The Promise (A Diaper Dimension Story) l 20 - Dawning 14/3

[Xylophone 39]

THE PROMISE

BY XYLOPHONE

 

Part One

1. S.O.S

2. I'd Do Anything for Love

3. The Runs

4. Reconnaissance

5. In the Midnight Hour

6. My Littlest Pet Shop

7. The Calm Before the Storm

 

Part Two

8. Reek, It Rhymes With Leak

9. Ms Sandcastle

10. The Things We Do For Love

11. Blind Love

12. Half A Wallflower

13. Don't Be Such A Baby

14. Yellow  

15. Good Girls Go to Heaven 

 

Part Three

16. Lion's Den

17. Curiosity Diapers the Little

18. The Wind Through the Keyhole

19. One of the Family

20. Dawning

21. The Artist & the Waiter

22. Ballerina

23. The Promise

 

Epilogue:

Let It Go

 

PART ONE

 

Chapter One

S.O.S

 

Cherry knew something was wrong the moment she saw her name. 

 

“For you. Fresh from the nursery.” Raymond’s voice was light as the evening breeze as he took the seat across from his roommate, but his expression was wary as Cherry snatched up the envelope he’d slid across the table. She studied the offensive piece of paper the way one might examine a spider on their bedroom wall, noting with mounting dismay that her name had been scrawled across the outside in crayon. Each letter was a different colour of the rainbow, and despite the professional, cursive script, Cherry couldn’t help but take the menagerie of colour as a bad omen. Rainbow crayon was never a welcome sight for a little, not even one as well off as she was. It was far too real a reminder of how precarious her position as an adult was in this part of the world.         

 

It was eleven o clock on a Friday night, and Cherry had been staying up only long enough to say hello to Raymond when he finally got home from waiting on tables down at the wharf. The restaurant he worked at was a massive hit with the locals, and each day Raymond trudged through the door sweating his way through the nice shirt he wore on the job, frequently frustrated and always exhausted. It was a hard, tiring gig, even for someone as athletic as her Amazon roommate, and Cherry made the effort whenever possible to play the part of the supportive friend to help him end his day on a high note. That didn't necessarily entail anything more than sharing a laugh over a cup of coffee or nodding sympathetically as he vented about the creatures he was forced to call customers, but she knew he appreciated it. She took great pride in being a great friend.

The mail, of all things, hadn't been in the equation when she decided to wait up for him. She hadn't even thought to grab it herself earlier, not being in any rush to collect the usual stack of bills, so he'd taken it on himself to do exactly that on the way through the front door.

This was hardly a bill.

 

“What the hell,” she muttered, flipping it over to see if there was anything of note on the back. There was a stamp in the top right corner, and her address was written just beneath it in red, green, blue, and yellow.

 

“Should I be worried?” 

 

“I don’t know. Maybe."

 

Crayon?

 

She turned it back around to stare long and hard at those six dangerously flamboyant letters, wondering whether or not ignoring them had a greater risk of returning her to babyhood than opening it did.

 

“Hey,” Raymond said quietly, startling her out of paper gazing. There were bags under his eyes and patches of sweat under his arms, but he still found the energy to smile at his diminutive friend. She appreciated that. “Come on, how bad can it be? Open it.”  

 

He had no idea just how bad it could be. He wasn’t a little. She smiled a faint smile in spite of herself, more for his sake than her own. “Pretty bad, Ray. Pretty freaking bad.” 

 

She opened it. 

 

Tension hung thick in the air as she carefully extracted the letter from its cocoon. In this part of the world, littles' rights hadn't quite caught up with modern society, and as such the resident giants regarded the tiny individuals flitting about their kneecaps as little more than children. Biological age had nothing to do with that perception - unless you cleared a certain height threshold, you carried the stigma that you might wet your pants at the slightest warning. As a result, Cherry had to live with the very real fear that someone much, much bigger than her might decide she was too far out of her depth in the adult world and in need of a parental figure in her life. She had to stress that she'd be spirited to some private nursery to undertake a second infancy at the slightest provocation. It was as ridiculous as it was contrived, but it was all too common an occurrence for people her size.

When you live with that for twenty three years, you get to be pretty careful out of habit, even when it comes to the way the mail is addressed to you. Avoiding any and all childhood paraphernalia becomes second nature, simply because it might prove to be all the stimulus a passing Amazon lady might need to take an interest in you and decide you’d be better off experiencing round two (or three, or four, or five…) with babyhood. She didn’t have a fully formed fear that this letter might be a referral back to diapers, but the rainbow crayon was enough to set off alarm bells. She'd seen particularly unfortunate littles committed for less.

 

“Well?” 

 

The paper she was holding had been ripped out of a colouring book. The outline of Snow White smiled sweetly at her beneath a hastily constructed message again written in a variety of different coloured crayons. She began to read it out loud for Raymond’s benefit, and stopped almost as quickly as she’d began, her eyes widening as she read ahead. Holy crap. This was the last thing she’d been expecting. She felt a fleeting moment of relief and instantly felt guilty. She was safe, thank God, but Dawn... 

 

“Cherry?” she could hear the legitimate worry in his voice now. False confidence was a thing of the past. “Is everything okay?” 

 

She sighed. “Depends who you ask,” she said glumly. “It’s from my sister.” 

 

“Dawn?” Her roommate had a passing acquaintance with Cherry’s older sibling.

 

“Dear Cherry,” she tried again, ignoring the wobble in her voice. “I don’t know how long I have, so I’m keeping this brief. Long story short, stupid me wasn’t careful enough and now I’m writing to you from my new place. It’s nice enough. I have a maid, no rent, and I don’t even have to share it with a roommate - if it wasn’t for the diapers and the lack of any meaningful future to look forward to, we’d be golden!

 

I’ve been here three months now, can you believe it? Three fucking months of my life wasted in either my playroom or at daycare (yes, really). I wanted to get in contact with you sooner, but 24/7 baby treatment makes that slightly difficult. The groundskeeper here is on my side – he’s an inbetweener, he can sympathise somewhat - and I’ve arranged to pass this to him next time I’m allowed to play in the garden. He’ll post it off, you’ll discover your big sister hasn’t sat her ass on a toilet seat for three months, you’ll rush to rescue the diapered damsel in distress, and we all live happily ever after. The end. Foolproof! 

 

Cherry, you have to get me out of here, YOU PROMISED YOU WOULD. I'm going out of my fucking mind, I swear the cartoons are literally making me dumber every day. Please, please help me. I’m begging you. 

 

Love,

 

   Your Not-So-Big-Sister Dawn    

 

Cherry looked up, miserable. “There’s an address at the bottom, but that’s the whole thing.”  

 

Raymond was silent for a long moment as he absorbed the full impact of Dawn’s desperate S.O.S. Then, with a sigh and a shake of the head, he said, “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.”

 

Ever the joker. “That’s not funny,” Cherry snapped, rereading the message with mounting dismay. “They got her, Ray. They got her.”

 

Raymond motioned for her to pass the letter, and she did so without comment, lost in a dark mire of thought. She didn’t get to see her older sister very much these days - Dawn had moved interstate to further her career in the medicinal industry years ago - but they still caught up as regularly as their schedules permitted. Unfortunately, it had been at least eight or nine months since that last happened, because Cherry had been too busy starting her own career as a budding architect to dedicate much time to socialising. That particular reunion had seen Dawn flying down for a weekend to share two exciting pieces of news - one, she'd survived the removal of six insidious gallstones only a fortnight previous, and two, she was looking at a promotion in her very near future. They’d got more than a little drunk that Saturday night to celebrate. Apparently that was all the time it took to reduce a young adult with a promising future to a toddler belonging to an overly maternal Amazon who couldn’t mind her own damn business.

 

Some promotion.

 

“Tell me about this promise," Raymond said, his eyes still glued to Dawn’s colourful plea. “What did you promise her?” 

 

Did it really need explaining? “That if it ever came to…to this,” Cherry gestured violently at the letter he was holding, as if jabbing her finger at it might cause it spontaneously combust and cease to be a problem. “I’d bust her out.” 

 

“You'd...bust her out,” he echoed, a faint tinge of alarm colouring his voice. 

 

Cherry nodded. “And she’d do the same for me, if need be. This is a very real fate for people my size, you know. We plan in advance.” 

 

“And are you going to bust her out?"

 

She wasn’t sure how to answer that, a grand total of two minutes after the big revelation. “I guess I did promise, didn’t I?” 

 

He hesitated, obviously scrutinising his next words with microscopic care. “Cherry,” he began cautiously. “You can’t just ‘bust her out.’ I get where you’re coming from, but as far as most people are concerned, this lady found your sister in need of a re-raising, and that’s all there is to it. Dawn belongs to this woman now and no one is going to say a word about it. As far as they're concerned, she's done nothing wrong. If you try to break her out, you're going to be the one at fault. You know what it means to be a little. It’s just how it is.” He said the last bit kindly. 

 

“She’s a living, breathing person,” Cherry retorted incredulously. Raymond, of all people, was coming out with this? She heard her voice rise with a life of its own. “She’s not property that can be bought and sold, are you insane? You being three times taller than her doesn’t mean...” 

 

He waved her protests away. “I’m on your side, remember?” he interjected, smiling sadly as his flustered roommate’s voice trailed off. “How many times have I run off some prospective parent that took a little too much interest in you?"

 

Cherry had been forced to endure the indignity of pretending she already had a daddy – Raymond - more than once or twice, and she blushed at the thought, but he wasn’t quite done. "I'm thinking of you, not your sister. You trying to break her out is the same as walking into the lion's den waving a big juicy steak around. If things go south, you'll end up sharing a crib with Dawn." He grimaced. "I like it as much as you. I’m just being realistic.” 

 

“I can’t just leave her to be some giant’s plaything.” 

 

“Cherry…” 

 

“You're sounding like your girlfriend, you know,” she remarked dryly. “Rebellious little reduced to babyhood without hope of rescue? This is Sylvia’s wet dream.” 

 

Sylvia was Raymond’s girlfriend, and she was very much the 'prospective parent' type that was the bane of every littles’ existence. While her boyfriend was one of the more progressive giants Cherry knew, Sylvia could hardly boast the same, and opined that Cherry's relationship with Raymond was little more than a novelty. On a good day, she found it amusing, and on a bad day it brought her to verbal blows with her lover, who took it far too seriously for her liking. Look at the silly little, pretending she's an adult! Why do you bunk with her, Ray, instead of me, your girlfriend? Littles need a nursery, not an apartment! Sylvia had no shortage of derogatory, condescending quips. The only reason she hadn't taken to changing Cherry's diapers was because Raymond wasn't your typical Amazon. He might be the reason that the threat of babyhood stood so close, but he was also the reason it couldn't touch her. He wouldn't let it.

 

Needless to say, Cherry did not like Sylvia. 

 

Raymond's face clouded. “Maybe I am,” he said carefully. “But that doesn’t change a single thing about what I'm saying. You fail, you'll end up no better than your sister, and I'd say the chances of you failing are higher than not. I mean…how are you going to ‘bust her out,’ anyway? I hate to break it to you, but you need a step ladder to get up to the seat you’re sitting on right now, complete with a booster cushion to see over the table. How can you…just, how? How, Cherry?” 

 

“I’ll figure it out.” 

 

‘Okay. Cool. Let’s look at a few facts,” he went on without breaking his stride. Cherry gritted her. She’d only just found out that she was expected to conduct a prison break. Was she meant to have already formulated a plan? “She has a groundskeeper, meaning this lady is well off financially. Financially well-off ladies live in big fancy houses with big fancy security systems. Let’s assume your height isn't an issue for a second - and trust me, it is - how are you going to get into somewhere likely designed to keep people my size out?” 

 

“I said I’ll figure it out,” she said flatly, although she had to admit that he had a point. She hadn’t even considered the implications of the groundskeeper. “Look, Ray, I get where you’re coming from, but…she’s my sister. We knew what we were agreeing to, way back when.” 

 

“I get that, but - “

 

Enough was enough. She knew her roommate was only trying to look out for her, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to scream. They were the best of friends, but she wasn’t about to sit there and put up with a lecture about how resigning her sister to a fate of perpetual infancy was the right thing to do. She stood up abruptly. “It's late,” she said stiffly. “I'm going to bed. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” 

 

Suddenly, he just looked sad, and after a moment the guilt came crashing down. His heart was in the right place, and here she was throwing his concern back in his face. “I’m just thinking of you,” he said wearily, plucking her heartstrings some more. “I get that your sister’s in a shitty situation, but you have to think of yourself, too. You can’t just kidnap someone’s little, especially when you're a little too. It won’t end well for you. We both know that.”

 

“I know,” she said with a sigh. She smiled abashedly at him. “I'm sorry, Ray. I know you're just trying to help, but....” 

 

"She's your sister." 

 

She nodded. "She's my sister." 

 

He smiled faintly. “Goodnight,” he offered. He yawned with false drama. "I'm beat as it is. We can talk about this more tomorrow, if you want." 

 

"I'd like that very much. Goodnight."   

 

Cherry carefully lowered herself over the side of her chair till she found the first step of her footstool, then hurried down to the floor and made her way into her bedroom. They had decided pretty early on when looking for a place that an apartment designed with an inbetweener in mind was ideal - it’d be a bit too big for Cherry and a bit too small for Raymond, but they agreed that both of them suffering a little was better than one of them suffering a lot. As a result, she always felt positively minuscule when she was at home. She needed ladders and stools placed strategically around the apartment just to access pretty much anything, whether it be to access the top shelf of the fridge or simply to sit herself down on the toilet. She was dwarfed, and it was something that she’d never quite got accustomed to after living all her life in an appropriately sized house with her family. Tonight, though, her thoughts weren’t on the fact that it was a pain in the ass that she had to climb a freaking ladder to open her bedroom door - it was on the fact that her poor sister was undoubtedly in a place even more unsuited for her size than Cherry was. 

 

She didn’t think Dawn had ladders conveniently placed where they were needed, either. 

 

She stripped naked as she always did in Summer and climbed into bed, pondering her options. Unfortunately, she didn’t really see all that many. She’d never be able to live with herself if she didn’t try and get Dawn out of her infantile prison. She knew that her big sister would be there in a heartbeat to help her if the situations were reversed...and as right as Raymond was about the risk to her wellbeing, in the end it didn’t really matter. 

 

She’d promised.

 

To be continued in Chapter 2: I'd Do Anything for Love

[ausdpr 52]

Yesss, another one.

 

And it's good, very good.

[sissy_maid_holly 4]

I love it!  What a fresh new twist in the Diaper Dimension genre!!  More please.

[Shotgun Diplomat 15]

This is quite good, thanks.

[Xylophone 39]

Chapter 2

I'd Do Anything for Love

 

It was almost twelve when Cherry finally dragged herself out of bed, and Sylvia was sitting at the table waiting for her.

 

"Decide to get up, did we?" The giantess said absently from behind a newspaper. Her face was hidden behind the voluminous pages, but Cherry didn't need to see her roll her eyes to know she was doing so. A takeaway coffee cup sat on the table beside her, and her coat had been lazily thrown over the back of the adjacent seat. She'd made herself right at home, much to Cherry's consternation. 

 

The little grimaced and made her way to the fridge, ruing the day Raymond gave his girlfriend the spare key to their apartment as she rummaged through the bottom in search of the milk. She'd slept terribly last night, tossing and turning long after she'd parted ways with her roommate, too preoccupied with the thought of her imprisoned sister to drift off with any ease. As a result, she hadn't slipped into the restless, troubled sleep that followed until almost three, and because of that, she had only just woken up. Stress was a bitch.

 

Not that she was about to inform Sylvia of that. "What are you doing here?"

 

Her companion flipped the page without looking up. "My boyfriend lives here, unless I'm very much mistaken."

 

It was Cherry's turn to roll her eyes. Raymond would be at the gym, just like he always was on Saturday morning. Sylvia knew that as well as she did. Gritting her teeth, she grabbed the milk bottle and carried it over to the trolley they kept pressed against the cook top, a contraption that amounted to a mobile, stilted walkway at just the right height for her to fuss over whatever she needed to fuss over. In this case, that was the kettle for her coffee. "So you came all the way out here just to see me then? I'm touched, Sylvia. Just when I thought our relationship couldn't be saved."

 

She didn't really care why Raymond's witch of a girlfriend was over. Sylvia was the bane of her existence, and for the life of her she couldn't see why her roommate would take any interest in such a shallow individual. Sure, she was pretty with her immaculate blonde hair, hourglass body and impeccable taste in fashion, but that was about all the appeal Cherry saw in her. The giantess was an amateur artist (albeit a good one, even Cherry would grudgingly admit) and was unfortunately the type of person to let that talent go straight to her head. She was a vain, bratty woman with an inflated ego, and that was even before you realised that she was your typical Amazon with the typical Amazonian opinion on the role littles played in society. Even by giant standards, she was a right piece of work.

 

She didn't begrudge Raymond his relationship. He had every right to share a bed with whoever he desired, and she was the last person to say a critical word about him. If it wasn't for Raymond, she didn't doubt for a second that she'd have ended up in Dawn's situation long ago. She'd had a taste of that way back in the days she and her roommate had shared a classroom at uni, back when she didn't have a choice but to make that daily trip into civilisation. The public panty checks, the spankings when her mark wasn't quite to the satisfaction of her lecturer, the mandatory kid's menu at all the food outlets on campus, the whatever were all memories she had no wish to relive. Raymond had been her knight in shining armour the whole way - not only had he been the only one to sympathise with her at the time, he'd later been the one who offered to share an apartment with her so she had that safety net of "I already have a daddy!" to fall back on. Raymond's support was the reason she had a life most littles could only dream of. She didn't begrudge him anything.

 

No, she just begrudged Sylvia for being Sylvia, and Sylvia deserved every ounce of begrudgery she was begrudged.

 

As if on cue, the harpy finally looked up from her paper as Cherry began to pull herself up the ladder attached to her walkway, the milk tucked away safely under her arm. She sighed, and before Cherry could react the giantess had thrown the paper away and was hurrying across to 'help' her. "I don't know why Raymond puts up with this nonsense," Sylvia said, exasperated. Without waiting for permission, she grabbed Cherry by the armpits and carried her with ease to her boosted seat at the table, ignoring the yelp and subsequent protests it earned her. She extracted the milk from the smaller woman's grasp and turned back to the cook top. "These ladders and pullies are ridiculous, you're going to hurt yourself one day. What are you after, milk?"

 

"Coffee," Cherry growled, crossing her arms and glaring at the back of Sylvia's head. She hated it when she did that. Raymond was content to let her struggle, God bless him, but Sylvia was helicopter parent incarnate. "That was totally unnecessary."

 

She was ignored outright, and when Sylvia returned with a plain glass of milk, she instantly saw how this morning was going to go.

 

"I said coffee."

 

"You're too small for coffee," Sylvia said distractedly. She began rummaging through the pantry, oblivious to the black stare it earned her and emerging a moment later with a box of cereal.

 

"I'm not hungry. Look, I don't need you - "

 

Then she had a bowl of cereal in front of her, too.

 

Cherry sighed as Sylvia reclaimed the seat opposite her, unfurling her paper and going straight back to work as if nothing of note had just transpired. It was always the way. She was generally less antagonistic when Raymond was around, knowing it wasn't likely to put her in his good books, but on the off chance she ended up alone with Cherry, she was insufferable. The obvious example was the one time she'd insisted that she bathe the smaller woman, unconvinced that Cherry could do it herself, and in spite of her victim’s shrieking protests she had done exactly that. A 7pm bedtime had immediately followed that humiliating ordeal. Cherry had finally gone to complain to Raymond after that, the line well and truly crossed, but nothing really changed. No matter how much he might try to convince his horrible excuse for a girlfriend that littles were people no different to themselves, no matter how un-childishly Cherry presented herself, the social norm was just too influential for their most compelling arguments. She couldn't win.

 

Not seeing much choice, she picked distractedly at her bowl of Fruit Loops. Raymond's favourite, not hers."Are you going to tell me why you're here or do I need to start guessing? You know as well as I do that Raymond's at the gym."

 

"He called me this morning," was the distant reply. It was followed by the rustle of disturbed paper as she turned the page. "He wanted me here when he got back."

 

"Why?"

 

"No idea. He said there was too much to go into over the phone."

 

That couldn't have anything to do with last night, could it? "Did he say - "

 

Sylvia looked up from the paper, a look of blatant irritation burning beneath her bulky glasses. "Cherry, I'm trying to read. Be a good girl and eat your cereal quietly, okay?"

 

She gave up.

 

Not wanting to spend another moment in her toxic companion's presence, she gulped down her breakfast as fast as humanly possible and excused herself, hurrying back to her bedroom to shower and dress. When she re-emerged half an hour later, refreshed and presentable, she found that roommate had returned to save the day.

 

He grinned as she walked out, obviously noting the look of utter relief that crossed her face. The lanky Amazon had taken Sylvia's spot at the table, and for someone who had just spent a good hour or two at the gym he looked as refreshed as she did. He didn't normally shower at the gym, but apparently he'd gone to the effort this time. "Miss me, did you?" He teased and threw in a wink for good measure. "I'm touched."

 

Not feeling overly jovial, Cherry threw a pointed glance at his girlfriend, who had migrated into the living area to watch TV while Cherry was in the bedroom. She appeared to be enraptured with some talk-show or another. "That's one way to put it."

 

"That bad?"

 

She grimaced. "I mean, I've had worse, but..."

 

He forced an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry."

 

She shrugged it off. They'd had this conversation a few too many times for her to care to have it again. "What's so big a deal that you couldn't tell her over the phone? Should I care?"

 

"I'll tell you in a sec," he said. "Because yes, you should. It's about your sister."

 

Cherry went cold. "Right."

 

"I gave Sylvia the gist of last night earlier, this is the follow-up. Take a seat."

 

He called Sylvia over, and Cherry hesitantly made the trek north as he did so. Sylvia's unexpected presence this morning had been enough to take her mind off her sister's wellbeing, but here she was, thrown straight off the cliff without a parachute yet again. It took the removal of just one brick for all the stress and anxiety to come flooding back out through the dam wall. Christ, had she really got upset when Sylvia made her breakfast? What did that even matter when Dawn was probably being spoon fed from a high chair?

 

Sylvia gave her an uncertain look as she sat beside Raymond, who smiled reassuringly all the while. His expression was enough to worry Cherry - it was very much an "I know this is going to go down like cancer but what can you do?" type of look. It wasn't often the three of them spent any meaningful time together, simply because of the animosity that existed between the two women, and the chances of this occurrence going any better than any other time were slim to none.

 

"Okay," he began. "Good. Let's begin."

 

He turned to his roommate. "Firstly, I want to apologise for last night."

 

Huh?

 

Taken totally off guard, Cherry started to splutter out an alarmed, "Ray, you don't need to - "

 

"Yeah, I do, because that was gutless of me," he interrupted, waving her protests away. "Totally gutless. I guess I've gotten so used to shielding you from this baby crap that I didn't really give it much thought beyond my knee-jerk reaction. I mean, yeah, what I said was true, but it was weak as piss."

 

Sylvia snorted and got back up to raid the fridge, losing interest as quickly as she'd found it. Cherry threw a black stare at the giantess’ back, unable to believe the nerve of her, but forced herself to remain cordial and offered Raymond a weak smile. "Thanks? And where are we going with this, exactly?"

 

"I can't stop you from going, can I?" It was a genuine question.

 

She shook her head. 'I don't think so. Sorry."

 

"That's what I thought you'd say," he said with a sigh. A hard glint appeared in his eye. "Look, it would be suicide for you to try and break your sister out alone...so, after having slept on it, I've decided I'm going to help you."

 

Cherry's eyes lit up at approximately the same time Sylvia dropped whatever she was holding with a colossal crash. In the space of a heartbeat the floor adopted a coat of salad and broken ceramics. The giantess spun around as both Raymond and Cherry flinched at the sound, a thunderstruck expression clouding her delicate features. "You're going to what?"

 

"I'm going to help Cherry rescue her sister," he said firmly. His voice brooked no room for discussion. "And so are you."

 

If Sylvia had been incensed before, now she was positively livid. "Like hell I'm going to help."

 

"It's not up for debate."

 

"It is now," she growled. She took a threatening step towards her boyfriend and jabbed an exquisitely ruby-tipped finger at his chest. "You want me to help rob some poor lady of her prize dwarf? What's the song? I'd do anything for love, Ray, but there's no fucking way I'm doing that. Are you mad?"

 

"Don't you talk about my sister like that," Cherry snapped, suddenly as angry as the Amazon. Of all the words that rankled her, dwarf was one of the worst. Sure, littles were dwarves by Amazon standards, but didn't make it any less derogatory. She jumped to her feet, not caring that was still shorter than her two companions while standing on an elevated chair. "Don't even start, you hear me?"

 

"Or what?" was the venomous response. "You'll piss on my rug? I'll call her whatever I want, thank you very much, and let's face it, you're lucky I even put up with you. It's bad enough that you've brainwashed my boyfriend into thinking your kind are worth his time. I am not being convicted for helping one when I shouldn't."

 

"My kind? Excuse me? Bitch, please - "

 

"Shut it," Raymond said. His voice was little more than speaking volume, but it was steel. "Both of you. This. Instant."

 

Both women stopped mid sentence, glowering at the other.

 

"Dwarf," Sylvia finished coldly, looking Cherry dead in the eye.

 

She rolled her eyes. Always had to have the last word, Sylvia did. "But I'm the child, right?"

 

"Don't even - "

 

"This is exactly why you're coming to help," Raymond snapped at his girlfriend. "I'm sick to death of this bullshit about how littles should do this or shouldn't do that. You've tortured poor Cherry for as long as you've known her, and I'm done with it, hear me? You're going to come along and help out, and you're going to get it through your head that she's no different to you or I. You're a fucking artist, Sylvie. You're meant to be one of the open-minded ones."

 

She ignored the jab. "And if I don't come along?" The dare in her voice was perfectly audible. "What then, Ray? What then?"

 

He stared at her flatly. "Then we're done."

 

Silence.

 

Cherry looked on, stunned, as the couple glared daggers at each other. Sure, they argued every now and then, but this was like nothing she'd ever seen. For Raymond to threaten to end a five year relationship was...well, it was something, alright. Something she'd never thought she'd see.

 

The joy would hit later, she was sure.

 

She hadn't quite figured out if she should make an attempt to diffuse the situation when Sylvia conceded defeat. "Thanks for wasting my morning," was her final, curt comment. She threw Cherry a sidelong glance full of contempt, but said nothing more as she collected her coat and purse before storming out of the apartment. The door slammed hard enough behind her to rock the walls.

 

They were quiet for a long moment.

 

"Ray - "

 

"She'll come around," he said with a sigh. He looked exhausted.

 

"Before or after the sun the sun devours the Earth?"

 

It was a thin attempt at humour, but it elicited a crooked smile all the same. "She'll come around," he repeated. "She won't like it, but she will. She knows what's at stake."

 

Cherry snorted. "You've just force fed your future wife her personal kryptonite."

 

"Which I'm sure upsets you to no end."

 

That got a guilty smile out of her.

 

He shook his head. "If she's not willing to play nice," he said flatly. "Then neither am I. The bullshit has to stop."

 

"Well...yeah, it does, but she's your future wife, Ray. If that means throwing me out on the street, so be it." The words were salt on her tongue.

 

"She's not my anything if she doesn't come around," he said grimly. "I don't marry bigots, lovely as they may be."

 

He turned to Cherry, and his defences abruptly crumbled. Suddenly he just looked as tired and miserable as he had at the end of last night. "Arrange to have the next week off work," he said wearily. "It's a, what, three hour flight from here to there? We'll leave first thing Monday morning and start by lunch. A week should give us enough time to scout out the place, get the stuff we need to do it and get it done. If it takes any longer we'll deal with it as we need to."

 

He got to his feet. "That's the day officially ruined," he said with a sigh. "I think I'll be in my room if you need me, okay? I need to..."

 

"Yeah. I get it."

 

He nodded. "I'll see you whenever."

 

With a scrape of the chair and thud of the bedroom door he was gone, and Cherry was again alone with her thoughts. If she was being honest with herself, she was totally floored. It had only taken five minutes, tops, but the entire dynamic of everything had shifted. Not only was Raymond risking his own hide to help out, he was forcing Sylvia to help out? Sylvia, Miss All-Littles-Belong-In-Diapers was going to break a little out of exactly that?

 

That begged the next question.

 

A week with Sylvia?

 

Raymond heard her groan from behind his bedroom door.

To be continued in Chapter 3: The Runs

[minachan16 94]

I love the "Diaper Dimension" stories, but your twist on it is wonderful! You're quickly becoming one of my favorite writers here. Please, please keep going!

[ausdpr 52]

Funnily enough, I once pondered whether as a giant in the diaper dimension, I could bring myself to diaper littles, or would end up protecting one.

With all the shrinking technologies and so on that exist, I'm not sure if those who buck the order are ultimately safe. The world is built to always get its way.

I know you've seen this xylo, but for anybody interested, I did a short caption story inspired by this piece.

[Xylophone 39]

Funnily enough, I once pondered whether as a giant in the diaper dimension, I could bring myself to diaper littles, or would end up protecting one.

With all the shrinking technologies and so on that exist, I'm not sure if those who buck the order are ultimately safe. The world is built to always get its way.

I know you've seen this xylo, but for anybody interested, I did a short caption story inspired by this piece.

I saw this over on tumblr earlier and very much had a "hey, this sounds strangely familiar..." type of moment  Good stuff. I enjoyed it! 

[ThatWeirdElfGirl 4]

Is there anything in the diaper dimension about Male Littles, I get that it's probably a preference of writers when choosing a gender and I'm not questioning that just in all the diaper dimension stories I have read I don't think I have ever seen a reference to there being Male Littles.

Anyway good story really enjoying it

[ausdpr 52]

Princess mentioned male littles in the original, I have an unpublished story which also mentions one.

edit: She also mentioned them briefly in her Sierra story.

[Xylophone 39]

Is there anything in the diaper dimension about Male Littles, I get that it's probably a preference of writers when choosing a gender and I'm not questioning that just in all the diaper dimension stories I have read I don't think I have ever seen a reference to there being Male Littles.

Anyway good story really enjoying it

You'll enjoy Chapter 3!  

[ThatWeirdElfGirl 4]

Princess mentioned male littles in the original, I have an unpublished story which also mentions one.

edit: She also mentioned them briefly in her Sierra story.

Okay cool, wasn't a complaint just something that came to mind didn't know if there was anything mentioned saying males couldn't be little

[SGTbaby 9]

Love it! I am looking forward to reading more. 

[Marcorpsdoc 0]

Loving that chapter three is already being spoken of xylo.  Good story so far.  

[babytom2 5]

Kinda confused,if society thinks littles are helpless then why even let them go to college or school in general?

[ausdpr 52]

The original universe is a place where all diaper/ab fetish stories collide, so there's a lot of tugging each way, but the general idea is that littles tend to get by until they don't. With careful tricks such as heels, politeness, fake bigs as described in this story, etc.

There's also gotta be a big person free to take them... Think of it like a sort of regressive society where what's on paper as idealistic law and believed by some to be true, and what happens in reality, are two different things. The littles tend to be clued into what actually more realistically occurs, since they experience it so much.

[dmavn 12]

There's also gotta be a big person free to take them... Think of it like a sort of regressive society where what's on paper as the law and what happens in reality are two different things.

hmm, sounds an awful lot like our society. Especially when it comes to traffic laws. 

[ausdpr 52]

Heh yeah, but this is a fictional universe, where littles clearly aren't getting by without assistance, and are better off that way. Just ask any amazon!

[InkuHime 47]

An interesting story. Looking forward to further chapters.

I like the rescue angle. In the setting where a little knows what the deal is, you figure they would hide out in whatever place of safety they can find. They would need a good reason to head out into the dangerous world of amazons.

[dmavn 12]

Soo wish I could walk through a wormhole and wind up in this dimension. 

[Xylophone 39]

Chapter 3

The Runs

 

"Reckon she'll show?" 

 

"I hope not."

 

"That...doesn't answer the question."

 

Cherry smiled a thin smile. She was standing with Raymond outside the main entrance to the airport, searching the bustling throng of people for a hint of Sylvia's arrival. Even dressed in her neat-casual shirt/skirt combo, complete with heels and Raymond's protective presence, she felt naked standing in such plain sight in the middle of the promenade. She was as safe as she'd ever be, but a lifetime of hugging the wall had instilled in her an unconscious urge to run for cover. She wished they could just go inside and be on their way. "She'll show. She loves you, doesn't she?"

 

Her roommate looked genuinely concerned, knowing that it was his relationship if she didn't. "Supposedly. I hope you're right."

 

"That makes one of us."

 

Raymond grimaced. "You know, this is as much for your benefit as it is for hers. If she gets the hint this week, your life is going to be much easier."

 

"And if she doesn't show up now, my life is much easier much sooner."

 

He couldn’t deny that. "Well, yeah, but you have to look - "

 

Cherry pointed. "There."

 

He followed her outstretched finger to see a sullen Amazon trudging out of the car park and across the drop-off lane. She had the hood of her jacket up to ward off the early morning chill, and had replaced her normal glasses with prescription sunnies to ward off the non-existent glare (in typical Sylvia fashion), but there was no mistaking the smattering of golden curls or upturned nose. As they watched, she clearly noticed their presence, and altered her course to navigate to them. Her lips were pursed, as if she'd just bit into a lemon.

 

Raymond's face brightened.

 

Cherry scowled.

 

*

 

The early-morning sunshine bathed the departure hall in a vibrant, welcoming aura that would have been pleasant in another circumstance. As it was, Cherry could only bring herself to feel nervous and out of place. Since arriving, all she had seen were over-sized facilities and lots and lots and lots of legs, and she reflected that this was surely a place that would chill the blood of even the ballsiest little. Smartly dressed giants went about doing whatever it was that smartly dressed giants did at 7am on a Monday morning, many lugging along a briefcase or holding formal conversations on expensive-looking phones. There were a handful of littles around, but they were far and few between in comparison, scurrying about and looking over their shoulder all the while. A suit wasn't nearly enough protection to fight off a determined giant, after all. Cherry was well aware of this fact.

 

Scheming in the kitchen was one thing. Seeing the first stage of that scheming realised was quite another, and in light of what they were scheming, the reality was sobering. She was little more than an ant beneath the feet of these well-dressed giants, and seeing it so plainly was an unsubtle reminder that breaking the status quo was a dangerous thing to do.

 

They sat off to the side of the terminal with their backs to the wall, too exhausted to really do anything but watch the planes take off with their thundering groans. A 7.45am flight for a late-morning start had sounded good in theory, but that theory had forgot to mention the 5am wakeup. It had been with an enormous amount of reluctance that Cherry had rolled over and mashed her alarm clock that morning, far too willing to heed the loving whispers of her bed and succumb to its warm embrace. It had been an uphill battle all morning, and she knew she wasn't alone. Raymond looked as bleary eyed now as he had two and a half hours ago. Cherry didn’t doubt that if it wasn’t for his company, he’d have already pulled the drawstring of his hoodie and sleep right there in the terminal.

 

Sylvia, on the other hand, simply sulked. If she was tired, she did a great job of hiding it, because any expression beyond abject misery was evidently beyond her. The one exception had been the few seconds it had taken for Raymond to help Cherry into her seat, which had brought out the knowing smiles and the condescending remarks, before she'd remembered once again that she was the real victim. Raymond had gone to her place Sunday morning to press the issue of Cherry’s sister, and although he'd succeeded in getting a grudging agreement, that was all it was; grudging. Sylvia was there to keep her relationship intact, and that was as far as her interest extended. It was obvious to Cherry that the giantess was going to kick and scream her way through the whole trip, but Raymond was having none of it. He was insistent that the two women at least try and settle their differences. Cherry doubted her chances.

 

Still, there was no harm in trying, and there was no time like the present. Grumbling on the inside, Cherry spoke up. It was the first word the three had shared in a good half hour. "I'm dying for a drink. Want me to get you guys one while I'm at it?"

 

Raymond grunted something that was presumably a negative, too concerned with admiring the back of his eyelids as he lay back in his seat. Sylvia didn't acknowledge her at all.

 

She resisted the urge to physically slap the giantess till she got a please and thank you. "Sylvia? Coke? Water?" Battery acid? 

 

"Go away."

 

"No? How about a Fanta? Sprite?"

 

"Go. Away."

 

"I can - "

 

The giantess twisted to glare at her.

 

Sigh. "As you command, Your Highness."

 

Rolling her eyes and wondering why she'd even bothered, Cherry grabbed her purse and slipped off the edge of her seat, closing her eyes to offset the sudden rush of vertigo as she fell. She wasn't particularly comfortable with the idea of navigating the kiosk by herself, but she had seen a few vending machines tucked away in nooks and crannies on the way in. She might have to jump to hit the buttons near the top, but as undignified as that may be, it was out of sight. No point attracting any attention to the unattended little if she could avoid it.

 

With that, she set off on her way through the throng of leather shoes and silken pants that lined each corridor of seats, pushing the thought of pissing on Sylvia's rug back to the part of her mind reserved for dreams and fantasies.

 

Navigating her way through a world sized for someone three times her height was always an intimidating task, but Cherry had very little trouble finding the machine she'd remembered from before. It was down a short, nondescript hallway off the main artery that fed into the terminal, and after a minute or two of weaving her way through the hustle and bustle she emerged into the relative calm of that very same hallway. It was a cold, clinical locale, and a cursory glance revealed three doors on the right, the signs upon them revealing that they lead to the men's, women's and family restroom respectively. The machine was down the far end beside a sizeable pot plant holding an equally sizeable fern. For a moment, Cherry wondered how such a large plant could survive in the shadows of this hallway, but on closer inspection she realised it was fake. Plastic.

 

The coin slot was thankfully set in the lower half of the contraption, and she'd be able to insert her change if she jumped. Vending machines were her go-to option when it came to buying snacks and refreshments when out of the house, simply because of the lack of social interaction with the taller folk of the world, and she knew that not all of them were so easily accessible for someone of her stature. Pleased but not really giving it much conscious thought, she examined her choices, decided on a simple Coke, and began to rummage through her purse for her wallet. It was a whopping five bucks by itself, but she hadn't been expecting anything less. Highway robbery was the norm in places like this.

 

She was fully crouched and ready for her first leap north when the family restroom opened behind her. Before she could comprehend what that foreboded for her, a shadow had fallen over her, and then the shadow was talking.

 

"Do you need a hand, sweetie?"

 

Fuck.

 

Startled, Cherry span around to look her antagonist in the eye, forcing a polite smile on her face as she did so. Standing before her was a plump, middle-aged giantess with a tidy bun of hair and rosy cheeks, smiling down at her the way one might observe a puppy at the pet store. Even taken alone, it was a terrifying sight to behold, but it was the woman’s companion that truly turned Cherry's blood cold. The individual holding the giantess' hand was barely a third of his companion's size, and he was furiously suckling away on a pacifier clenched between two cheeks even redder than his mothers'. He was wearing blue overalls over a Thomas the Tank Engine undershirt, and judging by his bulging waistline, he clearly hadn't been spared the indignity of diapers either. He looked every bit the typical Amazonian child, and if it wasn't for the rippling biceps and blatant embarrassment, he might have even convinced Cherry that he wasn't a little.

 

Unfortunately for him, the rippling biceps and blatant embarrassment couldn't really be ignored.

 

That could be me, she thought to herself, aghast.

 

Then, that is Dawn.

 

He couldn't look her in the eye. He simply sucked his pacifier and resolutely examined the ground, and Cherry realised that he must have been adopted only recently. Most littles had a tendency to lose their sense of modesty pretty soon after being stolen away. It was a coping mechanism.

 

"What's your name, sweetie?" The lady unhanded her mortified companion and squatted down to Cherry's height, smiling reassuringly all the while. Even squatting she was still a full head taller than the nervous little, who was currently willing a hole to open in the ground beneath her and swallow her whole. Reassuring? This woman couldn't pull off reassuring if her life depended on it. "I'm Lisa, and this is lil' Mattie."

 

She beamed at her 'son.' "Say hello to the sweet girl, Mattie!"

 

He mumbled something unintelligible, shifting uncomfortably on the spot.

 

She frowned and nudged his ribs. "I said, say hello to the - "

 

"Hello," he muttered, looking everywhere but at Cherry's face. It wasn't possible, but he managed to turn even redder.

 

Christ, what had she got herself into? "I'm Cherry," she said as evenly as she could, fighting the urge to panic. She couldn't show fear, fear was a bad, bad thing. Fear was to an Amazon as blood was to a shark. The lady would think she'd wet herself, or that she was shy, or some other contrived nonsense that would lead her straight into a crib with the little boy opposite. "Nice to meet you, but I don't need a hand, thank you. I can get it."

 

Lisa looked up at the vending machine. "Are you sure?" she asked. One of her eyebrows had disappeared into her hairline. "That's a long way up for such a little girl."

 

"I'm not a little girl," Cherry sighed, shaking her head. "Now, if you don't mind - "

 

"Nonsense, it won't take a second. Here, let me."

 

Before she could protest, Lisa had calmly plucked Cherry's purse from her hands, ignoring the surprised yelp that went with it. "What were you after, dear? Water?"

 

She tried to snatch her purse back, but she was batted away as easily as one might wave off a buzzing bee. Real fear began to blossom inside her as she realised how powerless she truly was. "What are you doing? Give it back!"

 

She was promptly ignored, as was her next plea, as was the one after that, and finally all she could do was fall mute and watch with helpless silence as Lisa ransacked her purse. Her wallet suffered the same treatment a moment later, and then the taller woman was up and punching in the vending machine's buttons on Cherry's behalf. The trio watched quietly as the machine rotated its innards to push the bottle forward till it fell.

 

It wasn't the Coke she'd been after.

 

Keep calm, girl. You'll only make it worse for yourself if you lose it. 

 

Cherry took a deep breath. "Thank you," she said reluctantly, taking the bottle of water as it was handed to her. As demeaning as it was, this arrangement was admittedly easier than the leaping and hitting she would have had to have done by herself. It wasn't so bad. Maybe if she lied to herself enough she'd even believe it.

 

"You're welcome, Cherry," Lisa beamed, patting the top of her head affectionately. Cherry squirmed away, pouting. Physical contact was always a step too far. "Cherry. That's such a sweet name, isn't it? Cherry."

 

Shifting uncomfortably, the little woman shrugged. "It is," was her careful retort. Not overly chuffed at the compliment, not overly disinterested. Playing it cool. "Now, if you'll excuse me - "

 

Two things happened in the exact moment she tried to slip around the giantess' considerable girth.

 

One, the giantess in question stepped in front of Cherry, effectively cutting her off.

 

Two, the 'little' boy beside her, previously more or less mute and unable to do anything but pretend he was elsewhere, quite literally spat the dummy and began to bawl.

 

"Mummy!" he shrieked at the top of his lungs the moment the pacifier had cleared his lips. Both women flinched at his abrupt change in demeanour, watching the plastic lump bounce away towards the pot plant. Fat tears began to leak down his cheeks as he stared up at his mother with wide eyes. "All. Messy!"

 

Lisa's brows met. "But I just changed you," she said, exasperated. "Already, Mattie?"

 

He nodded, his blush deepening even further as his thumb crept into his mouth to replace the nipple he'd just ejected. It seemed to calm him down, for as soon as the digit vanished his shrieks dissolved to little more than controlled sniffles. "Sorry mummy," he mumbled around it. "Have the runs."

 

He looked right at Cherry, emphasising the last phrase. Stunned that someone no different herself could act in such a demeaning way, Cherry stared straight back, humiliated on his behalf . What kind of messed up world would allow this to happen to a grown man?

 

Lisa sighed, shaking her head and giving Cherry an sideways look. "I'm so sorry," she said abashedly. She reached towards her adopted son. "I just changed his messy bum, would you - "

 

And then he ran.

 

One minute he was there, playing the part of the wounded puppy, and then suddenly the door to the women's bathroom was flapping wildly back and forth as if hit by a wrecking ball. His mother watched, stunned, as her 'son' fled like the hounds of hell were on his heels. "Mattie!" she called out, shocked. She took an unconscious step after him before remembering she had her prey cornered.

 

It was too late, though. Cherry had got the point the moment he vanished.

 

She had the runs, too.

 

*

 

Raymond and Sylvia were waiting impatiently by the terminal gate when she finally re-appeared, huffing and puffing and looking nervously over her shoulder all the while. The enormous departure hall was borderline empty, and with some alarm Cherry realised she'd almost missed her flight. They were going to be among the last to board because of her run in.

 

Had she waited even half a second longer, the spanking heroic lil' Mattie was undoubtedly in for would have been for nothing. She'd felt those enormous fingers brush the back of her shoulder as she fled, she knew how close she'd come. Had she been just a smidge slower on the draw, had the woman been holding her purse too tight to snatch free on the way past, Cherry would have been screwed. Sure, she could have fallen back on the "my daddy's waiting for me!" line, but there was no guarantee she'd buy it with Raymond so far from sight. That whole spiel really relied on visual contact, because most Amazon's weren't going into an 'adoption' expecting it to be a breeze. Lies and resistance were to be expected, at least until the littles' willpower was broken.

 

Even if she had bought it, Cherry figured she'd rather die than be paraded around like a little kid in front of Sylvia. 

 

"Where the hell have you been?" Sylvia growled as Cherry came into sight. She stood with her hands on her hips, glaring down at the luckiest little in the world. Without waiting for an answer, she turned her judgement onto Raymond. "When are you going to get it through your thick head that she can't be trusted to act like a big girl, huh? This is -"

 

Not interested in the histrionics, Cherry threw the water bottle up to the ranting Amazon. Surprised but not slow, Sylvia snatched it out of the air out of sheer reflex. Her eyes narrowed.

 

"I thought I told you - " 

 

"I don't care what you told me. Consider it a gift," Cherry retorted, out of breath but still perfectly able to add just the right inflection of sarcasm to her voice. "From the good-for-nothing little to you, out of the goodness that doesn’t exist in the good-for-nothing little's heart."

 

Raymond jumped in before Sylvia could snap back. ""Where have you been?" he asked, physically stepping in front of his girlfriend. He didn't seem to care in the slightest that his friend had almost made them miss their flight. "What happened?"

 

Like she was about to say a word with Sylvia looking on. Cherry shrugged as nonchalantly as she could manage after having just cheated babyhood. "I'll tell you later" she said smoothly. "Don't we have a flight to catch? Why are we standing out here?"

 

She didn't tell them later.

 

Beaming winningly up at Sylvia as she did so, Cherry marched straight past the towering couple and through the gate, filled with a renewed impatience to rescue her sister. She didn't know if it was Sylvia's casual antagonism or simply having seen the results of a meddling giants' parenting up close, but suddenly all she could think about was Dawn and the state she was undoubtedly in at that very moment. She felt nothing short of appalled at the treatment she'd just seen her saviour suffer through. Here she was, mature and grown up as a little could be, but there were littles out there who couldn't boast the same. It infuriated her.

 

Well, she was going to change that. If she could save even just one little from Lil’ Mattie’s fate, she'd sleep easier knowing she'd made a difference. Fuck Sylvia, and fuck Lisa, and fuck all the giants who thought they could do what they wanted with her and other littles.

 

She'd show them.

 

She'd show them all.

 

To be continued in Chapter 4: Reconnaissance

[Shotgun Diplomat 15]

That was good, very suspenseful at the vending machine part. I thought Cherry was going to be trying to rescue herself instead of her sister.

[ausdpr 52]

I really want something bad to happen to Sylvia.

edit: Of course, I also want Sylvia to kind of win...

[SGTbaby 9]

Great addition! Loved seeing the little boy! Looking forward to the pet shop and hopefully seeing some happen to Slyvia as well! 

[ThatWeirdElfGirl 4]

I am secretly hoping purely for my amusement that the best way to scout out where Dawn is being held is for Cherry to have to go undercover as Sylvia's little