skin. He winces, but doesn’t move, and after a moment Lizzy goes back to the table, leaving Dan with a small drop of blood on his otherwise delicate hand.
“What was that?’ Jill asks.
“She was getting my DNA, to link it to the DNA of my Tiny already in the database and both our names.” Jill nods: that makes sense. Than she frowns:
“Wait, DNA of your pet, “Both” of your names?” How do you have those.” Dan looks surprised at the question:
“Didn’t you know? The semi-government, semi-private guys who were in charge of you Tinies kept a database with all your DNA in it, for experimental purposes.”
“Those bastards! How dare they!” Matt interjected, shaking his head:
“What did you expect? They had power, and no real supervision. In fact, you should be grateful that it was just DNA and a few blood tests during check-ups: when we hacked their systems, we found some archived files with some proposals to do some really crazy shit with you guys. Fortunately for you, those proposals were defeated.” Matt sounds reasonable, but Jill isn’t buying it. She shoots him a venomous look and he raises his hands in defeat:
“Fine fine, they’re bastards. Anyway, when we hacked the system we grabbed all their files, including the DNA database, copied them for ourselves and deleted them. The info won’t be used for anything but registration of pets, now.” Jill is somewhat mollified, but she still has a concern:
“Well, leaving that aside, I want you guys to hold off on looking at their tattoos until you get their names.”
“Why?” asks David, “We’re going to have to look anyways, it’s required. Why wait?” Jill stamps her tiny foot, frustrated:
“Please just do it! It’s important, trust me.”
“I trust you, Jill.” Michael says., Chris and Dan agree. Matt and David, seeing the way the wind is blowing, agree as well. Jill gets back to distance:
“Now, that’s it for tattoos. Now, housing: no cages. Not ever.” The nerds all assure her that they would never put their pets in a cage, under any circumstances. Each grabs a room from the appropriate stack (there are 10). Jill makes Matt grab two:
“Why? They’re twins: I think they’d be used to sharing a room.” Jill shakes her head:
“If that’s the case, it will be a point in your favor to let them have their own space. Trust me, there’s nothing that will make them happier than to not be treated as half a Tiny. You might want to modify their rooms with a connecting door, though.” Matt nods agreement:
“I hear, and I obey.” The other nerds laugh: clearly it’s a quotation. Jill feels a smile coming on herself when he gallantly bows to the stack of rooms she’s standing on.
“Let’s see: tattoos, names, rooms… oh yeah. Clothes!” All at once, Jill’s face lights up, and her evil smile returns. The nerds all take a reflexive step back; it might’ve been ten times smaller than any smile on a Normal’s face, but somehow it managed to be ten times more evil than any they had ever seen anyway. Jill turns to Matt:
“Matt, remember your comment earlier?” Matt nods with extreme apprehension. The other nerds wouldn’t have been surprised if he had thrown himself on the ground and begged Jill’s forgiveness. That’s not what Jill has in mind, however: “Well, I finally figured out how to get even: you’re going to find, this instant, a number of sets of clothes which fit for your pets: they’re not going to be revealing or sexy, they’re going to be comfortable, they’re going to be designed for different situations (PJ’s, swimsuits, etc.), and most importantly, at least some of them are going to match! If you don’t do this for me,” she warns as Matt starts contemplating the amount of work this will involve, “well, I might just have to get… creative. We wouldn’t want that, would we?” No power of earth could’ve made any of the nerds fail to obey Jill at that moment: the other four simply give thanks that it’s only Matt she’s addressing. Matt nods, practically prostrating himself, and nearly runs over to the sacks of clothes “Don’t forget underwear, and shoes!” She yells after them. Jill turns to the rest of the nerds, smile fading. She looks at them seriously:
“As for the rest of you, I’m not going to tell you what clothes to give your pets. I’m not even going to tell you to give clothes to your pets.” They all look startled at this sudden change of attitude:
“Why not?” Jill sighs and sits down, legs dangling, at once looking smaller and more vulnerable:
“I’m a pet: you guys are masters. In a way, I’m kind of your pet, considering that you and Peter are friends.” She looks fierce for a second, as they look at each other in wonder, Chris, Michael and Dan’s glasses gleaming, and her fire returns for a second: “Don’t get any ideas though. I’m Peter’s pet first, and no other’s.” They hastily nod, looking chastised. “But after Peter, I’m both his family’s pet and the group of his friend’s pet. That means I’m at least partially the Tiny of all five of you. It’s my job to obey you, after Peter of course, and it’s most certainly not my place to tell you how, or whether, to clothe your own Tinies.” They all nod, seeing the sense of her words.
Jill leans back, looking at the ceiling, continuing: “However, it is my place, if you guys let me, to relate to you how your Tinies will feel when they wake up. They’ll be naked, they’ll be in a strange room, if thankfully not in a cage, they’ll feel a bit of soreness coming from their butts, and they’ll be scared. My memory was hazy when I woke up the first time I got the gas, but I still retained a bit, general impressions and especially emotions. So will they. Considering all that, not having any clothes to put on, or only having a bunny suit, or only underwear, or whatever turns you guys on.” They all start blushing at her blunt words, but Jill is still looking at the ceiling: “That will simply make them even more frightened. It would be best if you gave them something to wear that’s like what they were wearing. I know the shop has a few acceptable things, if you don’t feel like searching through the sacks. Please leave that other stuff in the closet, hopefully with lots of other modest outfits and some comfortable PJs. You shouldn’t give them they’re own clothes, though: it’s an unwritten rule of Tinies. We can wear stuff like our own clothes, but not the clothes themselves.” She pauses for a moment, speech done, than stands and looks down from the ceiling. She smiles up at the group, which is at varying degrees of reflection. Chris is clearly reflecting on something other than the rest, they all clearly hear him mutter:
“Whatever I like, eh? Maybe a leotard, I’ve always liked watching gymnasts.” Jill looks at him sadly, but says nothing. To everyone’s surprise, including his own, David elbows Chris and gives him a disgusted look:
“That’s so not cool, man.” Seeing Jill’s mournful eyes watching him, Chris looks down, ashamed. Jill turns to Michael, feeling a trifle more hopeful about David’s chances of becoming a nice master:
“Hey, could you take me to Peter? I think he’s done.” This entire time he and Chloe had been arguing in low, furious voices next to the Lilliputians and 3s capture box, which Peter had kept a grip on. There are some Tinies sprawled around it, naked and unconscious, but clearly not all the box contained. Now, as Michael carefully puts his own tiny in his shirt pocket, a tissue-wrapped lump clearly visible against his breast, they’re engaged in a silent battle of wills, eyes flashing and mouths pursed in exactly the same angry expression. At that moment, it could not have been more obvious that they were twins. Michael prudently sets Jill down on the table well away from the silently battling pair. Before he can go, Jill calls up to him:
“Don’t forget the special session. Peter said it was okay, so whenever you two are ready I’ll perform for you guys. Don’t forget to invite the others.” Michael nods absently: something is clearly bothering him. Jill waits patiently. Finally, he looks down at her with confusion and says (very quietly):
“Jill, you said you were mine and the others’ semi-pet, right? Doesn’t that include Matt? Can’t he do whatever he wants with his Tinies in the matter of clothing?” Jill slowly breaks out into an evil smile once more, eyes pure mischief:
“Why, of course he is! You should tell him that. But,” She leans forward conspiratorially, and Michael leans down so she can whisper: “you might consider waiting until after he finishes getting all those things I mentioned.” Michael slowly breaks into an evil grin himself, chuckling softly as he nods agreement.
“Bye Jill.” He says, and to her surprise quickly steals a quick hair-rub, without much embarrassment. She nearly opens her mouth to speak, but reconsiders and leans into it for a moment. It’s not the same quivering feeling she gets when Peter pets her, but it’s still nice. Michael walks back to the group clustered around the clothes, that evil grins quickly reasserting itself.
Jill watches him go, heart glowing quietly, then turns to her Master as Chloe finally gives in, kind of:
“We won’t display them out here, and we won’t advertise them, but if the customer wants them, they’ll get’em. Now go away, I’ve got work to do.” Peter holds on for a moment longer, than lets it go and steps back. Chloe immediately starts doing things with the box.
“Don’t think we’re through here.” Peter says warningly, voice cold and eyes grim. Chloe ignores him. Peter makes a disgusted noise and turns on his heel, walking away. Jill is about to call out, but apparently without even looking at her Peter reaches out and grabs her as she goes by. She gives an “eep”, surprised. His grip isn’t gentle. For a few strides he keeps going, swinging her around like a doll in his fist, but then he stops. He looks at her shamefaced, and releases his death-grip, cradling Jill much more gently:
“Sorry, I promised not to take my mood out on you. I’ll try harder.” Jill doesn’t ask what he and Chloe were fighting about: she had a fair inkling anyway, and didn’t want him getting upset again. Peter looked around the shop for his friends, than stops and stares. All of them, including Chris, are searching industriously through immense mounds of clothes dumped out of the sacks. Around the table they’re using, piles of cages of all descriptions lay on the floor, none-to-gently removed from the table to create space. Peter looks at Jill, eyes narrow:
“Did you tell my friends how to dress their pets?” He asks accusingly, although his lips refuse to stop quirking into a smile, no matter how he tries to suppress it. Jill looks at him, innocent as a newborn lamb:
“Would I do that?” She asks.
“Yes.” Peter replies bluntly but there’s laughter in his voice. He calls out a farewell: the nerds all pause for a moment to wave farewell, than resume their search, looking for jeans, tee-shirts and shoes of the right size with the same intensity that they had earlier displayed when wiring up great gads of electronic gear. Peter laughs despite himself:
“Seriously, you’ve got to tell me what you said to them. Your master commands it!” He says the last in a joking, self-deprecating voice. Jill smiles up at him:
“I hear, and I obey.” While he blinks and tries to process that, Jill asks: “Can I tell you on the way home, though? I’m” she pauses to give a jaw-creaking yawn, “kind of tired.” The day’s exertions are catching up to him. Peter smiles and starts petting her hair:
“Okay, home it is then.” He carries his tired little pet out of the shop and down the sidewalk.
With that, the day’s work ends.
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August 15
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