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HTTYD - Day 6
🕑 Added 2021-10-19 07:00:04 +0000 UTCbeen pretty busy the last few weeks! but luckily i've still been able to publish something every couple days :) hoping that i can get back into it over this next week, i had some plans for october that i still wanna try and do before the month's end! thank you to everyone for all the support
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Tuesday, October 20
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Jessie’s volleyball games were typically on Tuesdays and Thursdays, except she’d had a bye on the 15th, which is why she’d been home before dinner the day that Marcus had gotten officially laid off. But Tuesday was back to her regular routine, so she slumped her backpack and gym bag off near the front door after coming home a little after 8pm that night. One of her teammates lived nearby, so Jessie carpooled home with them on game days. Jessie’s team had won tonight, but at the cost of her feeling exhausted. Although she almost always felt exhausted after games, because she always put in 100% effort regardless of who her opponents were.
But even besides the actual matches, her schedule in general was tiring. Twice a week, she had to wake up early to go to school for 7 hours, then spend time working on homework between school ending and volleyball practice starting. And then another several hours at practice and eventually the matches. All to come home and have less than an hour to herself before she had to go to bed. Luckily, volleyball was the only sport she played, so her hectic schedule only occurred two days a week. But it was still tiresome.
Laying on his couch, Marcus felt a bit self-conscious as he saw her come home, and he sat up in his seat a little. Here he was, having done almost nothing productive all day, while his daughter had spent a little over 12 hours learning, studying, playing sports, and more. At least he used to be able to say he provided for the two of them and took care of her. But after shrinking, he was only able to do the former because of his savings, and it was becoming increasingly evident to him how little he was now able to do of the latter. She trudged over to the living room where his mini-sized couch was and crumpled to the floor, sprawling out onto her back.
Marcus pursed his lips, seeing how miserable she felt after such a long day, even by an adult’s standards. “Looks like your day was harder than mine,” he admitted, and she couldn’t help but smile weakly at his remark, staring up at the ceiling.
“Yeahhhh…” she sighed, extending her arms and legs out and sliding them back and forth across the floor like she was making snow angels in the carpet. Marcus smiled at her juvenile behavior, while Jessie lay and felt like she was wasting her precious few minutes that she had before she had to take a shower and get ready to go to bed. She lifted one of her legs up, holding her knee straight and pointing her toes right towards the sky. She had already stretched after the game, but it still felt good to do again now, feeling her hamstrings flex.
“I guess you got a good workout in too, huh?” her dad asked. This wasn’t her first year playing sports, but it was her first year playing as a part of her school’s team instead of just a neighborhood club. Still feeling relatively new to the more “official” experience, she wasn’t sure yet which she preferred.
She bent her calf downwards, nearing her foot to her torso, and reached to slip off one of her blue and black athletic socks that had been confined in a shoe for the entire day. “You tell me,” she smirked, and bundled the thick sock into a big, musty ball, throwing it near her dad. It wasn’t even close to hitting him, but he still dodged to the side instinctively, watching it soar past and land in the kitchen.
“Hey, if that thing hits me it could really hurt,” he warned her, as her other leg bent down so she could pry the other sock off too.
“That’s why I made sure not to hit you,” she giggled, and tossed the other sock in the same direction. He didn’t react as abruptly for the second throw, but he still scowled nonetheless. He couldn’t easily forget her having accidentally tossed her sock on him a few days ago, and he knew her socks from today wouldn’t be smelling any better than her grass-stained ones from the weekend.
“You’ll need to pick those up later too,” he reminded her, to which she rolled her eyes.
“I knowwww Daddy, I’m just tired and being lazy for a lil bit,” she groaned, sighing again as she rolled over onto her stomach. “I miss when you used to give me back rubs after games,” she added, wistfully remembering how he used to make her feel better whenever she got home from club matches. He missed it too, since he didn’t feel very capable at his current size. But he didn’t think he was so small that he couldn’t do anything.
Jumping down from his couch and onto the floor, he made his way over to her spread out figure, stopping next to her torso. “And I miss being able to give them. But I might be able to give you back stomps instead,” he said with a cheeky grin, and jumped onto her back, making sure to straighten his legs as he landed, maximizing his impact against her. She squeaked out in confusion as her dad’s weight suddenly struck her back, but she realized what he was doing as he started walking around, each footstep turning into a stomp through her thin jersey and against her sore muscles.
Technically Marcus should’ve weighed barely half a pound, and therefore felt like little more than a half empty water bottle when standing on Jessie. But his mass didn’t scale in the linear way that his height had, so he actually weighed more than just a few pounds because of how dense his body was now. Scientists believed that was part of why people with his condition were more durable than they should be. But in addition to that, his strength hadn’t been diluted as much either. So while he obviously didn’t have the power of a fully-grown, 170 pound man like he used to, he was still able to aggressively tread against his daughter’s back and have it register with her.
“Ohhhhh my God. Okay nevermind, yeah. I guess maybe I don’t miss them after all,” she said, closing her eyes with a contented smile.
He paused, “You don’t miss them? Darn, I was really hoping you might be able to feel it,” he teased, pretending to be dejected as he hopped off like he was gonna head back to his couch.
“Wait wait wait wait wait!” she yelled, swinging her arm around near her side as if she wanted to stop him from leaving. “I meant there’s no reason for me to miss them. It actually feels good. Please keep going,” she asked politely, and he laughed and hopped up onto her back, continuing his parade on Jessie’s back while the two of them talked about her day at school.
* * * * * *
After Jessie’s massage, she took a shower to clean herself off after the long day, and then the two of them decided to get ready for bed. Marcus was still planning on staying up for another few hours in his room, but he figured he might as well do his nightly routine alongside her. Except this time, she wanted some help.
As the two of them stood in the bathroom brushing their teeth, she grumbled with frustration at her inability to floss underneath her braces. “I have this stupid little thing stuck between my teeth,” she explained, her eyes narrowed as she leaned in close to the mirror and tried a dozen various angles. “I think it’s a sesame seed but I can’t even tell. But it’s something, and I can like just barely feel it with my tongue just barely. But I still can’t reach it.”
She leaned back in a huff and threw the floss away, biting her lip as she stared at her upper teeth. She glanced at Marcus, who was doing some flossing of his own with a specially sized, ultra thin strip, thinking about how small his hands and arms were now. “Do you think you could help me get it out?” she asked as soon as he threw away his floss too.
“Um…” He looked up at her reflection in the mirror, looking down at him hopefully. Trying to get bits of food out of her mouth sounded like it could be gross. But at the same time, he knew she brushed and flossed twice a day, so at the very least, there was no reason her breath should smell bad. And honestly, I’ve done a lot grosser things for her before, he thought. Perks of parenting. “Sure, honey,” he said, walking over to her floss container and unspooling several inches worth before tearing it off at the end.
“Oh! Thank you,” she smiled, and scooted in as close as she could to the counter as she got down on her knees. Her head was a few inches above it, putting the top of her mouth at the optimal height for the 9 inch tall man. Then she opened her mouth as wide as she possibly could, wanting to give her dad as much room as possible.
“Which teeth was it?” he asked, leaning into her mouth just enough to have a look under her braces. He could very faintly feel her slow and steady breath against his side, and luckily it didn’t smell bad. “Oh wait, I think I found it,” he said, spotting the black spot between her teeth that must’ve been the seed she was talking about. “Actually, I don’t even know if my fingers are gonna fit.” She lowered her head slightly to try and make it easier for him as he wound the end of the floss around his middle finger of the hand facing away from her. Then he flattened his hand, gripping the other end with his fist, and raised his hands up.
There wasn’t a lot of room between the wire of Jessie’s braces and the surface of her teeth, but luckily the space between her teeth had a bit more room because of their slight curvature. With his flattened hand, he was able to insert his hand all the way up to his wrist, and then raise his other other arm even higher than that on the inside of her mouth, pulling the tightened strip of floss between the two teeth. Like a craftsman sanding a piece of wood, he repeatedly raised and lowered his arms, cleaning out the area better than Jessie would’ve ever been able to do. Sure enough, the seed eventually dislodged itself and fell, bouncing off her lip and onto the counter.
He retracted his hands with a satisfied smile and unwound the floss before tossing it in the trash, as Jessie closed her mouth again. She grinned at herself in the mirror, then to her dad, happy to see her sparkling braces now even cleaner than they were with just her own work. “Thanks Daddy!” she said happily as he nodded at her and washed his hands off. “You’re all done right with everything else right?”
“Yep, all set,” Marcus confirmed, and she stood back up, holding out her palm so her dad could climb onto her hand. She put her own toothbrush and toothpaste away, and then swiveled out of the bathroom and flipped the lights off before carrying him to his room and setting him down on the edge of his bed. “Thanks Jess,” he said, stepping off her hand and turning to smile up at her, “See you tomorrow.”
“G’night,” she replied back, and turned to head to her own room, closing his door til it was open just a crack. She decided to get some water before going to bed though, and headed to the kitchen to grab herself a glass.
As she turned the faucet on, she turned to look out at their house, thinking about how somber and empty it looked, illuminated only by the moonlight. It’s been feeling empty kind of a lot recently, he thought to herself, sipping on her glass as she imagined how much more spacious it must feel to her dad. It almost felt like she lived by herself. Whenever she came home, even if he was in the kitchen or living room, she never saw him right away. And nowadays any messes around the house were always made by her; anything from him was just too small in comparison to be a nuisance (plus he’d always been a bit tidier than her).
“Looks like we both had the same idea,” a voice said, causing her to jump in surprise, almost dropping the glass. But of course it was just her dad, and when she turned to look at him, he was standing just outside of the entrance to the hallway, at the edge of the kitchen. He chuckled at how badly he scared her and made his way past her to his own area of the kitchen. And even when he is here, it doesn’t really feel like it, she thought, quietly watching the small man as he grabbed one of his own miniature cups and filled it up.
“Well,” he said, putting the glass in the sink after having his fill, “goodnight again I guess.” He softly smiled up at her as he made his way past her again, and she looked down at her feet as he simply trotted on by, seemingly not a care in the world.
“Goodnight…” she whispered, watching him disappear behind into the hallway, leaving the kitchen empty again. But even with so many other kids her age striving to feel independent, she didn’t like how lonesome their home felt now. Obviously it wasn’t her dad’s fault, but that didn’t make her feelings bad to have. I should probably invite friends over more often, she decided. That’ll probably help a bit. More hanging out at my house instead of other people’s. Maybe even more sleepovers during the week. She sighed, and opened the dishwasher to put her cup inside, before closing it again and heading back to her room.
It’s good that he’s gotten used to being around people again. Camila had to come by again tomorrow so they could keep working on their project for class, but Jessie thought maybe she should try bringing two people home and see how her dad handled all the giants mulling around his home. Paris would probably be good, at least he knows her really well. I don’t even think she’s seen him since he shrunk. But yeah, hopefully he handles it well. Cuz I think I wanna start bringing people over a lot more often.
